5. Buy, therefore, the field with the treasure while there is time, buy the incorruptible pearl of perpetual whiteness: it is the kingdom of heaven of which I speak, preached by the Lord's mouth in the Gospel (See Matt 13:44-46). Our fathers bought it and left it still to be bought by us. By the buyer it is kept whole for the one who will buy; in turn it is bought by all, the whole is possessed by each. Nor let the care of the price torment you; for it has not been fixed so that the richer can easily reach it and the poorer cannot stretch himself to it: as much as each one has, for so much it is worth to him. He received half the goods of the most wealthy Zacchaeus, he did not exclude the nets of the fisherman (See Luke 19:8; Matt 4:20), he admitted even the two coins of a certain needy widow, and weighing them in the scale of love he found them heavier than the many gifts of many rich men (See Mark 12:42-44); nor would you separate from this commerce even a cup of cold water, where the love of the buyer is fervent (See Matt 10:42). Even if perhaps it is lacking, let him not despair: let him love and he buys. There are certain great resources of the poor—pious wills. For what is more precious than peace, or to what do we tend through all our labors except to eternal peace? Hear, then, at the birth of the Savior, the testimony of the angels on this matter, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:13-14). This is brought forth not from a money-bag, not from a storehouse: it is kept in the heart, it is paid out from the heart, neither corrupted when kept nor lost when paid out.

Sermon 350/F
On Almsgiving Done to All

1. {There are those who think that alms are to be provided only to the just, but that nothing of the kind ought to be given to sinners. In this error the Manichees hold the first place of sacrilege, who believe that in every food the members of God are held mixed in and bound together, which they judge must be spared, lest they be polluted by sinners and entangled in more wretched knots. This insanity is perhaps refuted less worthily than it offends the sense of all sound men, if it is merely set forth. But some, holding nothing of the kind, think that sinners are not to be fed for this reason, lest we strive against God, whose indignation is declared against them, as though from this he could even grow angry with us, because we wish to help those whom he himself wishes to punish. They even bring forward testimonies of the holy Scriptures where we read: Give mercy and do not receive the sinner, and to the impious and to sinners render vengeance; do good to the humble and do not give to the impious, because the Most High too hates sinners and to the impious will render vengeance (See Sir 12:4-6). Not understanding how these words are to be taken, they are clothed with detestable cruelty. Whence we ought to address your love briefly on this matter, brothers, lest by a perverse thought, when you do not understand the divine will in the divine books, you consent to human depravity.

2. For that mercy is to be imparted to all, the apostle Paul, teaching most plainly: Therefore, untiringly, while we have time, he says, let us work good toward all, but especially toward those of the household of faith (Gal 6:10). Whence indeed it appears clearly enough that in works of this kind the just are to be preferred. For whom else should we understand by those of the household of faith, when in another place it is plainly set down: The just man lives by faith (Rom 1:17)? Yet the bowels of mercy are not to be closed to other men, even sinners, nor even if they bear a hostile mind against us, our Savior himself saying and admonishing: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Matt 5:44). Nor is this passed over in silence in the old books; for there it is read: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink (Prov 25:21), which testimony the Apostle too used (See Rom 12:20). Nor for that reason, however, are those false which we set down above, because they too are divine precepts: Give mercy and do not receive the sinner. For those were said for this reason, that you may not do good to any sinner for the reason that he is a sinner, but that you may do good to him who hates you, not because he is a sinner, but because he is a man. So you will hold both precepts, neither remiss in punishing nor inhuman in helping. For everyone who rightly rebukes a sinner, what else does he do but wish him not to be a sinner? He hates, then, in him what God too hates, that what man made may be destroyed and what God made may be freed. For sin man made, but man himself God made. And when we say these two names, "man" and "sinner," they are surely not said in vain. Because, then, he is a sinner, correct; and because he is a man, have mercy. Nor will you altogether free the man, unless you persecute the sinner.

3. Every discipline keeps watch for this office, as it is fitting and adapted to each one who governs, not only the bishop governing his people, but also the poor man governing his household, the rich man governing his family, the husband governing his wife, the father governing his offspring, the judge governing his province, the king governing his nation. All these, when they are good, surely wish well to those whom they govern, and, according to the power imparted by the Lord of all, who governs even those who govern, give effort that those very ones whom they govern be both preserved as men and perish as sinners. So they fulfill what is written: Give mercy and do not receive the sinner, lest they wish this in him to be safe, that he is a sinner; and to the impious and to sinners render vengeance, that this very thing, that they are sinners and impious, may be blotted out in them; do good to the humble, because he is humble, and do not give to the impious, because he is impious, because the Most High too hates sinners and to the impious will render vengeance; who yet, because they are not only sinners and impious, but also men, makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). Thus to no man is mercy to be closed, to no sin is impunity to be relaxed.}

4. For what do we do in rebuking but punish sins, and when anyone turns to God by repenting, what else does he do but rebuke and punish himself? In no way, then, do you stray from the work of mercy when you persecute in anyone that which you yourself also mercifully desire to be persecuted in yourself. See what the prophet declares about the future preachers of the kingdom of heaven: The saints shall exult in glory, they shall rejoice in their beds, the exultations of God in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance among the nations (Ps 149:5-7 (149:5-7)). And lest anyone should think that by such swords blood is shed and slaughters of bodies are made, as though meeting such thoughts by way of exposition, when he had said to execute vengeance among the nations, he added what kind of vengeance: rebukes, he says, among the peoples (Ps 149:7 (149:7)). This the swords in their hands do, that is, given into their power to use. For they are two-edged with the grief of present things and the fear of future things. Who is there, says the Apostle, who gladdens me, except the one who is made sorrowful by me? (2 Cor 2:2) Behold the grief of present things. And when I come, he says, I will not spare. Or do you wish to receive a proof of Christ who speaks in me? (2 Cor 13:2-3) Behold the fear of future things. Again, in another place he so commends the governance of the Lord himself over men: For if we judged ourselves, he says, we would not be judged by the Lord. When we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, lest we be condemned with the world (1 Cor 11:31-32). In the blow of correction is the grief of present things, in the threat of damnation the fear of future things. These are the two-edged swords; this persecution is owed to the sinner, that mercy be not denied to the man.

5. But it can seem a wonder to those who attend little, and perhaps incredible, how a sinner may be received and fed for this very reason that he is a sinner. For it is one thing when anyone feeds a man because he either knows or believes him to be just, looking to that reward of which it was said: He who receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive the reward of a just man (Matt 10:41); but another when anyone so feeds any man whatever as man feeding man, serving that general command where the Lord says: Whatever good you wish men to do to you, do this also to them (See Matt 7:12). But there are those who love the very sins in sinners and on account of these spend whatever they bestow on them, so that you see altogether a kind of work contrary to that work which is shown to the just because they are just. For just as the just, endowed with praiseworthy piety, hasten to provide the service of kindness to the servants of God, by whom they too may be received into eternal dwellings (See Luke 16:9), so on the contrary the sacrilegious and impious seek out kinds of wickedness in men, in buying which, as it were, they squander their temporal goods, and with whom afterward they may come into everlasting torments. Between these two kinds a certain middle place is held, in which neither for the sake of justice nor for the sake of sin, but for the sake of the very fellowship of nature, kindness is shown by man to man. This middle kind both the pious use knowingly and even the wicked are sometimes touched by.

6. Since, then, it is one thing to minister necessary things to a dispenser of the kingdom of heaven, as Onesiphorus did to Paul (See 2 Tim 1:16), another to hold out alms to a beggar, as that man received who sat at the Beautiful Gate (See Acts 3:2), another to distribute rewards for disgraceful acts, as actors, charioteers, and huntsmen are enriched by madmen, the Church frequents that first and middle kind of giving, but condemns, rebukes, amends this last, which is contrary to that first and best. But from this very contrary our slothful ones are to be roused, who scarcely break bread for the hungry Christ, when theatrical givers scarcely leave bread for their own children. But on account of that middle kind, by which kindness is owed by man to man, it can come about that even a son of Gehenna, moved by some compassion, may feed a dispenser of God, and that a son of the Church, if he finds him failing from hunger, may feed even a huntsman. But neither did that one love justice, but he could not altogether despise the common condition of mortality, nor did this one receive the sinner, but he did not deny mercy to the man.

7. Of that first kind of good work the Lord speaks thus: He who receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive the reward of a just man, and he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet, and he who gives a cup of cold water to one of these least ones only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (Matt 10:41-42), and that of which I mentioned something a little before: Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of iniquity, that they too may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9); from there too is that: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, and the rest. But they: When did we see you hungry? To whom he: When you did it for one of these least ones of mine, you did it for me (Matt 25:34-35, 37, 40). But of that kind of mercy in which the misery of no man is to be despised—although to a sinner, for the reason that he is a sinner, no mercy is owed—he admonished us thus, when he said to a certain man by whom he had been invited along with the others: When you make a feast, do not call your friends by whom you too can be invited, but call the lame, the blind, the weak, the beggars, who have nothing with which to repay you. But it shall be repaid you in the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:12-14). Whence we can also notice from the custom of the Lord himself that the disciples supposed he had ordered that Judas, his betrayer, prepare something to be given to the poor on the feast day, since he himself kept the moneybags, when he said to him: What you do, do quickly (John 13:27, 29). For from where would they suspect this, if the Lord had never taught such almsgiving even by doing it? For of that first kind of good works, in which one serves the just on account of the merit of justice, to that same one rather such services were ministered by others. For from where did those moneybags gather money except from the offerings of those who served him? And most plainly certain religious women too are named in the Gospel, who, accompanying his circuit with devoted service, ministered to him from their substance (See Luke 8:2-3).

8. {From this, then, it is especially to be understood how the almsgiving is not to be despised which is expended on any poor people whatever by the right of humanity, since indeed the Lord relieved the need of the poor from those moneybags which he filled from the resources of others. But if perhaps someone says that neither those weak and beggars whom the Lord ordered to be invited, nor those to whom he was wont to give out from the moneybags, were sinners, and that therefore it does not follow that, on account of the gospel testimonies, even sinners are commanded to be received or fed by the merciful, let him attend to what I already mentioned above, that surely those are sinners, and especially wicked, who hate and persecute the Church, of whom nevertheless it is said: Do good to those who hate you, and this is confirmed by the example of God the Father who makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:44-45). Let us not, then, receive sinners because they are sinners, but yet let us treat those very ones, because they are also men, with human consideration. Let us persecute in them their own iniquity, let us have mercy on their common condition, and so, untiringly, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but especially toward those of the household of faith (Gal 6:10).}

Sermon 351
On the Usefulness of Doing Penance

1. 1. How useful and necessary the medicine of penance is, men most easily understand who remember that they are men. For it is written: God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). And the Lord says in the Gospel: For he who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14); and that publican went down from the temple more justified, anxious in the confession of his sins, than the Pharisee, secure in the enumeration of his merits. For although that man too gave thanks to God, saying, I give you thanks, God, that I am not as the rest of men, unjust, adulterers, robbers; as also this publican is. I fast twice on the Sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess; yet preferred to him was the one who stood at a distance, and did not dare to lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:11-13). For that Pharisee rejoiced not so much in his own health as in the comparison of others' diseases. But it was more useful for him, since he had come to the physician, to show by confessing the things from which he was sick, than to dissemble about his own wounds and dare to glory in others' scars. No wonder, then, if the publican departed more cured, who was not ashamed to show what pained him. For in visible things, that anyone may reach lofty places, he is raised up on high: but God, since he is most excellent of all, is reached not by elation but by humility. Whence the prophet says: The Lord is near to those who have crushed their heart (Ps 34:18 (33:19)). And again: The Lord is lofty, and looks upon the lowly, and the lofty he knows from afar (Ps 138:6 (137:6)). He put "the lofty" for the proud. The lowly, then, he looks upon, to lift them up; the lofty he knows, to cast them down. For when he says that he knows the lofty from afar, he shows well enough that he attends to the lowly from close by: yet he proclaimed the Lord himself to be lofty. For God alone is not arrogant, however much he praises himself with proclamation. Let pride not think, then, that it is hidden from the eyes of God: for God knows the lofty. Nor again let it think itself joined to God: for the lofty he knows from afar. Whoever, then, refuses the humility of penance does not intend to draw near to God. For it is one thing to lift oneself up to God, another to lift oneself up against God. He who casts himself down before him is raised up by him: he who raises himself against him is cast down by him. For there is one solidity of greatness, another emptiness of inflation. He who swells outwardly wastes away within. He who chooses to be cast down in the house of God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners (Ps 84:10 (83:11))—him God chooses, that he may dwell in his courts; and the one who takes nothing upon himself he takes up into the seat of blessedness. Whence in the Psalm it is most sweetly and most truly sung: Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord. Do not think that one who humbles himself always lies prostrate; since it was said: he will be exalted. And do not suppose his exaltation to take place in the eyes of men through bodily heights; for when he had said, Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord, he consequently joined and showed the spiritual loftiness of that same help: Ascents, he says, he has set up in his heart, in the valley of weeping, to the place which he has appointed (Ps 84:5-6 (83:6-7)). Where, then, did he set up ascents? In the heart, namely in the valley of weeping. This is: He who humbles himself will be exalted. For just as the ascent indicates exaltation, so the valley indicates humility, and the valley of weeping, weeping. For just as grief is the companion of penance, so tears are the witnesses of grief. And it follows most fittingly, and he says: For he who gave the law will give a blessing (See Ps 84:7 (83:8)). For the law was given for this, that it might show the wounds of sins, which the blessing of grace might heal. The law was given for this, that it might make his weakness known to the proud, and persuade the weak to penance. The law was given for this, that we might say in the valley of weeping: I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members: and with that very weeping might cry out: Unhappy man that I am! who will free me from the body of this death? and there might come to our aid, with him hearing who lifts up the broken, looses the fettered, enlightens the blind (See Ps 146:7-8 (145:7-8)), the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:23-25).

2. 2. There are, moreover, three actions of penance, which your learning recognizes along with me. For they are customary in the Church of God, and known to those who attend diligently. One is that which brings the new man to birth, until through the saving Baptism there is made the washing-away of all past sins: so that, as in a newborn child, the pains pass away by which the inward parts were urged to birth, and gladness follows sadness. For everyone who is now established as the arbiter of his own will, when he approaches the Sacraments of the faithful, unless he repents of his old life, cannot begin a new one. From this penance, when they are baptized, only little ones are immune: for they cannot yet use free choice. To them, however, for the consecration and remission of original sin, the faith of those by whom they are offered profits; so that whatever stains of sins they have contracted through others, from whom they were born, they may be cleansed also by the questioning and answering of others. For most truly it is lamented in the Psalms: Behold, in iniquity I was conceived, and in sins my mother nourished me in the womb (Ps 51:5 (50:7)). Likewise it is written that not even the infant, whose life is one day upon the earth, is clean in the sight of God (See Job 14:4-5). Excepting such, then—about whose rank and merit in that future lot of the saints which is promised, to wish to inquire further exceeds the measure of men; yet it is piously believed to profit them toward spiritual salvation, which is guarded by the firm strength of ecclesiastical authority throughout the whole world—of other men none passes over to Christ, so as to begin to be what he was not, unless he repents of having been what he was. This first penance is enjoined on the Jews, the apostle Peter saying: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). Such was commanded by the Lord himself, when he said: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matt 4:17). Of this John the Baptist too, full of the Holy Spirit, the forerunner and preparer of the way of the Lord, says thus: Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, then, fruit worthy of penance (Matt 3:7-8).

3. 3. But the second penance is that whose action must be undergone, through this whole life in which we pass in mortal flesh, with the perpetual humility of supplication. First, because no one desires the eternal, incorruptible, and immortal life unless he repents of this temporal, corruptible, and mortal life. For no one is so born into the new life through the sanctification of Baptism that, just as he there lays down all past sins, he also at once lays down mortality itself of the flesh and corruption. And if it is not so, it remains that what is written, which everyone also feels in himself while he is in this life, that the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the sense thinking many things (Wis 9:15). And because this will not be in that blessedness, when death will be swallowed up in victory (See 1 Cor 15:54), who can doubt that, in whatever temporal happiness we are engaged, we ought nevertheless to repent of this life, so that with all eagerness we may run toward that incorruption? For from this it is that the Apostle too says: As long as we are in the body, we are on pilgrimage away from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). Who, then, hastens and desires to return to the homeland, and to contemplate that sight which is face to face, except one who repents of his pilgrimage? From which grief of the penitent that pitiable cry too bursts forth and sounds: Woe is me! that my pilgrimage has been made distant. And lest you think one not yet faithful says this, see what follows: I dwelt in the tents of Kedar: with those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they fought against me vehemently (Ps 120:5-7 (119:5-7)). These are the words not only of a faithful man, but even of a most steadfast evangelist and a most brave martyr. For from this is that of the Apostle too: For we know that, if our earthly house of this habitation is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, desiring to be clothed over with our habitation which is from heaven: if indeed, being clothed, we be not found naked. For we who are in this habitation groan, being weighed down, in that we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed over, that the mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Cor 5:1-4). What, then, do we desire, except not to be as we now are? And what do we groan over, except, by repenting, that we are thus? But when shall we not be thus, except, the earthly house dissolved, so that we obtain the heavenly habitation by the changing of the whole man both in soul and in body? Wherefore holy Job too did not say that there is temptation in this life, but said that this very life is temptation, speaking thus: Is not human life upon the earth a temptation? In which passage he also wonderfully touched the mystery of fallen man, saying: Like a servant fleeing his master, and reaching a shadow (See Job 7:1-2). For this is not to be called life, rather than the shadow of life. And not without reason did the fugitive Adam, after the offense of sin, hide himself from the face of the Lord, covered with the leaves of trees, by which shady recesses are darkened, like a servant fleeing his master, as it was said, and reaching a shadow.

3. 4. All these things have been said for this, lest anyone, although through Baptism he has been justified from prior sins, should yet dare to be proud, if he commits nothing for which he should be separated from the communion of the altar, as though now boasting of full security; but let him rather keep humility, which is almost the one Christian discipline: nor let earth and ashes (See Sir 10:9) be proud, until this whole night passes, in which all the beasts of the forest pass through, the roaring whelps of lions, seeking from God their food (Ps 104:20-21 (103:20-21)). For this food Job himself was sought, who said: Human life upon the earth is a temptation. The Lord too: On this night, he said, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat (See Luke 22:31). Who, then, of sound mind would not groan? To whom would it not, through penance, displease to be thus? Who would not, supplicating with all humility, show himself capable of being heard by the divine help, until all this material and earthly shadow of temptations passes away, and he who never fails may shine for us too, the everlasting day, and illumine the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then there will be praise to each one from God (See 1 Cor 4:5)? Then, however much anyone may glory that he has his body so subdued that, crucified to the world, he chastises his members reduced to servitude away from every evil work, lest sin now reign in his mortal body, to obey its desires; that he worships the one only true God, given to no rite of idols, ensnared by no rites of demons, not taking in vain the name of the Lord his God, certain in awaiting everlasting rest, rendering due honor to his parents, neither bloody with murder, nor disgraced by fornication, nor fraudulent by theft, nor double by lying, nor sordid with the coveting of another's property or wife; nor, even in his own affairs, either dissolved in luxury or shriveled in avarice; not contentious, not abusive, not slanderous; finally selling all that he has, and giving to the poor, and following Christ, and fixing the root of his heart in the heavenly treasure: what can seem able to be added to so full a justice? Yet I do not want him to glory. Let him understand that all these things have been bestowed on him, not that they exist from himself. For what does he have that he has not received? But if he received it, why does he glory, as though he had not received it (See 1 Cor 4:7)? Let him indeed give out the Lord's money: let him take counsel for his neighbor, as he feels counsel has been taken for himself. Nor let him think it enough to keep whole what he received, lest it be said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, you should have given my money, and I, coming, would have exacted it with interest (See Matt 25:26-27): lest what he received be taken from him, lest he be cast into the outer darkness. If those who can keep whole what they received ought to fear so most vehement a punishment, what is the hope of those who impiously and wickedly scatter it? This man, then, will be engaged in human affairs, bound by the office not of carnal but of spiritual acquisition; not indeed obligated by worldly business, but yet, because he serves God as a soldier, not torpid and abject in the idleness of sloth. Let him give, then, if he can, all his alms with cheerfulness, whether he gives out something for the carnal needs of the poor, or, as a dispenser of the heavenly bread, builds in the hearts of believers a camp unconquered against the devil. For God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7). Therefore let him not be broken by weariness in the difficulties of affairs, which must necessarily arise, that it may be shown to man that he is man. Let not anger creep upon him against one who either bursts in hatefully, or, inopportunely compelled by want, asks; or who, while you are occupied with something greater, indifferently demands to be helped in his own business; or who, by blind greed or pitiable slowness, resists in a matter of manifest justice. Let him give nothing more or less than is fitting: let him not speak more than is needful, or even when it is not needful. For beautiful are the feet of those who evangelize peace, who evangelize good things (Rom 10:15). But yet from the dry earth they draw dust, which is indeed shaken off unto the judgment of those who by a perverse will despise this offering to them. Not only, then, on account of the very mortality and ignorance of this life, and on account of the malice of the day—which would that it sufficed, as it was said of it: Sufficient for the day is its own malice (Matt 6:34)—which we are commanded to bear and carry until it passes, and to endure God by acting manfully, that we may bring forth fruit with patience; but also on account of the very dust of this world, which clings to the feet of those who counsel along the roads of counseling, and the losses which befall in that most busy action of dispensation, which the Lord may grant be compensated with greater gains, we ought to have a daily penance.

3. 5. But if this is required of the dispensers of the word of God and the ministers of his Sacraments, the soldiers of Christ, how much more the rest of the stipendiary multitude, and a certain province of the great king? Which, lest perhaps that most faithful and most brave soldier the apostle Paul should offend it even by a false suspicion of avarice, he soldiered at his own expense: and where perhaps the necessary provision was lacking: Other churches, he says, I despoiled, taking from them a stipend for your ministry (2 Cor 11:8). How much more, then, ought the provincials of the Church, bound by worldly affairs, to do daily penance? Who, although they ought to be free, pure, and whole from thefts, robberies, frauds, adulteries and fornications and every luxury, from the cruelty of hatreds and the obstinacy of enmities, finally from all the foulness of idolatry, the triviality of spectacles, the impious vanity of heresies and schisms, and from all disgraces and crimes of this kind: yet, on account of the administration of household affairs and the closest bonds of marriages, sin so much that they seem not so much sprinkled with the dust of this world as smeared with mud. This is what the Apostle says to them: Now indeed there is altogether a fault in you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why do you not rather suffer injustice? Why are you not rather defrauded? For that is execrable which he adds on account of certain ones, saying: But you do injustice and defraud, and this to your brothers (1 Cor 6:7-8). Yet, apart from injustices and frauds, the very having of lawsuits and disputes among themselves about worldly matters he calls a fault: which nevertheless he admonishes must be borne, if disputes of this kind are at least settled by ecclesiastical judgment. From this too is that: He who is without a wife thinks of the things that are of God, how he may please God: but he who is joined in matrimony thinks of the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife (1 Cor 7:32-33). Which he likewise notes of the woman. Or that, when he says: And again be together, lest Satan tempt you on account of your incontinence. Which, that he might show to be a sin, but conceded to weakness, he at once subjoined: But this I say by way of pardon, not by way of command (1 Cor 7:5-6). For only for the sake of begetting is the blameless mingling of the two sexes. How many are the other sins, whether in speaking of the affairs and business of others, which do not pertain to you; or in empty cacklings, since it is written: The fool in laughter lifts up his voice, but the wise man will scarcely laugh quietly (See Sir 21:20); or in the very foods, which are prepared for the necessity of sustaining this life, a too greedy and immoderate appetite, often attesting by the next day's indigestion the limit it exceeded: or in selling and buying things, perverse wishes for dearness and cheapness. It wearies me to gather all of them, which everyone more certainly comprehends and reprehends in himself, if he attends not negligently to the mirror of the divine Scriptures. Which things, although they are not felt to strike with a lethal wound, like murder and adultery, or the rest of this kind: yet all gathered together, like a scab, the more they are, the more they kill, or so spread out our beauty that they separate us, away from the form of that comely Bridegroom beyond the sons of men, from his most chaste embraces, unless they are dried up by the medicine of daily penance.

3. 6. But if this is false, why do we daily beat our breasts? Which we too, the prelates standing at the altar, do with all. Whence also in praying we say what we ought to say in all this life: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). For we do not pray that those be forgiven which, unless we believe them already forgiven in Baptism, we doubt of the faith itself: but surely we say this about daily sins, for which each one also does not cease to offer, according to his strength, the sacrifices of alms, of fastings, and of prayers and supplications themselves. Whoever, then, attending diligently to himself, seduces himself by no flattery, understands well enough with how great a danger of eternal death, and with how great a poverty of perfect justice, he is on pilgrimage away from the Lord; although already in Christ, that is, established on the way, he strives to return. For if we have no sins, and beating our breasts say, Forgive us our debts, then surely from this very thing we sin gravely, no one doubting, since amid the very Sacraments we lie. Wherefore, in so far as we are joined to our God by faith, hope, and love, and imitate him in so far as we can, we do not sin, but are sons of God: but in so far as, from the occasion of carnal weakness—because it is not yet dissolved by death, not yet changed by resurrection—reprehensible and wicked impulses creep in, we sin. Which surely it befits us to confess, lest, stiff-necked, we deserve not the health of our languor, but the condemnation of pride. Whence both are most truly written: both, He who is born of God does not sin (1 John 3:9); and what we read in the same Letter of John: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). For that was said from the firstfruits of the new man, this from the remnants of the old: for we do both in this life. But gradually the newness comes on, and gradually, with the oldness yielding, it succeeds. But when both are being done, we are in the stadium; nor do we only strike the adversary with good works, but are also struck by incautiously avoiding sins. Nor is it now considered which of us has conquered, but who strikes more often, who fights more bravely; until he drags others with him into everlasting death, who envied man standing for having fallen, and at the end it is said by the others triumphing: Where is, O death, your strife? where is, O death, your sting? (1 Cor 15:55) But neither are we more easily cast down by the enemy than when we imitate him by being proud; nor do we more vehemently lay him low than when with humility we follow the Lord; nor do we inflict on him sharper griefs than when we heal the blows of our sins by confessing and repenting.

4. 7. The third action of penance is that which must be undergone for those sins which the decalogue of the Law contains; and of which the Apostle says: That those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:21). In this penance, then, each one ought to exercise greater severity upon himself; that, judged by himself, he may not be judged by the Lord, as the same Apostle says: For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged by the Lord (1 Cor 11:31). Let a man, therefore, ascend against himself the tribunal of his own mind; if he fears that which we must be presented before the tribunal of Christ, that there each one may receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10). Let him set himself before his own face, lest this be done to him afterward. For God threatens this to the sinner, saying: I will rebuke you, and set you before your own face (Ps 50:21 (49:21)). And so, with judgment established in the heart, let an accusing thought be present, conscience the witness, fear the executioner. Thence let a certain blood of the confessing soul flow forth through tears. Finally, from the mind itself let such a sentence be brought forth, that the man judges himself unworthy of the participation of the body and blood of the Lord: so that he who fears to be separated from the kingdom of heaven by the final sentence of the supreme Judge may, through ecclesiastical discipline, be for a time separated from the Sacrament of the heavenly bread. Let the image of the future judgment be turned before his eyes: so that when others approach the altar of God, to which he himself does not approach, he may consider how greatly to be trembled at is that punishment by which, while others receive eternal life, others are cast headlong into eternal death. For to this altar, which is now placed in the Church on earth, exposed to earthly eyes, for celebrating the signs of the divine mysteries, even many wicked men can approach: since God commends in this time his patience, that in the future he may exert his severity. For they approach, not knowing that the patience of God leads them to penance. But they, according to the hardness of their heart and the impenitent heart, treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works (See Rom 2:4-6). But to that altar to which Jesus our forerunner entered for us, to which the head of the Church went before, the other members to follow, none of those will be able to approach of whom, as I already mentioned, the Apostle said: That those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God. For the priest alone, but there plainly the whole, will stand, the body namely being joined, who is the head, which has already ascended into heaven. He it is to whom the apostle Peter said: A holy people, a royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9). How, then, will he dare or be able to enter into the inner parts of the veil, and into those invisible Holy of Holies, who, despising the medicine of heavenly discipline, was unwilling to be separated for a little while from visible things? For he who was unwilling to be humbled, that he might be exalted, when he wishes to be exalted, will be cast down; and forever he will be sundered from the eternal saints, whoever in this time, through the merits of obedience and through the satisfaction of penance, has not provided for himself a place in the body of the priest. For with what brow of shamelessness will he then wish the face of God to be turned away from his sins, who now does not say with his whole heart: For I acknowledge my misdeed, and my sin is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5))? In what way, I ask, does God deign to pardon what man himself disdains to acknowledge in himself?

4. 8. Or what sort of thing is that in which they flatter themselves, who seduce themselves by their own vanity? For persevering in their malices and luxuries, when they hear the Apostle saying, That those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:21), they dare to promise themselves, apart from the kingdom of God, the salvation which they desire; and so they speak among themselves, while they refuse to do penance for their sins, and at some time to change their lost morals for the better: I do not wish to reign, it is enough for me to be saved. In which they are first deceived, because there is no salvation at all for those whose iniquity perseveres. For what the Lord says: Because iniquity has abounded, the love of many will grow cold; but he who perseveres to the end, he will be saved (Matt 24:12-13); he surely promised salvation to those persevering in love, not in iniquity. But where there is love, those evil works which separate from the kingdom of God cannot be. For the whole law is fulfilled in one saying, in that which is written: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Gal 5:14). Then, if there is some difference between those who reign and those who do not reign; yet it is needful that all be in one kingdom, lest they be reckoned in the number of enemies or strangers. For all Romans possess the Roman kingdom; although not all reign in it, but obey the rest who reign. But the Apostle did not say: Those who do such things will not reign with God; but will not possess the kingdom of God. Which was said also of flesh and blood: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God; because this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality (1 Cor 15:50, 53); so that now, not flesh and blood, but from an animal body it may merit the state and nature of a spiritual body. Or let that final sentence of our Judge terrify them, which he therefore wished now to be disclosed, that by his faithful it may be guarded against; giving to those who fear him a sign, that they may flee from the face of the bow (Ps 60:4 (59:6)). For excepting those who will even judge with him, to whom also he promised, saying: You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28). In which number of those who judge are understood all who, for the sake of the Gospel, left all that was theirs, and followed the Lord. For the number twelve refers to a certain universality. For the apostle Paul will not be absent there, because he was not among those twelve. Excepting those, then, whom he also signified by the name of angels, when he said: When the Son of man comes to judge with his angels. For angels are surely messengers. And we most rightly take as messengers all who announce the heavenly salvation to men. Whence the Evangelists too can be interpreted as good messengers: and of John the Baptist it was said: Behold, I send my angel before your face (Matt 11:10). These, then, as I had begun to say, excepted, all the rest of the multitude of men, as is manifest in the words of the Lord himself, will be divided into two parts. For he is going to place the sheep at the right hand, the goats at the left: and it will be said to the sheep, that is, the just: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Of this kingdom surely the Apostle spoke, when he enumerated the evil works: That those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God. Hear what those who will be at the left hand hear: Go, he says, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:34, 41). Wherefore, will anyone dare to presume on the Christian name, and not with all obedience and fear hear the Apostle saying: For know this, recognizing that no fornicator, or unclean person, or greedy man, which is the service of idols, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God? Let no one seduce you with empty words: for on account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of unbelief. Do not, then, become partakers with them (Eph 5:5-7). But more amply to the Corinthians he says these things: Do not err; neither fornicators, nor those serving idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the abusive, nor the rapacious, will possess the kingdom of God. But see how he took away fear and despair of salvation from those who had committed these things in the old life. And these things indeed, he says, you were, but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:9-11).

4. 9. Whoever, then, after Baptism is held bound by the work of some of his former evils, is he so much an enemy to himself that he still doubts to change his life, while there is time, when he so sins and lives? For surely, in that he so perseveringly sins, he treasures up for himself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. But in that he still lives, the patience of God leads him to penance. Entangled, then, in the bonds of such deadly sins, does he decline, or defer, or doubt to flee to the very keys of the Church, by which he may be loosed on earth, that he may be loosed in heaven; and dare he promise himself, after this life, some salvation, because he is merely called a Christian; nor tremble at that truthful thunder of the Lord's voice: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 7:21)? What, does not the same apostle, to the Galatians, enumerating such things, conclude with the same ending? Manifest are, he says, the works of the flesh, which are fornications, uncleannesses, luxuries, the service of idols, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, animosities, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkennesses, carousings, and things like these; which I foretell to you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21). Let a man, therefore, judge himself in these things by his own will, while he can, and change his morals for the better: lest, when he can no longer, he be judged by the Lord even against his will. And when he himself has brought forth against himself the sentence of a most severe, but yet a medicinal medicine, let him come to the prelates, through whom the keys are ministered to him in the Church: and, as a son already beginning to be good, keeping the order of the maternal members, let him receive from those set over the Sacraments the measure of his satisfaction; so that, in offering the sacrifice of a contrite heart, devout and suppliant, he may yet do that which not only profits himself toward receiving salvation, but also others toward an example. So that, if his sin is not only in his own grave evil, but also in so great a scandal of others, and this seems expedient to the prelate for the benefit of the Church, let him not refuse to do penance in the knowledge of many, or even of the whole people, let him not resist, let him not add swelling, through shame, to a lethal and deadly blow. Let him always remember that God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). For what is more unhappy, what more perverse, than not to blush over the very wound, which cannot be hidden, and to blush over its bandaging?

4. 10. Let no one suppose, brothers, that for this reason he ought to despise the counsel of this saving penance, because he perhaps notices and knows many to approach the Sacraments of the altar whose such crimes he is not ignorant of. For many are corrected, like Peter: many are tolerated, like Judas: many are unknown, until the Lord comes, who will enlighten the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the thoughts of the heart (See 1 Cor 4:5). For very many are unwilling to accuse others, while through them they desire to excuse themselves. But very many good Christians for this reason keep silent, and suffer the sins of others which they know, because they are often deserted by proofs, and what they themselves know they cannot prove to the ecclesiastical judges. For although certain things are true; yet they are not easily to be believed by a judge, unless they are demonstrated by sure indications. But we cannot prohibit anyone from communion (although this prohibition is not yet deadly, but medicinal), unless either he has confessed of his own accord, or has been named and convicted in some judgment, whether secular or ecclesiastical. For who would dare to assume both to himself, that he himself be to anyone both accuser and judge? A rule of this kind the apostle Paul too is understood to have briefly conveyed in the same Letter to the Corinthians, when, mentioning certain such crimes, he gave the form of ecclesiastical judgment and all similar things. For he says: I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with fornicators: not at all with the fornicators of this world, or the greedy, or the rapacious, or those serving idols; otherwise you would have had to go out of this world. For men living in this world cannot but live with such people: nor can they win them for Christ, if they avoid their conversation and company. Whence the Lord too, eating with publicans and sinners: The healthy, he said, have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. For I did not come to call the just, but sinners (Matt 9:12-13). And therefore the Apostle continues, and adds: But now I have written to you not to associate, if anyone called a brother is either a fornicator or serving idols, or greedy, or abusive, or a drunkard, or rapacious; with such a one not even to take food. For what is it to me to judge those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are within? But those who are outside, God will judge. Take away the evil from among yourselves (1 Cor 5:9-13). By which words he shows well enough that the evil are to be taken away from the communion of the Church not rashly or in any way whatever, but through judgment: so that if through judgment they cannot be taken away, they should rather be tolerated, lest, by perversely avoiding the evil, anyone, himself departing from the Church, bind to Gehenna those whom he seems to flee. Because for this too examples are set before us in the holy Scriptures, as in the harvest, that the chaff be borne until the final winnowing (See Matt 3:12); as within those nets, where the good fish are tolerated with an even mind along with the bad until the separation which will be on the shore, that is, at the end of the age (See Matt 13:47-48). For not contrary to this passage is that which the Apostle says in another place: Who are you who judge another's servant? To his own Lord he stands or falls (Rom 14:4). For he did not wish a man to be judged by a man on the judgment of suspicion, or even by an extraordinary usurped judgment, but rather according to the law of God, according to the order of the Church, whether one confessed of his own accord, or was accused and convicted. Otherwise why did he say: If anyone called a brother is either a fornicator, or serving idols, and the rest; unless because he wished that naming to be understood which is made against anyone, when a sentence is brought forth in judicial order and with integrity? For if a naming suffices, many innocent persons must be condemned, because they are often falsely named in some crime.

4. 11. Let those, then, whom we admonish to do penance, not seek for themselves companions in punishment; nor let them rejoice that they find more. For they will not therefore burn the less, because they will burn with many. For this is not the sure counsel of health, but the empty solace of malevolence. Or do they perhaps attend to many even in the ecclesiastical honors of prelates and ministers who do not live in accordance with the sermons and Sacraments which through them are ministered to the peoples? O wretched men, who, by looking at these, forget Christ! who both foretold so long beforehand that the law of God should rather be obeyed, than that those should seem worthy of imitation who do not do what they say (See Matt 23:3); and, tolerating his betrayer to the end, sent him even to evangelize with the others. But these are as absurd and preposterous and wretched, who choose to imitate the evil morals of their superiors rather than to keep the precepts of the Lord preached through them; as if some traveler should think he must remain on the road, when he sees the stone milestones full of letters teaching the way, and not walking. For why does he not rather, if he desires to arrive, look at and follow such companions as both demonstrate the way well, and walk in it perseveringly and eagerly? But if these are lacking, or rather appear less—for they cannot be lacking: for men do not so seek with eager love what they may preach for imitation, as they seek with suspicious iniquity what they may murmur at for deception, partly by not finding the good, while they themselves are evil; partly by fearing to find them, while they always wish to be evil. But yet let us grant that men worthy of imitation do not appear now. Whoever you are who think this, behold the Lord with your mind, who was made man, to teach man to live. If Christ dwells in the inner man through faith in your heart, and you recall that which John says: He who says he abides in Christ, ought himself also to walk as he walked (1 John 2:6); so neither will there be lacking to you one to follow, and when another sees you, he will cease to complain of a lack of good men. For if you do not know what it is to live rightly, learn the divine precepts. For perhaps many live rightly; but for this reason no one seems to you to live rightly, because you are ignorant of what it is to live rightly. But if you know, do what you know; that you both may have what you seek, and may show to others what they may imitate. Attend with your mind to Christ, attend to the Apostles, the last of whom is the one who says: Be imitators of me, as I too am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). Attend with your mind to so many thousands of martyrs. For why does it delight you to celebrate their birthdays with base feasts, and not delight you to follow their life with honorable morals? There you will see not only men, but also women, finally boys and girls, neither deceived by imprudence, nor perverted by iniquity, nor broken by fear of danger, nor corrupted by love of the world. So, when you find nothing to excuse you, not only the inevitable rightness of the precepts, but also the innumerable multitude of examples will surround you.

5. 12. But concerning the usefulness and wholesomeness of penance, that we may at length accomplish what we set out to do: if, now despairing of health, you add sins to sins, as it is written, The sinner, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises (Prov 18:3): do not despise, do not despair; cry out even from the depth to the Lord and say to him: From the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If you observe iniquities, O Lord; Lord, who will endure? For with you is propitiation (Ps 130:1-4 (129:1-4)). From such a depth the Ninevites cried out, and found this propitiation; and the prophet's threat was more easily emptied out than the humiliation of penance (See Jonah 3). Here perhaps you say: But I have already been baptized in Christ, by whom all my past sins were forgiven me: I have become too cheap, repeating my ways, and a dog horrible to the eyes of God, returned to my own vomit. Where shall I go from his spirit? and from his face where shall I flee? Where, brother, except to his mercy by repenting, whose power you had despised by sinning? For no one rightly flees from him, except to him, from his severity to his goodness. For what place will receive you fleeing, where his presence will not find you? If you ascend into heaven, there he is: if you descend into hell, he is present. Gather, then, your wings straight, and dwell in hope in the farthest parts of this world: for even there his hand will lead you, and his right hand will bring you through (See Ps 139:7-10 (138:7-10)). For whatever you have done, whatever you have sinned; you are still in this life, from which God would altogether take you away, if he did not wish to heal you. Why, then, are you ignorant that the patience of God leads you to penance (See Rom 2:4)? For he who by crying out did not persuade you not to depart, by sparing cries out for you to return. Behold King David: he too had already, surely, received the Sacraments of that time, he was already, surely, circumcised, which our fathers held in place of Baptism. For to this end the Apostle says that holy Abraham received the seal of the justice of faith (See Rom 4:11). He was also already anointed with that venerable anointing, by which was prefigured the royal priesthood of the Church. But suddenly made guilty of both adultery and murder, yet not in vain, repenting of so monstrous and abrupt a depth of crime, he cried out to the Lord, saying: Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities (Ps 51:9 (50:11)). By what merit at last, except because he likewise says: I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5))? But what did he offer to the Lord by which to make him propitious to himself? For if you had wished, he says, a sacrifice, I would surely have given it; in holocausts you will not delight. A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise (Ps 51:16-17 (50:18-19)). Not only, then, did he devoutly offer, but also, by saying these things, he showed what ought to be offered. For it does not suffice to change one's morals for the better, and to depart from evil deeds; unless also for those things which have been done, satisfaction is made to God through the grief of penance, through the groan of humility, through the sacrifice of a contrite heart, with alms cooperating. For blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them (See Matt 5:7). For it was not said only that we should abstain from sins: But also for past things, he says, beseech the Lord, that they may be forgiven you (See Sir 28:2). And Peter was already faithful, already in Christ and had baptized others. Behold, then, Peter presuming and accused, fearing and wounded, weeping and healed. Already too, after the coming of the Holy Spirit from heaven, a certain Simon wished to buy that same Holy Spirit with money, contriving a most wicked and impious traffic, already baptized in Christ: and yet, rebuked by Peter himself, he received the counsel of penance (See Acts 8:18-22). The apostle Paul too says, who surely sent Letters to the faithful: Lest again, when I come to you, my God humble me, and I mourn over many of those who sinned before, and did not do penance over the uncleanness and luxury and fornication which they committed (2 Cor 12:21). There surround us, then, both the precepts of acting rightly, and the examples not only of those acting rightly, but also of those repenting in order to receive the salvation which had been lost by sinning. But suppose it uncertain whether God forgives. What does he lose, in supplicating God, who did not doubt to lose salvation, in offending God? For who is certain that even an emperor forgives? And yet money is poured out, seas are crossed, the uncertainties of storms are undergone; and almost, that death may be avoided, death itself is undertaken. Then supplication is made by men to a man: these things are done without doubting, when it is doubtful to what end they come out. And yet the keys of the Church are more certain than the hearts of kings: by which keys whatever is loosed on earth, is promised to be loosed in heaven also (See Matt 16:19). And far more honorable is the humility by which each one humbles himself to the Church of God: both a lesser labor is imposed, and with no danger of temporal death is eternal death avoided.

Sermon 352
On the Usefulness of Doing Penance

1. 1. The voice of the penitent is recognized in the words with which we responded to the one chanting: Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities (Ps 51:9 (50:11)). Whence, although we were not preparing a sermon for your love, we recognized that from here, by the Lord's command, we must discourse. For we wished today to leave you in rumination, knowing what abundant feasts you have taken. But because you receive wholesomely what is set before you, you hunger much daily. May the Lord our God himself, then, grant both to us a sufficiency of strength, and to you a useful hearing. For we are not ignorant that we must serve your good and useful will. Let us, then, be helped by you both by prayer and by zeal; by prayer to God, by zeal toward the word; that we may say those things which he himself judges to be useful to you, who feeds you through us. The voice, then, of the penitent is recognized in these words: Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my misdeeds. Accordingly we are by divine command to say something about penance. For we did not command the reader to chant this psalm: but what he judged useful for you to hear, this he commanded even to a boyish heart. Let us say something about the usefulness of penance: especially because the holy anniversary day is now at hand, on whose approach it is fitting that souls be humbled and bodies subdued more eagerly.

1. 2. Now a threefold consideration of doing penance is found in sacred Scripture. For neither does anyone rightly approach the Baptism of Christ, in which all sins are blotted out, except by doing penance for his former life. For no one chooses the new life, except one who repents of the old. But this too we ought to prove by the authority of the divine Books, whether those to be baptized did penance. When the Holy Spirit was sent, having been promised beforehand, and the Lord fulfilled the faith of his promise; the disciples, having received the Holy Spirit, as you know, began to speak in all tongues, so that among those who were present each one recognized his own language. But terrified by this miracle, they sought counsel of life from the apostles. Then Peter announced to them that he must be worshiped whom they had crucified, so that they who believing might now drink his blood, which raging they had shed. But when our Lord Jesus Christ had been announced to them, and they recognized their guilt, that there might be fulfilled in them what the prophet had foretold beforehand, I was turned to my misery, while the thorn was being fixed; they were pierced. For they were turned to the misery of grief, when the thorn of the recollection of sin was being fixed. For they had thought they had done no evil, the thorn was not yet fixed. But as Peter was speaking, that you may recognize the thorn fixed, Scripture said: While Peter was speaking, they were pierced in heart. Accordingly, in the same psalm, when it was said: I was turned to my misery, while the thorn is being fixed; there follows: I acknowledged my sin, and my misdeed I did not cover. I said: I will declare against myself my offense to the Lord; and you forgave the impiety of my heart (Ps 32:4-5 (31:4-5)). When, then, pierced by that thorn of recollection they said to the apostles, What, then, shall we do?, Peter said to them: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and your sins will be forgiven you (See Acts 2:37-38). Therefore meanwhile now, if perhaps any are present from that number who are disposed to be baptized (for we believe they are present, the more eagerly toward the word, the nearer to forgiveness), these first we address in a few words, that they may lift up their minds in hope. Let them love to become what they are not, let them hate what they were. Let them already by their wish conceive the new man to be born: whatever pricked them from their past life, whatever anguished the conscience, whatever altogether, whether great or small, whether to be told or not to be told, let them not doubt that it can be forgiven; lest perhaps what the mercy of God wishes to forgive, human doubt should hold against itself.

1. 3. Let everyone faithfully recall the example also displayed in that first people. For the Apostle says: All these things were figures of us: when he was speaking of such matters. For what had he said? For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud; and all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed. But the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:1-4). That these were figures of us he said, whom no faithful person has ever contradicted. And when he enumerated many things, he resolved one thing alone, because he said: But the rock was Christ. By resolving some one thing, he set the rest forth to be inquired into: but lest the inquirer, departing from Christ, should err, that he might seek firmly, founded on the rock, The rock, he said, was Christ. He said those things were figures of us, and all were obscure. Who would unroll these wrappings of figures? who would open them? who would dare to examine them? In certain things, as in most dense thickets and thick shade, he kindled a light: The rock, he said, was Christ. Now, then, with the light brought in, let us seek what the rest signify; what they mean, the sea, the cloud, the manna. For these he did not expound, but he showed what the rock was. The passage through the sea is Baptism. But because Baptism, that is, the water of salvation, is not of salvation unless consecrated in the name of Christ, who shed his blood for us, the water is signed with his cross. That this Baptism might signify this, it was the Red Sea. The manna from heaven is openly expounded by the Lord himself. Your fathers ate, he says, manna in the desert, and died (John 6:49). For when would they live, when the figure could foretell life, but could not be life? They ate, he says, manna, and died; that is, the manna which they ate could not free them from death: not because the manna itself was death to them, but because it did not free them from death. For he was going to free from death who was figured by the manna. The manna certainly came from heaven, attend to whom it figured: I am, he says, the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51). But as eager and well-watchful ones, attend to the Lord's words, that you may profit and know how to read and to hear. They ate, he says, the same spiritual food. What is the same, except that he which we too eat? I see it is somewhat difficult to bring out and explain what I have undertaken to say: but I shall be helped by your benevolence, which may obtain for me from the Lord this faculty. They ate, he says, the same spiritual food. It would have sufficed for him to say: They ate spiritual food. The same, he says. I do not find how to understand the same, except him whom we too eat. What, then, says someone, was that manna which I now receive? Then nothing comes now, if it already was before. Then the scandal of the cross is emptied out. How, then, the same, except because he added spiritual? For those who so received that manna as to think only their bodily need was being satisfied, and their belly fed, not their mind; ate nothing great, satisfaction was made for their need. God fed some, to some he announced something. Such people ate bodily food, not spiritual food. Whom, then, does he say our fathers, who ate the same spiritual food? Whom do we think, brothers, except those who truly were our fathers? rather, were not our fathers, but are. For all those live. For so the Lord says to certain unbelievers: Your fathers ate manna in the desert, and died. For what is your fathers, except those whom you imitate in unbelief, whose ways you follow by not believing and by resisting God? According to which understanding he says to certain ones: You are of your father the devil (John 8:44). For neither did the devil create any man by power, or procreate him by begetting; and yet he is called the father of the impious, not on account of generation, but on account of imitation. As, on the contrary, it is said of the good: Therefore you are the seed of Abraham (See Gal 3:29): when he is speaking to the Gentiles, who did not draw the stock of the flesh from Abraham's line. For they were sons, not by being born, but by imitating. But father Abraham is disowned and alienated from the faithless, when the Lord says to them: If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham (John 8:39). And that the evil trees, glorying in Abraham's fatherhood, might be uprooted, sons of Abraham are promised from stones (See Matt 3:9). As, then, in this place he says: Your fathers ate manna in the desert, and died: for they did not understand what they ate; and so, not understanding, they received only bodily food: so too the Apostle says that our fathers, not the fathers of the unbelievers, not the fathers of the impious, eating and dying; but our fathers, the fathers of the faithful, ate spiritual food, and therefore the same. Our fathers, he says, ate the same spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink. For there were there those who understood what they ate: there were there those to whom Christ tasted more in the heart than the manna in the mouth. Why should we speak of others? From there came first Moses himself the servant of God, faithful in all his house (See Num 12:7; Heb 3:5), knowing what he dispensed, and that at that time the closed things of the present, the open things of the future, ought so to be dispensed. Briefly, then, I would say: whoever understood Christ in the manna, ate the same spiritual food as we; but whoever sought from the manna only their fill, ate as fathers of unbelievers, and died. So too the same drink: For the rock was Christ. The same drink, then, as we, but spiritual; that is, which was received by faith, not which was drawn off by the body. You have heard the same drink: The rock was Christ; for Christ was not one then, another now. That rock indeed was one thing, another the stone which Jacob set for himself at his head (See Gen 28:11, 18); one thing the lamb slain that the Pasch might be eaten (See Exod 12:6-8), another the ram caught in the brambles to be sacrificed, when Abraham, commanded, spared his son, whom commanded he had offered (See Gen 22:13); one sheep and another sheep, one stone and another stone, yet the same Christ; therefore the same food, therefore the same drink. Finally the rock itself was struck with wood, that water might flow down: for the rod struck it (See Exod 17:6). Why with wood, not with iron, except because the cross drew near to Christ, that he might offer us grace to drink? The same food, then, the same drink, but to those who understand and believe. But to those not understanding, only that manna, only that water; that food to the hungry, this drink to the thirsty; neither that nor this to the believer: but to the believer the same as now. For then Christ was to come, now Christ has come. "To come" and "has come" are different words, but the same Christ.

1. 4. Since the matter has come up, I wish to say something also about the doubting of Moses the servant of God. For this too was a figure of the ancient saints. Moses doubted at the water, when he struck the rock with the rod that water might flow, he doubted. But anyone reading would perhaps pass over his doubting, and not understand it, because he would not dare even to inquire. But that doubting displeased the Lord God, and he marked it, not only by rebuking, but also by avenging. For on account of this doubting it is said to Moses: You will not lead the people into the land of promise. Ascend the mountain and die (See Num 20:12; Deut 32:49-50). God here surely appears angry. What, then, of Moses, my brothers? Was all that labor of his, all his ardor for the people, and that love, saying, If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of your book (Exod 32:32), condemned by this sudden and abrupt doubting? And what is it that the reader concluded when he was reading the Apostle: Love never falls away (1 Cor 13:8)? When I proposed certain things to be resolved, your zeal made me propose also something else, which perhaps you would not inquire about. Let us see, then, and still, as much as we can, let us try to penetrate the mystery. God is angry, he says Moses will not lead the people into the land of promise; he orders him to ascend the mountain and die. And yet he enjoins many things to be done by this same Moses: he orders what he should do, how he should arrange the people, how he should not leave them carelessly and negligently. He would never deign to enjoin such things on one condemned. Receive something more wonderful. Since it was said to Moses (for this pleased God for the sake of a certain mystery and dispensation) that he himself would not lead the people into the land of promise, another is chosen, Joshua son of Nun; and this man was not called by this name, he was called Hoshea (See Num 13:16). And when Moses entrusted to him the people to be led in, he called him, and changed his name for him, and named him Jesus: so that not through Moses, but through Jesus, that is, not through the law, but through grace, the people of God might enter into the land of promise. But as that Jesus was not the true one, but a figure; so too that land of promise was not the true one, but a figure. For to the first people it was temporal: but to us, which is promised, it will be eternal. But by temporal figures eternal things were promised and foretold. As, then, that Jesus was not the true one, nor that land of promise true, but a figure: so the manna was not truly heavenly food, but a figure; so that rock was not truly Christ, but a figure, and so all things. What consideration, then, does the doubting of Moses demand for itself? Lest perhaps there too some figure is expressed, and has hinted to the one who understands, and has stirred and provoked the mind to inquire. For I see both after that doubting, and after the anger of God, and after the threats of death, and after the removal from leading the people into the land of promise, that God says many things to Moses, as to a friend, just as he spoke before: so much so that to Joshua son of Nun himself the example of obedience is set forth from Moses, and God admonishes him to serve him as Moses served; and so promises to be with him, as with Moses. Evidently, dearest ones, God himself constrains us, not to reprehend rashly, but to understand the doubting of Moses. The rock lying is a figure, the rod striking a figure, the water flowing a figure, Moses doubting too a figure. And there he doubted, where he struck. From here arose the doubting of Moses, when the wood drew near to the rock. Now let the swift fly ahead, rather let them patiently await the slow. Moses doubted when the wood drew near to the rock: the disciples doubted when they saw the Lord crucified. Of these Moses bore the figure. He was a figure of that Peter who thrice denied. Why did Peter doubt? Because the wood drew near to the rock. When the Lord foretold the manner of his death, that is, the cross itself, Peter himself was terrified: Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not be (Matt 16:22). You doubt, because you see the rod threatening the rock. Therefore the hope which the disciples bore concerning the Lord they then lost: in a certain way it was cut off, when they saw him crucified, when they lamented him slain. He found them after the resurrection speaking among themselves about this matter, in sad conversation; and holding their eyes lest he be recognized by them, not withdrawing himself from believers, but deferring doubters, he mingled himself as a third interlocutor with their talk, and asked them what they were talking about. They wonder that he alone is ignorant of what had happened in him who was asking. Are you alone, they say, a stranger in Jerusalem? And they recount what was done concerning Jesus. And at once they open the marrow of their despair, and, though unknowing, show the wound to the physician: But we, they say, were hoping that in him there was the redemption of Israel (See Luke 24:13-21). Behold, doubting has arisen, because the wood drew near to the rock: the figure of Moses is fulfilled.

1. 5. Let us see this too: Ascend the mountain, and die (See Deut 32:49-50). By the bodily death of Moses was figured the death of that doubting; but on the mountain. O wonderful mysteries! This, surely, expounded and understood, how much sweeter than manna? At the rock the doubting was born, on the mountain it died. When Christ was humble in the passion, he lay as it were a rock before the eyes: deservedly there was doubt about him, that humility held forth nothing great. Deservedly by that very humility he was made a stone of stumbling: but glorified by the resurrection he appeared great, now he is a mountain. Now, then, let that doubting which had been born at the rock die on the mountain. Let the disciples recognize their salvation, let them recall their hope. Attend how that doubting dies, attend how Moses dies on the mountain. Let him not enter the land of promise: we do not want doubting there; let it die. Let Christ show it to us dying. Peter trembled: and denied thrice. For the rock was Christ. He rose again, was made a mountain: he strengthened Peter too. But the doubting dies. How does it die? Peter, do you love me? The inspector of the heart, the knower of the heart asks; and wishes to hear that he is loved, and once is too little. He asks this, hears it almost to the weariness of Peter himself: for he wonders that he is asked by one who foreknows, but also asked so many times when once would suffice to answer even one who did not know. But as though the Lord said to you: I wait, let the lawful number be fulfilled: let him confess three times through love (See John 21:15-17), because he had thrice denied through fear (See Matt 26:69-75). In that the Lord asked so many times, he was slaying that doubting on the mountain.

1. 6. What, then, dearest ones, if these things are open? They were closed not for fraud, but for delight. For they would not be grasped so sweetly, if, being ready at hand, they grew cheap. Let him, then, look to his own business who is about to seek Baptism, whom I had begun to address. The Red Sea was Baptism, the people passing through were being baptized: the passage itself was Baptism, but in the cloud. For what was foretold was still clouded: what was promised was still hidden. Now already the cloud has withdrawn, the serenity of manifest truth has come about: because the veil too has withdrawn, through which Moses spoke. This veil hung also in the temple, lest the secrets of the temple be seen: but at the cross of the Lord the veil was torn, that they might lie open. Come, then, to Baptism; enter undaunted the way through the Red Sea; do not be anxious about your past sin as about a pursuing Egyptian. Your sins pressed you with the hard burden of slavery, but in Egypt, in the love of this world, in a distant pilgrimage; they forced you to follow earthly works, as it were to make bricks, you were working works of mud. Your sins press you, come secure to Baptism: as far as the water the enemy will be able to follow, there he will die. Fear something about your past life, believe something of your sins will remain, if any of the Egyptians remained. I hear the voice of the slothful: I, he says, do not fear about past sins, I do not doubt that all are forgiven me in the holy water through the love also of the Church; but I fear future sins. Does it please you, then, to remain in Egypt? Meanwhile escape the present enemy, who has already pressed you, and already subjugated you. Why do you meditate to yourself enemies from the future? What you have already done, even if you do not wish it, will be: what you think you will do, if you wish, will not be. But the way is dangerous: for not when I have crossed the Red Sea will I now be in the land of promise: that people was led through long deserts. Meanwhile be freed from Egypt. What then, do you think a helper will be lacking to you on the way, he who rescued you from the old captivity? Does he not restrain your new enemies, who freed you from the old enemies? Only cross undaunted, walk undaunted, be obedient: do not embitter that Moses, whose type that one bore in this obedience. I admit, enemies are not lacking. For just as there were not lacking those who would follow the fleeing, so there were not lacking those who would hinder the walking. Plainly, dearest ones, they were figures of us. Meanwhile let there not be in you that which may sadden Moses: do not be bitter water, which after the Red Sea that people could not drink. For there too was a temptation. And yet these things, when they happen, when the people grows bitter, we show them Christ, what he bore for them, how for them he shed his blood: and they grow gentle, as though we cast wood into the water. Plainly you will have Amalek as an enemy opposing your journey. Then Moses prayed, then he stretched out his hands: and where he lowered his hands, Amalek grew strong; where he stretched out his hands, Amalek failed. Let your hands too be stretched out, let Amalek the tempter and the hinderer of this journey fail: be vigilant and sober in prayers, in good works, yet not apart from Christ, because that stretching out of the hands was the cross of Christ. In it the Apostle is stretched out, when he says: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14). Therefore let Amalek fail, let him be conquered, and not hinder the passage of the people of God. If you lower your hands from the good work, from the cross of Christ, Amalek will prevail. Yet do not in any way think either that you will at once be strong, or that you must utterly fail by despairing. For that alternation of failing and of strength in the hands of Moses the servant of God was perhaps your alternation. For sometimes in temptations you fail, but do not succumb. He lowered his hands a little, he did not altogether collapse. If I said: My foot has slipped; behold, your mercy, O Lord, was helping me (Ps 94:18 (93:18)). Do not fear, then: there is present on the journey a helper, who in Egypt was not lacking as liberator. Do not fear, enter upon the way, presume securely. Sometimes he lowered his hands, sometimes he raised them; yet Amalek was conquered (See Exod 17:11-13). He could rebel, he could not overcome.

2. 7. And so we are now admonished to speak of the second penance. For I proposed that its consideration is threefold in holy Scripture. That first is of the candidates and of those thirsting to come to Baptism: this I showed from the holy Scriptures. There is another, surely, the daily penance. And where do we show that daily penance? I have nowhere better to show it than in the daily prayer, where the Lord taught us to pray, showed what we should say to the Father, and set it in these words: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). What debts, brothers? Since debts here cannot be understood except as sins; do we pray that he forgive again the debts which he forgave in Baptism? Surely every Egyptian who was following died. If nothing of the following enemies was made a remnant, why do we pray that it be forgiven, except on account of the hands failing against Amalek? Forgive us, as we also forgive. He appointed a medicine, he established a pact. Here he dictates the prayers, there he answers the one praying: he knows by what right the matter is conducted in heaven, how the things desired can be obtained. Do you wish to be forgiven? Forgive, he says. For what have you that you may bestow on God, from whom you wish it to be bestowed on you? Is Christ the Savior now walking on earth? Does Zacchaeus now receive him into his house rejoicing (See Luke 19:6)? Does Martha prepare lodging and feasts for him (See Luke 10:38)? He needs none of these things, he sits at the right hand of the Father. But when you did it for one of these least ones of mine, you did it for me (See Matt 25:40). This is the stretching out of the hands, under which Amalek failed. And you indeed give out to the poor man, when you give something to the hungry: perhaps you will have less of what you gave, but in your house, not in heaven. But here too on earth, by whose command you provided it, he himself supplies what you gave. Speaking of this matter, the Apostle says: He who supplies seed to the sower, will also supply bread for food (2 Cor 9:10). For you are a worker of God, when you give to the needy: you sow in winter what you may reap in summer. Why, then, do you fear, unbeliever, lest in this great house so great a head of the household not feed his worker? It will be there too, but what suffices you. God will give to need the whole, not to greed. Work, then, undaunted, stretch out your hands, let Amalek fail. But from here, as I said, when you have given something in your house, you either see less of what you saw there: you do not see it there when you have given, until God gives again. Tell me, when you forgive from the heart, what do you lose? When you forgive him who sins against you, what less will you have in your heart? For from there you forgive, but you lose nothing. Rather, indeed, a certain wave of love was going in your heart, and was flowing as from an inner vein: you hold hatred against your brother, you have stopped up the fountain. Not only, then, do you lose nothing, when you forgive; but you are more abundantly watered. Love is not narrowed. You place there a stone of stumbling, and you make for yourself narrows. I will avenge myself, I will be revenged, I will show him, I will do it: you seethe, you labor, you who are allowed by forgiving to be secure, to live secure, to pray secure. For behold, what are you about to do? You are about to pray. What shall I say, when? Today you are about to pray. Or are you not about to pray? Full of anger and hatred, you threaten vengeance: you do not forgive from the heart. Behold, you pray, behold, the hour of praying comes, you begin either to hear or to say those words. With the earlier ones said and heard, you are about to come to this verse. Or if you are not about to come, where are you about to go? That you may not forgive your enemy, will you deviate from Christ? Plainly, if you will deviate in the prayer, so as to be unwilling to say, Forgive us our debts; because you cannot say, as we also forgive our debtors; lest it be quickly answered you: So I forgive as you too forgive: therefore, because you cannot say this, and you are unwilling to forgive, you will deviate from this verse, and pass it over, and say what follows: Do not suffer us to be led into temptation (See Matt 6:13); there your creditor will seize you, whose face as it were you were avoiding. Just as anyone in a town, when he meets one to whom he owes something, if a side-street is at hand, leaves where he was going; and goes by another part, lest he see the face of the creditor. This you thought you did in this verse: you avoided to say, Forgive, as I forgive; lest he so forgive, that is, not forgive, because you do not forgive; and you were unwilling to say it, avoiding the face of the creditor. Whom do you avoid? whom do you avoid? Where will you go, where you can be and he not be? You will be about to say: Where shall I go from your spirit? and from your face where shall I flee? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present (Ps 139:7-8 (138:7-8)). How far can the debtor flee from Christ, than to go into hell? This creditor is present even there. What will you do, except what follows? If I take up my wings straight, and fly to the ends of the sea (See Ps 139:9 (138:9)); that is, by my hope I will meditate on the end of the age, I will live in your precepts, I will be lifted up by the two wings of love. Fulfill, then, the two wings of love. Love your neighbor as yourself (See Matt 22:39); and do not hold hatred, from which you may flee the creditor.

3. 8. There remains the third kind of penance, of which I will say something briefly, that, with the Lord helping, I may pay what was proposed and promised. There is a penance more grave and more sorrowful, in which those are properly called in the Church penitents, removed even from participating in the Sacrament of the altar, lest by receiving unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves. That penance, then, is sorrowful. The wound is grave: adultery perhaps has been committed, perhaps murder, perhaps some sacrilege, a grave matter, a grave wound, lethal, deadly: but the physician is almighty. Now, after the suggestion of the deed and the delight and the consent and the perpetration, he stinks as it were four days dead: but not even him did the Lord abandon, but cried out: Lazarus, come forth. The mass of the burial yielded to the voice of mercy: death yielded to life, hell yielded to heaven. Lazarus was lifted up, he came forth from the tomb: and he was bound, as men are who, in the confession of sin, do penance. Already they have come forth from death: for they would not confess, unless they came forth. The very confessing is to come forth from the hidden and dark place. But what does the Lord say to his Church? Whatever you loose, he says, on earth, will be loosed in heaven also (See Matt 18:18). Accordingly, as Lazarus came forth, because the Lord fulfilled the good of his mercy, to bring to confession the hidden, stinking dead man; now the ministry of the Church fulfills the rest: Loose him, and let him go (John 11:43-44). But, dearest ones, let no one propose this kind of penance to himself, let no one prepare himself for this kind: yet if it perhaps happens, let no one despair. Judas the betrayer was made to perish utterly not so much by the crime he committed as by his despair of pardon. He was not worthy of mercy, therefore no light shone in his heart, that he should run to the pardon of him whom he had betrayed, like those who crucified him; but by despairing he killed himself, and hanged himself with a noose, suffocated himself. What he did in his body, this was done in his soul. For this wind of this air too is called spirit. As, then, those who tie their own neck, thereby kill themselves, because the spirit of this air does not enter into them: so those who despair of the pardon of God, by that very despair suffocate themselves within, so that the Holy Spirit cannot visit them.

3. 9. Pagans are wont thence to insult Christians about the penance which is instituted in the Church: and against certain heresies the catholic Church has held this truth about doing penance. For there were those who said that to certain sins penance ought not to be given; and they were shut out of the Church, and made heretics. In whatever sins, the pious mother Church does not lose her bowels of compassion. Therefore even pagans are wont thence as it were to insult us, not knowing what they say; because they have not yet come to the word of God, which makes the tongues of infants eloquent. You, they say, make men sin, when you promise them pardon, if they do penance. This is dissolution, not admonition. To this opinion they exaggerate words, as much as each one can; with tongue either sounding or stammering, they do not keep silent: yet even when we speak to them, although they are conquered, they do not consent. Yet how they are conquered, let your love receive briefly, because the Lord's mercy has established everything most excellently in his Church. They say we give license to sins, because we promise the harbor of penance. If the access to penance were closed, would not that sinner so much the more add sins to sins, the more he despaired of being forgiven? For he would say to himself: Behold I have sinned, behold I have committed crime, now there is no place for me of pardon; penance is fruitless, I am to be condemned: why do I not now live as I wish? Because I do not find love there, here at least let me feed greed. For why should I abstain? There every place is closed to me, here whatever I do not do, I lose; because the life which is to be after this will not be given me. Why, then, do I not serve my lusts, to fulfill and satisfy them, and do whatever is not lawful, but is pleasing? It would perhaps be said to him: But, wretch, you will be caught, accused, tortured, punished. Evil men know these things are said by men, and kept among men; they attend to many living evilly and wickedly who have their sins unpunished: they can hide them, redeem those they cannot hide; redeem unto old age a life lascivious, blasphemous, sacrilegious, lost. They enumerate to themselves: What? did not that man who did such great things die an old man? Do you not consider that he therefore died a sinner and a wicked old man, so that God might show in him his patience, awaiting penance? Whence the Apostle says: Are you ignorant that the patience of God leads you to penance? But you, according to the hardness of your heart and the impenitent heart, have treasured up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works (Rom 2:4-6). There is need, then, that this fear possess the mind, there is need that he who does not wish to sin think God present to himself, not only in public, but also in his house; not only in his house, but also in his bedchamber, at night, on his bed, in his heart. Therefore, if you take away the harbor of penance, by despair they will increase their sins. Behold, those say nothing who think sins are therefore increased, because the harbor of penance is set forth in the Christian faith. What, then? Ought not God thereafter to provide, lest through that hope of pardon sins should again be increased? For just as he provided lest they be increased by despairing, so he ought to provide lest they be increased by hoping. For just as in truth he who has despaired increases his sins, so he too can increase his sins who has hoped for pardon: so that he says to himself: I will do what I wish, God is good, when I convert, he will forgive me. So plainly say to yourself: When I convert, he will forgive me; if tomorrow is certain to you. Does not Scripture admonish you to this, saying: Do not delay to convert to the Lord, nor put it off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Sir 5:8-9)? Behold, to both the providence of God has kept watch for us. Lest by despairing we increase our sins, the harbor of penance is set forth: again, lest by hoping we increase them, an uncertain day of death is given.

1. The Lord Jesus, the founder of the holy Gospel, as it were by a law of mercy wishing no one to perish (See Matt 18:14), since indeed he came to save what had perished (See Luke 19:10), as it were in an assembly of the human race cried out, as we have heard: Because the times are fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near, repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15). This voice the founder of the world uttered, and the world heard. Let that be done which he said who came to come to our aid, lest he come to judge the despisers. Let it be done, while the voice of mercy sounds, before the tribunal of justice comes. He of whom it was said in the psalm, Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord (Ps 101:1 (100:1)), himself kept the order of his help. First he came to dispense mercy, going to exercise judgment. For not judgment, but mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. What greater mercy can be desired, sought, demanded, than that God did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, that with him he might give us all things (See Rom 8:32)? What greater mercy, than to come to die not for the just, but for the impious (See Rom 5:6)? What greater mercy, than to come and not to condemn those worthy to be condemned, but to free those unworthy to be freed?

2. But let this mercy not be despised, my brothers. Merciful and compassionate is the Lord. Add still: long-suffering. Add still: and greatly merciful. Fear what follows: and truthful (See Ps 86:15 (85:15); Exod 34:6). Far be it from us that we despise the merciful one, so as to experience the truthful one! What need is there, then, that we cry out? Let us rather hear the one crying out: Because the times are fulfilled. For the fullness of times came, as the Apostle says, and in the fullness of times God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, and that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5). Commending this fullness of times, the Lord said: The times are fulfilled; he came, awaited by few, found by many. Therefore the times are fulfilled: repent. How long ago is it that this is cried out, and would that at some time it were heard: Because the times are fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near, repent and believe in the Gospel! Renounce and convert. This is repent and believe in the Gospel: renounce dead works, believe in the living God. What does it profit to believe without good works? It was not the merit of good works that brought you to faith, but faith begins, that good works may follow (See Eph 2:8-10). This is said to the holy Church in the Song of Songs: Come, my bride, you will come, and you will pass through from the beginning of faith (See Song 4:8). But who believes God, unless he has renounced the devil? Therefore, that you may renounce, repent; believe, that you may be saved.

3. This was said to the Jews, this was said to idolatrous gentiles. Is it still to be said to Christians? Is it still to be said to Christians daily reading that the times are fulfilled, is it still to be said to Christians that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near, is it still to be said to Christians: Repent and believe in the Gospel? Plainly, he to whom I say, Believe in the Gospel, is not yet a Christian. No one, as I suppose, hears me in this multitude who does not yet believe in the Gospel. Many hear me who are not yet made faithful through baptism, and are still catechumens: not yet born, but already conceived. But when or how would they be conceived in the womb of mother Church, unless they were signed with some sacrament of faith? Many also hear me who are baptized and, neglecting in themselves the grace of God (See 2 Cor 6:1), love to sin. And to these what shall I say: The times are fulfilled? They answer: "We know it." The kingdom of God has drawn near? They answer: "Long ago we heard, long ago we believed." What, then, shall I say? Since I am speaking to men who love to sin, despising in themselves the grace of the Redeemer, what shall I say? Repent. I will plainly say it, even if they do not permit me to say: The times are fulfilled, since they know it; The kingdom of heaven has drawn near, because this too they know; that very last thing which was set down, Believe in the Gospel, they do not permit me to say to them, because they have already believed; let them hear, then: Repent, because they have not yet done it. From here, then, let us speak to the catechumens and to the negligent faithful. Let the diligent hear, since they too cannot be lacking in the members of Christ. Let them not think me wordy and superfluous, if they have love: it is a common business; they wish me to speak also to those whom they desire to be corrected along with them.

4. Let them, then, hear me saying not, The times are fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven has drawn near, believe in the Gospel, but saying, Repent. The catechumen answers me: "Why do you say to us: Repent? Let me first be faithful, and perhaps I will live well, and I will not be a penitent." I answer such people: That you may be faithful, repent. For those coming to baptism come through penance. For unless by repenting they condemn the old life, they will not as candidates come to the new life. That I might say this, I have not dared beyond measure, nor usurped to myself anything unaccustomed to the Scripture of God. Let the catechumens hear the Acts of the Apostles. When the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke to the crowds, because they were speaking in all tongues, the crowds, astonished and made more attentive, heard the word of God from the apostles (See Acts 2:4-6). All, because they were men of diverse tongues, were pierced, and because they were Jews, they repented of having crucified Christ, and, troubled about their own salvation and fearing certain damnation for so great a crime, said to the apostles: What shall we do, brothers? And the apostles: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:37-38). You have received how those not yet baptized were ordered to come to baptism through penance. This, then, we too will say to the catechumens. For we have mentioned the testimony of the Scriptures, lest they should think we say to them shamelessly that, before they were faithful, we wished them to be penitents.

5. But now let those who are faithful and live badly not think that I say to them shamelessly: Repent. Now, then, I will speak to both: Change your life, lest you lose life. Condemn past sins, fear future evils and hope for good things. The evil man first does not contradict himself in hoping for good things, who is not good. You hope for good: be what you hope. First hear the one commanding, and then demand of the one promising. God has become your debtor not by borrowing, but by promising. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid him? (Rom 11:34-35) What has he received from you, who gave you everything? Therefore he deigned to become a debtor, because he promised, and so to become a debtor that he even made a bond. This bond is the Gospel, it is the Scripture, in which God made himself your debtor not, as I said, by borrowing, but by promising. Therefore hear: Repent, believe in the Gospel. Hear the command, and then demand the bond. "Tomorrow," he says. For he found nothing to say to me, set before his own face and now displeasing to his own eyes. How much more, then, to the purer eyes of God! When, then, he had displeased himself in his evil ways, "Tomorrow," he says, "I will amend; do not press me, let today too pass. Why do you hurry? Tomorrow I will amend. Why do you press me today?" Because the day does not stand by your decision. All dispute with them is about delay. For they say: "Let today pass as yesterday did. Tomorrow I will be corrected, changed, amended, I will fulfill what is commanded: I will repent," that is: the whole thing is about delay. Tomorrow is not far off. But see, lest, just as you wished today to be like yesterday, so you wish tomorrow to be like today. Although I could say: Why not today, but tomorrow, you who do not know what will happen to you tomorrow? But behold, let us bear with it. Do not make tomorrow like today. "For what," he says, "if I do? Do I not hold it written: On whatever day the unjust and impious man is converted, I will forget all his injustices (See Ezek 33:12)? It was said, and divinely said." I admit: it was divinely written. How well you remembered the bond of God! What is owed to you, you hold; what you owe, you forget.

6. Impious men hear these things, not knowing the law, banished from the grace of God, unworthy of the mercy of God, because it was said in our Scripture: On whatever day, if the unjust man is converted, I will forget all his iniquities (See Ezek 33:12), and they say to us: "You make men sin, who promise them such great impunity if they are suddenly converted." For do we dare not to promise what God has promised? "Not good," they say, "is the law which makes sinners abound." I would like to know whether he who speaks does not judge himself a sinner. And he is angry with God who waits, whom God waits for. What if God, who by his patience leads to penance, did not promise this (See Rom 2:4)? If he did not promise this, would not more become sinners by despairing? Let your love attend a little. Who is found not a sinner? The flesh weak, the age feeble, the sense narrow, the mind fearful, nature ignorant of things—into how great sins does it cast the incautious and negligent headlong? How few can appear and exist who are not convicted of being sinners? Take away that mercy, take away that promised pardon, take away in this most turbulent sea of iniquities the harbor of indulgence, let there be no place to which the tossing may withdraw: do they not by despair add sins to sins, and say to themselves: "Now I am a sinner, there is no mercy upon sinners, condemnation is necessarily owed? Why do I not do what I wish, why do I not satisfy my lusts, why do I not at least now do whatever delights me, doomed to lose this life, going to receive none afterward?" So are desperate gladiators, whence too a proverb arose: Back away from the wounded man. For the wounded man seeks where he may die, and does not doubt to do evil, because he hopes for no pardon. He lets the reins loose to his desires, he is carried where he can, he desires whatever pleases him to be lawful for him: he perishes, then, by despairing. But do not you perish by hoping either. Two voices, both contrary, both dangerous, through which men perish, but yet God despised neither voice: he cared for both this and that. What are those two voices? "Why should I not sin, why should I not do whatever I wish? When I convert, all is forgiven me." Such perish by hoping. The other voice, on the other side contrary indeed, but equally dangerous. "Why should I not do whatever I wish, to whom no mercy is owed, to whom no pardon will be given? I will do whatever I wish." They perish by despairing.

7. What shall I accuse first: perverse hope or unfaithful despair? Why do you perish by hoping, why do you perish by despairing? Let those hear a few things who wish to perish by hoping: Return, transgressors, to the heart (Isa 46:8). Hear God saying, because you say "Tomorrow, tomorrow," Do not delay to be converted to the Lord (Sir 5:8). To you I speak, who prepare to be converted to the Lord, but defer it; to you I speak, for whom I fear lest hope destroy you: hear not me, but him himself in whom you hope and by hoping too much you perish: Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, nor put it off from day to day. For suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Sir 5:8-9). Where is what you were saying: "I defer to tomorrow, and tomorrow to another tomorrow, since God promised me indulgence, saying: On the day the sinner is converted; for he did not say: If today he is converted, but: On whatever day he is converted"? God answers you: "I promised you indulgence, I did not promise you tomorrow." Or do you perhaps wish to join and couple together two promises, what God promised and what the astrologer promised? For God promised indulgence, the astrologer perhaps promised you tomorrow. Watch out, wretch: the astrologer is deceived, and God condemns you. How many, suddenly snatched away, were permitted neither to make satisfaction to God nor to accuse the astrologers.

8. Let him too hear, who had perished by despairing, what he was saying: "I have now committed such great evils that I hope for no indulgence. It remains to fulfill my lusts, to satisfy my delights, that I may at least have here the rest which I am not going to have there." Hear you too the voice of God, not your own: "Despairing one, return to hope." Hear Paul saying: Therefore I obtained mercy—I who persecuted the Church of God—that in me Christ Jesus might show all his long-suffering, for the instruction of those who will believe in him unto eternal life (1 Tim 1:13, 16). You have, then, a pattern: do not despair, hear the bond which a little before the one falsely hoping recited, and from it let the despairing one be corrected. What were you hearing? Whence did he flatter himself, because he put it off from day to day? "God, God to me: On whatever day the unjust and impious man is converted, I will forget all his iniquities (See Ezek 33:12)." Read, and return. You were sitting on the bank, or carrying the noose by despairing, you desired to bring death upon yourself, perhaps, having nothing to live on, you wished to die: return, you have something to live on: behold the bread of God. I do not wish the death of the impious, so much as that he turn back and live (See Ezek 33:11).

9. Therefore, brothers, there is no reason to complain about God, there is no place where he should displease the perverse, although he cannot displease any but the perverse. The straight does not please the perverse, the distorted cannot be fitted to the straight. For there is nothing to be said. You were saying: "Behold, Christians give impunity: they make sin abound." I have given the reason, that men would perish more by despairing, if no harbor of indulgence were set forth to the tossing one. Both, then, God did not abandon, both those hoping badly and those despairing badly. On account of those despairing badly he gave the harbor of indulgence, on account of those hoping badly he made the day of death uncertain. There is nothing to be said, but there is something to be done. Let them say to me, then: "What shall we do?", those who have been moved by the word of truth; let them say it not with their voices, but with their hearts: "What, then, shall we do?" What shall I answer, except what we have heard: Repent? What more shall I say? Repent. You are a catechumen: repent and you will be renewed; you are baptized badly, not badly baptized: repent and you will be healed. I do not find what to say to this, you know what to do. Turned to the Lord . . .

Sermon 353
On the Day of the Octave of the Infants: Whom He Exhorts in the Words of the Apostle Peter, "Laying Aside, Then, All Malice," and the Rest

1. 1. The sermon of an anxious shepherd addresses the ears and minds of all whom our care embraces: yet it is now directed properly to you, whose recent infancy is marked by the cradles of the Sacraments of spiritual generation. For to you especially the divine eloquence speaks coaxingly through the apostle Peter thus: Laying aside, then, he says, all malice and all guile and flattery and envy and detraction, like newborn infants desire the rational and innocent milk; that in it you may grow unto salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is sweet (1 Pet 2:1-3). Accordingly, because you have tasted, we are witnesses: we ministered to you this sweetness in the office of nurse. Act, therefore, admonished, after the likeness of holy infancy, lay aside malice, guile, flattery and envy and detraction. This innocence you ought so to hold that by growing you do not lose it. What is malice, except the love of harming? What is guile, except to do one thing and feign another? What is flattery, except seduction by deceitful praise? What is detraction, except a rebuke more biting than truthful? Malice delights in another's evil: envy is tortured even by another's good: guile doubles the heart: flattery doubles the tongue: detraction wounds the reputation. But the innocence of this your holiness, since it is the daughter of love, does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices together with the truth (1 Cor 13:6). Simple as a dove, and cunning as a serpent (See Matt 10:16), not from zeal to harm, but to beware of the one harming.

2. 1. To this I exhort you. For of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:14), namely of the humble, that is, of the spiritually little ones. Do not despise it, do not shrink from it. This littleness belongs to the great. But deceitful pride is the greatness of the weak; which, when it has taken possession of the mind, by raising up casts down, by puffing up empties out, by distending scatters. The one who harms cannot be humble, the proud cannot be innocent. I speak of that humility which does not wish to excel in perishing things, but truly thinks of something eternal, to which it may come not by its own strength, but helped. This cannot wish evil to anyone, by which its own good is in no way increased. But further, pride at once gives birth to envy. For who is envious who does not wish evil to him by whose good he is tortured? Therefore envy too consequently gives birth to malice: whence proceeds both guile and flattery and detraction, and every evil work which you would not wish to suffer from another. With pious humility preserved, then, which in the holy Scriptures is proved to be holy infancy, you will be secure about the immortality of the blessed: For of such is the kingdom of heaven.

2. 2. Further, he who is not proud toward men, much more ought he not to be defiant against God: since, if no one is to do to another what he does not wish to suffer from another, and no man wishes to suffer disobedience from one who has been subjected to his authority; how much more must it be guarded against, lest anyone exist toward God such as he does not wish a man to be toward himself?

3. 2. Accordingly they deceive their own souls who think it enough if they do to no man what they do not wish to be done to themselves, and yet so corrupt themselves with a luxurious life that they attempt to do to God what they do not wish to be done to themselves by a man. For they do not wish their house to be perverted by anyone, who in their own selves pervert the house of God by a pitiable blindness, deaf against the Apostle crying out: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:16-17). Let no one deceive himself. Why, then, do they think they preserve their innocence toward other men, when they so harm themselves that they lack God as inhabitant, and are punished by him as avenger? Hence too it comes about that, fallen and dissolved through harmful pleasures, they not only cease to be temples of God, but even become ruins, in which evil demons dwell, to whom they begin to supplicate, and which they begin to worship: and there are made for them, as it was said, the last things worse than the first (Matt 12:45). Whence you, regenerated by an immortal seed, just as above, on account of the malicious desires of harming, by which there is done to men what they hate; so afterward, on account of base and unlawful delights of the flesh and wicked sacrileges, by which men seem not to harm men, by not doing to them what they do not wish, but by not obeying God to whom all things are subject, do themselves do to the Lord of lords what they do not wish to be done to themselves by their own little servants—you the same apostle Peter addresses, saying: Christ, then, having suffered through the flesh, you too arm yourselves with the same thought (1 Pet 4:1).

4. 2. Because he who has died in the flesh has ceased to sin, that he may now live the rest of his time in the flesh, not by the desires of men, but by the will of God. For the past time is enough to have consummated the will of the gentiles in lusts, and pleasures, and carousings, in drinking and the abominable services of idols (1 Pet 4:1-3). For the past time is enough to have served the muddy works of sins, as it were the domination of the Egyptians. Now the Red Sea, namely Baptism consecrated by the blood of Christ, has cast down the true Pharaoh, has destroyed the Egyptians (See Exod 14:27-28): fear nothing of your past sins, as of enemies pursuing from behind. For the rest, think to traverse the desert of this life, and to come to the land of promise, the heavenly Jerusalem, the land of the living: lest, by contempt of the word of God, as it were by disgust at the manna, your hearts, as it were your inner mouths, become foolish; lest, craving the Egyptian foods, you murmur about the heavenly nourishments: lest you fornicate, as some of them fornicated; and lest you tempt Christ, as some of them tempted (See 1 Cor 10:9). If, while you thirst for the faith of the gentiles, some bitterness of those resisting meets you, as of those waters which Israel could not drink (See Exod 15:23); let it grow sweet by imitating the patience of the Lord, as it were by the wood of the cross cast in. If the serpent's temptation bites; by beholding that lifting up of the serpent (See John 3:14), as of death conquered and triumphed over in the flesh of the Lord, let it be healed by the same medicine of the cross. If the adversary Amalekite tries to block and hinder your journey, let him be overcome by the most persevering stretching out of the arms, the sign of the same cross (See Exod 17:11). Be true and genuine Christians: do not imitate those who are Christians in name, empty in deed. Again I say, and it must often be said: The past time is enough to have consummated the will of the gentiles. Detest and turn away from dogs returned to their own vomit: detest and turn away from the cleaned and empty house, into which seven other worse spirits are brought, so that the last things of a man are worse than the first were (See 2 Pet 2:22; Matt 12:43-45). Hold your cleanser as your inhabitant. For commanding, we ask, that you not receive the grace of God in vain. For the past time is enough to have consummated the will of the gentiles (See 2 Cor 6:1; 1 Pet 4:3). Hear also the apostle Paul: I speak humanly on account of the weakness of your flesh. For as you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto injustice: so now present your members to serve justice unto sanctification (Rom 6:19).

Sermon 354
Delivered to the Continent: in Which He First Strengthens Them Against Detractors and the Envious, and Then Commands Them to Beware of Pride

1. 1. The Lord admonished this, when the Gospel was read, that whoever believes in him believes in the one who sent him (See John 12:44). That the Savior of the world was sent to us, the truest faith holds: since Christ himself preaches Christ, that is, the body of Christ spread throughout the whole world. For he was in the heavens, and to the persecutor raging on earth he said: Why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) Where the Lord so expressed that he is here too in us. So the whole grows: because just as he is here in us, so we too are there in him. This the joining of love makes. He who is our head is the Savior of his body. Christ, then, preaches Christ, the body preaches its head, and the head protects its body. And therefore the world hates us, as we have heard from the Lord himself (See John 15:18-19). For he was not saying this to the apostles, who were few; that the world hated them; and that they ought to rejoice when men detracted from them and said all evil against them, because on account of these things their reward would be greater in heaven (See Matt 5:11-12); the Lord did not say it to them alone, when he said these things: but he said it to his whole body, he said it to all his members. Whoever has wished to be in his body and a member of his, let him not wonder that the world hates him.

1. 2. But the Sacrament of his body many receive: but not all who receive the Sacrament are going to have with him also the place promised to his members. Almost all, indeed, by the Sacrament, call his body, because all feed together in his pastures: but there will come one who will divide, and place some at the right hand, others at the left. And each part will say: Lord, Lord, when did we see you, and minister to you? or: Lord, when did we see you, and not minister to you? Each part will say it: yet to one he will say: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; to the other: Go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (See Matt 25:37, 44, 34, 41).

2. 2. We ought not, then, to reckon as our enemies only, dearest ones, whoever with a good conscience we are members of Christ; we ought not to think those alone our enemies who are openly outside. For much worse are those who are seen within, and are outside. For they love the world; and therefore they are evil. And indeed they think of us those things which they themselves love, and in the as it were prosperities of this world over which we groan, they envy us. There they think us happy, where we are in peril. But our inner happiness they have neither known; because they have not tasted it. But that whatever the world smiles upon us temporally is more a danger than an adornment for us, they do not know; because they do not know how to distinguish these joys.

2. 3. Whence we exhort your love, especially because we see you who have a higher purpose to have gathered more frequently, that is, who in the very body of Christ, by his gift, not by your merits, hold a more excellent place, having a conscience which has been given by God. For that very conscience comes under the suspicion of our evil and envious ones. Yet for this it is bitten, that it may be proved. For if in the very profession of continence we seek the praises of men, we fail at the rebukes of men. When you are a chaste servant of God, behold, the world perhaps suspects you of being unchaste, and bites, and reproaches, and gladly dwells on your detractions; for to a malevolent soul what it suspects most basely tastes as it were sweetly; but if you wished to undertake continence on account of human praises, you have failed at human rebukes and lost the whole of what you had purposed for yourself.

3. 3. But further, if you know how to say with the Apostle, Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12); the rebukes not only do not lessen your reward, but even make it more ample. Yet pray for the one who rebukes, lest he die at the cost of your reward. For from this too we are tested, dearest ones, because if we did not have enemies, there would be none for whom we might pray according to the precept of our Lord saying: Love your enemies, and pray for those who hate you (See Matt 5:44). Whence do we prove, whence do we question our heart, whether we are able to do this, if we experience no enemy, no rebuker, no detractor, no slanderer? You see, then, that the evil too are necessary to the good. We are in a certain way in the goldsmith's furnace, that is, in this world. If you are not gold, you burn along with it. If you are gold, the evil man is your chaff. If you too are chaff, you will be smoke together.

4. 4. Nevertheless, first know this, dearest ones, that in the body of Christ the more excellent members are not the only ones. For the conjugal life is praiseworthy, and has its own place in the body of Christ: just as in our own body too not only those parts have a place which are more excellently placed, as the senses occupied the upper part of the body in the face; but unless the feet carried it, whatever is lofty would lie on the ground. Whence the Apostle says: And the parts of us which are dishonorable are the more necessary. God tempered the body, that there should be no divisions in the body (See 1 Cor 12:23-25). But we know that the members of Christ who lead a conjugal life, if they are members of Christ, that is, if they are faithful, if they either hope for or await the age to come, if they know why they bear the sign of Christ, just as we know that they defer honor to you; we know that they judge you to be better than they themselves are. But as much as they honor you, so much ought you too to render mutual honor to them. For if there is holiness in you, fear lest you lose it. Whence? Through pride. The holiness of the chaste perishes one way, if he becomes an adulterer; it perishes another way, if he becomes proud. And I dare to say, those leading a conjugal life, if they keep humility, are better than the proud chaste. For let your love consider what I say: attend to the devil—is adultery or fornication to be charged against him in the judgment of God? He does none of these things, who has no flesh. Pride and envy alone send him into the eternal fire.

5. 5. In the servant of God, then, upon whom pride has crept, envy is at once there. The proud man cannot be without envy. Envy is the daughter of pride: but this mother does not know how to be barren; wherever she is, she at once gives birth. But that it may not be in you, consider this, that in the time of persecution not only Agnes was crowned a virgin, but also Crispina, a married woman: and perhaps, what is not doubted, some of the continent then failed, and many of the married fought, and conquered. Whence not in vain does the Apostle say to all the members of Christ: Esteeming one another superior to himself, and in honor preventing one another (See Rom 12:10; Phil 2:3). For if you consider these things, you will not be great in your own eyes. For you ought rather to consider what is lacking to you, than what is present to you. What you have, beware lest you lose: what you do not yet have, beseech that you may have. In how many things you are less, you must consider; not in how many things you are greater. For if you consider how much you have surpassed another, fear swelling. But if you consider how much is still lacking to you, you groan; and when you groan, you are healed, you will be humble, you will walk more safely, you will not be cast headlong, you will not be puffed up.

6. 6. And would that all could think of the one love. For it alone both conquers all things, and without which all things avail nothing, and which wherever it is draws all things to itself. It is that which is not envious. Do you seek the cause? Attend to what follows: It is not puffed up (1 Cor 13:4). First in vices is pride, as I had begun to say, then envy. For envy did not give birth to pride, but pride gave birth to envy. For nothing envies except the love of excellence. The love of excellence is called pride. Since, then, in order pride is first, but envy follows: the Apostle, in the praises of love, did not wish to say first, It is not puffed up, and afterward, It is not envious; but first he said, It is not envious; afterward, It is not puffed up. Why this? Because when he had said, It is not envious, as though you were going to seek the cause why it is not envious, he added: It is not puffed up. Therefore, if it is not envious because it is not puffed up; if it were puffed up, it would be envious. Let this grow in you, and the soul is made solid, because it is not puffed up. Knowledge, says the Apostle, puffs up (1 Cor 8:1). What then? Ought you to flee knowledge, and choose to know nothing rather than be puffed up? Why do we speak to you, if ignorance is better than knowledge? why do we discourse to you? why do we distinguish these things? why do we admonish you of what you know, bring in what you do not know, if knowledge is to be guarded against, lest it puff up? Therefore love knowledge, but set love before it. Knowledge, if it is alone, puffs up. But because love builds up (1 Cor 8:1), it does not permit knowledge to be puffed up. There, then, knowledge puffs up, where love does not build up: but where it builds up, it is made solid. There is no swelling, where the rock is the foundation.

7. 7. But how greatly does swelling, that is, elation, tempt us, so that on account of this vice even so great an Apostle said there was set against him a sting of the flesh, an angel of Satan, by whom he was buffeted? He who is buffeted, his head is struck, lest it be raised up: for there too the fear from knowledge was of swelling, that is, of elation. For he says: Lest in the greatness of my revelations I be lifted up. There, then, elation was to be feared, where the revelation of great things was: Lest in the greatness of my revelations I be lifted up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. On account of which I three times asked the Lord to take it from me: and he said to me: My grace suffices you; for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor 12:7-9). The sick man asks that what the physician applies for health be taken away when the sick man wishes. The physician says: No; it bites, but it heals. You say: Take away what bites. The physician says: I do not take it away, because it heals. Why did you come to the physician? To be healed, or not to suffer trouble? The Lord, then, did not hear Paul according to his will, because he heard him according to health. For it is not a great thing to be heard by God according to one's will; it is not great. Do not think it great, when anyone prays, as something great, if he is heard. Seek what he prays, seek in what he is heard. For do not hold it great to be heard according to will: hold it great to be heard according to benefit. According to will the demons too were heard, and were permitted to go to the swine which they had asked for (See Matt 8:31-32). According to will even their prince the devil was heard; from whom Job to be tempted was not denied, that the one might be proved, the other confounded (See Job 1:12; 2:6). According to will the Israelites too were heard; and while the food was still in their mouth, you know what befell them (See Num 11:33). Do not, then, hold it great to be heard according to will. Sometimes God when angry gives what you ask, and God when favorable denies what you ask. But when you ask of him those things which God praises, which God commands, which God promises in the age to come; ask securely, and bend yourselves, as much as you can, to prayers, that you may receive. For those things are granted when God is favorable: those are bestowed not by his anger, but by his mercy. But when you ask temporal things, ask with measure, ask with fear: commit it to him, that, if they profit, he give; if he knows they hurt, he not give. But what hurts, what profits, the physician knows, not the sick man.

8. 8. There are, then, humble continent ones, there are proud ones. Let not the proud promise themselves the kingdom of God. The place to which continence leads is more excellent: but he who exalts himself will be humbled (Luke 14:11). Why do you seek a loftier place by the appetite of loftiness, which you can attain by the keeping of humility? If you exalt yourself, God casts you down: if you cast yourself down, God lifts you up. It is the sentence of the Lord: nothing can be added or taken away. But so far do continent men often grow proud, that they are ungrateful not only to any men whatever, but even to their parents, and are exalted against their parents. Why? Because those begot, these despised marriage. Whence would those be ungrateful who had despised marriage, unless those had begotten? But the son is better than his married father, because he himself did not take a wife: and the daughter is better than her married mother, because she did not seek a husband. If more proud, in no way better: if better, without doubt more humble. If you wish to find yourself better, question your soul, whether you see swelling there. Where there is swelling, there is emptiness. The devil, where he has found something empty, contrives to make a nest.

9. 9. Finally, my brothers, I dare to say, it is expedient for proud continent ones to fall, that in that very thing in which they exalt themselves they may be humbled. For what does it profit one in whom there is continence, if pride lords it? He has despised that from which man is born, and craves that from which the devil fell. You have despised marriage, you have done well; you have chosen something better: but do not be proud. From marriage man is born, from pride the angels fell. If I consider your good things one by one, you are better than your father, who have despised marriage; and you are better than your mother, who have despised marriage. For virginal holiness is better than conjugal chastity. If these two are compared together, that is better than this: who doubts it? But by adding two others, pride and humility; in these two I ask you, and answer me about these: Which is better, pride or humility? You answer: Humility. Join it to virginal holiness. But let pride not only not be in your virginity, but not remain even in your mother. For if you hold pride, and your mother humility, the mother will be better than the daughter. Again I will compare you. A while ago, when I considered them one by one, I had found you better: now when I consider them two by two, I do not doubt to prefer a humble woman to a proud virgin. And how to prefer? See how I prefer her whom a while ago I was comparing. Good is conjugal chastity, better is virginal integrity. I was comparing two goods, not an evil and a good; but I was distinguishing a good and a better. But further, when I set those two, pride and humility, can we say: Good is pride, but better is humility? But what do we say? Pride is an evil, humility a good: and pride a great evil, humility a great good. If, then, of these two one is evil, and the other good: the evil is joined to your greater good, and the whole becomes evil: the good is joined to your mother's lesser good, and it becomes a great good. The mother will have a lesser place in the kingdom of heaven, because she was married, than the daughter, because she is a virgin. For the daughter virgin a greater place, the mother married a lesser place, yet both there: as a shining star, a dim star, yet both in heaven. But if your mother is humble, you proud: she will have some place, but you no place. And who finds another place who there has no place, except with him who fell from there, and cast down the one standing? From there the devil fell, from where he cast down the man standing. He cast down the one standing: but Christ, coming down, raised up the one lying. But from where your Lord raised you up, attend. He raised you up by humility, made obedient unto death, he humbled himself (See Phil 2:8). Your prince humble, and you proud? The head humble, and the member proud? Far be it. He who loves pride does not wish to be of the body of the humble head. But if he will not be, let him see where he will be. I do not wish to say it, lest I seem to have terrified too much. Rather would that I had terrified, and accomplished something. Would that he who was such, or she who was such, may be so no longer. Would that I had poured in these words, and not poured them out. The whole is to be hoped from the mercy of God: because he who terrifies, saddens; he who saddens, consoles; but only if the one who is saddened is amended.

Sermon 354/A
From a Sermon on the Good of Marriage

1. Let him who can grasp it, grasp it (Matt 19:12). "But I cannot," he says. You cannot? "I cannot." A certain nurturing authority of the Apostle takes you up, that if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. Let something be done, whence one may come to pardon. Let it belong to pardon, lest one rush into eternal punishment. Let what is lawful be done, whence what is not lawful may be forgiven. This is what indicates that which follows: I would rather they marry than burn (1 Cor 7:9). He conceded, I say, something to incontinence, because he feared something greater: he feared eternal punishments, he feared what awaits and remains for adulterers. Even this, that married people, conquered by concupiscence, use one another beyond the necessity of procreating children, I will place among those things for which it is daily said: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12).

Sermon 355
On the Morals of the Clergy, First Sermon

1. Why I wished and asked yesterday that your love gather more numerously today, this is what I am going to say. We live here with you, and we live for your sake: and our intention and wish is that we may live with you without end with Christ. But I believe that our manner of life is before your eyes; so that we too perhaps may dare to say, although much unequal to him, what the Apostle said: Be imitators of me, as I too am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). And therefore I do not wish that anyone find in us an occasion of living badly. For we provide good things, says the same Apostle, not only before God, but also before men (2 Cor 8:21). For our own sake, our conscience suffices us: for your sake, our reputation ought not to be polluted, but to be strong among you. Hold what I have said, and distinguish it. Conscience and reputation are two things. Conscience for yourself, reputation for your neighbor. He who, trusting in his conscience, neglects his reputation, is cruel: especially one placed in this position, of which the Apostle says, writing to his disciple: Showing yourself in all things an example of good works (Titus 2:7).

2. Therefore, that I may not keep you long, especially because I speak sitting while you labor standing: you all, or nearly all, know that we live in that house which is called the bishop's house in such a way that, as much as we can, we imitate those saints of whom the book of the Acts of the Apostles speaks: No one called anything his own, but all things were common to them (Acts 4:32). Because perhaps some of you are not such diligent scrutinizers of our life as to know this in the way I wish you to know it, I say what it is that I briefly stated. I, whom by God's favor you see as your bishop, came as a young man to this city: many of you know it. I was seeking where I might establish a monastery, and live with my brothers. For I had left all hope of the world, and what I could have been I refused to be: yet I did not seek what I am. I chose to be cast down in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners (Ps 84:10 (83:11)). I separated myself from those who love the world: but I did not make myself equal to those who are over peoples. Nor at the banquet of my Lord did I choose the higher place, but the lower and cast-down one: and it pleased him to say to me: Go up higher (Luke 14:10). But I so feared the episcopate that, since my reputation had begun to be of some weight among the servants of God, I would not approach a place where I knew there was no bishop. I avoided this, and groaned as much as I could, that I might be saved in a humble place, and not be in peril in a high one. But, as I said, a servant ought not to contradict his Lord (See Matt 10:24). I came to this city to see a friend, whom I thought I could win for God, that he might be with us in the monastery; as though secure, because the place had a bishop. I was seized, made a presbyter, and through this step came to the episcopate. I brought nothing, I came to this Church, except with those garments with which at that time I was clothed. And because I was arranging this, to be in a monastery with the brothers, the old man Valerius of blessed memory, knowing my institution and will, gave me that garden in which the monastery now is. I began to gather brothers of good purpose, my fellow-poor, having nothing, as I had, and imitating me: that just as I sold my slender little poverty and gave it out to the poor, so should they too do who wished to be with me, that we might live from the common store; but the common store for us was the great and most rich estate, God himself. I came to the episcopate: I saw that a bishop is bound to show constant kindness to all who come or pass by: which if the bishop did not do, he would be called inhuman. But if this custom were brought into the monastery, it would be unseemly. And I wished to have in this bishop's house a monastery of clerics. Behold how we live. It is lawful for no one in our community to have anything of his own. But perhaps some have. It is lawful for no one: if any have, they do what is not lawful. But I think well of my brothers, and always, believing well, I refrained from this inquiry: because to inquire into these things too seemed to me as it were to think ill. For I had known, and I know, that all who lived with me knew our purpose, knew the law of our life.

3. There came to us also the presbyter Januarius. What he seemed to have honorably, by giving out he as it were consumed, and did not consume: there remained to him a certain money, that is, silver, which he said belonged to his daughter. His daughter, by God's favor, is in the monastery of women, of good hope. May the Lord govern her, that she may fulfill what we hope of her, by his mercy, not her merits. And because she was under age, and could do nothing with her own money—for although we saw the brightness of her profession, yet we feared the inconstancy of her age—it came about that that silver was as it were kept for the girl, so that when she came to the lawful years, she might do with it what would befit a virgin of Christ, when she could already do it best. While this was being awaited, he began to draw near to death: and as long as it was, as though of his own right, not his daughter's, he made a will. A will, I say, the presbyter our associate made, remaining with us, living from the Church, professing the common life. He made a will, he appointed heirs. O grief of that fellowship! O fruit born, not from the tree which the Lord planted! But he wrote the Church as heir. I do not want these gifts, I do not love the fruit of bitterness. I sought him for God, he had professed fellowship, let him keep this, let him show this. Had he nothing? Let him not make a will. Had he something? Let him not feign himself our associate, as a poor man of God. Great is my grief from this, brothers. I tell your love, on account of this grief I have determined not to receive that inheritance into the Church. Let what he left be his children's, let them do with it what they wish. For it seems to me that if I receive it, in that deed which displeases me, and which I grieve over, I shall be a partaker of his. This I wished not to be hidden from your love. His daughter is in the monastery of women; his son is in the monastery of men. He disinherited both: her with praise, him with a notice, that is, with reproach. But I commended to the Church that they not accept those little portions, which belong to the disinherited, until they come to lawful age. This the Church keeps for them. Then he sent a lawsuit between his children, in which I labor. The girl says: It is mine, you know that my father always said this. The boy says: Let my father be believed, because dying he could not lie. And what an evil is this contention! But if the children themselves are servants of God, we quickly end this lawsuit between them. I hear them as a father, and perhaps better than their own father. I will see what is between them, and as the Lord wills, with faithful, honored brothers, by God's favor, from your number, that is, from this people, I hear the case between them, and as the Lord grants, I settle it.

4. Yet I ask you, let no one reproach me because I do not wish the Church to receive that inheritance. First, because I detest his deed; then, because it is my institution. Many praise what I am going to say, but some also reproach it. To satisfy both is very difficult. You heard just now, when the Gospel was read: We sang to you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not lament. John—the Baptist—came neither eating nor drinking, and they say: He has a demon; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold a glutton, a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans (See Matt 11:17-19). What, then, do I do among those who prepare to reproach me, and to fix their teeth in me, if I receive the inheritances of those who, angry, disinherit their children? Again, what shall I do with those to whom I sing, and they will not dance? who say: Behold why no one gives anything to the Church of Hippo; behold why those who die do not make it heir: because Bishop Augustine out of his goodness—for by praising they bite, with their lips they soothe, and fix their tooth—gives it all away, does not receive it. Plainly I receive, I profess that I receive good offerings, holy offerings. But if anyone is angry with his son, and dying disinherits him, if he were alive, would I not appease him? Ought I not to reconcile his son to him? How, then, do I wish him to have peace with his son, whose inheritance I crave? But plainly, if he does what I have often exhorted: he has one son, let him think Christ another; he has two sons, let him think Christ the third; he has ten, let him make Christ the eleventh, and I receive it. Because, then, I have done this in certain matters, now they wish to turn my goodness, or the commendation of my reputation, into something else, so as to reproach me in another way, who am unwilling to receive the offerings of devoted men. Let them consider how many I have received. What need is there to count them? Behold, I say one: I received the inheritance of the son of Julianus. Why? Because he died without children.

5. The inheritance of Bonifatius, that is, of Fatus, I was unwilling to receive: not out of mercy, but out of fear. I was unwilling that the Church of Christ be a shipowner. Many indeed there are who acquire even from ships. Yet if there were one trial, if the ship went and was wrecked: were we going to hand men over to torture, that according to custom an inquiry might be made about the sinking of the ship, and that those who had been freed from the waves be tortured by the judge? But should we hand them over? In no way would it befit the Church to do this. Should it then pay the fiscal burden? But from where would it pay? It is not lawful for us to have a reserve. It is not for a bishop to keep gold back, and to push away the hand of the beggar from himself. Daily so many ask, so many groan, so many needy ones appeal, that we leave more of them sad, because we have not what we may give to all; and should we keep a reserve on account of shipwreck? Therefore, I did this by avoiding, not by giving. Let no one there praise me, but let no one blame me either. Plainly, when I gave to the son what the angry father dying took away, I did well. Let those praise who wish, let those spare who do not wish to praise. Why say more, my brothers? Whoever wishes to make the Church heir, with a son disinherited, let him seek another to receive it, not Augustine: rather, by God's favor, let him find no one. How praiseworthy was the deed of the holy and venerable bishop Aurelius of Carthage—how he filled the mouth of all who know it with the praises of God! A certain man, when he had no children, nor hoped for any, gave all his goods to the Church, keeping the usufruct for himself. Children were born to him, and the bishop returned, to one not expecting it, what that man had given. The bishop had it in his power not to return it, but by the right of the forum, not by the right of heaven.

6. Let your love also know that I have said to my brothers who remain with me, that whoever has anything, let him either sell it and give it out, or give it, or make it common: let the Church have it, through which God feeds us. And I gave a delay until the Epiphany, on account of those who either have not divided with their brothers, and have left what they have with their brothers, or have not yet done anything about their property, because the lawful age was being awaited. Let them do with it what they wish: provided only that they be poor with me, and together let us await the mercy of God. But if they are unwilling, those who perhaps are unwilling: surely I am the one who had determined, as you know, to ordain no cleric, except one who wished to remain with me: so that if he wished to depart from the purpose, I would rightly take from him the clerical office, because he would desert the promised and begun consortium of holy fellowship; behold, in the sight of God and of you, I change my counsel: those who wish to have something of their own, for whom God and his Church do not suffice, let them remain where they wish and where they can, I do not take from them the clerical office. I do not wish to have hypocrites. It is an evil, who does not know it? it is an evil to fall from a purpose; but it is worse to feign a purpose. Behold I say: he falls who deserts the fellowship of the common life already undertaken, which is praised in the Acts of the Apostles: he falls from his vow, he falls from his holy profession. Let him watch for the judge, but God, not me. I do not take from him the clerical office. How great the peril is, I have set before his eyes: let him do what he wishes. For I know that if I should wish to degrade anyone doing this, patrons will not be lacking to him, supporters will not be lacking to him, even here among the bishops, who will say: What evil has he done? He cannot endure this life with you: he wishes to remain apart from the bishop, to live from his own, should he therefore lose the clerical office? I know how great an evil it is to profess something holy, and not fulfill it. Vow, it says, and render to the Lord your God, and: It is better not to vow, than to vow and not render (Ps 76:11 (75:12); Eccl 5:4-5). She is a virgin: if she was never in a monastery, and is a consecrated virgin, it is not lawful for her to marry. She is not compelled to be in a monastery; but if she has begun to be in a monastery, and has deserted it, and yet is a virgin, she has half collapsed. So too a cleric has professed two things, both holiness and the clerical office: meanwhile holiness—for the clerical office God imposed on his neck through his people: it is more a burden than an honor, but who is wise and understands these things? (Hos 14:9)—so then he has professed holiness: he has professed the fellowship of living in common, he has professed how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity (Ps 133:1 (132:1)). If he has fallen from this purpose, and remaining outside is a cleric, he too has half fallen. What is it to me? I do not judge him. If outside he keeps holiness, he has half fallen; if within he has pretense, he has wholly fallen. I do not wish him to have the necessity of pretending. I know how men love the clerical office: I take it from no one unwilling to live in common with me. He has God, who wishes to remain with me. If he is prepared to be fed by God through his Church, to have nothing of his own, but either to give out to the poor, or to put into the common store, let him remain with me. He who does not wish this, let him have liberty: but let him see whether he can have the eternity of happiness.

7. Let these things suffice now for the present to your love. What I shall do with my brothers—for I hope good things, that all will gladly obey me, nor shall I find any to have anything, except by some necessity of religion, not by occasion of greed—what, then, I shall do, after the Epiphany I will announce to your love in the Lord's will; and how I shall settle the lawsuit between the two brothers, the sons of the presbyter Januarius, I will not keep silent from you. I have spoken many things, pardon a talkative old age, but a timid weakness. I, as you see, have only now grown old by age; by the weakness of my body I have long been old. Yet if it pleases God what I have said just now, he gives the strength, I do not abandon you. Pray for me, that as long as soul is in this body, and whatever strength is available, I may serve you in the word of God.

1. A sermon must be rendered to your love about ourselves. For as the Apostle says, we have been made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men (1 Cor 4:9); those who love us seek what to praise in us; but those who hate us detract from us. But we, placed in the middle of both, with the help of the Lord our God, ought so to guard both our life and our reputation that our praisers may not blush before our detractors. But how we wish to live, and how, by God's favor, we already live, although many of you know from the holy Scripture, yet to remind you, the reading itself from the book of the Acts of the Apostles will be recited to you, that you may see where the form is described which we desire to fulfill. While, then, it is recited, I wish you most attentive, so that after its recitation, what I have set out to say I may speak, the Lord granting, to your attention. And Lazarus the deacon read: When they had prayed, the place was moved in which they were gathered, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with confidence to all willing to believe. But of the multitude of believers there was one soul and one heart: and no one said that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. And with great power the Apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. For neither was anyone needy among them. For as many as were possessors of estates or houses, selling them, brought the prices of what they sold, and laid them before the feet of the Apostles. And it was distributed to each one according as each had need. And when Lazarus the deacon, reciting, had handed the book to the bishop, Augustine the bishop said: I too wish to read. For it delights me more to be a reader of this word, than a disputer of my own word. When they had prayed, the place was moved in which they were gathered, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with confidence to all willing to believe. But of the multitude of believers there was one soul and one heart: and no one said that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. And with great power the Apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. For neither was anyone needy among them. For as many as were possessors of estates or houses, selling them, brought the prices of what they sold, and laid them before the feet of the Apostles. And it was distributed to each one according as each had need (Acts 4:31-35).

2. You have heard what we wish: pray that we may be able. But a certain necessity has arisen that I should do these things more diligently: since, as you already know, a presbyter established in our fellowship—to what fellowship the reading bears witness which just now, when we recited it, you heard—dying, made a will, because he had something from which to make it. He had something to call his own, when he lived in that fellowship where it was lawful for no one to call anything his own, but all things were common to them. If some lover and praiser of ours were proclaiming this fellowship to a detractor of ours, and said: With Bishop Augustine all his fellow-dwellers live as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, at once that detractor, shaking his head, advancing his tooth, would say: Is it really so lived, as you say? Why do you lie? Why with false praise do you honor the unworthy? Did not a presbyter, set just now in their fellowship, make a will, and dispose of what he had as he wished, and leave it? Are all things really common there? Does no one really call anything his own? Under these words what would that praiser of mine do? Would not that detractor stop up his mouth as it were with lead? Would he not repent of having praised? Would he not, suffused with awe and confounded by his speech, curse either us or that testator? This was the necessity, that we should come to this diligence.

3. I announce to you, then, that of which you may rejoice. All my brothers and fellow-clerics who dwell with me, presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, and Patricius my nephew, I have found such as I desired. But those who out of their own poverty, whatever it was, have not yet done what they determined, are these two, Valens the subdeacon, and my nephew just mentioned. The subdeacon was hindered by his mother's life, because she lived from it, and in him too the attainment of the lawful age was awaited, that what he did, he might do most firmly. But he has not yet done it, because he has those little fields in common with his brother, and they are possessed undivided. He desires so to confer them on the Church, that from them may be nourished those who are in the purpose of holiness, as long as they live in this life. For it is written, and the Apostle says this: Whoever does not provide for his own, and especially his household, denies the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5:8). But further, the slaves too are his in common with his brother, not yet divided. He arranges to set his hand to them, and cannot before he divides them. For which belong to him, he does not yet know. To him indeed, who is the elder, belongs the division; and to his brother the choice. And that brother of his serves God, is a subdeacon with my holy brother and fellow-bishop Severus in the Church of Milevis. This is being done, this must be carried out without delay, that those little slaves be divided, set free, and so he may give to the Church, that it may take up their nourishment. But my nephew, from the time he was converted, and began to be with me, was himself too hindered from doing anything about his little fields by the life of his mother, who held the usufruct. This year she died. Between him and his sisters there are certain cases, with Christ's help to be quickly settled: that he too may do what befits a servant of God, what the profession itself, and this reading, demand.

4. The deacon Faustinus, as nearly all of you know, was here converted from the warfare of the world to the monastery: here baptized, then ordained deacon. But because what he seems to possess is small, as the jurists say, by right, not in body, he had left it, and it was held by his brothers. He never thought about it from the time he was converted, nor did he himself seek anything from his brothers, nor was anything sought from him. Now, because it has come to this point of time, with my counsel he divided that property: and gave half to his brothers, half to the poor Church established in that same place.

5. Under what discipline and scourge of God the deacon Severus is, you know: yet he has not lost the light of his mind. He had bought one house here on account of his mother and sister, whom he desired to bring here from his own country. But he had bought it not with his own money, which he did not have, but from the contribution of religious men, whom, when I asked, he even indicated by name. About it I cannot say what he has done, or what he disposes, except that he too put the whole into my will, that what I wish, this might be done with it. But he has certain cases with his mother, of which cases he set me as judge, that when those cases are ended, what I wish may be done with that house. But what shall I be able to wish, God governing, except what justice commands, and piety demands? He also has some little fields in his own country: he arranges so to distribute them that there too, to the poor Church established in that place, he may bestow.

6. The deacon Hipponiensis is a poor man: he has nothing to confer on anyone. Yet from his labors, before he was a cleric, he had bought some little slaves: today, in your sight, he is going to set them free by episcopal proceedings.

7. The deacon Heraclius is engaged before your eyes, his works shine before our eyes. From his work, his money spent, we have the memorial of the holy martyr. With his own money he also bought a property by my counsel, for he wished that very money to be given out through my hands, as it pleased me. If I were greedy for money, or in this case cared more for those very needs of mine which I have on behalf of the poor, I would take the money. Why, says someone? Because that property which, bought by him, was given to the Church, as yet yields nothing to the Church. For it was worth less than the price. What had been borrowed, this is still being repaid from its fruits. I am an old man, how much fruit can come to me from that property? Do I promise myself that I shall live so many years, until it pays its own price? What, then, it has scarcely repaid over a long time in installments, I would soon have whole, if I had wished to take it. I did not do so, I had something else in view. For I confess to you, his age too was as yet suspect to me, and I feared lest perhaps, as men are, it should displease his mother, and she should say that the young man had been led on by me to consume his father's goods, and to leave him needy. Therefore I wished his money to be kept in that property, so that if anything, which God avert and does avert, had turned out otherwise than we wish, the estate might be returned, lest the bishop's reputation be blamed. For I know how necessary my reputation is to you: for my conscience suffices me. He also bought a space behind this later church, known to you; and with his own money built a house: and this you know; a few days before I had this discourse with you about this matter, he gave it to the Church: it is known to you. For he was waiting to finish it, that he might give it finished. But he had no necessity of building a house, except that he thought his mother would come here. If she had come before, she would dwell in her son's property: now if she comes, she will dwell in her son's work. I bear witness to him, he remained poor: but in the possession of love he remained. Some little slaves had been left to him, already indeed living in the monastery, whom, however, by ecclesiastical proceedings he is going to set free today. Let no one, then, say: He is rich; let no one suppose it, let no one speak evil, let no one rend himself and his soul with his own teeth. He has not money, money kept back: would that he might restore what he owes!

8. The rest, that is, the deacons, are poor, by God's favor, they await the mercy of God. Whence they have nothing to do: having no resources, they have ended the desires of the world. They live with us in common fellowship: no one distinguishes them from those who brought something. The unity of love is to be preferred to the advantage of an earthly inheritance.

9. There remain the presbyters. For I wished thus to ascend to them step by step. I would say it quickly: they are poor men of God. They brought nothing to the house of our fellowship, except that very love than which nothing is more dear. Nevertheless, because I know that rumors have arisen about their riches, they are not to be compelled by me to anything, but to be cleared before you by my discourse.

10. I tell you, who perhaps do not know, for very many of you do know: the presbyter Leporius, although noble in worldly birth, and born among his own in a most honorable position, yet already serving God, with all that he had abandoned, I received as a poor man: not because he had nothing, but because he had already done what this reading urges. He did not do it here, but we know where he did it. The unity of Christ is one, the Church is one. Wherever there is a good work, it belongs to us too, if we rejoice with it. There is one garden where you know: there he established a monastery for his own people, because they too serve God. That garden does not belong to the Church, but neither to himself. And to whom, someone may say? To that which is the monastery there. But what is true, up to this time he so bore the care for them, that the small expenses by which they are sustained he had with himself, and he himself, as it seemed, paid them out. But lest on account of this place be given to men gnawing at their suspicions and not filling their belly, this pleased both me and him, that they should so manage among themselves, as though he had already departed from the world. For will he, when he dies, dispense anything to them himself? It is better that he see them living well, God governing, living thus in the discipline of Christ, that he may only rejoice over them, not be occupied with their needs. Therefore he too has no money which he can or dares call his own. The hostel which must be built you now see built. I enjoined it on him, I ordered it. He obeyed me most gladly, and as you see, has worked at it: just as by my command he also built the basilica to the eight martyrs, from those things which God gives through you. For he began from the money which had been given to the Church for the hostel, and when he had begun to build, as religious men are who desire their works to be written in heaven, they helped as each one wished, and he built it. We have the work before our eyes: let every man see what has been done. About the money, because he has none, let them believe me, let them restrain their tooth, lest they break it. He had bought, from that money of the hostel, a certain house in Carraria, which he thought would be useful to him for its stones, but the stones of that house were not necessary for the building's construction, since they were provided from elsewhere. The house, then, so remained, it yields a rent, but to the Church, not to the presbyter. Let no one any more say: Into the presbyter's house, to the presbyter's house, before the presbyter's house. Behold where the presbyter's house is: where my house is, there is his: elsewhere he has no house, but everywhere he has God.

11. What more do you seek? except that I remember I also promised to report to you what I had done between the two, namely a brother and sister, the children of the presbyter Januarius, because a money controversy had arisen between them, but yet, as between brothers, with love preserved, by God's favor. I had promised, then, to hear between them, and whatever it was, by judging to settle it. I had prepared myself as judge: but before I judged, they themselves settled that on which I was going to judge. I did not find anything on which to judge, but on which to rejoice. They acquiesced altogether harmoniously to my will and counsel, that they should be equal in the money which their father left, the Church renouncing it.

12. After my sermon men will speak, but whatever men speak, with whatever breeze blowing, something will be carried thence to my ears. And if it is such that it is necessary for us to clear ourselves again, I will answer the slanderers, I will answer the detractors, I will answer the unbelievers, who do not believe us, their prelates: I will answer as I can what the Lord shall grant: meanwhile now it is not necessary, because perhaps they will say nothing. Those who love us, let them freely rejoice; those who hate us will silently grieve. Yet if they put forth their tongues, they will hear, by God's favor, along with you my answer, not my quarrel. For I am not going to name men and say: That one said this, that one detracted thus, when perhaps false things, since this too can happen, are carried to me. Nevertheless, whatever things shall be reported, if it seem necessary, I will speak of it to your love. I wish our life to be before your eyes. I know that those seeking license to do evil seek for themselves examples of those living badly, and defame many, that they may seem to have found associates. Therefore what is ours, we have done: more than to do, we have not. We are before your eyes. We desire nothing of anyone, except your good works.

13. And I exhort you, my brothers, if you wish to give anything to the clerics, know that you ought not to foster as it were their vices against me. Offer to all what you wish to offer of your own will. What will be common, will be distributed to each one according as each shall have need. Attend to the treasury, and we shall all have it. It greatly delights me, if it be our own manger, that we may be the beasts of God, you the field of God. Let no one give a cloak, a linen tunic, except into the common store. From the common store he will receive it, because he will receive it. To myself, since I know that I wish to have in common whatever I have, I do not wish your holiness to offer such things, which I alone may as it were more becomingly use. There is offered to me, for instance, a precious cloak: perhaps it befits a bishop, although it does not befit Augustine, that is, a poor man, born of poor parents. Now men will say that I clothe myself in precious garments, such as I could not have had either in my father's house, or in that worldly profession of mine. It does not befit: I ought to have such as I can, if I have it not, give to my brother. Such as a presbyter can have, such as a deacon and subdeacon can becomingly have, such I wish to receive: because I receive into the common store. If anyone gives a better one, I sell it: because I am wont to do this, that when a garment cannot be common, the price of the garment may be common; I sell it, and give it out to the poor. If it delights him that I have it, let him give such a one of which I may not be ashamed. For I confess to you, I am ashamed of a precious garment: because it does not befit this profession, it does not befit this admonition, it does not befit these limbs, it does not befit these gray hairs. This too I say: if perhaps in our house, in our fellowship, anyone is sick, or after sickness, so that it is necessary for him to take refreshment before the hour of the meal: I do not forbid religious men or women to send what seems good to them to send: yet a midday meal and a supper outside no one shall have.

14. Behold I say it, you have heard it, they hear it. Whoever has wished to have anything of his own, and to live from his own, and to act against these our precepts, it is little for me to say, he will not remain with me, but he will not be a cleric. For I had said, and I know I said it, that if they are unwilling to undertake the social life with me, I would not take from them the clerical office; they might remain apart, live apart, live for God as they could. And yet I set before their eyes how great an evil it is to fall from one's purpose. For I preferred to have even the lame, than to mourn the dead. For whoever is a hypocrite, is dead. As, then, whoever had wished to remain outside and live from his own, I would not take from him the clerical office: so now, because this social life has pleased them, by God's favor, whoever lives with hypocrisy, whoever shall be found having property of his own, I do not permit him to make a will of it, but I will erase him from the roll of the clergy. Let him appeal against me to a thousand councils, let him sail against me wherever he wishes, let him be wherever he can: the Lord will help me, that where I am bishop, he cannot be a cleric. You have heard it, they have heard it. But I hope in our God and his mercy, that just as they received this arrangement of mine cheerfully, so they will keep it purely and faithfully.

15. I said that the presbyters dwelling with me have nothing of their own, among whom is also the presbyter Barnabas. But about him too I heard certain things had been bandied about, above all that he bought an estate from my beloved and honorable son Eleusinus. This is false: that man gave it to the monastery, did not sell it. I am a witness. What more you seek, I do not know. I am a witness: he gave it, he did not sell it. But while it is not believed that he could give, he is believed to have sold. Blessed the man who did so good a work that it was not believed! Yet at least now believe, and gladly cease to hear detractors. I have already said, I am a witness. It was said of him too that in the year of his being provost he industriously incurred debts, so that, while I wished the debts to be repaid, I should give him, at his request, the Victorianan estate: as though he had said to me: That I may repay my debts, give me for ten years the Victorianan estate. And this too is false. But there was something whence the rumor arose. He incurred debts to be repaid. They were repaid by us partly, as far as they could be. Something remained which was owed even to that monastery which God established through him. Since, then, it remained, we began to seek whence we might repay the debt. To the leasing of that estate no one came, except one offering forty solidi as rent. But we saw the estate could give more, that the debt might be more quickly repaid; and I committed to his good faith, that from that leasing the brothers should not seek gains, but whatever the estate gave, of its very fruits they should reckon toward the debt. It is done in good faith. The presbyter is ready that I appoint another, who from the fruits may repay the brothers. Let there be someone of your number, to whom I may commit this, of the number of those who reported such things to us. For there are among you religious men, who grieved that he was rebuked by a false rumor, and yet believed the deed done. Let someone, then, of these come to us, take up the possession, faithfully give out all the fruits at their prices, that what is owed may be more easily repaid, and today the care of the presbyter withdraws from it. The place itself too, in which the monastery was established by my aforesaid honorable son Eleusinus, was given to the presbyter Barnabas himself before he was ordained presbyter: in that place he established the monastery. But yet, because the place had been given in his name, he changed the documents, that it may be possessed in the name of the monastery. About the Victorianan estate, I ask, I exhort, I beg, that if anyone is religious, let him act in good faith, and render this service to the Church, that the debt may be quickly repaid. But if no one of the laity be found, I will set another in charge: now that one will not approach it. What more do you wish? Let no one tear the servants of God, because it is not expedient for those who tear them. The reward of the servants of God indeed grows by false detractions, but the punishment of the detractors grows too. For not without cause was it said: Rejoice and exult, when they detract from you, saying false things: because your reward is great in heaven (See Matt 5:11-12). We do not wish to have a great reward at your loss. Let us have less there, and yet reign there with you.

Sermon 357
In Praise of Peace

1. It is time to exhort your love, according to the strength the Lord gives, to love peace, and to beseech the Lord for peace. Let peace, then, be our beloved and friend, with whom our heart may be a chaste bed; with whom there may be faithful rest and no bitter consortium, with whom there may be a sweet embrace and an inseparable friendship. To praise peace is more difficult than to have it. For if we wish to praise it, we strive for strength, we seek thoughts, we weigh words: but if we wish to have it, we have it and possess it without any labor. Those who love peace are to be praised: but those who hate it are better, meanwhile, to be pacified by teaching and by keeping silent, than to be provoked by reproaching. The true lover of peace is a lover of its enemies. For just as, if you loved this light, you would not be angry at the blind, but would grieve over them; for you would know what a good you took in, and so, seeing of how great a good they were cheated, they would seem to you worthy of mercy; and if you had resources, if skill, if medicine, you would run rather to heal them than to condemn them: so if you are a lover of peace, whoever you are, have mercy on him who does not love what you love, who does not have what you have. For such is the thing you love, that you do not envy your fellow-possessor. He has peace with you, and does not narrow your possession for you. Whatever earthly thing you love, it is difficult not to envy the one who has it. Then, if perhaps it comes into your mind to share the earth which you possess with a friend, that your benevolence may be praised, that even in these temporal things love may be proclaimed: if, then, you wish to share your earthly possession, like an estate, like a house, or whatever of this kind, with a friend; you share with one, and admit him to fellowship, and rejoice with him. You think to admit perhaps a third, and a fourth: now you attend to how many it holds, how many it bears, whether the house for dwelling, or the field for feeding; and you say: Now it does not hold a fifth, a sixth cannot dwell with us, when does so small a possession feed a seventh? It is the narrowness, then, not you, that excludes the rest. Love peace, have peace, possess peace, take to yourself as many as you can to possess peace: it will be the wider, the more it is possessed by more. An earthly house does not hold many fellow-dwellers: the possession of peace grows with many inhabitants.

2. How good it is to love! For this is to have. But who would not wish what he loves to grow? If you wish few to be with you in peace, peace will be small for you. If you wish this possession to grow, add a possessor. For that which I said, brothers: It is good to love peace, and to love it is itself to have it, at how great a price does it stand? With what voice should it be praised, with what heart should it be considered: This is to have, which is to love? Consider the other things, with desire for which men burn. See one love estates, silver, gold, numerous children, precious and adorned houses, most pleasant and most precious estates. Does he love this? He loves it. But does he who loves now have it? It can happen that the lover of all these is empty. When he does not have it, he loves, he burns with desire to have it; but when he has begun to have it, he is tortured with fear lest he lose it. He loves honor, he loves power. How many men, deprived, sigh for offices to be received? And very often the last day overtakes them before they reach what they love. At how great a price, then, does it stand, that when you have loved, you will have it? You do not seek at a price what you love; you do not walk to a patron, through whom you may reach it. Behold, where you stand, love peace, and what you love is with you. This thing is of the heart; nor do you share peace with friends as you share bread. For if you wish to share bread, the more there are for whom it is broken, the less there becomes from which to give. But peace is like that bread which, by breaking and giving, grew in the hands of the disciples of the Lord (See Matt 14:19-20).

3. Have peace, then, brothers. If you wish to draw the rest to it, first have it yourselves, first hold it. Let what you have be fervent in you, that it may kindle others. The heretic hates peace, and the bleary-eyed light. Is the light therefore bad, because the bleary-eyed cannot bear it? The bleary-eyed hates the light; but yet for the sake of light the eye was created. Effort, then, is given by those who love peace, and wish what they love to be possessed with them, that, with a possessor added, the possession may grow. Let them give effort, then, to cure the eyes of the bleary, with whatever resource, with whatever endeavor. Unwilling he is cured, he does not wish it while he is being cured; but when he has seen the light, he will be delighted. Suppose he is angry; do not be wearied by persisting. Lover of peace, attend, and be yourself first delighted by the beauty of your beloved, and burn to draw another. Let him see what you see, love what you love, hold what you hold. Your beloved, whom you love, addresses you; she speaks to you: Love me, and at once you have me. Bring with you whom you can to love me: I shall be chaste, and remain whole. Bring whom you can, let them find, hold, fully enjoy. If many seeing do not corrupt this light; do many loving corrupt me? But they will not come, because they have nothing whereby they can see me. They will not come, because the splendor of peace strikes back the bleariness of dissension. See the pitiable voice of the bleary. It is announced to them: It has been decided that Christians should have peace. On receiving such news, they say among themselves: Woe to us. Why? Unity is coming. What is it? What a voice: Woe to us, unity is coming? How much more justly might you say: Woe to us, dissension is coming? Far be it that dissension should come: this is the darkness of those who see. For unity is coming, there should be rejoicing, brothers. Why were you frightened? Unity is coming, it was said. Was it said: A wild beast is coming, fire is coming? Unity is coming, light is coming. If he wishes to answer truthfully, he will say to you: I was not frightened because a wild beast is coming; for I am not timid; but I was frightened because light is coming; for I am bleary-eyed. Effort, then, must be given to healing. We must share with them what is not made narrow by sharing, according to our strength, as much as we can, as much as God grants.

4. Accordingly, dearest ones, I exhort your love to show them Christian and catholic gentleness. Now they are being urged toward healing. The eyes of the saints are inflamed, they must be cautiously healed and gently handled. Let no one take up a quarrel with anyone, let no one now wish even to defend his own faith by altercation, lest from the quarrel a spark be born, lest an occasion be afforded to those seeking an occasion. Plainly, when you hear an insult, bear it, ignore it, pass it by. Remember he must be healed. See how coaxing physicians are to those whom they heal even with biting remedies. They hear an insult, they apply the medicine, and do not return insult for insult. Let word answer word; so that one is to be healed, the other heals: not two quarreling. Bear it, I beg, my brothers. But I cannot bear it, he says, because he blasphemes the Church. This the Church asks of you, that you bear it, because the Church is blasphemed. He detracts, he says, from my bishop; he speaks a charge against my bishop, and shall I keep silent? Let him speak the charge, and keep silent; not by acknowledging it, but by bearing it. This you render to your bishop, if for that time you are not mixed up in it. Understand the time, take counsel. How many blaspheme your God? You hear it, and does he not hear it? You know it, and does he not know it? And yet he makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). He shows patience, he defers power. So you too recognize the time, do not provoke the swollen eyes to disturb themselves. Are you a lover of peace? Let it be well in your heart with your beloved. And what shall I do? You have something to do. Take away quarrels, turn to prayers. Do not repel the insulter with insults, but pray for him. Do you wish to speak to him against him: speak to God for him. I do not tell you to keep silent; but choose rather where you may speak, with whom, silent, you may speak, with lips closed, with heart crying out. Where he does not see you, there be good for him. But to him who does not love peace, and wishes to quarrel, answer peaceably: Whatever you wish to say, however much you hate, however it pleases you to detest, you are my brother. What do you do, that you may not be my brother? Plainly, good, bad, willing, unwilling, you are my brother. And he: How am I your brother, foe, enemy? Just by saying these things, you are my brother. It seems strange: he hates, detests, and is a brother? Do you wish me to believe him not knowing what he says? Whose health I desire, that he may see the light, and recognize his brother. Do you, then, wish me to believe him, that I am not his brother, because he detests it, because he hates it, and not rather the light itself? Let us hear what the light itself says. Read the prophet: Hear, you who fear, the word of the Lord. The Holy Spirit speaks through the prophet Isaiah: Hear, you who fear, the word of the Lord. Say: You are our brothers, to those who hate you, and who detest you. What is this? The light has shone, it has shown the brotherhood: and still the bleary-eyed says: Close the window. Offer your eyes to the light: recognize the brother not set in darkness, you set in darkness: and say, say securely, you say the words of God and not mine. Say, says God, You are our brothers: to whom? To those who hate you. For what wonder if you say it to those who love you? To those who hate you, and who detest you (See Isa 66:5). Why this? Hear, and look at the fruit of the cause. As though you had asked the Lord your God, and said: Lord, how shall I say: You are my brother, to one who hates, who detests? Say why. That the name of the Lord may be honored. Let him appear at least in gladness: but let them be ashamed (See Isa 66:5). See, I beg, the fruit of patience, of such great gentleness. Say: You are our brothers. Why? That the name of the Lord may be honored. But why does he not recognize you as a brother? Because the name of man has honored men. So say: My brother: though you hate, though you detest, you are my brother. Recognize in yourself the sign of my Father. The word of our Father. Bad brother, quarrelsome brother, you are my brother. For you say, as I too: Our Father who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). We say one thing: why are we not in one? I ask you, brother, recognize what you say with me, and condemn what you do against me. Attend to the words coming forth from your mouth. Hear, not me, but yourself. See to whom we say: Our Father who are in heaven. Not a friend, not a neighbor; but he himself to whom we say it commands us to be in concord. Together we have one voice toward the Father: why do we not together have one peace?

5. Say such things ardently, say them gently. Say them burning with the fervor of love, not with the swelling of dissension, and beseech the Lord with us by solemn fasts. What we now render to God, let us render also for the cause. For now we fast solemnly after Pentecost: and we would surely fast, even if this cause did not exist. What, then, do we owe to our brothers, whom in the name of the Lord our God, our physician, we take up to be healed and cured, offering them to him that they may be healed, not presuming for ourselves the physician's hands? But what do we do? Let us beseech the physician himself, fasting with humble heart, with pious confession, with brotherly fear. Let us show to the Lord piety, to the brothers love. For let our alms grow, by which our prayers may be more easily heard. Pursue hospitality. It is the time: the servants of God are coming. It is the time, it is the occasion, why does it perish? Attend to what you have in the upper room of your house. Attend also to what you may store above, what you may keep for yourself, about which treasure alone you are secure. Place it above, entrust it not to your servant, but to your Lord. Do you there fear lest a thief creep in, lest a burglar break in, lest a turbulent enemy snatch it away? Bring it about that you have something to be repaid you. Nor is this repaid you, what you have laid up. The Lord wishes you to be a lender, but his own, not your neighbor's.

Sermon 358
On Peace and Love

1. May the prayers of your holiness help our care for you, and for our enemies and yours, for the salvation of all, for quiet, for the common peace, for the unity which the Lord commanded, which the Lord loves, that we may again and again speak to you about it, and rejoice with you. For to speak of peace and love, if we always love it, we always ought, much more then at this time, when peace is so loved that those, set in the peril of loving and keeping it, to whom we do not return evil for evil (See Rom 12:17), and with whom, as it is written, hating peace we are peaceable (See Ps 120:7 (119:7)), and because we speak to them, they wish to war against us without cause: those, then, who are such, are imperiled between the love of peace and the confusion of shame, nor do they act, when they will not be conquered, so as to be unconquered. For those who will not be conquered by the truth, are conquered by error. O if love rather than animosity overcame them! Thence they would become victors, whence they had been conquered. We, for the catholic Church, to whose peace and reconciliation we invite its enemies, not by human opinions but by divine testimonies, love, hold, defend it. What shall I do with him who clamors for a part, and quarrels against the whole? Is it not good for him to be conquered, because if he is conquered, he will hold the whole; if he conquers, he will remain in a part? rather, if he will seem to himself to conquer, for none conquers but the truth: the victory of truth is love.

2. Why, then, should I commend to you, brothers, the catholic Church fruitful and growing throughout the whole world, with many words, and my own? We have the words of the Lord for it, and for us. The Lord, he says, said to me: You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession (Ps 2:7-8). Why, then, brothers, do we quarrel about the possession, and not rather recite the holy tablets? Let them suppose we have come to a judge. There is a contention about possession: and this contention is not of quarrel, but of love. Indeed, the quarreler over an earthly possession quarrels for this, that he may shut out his adversary: we, that we may let him in. The quarreler over an earthly possession, when he hears his adversary saying: I wish to possess; answers: I do not permit it. But I say to my brother: I wish you to possess with me; he, quarreling, says: I will not. And so I do not fear lest the Lord despise me and rebuke me, as he rebuked those brothers, or that brother, who appealed to him among the people, and said: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. At once the Lord, bringing forth a rebuke, because he hated division: Tell me, man, he said, who set me as a judge, or a divider of the inheritance among you? I tell you, beware of all greed (Luke 12:13-15). This rebuke I do not fear. For I appeal to my Lord: I confess it, I appeal. Yet I do not say: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me; but I say: Lord, tell my brother to keep unity with me. Behold, I recite the tablets of this possession, not for this, that I alone may possess, but that I may convince my brother, unwilling, to possess with me. Behold the tablets, brother: Ask of me, it says, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. It was said to Christ. To us, then, it was said, because we are members of Christ. Why do you run into a part? or remain in a part? Behold, hold the whole that is in the tablets. You seek between whom and whom you may possess, as possessors are wont to be sought by documents, between whom there may be neighbors. He who gave you all the bounds left no neighbors.

3. Hear another testimony of the holy tablets. It is said of the Lord Christ in the figure of Solomon: He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the world. Before him the Ethiopians will fall down, and his enemies will lick the earth. The kings of Tarshish and the islands will offer gifts: the kings of the Arabs and of Sheba will bring presents. And all the kings of the earth will adore him: all nations will serve him (Ps 72:8-11 (71:8-11)). When it was said, it was believed: when it is fulfilled, it is denied. Hold with me, then, the inheritance from sea to sea, and from the river, namely the Jordan, where the teaching of Christ began, to the ends of the world. Why do you not want it? Why are you an enemy to this promise and inheritance, your riches? Why do you not want it? On account of Donatus? On account of Caecilian? Who was Donatus? Who Caecilian? Surely men. If good, by their own good, not mine: therefore if evil too, by their own evil, not mine. Do you receive Christ, and attend to his Apostle, zealous for Christ: Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? But that he might say this, see what he shuddered at: Each one of you says: I am of Paul, but I of Apollos, but I of Cephas, but I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:12-13) If not in the name of Paul, much less in the name of Caecilian; much more, and much less, in the name of Donatus. And yet still, after the apostolic words, after the declaration of the Church and its spread through the whole world, it will be said to me: I do not let go Donatus, I do not let go some Gaius or other, some Lucius, Parmenian. A thousand names, a thousand splits. You will deprive yourself, by following a man, of so great an inheritance, of which you just now heard: From sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the world. Why do you not hold it? Because you love a man. What is man, except a rational animal made from earth? Therefore you are an enemy because you lick the earth. Despise this rather. Do not lick the earth, that you may place your hope in him who made heaven and earth. This is our hope, these our testimonies: The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting (Ps 50:1 (49:1)). Do not remain in the earth, but where the earth has been called.

4. And who can recite all the testimonies of the holy tablets of this possession? Why, then, are they not converted to the Church, except because it is the very voice of the Church: Let those who fear you be converted to me, and let them know your testimonies (Ps 119:79 (118:79))? The Church saw this, which she said in the Psalm. Just now you heard, the words are fresh in your ears and hearts: Of all consummation I have seen the end. What is, Of all consummation I have seen the end? Of consummation, of perfection, not of consumption; and the end, of perfection, not of abolition. Of all consummation I have seen the end: your commandment is exceedingly wide (Ps 119:96 (118:96)). Of all consummation I have seen the end. What is this end? Your commandment is exceedingly wide. For the end of the precept is—now say it with me. All have said it, what you have always heard not unfruitfully. The end of the precept is love from a pure heart (1 Tim 1:5). The end by which we are perfected, not by which we are consumed. This end is wide, because it is the commandment of God, and to whom it was said: Your commandment is exceedingly wide. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (John 13:34). See the width of this commandment. Where is it wide? In the flesh? In the heart rather. For if it were wide in the flesh too, you eager hearers would not suffer crowding. It is wide in the heart. See where it is wide, if there is anything whence you may see; and hear from this the Apostle, how wide is the commandment of love: The love of God has been poured out in our hearts (Rom 5:5). He did not say, enclosed, but poured out. For the word "enclosed" sounds as it were of narrows: while "poured out" suggests width. Wide, then, is your commandment exceedingly. Lord our God, approve that on account of this very width we invite our brothers to the possession of peace. Do you wish to be bishops? Be it with us. Does the people not want two bishops? Be with us brothers in the inheritance. Let us not, on account of our honors, hinder the peace of Christ. What honor shall we receive in heavenly peace, if we now defend our honor in earthly quarrel? Let the wall of error be removed, and let us be together. Recognize me as a brother: I recognize you as a brother: but excepting the schism, excepting the error, excepting the dissension. Let this be corrected, and you are mine. Or do you not wish to be mine? I, if you correct yourself, wish to be yours. Therefore, with error removed from the midst, as it were the wall of the partition of contradiction and division, be my brother, and let me be your brother, that both may be his, who is the Lord both of me and of you.

5. We say these things out of love of peace, not out of distrust of the truth. For this we wrote back, this proposal you read: that we do not flee the cause to be conferred about, rather we insist that it be conferred; so that, when I have demonstrated the possession, I may so share the inheritance with him. Let him come undaunted, let him come secure, let him come learned: I do not wish to prejudge by authority. Let us open our eyes to him who cannot err: let him teach us what the Church is. You have heard his testimonies. Human offenses do not contaminate her whom human justice does not redeem. And yet, since the cause of the Church is one, that of men another, and they are altogether distinct, we do not even fear the cause of those men, whom they accused, and could not convict. We have known them cleared, we have read them cleared. Who, if they were not cleared, I would not establish the Church in their cause, nor build upon sand, and cast it down from the rock: because upon this rock, he says, I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not overcome it (Matt 16:18). But the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). Was Paul crucified for you? Hold these things, love these things, say these things in a brotherly and peaceable way.

6. Let none of you rush to the place of the conference, my brothers. Plainly, if it can be done, avoid even passing through that place, lest perhaps some entrance of contention and quarrel be found, or some occasion be afforded, and those who seek an occasion find that occasion, especially since those who fear God too little, or count our admonition as of little worth, or because they love present things, ought at least to fear the severity of the earthly power. You have read the edict of the illustrious man publicly posted: which indeed was not posted on account of you who fear God; and you do not despise the admonition of your bishops; but lest anyone not care for these things, lest anyone despise them. Let those see, then, who are such: lest perhaps there befall them what the Apostle said: For he who resists the power resists the ordinance of God. For princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil (Rom 13:2-3). Let us avoid all sedition, all occasions of sedition. Perhaps you will say: We are intent on what we are going to do. There is something for us to enjoin on you: rich shares perhaps of piety. We dispute for you: do you pray for us. Help your prayers too, as we already forewarned, with fasts and alms. Add to them wings, by which they may fly to God. Doing this business, perhaps you will be more useful to us, than we to you. For none of us in this disputation presumes of himself: in God is the whole hope. For we are not better than the Apostle, who says: Pray for us. Pray, he says, for me, that speech may be given me (Eph 6:19). Therefore ask him for us, in whom we have placed our hope, that you may rejoice over our disputation. Hold these things, brothers, we beseech you, by the name of the Lord himself, by the author of peace, the establisher of peace, by the planter of peace, we pray you, that you pray to him peaceably, beseech him peaceably; and remember that you are sons of him of whom it was said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt 5:9).

Sermon 358/A
A Treatise of Saint Augustine on the Good of Mercy

1. We desire to admonish your holiness about the good of mercy: although in every good work we have often experienced you to be ready, yet it is necessary that we have a sermon carefully conferred about this matter. We treat, then, what is mercy? Nothing else but a certain compassion of the heart at misery. From grief at misery (miseria) mercy (misericordia) is named: both sound there, both misery and heart (cor). When, then, another's misery touches and strikes your heart, it is called mercy. Attend, therefore, my brothers, that all good works which we do in life pertain to mercy. For instance, you hold out bread to the hungry: hold out mercy from the heart, not out of contempt; lest you have as a dog a man like yourself. When, then, you do mercy, whether you hold out bread, grieve for the hungry one: if you give drink, grieve for the thirsty one: if you hold out a garment, grieve for the naked one: if you receive into hospitality, grieve for the pilgrim: if you visit one sick, grieve for the ill one: if you bury one dead, grieve for the dead one: if you reconcile a quarreler, grieve for the one quarreling. All these things, if we love God and neighbor, we do not do without grief of heart. These are the good works which confirm us to be Christians. For the holy Apostle says: While we have time, let us work good toward all (Gal 6:10). And likewise what does he himself say about that good work in the same place? But this I say: that he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly (2 Cor 9:6). He introduced sowing, he promised a harvest.

2. But when you sow, because you do a work of mercy, while you grieve for the one for whom you do it, you sow in tears (See Ps 126:5 (125:5)). Yet sometime after our end these seeds of mercy will not be needed; because in that kingdom, those who here on account of God were straitened, will not be wretched. But in truth, in that recompense, to whom would you hold out bread, where no one hungers? whom, naked, would you clothe, where all are clothed with immortality? to whom would you offer hospitality, when all will live in their own homeland? whom, sick, would you visit, where there is eternal health? whom, dead, would you bury, where life is forever? whom, quarreling, would you reconcile, where that peace is full which here was promised? There will be no works there, then, no mercy. Why? because you now carry sheaves, you do not throw seed. Let us not, then, fail: with tears we sow, that is, from labor and grief. In the work of mercy, then, do not fail: for you will receive the reward of your seed (See Ps 126:6 (125:6)). Winter sows in labor: but did the harshness of winter ever deter the farmer from casting into the earth the fruit cleansed with so great labor? He goes forth, and casts into the earth what he had gathered from the earth, what had been cleansed from the earth: he goes forth, and casts into the earth, trembling with cold, untiring. Whence untiring in the cold? Faith and hope shake off the sloth. Does he see the harvest? But he believes it will rise. Does he already gather the fruit? but he hopes he will gather it; and he encourages himself by this faith, by this hope, so that with the great labor of cold he sends the seed into the earth, and, secure, with God granting, may be able, according to the work of his labor, to take up rich fruits. The end.

Sermon 359
On What Is Written in Sirach 25:1:
"The Concord of Brothers, and the Love of Neighbors," and the Rest
On the Quarrel and Concord with the Donatists

1. The first reading of the divine words, from the book which is called Ecclesiasticus, commended to us three certain things excellent and most worthy of consideration: the concord of brothers, and the love of neighbors, and a man and a woman agreeing with each other (See Sir 25:1-2). These are plainly good things, pleasant and praiseworthy in human affairs; but in divine affairs much more powerful. For who is there who does not rejoice with brothers in concord? And what is to be grieved over, in human affairs so great a thing is rare: the thing is praised by all, kept by very few. Blessed are those who embrace in themselves what they are compelled to praise even in others. No brothers fail to praise brothers in concord. And whence is it difficult for brothers to be in concord? Because they quarrel about earth, because they wish to be earth. For the sinful man heard from the beginning: You are earth, and into earth you shall go (Gen 3:19). Whence let us examine and scrutinize the voice which the just man ought to hear from the contrary. For if it was rightly said to the sinner: You are earth, and into earth you shall go; rightly it is said to the just: You are heaven, and into heaven you shall go. Or are not the just heavens, when of the Evangelists it is most plainly said: The heavens declare the glory of God? And indeed that it was said of them, the sequel teaches well enough. And the firmament, it says, announces the works of his hands. Whom he called heavens, the same he called the firmament. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There are no languages, nor words, of which their voices are not heard (Ps 19:1-3 (18:2-4)). You ask whose, and you find none but the heavens'. It was said, then, of the Apostles, said of the announcers of the truth. Whence follows: Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. There are no languages, nor words, of which their voices are not heard. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, and God began to dwell in the heaven which he made from earth, they spoke, with the Holy Spirit filling and granting it, in the tongues of all nations. Hence it was said: There are no languages, nor words, of which their voices are not heard. And because from there they were sent to the preaching of the Gospel through all nations: Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 19:4 (18:5)). Whose? The heavens', to whom it is rightly said: You are heaven, and into heaven you shall go: as rightly to the sinner: You are earth, and into earth you shall go.

2. If brothers, then, wish to be in concord, let them not love earth. But if they wish not to love earth, let them not be earth. Let them seek a possession which cannot be divided, and they will always be in concord. Whence is discord among brothers? whence the disturbance of piety? whence one womb, and not one mind, except while their soul is bent down, and each one looks to his own part, and spends effort on enriching and increasing his own part, and wishes to have unity in his own possession, who possesses with his brother a division? Good is this possession; whose is it? It is ours. A great possession! So it is wont to be said. Is it all yours, brother? No; I have here a co-heir: but if God wills, he will sell me his part. The flatterer answers: May God do it. What may God do? That the neighbor be oppressed, and sell his part to his neighbor. May God do it: you think well, may God fulfill it for you. Since the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul; and he who does iniquitous things is blessed (See Ps 10:3 (9:24)). What is so iniquitous as to wish to grow rich by another's poverty? And yet this abounds: He who does iniquitous things is blessed; and perhaps he has prevailed, and perhaps he has pressed and oppressed, twisted and extorted, not just any co-heir, but perhaps a brother. It is better that I buy it, than a stranger. And that man, easily oppressed, if he is just, has consolation. Let him hear the Scripture, which just now he heard. That one labors in want, his brother is full of abundance. But he is full of earth, and empty of justice. Mark, O earth, what that poor man hears. Do not fear, when a man has become rich, nor when the glory of his house is multiplied: because when he dies, he will not take them (Ps 49:16-17 (48:17-18)). Hold, you poor man, what you will not leave behind dying, and what you may acquire living forever. Hold justice, do not repent of it. Are you saddened because on earth you are poor? Poor here was he who created the earth. The Lord your God consoles you, your Creator consoles you, your Redeemer consoles you. Your greedy brother does not console you. For our Lord deigned to be our brother. The only brother without doubt most faithful, with whom concord is to be possessed. I said he is not greedy, and perhaps I find him greedy. He is greedy: but he wishes to have us, wishes to acquire us. For so great a price he gave himself for us: nothing can be added to this price. He gave as price himself, and became our Redeemer. For he did not give himself as price in such a way that the enemy let us go and possessed him. He gave himself to death, slaying death. For by his own death he slew death, he was not slain by death; and with death slain, he freed us from death. For death was living while we were dying, it will die while we are living, when it will be said to it: Where is, O death, your strife? (1 Cor 15:55)

3. Such a brother, then, was appealed to by a certain brother against a brother, between whom there was no concord on account of earth, and he said to him: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. He has taken the whole, he will not give me my part, he despises me, let him at least hear you. What did it pertain to the Lord? As we humble ones think humble things, crawling on the earth, set in this life, and wishing to sadden no one, and yet very often saddening more grievously thereby, what would we say? Come, brother, render to your brother his part. The Lord did not say this. And what is more just than he? Who would find such a judge, whom he might appeal to against the greed of his brother? Did not that man rejoice that he had at last found great solace? He surely hoped also for great help, saying to so great a judge: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But what did he say? O man, who set me as a divider of the inheritance among you? The Lord repelled him, did not give what was asked, did not grant the gratuitous benefit. What was so great? What did he lose thereby? In what did he even labor in that benefit? He did not give it. Where is: To everyone who asks you, give (Luke 6:30)? He who gave us an example of living did not do this. How shall we do it? Or how shall we give what costs us something, if we do not give a benefit where we expend nothing, where we give out nothing, where we lose nothing? The Lord did not give this, yet he did not give nothing. He denied the lesser, but bestowed what is more. He said plainly, he said: To everyone who asks you, give. What, if someone asks of you, I do not say what is useless to give, but what is shameful to give? What if some woman asks what the woman asked of Joseph? What if some man asks what the false elders asked of Susanna? Even here is that as it were general sentence to be followed: To everyone who asks you, give? Far be it. Shall we do here, then, against the precept of the Lord? Rather let us do according to the precept of the Lord, and not give to those asking evil things, nor will we act against this sentence. For it was said: To everyone who asks you, give. It was not said: Give everything to him who asks you. To everyone who asks you, give: plainly give; even if not what he asks, yet give something: he asks evil, do you give good. Joseph did this. He did not give what the shameless woman asked; and yet he gave what she ought to hear, that she might not be shameless by his example: and he himself did not fall into the pit of lust, and gave counsel of chastity. For he answered this: Far be it from me, that I should do this to my lord, that I should defile his bed, who has entrusted to me all things in his house (See Gen 39:8-9). If a servant bought with money kept this faith to his lord, what ought a wife to keep to her husband? This was to admonish. I, a servant, will not do this to my lord: you, a wife, ought you to do this to your husband? Susanna too gave, and did not let them go empty, if they wished to be filled with the counsel of chastity. For not only did she not consent; but she did not keep silent why she did not consent. If I consent, she said, to you, I perish to God: if I do not consent, I do not escape your hands: but it is better to fall into your hands, than to perish to God (See Dan 13:22-23). But what is, It is better to fall into your hands, than to perish to God? You have perished to God, you who seek such things. Hold this rule, then. Give when you are asked, even if not what you are asked. The Lord did this. What did that man ask? The division of the inheritance. What did the Lord give? The destruction of greed. What did he ask? what did he receive? Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Tell me, man, who set me as a divider of the inheritance among you? But I tell you, what? Beware of all greed. And I tell you why. For perhaps you ask for half the inheritance for this, that you may grow rich. Hear: A certain rich man's country yielded well; it had great yields, that is, it was made fruitful with many fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, where shall I gather my fruits? And, thinking diligently, I have found, he said, what I shall do. I will destroy the old storehouses, I will make new ones, I will fill them. For I will make them greater than the old ones were. And I will say to my soul: You have many goods; be satisfied, rejoice. God said to him: Fool, you who seem to yourself very wise: for you know how to destroy old things, and build new ones, and you have remained in the oldness of ruin, you who ought to have destroyed the old things in yourself, that you might no longer savor earthly things: Fool, what did you say? to whom did you say it? You said to your soul: Rejoice, you have many goods. This night your soul will be demanded, to which you promised such things. What you have promised, whose will they be? (See Luke 12:16-20) Do not, then, fear, when a man has become rich; because when he dies, he will not take them (Ps 49:16-17 (48:17-18)).

4. Behold what counsel the Lord gave to disagreeing brothers, by which they might be in concord, that they should be rid of greed, and at once be filled with truth. Let us find, then, such an inheritance. How long shall we speak of the concord of earthly brothers, which is rare, which is suspect, which is difficult? Let us speak of that concord of brothers, which ought to be, and can be, true. Let all Christians be brothers, let all the faithful be brothers, let them be born of God and from the womb of mother Church through the Holy Spirit: let them be brothers, let them too have an inheritance to be given, and not divided. Their inheritance is God himself. Whose inheritance they themselves are, he himself is in turn their inheritance. How are they themselves his inheritance? Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance (Ps 2:8). How is he their inheritance? The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, and of my cup (Ps 16:5 (15:5)). In this inheritance concord is kept: for this inheritance there is no quarrel. Another inheritance is acquired by quarreling: this is lost by quarreling. Men, unwilling to lose this inheritance, avoid quarreling. And when they perhaps seem to quarrel, they do not quarrel. But perhaps they seem to quarrel, or are thought to quarrel, when they wish to take counsel for their brothers. See how concordant their quarreling is, how peaceful, how kind, how just, how faithful. For we seem to quarrel with the Donatists: but we do not quarrel. For he quarrels who wishes ill to his adversary; he quarrels who wishes his adversary to suffer loss, himself increase; something to leave the other, to come to himself. We are not so. You too know it, you who outside unity quarrel; you too know it, who from division have been acquired: you know that this quarrel is not such a quarrel, because it is not malevolent, because it does not tend to the loss of the adversary, but rather to his gain. For we wished those with whom we seemed to quarrel, or still seem to, to be acquired with us; not to lose them, that we may be acquired. Finally, our voice is different from that of that brother who appealed to Christ walking on earth. For we too appeal to him in this cause, sitting in heaven: and we do not say: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me; but: Tell my brother to hold the inheritance with me.

5. Since this we wish, and the public proceedings attest it: that we have wished this, the witnesses are not only sermons, but our letters given to them. Do you love the episcopate? Have it with us. In you we hate nothing, detest nothing, execrate nothing, anathematize nothing, except human error. Human error, we said, we detest, not divine truth: but what you have of God, we recognize; what you have wickedly your own, we correct. The sign of my Lord, the sign of my Emperor, the character of my King, I recognize in a deserter; I seek, I find, I apply, I approach, I lay hold, I lead, I correct the deserter, I do not violate the character. If anyone notices, if anyone attends, this is not to quarrel, but to love. We said that there can be in one Church, for the sake of peace, concordant brothers: for a beautiful thing is the concord of brothers. That there cannot be two bishops. We said, that both should sit in one simple basilica; the one on the chair, the other as a pilgrim; the one on the Christian chair, the other as it were a heretical colleague sitting nearby: again, the one to preside in his congregation, the other in turn in his. We said that penance was preached unto the remission of sins through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem by the Apostles (See Luke 24:47). What will you answer to this Church, which is built through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem by the Apostles? We said: Let us suppose altogether that Caecilian had a bad cause. Shall one man having a bad cause, two men, five, ten, prejudge so many thousands of the faithful throughout the whole world, spread by manifold fruitfulness? We said these things. Abraham believed, and all the nations were promised to him: did Caecilian sin, and all the nations perish, so that what iniquity committed avails more than what truth promised? These things were said: they are read. Altogether against the divine examples, against the testimonies, which assert that the Church is spread throughout the whole world, of which Church in the name of the Lord we hold the unity, they could answer him nothing.

6. With the cause of the Church, then, safe, confirmed, and unchangeably fixed and established, as upon the foundation of the rock, which the gates of hell do not overcome (See Matt 16:18): with this, then, safe, we came also to the cause of Caecilian, now secure whatever he should be found to have done. For perhaps, if as a man he were found in some fault, were we going to quarrel, that on account of the fault of one man we should judge ourselves to be condemned or rebaptized? And we said: With the cause of the Church safe, to which the sin of Caecilian does nothing prejudicial; nor does the justice of Caecilian crown the Church; nor does the fault of Caecilian condemn the Church; let us see also of what sort his cause is. We undertook it to be examined, but as that of a brother, not as that of a father, or mother. Our Father is God, our mother is the Church: Caecilian was a brother, or is a brother; if good, a good brother; if evil, an evil brother, yet a brother. If we shall have found him innocent, where then will you be, you who failed even in that human calumny? But if he shall be found guilty, if he shall be found a defendant, not even so are we conquered, because we hold the unity of the Church, which is unconquered. Let him be found altogether guilty, I anathematize the man, I do not desert the Church of Christ. This we did, we said: thereafter we will not recite his name at the altar among the bishops whom we believe faithful and innocent. This alone we did. Are you going to rebaptize the whole world on account of Caecilian? With this security established and confirmed, the cause of Caecilian began to be examined. He was found innocent, he was found to have been attacked by calumniators. Once condemned in absence, present he was thrice acquitted: condemned by a faction, acquitted by ecclesiastical truth. These things were read, these things were proved. It was asked whether they had anything to say against it. With all the evasions of their calumnies exhausted, or where they could bring forth nothing against the most evident documents, nor against the very innocence of Caecilian, a sentence was brought forth against them. And yet they themselves say: We have conquered. Let them conquer, but themselves, that Christ may possess them; let him who redeemed them conquer them.

7. And yet we rejoice over many. Many of them were fruitfully conquered, because they were not conquered. Human error was conquered, the man was saved. For the physician does not contend with the sick man; and if the sick man sides with the physician, the fever is conquered, and the sick man is healed. For the physician intends this, to conquer; the fever too intends this, to conquer. The sick man is set as it were in the middle. If the physician conquers, the sick man is saved: if the fever conquers, the sick man will die. In our contention, then, the physician was contending for health, for the fever the sick man was contending. Those who took note of the physician's counsel, conquered, overcame the fever. We have them healthy and rejoicing with us in the Church. They blasphemed us before, because they did not recognize us as brothers: for the fever had disturbed the mind. Yet we loved them even detesting us, and raging against us, and served the raging sick. We resisted, we contended, and as it were quarreled: and yet we loved. For all who serve such sick ones are troublesome; but they are troublesome unto health.

8. But we sometimes find slothful men saying: It is true, Lord, it is true; there is nothing to say. What then? Come, act. My father died there, my mother is buried there. You have named the dead and the buried. You live, there is still one with whom to speak. Your parents were Christians in the party of Donatus; their parents perhaps were themselves too Christians, their grandfathers or great-grandfathers certainly pagans. Those, then, who were first made Christians, when they buried their pagan parents, were they cold against the truth? did they follow the authority of their dead parents, and not rather prefer the living Christ to their dead parents? If, then, here is true unity, outside which you must die forever, why do you wish to follow your dead parents, dead to you and to God? What do you say? answer. You speak truth, there is nothing to say. What do you wish me to do? Some custom or other holds such men to itself. They are lethargic, they labor with the contrary disease, they are going to die by sleeping. Others are frenzied, they are troublesome. For even if the lethargic is going to die, he is not troublesome to the one serving him. The frenzied are troublesome, who have lost their mind, and, insane and furious, wander armed here and there, seeking whom they may kill, whom they may blind. For new things have been reported to us: they cut out the tongue of a certain presbyter of ours. These are frenzied. Love must be exercised, even they are to be loved. Many corrected have wept, many corrected: we know it, they came to us from the number of those very furious ones. Daily they weep over their past deeds, nor are they sated with tears, attending to the fury of those who, the drunkenness of their vanity not digested, still rage. What, then, do we do? Love compels us to serve such people. And although we are troublesome to both kinds, both by rousing the lethargic and by binding the frenzied, yet we love both.

9. A good thing is the concord of brothers; but see where: in Christ, of Christians. And the love of neighbors. What, if one is still not yet a brother in Christ? Because he is a man, he is a neighbor; love even him, that you may gain even him. If, then, you are in concord with your Christian brother, but love your neighbor, even one with whom there is now no concord, because he is not yet a brother in Christ, because he is not yet reborn in Christ, does not yet know the Sacraments of Christ; he is a pagan, he is a Jew; yet he is a neighbor, because he is a man: if you love even him, you have come also to another love by another gift, and so there are two in you: The concord of brothers, and the love of neighbors. Of all these holding concord with their brothers and loving the neighbor, the Church consists, devoted to Christ, and subject to her husband, so that there is a third, A man and a woman agreeing with each other (See Sir 25:1-2). Whence we admonish your love, and exhort you in the Lord, despise present things, my brothers, which you do not carry with you by dying: beware sins, beware iniquities, beware worldly desires. For then is our fruit in us whole, and our reward with the Lord full of joys. For even if we say what must be said, even if we preach what must be preached, and absolve ourselves before the Lord in the sight of the Lord, because we have not kept silent what we fear, have not kept silent what we love, so that upon whom the sword of the Lord's vengeance comes, he may not find what to charge to the watchman: yet we do not wish our reward to be secure with you lost, but with you found. For the apostle Paul too was secure of his reward, and yet what does he say to the people? Now we live, if you stand in the Lord (1 Thess 3:8). I speak to you and to your love, according to the command of the Lord, fathers and brothers. I speak also for my brother your bishop, whose joy you ought to be, by obeying the Lord our God. Surely in the name of God this church was made for you, his work, through the beneficent, merciful, devoted contributions of the faithful brothers. This church was made for you: but you are rather the Church. It was made for you, that your bodies might enter it: but your minds ought to be that into which God may enter. You honored your bishop, that you wished to call this basilica Florentia; but his Florentia is you. For so the Apostle says: My joy and my crown are you in the Lord (Phil 4:1). Whatever is in the world, vanishes, passes away. This life, what is it, except what the Psalm said: In the morning like grass it will pass away, in the morning it will flower and pass on: in the evening it will fall, it hardens and withers (See Ps 90:5-6 (89:5-6))? This is all flesh. Therefore Christ, therefore the new life, therefore eternal hope, therefore the consolation of immortality promised, and in the flesh of the Lord already rendered. For from us was assumed that flesh, which is now immortal, and he showed to us what in himself he fulfilled. For on our account he had flesh. For on his own account: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Seek flesh and blood: where, in the Word? Because he truly wished to suffer with us, and to redeem us, he put on the form of a servant, and he who was here came down, that he who was not absent might appear; and he who made man wished to become man, to be created of a mother who created the mother. He ascended even to the cross, he died, and showed us what we knew, to be born and to die. He, humble, fulfilled in himself these old, familiar, and known things of ours. To be born and to die we knew: to rise again and to live forever we did not know. Two old things of ours, then, the humble one assumed: two other great and new things the lofty one fulfilled. He raised up the flesh, he lifted the flesh into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father. He wished to be our head, the head cried out for the members: because even when he was here, he said: Father, I will that where I am, there they too may be with me (See John 17:24). Let us hope this too of our flesh, resurrection, change, incorruption, immortality, eternal dwelling: and let us act so that we may arrive. This will be Florentia, the true Florentia.

1. As long as we are in this world, if we take care to have our heart on high, it will not harm us that we walk below. For we walk below in this flesh. But fixing our hope on high, we have as it were placed an anchor on solid ground (See Heb 6:19): so as to resist somehow the waves of this world, not through ourselves but through him in whom that very anchor is fixed, our hope, since he who made us hope will not deceive, so as to render the reality in place of hope. For hope, as the Apostle says, which is seen, is not hope. For what one sees, why does he hope for it? But if, he says, we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience (Rom 8:24-25).

2. About this patience, what the Lord grants, I wish to speak to your love. For the Lord Jesus Christ too says in the Gospel in a certain place: In your patience you will possess your souls (Luke 21:19). It is said also in another place: Woe to those who have lost patience (Sir 2:14). Whether it be named patience, or endurance, or toleration, it signifies the same thing by several words. But let us fix in our heart not the diversity of sounds, but the unity of the thing itself, and let us have within what we name without. He who knows that he leads a pilgrim life in this world, wherever in the world he is set according to the body, who knows that he has an eternal homeland in the heavens, who trusts that there is a region of the blessed life, which here it is permitted to desire, not permitted to have, burning with so good, so holy, so chaste a desire, lives here patiently. Patience does not seem necessary in prosperous things, but in adverse things. No one patiently bears what delights him. But whatever we bear, whatever we patiently endure, is hard and bitter, and through this, patience is not necessary to happiness, but to unhappiness. Nevertheless, as I had begun to say, whoever burns with desire for eternal life, in whatever land he is in happiness, must needs live patiently, because he bears with difficulty his very pilgrimage, until after love he comes to the desired homeland. The love of desire is one thing, the love of vision another. For both he who desires loves; and he who sees loves; and he who desires loves that he may arrive; and he who sees loves that he may remain. But if the desire of the saints so burns from faith, what will it be in sight? If we so love when we believe what we do not yet see, how shall we love when we shall see?

3. Therefore the Apostle says these three things which he especially commends to be built up in the inner man: faith, hope, love, and when he praised these three, at the end he said: But the greater of these is love (1 Cor 13:13). Pursue love (1 Cor 14:1). What, then, is faith? What hope? What love? And why is love greater? Faith is, as it is defined in a certain place of the Scriptures, the substance of those who hope, the conviction of things that are not seen. He who hopes, what he hopes for he does not yet have, but by believing he is like one possessing. For faith is, he says, the substance of those who hope; the very thing which we shall hold is not yet, but faith itself stands for that thing. For he holds not nothing who holds faith, nor is he empty who is full of faith. Therefore great is the reward of faith because it does not see and believes. For if it saw, what reward would there be? Therefore the Lord, when he had risen from the dead and shown himself to his disciples, not only to be seen with the eyes but also to be handled with the hands (See Luke 24:39), and when he had convinced human senses that it was he who had risen, who a little before hung on the wood, conversing with them for some days, as much as seemed sufficient to him to confirm the gospel and to establish faith in the resurrection, ascended into heaven, that he himself might not be seen, but be held by believing. For if he were always here, and visible to these eyes, there would be no praise of faith. But now it is said to a man: Believe. And he wishes to see. It is answered him: That you may at some time see, meanwhile believe. Faith is the merit: vision is the reward. If you wish to see before you believe, you demand the reward before the work. What you wish to have has a price. You wish to see God. Of so great a good faith is the price. You wish to arrive, and you do not wish to walk? Vision is the possession, faith is the way. He who refuses the labor of the journey, how does he seek the joy of possession?

4. But faith does not fail, because hope underlies it. Take away hope, and faith fails. For how, by walking, does one move even his feet, who does not hope he can arrive? But if you take away both, that is, the love both of faith and of hope, what does it profit that he believes, what does it profit that he hopes, if he does not love? Rather, indeed, he cannot even hope for what he does not love. For love kindles hope, hope shines with love. But when we shall have arrived at those things which, believing, we hoped for unseen, what faith there will be praised? Since indeed faith is the conviction of things that are not seen. When we shall see, it will no longer be called faith. For you will see, you will not believe. Likewise hope itself. When the thing is present, you no longer hope. For what one sees, why does he hope for it? (Rom 8:24) Behold, when we shall have arrived, faith is ended, hope is ended. What of love? Faith is turned into sight, hope is turned into the reality. Now there will be sight and reality, not faith and hope. What of love? Can it be ended? For if it was already inflamed toward what was not seen, surely when it shall have seen, it will be inflamed more. Well, then, was it said: But the greater of these is love (1 Cor 13:13), since sight succeeds faith, the reality succeeds hope, no thing succeeds love; it itself grows, it itself is increased, it itself is perfected by that contemplation.

5. Hence, desiring the face of God, sighing for the homeland of everlasting happiness, however much we flow around with the happiness of the world, however much we are filled with the abundance and overflow of things, set in that desire, shall we not hold our earthly pilgrimage to be wretched, and by that very wretchedness pray to God, saying always: Lord, free me? The poor man says: Free me; and you think he says it to be freed from poverty. The rich man says: Free me; perhaps he is sick. Rather, he is healthy, and rich, and cries out: Free me. Whence, except that the very prayer says: Free us from evil (Matt 6:13)? In whatever goods he is engaged, a Christian must needs cry out: Free us from evil. If he cries out: Free us from evil, there is something from which he may be freed; if there is something from which he may be freed, he is in evil; if he is in evil, however many goods he has by which he is delighted, he has what he must bear until he fully enjoys God. Toleration, then, is necessary in this world for the poor, the rich, the healthy, the sick, captives, free men, pilgrims, those set in their own homeland; toleration is necessary, because all are on pilgrimage in the world. And until they are freed from this pilgrimage and cling to that truth and unchangeable substance, for which, on pilgrimage, they sighed, they are engaged in temptations and cry out with a true heart to God: Free us from evil.

6. But wretched men see those who in this world are called happy, and wish to be such, and think that, when they have been such, they will then no longer be in evil. This is a perverse mind, and not Christian, full of greed, not of faith: they think there is nothing for them after this life. I do not say: He is happy in this life who has abounded in all things. Far be it that I should say so, but if he thinks there is nothing after this life, he is never happy. For reason convinces, truth convinces, that no one here can be happy—happy, I say, as wisdom judges, not as greed judges. And behold, when I have set it forth, every man has judged that he can be happy. And I begin to seek him, whether he be found on this earth. Do I say: He is happy who is healthy, who is rich, who is honored, who lives safe with all his own? I do not say this, but: He is happy who is in no want. It is at once answered: Therefore the rich man is happy, because he is in no want. If he is in no want, he does not covet, if he covets he is in want. You attend to means, I question covetousness. How is he in no want, to whom what he has is too little, and he desires to have more? You see that all the things he has heaped up that he may have are wood for the flame, whence it may grow, not whence it may be satisfied. Therefore if he covets the more ardently the more he has, I do not say to you: He is needy, but he is more needy than that beggar. For the covetousness of beggars a few coins satisfy, but the covetousness of a greedy man not the whole world. Now here perhaps you answer: what if he seeks nothing more than what he has? I praise it if I find it, I greatly rejoice, he has fixed a measure to an infinite thing, he has been able to say to his eagerness: Thus far. Great strength, great dominion of the mind it is to apply a measure, to break the greedy appetite, to rein in covetousness, to set bounds to burning lust. A great virtue, I confess, a great virtue. Nevertheless, according to what I was defining, I do not yet say he is happy. For what did I say? Who is happy? He who is in no want. Behold, this man is in no want: and he abounds in all things, and seeks nothing more. Still I ask: Does he not wish to have more? It is answered: He does not wish to have. What he has, does he not fear to lose? It is answered: He fears. How, then, is he in no want, and if now he is in no want of means, he is in want at least of security. And who is there who can make him secure in this world that what he possesses cannot perish, from whom may he receive security about things wavering and slipping with constant nodding? Many rich men have slept, and risen poor. No one, then, gives him this security. And he himself too knows it, and therefore he fears. The mind of this man, then, must needs be increased, must receive ampler strength, must come to a greater firmness, so that, as he set bounds to covetousness, so also he may not fear to lose what he has, and may so strengthen his heart that he can, with all things lost, say: Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked I shall return to the earth. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it has pleased the Lord, so has it been done, blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Great is this athlete of God, because he wrestled with a great adversary too! Let us make, then, a man so magnanimous that he is neither puffed up by these things which he has, nor ever broken by their loss and ruin, but is such, having as though not having, using this world as though not using it (See 1 Cor 7:29-31), having a great means, the will itself of his Lord, like the one we mentioned: As it has pleased the Lord, he said, so has it been done, blessed be the name of the Lord; to be rich: the will of my God; to be poor: the will of my God. See how he fulfilled what all sing but few do: I will bless the Lord at all times; always his praise in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). What is, at all times? Both when it is well, and when it is ill: this is at all times, this is always. He is truly rich who is rich within, not within walls, but within thoughts, in conscience not in a strongbox. Such riches not even the shipwrecked can lose; for he can come forth from the waves both naked and full. I think we have found one who is happy? If he is happy who is in no want, whoever is such on earth, why is he not happy? I think we have found even such a one in want; if he is still in want, he is not yet happy. Behold, he covets nothing, behold, he loses things securely, he is not puffed up by prosperity, he is not weakened by adversity. How is he not yet happy? If I find him in want, I do not dare to pronounce him happy. And whence, says someone, will you find even this man in want? I find it plainly. If he believes in God, he is still in want, he is still a beggar of God. For it can happen that such a man says not in prayer: Free us from evil (Matt 6:13), but says: I am in want. Of what is he in want? Of eternal life. This he does not yet have. He is engaged among temptations. Behold Job himself, provoked to love God freely, for to this the devil provoked him, with all things lost, the solace of his children gone, his wife alone remaining, a tempter not a consoler, was struck also with a grave wound from head to foot, that even a poor man's patrimony might be taken from him (See Job 1-2). For a poor man's patrimony is health, which the rich man, when he does not have it, whatever he has is bitter. Perhaps you find a poor man to whom a rich man's patrimony is not necessary; you do not find a rich man to whom a poor man's patrimony itself too is not necessary. The patrimony of the poor, that is, health, Job lost, struck with a grave wound from head to foot. Yet he was not led to give folly to God and in his evils to have God displeasing to him: God was always pleasing. The new Eve suggested blasphemy at the prompting of the serpent with whom he was invisibly wrestling: Say something, she said, against God, and die. And he: You have spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evils? (Job 2:9-10) She was Eve, but he was not Adam. That one was conquered in paradise, this one conquered on a dunghill. But yet, amid those very things which he was suffering, he says in a certain place: Is not human life upon the earth a temptation? (Job 7:1) Set, then, in this human life, he was without doubt set in temptation. He wished to be freed from this temptation. He himself too was still in want of the life where there is no temptation. If he was in want, he was not yet happy. And through this, whatever kind of man you set here, describe, depict, you desire what you do not find. No one can be happy on this earth.

7. What had I proposed? To speak of patience. If it has not slipped from your love, this I proposed. Now, then, how great a good patience is . . . in this earthly happiness we endure for its sake. Whoever does not have it, fails. Whoever fails on the journey, will not arrive at the desired homeland. You see how true it is that in our patience we possess our souls (See Luke 21:19).

8. Since, then, while we live here, in whatever happiness we live, let us live patiently. But all of us, or nearly all, fear to die. Sickness can be, can not be. The loss of dear ones is feared: they can be lost, can also not be lost. Whatever evil you fear on this earth, both can be and can not be. Death cannot not be. It can be deferred, it cannot be taken away, and yet for its deferral all labor, keep watch, fortify themselves, bar their doors, sail, plow. On the earth, in the house, wherever they labor, they labor for this, not that they may not die, but that they may die a little later. Consider, dearest ones, how great a labor is spent by all men that they may die later. If we spend so much labor that we may die later, what must be spent that we may never die? This too is numbered among the things to be borne and to be tolerated and to be had patiently: the very fear of death with which every soul wrestles. For see what the Apostle says: We groan, being weighed down on this earth under this burden of corruptible flesh, in which we do not wish, he says, to be unclothed, but to be clothed over, that the mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Cor 5:4). We are indeed weighed down, he says, by the burden of the corruptible body, and under this body we groan, and we do not wish to be unclothed. What is, we do not wish to be unclothed? We do not wish to lay aside that very corpse under which we groan. We do not wish to lay it aside. O burden unhappily sweet! We groan, he says, being weighed down. Therefore lay it aside willingly, if you groan under the burden. In which we do not wish, he says, to be unclothed. But what? To be clothed over. So that you may carry two burdens? No, he says. But why? That the mortal may be swallowed up by life. For we wish to arrive at eternal life. We wish to arrive where no one dies, but through death we do not wish it, if it could be done, that while we live we should be snatched there, and our body, while we live, should be turned into that spiritual form into which it is to be turned when we rise. Who would not desire this? Does not every man wish it? But to one wishing it is said: Migrate. Remember what you sang in the Psalm: I am a sojourner on the earth (Ps 119:19 (118:19)). If you are a sojourner, you remain in another's property. If you remain in another's, when the householder commands, you migrate. And the householder must needs at some time command that you migrate, nor does he fix the day of your stay. For he made no written agreement with you. Since you remain gratis, your migration is his command. And these things are tolerated, and on this account patience is necessary.

9. That servant saw this, that his master was going to command him to go out from his stewardship, and he thought ahead, and said to himself: My master is going to cast me out from the stewardship. What shall I do? I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. Here labor calls him back, here shame, but counsel did not fail him in his anxiety. I have found, he said, what I shall do. He called together the debtors of his master, he brought forth the bonds: Say you, how much do you owe? And he: A hundred baths of oil. Sit down quickly, make it fifty. Take your bond. And to another: you, how much do you owe? A hundred cors of wheat. Sit, make it quickly eighty. Take your bond (See Luke 16:3-7). This he said: When my master casts me out from the stewardship, they will receive me, and neither will want force me to dig, nor to beg.

10. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ set forth this likeness? For that fraudulent servant did not please him, he committed fraud against his master; he took and did not do it of his own. Moreover he even stole, brought loss to his master, that he might prepare for himself after the stewardship a place of rest and security. Why did the Lord set this forth? Not because that servant committed fraud, but because he foresaw for the future, that a Christian who lacks counsel may blush, if even a fraudster's ingenuity is praised. For so he added: Behold, the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of light. They commit frauds that they may take counsel for themselves for the future. For in what life did that steward take counsel for himself? From which he was going to migrate by obeying. He took counsel for a life that was to end; will you not take counsel for the eternal one? Do not, then, love fraud, but, he says, make for yourselves friends, from the mammon of iniquity make friends (See Luke 16:8-9).

11. Riches are called mammon by the Hebrew name, whence in Punic too gain is called "mamon." What, then, do we do? What did the Lord command? Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of iniquity, that they too, when you begin to fail, may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). It is easy indeed to understand that alms must be given, that they must be bestowed on the needy, because in them Christ receives. This he himself said: When you did it for one of my least ones, you did it for me (See Matt 25:40). Likewise in another place he said: Whoever gives to one of my disciples a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (See Matt 10:42). We understand that alms must be given, and that those with whom we do it should not be chosen too much, because we cannot examine hearts. When you do it with all, then you will come to the few who are worthy. You are hospitable, you prepare your house for pilgrims: let even the unworthy be admitted, lest the worthy be shut out. For you cannot be a judge and examiner of the heart. Although, even if you could: He is evil, he is not good, I add: He is even your enemy. If your enemy is hungry, feed him (Prov 25:21). If good must be done even to an enemy, how much more to one unknown, because even if he is evil, he is yet not an enemy. We understand these things, since those who do them procure for themselves friends who may receive them into the eternal dwellings when they are shut out from this stewardship. For we are all stewards, and something has been entrusted to us to manage in this life, of which we must render an account to the great head of the household. And of him to whom more has been entrusted, a greater account is demanded. The first reading which was recited terrified all, and especially terrified those who are over peoples, whether they be rich, or kings, or princes, or judges, or bishops, or prelates of churches. Each one must render an account of his stewardship to the head of the household. This stewardship is temporal, the reward of the steward is eternal. But if we so conduct this stewardship that we render a good account of it, we are secure that after lesser things greater are entrusted to us. Be, he said, over five possessions (See Luke 19:17), said the master to his servant who well rendered an account of the money he had received to dispense. He calls us to greater things, if we have done well. But because it is difficult in a great stewardship not to sin much, therefore alms must not cease, so that, when we are about to render an account, we may see not so much a judge of integrity as a merciful father. For if he begins to examine everything, he will find many things which he may condemn. We ought on this earth to help the wretched, that there may be done in us what is written: Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them (See Matt 5:7). But in another place: Judgment without mercy to him who has not done mercy (Jas 2:13).

12. Make for yourselves friends, then. Let each one do it from what he has. Let no one say: I am poor. Let no one say: Let the rich do it. Those who have more, let them do more too from more. Do not even the poor have something from which to do it? Zacchaeus was rich (See Luke 19:8), Peter poor (See Matt 4:18-20). The former bought the kingdom of heaven with half his riches, the latter bought as much with one net and one boat. For not because the former bought it did there fail for the latter what he might buy. The kingdom of God is not so for sale that, when one has bought, another has nothing to buy. Behold, the fathers bought, and kept for us what we might buy. Did they buy one thing, we another? It is the very same. It is always being bought, and up to the end of the age it is set forth for sale. Do not fear lest you be shut out by the increase. There is no reason for you to say: That man is going to buy it: for he has as much as I do not have. He who set it forth for sale answers you: Bring what you have; what you too may buy is whole for you. I said that it was whole for Peter on account of the one boat he had. It was whole for that widow who put two mites into the treasury (See Mark 12:42-44). She put in two coins and bought the whole. For she put in much who left nothing for herself. And what I said a little before, what is cheaper than a cup of cold water? The kingdom of heaven is worth even so much. Whoever has not had a boat and nets, whoever has not had the riches of Zacchaeus, whoever has not had the two coins which the widow had, has at least a cup of cold water (See Matt 10:42). I think he therefore added cold, lest the firewood trouble you. But perhaps for the hour you do not even find a cup of cold water to hold out to the thirsty. You do not find it and you suffer along with the thirsty. God sees what you have within, he does not see the power in the hand, but he sees the will in the heart. You too have bought, be secure. This possession is called peace: peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

13. But to that which we had passed over, brothers, let us return. What does the mammon of iniquity mean? What did the Lord wish to admonish us? Ought we to commit fraud that we may have whence to give alms? Many do this, but they do not do well. They take much, and give something of it, and think they remit their sins as though by bribing the judge. He to whom you give rejoices, but he from whom you take laments. God has his ears in the middle. With him there is no respect of persons (See Rom 2:11). He hears the groaner against you more than the one giving thanks for you. Let no one, then, persuade himself, because the Lord named the mammon of iniquity, that for the sake of giving alms one must be eager for frauds, robberies, despoilings, and whatever else displeases. What, then, does he say: Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of iniquity? I understand nothing else, brothers, except that mammon is gold, that is, riches. For let us now speak Latin, that you may understand. There are true riches, there are false. Iniquity calls the false riches riches; it calls them riches, for the true riches are with God. The true riches the angels have, who are in want of nothing. But we, the riches which we seem to have, we seek as it were medicines of weakness. If we were healthy, that is, in that immortality which we are afterward going to have, we would not seek these riches. These riches iniquity calls riches. Therefore he said: Make for yourselves friends from the riches of iniquity, not from the riches which you gather through iniquity, but from the riches which iniquity calls riches when they are not true riches.

14. Hear how these riches, which are not true riches, are called riches by iniquity. The Psalm says in a certain place—a man groans there and wishes to be freed from certain alien sons and says to the Lord: Free me from the hand of alien sons, whose mouth has spoken vanity and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Those of whom he says, Their right hand is a right hand of iniquity, speak of nothing but frauds and prepare themselves for frauds. Is he not going to call or name someone a fraudster? But what is he going to say? Whose sons are like new plantings established, their daughters arranged and adorned like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses full, overflowing from this into that. Their oxen fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings out. There is no breach of the fence, nor outcry in their streets. How great a temporal happiness he described! Where, then, is iniquity? Where vanity? Hear what follows: They have called blessed the people who have these things. Behold whence iniquity, because they called blessed the people to whom these things abound. Another blessedness they did not see, the one that is true they did not seek. They consumed all their desire on earthly happiness. They were unwilling to lift their heart on high. But this man who groans and wishes to be freed from such people, what does he say? When he had said of the alien iniquitous sons, They have called blessed the people who have these things, as though it were said to him: But whom do you call blessed? Blessed the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:11-15 (143:11-15)). Behold the true riches. But those are the riches of iniquity. Whoever has those riches of iniquity, let him make friends from them before he goes out from this stewardship. For if he makes friends from them, he uses them well. Are they not riches with him? For he has other true riches: he reckons his God as riches. From earth he treads earth. Finally, you love them. The Lord said to a certain rich man loving his possessions much: Do you love what you possess? Migrate them where I tell you. I do not wish you to lose them. But what? Make for yourselves treasure in heaven, where the thief does not approach nor the moth corrupts (See Matt 6:20). By loving your riches, you are going to lose them. Migrate them where you will not lose them. Place them there where you may come.

15. Make for yourselves friends, then, he says, from the mammon of iniquity, that they too may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). Let this sentence be expounded thus. Suppose the mammon of iniquity is money from frauds. Your father acquired it from usury. He made you rich. Let not the usury of your father please you. Do not be the heir of iniquity: be the heir of the money of iniquity. Do not, lest you too imitate your father by lending at usury. But now that great money is in the house! Make from it friends from the mammon of iniquity, not that you should now commit fraud and give from it, but what has already been gathered from fraud. If your father had learned to seize, do you learn to give out.

16. But why from a hundred to fifty, why from a hundred to eighty? By the hundred to fifty he wished to signify a half. For Zacchaeus did this. Half of my goods I give to the poor (Luke 19:8). By the hundred to eighty he wished to signify two tenths. For to give from a hundred and twenty so that eighty remain, this is to give two tenths. For they used to give one tenth. But the Lord said in the Gospel: Unless your justice abounds more than that of the Pharisees and scribes, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20). If, then, the justice of the Pharisees and scribes was to give a tenth, how will your justice abound unless you give at least two tenths? To give something more is to abound.

17. You make friends, then, you stretch out hope, you exercise desire, by patience you tolerate present things, whether prosperous or adverse, since by him who seeks happiness on high, even this happiness here is tolerated. For it is tolerated, because, as long as we are on pilgrimage, whatever holds us back from our God is held among evils. And of greater struggle is the breast that fights against happiness lest it be corrupted, than that which fights against unhappiness lest it be broken. Through this patience, then, with the age ended, or our life ended, not far ended, whose end hastens for each one, we shall be secure about the eternal dwellings, because we have made for ourselves friends from the mammon of iniquity.

1. The disturbance of yesterday, both ours and yours—and on your account more ours than yours—commanded silence, I confess; but, because love commands concerning my lord and brother, whom it is necessary to serve—and there is in you too an eagerness to hear, to which we desire that God deign to grant fruit in your morals and obedience—we serve you in the name of Christ, since we serve Christ, whose members you are. Yet this I confess in the sight of God, before him and before you, to whose ears my thought is a voice; him I invoke as witness upon my soul (See 2 Cor 1:23), that nothing chiefly brings us to this city, to speak to you something which the Lord grants, except the love of your bishop—I do not mean the love by which we love him, but rather that by which we feel ourselves loved by him without any pretense. For although you have known us, in no way could you so know us as we ourselves know one another, who serve you in the love of Christ. For we do indeed love you too, and you see it, God knows. Nevertheless, dearest ones, know—this I speak before Christ—that, if you desired us more than all the things you desire, and felt in the mind of your bishop even a little adverse will against us, you would not see us here.

2. For just now he deigned to send us such a letter, that he said that, if we thought our coming should be either deferred or deliberated about, whether to come or not to come, we would offend that very love which was called God (See 1 John 4:8). Consider our weakness, committed to such long journeys in the middle of winter. Let your love receive something else. The blessed and venerable old man Xanthippus, primate of Numidia, summoned a council at Constantina on the fifth before the Kalends of February. A council was summoned by the primate of Numidia for the bishops of Numidia, where we too are. But in that city of Constantina, as I think, your love knows that there is a bishop from our own side. For he was nurtured in the word of God and held the presbyterate in the municipality of Thagaste, from there he was given as bishop to Constantina. We cannot tell you with what letters he wished to draw me, that I might come to Constantina: with the council also summoned, he took away all my delays and doubts. And yet, dearest ones, such a letter came from my lord and brother Aurelius your bishop to my humility, that by the gravity of its sentences and weight it overcame whatever I had previously arranged, and, with all else passed over, not so much drew me as snatched me. For I thought this, since he deigned to command with so great confidence, but also with so great a threat, not about himself, but about God, that I should say to myself: if I came here and yielded to his will—rather, to God's through him—I could satisfy by his letters, concerning my departure thence, the old lord Xanthippus, lest perhaps he be angry with me, because, leaving the council of the Numidians, where the reasoning of his own order required me to be present, I chose rather to come here.

3. But to what does all this that I have said pertain? Yesterday my eyes saw that there was a space which was not filled by the brothers, near both to our ears and our tongue; we were not the authors that the disputation should take place there rather, because we saw that they should rather be made to obey, so as to come to the bishops, than the bishops, so as to come to those places with a great disturbance of the greater multitude which had already, in a certain way, settled itself around the apse in the security of hearing: a much greater multitude would have had to be moved from these places to those places. But perhaps the men were to be despised; what of the weaker sex? Without doubt the women, when they had begun to press themselves in their eagerness to draw near, would they not make a greater noise too, and utter voices which it would be most unfitting for me to hear in church? This alone, then, it was: that those few who were leaning on the railings would deign to come to the spaces near to that place where we were speaking. What great thing was this that we asked? But this they would not even hear, and a disturbance was made, and great sorrow for us, which God just now, through the discourse of your truly venerable bishop, deigned to blot out. But for the rest, brothers, we admonish you not to think that a place for making a sermon there was not granted me by him, where it was so obstinately asked by certain ones and tumultuously demanded. Behold why I said all those things, because, if we felt even a little tightening in the heart of our most blessed brother, we would not come to this city—especially with other necessities pressing.

4. For what? Does not your love remember that against the party of Donatus from that place, from the middle of the railing, I disputed for four continuous days? Was it awaited that you should ask? Was it even suggested by us? He himself of his own accord saw it must be done and did it; he did not see it must be done, he did not do it. But perhaps you say: "What great or difficult thing did we ask?" Even if it is a small thing that you asked, it is no small thing, the obedience which we demand of you. From this I will rather speak. For I heard certain brothers saying: "Behold, he himself disputed that the weak must be served. The day before he disputed this, on another day he did not do it. Let us, then, be served. Why did he come down?" Why I came down, I tell your holiness. For he himself rather ought to pardon me, since I came down without his commanding it. But my counsel of coming down was such that I did not even consult him lest he forbid it. And surely if I consulted him and he forbade it, I could then only obey: it would be necessary that I not come down. I preferred, then, to ask pardon, because, without consulting him or his commanding, I came down, than not to do what I thought ought to be done.

5. Now then hear why I thought this had to be done. How this people has always obeyed its bishop when present, not only we know, but all Africa and perhaps the whole world, wherever the Church of this city is known. For what dissoluteness and confusion of women and men was here before, we all know, because we too in our past age were a part of this stain. It was done by the Lord through his servant that the mingled sex should not keep vigil. I, a boy keeping vigil, when I was studying in this city, so kept vigil amid women mingled with the wickednesses of men, where perhaps occasion even tempted chastity. How honorably it is now kept watch, how chastely, how holily! This diligence cannot displease even those against whom it was instituted. The wicked themselves, the wanton themselves, the very plotters against another's chastity can grieve at this diligence, but cannot blame it. But was this alone done, that we should perhaps rejoice over this alone? What of the diverse approaches and entrances? How was it provided for, with how great prudence devised, with how great insistence accomplished, that those who, when they had entered, were going to be in separate places, should also enter through separate ways, lest, entering in a narrow space, they begin what they afterward contrive to accomplish, wicked and shameless servants, those things they are wont to say to the face of passing matrons? How vigilantly these things were seen to, with what vigor abolished! In the church of Mappalia, at the memorial of the blessed bishop and martyr Cyprian, how great things were wont to be done, if we remember, perhaps we shall still grieve; if we forget, we give the less thanks to God. Let your love recall with us, brothers: I mention the benefits of God toward you through your bishop. Where then shameless little songs were resounding, now hymns ring out; where vigil was kept for luxury, vigil is kept for holiness; finally, where God was offended, God is propitiated. I ask your love that you not forget these things: they are near, they can be compared; yesterday they were, today they are not. But when could your bishop accomplish these things, unless he had an obedient people? That I may speak something, and that something not small, even of the good of your obedience, if to your bishop attempting such things your zeal did not consent, could he have fulfilled this in any way? The mercy of God was present, then, both in his diligence and in your obedience. Since, then, we knew these things, how you are wont to be subject, when we set you forth as an example to be imitated by others, so as to say to the small congregations clamoring in the country and resisting their bishops: "Go, see the people of Carthage"; since, then, we rejoiced the more abundantly over your good example, how could we yesterday be saddened, brothers, over your disobedience, as though our frequent coming had taught you disobedience?

6. Let your love, then, attend. That I might come down, I grieved at the misery of my ministry. You were asking to hear. What would the speaker build up, when the hearer was threatening ruin? "Why," you say, "ruin? For what great thing did we ask? What evil did we seek?" I will say what ruin, I will say it that you may fear, not that you may fall. Do you not know that from a spark a fire arises? Do you not know that the smallest drops fill rivers and drag away farms? Let disobedience not seem to you a light sin. Plainly let us say thus: it made no difference whether you heard here, or there; that there were spaces around us which could be filled by the multitude, both we know and you. What, then, remained, that you were unwilling to cross over here, except mere obstinacy: "Either this alone is done which we wish, or let not be done what you wish"? For we wished you to hear, and what we wished was useful to all. But certain ones, because they clung to the railings, when their irrational will was not consented to, even shouted: "Let the dismissal be made." Surely, how far you are and how slowly I said: "Let the dismissal be made," and behold, you all heard it, because you patiently kept silent. What if we wished to test that very obedience of yours? "But in a small matter," says someone, "how would you test it?" If in a small matter you did not obey, will you obey in a greater matter? Have you not read the Lord saying: He who is faithful in a small matter, is faithful also in a great one, and he who is unfaithful in a small matter, is unfaithful also in a great one (Luke 16:10)?

7. Do you wish to know what an evil disobedience is, since I said: "The hearer was threatening ruin"? God planted all good things in his paradise. If in the whole world he made all things good, Scripture saying: And God saw all the things that he made, and behold, they were very good (Gen 1:31), if all, how much more those things which he set more joyful in paradise. Where, then, he had planted all things good, what does it mean: Do not touch that tree? Do you not know that men are wont to raise a question from this, who cannot see either how great a good obedience is or how great an evil disobedience? Behold, all good things had been planted. Do not touch, says God. "Why may I not touch it? Did you put something evil here? If you put something evil here, take it away, and do not forbid me to touch it." "Do not", he says, "touch this tree," which surely, unless it were good, would not be in paradise. Or do you perhaps think this, that outside paradise God had filled the earth with all good things and in paradise had planted an evil? Even in the rest of the earth surely there were good things, but in paradise certainly better ones. Yet because among all the good things which were set in paradise obedience was better, God forbade something from somewhere, lest by forbidding nothing he should not have lordship. And what? Perhaps someone thinks that God, out of his pride, wished to have lordship. The lordship of God is useful not to God, but to him over whom he has lordship. He is neither lesser when we despise him, nor greater when we serve him. To be under such a Lord is expedient for us, not for him. He who wishes to have lordship over us wishes it for our benefit, not his own. He is in need of no good of ours, we are in want of all his goods, and of God himself our highest good. For our highest and best good, than which nothing is better, is God himself. See the servant confessing, hear him from the psalm: I said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)). Therefore God forbade something, that he might impose a precept, that the one having lordship might be served, that obedience might be distinguished from disobedience as virtue from vice; and that tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (See Gen 2:17), not because as it were good and evil fruits hung there, but it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for this reason, that, if a man touched it against the precept, in that tree he would experience what the difference is between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience. For from that tree, with the precept despised, death followed; with the precept kept, immortality would follow. You see, then, how great an evil disobedience is, my brothers: it was itself the first ruin of man.

8. Surely we wish to rise from this fall: why do we repeat that from which we fell? Let Adam suffice, Christ has come. In Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). From Adam into the human race the root of evil is disobedience, in Christ the root of immortality is obedience. Therefore Adam was for us the author and example of disobedience, but Christ of obedience. And how Christ for obedience? Although he is equal to the Father, he says he serves the Father. Surely you recognize with me, catholics, the catholic faith; you recognize: I and the Father are one (John 10:30), you recognize: He who sees me, sees the Father (John 14:9), you recognize: And the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1), you recognize: Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Phil 2:6). For to Christ equality is not a thing grasped, but his nature: he for whom it was a thing grasped, standing, fell; he for whom it was his nature, even descending, remained. But let the same apostle Paul unfold the commendation of the obedience of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is worth the trouble to recall and hear the whole passage. Behold, see the Son equal to the Father in the form of God, but read what follows: Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. "But what did he do?" But he emptied himself. "How did he empty himself? I fear lest he lost the equality." Do not suspect this: hear what follows, hear from what he emptied himself, hear that he emptied himself not by losing what he was, but by receiving what he was not. He emptied, he says, himself. "How? I ask you, now say it." Taking the form of a servant. "Who took the form of a servant?" He who, though he was in the form of God—there was, here taking—taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men—made surely in the mother whom he had made—made in the likeness of men and found in habit as a man. "But we were speaking of obedience. We have said many things now, and we have not heard about obedience. He emptied himself I heard, taking the form of a servant I heard, made in the likeness of men I heard, but prove that he did this by obeying." At the end, hear: made in the likeness of men and found in habit as a man, he humbled himself, made obedient unto death (Phil 2:6-8).

9. Let us behold the master of the servant: the master obeys, the servant despises? Let no one say in his heart: "But he did this, because he is the Lord." What did he do, because he is the Lord? Did I say this to you: "Light the sun, let the moon run with its monthly waning and waxing; make the stars shine from heaven, the fountains gush from the earth, the animals walk, the birds fly, the fish swim"? Finally, did I even say this: "Open the eyes of the blind, break open the ears of the deaf, drive away the sick man's fever, raise up the flesh of the dead"? I say none of these: these he did as God, but I demand of you the obedience which he dispensed beforehand as a servant. Obedience, I say, I demand. Through immortality you will be like him, through obedience he himself was made like you. He will give you his life, for he received your death. But you say: "He obeyed God the Father." For whom are you commanded to obey? For he obeyed God the Father, as an equal. Or do you think it makes a difference that he served God the Father and to you it is said: "Obey your bishop"? For who set the bishop over you, whom you should obey? Or has the Gospel slipped from you: He who hears you hears me (Luke 10:16); he who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me (Matt 10:40)? Finally you say: "He served the Father." What if he served you too? Are you too his father and mother? Because he here deigned to have a mother, not a father, that he might show both his generations wonderful, divine and human: divine without a mother, human without a father—and yet he was a child subject to his parents (read the Gospel), in his childish age subject to his parents (See Luke 2:51), in divine majesty the Lord of his parents—yet you are not his mother, although he served you too. For he taught us to serve not by word only, but by example. It was too little for the Lord to say to his disciples: Serve one another. For the Lord commands a thing to be done: surely it ought to suffice, because the Lord commanded it. Or was it to be awaited that he should show what he commanded? Truly, would any one of us dare to demand that our Lord should first fulfill what he commanded? And yet, with none of us daring to demand it, he gave from himself an example of serving one another to his disciples: Whoever, he says, wishes to be greater among you, will be your servant (Matt 20:26). And at once, lest the disciples be saddened at the servile name and say to him: "Then, Lord, shall we be servants, whom you have redeemed? shall we be servants, for whom you shed your blood? Do we not recognize the merit of our freedom in our price, your blood?", he consoled perhaps their saddened pride not yet healed: He will be, he said, your servant, just as the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister (Matt 20:27-28). Behold, he was made our minister too, and we are not his mother. Or perhaps we are his mother too? These are my brothers and my mother, who do my will (See Matt 12:50).

11. Go, he says, into the village which is opposite you, you will find there a colt of an ass tied on which no one has sat, lead it, and if they say to you: "What are you doing? where are you leading the colt?", answer: "The Lord has need of it," and they will let it go to you (See Mark 11:2-3). They heard, they went, they did it. Did anyone resist, did anyone say: "Why does he want a colt led to him? For surely he who raised the dead has not failed from walking"? Hear, servant; do what is commanded by him who surely wishes you healthy, by him who bears care for you unto salvation. To seek why he commanded is to dispute, not to obey. First be a diligent obeyer, that you may be a fitting disputer. Wash yourselves, be clean, are the words of one commanding. Take away wickedness from your souls and from the sight of my eyes, are the words of one commanding. Learn to do good, judge for the orphan, justify the widow—have you done what he commanded?—and come, let us dispute, says the Lord (See Isa 1:16-18). The colt was loosed from the village, which was opposite them. What is the village opposite the disciples, except this world? Go to the village, which is opposite you. This world is opposite the disciples, falsehood opposite truth, lust opposite chastity, disobedience opposite obedience. In this village which is the world, a colt was tied, on which no one had sat. Who is this colt tied in the opposing village, on which no one had sat, who is it but the people of the nations bound by the chain of the devil, on which no one had sat, because it had carried no prophet? It is loosed, led, it carries God, is governed by the Lord, is led by the Lord along the way, is admonished by the Lord with a scourge; and in those who obeyed, to lead the colt, there was obedience, and in those who at once let the colt go, hearing that the Lord has need of it, there was obedience. Understand those men as you please. For perhaps they are the contrary powers which had tied the colt; perhaps those men who had tied the colt signify the devil and his angels (See Matt 25:41), through whom the people of the nations had been bound with a pernicious superstition: yet so great is the power of the one commanding, that even they do not dare to hold what the Lord says he has need of. What are you, my brothers? What do you wish to be? The loosers of the colt, or the colt? For far be it that you be those who had tied the colt, and yet not even they resisted. What, then, do you wish to be, my brothers: those who loosed the colt, or the colt itself? You do not dare to claim for yourselves the person of those through whom the colt was loosed: the apostles did this. That is the person of prelates: we ourselves, according to the strength which the Lord deigns to grant, bear it with all anxiety; from this we speak to you. You are the colt, obey those who lead you to carry the Lord. Surely, dearest ones, consider how the disciples loosed the colt and led it to the Lord. They led, it followed; for they did not drag it, and it kick back. And yet, because we speak of our service, when the disciples led the colt to the Lord, they rather served the colt; so we too serve you, when we lead you to the Lord, when we teach and admonish obedience: if your weakness were not served, you would not hear us today.

12. Surely, dearest ones, we too are men (See Acts 14:15), weak we too bear ourselves. You disturbed us yesterday, and in that very disturbance of ours we feared more for you, lest you sadden in us the Spirit of God (See Eph 4:30), through whom we serve you. How do you think me, brothers, now standing and about to speak to you, how do you think I could have been disturbed, attending—what I already mentioned—how obedient you are wont to be and how disobedient you showed yourselves with us present, as though we taught disobedience, as though we, according to our measure, did not hold your little rein, to lead you to the Lord? And yet, dearest ones—what you heard from him, and it is true—however great our care for you or on your behalf, can it be greater than that of him who specially serves you, who is so over you that he is under you? We seem to be over you from the higher place: yet so great is the burden of anxiety and care, that it makes us under your feet. Finally, tread and live. What is, my brothers, what is any virtue in a servant of God without obedience? For what is obedience? You love love: it is its daughter, obedience is the daughter of love. But love cannot be barren. Plainly let no one deceive you, let no one say: "I do not have obedience, but I have love." Plainly you do not have love. Wherever this mother is, she gives birth. If she is there, she has given birth; if she has not given birth, she is not there. The root is in the hidden, brothers, the fruit in the open. I do not believe that it clings in the soil, unless I see what hangs on the branch. Do you have love? Show me its fruit: let me see obedience, let me rejoice over obedience, let me embrace the offspring, that I may recognize the mother.

13. Behold how great goods even the feigned seem to have. Yesterday we heard the praises of a true martyr: what torments he endured, how huge, how many, how dense! If love is lacking, it is madness. Whence do we praise, whence do we proclaim, whence do we rejoice with him, except because we see in what Church, for what faith, what he resisted to the king commanding? For not because he resisted the one commanding, but because he resisted the one commanding this, where to obey is a sin, because that is not even to be called obedience, where something pernicious and sacrilegious is commanded. For just as there is no faith when something false is believed, so there is no obedience where something useless is commanded. For how could I call obedient one who believes a man, despises God? The powers are ordered in this world, and above all powers is the divine power (See Rom 13:1). You would not be obedient if perhaps, by obeying as a servant your father, you despised your master. This I say: if perhaps you were a servant, and your father and your fellow-servant commanded you one thing, against that which your master had commanded you, and you obeyed your father rather than your master, would I not call you disobedient and a perverter of order? For he is rather to be heard who has the greater power, he who has the lawful one. I would not, then, call obedient one who obeyed a steward against a proconsul, a proconsul against the emperor; so I do not call obedient one obeying the emperor against God.

14. Whence, then, obedient, whence holy, whence the attainer of the true crown, Vincentius, whence the victor over so many sufferings and fitting to his own name? Whence? See who commanded, whom he commanded, what he commanded. The emperor commanded, he commanded a Christian, he commanded that he offer incense to idols. If you attend to the rank of the one commanding, the emperor commanded a provincial. "A certain place is granted as it were to obedience, when I hear who commanded, whom he commanded." But wait, attend to what he commanded: to offer incense to idols. "Let him who does not offer incense to idols be punished." Now the provincial obeys, if a greater power commands nothing to the contrary. But raise your ear, hear two voices: hear one from the tribunal, the other hear from heaven. What did you hear from the tribunal? "Let him who does not sacrifice to the gods be punished." What from heaven? He who sacrifices to gods shall be uprooted (See Exod 22:20). Here let your obedience be proved, martyr. Distinguish the voices, set apart the powers. You see him who commands, fear rather him who forbids. This is the crown of martyrdom, this the triumph, with the devil thoroughly conquered and trampled under foot, whom the martyr feared when coaxing, whom he had despised when angry. He expressed this himself, as those things which were read were heard, he expressed it in his own words: when the one who raged as it were wished to have mercy, then he seemed most to be guarded against. For deceitful mercy harmed more than open cruelty. In the roaring of the angry one, he did not dread the lion; in the coaxing of the merciful one, he did not keep silent that he had feared the dragon. For he himself is the lion and the dragon of whom it was said: You will trample on the lion and the dragon (Ps 91:13 (90:13)).

15. Let no one, then, say, dearest brothers, let no one say—for everyone who says it deceives himself—that now the Church does not suffer persecution, because the emperors are catholic, because, going to render an account to God of their empire, they command all things for the Church, keep watch for its increase; let no one then say that the Church does not suffer persecution: it does not suffer the lion, but the dragon does not sleep. Hear that lion, in the open suffering of the saints, mentioned by Peter and exhorting the martyrs to the triumph of victory: Your adversary, he says, the devil, like a roaring lion goes about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8). For then there were horrible threats and great cruelty of the pagans against the saints of God, then the onslaught of adverse commands and the great roaring of the powers: the lion was roaring, but neither did the dragon cease. You have heard Peter exhorting against the lion, hear also Paul making us cautious against the dragon: I betrothed, he says, you to one husband. For many wished to become the husbands of one woman. But consider, brothers, consider what many husbands make of one woman. They make her that which is to be considered so that it may be detested, not to be spoken so that it may be shuddered at. There were, then, many husbands wishing to be of one woman. But that one, a friend of the bridegroom and zealous for the bridegroom, not for himself: I betrothed, he says, you to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve, so also your senses be corrupted away from the chastity of God, which is in Christ (See 2 Cor 11:2-3). He feared lest she be corrupted not by the cruelty of the lion, but by the coaxing of the dragon. Peter admonished you, for God's sake, not to care about the lion, Paul admonishes you, for God's sake, to keep watch against the dragon and in God to trample lion and dragon (See Ps 91:13 (90:13)).

16. For do you wish to know what this dragon is like, how his snares are to be avoided, how great is the cunning of the enemy? Behold, now nearly six thousand years, exercised in the temptations of the saints, against the one true God he made many false gods. But one Son of God came, foretold by his heralds sent before; the Son of God came, loosed the works of the devil as it were the binding of that colt (See 1 John 3:8), taught by word, confirmed by example; he showed that the one true God is to be worshiped, that he himself is to be adored and not the angels in his place, since the angels too, because they love God, because love especially reigns in them, wish God to be loved with them, not themselves in place of God. When, then, he had taught these things, he taught this: that the saints must die, if there is need, for this teaching. For what teaching? That which has love from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith (See 1 Tim 1:5). For this he taught the saints of God to die and commended them to the Church as venerable. How venerable? Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his just ones (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). Hence precious the death of Peter, hence precious the death of Paul, hence precious the death of Vincentius, hence precious the death of Cyprian. Whence precious? From pure love and a good conscience and unfeigned faith. But that serpent saw this, that ancient serpent saw the martyrs honored, the temples deserted: cunning and venomous in his vigilance against us, because he could not give Christians false gods, he made false martyrs. But O you, catholic offshoots, compare with us for a little while these false martyrs to the true martyrs, and with pious faith distinguish what the devil tries to confound by venomous deceit.

17. The distinction of true and false martyrs that one wishes to darken for us, he wishes to extinguish the eye of the heart, lest we discern these things; he wished to set against them a similar appearance, but let us against the devil attend to the Apostle saying of certain ones: Having an appearance of piety, but denying its power (2 Tim 3:5). What is the power of piety? Love. It is itself that mother of obedience. Accordingly attend to the appearance by which the devil tries to join false martyrs to true martyrs. "Behold," he says, "they too suffer persecution." Still, O enemy, still you confound. They suffer persecution, you say. Still set against them robbers, murderers, parricides, adulterers, poisoners: do not all these too suffer persecution? Did not my Lord, whom I wish—and yours, willing or unwilling, because also mine, even if I had been unwilling, but to my good my Lord, because I wish it, to my evil, if I had been unwilling—did not my Lord foresee you, O ancient enemy, who, when he exhorted his disciples to the glory of the passion: Blessed, he said, are those who suffer persecution for justice (Matt 5:10)? Against all your poisons, against your two-tongued or three-tongued or many-tongued attempts, one word kept watch: for justice. On account of this word, murderers suffer persecution and are not martyrs, adulterers suffer and are not martyrs. Now show your martyrs: you boast that they suffer, I ask why they suffer. You praise the punishment, I examine the cause. The cause, I say, I examine, the cause I seek. Tell me why he suffers, whom you toss about as suffering. For justice? Teach this: for that is the cause of martyrs. For it is not the punishment that crowns the martyrs, but the cause.

18. O enemy and cunning seducer, against your false martyrs the true martyrs cried out in the psalm: Judge me, God, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). Judge me, he says, and distinguish my cause. See, dearest ones, how many things he passed over: he wished his cause to be distinguished. For the cause is distinguished. The true martyr did not say: "Distinguish my fasts," for those people too fast; he did not say: "Distinguish my works which they do toward the poor," for those people too do them; he did not say: "Distinguish my baptism," for those people too have the same; he did not say: "Distinguish my creed," for those people too confess it; in all things he finds himself like them, he prayed only that his cause be distinguished. Distinguish my cause. I fast, and he fasts. But why I, why he? I for Christ. "But I too," he says, "for Christ." Really for Christ? If for Christ, I believe, surely also for the words of Christ; if against the words of Christ, certainly against Christ. "And what are the things of Christ," he says, "against which I suffer?" Do you so rage in a false passion, that your heart has fallen away from the truthful preaching? Behold the common Lord himself, whom you confess with me, even when you do not believe.

19. See whether Christ did not wish to show both himself and his Church, so that those invited to the wedding and clothed in the wedding garment might err in neither, neither in the bridegroom nor in the bride. How did he show the bridegroom? It behooved Christ to suffer and to rise on the third day (See Luke 24:46). I recognize the bridegroom: this the prophets too said, this said those servants who were sent ahead, to invite to the wedding. It behooved Christ to suffer and to rise on the third day. Such he showed himself to them, he demonstrated this fulfilled in himself according to the prophets to those who doubted. What of the bride? Did he keep silent? At once he showed her too. For he saw that he was now consequently being desired. It behooved, he says, Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. Behold, I see the bridegroom, behold, I recognize him. What of the bride? And that penance and remission be preached in his name through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). This Church, expressed by the mouth of Christ, foretold by the proclamation of the prophets, recognize her, if you are a martyr, hold her; in her and for her shed your blood, render back what was dispensed to you beforehand. Hear the apostle John: Therefore, he says, Christ laid down his soul for us, because we too ought to lay down our soul for the brothers (1 John 3:16). Wake up: for the brothers, not against the brothers. What does it profit that you confess the bridegroom, that you honor the head of the household, and his spouse, I do not say neglect, but persecute with false charges? You, a man, having a spouse whom you have not redeemed with your own blood (See Acts 20:28), yet so love her that, if anyone obeyed you, kept watch at your house daily, fell at your feet, followed you with every proclamation, never and nowhere kept silent your praises, but spoke one charge about your wife, would have poured out the whole of what he had served.

20. Accordingly let the confessions of true and false martyrs be brought forth and compared, let us set before our eyes what we beheld yesterday. For we saw a certain most sweet spectacle: a martyr contending against the impious one compelling, true faith succumbing in no punishment, Vincentius everywhere conquering. We saw it, we were present. That reading spoke with our heart: we were delighted. That serpent envying the martyrs, that snake whom Vincentius guarded against when coaxing, because he could not blame that passion, stirred up sedition for us. Let those recognize and grieve who lent him their tongues for the service. For what did those voices mean: "Make the dismissal," "the dismissal, make the dismissal," except that that martyr should not be praised somewhat longer? Let them be compared, then, let the confessions of true and false martyrs be compared. You call yourself a martyr because you resist the power. What power commanding? Behold, I hear what was commanded the true martyrs, let me hear also what is commanded you. I see how gloriously they refused, because I see what they refused; do you show what you refuse: let me compare your voices, let me see what I ought to imitate, what to follow. "Offer incense to the gods." "I will not." We have heard the glorious voice of the true martyr, let us hear also from that side: "Be in concord with your brother." O abominable voice, worthily damnable not only by the highest God, but even by the human powers! "Be in concord with your brother." "I will not." Surely you suffer against Christ.

21. Open the Gospel, read: If you offer your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave there your gift and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matt 5:23-24). If, he says, you remember that your brother has something against you. What is has something against you? You have offended him, you have done something iniquitous against him. Go to be reconciled to your brother: from the concordant I accept a gift. Why do you offer a gift at the altar of God, when in your heart there is the seat of the devil? Who sowed discord there? Who planted it? Who finally dwells there? Is it not he, always the sower of discords, the author of dissensions, the origin of quarrels? If Christ said this of two men, struck in so great a care, so great a fear, so exacts concord, as though he said: "You offer one thing, I require another. I take even what you have offered, if you bring what I have required," if this in two men, how much more in two peoples? If to have such a cause against one man is dangerous and ruinous, how much more against the whole world, how much more against that whole bride of Christ, spread through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47)?

22. Or do you perhaps have a cause against me? For the Lord says this: If you remember that your brother has something against you (Matt 5:23). You will say to me, then: "Your brother, he says, has something against you, I have something against you, for you have nothing against me." Let us seek, then: if it be found in me, I correct it; if it be found in you, do you correct it. Set forth to me the cause you have against me, I will quickly say what I have against you. This I have against you, which my Lord has against you. You speak charges against his matron, and his matron is the whole world in his saints and faithful, against her you direct a charge. Or did you come to know anything, or did you judge it? In what tribunal were you sitting, when the whole world stood before to be heard? You do not know the cause of your neighbor: how surely did you judge about the whole world? I recite the records, I show who were the traitors, I read that those very ones sat against the innocent Caecilian who confessed their own crimes, the public archives proclaim that your elders first carried the cause of Caecilian, bishop of this city, to the emperor Constantine: yet I do not impute to you the crime of your elders. All the proceedings are for me, and I do not charge you with another's crimes. But you bring forth nothing whereby you may even convict my elders, and you accuse me who was born so long afterward. "If, then," he says, "you do not impute to me the deeds of my elders, why do you impute to me your own deeds?" What deeds of mine? "Because you are not with me." And what evil to you because I am not with you? Did I not say that I have a cause with you, which my Lord has with you? Hear him saying: He who is not with me is against me (Matt 12:30).

23. And so, dearest ones, as much as we could, and perhaps beyond what we could, your zeal compelling us to heal the sadness of yesterday, we have perhaps been more talkative than the weakness of standing, whether ours or yours, required. But this especially I admonish, and to this I rather conclude my sermon: that, since I mentioned the saying of the Lord not to be heard negligently: If you offer your gift at the altar, go first to be reconciled to your brother (See Matt 5:23-24), our hearts may be reconciled to one another. First and especially, do not think that either yesterday or ever at all your bishop was angry out of hatred but out of love: there is never shaken out of his breast what is owed to you on account of Christ. Let the clouds of yesterday be cleared; not only love, which never withdrew, but also the former joy be recalled, so that it may be our care alike, as we have exhorted you in Christ, to serve the weak unto benefit, not unto a harmful will. For not, dearest ones, because the weak must be served, when perhaps he asks for food or when he refuses food, so that he is compelled by you with trouble and anxiety or with some importunity to take it lest he die, because the weak is so served, on that account it must be given to him, even if he asks for poison. Do not, then, grow accustomed to the great evil of disobedience. Nor let anyone again say: "What then? Did we ask for poison, because we wished to transfer the pulpit from place to place?" Disobedience is poison, it itself first killed man. Do we, brothers, blame this, that you asked? Truly we tell your love that, if you asked even somewhat longer, yet by asking you could not displease us, as you displeased us by being angry and saying: "Let the dismissal be made." This is what we wish you to grieve over. When you ask, if it seems good, it is granted you; if it does not seem good, turn yourselves from asking to obeying; but if you wish to burst out into anger, into reviling, into provocation of those who serve you in Christ with so great anxiety, that now is poison, even if it is not death itself. Do not, brothers, we ask you, we beseech you; distinguish the Church of God from the theaters. Here all those things which are done badly in the theaters are wont to be punished, are wont to be healed, are wont to be led to confession and to penance, not to be brought in here. Here to rise up, here to roar back, here to lord it, may God turn away both from your hearts and from our grief, and may we always rejoice over your obedience.

Sermon 360
At the Vigils of Maximianus, About a Certain Donatist Who Returned to the Church

1. Thanks be to God, brothers, congratulate your brother, who was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found (See Luke 15:32). Thanks to the patience and mercy of the Lord our God: to his patience, because he bore with the one delaying; to his mercy, because he deigned to receive the one returning. This is the vineyard where I did not labor, and I had spent my strength on another's. O vineyard beloved of my Lord, not only did my labor profit you nothing, but I even served against you for your enemy. I scattered with great sweat, when I was not gathering for you. Thanks to your planter, with whom the reward of the workers does not fail even of those called at the last hour (See Matt 20:9). I arrive late, but I do not despair of the denarius. I who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious against you: but I obtained mercy, because I did it in ignorance (See 1 Tim 1:13). For I held the words of my parents, not of the Patriarchs, not of the Prophets, not of the Apostles; but of the parents of my flesh. I did not yield to flesh and blood; but I yielded, overcome by the truth, and rested, restored to unity. Was I not reading the same Scriptures which now too I read? But even that Teacher of the Gentiles, the vessel of election, from Saul Paul, from one exalted the least, from a robber a shepherd, from a wolf a ram, was a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the law a Pharisee (See Phil 3:5), instructed in the law at the feet of the teacher Gamaliel (See Acts 22:3): and yet Christ, whom he read of in the Prophets, he neither knew to sit in heaven, nor permitted to be worshiped on earth. The faith of his passion and resurrection he sang with his mouth not knowing it, and, raging in error, laid it waste. According to the Prophets, in whom he had been born and grown up, Christ, now rising from the dead, was sitting in heaven; and that one was still blinded in the lie of his parents, that his disciples had stolen him from the tomb. So I too was struck about on every side concerning the catholic Church spread throughout the whole world by the voices of the divine Scriptures; and the false charges of traitors, leveled by my parents, made me deaf to them. I do not compare myself to Paul by merits, but by sins. Even if I did not merit to be so good, yet I was not so evil without the medicine of correction. Neither did he recognize the bridegroom in the Books which he read, nor I the bride. He who revealed to him concerning the glorification of Christ what is written: Be exalted above the heavens, O God; he himself revealed to me concerning the outpouring of the Church what follows: Above all the earth be your glory (Ps 57:5 (56:6)). Both testimonies are open to those who see, but closed to the blind. To him the Baptism of Christ opened his eyes, to me the peace of Christ. Him the washing of holy water made new: but love covered the multitude of my sins (See 1 Pet 4:8).

Sermon 360/A
A Treatise of Saint Augustine the Bishop
On the Testimonies of the Scriptures
Against the Donatists and Against the Pagans

1. The promises of God gave faith to our fathers, the gifts of God fulfilled faith for us. In them it was promised to us, in us it was rendered to them too. There are two senses of the body through which faith enters: hearing and sight. They heard, we see. But in us they too see, and in them we have heard. Therefore God addresses the Church herself too: Hear, daughter, and see. Hear, he says, and see, and forget your people and the house of your father, for the king has desired your beauty. What king? It follows and says: For he himself is your God (Ps 45:10-11 (44:11-12)). What and how great, then, is this dignity of the woman, whose king is God and whose husband is God? Hear, he says, and see, and forget your people and the house of your father. He fixes something in the memory, that he may take away another from the memory. For she was under another father and in another people. For to the still unbelieving, and still in darkness, the Lord said: You are of your father the devil (John 8:44). But the people of the impious is the son and crowd of the devil, belonging as members to a lost head. The house of this father and this people she is bidden to forget by hearing and seeing, so that she herself too may answer from another psalm in her faithful: As we have heard, so also we have seen (Ps 48:8 (47:9)).

2. It was heard from our fathers: In your seed all the nations shall be blessed (Gen 22:18). This is seen by us, because it is fulfilled in us. It was heard: There shall be a root of Jesse, and one who shall arise to reign over the nations, in him the nations shall hope (Rom 15:12; Isa 11:10). From Jesse David, from David the offspring of Christ. The root of Jesse, Christ, reigns over the nations, in him the nations hope. The provincials of the king hope in their king, and the servants in the one having lordship, and the co-heirs in the brother (See Rom 8:17). This, just as it is woven in the variety of the queen's garment, so is it clear to our eyes and faith. For it was said of this queen: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, clothed about with variety (Ps 45:9 (44:10)). What is the variety of the garment? The multitude of tongues. The Latins speak one way, the Greeks another, the Punic another, the Hebrews another, the Syrians another, the Indians another, the Cappadocians another, the Egyptians another. Variety in color, unity in weave. For the many colors, enclosed in the unity of the weave, depict, they do not tear apart. Variety of tongues, but not variety of teachings. Variety of speech, but unity of love. And how does the Apostle say: Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12), where the eyes of God are, where the sight of him whom we have pleased, except because, since we were sinners, by remitting to us that whereby we displeased, he gave us that whereby we may please? Because, then, this came about that we could by his gift, not by our merit, say with the Apostle and from the Apostle: Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience, therefore of that queen too it is said: All the beauty of the king's daughter is within (Ps 45:13 (44:14)). By the garment she is adorned outwardly for the face, by faith she is formed inwardly for salvation. Whence, except by hearing and seeing, she to whom it was said: Hear, daughter, and see (Ps 45:10 (44:11)), so that she might answer, as we said, and sing together and in a certain way echo with all her members: As we have heard, so also we have seen (Ps 48:8 (47:9))?

3. The world was bare of Christians and was dry in the poverty of grace. One people worshiping God, born of Abraham by the stock of the flesh and the series of generation; in which people there were many saints, prophets, just men, patriarchs, our fathers; there grace in worshiping God, and the merit of deserving and the hope of receiving the reward. And this one nation was among all the nations, while the whole world was empty of this grace. We come to our times: that one nation remained dry of this grace, and the world was watered. How this was prefigured among our fathers, hear. After the solution I set forth what is wont to be set forth to be solved. So now after this preface, when I shall have said it, pardon me. In the book of Judges it is written that Gideon, going to battle and about to fight for his country against foreigners, asked for a sign (See Judg 6:36-40). He seemed to ask for a sign for the present business, but that sign did not fit that present business. He asked a present thing, he foretold a future one. For what does he ask? Hear. He asks of God that he place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor, in which fleece he wished to find rain, so that that fleece would be wet, the whole threshing-floor dry. He asks another sign and says to God: "Lord, let not your fury be angry with me. I will ask yet another and will test yet again with the fleece. This I ask, that the whole threshing-floor be wet, the fleece dry." He received it; he found on another day the fleece dry, the threshing-floor watered. The threshing-floor is the world, in the fleece the people of the Jews. The whole world was empty of this grace, the threshing-floor therefore was dry. This grace was among the Jewish people, but in the fleece. What is in the fleece? Not in the manifestation of faith, but in the cloud of secrecy it was, but in the open it was not. It was not to be shown that it might appear, but to be pressed out that it might flow. The fleece was pressed out, and filled a basin with water. And not in vain a basin. For a basin (pelvis) is named from washing feet (pedes luendi), that is, from washing the feet, as it were a basin, because it washes the feet. Therefore even that pressing-out of the fleece poured forth Christ. For Christ, commending humility, washed the disciples' feet in a basin (See John 13:5). Now, then, the fleece is dry, Christ has been pressed out from it. He was truly pressed out, because thrust out through afflictions. For the tenants said: This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. And they killed him, it says, and cast him out of the city (See Matt 21:38-39). The fleece being pressed out, they sent the water outside. From which, yet so that humility might be stretched out, the pressed-out one took away whom he wished (See Matt 20:16), and went to the nations, that he might fulfill the other sign: with the fleece dry, he watered the threshing-floor. And this faith is not in the cloud of the fleece, but in open manifestation: it is preached to all, known by all. It has a mystery in secret, the word in public. These things, as they were said, so are they; as they were promised, so were they rendered. As we have heard, so also we have seen (Ps 48:8 (47:9)), because to us in unity it was said: Hear, daughter, and see (Ps 45:10 (44:11)).

4. But the heretics, separated from the framework of this world, neither wish to hear what they read nor to see what they know. We have been invited to the wedding, we have praised the bride and commended her from the divine testimonies. We have commended ourselves to ourselves, rather the Lord commends us to all. For he himself promised, he himself displayed. Let them open their eyes and see what they have heard. You hear with me, see with me. Rather, what is worse, you both hear with me and see with me and are not with me. What wonder is it, then, brothers, if the pagans are unwilling to hold what they spurn, when the Donatists are unwilling to believe what they read? The pagan wished to throw my book into the flame, he detested the Scripture itself, he persecuted it. What wonder, if he grieves to see what he wished to burn? But you, heretic, say that you saved this book from the flame. The one you would not have burned, recognize when it is brought forth, hear when it is read. Surely in this book is: In your seed all the nations shall be blessed (Gen 22:18). Surely you would not have these letters burned. Why did you burn in them with desire of dissension? Why, I beseech, except because you lie, except because you say you saved what you handed over? Let us not seek the old things that were done: let the book itself be brought forth, let it, saved from the flame, judge between us. Let us see who belongs to the eternal flame, who handed over the book to the temporal flame. And both he who dared to burn and he who dared to hand it over wished it to perish, but it did not perish. It was saved, it is safe: it is brought forth. Do you ask by whom it was handed over, do you ask by whom it was saved? Let it be brought forth, let it be read. He who believed it, did not hand it over. Do you wish to see how dear that Scripture is to me? It is read, and I follow. Do you wish to see how hateful it is to you? It is read, and you fight back, you resist, you alienate your hearing. Since you do not have ears in your heart, you have closed your heart; the Scripture which you say you saved knocks, and you do not open. If you truly saved this book, your strongbox is better than your heart. But far be it that I believe you sought to save what I see you refuse when it is read. From the saved book you wish to contrive a charge against me, from the read book I show a charge against you. The pagan, if he does not believe, hates what I read; you, who do not wish to seem led to impiety through the pagan, have overcome the pagan in impiety. He hates and throws it away, you hold it and deny it. You say I burned the testament, you who see me hold the inheritance; you say you saved the testament, when you have made yourself disinherited. I bring forth the testament, I read the testament: you do not want me to bring it forth, you bring it forth. Let it be brought forth by you, which is read for me. Do you bring it forth, do you hold it, do you open it, see, read. The hand of the one holding, the eyes of the one seeing, the tongue of the one sounding fight for me. From you, against you, I plead my cause. He who recites the book in your congregation is your reader, my witness. But these people hear and see, those people neither hear nor see. Let us pass from these and leave them, if it can be done without the zeal of animosity, to think about their own impiety.

5. But the remaining pagans, still remaining for this reason, that our faith may still have those who reject it, that it may have God as its approver. Let it address them, and let them know that what is done was written before it was done, and was foretold because it was going to be; and let them not be terrified because what they do not wish is done, but let them believe that what God promised would be is done. They would wish their own will to be done, but God preferred to fulfill his own promise. Let them not be angry. He is better, I think, he is more powerful. However proud they are, God is greater. A few things, then, which for the constraint of time we could, we have excerpted from the holy Scriptures: how the prophets foretold that at certain times the idols would be taken away from the midst, and this has been fulfilled; how they foretold that the Church would be spread through the whole world, and so it has been fulfilled. Let us not, then, be much angry with the pagans, because they are unwilling to believe about the idols, when the heretics are unwilling to believe about the Church. Both see, both do not believe, but some neglect, others read. The crime of the pagan in not believing what he neglects is not so great as that of the heretic in not believing what he reads. But yet the pagans too, by the very fact that the things which were foretold are fulfilled, ought to recognize the one who foretold and fulfilled them. The things, then, which were said about this matter, hear.

6. In the book of Wisdom it is written thus: For this reason too there shall be a visitation upon the idols of the nations (Wis 14:11). For as though God was not looking upon the idols long adored, the long-sacrificed-to idols. He who always sees, at some time looked upon. He saw unto patience, he looked unto vengeance. Upon the idols, he says, of the nations there shall be a visitation, because the creatures of God have been made into a hatred (Wis 14:11). For they provoke God from the creatures of God. How do they provoke God from the creatures? For the craftsman made the god, but God the wood. The goldsmith made the idol, but God the gold. Why do you make of his thing what he hates, from the creature of God do you form badly what he hates? Form rather well what he loves. You wish to place your image on wood, receive the image of God in yourself. Why do you erase within and carve without? The creatures, he says, of God have been made into a hatred, and into temptations for the souls of men, and into a snare for the feet of the foolish. For the beginning of fornication is the seeking out of idols (Wis 14:11-12). If a woman having many husbands is praised, let the soul too be praised that worships many gods. If a woman is an adulteress through true husbands, how much more the soul through false gods? For the beginning of fornication is the seeking out of idols, and their invention is the corruption of life (Wis 14:12). Behold how he condemned them, let us see what he foretold: For neither were they from the beginning nor shall they be forever (Wis 14:13).

7. Zechariah too the holy prophet says: In that day. See what he says, and recognize the day. For he puts "day" for "time," as the Apostle: Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). What, then, says Zechariah? In that day there shall be a place open to the house of David (Zech 13:1). This is what I was saying, that it was closed in the fleece, open on the threshing-floor. There shall be a place open, the Church will be manifest. What is there shall be a place open? A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt 5:14). There shall be a place open to the house of David. And it shall be in that day, the Lord will exterminate the names of the idols from the earth, and there shall be no remembrance of them at all (Zech 13:2). Let the pagans hear these things. Let them see this done which was foretold. If they love divination, let them recognize divinity. Why for a great matter do they go to one delirious astrologer to be consulted about one man—and let him say more false things than true by chance, who in false things makes his setting? Why, then, does he wish to hear what the astrologer is going to say about one man? Let him hear God foretelling about the human race. From the earth the names of the idols are blotted out, in heaven the names of Christians are written (See Luke 10:20).

8. Isaiah too says: The insolence of men shall be humbled and shall fall, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and they shall hide all things made by hand, bringing them into caves and into the caverns of the rocks (See Isa 2:17-19). See whether it is not so, see whether it is not done, see whether the Scripture lies. As though we sought the idols and did not wish to make the worshipers of idols worshipers of God, they hide them in the earth, they hide them in a cave, they hide them in the cavern of the rock. Wherever they hide them, from there it is dug out, when it is overthrown in the heart. How many have hidden their false gods when perverse, and betrayed them when corrected. For altogether we see these two kinds of men to be in the Church, rather one kind from there in the Church, the other now in the neighborhood of the Church, both of those who hide and of those who repel and bring forth. Both kinds God foretold. You have heard of the kind that hides, hear of the kind that betrays and throws away, in the same passage, in one testimony of Isaiah: The Lord alone, he says, shall be exalted in that day, and they shall hide all things made by hand, in caves and in the caverns of the rocks and in the clefts of the earth, from the face of the fear of the Lord, from the brightness of his might, when he shall arise to break the earth (See Isa 2:17-19). What is to break the earth? To terrify the earthly. Therefore we say that every bold man, if he has feared, is broken with fear. No wonder that the earth fears, for heaven thunders. In the prophetic Scriptures are thunders. Therefore those will hide them. What of the others? They too out of fear, but a better one. Those out of fear of the laws hide them, these out of fear of the divine law bring them forth and throw them away. In both there is fear, but by fear some advance, others fail. We have heard of those hiding, let us hear of the other kind. For in that day a man shall cast away his abominations of silver and of gold which they made (See Isa 2:20). It is wonderful that gold and silver are cast away: piety casts away what impiety loves. They cast away their abominations, do they not also cast away the wooden ones, cast away the earthen ones too, cast away the stone ones too? Yet for the commendation of a more devoted mind, they cast away, he says, the gold and silver ones. What does he love, who now does not love gold? What losses does he fear, who does not fear the losses of gold and silver? They cast away the abominations of silver and gold which they made to adore. The vain and harmful things some hide, others cast away: the abomination yet is taken away. Let it be taken away, and would that, as from the places of the earth, so from the hearts of the earthly. Through the hands of his servants let God take away these things from places, by his own hand from hearts.

9. Let us hear Jeremiah too. Although I mentioned this yesterday too, it is too sweet, and let it be repeated today too—for we cannot grow tired of it: Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils (Jer 16:19). No longer is stone and wood my refuge, no longer is gold and silver, the works of the hands of men (See Ps 115:4 (113:12)), my refuge. I do not, he says, flee to those who cannot flee: For they have feet and do not walk (Ps 115:7 (113:15)). Lord, my refuge in the day of evils, in the day of temptations, in the day of this labor, in the day of weak life, in the day of sighs from the desire of the heavenly Jerusalem. For as long as we are not where we desire to be, it is a day of evils. In hope we rejoice, not yet in the reality. Hence too in another psalm: You have led me because you have become my hope (Ps 61:3 (60:4)). Our hope on the way, when it leads. And how a refuge? A tower of strength from the face of the enemy (Ps 61:3 (60:4)). What, then, of the idols, what was going to be? To you, he says, the nations shall come from the end of the earth and shall say: How did our fathers possess lies? The very how is the wonder of the sons at the error of their fathers, as though they say: "How were our elders prudent, how did they worship these things, how did they bend their uprightness before wood and stones, how, leaving him by whom they were made, did they possess the vain things which they made, how did our fathers possess lies?" What are those lies? Idols, and there is no use in them (See Jer 16:19). For lies are wont to seem sometimes useful to certain greedy men; and the trader swears that he may sell dearer, he swears for gain that he may acquire, he lies for gain that he may acquire, he lies in the idol that he may perish. Nor in those lies is there use, if we consider true and wholesome use. But there is at least that which seems to men, which is thought by the unskilled. Here, in the end, what do you pay out to hire a craftsman, you pay out to feed it, you pay out to adorn it, you pay out to set it up, you pay out to sacrifice to it? You pay out the whole that you may acquire nothing, you lose many things that you may perish.

10. Likewise Jeremiah: Do not walk according to the ways of the nations (Jer 10:2). Come now, my brothers, let none of you defend the idols. Every defender of an idol is near to a worshiper. Do not walk according to the ways of the nations, and do not be afraid of the signs of heaven, because the nations fear them, the sight of them (See Jer 10:2). Because it is the custom of the nations to fear the signs of heaven, that is, to choose days when you set out, when a wife is married, when a warp is set up and when another is cut down, because the customs of them are vain (See Jer 10:3). And now hear about the idols: It is wood cut out of the forest, the work of the craftsman and a casting of silver (See Jer 10:3-4). He seems to say a known thing, but the one to whom he says it is too deaf. He rouses him as it were from sleep, that he may see with his heart too what he sees with his eyes. The work of the craftsman and a casting, they are adorned with silver and gold, on anvils and with nails they fastened them, and they will not be moved. For of themselves they will not be moved: men movable in body carry the immovable thing. They would not carry the immovable thing, movable in body, if they were immovable in heart. On anvils and with nails they fastened them, and they will not be moved. Engraved silver. And it is added: They will not walk. From Tarshish will come gold of Uphaz—precious and great gold—and the hand of the artisans, the work of all the artisans, they will clothe them with hyacinth and purple. Lifted up they are carried, because they do not enter in. Do not fear them, because they will not harm, and there is no good in them. Thus you shall say to them. What shall we say to them? Gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from under heaven (See Jer 10:9-11). What is thus you shall say to them? You are Christians, you hear the prophet: thus say to them, do not keep silent. Gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from under heaven. Surely from heaven, where they never were? Let those worshipers too take note of these foretold things, let them take note and believe. Let these perish from under heaven, let those be written in heaven (See Luke 10:20). Surely thus you say to them; do not be seduced by those who say: "Neither worship nor mock." Receive rather, Christian, the prophet; hear God rather through the prophet: You shall say to them: Gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from under this heaven. And as though he said: "Whom shall I worship, when those have perished?", God made heaven and earth in his strength (See Jer 10:12). Why do you wish to worship the earth, when you are earth and on the earth and you yourself made of earth? You have God founding the earth. He has not withdrawn from you in his work, nor is he a stranger even to the heart. He himself made what you tread, he himself made what you look up to, he himself is the one in whom you believe. God made the earth in his strength, he founded the world in his wisdom (Jer 10:12). Did he perhaps not speak of Christ who said: God made the earth in his strength, he founded the world in his wisdom? Hear the apostle Paul: Christ the strength of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24). He stretched out heaven and the multitude of waters in heaven and led the clouds from the end of the earth, he made lightnings into rains and led out light from his storehouses. Every man is made foolish from his own knowledge, and every craftsman is confounded over his graven images, because they cast lies, there is no spirit in them. They are vain, works of mockery, in the time of their visitation they shall perish (See Jer 10:13-15). The false gods perish, but you have not remained without the true God, if you are the younger son Jacob, whom the elder serves (See Gen 25:23). Let the false gods perish, do you hold the true one. For hear what follows: Not of this kind is the portion of Jacob (Jer 10:16). These vain things, these false gods will perish, but the portion of Jacob does not perish. The portion of Jacob: the inheritance of Jacob. The inheritance of Jacob which God gives, or God himself? I dare to say that it is God himself. I take up the psalm, the sentence is evident: Lord, the portion of my inheritance (Ps 16:5 (15:5)). Not of this kind is the portion of Jacob, for he who formed all things, he is his inheritance, the Lord is his name (Jer 10:16).

11. We have heard the things foretold, what will happen to the idols; let us hear the precepts, what must be done to the idols. Let no one say: "Surely the images were foretold as going to perish: let him destroy them. Why do you break them?" But God wished to destroy them through those whom he did not wish to perish. And he will bring you, he says, to the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and I will blot them out. You shall not adore their gods nor serve them. You shall not do according to their works, but by tearing down you shall tear down and by breaking you shall break their images (See Exod 23:23-24). And again: Behold, I will cast out before your face the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite. Make no covenant with those dwelling in the land into which you will enter to them, lest it be an offense among you. Their altars you shall tear down and their pillars you shall break and their groves you shall cut down. For you shall not adore alien gods. For the Lord God is jealous, his name is God the jealous one (See Exod 34:11-14). Hear, brothers, you shudder because it was said: The Lord is jealous. O soul of the Church, O that spouse, you fear a jealous husband: keep chastity.

1. The word of God does not cease to exhort and console us with faithful promises and wholesome threats. For it is expedient for us neither not to love nor not to fear. But just as God the promiser is to be loved, so the threatener is to be feared. In neither does he deceive the hearer, in neither does he beguile the believer. Let no one say in his mind: "He promises true things, but he threatens false things." Both are true. Love and fear. Without any doubt he is going to come who has already come (See Heb 10:37). But he came to teach you patience, he is going to come to crown patience. He will surely crown, when he comes, what he taught when he had come. And what he threatened when he had come, he will inflict when he comes. And these are two: the promise of God, eternal life; the threat of God, eternal punishment. If you do not yet know how to love what he promises, begin to fear what he threatens. For so it is written: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10 (110:10)). But the apostle John says: Fear is not in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). When, then, we have heard: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, let us begin to fear. But because fear has the torment of the heart, you will not be long in torment, if love grows in you and is perfected. Yet it cannot even be begun in you, unless you offer your heart by fear for it to be sown. But love, once born, the more it grows, the more fear is lessened. And if it is lessened while love grows, it is consumed when love is consummated.

2. For what God promises, dearest ones, exceeds not only our words, but even the thoughts of all men. For so it is commended too: What eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9). If there were some color as it were of the light which the bodily eyes know, it would not be said: Nor has eye seen it; if there were some sweet sound such as human ears are wont to be delighted by, as of organs and any musical things, it would not be said: Nor has ear heard it. And because men cannot turn over good things in their minds, except those which they have perceived by the bodily senses, it was added: Nor has it ascended into the heart of man. For you cannot, O man, think of a good thing, except such as you have been accustomed to see or hear or touch by some such sense. Whatever has not entered through the sense of your body, cannot even be thought by your mind.

3. And so when it has been said to us that we shall be in paradise (See Luke 23:43), we think of some pleasant garden. And if we think of a larger one than we have been accustomed to see, yet we enlarge this very kind of thing. If, for instance, we are accustomed to see small trees, we think of them large; and if we are accustomed to such or such fruits, we think of more ample ones. If we are accustomed to see meadows of some extent, we turn over in mind ones immense without end: yet we enlarge by thinking the same things which we know by the eyes. Again, when we hear: God dwells in inaccessible light (1 Tim 6:16), from this light which we know by the bodily eyes we measure that one and amplify it to an immense degree, yet by enlarging what we know, although that light is of a far different kind: for that is the light not of the eyes, but of minds. And just as the eye of the flesh must be cleansed that it may be able to bear this bodily light, which shines either from heaven above and gleams from the nocturnal lights, and if the eyes are wounded and disturbed by some inner humor or by some thing rushing in from without, they will have that very light by which they were wont to be invigorated as a punishment and will be tortured by that which they were wont to rejoice in, so for that intelligible and immortal light, not the eye of the flesh, but the eye of the heart must be cleansed. For just as rheum, which causes bleariness, disturbs the eye of the flesh, so iniquity disturbs it. It too has its weakness, it has its uncleanness, coming not from dust, but from sin. As, then, this bodily eye must be cleansed to see its bodily light, so that inner eye must be cleansed to see that light which neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9).

4. Why has it not ascended into the heart of man? For it is beheld by the heart, when it is beheld. But why has it not ascended into the heart of man? Because of man. What does of man mean? Those who know the Scriptures understand, and anticipate by thought what I am going to say. Men, sometimes by a certain definite signification, our Scripture calls those who still savor carnally (See 1 Cor 3:3). For they are men, that is, they are Adam. But you know that Adam sinned, and from there draws the origin of carnal concupiscence whoever is born mortally. He bears with him, then, the wound of the eye, and as long as he is a man, as long as there is in him that which was injured and disturbed by the first sin. Whence a certain one cries out in the psalms and says, sighing and groaning to God: And the light of my eyes is not with me (Ps 38:10 (37:11)). As long, then, as a man is thus, savoring carnally, he cannot think nor grasp with the mind that light, and therefore it is said: What eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9). What is of man? Of one savoring carnally. What is of man? Of one still bearing Adam. Whence those who were men, what did he wish to make them, to whom it was a reproach that they were men? For he says to them: For when each one of you says: I am of Paul, but I of Apollos, but I of Cephas (See 1 Cor 1:12; 3:4). For they had divided among themselves the ministers of God and made parties for themselves out of the Church of Christ, the evil of schisms beginning, which afterward were confirmed by the error of men. These things they said savoring carnally and placing their hope not in God, but in man (See Jer 17:5), not singing with the heart what we sang a little before: In you our fathers hoped (Ps 22:4 (21:5)).

5. Rebuking these, then, the Apostle says, since they said such things: Are you not men and do you not walk according to man? (See 1 Cor 3:3-4) Again in the psalm it is said in the person of God speaking: I said: You are gods and sons of the Most High, all of you. But you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes (Ps 82:6-7 (81:6-7)). As you know, he calls the ancient one of the princes the devil. For when he was an angel, fallen by pride he was made the devil. He who then, fallen, envied the one standing, he himself now too envies the one returning. Men were therefore made mortal, that by the greater affliction of punishment they might be trained to humility, and, scourged in a certain way by their mortality and considering that they cannot live here longer and that, if they lived longer, yet they would not live forever and that this life would have to be ended at some time, they might humble themselves to God and try to grasp the future, the present fleeing. For what flees or slips away cannot be held. Or can any one of us now, when either we stand and speak or you stand and hear, hold his ages, so that either the boys do not grow or the youths do not grow old? You see that from the time we are speaking it is time. And if from the time we are speaking it is time, and by length of time it comes about that we incline toward old age, now by this very time in which we have spoken we have grown a little old. But these changes of ours are grasped by reason, but cannot be seen by the eyes. For neither are your hairs seen when they grow, and yet unless they were perpetually growing, you would not after a few days seek a barber: for what the barber is going to cut off tomorrow does not grow in one night. But just as the hairs grow even now, but cannot be seen, so the age itself grows old even now, but cannot be grasped by the eyes.

6. Men, then, love the present life, which they cannot hold as it flees, and which slips away both as they grow and as they fail. How much better, then, do they hold something firm, to which, these things ended, they will come. To this is added that, since the life of man is small, it is also uncertain. For if old age itself were certain for every man, he ought to consider that life is small, even if it were permitted to all to be brought even to its limits. For what is long that is ended? To this, then, is added that death is the companion of mortality, and, while it in a certain way walks with you on the way, when it may overtake you, you surely do not know. Since, then, both life itself is small, and death is uncertain for every age, men thinking thus ought to humble themselves to God, supplicate the Creator, confess, groan in their sins, allege their sickness to the physician, that they may be healed within and change that eye, whence that light can be seen, which is not seen as long as the inner eye of man is still of man. Let them wake up, then, when they hear from God: I said: You are gods and sons of the Most High, all of you (Ps 82:6 (81:6)). What is I said? I call to this, I wish to do it. Hear the Gospel: He gave them the power to become sons of God (John 1:12). When, then, I say: You are gods and sons of the Most High, all of you, but you shall die like men, and not even that very mortality profits you for correcting yourselves, but as though you were immortal, so you fall like one of the princes, that is, you are so proud as the angel dared to be proud. But if pride cast down the angel, what will it do with man? You shall, then, be gods. And if you do not worship false gods, you yourselves shall be gods. And how shall you be? With him making it who made men too. For he who made us men wishes to make us gods, not that we should be worshiped in his place, but that he himself should be worshiped in us.

7. There is, then, as I had begun to say, dearest ones, an inner eye which sins, carnal concupiscences and earthly desires wound and disturb, so that the man himself sinning has heard: You are earth and into earth you shall go (Gen 3:19). If, then, the proud, iniquitous man deserved to hear: You are earth and into earth you shall go, why does not the humble, pious man hear: "You are heaven and into heaven you shall go"? For by humility and piety one is made the seat of God. Now when he has been made the seat of God, is he not heaven? It is said in the Scriptures: Heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet (Isa 66:1). If, then, heaven is the seat of God, be heaven that you may carry God. When you have begun to carry God, you will be heaven. But that you may carry him fully, he himself will cleanse you, when he begins to dwell there, until he brings that eye of the heart to so great cleanness that it can see the face of him in whom, unseen, you believed (See 1 Pet 1:8). Believe, then, before you see, so that with the heart cleansed by faith you may merit even to see what you have believed. For there is promised to you a light which neither eye has seen, because it is not a color, nor ear heard, because it is not a sound, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9), because the man who is properly called man, carnal, weak, animal, cannot think except those things which he has drawn in by the senses of the body. That light is not such. Let the soul dare to form for itself nothing as it were in fantasy about God: him whom it wishes to find, let it first learn not to find.

8. What is it that I said: let it first learn not to find? So that when perhaps it thinks of God and there begins to occur to it what it has seen—the beauty of the earth occurs, let it spurn it from its mind; the appearance of the waters occurs, the tranquility of the airy serenity occurs, let it spurn this too by its thought; let it say to itself: "This is not my God, it is the work of my God." This is not, I say, my God, it is the work of my God: what has been made, you think of. O my soul, seek him who made it. But when your thought has come even to the heavenly bodies, let not the heavenly light entice you, not even that which is the highest. For the highest heavenly light is in the sun. The primacy of brightness of the heavenly bodies is found in the sun, which suffices for the day. Do not think your God to be any such thing, nor increase that very brightness into a greater one and wander for yourself through the spaces of your phantasm; neither is this God which in your mind is so figured as is wont to shine to the eyes of the body. This is not God.

9. Come to the soul itself, because it too is not seen. The soul is not seen, and great is the power of the incorporeal nature. For the soul is not a body, it is something invisible, and it is something great: it cannot be seen, but from its works marvel at what you do not see. What delights you in human affairs? Look around at the order of things, the beauty of cultivated fields, of cleared forests, of grafted fruit-trees, and whatever in the fields we see and love, the very order of the state, the masses of buildings, the varieties of arts, the abundance of tongues, the depth of memory, the richness of eloquence. All these are the works of the soul. How great works of the soul you see, and you do not see the soul itself! When, then, some such nature has begun to occur to you, is it now your God whom you were seeking? It is not seen, it is now something incorporeal, it is something spiritual, it is something great, which invigorates even mortal members, which in a certain way restrains and holds the flowing decay of the body. But this even the soul of a beast can do. Something great indeed is even the soul of a beast, it too is something invisible. But pass over to the soul of man: behold where man was made to the image of God (See Gen 1:27). For he was made to the image of God not in the body, but in the mind, in that thing by which he governs all these things, in that thing by which he surpasses the beasts. For how many beasts surpass us both in firmness of body and in keenness of the carnal senses! Both in speed and in strength, in many bodily gifts we are surpassed by beasts. Whence are we better than the beasts, except because we understand, except because we have reason by which we can even tame a wild beast? But by a wild beast we cannot be tamed. But just as man is fit to tame a beast, so to tame man none is fit except God. When, then, some such thing has occurred to you, so that you think of the human mind even free from bodily bonds, dare to suspect nothing of the kind to be God. You seem now indeed to be in the neighborhood, but at a long interval. In the neighborhood, so that there is nothing higher that is near to God, but yet between your mind and God who created your mind there is very much distance. No nature or place lies between, but by unlikeness it is far off, since this was made, he made it, and in no way can what was made be compared to its maker. Yet the image of your God is in some measure in your mind.

10. Transcend, if you can, even your mind, if indeed you have arrived by knowledge at your mind. Consider, brothers, what I shall say. For perhaps even when you think of your mind, you think of something corporeal by the habit of the carnal senses, so that your mind seems to you to be either air or fire or this light which you behold. You think of some such thing, when you think of your mind. Do not think of any such thing. As soon as that which you understand occurs to you, "what is it that I understand?", say to yourself. For surely unless some light were there, you would not understand. For so you behold a certain light within, as you behold a certain light without. For the lamp of your body is your eye (See Matt 6:22). But with the light absent, what does your open eye profit? You have indeed whole lights, but you are helped by another light to see. So too when you understand, you have something or other of the kind, which can enjoy an inner light, which is not this which you see with the eyes. Think of your mind as some such thing, if you can; but if you cannot, what is that one above your mind who terrifies your mind, who exhorts your mind, who forms your mind? You cannot worthily think of the mind: from where can you think of him whom you are going to see with a pure mind? If, then, you cannot do even this, neither earth, nor heaven, nor air, nor this starry light, nor the so marvelous power and nature of the rational soul itself can rightly be called your God, but everywhere you ought to say: "This is not my God." You cannot, then, know what he is, unless you first learn what he is not. Therefore first think what he is not, that you may find what he is.

11. This is what I said a little before: learn to be ignorant of God, that you may merit to find him. For you learn to be ignorant of him by a better ignorance than a false knowledge. For better is an ignorance that does not err, than a knowledge that is so called and is not. For you will say to me: "I know God." I ask what God is. You begin to wish to explain, and first by that very thing you do not know by which you think you explain what you cannot think. You are, then, going to tell me your thoughts, you are going to tell me those things which have ascended into your heart. But see that you are a man, and into the heart of man has ascended what you are going to tell me. But he who promises himself to be enjoyed by his lovers surely does not promise what eye has seen nor what ear heard nor what has ascended into the heart of man (See 1 Cor 2:9). But how do they love whom they do not see, except because they believe before they see (See 1 Pet 1:8)? What, then, does he promise to his lovers? What eye has not seen nor ear heard. Can it perhaps be thought? Do not deceive yourself: nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9).

12. What, then? How do you prepare yourself? Say. "I wish to see my God." Say it to him: "I wish to see," say it to him who says: Ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you (See Matt 7:7). Knock, set before the door, knock vehemently. He who closes does not drive away: he wishes to exercise the one knocking. Knock, then, knock, not with a bodily hand, but with the affection of the heart. Say to the Lord your God what you sing in the psalms: To you my heart has said: I have sought your face, your face will I seek (Ps 27:8 (26:8)). Say also what is said in another psalm: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). Desire to contemplate and say to him: "I wish to see you." But whence shall I see? If with carnal eyes, then you are a corporeal light. Now my heart already reports back to me that you, my God, are not a corporeal light. What, then, are you? I have transcended all these things, I have now come to my mind, and even it is not my God. And yet the nature of the mind transcends all corporeal things whether earthly or heavenly, but it is not yet my God. For my mind is changeable: but my God is unchangeable. I seek something unchangeable, when I seek my God. But from where do I recognize the mind to be changeable? Now it remembers, now it forgets, now it is wise, now it is foolish, now it wills, now it does not will, now it is angry, now it is calmed. I seek something unchangeable, when I seek my God. So my God spoke to me in the Scriptures, that I might be able somehow to think what I believe, not yet to have what I may see. I seek something which always remains unchangeable.

13. But from where shall I see? The Gospel will answer you: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). If, then, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, but we bear hearts unclean from the weight of sins, what shall we do? From where shall we cleanse our inner eye, by which the face of our God may be seen? From where shall we cleanse it? You have this too in Scripture: Cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). Let us, then, hold these two testimonies: one from the Gospel, the other from the Acts of the Apostles. What from the Gospel? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You have looked at yourself, you have found a certain uncleanness of your heart; desiring to see God and hearing that he is not seen except by clean hearts, inflamed with the desire of seeing, you surely seek to cleanse your heart. From where, then, will you cleanse it? Attend to the one saying in the Acts: Cleansing their hearts by faith. Hold these two: one in the promise, the other in the action. In the promise what? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. In the action what? Cleansing their hearts by faith. Believe, then, before you see, that you may be able to rejoice when you see.

14. Let no vain thought ascend into your heart: "What is it that the Christians say: Believe, believe?" The physician says this, who knows what is happening in your eye. Now both resist the hands of the physician and say: "I do not believe, unless you show me." The physician will answer you: "There is no one to whom I may show it; I wish to heal in you that by which you can see what you now desire me to show you." Suppose a physician saying to a man blinded by some haze, and perhaps from the beginning of his life, so that he does not even know what is seen by those who see: "There is something I may show you; behold, by a certain sense you know yourself to be blind, but others to be seeing: because either you need a guide which they do not need, surely there is some difference between them and you. Those, then, see something which you do not see; which if you saw, you would rejoice much." He rouses in him the desire of seeing what he does not know, wishing to heal him, that he may be able to see what he does not see. But if he is so absurd and averse from all reason of truth that he says to the physician: "You will not heal me, unless you show me what I am going to see," what do you think the physician will answer? "You must be healed that you may see, not see that you may be healed. You are perverse, you are preposterous. First let that be done which you do not wish, that you may be able to come to that which you wish. If you had eyes to which I could show what I say, there would be no need for you to be healed." Perhaps he will answer: "And what am I to do? Heal as you wish." And the physician: "I am going to apply certain sharper salves, which may wipe away the haze for you, from whose sharpness you are going to feel some pain. But you must endure the healing pain patiently and not, anxious and impatient of the pain, repel my hands. For I know what I am doing in your eyes, that there may be eyes which now are not even to be called eyes. I know what I am doing, and therefore I forewarn you that you are going to suffer something troublesome with the fruit of illumination." He, perhaps terrified lest he be bitten by those medicines which the physician is going to apply, returns again to that worn-out and rejected thing: "Am I going to suffer such great pains, which you are going to apply to me? Unless I first see what you are going to show me, I will not bear it." Against this the physician: "You cannot. This is what I seek; I ask you: be healed. You will see, the haze will be driven out, that light will shine again for you which you hear those who see name and you do not see. For you hear: light, color, brightness; these names you hear. These names are of certain things, the things themselves you do not see. Those who see are happier than you. Bear, then, something of pain in compensation for great joys." If he consents, he will be healed and will see. If he does not consent, wishing first to see rather than to be healed so that there may be that whence he may see, most absurd and an enemy of his own salvation, he will abandon the physician.

15. Attend now: a saving physician came to us, our Lord Jesus Christ, he found the blindness of our heart, he promised the light which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9). This the angels see, over it they rejoice. For just as those healthy men see what the blind man does not see, so the angels see what man does not see. Why does man not see? Because he still wishes to be a man. Let the man himself, then, begin to be healed, that from a man he may become among the sons of God, because he gave them the power to become sons of God (John 1:12). This is: he gave them the power, that they may be healed, that the haze of the heart may be wiped away, because blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). And hear that there is in the Gospel too what is said elsewhere: Cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). When the Lord had said: He gave them the power to become sons of God, he at once subjoined: to those believing in his name (John 1:12). If, then, to those believing he gave the power to become sons of God—but the sons of God will be able to see what has not ascended into the heart of man—by faith he cleanses their hearts that they may be able to be pure in heart, for they shall see God (See Matt 5:8).

16. Blessed, then, are you, brothers, who believe; pray for those who do not believe, that they too may merit to see. Blessed are you who believe: you do not see, but you believe (See John 20:29); you are not yet healthy, but you are still being healed. Your health is in hope, not yet in reality. Persevere under the hands of the physician, bear his precepts as sharp salves, abstain yourselves from the pernicious pleasures of the world: let not the unlawful things of the nations lead you, not the theatrical trifles, not the luxury of drunkenness, not the poison of unlawful curiosity. From all these abstain yourselves. But you have grown accustomed to rejoice in these things, and when you begin to abstain from these, the greed of broken habit will grieve. But these are the sharp salves by which the eyes are healed. Receive the precepts of the physician. Whatever he imposes on you to bear, he himself first endured. And in him indeed there was nothing to be healed, because he was sick with nothing, but in the office of healing he endured what he imposed on the sick. He gave a certain bitter cup to the one swollen and puffed up with pride; he, coming humble, suffered all humble things from proud men.

17. The humility of Christ is the medicine of your pride. Do not mock that by which you are healed. Deign to be humble, on account of him for whom God was made humble. For he judged that you must be healed by this medicine, who knows well both from what you are sick and from what you are to be healed. In all the members of the body good physicians seek the cause from which are drawn all those things which are most difficultly endured. And therefore many unskilled ones, treating the accidental causes and not treating the original one, seem to heal for a time, but with the source as it were of the diseases remaining, again into the streams of calamity flows out what perseveres in the source. Hear, then, from what man is sick, from what he has not only the eyes but no members healthy. Hear from what he is sick, receive from the Scriptures where the art of the physician is written. For he is not more certain who reads to you the disease from Hippocrates, than he who demonstrates to you from the divine Scripture from what you are sick within. Hear, then, the Scripture saying: The beginning of all sin is pride (Sir 10:13); and yet you run for the health of your body, for your soul you are slothful. If a straw rushes into your eye, it is not deferred to take it out. Iniquity presses the eye of your heart, you do not run to the physician. Although, while you could not run to the physician, the physician himself came to you and, what is graver, this very thing that he came to you you mock, you count his mercy as nothing. He came, he wishes to help, he knows what to apply. Therefore God came humble, lest he should not be imitable by man. For how would you imitate the lofty one? Not having imitated him, how would you be healed? He came, then, humble, because he knew what cup he might give you. A little bitter indeed, but wholesome. But you, mocking the one bearing the cup, still say to yourself: "What sort of God am I going to have? One born, suffering, smeared with spittle, crowned with thorns, hung on a cross?" Unhappy soul! You see the humility of the physician, you do not see the swelling of your pride. Hence the humble one displeases you, displeases your pride, the medicine which the physician gives you displeases your disease.

18. If you still mock, you are frenzied. The frenzied often even strike the physicians, and the merciful ones not only are not angry at those who strike them, but even seek the health of those who strike them. But sometimes they prevail so that they can even kill the physician. But he vehemently avoids being killed by the frenzied one, because he cannot rise again and heal the frenzied one. But that physician of ours did not fear to be killed by the frenzied, and from his very death he made medicines for the frenzied one. For he died and rose again. And see that the true physician is not angry at the frenzied who strike him, but rather pities them and from what he suffers wishes to heal the raging. Hear the physician hanging on the cross; the crowd of raging frenzied looked around, he says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Nor was his voice empty. For after he rose again and was glorified in the eyes of his disciples, so that he showed them even the scars of the same risen flesh, and offered himself not only to be seen but also to be handled, he ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit: miracles began to be done in the name of the one slain, in the name of the one crucified, and then those who killed him were more pricked than when they saw him hanging on the cross. For they considered such things being done in the name of him who was thought by them to have been slain among their hands. They perceived him living, whom they had mocked dying. They were pricked in heart (Acts 2:37), as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles; many of those very Jews, the crucifiers of the Lord, sought counsel from the apostles; they received counsel too, because not in vain did he say, hanging: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. The apostle said to them: {Do penance, and let each one be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins are forgiven you (Acts 2:38). It was done: they were baptized and believed} in the one whom they crucified. This is what I said, brothers, that from his very death too he made medicines for the frenzied.

19. From there it went to the nations. The apostles were sent to the nations: they found the whole world given over to images. And the disciples themselves of that physician, in whom the physician himself presided, because they had been made heaven and carried God, began therefore to preach him who was crucified and died for our offenses and rose for our justification (Rom 4:25). With signs and so great miracles attesting it, the whole world began to be filled. And first, that it might be filled, the disciples of the physician too were killed, just as the physician himself had been slain. But when would they fear to be killed, since they beheld even the flesh risen in their head? For whom would souls that would never die fear, since they had already risen in body in the Lord? But he made all believers as it were a body to a head, so that he himself was their head, but all who believe in him clung as it were as members. From the beginning of the world to the end Christ has been believed in and will be believed in, because even before he was born of the virgin Mary, many believed him going to come, just as now they believe in him who has already come. And through that very faith all are healed, nor is there any other salve for the haze of the spiritual eye, except as it is written: Cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). He therefore made all the saints a body for himself, of which body he himself is the head (See Col 1:18). Nor would he be the head of this body, unless he had something from the body itself. For from where did he assume flesh, which in him could die? For if the soul of man cannot die, when could the divinity of the Word die? Therefore thousands of martyrs too were killed, and as it were with their blood sown the harvest of the Church arose throughout the whole world.

20. Therefore, brothers, these things were foretold thousands of years ago and, as they were foretold, so they are seen expressed and displayed. A few things remain which we read and believe, for more things we now both read and see. But from those things which we read and see, it is no great matter to believe the fewer things which remain. It was a great matter to believe for those who saw none of these things which we see. Now it is no longer praiseworthy to believe, but damnable not to believe. Let those wake up at some time and be healed who still were unwilling to be healed. Let them believe: they will see. Let them not be so perverse as to say to us: "Let me first see and then I will believe." What is "let me see and then I will believe"? {For he who sees, does he believe? He believes who does not see. It is one thing to believe, another to see. Believe because you do not see, that by believing what you do not see you may merit to see what you believe. The merit of vision is faith. The reward of faith is vision. Why do you seek the reward before the work? Believe, then, and walk in faith: your salvation is in hope. For the best physician has begun to heal you, to whom no disease is incurable. Do not fear your past crimes, however monstrous, however incredible, which perhaps you committed: they are great diseases, but greater is the physician. Do not, then, care about past things: in one moment of the sacrament they will be forgiven, and altogether all will be forgiven}. Nothing of past things will remain to trouble your care. You will be secure not in your own strength, but in the hand of the physician. Be, then, secure under him, because he will heal even what remains: the very weakness of our mortality, from which lesser sins indeed creep in while we live here. He will heal the whole, he will cleanse the whole. The whole haze will be taken away, but let such an eye of the heart be given that you may be blessed when you see, because believing you heard: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). Let those who have not yet believed look, O my brothers, let them look how great things God has displayed. All the things which are seen done throughout the whole world in the name of Christ were foreseen, foretold, prescribed. In our hands are the books, before our eyes the deeds.

21. And if we think truly, brothers, he has done a more difficult thing than what he is going to do. What is it that I say: he has done a more difficult thing? He has justified {the impious one, from an idolater he has made a believer, from a drunkard a sober man, from a prodigal a frugal man, from a greedy man one giving away his goods, not giving to huntsmen with the devil applauding, but giving to the poor with Christ crowning, and acquiring for himself that which cannot pass away. The thing he has done was more difficult. For he who from an impious man made a pious one, will he not render a reward to the pious one? Attend, my brothers. What is more incredible? To make a pious man out of an impious one, or to make an angel out of a pious man? Impious and pious are contraries. Pious and angel are not contraries. Will he not fill you from the neighboring state, who changed you from the contrary one? For now, when you have begun to be pious, you begin to imitate the life of the angel. But when you were impious, you were removed from the choir of the angels. But faith came and justified you. You humble yourself to God, you who blasphemed God. And you who had turned to the creature, now desire the Creator. Behold what he has bestowed on you: he displayed his Church in the whole world; as he promised her, he displayed her. It was foretold that idolatry would at some time be slain and taken away: our elders read these things and did not see them, but we both read and see them}. Heresies were foretold, schisms were foretold: these too exist. Whence Christians are not disturbed when they see heresies and schisms. For they more surely hope that the things which were promised will come to pass, when the things which were foretold come to pass.

22. Flee, then, the crimes of all heresies and schisms, flee the sacrileges of the nations, the curiosities of demons, the adorations of idols, the sacrileges of remedies, the consultations of astrologers. Flee these, brothers. What you may hope for in them, you have not. For the future life they never promised; for the present, if they say so, they lie to you. Let someone come forward who says: "To me, I know, the astrologer told the truth, and to me I know that the diviner told the truth, and I had that remedy, and it availed." Let your love know this alone, which can easily be seen. The happiness and unhappiness of the present time, which is neither true happiness nor full unhappiness, is scattered intermingled through all men. If those alone were happy according to time who do these things, you, brothers who have believed, ought, on account of the future happiness, to despise the present. But since you see intermingled the healthy both of those who do them and of those who do not, intermingled the dying both of those who do not and of those who do, intermingled the rich and poor both of those who do and of those who do not, intermingled the honored and ignoble both of those who do and of those who do not—since, then, you see temporal happiness or unhappiness intermingled in the human race, why do you not beware eternal unhappiness, when it will be said: Go into the eternal fire (Matt 25:41), and procure true happiness, when it will be said: Receive the kingdom (See Matt 25:34)?

23. "Juno," he says, "provides for those giving birth, and Mercury for huntsmen or men of letters, and Neptune for those sailing." These things are false. For if they are true, let not women give birth well who blaspheme Juno. What great thing is it, my brothers, to open the eyes to see these things? Did the prophets foretell these things too? Question yourselves: let the human race answer. Do all who do not worship Neptune suffer shipwreck? Do all merchants who mock Mercury suffer loss? But if these things are false, they never promised you a future life, for the present life they profit nothing. Why are they worshiped, except to bind the feet of those going the way of the Lord (See Ps 18:33 (17:34)), lest they seek immortality and some rest after the labors and difficulties of this life? For that devil sets himself with his angels against you, and makes himself as it were necessary, that he may reduce you to slavery. Use rather your freedom; greater is he who redeemed you, than he who assails you. Whoever shall consent to this one, will be condemned with him; whoever shall believe in Christ, will condemn with him. These things are to come, but from those which have already come, conjecture those which remain.

24. Future persecutions of Christians by the kings of the world were foretold: they came to pass, the slaughter of martyrs was made, and those who did these things thought they could by killing put an end to the Christians. The Church grew by its own blood, the persecutors were conquered, those who suffered persecution conquered. This too was foretold. We find in the holy Scriptures that the kings themselves too would submit their necks to the yoke of Christ (See Ps 72:11 (71:11)), by whom at first the persecution of the Church seemed as it were to be feared. And this has been done, brothers: now the cross of Christ is on the foreheads of kings, kings adore what the Jews mocked. And because it was said thus: God chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong, and the ignoble things of this world he chose, and the things that are not as though they were, that the things that are might be brought to nothing (See 1 Cor 1:27-28), our Lord Jesus Christ came for the salvation not only of the poor, but also of the rich, not only of the common people, but also of kings. Yet he was unwilling to choose kings into discipleship, was unwilling to choose the rich, was unwilling the noble, was unwilling the learned, but chose the poor, the simple, the ignoble, fishermen, where his grace might more shine forth. For he came to give the cup of humility and to heal pride. And if he first called a king, the king would say his dignity was chosen in him; if he first called a learned man, he would say his learning was chosen. Those who were called to humility ought to be called through the humble. And so Christ did not gain a fisherman from an emperor, but an emperor from a fisherman.

25. Kings now come to Rome. A great thing, brothers, how it has been fulfilled. When it was being said, when it was being written, none of these things existed. It is wonderful: attend and see, rejoice. Let those be curious who are unwilling to attend to it; we wish them to be curious about these things: let them leave the crimes and trifles of vain curiosities, let them at some time be curious about the divine Scriptures, let them find that the things which they now see were foretold so long ago. For they marvel that in the name of the crucified the human race runs together and flows together, from kings down to those clothed in rags. No age is passed over, no sect, no teaching. For it is not that the unlearned believed and the learned did not believe, or the ignoble believed and the noble did not believe, or women believed and men did not believe, or boys believed and old men did not believe, or slaves believed and free men did not believe. Every age has been called to salvation, every age has now come, every dignity, every abundance and means of man. Now let all be within. Now few have remained outside and still dispute; let them wake up at some time at least at the noise of the world: the whole world cries out.

26. Kings come, as I had begun to say, to Rome. There are the temples of the emperors who by their pride exacted divine honors for themselves from men and, because they could—for they were kings and rulers—extorted rather than merited them. From whom could a fisherman extort any such thing? There is the tomb of the fisherman, there is the temple of the emperor. Peter is there in the tomb, Hadrian is there in the temple. The temple of Hadrian, the memorial of Peter. The emperor comes. Let us see where he runs, where he wishes to fix his knees: in the temple of the emperor, or at the memorial of the fisherman? With his diadem laid aside, he beats his breast where the body of the fisherman is, whose merits he considers, in whose crown he believes, through whom he desires to come to God, by whose prayers he feels and finds himself helped. Behold what that crucified and mocked-on-the-cross one has done, behold whence he laid low the nations, not with raging iron, but with mocked wood. Let the proud, then, drink the cup of humility, with Christ humbled. Let them deign to be humble, let them now recognize their medicine, let them come and believe.

27. Exhort them, brothers, not only with words, but also with your morals, and we exhort them not to defer any longer. For perhaps some think and say: "Tomorrow I will be a Christian." If tomorrow it is good, today too it is good. For to be a Christian he is not going to ask the astrologer for a day. God made every day. That is a good day for you, on which you have done something good. If, then, it is good to believe in Christ, that the heart may be cleansed by faith and that eye healed which is going to see so great a light, why is it deferred, why has the crow's voice remained in men? "Tomorrow, tomorrow," says the crow, who, sent out from the ark, did not return; the dove returned (See Gen 8:7-12). The crow cries "tomorrow," the dove daily groans. Let there not, then, be in you the voice of the deferrer, but the groan of the confessor. Whoever are wearied with hearing, let them pardon the eager. Whoever still wish to hear, let them pardon the wearied, because we too are pressed by time to end the sermon. For we see your so great eagerness in Christ, that you could hear more, but we cannot hold time. Whoever here are who have not believed, behold, we are here, behold, here is the Church: if they wish, let them believe. If they think it must be deferred, which, I think, they ought now no longer to think, let them make room for those going to perform the divine mysteries.

28. Now, brothers, both yesterday we said to you and now we say and always we ask, that by living well you gain those who have not yet believed, lest you too have believed in vain. We ask you that, just as the word of God pleases you, so it may please also in your morals, not in the ear alone, but also in the heart, not in the heart alone, but also in your life, that you may be the family of God fit and pleasing to his eyes unto every good work (See Titus 3:1; Col 1:10). Altogether, brothers, we do not doubt that, if you live worthily of God, soon none of those who have not yet believed will remain in unbelief.

1. For nothing is sweeter than the zeal of brothers, but nothing is more dangerous than the dissension of peoples. By the sound of the tongue of our mouth, flesh (caro) and love (caritas) seem neighbors: they are neighbors in the sound of the tongue. For what sounds so neighboring as caro and caritas? Yet they are very far apart from each other, even in this time. How far apart these two which sound alike are, appears to you well enough, since indeed, where love is, the heart is widened, the flesh is straitened. But because our love itself too labors in the flesh, and the spacious fields of the divinity have not yet received you, as long as the bond of weakness still holds, nevertheless, dearest ones, consider how ample have been made the spaces of these buildings! Do you think those set far off hear with more difficulty? The path of our voice is your stillness. Behold, how quickly the still hear, even what is not said with so loud a voice! Help yourselves, then, and, as it is written, bear one another's burdens (Gal 6:2), that you may together grasp what is given to all.

2. After long and lasting desire we see your love bodily present; in spirit neither you ever departed from us, nor we from you (See Col 2:5). When we have "hearts on high," there you dwell with us, where no one presses upon another. Yet we ask pardon, brothers, if perhaps to some of you we seem to have come to you later than both we and you would wish. Great necessities held us in the summer time, and those necessities surely were not hidden from you. For we were helped too by your prayers, that what had been necessities might become pleasures. In the city of Hippo where I serve my sons, your brothers, we long travailed, at last we have seen unity. Again and again help us with your vows and prayers, that the Lord may confirm what he has worked in us (See Ps 68:28 (67:29)). But now, although we were still doing these things there, even in the region of Hippo peoples have now begun to be converted, by whom unity is held the more slowly the more difficultly rusticity understands. Now, then, we have been not led but snatched by your desire, that, ourselves desired, we may come again to those people. Receive, therefore, the petition for pardon for the delay. For then my venerable brother and colleague Maximinus too was converted to the catholic Church. Then, therefore, his newness in the catholic Church, through which he crushed the hard kingdoms of oldness, could surely not be abandoned by me nor was it fitting, nor was it fitting for him to withdraw from there at once. When, therefore, the Lord judged it opportune, he permitted us both to come. I think, then, that you easily pardon my delay, because I came with him afterward, on whose account I did not come first.

3. Now, then, dearest ones, receive what now presses. We heard, absent, of your fervors, you heard, absent, of our fervors. You love unity, you cherish peace, you guard peace, you hunger for peace. We approve and rejoice at the healing of your palate, by which you taste how sweet the Lord is (Ps 34:8 (33:9)). For good bread is good to the healthy. But the sick man can praise bread, though good, by sight, but cannot eat it when offered. For what is our bread, except he who said: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51)? Is it perhaps bread and is not peace? Let us prove that it is peace too. For we proved that it is bread by his most manifest testimony: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven. Let the Apostle too say: For he himself is our peace (Eph 2:14). He, then, who says: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven, of him it is said: He himself is our peace. We have, then, the bread as peace, but if we are healthy, let us eat it.

4. You have heard the bread itself speaking, just now from the Gospel. The disciples were seeking the first and high place, and there was a contention of glory among the sons of love. They were seeking who was the greater among them (See Luke 9:46). Weakness sought the greater place, which surely love obtains. They did not yet know by what way they went, even if they understood whither they went. Through humility one comes to loftiness. The way is Christ (See John 14:6). He is the bread, he is the peace, he himself is also the way. Ask of him whither you wish to go, he answers: "To me." Ask by what way you wish to go, he answered: "Through me." And he remained as that whither we go, and he came as that by which we go. Therefore, dearest ones, sons of peace (See Luke 10:6), sons of light (See 1 Thess 5:5), sons of love, offshoots of the catholic Church, if we are firm, let us serve the weak; if we are healthy, let us serve the sick. Our Lord served. You attend to the fact that the Lord serves; the servant is sick, whom the Lord serves. Behold, let us praise our bread, with as much strength as we can. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity (Ps 133:1 (132:1)). Be delighted, you just, in the Lord (See Ps 33:1 (32:1)).

5. Plainly it is good for brothers to dwell in unity. All concede that it is good, not all grasp that it is pleasant. Ask anyone, even if he is still a heretic or now displays his face and covers his mind; ask, question the one who disdains, who refuses, who repels the hand of the one serving and wishing to feed his sickness; yet hold him, ask of him: "Is unity good?" If he can, let him say: "It is evil." Plainly I do not spare him, I ask: Is unity good? He answers: "Good." Willing or unwilling, he answers this: "Unity is good." Or are you silent? Even if you are silent, surely you are silent for this reason, because you cannot say: "Not good." Iniquity does not permit you to say it is good, but truth does not allow you to deny it is good. Yet I press to wring out the word, I will not desist, I will not withdraw, you will not be rid of me unless you say something. I have found your ears at last at some time; if I do not hold you as loving, I hold you at least as fearing. Say, answer me. What I ask is easy, what I question is brief. Is unity good? What will it do? In no way is it going to say: "It is not good." Therefore, even just to be rid of me, it is going to say: "Good." And I answer: What you praise, if it is a possession, hold it with me; if it is a garment, be clothed with me; if it is bread, eat with me. "It is good," he says, "I do not deny it, but because I am compelled to it, therefore I am unwilling for it." Therefore it is good, but because you are compelled to the good, therefore you are unwilling for the good: as though indeed I would be troublesome in compelling, if you were eager in asking. If it is good and you are unwilling, therefore I compel. For what you confess to be good, you are unwilling for not by truth, but by weakness. I serve the weak: you are sick, I am your minister. I offer food, receive the food which you praise. Do you perhaps, as the sick are wont to refuse food set before them, complain that it is badly cooked? You will be able to say none of these things to the food which I offer. Christ is the bread, Christ is the peace. This food was formed in the womb of virginity, cooked by the fire of the passion. Take, brother; receive, brother, receive something lest you die. You surely praise unity. Your weakness is against me, not your judgment. I offer food, not only that which confirms the sick, but also that which sustains the sick. I am troublesome when I press it in, but impious if I should withdraw it. "Behold," he says, "I take it."

6. What sort of sick do we endure, brothers? "Behold," he says, "I take it." Some have come, yielding to the troubles of those serving them, to the anxiety, though importunate, yet of parents showing motherly love. Why do I say of parents, brothers? I do not mean myself, nor any man. Our parents, feeding the healthy, refreshing the sick, are God the Father and mother Church. This pious mother, then, both giving birth to her conceived sons and travailing with the imperiled, did not spurn the sickness of her own; though troublesome, though importunate, she approached those lying down; she pressed food upon those refusing. They hate the one refreshing them, they fear more to experience the one lamenting them. She refreshes the sick man, she laments the dead. Let her be troublesome in this . . .

Sermon 361
On the Resurrection of the Dead

1. 1. We noticed, when the Apostle's Letter was being read, the praiseworthy movement of your faith and love, how you shuddered at men who, thinking this to be the only life, which we have in common with the beasts, and that after death the whole of what belongs to man is ended, and that there is no hope of any other better life, with the itch of evil ears corrupting, say: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die (1 Cor 15:32). From here, then, let the beginning of our disputation be taken, and let this be as it were the hinge of our sermon, to which the rest of the things which the Lord shall deign to suggest may be referred.

2. 2. For our hope is the resurrection of the dead; our faith is the resurrection of the dead. Our love also is that which the proclamation of things not yet seen inflames, and kindles with desire, by the greatness of which our hearts are made capable of the blessedness which is promised to come, as long as what is not yet seen is believed: therefore our love itself too ought not to be occupied about these temporal and visible things, so that we should hope to have such a thing in the resurrection, as that which now, if we despise it, we live better and are better, namely carnal pleasures and delights. And so, with faith in the resurrection of the dead taken away, all Christian doctrine collapses. But with faith in the resurrection of the dead founded, there is not at once security about the Christian mind, unless that life which is to come is distinguished from this which passes away. And so it must be set forth thus: If the dead will not rise, there is no hope for us of a future life; but if the dead will rise, there will indeed be a future life; but the second question is, what it will be like. The first disputation, then, is whether there will be a resurrection of the dead; but the second disputation is what the life of the saints will be like in the resurrection.

3. 3. Those, then, who say that the dead do not rise, are not Christians: but those who think that the dead, when they have risen, will live carnally, are carnal Christians. Whatever disputation, then, there is against the opinion of those who deny the resurrection of the dead, is against those who are outside, of whose number I think no one is here present. Whence our discussion can seem superfluous, if it should linger, that we should try to teach that the dead rise. For by the weight of authority the Christian must be led, who has already believed Christ, who in no way thinks the Apostle lies. It is enough, then, for this one to hear: If the dead do not rise, vain is our preaching, vain too is your faith (1 Cor 15:14). If the dead, he says, do not rise, neither did Christ rise (See 1 Cor 15:13, 16). But if Christ rose, in whom is the salvation of Christians, then surely it is not impossible for the dead to rise: since he who raised his Son, and he who raised his own flesh, demonstrated in the head an example to the rest of the body, which is the Church. The disputation about the resurrection of the dead could, then, be superfluous, so that we might now take up that one which Christians are wont to have among themselves: when we have risen, what we shall be like, how we shall live, what our occupations will be, whether there will be any or none: if there will be none, we shall live idly, doing nothing; or if we shall do something, what we shall do: then, whether we shall eat and drink, whether there will be unions of males and females, or some simple and incorrupt common life; and if it is so, what that life will be like, what its movement, what the figure of the bodies themselves. These are the disputations of Christians, with faith in the resurrection safe.

4. 4. To this disputation, then, as much as it can either be undertaken or brought forth by men for men, such as either we are or you are, I would now and now pass over, did not a certain anxiety about our too carnal and almost pagan brothers compel me to linger a little in that question where it is asked whether the dead rise at all. For I think no one here is now a pagan, but all are Christians. But the pagans and mockers of the resurrection do not cease daily to murmur in the ears of Christians: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die (1 Cor 15:32). And what the Apostle said, bringing in his anxiety and subjoining to this sentence: Evil conversations corrupt good morals (1 Cor 15:33); fearing these evils and bearing anxiety for the weak, not only with a fatherly but even with a certain motherly love, we will say something even on this matter, as much perhaps as may suffice for Christians, because today a greater devotion toward the Scriptures has brought all these who have gathered. For no solemnity of any feast day has called even theatrical crowds to the church of God. For certain ones are wont to run together not out of piety, but out of solemnity. This consideration made us first speak about the resurrection of the dead; and then, if the Lord gives the means, what the future life of the just will afterward be like.

5. 5. I fear, says the Apostle, lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so also your minds be corrupted away from the chastity that is in Christ (See 2 Cor 11:3). But the minds of these are corrupted by those conversations: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. Those who love these things, who pursue these things, who think this to be the only life, who hope nothing for the rest, who either do not ask God, or ask him for this, to whom a sermon of diligence is burdensome, let them hear us saying these things with great sadness. They wish to eat and drink; for tomorrow they die. Would that they truly considered that they are going to die tomorrow. For who is so mad and perverse, who so an enemy of his own soul, that, going to die the next day, he would not consider all the things for which he labors to be ended? For so it is written: In that day all his thoughts shall perish (Ps 146:4 (145:4)). Even if men, on account of those whom they leave here, bear the care of a testament when the day of their death is imminent; how much more ought they to consider something about their soul? Man considers whom he leaves behind, and does he not consider himself who leaves all these things? Behold, your children will have what you leave, you will have nothing, and your whole thought is consumed in that by which sojourners may pass on after you, not in that whither those passing on may arrive. Would, then, that there were thought about death. But when the dead are carried out, death is thought of, and it is said: Alas, the wretched man! such he was, yesterday he was walking; or: seven days ago I saw him, this and that he spoke with me; man is nothing. These things they murmur. But perhaps when the dead man is lamented, when the funeral is cared for, when the obsequies are prepared, when he is carried out, when they go, when he is buried, this discourse thrives: but with the dead man buried, such a thought too is buried. Those deadly cares return, he forgets whom he has escorted, he thinks of succession who is going to depart; he returns to frauds, to robberies, to perjuries, to wine-bibbing, to the infinite pleasures of the body, not, I say, going to perish when they have been exhausted, but perishing when they are being drunk in; and, what is more pernicious, from the buried dead man an argument for burying the heart is taken, and it is said: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.

6. 6. They mock too the faith of those who assert that the dead will rise, saying to themselves: Behold, this one is placed in the tomb, let his voice be heard. But his cannot be: I shall hear the voice of my father, of my grandfather, of my great-grandfather. Who has risen from there? Who has reported what is done among the dead? Let us do well for ourselves while we live: but when we are dead, even if our parents, or dear ones, or kinsfolk bring things to our tombs, they will bring them for themselves who live, not for us dead. And these things indeed Scripture too mocked, saying of certain ones not perceiving present goods: As if, it says, you should set feasts around a dead man (See Sir 30:18); and it is manifest that this does not pertain to the dead, and that this is the custom of the pagans, not coming from that stock and vein of justice of our fathers the Patriarchs, for whom we read that obsequies were celebrated, but we do not read that funeral feasts were made. This too can be noticed in the morals of the Jews: for they did not retain from there the fruit of virtue, but yet they retained in certain solemnities the oldness of custom. And what certain ones object from the Scriptures: Break your bread, and pour out your wine over the tombs of the just, and do not give it to the unjust (See Tob 4:17); about this indeed there is no need to discourse, but yet I say that the faithful can understand what was said. For how the faithful do these things religiously toward the memorials of their own is known to the faithful; and that these things are not to be displayed to the unjust, that is, to unbelievers, because the just man lives by faith (Rom 1:17), this too is known to the faithful. Let no one, then, seek the wound from the medicine, and try to twist from the Scriptures a cord by which to throw the noose of death upon his own soul. It is manifest how that is to be understood, and open and wholesome is this celebration of Christians.

7. 7. Let us see, then, that which, as I had begun to say, is on account of men murmuring in the ears of the weak: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die; because they say: No one has risen from there, I have not heard the voice of anyone, from the time my grandfather was placed there, from the time my great-great-grandfather, from the time my father; the voice of no one have I heard. Answer, Christians, if you are Christians: lest perhaps, when you wish to be inebriated among the peoples, it irks you to answer the corrupters. You have what you may answer; but you waver with the desire of pleasures, and you wish to be gorged and buried alive. The greed of drunkenness rises, and as it were a certain wave rushes into the soul, drawn by the breath of the one persuading evil. You suffer, then, a great storm, you are unwilling to answer the corrupter, while you favor the toaster; but the wave of concupiscence is raised too high, and wishes to overwhelm your heart as a ship. O Christian, Christ sleeps in your ship: rouse him; he will command the storms to be all calmed (See Matt 8:24-26). For at that time, when the disciples in the ship were tossed with Christ sleeping, they signified that Christians are tossed when the Christian faith is sleeping. For you see what the Apostle says: That Christ dwell, he says, through faith in your hearts (Eph 3:17). For according to the presence of his beauty and divinity he is always with the Father; according to bodily presence he is now above the heavens at the right hand of the Father; but according to the presence of faith he is in all Christians. And therefore, then, you are tossed, because Christ sleeps: that is, therefore you do not overcome those concupiscences, which are stirred up by the breaths of those persuading evil, because faith sleeps. What is, faith sleeps? It is lulled to sleep. What is, it is lulled to sleep? You have forgotten it. What, then, is to rouse Christ? To rouse faith, to remember what you have believed. Therefore recall your faith, rouse Christ: your very faith will command the waves, by which you are disturbed, and the winds of those persuading perversely: at once they will depart, at once all will grow quiet; because even if the evil persuader does not cease to speak, he now does not move the ship, does not stir up a wave, does not sink the vehicle by which you are carried.

7. 8. What, then, do you do, rousing Christ? What had that evil discourser said to you? What had that corrupter said, corrupting good morals by evil conversations? what had he said? Surely he had said this: No one has returned from there, I have not heard my father, nor my grandfather; let someone return from there, let him say what is done there.

8. 8. You, with Christ now roused in your ship, recalling your faith, answer him, and say: Fool, if your father rose again, you would believe; the Lord of all rose again, and you do not believe? For from where did he so wish to die and rise again, except that we might all believe in one, lest we be deceived by many? And what would your father do, if he rose again and spoke, going to die again? Attend with how great power he rose again, who now does not die, and death will no longer have dominion over him (See Rom 6:9). He showed himself to his disciples and faithful ones: the solidity of his body was handled, since it was too little for certain ones to see what they remembered, unless they also touched what they saw. Faith was confirmed, not only in the hearts, but even in the eyes of men. He who demonstrated these things ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples, the Gospel was preached. If we lie in these things, ask the whole world. Many things which were promised, have been done; many things which were hoped for, have been fulfilled; in the Christian faith the whole world thrives. Even those who have not yet believed in Christ do not dare to detract from the resurrection of Christ. Testimony in heaven, testimony on earth; testimony from the angels, testimony from the dead. What has remained, that does not cry out? And you say: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die!

8. 9. But you have been made sad about your buried dear one, because you did not at once hear his voice. He was living, he has died; he was eating, he no longer eats; he was perceiving, he no longer perceives; he does not share in the joys and gladness of the living.

9. 9. Would you lament the seed, when you plowed? If, then, there were anyone so unskilled in things, that, when the seed is carried out into the field, and put into the earth, and the broken clod buried; if, then, there were anyone ignorant even of things almost about to come, who would lament the wheat, because he remembered the summer, and considered within himself, saying: This grain, which has just now been buried, with how great labor reaped, brought, threshed, cleansed, was being kept in the granary, we used to see its beauty, and rejoiced; now it has been taken from our eyes; I see the plowed earth, but the grain neither in the granary nor here do I behold: he would lament the grain as it were dead and buried mournfully, would weep abundantly, attending to the clods and the earth, but not seeing the harvest: how would he be mocked by any unlearned men, but in that matter not unlearned; unskilled indeed in other things, but skilled in that thing which that man, unbecomingly unskilled, lamented? And what would those who knew say to him, if perhaps he was lamenting for this reason, that he knew none of these things? Do not be sad; this which we have buried surely is now not in the granary, is not in our hands: we will come to this field, and it will delight you to see the appearance of the crop, where now you lament the bareness of the plowing. He who knew what would come of the grain would even rejoice in the very plowing: but that incredulous one or rather foolish, and, to say it more truly, inexperienced, would lament indeed perhaps at first, but believing the experienced one would depart consoled, and would hope for the future harvest along with the experienced one.

10. 10. But harvests are wont to be seen each year: but of the human race one last harvest will arise at the end of the age. It cannot now be shown to the eyes: but from one principal grain a proof has been given. The Lord himself says: If the grain so remains, and is not put to death, it will remain alone (See John 12:24-25), speaking of his own putting-to-death, because manifold will be the resurrection of those believing in him. An example was given from one grain, but such an example as all would believe who wished to be grains. Although every creature too speaks the resurrection, if we are not deaf: whence we ought to conjecture what God is going to do once with the human race at the end, since we see so many similar things daily. The resurrection of Christians will be once, the sleep of living beings and the daily waking is a thing of every day. To sleep is like death: to wake is like resurrection. From what is done daily, believe what is going to be once. The moon every month is born, grows, is perfected, lessens, is consumed, is renewed. What in the moon over months, this in the resurrection once in all time. As that which is of those sleeping daily, so that which is of the moon over single months. From where do the leaves go away from the trees, from where do they return? into what secret places do they depart, from what secret places do they come? It is winter, surely now the trees, like withered ones, in springtime grow green. Has this now been done for the first time, or was it so in the past year too? Indeed, in the past year too it was so. It was intercepted by autumn in winter, it returns through spring in summer. Therefore the year returns in time, and men, made to the image of God, when they have died will perish?

11. 11. But someone, looking less diligently at the changes and restorations of things, can say to me: Those leaves rotted, new ones are born. But one considering well sees that even those which rot pass into the strength of the earth. For from where is the earth made fat, except from the rottenness of earthly things? Those who cultivate the field attend to these things; and let those who do not cultivate it, because they always live in the city, learn at least from the gardens neighboring the city with what zeal the contemptible refuse of the city is kept, by whom even it is bought at a price, at what cost it is carried. Surely now contemptible, emptied of all usefulness, it could be thought by the inexperienced. And who deigns to look at dung? What man shudders to look at, he takes care to keep. That, then, which seemed now consumed and cast away, returns into the fatness of the earth, the fatness into the sap, the sap into the root; and what passes from the earth into the root, by invisible passages migrates into the trunk, is distributed through the branches, from the branches into the buds, from the bud into the fruits and leaves. Behold, what you shuddered at in the rottenness of dung, you marvel at in the fruitfulness and greenness of the tree.

12. 12. Do not now object to me what you are wont to object: The body of the buried dead man does not remain whole: for if it remained, I would believe the resurrection. Then do the Egyptians alone believe the resurrection, because they diligently care for the corpses of the dead? For they have the custom of drying bodies, and making them as it were of bronze: they call them gabbaras. Therefore, according to these people, who are ignorant of the secret recesses of nature, where all things are safe for the Creator, even when they are withdrawn from mortal senses, do the Egyptians alone well believe the resurrection of their dead, but the hope of other Christians is in a narrow place? For often, when tombs are opened or laid bare either by age or by some not sacrilegious necessity, bodies have been found to have rotted, and men, sighing, have groaned, who are wont to be delighted with bodily beauty, and have said in their hearts: Will this ash at some time have that appearance of beauty, will it be restored to life, restored to the light? When will this be? When may I hope for anything living from this ash? You who say this, see in the tomb either ash: turn back over your age, if you are, for instance, thirty, fifty, or more years old: in the tomb is either the ash of the dead man, you fifty years ago, what were you? where were you? The bodies of all of us, who now speak or hear, will after a few years be ash, a few years ago they were not even ash. He, then, who was able to prepare what was not, will he fail to repair what was?

13. 13. Let the murmurs of those who speak evil cease, then, and of those corrupting good morals by evil conversations. Fix your feet on the way, fix them: not so that you abandon the way, not so that you remain on the way, but as it was said: So run, that you may grasp it (1 Cor 9:24). Let Christ always thrive in the heart, who wished to show in the head what the other members may hope for. On earth indeed we labor, our head in heaven now neither dies, nor fails, nor suffers anything: yet it suffered for us. Because he was handed over for our offenses, and rose for our justification (Rom 4:25). This we know by faith: but those to whom he showed himself learned it through the eyes. Yet we are not rejected, because he rose again, and we could not see him with carnal eyes. We have for ourselves the testimony of the Lord himself, which he said to the doubting disciple seeking by touch what he might believe. For when he had cried out, convinced by the handling of the scars, and said: My Lord, and my God: he in answer: Because you have seen me, he said, and have believed; blessed are those who do not see and believe (John 20:28-29). Wake up, then, to your blessedness, let no one persuading evil shake out of your hearts what Christ has fixed in.

13. 14. Nor let that be said to me. For this is said by all, who now even unwilling have yielded to the authority of Christ. For almost all the pagans, even those who are unwilling or defer to lay hold of Christ with devotion, do not dare to reproach him: although they dare to reproach Christians, they do not dare to reproach Christ; they yield to the head, and still insult the body. But let the body, hearing the insults of those who now yield to the head, not think itself cut off from the head, but resting upon it. For if we were cut off, we ought to fear the voices of those insulting: but that we are not cut off, that very one attests, who said to Paul, still Saul persecuting the Church: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) He had now passed through the hands of the impiety of the Jews, had now penetrated the lower regions, had now risen from the tomb, had now ascended into heaven, had now enriched and strengthened the hearts of believers by the gift of the Holy Spirit, sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us: not going to be handed over to death again, but going to free us from death, what could he suffer from the raging Saul? From where did that hand touch him, although that one was, as it is written, breathing slaughter (Acts 9:1)? Upon Christians laboring on the ground he could make an assault: but upon Christ, when and how? Yet he cries out for the rest of the members, and does not say: Why do you persecute my own? For if he said: Why do you persecute my own? we would believe them servants. But servants do not cling to a master so much as Christians to Christ. That joining is different: a different order of members, a different unity of love. The head speaks for the members, and he does not even say this: Why do you persecute my members? but he says: Why do you persecute me? He was not touching the head, but he was touching what is joined to the head.

14. 14. We have already often said it, but because the likeness is apt, and conveys the matter well, it must be repeated. He who treads on you in a crowd presses your foot, but does nothing to the tongue. What does it mean, then, that the tongue cries: You tread on me? It is a pressure of the foot, no injury of the tongue, but one joining. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor 12:26). If, then, your tongue speaks for your foot, does Christ in heaven not speak for Christians? Your tongue, then, does not so speak for the foot as to say: You tread on my foot; but: You tread on me, though it itself was not touched. Recognize him as your head, when for you from heaven he speaks, and says: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Therefore, brothers, why did we say this? Lest perhaps those creep up on you of whom the Apostle says: Evil conversations corrupt good morals; because they say: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die; so as to say to you (for they do not dare to reproach Christ, they tremble at the authority of his majesty founded throughout the whole world; but, as it is written: The sinner shall see, and shall be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and waste away (Ps 112:10 (111:10)): gnash he can, and waste away he can; but blaspheme Christ he does not dare); lest, then, perhaps they so speak and say: It was permitted only to Christ. For sometimes they say it even from the heart, but sometimes they say it from fear: but do you attend both to what they dare to say, and to what they do not dare.

15. 15. They are going to say, then: You tell me that Christ rose again, and from there you hope for the resurrection of the dead; but it was permitted to Christ to rise from the dead. And he now begins to praise Christ, not to give him honor, but to bring you to despair. The cunning destructiveness of the serpent, that by praising Christ he may turn you away from Christ, he deceitfully proclaims him whom he does not dare to disparage. He exaggerates his majesty, to make it singular, lest you hope for any such thing as was shown in him rising again. And he appears as it were more religious toward Christ, when he says: Behold one who dares to compare himself to Christ, so that, because Christ rose again, he thinks he too will rise again. Do not be disturbed by the perverse praise of your Emperor; the hostile snares disturb you, but the humility and humanity of Christ console you. He proclaims how greatly Christ is raised above you: but Christ says how greatly he descended to you. Answer him, then: rouse that faith; there is a storm, there are waves, the ship labors, Christ sleeps (See Matt 8:24-25); rouse that faith, do not forget what you have believed. At once you will answer, when in you the gospel faith has begun to keep watch. You will not be helpless in answering: for it will not be you who speak; Christ remaining in you will seize his instrument, your tongue, as his sword, using your heart and your voice as a possessor dwelling within, he will resist the adversary, will make you secure: only do you rouse the sleeper, that is, recall your forgotten faith.

16. 16. For now what shall I say, from which you may answer such people? I will say nothing new, but that which you have believed. Rouse, then, your faith, and answer the one saying: Christ alone could, we cannot: answer and say: Christ could for this reason, because he is God; he surely, because he is God. If because he is God, because he is almighty; if because he is almighty, why shall I despair of what he will be able to do even in me, what he demonstrated in himself for my sake? Then I ask from where Christ rose again. He will answer: From the dead. I ask why he died. For can God die? Could that divinity, the Word equal to the Father, the art of the almighty artificer, through whom all things were made, the unchangeable wisdom, remaining in itself, renewing all things (See Wis 7:27), reaching from end to end mightily and disposing all things sweetly (See Wis 8:1), could it die? No, he says. And yet Christ died. From where did he die? Namely from this, that he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. But before, what does he say? Who, though he was in the form of God (Phil 2:6-7). Had he received the form of God, or was he in it naturally? The Apostle distinguishes. When he spoke of the form of God, he said was: when he named the form of a servant, he said taking. Christ, then, was something, received something, that with him there might be one what he had received. In the form of God he was equal to God, as that evangelist fisherman says: The Word was in the beginning, and the Word with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1); this is: Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. For what is not naturally present, but is usurped unlawfully, is a thing grasped. The angel usurped equality with God, and fell, and was made the devil: man usurped equality with God, and fell, and was made mortal. But this one, who was born equal, because not born in time, but the eternal Son to the eternal Father, always born, through whom all things were made, was in the form of God. But that he might be the mediator between God and men, between the just one and the unjust, between the immortal one and mortals, he assumed something from the unjust and mortal, keeping something with the just and immortal. For keeping justice with the just and immortal one, assuming mortality from the unjust and mortal, made a reconciler in the middle, casting down the wall of our sins; whence it is sung to him by his people: And in my God I shall pass over the wall (Ps 18:29 (17:30)); rendering to God what sins had alienated, redeeming by his own blood what the devil possessed; he died for us, and rose for us. He bore our sins, not clinging to them, but bearing them: just as Jacob bore the skins of the kids, that he might seem hairy to his father blessing him (See Gen 27:16, 23). The evil Esau had his own hairs, but the good Jacob bore another's. For sins cling to mortal men. But they did not cling to him who had said: I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again (John 10:18).

17. 16. Death, then, in our Lord was a sign of another's sins, not the punishment of his own. But in all men mortality is the punishment of sin: for it is drawn from the origin of sin, whence we all come; from the fall of that man, not from the descent of this one. For it is one thing to fall, another to descend. One fell wickedly, the other descended mercifully. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). Bearing, then, another's sins: What I did not seize, he says, then I was paying back (See Ps 69:4 (68:5)); that is, not having sin I was dying. Behold, he says, the prince of this world will come, and in me he will find nothing. What is: he will find nothing in me? He will not find in me the merit of death. For the merit of death is sin. Why, then, will you die? It follows, and he says. But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, rise, let us go hence (John 14:30-31). And he rises, going to the passion. Why? Because he was doing the will of his Father, not because he owed anything to the prince of sinners, in whom there was no sin. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ brought divinity with him, but assumed mortality from us. This he received in the womb of the virgin Mary, joining himself, the Word of God, to human nature, as a bridegroom to a bride in the virginal chamber, that he himself as a bridegroom might come forth from his chamber (See Ps 19:5 (18:6)).

17. 17. Return, then, to that which I was saying. Mortality came into all men from sin: but in the Lord it was from mercy, and yet it was true; because such flesh was true, and was truly mortal, having the likeness of the flesh of sin; not the likeness of flesh, but the likeness of the flesh of sin (See Rom 8:3): for it was true flesh, but not the flesh of sin. For he had not, as I said, received that mortality by the merit of sin, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was made obedient unto death (Phil 2:7-8). What, then, was he, and what did he have? He was divinity, having mortality. But from where he died, from there he rose again.

18. 17. Now look at those who say: Christ alone could rise, but not you. But answer and say: Christ rose in that which he had received from us. Take away the form of a servant, there would be nothing in which he might rise; because there would be nothing in which he might die. Why, then, do you wish from the praise of my Lord to destroy in me the faith which my Lord has built up? For from that, that he received the form of a servant, he died. But according to this he rose, according to which he died. In no way, then, would I despair of the resurrection of the servant, since in the form of a servant the Lord rose again. Or if they attribute to the power of the man that Christ rose from the dead—for this too they are wont to say, that he was a man so just that he could even rise from the dead—so that I may for the moment speak according to them, and say nothing of the divinity of our Lord; that man, so just that he merited even to rise from the dead, could in no way deceive us, when he promised the resurrection to us too.

19. 18. All the things, then, which have been said, brothers, avail for this, that you may be instructed, if any say that the dead do not rise. But they were said, if you remember, as much as God deigned to suggest as necessary, and testimonies were said both from the nature of things and from daily examples; and from the very omnipotence of God to whom nothing is difficult, who, if he could make what was not, much more can repair what was; and from the very Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who, it is agreed, rose again, and his resurrection was made only in the form of a servant, because death too could not come about, from which there would be need to rise, except through the form of a servant. Whence, since we are servants, we ought to hope in our form that which he deigned to demonstrate beforehand in the form of a servant. Let the tongues of those saying be silenced, then: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. Plainly do you too answer, and say: Let us fast and pray; for tomorrow we shall die.

20. 19. It remains for us to say what the life of the just will be like in the resurrection. But because you see that the moderate time has now today been taken up, ruminate on what we have rendered: but pray that we may at some time render what we owe. Hold above all why we have spoken, especially on account of these festal days, my brothers, which the pagans celebrate. Attend to yourselves: this world passes away, recall the Gospel where the Lord foretells that the last day will be thus, as in the days of Noah. They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying, being given in marriage, until Noah entered the ark; the flood came, and destroyed all (See Matt 24:38-39; Luke 17:27). You have the Lord most plainly forewarning, and in another place saying: Let not your hearts be weighed down in carousing and drunkenness (Luke 21:34). Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning (Luke 12:35); and be like servants awaiting their master, when he comes from the wedding (See Luke 12:36). Let us await him going to come, let him not find us torpid. It is base for a married woman not to desire her husband: how much more base for the Church not to desire Christ? The husband comes to carnal embraces, and is received with the great vows of a chaste wife: the bridegroom of the Church is going to come to hand over eternal embraces, to make us his everlasting co-heirs, and we so live that we not only do not desire his coming, but even fear it! How true is it that that day will so come, as in the days of Noah? How many will it find thus, even those who are called Christians? Therefore the ark is built for so many years, that those who do not believe may wake up (See 1 Pet 3:20). For a hundred years it was built, and they did not wake up to say: Not without cause does the man of God build an ark, except because destruction threatens the human race; and let them appease the wrath of God, turning to the morals which please God, as the Ninevites did.

21. 19. For they brought forth the fruit of penance, and propitiated the wrath of God.

21. 20. Jonah announced not mercy, but wrath to come: for he did not say: In three days Nineveh will be overthrown; but if you do penance in these three days, God will spare you: he did not say this. He threatened and foretold the overthrow alone: and yet they, not despairing of God's mercy, turned themselves to repenting; and God spared them (See Jonah 3:4-10). But what shall we say? that the prophet lied? If you understand it carnally, he seems to have spoken falsely; if you understand it spiritually, what the prophet said came to pass. For Nineveh was overthrown. Attend to what Nineveh was, and see that it was overthrown. What was Nineveh? They were eating and drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, given to perjuries, lies, drunkennesses, crimes, corruptions: this was Nineveh. Attend now to Nineveh: they lament, grieve, are saddened, in sackcloth and ashes, in fasts and prayers. Where is that Nineveh? Surely it was overthrown, because it is not set in those former deeds.

22. 21. Therefore, brothers, even now the ark is built, and those hundred years are these times: this whole stretch of time was signified by that number of years. If, then, those deserved to perish who, while Noah was building the ark, disregarded it; what do those deserve, who, while Christ builds the Church, disregard salvation? There is as much difference between Noah and Christ as between a servant and a Lord; rather indeed, as much as between God and man. For a servant and a Lord can also be called two men. And yet, because, with a man building the ark, men did not believe, an example to be guarded against was given of them to those who came after. Christ, God on our account man, builds the Church; he placed himself as the foundation of that ark: daily imperishable wood, faithful men renouncing this world, enter into the framework of the ark; and still it is said: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die? Do you, then, as I said, brothers, say against them: Let us fast and pray; for tomorrow we shall die. For those say: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die, who do not hope for the resurrection: but we who now both believe and announce the resurrection, with the prophets speaking, and Christ and the apostles preaching, who hope that after this death we shall live, let us not fail, nor weigh down our hearts with carousing and drunkenness; but, anxiously awaiting, with loins girded and lamps burning, the coming of our Lord, let us fast and pray, not for the reason that tomorrow we shall die, but that we may die secure. What remains, then, brothers, demand of us in the name of the Lord at another time. Turned to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 362
On the Resurrection of the Dead

1. 1. Keeping in memory our promise, we have had suitable readings recited too from the Gospel and the Apostle. For whoever of you were present at the previous sermon recall with us that the question proposed about the resurrection was distributed by us into a twofold disputation: that first we should discourse, on account of those who doubt, or even who deny, whether there will be a resurrection of the dead; but afterward, as much as we can, we should inquire according to the Scriptures, what the future life of the just will be like in the resurrection. In the first part, then, where we treated that the dead rise, we lingered so long, as you deign to remember, that time was lacking for the second question to be treated, and so we were compelled to defer it to this day. This debt of ours, then, your attention demands, and we recognize the time for rendering it.

2. 1. Together, then, with the pious attention of the heart, let us beseech the Lord, that both we may opportunely pay the debt, and you may wholesomely receive it. For this is, it must be confessed, a greater question: but stronger than all difficult questions is love, which we all ought to serve, that God who commanded this may turn all our difficulties into ease and joy.

2. 2. You remember that it was answered by us on that day to certain ones saying, as the Apostle rebukes them: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die: subjoining and saying: Evil conversations corrupt good morals; and so concluding: Be sober, you just, and do not sin: for some have ignorance of God; I speak to your reverence (1 Cor 15:32-34). These apostolic words we have all heard, and committed to heart: and whoever has heard and committed to heart, let the works show it. For he who hears is as a field receiving the seed of the sower: but he who commits to heart is like one breaking the clod, and covering what was sown: but he who works according to that which he heard and committed to heart, he it is who rises into the harvest, and bears fruit with patience, one thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, another a hundredfold (See Matt 13:23). For this one not fire as for chaff, but granaries as for wheat are prepared.

3. 2. In those hidden granaries, then, in the resurrection of the dead, is that perpetual blessedness, even those secret places of the just, to which Scripture commends that they are to be received.

3. 3. By the name of vessels too he mentioned it in another place, when the Lord Jesus Christ said that the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet, that is, nets; for certain nets are called a dragnet. The kingdom of heaven is like, then, he says, a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering of every kind: which, when it was full, drawing it out, and sitting by the shore, they chose the good into vessels, but the bad they cast out (Matt 13:47-48). Our Lord wished to signify that now the word of God is so cast over peoples and over nations, as a dragnet is thrown into the sea. But it gathers now, by the Christian sacraments, both good and bad: but not all whom the dragnet takes up are also stored in the little vessels. For the little vessels are the seats of the saints, and the great secret places of the blessed life, to which not all can come who are called Christians, but those who are so called that they may be such. But surely both good and bad fish swim within the dragnet, and the good tolerate the bad, until at the end they are separated. It was said too in a certain place: You will hide them in the hiding of your face (Ps 31:20 (30:21)); for he was speaking of the saints. You will hide them, he says, in the hiding of your face: that is, where the eyes of men cannot follow, nor the thoughts of mortals; signifying certain secret things too hidden, too concealed, he said, in the hiding of the face of God. Is it to be thought carnally that God has a certain great face, and that in his face there is some bodily receptacle, where the saints are to be hidden? These things, you see, brothers, how carnal they are, and to be spurned from the heart of all the faithful. What ought the hiding of the face of God to be understood as, then, except that which is known only to the face of God? When, then, granaries are spoken of, that secret places may be signified, and in another place little vessels are spoken of; neither are they the granaries which we know, nor little vessels. For if there were some one such thing, the other would not be spoken of. But because through likenesses known to men unknown things are conveyed, as far as they can be, take both names for this purpose, that you may understand a secret thing, both by the name of granary and by that of little vessels. But if you ask what kind of secret, hear the prophet saying: You will hide them in the hiding of your face.

4. 4. Since these things are so, brothers, we are still on pilgrimage in this life, we still sigh by faith for that I-know-not-what homeland. And why I-know-not-what, from where we are citizens, except because, on pilgrimage in a far country, we have forgotten it, so that we can call our homeland I-know-not-what? This forgetfulness the Lord Christ drives out of the heart, the king of that homeland, coming to the pilgrims; and by the assumption of flesh his divinity becomes for us the way, that through the man Christ we may go, and in God Christ we may remain. What then, brothers? That secret which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (See 1 Cor 2:9), with what eloquence are we going to unfold it to you, or with what eye are we going to see it? We can sometimes know something which yet we cannot speak: but what we do not know, we sometimes cannot speak. Since, then, it can happen that even if I knew those things, I could not speak them to you; how much more difficult will my speech be, when even I, brothers, walk with you by faith, not yet by sight? But is this I, or even the Apostle himself? For he consoles our ignorance, and builds up faith, saying: Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold of it. But one thing, forgetting the things that are behind, stretched out toward the things that are ahead, I follow with intent toward the prize of the heavenly calling (Phil 3:13-14); whence he shows himself to be on the way. And in another place: As long as we are, he says, in the body, we are on pilgrimage away from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). And again: For by hope, he says, we are saved. But hope which is seen is not hope: for what one sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience (Rom 8:24-25).

5. 5. So, then, brothers, hear from me a voice which is in the Psalms, pious, humble, gentle, not exalted, not turbulent, not headlong, not rash. For the Psalm says in a certain place: I believed, therefore I spoke (Ps 116:10 (115:1)). And the Apostle inserted this testimony, and subjoined: And we believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor 4:13). Do you wish, then, me to say those things which I know? I do not deceive you, hear what I have believed. Let it not grow cheap to you, because you hear what I have believed: for you hear a truthful confession. But if I said: Hear what I know; you would hear a rash presumption. If, then, brothers, all of us, and, as we believe by the writings of the saints, all also who lived in the flesh before us, and through whom the Spirit of God speaking distributed to men as much as would suffice to be signified to those on pilgrimage, all speak what we believe: but the Lord himself, the things which he knew. What then, if only the Lord could know about the life that is to come forever what he was saying; but the others following the Lord, for the reason that they believed? We find our Lord Jesus Christ himself, knowing what he was saying, yet not saying it. For he says in a certain place to his disciples: I have yet many things to say to you; but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12). He, on account of their weakness, not on account of his own difficulty, deferred to say what he knew. But we, on account of the common weakness of all of us, do not try to speak worthily enough what we know, but unfold, as we can, what we worthily believe; and do you grasp as you can. And if perhaps any of you can grasp more than I can say, let him not attend to the meager stream, but run to the most rich fountain: since with him is the fountain of life, in whose light we shall see light (See Ps 36:9 (35:10)).

6. 6. Since, then, we have disputed that there is a resurrection, so we believe, so we ought to believe, so we speak, because so we have believed, if we are Christians, beholding the power of the arm of the Lord laying low everywhere the pride of the nations, and building up this faith so widely throughout the world, as was promised long before it came to pass: beholding these things, we are built up to believe those things which we do not yet see, that we may receive that very sight as the reward of faith. Since, then, it is manifest to our faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and so manifest that whoever doubts about it would most shamelessly call himself a Christian; it is asked what sort of bodies the saints will have, and what their life will be. For it has seemed to many that the resurrection indeed takes place, but through souls alone.

7. 7. But because the bodies too rise, there is no need to discourse long after the previous sermon. But a question of this kind is objected: If the bodies are to be, what kind are they to be? Such as they now are, or of another kind? If of another kind, what is that kind? If such, then for the same works? Because the Lord does not prescribe for the same, because the Apostle does not teach for such. For not for the same life, not for the same mortal and corruptible and perishing and passing deeds, not for carnal joys, not for carnal consolations. If, then, not for the same, neither such. If not such, how then will the flesh rise? But we have the resurrection of the flesh in the rule of faith, and confessing it we are baptized. And whatever we confess there, we confess out of truth and in truth, in which we live and move and are (See Acts 17:28). For by temporal deeds and certain passing and transient acts we are instructed unto eternal life. All the things which were done, that we might hear something wholesome, that miracles might be done, that our Lord might be born, hunger and thirst, be seized, be afflicted with insults, be beaten, be crucified, die, be buried, rise again, ascend into heaven, all have passed away; and when they are preached, certain temporal and transitory actions of our faith are preached. Does it follow that because these themselves pass away, what is built up through them likewise passes away? For let your holiness attend, that you may see this through a likeness. An architect builds, by means of passing machines, a house that abides. For in this so great and ample building which we see, when it was being constructed, there were machines, which now are not here; because what was being built by them now stands complete. So, then, brothers, something was being built in the Christian faith, and certain temporal machines were completed. For that our Lord Jesus Christ rose again is past; for he does not still rise: and that he ascended into heaven is past; for he does not still ascend. But that which is in that life, where now he does not die, and death will no longer have dominion over him (See Rom 6:9); that there lives forever even that very human nature in him, which he deigned to assume, and in which to be born, and in which to die and be buried, this was built, this always abides. But the machines by which it was built have passed away. For Christ is not always conceived in the virginal womb, or always born of the virgin Mary, or always seized, or always judged, scourged, crucified, buried. All these things are reckoned as machines, that by these machines might be built that which abides forever. But this resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is placed in heaven.

8. 8. Let your love attend to a wonderful building. For those earthly buildings press the earth with their weight, and the whole bent of the weights in this structure leans by its greatness toward the earth, and unless it is held in, it sinks downward, whither the weight draws it. Because, then, it is built on the earth, on the earth the foundation is laid first; that the builder may build securely upon the foundation. Therefore he places at the bottom most firm masses, that they may suitably be able to carry what is set upon them, and in proportion to the greatness of the building the greatness of the foundation is prepared: on the earth, however, as I said, because even what is built above is surely placed on the earth. That our pilgrim Jerusalem is built in heaven. Therefore Christ the foundation went before into heaven. For there is our foundation and the head of the Church: for he is called both foundation and head, and truly it is so. Because the head of the building is the foundation: for the head is not that which is finished, but from where it begins upward. The summits of earthly buildings are raised on high, yet they set the head in the solidity of the earth. So too the head of the Church went before into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. As men work, so as to draw something for setting up the foundation which they may establish at the bottom, on account of the security of the mass to come in the constructions of the future fabric: so through all those things which befell in Christ, to be born, to grow, to be seized, to suffer insult, to be scourged, to be crucified, to be slain, to die, to be buried, as it were the mass was drawn to the heavenly foundation.

8. 9. With our foundation, then, placed on high, let us be built up in it. Hear the Apostle: No one, he says, can lay another foundation, except that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor 3:11).

9. 9. But what follows? But let each one see what he builds upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble (1 Cor 3:12). In heaven indeed Christ is, but also in the heart of believers. If Christ holds the first place, the foundation is rightly laid. Therefore let him who builds build securely, if according to the dignity of the foundation he builds gold, silver, precious stones. But if not according to the dignity of the foundation he builds wood, hay, stubble; let him at least keep the foundation, and on account of those dry and fragile things which he has built up, let him prepare himself for fire. But if it is the foundation, that is, if Christ has obtained the first place in the heart, but worldly things are so loved that they are not preferred to Christ, but the Lord Christ to them, so that he is in the building of the heart holding the foundation, that is, the first place: he will suffer, he says, loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor 3:15). It is not now the time to exhort you to build gold, silver, precious stones rather than wood, hay, stubble, upon so great and strong a foundation: but yet take this thing briefly said as though said at length and in many words. For we know, brothers, that whoever of you, on account of those things which he now loves, were cast into prison by the threats of some judge, so as to suffer only smoke, would prefer to lose all those things, than to suffer that place. But somehow when fire is named, to come on the day of judgment, all despise it, and fearing the flames of the hearth, they count the flame of hell as nothing. What is this hardness? what is so great a perversity of heart? If men at least so feared what the Apostle says, through fire, as each one fears lest he burn alive, which befalls him in one moment, until the sense, leaving the members, makes all those flames superfluous; yet he would fear, and would not do something which is rightly forbidden, lest he come to that torment of one moment.

10. 10. But, as I said, brothers, there is now no space for discoursing about this matter: this I say, that we ought to hope in the resurrection of the dead for that which was expressed in our head, which was expressed in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever hopes for another thing, now does not build upon the foundation, not only gold, silver, and precious stones, but not even the stubble itself. For he places the whole outside, because he does not place it in Christ. Our Lord, then, rose again in that body in which he was buried. The resurrection is promised to Christians. Let us hope for such a resurrection as preceded in our Lord the faith of us all. For he went before for this, that our faith might be built up upon it. What then? How shall we not be such as we now are? For the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ rose again, but it ascended into heaven. On earth it kept human offices, that it might persuade that this had risen which had been buried. But is there even in heaven such food? For we read that even the angels carried out human offices on earth. They came to Abraham, and ate; and with Tobit there was an angel, and he ate. What do we say, that that eating was a phantom, and was not true? Is it not manifest that Abraham killed a calf, made loaves, and set them on the table; that he ministered to the angels, and they ate (See Gen 18:6-8)? All these things were most manifestly done and most manifestly expressed.

11. 11. What, then, does the angel say in the book of Tobit? You saw me eat, but you saw with your sight (See Tob 12:19). Was it because he was not eating, but seemed to eat? Rather indeed he was eating. What is, then, you saw with your sight? Let your holiness attend to what I say: attend to the prayer more than to me; that you may understand what we say, that we too may so say as it behooves you to hear and understand what you hear. Our body, as long as it is corruptible and mortal, suffers the need of refreshment, whence too hunger arises: therefore we hunger and thirst; and if we put off our hunger and thirst longer than the body can sustain, it is led to a wasting leanness, and to a certain diseased emaciation, the strength departing and not coming again: and if it goes further, death too will follow. For there always departs something from our body as it were by a certain river of departing, but we do not feel the strength departing from there, because by refreshment we take in fresh strength succeeding. For what comes abundantly departs little by little: therefore in a short time we refresh, but over a longer time the strength deserts us, which was received when we refreshed ourselves. Just as oil in a lamp, which is put in over a short time, is consumed over a longer time little by little. But when it is nearly consumed, now the languor of that little flame, as it were the hunger of the lamp, admonishes us, and at once we come to its aid, that that appearance may be restored, and the light may abide in the lamp, refreshed with its food when we add oil. So our strength, which we receive by eating, goes and deserts us by a perpetual departing, but little by little. For this very thing now goes on in us, and in all our actions, in all our rest too there does not cease to go what was received: and if it is altogether consumed, so a man both dies as a lamp is extinguished. But that he may not die, that is, that he may not be extinguished, not because he dies in mind, but that this bodily life of ours may not be extinguished, and a certain as it were keeping-watch in this body may succeed, we run and supply what has departed, and we are said to refresh. He who says he refreshes, what does he refresh, if nothing fails? Through this need, then, and corruption we are all going to die too, because such is this body, that death is owed and reserved to it. For this mortality the skins signify, with which Adam and Eve were clothed, and sent out of paradise (See Gen 3:21, 23). For the skins indicate death, which are wont to be drawn from dead beasts. Since, then, we carry this failing weakness, to which, even if food is never lacking, but ever and again repairs the strength, yet it does not bring it about that death is not to come (for that whole state of the body, through the succeeding ages, even if one lives here longer, comes at some time to the limit of old age, and beyond which to be extended it will not find except death. For even the lamp itself, even if you ever and again always put in oil, cannot always burn; because, that it may not be extinguished by other accidents, the wick itself fails, and is consumed by a certain as it were old age); as long, then, as we bear such bodies, from defect we are in need, from need we hunger, from hunger we eat. But the angel does not eat from need. For it is one thing to do something by power, another by necessity. Man eats, lest he die: the angel eats, that he may suit himself to mortals. For if the angel does not fear death, he is not refreshed from defect: if he is not refreshed from defect, he does not eat from need. But those who saw the angel eat thought him as it were hungering. This is what he says: You saw with your sight. For he did not say: You saw me eat, but I did not eat: You saw, he says, me eat, but you saw with your sight; that is, I was eating that I might suit myself to you, not because I was suffering any hunger or need, by whose compulsion you are accustomed to eat, and therefore those whom you see eating, you suspect that this is done from need, who measure by your own custom what you see: this is, you saw with your sight.

12. 12. What then, my brothers? We know, as the Apostle says, that Christ rising from the dead now dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died once: but in that he lives, he lives to God (Rom 6:9-10). If, then, he now dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him; let us so hope to rise again, that we may always be in that state into which by rising we shall be changed. But of eating and drinking, even if there will be the power, there will not be the necessity. But there was then a reason why the Lord did this, because there were still in the flesh those to whom he wished to suit himself, to whom he also wished to show his scars. For he who made the eyes of the blind man, which he had not received in his mother's womb, could not rise again without scars. He who, if he wished to change the mortal need of his own flesh before death, so that it had no want of necessity, could surely do so: for he had it in his hand, because he was God in the flesh, and the almighty Son, as the Father is almighty. For even his own flesh he changed before death into what he wished. For when he was on the mountain with the disciples, his face shone like the sun (See Matt 17:1-2). But this he did by power, wishing to show that he could change even his own flesh from all need, so as not to die if he did not wish. I have power, he says, to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again. No one takes it from me (John 10:18). Great is this power, by which he could even not die: but greater the mercy, by which he wished to die. For he did by mercy what he could even not do by power, that he might establish for us the foundation of the resurrection: that what he bore mortal for our sake, he might both die, because we are to die; and rise again to immortality, that we may hope for immortality. And therefore before death it is written not only that he ate and drank, but also that he hungered and thirsted (See Matt 4:2; John 19:28); after the resurrection only that he both ate and drank, but not that he hungered and thirsted; because in a body no longer to die there was not that need of corruption, that there should be a necessity of refreshment, but there was the power of eating. It was done for the sake of suiting himself, not that the want of the flesh might be relieved, but that the truth of the body might be persuaded.

13. 13. Against this so great evidence, some make a question for us from the Apostle: against this disputation, see what they object. The flesh, they say, will not rise: for if it rises, it will possess the kingdom of God; but the Apostle plainly says: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). You heard, when the Apostle was being read. We say that the flesh rises, and the Apostle cries out: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God. Do we, then, preach against the Apostle, or did he preach against the Gospel? The Gospel attests with a divine voice: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). If it was made flesh, it was made true flesh. For if not true flesh, neither flesh. As true was the flesh of Mary, so true the flesh of Christ, which was assumed from there. This true flesh was seized, scourged, buffeted, hung; this true flesh died, this true flesh was buried; this true flesh rose again even from death. The scars render testimony: the eyes of the disciples see, and still the wonder wavers; the hand handles, lest the mind doubt. Against so great evidence, brothers, by which our Lord Jesus Christ wished to persuade his disciples who were going to preach it throughout the whole world; against this evidence does the Apostle seem to fight, saying: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God?

13. 14. We could solve this question thus, and resist vain slanderers: nevertheless it will be solved both in this way, as can be quickly answered, and we will consider more diligently what the Apostle says, whence it was said. I say, then, how we can most easily answer. What does the Gospel hold? That Christ rose again in that body in which he was buried: because he was seen, because he was handled, because he said to the disciples who thought it was a spirit: Touch, and see, that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me to have (Luke 24:39). What does the Apostle say against this? Flesh and blood, he says, will not possess the kingdom of God. I embrace both, nor do I say these things conflict, lest I myself fight against the goad. How, then, do I embrace both? Quickly, as I said, I could answer thus: The Apostle says: Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God as an inheritance (See 1 Cor 15:50). He said rightly; for it is not for the flesh to possess, but to be possessed. For your body does not possess anything, but your soul possesses through the body, which possesses even the body itself. If, then, the flesh so rises that it may be had, not have; that it may be possessed, not possess: what wonder if flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God, because it will surely be possessed? For the flesh possesses those who are not the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of the devil, and therefore are subjected to the pleasures of the flesh. Whence too that paralytic was carried on a pallet: but when healed the Lord said: Take up your pallet, and go to your house (See Matt 9:6). So, then, with the paralysis healed he holds his flesh, and leads it where he wishes: he is not, where he does not wish, dragged by the flesh, and he carries the body rather than is carried by the body. It is manifest that in that resurrection the flesh will not have the pull of enticements, so as to lead the soul by certain titillations and coaxings, where the soul does not wish, and very often it is overcome, saying: I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members. Still the paralytic is carried on a pallet, he does not yet carry: let him cry out, then: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? Let it be answered: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:23-25). When, then, we have risen again, the flesh will not carry us, but we will carry it: if we carry it, we will possess it: if we possess it, we will not be possessed by it; because, freed from the devil, we are the kingdom of God: and so flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God. Therefore let those slanderers be silent, who truly are flesh and blood, and can think nothing except carnally. Because even of those persevering in the same prudence of the flesh, whence they are deservedly called flesh and blood, it could rightly be said: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God.

14. 14. Let this question be solved in this way too: that such men, who are called flesh and blood (for of such the Apostle too says: Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12)), if they do not turn themselves to the spiritual life, and by the spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh, will not be able to possess the kingdom of God.

14. 15. Nevertheless, what does the Apostle say, someone will ask? For that is the truer sense which is opened by the context of the reading. And so let us rather hear him himself, and from the whole connection of Scripture which is around it, let us see what in that place he wished to be understood. For he says thus: The first man of the earth, earthly; the second man of heaven. As is the earthly one, such also the earthly; and as is the heavenly one, such also the heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly one, let us bear also the image of him who is of heaven. But this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God; nor will corruption possess incorruption (1 Cor 15:47-50). Let us see them one by one. The first man, he says, of the earth, earthly; the second man of heaven. As is the earthly one, such also the earthly, that is, all going to die: and as is the heavenly one, such also the heavenly, that is, all going to rise again. For now the heavenly man has risen, and ascended into heaven: to whom by faith we are now incorporated, that he himself may be our head; but the members in their own order follow their head, and what was demonstrated beforehand in the head may be demonstrated in its own time in the members: but now let us bear this by faith, that we may come to the very reality and sight in its own time. For so he says in another place: But if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; savor the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth (Col 3:1-2). As, then, when in ourselves we have not yet risen, as Christ in body, yet by faith we are said to have risen with Christ: so he bids us to bear meanwhile by faith the image of the heavenly man, that is, of him who is now in the heavens.

14. 16. But if anyone asks why he did not call the second man "in heaven," but "of heaven," since the Lord himself too received his body from the earth, because surely Mary was descended from Adam and Eve; let him understand that the earthly man is so called according to earthly concupiscence: and since that affection is earthly by which through the intercourse of male and female men are born, drawing even from their parents original sin; but the body of the Lord was created from the virginal womb by no such affection, although Christ assumed flesh from the earth, which is understood that the Holy Spirit signifies, saying: Truth has arisen from the earth (Ps 85:11 (84:12)); yet not earthly, but a heavenly man, and "of heaven," he is called. For if he granted this to his faithful by grace, so that the Apostle rightly says: For our citizenship is in the heavens (Phil 3:20); how much more is he himself a heavenly man, and to be called "of heaven," in whom there was never any sin? For on account of sin it was said to man: You are earth, and into earth you shall go (Gen 3:19). Of heaven, then, that heavenly man is most rightly called, whose citizenship never departed from heaven: although the Son of God, made also the son of man, assumed a body from the earth, that is, the form of a servant. For none ascended, except he who descended. Because even if the rest, to whomever he has granted it, ascend, or rather are lifted up into heaven by his grace, even so he himself ascends, because they become his body; and according to this one ascends: since the Apostle expounds a great mystery in Christ and the Church, by which it is written: And they shall be two in one flesh (Eph 5:31-32). Whence too it is said: Therefore now not two, but one flesh. Wherefore no one ascends into heaven, except he who descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven (John 3:13). For on this account he added, who is in heaven, lest anyone should think that his citizenship had departed from heaven, when through an earthly body he appeared on earth to men. Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly one, let us bear also the image of him who is of heaven, meanwhile by faith, through which we have also risen with him: that we may both have the heart on high, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; and therefore seek and savor the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.

15. 17. But because he was dealing with the resurrection of the body: for so he had set it forth: But someone will say: How do the dead rise? With what body do they come? (1 Cor 15:35) and therefore he had said: The first man of the earth, earthly, the second man, of heaven. As is the earthly one, such also the earthly; and as is the heavenly one, such also the heavenly; that we might hope this to be in our body, which preceded in the body of Christ; and although we have not yet in reality received this, let us meanwhile hold it by faith. Therefore he had subjoined: As we have borne the image of the earthly one, let us bear also the image of him who is of heaven. Lest we should believe that we are going to rise to such things as, according to the first man, we were corruptibly doing, he at once subjoined: But this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God as an inheritance (1 Cor 15:50). And wishing to show what he meant by flesh and blood, that he signifies by the name of flesh and blood not the appearance itself of the body, but corruption, which corruption will not then be. For a body without corruption is not properly called flesh and blood, but a body. For if it is flesh, it is corruptible and mortal: but if it now does not die, it is now not corruptible; and therefore, without corruption, with the appearance remaining, it is now called not flesh, but a body: and if it is called flesh, it is now not properly called so, but on account of a certain likeness of appearance. As we can perhaps, on account of the same likeness, call even the flesh of angels flesh, when they appeared to men as men do; when they were a body, not flesh: because the need of corruption was not in them. Because, then, we can according to likeness call even a body that is now not corrupted flesh, the anxious Apostle, following, wished to expound what he meant by flesh and blood: that he said this according to corruption, not according to appearance: and he at once subjoined: Nor will corruption possess incorruption as an inheritance (1 Cor 15:50): as though he said: What I said: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God; this I said, because corruption will not possess incorruption.

15. 18. And lest anyone should say: If, then, incorruption cannot be possessed by corruption, how will our body be there? Hear what follows. As though it were said to the Apostle: What is it, then, that you say? have we believed in the resurrection of the flesh in vain? If flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God, have we believed in vain that our Lord rose from the dead in the body in which he was born and crucified, that in it he ascended into heaven before the eyes of his disciples, from which heaven he cried out to you: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? This occurred to the holy and blessed apostle Paul, and travailing with pious love over his children begotten in Christ through the Gospel (See 1 Cor 4:15), with whom he still travailed until Christ was reformed in them (See Gal 4:19), that is, until they bore by faith the image of him who is of heaven. For he did not want them to remain in that ruin, so as to think that they were going to do such things in the kingdom of God, in that eternal life, as they did in this life, in the pleasures of eating and drinking, of marrying, of taking wives, and of begetting them carnally: for these works the corruption of the flesh has, not the appearance itself of the flesh. Now, then, because we are not going to rise to such things, the Lord prescribed, as I had long ago said, in the gospel reading which was just now recited. For the Jews believed indeed in the resurrection of the flesh, but thought it would be such that the life would be in the resurrection such as they led in this age; and so, thinking carnally, they could not answer the Sadducees who set forth a question about the resurrection, whose wife the woman would be, whom seven brothers succeeding one another had had, since each one wished to raise up seed for his dead brother from his wife. For the Sadducees were a certain sect of the Jews, which did not believe the resurrection. The Jews, then, when the Sadducees set forth this question, wavering and hesitating could not answer, because they thought that the kingdom of God could be possessed by flesh and blood, that is, incorruption by corruption. The Truth came, is questioned by the deceived and deceiving Sadducees, that question is set forth to the Lord. And the Lord, who knew what he said, and wished us to believe what we did not know, answers by the authority of his majesty what we may believe. But the Apostle expounded as much as was given to him: that, as much as we can, we may understand. What, then, does the Lord say to the Sadducees? You err, he says, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor take wives; for neither do they begin to die, but they will be equal to the angels of God. Great is the power of God. Why do they not marry, nor take wives? Because they will not begin to die. For there is a successor, where there is a predecessor. There is, then, no such corruption there. And that Lord ran through the ages from infancy to youth, because he still bore the substance of mortal flesh: after he rose again in the age in which he was buried, do we believe that he grows old in heaven? Therefore they will be, he says, equal to the angels of God. He took away from the midst the suspicion of the Jews, he refuted the calumnies of the Sadducees: because the Jews believed indeed that the dead would rise, but for what works they would rise, they thought carnally. They will be equal, he says, to the angels of God. You have heard about the power of God, hear also about the Scriptures. About the resurrection, he says, have you not read, how the Lord spoke to Moses from the bush, saying: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (See Matt 22:23-32).

16. 19. That we rise, then, has been said: and that we rise to the life of the angels, we have heard from the Lord: but in what appearance we rise, he himself showed in his resurrection. But that the appearance itself will not have corruption, the Apostle says: But this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God as an inheritance; nor will corruption possess incorruption as an inheritance; that he might show that by the name of flesh and blood he wished to understand the corruption of the mortal and animal body. Then he himself now solves the question, which the anxious hearers could ask of him: because he himself is more anxious about the understanding of his children, than the children are about the words of their parents. He subjoins, then, and says: Behold, I tell you a mystery. Let your thought rest, O man, whoever you are. For you had begun to think from the words of the Apostle that human flesh does not rise, when you heard: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God: but lend your ear to the following words, and correct the presumption of your thought. Behold, he says, I tell you a mystery: we shall all indeed rise, but we shall not all be changed. What is this? Change indeed is either for the worse, or for the better. If, then, change is set down, so that we do not yet see what it will be like, whether into something better, or into something worse: let him therefore follow, and let him himself expound; what is it for us to suspect? And perhaps the apostolic authority does not permit you to slip into error by human suspicion in your conjectures, and expounds this clearly, what kind of change he wishes to be understood. What then? When he had said: We shall all rise, yet we shall not all be changed: I see that all are going to rise, both the good and the evil; but let us see who will be changed; and from this let us understand the change, whether it is going to be for the better or for the worse. For if this change belongs to the evil, it will be for the worse; but if to the good, it will be for the better. In an atom, he says, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed (1 Cor 15:51-52). Now, then, this change will be for the better, when he says: And we shall be changed; but it is not yet expressed as much as it ought to be expressed, to what point our body is changed for the better. What is that "better" itself, it is not yet said. For even when one is changed from infancy to adolescence, he can be said to be changed for the better, where, even if less weak, yet it is still weak and mortal.

17. 20. Therefore let us consider each thing more diligently. In an atom, he says. It seems difficult to men that the dead should rise: but it is wonderful how the Apostle has taken away all doubtful difficulties from the hearts of the faithful. You say: The dead do not rise: I say not only that the dead rise, but with as great speed as you were not conceived and born. For how great a delay there is that a man be formed in the womb, be perfected, be born, be strengthened by the succession of ages! Is he perhaps going to rise again thus? No: but in an atom, he says. Many do not know what an atom is. It is called atom from tomē, which is "section": atomon in Greek is what cannot be cut. But "atom" is said of body, it is said of time. It is said of body, if something can be found which indeed is held to be unable to be divided, some little body so minute, that it no longer has where it can be cut. But an atom in time is a short moment, which now has no place where it may be divided. For example, that even slower hearts may grasp what I say: it is a stone; divide it into parts, and divide the parts themselves into pebbles, the pebbles indeed into grains, such as are of sand, and again divide the grains of sand themselves into the most minute dust, until, if you can, you come to some minute thing, of such a kind as can now not be divided. This is the atom in bodies. But in time it is thus understood. A year, for example, is divided into months, the months are divided into days, the days can still be divided into hours, the hours still into certain rather extended parts of hours, which admit divisions, until you come to so great a point of time, and a certain drop of a moment, that it cannot be extended through any little delay, and therefore now cannot be divided: this is the atom of time. You said, then, that the dead do not rise: not only do they rise, but they rise with such great speed, that in an atom of time will be the resurrection of all the dead.

18. 20. And expounding to you the speed of the atom, when he had said: in an atom, he at once added how much action and movement can take place in an atom of time: In the twinkling of an eye, he says. For he knew he had spoken obscurely: in an atom, and he wished to say more plainly what would be more easily understood. What is the twinkling of an eye? Not that by which we close or open the eye with the eyelids: but he calls the twinkling of the eye the emission of rays to discern something. For as soon as you cast your gaze, the emitted ray reaches the sky, where we behold the sun and moon and stars and constellations, separated from the earth by so immense an interval. But by the last trumpet he means the last sign. For the trumpet, he says, will sound, and the dead will rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed (1 Cor 15:52). By "we" he surely means the faithful, and those who rise first to eternal life. Therefore that change, because it is of the pious and holy, will be for the better, not for the worse.

18. 21. But what is this change? what is that which he says: We shall be changed? Is the appearance which now is lost, or only the corruption, on account of what was said: Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God; nor will corruption possess incorruption as an inheritance? Which, lest it should move the hearer to despair of the resurrection of the flesh, he subjoined: Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed. And lest we should think the change would be for the worse: and we, he says, shall be changed. It remains, then, for him to say what kind of change there will be. For this corruptible, he says, must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. If this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality; now the flesh will not be corruptible. If, then, the flesh will not be corruptible, the name of corruption will cease in flesh and blood, the proper name too of flesh and blood will cease; because these are names of mortality. And if it is so, both the flesh rises, and because it is changed and made incorrupt, flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God. But if anyone wishes to understand that change in those whom that day will then find still living: so that those who were already dead may rise, but those who still live may be changed; so that the Apostle is believed to have taken on their person, when he says: And we shall be changed; yet the same reasoning will follow, because that incorruption will surely pertain to all, when this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality. Then will come about the saying which is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is, O death, your strife? where is, O death, your sting? (1 Cor 15:53-55) But the body which is now not mortal is not properly called flesh and blood, which are earthly bodies: but it is called a body, which now can be called heavenly. As the same Apostle, when he spoke of the difference of fleshes: Not all, he says, flesh is the same flesh. One indeed is of men, another of beasts, another of fish, another of birds, another of serpents. And there are, he says, heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies (See 1 Cor 15:39-40). But in no way would he say heavenly fleshes; although fleshes can be called bodies, but earthly. For all flesh is a body: but not every body is flesh; not only because a heavenly body is not called flesh, but even certain earthly ones themselves, such as wood and stones, and whatever is of the kind. Even so, then, flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God: because the flesh, rising again, will be changed into such a body, in which now there will not be mortal corruption, and therefore not the name of flesh and blood either.

19. 22. But attend, brothers, we ask you; it is not a thing to be lightly esteemed, it is about our faith: against which we must beware not so much from the pagans, as from certain perverse men, who wish to be called and seem Christians. For there were not lacking even under the Apostles those who said that the resurrection had already taken place, and perverted the faith of some, of whom the Apostle says: Who about the truth, he says, have erred, saying that the resurrection has already taken place; and they have subverted the faith of some (2 Tim 2:18). But it is not without point that he did not say: They have strayed from the truth; but: about the truth, yet they did not hold the truth. Death, then, is taken away, and in a certain way will not be: as the Apostle says: The mortal will be swallowed up by life (See 2 Cor 5:4). For so it was said of the Lord too, that he swallowed up death (See 1 Cor 15:54). For death does not as it were withdraw having some substance of its own: but in the very body where it was, it will cease to be, so that you see the appearance, hold the appearance, seek corruption and mortality, and do not find it. Has corruption, then, withdrawn somewhere? No: but there it was destroyed, there it was swallowed up. Therefore, when he had said: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality: then will come about, he says, the saying which is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is, O death, your strife? where is, O death, your sting? And he did not say: Death has withdrawn into victory; but: Death is swallowed up in victory. How, then, did those err about the truth? Because they said that one resurrection is true, but denied the other.

20. 23. For there is a resurrection according to faith, in which everyone who believes rises in spirit. For he will rise well in body, who first rose in spirit. For those who have not first risen in spirit by faith, will not rise to that change in body, where all corruption will be taken up and swallowed up, but to that penal wholeness. For even the bodies of the impious will be whole, nothing of them will appear diminished; but the wholeness of the body will be for punishment, and a certain, so to speak, a certain firmness of the body, a corruptible firmness: because where there can be pain, it cannot be said that there is no corruption; although that weakness will not fail in the pains, lest the pain itself die. For it is not incongruously believed that corruption itself is signified prophetically by the name of worm, and the pain itself by the name of fire. But because the firmness will be so great, that it neither yields to the pains unto death, nor is changed into incorruption, in which there is no pain; therefore it is written thus: Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be extinguished (Isa 66:24; Mark 9:48). But the change which will not have corruption will be of the saints. It will be of those, then, who now have the resurrection of the spirit by faith; of which resurrection the Apostle says: But if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: savor the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. As we die according to the spirit, and rise according to the spirit: so afterward we die according to the flesh, and rise according to the flesh. According to the spirit there is death, not to believe the vain things which one used to believe, not to do the evil things which one used to do. According to the spirit there is resurrection, to believe the wholesome things which one did not believe, and to do the good things which one did not do. He who thought earthly idols and figments to be gods, came to know one God, believed in him, died to idolatry, rose again in the Christian faith. He was a drunkard, he is sober; he died to drunkenness, he rose again in sobriety. So when one withdraws from all evil works, a certain death takes place in the soul, and in his good works it rises again. Put to death, says the Apostle, your members which are upon the earth, uncleanness, disorder, evil concupiscence, and greed, he says, which is the service of idols (Col 3:5). With these members, then, put to death, we rise again in the good things which are contrary to them; in holiness, in tranquility, in love, in almsgiving. But as death according to the spirit precedes the resurrection which is according to the spirit: so death according to the flesh will precede the resurrection which is to come according to the flesh.

21. 24. Let us, then, know both, the spiritual and the bodily. To the spiritual belongs what was said: Rise, you who sleep; and rise from the dead (Eph 5:14); and that: To those who sat in the shadow of death, light has arisen for them (See Matt 4:16); and that which I mentioned a little before: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above (Col 3:1). But to the bodily resurrection belongs what the Apostle now says, who had set forth such a question for himself: But someone says, how do the dead rise? with what body will they come? He was dealing, then, with the resurrection of the body, in which the Lord went before his Church; of this, then, he says: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53). On account of that which he had said: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God. But we have in another place the most plain testimony of the apostle Paul himself about the resurrection according to the spirit, and about the resurrection according to the flesh. For a mortal body, which is animated or was animated, is called flesh. So, then, the Apostle speaks: But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead on account of sin, but the spirit is life on account of justice. Behold, now the resurrection of the spirit through justice is understood to have taken place: see whether the resurrection of the body too is to be hoped for. For he did not wish to call the mortal body mortal, but dead; and yet he opens what he meant by this in what follows. He follows, then, and says: If, then, the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you; he who raised our Lord Jesus will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you (Rom 8:10-11). Wherefore those erred about the truth, they denied one resurrection. For if they denied it altogether, they would stray from the truth, not about the truth. But because they erred about the truth, they confessed one, which takes place according to the spirit; but denied the other, which is hoped for through the resurrection of the flesh, saying that the resurrection has already taken place: which unless they said in such a way as to forbid that which is to be in the body to be believed and hoped for, it would not be said of them: They subvert the faith of some.

22. 25. But hear now the most manifest testimony of the Lord himself in the Gospel according to John, in one place declaring both resurrections, both that which now takes place according to the spirit, and that which afterward will be according to the flesh, in such a way that he cannot at all doubt who in any way calls himself a Christian, and is subject to gospel authority; so that no access may remain to the slanderers, and to those wishing, as it were through the Christian faith, to overthrow Christians, by inserting their poisons, that they may kill the souls of the weak. But hear from the very book. For on this account I perform the office not only of disputer, but also of reader, that this our sermon may be supported by the authority of the holy Scriptures, not built upon sand by human suspicions, if perhaps something does not occur to me from memory. Hear, then, the Gospel according to John. The Lord speaks: Amen, amen I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen I say to you, that the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself; and he gave him the power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man. Do not wonder at this, for the hour comes, in which all who are in the tomb will hear his voice: and those will come forth who did good, into the resurrection of life; but those who did evil, into the resurrection of judgment (John 5:24-29). I think indeed that many understand from the Lord himself in this place both resurrections, both according to the spirit through faith, and according to the flesh, distinctly and openly declared through that most well-known trumpet. Yet let us diligently consider these same words, that it may be manifest to all who hear. Amen, amen I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. The resurrection according to the spirit is that which now takes place through faith. But lest it should seem set forth as though still far in the future; although he did not say: He will pass from death to life; but: has passed from death to life: yet lest he should seem to have used a word of past time figuratively, as is: They pierced my hands and feet (Ps 22:16 (21:17)), which was foretold as still future; he follows, and explains this very thing more plainly: Amen, amen I say to you, he says, that the hour comes and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. What he said above: He has passed from death to life; this he now says: they will live. But lest that which he said: The hour comes, should be hoped for through the end of the age, when also the resurrection of bodies will be; he added: and now is. For he did not say only: The hour comes; but: The hour comes, and now is. But those who hear this voice will live; namely with the life which he signified above, saying: He has passed from death to life. Here, then, he signified those who do not pertain to the punishment of judgment; because they anticipate the judgment by their faith, and pass from death to life.

23. 26. It remains, then, for him to show the future judgment between the good and the evil: because here he mentioned only the good as pertaining to the present resurrection, which is according to the spirit. He follows, then, and says: And he gave him the power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man. He conveyed according to what he received the power of judgment: because he is, he says, the Son of man. For according to that which he is the Son of God, he has eternal power with the Father. Now how the judgment will be, he consequently expounds: Do not, he says, wonder at this, for the hour comes, in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice; and those will come forth who did good, into the resurrection of life; but those who did evil, into the resurrection of judgment. Above, when he had said: The hour comes; he added: and now is: lest that hour should be thought to be the one foretold, in which at the end of the age there will be the resurrection of bodies. Here, then, because he wished that very one to be understood, when he had said: The hour comes; he did not add: and now is. Likewise above he said that the dead hear the voice of the Son of God, but made no mention of tombs; that we might distinguish the dead through error of the mind, who now rise through faith, from those dead whose corpses are in the tombs, going to rise at the last day of the age. Here, then, that that resurrection of bodies might be hoped for at the end: All, he says, who are in the tombs, will hear his voice, and will come forth. Likewise above: They will hear, he says, the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. What need was there to add: Those who hear, when it could be said thus: They will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will live; except because he was speaking of those who are dead by error of mind, many of whom hear and do not hear, that is, do not obey, do not believe? But those who so hear, as he wished to be heard, when he said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 11:15), they themselves will live. Many, then, will hear, but those who hear, will live, that is, those who believe. For those who hear so as not to believe, will not live: whence it appears of what death, and of what life he spoke in that place: namely, of the death which pertains to the evil alone, by the very fact that they are evil; and of the life which pertains to the good alone, by the very fact that they become good.

24. 26. But here, where he declares that they will rise according to their bodies, he does not say: They will hear his voice, and those who hear will come forth. For all will hear the last trumpet, and will come forth, because we shall all rise. But because not all will be changed, he follows and says: Those who did good, into the resurrection of life; but those who did evil, into the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29). So above, where one revives through faith according to the spirit, all revive to the same lot; so that their life is not distributed into blessedness and misery, but all pertain to the good part. And therefore, when he had said: Those who hear will live; he did not add: Those who did good, into eternal life; but those who did evil, into eternal punishment. For this very thing which was said, they will live, he wished to be taken only in a good sense; as also above: He has passed, he says, from death to life; nor did he say to what life; because to revive from death through faith cannot be an evil life. But here he did not first say: They will hear his voice and will live; for that very word, they will live, he wished to be understood in a good sense throughout that whole reading; but he said: they will hear, and will come forth, by which word he signified the bodily movement of bodies from the places of their burials. But because to come forth from the tombs will not be for all unto good: Those who did good, he says, into the resurrection of life; here too he wished life to be understood only in a good sense; but those who did evil, he says, into the resurrection of judgment, putting judgment, namely, for punishment.

25. 27. Now, then, brothers, let no one seek with perverse subtlety what kind of figure the bodies will have in the resurrection of the dead, what stature, what movement, what manner of walking. It is enough for you that your flesh rises in that appearance in which the Lord appeared, namely in the appearance of a man. But do not, on account of the appearance, fear corruption: for if you do not fear corruption, you will not fear that sentence either: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God; nor will you fall into the snare of the Sadducees, which you would for this reason be unable to avoid, because you think that men rise for this, to take wives, and beget children, and do the works of mortal life. If you ask what the life will be like, what man could explain this? It will be the life of the angels. Whoever can show you the life of the angels, will show you their life; because they are going to be equal to the angels. But if the life of the angels is hidden, let no one seek further; lest by error he not come to that which he seeks, but to what he himself has imagined for himself. For he seeks too hastily, and seeks in haste. You, walk on the way; you will come to the homeland, if you do not abandon the way. Hold Christ, then, brothers, hold faith, hold the way: it itself will lead you to that which you cannot now see. For in that head appeared what is to be hoped in the members; in that foundation was demonstrated what may be built up in our faith, that afterward it may be perfected in sight: lest perhaps, when you think you discern, something may appear to you through a false image as if it were what it is not, and, with the way abandoned, you stray into error, and to the homeland whither the way leads, that is, to the sight whither faith leads, you do not come.

26. 28. You will say: How do the angels live? It is enough for you to know this, that they do not live corruptibly. For it can more easily be told you what will not be there, than what will be there. For I too, my brothers, can briefly run through for you certain things which will not be there: and this I can do for this reason, because we have experienced these things, and we know those things which will not be there. But what will be there we have not yet experienced. For we walk by faith, not yet by sight: as long as we are in the body, we are on pilgrimage away from the Lord (2 Cor 5:6-7). What, then, will not be there? To take a wife, that children may be propagated; because there is no death there: there will not be growing there, because not growing old: there will not be refreshment, because not failing: there will not be business there, because no need: nor those very praiseworthy works of innocent men, which the want and necessity of this life compels them to do. For I do not say only that the works of robbers or moneylenders will not be there, but those very things which innocent men do on account of the need of relieving human necessities, will not be there.

27. 28. It will be a perpetual sabbath, which is celebrated by the Jews temporally, but by us understood eternally. There will be ineffable rest, which cannot be unfolded; but, as I said, it is somehow unfolded, when the things which will not be there are spoken. To that rest we tend, to it we are spiritually reborn. For as we are carnally born to labors, so we are spiritually reborn to rest: with him crying out: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt 11:28). Here he feeds, there he perfects: here he promises, there he renders: here he signifies, there he expresses. But when in that blessedness we shall be perfect and saved both in spirit and in body, these affairs will not be; nor will those be there which here are praised in the good works of Christians. For who is not praised as a Christian for holding out bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, receiving the pilgrim, making peace among the quarrelsome, visiting the sick, burying the dead, consoling the mourner? Great works, full of mercy, full of praise and grace. But not even these themselves will be there: because the need of misery procured the works of mercy. Whom will you feed, where no one hungers? To whom will you give drink, where no one thirsts? Or are you going to clothe the naked, where all are clothed with immortality itself? You heard a little before of the tunics of the saints, the Apostle speaking: This corruptible must put on incorruption (1 Cor 15:53). Where "put on" sounds, it indicates a garment. This garment Adam lost, so that he received skins. Or are you going to receive the pilgrim, where all live in their own homeland? Will you visit the sick, where all will thrive with the same firmness of incorruption? Are you going to bury the dead, where they always live? Are you going to reconcile the quarreling, where all things are in peace? Are you going to console the sad, where all will rejoice forever? Since, then, the miseries will cease together, these works of mercy will cease.

28. 29. What, then, will be done there? Have I not already said that it is easier for me to say what will not be there, than what will be there? This I know, brothers, that we shall not be sleeping in idleness, because sleep too has been given as a relief for the failing of the soul. For the fragile body would not bear the perpetual intention agitating the mortal senses, unless, with the senses lulled to sleep, the fragility itself were repaired to bear the same agitation; and as renewal will come from death, so now from sleep comes waking. There, then, it will not be. For where there is no death, there will not be even an image of death. Nor yet let the fear of weariness creep up on anyone, when it is said to him that he will always keep watch, and will not do anything. I can say, and indeed how it will be I cannot say, because I cannot yet even see it: yet I say something not shamelessly, because I say it from the Scriptures, what our action will be there. Our whole action will be Amen and Alleluia. What do you say, brothers? I see that you have heard and rejoiced. But do not again be saddened by a carnal thought, because if perhaps one of you should stand and say daily: Amen and Alleluia, he would wither with weariness, and in those very words would doze off, and would now wish to be silent: and therefore think the life to be despicable to himself, and not desirable, saying to yourselves: We are always going to say Amen and Alleluia, who will endure? I will say, then, if I can, as much as I can. We will not say Amen and Alleluia with passing sounds, but with the affection of the mind. For what is Amen? what is Alleluia? Amen is "it is true": Alleluia is "praise God." Because, then, God is unchangeable truth, without defect, without advancement, without loss, without increase, perpetual without any inclination to falsehood, and stable, and ever abiding incorruptible; but these things which we do in the creature and in this life are as it were figures of things through the significations of bodies, and certain things in which we walk by faith; when we shall see face to face what we now see through a mirror in an enigma (See 1 Cor 13:12), then with a far other and ineffably other affection we will say: It is true; and when we say this, we will surely say Amen, but with an insatiable satiety. For because nothing will be lacking, therefore satiety: but because that which will not be lacking will always delight, therefore there will be a certain, if it can be said, insatiable satiety. As insatiably, then, as you will be satisfied with truth, with so insatiable a truth will you say: Amen. Now what it is no one can say: what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9)? Since, then, without any disgust and with perpetual delight we shall see the truth, and behold it with most certain evidence, kindled with love of the truth itself and clinging to it with a sweet and chaste embrace, and that an incorporeal one, with such a voice too we will praise him, and will say: Alleluia. For exulting, with most ardent love toward one another and toward God, to a like praise, all the citizens of that city will say: Alleluia, because they will say: Amen.

29. 30. This life of the saints, then, will so fill even their bodies, changed into a heavenly and angelic state, and will immortally invigorate them, that no corruption of need will turn or call them away from that most blessed contemplation and praise of the truth. So for them the truth itself will be food: but the rest itself as it were a reclining. For what was said, that reclining they will feast, as the Lord says: That many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of my Father (See Matt 8:11): this was signified, that with great rest they will be fed with the food of truth. For such food refreshes, and does not fail; it fills and is whole: you are consumed, it is not consumed. Such is that food, not like this, which fails that it may refresh, and lest it end the life of him who receives it, it itself is ended. That reclining, then, will be everlasting rest: those feasts, unchangeable truth will be: that feasting, eternal life will be, that is, knowledge itself. Because this is, he says, eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3).

30. 31. For that that life will abide in the contemplation of truth not only ineffably, but also delightfully, Scripture attests in many places, all of which we cannot mention. Hence is that: He who loves me keeps my commandments; and I will love him; and I will show myself to him (John 14:21). As though the fruit and reward were sought from him, because his commandments are kept: I will show, he says, myself to him; setting perfect blessedness in his being known as he is. Hence is that too: Most beloved, we are the sons of God, but it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him; because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Therefore the apostle Paul too: Then, he says, face to face (1 Cor 13:12): because he also said in another place: We are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). And in the Psalms he says: Be at leisure, and see that I am the Lord (Ps 46:10 (45:11)). Then, then, we shall best see, when we shall most be at leisure. But when shall we most be at leisure, except when the laborious times have passed, the times of needs, by which we are now bound, as long as the earth brings forth for sinful man thorns and thistles, that in the sweat of his face he may eat his bread? With the times of the earthly man, then, in every part finished, and the day of the heavenly man in every part perfected, we shall most see; because we shall most be at leisure. For with corruption and need ended in the resurrection of the faithful, there will be no reason for laboring. For as though it were said: Recline and eat; so it was said: Be at leisure and see. We shall, then, be at leisure and shall see God as he is; and seeing him we shall praise God. And this will be the life of the saints, this the action of those at rest, that without failing we shall praise. We shall not praise for one day: but as that day has no limit of time, so our praise will have no limit of ceasing; and therefore unto ages of ages we shall praise. Hear too the Scripture saying to God what we desire: Blessed are those who dwell in your house; unto ages of ages they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). Turned to the Lord, let us beseech him for ourselves and for all his people standing with us in the courts of his house: which may he deign to guard and protect; through Jesus Christ his Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with him unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 362/A
On the Resurrection of the Dead [on the Birthday of the Martyr Marcellinus]

1. If faith is present, the consolations of Christians are not empty. But that faith may be present, the examples of the saints have gone before and the documents of the books cry out. For why should we not believe the things which are narrated to us as done in past times, when we see done the things which were foretold as going to be? For those who foretold the future things which we behold narrated to us the past things. These things which we now see on earth, that all men leave the demons whom they were serving, that the images which they adored are broken, that everywhere the temples are overthrown and the whole human race is converted to one name, were foretold in the holy books, and when they were foretold they seemed greatly incredible. But because we see them fulfilled, they have become cheap, because they are ready to hand. Accordingly let us set before our eyes the lands and all the nations which were before, where there was no Christian at all, where sacrifice was offered to demons, stone altars were set up, sacrifices were offered to stones, priests were appointed and whatever is owed to the true God was rendered to false gods, that is, to demons. Let us set before our eyes such lands, and that there had arisen suddenly someone or other who said that all those things could quickly be changed and that, with those vain things abandoned, men would be converted to one God: who would not mock him? Who would not think him raving? Who would deign to hear him? Who would hesitate to drive him away? And yet these things have been done. But where these things which we see are written, which when they were said were not seen, there too are written the things which are not yet seen. What are the things which are not yet seen? That the Lord himself will come in the body in which he deigned here to appear and to die and rise again, but now immortal and incorruptible, as he abides in the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father; that there will be a judgment; that all the dead will rise from the tombs; that all bodies will return from every consumption, and not only the monuments, but the world itself will give back from the elements what it received. When these things have been done, they will likewise not be wonders, as these things which have now been done are not wonders. But now they are not believed because they are not yet shown. Here faith is required. Believe what you do not yet see: what great thing will you do if you are going to believe then when you have seen? A reward is given to belief because it believed what it did not yet see, that it may rejoice from it when it sees; and again punishment is rendered to unbelief which was unwilling to believe what it did not yet see, that it may lament when it sees.

2. But this alone is wont as it were to move men, how consumed bodies will rise which are buried for this reason, because they offend the eyes when they are consumed; because they were dear to us with the souls which they had, but with the souls departing from there those things lie which we loved, and we do not wish them to be corrupted before our sight, therefore we bury them. When, then, it is said that they are going to rise, you attend, O human heart, to what now happens, and do you not believe what is to come? For if you weigh and judge rightly, you consider too little the secret and daily miracles of nature. For from where come forth in the cornfields the things which are not buried in the seed? From where do leaves grow green again on the trees? From where are the forests, bare in winter, clothed in summer? For this reason all these things are repaired, that we may believe that bodies too can be repaired in their time. It is more incredible that what was not should be established than that what was should be restored. Man who was not was established: and do you not believe that what was can be restored? These things which are buried are both flesh and bones: you, before you were born, what were you? You were led out of the hiding-places of nature, that in this appearance you might appear visible to the eyes: and do you not believe that when you have departed into the hiding-places of nature, he can lead you forth from there, who could create you before you were?

3. Finally let us believe this because he said it who cannot deceive. He who promised us the resurrection of bodies, when he was here in the body, raised the dead. He who promised us the resurrection of bodies, when he was here in the body, himself rose on the third day. Let us not believe even these things to have been done, if there did not follow from them the things which were foretold as going to follow. When the Lord appeared after the resurrection to his disciples, because they too did not believe that he rose, they thought they saw a spirit. He said to them: Why are you troubled and thoughts ascend into your heart? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch and see, that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me to have (Luke 24:37-39). He offered himself not only to be seen by the eyes but also to be handled by the hands. He spent with them forty days, going in and coming out, eating and drinking (See Acts 1:3-4, 10:41), but by power not by necessity. He persuaded them of the grace of the resurrection by the evidence of a true body, and before their eyes ascended into heaven. But when they saw him after the resurrection, he said to them: These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law and the prophets and the psalms about me. Then he opened to them the understanding—this the Gospel says—that they might understand the Scriptures, and he said to them that so it is written and so it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that penance and the remission of sins be preached in his name through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (See Luke 24:44-47). This the Gospel holds. See when it was written. For it was written then, when that was not which was there foretold. For Christ was passing and his disciples beheld him in the body in which they knew him. Was there then, when they beheld him in that body in which they knew him, that which follows? And what? And that penance and the remission of sins be preached in his name through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. That was, this was not. That the disciples saw which was, they believed that which was not yet. We now see fulfilled: penance and the remission of sins are preached in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ through all the nations. Is it not done? Was it now already, when those things were being shown and when they were being written? As, then, the Apostles saw Christ and believed the future Church, so we see the Church, let us believe about Christ. For of these two they saw one, they believed the other. But what they saw we do not see. If we see what they believed, let us believe what they saw.

4. This our Lord Jesus Christ, then, the Word of the Father, the only-begotten Son, through whom all things were made, who deigned at an opportune time to assume flesh from the virgin Mary and to appear to human eyes, to do worthy things, to suffer unworthy things, to work divine things, to bear human things, to die, to rise again, to ascend into the heavens, this Lord our God, then, hear what he said about the future resurrection, and, with disputations set aside, believe, because he who said it cannot deceive: The hour will come, he says, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth, those who did good into the resurrection of life, but those who did evil into the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). Thanks be to God, then, on account of which those who did evil will rise <...> to judgment. All things, brothers, have been forgiven us in baptism. Believe, dearest brothers, that he whom he wished in a point of time to free from all sins, he grants to reign with him without end.

Sermon 363
On the Canticle of Exodus 15:1-21

1. Our understanding, dearest brothers, in considering and treating the holy Scriptures, ought to be governed by the most manifest authority of those same Scriptures; so that from those things which were openly said for our nourishment, those things which were said more obscurely for our exercise may faithfully be discussed. For who would dare to expound the divine mysteries otherwise than was preached and prescribed by the heart and mouth of the apostle? Now the apostle Paul says: I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, both in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. But they drank of the spiritual rock following them; but the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased. For they were laid low in the desert. But these things were made figures of us, that we should not be desirers of evil things, as they too desired (1 Cor 10:1-6). And a little after: All these things, he says, happened to them in a figure; but they were written for our correction, upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor 10:11).

2. Hence, therefore, dearest ones, let no one of the faithful doubt that the passage of that people through the Red Sea was a figure of our Baptism: that, freed by Baptism from the devil and his angels, who, like Pharaoh and the Egyptians, were wearing us down, subject to the mud of the flesh as it were with the works of bricks, with our Lord Jesus Christ as leader, whose figure Moses then bore, Let us sing to the Lord: for he has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea (Exod 15:1). For they are dead to us, who can no longer have dominion over us: since our very sins, which had made us subject to him, with us freed by the washing of holy grace, are as it were submerged and blotted out in the sea. Let us sing, then, to the Lord: for he has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea, pride and the proud one he has blotted out in Baptism. For now the humble man subject to God sings this canticle. For to the proud man seeking his own glory, and magnifying himself, the Lord has not been gloriously magnified. But the impious man justified, by believing in him who justifies the impious, so that his faith may be reckoned to him for justice (See Rom 4:5), so that the just man may live by faith (See Rom 1:17); lest, ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish his own, he be not subject to the justice of God (See Rom 10:3); most truly sings the Lord his helper and protector unto salvation, his God, whom he honors. For he is not of those exalted ones, who, knowing God, did not honor him as God (See Rom 1:21). He says, then: The God of my father (Exod 15:2). For he is the God of Abraham our father, who believed God, and it was reckoned to him for justice (See Rom 4:3). And therefore we little ones, presuming not on our own justice, but on his grace, magnify the Lord, since he himself crushes battles, who is our peace. And therefore the Lord is his name: to whom we say in Isaiah: Possess us (See Isa 26:13). The Lord is his name. We were not, and he made us: we had perished, and he found us: we had sold ourselves, and he bought us. The Lord is his name. The chariot of Pharaoh and his army he has cast into the sea (Exod 15:4). And the worldly exaltations, and the troops of innumerable sins, which were soldiering for the devil in us, he has blotted out in Baptism. He had placed three drivers on the chariots, who terrified us by persecuting us with the fear of pain, the fear of humiliation, the fear of death. All these things were submerged in the Red Sea, because we were buried together with him through Baptism into death (See Rom 6:4), who for us was scourged, dishonored, and slain. So he covered all the enemies with the Red Sea, who by the bloody death, by which our sins were consumed, consecrated Baptism. But if our enemies have gone down into the deep like a stone, he possesses only them, and only with them is the hardness of the devil, of whom it is written: The sinner, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises (Prov 18:3). For they do not believe that what they have done can be forgiven them: and by that despair they are more grievously and more deeply submerged. But: Your right hand, O Lord, has been glorified in strength; the right hand of your hand, O Lord, has shattered the enemies; and in the multitude of your majesty, O Lord, you have crushed the adversaries. For you sent your wrath, and it consumed them like stubble. For we feared you being born, and we believed in you, and all our offenses were consumed. For why by the spirit of the Lord's wrath was the water divided, and the waves froze like a wall, the waves froze in the midst of the sea; when in this division of the water, with the waves freezing, a way lay open to the freed people? Why, then, was the water not rather divided by the spirit of the Lord's mercy; except because the terror of the wrath of God, which that sinner despises who comes to the depth of evils, itself compels to Baptism, that through the water not drowning, but those passing through the way, we may be freed? The enemy said: I will pursue, and overtake; I will divide the spoils, and fill my soul; I will slay with my sword, my hand will have dominion. Nor does the enemy understand the power of the Lord's sacrament, which is in the saving Baptism, to those who believe and hope in him: and still he thinks that sins can have dominion even over the baptized, since they are tempted by the fragility of the flesh, not knowing where, and when, and how the full renewal of the whole man is perfected, which is begun in Baptism, and foresignified, and now held by most certain hope. For then both this mortal will put on immortality, and, with every principality and power utterly emptied out, God will be all in all (See 1 Cor 15:53, 28). But now, as long as the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul (See Wis 9:15), the enemy says: I will pursue, and overtake. But you sent your spirit, and the sea covered them. Now it is not called the spirit of the wrath of God, when the sea covered the enemies: and a little before it was said: By the spirit of your wrath the water was divided; when rather by this the people of God passing through was freed. But surely God seems not to be angry with one to whom sins are unpunished, and the more he grows heavy. Whence, compared to lead, he goes down into the deep, the more so the more he sees those who have been justified by faith, and for the hope of the future life endure present evils, living in labors, in bearing which the Spirit of God strengthens them. God, then, sent his Spirit to console and exercise the just in labors; and the sea covered the impious, who not only thought there was no difference between themselves and them; but rather judged that God was angry with those who were afflicted with such great tribulations, but favorable to themselves, who rejoiced in such great prosperities. So they went down like lead into the most mighty water. Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? who is like you? glorious in the saints, who do not glory in themselves: wonderful in majesties, who do prodigies. For these things which were then done foretold something future, since they were figures of us. You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them up (Exod 15:5-12). Surely no chasm of the earth swallowed up any of the Egyptians at that time; they were covered with water, they perished in the sea. What is it, then: You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them up? Or do we rightly understand the right hand of God to be him of whom Isaiah says: And the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed? (Isa 53:1) For he is the only Son, whom the Father did not spare, but handed him over for us all (See Rom 8:32). And so on the cross he stretched out his right hand, and the earth swallowed up the impious, when they thought themselves victors, and him contemptible. For the earth was handed over into the hands of the impious one, and he covered the face of its judge (See Job 9:24), that is, his divinity. So the Lord governed his people, as it were carried by that wood, where the earth, that is, the flesh of the Lord stretched out, swallowed up the impious. For the people did not cross the sea by ship, so that "you governed" might be said properly. But you governed by your justice your people, not presuming of his own justice, but living by faith under your grace: this your people, whom you freed (Exod 15:13). For the Lord knows who are his (See 2 Tim 2:19).

3. You have exhorted in your strength, that is, in your Christ. Because what is weak of God is stronger than men (See 1 Cor 1:25). And if he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God (See 2 Cor 13:4). You have exhorted in your strength, and in your holy refreshment. For in that the mortality of the flesh was refreshed in him through the resurrection, and in him this corruptible already put on incorruption, we have been exhorted hoping for the future, and on account of this enduring all present things. For after Baptism there remains a passage through the desert, through a life which is lived in hope, until we come to the land of promise, the land of the living where the Lord is our portion, to the eternal Jerusalem; until we come to which, this whole life is a desert for us, and a whole temptation. But in him who conquered the world, the people of God conquers all things. For just as in Baptism, like enemies pursuing from behind, past sins are blotted out: so after Baptism, on the journey of this life, when we eat spiritual food, and drink spiritual drink, we overcome all things opposing us. For the name of our Emperor terrified the enemies of our way. For first the wrath of the nations rose to destroy the Christian name; but where wrath could do nothing, it was turned into grief, and, with faith more and more growing and occupying all things, grief was turned into fear; so that even the proud of this world, like the birds of heaven, seek refuge and protection under the shade of that herb, which from a most minute grain of mustard grew much (See Matt 13:31-32). So too in this canticle, where those things are mentioned which then happened in figure in them, the order of the wrath, grief, and fear of the nations was kept. The nations, he says, heard, and were angry; pains seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the leaders of Edom hastened, that is, were troubled, and the princes of the Moabites: trembling seized them: all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. Let trembling fall upon them, and the fear of the greatness of your arm. Let them become like stones, until your people pass over, O Lord, until this your people pass over, whom you acquired (Exod 15:14-16). So it was done, so it is done. Astonished with wonder the enemies of the Church become like stones, until we pass over to the homeland. But those too who try to resist, as then Amalek with the hands of Moses stretched out (See Exod 17:11), so now in the sign of the Lord's cross are overcome. And so we are brought in, and planted in the mountain of the inheritance of the Lord, which from the small stone which Daniel saw, grew and filled the whole earth (See Dan 2:34-35). This is the prepared dwelling of the Lord. For the temple of God is holy, and the sanctification of his house which is from him. For the temple of God is holy, says the Apostle, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). And lest anyone should look back to the earthly Jerusalem, where this temple bore a certain figure temporally, as was fitting, he signified that he was speaking of the eternal kingdom, which is the eternal inheritance of God, the eternal Jerusalem. For he says, following: Which your hands prepared, O Lord, who reign always, and forever, and still (Exod 15:17-18). Is there anything beyond forever? Who would say so? Why, then, did he add: and still? Perhaps because "forever" is wont to be understood also for a too-long time, for this reason it was added: and still, that the true "forever," which is without end, might be understood. Or because God reigns always in the heavenly things, which he established unto the age of the age, he set a precept and it will not pass away (See Ps 148:6); and forever in those to whom, from the transgression of the precept afterward converted, he forgave their sins, and acquired them from time, and granted them blessedness without end; he reigns and still over those whom under the feet of his people he ordained in most just punishments? For no one is withdrawn from his kingdom, by whose eternal law in the distribution of giving and rendering both by the merits of rewards and punishments, and by the most just ordering, the whole creation is restrained. For God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (See Jas 4:6). Because the cavalry of Pharaoh entered with chariots and riders into the sea; and the Lord brought upon them the waters of the sea. But the children of Israel walked on dry ground, through the midst of the sea (Exod 15:19).

4. This Moses and the children of Israel sang, this Miriam the prophetess and the daughters of Israel with her, this we too now, whether men and women, or our spirit and flesh. For those who are of Jesus Christ, says the Apostle, have crucified their flesh with its passions and concupiscences (Gal 5:24). This is fittingly understood to be signified by the timbrel which Miriam took up, to be in harmony with this canticle. For on wood the flesh is stretched out, that a timbrel may be made: and from the cross they learn to confess the sweet sound of grace. Made humble, then, through Baptism by the piety of grace, and with our pride there extinguished, through which the proud enemy had dominion over us, so that now he who glories may glory in the Lord (See 1 Cor 1:31), Let us sing to the Lord: for he has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea (Exod 15:1).

1. In this reading, which was recited to us, dearest brothers, many and too obscure divine mysteries are contained; which, because they cannot be briefly explained, for this sole reason we wished the morning psalms to be finished earlier, lest a longer sermon weary you. And because at the customary hour you are going to leave the church, hear the things which must be said, according to your custom, with silence and quiet, with attentive mind.

2. But Samson, dearest brothers, what strength he had, was from the grace of God, not from nature: for if he were strong by nature, when his hair was removed, his strength would not be taken away. And where was that most mighty strength, except in that which Scripture says: The Spirit of the Lord walked with him (See Judg 14:6)? To the Spirit of the Lord, then, that strength belonged. In Samson there was a vessel, in the Spirit was the fullness. A vessel can be filled and emptied. But every vessel has its filling from elsewhere; therefore in Paul that grace was commended, when he was called a vessel of election (See Acts 9:15). Let us see, then, what parable Samson set forth to the Philistines. From the eater, he says, came food, and from the strong went forth sweetness (Judg 14:14). This parable was betrayed, carried to the friends, solved: Samson was conquered. Here if he is just, it lies deeply hidden, and in the depth is this man's justice: for both that he is read to have been conquered by womanly coaxings, and that he went in to a harlot, his merit seems to waver to those who understand less the secrets of truth. For a prophet too is commanded by the precept of the Lord to take a harlot as wife (See Hos 1:2). Perhaps we will be able to say that these things in the Old Testament were not criminal or damnable, since indeed this, which he either said or did, was prophecy. Let us seek, then, what he signified by being conquered, what he signified by being conqueror, what he signified by yielding to womanly coaxings, what he signified by betraying the secret of the parable, what he signified by going in to a harlot, what he signified by catching foxes, and by the tails of the foxes, to which he tied fire, burning the crops of the enemies. Which crops indeed he could have burned by a shortcut, if he had not pondered a mystery in the foxes. Could the dry stubble not burn, unless the foxes drew fire through it (See Judg 15:4-5)? Let us understand, then, that great mysteries lie hidden here.

3. What was Samson? If I say he signified Christ, I seem to myself to say something true; but at once it occurs to those who think: Is Christ too conquered by womanly coaxings? and how is it understood that Christ could go in to a harlot? then, is Christ too, when his head is bared, shaved of hair, despoiled of strength, bound, blinded, mocked? Wake up, faith, attend to what Christ is: not only what he did, but also what Christ suffered. What did he do? He worked as the strong one, he suffered as the weak one. In one I understand both: I see the strength of the Son of God, I see the weakness of the Son of man. Another thing is added, that the whole Christ, as Scripture commends him, is both head and body: as Christ is the head of the Church, so the body of Christ is the Church; and that it may not be alone, with its head the whole Christ is. The Church, then, has in herself the strong, has the weak; has those who feed on solid bread, has those who must still be nourished with milk (See 1 Cor 3:1-2). I add another thing, which it is necessary to confess: in that very fellowship of the sacraments, in the communication of Baptism, in the participation of the altar, she has the just, has the unjust. For now the body of Christ, which you know, is a threshing-floor, afterward it will be a granary; yet, while it is a threshing-floor, it does not refuse to bear the chaff: when the time for storing comes, it will separate the wheat from the chaff (See Matt 3:12). Certain things, then, Samson did from the person of the head, certain from the person of the body, yet the whole from the person of Christ. For in that Samson worked virtues and wonders, he figured Christ the head of the Church: but in that he acted prudently, he bore the image of those who in the Church live justly: where perhaps he was caught off guard and acted incautiously, he figured those who in the Church are sinners. The harlot, whom Samson takes in marriage, is the Church, which before the knowledge of the one God fornicated with idols, whom Christ afterward joined to himself; but after she received faith from him, illumined, she also merited this, that through him she might know the sacraments of salvation, and that by him the mysteries of the heavenly secrets might be revealed to her. For the question itself which holds: From the eater came food, and from the strong went forth sweetness (Judg 14:14), what else does it signify, than Christ rising from the dead? For surely from the eater, that is, from death, which devours and consumes all things, came forth that food, which said: I am the living bread, which came down from heaven (John 6:51). Whom human iniquity exasperated, and to whom it offered the bitterness of vinegar and gall, from him the people of the nations, converted, received the sweetness of life; and so from the mouth of the dead lion, that is, from the death of Christ, who reclining slept like a lion, there came forth a swarm of bees, that is, of Christians. But that he says: You would not have found my parable, unless you had plowed with my heifer (See Judg 14:18), this heifer is the Church, which, with the secrets of faith revealed to her by her husband, spread abroad to the ends of the earth, by the teaching and preaching of the apostles and saints, the mysteries of the Trinity, of the resurrection, of the judgment and likewise of the kingdom, and promised the rewards of eternal life to those who understand and know.

4. But it follows: Samson was angry, because his companion took his wife (See Judg 14:20; 15:1-2). This companion bore the figure of all heretics. A great secret, my brothers. For the heretics, who divided the Church, wished to take and lead away the wife of their Lord; for from the Church and from the Gospels went out those who by the adultery of impiety try to invade the Church, that is, the body of Christ, into their own party. Whence that faithful servant and friend of the Lord's bride speaks (See John 3:29): For I betrothed you to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ. And with zeal of faith and rebuke he touches the person of the corrupted companion: And I fear, he says, lest, as the serpent seduced Eve, so also your senses be corrupted away from the truth which is in Christ Jesus (See 2 Cor 11:2-3). But who are the companions, that is, the deserting heretics, who wished to invade the Lord's bride, except Donatus, Arius, Manichaeus, and the other vessels of error and perdition? Of such the Apostle says: I hear that there are divisions among you, he says. For one says: I indeed am of Paul; but another: I of Apollos; but another: I of Cephas (1 Cor 11:18; 1:12). Let us see, then, what this mystical Samson did, offended in his wife by the stranger. For he caught foxes, that is, the adulterating companions, of whom it is said in the Song of Songs: Catch us the little foxes, that destroy the vineyards (Song 2:15). What is, catch? that is, seize, convict, refute, lest the ecclesiastical vineyards be destroyed. What else is it to catch foxes, except to convict heretics by the authority of the divine law, and to bind and constrain them by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures as by certain chains? He catches foxes, he sets fire to their tied tails. What do the tied tails of the foxes mean? What are the tails of the foxes, except the hinder parts of the heretics (who have alluring and deceptive first parts) tied, that is, condemned and drawing fire at the end; that they may consume the fruits and works of those who acquiesce in their seductions? He says to a man now: Do not hear the heretics, do not acquiesce to the heretics, do not be seduced by the heretics. He answers: Why? did not this man and that man hear the heretics? did not some other Christian commit such great evils, do such great adulteries, exercise such great robberies? and what evil befell him? The first parts of the foxes are those which the seduced attend to; and behind is the fire. Nothing, he says, has befallen him now. Because nothing precedes, does it draw nothing behind it? He will come to the fire that comes after. But do you think that, because the heretics draw fire, by which the fruits of the enemies may burn, they themselves will not burn? For without doubt the foxes, where they set fire to the harvests, themselves surely burned too. The judgment will come, then, to the heretics from behind: which now they do not see, they have behind them; with coaxings they soothe, they show their first parts free: in the judgment of God they are tied by the tails, that is, in their hinder parts they draw fire, because wickedness goes before its own punishments.

5. But that he went in to a harlot, if he did it without cause, whoever did it, he is unclean; but if a prophet did it, it is a mystery. If he did not go in so as to lie with her, perhaps he went in for the sake of a mystery. But we do not read that he lay with her. It follows: But the enemies were waiting for him at the gates of the city, that they might seize him, when he had come out from the harlot to whom he had gone in; but he was sleeping. See how it is not written that he was joined to the harlot, but it is written that he was sleeping. When he arose, it says, at midnight he went out, and took away the gates of the city itself with the bars, and lifted those same gates onto the top of the mountain (See Judg 16:1-3), and he could not be held by the Philistines. The gates of the city, by which he went in to the harlot, he took away, and lifted onto the mountain. What is this? Hell and the love of a woman, Scripture joins both (See Prov 7:27): the house of the harlot held the image of hell. Rightly is it put for hell: because it repels no one, it draws to itself everyone who enters. We recognize in this place the works of our Redeemer: after the synagogue, to which he had come, separated itself from him through the devil, after it trod him down, that is, crucified him in the place of Calvary, he descended to hell; and the enemies guarded the place of the sleeper, that is, the tomb, and wished to seize him whom they could not see. But he was sleeping: there for this reason it said this, because it was not true death. What was said, At midnight he arose, this signified that he arose in secret: for he openly suffered, but only to the disciples and certain sure ones, when he had risen, he was manifested (See Acts 10:40-41). Therefore, that he went in, all saw; that he arose, few knew, held, and handled. Yet he takes away the gates of the city, that is, takes away the gates of hell. What is it to take away the gates of hell, except to remove the empire of death? For it received, and did not let go. But what did the Lord Jesus Christ do, with the gates of death taken away? He ascended to the top of the mountain: for we know that he both rose again, and ascended into heaven.

6. But what is it, that he had strength in his hair? And this too, brothers, attend to diligently: he had strength not in his hand, not in his foot, not in his breast, not in his head itself, but in his hair, in his locks. What is hair? what is the lock? We see it, and the Apostle, when asked, answers us: Hair is a covering (See 1 Cor 11:15); and in the covering Christ had strength, when the shadows of the old law covered him. The hair of Samson, then, was in a covering: because in Christ one thing was seen, and another understood. But what does it mean, that the secret was betrayed, and Samson shaved? The law was despised, and Christ suffered: for they would not kill Christ, if they had not despised the law; for they themselves knew that it was not lawful for them to kill Christ. They said to the judge: It is not lawful for us to kill anyone (John 18:31). Samson was shaved, the dense things were revealed (See Hab 3:14), the covering was removed; and Christ, who lay hidden, appeared. But the hair, growing again, clothed the head again, because the Jews refused to recognize Christ even rising again. Indeed he was at the mill, was blinded, was in the prison house: the prison house, or the mill, is the labor of this age. But the blinding of Samson indicates those who, blinded by unbelief, recognized Christ neither working virtues nor ascending to the heavenly places; the blindness, then, which they brought on signified the blindness of the Jews. Christ was both seized and slain by the Jews; but rather he slew those slaying him. The enemies, then, brought him to mock him. Now here attend to the image of the cross: for he stretched out his outspread hands to the two columns as to two woods of the cross; but slain he crushed his adversaries, and his passion became the slaying of his persecutors. And therefore Scripture concludes thus: Dying he slew more than he had slain living (See Judg 16:30). Which mystery was evidently fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ: for our redemption, which living he had by no means celebrated, dying he consummated. Who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 365
On Verse 7 of Psalm 16 (15):
"I Will Bless the Lord, Who Gave Me Understanding," and the Rest

1. We have sung, and said: I will bless the Lord: would that with the heart, not only with the mouth: for if with the mouth and not with the heart, the praise of the Lord grows foul in the mouth of the sinner (See Sir 15:9): nor does the confession of the mouth profit, if there is not within the profession of love. See, brothers: love is not a virtue of the mouth; there it fixes its seat, where the friend of the bridegroom is beautiful. But where is this beauty? All the glory of the king's daughter is from within (Ps 45:13 (44:14)). That glory is nothing other than beauty, that beauty is nothing other than love, love is nothing other than life. Therefore, that you may live, love. If you love, you are beautiful: love is good, love is beautiful. If that beautiful thing is absent, you do not live; you have indeed an appearance, but not within. Let that tomb be opened, propped with so many columns, let the marble be broken; what else will meet you but a horrible corpse, stinking bones, ashes, worms? And so there is an appearance, but it covers a dead thing, at the sight of which you shudder, you groan. But do you think that the dead man says: I will bless the Lord? Rather, with Scripture as witness: The dead will not praise you, O Lord, nor all who go down into hell (Ps 115:17 (113:25)). Open the Gospel, you will hear the Lord rebuking and saying to the devil: Be silent (Mark 1:25). Why? Because the dead will not praise you, nor all who go down into hell. No one praises him whom he does not love; or if an enemy praises, he loves the virtue which he praises in the enemy. He who sins exercises enmities with God: nor, therefore, does he praise God, nor does he praise the virtue of God; because praise is some good thing, which does not fall in sin. He who praises someone and lies, slanders, or mocks rather than praises. Take love away from the heart, only the lie remains. Do you wish the lie to praise the truth, and that God should take a tribute from there, whence blasphemy proceeds? Wise men do not greatly esteem being praised by the insane and the evil: shall God be praised by an impure and most shameless heart, by a blasphemous and most senseless mind? Say, then: I will bless the Lord, who gave me understanding (Ps 16:7 (15:7)). You are not insane, you have been healed, you have understanding; praise your God, who gave you understanding, who furnishes the eye: understanding, that you may grasp; the eye, that you may behold; that you may grasp how great is the breadth and length of the love of God, that you may look upon the author and finisher of faith; that you may grasp love, that you may look upon Christ; love, that you may love; Christ, that you may bless, and by loving and blessing may know the Lord, who gave you understanding; and by knowing may live: because: This is eternal life, that they may know you the only God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3).

2. But from where, I ask, is this understanding for you? Someone will come from across, and will say: He who gave nature gave understanding; good nature, good understanding; this good one I shall obtain, it is enough: for the understanding will not be degenerate; and from there I will bless the Lord, from where he gave me understanding, that is, from nature. O heretic, did you then obtain a good nature? Let the Apostle be silent and be confounded: Not the good which I will, this I do (See Rom 7:19); and yet he obtained a good nature, and in this good nature the good which he wishes to do, he cannot do. He wishes, desires, tries: he wishes weakly, desires in vain; he tries fruitlessly; and against what he wishes, what he desires, what he tries, this good he does not accomplish. O good nature, whose will is feeble, desire void, efforts useless! Let the philosophers play their parts, and they will be most grateful to you, who so freely grant them a good nature. What of it? They have known the heaven, known the earth, known the sea, they explore the abysses, scrutinize the hidden things of nature, they know the distinctions of things, the differences, the essences; of all these they render an account; what of it? Go on, say more. After so many and so great things they fail, and did not glorify God as God, and became vain in their thoughts, and were made foolish, while they thought themselves wise, and changed the likeness of God into the likeness of a calf eating hay, and poured themselves out in the error of the Baals; and the god of this age blinded them, and they were handed over to ignominious passions, and were made like the things which they adored (See Rom 1:21-23; 2 Cor 4:4). And yet they rejoiced in a good nature, and through nature in understanding. O madman, do you see whether this nature grants understanding by which to bless God? rather it grants understanding by which they curse God, and rise up against the Creator? Say rather, brothers: I will bless the Lord, who gave me understanding: unless he had given it, I would not have understood; unless I had understood, I would never have blessed: he gave understanding, he furnished the eye. Blind nature does not provide what it itself lacks. Make for yourself understanding, and you will make yourself blind. The light which is in you is darkness (See Matt 6:23). Say, then: Enlighten my darkness, lest I ever sleep in death (See Ps 13:3 (12:4)). What is it to sleep in death? To hope something from nature, to make one's own arm flesh, to fashion for oneself understanding: he who does these things is not only in death, but sleeps in death, is more than four days dead, more than stinks (See John 11:39). If he were only in death, he could be raised: but in death itself he sleeps more than an iron sleep, in it he rests. It is over with him.

3. But do you wish to know what he did who had obtained a good nature? Did he say like you: In a good nature, good understanding is mine, and he who granted the one did not deny the other? Let us dash the scorpion, let us crush it, let its mouth be stopped against iniquity. Read: I obtained a good soul. Go on, let us hear what treasure you have come upon, which perhaps will be turned into coals, and would that into coals which, heaped upon your head, consume the superfluous things (See Rom 12:20). And being rather good, I came to an undefiled body: and when I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, unless God grant it: and this very thing was of wisdom, to know whose gift it was: I approached the Lord, and besought him (Wis 8:19-21). Most truly you obtained a good nature, who denies it? For the nature of the devil too is good, and all things which God made are good: but in this nature, although good, will you have wise understanding, by which you can abstain from the concupiscences and desires which war against the soul, if God does not give it? Learn, heretic, learn at last. And I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, unless God grant it: and in this is the chief thing of wisdom, which is wholly understanding, to know from where you may be continent, and that you may not otherwise be continent than from God alone. O excellent nature, which can abstain from nothing, nor otherwise can it but fall, if God does not give understanding by which it may not fall! Let us sing, then, brothers, let us sing. I will bless the Lord, who gave me understanding: he gave nature, he gave understanding; he healed nature, he healed understanding. In both the kind Samaritan showed mercy; he came down, bound the wounds, with wine which we understand, he cleansed, healed, carried into the inn, that is, into the Church, commended to the host (See Luke 10:30-35). To what host? To the Holy Spirit, the inhabitant of the holy Church. He, with the coin received, but which he who pays for the wretched poured out from a torn purse, with his own oil, with his own ointment, healed the wounds of nature lying and breathing out, and with the same oil which he kindled, enlightened my darkness, and made my understanding clear. If you do not believe this, the Samaritan will not be yours, and you will perish in your wound, you who refuse to admit the hand of the one healing.

4. Let the Apostles be questioned, and let them say who, on that fiftieth day from the resurrection of the Lord, gave them understanding. Or did they perhaps stir up that terrible noise, by which the place was shaken, in which they awaited the promises of the Father? Did they perhaps kindle that supernal fire, with which they were wholly burning? Did they perhaps create those fiery tongues themselves? Did they perhaps procure for themselves those divine gifts, of which understanding is one, and pour them out into themselves according to the desires of the heart? Whoever says this has no part in this sacred fiftieth day; nor does he receive understanding, who thinks understanding is given according to nature. When, then, was understanding given, except when the Spirit too was given? Let us deal together, now you are confounded, now you blush; and would that you be so confounded that you may be built up, so blush that you may be glorified. What is the Holy Spirit, except the promised gift of the Father, except the gift of the Son? If it is promised, you have one by whom it is promised, for the things which are promised are outside us; and what was either in our power when it is promised, or possessed when one pleased, would be promised in vain. I promise you this which you do not have, and it is in me when I promise, that what I promise may descend into you. The Holy Spirit is also a gift, and above every gift, and a gift owed to none, and a gift granted freely. Christ was born, and laid in the manger that he might become the food of the pious beasts: yet he suffered thirst, weariness, was sold by his own, betrayed and accused by the Jews, scourged by the Gentiles, crowned with thorns, crucified, at last shut in by a stone: to what end all these things? That he might purchase for you this gift, which he afterward dispensed to the believer; or rather dispensed, that you might believe. For unless he had first given it, you would have believed neither before nor after. Whence if you have this gift from nature, you render the death of Christ empty, his passion, his cross. For he dies in vain, to acquire for you what is in you, and to give what you possess. Render to the Lord the humility of the manger, render the curse of the cross, render the abundance of the poured-out blood, in vain are all these things: you suffice for yourself, all these things are empty; you are rich, and among the goods of a rich nature you count understanding, which nature gave, not grace, and for which you are no debtor to the Creator, except in so far as he granted nature, which made understanding for you.

5. You recognize, I think, the error: and would that your reins might amend you (See Ps 16:7 (15:7)), so that you may better recognize it, and by recognizing ask, and by asking obtain the spirit of understanding and counsel and fear, by which you may turn out wiser, by which you may become more cautious and more subject to the Lord. These things, brothers, even if I did not treat them, yet there would be another who would instruct you: and among yourselves you would be treaters. For if, which God avert, you had slipped into so gross and stupid an error, as to think understanding was given you from nature, which you have from grace and the mercy of God alone, your reins would amend you, and would cry out: Why do thoughts of this kind ascend into your heart (See Matt 9:4)? Let each one consult himself, palpate himself, search himself, nor seek himself outside; let him question his reins, and they will tell him: that there was a law in my members contrary to the law of my mind (See Rom 7:23); I am prone to every disgrace, so do the waves of concupiscence overwhelm me, that daily I am submerged, and fall into the depth of sins. Envy ascends, pride ascends, luxury ascends, in a formed column they assail the wretched man: if I avoid Charybdis, I run into Scylla; if I drive off lust, I succumb to anger; if greed does not subdue me, drunkenness strikes me down; if I abstain from robberies, I close my hand and my heart to the poor; if I shut my ears to slanders, death enters through the windows, that is, through the eyes I drink in the incentives of lusts and pleasures; finally, if I stop up one crack, a hundred open, by which I receive the hostile flood, and at last grow faint. These are the things which your reins treat with you, and conscious of their own weakness instruct you, rebuke you, amend you, even into the night. What night? Of your dark conscience, with whose darkness wrapped, you would wish, if you could, to hold these up as it were a shield against the light of truth, and to hope well of your own strength. But your reins amend you. In the reins and in the loins is strength, as it is somewhere in Scripture (See Job 40:16): but since the loins are so feeble, the reins so flabby, they instruct and say: If in the reins, from where comes strength, there is so great weakness, so great infirmity, what will become of the rest? When, then, our loins have instructed us, and taught how vain is the salvation of men; what remains, except that we gird our loins, that they may not flow apart? When our floors, either by too great age, or too great heat, or the impulse of storms, or for some other cause, gape open, we at once join them with nails and sinews: let this be done with your loins, that is, with your strength; they are loosened, they fall, they grow faint, the whole frame is dissolved; you have nails in the Crucified, drive them in firmly, and the better the deeper; do not place them under what is tottering, that it may be propped up; so will the loosened frame be strengthened. The nails of the cross have wherewith to raise the prostrate, wherewith to restore the weak, wherewith to hold back those slipping. Drive, strike, even to the marrow, even to the soul itself; from this amendment you will be healed, and healed you will say to the Lord: My strength, I will keep for you (See Ps 59:9 (58:10)): from you my strength, to you my strength. Turned to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 366
On Psalm 23 (22):1: "the Lord Guides Me, and Nothing Will Be Lacking to Me"

1. A psalm, dearest ones, you who are hastening to the Baptism of Christ, in the name of the Lord we hand over to you to be committed to memory; whose mystery it is necessary that we expound, with divine grace enlightening. For this psalm specially contains the reformation of the fall of the human race, and the discipline of the holy Church, and at the same time the sacraments. Let the ears of your heart, then, lie open in silence to hear, and let the furrows of your whole attention, prepared, find the seed of the word: that what now the thirsty earth receives, in the accepted time, made drunk with the blood of Christ, germinating in a tall stalk, may bring forth abundant fruits.

2. The Lord guides me, and nothing will be lacking to me (Ps 23:1 (22:1)). A great beginning, dearest ones, of one confessing. For he confirmed the trust of his defense, he strengthened the infinite substance of his riches. The Lord guides me, he confirmed the trust of his defense. And nothing will be lacking to me, he strengthened the infinite substance of his riches. But let us seek whose, of what greatness, and of what kind this confession is. It is his, his, dearest ones, who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among robbers (See Luke 10:30). Who, despoiled of the dignity of his first origin, and laid low on the ground by the dart of death, lay without strength and naked. Who, with the trumpet of the Law and the Prophets sounding, while he tries to rise by his own strength, drawn back by the pain of the wound, fell more grievously into the fall where he lay. Because the Law, as the Apostle says, brought nothing to perfection (Heb 7:19). Whom that Samaritan of ours, namely Christ, who was called a Samaritan by the Jews, which is interpreted Guardian, having mercy as he passed by the same way, that is, when in the flesh he had come to die for us sinners as a just man, lifting him from the earth, set on his own beast; and carrying the one who strayed like a sheep on his own shoulders, called him back to paradise, from where he had fallen, to the number of a hundred, that is, to the perfect number (See Luke 15:4-6; 10:34). For he, as the prophet says, bore our sins, and grieved for us (See Isa 53:4). Now say, O man, say, sitting on the beast of mercy, and on the shoulders of the Lord's love, you who, recognized, recognize your author and Lord: The Lord guides me. Which surely, unless raised by the Lord, lying you could not say. He himself, then, guides you, who carries you. For when you say: The Lord guides me; there is nothing of your own, whence you may trust in yourself. And so beware lest you be exalted by your merits. For there were none, when the Lord came to raise you. Finally he found you naked, not clothed; wounded, not whole; lying, not standing: he found you straying, not returning. Beware boasting, beware; because he who, having mercy, lifted you half-dead from the earth, carries the humble, casts down the one exalting himself. For when you say, fearing, and walking in innocence: The Lord guides me; you will trustingly add, and nothing will be lacking to me. Since nothing is lacking to those who fear him (See Ps 34:9 (33:10)); and the Lord will not deprive of good things those walking in innocence (See Ps 84:11 (83:13)).

3. For that you may know that nothing will be lacking to you, add what follows: In a place of pasture there he has set me; upon the water of refreshment he has brought me up (Ps 23:2 (22:2)). Recognize, O man, what you were, where you were, under whom you were. You were a straying sheep, in a pathless and waterless place, you were fed on thorns and thistles: set under a hireling, with the wolf coming, you were not secure. But now, sought again by the true shepherd, carried by his piety on his shoulders, you have been led back to the sheepfold, that is, to the house of God, namely the Church, where your shepherd Christ, and the sheep gathered together, dwell. This shepherd is not like the hireling, under whom, wretched, you labored, under whom you feared the wolf. But do you wish to know how great care this good shepherd has of you? He laid down his soul for you. For he himself says in the Gospel: The good shepherd lays down his soul for his sheep (John 10:11). This he did. For when the wolf lay in wait for you, he offered himself to be slain for you. Now, then, you remain secure in the sheepfold. Nor do you need anyone else, who may shut and open the door of your fold: because Christ is for you both shepherd and door; he himself both pasture and provider. I am, he says, the door of the sheep. Through me if anyone enters, he will be saved; and he will go out and come in, and will find pasture (John 10:9). The pastures, then, which this good shepherd prepared for you, in which he set you to be satisfied, are not a variety of green herbs, of which some are of sweet juice, some most bitter, which by the succession of times sometimes are, sometimes are not. Your pastures are the words of God and his sweet commandments, sown. Of these pastures he had tasted who said to God: How sweet to my jaws are your words, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth (Ps 119:103 (118:103))! Of these pastures this same one cries out to the sheep of the Lord, and says: Taste and see how sweet the Lord is (Ps 34:8 (33:9)). Read, then, the decalogue of the Old Testament: You shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness (See Exod 20:13-16), and the rest. Read the praise of the precepts of the New Testament: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land as an inheritance (Matt 5:3-4): and the rest that follow, or are similar, and many things sown through the Prophets and Apostles. Of these pastures surely the shepherd cries to the sheep: Work for the food which does not perish (John 6:27). But for this reason it does not perish, because the word of the Lord abides forever. The word of the Lord is your food, and not only food, but also drink. Hear him saying through the prophet to the old people: Those who eat me will still hunger; and those who drink me will still thirst (Sir 24:21). Likewise through himself: My flesh, he says, is truly food, and my blood is truly drink (John 6:55). But these pastures are not far from the water of refreshment. The Church, the catholic Church of God, is one place for these; where the commandments of life are your pastures, and the fountain of water springing up to eternal life, with whose streams you will be refreshed, when you are baptized to be restored in Christ. Unless, then, your pastures are watered by this water, you cannot be brought up: because the commandments of God cannot germinate without the Baptism of Christ, nor be eaten to the satisfaction of the soul.

4. When, then, through the water of refreshment of Christ you begin to be fit to be satisfied with the savor of the sweet pastures; then you will know, and will cry out rejoicing, and saying: He has converted my soul, he has led me along the paths of justice for his name's sake (Ps 23:3 (22:3)). The devil through sin overturned your soul, and turned it away from God; which God the Father through Christ, not by your merits, but for his own name's sake, converted to himself. Now, then, enlightened, now converted, now believing, now satisfied with the divine pastures through the water of refreshment, you will say: He has converted my soul. Good is the glory of your confession, if there is not a change of your conscience. For then truly and with unchangeable conscience you will say this, when you say it not on account of your own merit, but for his name's sake. But what are the paths of justice, along which he has led you? Hear your leader. How wide, he says, and spacious is the way which leads to perdition; but narrow and strait is the way which leads to life (Matt 7:13-14). For every path is short and a shortcut. Not, then, through the delights of the world, through the abundance of gold and silver, conspicuous too with precious stones and garments, endowed with every honor, with nobility, swollen with all the wisdom of the philosophers, has God ordained you to go to the kingdom of heaven: because all these things, and things like them, which they use badly, which it is given to use well, become for them a wide and spacious way, that is, only in the hope which is seen; and it leads them, when they have been deprived of the present life, not to the hope in which they had no hope, but to perdition. For they slept their sleep, and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands (See Ps 76:5 (75:6)). He has disposed you to go along the paths of justice, that is, through mercy and truth. For all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (See Ps 25:10 (24:10)). With the wide and spacious way despised, he wishes you to walk the narrow and short paths, that is, through hunger and thirst, through nakedness, through fasting, through ignobility, through poverty, through patience, through contempt of all present things, but having the promised hope. But do you wish evidently to know the shortcut of the paths, along which you are bidden to walk? You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul; and your neighbor as yourself. For on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40). That, then, you may quickly arrive, if you are hastening to the kingdom of heaven, walk in these two paths, which are the head of all, and make one way; that, when you have arrived, you may rejoice to have completed them all diligently and without weariness.

5. Hold, then, these paths, in these let your steps remain, amid the snares of the raging devil, that you may securely sing to God, and say: For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evils; for you are with me (Ps 23:4 (22:4)). The shadow of death is the way of sin, in which the rascal and pirate devil spreads the nets of deception for those walking rightly. It is a shadow, because nothing is common to light with darkness. The works of this shadow the Apostle teaches must be cast off, saying: Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the arms of light; as in the day let us walk honorably, not in carousings and drunkenness, not in beds and shameless deeds, not in contention and rivalry (Rom 13:12-13). As long, then, as you remain in the present life, in the midst of vices, of worldly afflictions, which are the shadow of death, you walk. Let Christ shine in your heart, who enlightens the lamp of our mind through the love of God and neighbor: and you will not fear evils, since he himself is with you. I will not, he says through the prophet, desert you, nor abandon you (See Heb 13:5). Likewise in the Gospel: Behold, I will be with you all the days even to the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20). Your guardian is fit. The Lord your God is with you. Beware lest by boasting you desert your companion, and remain deserted in the shadow of death.

6. When, therefore, you recognize that you are assailed by the snares of the enemy and terrified in the shadow, take hold of the rod of discipline, and lean trustingly on the staff of mercy, that, when Christ the sun of justice has shone to your aid, you may truly say: Your rod and your staff, they have consoled me (Ps 23:4 (22:4)). For the rod governs the proud, according to what is said in the second psalm of Christ: You will rule them with a rod of iron, and like a potter's vessel you will shatter them (Ps 2:9). But the staff sustains the weak and the tired. Remember, then, the rod of correction and discipline, that when you are filled with the good things of the gifts of God, you may not be exalted by pride, and murmur against him: because like a potter's vessel, angry, he will shatter you in it. Remember too the help of the staff, and do not trust in your own strength, nor say: I am holy, I cannot totter. Our weakness has many falls, nor is it governed by the holiness of its own works, while still placed on the earth giving thorns and thistles, nor does it have the glory of purity. As long, then, until it returns to the earth from which it was taken, unless it is governed by the staff of divine grace, it cannot stand. Whether, then, you prosper in God, or are troubled by the storm of temptations, cast yourself wholly on the staff of God's mercy, that when upon it you recline to be fed with spiritual gifts, delighted by the taste of its sweetness, you may fittingly say: You have prepared in my sight a table against those who trouble me. You have anointed my head in oil, and your inebriating cup, how excellent it is! (Ps 23:5 (22:5)) This, supported throughout the world by the staff of grace, the whole Church sings. This against heretics, Jews and Gentiles, who trouble her by mocking, she preaches, glorying not in herself, but in the Lord. For the table of joy is the passion of Christ, who offered himself for us on the table of the cross as a sacrifice to God the Father, granting to his catholic Church a vital banquet, satisfying us namely with his body, and inebriating us with his blood. Fed and made alive by this table, against those who trouble her, the Church exults, having the hope of eternal life through her life the Lord Christ, who anointed her abundantly with the oil of gladness through the Holy Spirit. On account of this table the Apostle rebuked the Corinthians reclining in the idol-temple, saying: You cannot share the table of the Lord and the table of demons: you cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons (1 Cor 10:21).

7. When, then, the divine grace, to which you are hastening, has carried you in, you will recognize the table of the spiritual banquet, so that, the truth recognized, each one of you, exulting, and giving thanks to God, may now fittingly and trustingly say: And your mercy will follow me all the days of my life (Ps 23:6 (22:6)). A great consolation of glory accompanies you. On account, namely, of the misery of your weakness, the mercy of God follows you. But first, that it may show you the way of eternal life, it goes before you, that is, precedes you, according to what he says in another psalm: My God, his mercy will go before me (Ps 59:10 (58:11)). His mercy, then, goes before you, that is, leads you into the way when you do not know the way, calls you to God when made far from God; draws the slave of sin, that it may make him free, that by walking in the way all the days of your life you may not stray. It also follows you, guarding your back, lest the serpent the devil, lying in wait for your heel, with whom you have enmity, supplant you. For a robber either kills by meeting you, or rising up behind your back. On this account the mercy of God both precedes and follows you, that in the middle you may walk safe and secure all the days of your life. Have, then, hope and glory, not in yourself, but in the preceding and following mercy of God: by which you, a sinner, were prevented, that you might be saved; you were not found just, that you might glory in having pleased.

8. But see whither he leads you, if you do not desert the one leading. Not into the field of worldly misery, that among thorns and thistles you should seek bread in labor and sweat; not to the dangers of the sea, that for the sake of trade you should chase uncertain gains in a fragile ship, where with the intention of gain many have sunk. He leads you to the house of God, not as a guest for a time, that you should migrate from it; but as a dweller, that you may remain in it. For it follows: And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days (Ps 23:6 (22:6)). This house of the Lord is paradise. Length of days is eternal life. There you will not hunger, not thirst, nor will you labor in the heat of sun and moon, you will not feel cold and the storms of winter. Sadness and mourning are not in it. In the fellowship always of the saints you will be blessed. You will rejoice with them, and exult, living and praising God unto ages of ages. For he says in another psalm: Blessed are those who dwell in your house; unto ages of ages they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). This is the hope of your faith, dearest ones. You have come to believe in the Lord; hasten and give effort to lay hold by good conduct of what you have believed. For you are not made Christians on account of the present life, but on account of the future life, which the Lord Christ himself bestows on you believing and persevering in him: who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 367
On the Words of the Gospel, Luke 16:19-31, on Dives and Lazarus

1. Your holiness noticed, dearest brothers, and with me, as I think, with the whole intention of the mind perceived the opulence of the rich man, and the want of the beggar; the one boiling with foods, and the other failing with hunger. Both indeed men, both carnal, both mortal: but not both equal. One nature, but not one life. None of them immune from the condition of death: and yet the one feasts splendidly, and the other grows foul in rags and in misery. He rejoiced in delicate foods by the contrivance of cooks: the other, if crumbs fell from his table, waited for them. Let the rich now hear, who are unwilling to be merciful; let them hear that we are all born by one law, live by one light, breathe one air, are extinguished too by one death: which, if it did not intervene, the poor man himself would not endure. This ulcerous and naked Lazarus, lying, is carried by the hands of the angels to Abraham's bosom. Behold, the rich man, refreshed and splendid, is shut in the tartarean prison. Where is that garment of fine linen? where the life abounding and overflowing with many resources? Do not all things pass away in death like a shadow? We brought nothing into this world, says the Apostle, but neither can we take anything away (1 Tim 6:7). We take or snatch nothing with us. What if we took anything, would we not devour living men? What is this greed of concupiscence, when even the beasts have a limit? For they seize when they hunger: but they spare the prey, when they have felt satiety. Inexplicable alone is the greed of the rich. Always it seizes, and is never satisfied: it neither fears God, nor reveres man: it neither spares the father, nor recognizes the mother: it neither obeys the brother, nor keeps faith with the friend: it oppresses the widow, invades the property of the orphan: it recalls the freed to slavery, brings forth a false testament. The goods of the dead are seized; as though those too who do this did not die. What, then, is this madness of souls, to lose life, to seek death? to acquire gold, and lose heaven? But because no one thinks of God, therefore judgment remains in death.

2. Deservedly it was said to the rich man: Because you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things; but now he is consoled here, but you are tormented (Luke 16:25). Let the rich hear these things, who are unwilling to be merciful. Let them hear that punishments are inflicted on those who are unwilling to dispense aids. Let them hear the poor man being refreshed, let them hear the rich man boiling with graver punishments. Father Abraham, he says, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But he: Remember, he says, son, that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things (See Luke 16:24-25). Punishments are weighed for riches, refreshment for poverty, flame for purple, refreshment for nakedness, that the fairness of the balance may be safe, and the measure of that measuring may not lie: In what measure, he says, you have measured, in that it will be measured back to you (See Matt 7:2). Therefore mercy in punishments is denied to the rich man, because he himself, while he lived, was unwilling to be merciful. Therefore the rich man asking is not heard in torments; because he did not hear the poor man asking on earth.

3. The rich man and the poor man are two contraries to each other: but again two necessary to each other. No one would be in need, if they supported one another; and no one would labor, if they both helped each other. The rich man was made on account of the poor man, and the poor man was made on account of the rich man. It is the poor man's to pray, and the rich man's to dispense; it is God's to weigh great things for small. From his small mercy, great abundance is born. The field of the poor is fruitful, it quickly returns the fruit to those who have lordship. The poor man is the way of heaven, by which one comes to the Father. Begin, then, to dispense, if you do not wish to stray. The fetter of your patrimony, by which you are bound, loose in this life; that you may freely be able to approach heaven: cast away from yourself the burdens of riches, cast away the voluntary chains, cast away the anxieties and weariness, which disquiet you in your many years. Give to the one asking, that you yourself may receive: bestow on the poor man, if you do not wish to be burned by the flames. Give on earth to Christ, what he may render you in heaven. Forget what you are, and attend to what you will be. The present life is fragile, and prone to death. No one can remain: but we are all compelled to pass on. Unwilling we come, against our will we go out, because we are evil. But if we sent something ahead of us, we would not come to an empty lodging. For what we give to the poor man, we send ahead of us: but what we snatch, we leave the whole of here.

1. Just now, brothers, when the divine reading was read, we heard the Lord saying: He who loves his soul will lose it (See John 12:25). As it were contrary to this sentence seems what the Apostle says: No one ever hated his own flesh (Eph 5:29). If, then, there is no one who hates his own flesh, how much more is there no one who hates his own soul? For the soul is much preferred to the flesh: because it is the dweller, the flesh the dwelling; and the soul has dominion, but the flesh serves; the soul is superior, the flesh subject. If, then, no one ever hated his own flesh, who is there who would hate his own soul? Through this the present gospel reading brought us no small question, where we heard: He who loves his soul will lose it. It is dangerous to love the soul, lest it perish. But if for this reason it is dangerous that you love your soul, lest your soul perish, therefore you ought not to love it, because you do not wish it to perish. But if you do not wish it to perish, you love it. What is this? If I love, I lose: therefore let me not love, lest I lose. But because I fear to lose, therefore I do not love; and surely, what I fear lest I lose, I love. The Lord says elsewhere too: What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul? (Matt 16:26) Behold, that the soul is so to be loved, that it is preferred to the gain of the whole world; and yet let him who loves his soul take heed, because if he loves it he will lose it. Do you not wish to lose it? do not love it; but if you do not wish to lose it, you cannot not love it.

2. There are, then, those who perversely love their soul: and this the word of God wishes to correct, not that they should hate their soul, but that they should rightly love it. For by loving badly they lose it, and a certain great thing happens as it were preposterous and contrary: but yet it so happens, that, if you love it perversely, you lose it; if you hate it rightly, you preserve it. There is, then, a certain perverse love of it, and a certain right hatred of it; but the perverse love is from hatred, the right hatred is from love. What is the perverse love of the soul? When you love your soul in iniquities. Hear that this perverse love comes from hatred: But he who loves iniquity, hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). But see that right hatred comes from love; there the Lord, following, says: But he who hates his soul in this world, will find it unto eternal life (John 12:25). Surely what you wish to find unto eternal life, you love much. For what you love for a time, what does it profit? Either you are withdrawn from it, or it is withdrawn from you: when you have been taken away, the lover himself perishes; when that has been taken away, what you loved perishes. Where, then, either the lover perishes, or what is loved, it is not to be loved. But what is to be loved? That which can be with us forever. If you wish to have your soul safe forever, hate it for a time. Therefore right hatred comes from love: perverse love comes from hatred.

3. What, then, is the measure of loving the soul? Do you think the martyrs did not love their souls? You see surely now, if anyone's life of the present age is in peril, how his friends run for it: how one runs to the church, the bishop is asked to interrupt, if he has any business in hand, to run, to hasten. Why? For the soul. And all tremble, all decree that one must hasten, with all other things interrupted: every haste is praised, every delay is accused. Why? For the soul. What is, for the soul? That the man may not die. Did the martyrs not know how to love their souls? and yet this is for the soul, that the man may not die. The death of man is iniquity. If you run a hundred thousand for this life, how many thousands ought you to run for eternal life? If you hasten to gain a few days, and those uncertain—for today a man freed from death does not know whether he will die tomorrow—yet if one so runs for the gain of a few days, because even unto old age they are few days, how must one run for eternal life? And yet for this men are slothful: you scarcely find one who would move even a slow step for eternal life. Perverse love of the soul, then, abounds; but right love is of very few. For as there is no one who does not love his soul, so there is no one who does not love his flesh: whence it can come about that both what the Apostle said is true, No one ever hated his own flesh (Eph 5:29), and the soul is not loved. Let us learn, then, brothers, to love our souls. Every pleasure of the world is going to pass away. There is a useful love, there is a harmful love: let love be hindered by love; let the harmful love withdraw, and the useful love succeed. But because men are unwilling to withdraw from there, therefore nothing else can enter into them: that they may not contain it, they are full; let them pour out, and they contain. For they are full of the love of carnal pleasures, full of the love of the present life, full of the love of gold and silver, of the possessions of this world. Those who are full, then, are like vessels. Do you wish honey to enter, from where you have not yet poured out vinegar? Pour out what you have, that you may contain what you do not have. Therefore first there is renunciation of this world, and then conversion to God. He who renounces pours out, he who is converted is filled: but only if it is done not with the body alone, but also with the heart.

4. But it is asked, brothers, how this love grows: for it has its beginnings, has its increases, has its perfection. And we ought to know who has begun, that we may exhort him to the increases: who has not even begun, that we may admonish him where he may begin: who has both begun, and grown, that we may incite him to perfection. First, let your love attend to this: all loves and affections are first in men toward themselves, and so toward another thing which they love. If you love gold, first you love yourself, and so the gold: because if you are dead, there will be no one to possess the gold. Therefore love begins for each one from himself, and cannot but begin from himself. And no one is admonished to love himself: for this is present not only in men, but even in the beasts. For you see, brothers, how not only the huge beasts and great animals, as are oxen or camels or elephants, but even flies, even the smallest little worms, how they are unwilling to die, and love themselves. All animals flee death. Therefore they love themselves, they wish to guard themselves: some by speed, some by hiding-places, some by resisting and fighting back; yet all animals fight for their life, are unwilling to die, wish to guard themselves. They love themselves, then. Another thing too begins to be loved. But what is that other thing? Whatever you love is either what you are, or below you, or above you. If what you love is below you, love it for consolation, love it for handling, love it for use, not for being bound. For example, you love gold, do not bind yourself to gold: how much better are you than gold? For gold is shining earth: but you, that you might be enlightened by the Lord, were made to the image of God. Although gold is a creature of God, yet God did not make gold to his image, but you: therefore he placed gold below you. This love, then, is to be despised: these things are to be taken up for use, not to be clung to as it were by the glue of love by the chain of love. Do not make for yourself members which, when they begin to be cut off, you grieve and are tormented. What then? Rise from this love, by which you love things lower than you are: begin to love equals, that is, what you are. But what need is there of many words? If you will, you can do it briefly.

5. But in what order we may have true love and true charity, the Lord himself told us in the Gospel, and evidently showed. For he says thus: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). First, then, love God, then yourself; after this love your neighbor as yourself: yet first learn to love yourself, then so love your neighbor as yourself: for if you do not know how to love yourself, how will you be able truly to love your neighbor? For some men think they love themselves in a lawful order, when they seize the goods of others, when they make themselves drunk, when they serve lust, when through various slanders they acquire unjust gains. Let such men hear the Scripture saying: He who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). If, then, by loving iniquity you not only do not love yourself, but even hate yourself, how will you be able to love either God or your neighbor? If, then, you wish to keep the order of true charity, do justice, love mercy, flee luxury; begin, according to the precept of the Lord, to love not only friends, but even enemies. And when you have striven faithfully to keep these things with your whole heart, by these virtues as by certain steps you will be able to ascend, so that you may merit to love God with your whole soul and all your strength. And when you have come to this happy perfection, you will count all the concupiscences of this world as dung, and with the prophet you will be able to say: But for me to cling to God is good (Ps 73:28 (72:28)).

1. Our Savior, born of the Father without a day, through whom every day was made, willed to have on earth this birthday which we celebrate today. Whoever you are who marvel at this day, marvel rather at the Eternal One abiding before every day, creating every day, born on the present day, freeing from the malice of the day (See Eph 5:16). Marvel still: she who bore is both mother and virgin; he whom she bore is both infant and Word. Deservedly the heavens spoke, the angels gave thanks, the shepherds rejoiced, the magi were changed, the kings were troubled, the little ones were crowned. Nurse, O mother, our food; nurse the bread coming from heaven and laid in the manger as the fodder of the pious beasts. For there the ox knew its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord (Isa 1:3), namely the circumcision and the uncircumcision (See Eph 2:11), by clinging to the cornerstone (See Eph 2:20), of whom the firstfruits were the shepherds and the magi. Nurse him who made you such that he himself might be made in you, who both brought you the gift of fruitfulness in being conceived and did not take away the dignity of virginity in being born; who chose for himself, before he was born, both the womb from which he was born and the day on which he was born. And he himself founded what he chose, that he might come forth from there like a bridegroom from his chamber (See Ps 19:5 (18:6)), that he might be seen by mortal eyes, and by the increase of the yearly light attest that he, the light of minds, had come. The prophets sang that the founder of heaven and earth would be on earth with men (See Bar 3:38); the angel announced that the Creator of flesh and spirit would come in the flesh. John from the womb greeted the Savior in the womb; the old man Simeon recognized God as an infant; the widow Anna recognized the virgin mother. These are the testimonies of your nativity, O Lord Jesus, before the waves were spread under you as you trod them, yielding to you as you commanded; before the wind at your bidding fell silent, the dead at your calling lived, the sun at your dying grew pale, the earth at your rising trembled, heaven at your ascending lay open: before you had done these and other wonders in the already youthful age of your body. Still you were carried in the hands of your mother, and already you were recognized as the Lord of the world. Yourself a little child of the seed of Israel, and yourself with us God Emmanuel (See Matt 1:23).

2. What is that generation of our Savior, by which he is coeternal with the begetting Father, when the world dreaded this one from the virgin, which pious faith recognized and held, but unbelief mocked, and pride, overcome, feared? What is that generation, by which in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)? What is this Word, which, about to speak, was not silent beforehand, by the speaking of which he who spoke was not silent? What is the Word without time, through which the times were made; the Word which no one's lips opened in beginning, or closed in finishing; the Word which has no beginning from the mouth of those speaking, and opens the mouths of the dumb; the Word which is not made eloquent by the tongues of the nations, and makes the tongues of infants eloquent? What, I say, is that generation, to which the Father by dying does not yield, because he does not precede it by living? From all intervals of places and times, from all distension of spaces, which we are accustomed to perceive either in days or in bodies, let us lift up our soul to him, as much as with his help we can, if in some way we may be able to grasp both the one born not anticipating him who begets, and the one begetting not following him who is begotten, the Father and the Son: neither fathers alike, nor sons alike, and alike eternal: neither both begetting, nor both being born, but the one not living without the other. And let us think, if we can, that the Father has begotten eternally, and the Son has been born eternally; if we cannot, let us believe it. That which we wish to say is not here, yet it is not placed far from each one of us: for in him we live, and move, and are (Acts 17:28). Let us transcend our flesh, in which parents live before their children; because, that they might be able to beget children, they grew, and with their children growing they now grow old; before their children were born the parents lived, because also, with the parents dead, the children are going to live. Let us transcend also our souls: they too bring forth something by thinking, which they have with them by knowing; but they can lose it by forgetting, because they did not have it before by not knowing. Let us transcend all corporeal, temporal, changeable things, that we may see above all things him through whom all things were made (See John 1:3). Our ascent is in the heart, because also that to which we ascend is near. But we are far from him, in so far as we are unlike him. Let his likeness, then, ascend to him, which he made and remade in us, by which not yet perfected the weak gaze quivers, and cannot behold the ineffable brightness of the eternal light. Whose splendor, then, the edge of the mind does not yet grasp, his generation who shall declare? (Isa 53:8) But the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

3. This generation, then, whose day we celebrate today, this in which he deigned to come through Israel and to become Emmanuel: God with us in the weakness of the flesh, not with us in the iniquity of the heart; coming to us through that which he assumed from ours, and freeing us through that which he remained in his own—for the Lord visited his servants through mortal weakness that he might make them free through unchangeable truth—this generation, then, of which human fragility is somehow capable; not that which abides without time, without mother above all things; but this which was made in time, without father among all things: this son of a virgin and bridegroom of virgins, born of an uncorrupted mother and making fruitful by incorruptible truth, let us praise, love, adore, that in his mercy we may triumph over the cunning of the devil overcome. The devil crept up to deceive us through the corrupted mind of a woman: Christ came forth to free us through the uncorrupted flesh too of a woman.

Sermon 370
On the Nativity of the Lord

1. This present day brought great joy to the human race for having the hope of eternal life. For the first man, by whose falling we all fell, by whose ruin is our mortality, was not born, but made; with no father, no mother, but God working. This is the first condition of man. Adam from the earth. The second condition of man is that by which the woman is created from the side of the man. The third condition of man is that by which man is born of man and woman. The fourth condition is of God and man, by which Christ was born without a man from a woman. Of these four conditions only one is familiar to us, the other three are not in the eyes of the flesh, but in the faith of the heart. That a man was made from the earth without father, without mother, we have not known; that a woman was made from the side of a man we have not known, but read and heard we have believed. The third is familiar to us, that very daily one: from the embrace of male and female men are daily born. Now, then, there was the one without man and woman, now there was the second from man without woman, now there was the third from man and woman, the fourth remained without a man from a woman. But this fourth freed the three. For the first and the second fell, they begot the third from the ruin, in the fourth they found salvation.