1 With one voice and with one heart, praying to the Lord for our very heart, we have said: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me (Ps 51:10 (50:12)). From this text, in his grace, we will set before you the little that the Lord may grant. It is the psalm of one who is doing penance, of one who longs to recover lost hope, who lies prostrate from his fall and prays to rise by the Lord's hand, like one who has been able to wound himself but cannot heal himself. For just as we can strike and wound our own flesh whenever we wish, but to have it healed we look for a physician, and we are not healed by our own power as we are injured by our own power, so too the soul is sufficient unto itself for sinning, but for the healing of what it has injured by sinning it implores the healing right hand of God. Hence he says in another psalm: I said, O Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). He said this, I said, O Lord, so as to set before his eyes that the will and the choice of sinning arise from the soul and suffice it to destroy itself, but that it belongs to God to seek what was lost and to save what had wounded itself. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Pouring out our prayer to him, we say: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me (Ps 51:10 (50:12)). Let the soul that has sinned speak, lest, having destroyed itself by transgressing, it perish further by despairing.

2 Before all else, of course, we must take care not to sin, not to strike up a kind of familiarity and friendship with sin as though with a serpent. For it kills the sinner with its venomous bite, and it is not the sort of thing with which a friendship should be made. But if perhaps it has overpowered the weak, or crept up on the unwary, or caught one who was straying, or deceived one in a second error, let the soul not be reluctant to confess, nor to seek an excuse for itself, but rather an accusation of itself. For this is why he prayed in a certain psalm and said: Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, and a door of restraint about my lips; incline not my heart to evil words, to make excuses for sins (Ps 141:3-4 (140:3-4)). Does someone urge a sin upon you? Before all else, let it be refused. But has it been carried through? Let it not be excused but rather accused. For this very man who said Create in me a clean heart, O God (Ps 51:10 (50:12)) began thus: Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to your great mercy (Ps 51:1 (50:3)). The great sinner implores great mercy. The great wound longs for great medicine. There it is said: Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God (Ps 51:9-10 (50:11-12)). God therefore turns his face away from the sins of one who confesses and accuses himself and prays for God's help and mercy. For he turns his face away from his sins without turning away from the man himself. For to him to whom it is said, Turn your face away from my sins (Ps 51:9 (50:11)), it is said elsewhere, Do not turn your face away from me (Ps 27:9 (26:9)). He turns away because he does not take notice; for if he takes notice, he overturns. This is why judges who pronounce sentence against convicted defendants are said to "take notice." That God may not do this, that is, that he may not take notice, we say to him: Turn your face away from my sins (Ps 51:9 (50:11)). So that he may not recognize, he forgives. And just as we say "noble" and call one who is "not noble" ignoble, so we say "knowing" and call one who does "not know" forgiving. Yet if you wish him to forgive, do you acknowledge. A sin cannot go unpunished; it is not fitting, not right, not just that it go unpunished. Therefore, since a sin ought not to go unpunished, let it be punished by you, lest you be punished on its account. Let your sin have you as its judge, not its advocate. Mount the tribunal of your own mind against yourself, and set yourself before yourself as the accused. Do not place yourself behind yourself, lest God place you before himself. This is why he says in the same psalm, that he may obtain pardon most easily: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5)). As if to say: Since it is before me, let it not be before you; and since I acknowledge it, do you forgive it. Therefore a sin is punished either by you or by God; but by you it is punished without you, by God it is punished together with you. So let it have you as its punisher, that you may find God your defender. Say: "I did it." I said, O Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). I, he says, said it. To excuse my sin, I do not ask who sinned in me, or who forced me to sin. I do not say, "Fortune did it." I do not say, "Fate willed this." Last of all I do not say, "The devil did it." For the devil too has the power to persuade, and finally to terrify, and even, if he is permitted, to inflict grievous troubles. From the Lord must we beg the strength not to be captured by enticements or broken by hardships. Against the enticements and threats of the enemy, let him grant us two virtues: self-restraint and endurance—self-restraint over our desires, lest prosperity capture us; endurance under terrors, lest adversity break us. And when I knew, he says, that no one can be self-controlled unless God grants it (Wis 8:21), to him then he said: Create in me a clean heart, O God (Ps 51:10 (50:12)); and: Woe to those who have lost their endurance (Sir 2:14). Seek therefore to accuse no one, lest you find an accuser against whom you cannot defend yourself. For our enemy the devil himself, when he is accused, rejoices. He wants you above all to accuse him; he wants to bear from you whatever charge you wish to lay, while you lose your confession. Against his cunning that man cries out: I said, O Lord (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). The enemy lies in wait for me without cause; I know his wiles, he seeks to catch my tongue, he wants me to say, "The devil did it." I said, O Lord. By these tricks, then, he leads souls astray and turns them away from the medicine of confession, either by persuading them to excuse themselves and to look for someone to accuse; or by persuading them, now that they have sinned, to despair and to think they cannot possibly attain pardon at all; or by persuading them that God quickly forgives everything, even if a person does not correct himself.

3 See how many are the things against which the heart of one doing penance must keep watch. Lest he accuse another by excusing himself, let this come to his mind: I said, O Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). Lest he perish by despairing, so that, because he has sinned and sinned gravely, he should think he can no longer be healed and give himself over to his lusts, to be dragged off by every desire, doing whatever he pleases though it is not permitted. And if he does not do it, he does not do it where he fears men. With an utterly gladiatorial spirit, since he despairs of life, he does whatever he can to glut his desire and lust, like one devoted to death as a victim. Such men perish through despair. Against these, on their behalf—that is, against such thoughts of theirs—Scripture watchfully said: On whatever day the wicked man turns and does righteousness, I will forget all his iniquities (See Ezek 18:21-22). Yet again—when the soul, restored, has believed these words and been freed from the evil of despair—it finds another pit, and what could not perish through despair perishes through hope. And who is it that perishes through hope? See the kind of man I set before you, one who says in his heart: "God has now promised pardon to all who turn away from their sins; on whatever day they turn, he will forget all their iniquities. Therefore I will do whatever I wish. When I wish, I will turn, and what I have done will be blotted out." What do we say? That God does not care for the penitent whenever he turns? God forgives all that is past. If we deny this, we contradict the divine indulgence, we oppose the words of the prophet, we resist the divine utterances. This is not the way of a faithful steward.

4 And someone presses me and says: "Will you then give license to sins, so that people may do whatever they wish, since pardon is promised, since impunity is promised once they turn?" They loosen the reins for sinning; they are carried along with great force, with nothing to call them back, made desperate by hope. Is it really so—that Scripture would keep watch against those who despair, and not keep watch against those who hope wrongly? Hear its vigilance against evil and perverse hope: Do not delay to turn to the Lord, nor put it off from day to day. For his wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Sir 5:7). What then, you ill-minded hoper? If you despair, you perish; if you hope, you perish. Where will there be a safe place for you, to snatch yourself from both pits and set yourself on the straight road, serving God, having mercy on your soul, pleasing God? You were despairing wrongly; you heard: On whatever day he turns, I will forget all his iniquities (See Ezek 18:21-22). You had begun to hope wrongly; you heard: Do not delay to turn to the Lord, nor put it off from day to day (Sir 5:7). On every side the providence of God has mercifully surrounded you. What do you say? "God has promised me pardon; when I turn, he will grant it." Plainly he will grant it when you turn, but why do you not turn? "Because when I turn, he will grant it." Quite so—when you turn, he will grant it; but this "when," when is it? Why not today? Why not when you hear? Why not when you cry out? Why not when you give praise? Let my cry be a helper on your behalf; let your cry be a witness against you. Why not today? Why not now? "Tomorrow," he says. God has promised you indulgence; you promise yourself "tomorrow." Or perhaps, just as you read me out of the holy book that indulgence is promised to you once you have turned, is it likewise promised to you that you may put off tomorrow until tomorrow? Did he not first set this down in his medicinal warning—did he not, when he rebuked you, say this: Do not put it off from day to day, for his wrath comes suddenly (See Sir 5:7)? But of course you, wise man, fear lest you should have more than two days of a good life. If there will be a tomorrow, let there be a today as well, and let there be two days. For if there will be no tomorrow, today will find you secure. But if there will be a tomorrow, it is added to today. You, however, long to have a long life and do not fear to have a bad life. You want to live long, and to live badly. You seek a long evil; why not rather a long good? And what is it that you do not want to have good? Will your life alone be the thing that turns out badly in you? If I asked you what sort of garment you want, you answer "a good one"; what sort of estate, "a good one"; what sort of wife, "a good one"; what sort of children, "good ones"; what sort of house, "a good one"; only your life "a bad one." And you set life before all your goods, and among all your goods you want it alone to be bad. For all those things you sought to be good—garment, house, estate, and the rest—you are ready to give for your life. If someone says to you, "Either give me all your goods, or I take your life," you are ready to give all your goods and to hold on even to that bad life. Why do you not want it to be good for you, the life for which you give even all your good things, bad though it is? See, the excuse has been taken away; let accusation be present, that condemnation may not come.

5 We exhort your Charity not to be reluctant to listen to the priests who minister the word of God diligently and watchfully. For the Lord our God is the very Truth, which you hear through whomever he speaks. And no one among us is greater except the one who has been lesser. We had, then, to make this preface, as is customary. And do you act out of love.

1 In all the things of this world, both the good and the bad, in both there is temptation. For the good things of this world flatter in order to deceive; the bad things threaten in order to break. Since, then, there is temptation in both—that is, in both the good and the bad of the present world—the Christian is not secure. With his whole heart let him say and do to God what we have just sung: Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me, for in you my soul has trusted (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)). This utterance neither casts down the poor man nor exalts the rich; it makes the downcast hope and does not allow the upright to be puffed up. For whoever's soul has trusted in God is neither exalted by good things nor broken by bad. It knows that all these things pass like a shadow, but that he does not pass to whom it has said: In you my soul has trusted (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)).

2 "In you," however, the servant says to the Lord, the creature to the Creator, the made to the maker, the captive to the redeemer, the bound to the liberator, and, to put it more briefly, man to God. Now two things are set before man, that he should both acknowledge God and acknowledge himself: God, in whom he may trust; himself, that he may not trust in himself. For men who give themselves much and despise others say in vain, "I do not trust in him; far be it from me to presume upon him." For sometimes humility says these things, sometimes pride. It is good that you do not trust in man, but only if you do not trust in yourself. For he who trusts in himself either trusts in a man or is not a man. There remains, then, one free utterance: Have mercy on me (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)). But what merit of mine is there, that you should have mercy on me, that I can recount? Not my righteous deeds, not my riches, not my strength. Not on account of my merits, then, but because in you my soul has trusted (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)). It obtained a reward because it offered a sacrifice. And what did it offer? Not a bull, not a goat, not a ram, not the incense of Arabia, not golden ornaments, not anything bought dear and very precious, but what is dearer than anything—itself. For nothing is dearer to God than the image of God.

3 God therefore makes all things to be under man, and man to be under himself. Do you want whatever God has made to be under you? Be yourself under God. For you demand most shamelessly that the lower creation be under you, when you do not acknowledge the one who created it and who is higher. God, then, so ordered what he created that he set his own image under himself, and the rest under that image. Take him up, and you will tread man underfoot. Refuse to despise him, and let whoever wishes despise you. For what harm does he do you who despises you, whom God does not despise? He laughs at the one who despises you, because he crowns you. "He despises me." Christ was despised. The one to whom it said, In you my soul has trusted (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)), came to be despised for you, and, despicable, redeemed you. You would not have been redeemed if he had not been despised. But how was he despised? Because he took up the garment of a servant, your form. For one thing lay hidden, another appeared. God lay hidden, man appeared. The man was despised and was glorified by God.

4 He, then, who made himself the way for us, did not want to have all the things that men here sought as something great, though he had all things—he whose were heaven and earth, through whom heaven and earth were made, whom the angels served in the heavens and above the heavens, who put demons to flight, who drove off fevers, who opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind, who commanded the sea and the winds and the storms, who raised the dead. He who could do so much, so much did the one he himself had made prevail against him. The creator of man was made subject to man, because he appeared as man, the liberator of man. He was made subject to man, but in the form of man, God lying hidden, man appearing, the man despised, God found—yet not found except first despised. For he did not wish to give you glory unless he first taught you humility.

5 Every man desires high things. And what is high on earth? If, then, you desire high things, desire heaven, desire heavenly things, desire things above the heavens. Long to be a citizen of the angels, court that city, sigh for it, where you will not lose a friend, will suffer no enemy, where you will not find anyone who has been redeemed, because no one can lead anyone away from there as a captive. For that city is eternal, where no one is born, no one dies, where there is perpetual and true health, because that very health is called immortality. If you long to be there, you have truly sought high things. You see where; but see by what way. For there is no one who does not seek to be a citizen of the angels, to rejoice in God, about God, under God, to abide always, to be changed by no decay, to be worn down by no old age, to be weakened by no weariness, to be ended by no illness, no death. A great thing, a high thing, a desirable thing! You long for where you may arrive; see by what way you come.

6 Indeed those two disciples of our Lord, the holy and great brothers James and John, the sons of Zebedee, as we read in the Gospel, longed that our Lord God would grant that one of them might sit in the kingdom at his right hand and the other at his left. These men did not want to be kings on earth, did not long from the Lord God for perishable honors, to be adorned with riches, to parade with a household, to be honored by clients, to be deceived by flatterers; but plainly they sought something great and solid, to have seats in the kingdom of God to which no one succeeds. What they longed for is great, and yet they are not repressed in their desire but called back to order. The Lord saw in them a desire for loftiness, and he deigned to teach them the way of humility, as if to say: "You see where you are reaching, you see who I am to you, and yet I who made you have come down to you, I for your sake have humbled myself." But these words I am saying are not read in the Gospel; nevertheless I am stating the sense of the words that are read in the Gospel. The words that are read in the Gospel I remind you of, that you may see that what I have said is born from them, so that they are the root and our words the branches. When, then, the Lord had heard this from them, he said to them: Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) You desire to sit at my sides. Tell me first what I ask you: Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) Is the bitter cup of humility not bitter for you who seek the seats of loftiness?

7 Yet where the command is hard, there is great consolation. For the cup of suffering, the cup of humiliation, men do not want, they do not want to drink it. Do they seek high things? Let them love the lowly. For from the lowly one rises to the high. No one sets up a lofty building unless he has first laid a foundation in the depths. Consider all these things, my brothers, and from them be instructed, from them be built up to faith, that you may see the way by which one must arrive at the things you desire. For I know and am aware: there is not one of you who does not desire immortality, eternal exaltation, and fellowship with God. All these things we all desire. Let us see by what way we may come, for we love the place to which we would come. This, then, I have said: someone is about to build a temporary hut of hay—he does not dig a foundation. But if he plans the structure of a lofty building, heavy with masses, meant to last a long while, he does not first lift his eyes to see how high it will rise, but first directs his plan to the lower parts, how deep to dig. And the higher the summit of the building will be, the lower will be the trench of the foundation. Who does not want to see tall crops? For tall crops to come, you first work lowliness into the seed with the plow. He who plows cuts the depths. He who plows goes down into the furrow that the crop may go up. The taller the trees are, the lower they have their roots, because all height rises up from lowliness.

8 But you were afraid, O man, to suffer the insults of humility! To drink the most bitter cup of suffering profits you. Your insides are swollen, your heart is bloated. Drink the bitterness, that you may keep your health. The healthy physician drinks. Does the sick invalid refuse to drink? For this is what he said to the sons of Zebedee: Are you able to drink the cup? (Matt 20:22) He did not say to them, "Are you able to drink the cup of insults, the cup of gall, the cup of vinegar, the most bitter cup, the cup filled with poison, the cup of all sufferings?" If he said these things, he would frighten rather than rouse them. Where there is sharing, there is consolation. Why do you disdain it, servant? The Lord drank that cup. Why do you disdain it, sick man? The physician drinks. Why do you disdain it, feeble one? The healthy one drinks. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) Then those men, eager for loftiness, not knowing what they could do, promising what they did not yet have, said: We are able (Matt 20:22). And he: You will indeed drink my cup (Matt 20:23), because I grant that you should drink it, I who will make you strong, strong from being weak, who grant you the grace of endurance, that you may drink the cup of humility; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant to you, but it has been prepared for others by my Father (Matt 20:23). If not to them, then to what others? If the apostles do not deserve it, who deserves it? But who are the others? Among these two was that John. Which John? That one, brothers, whom the Lord loved beyond the rest, who reclined on the Lord's breast, who drank from his breast what he poured forth in the Gospel. He is that John who said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (John 1:1-3). A great outpouring, but first there was a great drinking. Does what he pours forth delight you? See whence he drank. He was reclining on the Lord's breast, at that banquet he had drunk all these things which he poured forth in the Gospel with great happiness. So great, then, was he who reclined on the Lord's breast, to whom too was said what your Charity has heard: It is not mine to grant to you; it has been prepared for others by my Father (Matt 20:23). To what others, O Lord? If John did not receive it, who reclined on the Lord's breast—if he did not receive it who reclined on the Lord's breast, if he did not receive it who passed beyond the sea, the air, the heaven, and arrived at the Word, who passed beyond such things and reached you as you are, equal to the Father—if what he asked he did not receive, who will receive it? The Lord knew what he said: it has been prepared for others (Matt 20:23). What does "for others" mean? For the humble, not the proud; therefore for you too, if you become others, if you lay aside pride and are clothed with humility.

9 Therefore, my brothers, we have learned, we are learning, we sing, let us do: Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me, for in you my soul has trusted (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)). O happy soul! Are you poor? Trust in him, because you have nothing greater in which to trust. Are you rich? Trust in him, because all flesh is grass, and the glory of flesh is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever (Isa 40:6-8; 1 Pet 1:24-25). Are you poor? Like the ulcerous Lazarus, trust in him. Lazarus was poor, Abraham rich. When we hear in the Gospel that the poor ulcerous man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, all the beggars, the ulcerous, the disabled, the abandoned—when they hear this reading, what do they say? "He spoke of us." Perhaps a poor, needy man, barely sufficient for himself, or perhaps a beggar, notices someone rich standing in the house of God with clothing suited to his honor. When he hears this reading he says: "He spoke of me. I, when I die, will be carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." He hears the Gospel say there of the rich man: And when he had died, he began to be tormented in the underworld. When the poor man hears this, he says to himself: "That was said of me, that of him." Do not be mistaken, poor man. Do not fear, rich man. It does not speak of you, poor man, if you are a drunkard. It does not speak of you, rich man, if you are devout. He crowns devotion, not poverty. For God will not say in his judgment, "Let the senator approach me, let the commoner withdraw." But neither will he say this: "Let the commoner approach, let the senator withdraw." He will not say, "Let the emperor approach me, let the soldier withdraw." But neither will he say that: "Let the soldier approach, let the emperor withdraw." But: "Let the just approach, let the unjust withdraw." Therefore, poor man, hold to devotion if you wish to arrive. For do you want to know that the Lord chose devotion, not condemned riches? The poor man was carried up (See Luke 16:22). But to where? Into Abraham's bosom (See Luke 16:22). Read what Abraham was, and you find a rich man. The rich man went ahead to prepare lodging and a home for the poor man. See how you have it in the psalm: The rich and the poor together as one (Ps 49:2 (48:3)).

10 Let us glorify God and our Lord Jesus Christ in our good works, and let us say from the heart: Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me, for not in gold, not in silver, not in honor, not in wealth, not in a great friend, not in a crowd of clients, not in a parade of servants, but in you my soul trusts (See Ps 57:1 (56:2)).

1 The just man will rejoice in the Lord and will hope in him, and all the upright in heart will glory (Ps 64:10 (63:11)). This surely we have sung with voice and heart. These words a Christian conscience and tongue have spoken to God: The just man will rejoice (Ps 64:10 (63:11)), not in the world, but in the Lord. Light has dawned for the just, it says elsewhere, and gladness for the upright in heart (Ps 97:11 (96:11)). You would ask whence the gladness. Here you hear: The just man will rejoice in the Lord (Ps 64:10 (63:11)). And elsewhere: Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the petitions of your heart (Ps 37:4 (36:4)). What is enjoined upon us? What is given? What is commanded? What is granted? That we should rejoice in the Lord. Who will rejoice in a thing he does not see? Or do we perhaps see the Lord? This we hold in promise. But now we walk by faith; as long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord (2 Cor 5:6-7). By faith, not by sight. When by sight? When what the same John says is fulfilled: Beloved, we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Then, therefore, there will be great and perfect gladness, then full joy, where hope no longer suckles us, but the reality nourishes us. Yet even now, before the reality itself comes to us, before we come to the reality itself, let us rejoice in the Lord. For hope, whose reality will come afterward, holds no small gladness. And in these temporal things too—in the gladness not of the Lord but of the world—many love various things and have not yet attained the things they love. And yet their ardor runs on in hope; it does not yet hold the reality. For example, you love money; you would not love it if you did not hope. You love a wife not yet wed but still to be wed, and perhaps when she is to be wed she is loved, but once wed she will be held in hatred. Why is this? Because when wed she did not appear such as the mind had painted her when she was to be wed. But God does not grow cheap when present, and is loved when absent. For however much the human mind heaps up the good that God is, it falls short and is very far below, and necessarily the attainment finds more than the thought formed. We shall therefore love more when we see, if we were able to love even before we saw. Now, then, we love in hope. So, it says, the just man rejoices in the Lord (Ps 64:10 (63:11)). And at once, because he does not yet see, and he will hope in him (Ps 64:10 (63:11)).

2 Yet we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and perhaps from another source we draw near to him whom we love, and what we are eagerly to eat and drink we now lick and taste beforehand, even if thinly. Whence do we prove this? For God, whom we are commanded to love, in whom we are commanded to rejoice, is not gold, nor silver, nor earth, nor heaven, nor this light of the sun, nor whatever shines from heaven, nor whatever gleams from the earth flooded with light. He is no corporeal thing. God is spirit (John 4:24). Therefore, he says, those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Not in any place of the body, because he is not a body; not as on a high mountain, that by the mountain's height you should think you draw near to God. The Lord is indeed exalted, but he regards the lowly; the lofty, however, he knows from afar (Ps 138:6 (137:6)), the lowly not from afar. Surely he is exalted, and if indeed he knows the lofty from afar, he ought to perceive the lowly from farther still. "If by his exaltation he is far from the lofty, so as to know them from afar, how much more," someone says, "has his exaltation withdrawn far from the lowly." It is not so. For the Lord is exalted, and he regards the lowly (Ps 138:6 (137:6)). How does he regard them? The Lord is near to those who have crushed their heart (See Ps 34:18 (33:19)). Do not, then, seek a high mountain from which you may seem to be nearer to God. If you exalt yourself, he withdraws far from you; if you humble yourself, he bends down to you. The publican stood at a distance, and therefore God drew nearer to him more easily; he did not dare lift his eyes to heaven, and already he had with him the one who had made heaven. Whence, then, do we rejoice in the Lord, if the Lord is so far from us? Let him not be far! That he is far, you bring about. Love, and he will draw near; love, and he will dwell with you. The Lord is at hand; have no anxiety about anything (Phil 4:5-6). Do you want to see that if you love he is with you? God is love (1 John 4:8). Why do the phantasms of your thought flit far and wide, and you say to yourself: "What do you suppose God is? What do you suppose God is like?" Whatever you imagine, it is not he; whatever you grasp by thought, it is not he. For if it were he, it could not be grasped by thought. But that you may receive some taste, God is love (1 John 4:8). You will say to me: "What do you suppose love is?" Love is that by which we love. What do we love? An ineffable good, a beneficent good, the good Creator of all good things. Let him delight you, from whom you have whatever delights you. I do not mean sin, for sin alone you do not have from him. Apart from sin, you have from him whatever else you have.

3 Therefore, what I said—"Let him delight you, from whom you have whatever delights you"—do not understand as sin and say: "See, sin delights me; do I have sin from God?" See first whether perhaps it is not the sin that delights you, but something else delights you in which you commit the sin. By loving the creation inordinately, then, contrary to honorable use, contrary to what is permitted, contrary to the law and will of the Creator himself, by loving the creation you sin. For you do not love the sin itself; but by loving badly what you love, you are ensnared by sin. You go after the bait in the net, and unknowingly you feed on sin. Then you defend yourself thus: "If it is a sin to drink much, why did God establish wine? If it is a sin to love gold—I am a lover of gold, not a creator; the creator of gold is God—why did he create what it is evil to love?" So with the other things you love badly, in which is all extravagance, where all disgraceful acts are committed. Attend, examine, consider, and see that every creature of God is good (1 Tim 4:4). And there sin is not, except that you use it badly. Hear this, then, O man. You say: "Why did God establish what he forbids me to love? Let him not have established it, and there would be nothing for me to love. Let him not have established the creation he commands me not to love, and there would be nothing for me to love, and by loving I would be condemned." If the creature itself could have a voice—the creature you love badly because you do not even love yourself—it would answer you: "Would you not want God to make me, lest there be something for you to love? Would you not want him to make you either, lest there be one who loves?" Now, then, see how unjust you are, and in your very words you are caught most unjust. You would want God to make you, who is above you, and you would not want him to make some good thing beneath you. Whatever God made is good. But some are great goods, others small goods, all of them goods nonetheless. Some are heavenly goods, others earthly goods. Some spiritual goods, others bodily goods. Some everlasting goods, others temporal goods. All of them goods nonetheless, because the good one made good things. This is why in a certain place of the divine Scriptures it is said: Set love in order within me (Song 2:4). God made you some good thing beneath himself; he made something lower and beneath you. You are beneath one thing, above another. Do not, leaving the higher good, bend yourself down to the lower good. Be upright, that you may be praised, because all the upright in heart will be praised (See Ps 64:10 (63:11)). For whence do you sin, except that you handle inordinately the things you have received for use? Be one who uses lower things well, and you will be one who rightly enjoys the higher good.

4 Now hear and examine your own recognitions, and question yourself who do the handling, and the things you handle. See, if in your business you set silver before gold, lead before silver, dust before lead, will you not, if perhaps you are a merchant, be judged utterly mad by all your associates, and shut out from their company, and called ruinous, and perhaps even to be cured by having your head treated? For what else will all your associates say when you say, "Silver is dearer than gold," or "Silver is better than gold"? Will they not cry out this: "You are insane, you are out of your senses, what is wrong with you?" Everyone in your house cries out, "What is wrong with you?" when you set silver before gold. And no one says to you, "What is wrong with you?" when you set gold before God. "How," you say, "do I set gold before God? For if through some madness I set silver before gold, I am called mad because, of two kinds of thing, both of which I see, both of which I behold, both of which I handle with my hand, I set the cheaper before the dearer. How do I set gold before God? Gold I see, God I do not see." Nor will you excuse yourself on this ground. Why do you love silver? Because it is dear, because it is worth dearly. Why gold the more? Because it is dearer. Silver is dear, gold dearer. God is love itself (See 1 John 4:8).

5 See, I will name something of God's gift, that I may convince you more surely how you set gold before God, even though you see gold and do not see God; and therefore you do not seem to yourself to be setting it before him, since, as it were, no one sets a thing he sees before a thing he does not see. See, I name something. What do you think? Is faith silver? Is it gold? Is it coin? Is it cattle? Is it land? Is it heaven? It is none of these, and yet it is something. Not only something, but even something great. For now I am not speaking of that higher faith by which you are called faithful, approaching the table of the Lord your God, answering out of faith to the words of faith. For now, if I set this aside a little, let me speak of that faith which is also commonly called faith—not the great faith your Lord commands of you, but the faith you demand from your servant. I mean that very faith, because your Lord commands this too of you, that you defraud no one, that you keep faith in business, that you keep faith with your wife in bed. This faith too your Lord commands of you. What is this faith? Surely you do not see it. If you do not see it, why, when it is broken for you, do you cry out? By your own cry I convince you that you see it. You were saying, "How do I set gold before God? Gold I see, God I do not see." See, you see gold, you do not see faith. Or, what is truer, you do see faith. But when you demand it, you see it; when it is demanded of you, you refuse to see it? With the eyes of the heart open you cry out, "Return the faith you promised." With the eyes of the heart shut you cry out, "I promised you nothing." In both cases open your eyes. Unjust man, destroy not faith, but injustice itself. Return what you demand.

6 You bring a servant to the church to be set free by your hand. Silence falls. Your document is read out, or the carrying out of your wish takes place. You say that you are freeing the servant because he has kept faith with you in all things. This you love, this you honor, this you reward with the prize of liberty. Whatever you can do, you do. You make him free, because you cannot make him eternal. Your God cries out to you, and in your servant he convicts you. He says to you in your heart: "You brought your servant from your house to my house. You want to call him back from my house, free, into your house. Why do you yourself serve badly in my house? You give him what you can. I promise you what I can. You make free the one who keeps faith. I make you eternal, if you keep faith with me. Why do you still argue against me in your mind? Render to your Lord what you praise in your servant. Or do you perhaps claim so much for yourself that you think yourself worthy to have a faithful servant, of whom you say, 'I bought him,' and that I am not worthy to have a faithful servant whom I created?" These things the Lord your God speaks to you within, where no one hears but you, and he himself speaks there, who speaks true things. For what is truer than this saying? Do not grow deaf. See, you love faith in your servant. Surely you do not see faith. Why do you love it in another—and all that I have said, in another, and in a servant whom you bought with money, yet did not create? With a twofold claim your Lord deals with you. "I both created you and bought you. Before you were," he says to you, "I made you. When you had been sold under sin from yourself, I redeemed you." That you may free your servant, you break his deed of bondage. God will not break your deed. Your deed is the Gospel, where there is the blood by which you were bought. It remains, it is read daily, you are reminded of your condition, your price is recalled to you.

7 If your servant whom you are freeing did not show you faith, and did not make himself worthy of your manumission by keeping faith, and you found him guilty of some frauds in your house, what would you cry out? "Bad servant, do you not keep faith with me? Do you not know that I bought you? Do you not know that I counted out my blood for you?" You cry out as much as you can, and you strike heaven with your indignant cries: "I gave my blood for you, bad servant." And all who hear say: "He speaks the truth." If your servant himself dared to answer you when you inveigh and cry out so, would you not blush if he said to you: "What blood, I ask you, did you give for me? When you bought me, you did not even let your own blood." But you call your money your blood. So much do you love your money that you call it your blood. From your own words your Lord convicts you. You call your money your blood, and therefore you demand faith from the servant you bought, because for him you gave not blood, to be sure, but coin, or gold. What I gave, you recall. If you do not recall it, I read your deed. If you do not recall it, read—read for yourself the death of the Savior, the spear of the one who struck him, the price of the Redeemer. A living man too can, as I said, when his vein is opened, give his blood and yet live. Greater is what your Lord says to you: "My blood was not pressed out of me while I lived. With my blood I bought you. I add, with my death I bought you." What have you to say? Render to your Lord the faith you demand from your servant. You see gold, you also see faith. You would not demand it if you did not see it; you would not praise it if you did not see it; you would not reward it with liberty if you did not see it. But gold you see with the eyes of the flesh, faith you see with the eyes of the heart. The better the eyes of the heart are, the better is what you see with the eyes of the heart. But you set gold before this faith which your Lord commands of you. And what was entrusted you do not return, and you say, "You gave me nothing." Or to one to whom you entrusted nothing you say, "Return what I entrusted to you." You do not give what you received, you demand back what you did not give. See, gain. Take it thus, and heap up against yourself the mire by which you are weighed down, by saying "Give" what you did not entrust, by denying what you received in trust. Take, gather ruinous profits. See, you have filled your chest, you have gained much gold. Shake out the chest of your heart, you have lost faith.

8 Return, then, if you have felt something, if you have blushed, if you have corrected what was crooked and bent—return, delight in the Lord (Ps 37:4 (36:4)), rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the things the Lord has commanded, that you may rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in faith, rejoice in hope, rejoice in love, rejoice in mercy, rejoice in hospitality, rejoice in chastity. All these things are goods, inner treasures, jewels, not of your chest but of your conscience. Love to be rich in these, riches you cannot lose even by shipwreck, so that if you go out naked, you go out full. For so you will also be upright in heart, so that you may be praised for not blaming your Lord, if anything adverse befalls you in this world, and may praise the scourge of the Father whose inheritance you await. Flee under the hand of the one who corrects you. Do not turn away from discipline, because he who corrects cannot err. He who made you knows what to do with you. Or do you perhaps think your craftsman so unskilled that he would know how to make you and forget what to do with you? Before you existed, he thought of you; for unless he had thought of you before you existed, you would not exist. And now that you exist, abide, live, and serve him, will he despise you, will he look down on you? "He has looked down on me," you say, "for I prayed and he did not hear me." What if there you were asking for what, had you received it, you would have received to your harm? "I wept before him and he did not give it to me." O foolish child, for what did you weep? To receive carnal happiness, temporal happiness, earthly happiness. What if that happiness, which you longed for and asked for and wept for, would have cast you down? Just now I was speaking of your servant; now take a comparison from your son. Your little son weeps before you to be lifted onto a horse. Do you hear him? Do you grant it? Are you hard, or rather merciful? What is it, tell me, by what counsel do you act? Surely this is the counsel of love, who can doubt it? You who keep your whole house for him when grown do not lift the little weeping one onto a single horse. All that you have, both house and whatever is in the house, and field and whatever is in the field, you keep for him. And yet you do not lift the little weeping one onto a horse. Let him weep as much as he wants, let him weep all day, you do not hear him, and out of mercy you do not hear him, and if you heard him you would be cruel. See, then, and consider whether perhaps your Lord does this to you, when you ask for unsuitable things and do not receive them. For perhaps want would instruct you, abundance corrupt you. You seek the abundance of corruption, when perhaps the want of instruction is necessary for you. Leave it to your God, who knows what to give you, what to take from you. For if he gives you what you ask badly, perhaps he gives it in anger. Hear examples from the Law. The Israelites craving the cravings of belly and throat he heard in anger; Paul saying, "Take from me the thorn of the flesh," he did not hear, in mercy.

9 Therefore delight in the Lord (Ps 37:4 (36:4)), rejoice in the Lord, not in the world. For that man rejoiced in the Lord who, when he had lost all the gladness of the world, still had the Lord remaining in whom he might rejoice. There remained to him a wondrous, simple, perfect, unchangeable gladness of his heart. The things he had he possessed, he was not possessed by them, but he was possessed by the Lord. Those things he trod underfoot, on the Lord he depended. When those things he trod underfoot were taken away, he clung to him on whom he depended. See what it is to rejoice in the Lord. The Lord gave—see the gladness—the Lord has taken away (Job 1:21). Did he take himself away? What he gave he took away; he who gave offered himself. He rejoices, then, in the Lord: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so has it been done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Why should it displease the servant what pleased the Lord? "Gold," he says, "I have lost; my household I have lost, my cattle I have lost, whatever I had I have lost. The one by whom I am possessed I have not lost. I have lost what was with me, I have not lost the one whose I myself am. He is my delight, he is my riches." But why? Because he was not perverse, not upside down, he did not neglect the one who is above him and love the things below him. For this is perversity: to use the creation badly.

10 Why do you accuse the one who gave gold, you who are rightly accused of loving gold badly? Have gold, God says to you, I gave it to you, use it well. Do you want to be adorned with gold? Rather adorn the gold; you want honor, you want glory from gold—give glory to the gold, lest you be the disgrace of gold. He has gold: he whores, he fornicates, he lives in luxury, he puts on pompous shows, he gives mad gifts to actors, he gives nothing to the hungry poor—he is no glory to the gold. Does not one who attends rightly say this: "I grieve for the gold that fell to such a man"? And you, if you had gold? For now you say: "I grieve for the gold that fell to such a man. Oh, if I had it!" What would you do? "I would take in pilgrims, feed the needy, clothe the naked, ransom captives." You speak good things before you have it; how will you speak when you have had it? If you are such, gold will be among your adornments. If you truly so use gold, because you love more the one who created gold, you will be upright, loving the higher things more, rightly using the lower. And you will delight in the Lord, you will rejoice as a just man in the Lord. There will be in you no accusation of the Creator; there will be thanksgiving to the Redeemer. Amen.

1 We have heard, and we have trembled at, what is foretold in the words of the psalm. For it says: As smoke vanishes, let them vanish; as wax flows from before the fire, so let sinners perish from before the face of God (Ps 68:2 (67:3)). I do not doubt, dearest brothers, that the hearts of all of you have been shaken, and that no one's conscience stood unafraid beneath these words. For who will boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is clean from sins? And so, when Scripture says, As wax flows from before the fire, so let sinners perish from before the face of God (Ps 68:2 (67:3)), who would not tremble, who would not leap up in dread? What, then, do we do, and what hope is there for us? For these things are not sung in vain. Or rather, when the prophet says these things, does he wish them upon men, and not rather foresee what is to come? In the words, indeed, the figure of one wishing appears, but the foreknowledge of one announcing is to be understood. For just as certain things in the Scripture of the prophets are narrated as though done in the past when things to come are being foretold, so certain things are spoken as though by the wish of one desiring. But those who rightly understand what they hear recognize the vision of one foretelling. Now long before the birth of the Lord's incarnation these psalms were spoken and written down. Not before Christ as God, but before the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary. For surely father Abraham lived long before King David, in whose time these psalms were sung. But the Lord said: Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58). For he is the Word of God, through whom all things were made. And he, filling the prophets, foretold that he would come in the flesh. To his incarnation, moreover, belongs his passion. For he could not have suffered the things written in the Gospel except in the mortal and passible flesh which he bore. And there indeed we read how, when the Lord was crucified, those who crucified him divided his garments among themselves, and when they had found among them a tunic woven from above, they would not tear it, but cast lots for it, so that it might come whole to whomever it should come, because it signified the love that cannot be divided. These things, then, though in the Gospel they are now narrated as done, were narrated as deeds done and accomplished long before, many years earlier, in the psalm, when they were being foretold as things to come. They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones. They themselves looked and gazed upon me; they divided, it says, my garments among them, and over my clothing they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19)). All are spoken as past, and they are foretold as things to come. As, therefore, things to come are signified as done in words of past time, so in the figure of one wishing, the mind of one foretelling is to be understood. So too of Judas, the betrayer of the Lord, the prophet, as it were, wishes upon him what he foretells will come to pass. And of the Jews themselves: Let their table, it says, become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block (Ps 69:22 (68:23); Rom 11:9). That this was foretold of them, the Apostle expounds without any doubt, just as the apostle Peter recalls what was foretold under the same figure concerning Judas.

2 And not without cause are the things that are to come spoken of as accomplished. For to God they are so certain that they are already held as done. And the prophet seems to speak as one wishing what he certainly foresees will come, showing nothing else, so far as it seems to me, than that the known sentence of God, which he has established as fixed and immovable, ought not to displease us. And therefore in the Acts of the Apostles, when a certain prophet named Agabus foretold that the apostle Paul would suffer many things from the Jews at Jerusalem and would come even to chains, and when, on hearing this, the brothers wished to call him back and hold him so that he would not go there, he said: What are you doing, troubling my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 21:13). And so, when the brothers saw the man's unshakable constancy to endure all things, they said: The will of God be done (Acts 21:14). Surely, then, because they said, The will of God be done (Acts 21:14), did they wish upon the Apostle that he should suffer such things, and not rather most devoutly submit their own mind to the sublime and divine decree? So too the prophet, when he says, As wax flows from before the fire, so let sinners perish from before the face of God (Ps 68:2 (67:3)), sees most certainly that this hangs over sinners, and what God has decreed pleases him, lest he himself displease God.

3 What, then, do we do, brothers, except that, while there is time, we change our life and correct our deeds if any of them are evil? So that what without any doubt is to come upon sinners may not find us among those upon whom it comes—not because we will not exist, but that it may not find us such as those upon whom it was foretold to come. For this reason the judge threatens that he will come, that when he comes he may not find any to punish. For this reason the prophets sing that, that we may be corrected. If he wished to condemn, he would keep silent. No one who wishes to strike says, "Watch out." All that we have heard through the Scriptures, brothers, is the voice of God saying, "Watch out." And all that we suffer, the tribulations in this life, is the scourge of God wishing to correct us, lest he condemn us in the end. Though they are hard, though they are burdensome, though they make us shudder when they are described—the grievous things each one suffers in this life—yet in comparison with eternal fire they are not small but nothing. Whether, then, we are scourged, or when others are scourged, let us be warned. All these things, brothers, that are inflicted by the Lord in this life are warnings and goads of our correction. But the eternal fire will come, of which it will be said to those who are to be set on the left: Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). Then indeed they will do penance. For it is written in a certain book of Wisdom: They will say among themselves, doing penance and groaning in anguish of spirit: What did pride profit us, and what did the boasting of riches bring us? All those things have passed away like a shadow (Wis 5:8-9; 5:3). There will be penance there, but fruitless. There will be penance there, but having grief, not having medicine. Now penance is fruitful, while correction is free. May you do penance at the voice of Scripture. For at the voice of the present judge, your penance will be in vain. Then he is now about to pronounce sentence. And there will be nothing for you to reproach when he is about to pronounce sentence. For he did not keep silent before the sentence. For he did not put you off, except that you might correct yourself, since indeed he permitted the thief hanging on the cross to change. For then the thief hanging with the Lord believed in Christ, when the disciples wavered about him. The Jews despised him as he raised the dead; the thief did not despise him as he hung beside him on the cross. There is, then, no reason why in the end it should be said to the Lord: "You did not permit me to live well"; or "You did not give me a postponement for correction"; or "You did not show what I should desire, what I should avoid." See that he does not keep silent, see that he delays, see that he coaxes, exhorts, threatens. He has set his word on high. Throughout the whole world it is recited to the whole human race. There is now no one who may say, "I did not know, I did not hear." What is said in the psalm is fulfilled: Nor is there one who can hide himself from his heat (Ps 19:6 (18:7)). Now, then, his heat is in his word. Be changed now by his heat, and you will not flow away like wax from his fire.

4 For that thing, my brothers, will one day come, which now the impious laugh at, which now the scoffers despise, which they think is sung falsely. One day it will come. If the many things that were foretold have not come, let us despair that it too will one day come. But if we now see fulfilled all the things that were foretold to come concerning the Church, and they strike even the eyes of the blind, why do we doubt that those things too will come? When it was said that the Church of Christ would be throughout the whole earth, it was said by few and laughed at by many. Now what was foretold so long before is already fulfilled. The Church is spread throughout the whole earth. A thousand years ago it was promised to Abraham: In your seed all the nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18). Christ came from the seed of Abraham, and all the nations are now blessed in Christ. Schisms and heresies were foretold to come. We see them. Persecutions were foretold. They were carried out by kings who worshipped idols. For those very idols, against the name of Christ, the earth was filled with martyrs. The seed of blood was scattered, the harvest of the Church arose. Nor did the Church pray in vain for its enemies. Even those who persecuted it believed. It was also foretold that the very idols would be overthrown through the name of Christ, for this too we find in the Scriptures. A few years ago Christians read those things and did not see them. They still awaited those things as future and so departed. They did not see them, but believing nonetheless that they would come to pass, they departed in faith to the Lord. In our times those very things are now beheld. All the things that were foretold concerning the Church we see fulfilled. Is the day of judgment alone not to come? Is it alone foretold and yet will not come? Are we so hard and stony of heart that we read the Scriptures and see that absolutely everything that was written has come to pass to the letter, and yet despair of the things that remain? For how little is what remains, compared with the things we already see displayed before us? God has shown so many. Will he cheat us of the remainder? The judgment will come that will render to all according to their merits, good things to the good, evil to the evil. Let us be good, and let us await the judge in security.

5 My brothers, listen to me now most of all as I speak. I do not wish to reckon up the past with you. From this day change yourself; let tomorrow find you another man. But we, in our perversity, want God so to be merciful that he is not just. Others again, as though presuming on their own righteousness, want him so to be just that they would not have him merciful. God shows himself both, he furnishes both. Neither does his mercy set a limit to his justice, nor does his justice take away his mercy. He is merciful and he is just. From what do we prove him merciful? He now spares sinners, he gives pardon to those who confess. From what do we prove that he is just? Because the day of judgment will come, which he now defers, but does not abolish. And when it comes, he will render according to merits. Or do you want him to render to those turned away what will be rendered to those turned toward him? Brothers, does it seem just to you that Judas should be put where Peter was put? He too would be put there, if he had corrected himself. But despairing of pardon, he rather bound his own neck than implore the clemency of the King.

6 And so, brothers, as I had begun to say, there is no ground for us to reproach God. There will be nothing for us to say against him when he comes to judge. Let each one think over his sins, and now amend them while there is time. Let the grief be fruitful, let the penance not be barren. As if God says this: "See, I have indicated the sentence, but I have not yet pronounced it. I have foretold it, not fixed it." Why do you fear, because I said, "If you are changed, it is changed"? For it is written that God repents. Surely God does not repent as a man does? For it is said: If you repent of your sins, I too will repent of all the evils I was going to do to you (See Jer 18:8). Surely God does not repent as one in error? But repentance in God means a change of sentence. And that change of sentence is not unjust, but just. Why just? The guilty one was changed, the judge changed the sentence. Do not be terrified. The sentence was changed, not justice. Justice remains whole, because the one who is just ought to spare the one who has changed. As he does not spare the obstinate, so he spares the one who has changed. He himself is the king of pardons, who is the giver of the law. He sent the law, he came with pardon. The law had made you guilty; the one who gave the law absolved you. Or rather he did not absolve you, for to absolve is to judge one innocent. Rather he forgives the sins of the one who has turned. For all are guilty who are entangled in their sins. Let no one wish to be absolved. Let us all beg for pardon. But pardon is given to the one who has changed. And we shall be secure, when we hear: As wax flows from before the fire, so let sinners perish from before the face of God (Ps 68:2 (67:3)).

7 Surely, brothers, let sinners now perish from before the face of God. Let sinners now perish, and let sinners not perish. If they begin to live justly, sinners will indeed perish, but men will not perish. "Sinful man"—these are two names. "Man" is one name, and "sinner" is one name. In these two names we understand that one of them God made, the other of them man made. For man God made, but a sinner man made himself. Why, then, do you tremble when God says to you, Let sinners perish from before my face (See Ps 68:2 (67:3))? God says this to you: "Let perish in you what you made, and let what I made be preserved." And now the fire burns in the heat of the word, the matter is in the fervor of the Holy Spirit, as we said a little while ago, because it is written in another psalm: Nor is there one who can hide himself from his heat (Ps 19:6 (18:7)). And that the heat is of the Holy Spirit the Apostle says: Fervent in the Spirit (Rom 12:11). So, in place of the face of God, set before yourself for the time being the Scripture of God. Melt before it. May you do penance when you hear these things about your sins. But when you do penance, and when you torment yourself under the heat of the word, when even tears run down, are you not found like wax melting and, as it were, running down into tears? Now, then, do what hereafter you fear, and you will have nothing hereafter to fear.

8 Only let me not vanish like smoke. For you have both set there, perhaps not without cause, because there is also a difference among sinners. In that one verse the psalm set both: As smoke vanishes, let them vanish, and: as wax flows from before the fire, so let sinners perish from before the face of God (Ps 68:2 (67:3)). Who are they who vanish like smoke? Who are they, except the proud, who do not confess their sins but defend them? Why are they compared to smoke? Because smoke raises itself, lifts itself up as toward heaven. But the higher it goes, the more easily it vanishes and disappears. Again, consider what I said. Smoke is more solid when near the fire and near the earth. It has not yet so vanished, it is not yet so scattered into the winds. But when is it thinned out and vanishes and disappears? When it has lifted itself up much. Because, then, the proud man so raises himself against God as smoke against heaven, it remains that he so vanishes and, scattered as it were into the winds by the elation of his vanity, perishes, just as smoke that has risen disappears, puffed up with a swollen, not solid, greatness. For such is smoke. You see a great mass. You have something, as it were, to see, and you have nothing to hold. Such a punishment, then, brothers, above all detest, that you not defend your sins. And if you still commit them, do not defend them. Submit yourselves to God. And so beat your breasts that even the sins that remain do not happen. Strive not to do them, and if it can be, do none. But if it cannot be that you do none, let that devout confession at least remain. For there will be a regard of his mercy, so that, as you strive to destroy them all and destroy as much as he has helped you, concerning the rest that remain to you on the way, he may easily forgive what is found and caught up in your effort. Only strive to advance, not to fall back. If the last day does not find you a victor, let it find you at least a fighter, not captured and made over to the enemy.

9 But most abundant is the mercy of God and generous his benevolence, who redeemed us with the blood of his Son, when on account of our sins we were nothing. For he himself did something great when he created man to his own image and likeness. But because by sinning we willed to become nothing, and we drew the strain of mortality from our parents, and were made a mass of sin, a mass of wrath, it pleased him nonetheless out of his mercy to redeem us at so great a price. He gave for us the blood of his only Son, born innocently, living innocently, dying innocently. He who redeemed us at so great a price does not want those he bought to perish. He did not buy them to destroy them, but he bought them to give them life. If our sins overcome us, God does not despise his own price. He gave a great price. Yet let us not flatter ourselves so much on his mercy, if we have made no effort against our sins. Nor, if we have done certain things, especially capital ones, let us hope that his mercy will be such that iniquity may be joined to it. For surely those who have done nothing as to how they might live corrected, but remained in obstinacy and hardness of mind, and even accused God by defending their sins—will he set them where he set the holy apostles, the prophets, the patriarchs, and his faithful who deserved well of him, serving him, walking in chastity, modesty, humility, giving alms, forgiving what they suffered from anyone? For such is the way of the just, such is the way of the saints, who hold to God their father, who hold to the Church their mother. Offending neither that father nor this mother, but living in the love of both parents and hastening to the eternal inheritance—the father not injured, the mother not injured—the inheritance is given to each one.

10 Since two parents begot us to death, two parents have begotten us to life. The parents who begot us to death are Adam and Eve. The parents who have begotten us to life are Christ and the Church. And the father who begot me, Adam was to me; and my mother, Eve was to me. We were born according to this lineage of the flesh, by the gift of God indeed—because this gift too belongs to no other but to God—and yet, brothers, how were we born? Surely, to die. Our forebears begot successors for themselves. Did they beget those with whom they might live here forever? No, like men about to depart, they begot those who would succeed them. But God the father and the Church the mother do not beget for this. They beget for eternal life, because they themselves are eternal. And we have the inheritance promised by Christ, eternal life. According to the fact that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), he was nourished and grew. Having suffered, died, and risen, he received the inheritance, the kingdom of heaven. In that very man he received resurrection and eternal life. In that very man he received it. But in the Word he did not receive it, because unchangeably he abides from eternity to eternity. Because, then, that flesh received resurrection and eternal life, which rose and, made alive, ascended into heaven, this has been promised to us. We await that very inheritance, eternal life. For the whole body has not yet received it, because the head is in heaven, the members are still on earth. Nor will the head alone receive the inheritance and the body be left behind. The whole Christ will receive the inheritance, the whole according to the man, that is, head and body. We are, then, members of Christ; let us hope for the inheritance. Because when all these things have passed away, we are to receive this good that will not pass away, and to escape this evil that will not pass away. For both are eternal. For he did not promise his own something not eternal, and threaten the impious with something temporal. As he promised the saints life, blessedness, the kingdom, an everlasting inheritance without end, so he threatened the impious with eternal fire. If we do not yet love what he promised, let us at least fear what he threatened.

1 Every soul that intently sings to God in the words of the psalm must then think of its own perils, and be touched by a kind of intimate affection, if perhaps it then suffers any tribulation from without or any difficulty within, and refer what it sings to what it suffers. We have responded: O Lord, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the criminal and the wrongdoer (See Ps 71:4 (70:4)). Perhaps each one of you, when he hears these words from the reader or speaks them himself, thinks of nothing but some enemy of his, or one who slanders him, or one who is preparing to throw him into prison, who perhaps draws up a false bond against him: this man he calls the sinner, this man the criminal, from this man he longs to be delivered. You see him singing, and singing with affection, even fitting his face to the words of the psalm, sometimes even wetting his cheeks with tears, sighing between the words of the song. One who does not know how to discern affections praises that man and says: "He listens to the reading with great affection. How he groans, how he sighs!" But that man is thinking of that enemy of his, from whom he dreads some slander, some violence, some fraud and circumvention; and with all his strength, with all his marrow, with voice, face, sighs he says: O Lord, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the criminal and the wrongdoer (See Ps 71:4 (70:4)). One who so sings sings as the old man, and, understanding carnally, tries, though he is old, to sing a new song. Let him sing as a new man, if he sings a new song. What is it to sing as a new man? Let him be renewed by the desire of the new life, let him crave something else, let him sigh to God for another thing's sake, let him be a lover of the kingdom of heaven. I will say it more briefly: let him be a lover of God, let him love God, let him love freely. For this too the devil wished to charge, and in this he wished to convict the holy man Job, as though he were the old man, that he might not be allowed to reach what is promised to the new man, when he said: Does Job worship God for nothing? (Job 1:9) If, then, he worships freely, he has overcome the devil; if he does not worship freely, he has been overcome by the devil. For the slanderer's charge would hold, if Job did not worship the Lord freely. "He worships you," he says, "because you have given him such great things." Therefore God permitted Job to be tempted, that he might both show him to be one by whom he knew he was worshipped freely, and set him forth for us to imitate. For he was known to God, but hidden from us. See, then, what befell the perversity of the devil: while he wishes to show one prevaricator, he made many imitators of the holy man. For he did not subject Job to himself, but showed him to us. What then? Whence was it understood that Job worshipped freely? Because he did not give thanks when he had things and blaspheme when he did not have them, but set the good pleasure of God before all his riches, as if to say: "I have the one who gave; why do I ask what he gave?"

2 I will say, then, brothers: whoever worships the Lord for this reason, that he may have riches, may have the honors of the world, and asks these things of him, it is plain that he does not worship freely. He worships for a reward. If God does not give him these things, he is to be deserted. Whoever gives them is thought worthy of greater worship. And no one gives them but he. Yet if another had given them, the lovers of these things would have deserted God and fled to that other. Strive toward God; let God be for you the whole good, let God be for you the true good. When, then, all his things had been taken away, the devil, because he did not carry off the man who loved God freely, was laid low even by that man's own voice: The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so has it been done (Job 1:21). He did not say, "And what shall I do against the Lord? I will lament, because I cannot overcome him." Blessed be, he said, the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Only for his sons, whose sin he feared, did he tear his garments, praying surely with a father's affection for them. But what God took away he received willingly, because he embraced God himself more willingly.

3 Someone stands up and says: "I do not worship God for the sake of riches, and he himself knows it, nor for the sake of fleeting and temporal honors." And for the sake of what, then? Let us refine out the man who worships freely, who loves freely. And for the sake of what? "I do not want riches," he says, "I want a sufficiency of things. Let nothing be lacking in my house, let me be safe with my wife, with my children. This is enough for me." Still you do not yet worship God freely. In Job himself he showed us this. For the devil, by God's permission indeed—it was God who had taken away the riches, not he—had cast them down, because Job so trod them underfoot that he depended on God. He took away his health too; God permitted this. And Job was shown to worship God so freely that he worshipped and loved him not even for the sake of his own body's health. And the devil did not strike him in one member. From head to foot he made him rotten. And this for his fuller subjection, that he might be triumphed over the more, that the one who had seduced the immortal Adam might be overcome by a rotting man. He struck him, then, with a grievous wound from head to foot, and, rotting with worms, he endures a tempting wife, the devil's helper left to him. She was that very Eve, but he was not that Adam. He insinuated the persuasion of blaspheming, that Job, having lost his patience, might lose the one he worshipped freely. But when would he lose the one to whom he so clung? For what did he answer to the woman saying such things? 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 the bad? (Job 2:10) See one who worships freely, who worships not even for the sake of his own body's health, which we have in common with the beasts.

4 There is, then, something else that God keeps for us. For its sake let him be worshipped, for its sake let him be loved. He keeps himself for those who love. He wishes to show his face to the cleansed, not to the eye of the flesh, but to the eye of the heart: for blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). Love, that you may see, for what you will see is not cheap, is not slight. You will see him who made whatever you love. And if these things are beautiful, what is he himself who made them? God does not want you to love the earth, God does not want you to love heaven—that is, the things you see—but himself whom you do not see. But you will not always not see him, if you do not always not love him. Love him absent, that you may enjoy him present. Desire him whom you may hold, whom you may embrace. Cling first by faith, afterward you will cling by sight. For now, as a pilgrim, you walk by faith and by hope. When you arrive, you will fully enjoy him whom as a pilgrim you loved. He himself founded the homeland to which you hasten to come. From there he sent letters to you, that you may not delay to return from your pilgrimage. If, then, you are making for that homeland where you may enjoy the founder of the homeland, you are now in the desert amid many temptations, and the enemy must be guarded against. Learn against whom you sing: O God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the criminal and the wrongdoer (See Ps 71:4 (70:4)). The sinner is the devil, brothers, the devil is the criminal, the wrongdoer. From his hand choose to be delivered, that, the journey accomplished, beside which he dares to lie in wait, you may come to the homeland into which he cannot be admitted.

5 Hear that the devil is a sinner. It is written: From the beginning the devil sins (1 John 3:8). And who does not know that he is a criminal and a wrongdoer? What is so criminal as a murderer? Who first killed a man, except the one who deceived Adam? And he himself is a wrongdoer, who acts against justice, because he never stood in the truth. Against this criminal and wrongdoer it is sung: O Lord, deliver me from the hand of the criminal and the wrongdoer (See Ps 71:4 (70:4)). Do not sing it against your neighbor who slanders you, do not sing it against the powerful man who moved your boundary stone, do not sing it against the very plotter who is preparing to kill you. For all these are men who plot against you. They are flesh, they are blood, they pass away. Hear the Apostle saying: Your struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). Against whom, then, is the struggle? Against whom must it be said: Deliver me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the criminal and the wrongdoer (See Ps 71:4 (70:4))? Your struggle is not, it says, against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers and rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). By avoiding a man you guard yourself; by praying you guard against the devil. For a visible enemy is avoided, so that where he is present, you are not there; for you avoid the one you see. How will you avoid the one you do not see? By praying. Pray against him: your weapons are those of prayer. You keep silent, and so he lies in wait; you pray, and he burns. But pray out of the affection by which you love freely.

1 What we have sung to the Lord, let us believe to be set before us to speak of. From this let our sermon to you arise. And he to whom we said, You have held my right hand, and in your will you have led me, and with glory you have taken me up (Ps 73:23-24 (72:23-24)), may he himself take up your hearts to a clearer understanding, and may his mercy and grace help us—me as I speak, you as you judge. For although, for the convenience of delivering the voice, we seem to stand in a higher place, yet in that very higher place you judge and we are judged. We are called teachers, but in many things we seek a teacher, and we do not want to be held masters. For it is perilous, and forbidden by the Lord himself, who says: Do not wish to be called masters; one is your master, Christ (Matt 23:8-10). The office of master is perilous, then; discipleship is secure. Therefore the psalm says: To my hearing, it says, you will give joy and exultation (Ps 51:8 (50:10)). For the hearer of the word is more secure than the utterer of the word. Therefore he, secure, stands and hears him, and rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom (John 3:29).

2 And because the Apostle had taken on the person of a teacher by the necessity of his stewardship, see what he says: I was among you in much fear and trembling (1 Cor 2:3). It is safer, then, that both we who speak and you who hear should know ourselves to be fellow disciples under one master. It is altogether safer, and this is expedient, that you should hear us not as masters but as your fellow disciples. For see that anxiety is laid upon us where it is said: Brothers, do not become many masters, for in many things we all offend (Jas 3:1-2). Who would not tremble when the Apostle says, all? And it follows: Whoever does not offend in word, this man is a perfect man (Jas 3:2). But who would dare to say that he is perfect? He, then, who stands and hears does not offend in word. But he who speaks, even if—which is difficult—he does not offend, what does he suffer when he fears lest he offend? You ought, therefore, to be not only hearers of those who speak, but also compassionate toward those who fear, so that in what we say truly—since all truth is from the Truth—you may praise not us, but him; but where we offend as men, you may pray to that same one for us.

3 The holy Scriptures are truthful, they are blameless. All Scripture inspired by God is useful for teaching, for reproof, for exhortation, for instruction (2 Tim 3:16). There is no reason, then, why we should accuse Scripture, if perhaps we, not understanding it, go astray in some matter. When we understand it, we are upright. But when, not understanding it, we are crooked, we are leaving it upright. For we who are corrupted do not corrupt it; rather it stands upright, that we may return to it to be corrected. Yet, that this same Scripture may exercise us, in many places it speaks, as it were, carnally, though the law is always spiritual. For the law, as the Apostle says, is spiritual, but I am carnal (Rom 7:14). Since, then, it is spiritual, yet often it walks with the carnal, as it were, carnally. But it does not want them to remain carnal. For a mother too loves to nurse her little one, but she does not love for him to remain little. She holds him in her bosom, warms him with her hands, consoles him with caresses, nourishes him with milk. She does everything for the little one, but she longs for him to grow, that she may not always do such things. See the Apostle. For we look better at him, who did not disdain even to call himself a mother, where he says: I became a little one in your midst, like a nurse cherishing her children (1 Thess 2:7). For there are nurses who cherish, but not their own children. Likewise there are mothers who give their children to nurses, not cherishing their own children. But the Apostle, with the genuine and rich affection of love, took on both the person of a nurse by saying cherishing, and of a mother by adding her children. The same nourisher and cherisher, then, says in another place, which I recalled a little before: I was among you in much fear and trembling (1 Cor 2:3).

4 But you say: "What sort of people were they, that he was among them with much fear and trembling?" As to little ones, he says, in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food. For you were not able to take it, but neither indeed are you yet able; for you are still carnal (1 Cor 3:1-2). Those whom he calls carnal he nevertheless calls little ones in Christ. He so rebukes them as not to disown them. They are both carnal and little ones in Christ. Yet he does not want them to be carnal, those whom he calls little ones in Christ. He longs for them to be spiritual, judging all things, and judged by no one. For the unspiritual man, as he himself says, does not receive the things that are of the Spirit of God: for it is folly to him, and he cannot know it, because it is judged spiritually. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one (1 Cor 2:14-15). The same man says: We speak wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor 2:6). Why, then, do you speak, if it is among the perfect? For what need is there of your speaking to a perfect man? But ask in what he is perfect. For perhaps I do not find a perfect knower, yet I do find a perfect hearer. There is, then, a perfect hearer too, now capable in mind, in whom solid food causes no disturbance, brings on no indigestion. Who is this, and we will praise him? (Sir 31:9) Yet I do not doubt that there are some spiritual, who hear well and judge well. With these I have no trouble. For either I am found carnal, and he deals mercifully with me; or he grasps what I say, and rejoices with me.

5 See, now I have taken up the words of the psalm we just sang: You have held my right hand (Ps 73:23 (72:23)). Suppose a carnal hearer—what will he think, except that God appeared in human form, took hold of his right hand, not his left, and led him into his own will, took him up where he wished? If he understands this, or rather if he thinks this, does he understand at all? For he who understands, understands what is true. But he who thinks what is false does not understand. Therefore if this carnal man thinks that God's nature and substance is distinguished by members, defined by a shape, circumscribed by quantity, abiding in a place, what do I do with him? If I say, "God is not so," he does not grasp it. If I say, "He is so," he as it were grasps it, but I deceive him. I cannot say "He is so," lest I lie; and not about anything whatever, but about my God, about my Savior and Redeemer, about my hope, about him toward whom I stretch out my longing. It is no light matter to lie about such a one. To be deceived about such a one is grievous and perilous. But to lie about such a one is destructive and ruinous. Yet not everyone who lies is deceived. For if he himself knows the truth, and speaks what is false, he lies, he is not deceived. But if he himself thinks true what is not true, he is deceived; and if he says what he thinks to be true, he does not lie, but is nonetheless deceived. May God grant him not to be deceived, who did not wish to lie.

6 If, then, as I said, that little one of ours believes God to be such, having members arranged in fixed places of his body, circumscribed by a figure, bounded by a shape, abiding in a place, moving himself from place to place, according to what is said: Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present (Ps 139:7-8 (138:7-8)). If he himself is in heaven, if he is on earth, if he is present in hell, what does that little one do now? If he hears, let him not seek, with the Samaritan woman, mountains and temples where he wishes to go to God, from Jerusalem to the mountains of Samaria. Let him not hasten to a visible temple, let him not seek some temple where he may come to God. Let him himself be the temple, and to him God will come. He does not despise, does not shrink away, does not disdain—rather he deigns, if you do not provoke his indignation. Hear him promise, hear him for the time deigning by promising, not provoked to indignation by threatening: We will come, he says, to him, I and the Father (John 14:23). To the one whom he called above his lover, the one who obeys his commands, the keeper of his commandment, the lover of God, the lover of his neighbor: We will come, he says, to him, and make our dwelling with him (John 14:23).

7 The heart of the faithful man is not narrow, for whom the temple of Solomon was narrow. For he too, when he built it, said: If the heaven of heavens does not suffice you (See 1 Kgs 8:27). And yet the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). For we, he says in another place, are the temple of the living God. "And from where do you prove this?"—as if it were said to him—As it is written, he says, I will dwell among them (2 Cor 6:16). If some great patron said to you, "I will dwell with you," what would you do? Since your house is narrow, no doubt you would be troubled, you would be utterly terrified, you would wish it would not happen. For you would not want to be in narrow straits, receiving a great man, for whose coming your poor little house would not suffice. Do not fear the coming of your God, do not fear the affection of your God. He does not narrow you when he comes; rather, by coming he will widen you. For that you may know he will widen you, he promised not only his coming, I will dwell among them, but also that very breadth, by adding: And I will walk about (2 Cor 6:16). This breadth, if you love, you see. Fear has torment (1 John 4:18), therefore it has narrowness; and thus love has breadth. See the breadth of love: Because the love of God has been poured out, he says, in our hearts (Rom 5:5).

8 But why were you asking him to widen the place? Let the indweller himself widen it: For the love of Christ has been poured out in our hearts, yet not from ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). If love has been poured out in our hearts, and God is love (1 John 4:8), see, already from however small a pledge God walks about in us. For we have received a pledge. What is that, of which such is the pledge? Although the codices are better that have "earnest" than those that have "pledge." For the translators meant to say the same thing. Yet there is some difference in the usage of speech between earnest and pledge. For a pledge, when it is given, once that has been given for which the pledge was given, the pledge will be taken back. I do not doubt that many of you have now understood. For I see—but from the conversation in which you speak to one another, I perceive that those who have understood want to explain to those who have not yet understood. So I will say it somewhat more plainly, that it may reach all. You receive, for example, a codex from your friend; that he may give it to you, you give some pledge. When you have returned what you received, for which you set down the pledge, he will have what you returned, you will receive the pledge back. For he will not have both things.

9 What then, brothers? If God has now given love as a pledge, as it were, through his Spirit, when he has given the reality itself, by promising which he gave the pledge, is the pledge to be taken from us? Far be it. Rather, what he gave he will fulfill. This is why "earnest" is better than "pledge." For sometimes you prepare, for example, to give the price for a thing you hold under a contract of good faith; of that very price you give something. And it will be an earnest, not a pledge—something to be fulfilled, not to be taken back. Now, then, understand. If I find a lover, he has the earnest, and from the earnest he longs for the fullness. Let him consider the earnest itself. For that will be fulfilled from which the earnest was given. Let him think of it, let him examine it within himself, let him inspect it, let him question it about that fullness which he does not see, lest perhaps he should long for something different in the fullness than is in what he received as earnest. Perhaps God will give gold, will complete a fullness of gold, and gave an earnest of gold. It is to be feared lest you long for lead instead of gold. Look, then, at the earnest. If I can persuade you where to look: God is love (1 John 4:8).

10 From there we have something, from there we have been sprinkled, from there bedewed. Of what is the dew such as the fountain? Sprinkled with this dew, but burning toward the fountain, say to your God: For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). In this dew the longing is born, at the fountain you will be satisfied. There is what suffices us. But the sons of men will hope under the covering of your wings (Ps 36:7 (35:8)). Do we long, as for something great, for those benefits of God that he gives even to the beasts? They are indeed his benefits, who doubts it? From whom is the safety even of the least living thing, except from him of whom it was said: Salvation is the Lord's (Ps 3:8 (3:9))?

11 But the same psalm says: Men and beasts you will save, O Lord, as your mercy has been multiplied, O God (Ps 36:6-7 (35:7-8)). Although merciful God, you have so manifold a mercy that it reaches not only to men but even to beasts. So great is your mercy that you make your sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rain upon the just and the unjust. Do your holy ones receive nothing special from you, does the devout man receive nothing proper, which the impious does not receive? Plainly he does receive it. Hear what follows. For he had already said: Men and beasts you will save, O Lord, as your mercy has been multiplied, O God, and he added and said: But the sons of men (Ps 36:6-7 (35:7-8)). What then? A little before, those whom you called men, were they not sons of men? Men, he says, and beasts you will save, O Lord; but the sons of men. What then? The sons of men will hope under the covering of your wings (Ps 36:7 (35:8)). This not with the beasts. Why, then, are both these and those men? Or are not the sons of men also men? Surely the sons of men are also men. Whence, then, this distinction, except that there is a man who was not a son of man? A man not a son of man, Adam; a man son of man, Christ. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). They seek salvation with the beasts who die, and who die not to live again. They seek salvation with the sons of men who die, that they may never die. That distinction is refined out. Those belong to men, as men; these, the sons of men, belong to the Son of man.

12 What, then, follows? But the sons of men will hope under the covering of your wings (Ps 36:7 (35:8)). See, I hope, see, hope. But hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24). The things to come, then, that are promised, will inebriate. They will be inebriated by the abundance of your house (Ps 36:8 (35:9)). I fear lest perhaps, just as a little before he was seeking members of the body in God, so in his inebriation he may think not of the satiety of ineffable goods, but of the drunkenness of carnal banquets. Let us say it nonetheless. Let him think what he can, if he cannot think greater things. Let him not withdraw from the bosom while he grows. Let us follow, and we who can, as much as we can, let us be spiritually delighted. They will be inebriated, he says, by the abundance of your house, and you will give them to drink from the torrent of your delight (Ps 36:8 (35:9)). With what wine, what new wine, what water, what honey, what nectar? You ask with what? For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). Drink life, if you can. Prepare your conscience, not your gullet, your mind, not your belly. If you have heard, if you have understood, if you have loved, as much as you could, you have already drunk from there.

13 Attend to what you have drunk. You have drunk love. If you know it: God is love (1 John 4:8). If, then, you have drunk love, tell me in what place you drank it. If you know it, if you have seen it, if you love—from what do you love? For whatever you love well, you love by love. But how do you love something by love, you who do not love by love? Therefore if you love, from what do you love? It came to you, and you know it and you see it. And it is not seen in a place, nor sought with bodily eyes, that it may be loved the more ardently. Nor is it heard by address, and when it came to you, it was not perceived by its step. Did you ever feel the soles of love walking about in your heart? What is it, then? Whose is this, which is already in you, and is not grasped by you? Thus learn to love God.

14 But he walked about in paradise, but he was seen at the oak of Mamre, but he spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai face to face. And what of it? See, one who is seen in a place, yet is not perceived by his step. Do you want to hear Moses himself, lest the restless infant make me weary, though I desire to nurse him? Do you want, then, to hear Moses himself? Surely he was speaking with God face to face. To whom, then, was he speaking, except to the very one with whom he was speaking: If I have found grace before you, show me yourself (Exod 33:13)? He speaks with him face to face, as one speaks to his friend (Exod 33:11), and he says to him: If I have found grace before you, show me yourself plainly (See Exod 33:13). What did he see, and what did he thirst for? If it was not he himself, how is it said to him, Show me yourself? We cannot say that it was not he himself. If it had not been he himself, Moses would have said to him, "Show me God." When, therefore, he says, Show me yourself, he makes plain that it was he himself whom he wanted shown to him. And he spoke with him face to face, as one speaks to his friend (Exod 33:11). Do you want, then, to hear, if you grasp God? He appeared to Moses while remaining hidden. For if he did not appear, there would not be one with whom, speaking face to face, Moses might say, Show me yourself. But if he were not hidden, Moses would not still seek to see that same one. If, then, you grasp it, if you understand it, God can at the same time both appear and lie hidden—appear in form, lie hidden in nature.

15 If you have understood this as you could, see that it does not steal upon you that God, in order to appear in whatever form he wishes, changes his own nature. God is unchangeable, God is unconvertible—not only the Father, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). That very Word, God, is unchangeable, as is God with whom the Word is. Think of no loss in any person, no change. For God is the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of a moment (Jas 1:17). "If, then, he is unchangeable," you say, "what is that form in which, as he wished, to whom he wished, he appeared—by walking, by sounding, or even by presenting himself to those very carnal eyes?" You ask me what it is from which God makes his own presence, as though I could already explain from what he made the world, from what he made heaven, from what he made earth, from what he made you. "I see now," you answer, "from mud." See, you from mud. From what the mud? You answer, "From earth." But I suppose not from that earth which another made, but from that earth which he made who made heaven and earth (See Gen 1:1). From where, then, the earth itself? From where heaven and earth? He spoke and they were made (Ps 33:9 (32:9)). Good, you answer most excellently. You acknowledge: He spoke and they were made. I ask nothing more. But just as, when you say, He spoke and they were made, I ask nothing more, so do not you ask more, when I say: He willed, and he appeared. He appeared as he judged fitting; he lay hidden, as he was.

16 Let our true affection, our love, our delight burn from that pledge toward that for which Moses too burned, who said to the one he saw: Show me yourself (See Exod 33:13). If, then, we seek this, we are his sons. For we are sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Not as he was seen at the oak of Mamre, not as he was seen by Moses, that we should still say to him, "Show us yourself," but we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). By what merit? Because we are sons of God. And this not from our merits, but by the grace of his mercy. For you set apart a free rain, O God, for your inheritance. And it was made weak (Ps 68:9 (67:10)), not by presuming of itself to see what it does not see, but by believing what it longs to see. But you perfected it (See Ps 68:9 (67:10)). His inheritance, therefore, made perfect, his sons, we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). But what did the Lord say of the sons? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt 5:9).

17 Therefore, concerning such hidden and most difficult questions, if we understand something too little, let us inquire peaceably. Let not one be puffed up for one against another (See 1 Cor 4:6). For if you have bitter zeal and contentions among you, this is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but earthly, unspiritual, devilish (Jas 3:14-15). We are, then, sons of God, and let us be recognized as his sons; and we are not recognized unless we are peacemakers. For we shall have no means by which to see God, if by contending we put out that very eye within us.

18 Attend to what he says, why it is in fear and trembling that I speak. Pursue peace with all, and sanctification, without which no one will be able to see God (Heb 12:14). How did he terrify the lovers? He terrified none but lovers. Did he say, Pursue peace with all, and sanctification, that whoever does not have it will be cast into the fire, will be tormented in eternal fire, will be given over to tireless torturers? These things are true, yet he did not say them. He wanted you to be a lover of the good, not one who dreads evil, and from the very thing you longed for he terrified you. You will see God. Is this why you despise it, this why you stir up quarrels, this why you raise disturbances? Pursue peace with all, and sanctification, without which no one will be able to see God (Heb 12:14). How foolish would two men be who, wishing to see the sun rise, contended between themselves in what part it would rise and how it could be seen, and a controversy arising between them, quarreled, and quarreling struck each other, and striking put out their own eyes, so that they could not see that rising? Therefore, that we may be able to see God, let us cleanse our hearts by faith, heal them by love, strengthen them by peace, because this very thing by which we love one another is already from him whom we long to see.

1 We are happy if we also do what we hear and sing. For our hearing is a sowing, but our work is the fruit of the seed. A field in which wheat is sown and which produces thorns ought to expect not the barn but the flame. So too those who hear good things and do evil should not expect for themselves the barn of the kingdom of heaven, but that fire of which it is said: Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). Having said this by way of preface, I would warn your Charity not to enter the church fruitlessly, hearing such great goods and not doing good. But according to the goodness of the sower and of the seed of the word of God, so in your habits and in your life, as in good soil, let the most abundant fruit of good habits arise, and may you hope that the farmer will come, preparing for you a barn into which you may be put. See, we have sung: We will confess to you, O God, we will confess and call upon your name (Ps 75:1 (74:2)). To confess to God, what is it but to be humbled before God, not to claim any merits for oneself? Since by his grace we have been saved, as the Apostle says, not by works, lest perhaps anyone be exalted; for by his grace we have been saved (See Eph 2:8-9). For no good life went before, which he should love and cherish from above, and say, "Let us help, let us come to the aid of these men, because they live well." Our life displeased him, all that we were doing in ourselves displeased him, but what he himself did in us did not displease him. And so what we did he will condemn, what he himself did he will save. He will condemn the evil deeds of men, and will save the men themselves. For the men themselves did not make themselves, but made evil deeds. What God made in them—because God made man to his own image and likeness—is good. But what man himself, by free choice turned away from his founder and creator and turned toward wickedness, did badly, this God condemns, that he may free the man; that is, God condemns what man made, and God frees what God himself made.

2 We were not good, then. And he had mercy on us, and sent his Son to die, not for the good but for the evil, not for the just but for the impious. For indeed Christ died for the impious (Rom 5:6). And what follows? For scarcely will anyone die for a just man, for perhaps someone might dare to die for a good man (Rom 5:7). Perhaps someone is found who would dare to die for a good man. But who would be willing to die for an unjust man, for an impious man, for an iniquitous man, except Christ alone, so just that he might justify the unjust? We had, then, my brothers, no good works, but all evil ones. Since, then, the deeds of men were such, his mercy did not desert men. And though they were worthy of punishment, he, in place of the punishment that was owed, gave the grace that was not owed. And he sent his Son to redeem us, not with gold, not with silver, but with the price of his own poured-out blood, the spotless lamb led to the sacrifice for the spotted sheep—if even spotted, and not wholly corrupted. We have received, then, this grace. Let us live worthily of the very grace we have received, lest we do injury to so great a grace. So great a physician came to us, he forgave all our sins. If we want to be sick again, we will be not only ruinous to ourselves, but also ungrateful to the physician.

3 Let us, then, follow his ways which he showed us, especially the way of humility, which he himself became for us. For he showed us the way of humility by precepts, and made it by suffering for us. For he would not suffer unless he humbled himself. Who would kill God, unless God humbled himself? For Christ is the Son of God, and the Son of God is surely God. He is the Son of God, the Word of God, of whom John says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (John 1:1-3). Who would kill the one through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made? Who could kill him, unless he humbled himself? But how did he humble himself? John himself says: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). For the Word of God could not be killed. That what could not die might therefore die for us, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The immortal one took up mortality, that he might die for us, and by his death kill our death. This the Lord did, this he bestowed on us. The great one was humbled, humbled he was killed, killed he both rose and was exalted, that he might not leave us, dead, in the underworld, but exalt us in himself in the resurrection of the dead, whom he has now exalted in the faith and confession of the just.

4 Therefore he gave us humility as our way. If we hold to it, we will confess to the Lord, and not without cause do we sing: We will confess to you, O God, we will confess and call upon your name (Ps 75:1 (74:2)). For you shamelessly call upon his name, to whom you do not confess. First confess, that you may prepare a dwelling for the one you call upon. For your heart is full of wickedness. Confession pours out the filth you carry within, and cleanses the house into which he may come whom you call upon. For whoever calls upon him before he confesses wishes to do injury to the one he calls upon. For if you do not dare invite some holy man into your house unless you have first cleansed your house, lest his eyes suffer injury, do you dare to call upon the name of God into your heart full of wickedness, unless you have first poured out by confession the iniquity within? Therefore confession, my brothers, humbles us, and the humbled it justifies, and the justified it exalts. For if we are proud, God resists us; if we are humble, God exalts us; since he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5), and: He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11). Let us turn to the Lord.

1 Thanks to the Lord our God, and an abundance of praise to that God, to whom a hymn is fitting in Zion. Thanks to him, to whom with the devotion of heart and mouth we have sung: O God, who is like you? (Ps 83:1 (82:2)) Because we feel his holy love rooted in your hearts, because you fear him as Lord, love him as Father. Thanks to him, who is longed for before he is seen, and is felt as present, and is hoped for as to come. Thanks to him, whose fear love does not shake off, whose love fear does not hinder. Him we bless, him we honor, both for you and in you. For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). Now see how greatly he lives, or how he lives, when the stones of his temple so live. Consider, brothers, what you say and to whom you say it: O God, who is like you? Temples say to their God: O God, who is like you? Living stones say to their indweller: O God, who is like you? Let the whole creation come to your hearts: the earth and whatever is in the earth, the sea and whatever is in the sea, the air and whatever is in the air, heaven and whatever is in heaven. He himself spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created (Ps 148:5; 33:9 (32:9)). Therefore, O God, who is like you? let every faithful heart say, let every obedient tongue say, let every devout conscience say, let it say securely: O God, who is like you? For it says it to the one of whom it is not ashamed. This is worthy, this befits living stones.

2 For as for the dead stones—would that they might feel within themselves the mercy of the living stones! I call them dead—not those from which these buildings rise, nor those on which the iron of craftsmen works, nor what a man has sculpted that they may be gods, or rather that a man has sculpted that they may be called gods, though they are not—I do not call those dead stones, but I call dead stones the men to whom those gods are like. Living stones are those whom the apostle Peter addresses, saying: And you, brothers, as living stones be built up into a holy temple of God (See 1 Pet 2:5). Would, then, my brothers, that the dead stones might feel within themselves the mercy of the living stones! For what do we busy ourselves with? What do we labor to bring forth, whether in the narrowness or the breadth of our heart? What do we care for, what do we strive for, except to free a stone from a stone? For living stones have eyes and see, have ears and hear, have hands and work, have feet and walk. And indeed they have known their maker, and they adore their craftsman and praise their sculptor. But the dead stones, the servants of stones, look to their gods and are not looked to, adore and are not acknowledged, offer sacrifices, and themselves become a sacrifice to the devil. And they themselves, brothers, if they had eyes to see and ears to hear, how great a thing it would be to see the prophecies of Christ fulfilled! How great a thing it would be to attend to the truthful codices and the oracles that do not deceive! But why do they not see? Why do they not hear? Because prophecy said this too: Let all who make them become like them, and all who trust in them (Ps 115:8 (113:16)). Are they then beyond hope, or to be despaired of? Far be it. And what is to be hoped of dead stones? What do you think, except what we already hold written: For God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham (Matt 3:9)?

3 And so, dearly beloved, since you know to what God we have said, O God, who is like you? (Ps 83:1 (82:2))—of whom we are not ashamed, whose inscription we read not on a stone but carry in the heart, whose name is both known to all and lives in believers, dwells in the submissive, wars down the proud—since we know to whom we have said, O God, who is like you? let the men whom God made not move us to hatred of themselves, but let whatever man himself has done badly in the man well-made by God move us to hatred of itself. "Man" is one name, and it is the name of a creature. Of this creature I seek the craftsman. It is God. Is God the creator of man only? Is he not also the creator of cattle, and fish, and bird, and angel, and heaven, and earth, and stars, and sun, and moon, and of all things made and ordered above and below, the lowest and the highest, bound together by the bond of unity—is not God the craftsman of all these? But man he made to his own image and likeness. Man is called some likeness of God. And how great is it, compared to so great? What is it, compared to whom? Man, compared to God. What is man, except that you are mindful of him? (Ps 8:4 (8:5)) Let us, then, say to our God, we too, men made to his image and likeness, let us say: O God, who is like you? If man, made to the image and likeness of God, rightly says it, he says truly: O God, who is like you?—for he added: Remember that we are dust (See Ps 103:14 (102:14))—if man, made to the likeness of God, is far from the likeness of God, if that very likeness so differs that it is not fitting to compare it. Yet the heart of a man, the heart of a Christian who cannot say "to the god Man," gladly reads "to the god Hercules," reads above while attending below, questioning the inscription that said "to the god Hercules"—the inscription does not speak, but at least is read, "to the god Hercules"—of whom it was said, let him say of whom it was said. Both are mute, both senseless. Above, a lie; below, a fiction. The inscription accusing the writer, confounding the worshipper. The inscription not commending the stone as a god, but indicating the man as a fool. The inscription imposing the name of God upon a fiction, a fiction, and blotting out the name of the worshipper from the book of the living. What particle of sense does he feel in himself who does not feel that he adores something senseless?

4 And yet God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham. Let him attend there to what God himself, to whom we have said, O God, who is like you? (Ps 83:1 (82:2)), made in man. Let him attend in the man himself to what he made, let him blot out what was done by the man himself against the one who made man. Let him strike and heal, kill and make alive. For to him to whom we said, O Lord, who is like you? we consequently added: Do not be silent, nor grow gentle, O God (Ps 83:1 (82:2)). What then? In this song, my brothers, have we provoked God to anger, to whom we said, Do not be silent, nor grow gentle, O God? Surely either the one who sent, or the very one who came and said, Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Matt 11:29)? Gentle and humble of heart is the Son of God, Christ. What then? He says, Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. And we have said to him, Do not be silent, nor grow gentle, O God. Suppose he answers us: "O man, is it too little that you do not learn from me to be gentle, and you want to teach me not to be gentle?" See, brothers, attend, help us with devout attention, with chaste prayer, help us that we may come out in his name from these straits. The divine utterances seem to quarrel. They are thought to sound contrary, unless understanding be present, and we receive it from the very one to whom we said, O God, who is like you? What he himself said: I will give you understanding (Ps 32:8 (31:8)), let us receive. Let us know this: My peace I give you (John 14:27), says Christ, that Christians may have peace among themselves. How will they imitate it? How will they hear, if the divine utterances themselves cannot have peace among themselves? Attend, see, as it were, the resounding of contraries. Come to me (Matt 11:28), and: Learn from me (Matt 11:29). What? First, who calls? Whom does he call? To what does he call? Hear who calls: I confess to you, O Lord, Father of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, for so it was pleasing before you. All things have been handed over to me by my Father (Matt 11:25-27). See who calls: All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and: No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wishes to reveal him (Matt 11:27). A vast greatness, and an ineffable height. All things have been handed over to me, he says, by my Father. I alone acknowledge, by one alone I am acknowledged. What? Are we left out? Do we not acknowledge? And where is: the one to whom the Son wishes to reveal him?

5 Your spirit and zeal of faith, and the ardor of your love, and the abundance of holy zeal for the house of God, has appeared in your shouts, which you had as clear enough witnesses of your heart. Allow it also to appear—the zeal of the few faithful of God, through whom you are governed, concerning this will of yours. For you, brothers, are the people of God, as he himself said, and the sheep of his pasture. You have, in the name of God, shepherds, servants of the shepherd and members of the shepherd. The spirit and will of the multitude to do any deed will be able to appear in these shouts. But the care of the few on your behalf ought to be shown not by shouts but by deeds. And so, brothers, since you have now fulfilled what pertained to you by acclaiming, allow it to be proved to you whether we too fulfill what pertains to us by acting. We have proved you. Prove us, if, after these shouts that witness your heart and zeal, we are slack in doing what ought to be done. Far be it from us that you should be found approved, and we reprobate. But since the will to act in the matters you acclaimed is one, both ours and yours—though the manner of acting cannot be equal—we think, dearly beloved, that therefore the will ought to be received from you, the counsel for fulfilling your will be awaited from us. That the members of Christ may not be in discord, let them all fulfill their offices that are in his body. Let the eye, set on high, do what pertains to the eye, the ear what pertains to the ear, the hand what pertains to the hand, the feet what pertains to the foot, that there be no divisions in the body, but that the members be anxious for one another in the same way. And so we congratulate and rejoice with your Charity, because you obeyed the holy lord and our colleague, your bishop, in what he spoke to you this morning. Follow this, do not withdraw from this way, lest you fall. For God greatly helps what you wish, if you do what he commands. For what is man? (See Ps 8:4 (8:5)) as I had begun to say, every man? Or what is the life of men, which, as it is written, appears for a little while like a vapor? Consider, then, brothers, our frailty, our lowliness, the condition of the flesh, the flitting passages of this very world, and see that it will then be well with us, if our whole hope is in him in whom alone it can be firmly placed. But how will our hope be there, unless we obey his commands?

6 Do we say, "Do not will what you will"? Rather let us even give thanks that you will what God wills. For that all the superstition of the pagans and the gentiles may be destroyed, God wills it, God has commanded it, God has foretold it, God has already begun to fulfill it, and in many places of the earth he has already in great part accomplished it. If your will were to begin from this city, that you should seek here first to abolish the superstitions of the demons, perhaps there would be some arduous labor, yet not to be despaired of. But now, if these things have been done effectively where they began to be done, where examples had not gone before, how much more effectively, in the name of the Lord, with the help of his right hand, do we believe this too can be done, when the preceding examples are now proclaimed? Surely you shouted this: "As Rome, so also Carthage." If in the head of the nations the matter went before, will the members not follow? Consider, brothers, attend in the very books of the gentiles, hear from those among whom the remnants of that very unhappiness have remained, whether by hearing or by reading come to know their writings, and see that those very gods are called Roman. Therefore these gods are called Roman. And when Christians were being forced, with the raging onslaught of the pagans, to adore them, and refusing, they endured their cruelty even to the shedding of blood. The whole fault of the martyrs whose blood was shed seemed to be this, that they would not adore the Roman gods, that they spurned the Roman ceremonies, that they did not beseech the Roman gods. And the whole onslaught, all the hatred, wept over nothing but the name of the Roman gods. If, then, the Roman gods have failed at Rome, why have they remained here? This, then, brothers, attend to this, this I have said, restrain this. The Roman gods—the Roman gods—if, then, I say, the Roman gods have failed at Rome, why have they remained here? If they could walk, they would say that they fled here from there. But they did not flee. Did they remain there, at Rome? He who was once called the god Hercules is now no longer at Rome. But here he even wanted to have a gilded beard. When he is no longer yours, here too he wanted to have a gilded beard. I was plainly mistaken, because I said he "wanted." For what does a senseless stone want? He indeed wanted nothing, could do nothing. But those who wanted him gilded blushed at his being shaved. And so some suggestion or other crept upon a new judge. What did it do? It surely did not bring it about that a stone should be honored by a Christian, but that the Christian should be angered at the superstition, to the point of shaving it. It did not incline him to comply, but moved him to take vengeance. Brothers, I think it was more ignominious for Hercules to have his beard shaved than to have his head cut off. What, then, was set up with their error has been removed with their disgrace. Hercules is usually called the god of strength. All his strength is in his beard. He shone to his own harm. What did not shine with the Lord's light shone not from light but from mourning.

7 Let them, then, be silent; let them now see to what God the faithful read and say: O God, who is like you? Do not be silent, nor grow gentle, O God (Ps 83:1 (82:2)). I had taken up how he does not grow gentle—by overthrowing not men but errors. He does not grow gentle, therefore he is angry. But he is God, therefore he also has mercy. He is angry and he has mercy. He is angry, to strike; he has mercy, to heal. He is angry, to mortify; he has mercy, to make alive. In one man he does this. Not as though mortifying some and making others alive, but in those same ones he is both angry and gentle. He is angry at errors, he grows gentle at corrected habits. I will strike, and I will heal; I will kill, and I will make alive (Deut 32:39). One Saul, afterward Paul, he both threw down and raised up. He threw down the unbeliever, raised up the believer. He threw down the persecutor, raised up the preacher. If he is not angry, whence was Hercules' beard shaved? For he did this through his faithful, through his Christians, through the powers ordained by him and now made subject to the yoke of Christ. And so, brothers, receive these things with a willing spirit, and with the Lord's help hope now more prosperously for the rest. Amen.

1 When we sang to God, we said to him: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law (Ps 94:12 (93:12)). Therefore the Gospel of God sounded, Zacchaeus gave alms. Learn. For what better law of God is there than the holy Gospel? For it is the law of the new Testament, of which you heard the prophet when it was read: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish over the house of Jacob a new Testament, not according to the Testament I established with their fathers when I led them out of the land of Egypt (Jer 31:31-32). There the Testament is promised, here rendered; promised through the prophet, rendered through the Lord of the prophets. That Testament which is called old—read and see. The law of God was given even then; read, or hear when it is read, and see what was promised there. There the land of the earth was promised, a land flowing with milk and honey, but still earth. Yet if we understand spiritually, since that earth did not flow with milk and honey, there is another land that will flow with milk and honey, that land of which it is said: You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). For this is the land of the dying. Do you seek milk and honey? Taste and see how sweet the Lord is (Ps 34:8 (33:9)). His grace is signified by the name of milk and honey. It is sweet and nourishing. But this grace, prefigured in the old Testament, is revealed in the new.

2 Finally that law, on account of those who are carnally wise, and who seek such rewards from God, and want to worship God for the sake of the things promised there, deserved to hear from the apostle Paul that it begets unto slavery. Why? Because it is understood carnally by the Jews. For understood spiritually, it is the Gospel. Therefore it begets unto slavery. Whom? Those who serve God for the sake of earthly goods. When these are present to them, they give thanks; when they are absent, they blaspheme. For those who serve God for the sake of these things cannot serve with a true heart. For they attend to those who do not serve our God. For they see them have the very thing for whose sake they themselves serve God, and they say in their heart: "What does it profit me that I serve God? Do I have as much as that man who blasphemes daily? He prays, and is hungry; the other blasphemes, and belches." He who attends to these things is a man, a man of the old Testament. He, then, who in the new Testament worships God ought to hope for a new inheritance, not an old one. If you hope for a new inheritance, pass over the earth, tread upon the peaks of the mountains—that is, despise the loftiness of the proud. But when you have despised and trodden it, be humble, lest you fall from the height. Hear: Hearts up high; but to the Lord, not against the Lord. All the proud have their heart up high, but against the Lord. But if you want truly to have your heart up high, have it to the Lord. For if you have your heart up high to the Lord, he himself holds your heart, lest it fall to the earth.

3 Blessed, then, is the man: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord (Ps 94:12 (93:12)). See, I speak, see, I cry out, see, I expound. Who hears me? I know who hears me: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, the one to whom God speaks in the heart. And when I am silent, he is the blessed one whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law (Ps 94:12 (93:12)). What follows? Thus far we have sung: And teach out of your law. That you may give him rest from the evil days, until the pit is dug for the sinner (Ps 94:13 (93:13)). He is the man who is instructed by the Lord, he is the one who learns from the Lord out of the law of God, who is given rest from the evil days, until the pit is dug for the sinner. Hear what this is. There are evil days. Since we were cast out of paradise, do we not spend evil days here? Both our forebears bewailed their days, and their grandfathers bewailed their days. The days they spent in living have pleased no men. But the days of their forebears please those who come after; and to those forebears in turn those very days pleased, the days they themselves did not feel, and therefore they pleased. For what is present has a keen feeling. I do not say it is brought nearer, but it touches the heart daily. Almost every year we usually say, when we feel cold: "It was never so cold. It was never so hot." It is always the same one who "makes" it who makes it. But blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, that you may give him rest from the evil days, until the pit is dug for the sinner (Ps 94:12-13 (93:12-13)).

4 The evil days. Are these days evil, which the circuit of the sun drives round? Evil men make the days evil, and almost the whole world is so. Amid the crowds of the evil the few grains groan. Let us turn it back to the just themselves. Those are evil, and they make the days evil. What of the just themselves? Are they not in evil days? Both among others—besides that they endure evil men among whom they groan—and within themselves, when they are, let them attend to themselves, let them descend into themselves, let them consider themselves well. They find evil days within themselves. They do not want war, they want peace. And who does not? And since all do not want war and all want peace, even he who lives justly turns his eyes upon himself, and finds war within himself. Ask me what war. Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law (Ps 94:12 (93:12)). See, a man asks me what war the just man suffers within himself. Teach him out of your law. Let the Apostle speak: The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal 5:17). And where do I throw off the flesh, if war sounds, if—which God forbid—the enemy rushes in? The man flees and drags his war with him wherever he goes. I do not say, if he is evil. Even if he is good, if he lives justly, he finds in himself what the Apostle says: The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal 5:17). In this war, how are the days good?

5 Therefore the days are evil. But let us be given rest. What is "let us be given rest"? Let us not be angry at the divine judgment. Let us say to him: It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your statutes (Ps 119:71 (118:71)). You dashed me from paradise, you cast me from blessedness. I am in hardship, I am in groaning. My groaning is not hidden from you (Ps 38:9 (37:10)). But it is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your statutes (Ps 119:71 (118:71)). In the evil days I learn to seek the good days. What are the good days? Do not seek them now. Believe me—rather, believe with me—you will not find them. The evil days will pass, and good ones will come. But the good will come to the good, worse ones to the evil.

6 For indeed I too ask you: Who is the man who wants life? (Ps 34:12 (33:13)) I know, the hearts of all answer me: "For who is the man who does not want life?" I add: And loves to see good days? (Ps 34:12 (33:13)) You all answer: "Who is there who does not love to see good days?" You have answered well. You want life, you want good days. Surely when I was saying, Who is the man who wants life? every man answers me: "I." Who is the man who wants to see good days? Does not each of you say in silence, "I"? Hear what follows: Restrain your tongue from evil (Ps 34:13 (33:14)). Now say "I." You seek pardon; now I find you. Past things have passed. Suppose your tongue was wicked, you were a whisperer, you were an accuser, you were a slanderer, you were a reviler—suppose you were all these things—let those things pass with the evil days; do not you pass with the evil days. For there is something to hold to so that you do not pass. The human thing runs like a river; the evil days run like a river. Hold to the wood, lest you be dragged off. See, the river runs: All flesh is grass, and all the honor of the flesh is like the flower of grass (Isa 40:6; 1 Pet 1:24). It is cast headlong, it passes, the grass withers, the flower falls. To what do I hold? The word of the Lord abides forever (Isa 40:8; 1 Pet 1:25).

7 Restrain, then, your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak no deceit (Ps 34:13 (33:14)). You who wanted life, or want life and good days, turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace (Ps 34:14 (33:15)), which we all long for even in this mortality of the flesh, and in this frailty of the flesh, and in this most lying vanity. All of you, seek peace. Seek peace, and pursue it (Ps 34:14 (33:15)). Where is it? Where do I pursue it? By what way did it pass? By what way did it pass, that I may pursue it? It passed through you, but it did not remain in you. To whom do I say this? To the human race, not to each one of you, but to the human race. Through the human race peace itself passed. As it was passing, the blind man cried out in yesterday's reading. And where did it go? First see what peace is, and see where it went, and pursue it. What is peace? Hear the Apostle. He was speaking of Christ: He himself is our peace, who made both one (Eph 2:14). Christ, then, is peace. Where did it go? He was crucified, and buried, he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven (See 1 Cor 15:3-4; Apostles' Creed). See where peace went. How do I pursue it? Hearts up high. Hear how you may pursue it. Daily indeed you hear it briefly, when it is said to you: Hearts up high. Think more loftily from there, and you will pursue it. Yet hear it also more fully, that you may pursue true peace, your peace, the peace that endured war for you; peace that, while it bore war for you, prayed for the enemies of peace, and said as it hung: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). There was war, and peace flowed from the wood. It flowed, but afterward, what? He ascended into heaven. Seek peace. And how do you pursue it? Hear the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; savor the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ appears, your life, then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:1-4). See the good days; let us long for them, for this let us live, for this let us pray, for this let us give alms.

8 See now, by God's favor, it is winter. Think of the poor, how Christ, naked, may be clothed. When the Gospel was read, did we not all call Zacchaeus blessed, when Christ looked up at him, intent in the tree to see the one passing by? For when would he have hoped for him dwelling in his house? When he said to him, Come down, Zacchaeus, today I must remain in your house (Luke 19:5), I heard the groans of your congratulation. As though you had all been in Zacchaeus and had received Christ. So the heart of every one of you said: "O blessed Zacchaeus! The Lord entered into his house. O blessed man! Can it happen to us?" Now Christ is in heaven. Recite to me, O Christ, the new Testament. Make me blessed out of your law. Recite it, that you may know you are not cheated of the presence of Christ. Hear the one who will judge: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (Matt 25:40). Each one of you waits to receive Christ seated in heaven. Attend to him lying under the portico, attend to him hungering, attend to him suffering cold, attend to him needy, attend to him a stranger. Do, you who are accustomed; do, you who are not accustomed. The teaching grows; let the good works grow. You praise the sowing; show forth the harvest. Amen.

1 We have sung to the Lord: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law: that you may give him rest from the evil days, until the pit is dug for the sinner (Ps 94:12-13 (93:12-13)). The man, then, instructed by the Lord out of the law of God—not instructed in the law of God, but by the Lord out of the law of God—is given rest from the evil days, until the pit is dug for the sinner. For in this world the happiness of the evil is the pit of sinners. Now men, and often religious men, are usually disturbed by this, and, not daring to reproach the Lord, yet they wonder within themselves why the evil are so often happy. And especially are those disturbed who, knowing that they live better, are driven by miseries and calamities. For they see the evil flourish in all goods—earthly and temporal, to be sure, yet goods—with every happiness. And they sigh in their miseries, and scarcely restrain their hearts from reproach of God. Let them, then, hear the psalm, and be blessed. Let the Lord instruct them out of his law. Let him say to them from another psalm: Do not be zealous against evildoers, nor envy those who do iniquity (Ps 37:1 (36:1)). Now you, who were zealous and envious, said nothing but: "Why do they flourish?" Hear out of the law of God: Because like grass they will quickly wither (Ps 37:2 (36:2)). The grass flourishes: why do you praise the greenness? Ask summer; they will quickly wither. All flesh is grass: the grass withered, the flower fell (Isa 40:6-7; 1 Pet 1:24). See where you have your root: The word of the Lord abides forever (Isa 40:8; 1 Pet 1:25). Those impious men, then, are flourishing like grass, green in winter, dry in summer. But you, with your root fixed in the word of God, which abides forever, be a living tree in hiddenness. For you have died, the Apostle says, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). There is your root, there you live. For there you have placed your hope, if you have not believed falsely. Let not the winter season, then, sadden you, the season in which many fertile and fruitful trees, without the adornment of leaves in the winter season and without the adornment of fruits, are like dry trees, but are not dry. When the grass flourishes, those trees do not even have leaves. But what I said of the grass, this I say also of the tree living in hiddenness. What did I say of the grass? If you marvel at the greenness, ask summer. Between the grass that is green in winter and the fruitful tree that withers in winter, summer is the judge. So between the devout laboring in this world and the impious flourishing in this world, as in a winter season, the sun of justice is the judge. See, the judgment comes. The tree says to the flourishing grass: "Why do you exalt yourself? Summer will come, which proves us." That trees of this kind may be given rest from the evil days, the Apostle addresses them and consoles them, foretelling summer, promising greenness. You have died, he says, and your life—where your root is—is hidden with Christ in God. When summer comes, when Christ, your life, appears—where the greenness is—then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:3-4). Finally, learn the sentence of that very sun of justice, what he is going to do in summer: For the Son of man will come, he says, in his majesty, and all the angels with him, and before him will be gathered all the nations (Matt 25:31-32). Now see the trees and the grass: He will divide them, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats; and he will set the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at his left (Matt 25:32-33). See the judgment of summer. In summer there is heat. What is the heat? Even in fruitful trees there is heat, but greenness follows that heat. What, then, is the heat? When the just king has sat upon his throne, who will boast that he has a chaste heart? (Prov 20:8-9) Who will boast that he is clean from sin? Grievous heat. But the judge himself, who was feared, gives consolation. Quickly he gives refreshment to the heat or to those scorched by it. For they lived in the root, they were not dry trees. See, then, their greenness. Come, blessed of my Father (Matt 25:34). Come. Receive what you awaited, see what you believed, have what you hoped, hold what you loved. Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Matt 25:34). This is the greenness in summer of the trees that as it were withered through winter, but were green in hiddenness. Now attend to the dryness of the grass. For what is the dry grass destined? Go into the eternal fire (Matt 25:41). Therefore in the good and fruitful trees, which have been given rest from the evil days, the refreshment of rewards consoles the heat, the refreshment of the kingdom of heaven consoles it. There one lives always. What is named on this earth by a certain herb, "houseleek" [literally "ever-living"], there has its true place: there one lives always, there alone is life, no corruption, no want, an eternal greenness is held, no dryness is feared. Go into the eternal fire, it is said to the impious. That is the pit of the sinner: it is being dug, this is done in this present time. The happiness of the perverse man is the pit of the sinner. For he thinks, when he does evil and is happy, that God does not care for human affairs. That is the pit of the sinner.

2 I address, then, your Charity. Do not love the happiness of this world, and you who perhaps have it, do not hope in it. It is lying, it deceives, it is not held. And if it is held, let it not be loved, let it not be hoped in, and it will not be a pit. Charge, the Apostle says, the rich of this world—charge that they be rich. But the rich of this world are Christians, are faithful. Charge them. What? Not to be proud in mind, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches (1 Tim 6:17). As the psalm too says: If riches rain down, as it were from a fountain, from which you may draw as much as you wish without labor, and what you draw is about to perish at once—if they flow, set not your heart where it flows (Ps 62:10 (61:11)). If it flows, it makes a river; you set your heart, and it sweeps it away. If, then, it falls to you even to become rich, do not gape with greed: receive what is offered, do not seize what is another's; receive what is offered, but do not sell justice. For if you sell justice, do not think you receive what is offered. You receive what is offered when he gives who wishes, not when even one who does not wish gives. "I sell justice," he says. "What evil do I receive from a good thing?" Then justice is for sale to you on this earth. You do not have justice in order to receive a heavenly reward for it, but to sell it on earth. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (Matt 6:2). What is given freely by your friend, left as an inheritance, and where innocence is not injured—therefore Scripture did not condemn the rich, where it says: Having food and covering, with these we are content (1 Tim 6:8). For those who wish, it says, to become rich—it did not say, those who are rich, but: those who wish to become rich—through their very desires fall into temptations and many harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and perdition (1 Tim 6:9). Do you want to know what it accused? The root of all evils is avarice (1 Tim 6:10). Do not have such a root: for it is the root of withering grass.

3 Therefore, my brothers, who are poor, do not despise yourselves. Nothing is so rich as faith. Empty is your outer cellar, full is your inner chest. The chest full, the conscience good. All that he possessed outwardly the devil took from the holy man. He did not penetrate to that chest. In that one he was rich who said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. The Lord gave—let not the devil boast—the Lord has taken away (Job 1:21): for the evil one took away what the good one permitted, who wished to prove him by tempting, that he might set him forth for imitation. As it pleased the Lord, so has it been done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). If he was poor, whence did he pour out such precious things? The inner chest was full, whose gains grew by spending; in short, he poured out, and did not lose. Whoever, then, you who are poor, give more effort to having inner riches, to having hearts full of virtues, justice, devotion, love, faith, hope. These are the true riches, which you cannot lose even by shipwreck. And lest the happiness of the evil afflict the good with sadness, may God give you rest from the evil days. The evil days pass, in which this seeming perversity, as it were, is seen; and the days will come in which no evil man is happy, no good man unhappy.

4 But you, whoever you are who are rich in this world, do what the Apostle advises: Let them be, he says, rich in good works: let them give easily (1 Tim 6:18). For why give with difficulty, when there is the means to give easily? For I think that this is why means [facultates] are so called, as if they were called easements [facilitates]; for want too is usually called difficulty. Let them give easily, then, let them share (1 Tim 6:18). Let them too have, but give to the needy; let them both help the companion and unburden themselves. O rich man, the poor man has been made your companion in this life. You see him labor by not having, you by having. He, by not having, has nothing to be propped up by; you, by having much, have something to be weighed down by. Help his want and lessen your burden. This is why it is said: Let them share. For the same Apostle says in another place: Not that there should be relief for others, and distress for you (2 Cor 8:13). Therefore let them share. Let them have, but what they have over let them share. They both keep what is enough, and do not lose what they have given. They will possess more than what they keep here, which they will either leave behind here or consume in their own uses. But what they have given, hear what becomes of it. It follows: Let them treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:19). What great thing, then, is it that you have given, if you have arranged to migrate from this place where all things perish? What you have given to the poor, you have made them your porters. If, then, you are such, you will not flourish like grass in the passage of this world, but, like the olive that is green even through winter, it will be said in your voice: But I, like a fruitful olive in the house of God (Ps 52:8 (51:10)). But, as a fruitful olive in the house of God, see what follows: I have hoped in the mercy of God, not in the uncertainty of riches (Ps 52:8 (51:10); 1 Tim 6:17).

1 The psalm we have sung to God, and in which we have mutually exhorted one another to adore him and prostrate ourselves before him and weep before the Lord who made us, warns us to inquire somewhat more diligently what it means by saying, who made us. For that man was created by God no man doubts, except one who is ungrateful. For we know—since so we have read and so we have believed—that God made man, among the many things he made, to his own image. This is man's first condition, this is the first human creation. Yet I do not think the Holy Spirit wanted to warn us of this, as something great, in this psalm, when it says, Let us weep before the Lord, who made us (Ps 95:6 (94:6)). For in another place it says: He made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). Of which, as I said, no Christian doubts. For not only did God create the first man, from whom all men come, but God even today creates individual men, he who said to a certain holy one of his: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you (Jer 1:5). First, then, he created man without a man; now he creates man from a man. Yet whether man without a man, or man from a man, he made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). According, then, to this first and easy sense of these words—yet a true one—let us adore him, brothers, and prostrate ourselves before him, and weep before the Lord who made us (Ps 95:6 (94:6)). For he did not make us and then desert us. He did not take care to make us and not take care to keep us. Let us weep before the Lord who made us, because we did not weep when he made us, and yet he made us. He, then, who made us before he was asked, does he desert us when he is asked? As though a man doubted whether he would be heard when he prayed, Scripture warned him, saying: Let us weep before the Lord, who made us. Surely he hears those whom he made; surely he cannot fail to care for those whom he made.

2 Yet with a deeper meaning, and, as I judge, a more useful one, the Holy Spirit saw some men saying or about to say that God made them men, but that they make themselves just; and foreseeing them, he warned them and called them back from this self-exaltation, saying: He made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). For why did he add, and not we ourselves, when it would have sufficed to say, He made us? Except that he wanted to warn against that making in which men say, "We made ourselves"—that is, "to be just, we made ourselves just by free will." When we were created, we received free choice. So that we may be just, then, we do it by free choice. Why do we still call upon God to make us just, which we have in our power, that we make ourselves just? Hear, hear: He made us just too, and not we ourselves. The first man was created in a nature without fault, in a nature without flaw. He was created upright, he did not make himself upright. But what he himself made of himself is known: falling from the hand of the potter, he was broken. For the very one who had made him was guiding him. He wished to desert the one by whom he had been made. God permitted it, as though saying: "Let him desert me and find himself, and let his misery prove that he can do nothing without me."

3 In this way, then, God wanted to show man what free choice avails without God. O evil free choice without God! We have experienced what it avails without God. We were made wretched for this reason, that we experienced what free choice avails without God. Having experienced it, then, at long last, let us know, and Come, let us adore him, and prostrate ourselves before him. Come, let us adore and prostrate ourselves before him, and weep before the Lord who made us (Ps 95:6 (94:6)). That, lost through ourselves, he who made us may remake us. See, man was made good, and through free choice man was made evil. When will an evil man, through free choice deserting God, make a good man? He could not, when good, keep himself good, and shall he, evil, make himself good? When he was good, he did not keep himself good, and now that he is evil, does he say, "I make myself good"? What do you do, evil man, who perished while good, unless he who remains good remake you?

4 He, then, made us, and not we ourselves. But we are his people and the sheep of his pasture (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). See, he who made us made us, men, his people. For when created as men, we were not yet his people. See, my brothers, and from the very words of the psalm attend to why it said, He made us, and not we ourselves. For this reason it said, He made us, and not we ourselves—that we might be his people and the sheep of his pasture. He made us. For the pagans too are born, and all the impious, all the adversaries of his Church. That they might be born, he himself made them. For no other god created them. Those who are born of pagans were made by him, created by him. And they are not his people, nor the sheep of his pasture. Nature is common to all, not grace. Let nature not be thought grace—and yet even if it be thought grace, since it too was granted freely. For a man who did not exist did not earn that he should exist. If he earned it, he already existed; but he did not yet exist. Therefore the one who might earn it did not exist, and yet he was made. He was not made like the cattle, nor made like the tree, nor made like the rock. But he was made to the image of the Creator. Who gave this benefit? God, who existed and existed from eternity. To whom did he give it? To man, who did not yet exist. He gave who existed, he received who did not exist. And who could do this except the one who calls the things that are not as though they were (Rom 4:17)? Of whom the Apostle says: Who chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). He chose us before the foundation of the world: we were made in this world, nor did the world exist when we were chosen. Ineffable wonders, my brothers. Who would be able to unfold this? Who could even think of what he might unfold? Those who do not exist are chosen. Neither does he who chooses err, nor does he choose in vain. Yet he chooses, and has chosen ones, whom he is about to create to be chosen. But he has them with himself, not in their nature, but in his foreknowledge.

5 Therefore do not be exalted. We are men. He made us. We are faithful—if indeed we are, when we dispute these things against grace—but see, we are faithful. Even faithful, even just—because the just man lives by faith (Rom 1:17)—he made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). I ask what he made us. You will say, "Men." The psalm was not speaking of that. That we know, that is known, that is plain. Nor do we need great learning to know this, that he himself made us men. But see what it was speaking of: He made us, and not we ourselves. What did he make us, except what we are? But what are we? We—see what we are. What? His people, and the sheep of his pasture. He himself made us his people, he himself made us the sheep of his pasture. He who sent the innocent sheep to be slaughtered made sheep out of wolves. This is grace. Apart from that common grace of nature by which we were made men, who were not and were not worthy because we were not—apart from that grace, this is the greater grace by which we were made his people and the sheep of his pasture, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6 But someone will say: "Were we made through Jesus Christ even to be men too?" Indeed so; through Jesus Christ the pagans too were made. Not as pagans—not that they should be pagans, but that they should be men—they were made through Jesus Christ. For who is Jesus Christ, except in the beginning the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him (John 1:1-3)? To him, then, the pagans too owe it that they were created men, and they are to be punished all the more, because they forsook the one by whom they were made and worshipped the things they themselves made.

7 Apart, then, from that grace by which human nature was founded—for this is common to Christians and pagans—this is the greater grace, not that we were created men through the Word, but that through the Word made flesh we were made faithful. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5); in the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). The man Christ Jesus did not yet exist, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). The world itself did not exist, when God the Word existed. All things were made through him (John 1:3), and the world was made through him. Therefore, at the time when he made us to be men, he was not yet a man. The Apostle commends this grace the more to Christians where he says: For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men. He did not say "Christ Jesus," lest you should think it said according to the Word, but he added man: the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). What is a mediator? One through whom we might be joined, through whom we might be reconciled, because, separated by our own sins, we lay in death, we had utterly perished. Christ was not man when man was created. That man might not perish, he was made man.

8 These things I say to you against a new heresy that tries to rise up, so that we are often compelled to dispute, because we want you to be firm in good but untouched by evil. For this is their argument, when they first began to arise and to dispute against grace, attributing much not to man's liberty but to his weakness, and exalting the wretched man lying prostrate in such a way that he cannot rise by a hand stretched out to him from above. Disputing, then, against grace on behalf of free choice, they gave offense to pious and catholic ears. They began to be regarded with horror, they began to be avoided as a sure ruin. It began to be said of them that they disputed against grace. And to relieve this odium they invented such a device. "I do not," he says, "dispute against grace." How do you prove it? "By this very thing," he says, "that I defend free choice—that I do not dispute against the grace of God." See the sharpness, but it is glassy. It shines, as it were, with vanity, but is shattered by truth. Attend to how sharply, as it were, was thought out what they wished to say. "By this very thing," he says, "that I defend the free choice of man, and say that free choice is sufficient that I should be just, I do not say it without the grace of God." The ears of the devout are roused. Now whoever hears this begins to rejoice: "Thanks be to God! He does not defend free choice without the grace of God. For there is free choice, but it avails nothing without the grace of God. If, then, they defend free choice not without the grace of God, what evil do they say?" Explain to us, then, O teacher, what grace you mean. "When I say," he says, "man's free choice, see that I say man's." What then? "Who created man? God. Who gave him free choice? God. If, then, God created man, and God granted man free choice, whatever man can do by free choice, to whose grace is it owed, except to him who founded him with free choice?" And this is said, as it were, sharply by them.

9 See, however, my brothers, how they preach that general grace by which man was created, by which we are men. And surely we are men even along with the impious, but we are not Christians along with the impious. This grace, then, by which we are Christians—this is what we want them to preach, this is what we want them to acknowledge, this is the grace of which the Apostle says: I do not make void the grace of God. For if justice is through the law, then Christ died for nothing (Gal 2:21). See whence the Apostle said it. He said it of the law: If justice is through the law, then Christ died for nothing. Because, then, justice was not from the law, therefore Christ died, that by faith those might be justified who would not be justified by the law. For if a law had been given that could make alive, he says, justice would altogether be from the law—which we recalled even yesterday—but Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise—promise, not prediction; the one who promised himself does it—that the promise, he says, by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to believers (Gal 3:21-22). See what sort of men the grace of the Savior found us, whom not even the law could make healthy. But why was the law given, if nature was sufficient? Why was the law given, if nature was sufficient? And yet not even the law could suffice, so weak was nature itself. The law was given, but not one that could make alive. Why, then, was it given? The law, says the Apostle, was given for the sake of transgression (Gal 3:19). It was set down for the sake of transgression, to make you a transgressor. "Why, to make me a transgressor?" Because God knew your pride. He knew that you were saying: "Oh, that there were someone to teach me, oh, that there were someone to show me!" See, the law says to you: You shall not covet (Exod 20:17). You have come to know the law saying, You shall not covet. Concupiscence, which you did not know, rose up. For it was within, but it was not known. You began to strive to overcome what was within, and what was hidden appeared. Proud man, through the law you have been made a transgressor. Acknowledge grace and be a praiser.

10 "But who gave the law?" you say. For there are vain men, and, worse, impious men, who say that the law was given by another, but grace through our Lord Jesus Christ; as though the law were evil, the law perverse, but grace upright. And they want to distinguish the two Testaments in such a way that they say the old Testament is from some prince of darkness or other, but the new Testament from the Lord God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Paul himself. If you think the law was given by another, not by God, because through it you were made a transgressor, hear the Apostle himself, the praiser of the law. And so, he says, the law is holy, and the commandment holy. Add: and just. Add further: and good. Did then what is good, he says, become death to me? Far be it! But sin, that it might appear as sin (Rom 7:12-13). For there was sin, but the sin lay hidden. When did the sin lie hidden? When it did not yet endure you as its adversary. You began to strive, and the one who held you appeared. While you followed, you did not feel the chain. You sought a refuge, and the bond appeared. You wanted to flee, and you began to be dragged. Because, then, you began to be dragged, let the one who is not bound come to your aid. Who is not bound, except the one who said: If you have found sin in me, tell me (See John 8:46)? Who is not bound, except the one who said: Behold, the prince of the world comes, and in me he will find nothing (John 14:30)? Why should he kill me—he will find nothing, because death is justly owed to sin. Why, then, do you die? That all may know, he says, that I do the will of my Father (John 14:31). He himself looses, who is not bound. He himself frees from the dead, who is free among the dead (Ps 88:5 (87:6)).

11 But he himself also sent the law. Through his servant the law, through himself grace. Attend to Elisha, in a great and lofty mystery, acting as a prophet who foretells, not only by speaking. The son of his hostess had died. What did the dead boy signify, except Adam? It was announced to the holy prophet, who bore in his prophecy a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent his staff through his servant, and said to him: Go, go, lay it upon the dead boy (See 2 Kgs 4:29). The servant went, like an obedient servant. The prophet knew what he had done. He laid the staff upon the dead, and he did not rise. For if a law had been given that could make alive, justice would altogether be from the law (Gal 3:21). The law, then, could not make alive. He himself came, the great to the small, the savior to save, the living to the dead. He himself came. And what did he do? He drew in his limbs to a youthful size, as it were emptying himself to take the form of a servant. He drew in his limbs to a youthful size, fitted himself small to the small, that he might make the body of our lowliness conformed to the body of his glory. And so in this type of Christ prophetically expressed the dead boy was raised, as the impious is justified.

12 Let this grace be preached. This is the grace of Christians, through the man the Mediator, through the one who suffered and was raised, who ascended into heaven and led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. This grace, I say, let it be preached. Against this grace let it not be disputed by the ungrateful. The prophetic staff did not suffice for the dead. Would dead nature itself suffice? And let us confess to be grace even that by which we were founded—though we have hardly read it called by this name—yet, because it was given freely, let us confess it grace. But let us show you that this grace is greater, by which we are Christians. Attend. Before we were founded, we merited nothing good, and therefore it is grace by which we were founded, since we merited nothing good. If, then, the grace is great when we merited nothing good, how great is the grace when we merited only evil? He who did not yet exist did not merit good; a sinner, he merited evil too. He who was made did not yet exist. He did not yet exist, but neither had he offended. He did not yet exist, and was made; he offended, and is saved. He who did not yet exist hoped for nothing, and was made. But fallen, he awaited damnation, and was freed. This is grace through Jesus Christ our Lord (See Rom 7:25). He himself made us, and before we existed at all he himself made us, and made and fallen he himself made us just, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). If, then, there is any new creature in Christ (See 2 Cor 5:17), the old has fallen, the new has been made.

13 There was one mass of perdition from Adam, to which nothing but punishment was owed. From it vessels were made unto honor, from the same mass. For the potter has power over the clay, from the same mass. From what mass? Surely it had already perished, surely a just damnation was already owed to that mass. Be glad that you have escaped. For you have escaped the death that was owed, and found the life that was not owed. The potter has power over the clay to make from the same mass one vessel unto honor, another unto dishonor (Rom 9:21). But you say: "Why did he make me unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" What shall I answer? Are you going to hear Augustine, you who do not hear the Apostle saying: O man, who are you that you should answer back to God? (Rom 9:20) Two little ones are born. If you ask what is owed, the mass of perdition holds them both. But why does a mother carry one to grace, and a sleeping mother smother the other? You will say to me: what did the one merit who was carried to grace, what did the one merit whom the mother smothers by sleeping? Both merited nothing good. But the potter has power over the clay to make from the same mass one vessel unto honor, another unto dishonor (Rom 9:21). Do you want to dispute with me? Rather, marvel with me, and cry out with me: O the depth of the riches! (Rom 11:33) Let us both be terrified, let us both cry out: O the depth of the riches! Let us both agree in dread, lest we perish in error. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! (Rom 11:33) Search out the unsearchable, do the impossible, corrupt the incorruptible, see the invisible.

14 His judgments are unsearchable (Rom 11:33). You have heard, let it suffice you. And his ways past tracing out. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, that it should be repaid to him? (Rom 11:33-35) Who has first given, when he received the whole freely? Who has first given to him, that it should be repaid to him? If the Lord wished to repay, he would repay nothing but the owed punishment. They gave nothing, that it should be repaid to them. For nothing you will save them (Ps 56:7 (55:8)). Who has first given to him, as it were on account of his own merits? Who has first given to him, who has gone before the grace that is given freely? If any merits go before grace, it is no longer given freely, but rendered as a debt. But if it is not given freely, why is it called grace? Who, then, has first given to him, that it should be repaid to him? For from him and through him and in him are all things (Rom 11:35-36). What, surely, except all the good things we received from him, and received that we might be good? For every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change (Jas 1:17). For you were changed for the worse. With whom there is no change, he himself comes to your aid. With whom there is not even a shadow of a moment, for you lie in the darkness of your own night. From him, then, are all things. No one has first given him anything, let no one demand a debt. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8).

15 "But it troubles me," you say, "that one perishes, another is baptized. It troubles me, it troubles me as a man." If you want to hear the truth, it troubles me too, because I am a man. But if you too are a man, and I am a man, let us both hear the one who says: O man! Surely, if we are troubled because we are men, the Apostle addresses human nature itself, weak and feeble, saying: O man, who are you that you should answer back to God? Does the thing molded say to the one who molded it: Why have you made me so? (Rom 9:20) If a beast could speak, and said to God, "Why did you make this one a man, and me a beast?" you would not justly be angered and say, "O beast, who are you that you should answer back to God?" You too are a man, but to God you are a beast. And would that you were his beast and the sheep of his pasture. Acknowledge the benefits of the shepherd, and you will not follow the wolves of error. We were wolves. We too were by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Eph 2:3). But a sheep died, and made us sheep. Behold the Lamb of God, behold the one who takes away the sin—not of this one or that one, but of the world (John 1:29). Therefore, my brothers, from the fact that we are something—if indeed we are something in his faith—however much we are, let us claim nothing for ourselves, lest we lose even what we received. But in what we received, let us give glory to him, let us honor him, let him water his own seeds. What would our earth have, unless he had sown it? But he also gives rain. He does not desert what he sowed. The Lord will give sweetness, and our earth will give its fruit (Ps 85:12 (84:13)). Let us turn to the Lord, and so on.

1 Just as a door brings one into a house, so the title of a psalm brings one into the understanding of it. For it is headed thus: When the house was being built after the captivity (See Ps 96 (95) title). You ask what house; the psalm now indicates it to you: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 96:1 (95:1)). See what house. When all the earth sings a new song, it is the house of God. By singing it is built, by believing it is founded, by hoping it is raised, by loving it is perfected. Now, then, it is being built, but at the end of the world it is dedicated. Let the living stones, then, run together to the new song, let them run together and be fitted into the structure of the temple of God. Let them acknowledge the Savior, let them receive the indweller.

2 It has been said what house. It is to be said after what captivity. And this too the psalm indicates to you. Follow a little: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, proclaim well from day to day his salvation. Announce among the nations his wonders, among all peoples his glory (Ps 96:1-3 (95:1-3)). For all the gods of the nations are demons (Ps 96:5 (95:5)). See under whom the house lay captive. For from the first transgression of the first man, the whole human race, born with the obligation of sin, the victorious devil possessed. For if we were not held in captivity, we would not need a Redeemer. He came to the captives, not captive himself. He came to redeem the captives, having in himself nothing of captivity—that is, of iniquity—but bearing our price in mortal flesh. For if he did not have mortal flesh, whence in the Word would there be blood, which he might shed for the captives? But he who came to our captivity came with the likeness of sinful flesh, not with sinful flesh. For it was the likeness of sinful flesh: true flesh, but like sinful flesh; true flesh, but not the flesh of sin. He, then, who came thus, who was he? Proclaim well from day to day (Ps 96:2 (95:2)). See who he was. He was from day to day, he was God from God, he was light from light. But the Word became flesh, that he might dwell among us: majesty lying hidden, weakness appearing, that the weakness might die and the majesty be held.

3 If, then, the whole world was held in captivity, it was well said: I will have mercy on whom I have been merciful, and I will show mercy to whom I have had pity (Rom 9:15; Exod 33:19). For if the whole world was under captivity, the whole world in sin, the whole world most justly destined to punishment, but in part freed through mercy, who would say to God, "Why do you condemn the world?" How is the judge God accused, when the guilty world is condemned? You are guilty. If you consider what you owe, it is called punishment, and when what is owed is exacted from you, the exactor is not justly reproached. Let the exactor be reproached, if he exacts what is not owed. But when he exacts what is owed, who would reproach the exactor, however much he awaits a forgiver? He has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say therefore to me: Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? O man, who are you that you should answer back to God? (Rom 9:18-20) Attend to who he is. Attend to who you are. He is God, you a man. But do you seem to yourself to speak justice, and is that fountain of justice dried up? If you speak what is just, whence is it to you? Either you speak what is unjust, and you ought to be silent; or you speak what is just, and you have it only from the fountain of justice. And who is the fountain of justice, except God? First, then, lay the foundation of faith: Is there iniquity with God? (Rom 9:14) Equity can lie hidden from you; iniquity cannot be there.

4 You expect from me, perhaps, that I should tell you why he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. Do you expect this from me, a man? If you too are a man and I am a man, we have both heard: O man, who are you that you should answer back to God? (Rom 9:20) Better, then, is a faithful ignorance than a rash knowledge. God says to me, through the Apostle Christ speaks: O man, who are you that you should answer back to God? And shall I be indignant because I do not know the justice of God? If I am a man, let me not be indignant. Let me go beyond man, if I can, and reach the fountain. But even if I reach it, I will not tell a man. Let him too go beyond, and reach it with me. "And who is it," you say, "that a man should go beyond man?" Does not the Apostle then reproach certain men and say: For when you say: I am of Paul, I of Apollos, are you not men? (1 Cor 3:4) What did he want them to be, whom he reproached for being men? You are a man, you belong to Adam. Belong to the Son of man.

5 And perhaps he says to you: Now I will not call you servants, but friends; because what I heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). But he said this to the disciples, to those apostles, to them he said this. We ought not to be saddened that we are not yet such. And yet how did he say even to them: All that I heard from my Father I have made known to you? I think he said this in hope, not yet in reality. I think it of what he was going to do, not of what he had already done. And whence is it proved, since he says, I have made known to you, and does not say, I will make known to you? Because certain things are said in the Scriptures of the past which are to be understood of the future. How are they said of the past, when they are to be understood of the future? They pierced, he says, my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones (Ps 22:16-17 (21:17-18)). It had not yet been done, and what was to come was announced as done. He saved us through the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). But in another place he himself says: In hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24). In hope we were saved, we say only of the past. And since in hope we were saved, not yet in reality, what we hope for is still to come. For we already see it and hold it. But not yet the reality, only hope. For what a man sees, he says, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it with patience (Rom 8:24-25). And yet we were saved, and yet we still hope for and await salvation, we do not yet hold it. So too the Lord to the disciples: All that I heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). If this was already done, why does he say in another place to them: I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12)? Surely, all that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. But when he says, You cannot bear them now, and says, I have things to say to you, he defers, he does not take away. On account of the sure hope, then, because without doubt he knew that he was going to do it, with him it was reckoned as done. And therefore he was saying: I have made known to you.

6 As long, then, as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). As much as is given us, let us hold to faith, let us not doubt of the justice of God. Let us not at all believe that there is iniquity with him, lest we come into a great abyss of impiety. And when with perfect faith we have held that there is no iniquity with him, even if we do not now see it—that is, the equity that is with him—the way will be finished and we will come to the homeland. It cannot be seen in the time of faith; it will be seen in the time of sight. For now we walk by faith, then by sight. What is "by sight"? Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44:3)), because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). He who loves me, he says, keeps my commandments, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him (John 14:21). And what will you give him? And I will show myself to him (John 14:21). This will be the sight, when he does what he said: And I will show myself to him. There you will see the equity of God, there without a codex you will read in the Word. Therefore, when we see him as he is (1 John 3:2), our pilgrimage will pass. And afterward we will rejoice with the joy of the angels. For these things are on the way. What is the way? Faith. On account of your faith Christ became deformed, but Christ remains beautiful. Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, he will be seen after the pilgrimage. But now, in faith, how is he seen? And we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness, but his face was abject, and deformed his condition—this is his strength—despised and deformed his condition, a man set among blows, and knowing how to bear weaknesses (See Isa 53:2-3). The deformity of Christ forms you. For if he had not been willing to be deformed, you would not have received the form you lost. He hung, then, on the cross, deformed, but his deformity was our beauty. In this life, then, let us hold to the deformed Christ. What is "the deformed Christ"? Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14). This is the deformity of Christ. Did I say I knew anything among you, except the way? This is the way, to believe in the crucified. The sign of this deformity we carry on the forehead. Let us not be ashamed of this deformity of Christ. Let us hold to this way, and we will arrive at the sight. When we have arrived at the sight, we will see the equity of God. And then there will be no saying: "Why did he come to the aid of this one, and not this one? Why was this one led by the governance of God to be baptized, while that one, though he lived well as a catechumen, died by a sudden collapse and did not reach baptism? But that one, though he lived wickedly—a libertine, an adulterer, an actor, a hunter—fell sick, was baptized, departed, the sin in him was convicted, the sin in him was blotted out?" Seek merits, you will find nothing but punishment. Seek grace: O the depth of the riches! (Rom 11:33) Peter denies, the thief believes. O the depth of the riches!

7 Do you think we can search out what the blessed Apostle dreaded? And when, gazing on so great a profundity and height, he trembled, he cried out: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! (Rom 11:33) For what had he said before, that he should come to this exclamation? He had said something where, if it is not believed of God that there is no iniquity with God, God will be judged unjust. He was speaking to the gentiles, he was speaking to the faithful, about the Jews: As you, he says, did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy through their unbelief, so these too have not believed in your mercy, that they too may obtain mercy. For God shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all (Rom 11:30-32). This Paul said afterward. And what is this account of the equity and justice of God, to shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all? You ask the account, I dread the height. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! You reason, I will marvel. You dispute, I will believe. I see the height, I do not reach the depth. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! (Rom 11:33) Perhaps he is going to explain? For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, that it should be repaid to him? For from him and through him and in him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever (Rom 11:34-36). He rested, because he found—because he found wonder. Let no one ask of me the account of hidden things. He says: His judgments are unsearchable, and have you come to search them out? He says: His ways are past tracing out, and have you come to trace them? If you have come to search out the unsearchable, and come to trace the untraceable, believe, for you have perished. To wish to search out the unsearchable and to trace the untraceable is like wishing to see the invisible and to speak the unspeakable. Therefore let the house be built. When it has come to its dedication, then perhaps it will find the most open account of these hidden things.

1 Of all the divine utterances, let us rather, with the Lord's help, discourse on this, which we heard last: Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice (Ps 105:3 (104:3)). For opportunely we are also fasting in our bellies. Our heart will rejoice, if we hunger in our minds. When some pleasant things are set on our table, the throats of those who seek food rejoice. When things variously colored and pleasingly painted are set before our sight, the eyes of those who seek to see something luminous rejoice; the ears of those who seek song rejoice; the smell of those who seek a pleasant odor rejoices. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

2 Without doubt, the several things that are presented to our several senses delight the several senses. For neither does sound delight the sight, nor color the hearing. But to our heart the Lord is both light and voice and odor and food. And therefore he is all things, because he is none of these. <And therefore he is none> of these, because he is the creator of all these. He is light to our heart, to whom we say: In your light we shall see light (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). He is sound to our heart, to whom we say: To my hearing you will give exultation and gladness (Ps 51:8 (50:10)). He is odor to our heart, of whom it is said: We are the good odor of Christ (2 Cor 2:15). But if you seek food, because you have fasted: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice (Matt 5:6). And of the Lord Jesus Christ himself it is said that he became for us justice and wisdom (1 Cor 1:30). See, the banquet is prepared. Christ is justice; he is nowhere lacking; he is not prepared for us by cooks, nor is he brought by merchants from regions overseas like foreign fruits. He is a food that everyone perceives who has the healthy throat of the inner man. He is a food who, commending himself, says: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51). He is a food that restores and does not fail; a food that, when taken, is not consumed; a food that satisfies the hungry and remains whole. When you depart from here to your tables, you will eat nothing of the sort. Because, then, you have gathered for this banquet, eat well. But when you go away, digest well. For he eats well and digests badly who hears the word of God and does not do it. For he does not draw out the useful juice, but, raw, belches up disgust from indigestion.

3 And do not marvel that our hearts so feast that they are both restored and do not diminish that from which they are restored. To our bodily eyes God has given such a food. For this light is food for the eyes; by it our eyes are fed, and if anyone is long in darkness, they fail as though by fasting. For men have lost their eyes by sitting in darkness, though nothing rushed into the eyes, nor did anyone strike them, nor did any foreign moisture flow in, nor dust, nor smoke. A man is brought out after darkness, and does not see what he used to see. His eyes have died of hunger; by not taking their food—that is, light—they failed. See, then, what I proposed, what sort of food is the food of our eyes. This light is seen by all, it feeds the eyes of all. And the sight of the one who sees is restored, and the light remains whole. If two see, it remains as great; if more see, it remains the same. Let the rich man see, let the poor man see, it is equal to all. No one sets boundaries in it. The want of the poor is filled, the avarice of the rich is at a loss. For does he who has more see more? Or, by producing gold, does he forestall the poor man, and buy for himself what he may see, so that the other may not have it? If, then, such is the food for our eyes, what is God himself to our minds?

4 A certain food of the ears too is sound. And what is it like? For from these sensible things of the body let us conjecture the intelligible things of the mind. See, I speak to your Charity. Ears are present, minds are present. I have named two things: ears and minds. And in what I speak there are two things: sound and meaning. They are carried together, they reach the ear together. The sound remains in the ear, the meaning descends into the heart. But about the sound itself let us first observe how much more excellently we ought to love the meaning. The sound is, as it were, body; the meaning is, as it were, soul. But the sound, as soon as it has struck the air and touched the ear, passes, and is not recalled, and no longer sounds. For the syllables so succeed one another, going before and following, that the second does not sound unless the first has passed. Yet, transitory though it is, it has a great miracle. For see, if I set out loaves before you while hungry, the whole would not reach each one. You would divide among yourselves what I had set out, and the more of you there were, the less you would have. But now I utter a sermon. You do not divide the words and syllables among yourselves, nor cut up my sermon, that one should take this part, another that, and so, piecemeal and bit by bit, what I say should reach each one. But one hears the whole, two hear the whole, more hear the whole, and however many come, they hear the whole. And it suffices for all and is whole for each. Your ear is prepared for hearing, and the neighboring ear of another does not defraud it. If this happens with a sounding word, what happens with the almighty Word? For just as this voice of ours is whole to the ears of all who hear, each one, and is whole with each one, and there are not as many voices of mine as there are ears of yours, but one voice fills many ears, not divided but whole to all, so think of the Word of God: wholly in the heavens, wholly on earth, wholly in the angels, wholly with the Father, wholly with the Virgin, wholly in eternity, wholly in the flesh, wholly in the underworld when he visited it, wholly in paradise to which he transferred the thief. These things I have said about sound.

5 What if I say something about meaning? And how much less is it than the Word of God? For see, I utter a sound. But when I have uttered it, I do not recall it. But if I want to be heard, I utter another sound, and when that has passed, I utter another, or silence follows. But the meaning I both utter to you and keep with me. And you find what you heard, and I do not lose what I said. See how true these things are, and let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice (Ps 105:3 (104:3)). For the Lord is that principal truth itself. The meaning, then, remaining in my heart, migrates to yours, and does not desert mine. Yet when the meaning is within my heart, and I want it to be also within your heart, I seek by what way it may pass over to you, as a kind of vehicle—the sound. And I take up the sound, and as it were place the meaning upon it, and utter it, and bring it forth, and teach, and do not lose it. If my meaning could do this with my voice, could the Word of God not do it with his flesh? For see, the Word of God, God with God, the Wisdom of God remaining unchangeably with the Father, that he might come forth to us, sought the flesh as a kind of sound, inserted himself into it, and came forth to us, and did not withdraw from the Father. Understand, savor what you have heard. Think how great and of what sort it is, and have higher thoughts of God. He surpasses all light, surpasses all sound, surpasses all meaning. He is to be longed for, and we are to gape for him with love, that the heart of those who seek the Lord may rejoice (Ps 105:3 (104:3)).

God alone is truthful, but every man a liar, as it is written (Rom 3:4). Therefore, if God is truthful and alone truthful, but every man a liar, whence will a man be truthful, unless he draws near to the one who is not a liar? Finally, it is said to men: You were once darkness (Eph 5:8); see, every man a liar. But to God it is said: With you is the fountain of life, in your light we shall see light (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). And because God alone is truthful, for God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5); men are darkness, God is light; man is a liar, God is truthful. When will a man be truthful? Draw near to him and be enlightened (Ps 34:5 (33:6)). This, then, Scripture wished to show: that every man, absolutely every man, as far as pertains to the man himself, is a liar. For he is a liar only from what is his own, nor has he anything of his own except that he is a liar—not because he cannot be truthful, but because he will not be truthful from what is his own. Therefore, that he may be truthful: I believed, and for that reason I have spoken (Ps 116:10 (115:1); 2 Cor 4:13). Take away from him I believed: every man a liar. For when he has withdrawn from the truth of God, he will remain in his own lie, since he who speaks a lie speaks from what is his own (John 8:44). Say, then: What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? (Ps 116:12 (115:3)) For in my dread I said, and I said truly: every man a liar (Ps 116:11 (115:2)). But he rendered to me, not punishment for my lie, but good for evil, and by justifying the impious he made a truthful man out of a liar.

1 We have been admonished, and it has been commanded us by the Spirit of God, that we should confess to the Lord. And the reason given for confessing to the Lord is, because he is good (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). What is most profoundly considered is briefly said. Confess, it says, to the Lord. And as though we asked, "Why?" the answer is given: Because he is good. What more do you seek, or if you seek anything else, than the good? So great is the force of the good that even the evil seek the good. But the other things that are called good have it from some good that they are good. But if we ask from whom all good things have it that they are good, let us recall: And God made all things, and behold they were very good (Gen 1:31). Nothing, then, would be good, unless it were made by the good. And by what kind of good? One whom no one made. Nothing, then, would be good, unless it were made by a good that was not made. Heaven is good, but made good; the angels are good, but made good; the stars are good, the sun and moon, the alternation of night and day, the changes of seasons, the rolling of the ages, the course of years, the buds of trees and herbs, the natures of animals, and among all these the creature that gives praise, man. All are good, but made good. And good from God, not from themselves. He who made these things is good above all things, because no one made him good, but he is good of himself. Yet he is good not for himself alone, but for us too. Confess, then, to the Lord, because he is good.

2 Confession is either of one praising or of one doing penance. For there are some little instructed who, when they hear of confession in the Scriptures, as though it could not be except of sins, at once beat their breasts, as if they were already being warned to confess sins. But that your Charity may know that confession does not pertain to sins alone, let us hear the one of whom we cannot doubt that he had no sin at all, crying out and saying: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matt 11:25). Who said this? He who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet 2:22). He who alone could most truly say: Behold, the prince of the world comes, and in me he will find nothing (John 14:30). And yet he confesses. But this confessor is a praiser, not a sinner. Finally, hear what he confesses. Hear the praises, and that praise itself is our salvation. For what does the Son without sin confess to God the Father? I confess, he says, to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones (Matt 11:25). He commended this praise of the Father, that he hid these things from the wise and prudent—that is, the proud and arrogant—and revealed them to little ones—that is, the weak and humble.

3 But it is also true that there is a salutary confession of sins. Whence we heard in the psalm that was read first: Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, and a door of restraint about my lips, that you may not incline my heart to evil words, to make excuses for sins (Ps 141:3-4 (140:3-4)). He asks God to give a guard to his mouth. And of what thing he expounds and says. For there are men who greatly abound, who, when they begin to be accused, run to excuse themselves. But to excuse is to seek causes, and to knit together pretexts, why the sin may seem not to pertain to you. One says, "The devil did it to me"; another says, "Fortune did it to me"; another, "I was driven by fate"—no one lays it on himself. When you want to be your own excuser, your accuser triumphs over you. Do you want, then, to do what would grieve and make your accuser groan—that is, the devil? Do what you have heard, do what you have learned, and say to your God: I said, O Lord, be gracious to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). I, he says, I said it, not the devil, not fortune, not fate. I said it: I do not excuse myself, but accuse myself. I said: be gracious to me, heal my soul. For whence is it sick? Because I have sinned against you.

4 Confess, then, to the Lord, because he is good (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). If you want to praise, what do you praise more securely than the good? If you want to praise, if you want to have the confession of praise, what do you praise more securely than the good? If you want to confess your sins, to whom more safely than to the good? To a man, since he is evil, you confess and are condemned. To God, since he is good, you confess and are purified. If you attend to the confession of praise, whatever you are about to praise abundantly, your intention is occupied about this, to show that what you praise is good. For good things are rightly praised, as evil things are rightly blamed. Briefly has the praise of your Lord been told you: He is good. If you too are good, praise that from which you are good; if you are evil, praise that from which you may be good. For if you are good, you are good from him; if you are evil, you are evil from yourself. Flee from yourself and come to him who made you, because by fleeing yourself you follow yourself, and by following yourself you cling to him who made you.

5 How many good things you seek, O evil man! Surely you are evil. Tell me what you want, except the good? You seek a horse, only a good one; you seek an estate, only a good one; you seek a house, only a good one; you seek a wife, only a good one; a tunic, only a good one; a boot, only a good one. Your soul alone evil! Are you not contrary to yourself, who seek good things while you are evil? If you seek good things, first be yourself what you seek. But if, evil, you have found many good things, what does it profit you, since you yourself have perished? Love your souls when they are good; hate your souls when they are evil. But by loving him from whom is every good, you will be good. Hating your evils, choose the good things.

6 What is it to hate your evils? By doing penance to confess your sins. For everyone who does penance and by doing penance confesses his sins is angry at himself, and in a way, by doing penance, takes vengeance on himself for what displeases him. For God hates sin. If you too hate in yourself what God hates, then by some willing you are joined to God, while you hate in yourself what God too hates. Rage against yourself, that God may intercede for you and not condemn you. For sin without doubt must be punished. This is owed to sin: punishment, condemnation. Sin must be punished, either by you or by him. If it is punished by you, then it will be punished without you; but if it is not punished by you, it is punished together with you. Confess, then, to the Lord, because he is good (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). Praise as much as you can, love as much as you can: Pour out your hearts before him; God is our helper, because he is good (See Ps 62:8 (61:9); 118:1 (117:1)).

1 Confess to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). What the Holy Spirit exhorted us in the words of the psalm, to which with one mouth and one heart we answered alleluia, which in Latin is rendered praise the Lord, this the same Holy Spirit exhorts you also through our voice: Confess to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever. Whether you sing his gifts in praise, or pour out your sins in groaning, confess to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever. For not only the recollection of our sins, but also the praise of our Lord, is called confession, because, even if we do one of these, we do not do it without the other. For we both accuse our iniquity with hope of his mercy, and praise his mercy with the recollection of our iniquity. Let us confess, then, to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever. To some, some creature seems evil, because it offends the senses of the unskilled. But it is false. For God made all things very good, because he is good. To some, God seems unjust, because often his faithful suffer many hard and harsh things in this temporal life. But those to whom this seems are deceived. For he scourges every son, not whom he rejects, but whom he receives (Heb 12:6), because his mercy is forever.

2 Let us confess, then, to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). Let us say to the Lord our God: Wonderful are your works, in wisdom you have made them all (Ps 104:24 (103:24)). Just are your judgments, for iniquity you have instructed man. Before I was humbled, I sinned (See Ps 119:67 (118:67)). Let us say these things in confession, because, if some things are adverse to the punishment of our mortality, yet he does good, because he is good. And if we are amended by temporal pains and labors, he will not be angry to the end, nor be indignant forever (Ps 103:9 (102:9)), because his mercy is forever. What is so good as our God? Men blaspheme, and not only are not humbled, but even take pride in their crimes. And he makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). What is so merciful as our God? Men persevere in their disgraceful and criminal deeds, and he does not cease to call them to conversion. What is so good as our God, from whom even in distress we receive such great consolations? What is so merciful as our God, even whose future sentence we, being changed, change? Let us confess to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever. Not the praises of all things are confessions, but the praises of the Lord our God. For if it was most truly said, How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart (Ps 73:1 (72:1)), surely he seems evil to the perverse in heart. But what man becomes upright except from being perverse, so that, as though convicted, he begins to praise what before he reproached, and to marvel at what before he despised, confessing to the Lord, that to him now upright the one is good who seemed evil to him when perverse? And since by his own malice he was perverse, but by God's grace he has been corrected, he ought at the same time to confess that his mercy is forever. We evil, he good; we good from him, evil from ourselves; he good to us when good, he good to us when evil. We raging against ourselves, he merciful toward us. He calls that we may be converted; he waits until we are converted; he forgives if we are converted; he crowns if we do not turn away.

3 Let us confess to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). The confession even of sins has always seemed something to be feared by men, but before a human judge. For very often it is by scourges and various beatings, by claws and fires too, that a confession is dragged out of the mouth. And sometimes the limbs yield to the torments before the mind yields to the pains, so that the frame of the body is dissolved before the secret of the crime is brought to light. The executioners press on, all kinds of torments multiply. But in vain are the inner parts opened by lacerating, when the conscience is shut by denying. But why does a man, amid such torments, fear to confess, except that those who confess are usually punished? He who confesses to a man is punished; he who confesses to God is freed. And no wonder. A man asks of a man what the one who asks does not know. But God, who warns us to confess, knows what we did not want to confess, nor does he then learn it when we have confessed. How much more, then, does he free those who confess from eternal death, who spared us from temporal death for our iniquities, which he knew even before we confessed them.

4 You say perhaps: "What does God ask of me, that I should confess what he already knows? For a man, when he asks this of a man, does not know it." What do you think, except that God wills your sin, by your acknowledging it, to be punished, and by his forgiving it, to be loosed? For how do you long for him to forgive what you do not want to acknowledge? Hear the psalm, and if you are awake, recognize there your own voice: My sin, it says, I made known, and my crime 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 32:5 (31:5)). Hear in another psalm: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my offense is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5)). And so not shamelessly did he say to God: Turn your face away from my sins (Ps 51:9 (50:11)). For then God deigns to turn his face away from a man's sin, when the man himself takes care to turn his face toward his own sin, so that in the ears of God he may say: And my sin is ever before me. Nor is God said to turn his face away because he does not know it, but because he forgives it. If, then, you fear, O man, to confess to a human judge, because he is evil, or because he is compelled to fulfill the severity of the law, confess securely to the Lord, because he is good, because his mercy is forever.

1 Without doubt, brothers, a certain heavy burden and a heavy yoke of iniquity he desired to avoid, who said to God: Direct my steps according to your word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me (Ps 119:133 (118:133)). Let us see, then, when iniquity has dominion over a man, that we may understand whom we have heard praying, and what we ourselves too have prayed in responding. For all of us, as I judge, with a devout and true heart responded to the holy psalm, praying and saying to the Lord our God: Direct my steps according to your word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. From the dominion of this most wicked mistress we have been redeemed by precious blood. And what did it profit to have received a law that commands and threatens but does not help, so that under it we were guilty before the grace of God? In vain the law threatens, when iniquity has dominion. For the law is not corporeal, not carnal. But since God, who gave the law, is spirit, without doubt the law is spiritual. But what does the Apostle say? For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom 7:14). Do not marvel, then, O you sold under sin, if the one to whom you have been sold has dominion over you. Hear the apostle John: Sin is iniquity (1 John 3:4). Against such a mistress, then, we call upon the Lord, when we say: Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

2 The one who was sold cries out; let the redeemer hear. Man himself sold himself, through free choice, under the dominion of iniquity, and received as his price a slight pleasure from the forbidden tree. He himself, then, cries out: Direct my paths, which I have made crooked; direct my steps, which I myself by my own choice have depraved. Direct them according to your word. What is direct them according to your word? That my steps may be straight, because your word is straight. "I," he says, "have been made crooked under the weight of iniquity, but your word is the rule of truth. Therefore correct me, who am crooked, as by a rule—that is, by the straight word. Direct then my steps according to your word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. I have sold myself, redeem me. I have sold myself by my own choice, redeem me with your blood." In the seller let pride blush, in the redeemer let grace glory. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5).

3 For the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I work I do not know; for I do not do what I want (Rom 7:14-15). I do not do what I want, the carnal man says. He accuses not the law but himself. For the spiritual law has no fault. The carnal man, sold, falls into fault. He does not do what he wants. When he wants to, he cannot, because when he was able, he was unwilling. By willing evil, he lost the ability to do good. And now the captive speaks, and the captive says: I do not do what I want. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate, this I do (Rom 7:15-19). Not what I want. And against this a man says: "You do indeed want." I do not do what I want. "You do altogether what you want." I do not do what I want. Believe me, my brother, I do not do what I want. "Oh, if you wanted, you would do it; because you do not want, you do not do the good." I do not do what I want. Believe me, my brother, I know what is done in me: I do not do what I want. You who contradict grace are no judge of my conscience. I know myself, that I do not do what I want, and you say, "You do what you want"? No one knows what is done in a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him (1 Cor 2:11).

4 And you are a man. If you will not believe me, attend to yourself. Do you so live in this corruptible body, which weighs down the soul, that the flesh does not lust against your spirit, and the spirit against the flesh? Is that quarrel not in you? Is there no concupiscence of the flesh in you that resists the law of the mind? If nothing in you resists the other, see where the whole of it is. If your spirit does not dissent from the flesh that lusts against it, see whether perhaps your mind wholly consents to the flesh; see whether perhaps there is no war for this reason, that the peace is perverse. Perhaps you wholly consent to the flesh, and there is no quarrel. What hope have you that you can ever conquer, you who have not yet begun to fight? But if you delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but see another law in your members fighting against the law of your mind—if in this you delight, by this you are bound, free in mind, a servant in flesh—if it is now so, have compassion rather on the man who says, I do not do what I want (Rom 7:15). For do you not want that concupiscence which resists your mind to be wholly absent from you? You are a man of evil wish, if you do not want to be rid of such an adversary. I confess to you that whatever in me rebels against my mind and quarrels with me with a contrary delight—whatever of the sort is in me—I want to kill it utterly. And if perhaps, with the Lord's help, I do not consent to it, I do not want to have one to quarrel with. It is far more desirable to me not to have an enemy than to conquer one. For not even that very thing, that the flesh lusts against the spirit—is it not mine? Or am I really compounded of a contrary nature? Both that is mine, and that I do not consent to it is mine. The free part somewhat resists the remnants of slavery. I want the whole to be healthy, because I am the whole. I do not want my flesh to be separated from me forever, as though foreign, but to be wholly healed with me. If you do not want this, I do not know what you think of the flesh. I judge you to think it comes from I-know-not-where, as though from a contrary race. That is false, it is heretical, it is blasphemous: of mind and of flesh there is one craftsman. He himself, when he created man, made both, joined both. He made the flesh subject to the soul, the soul to himself. If this latter always stood under its Lord, the former too would always obey its mistress. Do not marvel, then, if the soul which deserted the higher suffers punishment through the lower. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these, he says, are opposed to one another, so that you do not do the things you want (Gal 5:17). Hence this man too: I do not do what I want (Rom 7:15). For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and I do not want it to lust. I count it a great thing if I do not consent; yet I long to be rid of it. Therefore, I do not do what I want. For I want the flesh not to lust against the spirit, and I cannot. This is what I said: I do not do what I want.

5 Why do you bring a false charge against me? I say, I do not do what I want, and you say, "You do what you want." Why do you bring a false charge against me? Ungrateful to the physician, why do you bring a false charge against the sick man? Allow me to ask the physician. Redeem me from the false charges of men, and I will keep your commandments (Ps 119:134 (118:134)). I will keep them through your redemption, not through my own power. Therefore I do not claim for myself the health I do not yet have, because I ask the physician. But you, defender of nature—would that you were such, that you did not apply a false defense as to a healthy nature, but asked the physician for one not yet healthy—but now you, defender of nature, or rather assailant, while you praise the Creator as though for a healthy nature, shut out the Savior from the sick. He who created heals the one falling through itself, raises it up through himself. This is faith itself, this is truth, this is the foundation of the Christian faith. One and one. One man through whom ruin, another man through whom the structure. Through that one ruin, through this one the structure. He fell who did not abide; he raises up who did not fall. He fell because he forsook the one who abides; the one who abides came down to the one lying prostrate.

6 If, then, the flesh lusts against the spirit, so that in this very thing you do not do what you want—because you want it not to lust and you cannot—at least hold on, by the grace of the Lord, to the will, and persevere in his help. Say to him what you sing: Direct my steps according to your word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me (Ps 119:133 (118:133)). What is Let not any iniquity have dominion over me? Hear the Apostle: Let not sin reign in your mortal body (Rom 6:12). What is reign? So as to obey its desires. He did not say, "Do not have evil desires." For how in this mortal flesh, where the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, shall I not have evil desires? Do this, then: Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so as to obey its desires. And if there are desires, let them not be obeyed, lest iniquity have dominion. Nor present your members as weapons of iniquity to sin (Rom 6:13). Let not your members become weapons of iniquity, and no iniquity will have dominion over you. But this too, that your members not become weapons of iniquity—do you furnish it to yourself by your own powers? This very thing, I say, this very thing, that your members do not become weapons of iniquity—do you furnish it to yourself by your own powers? For when your members do not become weapons of iniquity, there is indeed iniquity in your members, in illicit desires, but it does not reign. How does it reign, when it has no weapons? Your part, your flesh, the concupiscence of your flesh, rebels against you in weakness. This weakness is a tyrant. If you want to be the conqueror of the tyrant, call upon Christ as your commander.

7 For I know what you were going to say to me, or what you now say within yourself. Whoever you are who are such here and hear me, I know what iniquity says to you within. For you are still under the yoke of iniquity, when you do not acknowledge the price of the Redeemer. I know what you say to yourself: "See, my flesh lusts against my spirit. It lusts after adultery, but I do not consent, I do not assent, I do not decide for it. Not only do I not do it, but I do not even consent to do it. Not only do I not perpetrate it outwardly through the flesh, but I do not even follow the rebelling flesh in my very mind. Do I consent to what fights me, do I yield to what struggles? I do not. See, no iniquity has dominion over me." Is it so? Is it true? Give thanks, if it is so, to the one who granted you that it should be so. Do not claim this for yourself, lest you lose what you received and begin to ask in vain. Do you not fear: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5)?

8 Do you, then, furnish to yourself that iniquity not have dominion over you? If this presumption of yours is true, our prayer is vain, in which we said to God: Let not any iniquity have dominion over me (Ps 119:133 (118:133)). Did you sing these words today, or not? Were you here when we all said: Direct my steps according to your word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me? You were here, you sang these words, I think you will not deny it. Therefore you sang among the people of God and asked God, saying: Direct my paths according to your word, let not any iniquity have dominion over me. If you furnished this to yourself, why did you ask along with me? I hold you praying, I hold you calling upon him, I convict you laboring. Let us, then, hear together the one who says: Come to me, all you who labor (Matt 11:28). Let us hear and come. What is "let us come"? Let us advance by believing, let us draw near by giving thanks, let us arrive by persevering. Let us come to the one who says: Come to me, all you who labor. You labor, and I labor. Let us hear him, let us come to him. Why do we quarrel between ourselves? Let us both hear, because we both labor. Why do we quarrel between ourselves? Is it that we may not hear the physician who calls? O unhappy weakness! The physician calls to himself, and the sick man is occupied with quarrels. See what he says in calling: Come to me, all you who labor. Where do you labor, except under the burdens of sins, except under the yoke of the evil mistress iniquity? Come, then, to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt 11:28). I who made you, I will refresh you. I, he says, will refresh you, because without me you can do nothing (John 15:5).

9 How will I refresh you? Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me (Matt 11:29). What do we learn from you? We know you, Lord, in the beginning the Word, the Word God, the Word with God: we know all things made through you, both what we see and what we do not see. What do we learn from you? For we, your disciples, are not, like the disciples of a craftsman and builder, going to found another world. You founded one world, you made heaven and earth, you adorned both with their creatures and ornaments. What do we learn from you? Learn, he says, from me. When I was in the beginning God with God, I created you. This I do not want you to learn from me. But I became what I made, lest the one I made should perish. Whence did I become what I made? He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man, he humbled himself (Phil 2:7-8). This learn from me. For he humbled himself, he says. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Matt 11:29). For I do not teach you this, he says, as though you had ever been in the form of God, not counting it robbery to be equal to God. To that one alone was it proper; to him it was no robbery, to whom it was nature. In the equality of the Father he was born of the Father. Yet what did he do for your sake? He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man (Phil 2:7). See, for your sake God was made man, and will you not acknowledge yourself, when you are a man? See, for your sake he was made a man without sin, and will you not acknowledge yourself, when you are with sin? That you may come to the one who says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you; take my yoke upon you (Matt 11:28-29).

10 Have you taken up this yoke? Have you? Have you felt that you have a rider? Have you taken up this yoke? You say, "I have taken it up." Do you feel that you have a rider? Do you feel that you have a guide? "I feel it," you say. Then say to him: Direct my steps according to your word (Ps 119:133 (118:133)). He guides you under his yoke and under his burden. For that his burden may be light to you and his yoke sweet, he has breathed love into you. To the one who loves it is sweet; to the one who does not love it is hard. To the one who loves it is sweet: The Lord gave sweetness (Ps 85:12 (84:13)). Or perhaps, because you came hearing Come to me, do you intend to claim this very thing for yourself, that you came? "See," you say, "I came to him by my own choice, by my own will. Because I came, he refreshes me. Because I came, he lays his sweet yoke upon me. Because he gives love, he lays his burden light upon me, loving and cherishing it. All these things he did in me, but because I came to him." So then you suppose that, because you came, you furnished this to yourself? For what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7) How did you come? By believing you came, but you have not yet arrived. We are still on the way. We came, but have not yet arrived. Serve the Lord in fear, and exult before him with trembling, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way (Ps 2:11-12). Fear lest, when you claim for yourself that the just way was found by you, by that very arrogance you perish from the just way. "I," he says, "came; by my own choice I came, by my own will I came." Why do you swell up? Why do you puff up? Do you want to know that this too was furnished to you? Hear him calling: No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him (John 6:44). Let us turn to the Lord.

1 The psalm that is sung to the Lord seems to suit the holy martyrs, but if we are members of Christ, as we ought to be, let us understand that it pertains to us all: Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming, they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:5-6 (125:5-6)). Going where, and coming whence? Sowing what in tears? What are the seeds? What the sheaves? Going into death, coming from death. Going by being born, coming by rising again. Sowing good works, reaping the eternal reward. The seeds, then, are ours, whatever good we do; our sheaves, what we will receive in the end. If, then, the seeds are good, the good works, why with tears, since God loves a cheerful giver?

2 Here first see, dearly beloved, how these words pertain especially to the blessed martyrs. For none spent so much as those who spent themselves, as the apostle Paul says: And I myself will be spent for your souls (2 Cor 12:15). For they spent themselves, by confessing Christ, and by fulfilling, with his help, what was said: You have sat at a great table; know that you must prepare such things (Prov 23:1). What is the great table, except that from which we receive the body and blood of Christ? What is Know that you must prepare such things, except what blessed John expounds: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (1 John 3:16)? See how much they spent. But did they perish, when from the Lord they received security even concerning a hair? Does a hand perish, where a hair does not perish? Does a head perish, where a hair does not perish? Where an eyelid does not perish, does the eye perish? Having received, then, this great security, they spent themselves. Let us, then, sow with good works while there is time, the Apostle saying: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Tirelessly, he says, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but most of all toward those of the household of faith (2 Cor 9:6; Gal 6:10). And again: In doing good, he says, let us not fail; for in its own time we will reap (Gal 6:9). He who fails in the sowing will not rejoice in the harvest.

3 Why, then, in tears, since all our good works ought to have cheerfulness? And indeed of the martyrs it can be said that they sowed in tears. For they fought bravely, and were in great tribulations. For that Christ might console their tears, he transferred them and transfigured them into himself and said: My soul is sorrowful unto death (Matt 26:38). Yet, my brothers, it seems to me that our Head had compassion on his weaker members, lest perhaps the weak members should despair of themselves, and, as human frailty is, be disturbed at the approach of death, and say that they did not belong to God—for if they belonged, they would rejoice. Therefore Christ first said: My soul is sorrowful unto death. Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me (Matt 26:38-39). Who says this? What power, what weakness? Hear who says it: I have power to lay down my soul and I have power to take it up again. No one will take it from me, but I lay it down and take it up again (John 10:18). This power was sorrowful, when it did what it would not do unless it willed. For he did it by power, not by condition, because he himself willed it, not because the Jew was able. He transfigured into himself, then, the weak members of his body. And perhaps of them it was said: Those who sow in tears will reap in joy (Ps 126:5 (125:5))—that is, of the weaker. For that great herald of Christ was not sowing in tears when he said: For I am now being offered, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest there remains for me a crown of justice (2 Tim 4:6-8)—a crown from the sheaves. There remains for me, he says, a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me on that day. As if to say: He will render me the harvest, to whom I expend myself as the sowing. These words, as far as we understand, brothers, are of one exulting, not of one weeping. Was he in tears when he said these things? Was he not like the cheerful giver, whom God loves? Let us, then, refer these words to the weak, that even those who sowed in tears may not despair, because, even if they sowed in tears, the grief and groaning will pass. Sadness passes with an end, and gladness comes without end.

4 Yet, dearly beloved, see how it seems to me that what was said pertains to all: Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming, they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:5-6 (125:5-6)). Hear, if with the Lord's help I am able to explain how it pertains to all: Going, they went and wept. From the time we are born, we go. For who stands still? Who, from the time he entered life, is not forced to walk? The infant is born, and by growing he walks. Death is the end. To the end we must come, but with exultation. For who does not weep here on this evil road, when the infant himself begins from there? Surely the infant, when he is born, is poured out from the narrowness of the womb into the breadth of this world, comes forth from darkness to light. And yet, coming from darkness to light, he can weep, he cannot laugh. For such is this life, that when one rejoices here, fear lest it deceive. When one weeps here, pray that you may escape. And tribulation passes, and tribulation comes. And men laugh, and men weep. And what men laugh at is to be wept over. But one weeps over his loss, another weeps over his distress because he is set in prison, another weeps because he has lost some one of his dearest, now dead. One for this, one for that. The just man, for what? First, for all these things. For the just man truly weeps over those who weep barrenly. He weeps over those who weep, he weeps over those who laugh, because both those who weep over vain things weep emptily, and those who laugh over vain things laugh to their own harm. He weeps everywhere; therefore he himself weeps the more.

5 But they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). You see, then, that the just man, when he does a good work, is cheerful. Yes, plainly he grows cheerful. For God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7). When, then, does he weep? When by praying he commends his good works. The prayers of the saints the psalm wished to commend, the prayers of pilgrims, the prayers of those laboring on this road, the prayers of those who love, the prayers of those who groan, the prayers of those who sigh for the eternal homeland, until they are satisfied by seeing it, who now are set in mourning. For indeed, my brothers, as long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord (2 Cor 5:6). The pilgrimage does not long for the homeland without a tear. If you long for what you do not have, pour out tears. For whence will you say to God: You have set my tears in your sight (See Ps 56:8 (55:9))? Whence will you say to God: My tears have become my bread day and night (Ps 42:3 (41:4))? They have become my bread: they have consoled me groaning, they have fed me hungering. My tears have become my bread day and night. Whence? While it is said to me daily: Where is your God? (Ps 42:3 (41:4)) What just man did not have these tears? He who did not have them did not grieve that he was a pilgrim. With what face does he come to the homeland who, absent, did not sigh? Is it not said to us daily: Where is your God? Learn, my brothers, learn to be among the few. Live well, walk the way of God, and see that you hear: Where is your God? You will be happy when you hear this, unhappy if you say it. For when we defend the Christian faith and it is answered us, "See, the name of Christ is preached everywhere, why do evils abound?" what else is said but: Where is your God? He who hears it groans, because he who says it perishes.

6 There are the tears of the devout, there are the tears of the saints, which their prayers indicate. He works well, and is cheerful. And he weeps that he may work well, he weeps because he has worked well. By weeping he demands the good work, by weeping he commends the good work he has done. Frequent, then, are the tears of the just, but on this road. Surely not in the homeland? Why not in the homeland? Because coming, they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). Happiness comes; surely the tear does not return? But moreover those who here weep emptily, laugh emptily, scattered by their desires, when they are cheated they groan, when they cheat they exult. They too weep on this road, they too weep, but not in exultation. But coming, they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves. What do they gather, who sowed nothing? Rather they do gather, but what they sowed. Because they sowed thorns, they gather fire, and they go, not from weeping to laughter like the saints: Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds, but coming, they will come in exultation—but those, from weeping to weeping, from weeping mixed with laughter to weeping without laughter. For what will happen to them? Where do they go when they have risen again? What, except what the Lord said: Bind their hands and feet, and cast them into the outer darkness (Matt 22:13)? Come, what then? Will there be darkness and no pain? Will they perhaps grope but not suffer? Will they not see, but not be tormented? Far be it. There will not be darkness only; not only is the sight taken from them in which they rejoiced, but they are also given something over which to groan forever. For lest you should despise darkness, O whoever you are, you disgraceful man, who are accustomed, on account of your evil deeds and your lascivious adulteries, not only not to dread darkness but to seek it, who are accustomed to rejoice the more when the lamp is put out—you will not have such darkness there to rejoice in, where you may take delight, where you may regale yourself with the pleasures of the flesh. The darkness itself will not be so. But how will it be? There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 22:13). The torturer without ceasing, the tortured without ceasing. Neither is the one who tortures wearied, nor does the one who is tortured die. There will be, then, eternal tears for those who have lived so. There will be eternal joys for the saints, when coming, they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves. For at the time of harvest they will say to their Lord: "Lord, with your help we did what you commanded; render what you promised."

1 God and our Lord, caring for and healing every sickness of the soul, has brought forth many medicines from the holy Scriptures, as from certain cabinets of his own, when the divine readings were read. These are to be applied through our ministry to our wounds. For we do not profess to be the boys of the physician through whom he deigns to heal others in such a way that we ourselves no longer need treatment. If we attend to him, if we offer ourselves to him with our whole heart to be cured, we shall all be healed. Many things have been read, both great and necessary. Although all are so, yet some things are hidden more secretly in the Scriptures to exercise those who seek, while others are set ready and in the open to cure those who long. This psalm contains great secrets indeed, which, if we wanted to treat all one by one, I fear our common weakness would not bear—whether on account of the heat of the season, or the body's strength, or slowness of understanding, or even on account of our own insufficient adequacy. We will therefore taste a few things from it, as much as we judge sufficient for our office and the attention of your Charity.

2 First, its title is: To Goliath (See Ps 144 (143) title (LXX)). Those who are not unskilled in the divine Scriptures, who love to frequent this school, who do not hate the teacher like hopeless boys, and offer an attentive ear in church to the readers, and open the receptacle of their heart to the stream of the divine Scripture, who do not, within these walls of their own house, busy themselves and delight in household tales, so that they gather for this purpose, to find people with whom to speak trifles, not people with whom to hear useful things, who do not love to talk of others' affairs when they have failed in their own—those, then, who do not gather thus, and gather frequently, are not unskilled in this title of the psalm. What is written, To Goliath, they know who Goliath was. Yet on account of others who are attentive now but at another time less attentive, or who perhaps, by the secular thorns—that is, the cares of worldly business—are accustomed to choke the word in their heart like a useful seed, let us narrate even these very old and familiar things to those attentive and devoted to the divine Scriptures.

3 Goliath was one of the Allophyles—that is, of the foreigners—who were waging war at that time against the children of Israel. At that time the holy David, whose this psalter is—or rather, through whom the Holy Spirit ministered this psalter—was a boy pasturing his father's sheep, of tender age, scarcely yet a youth. His brothers, already young men, were soldiers and were in the king's army. Sent by his parents, he brought them something from home for their use. So at that time, when the war was being waged, he was found in the army, not yet a soldier, but the minister and brother of soldiers. There appeared then this Goliath of whom mention was made, huge in stature of body, furnished with arms, trained too in strength, lifted up with boasting, who proudly challenged the adversary people to single combat—that is, that one chosen from them should come forth against him, so that, two fighting, the decision of the whole war should turn in the midst, with the pact and agreement added that, if either of those two conquered, the victory should be granted to the whole side on which he stood. The king of the people of the Jews, the children of Israel, was Saul. He was anguished, he burned, he sought in the whole army an equal to him. But he found none, neither in form of body nor in boldness of challenge. While he was burning, this boy David dared—not presuming on his own strength, but in the name of his God—to go forth against him. It was announced to the king, not with the boldness of boyhood, but with the confidence of devotion. Nor did the king refuse, he did not decline. He understood, when he saw the boy daring, that there was something of divinity in him, and that that tender age could not presume such things without divine prompting. He gladly accepted. He went forth against Goliath.

4 In all, then, who were on that side from which David went forth, there was no presumption except in God. But in those others all hope was in the strength of one man. But what is man, except what he sang in this psalm? Man has been likened to vanity; his days pass like a shadow (Ps 144:4 (143:4)). Therefore their hope was empty, placed in a passing shadow. But David was armed, so that, since he was unequal in age and strength, he might at least be equal in arms. But the old arms did not help so much as burden the new age. And to this pertains what the apostolic reading before the song of the psalm also prefigured, saying: Put off the old man and put on the new (Eph 4:22, 24). David did not want the oldness of the arms. He cast it off. He said it was burdensome, because it entangled him. Most unencumbered, he wished to go forth to battle, strong not in himself but in the Lord, armed not so much with iron as with faith.

5 Yet, having cast off the arms, he chose something with which to fight. And this not without a sacred sign. For you see, as it were, two lives—one in the foreigners, the old, the other in the Israelites, the new—fighting against each other. On that side the body of the devil, on this a prefiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took five stones from the torrent, from the river, and put them in the shepherd's vessel in which milk is usually milked. So he went forth armed. The five stones were the law; for the law is contained in the five books of Moses. And in that very law there are ten salutary precepts, which ten precepts the rest serve. The law, then, is prefigured by both the number five and the number ten. And therefore David fought with the number five, sang with the number ten, saying: On a psaltery of ten strings I will sing to you (Ps 144:9 (143:9)). Nor did he hurl all five stones, but took one. For in the number of stones he showed the number of the books, in the one stone the unity of those who fulfill the law. For unity itself fulfills the law—that is, love. Therefore those five stones were taken up from the river. What did the river signify at that time?

6 For the same things are not always signified in the Scriptures by fixed objects. And this your Holiness ought to know on account of the other rules, that you may listen as docile to the reader. The things set down allegorically in the Scriptures do not always signify this one thing. A mountain does not always signify the Lord, a stone does not always signify the Lord, a lion does not always signify the Lord, not always something good, not always something evil, but according to the places of the Scriptures, to which the rest of the surrounding context of that very reading pertains. Just as the letters in so many thousands of words and discourses are themselves repeated, not increased. Words are infinite, yet the letters are finite. No one can number words; anyone can number the letters from which comes the multitude of words. When one letter is set in various places, and is valid according to the place, it is not valid for one thing. What is so different a thing as God and the devil? Yet at the head there is the letter D when we say "Deus" [God], and when we say "diabolus" [devil]. Just as, then, a letter is valid according to the place, but he errs and is too absurd and within a childish heart who, when he has read, for example, the letter D in the name of God, fears to put it in the name of the devil, lest he do God an injury as it were—so too one who hears the divine Scriptures unskillfully (not to depart from this very example), when he hears, for example, a river set in allegory in the place where it is said, The rush of the river makes glad the city of God (Ps 46:4 (45:5))—now this was said of the flood of the Holy Spirit, of which in another place the prophet says: They will be inebriated by the abundance of your house, and you will give them to drink from the torrent of your delight (Ps 36:8 (35:9))—when, then, he has taken the river in a good sense and praised it and been delighted by it, when, according to the place, it is told him that the river signifies men who flow and are given over to temporal things, passing away with the love of passing things, he is dismayed. Because in another place he had taken the river to signify something in a good sense, he is disturbed. So he becomes mute in the Scriptures, just as one is made mute in letters if he refuses to transfer those letters to other words, but holds them only in those words in which he first learned them.

7 If your Holiness has grasped this, a thing most useful, as we judge, has been told you, one that may help you much, not only to hear our treatments, but even to understand the Scriptures themselves, of which we treat these things for you. The river, then, from which David took the five stones at that time, did not signify anything good at that time. I know indeed that it can occur to some that the river signified something good too, as if someone wanted to understand baptism, so that the stones taken up from baptism—that is, baptized men—are most strong against the devil, who was signified by Goliath. Yet on account of the number five the reasoning holds for us, because we had said that the law is signified by the number five, on account of the five books of Moses. What does it signify that they were taken from the river and put in the shepherd's vessel? We have already said: at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the devil might truly be conquered, the law passes over to grace. What signifies grace so well as an abundance of milk? But those stones were taken up from the river. The river signified a flowing people, given over to temporal things, loving passing things, and running down with the rush of desire into the sea of this world, such as was the old people of the Jews. They had received the law, but they trod the law underfoot and passed over the law and were borne into the sea, as a river over those stones. For those stones had not made a boundary for the river, so as to halt the river. For if it were so, they would signify the restraint of the law, and those who, when they had begun to flow with their pleasures and desires, on coming to the precepts of the law, halt and curb the rush of their lusts. But those stones were not so, but were in the river, over which the water passed. As the transgressing people passed over the law. Thence, then, the Lord took the law over to grace—that is, took it from the river and put it in the shepherd's vessel.

8 Whoever, then, wants to fulfill the law, let him think on grace. Therefore those ten precepts of the psaltery of ten strings are the very ones that were in that old people, but the ten precepts oppressed that people with fear. For in them there was not love, which is through grace, but there was fear. The precepts of the Lord were penal to that people, because they could not be fulfilled by love. They tried, but were overcome by desire. When, then, anyone has made the passage to grace, he fulfills not other precepts, but those same ones that could not be fulfilled by this fear are fulfilled by this love. Yet it is not the force of the precepts, but the force of the grace of God. For if it were of the precepts of the law, the law too would fulfill them. He who passes over to Christ passes from fear to love, and begins now to be able, by love, to do what by fear he could not. And he who trembled in fear does not tremble in love. This he sings on the ten precepts, because David signifies the man who passes over to grace when he says, On a psaltery of ten strings I will sing to you (Ps 144:9 (143:9))—now to sing on the precepts, that is, to fulfill the precepts cheerfully.

9 And that you may know, brothers, that grace fulfills this, no one ought to presume on his own strength. For this is to presume on the grace of God. For God calls you and commands that you act, but he himself gives the strength, that what he commands may be able to be fulfilled. But by you a receptive faith must be applied, that by the flood of grace you may humble yourself, supplicate God, presume nothing of yourself, despoil yourself of Goliath, put on David. To this pertains what is said in the same psalm, which we had already begun to recall: What is man? (Ps 144:3 (143:3)) For this warns man not to presume of himself. Now see how he chants against Goliath, who presumed of himself; and he commends to you David, who, weak among men, was most strong in God. What is man? And he says what man is: That you have made yourself known to him (See Ps 144:3 (143:3)). This is the whole man, if God becomes known to him. But if God does not become known to him, man is nothing. What is the man to whom God has not become known? Man has been likened to vanity; his days pass like a shadow (Ps 144:4 (143:4)). Therefore, What is man, that you have made yourself known to him; and the son of man, that you esteem him? (Ps 144:3 (143:3)) What is you esteem him? It pleased you to choose him and to set him in some higher and more eminent place. This is of your mercy, not of his merits.

10 Seek what is man's own, you will find sin. Seek what is man's own, you will find a lie. Take away sin, and whatever you consider in man is God's. Let man, then, not love what is his own. To this too can pertain what the Apostle says: Let no one seek what is his own (1 Cor 10:24). For sometimes men hear that from the readers, and are built up to carry off what belongs to others. It matters who says to you, "Do not seek what is your own." For sometimes it is said by an evil persuader, sometimes it is said by a good teacher. God is a good teacher. When, then, you hear from God, "Do not seek what is your own," do not take it as it is usually said. It is something good of which God warns you. As we were saying, seek what is yours, you will find sin. Do not, then, seek sin, and you do not seek what is yours. Do not seek a lie, and you do not seek what is yours. For truth is from God, the lie from you.

11 And if the devil sometimes suggests something, he holds the one who consents, he does not force the unwilling. For he does not seduce or drag anyone, except one whom he has found already in some part like himself. For he finds him desiring something, and the desire opens the door to the entering suggestion of the devil. He finds him fearing something, and warns him to flee what he found him fearing. He warns him to obtain what he found him desiring. And through these two doors of desire and fear he enters. Shut them, and you fulfill that saying of the Apostle in today's reading: Do not give place to the devil (Eph 4:27). For there the Apostle wished to show that, although the devil enters and takes possession, yet the man gave him place that he might be able to enter.

12 Therefore, because man is nothing to whom God has not become known and whom God does not esteem, he gives him his grace, finding in him what to condemn and granting all things to the one who confesses, that he may crown the one who believes. For what did the Lord find in men when he came, except what to condemn? Altogether, brothers, consider and see: whether in that people of the Israelites or in the gentiles, he found nothing except what to condemn. And therefore he wished to come to sinners as humble, not as judge, when he spares them, so that first he might dispense mercy by forgiving sins, and so afterward render severity by punishing sins. Let us not abuse—that is, not use badly—his mercy, and we shall not feel his severity. This, then, is the whole of man: that God becomes known to him, that he gives him his grace, in which David presumed. But Goliath, proud of himself, of his own strength, lifted up, puffed up, first placed the whole victory of his entire side in himself alone. And because all pride has shamelessness of forehead, by the stone coming into his very forehead he was thrown down. The forehead that had the shamelessness of his pride was emptied, and the forehead that had the humility of the cross of Christ conquered.

13 Therefore we too carry that very sign of the cross on the forehead. Who understands it? This I say, brothers, because many do it and refuse to understand it. God seeks a doer of his signs, not a painter. If you carry on your forehead the sign of the humility of Christ, carry in your heart the imitation of the humility of Christ. But we said, brothers, that the one who opens to the devil the doors of desire or fear gives place to him. But desire of what, or fear of what? For we both desire the kingdom of heaven and fear hell. But just as those doors—desire of temporal things and fear of temporal punishments—often drag toward wickedness and give place to the devil, so desire of eternal things and fear of eternal punishments makes place in the heart for the word of God.

14 Briefly, then, brothers: if we want to live well, let us love what God promises more than what this world promises. And let us fear what God threatens more than what this world threatens. Is what we have said anything great or long? A temptation to some fraud comes to you. You want to commit a fraud to acquire money. God promises the everlasting kingdom of heaven to those who commit no fraud. Desire for money conquers you. For who is there who does not want the kingdom of heaven? But to want earthly things more, this is to sin; to want present things more, not to believe what is to come; to want more what man sees and not to long for what God promises—when what man sees can even be taken from his eyes, can be lost even when possessed, but what God promises cannot for now be seen by the eye of the flesh, and when anyone has arrived at God's promises he does not fear lest he lose them, because no one is more powerful than the one who gave them. And so, brothers, cling by love to the promises of God, and the desires of the world will not overcome you.

15 Again a temptation of fear comes. Someone says to you: "Speak false testimony for me." First he promises. But when he has not deceived—if perhaps you set the promises of God before the promises of men—desire does not conquer. Through threatening he tempts and begins to threaten horrible things. He is perhaps powerful in the city, powerful in the world. He seems able to do what he threatens. The fear of a present evil conquers you—an evil that God could surely turn away from you, if this seemed to him to profit you; and if he were unwilling to turn it away, you ought to understand that he would not permit it to happen to you unless he knew that this too profited you. The same God turned away the fire from the three boys. Was God changed because he did not turn away the sword from the martyrs? The same God was the God of the three boys who was the God of the Maccabees. Those escaped the fire, those were tormented by fire. Yet both conquered in the eternal God. For neither were the former delighted by this temporal life, nor were the latter broken by temporal threats.

16 And so do not fear the man who threatens you. For what is man? He has been likened to vanity; his days pass like a shadow (Ps 144:4 (143:4)). Either he will not harm you, and that shadow will pass before his sting could pass to you; for God is powerful (See Ps 144:5 (143:5)). Or, if he is permitted to harm, he will harm for a time your shadow—that is, your transitory thing, your temporal life, your old life. For until the very end of death we carry something of the old man. He can harm your temporal life; your eternal life no one can take from you. He will take from you the impediments by which you are held here. And you will cling to God, to whom you had already bound yourself in love, with hope sent ahead.

17 Therefore in the psalms it is most elegantly said of the evil man: Like a sharp razor you have wrought deceit (Ps 52:2 (51:4)). Thus the Spirit of God insults him. What does it observe in the razor? Not that men can be killed by a razor, but for what purpose the razor was made. It was made to shave hairs. What is so superfluous in the body as hairs? With what eagerness, with what zeal, with what care, with what attention it is sharpened, to shave a hair. So too the evil man draws himself aside, thinks, rethinks, devises, lays fraud upon fraud, seeks a machination, prepares ministers, procures false witnesses, sharpens the razor. What will he do to the just man, except shave off the superfluous?

18 And so, brothers, if you want to be ready to follow the will of God—what we say to you, we say first to ourselves, or rather he who securely speaks says it to all—if we want to be ready to follow the will of God, let us not love these things that pass away, let us not think that to be happiness itself which is called such in this world. For this is what those foreigners thought. They placed all happiness in temporal things, all sweetness in a shadow, not in light itself, not in truth itself. Indeed, in this psalm, which is to Goliath, attend to the latter parts of the psalm. With words altogether most lucid and with a most unknotted discourse that seeks no interpreter or expositor, but by the mercy of God they are so set down that no one may say, "See, this man said it as he wished, and interpreted it according to his own wit, took it as he wished"—they are so set down that no one may excuse himself. They are set down by David speaking—that is, by the new life, the life of Christ, the life given to us through Christ—insulting the old life, the old happiness of men, both those who place their hope in it and those who obtain it and rejoice in it.

19 For the just seem to labor in this world, and the unjust to live happily in this world. And as though God slept, neglecting human affairs, the latter are often lifted up by impunity, the former are often broken by weakness, and they think it profits them nothing that they live well, because they do not have those things in which sinners, criminals, and impious men seem to abound. And as long as they ask such things from God to be granted them as something great, so long they err. And one must beware lest they be given into the power of their own desire. For it is said: God gave them up to the desires of their heart (Rom 1:24; Ps 81:12 (80:13)). And God is more favorable when he does not hear, so as to grant, the one asking for superfluous and trifling things, but hears, so as to heal by not granting. For why men seek these things, who does not see? To consume them in their luxuries, in trifles, in the most insane spectacles—men seek from God to have these things.

20 Give me a man of the world; let him ask riches from God, let them be given, and see him follow innumerable snares of his death. From them he oppresses the poor man, the mortal man takes pride over the man his equal, he seeks empty honors from men. And to obtain them he puts on for them the games of wickedness, the games of evil desire. He buys games and bears, he gives his goods to beast-fighters, while Christ hungers in the poor. What need is there to say more, brothers? Consider yourselves what we pass over in silence—how many evils men do with superfluous things, when the increase of them has fallen to them. Is it not better, when a man is such that he could so use the abundance of present things, that God should take it from him, not give it to him? Is it not then mercy?

21 And he will say: "I have done well and have carried off nothing of another's, and you did not hear me. From what I have I give to the needy, I take from no one. From you I ask; do you give." As though he gives you an estate unless another loses an estate. If it were said to you, "Sell your estate," you shudder as at a curse, you think an injury has been done you. You keep hatred in your breast, because you heard this from a man, to sell your estate—as if you could buy unless another sells. And so, what you greatly desire to buy and wish to buy, if it is evil to sell, you seek evil for another. It is good to find a little bag of coins on the road, and when you have found it, you say, "God gave it to me"—as though you could find it unless another lost it. Why, then, do you not wish for the goods of those treasures, which all can possess with you without distress? You desire gold, desire justice. You cannot have gold unless another loses it. You both embrace justice, and you are both enlarged.

22 Let us return, then, to the psalm, that your Charity may understand that those are foreigners who think there is no happiness except the present. But do you judge yourself worthy that God should give these things to you too? Seek how you may use them. If he did not give them, know that it profits you that the good Father does not give them. Because your son too, when he weeps to have you give him a beautiful little knife with a gilded handle, let him weep as much as he wants, you do not give him that by which he may be hurt. Lord, deliver me from the hand of the sons of foreigners, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity (Ps 144:7-8 (143:7-8)). And he expounds what vanity he means, and what right hand. For by the right hand of iniquity he means the happiness of this world. Not that it is not found among the good, but the good, when they have it, have it in the left hand, not in the right. They have perpetual happiness in the right hand; they have temporal happiness in the left. But desire of eternal things and of eternal happiness ought not to be mixed with desire of temporal things—that is, of present and temporal happiness. And this is: Let not your left hand know what your right hand does (Matt 6:3). Therefore: Their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

23 Hear now how they have spoken vanity, and how they have the right hand of iniquity. Let us all hear; it profits you. Let us hear, lest you say you did not hear, because it was said to the servant: "You should give, and I would demand." And we said yesterday that we servants are the ones who give; there is another who demands. Our sisters, unwilling to hear, are as it were unwilling to endure the exactor. Without cause, my brothers, let no one flatter himself in this. It is one thing not to have received, another to have refused to receive. He who refuses the gift of God is held guilty of that very refusal. For just as it was said to the steward-servant, "Why did you not give?" so it will be said to the servant for whom the other was appointed to dispense, "Why did you not receive?" If there was no one to give, you will excuse yourself. But if the readers sound out, even when the treaters are silent—and everywhere the word of God is preached, and it is truly said: Their sound went out into all the earth (Ps 19:4 (18:5); Rom 10:18), and the heat of the word of God is spread everywhere, nor is there one who can hide himself from its heat (Ps 19:6 (18:7))—there will be nothing to say at the judgment of God. Brothers, let us hear and do. If we want to have hope, let us not excuse ourselves. Often a beggar asking for a single coin chants God's precepts to you at your door.

24 Let us hear, then: Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity (Ps 144:8 (143:8)). See the happiness of the world, in which those placed their hope who spoke vanity, and whose right hand is of iniquity. For thus he begins to say: Whose sons are like new plants firmly set (Ps 144:12 (143:12)). The happiness is permitted. He did not here say frauds, perjuries, robberies, crimes. He spoke of the happiness, as it were, of the innocent. And if this is to be despised, how are those to be lamented who even commit robberies, who commit frenzies, crimes, murders, adulteries, and the rest which even worldly happiness itself condemns?

25 See what sort of man he wants the man of the new life to be, what sort of man he wants the man who belongs to the shepherd's vessel, and to the grace of God, and to the milk by which we are nourished. Attend now: Whose sons are like new plants firmly set; their daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple (Ps 144:12 (143:12)). Perhaps for this reason the sisters were unwilling to hear. Let them hear, then, willing or unwilling, and learn to come to the Lord's house, not in the pride of Goliath but in the humility of David. For do these things need expounding? Are they obscure? Men speak vanity, and they are called foreigners. They do not belong to the inheritance of Christ, to the kingdom of the one to whom we say: Our Father. They are reckoned foreigners. And what happiness do they speak of? Their sons are like new plants firmly set, as it were shoot of shoot. "He has many sons, many grandsons; he is secure against the chances of death"—as though one chance does not often carry off thousands of men. Their sons are like new plants firmly set. See, suppose the sons are like new plants firmly set. Does not the fire of the woods sometimes consume even the new plants near the woods? Their daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple. Let us pass quickly from here. The modesty of women must be consulted. Let them rather, by having it, know what they have, which we blush to mention. Their daughters are adorned like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses full, overflowing from this into that (Ps 144:13 (143:13)), as we say of those who abound: "He has nowhere to put it, he does not know what he has." One storehouse is filled and the fruits overflow; possessions overflow, the storehouses overflow from this into that.

26 Their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth (Ps 144:13 (143:13)). Few enter; they give birth, and go out many: multiplying in their goings forth. Last year there were so many, this year there are so many. There is joy and exultation. Goliath swells, and proudly challenges to combat in this happiness: "Who can do anything against me? Who dares against me?" Do not men to whom these things abound say this, if not daily each one feels it in himself? He has something more than his neighbor. Does he not say: "Who can do anything against me? Or if this neighbor does me an injury, do I not show him?" See whether he is not Goliath challenging to combat. But David goes forth, naked of warlike arms, armed with a few stones. He will lay low all pride—that is, the just man; as the martyrs did, they laid low the unjust. And at the very time they seemed to be victors, they themselves were being conquered, when in them their leader the devil was overcome.

27 But attend to that happiness: Their sheep multiplying in their goings forth, their oxen fat. There is no fallen wall (Ps 144:13-14 (143:13-14)). For a fence is usually a wall. There is no fallen wall, nor breach. All whole, all perfect, all full. Nor outcry in their streets: no quarrels, no tumults. See what happiness, as it were, of the innocent he describes, lest anyone say to himself: "But he said this of those who carry off others' goods." Nothing was said here of this; elsewhere there is mention of such men. For it is plain that the criminal are to be punished. And from this they ought to understand what punishment awaits them, when anyone innocent, when he uses these things proudly and immoderately, is reprobated by God and reckoned among the sons of foreigners. For did not that rich man too seek others' fruits, to whom his region succeeded in fruits, and when he burned, having nowhere to gather his worldly fruits, and did not see the poor in whom he might treasure for himself in heaven: I will destroy, he said, my barns, and make new and larger ones, and fill them (Luke 12:18). From what, except his own fruits? And I will say to my soul: You have many goods, be satisfied. But God said to him: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you. The things you have prepared, whose will they be? (Luke 12:19-20) Just as, then, in the Gospel, brothers, a man rejoicing over temporal happiness was insulted—although his happiness was from his own field, not from others' robberies—so in this psalm temporal happiness is insulted, that the soul renewed and regenerated by the grace of the milk may learn to long for that perpetual and everlasting blessedness. Therefore see how he connects it: Whose sons are like new plants firmly set. Their daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses full, overflowing from this into that. Their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth; their oxen fat. There is no fallen wall, nor breach, nor outcry in their streets. They called the people blessed for whom these things are (Ps 144:12-15 (143:12-15)). But who called them so? Those whose mouth has spoken vanity. For above they were described.

28 But what do you say? For those called the people blessed for whom these things are. What do I say? Blessed the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:15 (143:15)). Therefore that is the blessed people which, in place of its sons and adorned daughters, in place of the fatness of oxen, the fruitfulness of sheep, the fullness of storehouses, the soundness of buildings, peace and freedom from quarrels and civil disputes—in place of all this happiness, wills to possess its God, that it may have him in place of all things who founded all things, and say: But for me to cling to God is good (Ps 73:28 (72:28)). Let it worship him freely. Let it worship him when he gives these things, and when he takes them away, and when he does not give them, and let it fear nothing so much as that he should take himself away. And so the Christian people, brothers, who say in their heart, "Let him take away whatever he wills, let him not take himself from me," blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself.

1 Since it is written: O God, I will sing a new song to you, on a psaltery of ten strings I will sing to you (Ps 144:9 (143:9)), by the psaltery of ten strings are understood the ten precepts of the law. But singing and playing are usually the business of lovers. For the old man is in fear, the new in love. So too we distinguish the two Testaments, the old and the new, which the Apostle says are prefigured allegorically even in the sons of Abraham, one of the slave woman, the other of the free: which are, he says, two Testaments (Gal 4:24). For slavery pertains to fear, freedom to love. For the Apostle says: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). John too says: Fear is not in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Love, then, sings the new song. For that servile fear, set in the old man, can indeed have a psaltery of ten strings—because to the carnal Jews too was given that very law of ten precepts—but it cannot sing the new song on it. For it is under the law and cannot fulfill the law. It carries the instrument itself, it does not play it, and is burdened by the psaltery, not adorned. But he who is under grace, not under the law, fulfills the law, because to him it is not a weight but an adornment, nor is it a torment to one who fears but an ornament to one who loves. For, kindled by the Spirit of love, he now sings the new song on the psaltery of ten strings.

2 For thus the Apostle says: For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love of the neighbor works no evil. But the fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:8-10). The Lord too, because he had said, I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17), therefore gave his disciples such a commandment, whence the law could be fulfilled by them: A new commandment, he says, I give you, that you love one another (John 13:34). No wonder, then, if the new commandment sings the new song, because, as has been said, the psaltery of ten strings is the ten precepts of the law, and the fullness of the law is love. But the Apostle wished to recall a few strings from it, that from them the rest might be understood, where he says: For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, and so on. For just as there are two precepts of love, on which the Lord says the whole Law and the Prophets depend, showing well enough that love is the fullness of the law, so those ten precepts were given on two tablets. Three indeed are said to be written on one tablet, and seven on the other. And just as those three pertain to the love of God, so the other seven are assigned to the love of the neighbor.

3 The first of those three is: Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness, whether of things in heaven above, or of things on earth below (Deut 6:4; Exod 20:4), and the rest by which he binds them to the worship of the one God, abandoning the fornication of idols. The second precept is: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exod 20:7). The third, concerning the observance of the sabbath. I believe that on account of the Trinity three precepts pertain to the love of God. For the unity of the Godhead has its beginning from the Father; hence the first precept speaks chiefly of the one God. But we are warned by the second precept not to think the Son of God a creature, if we should take him as unequal to the Father. For every creature, as the Apostle says, is subject to vanity (Rom 8:20). But there it is commanded not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain. Now indeed the gift of God, which is the Holy Spirit, promises everlasting rest, which is figured by the sabbath. Whence we observe the sabbath spiritually, if we do not do servile works. For from these the Jews too, by a carnal understanding, are forbidden on the sabbath. But that he wants servile works to be understood spiritually, let him hear the Lord saying: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). But sin is not only that which appears to men in a base or wicked deed, but even if it have the appearance of a good work, and yet be done for the sake of a temporal reward and not for the sake of everlasting rest. For whatever anyone does, if he does it with the intention of obtaining earthly gain, he does it slavishly, and therefore does not observe the sabbath. For God is to be loved freely, nor can the soul rest except in what it loves. But eternal rest is not given to it except in the love of God, who alone is eternal. And this is the perfect sanctification and the spiritual sabbath of sabbaths. Wherefore, since we are sanctified in the Holy Spirit, who is there who is not moved to understand a great sacred sign, that among the three precepts pertaining to God the third precept is concerning the sabbath? And among all the things which Scripture in the book of Genesis recalls that God made, it is not said there that he sanctified anything except the seventh day, which signifies the sabbath.

4 But of the seven precepts that are assigned to the love of the neighbor, the first is: Honor your father and your mother (Exod 20:12). The second: You shall not kill (Exod 20:13). The third: You shall not commit adultery (Exod 20:14). The fourth: You shall not steal (Exod 20:15). The fifth: You shall not bear false witness (Exod 20:16). The sixth: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife (Exod 20:17). The seventh: You shall not covet your neighbor's property (Exod 20:17). To this distribution the Apostle plainly attests where he says: Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment (Eph 6:2). For it is asked, and it is not found first in the whole Decalogue, because the first of the ten commandments is that in which it is commanded to worship the one God. And therefore what is written about honoring parents is on the other tablet, and it is first because from there begin the precepts that are referred to the love of the neighbor.

5 Let us, then, sing a new song, playing on the psaltery of ten strings. This is the new song, the grace of the new Testament, which distinguishes us from the old man, who was first made earthy from the earth. For he was made from mud, and, having lost blessedness, was justly cast into misery, since he had become a transgressor of the precept. But what does he say in the prophet who gives thanks to the grace of God, reconciling us to God through the remission of sins, and renewing the things past in their oldness? He led me up, he says, from the pit of misery and from the mire of the mud, and set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps, and put into my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God (Ps 40:2-3 (39:3-4)). This is the new song, which he plays on the psaltery of ten strings. For no one praises God—that is, says a hymn—unless he agrees with his mouth by his deeds, by loving God and neighbor. Nor let the rebaptizing Donatists think that they pertain to the new song. For they do not sing the new song, who, in proud impiety, have been cut off from the Church, which God willed to be in all the earth. For in another place the same prophet says: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 96:1 (95:1)). He, then, who does not want to sing with all the earth, not departing from the old man, does not sing the new song, nor play on the psaltery of ten strings, because he is an enemy of love, which alone is the fullness of the law, which we say is contained in the ten precepts pertaining to the love of God and neighbor.

1 Of the words of this psalm which we just sang, may the Lord grant that we be able to speak to you. For we said: I will praise the Lord in my life; I will sing to my God as long as I live (Ps 146:2 (145:2)). By these words let us first warn your Charity that, when you hear or say as long as I live, I will sing to my God, you not suppose that when this life is finished the praise of God will be finished for us. For we shall praise the more then, when we live without end. For if we praise in the pilgrimage from which we pass over, how shall we praise in the home from which we shall never migrate? As it is said and read and sung in another psalm: Blessed are those who dwell in your house; forever and ever they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). Where you hear forever and ever, there is no end. And to live the blessed life, where God is without doubt beheld, loved without offense, praised without end—this very thing will be our living: to see, to love, to praise God. If, then, we praise when we believe, how shall we praise when we shall see? How shall sight praise, if faith praises thus? For the Apostle says: For as long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). Now, then, by faith, then by sight. Now we believe what we do not see, then we shall see what we believed. He who believes is not confounded, because what he will see is true. But our Lord first built faith in us, where, if the reward of faith is rendered, it is not sought beforehand out of order.

2 Someone says: "Why, then, did the psalm say, I will sing to my God as long as I live, and not say, I will sing to my God forever?" For where it is said as long as I live, an end is, as it were, signified—but only if it is not understood. If you think it was said of this life, as long as I live, examine this life, whether here it is "long." However long you live here, it is not long. How is that long which does not satisfy you? A boy says a man has lived long whom he sees old. But when he has come to where that man has come, then he sees how it was not long. So utterly does age fly, so do the moments run by within it, that we see that the day before yesterday we were boys, yesterday young men, today old men. Where, then, you think it was said of this life, as long as I live, I will sing to my God, there is a truthful understanding that it was not said of this life, because he said as long as. For truth would never say as long as of this life, where nothing is long. The wise of this world were able to see this, and cannot Christians see it? A certain one of the wise of the world, a most eloquent man, said: For what is this very "long," in which there is something final? (See Cicero) He altogether denied that "long" which could at some time come to an end. Utterly at some time, not however long you have lived, if perhaps you have come to extreme old age. For the life of one man, especially in this age, is a vapor appearing for a little while (Jas 4:14). What I said, Scripture said. To men exulting, and prevailing in much through pride, and not knowing whether they will die at once, the divine Scripture spoke, and warned them, so proud and trusting in vain things, of their transitory frailty. For what is your life? it says. It is a vapor appearing for a little while, and then it will be done away (Jas 4:14). He, then, who raises himself in elation trusts in a vapor; he is lifted up in honor, and perishes with the vapor. Pride is therefore to be repressed, and trodden underfoot with all the effort we can. And we must understand that we live mortally on this earth, and we must think of the end where there will be no end. For not even if you, as I had begun to say, whoever you are who have grown old, are greatly lifted up, if you think you have lived long, you who will at some time come to an end—but even Adam himself, if he were still living, and were to die not now but at the end of the world, would have nothing long, in which there was something final. And it is most truly said, and prudently understood, and not only is it preached to be true, but it is even acknowledged by the hearers.

3 Let us bring our mind back to the psalm we sang, and find that he would not say, I will sing to my God as long as I live, except of that life where there is "long." For if in this life there is for this reason nothing long, because there is something final, we are not called, when we are made Christians, to long for this life. For we are not made Christians in order that it may be well with us in this life. For if we think we are therefore made Christians, that it should be well with us here according to this temporal life, according to flitting and vaporous happiness, we err greatly, and our feet will totter, seeing someone prevail in such dignity that he stands out above the rest with whom he lives, be sound in body, come to decrepit old age. The poor Christian sees this, the lowly one, sighing daily in groans at his labor, and perhaps says within himself: "What does it profit me that I have been made a Christian? Am I therefore better than the one who is not, than the one who does not believe in Christ, than the one who blasphemes my God?" The psalm warns him: Do not trust in princes (Ps 146:3 (145:3)). Why does the flower of the grass delight you? All flesh is grass (Isa 40:6)—the prophet speaks; not only speaks, but cries out. The Lord cried out to him: Cry out, he says. And he answered: What shall I cry out? All flesh is grass, and all the honor of the flesh is like the flower of grass. The grass withered, the flower fell (Isa 40:6-7). Then did the whole perish? Far be it. But the word of the Lord abides forever (Isa 40:8). Why does the grass delight you? See, the grass perished. Do you want not to perish? Hold to the Word. So too in this psalm. For the poor, lowly Christian was perhaps attending to some rich and powerful pagan, was attending to the flower of the grass, and was perhaps choosing rather to have him for a patron than God. To him the psalm speaks: Do not trust in princes, and in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation (Ps 146:3 (145:3)). He at once replies: "Does it speak of this one, in whom there is salvation? See, he is sound. Today I see him vigorous. I, rather, am constantly a wretched invalid." Why do you attend to these things that please you and delight you? There is no salvation. His spirit will go forth, and he will return to his earth (Ps 146:4 (145:4)). See, all his salvation, a vapor appearing for a little while. His spirit will go forth, and he will return to his earth. Let some years pass. Let a river be stirred, as usually happens, running here and there through some tombs of the dead. Distinguish the bones of the rich from the bones of the poor. When his spirit goes forth, he returns to his earth. Most excellently he said nothing of his spirit, because that man too, when he lived, thought nothing spiritually. He will return to his earth, according to the flesh, surely, according to the body, where he prevailed, where he was puffed up, where he deceived you, in the happiness of whose flesh he beguiled you. His spirit will go forth, and he will return to his earth; on that day all their thoughts will perish (Ps 146:4 (145:4)). Those thoughts which were earthly: "See, I do this, see, I accomplish this, see, I arrive here, see, I buy that, see, I acquire that, see, I come to such and such an honor"—on that day all his thoughts will perish. But if, since the word of the Lord abides forever, you hold to the Word, that he may give you eternal life, not only will your thought then not perish, but then it comes. When his perishes, then yours comes. For he was thinking of temporal and earthly things, to add wealth to wealth, to heap up monetary means, to shine in honors, to swell in power. Therefore, because he was thinking such things, on that day all his thoughts will perish. But you, if you were thinking, because you have been made a Christian, not of temporal happiness, but of everlasting rest—when your body has returned to its earth, then your soul finds its rest.

4 Attend to the Gospel, and see and inspect the thoughts of two men. There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day (Luke 16:19). Every day grass, and the flower of grass. Let not his happiness seduce you, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day. He was proud, he was impious, he thought vain things, he desired vain things. When he died, on that day his thoughts perished. But there was at his gate a certain poor man named Lazarus (Luke 16:20). He was silent about the name of the rich man and spoke the name of the poor man. The one whose name was talked about, his God was silent about; the one about whose name there was silence, him God named. Do not marvel. God recited what he found written in his book. For of the impious it was said: And in your book they will not be written (Ps 69:28 (68:29)). Likewise to the apostles, when they gloried because the demons had been made subject to them in the name of the Lord, lest about this matter, like men, they should be lifted up and boast of themselves—though about so great a matter, though about a glorious power: Do not, he said, rejoice in this, that the demons are subject to you; but rejoice, that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). For God, the inhabitant of heaven, was silent about the name of the rich man, because he did not find it written in heaven. He spoke the name of the poor man, because he found it written there—or rather, he commanded it to be written there. But see that poor man. For we have spoken of the thoughts of the impious rich man, splendid, clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasting splendidly every day, because, when he had died, all his thoughts perished. But the poor man Lazarus was at the gate of the rich man, full of sores, and longed to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and no one gave them to him; but even the dogs came and licked his sores (Luke 16:20-21). There I want to see you, Christian: for the deaths of these two are told. God is indeed able both to give salvation in this life, and to take away want, and to grant sufficiency to a Christian. And yet, even if this were not so, what would you choose? To be poor like that man, or to be rich like the other? Let it not deceive you. Hear the end, and observe the evil choice. For without doubt that poor man, since he was devout, set in temporal hardships, was thinking that that life would at some time end and that eternal rest would be obtained. Both died, but on that day the thoughts of that poor man did not perish. For it happened that the needy man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. On that day all his thoughts were healed. And since Lazarus in the Latin tongue is rendered "helped"—in the Latin tongue he is called "helped" who in Hebrew is Lazarus—the psalm warned well: Blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob (Ps 146:5 (145:5)). When his spirit goes forth, and his flesh returns to its earth, his thoughts will not perish, because his hope is in the Lord his God (Ps 146:5 (145:5)). This is learned in the school of Christ the teacher, this is hoped for by the spirit of the faithful hearer, this is the most true reward of the Savior.

1 We have been admonished to sing a new song to the Lord. The new man knows the new song. A song is a thing of cheerfulness, and, if we consider more diligently, a thing of love. He, then, who knows how to love the new life knows how to sing the new song. What the new life is, then, we must be reminded on account of the new song. For all things pertain to one kingdom: the new man, the new song, the new Testament. Therefore the new man will both sing the new song and pertain to the new Testament.

2 There is no one who does not love, but it is asked what he loves. We are not, then, admonished not to love, but to choose what we love. But what do we choose, unless we are first chosen? Because we do not even love unless we are first loved. Hear the apostle John. He is that Apostle who reclined on the Lord's breast and at that banquet drank in heavenly secrets. From that draught and from that happy inebriation he poured forth: In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). Lofty humility and sober inebriation. That great pourer-forth, then—that is, preacher—among the other things he drank from the Lord's breast, said also this: We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). For he had given much to man, since he was speaking of God, by saying, We love. Who? Whom? Men love God, mortals the immortal, sinners the just, the frail the immovable, the creation the maker. We loved. And whence is this to us? Because he first loved us. Seek whence it is to man to love God, and you will find nothing at all, except that God first loved him. He gave the one whom we loved, he gave that by which we might love. For what he gave by which we might love, hear more openly through the apostle Paul: The love, he says, of God has been poured out in our hearts (Rom 5:5). Whence? Perhaps from ourselves? No. Whence, then? Through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

3 Having, then, such great confidence, let us love God from God. Rather, because the Holy Spirit is God, let us love God from God. For what more shall I say: let us love God from God? Surely, because I said, The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5); therefore it follows that, since the Holy Spirit is God, and we cannot love God except through the Holy Spirit, let us love God from God. Hence, then, it follows. Hear more openly John himself: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16). It is too little to say: Love is from God. Which of us would dare to say what was said: God is love? He said it who knew what he had. Why, then, does human imagination and flitting thought fashion God for itself, and build an idol in its heart, composing such a one as it can think, not such a one as it has deserved to find? "Is God such? No, but he is such." Why do you arrange features? Why do you put together members? Why do you form a pleasing stature? Why do you imagine a beauty of body? God is love. What color is in love? What features? What form? None of these we see. And yet we love.

4 I dare to say to your Charity: let us attend in lower things to what we may find in higher things. That very love, lowest and earthly, that very love, sordid and disgraceful, which pursues bodily beauties, warns us of something whence we may rise to higher and cleaner things. Some lascivious and unchaste man loves a most beautiful woman. The beauty of the body indeed moves him, but within is sought the return of love. For if he hears that she hates him, does not all that ardor and impetus around her beautiful members grow cold, and does he not in a way recoil from what he had aimed at, turn away, take offense, and even himself begin to hate what he loved? Surely her form is not changed? Are not all the things there that had allured him? They are there. And yet he was burning in what he saw, and demanded from the heart what he did not see. But if he comes to know that he is loved in return, how much more vehemently does he burn! She sees him, he sees her; no one sees love. And yet the very one who is not seen is loved.

5 Raise yourselves from that muddy desire, that you may abide in the most illuminated love. You do not see God. Love, and you have him. How many things in damnable desires are loved, and not had! They are sordidly sought, yet not at once possessed. Is to love gold the same as to have gold? Many love it and do not have it. Is to have the most extensive and elegant estates the same as to love them? Many love them and do not have them. Is to love honor the same as to have honor? Many, without honor, burn to have it. They seek to have it, and often die before they find what they were seeking. God offers himself to us as a shortcut. He cries out to us: "Love me, and you will have me, because you cannot even love me unless you have me."

6 O brothers, O sons, O catholic shoots, O holy and heavenly seeds, O you regenerated in Christ and born from above, hear me, or rather, through me: Sing to the Lord a new song (Ps 149:1). "See," you say, "I sing." You sing, plainly you sing, I hear it. But let your life not bear testimony against your tongue. Sing with your voices, sing with your hearts, sing with your mouths, sing with your conduct: Sing to the Lord a new song. Do you ask what you should sing of the one you love? Without doubt you want to sing of the one you love. You seek his praises to sing. You have heard: Sing to the Lord a new song. Do you seek praises? His praise is in the Church of the saints (Ps 149:1). The praise of the singing is the singer himself. Do you want to speak praises to God? Be yourselves what you speak. You are his praise, if you live well. For his praise is not in the synagogues of the Jews, is not in the madness of the pagans, is not in the errors of the heretics, is not in the applause of the theaters. Do you seek where it is? Attend to yourselves, be yourselves: His praise is in the Church of the saints. Do you seek whence you may rejoice when you sing? Let Israel rejoice in the one who made him (Ps 149:2)—and it finds nothing whence to rejoice except God.

7 Well, my brothers, question yourselves, examine your inner cells. See and attend to what you have of love, and what you find, increase. Attend to such a treasure, that you may be rich within. Other things, surely, that have a great price are called dear, not without reason. Look at the custom of your speech: "That is dearer than that." What is "it is dearer," except "it is more precious"? If whatever is more precious is called dearer, what is dearer than love itself, my brothers? What, do we suppose, is its price? Whence is its price found? The price of wheat, your coin; the price of an estate, your silver; the price of a pearl, your gold; the price of love, you. Do you ask, then, whence you may possess an estate, a gem, a beast of burden? You ask whence you may buy an estate, and you seek it from yourself. But if you want to have love, seek yourself, and find yourself. For why do you fear to give yourself, lest you consume yourself? Rather, if you do not give yourself, you lose yourself. Love itself, through Wisdom, speaks, and says something to you, by which you may not be terrified at what was said, "Give yourself." For if someone wanted to sell you an estate, he would say to you, "Give me your gold"; and if someone wanted to sell something else, "Give me your coin, give me your silver." Hear what love says to you from the mouth of Wisdom: Give me, son, your heart (Prov 23:26). Give me, it says. What? Son, your heart. It was ill when it was away from you, when it was for yourself. For through trifles and lascivious and ruinous loves you were dragged. Take it away from there. Where do you drag it? Where do you set it? Give me, it says, your heart. Let it be mine, and it does not perish for you. For see whether he wished to leave anything in you whence you might love even yourself, who says to you: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind (Matt 22:37). What remains of your heart, whence you may love yourself? What of your soul? What of your mind? With your whole, he says. He who made you demands the whole of you. But do not be sad, as though nothing remained in you whence you might rejoice. Let Israel rejoice, not in himself, but in the one who made him (Ps 149:2).

8 You will answer and say: "If nothing remains to me whence I may love myself, because I am commanded to love the one who made me with my whole heart, and with my whole soul, and with my whole mind, how am I commanded by the second precept to love my neighbor as myself?" This is rather why you ought to love your neighbor with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. How? You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39). God with the whole of me, the neighbor as myself. Whence the "me," whence the "you." Do you want to hear whence you may love yourself? From this you love yourself, because you love God with the whole of yourself. For do you suppose it profits God that you love God? And because you love God, does anything accrue to God? And if you do not love him, you will have less. When you love, you profit; you will be there where you do not perish. But you will answer and say: "For when did I not love myself?" You did not at all love yourself when you did not love God, who made you. But when you hated yourself, you thought you loved yourself. For he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)).

9 Turning to the Lord God, the Father almighty, with a pure heart, let us give him, as far as our littleness can, the greatest and richest thanks; praying with our whole soul his singular gentleness, that he may deign to hear our prayers in his good pleasure; that by his power he may also drive the enemy from our deeds and thoughts, multiply faith in us, govern the mind, grant spiritual thoughts, and lead us to his blessedness; through Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

1 If the divine utterances are not heard carelessly, that which is written may perhaps not without reason disturb us: Son, if you are wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbors; but if you turn out evil, you alone will drink in evils (Prov 9:12). For how can this be rightly understood? Since, just as the good life of a neighbor gladdens us, so too his perverse life saddens us. Or if this is thought to be said on account of persuasion—because the wise man is wise both for himself and for those to whom he persuades wisdom—how is it that if he turns out evil he alone will drink in evils, when of the persuasions of such men it is said: Evil conversations corrupt good morals (1 Cor 15:33)? For what else does that voice of love cry: If one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together; and if one member suffers, all the members suffer together (1 Cor 12:26)? How, then, is it true: Son, if you are wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbors; but if you turn out evil, you alone will drink in evils (Prov 9:12)? How shall I rejoice in the good of one in whose evil I will not be in mourning? How does the one delight me when found who could perish while I am secure? Surely if he is wise, he will be a healthy member, in whom the other members rejoice together? How, then, will the evil man alone drink in evils, when the other members suffer together likewise with a sick member?

2 This question, accordingly, unless it be resolved, will disturb. But with the Lord's help it will be resolved, if first we hold this, defined by most certain truth, fixed and immovable: that no one can be good by another's good, nor evil by another's evil. For hence the Apostle says: Each one of us will bear his own burden (Gal 6:5). And elsewhere: Therefore each one of us will render an account for himself (Rom 14:12). And again: But let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another (Gal 6:4). This too is said through the prophet Ezekiel: The soul of the father is mine, and the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sins, it shall die (Ezek 18:4). He so explains that whole passage as to show that evil sons are not relieved by the good deeds of their parents, nor good sons oppressed by their evil deeds. This most truthful sentence having been first and most firmly established on account of ourselves, it remains to inspect what office we render to others, distinguishing most diligently which effect we seek for our own salvation, which affection we render to our neighbors. If you are good, you are good not by another's good, but by your own. Yet by that very good of yours by which you are good, you also rejoice together at another's good—not by borrowed goodness, but by mutual love. Likewise, if you are evil, you are evil not by another's evil, but by your own. By that same evil of yours, too, you do not love your neighbor as yourself. For neither do you love yourself. For you love iniquity, your most bitter enemy, not applied to you from without, but made by you within you for yourself. And that it may conquer you more easily, you favor it against yourself. So you are plainly convicted of hating yourself, when you love that by which you are shamefully conquered. For the divine utterance would not be deceived, in which it is said: But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)).

3 Hence, then, it is that the good man, by that good by which he is good, both is glad at another's good and is saddened at another's evil. And through this, using such a neighbor—since he is more truly called a neighbor who attends to you out of nearness, that is, looks upon you mercifully—using, then, such a neighbor, if you are wise, you will be wise both for yourself and for him. Not because he will be good by your good, but because by his own good he will be a lover of your good. But if you turn out evil, you will drink in evils not with him but alone. For he will not be worse by your evil, but will be merciful in your evil. Your malice saddens him, but his own punishment does not follow. It inflicts sadness on him, it does not share injustice with him. And so, evil, you will drink in evils not with your neighbor's good, but alone, because that sadness which the good man has about you, he has by his own good, and by your evil. That sadness indicates his love, your perdition. It condemns you, it crowns him; it depresses you, it raises him. Therefore it is also written: Be obedient to those set over you; for they keep watch over your souls as those who will render an account, that they may do this with joy and not with sadness; for that is not expedient for you (Heb 13:17). For you, then, it is not expedient to be weighed down by their sadness. For it is expedient for them to be saddened over your injustice. Reckon, then, your neighbors good, and be good—by your own good, indeed, not theirs, and that not given to you by yourself, but imparted from God. For what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7) And so, if you are wise, you will be wise for yourself and for your neighbors, for whom it is good to be nourished by your goodness. But if you turn out evil, you alone will drink in evils; not also those for whom this too is good, to be saddened by your malice.

1 The holy Scripture which has just been read in your ears admonished us—or rather, through it the Lord, who commands us to speak to you—to inquire with you and to treat what it is and what it means that was read: There are some who make themselves out rich, having nothing, and there are some who humble themselves, though they are rich (Prov 13:7). For it is not to be thought, nor at all to be believed, that the holy Scripture cared to admonish us about those riches by which the proud are puffed up—I mean these visible and earthly ones—either that we should hold them as something great, or fear not to have them. "For what does it profit a man," someone says, "who affects to seem rich, when he has nothing?" This man Scripture noted and reproached. But neither is the one to be greatly wished for or imitated and held great whom it seems to have placed in praise, if he understood it of temporal and earthly riches. And there are, it says, some who humble themselves, though they are rich. That man rightly displeases us, who, having nothing, makes himself out rich. What, does this one please us, who, though rich, humbles himself? Perhaps he pleases because he humbles himself; yet he does not please because he is rich.

2 Let us take this too, then. It is not unseemly, nor dishonorable, nor unprofitable, that the holy Scriptures wished to commend to us humble rich men. For nothing is so to be feared in riches as pride. Finally, the apostle Paul admonishes Timothy of this: Charge, he says, the rich of this world not to be proud in mind (1 Tim 6:17). For he did not dread riches but the disease of riches. And the disease of riches is great pride. For it is a great soul that, amid riches, is not tempted by this disease—a soul greater than its own riches, conquering not by coveting but by despising. He is a great rich man, then, who does not think himself great because he is rich. But he who therefore thinks himself great is proud and needy. In the flesh he is bursting, in the heart he begs; he is puffed up, not full. But if you should see two wineskins, one full, the other puffed up, in both there is the same size, but not in both the same fullness. If you attend to it, you are deceived; if you weigh it, you will find out. He who is full is moved with difficulty; he who is puffed up is quickly carried off.

3 Charge, then, he says, the rich of this world (1 Tim 6:17). He would not add of this world, unless because there are rich men who are not of this world. Who are the rich who are not of this world? Those whose prince and head is the one of whom it was said: He was made poor for us, though he was rich (2 Cor 8:9). But if he alone, what did it profit? See what follows: That by his poverty you might be enriched (2 Cor 8:9). I think the poverty of Christ brought us not money but justice. But whence his poverty? Because he was made mortal. Therefore the true riches are immortality. For there is true abundance where there is no want. Because, then, we could not be made immortal unless Christ were made mortal for us, therefore he was made poor, though he was rich. And he did not say, He was made poor, though he had been rich, but: He was made poor, though he was rich. He took up poverty and did not lose his riches. Within rich, without poor. God lying hidden in riches, man appearing in poverty. See his riches: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him (John 1:1-3). What is richer than the one through whom all things were made? A rich man can have gold, he cannot create it. And so, when these riches of his had been commended, see his poverty: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). By this poverty of his we have been enriched, because in his blood, which flowed from his flesh—in that the Word became flesh that it might dwell among us—the sackcloth of our sins was torn open. Through that blood we cast off the rags of iniquity, that we might be clothed with the robe of immortality.

4 All good faithful, then, are rich. Let no one despise himself, poor in his cell, rich in his conscience. For the rich man in conscience sleeps more securely on the ground than the rich man in gold on purple. There evil anxiety does not rouse him, his heart pricked by crime. Keep in your heart the riches which the poverty of your Lord conferred on you. Rather, set him himself as your guardian. Lest what he gave perish from the heart, let the one who gave it keep it. All good faithful, then, are rich, but not rich of this world. Finally, they themselves do not even feel their riches; they will feel them afterward. The root lives, but in the winter season even a green tree is like a dry one. For in the winter season both the tree that withers and the tree that flourishes are both bare of the adornment of leaves, both empty of the adornment of fruits. Summer will come and distinguish the trees. The living root produces leaves, is filled with fruits; the dry one, empty, will remain in summer as in winter. And so for the one a barn is prepared, to the other the axe is applied, that, cut down, it may be cast into the fire. So our summer is the coming of Christ. Our winter is the hiding of Christ; our summer is the revelation of Christ. Finally, the Apostle offers this address to the good and faithful trees: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). Surely dead, but dead in appearance, alive in the root. But attend to the coming season of summer, how it follows and says: But when Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:4). These are the rich, but not of this world.

5 Yet neither are the rich of the world despised. He gained them too by his poverty, who, though he was rich, became poor for us (2 Cor 8:9). For if he had despised them and not wished to have them in the number of his own, the Apostle, as I was saying, would not have charged Timothy that he too should charge: Charge, he says, the rich of this world (1 Tim 6:17). Among those who are rich in faith, there are some rich of this world. Charge them, because they too have been made members of that poor one. Charge them what you fear for them from riches: Not to be proud in mind, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches (1 Tim 6:17). For the rich man is proud because he hopes in the uncertainty of riches. For if he prudently attended to the uncertainty of riches, he would never be proud, but always fear. The richer he were, the more anxious he would become, even according to this life, not only according to that one. For many poor men have been more secure in these disturbances of the world. But many, on account of their riches, have been sought out and seized. Many have lamented that they had what they could by no means always have. Many have regretted not having received the counsel of their Lord, who said: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven (Matt 6:19-20). I do not tell you to lose, but to transfer. For many were unwilling to do this, and grieved that they had not obeyed, when they not only lost their goods, but perished themselves on account of them. Charge, then, the rich of this world not to be proud in mind, and there will come about in them what we heard in the proverb of Solomon: There are some who humble themselves, though they are rich (Prov 13:7). And it can come about even according to these temporal riches. Let him be humble. Let him rejoice more that he is a Christian than that he is rich. Let him not be puffed up, not lifted up. Let him attend to his poor brother, let him not disdain to be called the brother of a poor man. For however rich he is, Christ is richer, who willed to be the brother of those for whom he shed his blood.

6 Yet lest the rich should say they had nothing to do with their riches, he admonished Timothy that he should rule them also by counsel, not only restrain them by command. When he had said, Nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, lest they should think they had lost hope, he added: But in the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17)—temporal things to use, eternal things to enjoy. But what should they do with their riches? Let them be, he says, rich in good works, let them give easily (1 Tim 6:18). Let your riches profit this, that there be for you no difficulty in giving. For the poor man wishes, and cannot. The rich man wishes, and can. Let them give easily, let them share, let them treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:18-19). For this life is false. Deceived by the falsity of this life, that man in purple and fine linen despised the ulcerous poor man lying before his gate. But the poor man, licked by the dogs, was procuring for himself an eternal treasure in Abraham's bosom—if not by abundant means, yet by a devout and best will. But that rich man, who seemed great to himself in purple and fine linen, died and was buried. And what did he find? Eternal thirst, unfailing flames. Fire succeeded the purple and fine linen. He burned in that tunic of which he could not strip himself. In place of banquets, dryness, and a longing for a drop from the poor man's finger, as the poor man had longed for the crumbs from the rich man's table. But the poor man's want was passing, the rich man's punishment abiding. Let the rich of this world attend to this, and not be proud in mind. Let them give easily, share. Let them treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future, where there are the true rich, but not of this world, that they may lay hold of the true life.

7 Perhaps, then, the divine Scripture admonished this, where it says, There are some who make themselves out rich, having nothing (Prov 13:7), on account of the ragged proud. For if a proud rich man is scarcely tolerated, who could bear a proud poor man? Better, then, are those who humble themselves, though they are rich. Yet Scripture attests that it speaks of other riches. For it adjoined next: The redemption of a man's soul is his riches; but the poor man does not endure threats (Prov 13:8). We ought to understand the poor man from some other poverty, and the rich man from some other riches. For more deeply rich, rich in heart, full of strength, abounding in devotion, abounding in love, are rich within themselves, are rich inwardly. But there are some who make themselves out rich, though they are poor. They seem just to themselves, though they are unjust. For we ought to understand those riches, since Scripture has made plain what it meant: The redemption of a man's soul is his riches. "Understand," it says, "what riches I commend to you. Since I said, There are some who make themselves out rich, having nothing; and there are some who humble themselves, though they are rich, you were thinking of those temporal and earthly and visible riches. But I do not mean those; I admonish, as follows, of those I shall name: The redemption of a man's soul is his riches." Therefore those who do not have the redemption of the soul, because they are unjust and affect to seem just, because they are hypocrites, are the very ones of whom it says: There are some who make themselves out rich, having nothing. They want to seem just, when in the cell of conscience they do not have the gold of justice. And there are some full, the more humble the richer, of whom it was said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3).

8 Why, then, do you seek riches that flatter human and fleshly eyes? Gold shines, but faith shines more. Choose what you ought to have in your heart. Be full within, where God sees your riches, man does not see them. Yet not because man does not see them ought you therefore to despise what you have within. Do you want to see that faith shines more than gold even in the eyes of the unjust? How even a greedy master praises a faithful servant? He says nothing is more precious than he—rather he testifies that he has no price at all. "I have a servant," he says, "he has no price." Do you wait to hear why? Perhaps he dances well, or is an excellent cook. No. Attend to the inner praise: "Nothing," he says, "is more faithful." A man, your faithful servant, pleases you, and do you not want to be a faithful servant to God? You attend to the fact that you have a servant; attend to the fact that you also have a Lord. You could buy your servant, not create him. Your Lord both created you by his word, and redeemed you by his blood. If you have become cheap in your own eyes, recall the price. If you have forgotten even this, read the Gospel, your deed. You love faith in your servant, and does your Lord not seek it in his own? Render what you demand. What you rejoice to have rendered to you by an inferior, render to your superior. You love a servant who faithfully guards your gold. Do not despise the Lord who mercifully guards your heart. All, then, have eyes to praise faith, but when they demand it to be rendered to them. For when it is demanded of them, they shut their eyes, they refuse to see how beautiful it is. Or perhaps by foolish madness they refuse to render it for this reason, lest they lose it, just as anyone fears to render money: when he has rendered it he will not have it. Faith is not so rendered. It is both rendered and had. A wondrous thing to say! Rather, if it is not rendered, it is not had.

9 The redemption of a man's soul is his riches (Prov 13:8). Rightly did God insult that most vain rich man, to admonish us not to imitate such things—him to whom a fruitful region succeeded, and abundance disturbed the man more than want would have. For he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, that I may gather my fruits? (Luke 12:17) And when he had burned, hemmed in, at last he seemed to himself to have found counsel. But it was vain counsel. For this counsel prudence did not find, but avarice. I will destroy, he said, my old, smaller barns, and make new and larger ones, and fill them; and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods, be satisfied, be merry. He said to him: Fool (Luke 12:18-20)—in what you seem wise to yourself, fool, what did you say? "I say to my soul: You have many goods, be satisfied." This night your soul will be taken from you. The things you have prepared, whose will they be? (Luke 12:20) For what does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul? (Matt 16:26) Therefore the redemption of a man's soul is his riches. These riches that vain and foolish man did not have. For he did not redeem his soul by alms; he stored up perishing fruits. He stored up, I say, perishing fruits, himself about to perish, bestowing nothing on the Lord to whom he was about to go forth. What face will he have at that judgment, when he begins to hear: I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat? (Matt 25:42) For he desired to satisfy his soul with superfluous and excessive feasts, while, most proud, he despised the so many empty bellies of the poor. He did not know that the bellies of the poor were safer than his barns. For what he stored in those barns was perhaps even carried off by thieves. But if he had stored it in the bellies of the poor, on earth indeed it was digested, but in heaven it was kept more safely. Therefore, the redemption of a man's soul is his riches.

10 And what follows? But the poor man does not endure threats (Prov 13:8). The poor man, that is, empty of justice, not having within the fullness of the spirit, the spiritual ornaments, the spiritual furnishings, and all that which is not seen by the eyes but weighed more by the mind. Not having these within, he does not endure threats. When it is said to him by some powerful man: "Say this word against my enemy, say false testimony, that I may oppress and subdue the one I wish." Perhaps he tries: "I will not do it, I will not bring sin on myself." He refuses only until the rich man begins to threaten. But because he is poor, he does not endure threats. What is "he is poor"? He does not have the inner riches which the martyrs had, who for the truth and faith of Christ despised all the threats of the world. They lost nothing from the heart; how much did they find in heaven? The poor man, then, does not endure threats. He cannot say to the rich man forcing him to someone's injury or to false testimony: "I will not do it." He does not have within whence to answer; he is not made solid and full by an inner treasure; there is no one to say—because he does not have whence to say—there is no one to say: "What will you do to me, you who threaten? At most, you will take away what I have. You take away what I shall leave behind; you take away what, even if you do not take it, while I live I shall perhaps lose. From my inner chest I lose nothing. When you threaten to take away what I have within, do you really want to take away what I have within? But that you can both take away and have. If by threatening you take away faith, both I lose it and you will not have it. I will not, then, do what you urge, I do not care what you threaten. But by raging you can even drive me from my homeland. You have harmed me, if you drive me out there where I cannot find my God. Perhaps you will be able even to kill me. When the fleshly house collapses, the inhabitant departs unharmed, and to the one to whom I keep faith I go forth secure, and I will fear you no more. For see what you threaten, that I should speak false testimony. You threaten death, but of the body. I fear more the one who said: The mouth that lies kills the soul (Wis 1:11)." Full within and abounding with these riches, he answers such things, or better things, to the one who so threatens. But the poor man does not endure threats.

11 Let us, then, be rich, and fear to be poor. But let us seek to have our heart filled with riches by the one who is truly rich. And if perhaps each of you enters into his heart and does not find those riches there, let him knock at the rich one's door, let him become a devout beggar before the door of that rich one, that, by his giving, he may be filled rich. And truly, my brothers, we ought to confess our poverty, our want, to the Lord our God. This the publican confessed, who did not even dare to lift his eyes to heaven. For the sinful man had no substance with which to lift his eyes. He attended to his own emptiness, but he recognized the fullness of the Lord. He knew that he came thirsting to a fountain. He showed his dry throat, he devoutly knocked to have his breast filled: Lord, he said, beating his breast, casting his eyes to the ground, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13). I say that he was already in some part rich, when he was thinking and asking these things. For if he was still in every way poor, whence did he bring forth these gems of confession? Yet he went down from the temple more abounding and fuller, justified. But that Pharisee went up to pray and asked nothing. They went up, it says, to the temple to pray (Luke 18:10). The one asks, the other does not ask. But the latter, whence was he? There are some who think themselves rich, having nothing. Lord, he said, I give you thanks that I am not like other men, the unjust, robbers, adulterers, like even this publican. I fast twice on the sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess (Luke 18:11-12). He boasted of himself, but that is a puffing-up, not a fullness. He thought himself rich, having nothing. The other recognized himself as poor, now having something. Not to say anything else, he had that very devotion of confession. And both went down. But, it says, that publican was justified rather than that Pharisee. Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14).

1 He who commended this day in his saints will grant us that the weakness of our voice may suffice for your attention. This I have commended for this reason, that you may deign to help me by your silence. For the spirit is eager toward you, but the flesh is weak. And the spirit itself, whatever joys it has perhaps conceived from the Scripture of God, is in labor and seeks to give birth to them in your ears and minds. Provide a nest within you for the sermon. For in Scripture too the turtledove is commended, seeking a nest for itself where it may set its young. And this which we carry in our hands—the Scripture, namely, which you see—commends to us a certain woman to be inquired after and praised, of whom you heard a little before when it was read, having a great husband, a great one, the husband who found her lost and adorned her when found. Of her, according to the tenor of the reading which you see me carrying, I will say a few things, as time allows, which the Lord suggests. For it is the day of the martyrs, and therefore the mother of the martyrs is the more to be praised. Now who this woman is you have learned from my preface. See also whether you recognize her as I read. Every hearer now, as far as appears well enough from your affection, says in his heart: "It must be the Church." I confirm this thought. For what other could be the mother of the martyrs? So it is. What you have understood, this it is. The woman of whom we wish to say something is the Church. For it would not befit us to speak of any other woman. Although in the recitation of the passion of the martyrs we heard of women too, of whom we may fittingly speak, yet we do not pass them over when we praise their mother.

2 Attend to whose members you are; inspect whose sons you are. Who will find a valiant woman? (Prov 31:10) It is fitting to call the strength of the martyrs that of a woman. For unless she herself were strong, those members of hers would have failed in the passion. Who will find a valiant woman? It is difficult to find her—rather, it is difficult not to know her. Is she not herself the city on the mountain, which cannot be hidden? Why, then, was it said, Who will find? when it ought to have been said, Who will not find? But you see the city set on the mountain. But that it might be set on the mountain, the one who had been lost was found. When she was made bright, who does not see her? When she lay hidden, who would find her? For she herself is the city, and that one sheep which the shepherd sought when lost, and which, found, he joyfully carried back on his shoulders. The shepherd himself is the mountain; the sheep on his shoulders is the city on the mountain. It is easy for you to see her set on the mountain. When would you have found her, when she lay hidden in the brambles, in the thorns of her own offenses? For there to have sought her is a great thing; there to have found her is a wonderful thing. This difficult finding of her is commended when it is said: Who will find a valiant woman? "Who"—because one, not because not even one. As it was said of her husband himself, the lion of the tribe of Judah, of whom the prophecy foretold: You went up, lying down (See Gen 49:9)—namely, onto the cross. You went up, that is the cross; lying down, that is death. What is You went up, except what is written: And they crucified him (Matt 27:35)? Whence he too says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:14-15). What is lying down? And bowing his head, he gave up the spirit (John 19:30). When, then, it was said there too, You went up, lying down, there followed: You slept like a lion (See Gen 49:9). You slept like a lion, you did not flee like a fox. What is You slept like a lion? By power, not by necessity. But when it was said, You slept like a lion, it followed and said: Who roused him? (See Gen 49:9) Who roused him? For not no one, but who among men? Because none but God, who exalted him from the dead, and granted him a name which is above every name (Phil 2:9). And he himself raised himself. Whence he says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). And now, when you heard, Who will find a valiant woman? do not think it is said of the Church that lies hidden, but of that Church which was found by one, so that she might lie hidden from no one. Let her, then, be described, praised, commended, to be loved by us all as a mother, for she is the wife of one. Who will find a valiant woman? This woman so valiant, who does not see her? But already found, already eminent, already conspicuous, already glorious, already adorned, already shining, already—to put it briefly—spread through the whole world of lands.

3 But she who is such is more precious than precious stones (Prov 31:10). What great thing is it, that this woman is more precious than precious stones? If you think only of human greed, if precious stones are taken literally, what great thing is it that the Church is found more precious than any stones whatever? There is no such comparison. But there are precious stones in her. These stones are so precious that they are called living. There are, then, precious stones adorning her, but she herself is more precious. I want to commend something to your Charity—as much as I grasp, as much as you grasp, as much as I fear, as much as you ought to fear—about these precious stones. There are in the Church precious stones, and there always have been, learned men, abounding both in knowledge and in eloquence and in every instruction of the law. Plainly these stones are precious. But of their number some have strayed from the adornment of this woman. For as far as pertains to the doctrine and eloquence by which he shines—for he shines with the Lord's teaching—Cyprian was a precious stone, but he remained in her adornment. Donatus was a precious stone, but he sprang back from the joining of the adornment. The one who remained wished to be loved in her. The one who was shaken out from there sought a name for himself apart from her. The one abiding with her gathered to her. The one springing back longed not to gather, but to scatter. Evil sons, why do you follow a precious stone shaken out from the adornment of this woman? You answer me: "What then? Do you understand as he does? Or do you speak as he does? Or are you as learned as he?" Granted that he is intelligent—good understanding to those who do it (Ps 111:10 (110:10))—granted that he is learned, granted that he is instructed in the liberal disciplines and the mysteries of the law, he is a precious stone. Turn back from him to her: she is more precious than precious stones. A precious stone, if it is not in the adornment of this woman, lies in darkness. A precious stone, wherever it lies, if it is not in the adornment of this woman, lies in darkness. It needed to remain in the adornment of this woman, to be in the joining of her adornment. But I would say confidently: precious stones are so called because they are worth dearly. Now that one is cheap, he has lost his price, who does not have love. Let him boast of his doctrine, let him boast of his tongue, let him hear the appraiser of this matron's true stones. Let him hear, I say, a certain craftsman, inspector of the adornment. Why does he boast his tongues, now no longer a precious but a cheap stone? If I speak with the tongues of men, he says, and of angels, but have not love, I have become like sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). Where is that stone? It no longer shines, but clangs. Therefore learn to appraise stones, merchants of the kingdom of heaven. Let no stone please you except the adornment of this woman. She who is more precious than precious stones is herself the price of her own adornment.

4 The heart of her husband trusts in her (Prov 31:11). Plainly he trusts, and he taught us to trust. For he commended the Church to the ends of the earth, through all the nations, from sea to sea. If she did not persevere to the end, the heart of her husband would not trust in her. The heart of her husband trusts in her. Foreknowing, he trusts; he who trusts cannot be deceived. It was not said: The heart of her sons trusts in her. For her sons, being little ones, could be deceived. The heart of the one trusts in her whose heart no lie deceives. It is true, then, what he trusts. She who is such will not lack spoils (Prov 31:11). Not because she does not seek spoils does she therefore not lack them, but because she will abound with many. She who is such will not lack spoils. Whence she despoils the world, spread everywhere; she snatches trophies on every side from the devil. For this her husband too promised, to whom she says in another psalm: I exult in your words, like one who has found many spoils (Ps 119:162 (118:162)). How does she lack spoils, who snatches on every side, drags on every side, acquires on every side?

5 For she works for her husband good things and not evil, in all time (Prov 31:12). Hence it is that this woman despoils the nations, working for her husband good things and not evil. In all time she works good and not evil. Not for herself, but for her husband, that the one who lives may now live not for himself, but for the one who died for all and rose again (2 Cor 5:15). For her husband, then, she works good; before God she works good. Him she serves, to him she is devoted, him she loves, to please him she always strives. She does not adorn herself, neither for her own eyes nor for others' eyes. She is not of those who please themselves, not of those who seek their own: For she works for her husband. But those who work for themselves all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21).

6 Finding wool and flax, she made what is useful with her hands (Prov 31:13). The holy discourse describes this matron as a worker in wool and a worker in flax. But it is asked by us what wool is, what flax is. Wool I think to be something carnal, flax something spiritual. This I dare to conjecture from the order of our garments. For linen garments are inner, woolen garments outer. Whatever we work in the flesh is in the open; whatever in the spirit, in secret. But to work in the flesh and not work in the spirit, although it may seem good, is not useful. But to work in the spirit and not work in the flesh is the way of the slothful. You find a man stretching out alms to a poor man with his hand, yet not thinking of God there, but wishing to please men. He can seem a woolen garment, he does not have the inner linen. You find another saying to you: "It is enough for me to worship God in conscience, to adore God. What need is there for me either to go to church or to mingle visibly with Christians?" He wants to have the linen without the tunic. This woman does not know, nor commend, such works. Spiritual things, indeed, must be spoken and taught without carnal things, but those who receive them ought both to hold to spiritual things and not to do carnal things carnally. This woman found wool and flax, and made what is useful with her hands. This wool and this flax are in the holy Scriptures. Many find them, but do not want to make anything useful with their hands. She found and made. When you hear, you find; when you live well, you make. Finding wool and flax, she made what is useful with her hands. See her to whom it is said: Stretch out to the right and to the left; for your seed will inherit the nations; there is no reason for you to spare, stretch your cords farther (Isa 54:3, 2). See her here: She has become like a ship that trades; from afar she gathers riches for herself (Prov 31:14). The riches of this woman are the praises of her husband. See how from afar she gathers riches for herself: From the rising of the sun to its setting, praise the name of the Lord (Ps 113:3 (112:3)).

7 She rises from the nights, and gave food to her household, and works to her maidservants (Prov 31:15). She rises from the nights. What are the nights worth? They do not press her down, they do not force her to lie in darkness. And she rises from the nights. The nights are tribulations. But who is this who both rises from the nights and advances in tribulations? And she gave food to her household: in the nights she offered herself to be imitated. By doing she taught what she said must be done, and then she gave food to her household in the nights. Who eats by night? Surely even then she gave food. For those to whom she gave it always hunger. For blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied (Matt 5:6). From the night my spirit watches toward you, O God (Isa 26:9). At midnight I rose to confess to you (Ps 119:62 (118:62)). These nocturnal nourishments abound in the house of this woman. No one there suffers hunger. Nor does one grope to find what may be eaten: the lamp of prophecy burns. But must one only eat and be idle? For she who gave food to her household, gave also works to her maidservants. Are these maidservants her own, or her husband's? Or, because they are her husband's, are they hers too? Or is she herself the many maidservants? For she, though mistress of the household, yet does not disdain to be a maidservant. Let her attend to her price, let her love her Lord. Let her acknowledge, I say, that she is a maidservant, and not fear her condition. For he does not disdain to make a wife of the one he bought at so great a price. And every good wife calls her husband her lord. Indeed she not only calls him so, but savors this, sounds this, bears this in her heart, professes this with her mouth, reckons the marriage tablets the deeds of her purchase. She is, then, a maidservant, giving works to maidservants. She is a maidservant: for she is the mother of the one who says: I am your servant and the son of your maidservant (Ps 116:16 (115:7)).

8 You were going to ask what she does in those works, even the nocturnal ones. Hear what she does: Looking ahead, she bought a field (Prov 31:16). Looking ahead, not in the present but in the future, she bought this field, looking ahead by faith and hope. Hence she also rises from the nights. For if we hope for what we do not see, we await it with patience (Rom 8:25). Suffering tribulation in all things, she looks ahead to the field she buys. Hence she is called a valiant woman. What are those nights compared to that field? For our present temporal slight tribulation—when we rise from the nights—works for us in an incredible measure an eternal weight of glory—the heart toward that field—while we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor 4:17-18). What is that field? What is its beauty? Let us burn to possess it. Do we not suppose it is the very one of which God said: And the beauty of the field is with me (Ps 50:11 (49:11))?

9 Looking ahead, she bought a field (Prov 31:16). Where she bought it, there she has the field. Where the field? Whence did she buy it? Where she also placed her treasure, that it might be for her: Where your treasure is, there is your heart also (Matt 6:21). Looking ahead, she bought a field. Whence did she buy it? Lest perhaps you hope and sigh and do nothing, that field does not love a slothful lover. There, surely, when you have come to it, perhaps you will rest, and there will be no need to labor. For that field is not such as this one where Adam ate his bread in the sweat of his brow. Yet now, that you may come to the beauty of that field, procure for yourself the means with which to procure it. Work there. How? Gather the price. For this is what this woman does. See whether it is left unsaid. When it had been said, Looking ahead, she bought a field, as though you said, "Whence did she buy it?"—and from the fruits of her hands she planted a possession (Prov 31:16). These were the very works she gave to her maidservants, that from the fruits of her hands she might plant a possession forever. For he called it that possession which is to come. He insinuates this by the word looking ahead.

10 Girded strongly about her loins, she strengthened her arms (Prov 31:17). Truly valiant. See whether she is not a maidservant. How devotedly she serves, how readily. Lest the flowing folds of carnal desires hinder her at work, she girds her loins, that she may tread on nothing superfluous while she hastens in the work. For there is the chastity of this woman, bound by the belt of the precept, and always ready for every good work. Girded strongly about her loins, she strengthened her arms, not to fail. Whence this? She tasted that it is good to work (See Prov 31:18). Where is the palate by which this is tasted? Men flee labor as if bitter. By fearing to taste, they do not know what is bitter. A good conscience does a good work. And what is sweeter, brothers, than a good conscience? If it is not present, and an evil one pricks, all things are bitter. Taste, then, taste, and you will see how it savors, how it will delight you, how afterward you will not cease until you consume it all. She tasted that it is good to work.

11 Her lamp is not extinguished all night (Prov 31:18). No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel (Matt 5:15). You will light my lamp, O Lord (Ps 18:28 (17:29)). Her lamp is her hope. Toward it every man works, whatever good he does for the sake of hope. And in the night this lamp burns. For if we hope for what we do not see, therefore it is night. But if we both do not see and do not hope, it is both night and the lamp does not burn. What is more unhappy than such darkness? But that we may not fail in the darkness, and may await with patience what unseen we hope for, let our lamp burn all night. For he who daily speaks the word to us pours in as it were oil, lest the lamp be extinguished.

12 She stretches out her hands to useful things (Prov 31:19). How far does she stretch these hands? From sea to sea, and from the river, where she began, to the ends of the earth, where she arrived. Whence it was not in vain said: Stretch out to the right and to the left (Isa 54:3). She stretches out her hands, but to useful things.

13 Her arms too she strengthened upon the spindle (Prov 31:19). "Upon the spindle [in fusum]"—not from "pouring in" [infundendo], but upon that instrument of wool-working which is called a spindle. About this spindle let me say what the Lord grants. For these wool-workings are not foreign to men. Hear what it is: She strengthened her arms upon the spindle. She could have said: upon the distaff. She said spindle, perhaps not in vain. Although it can seem, and not absurdly be understood, that by the spindle wool-working is signified, by wool-working a good work, as of a chaste woman and a matron diligent and unwearied. Yet I, dearly beloved, will not be silent about what I understand in this spindle. Everyone who lives in good works in the holy Church, not a neglecter but a doer of the precepts of God, does not know what he will do tomorrow; he knows what he has done today. He fears about future work, he rejoices about past work. And that he may persevere in good works he keeps watch, lest perhaps, neglectful of future things, he lose the past. Yet in praying to the Lord, in all his supplication, he has a firm conscience not about future work but about past, from what he has done, not from what he is going to do. Now, then, if you see with me that this is true, attend in wool-working to these two instruments: the distaff and the spindle. On the distaff the wool is wound, which, to be drawn out and spun into thread, passes over to the spindle. What is wound on the distaff is future; what is gathered on the spindle is now past. Your work, then, is on the spindle, not on the distaff. For on the distaff is what you are going to do; on the spindle, what you have done. See, then, whether you have something on the spindle, let your arms be strengthened there. There will your conscience be strong, there, secure, you will say to God: "Give, because I have given; forgive, because I have forgiven; do, because I have done." For you do not ask the reward except for the work done, not for the work to be done. Whatever, then, you work, let your whole spirit be toward the spindle. Because what hangs on the distaff too must be passed over to the spindle, but what is gathered on the spindle must not be called back to the distaff. Therefore see what you do, that you may have it on the spindle, that you may strengthen your arms upon the spindle, that the whole may strive toward the spindle, that the spindle may have something to console you, to confirm you, to give you confidence in begging and in hoping for the promises.

14 "And what shall I do?" perhaps you say, "what do you bid me have on the spindle?" Hear what follows: But her hands she opened to the poor (Prov 31:20). Come now, we are not ashamed to teach you holy wool-working. See, if anyone has a full purse, a full barn, a full storehouse—all these are on the distaff; let them pass over to the spindle. See how she spins—rather, see how she may spin [neiat]—provided all be instructed, let the grammarians not be feared. But her hands she opened to the poor, and stretched out her fruit to the needy (Prov 31:20). Hands to the poor, fruit to the needy. There is a certain poor man who seeks your hands. There is a certain needy man who seeks your fruit. He who truly wants from you only what will profit his need is a poor man seeking your hands. But there is another needy one who says: As having nothing, and possessing all things (2 Cor 6:10). Not as wishing his need to be satisfied from your gift, but, as in the Lord's tree which he planted and watered, he seeks fruit. Hear him himself saying to certain people, when he was speaking of such things: Not because I seek a gift, but I require fruit (See Phil 4:17).

15 Her husband is not anxious about the things that are in the house, when he tarries somewhere else (Prov 31:21). Her husband is not anxious about the things that are in the house, because the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). How should he be anxious, when those whom he predestined, them he also called; whom he called, them he also justified; whom he justified, them he also glorified? If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom 8:30-31) Her husband is not anxious: he knows his own, his own know him. When he tarries somewhere else. Where does he tarry, except whence he is to come? He tarries there, as though he delays there. For many now long for his coming, and their longing is deferred, until the number of the members of this matron is fulfilled. But many abuse his delay for their own impiety. And the evil servant says: My Lord tarries. And he begins to beat his fellow servants, and to be drunk with the evil. His Lord will come on the day he does not know, and at the hour he is unaware of, and will divide him (Matt 24:48-51). For it is the body of ministers and those set over others that gives food to the fellow servants in time. He will divide him, it says. It has good men, it has evil men; he separates the good from the evil. And he will set his portion with the hypocrites (Matt 24:51). Not the whole ministry, because there are there also those who long for the coming of the Lord. There are there also some of that number of whom it is said: Blessed is that servant whom, when his Lord comes, he will find so doing (Matt 24:46). Therefore he will come, and will divide him.

16 Now meanwhile he tarries somewhere else, but he is not anxious what is done in the house. For all with her are clothed (See Prov 31:21). Will he be anxious about the nakedness of his servants, when he tarries somewhere else, having such a wife? They are clothed, and most excellently. Do you want to know how excellently? As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). All, absolutely, with her are clothed. Both the evil servants and the good servants are clothed. But the good servants are clothed who have put on Christ, not only in the form of the sacrament, but also in the work of example, following the footsteps of their Lord. But others only as far as the sacrament, about to render an account for their garment. Yet that woman does not cease, that woman does not cease to clothe all, that no one may complain, no one say: "I did not work well, because I am not clothed." See, then, how you ought to be clothed. For our garments let us also do work. For all with her are clothed.

17 What for her husband? She who clothes the servants, does she work nothing for her husband? She made double cloaks for her husband (Prov 31:22). She works. She made double cloaks for her husband. Now you acclaim. I believe you recognize what the double cloaks are which the Church makes for her husband Christ. The cloaks she makes for him are praises: praises of faith, praises of confession, praises of preaching. Why double cloaks for Christ? You praise God, you praise man. Praise doubly, and praise singly: doubly, because he is both man and God; singly, that you not be feigned. Some woman or other in the school of a certain Photinus—a stone as it were precious, shaken out from the adornment of this woman, now cheap and abject, whence the Photinian heretics are named—chose to make a single cloak for her husband. He does not accept it, who surely takes double cloaks from his wife, truly his, as we read written. For that man said Christ was man only. Again there appeared some other detestable woman, as if she too were weaving a cloak for the husband, but weaving ragged little fables. For she says: "Christ is only God, having nothing at all of man." This the Manicheans say. The Photinians, man only; the Manicheans, God only. The former confess nothing divine in the Lord. The latter, as it were, the whole divine, and yet so false that not even the human. For if he was not man, then he did not die, then he was not crucified, then neither did he rise. For he could rise who died. Therefore even to the doubting disciple he showed false scars. For without doubt those scars were false, if true wounds did not precede. But if true wounds preceded, true flesh. If true flesh, true death, true cross, true man, and the whole truth: praise abounding from the web of this woman. But those who in praiseworthy fashion feared these double cloaks, remained double by a lie. She made double cloaks for her husband. Plainly she made double cloaks. We confess God, we confess man. Praise God in the man, the man in God. She wove that most precious cloak of praise: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2). She wove also another cloak, on account of his daily converse among men: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). She made double cloaks for her husband.

18 Of fine linen and purple she made garments for herself (Prov 31:22). She made garments for herself too. For it did not befit the matron of so great a husband either to go naked or in rags. She made garments for herself of fine linen and purple. Of fine linen, by white confession; of purple, by glorious passion. Her fine linen we recognize when we pray; her purple we praised this morning in the martyrs.

19 Her husband becomes conspicuous in the gates (Prov 31:23). He who tarries somewhere else, he who on account of such a wife is not anxious about his house, he whom now no one sees as he tarries somewhere else, becomes conspicuous in the gates. Attend to when. See what follows: When he sits in council with the elders of the earth (Prov 31:23). Nothing more evident. Read another prophecy: He will come to judgment with the elders of his people (Isa 3:14). In that council—that is, in that judgment, the saints judging with him, to whom it was said, You will sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28)—he will be conspicuous. For the Son of man will come, as he said, in his majesty, and all the angels with him (Matt 25:31). There all the angels: both the angels of the heavens, and the angels who announce the word of God. For a prophet too was called an angel. For an angel is a messenger. And: Behold, I send my angel before your face (Mal 3:1; Matt 11:10), was said of John. And: You received me as an angel of God (Gal 4:14), the Apostle says. He, then, he who now tarries somewhere else, of whom many say, "When is he going to come, or who is going to come?" will be conspicuous in the gates—that is, in the open, in the manifest. In the gates he will be conspicuous. But he admits some, against others he shuts them. Her husband will be conspicuous in the gates, when he sits in council with the elders of the earth. Until this happens, let her meanwhile do what she was doing. Let her work, let her not cease. Let her await him, who is to be conspicuous in the gates; let her not tremble at the holy council of God's judgment. Let her come with a good conscience, let her come glorious, because they too are his members and his sons who are to judge with her husband.

20 She made fine sheets and sold them (Prov 31:24). It is good that she made fine sheets. Why did she sell them? Except that she does not seek a gift, but requires fruit. Understand first, brothers, this selling as free. And does anyone buy for free? If he takes for free, he does not buy. If he buys, he gives a price. If he gives a price, he does not take for free. And where is it: You who thirst, go to the water, buy for yourselves without silver (Isa 55:1)? When you buy, you do not give silver, and yet you buy. If you buy, you give something, yet you do not give silver, you give yourself. For refer the fine sheets to those linen things—they are spiritual—which this woman makes and preaches through all lands. And perhaps it is to be called selling, because the Apostle said: If we have sown for you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? (1 Cor 9:11) For there is that reckoning of giving and receiving. For in every selling there is the reckoning of giving and receiving. But the Apostle is saddened against certain market-places, where he did not sell fine sheets. No church, he says, shared with me in the reckoning of giving and receiving (Phil 4:15). But he who sells thus does not seek a gift, but requires fruit, lest you think him as it were a seller of the Gospel. He is indeed a merchant of his Lord, but he seeks a greater price. For he plainly sells, he gives spiritual things. And what does he seek? Perhaps carnal things? These too are indeed owed, but the Apostle did not seek them, saying: For I do not seek your things, but you yourselves (2 Cor 12:14). Give, then, the price, give yourselves. For did not Joseph in Egypt too sell grain, and yet make the buyers themselves the king's servants? Wishing to live in that famine, they received grain and wept, made servants. Do we fear to be made servants? Woe to us, if we are not his servants. What does it profit us to refuse such a Lord? We will both be under the devil, and suffer famine, and not escape the power of the true Lord. Give yourself, and buy for yourself a sheet—that is, a spiritual covering. Just as you yourself are also the price of a certain bread. For what? Because you give yourself to pleasure, do you not, for the concupiscence of the flesh, as if to buy a harlot, give yourself as the price? How great a thing it is to give yourself to God, to buy for yourself the living bread that came down from heaven, with that same price which is yourself? For the price of a harlot is as much as one loaf of bread. She made fine sheets and sold them.

21 And girdles to the Canaanites (Prov 31:24). She made girdles for the Canaanites. Let them gird themselves, work, come, be servants of this house, that all may be clothed, all be fed. For she made girdles, surely for work, for she too, doing work, girded her loins strongly. Who are the Canaanites? Neighboring nations, foreigners to the people of Israel. You who once were far off have been made near in the blood of Christ. You who were once strangers to the Testaments, and not having the hope of the promise, and without God in this world (Eph 2:13, 12), but now citizens of the saints and members of the household of God (Eph 2:19), having received girdles, work in the Lord's house, now made members of God's household from Canaanites—whence too was that woman just now recited in the Gospel. She was a Canaanite, she did not dare approach the table of the children, but, like a dog, sought the crumbs. See how she girded herself for work. Her girdle was faith. This he praises: O woman, great is your faith! (Matt 15:28)

22 Let us see the rest. She is clothed with strength and comeliness (Prov 31:25). With comeliness, as with fine linen; with strength, as with purple. For because she is strong, she is therefore bloody in passion. And she rejoiced in the last days (Prov 31:25). In the last days she rejoiced; therefore here she was long in tribulation. For whence would she have purple garments without tribulation?

23 She opened her mouth attentively (Prov 31:26). May the Lord grant us, set in her, praising her, cleaving to her, awaiting her husband with her and in her, that we too may open our mouth attentively. Not rashly, but attentively, cautiously, carefully. I was among you in much fear and trembling (1 Cor 2:3), the Apostle said. As if to say, "I opened my mouth attentively": Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians (2 Cor 6:11). She opened her mouth attentively. And she set order to her tongue (See Prov 31:26), praising the creature as creature, the Creator as Creator, the angels as angels, the heavenly things as heavenly, the earthly things as earthly, men as men, beasts as beasts. Nothing disturbed, nothing disordered. Not taking in vain the name of the Lord her God, not thinking the substance of the creature to be of the Creator, so speaking the whole in order that she does not set lower things before better, nor subject the better to the lower. She arranged the order of her tongue. Nothing is more beautiful than this order. Whence she herself says: "Set love in order within me (Song 2:4). Do not act in reverse, do not disturb and confound what God has ordered. Set love in order within me. Love me as me, love God as God, lest you offend God on my account, lest you offend me on account of any other besides me. Set love in order within me." Blessed her daughter, set in this order, whose passion we celebrate today among the rest and whose confession we heard a little before, ordering her tongue: Honor, she said, to Caesar as to Caesar, but fear to God (See Matt 22:21; 1 Pet 2:17). She, then, opened her mouth attentively, and set order to her tongue.

24 Strict are the ways of life of her houses (See Prov 31:27). Strict, strong, severe. There is no place there for dissipation, she does not love dissoluteness. And she does not eat idle bread (Prov 31:27). Deservedly she acquired so much.

25 Here, then, this woman, laborious, watchful, anxious, severely chastising her household, rising from the nights, gazing at the lamp lest it be extinguished, strong in tribulation, patient though the promises are not yet received, strengthening her arms upon the spindle, not eating idle bread—but after these labors, as it were of poverty and worldly need, what will it be, that in the last days she rejoiced? What will it be, do you want to hear? Hear for what hope our lamp burns all night. Now hear. Her sons rose up and were enriched (See Prov 31:28). Now we live in poverty, in poverty we watch. And when we die, in poverty we sleep. But we shall rise and be enriched. Then her sons will be enriched. Her sons rose up and were enriched. Compare now whatever riches of this earth, liable to thieves, to moths. Why do you boast? Because you are weak, therefore many things are necessary for you. You need to be much clothed, because you cannot endure cold; to use beasts of burden, because you cannot walk on foot. These are the props of weakness, not the ornaments of power. What are those riches of the angels? They have one garment of light. It is never worn out, never soiled. Those are the true riches, where there will be no want, no need. Why now do you seek this, before you rise? If you are a son of this woman, attend to when riches are promised you. Her sons rose up and were enriched. Prepare yourself to receive the riches of the resurrection. Do not love these, that you may deserve to come to those. Her sons rose up and were enriched.

26 And her husband praised her (See Prov 31:28). We praise her, but not from our own. Her husband himself praised her. When her sons rose up and were enriched, he attended to her, and inspected her, and praised her. Who would not wish to hear how he praised her? If you heard so joyfully when she was praised by us, how would we hear, if we could hear as her husband praised her? He praised her in the resurrection. When we have risen, we shall hear it. Or did he not even now leave that praise unsaid? Here is the praise itself, it follows. Let us hear—so may you live in her, and with her may we hear how her husband praised her, seeing her now with such blessedness of sons, of the rich in the resurrection of the dead.

27 Many, he says, daughters have wrought power (Prov 31:29). These are the praises by which her husband praises her. Many daughters have wrought power. What daughters, to whom she is compared? And she is not compared. Many daughters have wrought power. But you have surpassed them. Attend, I beg you: we are now at the end of the reading. For I fear lest I have you wearied there, where I most demand you attentive. Let us hear her praises. Many daughters have wrought power. But you have surpassed them, and you have set yourself above them all. You, he says, have surpassed them all, you have set yourself above all. What, then, are those other daughters who have wrought power, whom she has surpassed, and above whom she has set herself? Or what power did they work, or whence did she surpass them? For there are evil daughters, which are the heresies. Why daughters? Because they too were born of her. But evil daughters, daughters not by likeness of morals, but by likeness of sacraments. They too have our sacraments, they have our Scriptures, they have our Amen and our Alleluia, most of them have our Creed, many have our baptism. Therefore daughters. But of this woman do you want to know what was said somewhere in the Song of Songs? As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters (Song 2:2). A wondrous saying: he called the same ones both thorns and daughters. And do those thorns work power? They plainly do. Do you not see how the heresies too pray, fast, give alms, praise Christ? I can say there are there false prophets, of whom it was said: They work many signs and wonders, to deceive, if it can be, even the elect. See, I have foretold you (Matt 24:24-25). Thorns too work power. Of which power it is said: Did we not eat and drink in your name, and in your name work many mighty deeds? (See Luke 13:26; Matt 7:22) We ate and drank—not of any food whatever would he say it. You know of what food or drink he could say it. And we worked many mighty deeds. Many daughters work power, we do not deny it. The thorns too have a flower, but they do not have fruit. But this woman, to whom it is said, But you have surpassed them and set yourself above all—whence did she surpass them, except that she has not only a flower, but also fruit?

28 What fruit does she have? Whence did she surpass them? Let it be told me. I show you, he says, a still more excellent way (1 Cor 12:31). What more excellent way? For thence she surpassed them, thence she set herself above all. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). He speaks with tongues: that pertains to the power of the flower. If I know all sacraments and all knowledge, and have all prophecy and all faith, so that I move mountains—how great power!—but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). Hear still other powers, pertaining to the flower, not to the fruit: If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and hand over my body to burn, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). This more excellent way she has, whence it is said to her: Many daughters have wrought powers. Many spoke with tongues, knew all sacraments, worked many mighty deeds, cast out demons, distributed their goods to the poor, handed over their bodies to the fires. They are beneath you because they did not have love. But you have surpassed them and set yourself above all, heavy not only with flower, but with fruit, abounding in fruit. See that very cluster, where it begins. When he had enumerated the works of the flesh: Fornications, he says, uncleannesses, luxury, idol-worship, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, animosities, dissensions, heresies, envyings, carousings, drunkennesses, and the like, which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21). When all the thorns to be cast into the fire had been enumerated: But the fruit of the Spirit is, he says, love (Gal 5:22). And from this head, from this as it were root, the rest are woven on: joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-restraint (Gal 5:22-23). Whence this beautiful cluster? Because it hangs from love. Many daughters have wrought power. But you have surpassed them and set yourself above all.

29 In those others, what remained? False are favors, and vain the beauty of a woman (Prov 31:30). Why false favors and vain beauty? Because if I have not love, I have become sounding brass and a clanging cymbal, I am nothing, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). False, then, are favors, and vain the beauty of a woman. For a wise woman will be blessed. She who sought what she might understand, who guarded understanding—she is wise, she will be blessed, not those false beauties, not that vain favor. A wise woman will be blessed. But let her praise the fear of the Lord (See Prov 31:30). Let her who will be blessed praise that whence she will be blessed, because she is wise. What should she praise? The fear of the Lord, by which she was led to wisdom. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10 (110:10)): But let her praise the fear of the Lord. Laborious through so many nights, patient amid so many scandals, provident to look ahead, strong to endure, constant to persevere, her labors finished: Give her of the fruits of her hands (Prov 31:31). She did, she did. She is worthy to receive. Give her of the fruits of her hands. Give what? Come, blessed of my Father. Give her of the fruits of her hands. Give what? Receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34). See what to give. Of what fruits of her hands? For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. Give her of the fruits of her hands (Matt 25:35).

30 And what business will she then have, when her labors are finished? And let her husband be praised in the gates (Prov 31:31). He himself will be the harbor of our labors—to see God, and to praise God. There it will not be said: "Rise, labor, clothe the servants, clothe and adorn yourself in purple, give food to the household, attend lest the lamp be extinguished, be anxious, rise from the nights, open your hand to the poor, pass over from distaff to spindle." There will be no works of necessity where there is no necessity. There will be no works of mercy where there is no misery. You do not break bread for the poor where no one begs. You do not take in a stranger where all live in their own homeland. You do not visit the sick where all are perpetually sound. You do not clothe the naked where all are clothed with eternal light. You do not bury the dead where all live without end. Yet, not doing these things, you will not be doing nothing. For you will see the one you longed for, and you will praise him without failing. This is the fruit you will receive. Then that one thing you asked for will be: One thing I asked of the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). And what will you do there? That I may contemplate the delight of the Lord. And let her husband be praised in the gates. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; forever and ever they will praise you (Ps 27:4 (26:4); Ps 84:4 (83:5)).

1 There are two things which in this laborious life are commanded us by the Lord: to restrain and to endure. For we are bidden to restrain ourselves from those things which in this world are called goods, and to endure those evils which abound in this world. The former is called restraint, the latter endurance. Two virtues which cleanse the soul and make it capable of divinity. In bridling lusts and curbing pleasures, lest what flatters wickedly seduce us and what is called prosperous enervate us, restraint is needful for us: not to trust earthly happiness, and to seek to the end the happiness that has no end. And as it belongs to restraint not to trust the happiness of the world, so it belongs to endurance not to yield to the unhappiness of the world. Whether, then, we are in abundance of things or in straits, the Lord is to be awaited, who both gives what is truly good and sweet, and turns away from us what is truly evil.

2 The good things of God, which he promises to the just, are kept for the end; and the evils he threatens to the impious are kept for the end. But the good and evil things that are mixed together in this world neither the good alone have, nor the evil alone. Whatever good of this world you name, the good man has it, and the evil man has it too. For example, bodily health itself both good and evil men have. You will find riches both among the good and among the evil. Success of children we see to be a gift common to both good and evil. A long life—some good men live long, some evil men live long. And whatever other goods you wish to enumerate in this world, you find them mixed among good and evil. Again, whatever harsh, whatever sad things there are, both the good and the evil suffer: hunger, disease, pains, losses, oppressions, bereavements. This is the common material of all tears. It is easy, then, to see this, both that the goods of the world are among the good and the evil, and that good and evil men endure the evils of the world. And therefore the feet of some totter on the way of God, and they try to stray. Many even deviate and stray, when they have set up and proposed in their mind to serve God for this reason, that they may abound in earthly goods and be free from evils and avoid them. For when they have proposed this to themselves, and have set this as the reward of their piety and religion, when they see themselves laboring and the unjust flourishing, then, as if they had lost their reward, as if the one who called them had deceived them, as if the one who imposed the work in vain had cheated them in the reward, they renounce God. And to where do they wretchedly turn, turning away from the one by whom they were made and clinging to the things that were made? When what was made begins to perish, where will the lover of time be, who has lost eternity?

3 Accordingly, on account of those goods which God will give only to the good, and on account of those evils which God will give only to the evil, because at the end both will appear, God wishes to be believed. For what is the reward of faith, or what even is the very name of faith, if you now want to see what you hold? You ought not, then, to see what you believe, but to believe what you will see; to believe as long as you do not see, lest, when you see, you blush. Therefore we believe while it is the time of faith, before the time of sight comes. For so the Apostle says: As long as we are in this body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith (2 Cor 5:6-7). Therefore by faith, as long as we believe what we do not see. We will hold sight when we see face to face, as he is. The time of faith and the time of sight the apostle John too distinguishes in his epistle, saying: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be (1 John 3:2). This is the time of faith. See the time of sight. We know, he says, that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

4 Laborious is the time of faith. Who denies it? It is laborious, but this is the work whose reward is that. Do not be slothful in the work whose reward you desire. For if you yourself had hired a hired hand, you would not count out the wage before you set him at the work. You would say to him: "Do it, and receive it." He would not say to you: "Give it, and I do it." So, then, also God. You do not cheat your hired hand, fearing God; and does God himself cheat you, who commands you not to cheat your hired hand? And yet you can fail to give what you promised. And if there is no guile of falsehood in your heart, there is at least, in human frailty, a want of difficulty. What do we fear from God, who can neither deceive, because he is truth, and abounds in all things, because he made all things?

5 Let us, then, believe God, brothers. This is the first precept, this is the beginning of religion and of our way: to have the heart fixed in faith, and, by fixing the heart in faith, to live well, to abstain from seductive goods, to endure temporal evils, and, as long as those flatter and these threaten, to have the heart unshaken against both, lest you flow away in the former, lest you be broken in the latter. Having, then, restraint, having also endurance, when the temporal goods have passed away and the evils that are inflicted will be no more, you will have God who is good, you will have no evil. Therefore in the reading what was said to us? Son, approaching the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation. Humble your heart, and endure; that your life may increase in the last things (Sir 2:1-3)—not as now, but in the last things—that your life may increase in the last things. How much, do we suppose, does it increase? So as to become eternal. For now human life, as long as it is prolonged and seems to be prolonged, decreases rather than increases. Attend and see, reckon and see that it decreases. A man is born. For example, God appointed him seventy years of life. Life accrues to him, we say, by growing. Does it accrue, or does it diminish? See, of seventy years he has lived sixty, ten remain. What was set has been diminished, and the more he lives, the less remains to him. And so by living here life decreases, not increases. Hold to what God promised you, that your life may increase in the last things.

6 Then there follows what was not read: Whatever is applied to you, receive, and in grief endure, and in your humiliation have patience. For gold and silver are tested in fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation (Sir 2:4-5). It seems hard, you have failed. Have you not lost what does not fail? For why? Many suffer many things for perishable money, and will you not suffer for an abiding life? You so refuse to labor for the promises of God, as though, if you do not labor for the promises of God, you would not labor for your desires. How much do robbers suffer for their iniquity, how much do the lost suffer for their crimes, the luxurious for their wickedness, the merchants for their avarice, crossing the sea, committing body and soul to winds and storms, leaving their own, running to the unknown! If a judge pronounces exile, it is a punishment. Avarice commands exile, and it is a joy. What great thing, then, does wisdom command you, that avarice could not also command? And yet when avarice commands, you do it. And when you have done what avarice commands, what will you have? A house full of gold and silver. Have you not read: Though man walks in an image, yet he is vainly disturbed. He treasures up, and does not know for whom he gathers it (Ps 39:6 (38:7))? Why, then, did you sing and say to God: Give ear to my tears—that is, perceive my tears with your ears (Ps 39:12 (38:13))? Why do you not perceive with your ears the words of the one by whom you want your tears perceived? If you accuse your avarice, he will invite you to his wisdom. But when you have taken up the yoke of wisdom, will it be laborious? Plainly laborious. But see to what end, with what reward. Do you not know, when you gather by wisdom, for whom you gather it? For yourself you gather. Wake up, be vigilant, have the heart of the ant. It is the season of summer; gather what may profit you for winter. When it is well with you, it is summer. Therefore when it is well with you, then learn whence you may be sustained when it is ill with you. It is well with you, it is summer. Do not be slothful; gather grains from the Lord's storehouse, the words of God from the Church of God; gather and store them within in the heart. For you know that it is well. The time will come when it is ill. To every man tribulation will come. And if all things are serene, surely when he begins to die, he passes through tribulation to another life. Who is there who says: "It will be well with me, and I do not die"?

7 Yet, if you love life and fear death, the very fear of death is a daily winter. And the fear of death pricks most when it is well with us. For when it is ill, we do not fear death. When it is well with us, then we fear death the more. Therefore that rich man, whom his riches greatly delighted—for he had great riches and great possessions—I believe was interrupted by the fear of death, and amid his delights was wasting away. For he thought he would leave those goods behind. He had gathered, and did not know for whom, and he desired something eternal, and came to the Lord, and said to him: Good Master, what good shall I do that I may attain eternal life? (Matt 19:16) It is well with me, but what I hold slips away. It is well with me, but suddenly what I have will be no more. Tell me whence I may have what will always be; tell me how I may come to what I shall not lose. And the Lord to him: If you want to come to life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17). He asked, which commandments? He heard. He answered that from his youth he had kept them all. The Lord, the counselor of eternal life, said to him: One thing you lack. If you want to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven (Matt 19:21). For I did not say, Lose it, but keep it, and come, follow me. That man, who delighted in his riches, and therefore asked the Lord what good he might do to attain eternal life, because he wished to migrate from delights to delights and dreaded to leave these in which he delighted, went away sad to his earthly treasures. He refused to believe the Lord, that he can keep in heaven what is to perish on earth. He refused to be a true lover of his treasure. By holding it badly, he lost it; by loving it too much, he let it go. For if he loved it well, he would migrate to heaven, where he himself would afterward follow. God showed him a home where he might migrate, not a place where he might lose it. For there followed: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt 6:21).

8 But men want to see their riches. Suppose they treasure them on earth—do they not fear that their riches will be seen? And they dug, and buried them, and covered them over. Do they see what they have? He himself does not even see it. He longs for it to lie hidden, he fears lest it be exposed. He wants to be rich in reputation, not in truth. As if it sufficed to have it in conscience, because he kept it on earth! Oh, how much greater and better will your conscience be, if you keep it in heaven! Here, when you bury it on earth, you fear lest your servant know and carry it off and flee; here you fear lest your servant carry it off from you. There you do not fear, because your Lord keeps it well for you. "But I have," you say, "a faithful servant, who both knows and would not betray it and would not take it." Compare him to your Lord. If you have found a faithful servant, when did your Lord deceive you? And even if your servant cannot take it, he can still lose it. Your Lord can neither take it nor lose it, nor does he permit it to perish. He keeps it for you, abides for you, frees you, makes you abide. He will neither lose you, nor lose what you have entrusted to him. "Come," he says, "receive what you placed with me." Far be it. God does not say this. "I," he says to you, "who forbade you to lend at interest, have been lent to by you. For you wanted to increase by interest, and you gave to a man that he might render you more, and when he received it he was glad, and when he repaid it he wept. This you wanted, and I forbade it. For I said: Who has not given his money at interest (Ps 15:5 (14:5)). I forbade you usury. I command you usury: lend to me." This your Lord says to you: "Do you want to give little and receive more? Leave the man who weeps when you demand. Find me, who rejoice when I repay. See," he says, "I am present. Give and take. At the time of repayment I will repay you. And what shall I repay? You gave little, take more; you gave earthly things, take heavenly; you gave temporal things, take eternal; you gave my things, take me myself. For what did you give, except from what you received from me? Shall I, then, not repay what you have given, I who gave you whence you might give? I who gave you yourself who give? I who gave you Christ to whom you might give, who would say to you: When you did it to one of the least, you did it to me?" (Matt 25:40) See to whom you give. He feeds and hungers for your sake; he gives and is in need. When he gives, you want to receive; when he is in need, you do not want to give. Christ is in need when the poor man is in need. He who is ready to give eternal life to all his own deigned to receive temporally in each poor man.

9 And he gives counsel whither you may migrate. For he gave counsel whither you ought to migrate. Migrate, then, from earth to heaven, lest you lose it. For how many have lost what they were keeping, and not even so, corrected, have learned to place it in heaven! He, then—if perhaps he said to you, "Migrate your riches from the West to the East if you do not want them to perish"—you would burn, you would labor, you would busy yourself, you would consider how great were the things you had, you would see that, by the multiplicity of your goods, you could not easily migrate to distant places. And perhaps you would weep, because you were forced to go and could not find how you might take with you what you had gathered. He bade you migrate farther, who did not say, "Migrate from West to East," but, "Migrate from earth to heaven." You burn, as though you saw yourself suffering a greater difficulty, and you say to yourself: "If I could not find beasts and ships by which to migrate from West to East, how shall I find ladders by which to migrate from earth to heaven?" "Do not," God says to you, "do not labor. I who made you rich, I who gave you whence to give, have made the poor your porters." If, for example, you found some needy man from beyond the sea, or wherever you wished to go, you found from there some citizen suffering need, you would say to yourself: "This citizen is from where I want to go. He is in need here. I give him what he may repay me there." See, this poor man is in need here. He is a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Why do you hesitate to make a transfer? For those who do this so give that they may receive more, when they come to those places from which is the one who received. Let us do this too.

10 This happens, if we believe, if we rouse our faith. For we are vainly disturbed. Why are we vainly disturbed? Because, while Christ slept in the boat, the disciples almost shipwrecked. Jesus was sleeping, and the disciples were disturbed. The winds raged, the waves were stirred up, the boat was sinking. Why? Because Jesus was sleeping. So you too, when the storms of temptations rage in this world, your heart is disturbed, like your boat. Why, except that your faith sleeps? For so the apostle Paul says, that Christ dwells through faith in our hearts. Rouse, then, Christ in your heart; let your faith be awake, let your conscience be calmed, and your boat is freed. Perceive that he who promised is truthful. He has not yet shown it, because it is not yet the time to show it. Yet he has already shown many things. He promised his Christ and gave him; he promised his resurrection and gave it; he promised his Gospel and gave it; he promised his Church to be spread through the whole world and gave it; the very tribulations and heaps of calamities in human affairs he foretold and showed. How many are the things that remain! The things that were promised are being fulfilled, the things that were foretold are being fulfilled. And do you totter, lest what remains not come? You ought to fear then, if you did not see what was foretold. There are wars, there are famines, there are crushings. Kingdom against kingdom, there are earthquakes, there are heaps of calamities, an abundance of scandals, the cooling of love, the abundance of iniquity. Read all these, they were foretold. Read, see that all you see was foretold, and believe that you will see what has not yet come, counting how many things have come. But will you, seeing God show what he foretold, not believe that he will give what he promised? There you ought to believe, where you have begun to be disturbed.

11 If it is the end of the world, one must migrate from the world, the world must not be loved. See, the world is disturbed, and the world is loved. What if the world were tranquil? How would you cling to it beautiful, you who so embrace it foul? How would you gather its flowers, you who do not draw back your hand from its thorns? You do not want to leave the world; the world leaves you, and you follow the world. Let us, then, cleanse our heart, dearly beloved, and not lose endurance, but receive wisdom and hold to restraint. Labor passes, rest will come; the false delightful things pass, and the good will come which the faithful soul has desired, for which every pilgrim in the world burns and sighs: the good homeland, the heavenly homeland, the homeland with the peoples of the angels, the homeland where no citizen dies, where no enemy is admitted, the homeland where you may have the everlasting God as friend, where you may fear no enemy.

1 We have heard, brothers, God saying through the prophet: Do not delay to turn to the Lord, nor put it off from day to day. For his wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Sir 5:7). He promised you that, on whatever day you turn, he forgets your past malice. But did he promise you the life of tomorrow? Or did God perhaps not promise it to you, and an astrologer promised it to you, that God might condemn both you and him? God has, for our salvation, set the day of death as uncertain. Let each one, for his salvation, think of his own last day. It is the mercy of God that a man does not know when he will die. The last day lies hidden, that all days may be observed.

2 But the world holds us, enticements flatter on every side. The greatness of money delights, the splendor of honor delights, the terror of power delights. These things delight, but let the Apostle be heard: We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we carry anything out (1 Tim 6:7). Honor ought to seek you, not you it. For you ought to recline in a lower place, that the one who invited you may make you go up to a more honored place. But if he is unwilling, eat where you recline, because you brought nothing into this world. Is it too little for you that you eat of another's? Recline wherever, and eat. Will you say, "Of my own"? Hear the Apostle: We brought nothing into this world. You came to the world, you found a full table. But the earth is the Lord's, and its fullness (Ps 24:1 (23:1)).

3 For those who wish, he says, to become rich. He did not say, Those who are rich, but: Those who wish to become rich; he accused desires, not means: Those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and many harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and perdition (1 Tim 6:9). Money delights. Do you not fear this? Money is a good thing, great money is a good thing. They fall into temptation. Do you not fear? They fall into many foolish and harmful desires. Do you not fear? Where do desires lead? Which plunge men into ruin and perdition. And are you still deaf? Do you not fear ruin and perdition? Thus God thunders, and do you snore?

4 But to those who are already rich, the Apostle still gave counsel: Charge, he says, the rich of this world not to be proud in mind (1 Tim 6:17). The worm of riches is pride. It is difficult for one who is rich not to be proud. Take away pride, and riches will not harm. But attend to what you ought to do with them, lest what God bestowed lie idle with you. Not to be proud in mind. Take away this vice. Nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches. Take away this vice too. When you have taken away these things, exercise the good works you hear of. Let them be, he says, rich in good works. Let them not hope in the uncertainty of riches. But where should they hope? In the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17-18). God furnishes the world to the poor man, furnishes it to the rich man. Surely not, because he is rich, will he fill two bellies? Attend and see that from the gifts of God the poor sleep satisfied. He who feeds you feeds them through you.

5 Therefore let money not be loved. But if it is now had, let this be done with it. Be rich, you who have it. But where rich? In good works. Let them give easily, he says, let them share (1 Tim 6:18). Here now avarice contracts. Hear what follows: Let them give easily, let them share. As though it pours cold water over, it stiffens, it pulls tight the purse, and says: "I do not lose my labors." Unhappy man, do you not want to lose your labors? See, you will die, and you who brought nothing here can carry nothing away from here. When you carry nothing away, have you not lost all your labors? Hear, then, the counsel of God. Do not be terrified because he said, Let them give easily, let them share. Hear what follows. Wait, do not shut the door against me, nor the hearing of your heart; wait. Do you want to know: Let them give easily, let them share, because you will not lose, and this alone you will not lose? Let them treasure up, he says, for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:19). Therefore this life that delights you is a false life. You live here as if in dreams. If you live here as if in dreams, you will wake up when you die, and so you have nothing to find in your hands. As if a beggar should sleep and in dreams an inheritance came to him, nothing is happier than he before he rises. He sees himself in dreams handling fine garments with his hands, precious vessels of gold and silver, entering the most pleasant and ample estates, great households waiting on him. He wakes, and weeps. And just as, awake, he accuses the man who stripped him, so he accuses the one who roused him. Most openly the psalm spoke of this: They slept their sleep, it says, and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands (Ps 76:5 (75:6)), after they finished their sleep.

6 Because, then, you brought nothing here, you will carry nothing away from here. Send up what you have found, and you will not lose it. Give to Christ: for here Christ wished to receive. You give to Christ, and you lose it? You do not lose it if you entrust it to your servant, and you lose it if you entrust it to your Lord? You do not lose it if you entrust to your servant what you have acquired, and you will lose it if you entrust to your Lord what you received from your Lord himself? Christ wished to be in need here, but for our sake. All the poor whom you see, Christ could have fed, as he fed Elijah by a raven. Yet he took away the raven even from Elijah. That he might be fed by a widow, he provided not for Elijah but for the widow. When, then, God makes poor men—because he himself does not want them to have—when he makes poor men, he tests the rich. For so it is written: The poor man and the rich man met one another (Prov 22:2). Where did they meet? In this life. The one was born, the other was born too: they found one another, they met one another. And who made them? The Lord. The rich man, that he might help the poor; the poor man, that he might test the rich. Let each one act according to his strength. Let him not act so as to suffer straits himself. We do not say this. Your superfluous things are necessary to another. You heard just now, when the Gospel was read: Whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of the least of mine for my sake will not lose his reward (Matt 10:42). He set the kingdom of heaven up for sale, and willed its price to be a cup of cold water. But when the one who gives alms is poor, then his alms ought to be a cup of cold water. He who has more, let him do more. That widow gave from two mites. Zacchaeus gave half his goods, and reserved the other half to repay his frauds. Alms profit those who have changed their life. For you give to Christ in need to redeem your past sins. For if you give for this reason, that you may always be allowed to sin with impunity, you do not feed Christ, but you try to corrupt the judge. Therefore give alms for this, that your prayers may be heard and that God may help you to change your life for the better. And you who change it, change that same life for the better. And through alms and prayers let past evils be blotted out, and future good things, everlasting, come.

1 Often, brothers, we have sung with the Psalmist: Wait for the Lord, act manfully; and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord (Ps 27:14 (26:14)). What is Wait for the Lord? That you receive then, when he gives; that you not demand then, when you wish. The time of giving is not yet; he waited for you, wait for him. What is it that I said, He waited for you, wait for him? If you already live justly, if you are already turned to him, if your past deeds displease you, if it has now pleased you to choose the good, new life—do not hasten to demand. He waited for you, that you might change your evil life: wait for him, that he may crown your good life. For if he too did not wait, there would be no one to whom he might give. Wait, then, because you have been waited for.

2 But you who do not want to be corrected, O whoever you are here who still do not want to be corrected—as though there were one: I ought rather to have said, Whoever you are here. But you who are here, who have not resolved to be corrected, I will speak as though to one: Whoever you are who do not want to be corrected, what do you promise yourself? Do you perish by despairing, or by hoping? Whoever you are who perish by despairing, you say this in your soul: My iniquity is upon me, I waste away in my sins; what hope of living is there for me? Hear the prophet saying: I do not want the death of the impious; only let the impious turn back from his most wicked way, and live (Ezek 33:11). You who perish by hoping, you say this in your soul: God is good, God is merciful, he forgives all things, he does not render evil for evil. Hear the Apostle saying: Do you not know that the patience of God leads you to repentance? (Rom 2:4)

3 What, then, remains? If we have obtained anything with you, if what I said has entered your heart, I see what you answer me: It is true, I neither despair, so as to perish by despairing; nor do I hope wrongly, so as to perish by hoping. I do not say to myself, "My iniquity is upon me, I now have no hope." Nor do I say to myself, "God is good, he renders evil to no one." I say neither that nor this: "The prophet presses me, the Apostle presses me." And what do you say? For a little while longer I will live as I wish. These are the ones who weary us: they are very many, they are troublesome. For a little while longer I will live as I wish; afterward, when I have corrected myself, surely what the prophet said is true: I do not want the death of the impious; only let the impious turn back from his most wicked way, and live (Ezek 33:11). When I have turned, he will blot out all my evils; why do I not add something to my pleasures, and live as long as I wish, as I wish, intending afterward to turn to God?

4 Why do you say this, brother? Why? Because God promised indulgence if I change myself. I see, I know, God promised indulgence; through the holy prophet he promises it, and through me, his least servant, he promises it; it is true what he promises, he promised it through his only Son. But why do you want to add evil days to evil days? Sufficient for the day is its own malice. Yesterday was an evil day, today too is evil, tomorrow too is evil. Or do you think they are good days, when you satisfy your pleasures, when you nourish your heart in luxuries, when you plot against another's chastity, when you sadden your neighbor by fraud, when you deny things entrusted to you, when you swear falsely for a coin? When you provide yourself a good lunch, do you therefore think you are passing a good day? How can it be that a day is good, when the man is evil? Do you want to add evil days to evil days?

5 I beg, he says, let a little be allowed me. Why? Because God promised me indulgence. But no one promised you that you will live tomorrow. Or read to me, as you read the prophet, the Gospel, the Apostle, that when you turn, God blots out all your iniquities—read to me where tomorrow was promised you, and live tomorrow badly. Although, my brother, I ought not to have said this to you. Your life will perhaps be long: if it will be long, let it be good. Why do you want to have a long life and a bad one? Either it will not be long—and that long life ought to delight you which has no end; or it will be long—and what evil will it be, that you have lived well for a long time? Do you want to live a long time badly, and not well? And yet no one promised you tomorrow. Correct yourself, hear the Scripture: Do not delay to turn to God (Sir 5:7). These words are not mine: but they are mine too. If I love them, they are mine; love them, and they are yours. This discourse which I now speak is the holy Scripture's: if you despise it, it is your adversary. But hear the Lord saying: Agree with your adversary quickly (Matt 5:25). Let all hear, I recite the words of the divine Scripture. O evil deferrer, O evil seeker of tomorrow, hear the Lord saying, hear the holy Scripture foretelling. Of this passage I am a watchman. Do not delay to turn to God, nor put it off from day to day (Sir 5:7). See whether he did not see them, see whether he did not look upon those who say: Tomorrow I live well, today I will live badly. And when tomorrow comes, you will say this. Do not delay to turn to God, nor put it off from day to day. For his wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Sir 5:7). Did I write this? Can I blot it out? If I blot it out, I fear to be blotted out. I can keep silent about it: I fear to keep silent. I am compelled to preach: terrified, I terrify. Fear with me, that you may rejoice with me. Do not delay to turn to God. Lord, see that I say it: Lord, you know that you terrified me, when your prophet was read. Lord, you know my fear in that chair, when your prophet was read. See, I say: Do not delay to turn to God, nor put it off from day to day. For his wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you. But I do not want him to destroy you.

6 Do not say to me: I want to perish: because I do not want it. Better, then, is my "I do not want" than your "I want." If your lethargic father were sick in your hands, and you, a young man, were present at the sick old man, and the physician said: Your father is in danger; this sleep is a kind of lethal heaviness; watch him, do not let him sleep; if you see him sleeping, rouse him; if it is too little to rouse him, pinch him; if this too is too little, prick him, lest your father die—you, a young man, would be a burden to the old man. He, dissolved into the sweet sickness, would go, would close his eyes pressed by that heaviness, you would cry against it to your father: "Do not sleep." But he: "Let me be, I want to sleep." And you: "But the physician said: If he wants to sleep, let him not sleep." But he: "I beg you, let me be, I want to die." But I do not want it, says the son to the father. To whom? Surely to one wishing himself to die. And yet you want to defer your father's death, and to live a little longer with your dying old father. The Lord cries to you: Do not sleep, lest you sleep forever: wake up, that you may live with me, and have a Father whom you do not bury. You hear, and you are deaf.

7 What have I done as a watchman? I am free, I do not burden you. I know some will say: What did he mean to say to us? He terrified us, burdened us, made us guilty. Rather, I wished to free you from guilt. It is foul, it is base: I will not say evil, I will not say perilous, I will not say destructive; it is base that I should deceive you if God does not deceive me. The Lord threatens death to the impious, to the most wicked, to defrauders, to the criminal, to adulterers, to seekers of pleasures, to despisers of him, to those who murmur about the times and do not change their ways: the Lord threatens them with death, threatens them with hells, threatens them with everlasting ruin. What do they want, that I should promise what he does not promise? See, a procurator gives you security: what does it profit you, if the head of the household does not accept it? I am a procurator, I am a servant: do you want me to say to you: Live as you wish, the Lord will not destroy you? The procurator has given you security: the procurator's security is worth nothing. Would that the Lord gave it to you, and I made you anxious! For the Lord's security is valid, even if I am unwilling; but mine is worth nothing, if he is unwilling. But what is our security, brothers, whether mine or yours, except that we hear the Lord's commands intently and diligently, and faithfully await his promises? In these we are wearied, because we are men: let us implore his help, let us groan to him. Let our prayers be not for worldly things that pass away, transitory, and vanishing like a vapor: but let our prayers be for the very fulfilling of justice, and for sanctification for the name of God: not for conquering a neighbor, but for conquering lust: not for healing the flesh, but for subduing avarice. For these let our prayers be: let them help us within as we struggle, that they may crown us as we conquer.

1 When the divine Scriptures were read, since we cannot now speak of all their sentences, I noted one little sentence, briefest in the number of words but most ample in the weight of its meaning. From it I chose, with the Lord's help, to serve this great expectation of your Charity, according to the mediocrity of our strength, and to minister to you from the Lord's storehouse whence I too live with you. This, then, is the sentence of which I speak: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty, that you may also enjoy his goods (Sir 22:23). Let us take this first as it seems to sound plainly, as all can understand it, even those who search out none of the more secret things of the divine Scriptures. Keep faith, it says, with your neighbor in his poverty, that you may also enjoy his goods. "It is true," says the one who has heard it plainly, "when a friend is poor, faith is not to be broken with him; one must abide with him, nor must friendship be changed when his means are changed, but faith must be kept, the will being firm. For my friend, if he was a friend while he was rich, when he is poor, is he not a friend? Was it not he who was my friend, but his gold? But if my friend was the man himself, then both while the gold remained and when the gold departed, he is the one he was. Why, then, should he now not be a friend, who, even if he has lost his treasure, has not lost his soul? If I bought a horse, with its ornaments and saddle removed, I would perhaps not despise it bare. And did my friend please me clothed, and does he displease me stripped? Well, then, the divine Scripture commands, altogether salutarily and most fittingly to the morals of men: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty."

2 That you may also enjoy his goods (Sir 22:23). What then? Shall we approach the latter part of this sentence and have such a thought about our friend that we say: "We must abide with him and keep faith with him in his poverty, that we may also enjoy his goods"? For the one who is now poor will be rich, and—he whose poverty you proudly disdained before—he will not admit you to his riches. Keep faith with him, then, even when he is poor, that you may also enjoy his goods when riches accrue to him, and may rejoice with him in them. Keep faith with him. He is poor, but he has a great possession—faith. You who were preparing to possess land with him, and wished to possess it if he had land for you to possess together, how much more firmly do you possess faith with him? For your friend is perhaps such that some wicked man could take away his possession. Will he be able to take away faith? What is it, then, that you may also enjoy his goods? Surely because from poor he may become rich, and you will enjoy the riches of the one whose poverty you did not spurn.

3 The former part of this sentence, according to this popular understanding, pleases me. But the latter, I confess to you, offends me. For if you abide with a friend in his poverty for this reason, that when he is rich you may enjoy his riches, you do not yet love your friend, but something else in your friend. Faith and hope are two good friends, and greater than these is love. These abide in the divine things: these three abide, faith, hope, love. But the greatest of them is love (1 Cor 13:13). Pursue love (1 Cor 14:1). I ask, then, a friend about his friend: "Tell me, I beg you, do you keep faith with this man in his poverty?" "Plainly," he says, "for I heard this in the holy Scripture, and committed it to my heart and stored it in my memory. I gladly recall it, more gladly do it. For I heard the holy word: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty." And I: "Why do you do this? Is it for the sake of what follows: that you may also enjoy his goods? What, then, do you expect?" "That, when he is rich," he says, "and goods accrue to him, he may admit me to his goods, because I did not disdain his evils." "Then bear with me as I ask a little more. What if this man, with whom poor you keep faith, will never be rich? What if he is to be poor until death? Does faith perish, because hope was deceived? Because you cannot possess gold with the rich man, will you regret having possessed faith with the poor one?" If he savors the human—rather, if he savors the true—he will be disturbed by this question and will say to me: "You speak the truth. It is a good thing to keep faith with a neighbor. But if faith is kept with a poor neighbor in the hope that we may come to his riches, that we may have a share in them with him, without doubt, when this poor man has died, the hoped-for riches not accruing, we will regret all that good, and what we milked well we pour out badly." You see, then, that this sentence must be searched out more deeply, not as it can be understood commonly, but as it was founded by divine authority, to insinuate, prescribe, command us something great, where our hope is not deceived, lest we regret having kept faith. For to that meaning you will not be able to come thus.

4 Attend, then, to that poor Lazarus lying before the rich man's gate. This poor man was miserably sick, nor did he even keep his bodily health, which is the patrimony of the poor. He was ulcerous too, the dogs licked his sores. But in that house was a rich man. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, he feasted splendidly every day, and refused to keep faith with the poor man. Rightly the Lord Jesus, the lover and giver of faith, attended more to that very faith in the poor man than to gold and delights in the rich. He attended more to the poor man's possession than to the rich man's elation. For this reason he named that poor man; but the other's name he judged should be passed over in silence. There was, he says, a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day. But there was a certain poor man named Lazarus (Luke 16:19-20). Does it not seem to you that he recited from a book, where he found the poor man's name written, the rich man's he did not find? For that book was of the living and the just, not of the proud and the unjust. The rich man was named by men, the poor man passed over in silence. On the contrary, the Lord named the poor man, passed over the rich man in silence. That rich man, then, refused to keep faith with the poor man. Both died. It happened that the needy man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man died, and was buried (Luke 16:22)—for perhaps he was not even buried—and when, in the underworld, as we read, he was in torments, he lifted up his eyes from afar, and saw the poor man in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:23), whom he had despised before his gate. He could not have rest in common with the one with whom he refused to have faith in common. Father Abraham, he said, send Lazarus, that he may dip his finger in water, and drop it on my tongue, because I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:24). It was answered: Remember, son, that you received your good things in your life, but Lazarus evil things. Now, then, he rests here, but you are tormented. And besides all this, there is a great chasm between us and you, and no one can pass over from us to you, nor cross over from you to us (Luke 16:25-26). He saw mercy denied to himself because he had denied it. He saw how true it is: Judgment without mercy to him who has not done mercy (Jas 2:13). And he who refused in his own time to have mercy on the poor man had mercy, too late, on his brothers. Send, then, he said, Lazarus. I have there five brothers. Let him tell them what is done here, lest they too come into this place of torments (Luke 16:27-28). And against this it was answered: If they do not want to come into this place of torments, they have there Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them (Luke 16:29). That man, who used to mock the Prophets, surely together with his brothers—for I believe, rather I do not doubt, that, speaking with those very brothers of his about the Prophets warning of good things, forbidding evil things, terrifying about future torments and promising future rewards, he mocked all these, saying with his brothers: "What life after death? What memory of rottenness? What sense in ashes? All are carried off there, and buried. Who has been heard to return from there?"—recalling these words of his, he therefore wanted Lazarus to return to his brothers, that they might no longer say: "Who has returned from there?" And to this it was aptly and worthily answered. For this man seems to have been a Jew, and therefore to have said, Father Abraham. Therefore most fitly and aptly it was answered: If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). It was fulfilled in the Jews, that they did not hear Moses and the Prophets, nor believed Christ rising again. Had he not foretold them this before: If you believed Moses, you would believe me too (John 5:46)?

5 That rich man, then, remained without help, his temporal delights finished, in eternal punishments. He did not do just things, he heard fitting words: Remember, son, that you received your good things in your life (Luke 16:25). This life, then, which you see, is not yours. You received your good things. These things, then, which from afar, sighing, you desire, are not yours. Where are the words of the rich and of those who flatter the rich, when they see someone flowing with temporal delights, abounding on earth, snatching land to have it, and heaping up by dragging to himself the lead with which he is sunk? For a great weight led that rich man down to the underworld, and the heavy burden pressed him to the depths. For he had not heard: Come to me, you who labor. My yoke is gentle, my burden is light (Matt 11:28, 30). The burden of Christ is wings. With these wings that poor man flew into Abraham's bosom. The rich man, then, refused to hear these things. For he heard the tongues of flatterers. By these tongues he grew deaf against the Prophets, the tongues of those who praise wrongly and say: "You alone are, you alone live." Therefore: You received your good things in your life. For you esteemed these your good things. You did not believe in, did not hope for, others. You received those in your life. For you thought that life alone was yours. When you hoped for nothing to come after death, you feared nothing sad. You received, then, your good things in your life, but Lazarus evil things. He did not say his own, but evil things—the things men think evil, which men fear, which men avoid as something great. Lazarus received these evil things. His good things he did not then receive. Yet he did not lose them. But just as it was not heard, "his own," so neither was this heard, "in his life." For his life was another, which he hoped for in Abraham's bosom. For here he was dead, here he did not live. He was dead by that death of which the Apostle speaks: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). The poor man bore temporal evils. But God deferred his good things, he did not take them away. Why, then, rich man, in the underworld do you, too late, desire what, while you enjoyed your delights, you did not hope for? Are you not the one who despised him lying before your gate? Are you not the one who, in despising the poor man, mocked Moses and the Prophets? You refused, then, to keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty; now you do not enjoy his goods. For you mocked when you heard: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty, that you may also enjoy his goods. Now you see his goods far off, and you do not possess them with him. For those goods were to come, to come invisibly. When they were not seen, they were to be believed, lest, when they are seen, there remain for you to grieve and not be able to hold them.

6 Therefore, brothers, as far as it seems to me, this sentence has been refined out. For it must be understood by Christians in a Christian way. Let us not so keep faith with a poor neighbor that we hope for riches to come to him temporally and keep our faith in order to possess them with him. Not so at all, not so. But how, except according to the precept of our Lord: Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that they too may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9)? For here there are poor men not having dwellings into which they may receive you. Make them your friends of the mammon of iniquity—that is, of gains which iniquity calls gains. For there are gains which justice calls gains: these are in the treasures of God. Do not despise the poor, who have nowhere to return, nowhere to enter. They have dwellings, and eternal ones. They have somewhere where you will wish in vain to be received, like that rich man, if you do not now receive them into yours, because he who receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive a just man's reward; he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever gives to one of the least of mine a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (Matt 10:41-42). For he keeps faith with his neighbor in his poverty, and therefore will enjoy his goods.

7 Your Lord too says to you, your very Lord, the one who, though he was rich, was made poor. He will expound to you this sentence better and more solidly. For perhaps about that poor man whom you received into your house your soul sometimes doubts and hesitates, whether he is a truthful man, or perhaps a deceitful pretender, a hypocrite. The soul wavers in doing mercy, since you cannot look into the heart. If, then, you cannot look in, do it even with the evil man, that you may come also to the good. He who feared lest his seeds fall on the paths, on the thorns, on the stones, slothful to sow in winter, hungered in summer. Yet your Lord says to you, of whom surely you do not doubt if you are a Christian: "I was made poor for your sake, though I was rich." For when he was in the form of God—what is richer than that form?—he did not count it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant—what is richer than the form of God? what is poorer than the form of a servant?—made in the likeness of men, found in habit as a man, he humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:6-8). Add still more. He thirsted on the cross, he received drink, not from one having mercy but from one insulting, and the fountain of life drank vinegar in death. Do not spurn it, do not despise it, do not say: "So my God was made man? So my God was killed, was crucified?" Yes. Plainly, so, he was crucified. His poverty is commended to you. He was far from you. He drew near to you by poverty. Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty. Surely here that sentence nowhere wavers, nowhere grows dim. In place of the name "neighbor," take the name of Christ, and take it humbly. For, humble, you suit the humble one; you grasp the lofty as humble. Take it humbly and understand the neighbor—for the Lord is near to those who have crushed their heart (Ps 34:18 (33:19))—that you may say in your prayer: As a neighbor, as our brother, so I was well-pleasing (See Ps 35:14 (34:14)). So that one word which the prophet added, naming the neighbor—for prophetic speech had to be covered a little by the veil of a sacred sign, that it might be sought more longingly, found more sweetly—where, then, he named the neighbor, do you name Christ, because that prophet too named Christ thus prophetically, and see that liquid sentence flowing and, as from the fountain of truth, watering your thirst. Keep faith with Christ in his poverty, that you may also enjoy his goods. What is it to keep faith with Christ? In that he was made man for your sake, in that he was born of a Virgin, in that he received insults, that he was scourged, that he was hung on the wood, that he was wounded by the spear, that he was buried—do not spurn these things, let them not seem incredible to you, and so you keep faith with your neighbor. For this is his poverty. But what is it, that you may also enjoy his goods? Hear that this is what he willed, hear that for this reason he came to you in poverty, hear the voice of the poor man, of your Lord God for your sake enriching you, see how you may enjoy his goods if you keep faith with him in his poverty: Father, he says, I want that where I am, they too may be with me (John 17:24).

1 I, brothers, have small strength, but the word of God has great strength. May it prevail in your hearts. Therefore even what we say slowly you hear greatly, if you obey. As through his cloud, the Lord thundered through the prophet Isaiah. If you have sense, you were terrified. For he spoke plainly, and these things have no need of an expositor but of a doer. What to me, he says, is the multitude of your sacrifices? For who required these from your hands? (Isa 1:11-12) God seeks us, not our things. But the sacrifice of a Christian is alms to the poor. For by this God is made propitious to sins. But unless God is made propitious to sins, who remains but a guilty man? From those offenses and sins, without which this life is not led, men are cleansed by alms. These are of two kinds, by giving out and by remitting; by giving out the good you have, by remitting the evil you suffer. These two kinds of alms the Lord, the good master, who shortened the word upon the earth that it might be fruitful and not burdensome, hear how briefly he comprised: Remit, he says, and it will be remitted to you; give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:37-38). Remit and it will be remitted to you pertains to forgiving; Give and it will be given to you pertains to giving out. From that alms by which you forgive a man you lose nothing. See, he asks pardon at once; you forgave, you lost nothing. You returned home fuller in love. That other kind of alms, where we are bidden to give out to the needy, seems hard, because whatever anyone gives, that very thing which he gives he will not have.

2 Indeed even here the Apostle makes us secure, who said: According as each one has, not that there should be relief for others, and distress for you (2 Cor 8:13). Let each one, then, measure his strength, let him not attend to treasuring up on earth. Let him give, what he gives does not perish. I do not say: This does not perish, but I say: This alone does not perish. But the other things which you do not give and which abound to you, either while you live you lose, or when you die you leave behind. Then, my brothers, whom would so great a promise not exhort? Remit, he says, and it will be remitted to you; give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:37-38). When he says, Give and it will be given to you, attend to whom he says it, who says it. God says it to a man, the immortal says it to the mortal, so great a head of the household says it to a beggar. For he will not call back from us what we have given. We have found someone to lend to. Let us give at interest—but to God, not to a man. We give to the one who abounds, we give to the one who gave what we give. And for slight things, for frivolous things, for mortal things, for perishable things, for earthly things, he repays eternal, incorruptible things, things abiding without end. What more shall I say? He who promises, promises himself. If you love him, buy him from him. And that you may know that you give to him, hear him saying: I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; sick, you visited me; shut up, you came to me (Matt 25:35-36). And they will say to him: When did we see you set in these needs, and ministered to you? (Matt 25:37-39) And he: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (Matt 25:40). He gives from heaven, he receives on earth. He himself gives, he himself receives. You make, as it were, a transfer-loan. Here you give, there you receive; here you give perishable things, there you receive things that will abide without end.

3 And whenever you say to God: Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man—for thus we have sung—for I know with what groaning you say: Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man (Ps 140:1 (139:2)). For who in this world does not endure some evil man? When, then, you say this to God: Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man, just as you say it with all your heart, so with intent eyes attend first to yourself. Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Suppose God answered you: "From whom?" You will say, from Gaius, from Lucius, from some person or other whom you endure. And he answers you: "Do you say nothing to me about yourself? If I deliver you from the evil man, you are first to be delivered from yourself. You endure yourself as an evil man; do not endure yourself as an evil man." Let us see whether the other evil man finds anything to do to you. What can the evil man do to you? Do not you be evil. Let not your avarice have dominion over you, let not your concupiscence tread you down, let not your anger trample you. These inner enemies of yours, who are they? You yourself. Let them do nothing to you. Let us see what the evil neighbor, the evil patron, the evil powerful man does to you. Let us see what he does to you. Let him find you just, find you faithful, find you a Christian: what will he do to you? What the Jews did to Stephen. By doing evil they sent him to the good. Therefore when you pray that God may deliver you from the evil man, attend to yourself. Do not spare yourself. Let him deliver you from yourself. How does he deliver you from yourself? By forgiving sins, by granting merits, by giving you strength to fight against your desires, by breathing in virtue, by granting to your mind a heavenly delight by which every earthly delight may be overcome. When God furnishes these things to you, he delivers you from yourself, and secure you await, in the evils of this world that will nonetheless pass away, your Lord coming with those goods that cannot pass away. Let these things be enough for you. You see surely that, somehow, I, weak, approach, and by speaking become strong. So great is my spirit, so great my intent for your advancement. For the worker in the field, hoping for fruit, feels his labor less. You know what my fruits are—that I may be with you, and that we may all be fruits of God. Amen.

1 The beginning of the good life, to which even eternal life is owed, is right faith. Now faith is to believe what you do not yet see, the reward of which faith is to see what you believe. Therefore in the time of faith, as in the time of sowing, let us not fail, and let us not fail even to the end, but persevere, until we reap what we have sown. For when the human race had turned away from God and lay in its offenses, just as we needed a Creator that we might exist, so we needed a Savior that we might come to life again. The just God condemned man, the merciful God frees man. The God of Israel, he will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God (Ps 68:35 (67:36)). But believers receive, despisers do not receive.

2 Yet not even of faith itself ought we so to boast, as though we could do anything ourselves. For faith is not nothing, but something great; and if you have it, surely you received it. For what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7) See, dearly beloved, whence you may give thanks to the Lord God, lest in any gift of his you remain ungrateful, and on account of being ungrateful you lose what you received. The praise of faith can in no way be unfolded by me, but it can be thought of by the faithful. Moreover, if in some part it be thought of as is worthy, who would worthily think to how many gifts of God it is itself to be preferred? And if we ought to acknowledge the lesser gifts of God in us, how much more ought we to acknowledge that which surpasses them?

3 From God we ought to have what we are. Because we are not nothing, from whom do we have it but from God? But there are also logs, there are also stones—from whom but from God? We, then, what more? Logs and stones do not live; but we live. But still this very living is common to us with trees and shrubs. For vines too are said to live. For if they did not live, it would not be written: He killed their vines with hail (Ps 78:47 (77:47)). It lives when it is green; it withers when it dies. But this life has no sense-perception. What more have we? We perceive. The fivefold sense of the body is known. We see, we hear, we smell, we taste, and by touch too, through our whole body, we distinguish soft and hard, rough and smooth, hot and cold. There is, then, in us a fivefold sense. But beasts too have this. We have, then, something more. And yet these things which we have enumerated, my brothers, if we consider them in ourselves, how great a thanksgiving, how great a praise do we owe the Creator for them? But still, what more have we? Mind, reason, counsel, which beasts do not have, birds do not have, fish do not have. In this we were made to the image of God. Finally, where Scripture narrates that we were made, there it adds, that it may not only set us before the cattle but also set us over them—that is, that they may be subject to us: Let us make, it says, man to our image and likeness, and let him have power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all the cattle and the serpents that creep upon the earth (Gen 1:26). Whence does he have power? On account of the image of God. Whence to certain ones it is said, by way of rebuke: Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps 32:9 (31:9)). But understanding is one thing, reason another. For we have reason even before we understand, but we cannot understand unless we have reason. There is, then, an animal capable of reason—or, to say it better and more quickly, a rational animal, in which reason is by nature, and before it understands it already has reason. For it therefore wants to understand, because it goes before by reason.

4 This, then, by which we go before the beasts, we ought above all to cultivate in ourselves and, in a way, to recarve and reform. But who will be able, unless it be the Craftsman who formed it? We were able to deform the image of God in us, we cannot reform it. We have, then—to weave it all together briefly—the very being itself with logs and stones, living with trees, perceiving with beasts, understanding with angels. We distinguish, then, colors with the eyes, sounds with the ears, odors with the nostrils, flavors with the taste, heat with touch, morals with the understanding. Every man wants to understand; there is no one who does not want to understand; not all want to believe. A man says to me: "Let me understand that I may believe." I answer: "Believe that you may understand." Since, then, such a controversy in a way has arisen between us, that he says to me, "Let me understand that I may believe," and I answer him, Rather believe that you may understand—since with this controversy we come to a judge, let neither of us presume sentence in his own favor. What judge shall we find? Having examined all men, I do not know whether we can find a better judge than a man through whom God speaks. Let us not, then, in this matter and this controversy, go to secular letters; let not a poet judge between us, but a prophet.

5 The blessed apostle Peter, set on the mountain with two other disciples of Christ the Lord, James and John, with the Lord himself, heard a voice brought down from heaven: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him (Matt 17:5). Commending this, the said Apostle said in his epistle: This voice we heard brought down from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain (2 Pet 1:18). And when he had said, This voice we heard brought down from heaven, he added and said: And we have a more sure prophetic word (2 Pet 1:19). That voice sounded from heaven, and the prophetic word is more sure. Attend, dearly beloved; may the Lord help both my will and your expectation, that I may say what I want, as I want. For who of us would not marvel that, the voice having been brought down from heaven, the Apostle said the prophetic word was more sure? He indeed said more sure, more sure, not better, not truer. For that word from heaven was as true as the prophetic word, as good, as useful. What is it, then, "more sure," except that in it the hearer is more confirmed? Why this? Because there are unbelieving men who so disparage Christ that they say he did what he did by magic arts. The unbelievers, then, could refer even that voice brought down from heaven, by human conjectures and unlawful curiosities, to magic arts. But the Prophets were before—I do not say before that voice, but before the flesh of Christ. Christ was not yet a man, when he sent the Prophets. Whoever says he was great—if, then, he did by magic arts that he should be worshipped even when dead, was he a magician before he was born? See why the apostle Peter said: We have a more sure prophetic word. The voice from heaven, by which the faithful are admonished; the prophetic word, by which the unbelievers are convicted. We have understood, as far as it seems to me, dearly beloved, why the apostle Peter said: We have a more sure prophetic word, after the voice brought down from heaven.

6 And how great is the very condescension of Christ? This Peter who speaks thus was a fisherman, and now an orator has great praise, if he can be understood by the fisherman. Therefore, speaking to the first Christians, the apostle Paul says: See your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble. But God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the ignoble and contemptible things of the world God chose, and the things that are not, as though they were, that the things that are might be brought to nothing (1 Cor 1:26-28). For if Christ first chose an orator, the orator would say: "I was chosen by the merit of my eloquence." If he chose a senator, the senator would say: "I was chosen by the merit of my dignity." Last of all, if he first chose an emperor, the emperor would say: "I was chosen by the merit of my power." Let these be quiet and deferred a little, let them be quiet—not omitted, not despised, but a little deferred, wherein they can glory of themselves in themselves. "Give me," he says, "that fisherman, give me the unschooled, give me the unskilled, give me him with whom a senator does not deign to speak, not even when he buys a fish. Give me him," he says. "If I fill him, it will be plain that I do it. Although I am going to make both a senator and an orator and an emperor: at some time I am going to make a senator too, but more surely a fisherman. A senator can glory of himself, an orator can, an emperor can. The fisherman can glory only of Christ. Let him come for the sake of teaching salutary humility. First let the fisherman come. Through him the emperor is better led."

7 Remember, then, the holy fisherman, just, good, full of Christ, to whose nets cast through the world, to be caught with the rest, even this people of yours belonged. Therefore remember that he said: We have a more sure prophetic word (2 Pet 1:19). Give me, then, for that controversy a Prophet as judge. What was at issue between us? You said: "Let me understand that I may believe." I said: "Believe that you may understand." A controversy arose, let us come to a judge, let a Prophet judge—rather, let God judge through the Prophet. Let us both be silent. What we both said has been heard. "Let me understand," you say, "that I may believe." "Believe," I say, "that you may understand." Let the Prophet answer: Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa 7:9 (LXX)).

8 But do you think, dearly beloved, that even the one who says, "Let me understand that I may believe," says nothing? For what do we now do, except that those may believe—not those who do not believe, but those who as yet believe too little? For if they had in no way believed, they would not be here. Faith brought them to hear. Faith made them present to the word of God, but that very faith which has sprouted must be watered, must be nourished, must be strengthened. This is what we do. I, he says, planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. And so neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:6-7). By speaking, exhorting, teaching, persuading, we can plant and water, but not give the increase. But that man with whom he was speaking knew this—who, for his faith sprouting and still tender and still weak and in great part tottering, yet not no faith but some faith, prayed for a helper—the man to whom he said: I believe, Lord (Mark 9:24).

9 Just now, when the Gospel was read, you heard: If you can believe, the Lord Jesus said to the boy's father, if you can believe, all things are possible to one who believes (Mark 9:23). And he, looking at himself, and set before himself, not having rash confidence but first examining his conscience, saw that there was in him some faith, saw also a tottering. He saw both. He confessed that he had the one, and for the other he asked help. I believe, he said, Lord (Mark 9:24). What followed, except "help my faith"? He did not say this: I believe, Lord. I see here something whence I do not lie. I believe, I speak truly. But I see here also something or other that displeases me. I want to stand, but still I sway. Standing I speak, I have not fallen, because I believe. But still I sway: help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). Therefore, dearly beloved, even that man whom I set against myself, and on account of whose controversy arising between us I asked for a Prophet as judge, says something himself too, when he says, "Let me understand that I may believe." For surely now what I speak, I speak for this, that those who do not yet believe may believe. And yet, unless they understand what I speak, they cannot believe. Therefore in some part it is true what he says, "Let me understand that I may believe," and I who say, as the Prophet says, "Rather believe that you may understand"—we both speak truly; let us agree. Therefore understand that you may believe, believe that you may understand. Briefly I say how we may take both without controversy. Understand, that you may believe, my word; believe, that you may understand, the word of God.

1 Of our Lord and Savior, dearly beloved brothers, it was prophesied long ago: He will come up like a shoot, and like a root in thirsty ground (Isa 53:2). Why like a root? For this reason: He has no comeliness, nor honor (Isa 53:2). He suffered, he was humbled, he was spat upon: he had no comeliness; he appeared as man, though he was God. But just as a root is not beautiful, yet within has the power of its own beauty. Attend, my brothers, see the mercy of God. You attend to a beautiful tree, pleasant with green leaves, you praise it rich with fruits. It delights you to pluck some of its fruit, to sit under its shade and rest from the heat: you praise all that beauty. If the root be shown you, there is no beauty in it. Do not despise what is abject: from it came forth what you marvel at. Like a root in thirsty ground. Now attend to the splendor of the tree.

2 The Church has grown, the nations have believed, the princes of the earth have been conquered under the name of Christ, that they might be conquerors in the world. Their neck has been set under the yoke of Christ. Before, they persecuted Christians on account of idols; now they persecute idols on account of Christ. All flee to the help of the Church in every distress, in every tribulation of theirs. That grain of mustard has grown, has become greater than all the herbs: the birds of heaven, the proud of the world, come and rest under its branches. Whence this great beauty? It rose from some root or other: and this beauty is in great glory. Let us seek the root. He was spat upon, he was humbled, he was scourged, he was crucified, he was wounded, he was despised. See, here there is no comeliness: but in the Church the glory of the root prevails. So it describes the bridegroom himself, that despised, dishonored, abject one. But now you have to see the tree, which rose from that root, and filled the world. A root in thirsty ground.

3 He has no comeliness, nor honor: and we saw him, and he had no comeliness nor beauty (Isa 53:2-3). Is not this the carpenter's son? (Matt 13:55) How he had no beauty, that it should be said: Do we not say truly that you have a demon? (John 8:48) In his name demons were put to flight, and it is cast at him that he had a demon. But why this? We saw him, and he had no comeliness nor beauty. What is his comeliness within, where he was not seen? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). What is his comeliness? Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6).

4 And where was he seen to have no comeliness nor beauty? And he had no comeliness: but his face was abject, and his condition deformed beyond all men. A man under blows (See Isa 53:3). A man under blows, God before the blows, God-man after the blows. A man under blows, and knowing how to bear weaknesses (See Isa 53:3-4). The weaknesses of whom? Of those very ones from whom he suffered. The physician bore the weaknesses of the frenzied; and when he himself was being crucified, he prayed and said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Attend: let us love the bridegroom. The more deformed he is commended to us, the dearer, the sweeter he has been made to the bride. Wherefore he also turned away (See Isa 53:3). He turned away, that those who were crucifying him might not understand him. His face was insulted, and was not greatly esteemed (See Isa 53:3).

5 He bears our weaknesses, and is in sorrows for us: and we esteemed him to be in sorrows, and under blows, and in punishment. But he was wounded for our sins, and made weak for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, by his bruise we have been healed. We all like sheep went astray, and the Lord delivered him up for our sins (Isa 53:4-6). Is it Gospel, or prophecy? What do the Jews say against these things? Is it not a wonder to hear them have these things, read these things, and find no one of whom it could be said except that one alone who is preached in the Gospel throughout the world, and yet not be Christians, but be so blind against the most evident utterances of the Prophets? Do not wonder at the blindness of the Jews concerning Christ. See, what is said of the bridegroom passes over, and begins to be said of the bride too; and as in the bridegroom you marveled at the blindness of the Jews, so in the bride you will marvel at the blindness of the heretics.

6 Now let us marvel at the blindness of the Jews. The Lord delivered him up for our sins; and he, because he was badly treated, did not open his mouth. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer was without voice, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away (Isa 53:6-8). And lest you despise him, Who will declare his generation? (Isa 53:8) What generation? Before the morning star I begot you (Ps 110:3 (109:3)). See, one generation: Before the morning star, before all things that were made, before all the angels, before all creation. Why? Because all things were made through him (John 1:3). But perhaps his second generation is narrated. Who narrates it? It is conceived by faith, no male approaches, the womb of a Virgin swells: he comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber. Wondrous is this generation. The human one is wondrous, because without a father: that one is wondrous, because without a mother. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. Who will declare his generation? For his life will be taken from the earth (Isa 53:7-8). He proclaims his resurrection. You see that truly the Lord—as though anything could be true except the Truth—said this: The things that are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me (Luke 24:44). That Christ had to suffer, and to rise again (See Luke 24:46), you have heard. And to rise again, you have now heard: For his life will be taken from the earth. And that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47): you will hear this from that Prophet too; not that we ought to set the Prophet before the Lord. The herald went before, the judge followed. The herald spoke not his own words, but the judge's, and the judge following confirmed his own words in the herald. For his life will be taken from the earth. From the iniquities of my people he was led to death (Isa 53:8). You were hearing him say to them just now, What have I done to you? If you have found sin in me, convict me. And they, Crucify, crucify (Luke 23:21): as they thought him a man, yet an innocent one. Therefore: From the iniquities of my people he was led to death.

7 I will therefore give the evil for his burial (See Isa 53:9). What is this: I will give the evil for his burial, and the rich for his death (See Isa 53:9)? The evil on account of the burial, the rich on account of the death. That rich man of Arimathea, Joseph, when the Lord was hanging on the cross, went in to Pilate, and asked for his body: it was granted, that he might bury him. The rich were given for his death: he buried the poor man, in whom he sought riches. Therefore, the rich on account of his death. What he said afterward happened first: what he said first happened afterward. The evil for his burial. Where do we show this? The Jews went in to Pilate, and said to him: Lord, we have heard that that deceiver—the impostor—said to his disciples that he, once killed, would rise again: command that the tomb be guarded, lest perhaps his disciples come by night and take him away, and the last error be worse than the first. Pilate said to them: You have soldiers, go, guard it as you wish. They took soldiers, set them there. These are the evil: they themselves were given for his burial, to guard. But whence do we prove that they are evil? Innocent soldiers were sent: the judge commanded them; they came to the tomb, they guarded it. Hear that they are evil: read the Gospel. After the Lord rose, and they saw the angel, they were terrified and astonished. When it was said to others, Do not fear (Matt 28:5), these were struck with fear, because they were not lifted up by faith. And yet, though they knew these things, they came to the Jews, and told them all these things. The Jews said: We give you money. Therefore they were evil: they hid the truth, they sold a lie. And how did they sell a lie? No wonder, they sold a lie, the blind a lie to the blind. Say (it was said to them) that, while we slept, his disciples came and took him away. O vanity selling vanity to vanity! Vain men will hear it and believe it. And to this day this is among the Jews, so runs that report—how vain, how false, how empty. They refuse to hear the testimony of the martyrs, that they may live; and they hear the testimony of sleepers, that they may perish. If the guards were sleeping, how could they know who took him from the tomb? Or why did you keep watch, evil man? O evil man, of whom the Prophet said, not without cause, I will give the evil for his burial. O evil men, O worst men: either you were keeping watch, and ought to have guarded him; or you were sleeping, and do not know what was done. For there was fulfilled what the Holy Spirit foretold long before through the Psalmist: They devised a plan which they could not establish (See Ps 21:11 (20:12)).

8 Let us, then, dearest brothers, for whose salvation all these things were both foretold and fulfilled, give thanks to the divine mercy, and, as much as we can, with all our strength labor, that the benefits of God may bring us not judgment but advancement: so that when the dread day of judgment and the time of rendering an account come, whatever our Lord and Savior, having been judged, conferred on us, he may, as he is about to judge, find whole. And indeed, when he comes, he will render what he promised, but he will require what he redeemed: and what he conferred at his first coming, he will exact at his second. Although we ought to presume much of the mercy of God, yet we ought not negligently to fear his justice. For he will judge you with justice, who redeemed you with mercy. For that, while we sin so long a time, he spares us, is not negligence, but patience. He has not lost his power, but reserved us for repentance. Let us, then, fear the justice of him whose mercy we desire. For now he spares, but does not keep silent: and even if he keeps silent, he will not always keep silent. Let us, then, hear him while he does not keep silent in the precept, if we want him to spare us, when he has not kept silent in the judgment. For now mercy is dispensed to us beforehand, then justice will be exacted from us, and he will render to each according to his works; and there will come about what the Apostle said: Judgment without mercy to him who has not done mercy (Jas 2:13).

1 In all the readings we have heard recited—if your Charity has attended to the first reading from the prophet Isaiah (for we can neither remember nor speak of all that was read)—I think the most recent could have remained in your hearts, with which the reader concluded: But those who are devoted to me will possess the land and inhabit my holy mountain (See Isa 56:7; 57:13). Then the apostolic reading came up and began from there: Having these promises, then, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God (2 Cor 7:1). By the providence of the divine mercy, which rules us and prepares food for us when we hunger—not only for our bodies to be restored, on whose account he makes the sun rise upon the good and the evil and rains upon the just and the unjust, but also on account of the hunger of our heart which we suffer in this desert and die unless manna rains down—the Lord, then, preparing his table for us, with no human industry providing it, but as he himself knew, it came about that the readings so followed one another that in Isaiah something was promised us, but in the Apostle it was said: Having these promises, then, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God, as though it were one reading of the Prophet and the Apostle. For what does the Apostle say? Having these promises, then, dearly beloved, and there it is not said which promises—not because they are not there, but because the reader did not begin from there; and as the hearer's mind was, as it were, asking of which promises the Apostle speaks: Having these promises, then, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. For a great task is laid upon us, and no small labor, to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. And no one takes up this labor unless he hears the reward of the promise. Since, then, no one takes up the labor of cleansing flesh and spirit unless invited by a reward, somehow it came about that the reader began from the imposition of the labor and did not begin from the promise of the reward; but God, who would not cheat the attentive hearer—if perhaps he hesitated to take up the labor of cleansing flesh and spirit because he had not heard the reward, let him arm himself by the beginning of the apostolic reading. But if he seeks the promises, let him attend to the end of the prophetic reading. For where the prophetic reading ended, there is the promise; whence the reading of the Apostle began, there is the imposition of the work.

2 Let us, then, rouse ourselves and cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, having these promises. What promises? But those who are devoted to me, says the Lord through Isaiah, will possess the land and inhabit my holy mountain. Having these promises, then, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Someone will say: "And shall I therefore cleanse myself from defilement of flesh and spirit, that I may possess the land and inhabit the mountain?" Without doubt it must be asked what the possession of the land and the dwelling on the mountain mean, lest perhaps men hope they will receive broad possessions, and not end their desire but defer it—rather, increase it—and despise small things, thinking they will receive greater things of the very same kind. For who would not despise one acre, if it is promised him that he will possess a hundred? Or who would not despise the delights of a single lunch, perhaps poorer and more frugal, if it were said to him: "Unless you restrain yourself, you will not come to that most ample and rich dinner"? Those who so restrain themselves from certain present things do not end their desires. But because their desires are greater, fearing lest they lose what they desire more, they despise the things that are smaller. Yet it is desire itself. Is not a man greedy who despises a hundred coins to acquire a thousand? Do not think he has now ended avarice because you find him despising a hundred coins. He is thinking of a thousand, and therefore despised the hundred. There are men who often wait upon old men who have no sons, and despise many things in them, but hope for greater things from them. Do we think these merciful or greedy? Therefore the sons of the poor are more approved when they wait upon their poor parents, because devotion leads them, not reward. But when the sons of the rich wait upon their parents, devotion is not proved, and if it is there, it lies hidden, because, even if it is seen by God, it cannot be seen by men. So the parents themselves, often thinking ill of their sons, when they think their sons wait upon them for the sake of money—when it sometimes profits their sons to be emancipated from their parents, when perhaps some advantage demands it, one about to take a wife, or to attain some honor, that they should give them their goods—say: "I will not give it, for now he will no longer wait upon me." What a sentence he passed on his son, that he waits upon him for money, not attending to a father's love! If, then, you fear lest, money received, your son should no longer wait upon you, the devotion is not lovable, but venal. How much better the son of a poor man, the son sometimes of a wretched and needy old man, who, expecting nothing from his father because he has nothing to leave him, by labors and the hardship of sweat feeds his father! Sometimes the sons of the rich too, attending to the fear of God, not because they expect anything from their parents, but because they are parents and begot and raised them, and God commanded, saying: Honor your father and your mother (Exod 20:12), therefore wait upon them. But the affection lies hidden where the reward is set forth. But these are the more acceptable to God, because men cannot see their mind, and God alone sees it, nor can they be praised by men, like Job who worshipped God. For the demons thought he worshipped God for the sake of reward. But where was it proved that he worships freely? Because, when all was lost, he said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so has it been done; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).

3 Why have I said these things, brothers? Because Scripture does not cease daily to admonish us, that, despising temporal things, we love eternal things. Every divine page does not cease to speak to us, sometimes openly, sometimes obscurely in a mystery. But let no one think himself cheated when the divine page speaks obscurely. Where the will of God comes forth to you—that is, where it is open—there love it. There love it, when it openly admonishes. And such as it is in the open, such it is in the obscure; such as it is in the sun, such it is in the shade. You will follow it such, if you read it such. For it is obscure, as I said: He will possess the land and inhabit my holy mountain. For if we take it carnally, we will not cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, and God provided in vain that the end of the prophetic reading be joined to the beginning of the apostolic reading, if for the sake of possessing an earthly mountain we prepare ourselves for avarice, not for devotion. But what ought we to understand by the mountain? It is obscure what it meant by "mountain." But if God had deserted us, he would nowhere say openly what the mountain is. But where he says it openly, there love the mountain. Where he openly commends the mountain to you, and Scripture itself opens up what it means by the mountain, there love it. Even where you hear such a mountain promised, follow it. Such as you loved in the open, understand it in the obscure. Where do we suppose the mountain was named, that we may be able to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit? What mountain has been promised us?

4 First let us know what sort of land is promised us, for which the prophet David sighs in a certain place and says: You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). Without doubt, then, there is a certain land of the living, because this is the land of the dying. Or if anyone were born in this land not to die, he would not call that the land of the living, except by comparing this land and finding it to be the land of the dying. There is, then, a land of the living. For though it is eternal and heavenly, it is called land because it is possessed, not because it is plowed. For it has a possessor without labor, because this land too exercises its possessor in labor and wearies him in fear. What is said to you? "Rise, plow the land, that you may have whence to live." And willing or unwilling, groaning and sighing, you rise and work, because the sentence on the condemned Adam pursues you: In the labor of your face you will eat your bread (Gen 3:19). But when all labor and groaning have passed, we shall be in the land of the living. Nothing there is born and grows. Whatever is there is in the same way, is so always. There winter and summer, night and day, do not alternate. Here one sows that there one may reap, if indeed one sows. For who is it that sows here, that he may reap there? He who gives out to the poor. The giving-out to the poor is the sowing on the land. You sow here, and there you will find the harvest. In summer it is not cut to pass away, but it is eaten and abides with joy. For there you are fed full with justice. That land has its bread. What is this bread? The one who came from there to us. I am the living bread who came down from heaven (John 6:51). What is this bread like? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied (Matt 5:6).

5 We have heard of the bread from that land, let us hear also of the mountain. They will inhabit, it says, my holy mountain. For I think we find in another holy Scripture that this mountain too is Christ. He who is the bread is himself the mountain. But the bread, because he feeds the Church; the mountain, because the Church is his body. The Church itself is the mountain. And what is the Church itself? The body of Christ. Join to it the head, and one man comes to be. Head and body, one man. Who is the head? This one who was born of the Virgin Mary, who took up mortal flesh without sin, who by the Jews was struck, scourged, despised, crucified, who was delivered up for our offenses, and rose again for our justification (Rom 4:25). He is the head of the Church, he is the bread from that land. But what is his body? His wife, that is, the Church. For the two will be in one flesh. This is a great sacred sign; but I speak of Christ and of the Church (Eph 5:31-32). So too the Lord in the Gospel, when he spoke of husband and wife: Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh (Matt 19:6). He willed, then, Christ God and the Church to be one man. There the head, and here the members. He did not want to rise with the members, but before the members, that the members might have what to hope for. But for this reason the head wished to die, that the head might first rise; that the head might first go into heaven, that in their head the other members might have hope, and await fulfilled in themselves what was sent before in the head. For what need was there for Christ to die, the Word of God, through whom all things were made, of whom it is said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him (John 1:1-3)? And he is crucified, and mocked, and struck with a spear, and buried. And all things were made through him. But because he deigned to be the head of the Church, the Church would despair of itself rising, if it did not see that the head had risen. The head, then, rose, and the head was seen to rise. First it was seen by women, and it was announced to the men. First the women saw the Lord rising, and to the future Evangelists, the Apostles, the Gospel was announced by the women, and through the women Christ was announced to them. For "Gospel" in Latin is "good news." Those who know Greek know what Gospel is. The Gospel, then, is "good news." What good news can we name so great as that our Savior rose? Or what greater thing were they to preach than what the women announced to them? But why did a woman announce the Gospel? Because through a woman death was amended. For the woman who announced death was consoled by the woman who announced life, because the dead woman was the one who handed out death. Through a woman Adam was seduced to fall into death; through a woman Christ was announced, now rising, no more to die. So too we are to rise, and we shall be the holy mountain of God. On this mountain dwells the one who is devoted to God. But those who are devoted to me will possess the land and inhabit my holy mountain: that is, they will not depart from the Church. Now let us labor in the Church, afterward we will inherit the Church. For when our everlasting joy is there, we shall be there only as possessors, but we shall not labor.

6 But let us find this mountain evidently elsewhere, for it seems somewhat obscure. Someone can say: "Where is the Church a mountain? And when is Christ a mountain? And when is the body of Christ a mountain?" Daniel says it most evidently, no one doubts it. Daniel saw a vision; does it now need an expositor? Let your Charity see. Certain words there perhaps need exposition, which, expounded in the name of Christ, will be opened to you. See whether it can be said except of Christ. I saw, Daniel said, and behold, a stone cut from the mountain without hands (Dan 2:34). He did not say this: that stone was without hands, but a stone cut from the mountain without human work. No human hands came to cut the stone from the mountain. Your Charity knows that stones are not cut from a mountain except by human hands coming to them. But that one was cut from the mountain without hands, and came and shattered all the kingdoms of the earth. I do not know whether anyone is set before your eyes except Christ, of whom it is said: All the kings of the earth will adore him (Ps 72:11 (71:11)). He shattered all the kingdoms of the earth. The proud king wants to have no king before him. Now all kings have Christ as king. He shattered, then, all the kingdoms of the earth, that he might reign. And what does it say? This stone grew and became a great mountain, so that it filled the whole face of the earth (Dan 2:35). Now I think you recognize Christ. You have heard of the land: Those who are devoted to me will possess the land. You have heard also of the mountain: And they will inhabit my holy mountain. Having these promises, then, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. But perhaps you want to know what it is to be cut without hands. For this is set there as it were obscurely. But to some it has already occurred, before I say it. But let them bear some delay on account of others who cannot think of it unless they have heard something from us. What is "without hands"? Without the work of man. And let your Charity attend to this, brothers, that the stone was cut from the mountain, and became a mountain. Cut from the mountain, and it became a mountain by growing. But what sort of mountain did it become? Not such as the one from which it was cut. For of that mountain, from which it was cut, it was not said: It grew and filled the whole earth. There are, then, two mountains. The first mountain, the Synagogue, the second, the Church. The first, the people of the Jews; the second mountain, the Christian people. But that the Christian people might become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth, the stone was cut from that mountain, because Christ came from the Jews. Why, then, without hands? Without human work. For Christ, born of a Virgin, was conceived without marital embrace.

7 Therefore we have this manifest mountain. Let us not set before ourselves mountains, whether such as Giddaba is, or such as any others that are named to us. For sometimes men, taking it carnally—suppose—read: He will hear him from his holy mountain (See Ps 3:4 (3:5)). Well, sometimes it is of a mountain, and it speaks of Christ. And men run to a mountain to pray, as though God hears there. Carnally wise, because they often see clouds clinging to the sides of mountains, they go up into mountains, that they may be near to God. Do you want to touch God with your prayer? Humble yourself. Again, because we said: "Do you want to touch God? Humble yourself," do not take it carnally, going down into underground vaults, to ask God there. Seek neither vaults nor mountain. Have humility in your heart, and God will give you height. He will come to you, and will be with you in your bedroom. Since, then, we have such a mountain as Christ, we have the Church, let us love the Church. This mountain grew and filled the whole world. It is manifest that they are not on this mountain who are in a part and do not hold the whole earth with us. Remember, brothers, that every page arms and fills us against the tongues of men, which we suffer daily. If it had said, "That mountain grew and filled the whole of Africa," would they not say that it was the party of Donatus? It pressed their tongues by growing. It grew so much as to stop the mouths of the wordy. To where did it grow? Through the whole earth. For that mountain, from which it was cut, did not by growing fill the whole earth. For even though the Jews filled the whole earth, because they were conquered and lost their land, they were scattered through the earth by the punishment of their merits, not by the greatness of their increase. But the Lord Christ, the cornerstone, subdued the kingdoms of men, shattered the kingdoms of demons, humbled all kings that he might grow, grew and filled the whole face of the earth. I dare to say: It still grows, there are still places it fills.

8 Do you, then, love this mountain and prepare yourself to inhabit this mountain forever; and cleanse yourself from all defilement of flesh and spirit, having these promises. What promises? If you want to possess the land and inhabit the holy mountain, cleanse yourself from all defilement of flesh and spirit. What are the defilements of flesh? Let your Charity attend, and this we ought to say. What are the defilements of flesh? Not where a man by chance passes by and touches something either with his foot or even with his face, or if it happens to a man to slip with his foot and so fall that he comes into mud or filth, and his face is defiled. That defilement is easy, as it is usually said: "He washes and goes out, it is nothing." But the defilement of flesh that must be guarded against does not come out here, except from defilement of spirit, and so defiles the flesh. What is the defilement of spirit? Lust. The defilement of flesh? Adultery perpetrated. You have two things. Lust has risen, now the spirit is defiled. It has not yet come to adultery, the flesh is not yet defiled. But what does it profit that the flesh is clean, and the inhabitant of the flesh is unclean? He who is perhaps clean in the flesh, an adulterer when God holds him in the heart, not yet a husband, as the Lord says: Amen I say to you, whoever has looked at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt 5:28). This is the defilement of spirit. But when does the perfect sanctification come about? When it is both of flesh and of spirit. For there are men who restrain themselves from deeds and do not restrain themselves from evil thoughts. They make the cleansing of flesh, and do not make the cleansing of spirit. Such men do not act for this reason, that they fear men. Lust burns, fear calls back. What do you fear? To be found out and condemned, to be found out and made a public show. Therefore the flesh seems undefiled, but the sanctification is not perfect, because what does the Apostle say? Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, that as you restrain yourself from evil deeds, so you may restrain yourself from evil will, from evil thoughts. Restrain yourself from the evil deed, and you cleanse yourself from defilement of flesh; abstain from the evil will, and you cleanse yourself from defilement of spirit.

9 And it follows: Perfecting sanctification in the fear of God (2 Cor 7:1). Magnificently he added: In the fear of God. See, that a man does not perfect sanctification except in the fear of God. What is perfect sanctification? Both of body and of spirit. If it is of body and is not of spirit, it is imperfect. For sanctification cannot be of spirit and not be of body. To be of body and not be of spirit is possible. To be of spirit and not be of body is not possible. For he who is clean in spirit cannot work disgraceful deeds. Whence this? For from the heart proceed, says the Lord, adulteries, murders (Matt 15:19). For a man cannot perpetrate through the members what he has not said to himself in the heart. He conceived the word in the heart, and it was reckoned as the deed. Therefore in a certain place the Lord: Cleanse the things that are within, he says, and the things that are without will be clean (See Matt 23:26). He did not say: Cleanse the things that are without. If he had begun from the body, it would remain for him to admonish us to cleanse the mind too; but if from the mind, there is no need that we cleanse the body, because the cleanness of the mind is followed by the cleanness of the body. Therefore the apostle Paul, because he began from the flesh, needed to say something of the spirit too: Perfecting sanctification. Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, because the flesh can be undefiled, not doing adulteries, fornications, and such things; but yet there can be lusts and thoughts and evil wills in the soul. And he added: Perfecting sanctification in the fear of God. Who, then, makes the sanctification of body, and does not make that of soul? He who fears men, and not God. For he who is in the fear of God perfects sanctification. Surely you refused to perpetrate adultery for this reason, lest a man should know. By the fear of men you held your flesh from committing evils; therefore you refused to commit it where a man sees. If you fear God too, do not commit it there too where God sees, and you have perfected sanctification. Attend: "Oh, if I could," someone says, "come to that woman! But I cannot, she is diligently guarded, she has a watchful husband, I have no go-between. If I dare it, I am caught." He makes, as it were, the cleansing of body; but within, because he wants to, he does not make the cleansing of spirit. Therefore he feared to do it in the body lest a man see, and he does not fear to do it within where God sees. He avoids the eyes of man, and does not fear God's. Who, then, perfects sanctification? He who is in the fear of God. Perfecting sanctification in the fear of God. The fear of men can perhaps restrain the body from uncleanness; but the mind, only the fear of God. Has he sanctified the mind? He is secure about the body. Let the one who is clothed be clean, and the garment itself will be clean. Let the inhabitant be good and sound, and let him not fear the ruin of his house.

10 For what of this flesh? We ought not to despise it. What is it? Hay, but it will be gold. Do not despise hay. And it is changed into gold. For he who was able to change water into wine is able to change hay into gold, and to make an angel from flesh. If from filth he made man, will he not from man make an angel? Let your Charity attend to from what man was made, and see whether we even want to think of it. From that filth he made man, and set him over the other animals. From man will he not make an angel? He will plainly. He made men his friends; will he not make them angels? Now I will not call you servants, but friends (John 15:15). He said it to those still bearing flesh, still dying, still dwelling in this neediness and frailty of life. Now I will not call you servants, but friends. And what will he give his friends? What he showed in himself when he rose. They will be crowned and transformed into heavenly glory and will be equal to the angels of God. There will be no corruption, no titillation. There it will not be said to us: Cleanse yourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. We will not labor, nor will a reward be promised us, because we will have already received it. Nor will it be said to us to groan, because we will already be praising. For so mortal flesh will be transformed into the body of an angel. So too groaning will be transformed into praises. Here penance and distress and groaning. There praises, gladness, and joy. Afterward, then; now there is not gladness. But where? In hope. You do not yet hold it, but by hoping you rejoice, because he who promised cannot deceive, because he who promised has it and gives it.

1 That all our hope is in Christ, and that all our true and salutary glory is he himself, your Charity has not now learned for the first time. For you are in his flock, who attends to and feeds Israel. But since there are shepherds who want to hear the names of shepherds, but refuse to fulfill the office of shepherds, let us review what he says to them through the prophet, as we heard read. Hear, you, with attention; let us hear, we, with trembling.

2 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel, and say to the shepherds of Israel (Ezek 34:1-2). This reading we heard just now when it was read; from it we have resolved to speak something with your Holiness. He himself will help us to say true things, if we do not say our own. For if we say our own, we will be shepherds feeding ourselves, not the sheep; but if what we say is his, then through whomever he feeds you. Thus says the Lord God: O shepherds of Israel, who feed themselves alone! Do not the shepherds feed the sheep? (Ezek 34:2) That is, the shepherds do not feed themselves, but the sheep. This is the first cause why these shepherds are reproached, because they feed themselves, not the sheep. Who are they who feed themselves? Those of whom the Apostle says: For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21). For we, whom the Lord has set in this place—of which a perilous account is rendered—according to his condescension, not according to our merit, have two things plainly to be distinguished: one, that we are Christians; the other, that we are set over you. That we are Christians is for our own sake; that we are set over you is for your sake. In that we are Christians, our own benefit is regarded; in that we are set over you, only yours. And there are many who, being Christians and not set over others, come to God by a perhaps easier road, and walk perhaps the more unencumbered, the lesser the burden they carry. But we, besides that we are Christians, whence we will render an account to God of our life, are also set over you, whence we will render an account to God of our stewardship. I set forth this difficulty for this reason, that, having compassion on us, you may pray for us. For the day will come on which all things are brought into judgment. And that day, if it is far for the world, is near for every man, the last day of his life. Yet God willed both to lie hidden, both when the end of the world comes, and when there is in each man the end of this life. Do you want not to fear the hidden day? When it comes, let it find you ready. Since, then, those set over others are for this purpose, that they may take counsel for those over whom they preside, and not in being set over others attend at all to their own benefit but to that of those whom they serve, whoever is so set over others that in being set over others he rejoices and seeks his own honor and looks only to his own advantages, he feeds himself, not the sheep. To these the discourse is directed. Hear it as the sheep of God, and see how God has made you secure, whatever they may be who preside over you—that is, whatever we are—he gave you security who feeds Israel. For if God does not desert his sheep, both the evil shepherds will pay due punishments, and the sheep will receive the promises.

3 Let us see, then, what the divine discourse, flattering no one, addresses to the shepherds who feed themselves, not the sheep. Behold, you consume the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool, and what is fat you kill, and you do not feed my sheep. What was weak you have not strengthened; and what is sick you have not made strong; and what was broken you have not bound up; and what was straying you have not called back; and what perished you have not sought; and what was strong you have worn out; and my sheep have been scattered, because there is no shepherd (Ezek 34:3-5). It is said to the shepherds who feed themselves, not the sheep, what they love, what they neglect. What, then, do they love? You consume the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool. On account of which the Apostle says: Who plants a vineyard and does not take of its fruit? Who feeds a flock, and does not partake of the milk of the flock? (1 Cor 9:7) We find, then, that the milk of the flock is whatever is given by the people of God to those set over them for the support of temporal sustenance. For this is what the Apostle was speaking of when he said these things which I recalled.

4 Indeed the Apostle, although he chose to support himself by his own hands, and not even to seek that milk from the sheep, yet said that he had the power of receiving milk, and that the Lord had so arranged that those who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel. And he says that other fellow apostles of his used this power, not usurped but given. He did more, that he might not receive even what was owed. He himself forgave even the debt, but another did not exact what was not owed: he did more. For perhaps that one signified him who, when he brought the sick man to the inn, said: If you spend anything more, on my return I will repay you (Luke 10:35). Of those, then, who do not need the milk of the flock, what more shall we say? They are more merciful, or rather they bestow the office of mercy itself more generously. They can, and what they can, they do. Let these be praised, and let those not be condemned. For the Apostle himself did not seek the gift. Yet he desired the sheep to be fruitful, not barren, without abundance of milk. And so, when at a certain time he was in great need, bound in the confession of the truth, there was sent to him by the brothers wherewith his need and want might be supplied. But he answered them, giving thanks, and said: You did well to share in my needs. For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be self-sufficient. I know both how to abound and how to suffer want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me. Yet you did well to send for my use (Phil 4:14, 11-13). But to show, in that they did well to him, what he himself sought, lest he be among those who feed themselves, not the sheep, he rejoices not so much that his need was supplied, as he congratulates their fruitfulness. What, then, did he seek there? Not that I seek, he says, a gift, but I require fruit (Phil 4:17). Not that I, he says, may be filled, but that you may not remain empty.

5 Those, then, who cannot do as Paul, to support themselves by their own hands, let them receive of the milk of the sheep, support their need, but not neglect the weakness of the sheep. Let them not seek this there as their own advantage, that out of the need of their own want they may seem to announce the Gospel, but let them, for the enlightening of men, provide the light of the word of truth. For they are as lamps, as it was said: Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning (Luke 12:35); and: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house: so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:15-16). If, then, a lamp were lit in your house, would you not add oil, lest it be extinguished? Moreover, if the lamp, oil received, did not give light, it was plainly not worthy to be set on a lampstand, but to be at once broken. Whence one lives, it belongs to need to receive; it belongs to love to provide. Not as though the Gospel were for sale, so that this should be its price, which they receive who announce it, that they may live. For if they so sell it, they sell a great thing cheaply. Let them receive the support of need from the people, the reward of stewardship from the Lord. For the people are not fit to render reward to those who serve them in the love of the Gospel. Let those not expect reward, except whence these too expect salvation. But why are these reproached, whence are they convicted? Because, while they took the milk and clothed themselves with the wool, they neglected the sheep. They sought, then, only their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ.

6 But since we have said what it is to consume the milk, let us ask what it is to clothe oneself with the wool. He who provides milk provides sustenance, and he who provides wool provides honor. These are two things which those who feed themselves, not the sheep, seek from the peoples: the advantage of supplying need, and the favor of honor and praise. For a garment is well understood as honor, because it covers nakedness. For every man is weak. And what is anyone who presides over you, except what you are? He bears flesh, he is mortal, he eats, he sleeps, he rises; he was born, he is to die. If, then, you consider what he is in himself, he is a man. Yet you, by honoring more, as it were cover what is weak.

7 See what sort of clothing the same Paul received from the good people of God, when he said: You received me as an angel of God. For I bear you witness that, if it could be, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me (Gal 4:14-15). But when so great honor was shown him, did he, on account of that very honor shown to him—lest perhaps it be denied and he be the less praised when he reproved them—spare those who erred? For if he had done this, he would be among those who feed themselves, not the sheep. He would say within himself: "What is it to me? Let each do what he wants; my sustenance is safe, my honor is safe: both milk and wool, it is enough for me; let each go where he can." Is everything intact for you, then, if each goes where he can? I do not want to make you one set over others, I set you as one of the people itself: If one member suffers, all the members suffer together (1 Cor 12:26). Accordingly the Apostle himself, when he recalled how they had been toward him, lest he seem as if forgetful of their honoring, bears witness that they received him as an angel of God, that, if it could be, they would have wished to pluck out their eyes and give them to him. And yet he approaches the sick sheep, the rotting sheep, to cut the wound, not to spare the rottenness. Have I then, he says, become your enemy by preaching the truth? (Gal 4:16) See, he both received of the milk of the sheep, as we recalled a little before, and was clothed with the wool of the sheep, but yet did not neglect the sheep. For he did not seek his own things, but the things of Jesus Christ.

8 Far be it, then, that we should say to you: "Live as you wish, be secure, God will destroy no one, only hold the Christian faith. He will not destroy what he redeemed, he will not destroy those for whom he shed his blood. And if you wish to delight your souls with spectacles, go. What evil is there? And these feasts that are celebrated throughout the city, with the joy of those who feast, and of those who, as they think, make merry at public tables, but in truth perish—go, celebrate securely. Great is the mercy of God, which forgives everything. Crown yourselves with roses before they wither. In the house of your God feast whenever you wish; be filled with food and wine with your own. For this creation was given for this, that you might enjoy it. For God did not give it to pagans and the impious, and not give it to you." If we say these things, perhaps we will gather larger crowds. And if there are some who perceive that we, saying these things, do not savor rightly, we offend a few, but we win over the multitude. But if we do this, saying not the words of God, not the words of Christ, but our own, we will be shepherds feeding ourselves, not the sheep.

9 But when he had said what these shepherds love, he says also what they neglect. For the vices of the sheep lie widely about. Sound and fat sheep are very few—that is, solid in the food of truth, using the pastures well by the gift of God. But those evil shepherds do not spare even such. It is little that they do not care for those weak and sick and straying and lost. They even kill these strong and fat ones, as far as is in them. And those live. They live by the mercy of God. Yet, as far as pertains to the evil shepherds, they kill them. "How," you say, "do they kill them?" By living badly, by giving a bad example. Or was it said in vain to the servant of God, eminent among the members of the supreme Shepherd: Showing yourself in all things an example of good works; and: Be a model to the faithful (1 Tim 4:12; Titus 2:7)? For by attending to his superior living badly, even a strong sheep, if he turn his eyes from the rules of the Lord and fix them on the man, begins to say in his heart: "If my superior lives so, who am I that I should not do what he does?" He kills the strong sheep. If, then, he kills the strong sheep, what will he do about the rest, who by living badly killed the one he had not himself strengthened, but had found strong or robust? I say to your Charity, I say again—even if the sheep live, even if the sheep are strong in the word of the Lord and hold to what they heard from their Lord: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt 23:3)—yet he who lives badly in the sight of the people, as far as is in him, kills the one who attends to him. Let him not, then, flatter himself because that one is not dead. Both that one lives, and this one is a murderer. Just as, when a lascivious man attends to a woman to desire her: see, she is chaste, and this one is an adulterer. For the Lord's sentence is true and open: Whoever has looked at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt 5:28). He has not come to her bedroom, and he already wallows in his own inner bedroom. So everyone who lives badly in the sight of those over whom he is set, as far as is in him, kills even the strong. He who imitates him dies; he who does not imitate him lives. Yet, as far as pertains to him, he kills both. And what is fat, it says, you kill, and you do not feed my sheep.

10 Now you have heard what they love. Hear what they neglect. What was weak you have not strengthened; and what was sick you have not made strong; and what was broken—that is, what was shattered—you have not bound up; and what was straying you have not called back; and what perished you have not sought; and what was strong you have worn out (Ezek 34:4)—that is, you have killed and slain. A sheep is weak—that is, it bears a weak heart, so that it can yield to temptations, if temptation comes upon it unwary and unprepared. The negligent shepherd, when such a one believes, does not say to him: Son, approaching the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation (Sir 2:1). For he who says these things strengthens the weak and makes the weak strong, so that he may not, when he believes, hope for the prosperity of this world. But if he is taught to hope for the prosperity of the world, by that very prosperity he is corrupted; when adversities come upon him, he is wounded, or perhaps extinguished. He, then, who so builds does not build him upon the rock, but sets him upon the sand. But the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). The passions of Christ are to be imitated, not delights to be sought out by Christians. The weak one is strengthened, when it is said to him: "Hope indeed for the temptations of this world, but the Lord will deliver you from them all, if your heart does not turn back from him. For to strengthen your heart he came to suffer, he came to die, he came to be smeared with spittle, he came to be crowned with thorns, he came to hear reproaches, he came finally to be fixed to the wood. All these he for you, you nothing. Not for him, but for you."

11 But what sort are they who, fearing to offend those to whom they speak, not only do not prepare them for imminent temptations, but even promise the happiness of this world, which God did not promise to the world itself? He foretells labors upon labors to come even to the end to the world itself, and do you want the Christian to be exempt from those very labors? Because he is a Christian, he is to suffer something more in this world. For the Apostle says: All who wish to live devoutly in Christ will suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12). Now if it pleases you, shepherd seeking your own things, not the things of Jesus Christ—let him say, All who wish to live devoutly in Christ will suffer persecution, and do you say: "If you live devoutly in Christ, all good things will abound to you. And if you have no sons, you will take in and rear all, and no one will die for you." Is this your building? Attend to what you do, where you set it. He whom you set up is on the sand. Rain will come, the river will flow in, the wind will blow, they will strike that house and it will fall, and great will be its ruin. Lift it from the sand, set it on the rock: let the one you want to be a Christian be in Christ. Let him attend to the undeserved passions of Christ, let him attend to him paying without any sin what he did not steal, let him attend to the Scripture saying to him: He scourges every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6). Either let him prepare to be scourged, or let him not seek to be received. He scourges, it says, every son whom he receives. And do you say: "Perhaps you will be exempt?" If exempt from the suffering of scourges, exempt from the number of sons. "So," you will say, "does he scourge every son?" He plainly scourges every son, as even the Only-begotten. That Only-begotten, born of the Father's substance, equal to the Father in the form of God (Phil 2:6), the Word through whom all things were made, had nowhere to be scourged. For this he was clothed with flesh, that he might not be without scourge. He, then, who scourges the Only-begotten without sin, does he leave the adopted with sin? The Apostle says we have been called to adoption. We received the adoption of sons, that we might be of the Only-begotten, co-heirs, that we might be even his inheritance: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance (Ps 2:8). He set forth for us an example in his passions.

12 But plainly, lest the weak one fail in future temptations, he must neither be deceived by a false hope, nor broken by terror. Say to him: Prepare your soul for temptation (Sir 2:1). But perhaps he begins to slip, to tremble, to refuse to approach. You have something else: God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear (1 Cor 10:13). For to promise that, and to foretell coming passions, is to strengthen the weak. But to one who fears too much and is for this reason deterred, when you promise the mercy of God—not that temptations will be lacking, but that he does not permit one to be tempted beyond what one can bear—is to bind up the broken. For there are those who, when they hear of coming tribulations, arm themselves the more and as it were thirst for their cup. For they think the medicine of the faithful too small for themselves, but seek the glory of the martyrs too. But there are others who, hearing of future and necessarily coming temptations—which properly must come to the Christian, which no one feels except one who has wished to be truly a Christian—when some come upon them, are broken and limp. Offer the binding of consolation, bind up what is broken. Say: "Do not fear, he does not desert in temptations the one in whom you have believed. God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. You do not hear this from me, the Apostle says it, who also says: And do you want to receive proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? (2 Cor 13:3) When you hear these things, then, you hear them from Christ himself, you hear them from that Shepherd who feeds Israel. For to him it was said: You will give us to drink in tears, in measure (Ps 80:5 (79:6)). For what the Apostle says, He does not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, this the prophet says: In measure. Only do not let go of the one who corrects and exhorts, who terrifies and consoles, who strikes and heals."

13 What was weak, it says, you have not strengthened (Ezek 34:4). He says it to the evil shepherds, the false shepherds, the shepherds seeking their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ, rejoicing in the advantage of milk and wool, not caring for the sheep at all, and not making strong what was sick. Between the weak—that is, the not strong (for even the sick are called infirm)—but between the weak and the sick, that is, the one who is unwell, this seems to me to be the difference. For these things, brothers, which we somehow try to distinguish, perhaps we ourselves can, with greater diligence, distinguish better, and another more skilled or fuller of the light of heart can; meanwhile, lest you be cheated, as far as pertains to the words of Scripture, I speak what I perceive. With the weak one it is to be feared lest temptation come upon him and break him. But the sick one is already ill with some desire, and by some desire is hindered from entering the way of God, from taking up the yoke of Christ. Attend to those men wishing to live well, now resolving to live well, but less fit to suffer evils than they are prepared to do good things. But it belongs to Christian firmness not only to work the things that are good but also to bear the things that are evil. Those, then, who seem to be fervent in good works, but unwilling or unable to bear imminent passions, are weak. But those who, by some evil desire, lovers of the world, are called back from those very good works, lie sick and ailing, since by that very sickness, as if without any strength, they can work nothing good. Such in soul was that paralytic, whom, when those who carried him could not bring him to the Lord, they opened the roof, and let him down. That is, as if you wished to do this in the soul, to open the roof and let down to the Lord a paralytic soul, dissolved in all its members and idle from every good work, weighed down surely by its sins and ailing with the sickness of its desire. If, then, all the members are dissolved and there is an inner paralysis, that you may come to the physician—for perhaps the physician lies hidden, and is within; that is, this true meaning is hidden in the Scriptures—by expounding what is hidden, open the roof and let down the paralytic. And those who do not do this and who neglect to do it, you have heard what they hear: What was sick you have not made strong. And what was broken you have not bound up: now of temptations. Something is added whence what is broken may be bound up, that consolation: God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will with the temptation also make a way out, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13).

14 And what was straying you have not called back (Ezek 34:4). See whence we are in peril among the heretics. And what was straying you have not called back; and what perished you have not sought. Hence we somehow dwell among the hands of robbers and the teeth of raging wolves, and for these perils of ours we pray that you may pray. And the sheep are stubborn. Because the strays are sought, they say in their straying and their perdition that they are strangers to us: "Why do you want us? Why do you seek us?" As though that very thing were not the cause why we want them and why we seek them, because they stray and perish. "If I am in error," he says, "if I am in destruction, why do you want me? Why do you seek me?" Because you are in error, I want to call you back; because you have perished, I want to find you. "I want to stray thus, I want to perish thus." Do you want to stray thus, do you want to perish thus? How much better I do not want it. I dare to say plainly, I am importunate. I hear the Apostle saying: Preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season (2 Tim 4:2). In season for whom? Out of season for whom? In season surely for the willing, out of season for the unwilling. I am plainly importunate, I dare to say: You want to stray, you want to perish, I do not want it. Last of all, the one who terrifies me does not want it. If I should want it, see what he says, see what he reproaches: What was straying you have not called back; and what perished you have not sought. Shall I fear you more than him? We must all be presented before the tribunal of Christ (2 Cor 5:10; Rom 14:10). I do not fear you. For you cannot overturn the tribunal of Christ and set up the tribunal of Donatus. I will call back the straying, I will seek the lost. Willing or unwilling, I will do it. And if, as I seek, the brambles of the woods tear me, I will squeeze myself through all the narrow places; I will shake out all the hedges; as much strength as the terrifying Lord grants me, I will traverse all. I will call back the straying, I will seek the perishing. If you do not want me to suffer, do not stray, do not perish.

15 It is little that I grieve over you straying and perishing. I fear lest, neglecting you, I kill even what is strong. For see what follows: And what was strong you have worn out (Ezek 34:4). If I am indifferent to your error and your perishing, the one who is strong will be delighted to stray and perish. I desire outward gains, but I fear more the inward losses. If I treat your error as indifferent, the one who is strong attends to it, and thinks it is nothing to go into a heresy. When some advantage of the world shines forth whereby he may be changed, the strong one, about to perish, will at once say to me, when I do not seek you the lost: "God is both here and there, what does it matter? Men quarreling among themselves did this. Anywhere God is to be worshipped." If perhaps some Donatist says to him: "I will not give you my daughter unless you are of my party," he needs to attend and say: "If it were no evil to be of these men's party, our shepherds would not say such great things against them, would not busy themselves over their error." If, then, we cease and keep silent, he will say to the contrary: "Surely, if it were an evil to be in the party of Donatus, they would speak against it, would refute them, would busy themselves to win them. If they stray, they would call them back; if they perish, they would seek them." Not in vain, then, when he had said above, What is fat you have killed, he set down again at the end: And what was strong you have worn out. For it is the sentence repeated, except that it was born from what he said above: What was straying you have not called back; and what perished you have not sought; and, by doing this, what is strong you have killed.

16 Accordingly hear what follows about this negligence of the evil—rather, the false—shepherds: And my sheep have been scattered, because there is no shepherd, and have become food for all the beasts of the field (Ezek 34:5). Lurking wolves steal them, roaring lions snatch them, when the sheep do not cling to the shepherd. For the shepherd is present, but to those who act badly there is no shepherd. And they cling to shepherds who are not shepherds, who feed themselves, not the sheep. And a lethal error follows: they go into beasts that plunder them, and that desire to be satisfied by their death. For such are all who rejoice over others' errors: they are beasts fed on deaths.

17 And my sheep were scattered and strayed onto every mountain, and onto every high hill (Ezek 34:6). Beasts come from the mountains and hills—earthly swelling and the pride of the world. The pride of Donatus exalted itself, made for itself a party. Parmenian, following him, confirmed his error. That one is a mountain, that one is a hill. So every author of any error whatever, swelling with earthly elation, promises the sheep rest, good pastures. And sometimes the sheep find there pastures from the rain of God, not from the hardness of the mountain. For they too have the Scriptures, they have the sacraments. These are not of the mountains, but when they are found among the mountains, one badly remains among the mountains. For by straying among mountains and hills, they desert the flock, desert unity, desert the fortified cohorts against wolves and lions. From there, then, let God call them back, let him himself call them back. Now you will hear him calling them back: My sheep strayed, he says, onto every mountain and onto every high hill—that is, onto every swelling of earthly pride. For there are good mountains too: I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me (Ps 121:1 (120:1)). And see that your hope is not in the mountains: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:2 (120:2)). Do not think you do injury to the holy mountains, when you say: My help is not from the mountains, but from the Lord who made heaven and earth. The very mountains cry this to you. It was a mountain that cried out: I hear there are schisms among you, and each of you says: I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, but I of Christ (1 Cor 1:11-12). Lift up your eyes to this mountain, hear what it says, and do not remain even on this mountain. For hear what follows: Was Paul crucified for you? (1 Cor 1:13) Therefore, after you have lifted your eyes to the mountains whence help will come to you—that is, to the authors of the divine Scriptures—attend to him crying out with all his marrow, with all his bones: Lord, who is like you? (Ps 35:10 (34:10)), that secure, without any injury to the mountains, you may say: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Not only then will the mountains not be angry at you, but then they will love you, then they will favor you the more; if you place your hope in them, they will be saddened. An angel, showing many divine and wondrous things to a man, was being adored by the man, as by one lifting his eyes to the mountain. But that angel, calling him back from himself to the Lord, said: Do not do it; adore him, for I am your fellow servant and that of your brothers (See Rev 19:10; 22:9).

18 Onto every mountain, and onto every hill, and onto every face of the earth they were scattered (Ezek 34:6). What is Onto every face of the earth they were scattered? Pursuing all earthly things, the things that shine on the face of the earth, these they love, these they cherish. They do not want to die, that their life may be hidden in Christ. Over every face of the earth, by love of earthly things, and because the straying sheep are over the whole face of the earth. Not all heretics over the whole face of the earth, but yet heretics over the whole face of the earth. Some here, some there, yet nowhere lacking. They themselves do not know each other: one sect in Africa, another heresy in the East, another in Egypt, another in Mesopotamia, for example. In different places there are different ones: but that one mother, pride, bore them all, just as our one mother, the Catholic, bore all the faithful Christians spread throughout the world. No wonder, then, if pride bears division, love unity. Yet that Catholic mother, that shepherd in her, everywhere seeks the straying, strengthens the weak, cares for the sick, binds up the broken, some from these, some from those, who do not know one another. But yet she knows them all, because she is spread with all. For example, in Africa there is the party of Donatus, the Eunomians are not in Africa, but with the party of Donatus the Catholic is here. In the East there are Eunomians, but there the party of Donatus is not, but with the Eunomians the Catholic is there. She is like a vine, spread everywhere by growing; they are like useless branches, cut off by the husbandman's pruning-hook for the merit of their barrenness, that the vine might be pruned, not amputated. Those branches, then, where they were cut off, there they remained. But the vine, growing through all, both knows its branches that remained in it, and, beside itself, those cut off from it. From there, then, it calls back the straying, because of the broken branches too the Apostle says: For God is able to graft them in again (Rom 11:23). Whether you say sheep straying from the flock, or you say branches cut off from the vine, neither to call back the sheep, nor again to graft in the branches, is God less fit, because he is the supreme shepherd, he the true husbandman. And onto every face of the earth they were scattered; and there was no one to seek, no one to call back, but among those evil shepherds; there was no one—but a man—to seek (Ezek 34:6).

19 Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, says the Lord God (Ezek 34:7-8). See whence he began. It is, as it were, an oath of God, a testimony of his life. As I live, says the Lord. The shepherds are dead, but the sheep are secure; the Lord lives. As I live, says the Lord God. But which shepherds are dead? Those seeking their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. Will there, then, be and be found shepherds seeking not their own things but the things of Jesus Christ? There will be plainly and will be found plainly, nor are they lacking nor will they be lacking. Let us see, then, what the Lord says, who says that he lives: whether he says that he will take away the sheep from the evil shepherds, who feed themselves, not the sheep, and give them to good shepherds, who feed the sheep, not themselves. As I live, says the Lord God, because my sheep have become food for all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd (Ezek 34:8). Again he says shepherd, both a little before and now. He did not say: because there are no shepherds. For to such men, straying badly, perishing badly, there is no shepherd, even if the shepherd is present, because, even when the light is present, there is no light to the blind. And the shepherds did not seek my sheep, and the shepherds fed themselves, but my sheep they did not feed (Ezek 34:8).

20 Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord (Ezek 34:9). But which shepherds, hear? Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep from their hands (Ezek 34:10). Hear and learn, sheep of God: from the evil shepherds God requires his sheep, and from their hands he requires their death. For he says in another place through the same prophet: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. You will hear the word from my mouth, and you will forewarn them from me. When I say to the sinner: You will die the death, and you have not spoken that the impious man should beware of his way, that criminal will die in his crime, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you forewarn the criminal of his way, that he may turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his crime, and you will free your soul (Ezek 3:17-19). What is it, brothers? You see how perilous it is to keep silent? That one dies and rightly dies; he dies in his impiety and his sin; for his negligence killed him. For he would find the shepherd living who says: As I live, says the Lord; but when he has been negligent, with no one warning him who is set over him and is a watchman for this, that he may warn—both that one will justly die, and this one will justly be condemned. But if you say, it says, to the impious man: You will die the death—against whom I have threatened the sword, and he has neglected to avoid the imminent sword, and the sword comes and slays him—that one will die in his sin, but you have freed your soul. On account of this, it pertains to us not to keep silent; but to you it pertains, even if we keep silent, to hear from the holy Scriptures the words of the Shepherd.

21 Let us see, then—for so I had proposed—whether he takes the sheep away from the evil shepherds and gives them to good shepherds. I see him taking the sheep away from the evil shepherds. For he says this: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep from their hands, and I will turn them away from them, that they may not feed my sheep; and the shepherds will no longer feed themselves (Ezek 34:10). For when I say: Let them feed my sheep, they feed themselves, not my sheep. I will turn them away that they may not feed my sheep. How does he turn them away that they may not feed his sheep? What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt 23:3). As though he said: "They say my things, they do their own." If he had said: "Do securely what they do, I will condemn them who live badly; but you I will spare, because you followed those set over you"—if he said this, he would deter the evil shepherds, who feed not the sheep but themselves. But since he terrifies not only the blind leader, but also the blind follower—for he did not say: The leader falls into the pit, and the follower does not fall, but: The blind leading the blind, both fall into the pit (Matt 15:14)—he admonished the sheep and said: What they say, do; what they do, do not do. For when you do not do what the evil shepherds do, they do not feed you; but when you do what they say, I feed you. For they say my things and do them not. "Securely," they say, "we follow our bishops." The heretics often say this, when they are convicted by the most manifest truth: "We are sheep, they will render an account for us." They will render plainly a bad account for your death. For the death of a wicked sheep the evil shepherd will render a bad account. Does a sheep live, then, because its skin is handed in? The shepherd is reproached, because he neglected the straying sheep, and therefore it rushed into the jaws of the wolf to be devoured. What does it profit him that he brings the marked skin? The head of the household requires the life of the sheep. But see, the evil shepherd has brought the skin: let him render an account of the skin. Will he perhaps lie? He saw from above who afterward judges: to whom that one renders words, he counts deeds, he inspects thoughts. Let the evil shepherd render an account of the skin of the dead sheep. "I cried your words to it and it refused to follow; I made an effort that it not stray from the flock, and it did not obey": plainly, if he says this and says it truly—but he knows whether he says it truly—he renders a good account of a bad sheep. But if God inspects that he neglected the straying one, that he did not seek the perishing one, what does it profit that he found a skin to bring back? Let him call it back, that he not show the skin of a dead one. If, then, he who did not seek the straying one renders no good account, what sort will he render who made one stray? This is what I say: If a bishop set in the Catholic renders no good account of a sheep, if he has not sought the one straying from the flock of God, what sort of account will the heretic render, who not only will not call back from error, but even forced one into error?

22 But let us see, as I said, how God calls back the sheep from the evil shepherds. I have already recalled: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt 23:3). And they do not feed you, but God, because, willing or unwilling, the shepherds, that you may come to the milk and wool, are going to say the words of God. You who preach that one must not steal, you steal (Rom 2:21), says the Apostle to those who say good things and do evil. Do you hear the one preaching that you should not steal; do not imitate the one stealing. If you want to imitate the one stealing, he himself feeds you by his deed; he supplies you poison, not food. But if you hear from him what he says not from his own, but from God's—a grape indeed cannot be gathered from thorns; for it is the Lord's own sentence: No one gathers a grape from thorns and figs from thistles (Matt 7:16)—yet do not for this reason as it were bring a false charge against your Lord and say: "Lord, you cheated me, because it cannot be that I gather a grape from thorns; and again you said to me of certain ones: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do—surely those doing evil are thorns. How do you want me to gather from thorns the grape of the word?" He will answer: "That is not a grape of thorns, but sometimes a branch growing entangles itself in the hedge, and the grape hangs amid the dense thorns, but it does not rise from the root of the thorns. If you are hungry, and have nothing else from which to take, carefully put forth your hand, lest you be torn by the thorns—that is, lest you imitate the deeds of the evil—and gather the grape hanging among the thorns, but born of the vine. The cluster, the nourishment, will reach you; for the thorns the torment of fire is kept."

23 And I will draw out my sheep, he says, from their mouth, and from their hands: and they will no longer be food for them (Ezek 34:10). This too is said in the psalm: Will not all who work iniquity know, who devour my people as the food of bread? (Ps 14:4 (13:4)) And they will no longer be food for them: because thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself (Ezek 34:10-11). I have taken away the sheep from the evil shepherds, by admonishing, as I said, that they not do what they do: that is, that the unwary and negligent sheep not do what the evil shepherds do. And what does he say? To whom does he give what he took from them? Perhaps to good shepherds? This does not follow. And what shall we say, brothers? Are there not good shepherds? Is it not said in another place of the Scriptures: And I will set over them shepherds according to my heart, and they will feed them with discipline? (Jer 3:15) How, then, the sheep which he takes from the evil shepherds, he does not give to good ones, but as though good ones remained nowhere at all, says: I will feed them? To Peter he had said: Feed my sheep (John 21:17). What, then, do we do? When the sheep are entrusted to Peter, the Lord does not there say: I will feed my sheep, not you, but: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep (John 21:17). Or is it perhaps that, because Peter is not now found—for he has already been taken up into the rest of the Apostles and martyrs—there is no one to whom the secure Lord of the sheep may say: Feed my sheep, and in a way, as if by necessity, he descends to the office of feeding his sheep, having no one to whom to entrust them, yet not deserting them? For this seems to follow: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself—to whom we were saying: You who feed Israel, attend; you who lead Joseph like sheep (Ps 80:1 (79:2)), the people set in Egypt: now Israel spread among the nations is himself Joseph. For you know that Joseph migrated into Egypt: it came about by his brothers selling him. The Jews sold Christ; not without cause among the Apostles Judas himself was the seller. Christ began to be among the nations, there he was honored, there his people grew, his shepherd does not desert him. Stir up, he says, your power and come, that you may save us (Ps 80:2 (79:3)). He plainly does and will do it. He says: Behold, I myself, and I will seek my sheep, and visit them, as a shepherd visits his flock (Ezek 34:11-12). The evil shepherds did not care for them; for they did not redeem them with their own blood. As a shepherd visits, he says, his flock on the day—on what day? When there is a storm and cloud—that is, rain and mist (Ezek 34:12). Rain and mist, the error of this world; a great gloom rising from the desires of men, and a strong mist covering the earth. And it is difficult for the sheep not to stray in this mist. But the shepherd does not desert them. He seeks them, he penetrates the mist with most keen eyes, he is not hindered by the gloom of the clouds. He sees, he calls back the straying from every side, only that there may come about what he says in the Gospel: Those that are my sheep hear my voice and follow me (John 10:27). In the midst of the scattered sheep, so I will seek my sheep, and lead them out from every place where they were scattered, on the day of cloud and storm (Ezek 34:12). When it is difficult to be found, now I will find them. The mist is thick, the storm is heavy: nothing lies hidden from his eyes.

24 And I will lead them out from the nations, and gather them from the regions, and bring them into their land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel (Ezek 34:13-14). He set up the mountains of Israel, the authors of the divine Scriptures. There feed, that you may feed securely. Whatever you hear from there, let this savor well to you; whatever is outside, spurn. Lest you stray in the mist, hear the voice of the shepherd. Gather yourselves to the mountains of holy Scripture. There are the delights of your heart, there nothing venomous, nothing foreign; the pastures are most abundant. Only come sound, sound be fed on the mountains of Israel. And in the streams, and in every habitation of the land (See Ezek 34:13). For from the mountains we have shown, the streams of evangelical preaching flowed, when their sound went out into all the earth, and every habitation of the land was made glad and fruitful for feeding the sheep. In good pastures I will feed them, and on the high mountains of Israel. And their folds will be there (Ezek 34:14)—that is, where they may rest, where they may say: It is well, where they may say: It is true, it is manifest, we are not deceived. In the glory of God they will rest, as in those folds. And they will sleep—that is, rest—and rest in good delights.

25 And in fat pastures they will be fed upon the mountains of Israel (Ezek 34:14). I have already said the mountains of Israel, the good mountains, to which we lift our eyes, that thence help may come to us. But our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Therefore, lest our hope be even in the good mountains, when he had said, I will feed my sheep upon the mountains of Israel, again, lest you remain in the mountains, he added at once: I will feed my sheep. Lift up your eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to you, but attend to the one saying: I will feed them. For your help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

26 And I will make them rest, says the Lord God (Ezek 34:15). But that he may make them rest, what did he first care for? For what he first cared for, he says afterward: Thus says the Lord God: What perished, I will seek; and what strayed, I will call back; and what was crushed, I will bind up; and what is lifeless, I will strengthen; and what is fat, and what is strong, I will guard (Ezek 34:16): which the evil shepherds did not do, feeding themselves, not the sheep. The Lord did not say: I will set up other good shepherds, who may do these things, but: I, he says, will do it; my sheep I will entrust to no one. Be secure, brothers; be secure, sheep. To us it seems we ought to fear, as though a good shepherd were lacking.

27 He concludes thus: And I will feed them with judgment (Ezek 34:16). See that he alone feeds thus, feeding with judgment. For what man judges of a man? All things are full of rash judgments. The one of whom we have despaired is suddenly converted and becomes the best. The one of whom we have presumed much suddenly fails and becomes the worst. Neither is our fear sure, nor is our love sure. What each man is today, the man himself scarcely knows. Yet somehow he knows what he is today. But what he will be tomorrow, not even he knows. He, then, feeds with judgment, distributing what is proper to the proper: these things to these, those to those, the things owed to those to whom they are owed, this or that. For he knows what he does. He feeds with judgment those whom, having been judged, he redeemed. He, then, feeds with judgment.

28 For in the prophet Jeremiah a certain partridge cried out, He gathered what he did not bring forth, making his riches not with judgment (Jer 17:11). Against this partridge making his riches not with judgment, this shepherd feeds with judgment. Why is that one without judgment? Because he gathered what he did not bring forth. Why is this one with judgment? Because he cherishes what he brought forth. Yet we are speaking of the good shepherd. Good shepherds either are not, or lie hidden. If they are not, what do we do? If they lie hidden, why is there silence about them? That partridge indeed was understood by certain elders and treaters of the Scriptures before us as the devil, gathering what he did not bring forth. For he is not a creator but a deceiver, making his riches not with judgment. For it does not pertain to him whether one strays this way, another that. He wants all to stray, by whatever errors. How diverse are the heresies, how diverse the errors! He wants men to stray in all of them. The devil does not say: "Let them be Donatists and not Arians." Whether they are here or there, they pertain to him gathering without judgment. "Let him adore idols," he says, "he is mine; let him remain in the superstition of the Jews, he is mine; let him, deserting unity, go into this or that heresy, he is mine." He gathers, then, without judgment, making his riches. But what follows? In the middle of his days they will desert him, and in his last days he will be foolish (Jer 17:11). He comes gathering his sheep from every side. In the middle of his days, sooner than he hoped, before he thought, they will desert him, and he will be foolish in his last days. Why was he wise in his first days, and foolish in his last? Hear, brothers. Sometimes in the Scriptures wisdom is said for cunning, by an abuse of the word, not by its proper sense. Whence it is said: Where is the wise man, where the scribe, where the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor 1:20) And that partridge, the same dragon, the same serpent, was as it were wise when he deceived Adam through Eve. He was thought to speak truly, he was esteemed to give good counsel, he was believed against God. But that wisdom is said by an abuse of the word and in a bad sense, indeed by the custom of our Scriptures—for what is it to us how the authors of the world speak?—you have in the same book: There was there a serpent wiser than all the beasts (Gen 3:1). This one, wiser than all the beasts, is recognized as keen and cunning to deceive. Afterward he is not believed. It is said to him: "We renounce you, it is enough that you first deceived the unwary." Therefore so in his last days he will be foolish. His frauds will be open, and therefore now they will be frauds no more. In his last days he will be foolish, who gathered what he did not bring forth, and made his riches not with judgment. Against him our Redeemer feeds with judgment.

29 Let some heretic too come forward, if not the brother of the devil, surely his helper and son. And him too I would call a partridge, a contentious animal. For this animal, as fowlers know, is caught even by its zeal for contending. These men contend against the truth, and have contended ever since they divided themselves. Now they say: "We do not want to contend," because they are now caught. He has no ground to say: "I do not want to contend." O caught one, surely at some time you were the one who, in the first days of your sedition, accused the betrayers, condemned the innocent, sought the judgment of the Emperor, did not consent to the judgment of the bishops, when so often defeated appealed, most eagerly litigated before the Emperor himself. You were gathering what you did not bring forth. Where is your neck now? Where is your tongue? Where is your hiss? Surely in your last days you have been made foolish, you have fed without judgment. For you do not want to judge truly, either of your error or of the truth. Against you Christ feeds with judgment, he distinguishes his sheep from sheep not his own. Those that are my sheep, he says, hear my voice and follow me (John 10:27).

30 Here I find all the good shepherds in one shepherd. For good shepherds are not truly lacking, but they are in one. They are many who are divided. Here one is preached, because unity is commended. For it is not now truly the case that the shepherds are passed over in silence, and the shepherd is named, because the Lord found no one to whom to entrust his sheep. But then he entrusted them because he found Peter. Rather, in Peter himself he commended unity. There were many Apostles, and to one it is said: Feed my sheep (John 21:17). Far be it that good shepherds should now be lacking, far be it from us that they be lacking, far be it from his mercy that he not beget and set them up. Surely if there are good sheep, there are also good shepherds, for from good sheep good shepherds are made. But all the good shepherds are in one, they are one. They feed, Christ feeds. For the friends of the bridegroom do not speak their own voice, but rejoice with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. Therefore he himself feeds, when they feed; and he says: I feed, because in them is his own voice, in them his own love. For Peter himself, to whom he entrusted his sheep as one to another, he wished to make one with himself, and so to entrust the sheep to him, that he should be the head, that the other should bear the figure of the body—that is, of the Church—and that, as bridegroom and bride, they should be two in one flesh. Accordingly, that he might entrust the sheep, what does he first say to him, lest he entrust them to him as to another? Peter, do you love me? And he answered: I love you. And again: Do you love me? And he answered: I love you. And a third time: Do you love me? And he answered: I love you (John 21:15-17). He confirms love, that he may consolidate unity. He, then, one, feeds in these, and these in one. And there is silence about the shepherds, yet there is no silence. The shepherds glory, but let him who glories glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). This is for Christ to feed, this is to feed in Christ, this is also to feed with Christ, not to feed for oneself apart from Christ. For it was not truly from a lack of shepherds, as if the prophet were foretelling these coming evil times, that he said: I will feed my sheep, I have no one to whom to entrust them. Even when Peter himself was there, and when the Apostles themselves were still in this flesh and in this life, then that one, in whom one all are one, said: I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, that there may be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16). Let all, then, be in one shepherd, and speak the one voice of the shepherd which the sheep hear, and follow their shepherd, and not this one or that one, but one. And let all in him speak one voice, let them not have diverse voices. I beseech you, brothers, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you (1 Cor 1:10). Let the sheep hear this voice, refined from all schism, purged from all heresy, and follow their shepherd saying: Those that are my sheep hear my voice, and follow me (John 10:27).

31 For do you want to know, heretic, how you do not have the voice of the shepherd, and how perilously the sheep follow you, covered with the garment of a sheep, and within a ravening wolf? Let them hear your voice; let us see whether it is Christ's. A weak sheep, straying from the flock, not knowing where the flock is, seeks the Church. It seeks where to gather itself, where to enter. Utter your voice: let us hear whether it is Christ's. Let us hear whether it is the lamb's, or the partridge's. The sheep of God seeks its flock. Suppose a sheep has come from the East to Africa; it seeks its flock. It runs upon you, it runs into your basilica, it wants to enter. You are moved by the unknown face, either you or your minister. Standing or sitting at the door, you question the sheep seeking its flock—rather, the flock of God. It wants to enter with its flock, it thinks it is there. You ask: "Are you a pagan, or a Christian?" It answers: "A Christian": for it is a sheep of God. You ask whether it is perhaps a catechumen, and rushes upon the sacraments. It answers: "A believer." You ask of what communion it is. It answers: "Catholic." You reject a Christian, a believer, a catholic. Who are those within whom you keep? Cast it out, then, reject it. Rejected by you, it is approved by Christ. Would that those who are with you might recognize you, and in the middle of your days desert you. Some of our brothers yesterday went to their basilica. Even though to evil brothers, yet to brothers. Attend, my brothers, to the difference between the confidence of truth and the fear of falsehood. When you recognize some of them in this congregation, how you rejoice! Because in you is the one who seeks what perished. It is sometimes suggested to you: "He will hear and depart." And you: "Let him hear and depart." "He will hear and mock." "Let him hear and mock. Sometime he will be wise and sometime he will know. Sometime he is left by his people, he remains with his heart. He renounces his error. He gives thanks to his God." But they, what? "Who are you?" "We are Christians." "No, but spies." And they: "We are catholics." They tried to do injury; by better counsel they regretted it. And would that they so regretted remaining there, as they regretted who went in to do injury. Yet whom they cast out—Christians, believers, catholics; whom they keep, I do not want to say. Whom they cast out, I see; whom they keep, let them say themselves.

32 Let them, then, say their voice. Let us see whether it is Christ's voice, whether it is the shepherd's voice, which the sheep follow. Whether through a good man or through an evil man this voice comes, let us attend to whether it is the shepherd's voice. The weak one seeks the Church, the straying one seeks the Church. What do you say? "The Church is of the party of Donatus." I inquire the voice of the shepherd. Read this to me from the prophet, read it to me from the psalm, recite it from the Law, recite it from the Gospel, recite it from the Apostle. From there I recite the Church spread throughout the world and the Lord saying: Those that are my sheep hear my voice and follow me (John 10:27). What is the voice of the shepherd? And that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). See the voice of the shepherd, recognize yourself, and follow it if you are a sheep.

33 "But those handed over the books, and those set incense before idols, this man and that man." What is it to me about this man and that man? If they did it, they are not shepherds. Do you utter the voice of the shepherd, because you do not announce the voice of the shepherd even concerning them. You accuse, not the Gospel; you accuse, not the prophet, not the Apostle; of whom this voice speaks to me, of him I believe; others I do not believe. But you will produce Acts; I produce Acts. Let us believe yours; do you believe mine too. I do not believe yours; do not believe mine. Let human papers be taken away, let the divine voices sound. Utter to me one voice of Scripture for the party of Donatus; hear innumerable ones, throughout the world. Who counts them? Who sets their limit? Yet, to recall a few, attend to the Law, the first Testament of God: In your seed all the nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18). And in the psalm: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will adore in his sight, for the kingdom is his and he will rule over the nations. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. And all the kings of the earth will adore him, all the nations will serve him (Ps 2:8; 22:27-28 (21:28-29); 96:1 (95:1); 72:11 (71:11)). Who could count them? Almost every page sounds nothing else than Christ, and the Church spread throughout the world. Let one voice come forth for me for the party of Donatus: what great thing is it that I ask? They say the Church spread throughout the world was to perish. Was that prophesied to perish which was foretold by so many testimonies to abide? Not even that one voice is the shepherd's, through the Law, the Prophets, the Songs—for those men could not speak the truth without the Word of God, which is Christ—hear the voice of the Word, and from the mouth of the Word.

34 Marveling at the faith of the centurion: Amen, he said, I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel. Therefore I say to you that many will come from the East and the West and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 8:10-11). From the East and the West many will come. See the Church of Christ, see the flock of Christ. Do you see whether you are a sheep. For the flock which is everywhere does not lie hidden from you. You will have nothing to answer your judge, whom you do not want to be your shepherd; you will have nothing, I say, to answer your judge: "I did not know, I did not see, I did not hear." What is it you did not know? Nor is there one who can hide himself from his heat (Ps 19:6 (18:7)). What is it you did not see? All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God (Ps 98:3 (97:3)). What is it you did not hear? Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 19:4 (18:5); Rom 10:18).

35 But rightly is the voice of Christ sought from you, the voice of the shepherd, which the sheep hear and follow. You find nothing to say, you do not have the voice of the shepherd. Hear and follow. Let go of the voice of the wolf, follow the voice of the shepherd. Or give the voice of the shepherd. "We give it," they say. Let us hear: "We too give the voice of the shepherd." Let us hear. "In the Song of Songs," they say, "the bride speaks to the bridegroom, the Church to Christ." We know the Song of Songs, the holy Song, the love Song, of holy love, of holy charity, of holy sweetness. I plainly want to hear from there the voice of the shepherd, the voice of the sweetest bridegroom. Utter it, if you have it. Let us hear. "The bride," they say, "says to the bridegroom: Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down. And he," they say, "answers: At noon (Song 1:7)." I was producing for you manifest testimonies; there was no way you could interpret them otherwise: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord (Ps 2:8; 22:27 (21:28)). What is it that you produce to me from the Song of Songs? Which perhaps you do not understand. For those Songs are riddles, known to few who understand, opened to few who knock. Hold and devoutly receive what is open, that the obscure things may deservedly be laid open to you. How will you be a penetrator of obscure things, a despiser of manifest ones?

36 See, however, as we can, brothers, let us examine these words. The Lord will be present that you may see there a sound understanding. First, what is most easily judged by all, even the unskilled, they wrongly punctuate the very words. Now you will hear, now you will prove it. For the text of the reading itself stands thus. The bride speaks to the bridegroom: Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down. That the bride says it to the bridegroom, that the Church says it to Christ, neither we doubt, nor they. But hear all the words of the bride. Why do you want to assign to the bridegroom a word that still belongs to the bride? Let her say all that the bride says. Then the bridegroom will answer. Hear more evidently by this punctuation which I am about to make: you will find nothing more. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon. She herself still says: Where you feed, where you lie down at noon. And see that she herself still says it. For it follows: Lest perhaps I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions (Song 1:7). I think all, skilled and unskilled, distinguish the masculine and feminine gender. "Veiled" [operta]—I ask of what gender it is. Of every man I ask: Is it masculine or feminine? Tell me, she says, you whom my soul has loved. When she says you whom, she addresses a male, addresses the bridegroom. But that the woman addresses a man, the following words indicate: Tell me where you feed, where you lie down at noon, lest perhaps I become as one veiled. Hear "veiled," that these things may be unveiled to you. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon, lest perhaps I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions. Thus far the words of the bride. Now begin the words of the bridegroom, manifestly: Unless you know yourself—know yourself manfully, woman: unless, he says, you know yourself; hear also the rest: O beautiful among women—Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks and feed your kids in the tents of the shepherds (Song 1:8), not in the tent of the shepherd. See how the bridegroom threatens; see how, in peril, although that sweet one, he took away the blandishments from the midst. How sweetly she! "Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon. For the midday comes, when the shepherds run together to the shade; and perhaps it will be hidden from me where you feed and where you lie down; and I want you to tell me, lest perhaps I become as one veiled—that is, as one hidden, and not known. For I am manifest, but lest, as one veiled, as one concealed, I fall upon the flocks of your companions." For all heretics went out from Christ; all who became evil shepherds, having their own flocks under the name of Christ, were his companions, received his banquet. For "companions" [sodales] are so called, as it were, of one banquet. In the Latin tongue they are called sodales, as if "co-eaters" [simul edales], because they eat together. Hear him in the psalm reproaching his evil companions—that is, of one banquet: If my enemy, he says, had reproached me, I would surely have borne it, and if he had spoken great things against me. But you, my soul-mate, and my familiar, my guide, who together with me took sweet food (Ps 55:12-14 (54:13-15)). Therefore many ungrateful companions of the Lord's table went out; the evil companions made themselves their own tables, set up altars against the altar: upon these she fears to fall.

37 And if you think that noon is Africa—although I could maintain rather that the noon of the world is the regions of Egypt, and those regions parched by the sun where rain does not appear, because that is the noon where the midday is hot. But there is the desert full of thousands of servants of God. Whence, if we want to attend to the noon of places, why should he not feed there rather and rest there, when it was foretold: The breasts will be the deserts of the wilderness?—But see, I consent, let noon be Africa, let Africa be noon. Here are the evil companions. The Church beyond the sea, in some one of hers sailing to Africa, anxious lest he stray, calls upon her bridegroom and says to him: "I hear there are heretics abounding in Africa, I hear there are rebaptizers abounding in Africa. But that your own are there, I hear no less. And I hear this, and I hear that. But who are yours, I want to hear from you. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon, in that noon where I hear there are two parties, one the party of Donatus, the other cleaving to your whole. Do you tell me where I should go, lest perhaps as one veiled—that is, unknown—I become over the flocks of your companions, fall upon the flocks of heretics, who try to set stone upon stone that may be destroyed, lest I rush upon rebaptizers, tell me." And he who commends the unity of the shepherd, who in this reading said: I will feed them—but rejects the shepherds who wanted to be many, who lost unity—answering most severely, not with blandishment, but according to the greatness of the peril: Unless you know yourself, he says, O beautiful among women: you are beautiful among women, but know yourself. Where do you know yourself? In the whole world. For if you are beautiful, unity is in you. Where there is division, there is foulness, not beauty. Unless you know yourself: you believed in me, know yourself. How did you believe in me? Just as those evil companions too, confessing the Word made flesh, born of a Virgin, crucified, risen, ascended into heaven: in such a one you believed me, such they too proclaim. Know yourself and me: me in heaven, you in the whole world." Christ addresses any one out of the Church as the Church.—For how does the Church seek the Church? I speak according to them. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down. What does it seek? The Church. And he, as it were showing the Church, says: At noon, as they want. Let them answer me, how the Church seeks the Church. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved. Who speaks? The Church. What does she want told her? Where you feed, where you lie down—that is, where the Church is. The Church speaks, and asks where the Church is; and he answers, as they think: At noon. If it is only at noon, as they say, in Africa, how does she herself ask where she herself is? But indeed a portion of the Church beyond the sea well asks about the noon, lest it stray here.—Christ addresses each member of his Church as his Church. And what does he say? Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out. To go out belongs to heretics. Either know yourself, or go out, because if you do not know yourself, you will go out. Go out where? In the tracks of the flocks, by following evil flocks. Lest perhaps you think you follow sheep, if you go out, hear what follows: Go out in the tracks of the flocks, and feed your kids, now not sheep. You know, brothers, where the kids will be. At the left will be all who have gone out from the Church. To Peter, abiding, it is said: Feed my sheep (John 21:17); to the heretic, going out: Feed your kids.

38 "There is," they say, "another testimony too." No less against you. Say it, let us hear. It will be against you, just as this which you thought was for you. "What if," they say, "you interpret noon as Egypt?" In many ways indeed we interpret noon: we can understand both Egypt as a place of the world, and Africa itself, thus. Hear what I understand by noon; I understand the fervor of spiritual men, blazing with the fire of love, shining with the light of truth. For it is said in a certain psalm: Make known to me your right hand, and those instructed in heart in wisdom (See Ps 90:12 (89:12))—the right hand, not the kids; and those instructed in heart in wisdom, these are the noon. Whence it is said to the prophet: And your darkness will be as noon (Isa 58:10). In many ways, then, we can understand noon. But I plainly understand Africa, altogether, I understand Africa. I receive from you something perhaps better than I would savor, unless reminded by you. Let Africa be noon. The Church beyond the sea fears to fall upon rebaptizers; she fears to fall, as one unknown, upon the flocks of the companions; she asks of her bridegroom that he tell her where he feeds, where he lies down at noon, because in that very noon he feeds in some, does not feed in others; he lies down in some, does not lie down in others.—Let her hear the counsel, let her come to the catholic Church, let her not fall upon the flocks of the companions, let her not feed her kids.—But say the other thing you said you were going to say. "The prophet," he says, "says: God will come from the south; and where the south is, surely Africa." O testimony! God will come from the south, and from Africa God will come! The heretics announce that another Christ is born in Africa and goes through the world! I ask, what is it: God will come from Africa? If you said: God remained in Africa, you would surely say it shamefully. But now you even say: He will come from Africa. We know where Christ was born, where he suffered, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples, where he filled them with the Holy Spirit, where he commanded them to evangelize through the whole world, and they obeyed, and the world is filled with the Gospel.

39 "Then do you," he says, "expound to me what it is: God will come from the south." Say the whole, and perhaps you will understand. God will come from the south, and the holy one from the shady mountain (Hab 3:3). Do you expound to me, if from Africa, how from the shady mountain? From Numidia the party of Donatus was born. They were sent first into dissension and tumult and scandal, seeking a huge wound. Numidians sent. Secundus of Tigisi sent. Where Tigisi is, is known. The clergy who were sent gathered outside, away from the Church; they refused to approach the clergy of Carthage, set up a visitor, were received by Lucilla. The author of all this evil was a Numidian heretic. In Numidia, whence one came here with such great evil, a fly-whisk is scarcely found, they dwell in huts. How a shady mountain in Numidia? Tell me, then. Do not recite only this far: God from the south; I require what follows: And the holy one from the shady mountain. But show me the party of Donatus coming from Numidia, from the shady mountain. You find everything bare—fat plains indeed, but for grain, not fertile with olive groves, not pleasant with other groves. Whence, then, a shady mountain in the parts of Numidia, whence this scandal came?

40 "Do you, then," he says, "expound to me what it is: God will come from the south, and the holy one from the shady mountain." See how easily I expound it. First hear what the Lord said: Christ had to suffer and rise again on the third day, and repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:46-47). See whence he will come: when he said beginning, he surely foretold that thence, in his saints, he would come to the other nations. Read the division of the land of the children of Israel among all the tribes in the book of Joshua. There it is openly said: Jebus from the south, which is Jerusalem (See Josh 18:28; 15:8). Read, seek, and you will find. Would that, when you find it, you would believe; would that you would lay aside your animosity. Jebus from the south, which is Jerusalem. And the Lord: Beginning at Jerusalem: this is: God will come from the south. How, then, from the shady mountain? Now read the Gospel. From the Mount of Olives Christ ascended into heaven. Follow on. And what is clearer? You hear: from the south; you have heard: from the shady mountain. We recite the Law. We recite the Gospel. You heard: Beginning at Jerusalem; hear: Among all the nations. In the same prophet follow those words which you despised, those words which you passed over: God will come from the south, and the holy one from the shady mountain; his shadow will cover the mountains, and his glory fills the earth (Hab 3:3). Among all the nations, then, beginning at Jerusalem. How, beginning at Jerusalem? God will come from the south, and the holy one from the shady mountain—that is, from the Mount of Olives, where he ascended into heaven, whence he sent his disciples, where, when about to ascend, he also said: It is not for you to know the times which the Father has set in his own power, but you will receive power from on high, and you will be my witnesses—see how the Gospel begins—and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the whole earth (Acts 1:7-8). Therefore, when God comes, Christ, both his name and the preaching of his Gospel from Jerusalem—that is, from the south, and from the shady mountain—that is, from the Mount of Olives, because the Gospel was spread among all the nations—his shadow will cover the mountains—that is, his refreshment, his protection—and the earth is full of his praise. Sing, then, with the whole earth, a new song, not the old song with a corner of the earth.

41 They say another thing too. "A certain Simon of Cyrene," they say, "was compelled to carry the cross of the Lord." We read it, but how it helps you I want to know. "The Cyrenian," he says, "is an African. Therefore he himself was compelled to carry the cross." Where Cyrene is you perhaps do not know: it is Libya, it is the Pentapolis, it is contiguous to Africa, it belongs rather to the East. Or recognize it in the distribution of the provinces of the Emperors: the Eastern Emperor sends a judge to Cyrene. Briefly I answer. Where the party of Donatus is, Cyrene is not found; where Cyrene is, the party of Donatus is not found. The manifest truth convicts the error. Let him give me Cyrene, where the party of Donatus is; let him give me the party of Donatus, where Cyrene is. For it is manifest, brothers, that in the Pentapolis the Church is catholic, and the party of Donatus is not there. But let us, secure, mock those to be wept over, and weep over those to be mocked. What do you say? You recall the great merit of this Cyrenian, because he carried the cross of the Lord, and you call him an African. He is an Easterner. For Libya is named in two ways, either this which is properly Africa, or that part of the East which is contiguous to Africa, and altogether sharing its borders. But suppose the Cyrenian was an African. Do you think him blessed, that, compelled, he carried the cross? How much better would another perhaps say that the Church of Christ remained in Arimathea? Because that rich Joseph of Arimathea, having the kingdom of God before his eyes, came to the cross of the Lord not compelled, not forced. When the rest dreaded, he asked of Pilate the Lord's body to bury, took it down from the wood, attended the funeral, laid it in the tomb, was praised in the Gospel. Because, then, this devout man, showing such great service to the Lord's body, was of Arimathea, did the Church remain in Arimathea? Or if the one compelled—that is, who is forced to carry the cross—rather delights you, then the catholic Emperors do rightly, who compel you to unity.

1 The words we have sung contain our profession that we are the sheep of God. Nor do we unfittingly beg with tears the mercy of him whose sheep we are. For we said: Let us weep before the Lord who made us, for he himself is the Lord our God (Ps 95:6-7 (94:6-7)). Lest anyone weeping despair that he can be heard, a certain bond was recalled of God's hearing us: For he himself is the Lord our God, who made us. He is our God; we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands (Ps 95:7 (94:7)). Human shepherds, or even heads of households, masters of cattle, did not themselves make the sheep they have, did not themselves create the sheep they feed. But the Lord our God, because he is God and creator, made for himself sheep that he might have and feed. Neither did another establish those he himself feeds, nor does another feed those he himself established. Let us, then, weep before him. For we are not in good while we are in this world. For when we please the Lord in the region of the living, then our tears will be wiped away, and we will speak praises to him who has rescued us from the bonds of death, our feet from slipping, our eyes from tears, that we may please the Lord in the region of the living, because it is difficult to please him in the region of the dead. But there is here too whence we may please him, by begging his mercy upon us, by abstaining from sins as much as we can, but as much as we cannot, by confessing and weeping. So we are in this life hoping for another life, weeping in hope—rather, weeping in reality, rejoicing in hope.

2 Having professed in this song, then, that we are his sheep, the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hands, let us hear what he speaks to us as to his sheep. Before, in the earlier reading, he was speaking to the shepherds. But in the present and today's reading he speaks to the sheep. In those words of his, then, we were hearing with trembling, you with security. What, then, in these today's words? Shall we, in turn, hear with security, you with trembling? Not at all. First, because, even if we are shepherds, the shepherd hears with trembling not only what is said to the shepherds, but also what is said to the sheep. For if he hears with security what is said to the sheep, he has no care for the sheep. Then, we have already said to your Charity that two things are to be considered in us: one, that we are Christians; the other, that we are set over others. In that we are set over others, we are reckoned among the shepherds, if we are good. But in that we are Christians, we too with you are sheep. Whether, then, the Lord speaks to the shepherds, or to the sheep, we ought to hear all things with trembling, nor let anxiety depart from our hearts, that we may weep before the Lord who made us.

3 Let us hear, then, brothers, whence the Lord reproaches the wicked sheep, and what he promises his sheep. And you, he says, my sheep, thus says the Lord God (Ezek 34:17). First, how great a happiness it is to be the flock of God, if anyone considers it, brothers, even in these tears and these tribulations he conceives a great joy. For he is not in the flock of one whom wolves can scourge, or whose sleep robbers can catch. For to him it was said: You who feed Israel (Ps 80:1 (79:2)), of whom it was said: He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep (Ps 121:4 (120:4)). He, then, watches over us while we watch, watches also while we sleep. If, then, from a human shepherd a man's cattle are secure, how great ought our security to be when God feeds us, not only because he feeds us, but also because he made us?

4 One anxiety is laid upon us: to hear the voice of the shepherd. And now is the time of hearing, because he has not yet taken up the time of judging. He who speaks now keeps silent. For he speaks in the precept, he keeps silent in the judgment. Therefore he says in a certain place: I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent? (Isa 42:14) How did he keep silent, since he said this very thing by speaking? He who says, I have kept silent, does not keep silent, because to say this very thing, I have kept silent, is not to keep silent. I hear you, then, speaking in so many precepts, in so many sacraments, in so many pages, in so many books. I hear you finally in this very thing you say: I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent? How, then, did you keep silent? Because I do not yet say: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Matt 25:34). And I do not yet say to others: Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). And these very things I do not yet say, in such a way that I already foretell them. The last sentence which the judge is about to pronounce, about to write with his own hand on the tablet, beyond which sentence he is about to judge nothing more, the parties do not hear: while they go outside, it is written. Both parties are anxious and in suspense, against or for which his sentence will come forth. Great is the secret of the judge, whence it is called the "secretarium." Great the fear of those who are in the case; what he is thinking, and what he writes, is unknown. And he is a man, and those of whom he judges are surely men. But he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands. And though he is the Creator, we the creature; he immortal, we mortal; he invisible, we visible; he did not want it to lie hidden from us in this life what last sentence he is about to pronounce at the end. No one who wants to condemn says beforehand, "I condemn"; no one who wants to strike says beforehand, "I strike."

5 Great, then, is his gentleness, great his mercy, great his meekness. But if only we do not abuse his patience for our own wickedness, and, while he bears our sins, we should heap sin upon sin as if to add to his burden; as if that he might bear more, who does not labor when he bears. Our sins, which he still spares, because he still endures them, show his patience but heap up our burden. Do you not know, he says, that the patience of God leads you to repentance? (Rom 2:4) That patience is what he calls keeping-silent, of which he says: I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent? (Isa 42:14) Therefore, when he reproached certain men and said: You who preach that one must not steal, you steal; you who say one must not commit adultery, you commit adultery (Rom 2:21-22), and the rest, he said: Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and longsuffering? (Rom 2:4) Because he is good, because he is longsuffering, because he sees and keeps silent, because he sees and endures, do you think him unjust? Do you not know that the patience of God leads you to repentance? And see whether he will always keep silent, who now keeps silent. But you, he says, according to your hardness of heart and your impenitent heart, treasure 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 2:5-6). Therefore he keeps silent; will he always keep silent? Likewise he says, after certain sins enumerated: These things you did, and I kept silent—that is: these things you did and I did not avenge; you suspected iniquity, that I would be like you (Ps 50:21 (49:21)). And in truth many think this, when they have done many evils, and have seen no evil befall them; not only do their evil deeds please them, but they even think they please God: impiety goes so far that the impious despiser even thinks God like himself. And when God leads him by warning, teaching, exhorting, reproaching, to his own likeness, he not only does not follow the likeness of God, but wants to lead God to his own likeness. This is a greater iniquity than the very sins from which he does not correct himself. You suspected iniquity, that I would be like you. And what follows? I will convict you. Why this? I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent? And so, brothers, since this discourse, which proceeds from the mouth of God, both terrifies me and you—for we all have one good hope in him, and we all ought equally to fear, lest, having offended him, we not find what we hoped for, but experience what we despised—let us all hear as the sheep of God, while he who keeps silent speaks, while he warns us, and does not yet judge us who made us, while there is leisure to hear, while it is permitted even to read.

6 And you, he says, my sheep, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, and rams and goats (Ezek 34:17). What do goats do here in the flock of God? In the same pastures, at the same fountains, the goats too, destined for the left, are mixed with those at the right, and those who will be separated are first tolerated. And here the patience of the sheep is exercised to the likeness of the patience of God. For the separation will be his—of some to the left, of others to the right. But now he himself keeps silent, you want to speak. But whence do I say: You want to speak? Whence he keeps silent. From the vengeance of judgment, not from the word of reproof. He himself does not yet separate, you want to separate. He himself tolerates them mixed, who sowed. If, before the winnowing, you want the wheat to be cleansed, by your own wind, worst of men, you will be winnowed. Was it permitted the servants to say: Do you want, we will go and gather them up? (Matt 13:28) For they were vexed, seeing the weeds, and grieved that weeds were mixed with the good crop. And they said: Did you not sow good seed? Whence, then, did the weeds appear? (Matt 13:27) He rendered the account whence they appeared; yet he did not permit them to be plucked up before the time. Although the servants themselves were vexed against the weeds, yet they sought counsel and command from the master. Those weeds displeased them amid the crop, but the servants saw that if, even in plucking up those very weeds, they did anything of their own accord, they themselves would be reckoned among the weeds. From the Lord they awaited the command, they sought the order of their king: Do you want, we will go and gather them up? And he: No. And he rendered the reason: Lest perhaps, when you want to gather the weeds, you root up the wheat together (Matt 13:29). He calmed them from indignation, but did not leave them in grief. For it seemed grievous to the servants that there were weeds amid the wheat, and truly it was grievous. But the condition of the field is one thing, the rest of the barn another. Endure, for to this you were born. Endure, because perhaps you have been endured. If you were always good, have mercy; if you were ever evil, do not lose the memory. And who is always good? More easily, if God examines you diligently, will he find you even now evil, than you will find yourself always good. Therefore these weeds must be endured amid the wheat, the goats among the rams, the kids among the sheep. But what of the wheat? In the time, he says, of harvest, I will say to the reapers: Gather first the weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but my wheat store in the barn (Matt 13:30). The mixing of the field, then, will pass; the separation of the harvest will come. Now the Lord requires of us the patience which he sets forth in himself, saying to you: "I surely, if I now wished to judge, would I judge unjustly? I, if I now wished to judge, could I be deceived? If I, who always judge rightly and who cannot be deceived, defer my judgment; do you, not knowing how you are to be judged, dare to judge so prematurely?" See, brothers, how to those servants wishing to root up the weeds before the time, he did not concede this work even at the harvest. For he said: In the time of harvest I will say to the reapers. He did not say: I will say to you. But what if the servants themselves will be the reapers? No. For, expounding all things one by one: The reapers, he says, are angels (Matt 13:39). A man, then, fenced in by flesh, bearing flesh, or perhaps wholly flesh—that is, flesh in body, carnal in mind—do you dare to usurp beforehand another's office, which at the harvest will not even be yours? This about separating the weeds. About the goats, what? When the Son of man comes, and all the angels with him, he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:31-32). And he will come, and will separate. The harvest will come, and they will be separated. Now, then, is not the time of separation, but of toleration. Nor do we say these things, brothers, that the diligence of correction may sleep. Rather, lest we come unwary into that judgment, and we negligent blind ones, blind to our own blindness, suddenly find ourselves on the left, let discipline be exercised, let judgment not be rushed.

7 What, then, does the Lord say? Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, and rams and goats (Ezek 34:17). I judge. Great security: he himself judges, let the good be secure. Their judge no adversary corrupts, no advocate circumvents, no witness deceives. But as much as the good are secure, so much let the evil fear. He is not a judge from whom anything is hidden. For will God, judging, seek witnesses, through whom he may learn who you are? Whence can he be deceived as to who you are, who knew what you were going to be? He questions you, not another about you. The Lord, it says, questions the just and the impious (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). But he questions you, not that he may learn from you, but that he may confound you. Having, then, such a judge, whom no one deceives against us, no one for us, let us so act that we do not fear his coming judgment, but await and desire it. For does the wheat fear to be put into the barn? Rather it longs vehemently and desires it. Do the sheep fear to be set at the right? Rather, nothing is so slow to them as the time until it happens. These indeed, from the soul and with all sincerity, say, when they pray: Your kingdom come (Matt 6:10). But the heart of the evil man both trembles in these words and his tongue falters. For how do you say: Your kingdom come? See, it will come. What sort will it find you? Act so, then, that you pray securely. And if perhaps something is in your conscience of error and sin, you have the medicine in that very prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). For God willed you so to be a debtor that you might have a debtor. By sinning, indeed, you make yourself an enemy to God, but see lest perhaps you have an enemy. Forgive, and it will be forgiven you. What you, who can be found in sin, do, this will he do for you who can be judged for no sin. But if, as a man set in sin, you do not spare your debtor, and do not regard your own condition in him, and do not dread for the rest the lapse of your frailty; what will he do to you, who judges so securely as one who never sins?

8 Effort, then, must be given to a pure conscience. And if perhaps some scruple is in it, let us anticipate his face in confession (Ps 95:2 (94:2)). In the psalm now, when it was sung, we heard: Let us anticipate his face in confession. Let us anticipate him, lest he himself anticipate us. After confession he will not bring vengeance, if you too after confession do not repeat the iniquity. Anticipate before you are anticipated. For that he will come is certain. You will lose, if you do not desire what is to come. For even with you unwilling he will come. Will you defer him by refusing him to come? Just as he knew the hour at which he had to be judged, so he knows also the hour at which he ought to judge. He will come; do you see what you will be. Today there is a scruple, today let there be confession, today let the scruple be renounced. Today it is forgiven, today it is loosed. There is no reason for you to say: "God defers pardon." Do not you defer your medicine. For you have something in your soul that distresses you. And if it distresses, it also worries you. Surely, if in your house there were some stone hurting your eyes, you would order it taken from the midst, especially if you were about to receive some somewhat greater guest in your house. When, then, you call upon God, you call him into yourself. How will he come to you, for whom you have not cleansed a place to receive him? But are you less fit to take from your heart what you yourself made for yourself? Call upon him to cleanse it; invite him to enter. Provided that you do now what you are going to do, while he speaks by warning and keeps silent by judging.

9 Here he said goats, he said rams, and he judges between them. And what does he say to them? Is it not enough for you that you fed on good pastures? And the remnants of your pasture you trampled with your feet, and you drank the water that had settled—that is, that was pure and tranquil—and the rest you troubled with your feet: and my sheep fed on the tramplings of your feet, and drank the water troubled by your feet (Ezek 34:18-19). What is this? The pastures of God are good, and the fountains of God are pure. We have these in the holy Scriptures. Who, then, are they who drink from there what is tranquil, and feed from there on what is clean, and trample the remnants and trouble the water so that the other sheep receive trampled grass and drink troubled water? And this surely you see displeases the shepherd, who says, while these things are done: I judge between sheep and sheep, surely to this end, that they not be done. There are many who learn tranquilly, but teach in disturbance, and, though they have a patient teacher, rage against the learner. For how tranquilly Scripture itself teaches us, who does not know? Someone comes, then, and reads the precepts of God, reads and grasps them, grasps them tranquilly, drinking from the tranquil, feeding on the green and clean. Someone comes to hear something from him. He is angered, he disturbs, sometimes accusing the slowness of one who understands somewhat late, he makes the one disturbed understand less what he could have heard tranquilly.

10 Nor would I say this, brothers, because hardness is never to be reproved—the hardness which the very great tranquillity of truth reproves, saying: O senseless and slow of heart to believe! (Luke 24:25)—if these things are done with that love by which we wish to instill care in men, to instill diligence of attention, and perhaps to clear the cloud of his mind, which he has contracted from the cares of the world, and perhaps, by thinking of other useless things, he cannot hear what is useful. Then, even if anyone sees slowness in himself, not without cause is he accused, that he may ask God and loose the slowness, may grant the truth. For either, if by our negligence we understand less what we heard, surely the negligence is to be reproved. Or if it is slowness, when it has been accused, there will be whence God may be asked. Such teachers, then, are not to be reproved, but those who do this with a bitter mind, an envious mind, who themselves trample the pastures and trouble the fountains. Whatever they perhaps know, they want to know in such a way that others do not know it. Men of a malicious mind, full of hellish zeal, livid not in body but in heart, they have read and understood. When they are questioned: "It is too much for you, shall I believe these things to you? And are you worthy to read or hear these things?" Why do you trouble the water? The fountain flows for both. Why do you trample the common grass? You did not rain that it might grow.

11 There is another thing in these words, which can not absurdly be understood. There are men who think it suffices them, in living well, to have a conscience, and do not much care what another thinks of them, not knowing that when a man sees a man of good conscience living rather negligently, joining himself anywhere to anyone and in any place, having the knowledge that an idol is nothing, and yet reclining in the idol-temple—his conscience, being weak, is built up not to the things he searches out, but to the things he suspects. For neither can a man your equal, your brother, enter into your conscience, which God knows. Your conscience is before God, your conduct before your brother. If, suspecting something evil of you, he, disturbed, is built up to do something which he thinks you do, when you live so, what does it profit that the belly of your conscience drew pure water, and he, from your negligence, has his conduct troubled?

12 And you hear such men, when they are reproved that they not do these things, answer us and say: "The Apostle said: If I wished to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ (Gal 1:10)." And here you trouble the water, you trample the pastures. Attend more carefully, lest you trouble the water for yourself too, to what the Apostle said: If I wished to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ. I receive it most excellently, I gladly acknowledge the apostolic sentence. But have you not read another thing in the Apostle? Please all in all things, as I too please all in all things, not seeking what is profitable to me, but to many, that they may be saved (1 Cor 10:33). Again, have you not heard the same Apostle? Be without offense to Jews and Greeks, and to the Church of God (1 Cor 10:32). A third time, have you not heard the same Apostle? For we provide good things, not only before God, but also before men (2 Cor 8:21). He says, then: "Expound to me, then, how I am to understand things diverse and contrary, the Apostle saying here: If I wished to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ; saying here: Please all in all things, as I too please all in all things; saying here: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12); saying here: We provide good things not only before God, but also before men." If you hear tranquilly, if you do not trouble for yourself the water of your own mind, as far as I am able, I will perhaps expound it. There are men who are rash judges, detractors, whisperers, murmurers, seeking to suspect what they do not see, seeking even to boast of what they do not even suspect: against such, what remains, except the testimony of our conscience? For neither, brothers, even in those whom we want to please, do we seek our own glory, or ought we to seek our own glory, but their salvation, that, if we walk well, by following us they may not stray. Let them be imitators of us, if we are of Christ; but if we are not of Christ, let them be imitators of Christ. For he himself feeds his flock, and with all who feed well he alone is, because all are in him. We do not, then, seek our own benefit when we want to please men, but we rejoice to please them in what is good, for the sake of their benefit, not for the sake of our own dignity. But against whom the Apostle said: If I wished to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ, is manifest. And for whose sake he said: Please all in all things, as I too please all in all things, is manifest. Both are clear, both tranquil, both pure, both not troubled. Do you only feed and drink, do not trample and trouble.

13 For you have surely heard the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the master of the Apostles: Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16)—that is, who made you such. For we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hands (Ps 95:7 (94:7)). Let him, then, be praised who made you good if you are good, not you who through yourself could be nothing but evil. Why do you want to lead the truth into the contrary, so that, when you do something good, you want yourself to be praised; when you do something evil, you want the Lord to be blamed? For surely he who said, Let your works shine before men, himself said in the same discourse: Do not do your justice before men (Matt 6:1). But as these things seemed contrary to you in the Apostle, so also in the Gospel. But if you do not trouble the water of your heart, here too you will recognize the peace of the Scriptures, and you too will have peace with them. But if you refuse to have peace with them, you commit your own quarrel within yourself; they will not lose their peace. For on account of those who commend themselves by boasting to men, and so air their good works that they set the end of their good works in the praise of men, and reckon that same praise of men as, so to speak, the reward of their good works, of these it is said: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (Matt 6:2). Against them it is said: Beware of doing your justice before men (Matt 6:1). Accordingly it follows: to be seen by them. He did not extend his meaning further, here he made the end. Do not so do whatever good you do before men, that you may be seen by them, that this very thing be the end of your good work, to be seen by them. Do not, then, do it so, that you may be seen by them. But here he does not set the end, that we may be seen by men, before whom he wants our good deeds to be, but he says: Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good works. He did not rest, nor remain here, but led you up from there and bore you away from yourself—for you would fall, if you were in yourself—and set you where you would be safe. Let them see, he says, your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). Do not be angry that he is glorified. Be with him, and in him you will be glorified. That no flesh, the Apostle says, may glory before him (1 Cor 1:29). Shall we, then, remain without glory? No. For he himself says: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). For even the testimony of our conscience is glory to us so, because it is in him. For if our glory is such that we please ourselves and become pleasing to ourselves, very foolish is the man who pleases himself.

14 Let us take care, then, brothers, not only to live well, but also to conduct ourselves well before men, nor only to care to have a good conscience, but, as far as our weakness can, as far as the vigilance of human frailty allows, let us take care to do nothing even that may come into an evil suspicion in a weak brother, lest perhaps, by chewing pure grass and drinking pure waters, we trample the pastures of God, and the weak sheep eat what is trampled, and drink what is troubled. And woe, on account of him who says: I judge between sheep and sheep (Ezek 34:17).

15 For these reasons thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I judge between the strong sheep and the weak sheep (Ezek 34:20). Let him say something else. We have already heard of those who trample the grass and trouble the waters. Let us hear another kind of evil, and a great kind of evil. Afterward he makes no mention of goats. Once he named them, that we might know they exist. For he himself knows them well. Afterward he speaks as though all were sheep. First he spoke as he himself sees, but afterward as we see. For that the goats are within, and that at the end they will be separated, let it be known to the sheep: now, as it were, I distinguish between sheep and sheep. He alone knows sheep and goats by predestination and foreknowledge, who was able to predestine, who to foreknow. Now, because all are under the sign of Christ and all approach the grace of God, you think yourself a sheep, while God perhaps knows you a goat. But as a sheep hear what you hear: Behold, I judge between the strong sheep and the weak sheep.

16 Because with your sides and shoulders you pushed, and with your horns you struck, and everything that was failing you pressed down, until you scattered them outside (Ezek 34:21). Who would not understand this? Who would not shudder? If there are no sheep outside, it has not happened. But if we lament that many sheep stray outside, woe to those by whose shoulders and sides and horns it was done. For they would not do these things, except strong sheep. Who are the strong? Those presuming on their own strength. Who are the strong? Those glorying in their own justice. They did not divide the sheep, did not send them outside, except those who said they were just. Bold with their shoulders to push, because they do not bear the burden of God; evil sides, friends conspiring, the fellowship of obstinacy; horns raised, pride lifted up. Push with your sides and shoulders, winnow with your horns, send outside what you did not buy. Surely the whole cause is this, that you are just and others unjust, and it was unworthy that the just should be with the unjust—unworthy, that is to say, that there should be wheat among weeds, unworthy that the sheep should feed among goats, until the shepherd came who in separating would not err. So are you the angel rooting up the weeds? I would not acknowledge you as the angel rooting up the weeds, not even if the harvest had already come. Before the harvest, you—rather, whoever it be—is not the true one. He who designated the reapers designated also the time. Men could call themselves angels too. We perhaps find in the Scriptures even men called angels, but yet I attend to the time of harvest. You can impose on yourself the name of angel; you cannot shorten the time of harvest. And so you speak falsely that you are it, because the time when you may be it has not yet come. Accordingly, when it comes, and the true reapers have been sent, I do not know where they will find you—whether to be cleansed, you who would be stored in the barn, or to be bound, you who would be cast into the fire. For I say "perhaps" for this reason, because I do not dare to judge. Now I grieve over you outside. Whether you are to be inside, I do not know.

17 Meanwhile hear, from another testimony of Scripture, what was written of you while you live, and do not wish to root up the weeds when it is not the time, but do you yourself return within while it is time. Another Scripture of God says: The evil son calls himself just (Prov 21:24 (LXX)). These are your shoulders and sides and horns. Badly strong, how much better you would be weak. Badly strong, but not healthy. Badly strong, the frenzied man strikes even the physician. You say you are perfect, that you may bring about a defect. How much rather, how much more usefully you would be weak, that he might perfect you who knows the imperfect. The apostle Paul, the vessel of election, lest he be lifted up in the revelations—which we would not dare to say, unless we believed him saying it—In the greatness, he says, of the revelations, lest I be lifted up, there was given me a thorn of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (2 Cor 12:7). Lest he raise his horns, he said he was buffeted. For which, he says, I asked the Lord three times, that he would take it from me. And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor 12:8-9). How much more useful, then, is the weakness that is perfected, than that firmness which pushes the sheep, which winnows to shut them out. You, then, are the evil son, you call yourself just. The evil son calls himself just, but he does not wash his outgoing (Prov 21:24 (LXX)). Attend, my brothers, to a sentence brief in number of words, but huge in weight of truth. He calls himself just, that he may go out and shut out. He calls himself just, but he is evil: therefore he does not wash his outgoing. What is "he does not wash"? He does not cleanse it, does not defend it, does not excuse it. For why did you separate yourself? Why did you go out? Why does your heart tremble when you hear from the divine books: They went out from us, but they were not of us (1 John 2:19)—if indeed that evil strength, by which you push and dash and winnow the sheep of God, permits a trembling to your heart? For surely when you hear, They went out from us, but they were not of us, he was speaking who was in the Church. The Church is spread throughout the world; what do you do outside? For I do not announce the Church spread throughout the world. The Prophets announced it, the Apostles announced it, the Lord himself announced the Church spread throughout the world. Now, when the psalm was read, we heard: The Lord does not reject his people—as if it were asked why—because in his hand, it says, are the ends of the earth (Ps 95:4 (94:4); 94:14 (93:14)). He does not reject, and you push. You push, you winnow, you shut out. You cast at men the name of betrayers, you do not prove it. These are the horns of one winnowing, not the gentleness of one feeding. See, the people of God in the ends of the earth. See, the people of God, groaning and weeping before God who made them, says in the psalm to the very Lord before whom it weeps: From the ends of the earth I cried to you, when my heart was in anguish (Ps 61:2 (60:3)). See how it humbles itself in the anguish of heart. And what does it say was granted it? On the rock you exalted me. On the rock, Christ, you exalted me, you did not cast me down from the mountain, Donatus. Go now, and raise your horns, stretch out your sides, puff up your shoulders and push the sheep, and say: "I am just." The Scripture will answer you: Evil, not just. The evil son calls himself just. If you are just, why do you go outside? Why do you cast outside? What do you do outside with those you cast out? Did you flee the goats as a sheep? Better you be separated by the shepherd from them to the right, than be confounded with them to the left. They were goats, you a sheep, you would feed with the goats. How had the pastures, how had the fountains offended you? Last of all, how had the shepherd himself offended you, who for a time mixed both flocks, who, even though it is right for him to do so whenever he pleases, yet reserved the separation to the end? For he, even if he now separated, would not err. He defers to the end, you separate before the time. You do not await the end, not knowing when your end may be. Whence this, except that even those whom you accused as goats, you falsely accused? For if you had accused truly, you would not have separated yourself. Your separation is their purification. They were weeds—why did you want to separate them before the time? Mixed with them, you would be wheat, and you would be rooted in the same field, watered by the same rain. Why, then, did you go out? Do you find a cause? Those you accuse you do not convict. But by going out before the time and separating yourself, you yourself are convicted. See that you are an evil son. You call yourself just, but you do not wash your outgoing. I do not say to you: You are rather a betrayer. But if I should say it, I easily prove it. But I refuse to say it for this reason, because your people did it, not you. I do not impute to you the deeds of others, even of your own people. I attend to your deed. That you are outside, I reprove; your outgoing I reprove. I altogether remove all the things that can be said against you. I pass over your drunkennesses, your interest and usury upon usury. I pass over the bands and frenzies of the Circumcellions. I pass over all these, and whatever else I cannot enumerate. Not all among you perhaps do these things. Let him who does not do these things there, he to whom these things displease which are done there, let him approach, let him speak. I do not charge him with another's crime; let him wash his outgoing. You see that it is rightly said to him: The evil son calls himself just. For the Lord says it, who speaks the truth: The evil son calls himself just. Not I, but he. But does he want me to call him just? Let him come, let him bear good fruits in catholic peace, let him keep them in catholic peace, because there is no fruit where there is not toleration. And they will bear fruit, he says, with toleration (Luke 8:15). Do you want to see how you have been hailed upon? Hear from another place: Woe to those who have lost toleration (Sir 2:14).

18 Now imagine someone thinking—for it often happens—where the Christian is. He was moved to be a Christian, he attends to the human race running together to the name of Christ. With no temporal advantage set before him he wants to be a Christian, not to gain a greater friend, not to attain a desired wife, not to escape some distress of this world—although many even entering thus are corrected once entered. But let us make someone thinking of his soul, and wanting to be a Christian. He attends to where he sees two parties; he seeks the causes why these separated themselves from those. They answer him: "We separated ourselves as just men from sinners," as though speaking to a blind man who hears what they say, but does not see what they do. If, then, observing their custom, and the things I recalled a little before, he says to them: "I beg you, you say you are just, and therefore you contend that you rightly separated. Why are there among you such and such men?" And they perhaps, because they do not dare to deny it, because the things said are cast before the eyes: "There are indeed among us such men, but are we all such?" "Excellent. I see you, then, outside with sinners. Why not inside? For the reward of your separation ought to have been not to live with the sinner. If you were so outside that you did not have those whom you pretend to have fled, I would somehow bear your separation." Let this man, then, desiring to be a Christian, attend to where the Christian is. He sees those separated as it were from sinners, full of sinners. Again let him attend to the Church of Christ according to the probable life of the morals of the human race, according to which morals even he himself, coming from the world, can somehow judge. Let him see here too some sober, some drunken, some patient poor, some seeking to plunder others' goods, and other such things. He sees here, he sees there too. Let him now attend to God, what he says of his Church. He finds the Lord saying his Church is among all the nations. He finds God saying, even in that parable of the weeds: The field is this world (Matt 13:38). The field is not Africa, but this world. Through the whole world wheat, through the whole world weeds—yet the field is the world, the sower is the Son of man, the reapers are the angels (Matt 13:37, 39), not the leaders of the Circumcellions—both grow until the harvest, the weeds do not grow and the wheat decrease, but both grow until the harvest. What harvest? Hear him: The harvest is the end of the world (Matt 13:39). He hears these things plainly, and judging rightly what does he say? "I will not be in that cutting. I will be here, and I will be good in the name of him whose I will be. And I will be good, not making myself good, but awaiting to be made good by him, not calling myself good and just, but desiring to be called so by him." He enters, he becomes a catholic. See, he himself washes his entrance; do you too wash your outgoing. You cannot: For the evil son calls himself just, but he does not wash his outgoing.

19 With your sides and shoulders you pushed, and with your horns you struck, and everything that was failing you pressed down, until you scattered them outside. And I will save my sheep (Ezek 34:21-22). As their iniquity and cruelty is to be detested, so the mercy of our shepherd, truly our God, is to be praised: he will save his sheep. Perhaps, my brothers, though through his least servants, perhaps through the unworthy he does this, when we say this: May he save his sheep, let them hear the voice of their shepherd and follow him. Let them not seek the Church from the mouth of men. From the mouth of God let them seek it, from the mouth of Christ let them seek it. Whom he calls impious is impious, whom he calls just is just, whom he calls a sheep is a sheep, whom he calls a goat is a goat. He himself is the truth, let him speak, from him let the Church be sought. Tell us, Lord, where is your Church? And he to all: "Do you know where I am?" Let all answer: "In heaven at the right hand of the Father." "Whole is the faith: this I taught, this I sowed, but I sowed it through the world. When you confess me in heaven, surely that psalm comes to your mind: Be exalted above the heavens, O God (Ps 57:5 (56:6)). Do you seek the Church? Read what follows: And over all the earth your glory." There, brothers, where it was said: Be exalted above the heavens, O God, of Christ rising and ascending, there at once it follows: And over all the earth your glory (Ps 57:5 (56:6)). The bridegroom is in heaven, the bride is on earth. He above all the heavens, she over all the earth. O heretic, you believe what in heaven you do not see, you deny what on earth you see! Let him say these things, then, let him say them and be heard: May he save his sheep. And I will save, he says, my sheep, and they will no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep (Ezek 34:22).

20 And I will raise up over them one shepherd (Ezek 34:23). Did he not himself in the earlier reading say: I will feed them? Now he who feeds raises up one shepherd. Or did he perhaps, within so small an interval of the reading, grow weary of feeding, and raise up a shepherd to whom to entrust the care of the sheep, that he himself might be secure? Let us hear what shepherd he means; and there we understand why he himself, even with this shepherd raised up, feeds, and feeds alone. I will raise up over them one shepherd, and my servant David will feed them, he himself will feed them (Ezek 34:23). That it is a prophecy of Christ coming to men from the seed of David, you quickly understand, brothers, if you know the times. This prophet Ezekiel was of the time of the captivity, which came about by the migration of the people into Babylon. From the time of David to the time of this migration there are fourteen generations. See how long afterward he says: And David will feed them. If this were said in the time of Noah, or in the time of Abraham, or in the time of Moses, or at least in the time of Saul himself, whom David the son of Jesse succeeded in the kingdom, we would rightly understand it said of that David the son of Jesse, that he would be the shepherd of the flock of God, to whom, reigning, that people was committed. But now David had already reigned, had already departed from this life, was already laid with his fathers, already rested according to his merit. What is it that he says: I will raise up David and make him for them one shepherd, except that that David is the one who comes from the seed of David? How, then, does God raise up a shepherd for us? Which one shepherd? And my servant David will feed them. Long ago he himself fed us. Now his servant David feeds us. Why as another? For surely when he fed, God fed. And when God fed, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit fed. Now he is raised up and becomes as it were another shepherd. But not another. Not another according to the form of God, because in the form of God he himself and the Father are one God. But in the form of a servant he is raised up as another to feed, because the Father is greater. Hear the one feeding, and Christ feeding: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Hear Christ raised up to feed: The Father is greater than I (John 14:28). One, then, feeds; because though he was in the form of God, he did not count it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6). But he is raised up to feed, because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:7). This too the very words here testify: My servant David will feed them. A servant, in the form of a servant. A servant, because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man. He humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:7-8). Let him, then, be raised up to feed. For which God, he says, exalted him from the dead, and granted him a name which is above every name (Phil 2:9). Now, his servant David raised up, now the form of a servant raised up which he set at his right hand, he granted him a name which is above every name. See how he feeds, how widely he feeds: That in the name of Jesus every knee may bend, of things heavenly, earthly, and infernal (Phil 2:10). Into what narrow party do you, heretical vanity, push the broad possessor? Or do you so trust your proud shoulders and horns that you not only do not gather to the shepherd, but try to shut out the shepherd himself from the flock? My servant David will feed them. Hear, sheep, David feeding you. Hear the voice of David your shepherd, not the voice of robbers, not the howling of wolves. My servant David will feed them. He himself will feed them. O commendation! He himself will feed them. Let no one say he feeds except him: He himself will feed them. Whoever wants to feed, let him feed in him, because he himself will feed them. God a little before said: I will feed. Now he says: He himself will feed them. Let the Son answer, and say to us: "Both are truly said. I and the Father are one. He who says: I will feed, does not lie by saying: He himself will feed; and when he says: He himself will feed, he does not lie by saying: I will feed." Do you not believe, he says, that I am in the Father and the Father in me? Philip, he who sees me sees the Father too (John 14:10, 9). Rightly it is said: I will feed; rightly it is said: He himself will feed. It is a distinction, not a separation. He himself will feed them. Do not, sheep, be dismayed. He who said: He himself will feed them, does not leave you. God feeds, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, God himself feeds. But the form of a servant was to be distinguished, not separated and made foreign and set up in another person. The Creator took up the creature into himself, the Creator was not changed into the creature. He assumed what he was not, he did not lose what he was.

21 My servant David will feed them. He himself will feed them, and will be their shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God (Ezek 34:23-24). Attend, brothers. See the unity of the godhead and yet the distribution of the persons, lest we say that he who is the Father is the Son, or that he who is the Son is the Father. See, he said: He himself will feed them, who a little before had said: I will feed them. And he will be, he says, their shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God. Expound to us, Lord. Let no one trouble the water; let us drink what flows pure from the pure fountain. For why did you say, as it were separately, He himself will be their shepherd, I will be their God, as though he were our shepherd, you our God? Why, Lord, are you not our shepherd, and he not our God? Hear tranquilly, be gentle to hear the word, that you may understand. For perhaps now some ear hears me, holding a divergent view, and rotted by heretical poison, and mocks me for saying the Father and the Son are one God, though he does not mock so many thousands of brothers having one soul. And he says to me: "See, openly God says: My servant David will be their shepherd, whom you yourself understood as Christ, nor can it be understood otherwise. For you gave the reason that these things were said when David had already slept. Christ, then, will be their shepherd; I the Lord, he says, will be their God. He the shepherd, he the God. Do you, then, expound to me, what is: I will feed." Who was saying: I will feed? Surely God, speaking, said: I will feed. As he did not separate Christ by feeding, when he said: I will feed, so he did not separate Christ in godhead when he said: I am God. See, Christ is shepherd, the Father too is shepherd. So the Father is God, Christ too is God. As from the shepherd Christ you do not separate the Father, so from God the Father you do not separate Christ. The Father has with the Son the compassion of feeding, the Son has with the Father the equality of godhead. But unless he said it so, you would think that he who is the Son is the Father. Therefore he admonished you both to the unity of the godhead and to the distribution of the persons, that what he says—He will feed, and I will be their God—not separating himself from the Son who feeds, nor separating the Son from himself who rules—you may understand in the Father God the Son, and in the Son understand the shepherd the Father. I, he says, the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince in their midst (Ezek 34:24). Why in their midst? Because the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). A prince in their midst. Hence too the mediator of God and men (1 Tim 2:5), because God with the Father, because man with men. Not a mediator, the man apart from the godhead; not a mediator, God apart from the humanity. See the mediator. Divinity without humanity is not a mediatrix, humanity without divinity is not a mediatrix. But between divinity alone and humanity alone, the mediatrix is the human divinity and divine humanity of Christ. And my servant David a prince in their midst. I the Lord have spoken (Ezek 34:24): not some heretic or other. I the Lord have spoken.

22 And I will set with them a covenant of peace (Ezek 34:25): through him surely who says: My peace I give you, my peace I leave you (John 14:27). This is the testament of our Father, it is a testament of peace. Any inheritance whatever may be divided among co-heirs; the inheritance of peace cannot be divided. Our peace is Christ. Peace makes both one, not two of one. For he himself is our peace, he said, who made both one (Eph 2:14). It is the testament of God, the inheritance is peace. Let it be possessed by concordant co-heirs, not divided by quarreling ones. And I will set with them a covenant of peace. Watch, heretics, hear from the shepherd the testament of peace, come to peace. You are angry at the Christian Emperors, because they would not let your testaments be valid in your houses. See how worthy is the punishment. And what is it that your testament is not valid in your house? What is it? How much is it? This grief is a warning, not yet a condemnation. For God wished you to have fellow-feeling with the testament of his peace. You grieve over your testament, if your testament does not stand in your house. Surely you are to die, and you will not know what is done in that house afterward. For on that day, it says, all his thoughts will perish, and he will no longer know his place (Ps 146:4 (145:4)). Therefore, though not to know what is done afterward in your house when you are dead, yet you grieve that your testament does not stand in your house. Christ, dead, rose again, looked down from heaven that his testament might stand. Wake up from your grief, be corrected by your torment. To wood badly bent you know heat is usually applied. Let this grief correct you. It is not yet the flame of eternal fire. It is as if the heat of the hearth is brought to your bent heart, that it may be warned and corrected by it. Grieve—you grieve rightly—that your testament does not stand in your house. The house of God is your heart. If you want your testament to be valid in your house, why do you not want the testament of God to be valid in his house? You leave your sons walls, and if you knew your sons would divide them otherwise than you arranged, you grieve. Over one most worthless house, over a roof about to fall, how great care you have, how great anxiety you conceive. How, with burning fevers, with disease pressing, with death itself urging, you resist as much as you can, panting out your last words, to fulfill your testament. How many lawyers you consult, how many frauds, that your testament may stand against the very law of the Emperor, you seek! From close by God answers you: Do not seek frauds, do not hunt for slanderous formulas. Do you want your testament to stand? Let mine stand in you. You grieve that another takes your acquisition, one you did not want. What of my inheritance, so broad, so devout? In your seed all the nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18): I said it to my servant, God says to you, and he believed it when he did not see it. You see it, and deny it. See, he kept the testament once made, you tear up the opened one. For then the testament was kept, when it was heard. Then it was opened, when it was fulfilled. Even to your hands the testament has been kept. Surely you want to be an heir. Surely your co-heir does not so contend with you as to say to you: "Take this part, I that one," or: "Take you the lesser, and I the greater"? He does not say: "Let us divide together," but: "Let us have it together." For this is what he willed who made the testament. Open it, and read. And you cry: "That it might not be burned, I did it; that it might not be burned, I kept it." That it might not be burned, did you keep it? Open it, and see that you kept what you would be burned by—although that you kept it, far be it that I should believe, since I see you do not keep what it commands. And I will set with them a covenant of peace.

23 And I will exterminate the evil beasts from the land (Ezek 34:25). The beasts, the enemies of the testament of peace. Of these beasts it is said in another psalm: Rebuke the beasts of the reed (Ps 68:30 (67:31)). What is the beasts of the reed? The beasts hostile to the holy Scripture, because it is written with a reed. I will exterminate the evil beasts from the land: and they will dwell in the desert in hope (Ezek 34:25). What is in the desert? In solitude. What is "in solitude"? Within, in the conscience. A great solitude, through which not only no man passes, but no one even sees. There let us dwell in hope, because not yet in reality. For all that is ours outside fluctuates with the storms and temptations of the world. There is an inner desert; there let us question our faith. Let us question whether love is there within. Let us see whether not the lips sound, but also the breast, when we say: Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). If it sounds true, if we say true where no man sees, there is the desert where we rest in hope. Because all this tribulation passes, and what was hope will become reality, and the whole of ours will be in reality. Because then we will be conspicuous to ourselves, and the thought will not be a sheep as it were hidden. And conscience will not be a desert, because all will be known to themselves and will not have their thoughts unknown, when the Lord comes, and enlightens the hidden things of darkness; and makes manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then there will be praise to each one from God (1 Cor 4:5). But now you see two men in tribulation, you cannot see their heart. Perhaps one is bitten by conscience, the other rests in conscience, as in a desert. And they will dwell in the desert in hope: and they will have sleep—that is, rest, as it were, with the senses withdrawn from all the noise of the world; within they will rest with themselves—in the streams (Ezek 34:25). In that inner desert itself there are certain streams of memory flowing, divine waters welling up from the mind of one holding and recalling the Scripture. For what you read, what you heard, if you have committed to memory pure and clear and holy, when you begin to rest in that inner desert—that is, in a good conscience—it is filtered from the inner parts of your mind, and there flows in a way the recollection of the word of God, and with the rest you rest in hope and say: "It is true, it is well with me, this is my hope, this God promised me, he does not lie, I am secure." And this security is sleep in the streams. And they will have sleep in the streams.

24 And I will give them, around my hill, a blessing (Ezek 34:26). Though it be a mountain, though it be a hill, around it let it be well with us. The hill itself is Christ. For so he is in our midst, and we are around him. For long ago he had said: David a prince in their midst. And because a prince, therefore a hill: gentle, not steep and difficult to one ascending, but only if he set his feet not from on high. And I will give them, around my hill, a blessing: and I will bring down rain in its season (Ezek 34:26), the rain of the word of God. For there is an evil rain too, which throws down the house set on sand, against which it is a great thing for the house founded on the rock to resist. For it is the rain of temptation, seeking ruin, not watering the earth. This rain will not be such, which the Lord says he brings down. For what does he say? They will be rains of blessing (Ezek 34:26). The named rain had made you suspicious: they will be rains of blessing, not of temptation. They will be rains of blessing.

25 And see to what that rain advances. And the trees that are in the field will give their fruit (Ezek 34:27). In the field, in a certain plain not steep, in a certain easiness of life. A certain easiness of this life, having in itself nothing steep, laborious, difficult, he called a field. Such is the life of many of the faithful in the Church of God, having wives, children, their own houses. They are, as it were, trees in the field; they were able to ascend nothing steep. But let them receive the rain, these trees too will give their fruit. The fruit of these trees is this: Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the homeless needy into your house (Isa 58:7). To such trees the Apostle said: Not that I seek a gift, but I require fruit (Phil 4:17). And the trees that are in the field will give their fruit: and if they do not have a greater one, yet they have a certain one of their own. And the earth will give its produce (Ezek 34:27): the whole earth. And they will dwell in their land. Now the fields, hills, mountains will give their produce. What can the field do? What can the hill do? What can the mountain do? Let the husbandman alone be acknowledged. And they will dwell in their land in hope. You see that he promises the things which at this time he grants us. As long as he says in hope, I understand it still of this time. For when we have come to the promised things, there will no longer be hope, but the reality itself will be.

26 And they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the forks of their yoke: the forks by which their neck is pressed (Ezek 34:27). Lord, break the forks by which the heretics press the necks of the weak. For what is so narrow and pressed by a fork as: "Do not hear Christ, hear me"? Remove the fork, allow me to breathe. I do not know what you say. I hear the voice of my shepherd: Among all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Let me follow the shepherd. Why do you press? Take the fork from my neck, that I may take up the gentle yoke of my Lord. He hears this, and presses. Lord, the heretic does not want to lift the fork, do you break the fork. The cross of the Lord lifts up on high, the fork of the heretic presses down. But they will be broken: when I break the forks of their yoke. For they want to impose their domination on men, wanting them to be under themselves, not under God. When I break the forks of their yoke: and I will rescue them from the hand of those who reduced them to slavery (Ezek 34:27). What is reduced them to slavery? They forced them to sin. For everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). See what they have persuaded them, brothers, that they say: "They will render an account for us. We are sheep. Where they lead, we follow." Are you a sheep? Hear the shepherd, not the wolf.

27 And they will no longer be a prey to the nations (Ezek 34:28). For in all the nations they are not lacking, some here, some there. Not those there who are here, but yet they are not lacking, pressing the necks of the faithful with forks, neither here nor there. They disagree among themselves; against unity they all agree. But unity does not disagree with itself, but against all who disagree with it everywhere fights, everywhere labors. But there is rest in the desert. And they will no longer be a prey to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will no longer eat them. Hearing the voice of the shepherd, they will be rescued from the teeth of the wolves. Those beasts of the reed will not eat them, who want to turn the Scriptures to their own meaning, turning their ears from the open Scriptures, wanting themselves to be heard, and the Scriptures not to be heard. And the beasts of the earth will not eat them, and they will dwell in hope (Ezek 34:28). See how often he shows that what he now promises, he promises here: he speaks of things which he still displays here. And there will be no one to terrify them. How will there be no one to terrify them? There will plainly be no one. In the Lord I trust (Ps 11:1 (10:2)). Now when a man begins to say: In God I will praise the discourse, in the Lord I will praise the word (Ps 56:10 (55:11)), not in myself—they praise the word in themselves, saying: "Believe what we say to you." We praise the word in the Lord, saying: "Let us believe what is said to us by the Lord." There will be no one to terrify us, because: In God I will praise the discourse, in the Lord I will praise the word: in God I have hoped, I will not fear what man may do to me (Ps 56:10-11 (55:11-12)): There will be no one to terrify them.

28 And I will raise up for them a plant of peace (Ezek 34:29). The testament of peace, the plant of peace. Let what God plants sprout, and let what the heretic sowed be uprooted. What God planted of himself, of his Church; of himself in heaven, of the Church on earth; of himself above all the heavens, of the Church through all lands; this God planted. "But come here, be in the party of Donatus, in Africa alone is the Church": God did not plant it, I do not recognize the plant of God. What you say is to be uprooted, not watered. And I will raise up for them a plant of peace: and they will no longer be those who are exterminated by famine in the land (Ezek 34:29). Truly, brothers, because there is a famine, seek and see how great a famine they suffer. And what is worse, they have food around their mouth but do not eat it; just as the sick often die from disgust, not because what they may eat is lacking, but because they refuse to eat and turn away. For surely the Scriptures speak these things, and here surely and there the psalm sounds: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will adore in his sight (Ps 22:27 (21:28)). See, food is set in the little dish. If you were healthy and ate, would you remain there? And they will no longer be those who are exterminated by famine in the land, and they will no longer bear the reproach of the nations (Ezek 34:29). Truly, brothers, to such a height has the Church been raised up in the name of Christ, that now all evil-speakers are confounded, nor dare to speak evil. This alone remained to them, that against us they say: "Why do you not agree among yourselves?" The gentile pagans who remained, having nothing to say against the name of Christ, cast the dissension of Christians at Christians. Therefore whoever pass over from the heretics to the Catholic will not have this reproach of the nations. Nor will they bear the reproach of dissension, because they remain in the root of unity, in the planting of love: They will not bear the reproach.

29 And they will know that I am the Lord their God, and they my people, the house of Israel, says the Lord God (Ezek 34:30). See, there are sheep, see, there is also a vineyard. Just as, when Isaiah spoke of a vineyard, reproaching a certain evil vineyard, lest the vine should say, "I did not understand," he expounded at the end, saying: But the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel (Isa 5:7), lest they say: "It was not said of us, but of some vineyard or other." So here too, when he had spoken of the sheep, at the end, lest anyone say: "Perhaps there are some sheep of God somewhere or other, whom God cares for, and I do not know them"—although it is too absurd for human sense for one to think this, yet that shepherd, having compassion on the weak, descends even to such thoughts, and expounded most openly what his sheep were. And you my sheep, and the sheep of my flock, are men (Ezek 34:31). But what men? All men? No. Blessed is the one whose hope is the Lord God (Ps 40:4 (39:5)). And: How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart! Blessed is the man whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 73:1 (72:1); 144:15 (143:15)).

30 God is over all. Yet somehow no one easily dares to say "my God," except one who believes in him and who loves him. He himself says: "My God." You made yours to yourself the one whose you are. This he himself loves. Plainly, affected by sweetness toward him, with a secure and confident love, say: "My God." You say it securely, you say it truly, because he is yours, and you have not brought it about that he is not another's. For you do not say "my God" as you say "my horse." For your horse is yours, not another's horse. But God is both yours, and his who says "my God" as you say it. Individuals say "my God," and "my God." He is the God of all, offering himself in common to all to be enjoyed, whole in all, whole in each. For those who say "my God" do not divide him among themselves. If this discourse which I cast out with my tongue, and with a sound consisting of letters and syllables, reaches whole to each, nor do those who hear divide it among themselves; if a discourse sounding bodily to the ears of the body, clearer near, fainter far off, is yet received whole by all who hear, not dividing it among themselves syllable by syllable, but all receiving the whole—how much more is that God, everywhere present, filling all things, not clearer near and fainter far off, but reaching from end to end mightily and ordering all things sweetly, equally possessed by all! This light, my brothers, surely bodily, shines from heaven, rises, sets, goes round, is moved from place to place. Yet the eyes of all go forth in it and are directed. And the eyes of all equally possess it, do not divide it. No rich man has fixed a boundary in it, nor by forestalling to see has shut out or narrowed the eyes of the poor man. Let the poor man say: "My God"; let the rich man say: "My God." That one has less, this one has more, but of silver, not of God. That he might come to God, the rich Zacchaeus gave half his patrimony; that Peter might come, he left his nets and boat; that the widow might come, she gave two mites; that the poorer might come, he held out a cup of cold water; that one utterly poor and needy might come, he bestowed only a good will. They gave diverse things, but came to one, because they did not love diverse things. So you too, men, sheep of God, sheep of the flock of God, do not be disturbed by your temporal diversities, that some are in honor, some without honor, some with money, some without money, some beautiful in body, some less beautiful, some weary with age, some young, some boys, some men, some women. God is equally present to all. He has more place with him who brings more, not of silver, but of faith. And you, he says, my sheep, and the sheep of my flock, are men; and I your God, says the Lord God (Ezek 34:31). O blessed are we with such a possession, and such a possessor! For both he possesses us, and we possess him. He possesses us that he may cultivate us, and we possess him that we may worship him. But we worship as God, he cultivates as a field. He cultivates us that we may bear fruit, we cultivate him that we may give fruit. The whole returns to us, he does not need us. I will give you, he says, your inheritance and your possession, the ends of the earth (Ps 2:8): see, we are his possession. The Lord, he says, is the portion of my inheritance, and of my cup (Ps 16:5 (15:5)): see, he is our possession. But yet, by the distinction: You are men, I the Lord your God, says the Lord our God.

1 We have heard the readings of the divine utterances as they were recited. They are set before us as the matter of our speaking. From them we ought to savor, from them to sow what we savor, with the help of him in whose hand are, as it is written, both we and our discourses (Wis 7:16). Nor in vain is it written in another place: In the Lord I will praise the discourse, in the Lord I will praise the word (Ps 56:10 (55:11)). This is praised in the Lord, which the Lord gives. Although, then, we are weak, yet we are his vessels. We grasp as much as we can, we share without envy what we grasp. May he supply in your hearts what we have done too little, because even what we work in your ears, what is it unless he does the whole in your hearts?

2 What the first prophetic reading commended to us, recall as I recall it. What worthy thing, it says, shall I offer the Lord? (Mic 6:6) A man was seeking a sacrifice by which to appease God, or by which to please God. Shall I bend the knee, he says, to the most high God, shall I appease him with thousands of bulls or with tens of thousands of fat goats, or shall I offer to God the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? (Mic 6:6-7) Shall I offer my firstborn, he says, to my God for the sin of my soul? It is answered you, O man. O man, by whom is it answered, except by the one by whom man was made? It is answered, then, you, O man, seeking what you may offer God, and whence you may appease God or whence you may please God. It is answered you what is good, or what else does the Lord require of you, but that you do judgment and justice and love mercy and be ready to walk with the Lord your God (Mic 6:8). You were seeking what you might offer for yourself. Offer yourself. For what does the Lord seek of you, except you? Because in all earthly creation he made nothing better than you. He seeks you from yourself, because you had lost yourself. But if you do what he commanded, he finds in you judgment and justice: judgment first in yourself, justice toward your neighbor. How judgment in yourself? That what you were should displease you, and you may be able to be what you were not. Judgment, I say, about yourself in yourself without favoritism toward your own person, that you not spare your sins, nor let them please you because you do them, nor praise yourself in your goods, and accuse God in your evils. For this is a perverse judgment, and therefore not a judgment. For to show that a perverse judgment is no judgment, he did not say: What does the Lord require of you, except to make right judgment, but: to make, he says, judgment. For if right, then judgment; but if perverse, not judgment, but a fault. What, then, were you doing, when you had lost yourself and went after your perdition, you went and did not return? What were you doing? I know what you were doing. In your goods you praised yourself, in your evils you blasphemed God. This is a perverse judgment, and therefore, as I said, not even a judgment. Do you want, then, to make right judgment, that is, judgment? Correct what you were doing; reverse it, and it will be right. What is "correct it"? Praise God in your goods, accuse yourself in your evils. When, then, you have displeased yourself as perverse, and corrected yourself by the help of him who created you, upright you will keep justice. For God will please you, if you are upright. You will not differ from the upright one, unless you are crooked and perverse. But upright, you will agree with the upright, and without doubt God will please you. For when he displeased you, he displeased your perversity.

3 Hear the holy psalm: How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart! (Ps 73:1 (72:1)) Did this one who says this in the psalm have God displease him? Far be it from me to accuse him and not rather believe one confessing. See, hear with me, and consider what he said: How good, he says, is the God of Israel! To whom? To the upright in heart. But my, he says—when I was not upright in heart—but my feet were almost moved, my steps were a little less than poured out (Ps 73:2 (72:2)). What is my feet were moved, this is my steps were poured out. What is almost, this is a little less. Why, then, does he say: almost, a little less my feet were moved, my steps were poured out? Almost, he says, I slipped, almost I fell. Whence did you come into such great peril? Because I was zealous over sinners, he says, beholding the peace of sinners. I was zealous, he says, over sinners, beholding the peace of sinners (Ps 73:3 (72:3)): that is, by seeing evil men happy, I tottered under God, almost I fell from God. See whence God had displeased him: why do the evil have good things?

4 Finally see the words of one tottering, what he said within himself: Behold, these sinners—in the psalm itself are the words of one tottering—behold, these sinners have obtained riches in the world (Ps 73:12 (72:12)). And I said: How does God know? (Ps 73:11 (72:11)) He himself says it in the psalm, he himself speaks, to whom, not yet upright, God had displeased because the evil abounded in goods. How, he says, does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? See still what he adds, see how, by tottering, he approaches the fall, and is near to perdition. See, I say, what he adds: Have I then in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent? (Ps 73:13 (72:13)) I have lost, he says, all that I have lived well. I justified my heart, I washed my hands among the innocent, to this end, that the evil are happy, and I am afflicted. And I was, he says, scourged all day long (Ps 73:14 (72:14)). They rejoice, and I am scourged. They rejoice who blaspheme God, I am scourged who worship God. How does God know? Hence he tottered, hence he almost fell, hence he thought that human affairs did not pertain to God.

5 Since, then, he thought this, not with an upright but with a perverse heart, and was as it were led by a verisimilar reasoning, on account of this incongruity, to believe that the governance of human affairs did not pertain to God, it had pleased him so to preach, to assert this, to teach this. He was called back by the authority and preaching of the saints. For see his words: If I said, he says, if I said I will tell it so—I will preach so, I will teach so, I will say to men that the care of human affairs does not pertain to God—If I said I will tell it so: behold, I have rejected the generation of your children (Ps 73:15 (72:15)). How, then, shall I tell it so? Moses did not tell it so, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not tell it so, Jeremiah did not tell it so, Isaiah did not tell it so, the other Prophets did not tell it so. But all these are your children. If, then, I tell it so, I will reject the generation of your children.

6 What, then, shall I do? I undertook to know (Ps 73:16 (72:16)). I undertook, he says, to know. But it is a great thing to know, it is difficult to know. This, he says, after he said: I undertook to know, it is a labor before me (Ps 73:16 (72:16))—how I may know both that God is just, and knows human affairs, and that it is well with the perverse, that it is sometimes ill with the upright. How it is just, I undertook to know, and it is a labor before me.

7 How long the labor? Until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and understand in the last things (Ps 73:17 (72:17)). Enter, then, into the sanctuary of God, faithful soul, enter into the sanctuary of God, devout soul, you to whom God does not displease in your evils, and to whom God does not displease in the goods of the evil. And if you do not know by what reason it happens, believe that what God permits or does is not done unjustly. You were led by human reason, be called back by divine authority, and believe that there is something there that lies hidden from you. For it is to be believed by a most certain faith that God can be neither perverse nor unjust. So, entering by faith into the sanctuary of God, entering by believing, you learn by understanding. For so he says: Until I enter into the sanctuary of God, where faith enters. And after faith, what? And understand in the last things. The last things will come, when it will be ill for no good man, well for no evil man. The last things will come, I say, when the devout will be distinguished from the impious, the just from the unjust, the praisers of God from the blasphemers of God. They will come, when they will be distinguished, so that, as it was said, it will be ill for no good man, well for no evil man. Why, then, is it not so now? Perhaps even now it is so. But what is now in hiddenness, afterward will be in the open.

8 Enter with me, if you can, into the sanctuary of God. Perhaps there, if I can, I will teach you. Rather, learn with me from the one who teaches me, that even now it is not well for the evil, and that it is better for the good than for the evil; although the full happiness of the good has not yet come, and the last punishment of the evil has not yet come. Perhaps you understand with me that it is not well for the evil. For I ask you and inquire of you, why is it ill for you? You will answer: "Want oppresses, difficulty presses, perhaps pain of the limbs, fear from an enemy." Is it therefore ill for you, because you suffer evils; and well for him, who is the very evil? There is much difference between suffering evil and being evil. What you suffer, you are not. For you suffer evil, but you are not evil. Evil, I say, you suffer, but you are not evil. But he does not suffer evil, and he is evil. Do not, then, be deceived, do not be deceived. It cannot be that it is ill for you who suffer evil, and well for him who is evil. For when he is evil, do you think he does not suffer evil, when he suffers himself? It is ill for you, because you suffer another's evil in your body. And is it well for him, who suffers himself as an evil in his heart? It is ill for you, because you have a bad estate. And is it well for him, who has a bad soul? Be good, you who have good things. Riches are good, gold is good, silver is good, households are good, possessions are good, all these things are good, but as means whence you may do good, not things that make you good. Have the goods that make you good. What are those, you say? Do judgment, do justice. Are the things you have good? Do judgment, do justice. Be you too good among your good things. Blush before your goods: be a good man, about to abide, among perishable goods. Blush before your goods: do not be evil in them, lest you perish with them. How the rest stands, my brothers, how justice is to be kept, and how mercy is to be loved, and how each one ought to be ready to walk with the Lord his God, we will discourse to you at another time, the Lord granting. Hold me as a debtor, lest you have me long as a wearier.

1 We have heard several holy readings as they were recited, and of these we ought to say what the Lord has deigned to grant. But every hearer of the readings remembers more what was read most recently, and expects something to be said of it by the treater of the word. Since, then, the holy Gospel was recited last, I do not doubt that your Charity expects to hear something of that vineyard, and the hired men, and the wage of a denarius. But I remember what I promised last Sunday. For when I wished to expound something of the holy prophet that had been read—and there had been read that, when a man asked with what sacrifices he might appease God, it was answered that God seeks nothing of him except to do judgment and justice and love mercy and be ready to walk with the Lord his God—I treated, as far as I could, of judgment, and the sermon was so prolonged that there remained no span of time in which I could discourse of the rest. Whence I promised that today I would speak of justice. But you who expected me to speak of the Gospel, do not think yourselves cheated. For the work in that vineyard is itself justice.

2 Think, then, that you have been hired. Those who came as boys, let them think they were brought in at the first hour; those as youths, at the third; those as young men, at the sixth; those more mature, at the ninth; those decrepit, at the eleventh. Do not make excuses about the time. Hear the work you are to do, await the wage securely. And if you attend to what your Lord is like, do not be envious if the wage is equal. What the work is you know, but I will recall it. Hear what you know, and do what you hear. We said the work of God is justice. But the Lord Jesus, when asked what the work of God was, answered: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent (John 6:29). Our devout Lord could have said: Justice is the work of God. Have we then, hired men, dared to presume anything against the head of the household? If justice is the work of God, as I said, how will it be the work of God, which the Lord said, to believe in him, unless to believe in him is itself justice? "But see," you say, "from the Lord we heard: This is the work of God, that you believe in him. From you we heard that the work of God is justice. Prove to us that to believe in Christ is this justice." Does it seem to you—since I am already answering one who asks and demands what is just—does it seem to you that to believe in Christ is not justice? What is it, then? Put a name on this work. Without doubt, if you consider well what you have heard, you will answer me: "This is called faith. To believe in Christ is called faith." I accept what you say, to believe in Christ is called faith. Hear too another place of Scripture: The just man lives by faith. Do justice, believe: The just man lives by faith (Rom 1:17). It is difficult for one to live badly who believes well. Believe with your whole heart, believe not limping, not hesitating, not arguing against faith itself by human suspicions. Faith [fides] is named from this, that what is said is done [fit]. Two syllables sound when "fides" is said. The first syllable is from "is done," the second from "what is said." I ask you, then, whether you believe? You say: "I believe." Do what you say, and it is faith. For I can hear the voice of one answering, I cannot see the heart of one believing. But did I hire you to the vineyard, I who cannot see the heart? Neither do I hire, nor do I impose the work, nor do I prepare the denarius as wage. I am your fellow worker. According to the strength which he deigns to grant, I labor in the vineyard. But with what mind I labor, he who hired me sees. For to me, says the Apostle, it is a very small thing that I be judged by you (1 Cor 4:3). And you can hear my voice, you cannot see my heart. Let us all set our heart before God to be seen, and do the work from the soul. Let us not offend the one who hires, that with a free brow we may receive the wage.

3 And we too, dearly beloved, will see one another's hearts, but afterward. But now we still carry about the darkness of this mortality, and walk by the lamp of Scripture, as the apostle Peter says: We have a more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to attend as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts (2 Pet 1:19). Accordingly, dearly beloved, on account of that very faith by which we believe in God, in comparison with the unbelievers we are day. In unbelief we were night together with them, now light, the Apostle saying: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Darkness in you, light in the Lord. Likewise in another place: For you are all sons of light, and sons of day; we are not of the night, nor of the darkness. As in the day let us walk honorably (1 Thess 5:5; Rom 13:13). Day, then, in comparison with the unbelievers. But in comparison with that day, when the dead will rise and this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality, we are still night. To us, as if already in the day, the apostle John says: Beloved, we are children of God (1 John 3:2). And yet, because it is still night, what follows? And it does not yet appear what we shall be. We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). But this is the wage, not the work. We shall see him as he is is itself the wage. Then it will be day, than which there can be none clearer. Now, then, in this day already let us walk honorably; in this night still let us not judge one another. For see that the apostle Paul himself, who said, As in the day let us walk honorably, does not clash or sound dissonant from his fellow apostle Peter, who said: To which you do well to attend—namely, the divine word—as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts.

4 See the apostle Paul saying this very thing: And so do not judge anything before the time (1 Cor 4:5). And when will it be the time? Until the Lord comes, and enlightens the hidden things of darkness, and makes manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then there will be praise to each one from God (1 Cor 4:5). What is before the time, except before you see one another's hearts? Attend, whether this is what I said. Hear for a little all the words of that sentence. Do not judge anything before the time. And when will it be the time? Until the Lord comes and enlightens the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then there will be praise to each one from God. How will the darkness reproach you, when by the light you will be praised? Then hearts will be open, but now they lie hidden. Someone or other is suspected as if an enemy, and perhaps he is a friend. Another seems as if a friend, and is perhaps a hidden enemy. O darkness! He rages and loves; he flatters and hates. If I judge by their voices, avoiding the calm I run upon the rock: I flee the friend, I cling to the enemy. This the hidden heart did. There it must be believed, there within where it lies hidden, where it is hidden. To cultivate this you were hired. There, by believing, work together, where your fellow worker does not see you, but your Lord sees you. The just man lives by faith (Rom 1:17). Do this.

5 Now of judgment I discoursed last Sunday, that you should judge yourself, and when you find yourself perverse, not flatter yourself but correct yourself, and become upright, and the upright God may please you. For the upright God does not please the perverse. Do you want the upright to please you? Be upright. Judge yourself, do not spare yourself. What in yourself deservedly displeases you, chastise, amend, correct. Let the holy Scripture be to you as a mirror. This mirror has a splendor not lying, a splendor not flattering, loving no one's person. You are handsome, you see yourself handsome there; you are foul, you see yourself foul there. But when, foul, you have approached and seen yourself foul there, do not accuse the mirror. Return to yourself; the mirror does not deceive you, do not you deceive yourself. Judge of yourself, be saddened over your foulness, that when you go away and depart sad, foul, corrected, you may be able to return handsome. When, then, you have judged yourself without flattery, judge also your neighbor with love. For there is what you judge, that which you see. For it can be that you see him evil whence you are defiled; it can be that your neighbor himself confesses his evil to you, and betrays to a friend what he had covered in his soul. As you see, judge. What you do not see, leave to God. But when you judge, love the man, hate the vice. Do not on account of the man love the vice, nor on account of the vice hate the man. The man is your neighbor; the vice is the enemy of your neighbor. Then you love your friend, if you hate what harms your friend. If you believe, you do it, because the just man lives by faith.

6 What abounds in human affairs, this I say. Sometimes to your dearest friend someone is an enemy, who was the friend of both. Of three friends two begin to be enemies between themselves; what shall the one in the middle do who remained? He wants, exacts, demands of you that you hate with him the one he has begun to hate, and says these words to you: "You are not my friend, you who are the friend of my enemy." What word this man speaks to you, the same the other speaks to you. For you were three. You were three, two began to be discordant, you remained. If you join yourself to this one, you will have that one for an enemy; if to that one, this one; if to both, both will murmur. See the temptation; see the thorns in the vineyard to which we were hired. You expect perhaps to hear from me what you should do. Remain the friend of both. Let those who are discordant between themselves be concordant through you. If you hear any evils from the one about the other, do not betray them to the other, lest perhaps they later be friends who are now enemies, and their betrayers be betrayed to them. But I said this on account of men, not on account of the eyes of him who hired us. See, no one betrays you. God who sees, who judges you. You heard a word from one angry, from one grieving, from one inflamed. Let it die in you. Why is it betrayed, why brought forth? For if it is in you, it will not burst you. Speak indeed to your friend, who wants to make you the enemy of his friend; address and, as it were, treat a sick soul with the gentleness of medicine. Say to him: "Why do you want me to be his enemy?" He will answer: "Because he is my enemy." "Do you want me, then, to be the enemy of your enemy? I ought to be the enemy of your vice. This one, to whom you want to make me an enemy, is a man. There is another enemy of yours, to whom I ought to be an enemy, if I am your friend." He will answer: "Who is my other enemy?" "Your vice." He will answer: "What is my vice?" "The hatred by which you hate your friend." Be, then, like the physician. The physician does not love the sick man if he does not hate the sickness. To free the sick man, he persecutes the fever. Do not love the vices of your friends, if you love your friends.

7 But I who say this, do you think I myself do what I say? My brothers, I do, if I do it first in myself. But I do it in myself, if I receive it from the Lord and do it. I hate my vices, I offer my heart to be healed by my physician. I persecute them as much as I can, I groan over them, I confess that they are in me, and see, I accuse myself. You who reproached me, correct yourself. This is justice, lest it be said to us: You see the speck in your brother's eye, and do not see the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite, first cast out the beam from your own eye, and then you will see to cast out the speck from your brother's eye (Matt 7:3-5). Anger is a speck; hatred is a beam. But nourish the speck and it becomes a beam. Anger grown old becomes hatred, a speck nourished becomes a beam. That the speck, then, may not become a beam, let not the sun go down upon your anger (Eph 4:26). Do you see, do you feel yourself livid with hatred, and do you reproach one who is angry? Take away hatred, and you rightly reproach anger. The speck is in his eye, the beam in yours. For if you hate, how do you see what to censure? The beam is in your eye. Why is the beam in your eye? Because you despised the speck born there. With it you slept, with it you rose. You cultivated it in yourself, you watered it with false suspicions, by believing the words of flatterers and of those bringing you evil words about a friend, you nourished the speck, you did not pluck it out. By your diligence you made a beam. Take the beam from your eye, do not hate your brother. Do you shudder, or do you not shudder? I say to you: Do not hate, and you are secure. And you answer me and say to me: "What is it to hate? And what evil is it that a man hates his enemy?" You hate your brother. But if you despise hatred, hear what you do not attend to: He who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). He who hates is a murderer. You have not prepared poison. Can you now say: "What is it to me, to be a murderer?" He who hates is a murderer. You have not prepared poison. You have not gone forth with a sword to strike your enemy. You have not prepared a minister of the crime, not a place, not a time. Last of all, you have not done the very crime. You only hated, and you killed yourself before him. Learn, then, justice, that you hate nothing but vices, and love men. If you hold this, and do this justice, that you prefer even vicious men to be healed rather than condemned, you have done a good work in the vineyard. But exercise yourselves in this, my brothers.

8 See, after the sermon the dismissal of the catechumens takes place. The faithful will remain. We will come to the place of prayer. You know to where we are about to approach. What will we first say to God? Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). Act so that you forgive, act. For you will come to those words of the prayer. How will you say them, how will you not say them? Finally I ask: Will you say them, or will you not say them? You hate, and you say it? You will answer me: "Then I do not say it." You pray, and do not say it? You hate, and say it? You pray and do not say it? Come, answer quickly. So if you say it, you lie. If you do not say it, you merit nothing. Watch yourself, attend to yourself. Now you are about to pray, forgive from the whole heart. You want to quarrel with your enemy, first quarrel with your heart. Quarrel, I say, quarrel with your heart. Say to your heart: Do not hate. But that heart of yours, your soul, still hates. Say to your soul: Do not hate. "How will I pray, how will I say: Forgive us our debts? I can indeed say this, but what follows, how will I say it? As we too." What? As we too forgive. Where is faith? Do what you say: As we too.

9 But your soul does not want to forgive and is saddened, because you say to it: "Do not hate." Answer it: Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you disturb me? Why do you disturb me? or: Why are you sad? Do not hate, lest you destroy me. Why do you disturb me? Hope in God (Ps 42:5 (41:6)). You are sick, you gasp, you are wounded with sickness. You cannot take hatred from yourself: Hope in God, he is the physician. For you he hung on the wood, and is not yet avenged. Why do you want to be avenged? For you hated for this reason, that you might be avenged. See your Lord hanging, see him hanging and, as it were, from the wood as a tribunal commanding you. See him hanging, and for you, sick, making medicine from his own blood. See him hanging. Do you want to be avenged? Do you want to be avenged? See him hanging, hear him praying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

10 "But he could do this," you say to me, "I cannot. For I am a man, he is God. So, that man God." God, then, why a man, if a man is not corrected? But see, I speak to you. O man, it is too much for you to imitate your Lord; attend to Stephen, your fellow servant. Surely Stephen, the holy one, was a man. Or was he God and man? Plainly he was a man. He was what you are. But what he did, only by the gift of him whom you too ask. Yet see what he did. He spoke to the Jews, he raged and he loved. I ought to show both, because I said: he raged; I said: and he loved. I ought to demonstrate both, both raging and loving. Hear him raging: Stiff-necked. These are the words of holy Stephen, when he addressed the Jews: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit. Which of the Prophets did your fathers not kill? (Acts 7:51-52) You have heard him raging. I owe the other, hear him loving too. They, made angry, and burning the more grievously and rendering evil for good, ran to stones, began to stone the servant of God. Here prove, holy Stephen, your love. Here, here let us see you, here let us behold, here let us discern the conqueror of the devil and the one who triumphs. We heard you raging against the silent, let us see whether you love the raging. You raged against the silent, let us see whether you love those who stone you. For if you hated and could hate, now is the time when you are stoned. Then most of all you ought to hate. Let us see whether you render hardness of heart to the hard stones, to the stones that stone you. For the stones cast stones, the hard the hard. Those who received the law on stone cast stones.

11 Let us see, dearly beloved, let us see, let us behold a great spectacle. Let us behold it, even to be set forth for tomorrow. Let us see. See, Stephen is stoned. Let him be set as if before our eyes. Come now, member of Christ, come now, athlete of Christ, look upon him who hung on the wood for you. He was being crucified, you were being stoned. He said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). What you say, let me hear. Let me see you, lest perhaps I may be able to imitate even you. First the blessed Stephen, standing, prayed for himself, and said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). Having said this, he bent his knee, and with knee bent said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. Having said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:60). O happy sleep, and true rest! See what it is to rest, to pray for one's enemies. But for a little, I beg you, holy Stephen, expound to me this—I do not know what it is—why for yourself you prayed standing, and for your enemies you bent the knee. He will answer perhaps what we understand: "For myself I prayed standing, because for myself, who served God rightly, I did not labor in praying and obtaining. For myself I did not labor." He who prays for a just man does not labor. Therefore standing he prayed for himself. It came to praying for the Jews, for the killers of Christ, for the killers of the saints, for those who stoned him; he attended to how exceeding and great was their impiety, which could hardly be forgiven, and he bent the knee. Fix your knee in this vineyard, strong worker. Fix, I say, your knee in the work of this vineyard, most strong worker. Great is your work, excellent and much to be praised. Very deep you dug, who stripped the hatred of enemies from your heart. Let us turn to the Lord.

1 But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law (Gal 4:4). But "made of a woman" gives offense, because we confess he was born of a Virgin. We confess "made" only of the man; but God is always making, he cannot be made so as to be. God cannot be made; but he is made that he may be something to someone, as it is said: Lord, you have become a refuge for us (Ps 90:1 (89:1)); and: The Lord has become my helper (Ps 30:10 (29:11)). How many things he has become, who was never made? But the Lord Christ was made man, that he might be—that he who was always Creator might be a creature. For, remaining God, he was made man, that he might become what he was not, not that he might lose what he was. This, then, that was made of the Virgin—why "of a woman"? Because among the Hebrews, where is the first tongue of Scripture, "woman" is a name signifying sex, not lost integrity. Read: when the woman was formed, God drew out, it says, one of his ribs—that is, the man's—and built it into a woman (Gen 2:21-22). So Mary was a woman; so it was said to her, before she gave birth, before she conceived: Blessed are you among women (Luke 1:28).

1 The Manicheans bring a false charge against the prophet Haggai, accusing him invidiously because he said, in the person of God speaking: Mine is the gold, and mine is the silver (Hag 2:8); and because they study to set the Gospel pugnaciously against the old Law, so that both Scriptures may seem to them, as it were, opposed and contrary, they pose the question thus: "In Haggai," they say, "the prophet, it is written: Mine is the gold, and mine is the silver; but in the Gospel our Savior called this sort of thing the mammon of iniquity, of the use of which the blessed Apostle, writing to Timothy, says: The root of all evils is avarice, which some craving have turned away from the faith and entangled themselves in many sorrows (1 Tim 6:10)." This is their posing of the question, or rather an accusation of the old Scriptures, through which the Gospel was foretold, from that very Gospel which was foretold through them. For if they posed the question, they would perhaps inquire; and if they inquired, they would perhaps find.

2 But why do the wretches not understand that the Lord, speaking in Haggai, said for this reason, Mine is the gold, and mine is the silver, that both the one who is unwilling to share with the needy what he has, when he hears the precepts of doing mercy, may understand that God commands it to be given not from the property of the one he commands, but from his own; and the one who holds out something to a poor man may not think he does it from his own, lest perhaps he be not so much confirmed by the name of mercy as puffed up by the vanity of pride? Mine is, he says, the gold, and mine is the silver, not yours, O rich of the earth. Why, then, do you hesitate to give the poor man from what is mine, or why are you lifted up when you give from what is mine?

3 And do you want to see what a matter of the just judge gold and silver are? The greedy man is tormented by them, the merciful man is helped by them. The divine justice distributing his own property, both rightly-done deeds are made manifest by them, and sins are punished by them. For gold and silver and every earthly possession is both the exercise of humanity and the punishment of desire. When God grants such things to us men, he shows in them how much the soul despises, whose riches are the very one who grants them. For no one can appear a despiser, except of a thing of which he has been made the possessor. For even those who do not have them can despise these things. But whether they pretend or truly despise, God sees, who is the inspector of the heart. But to men, that they may be able to imitate, the thought of the despiser is seen only in the hands of one giving out. But when God grants these things to evil men, he shows in them how, even in the very goods that God bestows, the soul is tormented, to which the one who bestows such great things has become cheap. For to the good he supplies occasions of benefits; the evil he torments with the fear of losses. And therefore, if both lose gold and silver, the former will retain the heavenly riches with glad heart, but to the latter there will remain both a house empty of temporal goods and a conscience emptier of eternal goods.

4 His, then, is the gold and silver, who knows how to use gold and silver. For even among men themselves, anyone is then to be said to have something, when he uses it well. For what he does not handle justly, he does not hold by right. But what he does not hold by right, if he says it is his own, it will not be the voice of a just possessor, but the shamelessness of an impudent squatter. Wherefore, if a man not unfittingly says something is his own—not what he has seized by unjust and foolish desire, but what he handles by most prudent power and most just moderation—how much more does God truly and properly say that the gold and silver are his own, which he both founded by most generous goodness, and administers by most just command, so that without his nod and dominion neither can the evil have gold and silver for the punishment of avarice, nor the good for the use of mercy! Which, however, they can neither establish that it should exist, nor distribute and order that it be present to one and lacking to another.

5 But if gold and silver were given into the power of the evil alone, it would rightly be thought evil. If of the good alone, it would rightly be thought some great good. Again, if it were lacking to the evil alone, poverty would seem a great punishment. But if it were lacking to the good alone, poverty would seem the highest blessedness. Now, if you want to know that gold can be well had, the good too have it. If you want to know that they are not good through gold, the evil too have it. Likewise, if you want to know how poverty is not misery, there are certain poor men who are blessed. If you want to know how poverty is not blessedness, there are certain poor men who are wretched. So, then, the founder and administrator of things, God, has so distributed gold and silver to men, that it is in itself, by its nature and kind, good—though not the highest and great good—and according to the rank of its order shows the praiseworthy founder of the universe; but its abundance does not exalt the good nor want crush them, while the evil it both blinds when it is offered and torments when it is taken away.

6 A thing, then, founded both for the praise of the Founder and for the proving of the good and the punishment of the greater evil, can in no way be rightly blamed. And God most truly says it is his own, which he not only founded by most abundant goodness, but also dispenses by most provident moderation. But when the Lord in the Gospel calls this kind of thing the mammon of iniquity, he signifies that there is another mammon—that is, other riches, which none but the just and good can possess—so that it is called the mammon of iniquity for this reason, because iniquity calls these riches. But justice knows there are other riches, by which the inner man is adorned, as the blessed Peter says: Who is rich before God (See 1 Pet 3:4). Those are called just riches, because they are granted to good and just merits. Those are called the true riches, because whoever has them will not be in need. But these are unjust riches, not because gold and silver are unjust, but because it is unjust to think them riches, which do not take away want. For the more anyone loving them has greater riches, the more will he burn with want. How, then, are they riches, with whose increase want increases, which, the greater they are to their lovers, bring not satiety but inflame desire? Do you think him rich, who would be in less want if he had less? For we see that some, when they had a little money, rejoiced in little gains. But after the true substance of gold and silver—yet false riches—began to abound to them, when you offer a little, they now refuse it. You believe them now satisfied, but it is false. For greater money does not close the throat of avarice, but stretches it; does not water it, but kindles it. They spurn the cup, because they thirst for a river. Is he, then, to be called richer or more needy, who, when he wanted to have something so as not to be in need, therefore has more so as not to be in less need?

7 But this is not the fault of gold and silver. For suppose some merciful man has found a treasure. Is not, by the working of mercy, hospitality afforded to pilgrims, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the needy helped, captives redeemed, churches built, the weary refreshed, the litigious reconciled, the shipwrecked restored, the sick cared for, bodily wealth distributed on earth, spiritual wealth stored up in heaven? Who does these things? The merciful and good man. Whence does he do them? From gold and silver. Serving whom does he do them? Him who says: Mine is the gold and mine is the silver. You see now, as I judge, brothers, with how great an error and how great a madness the crime of those who use things badly is transferred to the very things they use badly. For if gold and silver are blamed for this reason, that men depraved by avarice, neglecting the precepts of the most almighty Creator, are seized with detestable desire toward the things he founded, let every creature of God be blamed too, because, as the Apostle says, certain perverse men worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Rom 1:25). Let this very sun be blamed too, which surely the same Manicheans, since they do not understand it to be a creature, do not cease to worship and adore as if the Creator himself or as if some part of him. Why, then, do they not blame it, when men often stir up most unjust quarrels over the use of the sun and light in their buildings, and, that the rays may flow somewhat more freely and more amply into their windows, often try to pull down others' houses, and pursue with most bitter enmities those who oppose them, even if they oppose by most certain right? If, then, some more powerful man unjustly and wickedly oppress one of the weak on account of the use of the sun, plunder him, or even drive him into exile or death, is it the crime of the sun, which he desires to use more abundantly, or rather the iniquity of one who uses it badly, who, while he craves to acquire the temporal light more amply for the eyes of the body, does not open the bedroom of his heart to the light of equity?

8 From which let these men, if they can, understand either that they ought not to accuse gold and silver, although about gold and silver most greedy men often fight, or that they ought to transfer their accusations from the earth to heaven and from the gleaming metals to the stars and the sun itself, when wicked men often clash in inexpiable discord over possessing the light of the sun. At the same time let them learn too what difference there is between this visible light and the light of justice. Since it can come about that, the greater the avidity with which anyone wants to enjoy this light, the greater the blindness by which he falls away from the light of justice. For no creature can justify a man, but that he may be able to use all creatures justly, he is to be justified by the Creator. And so the Lord himself, although as a just judge he condemns avarice everywhere, yet as a true master shows the use of earthly abundance, in that very place which these men wished to cast against the prophet as contrary. For he says: Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity (Luke 16:9). This is to say, that which is the mammon of iniquity ought not to be your mammon. For then you will be able justly to use the abundance of earthly things, and to make friends from it who may receive you into the eternal dwellings, if this mammon is not yours—that is, if you do not think yourselves made rich by it. Since your riches, since the true riches are those which will free you from all want, are not to be compared with earthly means. But that you may deservedly enjoy those, you must first use well these, which are not true riches, nor yours, because they are unjustly called riches. For they do not take away want, and the unjust think them riches. For by these they think themselves freed from want. But you ought to desire other riches—that is, the true and your own. But if in the unjust mammon you have not been faithful, who will give you the true? And if in another's you have not been faithful, who will give you your own? (Luke 16:11-12)

9 Although it is manifest that the Manicheans, in their own manner, bring a false charge against the prophetic sayings. For whoever examines even moderately the context of that same Scripture will find that the prophet spoke not of this silver or gold, with which avarice imprudently rages, but rather of that of which the Apostle too makes mention, saying: But if anyone builds on the foundation gold and silver, precious stones (1 Cor 3:12). With this gold and silver that treasure is rich, which the Lord himself testifies was found in a field and bought, by someone wonderfully and praiseworthily greedy, when he had sold all his goods. For, foretelling the Lord himself, and figuratively designating, as is his custom, the times of the new age—that is, of the Church—the prophet says thus: Yet one little while, and I will shake heaven and earth and sea and the dry land, and I will move all the nations. And the desired of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. Mine is the gold, and mine is the silver, says the Lord of hosts. Great will be the glory of this last house more than of the first, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts (Hag 2:6-9).

10 If these men were willing not to be dogs and swine, to whom we are forbidden to give what is holy and to cast pearls, but desired to receive by asking and to find by seeking and to have it opened to them by knocking, how they might be able perhaps, even without any interpreter, with the Holy Spirit himself as guide, to perceive that the things said pertain, without any gloom, to the new people—that is, to the Christian people, whose great priest is Jesus the Son of God—at least in that place where it was said: Yet one little while, and I will shake heaven and earth and sea and the dry land, and I will move all the nations. And the desired of all the nations will come. For of the last—that is, the second coming of the Lord, in which he is to come in splendor—this verse was uttered, when the prophet says: And the desired of all the nations will come. For when he first came in mortal flesh through the Virgin Mary, he was not yet desired by all the nations, because they had not yet believed. But the Gospel having been disseminated through all the nations, in all the nations the desire of him is kindled. For through all the nations there are and will be his elect, who with the whole heart say in prayer: Your kingdom come. But the first coming sowed mercy beforehand for judgment, in which judgment the splendor of the second coming will be eminent. First, then, heaven had to be moved, when the angel announced him to the Virgin who would conceive, when the star led the Magi to adore him, when again the angels indicated his birth to the shepherds; the earth to be moved, when it was disturbed by his miracles; the sea to be moved, when this world raged with persecutions; the dry land to be moved, when those believing in him hungered and thirsted for justice; finally all the nations to be moved, when his Gospel ran everywhere. Then afterward the desired of all the nations would come, as, the prophet declaring, he is to come. And this house will be filled with glory—that is, the Church.

11 Accordingly he subjoined: Mine is the silver and the gold. For all wisdom, which is figuratively signified by the name of gold, and the words of the Lord, chaste words, silver tried by fire of the earth, purified seven times (Ps 12:6 (11:7))—all such silver and gold, then, is not of men but of the Lord, so that, since the house will be filled with glory, he who glories may glory in the Lord. For because that great priest, the inhabitant of this house, our Lord Jesus Christ, on account of the return of man who through pride had gone out of paradise, deigned to offer himself as an example of humility, which he attests in the Gospel, crying: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Matt 11:29): lest perhaps anyone in his house—that is, in the Church—if he can perceive or say anything wisely, should, wanting it to seem his own, be exalted, see how great a medicine is said to him by the Lord God: Mine is the gold and mine is the silver. For so what follows will come about, that the glory of this last house may be great, more than of the first. For the first house—that is, the citizens of the earthly Jerusalem—as the Apostle says, not knowing the justice of God and seeking to establish their own justice, were not subject to the justice of God (Rom 10:3). See whether these men, while they say the gold and silver are their own, were not able to come to the eternal glory of the last house. Yet when the prophet says: Great will be the glory of this last house more than of the first, he shows that the first itself too was not without some glory. For of it the Apostle too was speaking, when he said: For if that which is done away was through glory, much more that which abides will be in glory (2 Cor 3:11).

12 But the last verse, with which this discourse of the prophet is concluded: And in this place, he says, I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts (Hag 2:9). What is "in this place," except that he perhaps points out something earthly, as with a finger? For what can be contained in a place, except a body? Not absurdly, then, do we understand the last resurrection of the body, by which the most perfect blessedness is completed, when now the flesh does not lust against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh (Gal 5:17). For this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53). There will be no other law in the members fighting against the law of the mind, because in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts.

13 For what the prophets say about the contempt of earthly gold and silver, who is so deaf against the divine voices as not to know it? For so those men, to deceive men, produce from the Apostle what he says: The root of all evils is avarice, which some pursuing have strayed from the faith, and entangled themselves in many sorrows (1 Tim 6:10)—as though you could easily find some book of the old Scriptures where avarice is not blamed and condemned with worthy execration. But since the question now is about gold and silver, why do they not hear the prophet saying: But neither their silver nor their gold will be able to free them in the day of the wrath of the Lord (Zeph 1:18)? If anyone thirsting hears only this and pours it into the marrow of his soul, will he not, alienating his whole self from the blandishments of false happiness, into the embrace of God, stripped of the old man that he may cover himself with immortality, call himself? But why should we treat any longer of this question? I believe it is manifest to your Charity that the sect of the Manicheans deals with the unskilled not by truth but by fraud, so that they prefer the Scriptures not whole to whole, the new to the old, but by excerpting sentences, which it tries to show as if opposed to itself, that they may deceive the unskilled. But there is no epistle of the Apostle, or even book of the Gospel, of the new Testament itself, of which these things could not be done, that by certain sentences that one book might seem to be contrary to itself, unless its whole context be treated with the most diligent attention of the reader.