1. Concerning the present passage of the holy Gospel, dearly beloved brothers, which the Lord wished to teach us, the Church of Christ certainly does not doubt that John is a martyr. He earned martyrdom even before the Lord's passion; he was born before, he suffered before—yet not as the author of salvation, but as the forerunner of the judge. For he went ahead of the Lord, himself taking on humble service, giving exaltation to the heavenly Master. On what ground do we say that John is a martyr? Was he perhaps seized by persecutors of Christians, brought forward, questioned, and did he confess Christ and suffer? For the other martyrs, after Christ's passion, can be called this. So on what ground is he a martyr? Because he was beheaded? For it is not the penalty that makes a martyr, but the cause. Because he offended a powerful woman? How did he offend? On what matter did he offend? By speaking the truth to the king, who had become her husband, that it was not lawful for him to have his brother's wife (See Mk 6:18). The truth earned hatred, and by earning hatred it arrived at suffering and a crown. These are the fruits of the age to come. In the end self-indulgence dances, and innocence is condemned; but it is condemned by men and crowned by God almighty.

2. Therefore let no one say: I cannot be a martyr, because there is no persecution against Christians. You hear that John bore martyrdom; and, if you consider the truth, he died for Christ. How, you say, did he die for Christ, when he was not questioned about Christ, nor forced to deny Christ? Hear Christ himself saying: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). If Christ is the truth, then whoever is condemned for the truth suffers for Christ, and is lawfully crowned. Therefore let no one excuse himself: all times lie open to martyrs. Nor let anyone say that there is no persecution against Christians. The statement of the apostle Paul cannot be made void, because it is true; Christ spoke through him, he did not lie. For he says: All who want to live devoutly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12). All, he says: he excluded no one, he set no one apart. If you want to prove that what he said is true, begin to live devoutly in Christ, and you will see that what he says is true. Just because persecution from earthly kings has died down, does that mean the devil does not rage? That ancient enemy is always on watch against us: let us not sleep. He puts forward enticements, ambushes, sends in evil thoughts; he sets out gains and threatens losses, so as to provoke us to a worse fall. It comes to the crisis, and the evil of his suggestion is rejected with effort, so that present death is gladly undergone. Understand, brothers. If someone forces you—say, some nobleman who has power over your life—forces you to bear false witness, and does not say to you, Deny Christ, what do you think: to choose falsehood, or to die for the truth? And yet the persecutor says nothing else to you than, Deny Christ. For if Christ is the truth, as we have already said, then surely whoever denies the truth denies Christ. And everyone who speaks a lie denies the truth. The very one who gives false testimony—why does he? Because he is afraid, certainly. Is there not persecution against all Christians, when there is a struggle for the truth? Now each one is tested, and in his own case everyone is put to the trial.

3. But what would your enemy have done to you—he who threatens slaughter, thirsts for blood, is puffed up with power, lifted up like smoke—what would he have done, he who was forcing you to perjury and false witness? Weakness answers: He would kill me, it says.—He would not kill you.—I know for certain, he would kill me. If that is so, then I too will answer: You, brother, are the one who kills, you who give false witness. He would indeed kill, but only your body: what would he do to your soul? The house would be thrown down, the dweller would be crowned. See what your enemy would have done to you, if you had stood firm in the truth and had not given false witness: he would certainly kill, but only the body, not the soul. Hear your Lord giving you assurance with care: Do not, he says, fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do; but fear him who has the power to kill body and soul and to cast them into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him (See Lk 12:4-5). Him John feared: he refused to keep silent about the truth, and he endured the wickedness of evil men; through an immoral woman he earned the king's hatred, and arrived at martyrdom.

4. For all who want to live devoutly in Christ are shaken by such persecution. For they suffer persecution either for the gain of the world or for fear of loss, either for the present life or because death is threatened; for this world is not without persecution. But one must distinguish who suffers for what; and they will be true martyrs, if there is a struggle for the truth, which is Christ, and they are lawfully crowned. For whoever suffers persecution for this world, which lies in evil, can endure only a temporal punishment.

5. Therefore, brothers, since we have learned this in the present reading—to fight for the truth even to death, and not to give false witness, not to perjure ourselves, to hold to justice in dangers (for it is no great thing to hold to justice in safety or amid pleasures)—let us always reckon that the devil, our tempter and persecutor, keeps watch against us; and in the name and with the help of the Lord our God let us keep watch more fervently against him, lest in anything he overcome us through the desire by which he is accustomed to tempt. For the one whom desire and fear do not conquer—these being the enemy's weapons by which men who set their hope in this world are entangled in various snares, so that they cannot prevail to hold the truth—the devil has, in the end, two doors through which he knocks to enter: first through desire, then through fear. If he finds both doors closed in the faithful, he passes on. And what, you ask, is desire, what is fear? Hear what it is: do not desire what passes away, and do not fear what fails and perishes in time; and then at last he will not find a nest where the enemy may dwell, because a struggle has been set before us until the end—not only for us, who stand or sit in the higher place and speak to you, but the struggle is set before all the members of Christ.

6. For this reason, to this very day in Numidia it is the custom to put servants of God under oath thus: If you should conquer. You see that such an oath of one who fights is not spoken without reason. For here too, where we are speaking, at Carthage, and in the whole proconsular and Byzacene province, and also in Tripoli, this is the customary phrase by which the servants of God adjure one another: By your crown. Which crown no one will receive unless he has conquered. And I too adjure you by your crown, that you fight against the devil with your whole heart; and, if we conquer together, together we will also be crowned. Why do you say to us, By your crown, and yet act wickedly, live wickedly? Live well, act well, keep good conduct both outside and within, and you will be our crown. The people of God, which is what you are, the Apostle was instructing when he said: My joy and my crown, stand fast in the Lord (Phil 4:1). So if the prosperity of the times smiles, stand fast in the Lord; and if the adversity of the times roars, be steadfast in the Lord. Do not fall away from him who always stands, and who, standing, awaits the one who fights, and helps you, so that by standing and pruning you may conquer, and at last come to him to be crowned.

1. In expounding the holy Scriptures to you, we are as it were breaking bread for you. Receive it, you who are hungry, and belch forth the fat of praise from your heart; and you who are rich at the banquet, do not be lean in good works and deeds. What I dispense to you is not my own. What you eat, I eat; from what you live, I live. We have a common storeroom in heaven, for from there comes the word of God.

2. The seven loaves signify the sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit; the four thousand men, the Church established under the four Gospels; the seven baskets of fragments (See Mt 15:34-37), the perfection of the Church. For perfection is very often figured by this number. For why is it that it was said: Seven times a day I will praise you (Ps 119:164 (118))? Does a man go astray who praises the Lord so often? What then is the meaning of seven times I will praise, except, I will never cease from praise? For the one who says seven times signifies the whole of time. Hence by the cycle of seven days the ages roll on. What then is the meaning of seven times a day I will praise you, except what is said in another place: His praise shall be always in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33))? It is on account of this very perfection that John writes to seven churches. The Apocalypse is a book of the holy evangelist John: he writes to seven churches (See Rev 1:4). Be truthful; recognize the baskets. For those fragments did not perish; rather, since you too belong to the Church, they have benefited you. As for the fact that I expound these things to you, with Christ as minister—you, while you listen quietly, are reclining at table. I sit in body, I stand in heart, and anxiously I serve you, lest perhaps the little vessel, rather than the food, offend any of you. You know the banquet of our God, you have often heard of it; it is minds that seek it, not bellies.

3. Certainly the four thousand men were filled from seven loaves: what could be more wonderful? And yet it would have been little, unless seven baskets had also been filled from the remaining fragments. O great mysteries! They were performing deeds, and the deeds were speaking. If you understand those deeds, they are words. And you too belong to the four thousand, because you live under the fourfold Gospel. The boys and the women were not counted in the number. For it was said thus: Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides boys and women (See Mt 15:38). As though the foolish and the effeminate were without number. Yet let these too eat. Let them eat: perhaps the boys grow up, and will be boys no longer; perhaps the effeminate are corrected and made chaste. Let them eat: we dispense, we expend. But who they are, God examines at his own banquet, and if they do not correct themselves, he who knows how to invite knows also how to separate.

4. You know, dearly beloved: call to mind the gospel parable; for the Lord came in to inspect those reclining at a certain banquet of his. The householder who had given the invitation, as it is written, found there a man not clothed in a wedding garment (See Mt 22:11). For that bridegroom, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, had invited them to a wedding. That bridegroom became disfigured on account of his disfigured bride, so as to make her beautiful. How did the disfigured one become beautiful? If I do not prove it, I blaspheme. One prophet gives me testimony of his beauty, saying: Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44)). Another prophet gives me testimony of his disfigurement, saying: We saw him, and he had no form or comeliness; but his face was cast down, his bearing disfigured (See Isa 53:2-3). O prophet, you who said, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, you are contradicted: another prophet comes forward against you and says: You lie: We saw him. What is this that he says, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men? We saw him having no form or comeliness. So do these two prophets disagree in the corner of peace? Both spoke of Christ, both spoke of the cornerstone. In the corner the walls come together. If they did not come together, it is not a building but a ruin. The prophets agree; let us not leave them in a quarrel. Rather, let us recognize their peace: for they do not know how to quarrel. O prophet, you who said, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, where did you see him? Answer, answer, where did you see him? Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Phil 2:6). There I saw him. Or do you doubt that he who is equal to God is beautiful beyond the sons of men? You have answered: let the one answer who said, We saw him, and he had no form or comeliness. You have spoken: say where you saw him. He takes his beginning from the other's very words: where the one ended, there the other begins. Where did the one end? Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Phil 2:6). See where he saw him beautiful in form beyond the sons of men: now you, say where you saw that he had no form or comeliness. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man (Phil 2:7). Of his disfigurement he says still more: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8). See where I saw him. So both peacemakers agree, and both are at peace. What is more beautiful than God? What more disfigured than the Crucified?

5. This bridegroom, then, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44)), made disfigured so as to make his bride beautiful—she to whom it is said, O beautiful among women (Song 1:8), of whom it is said, Who is this that comes up made white (See Song 8:5; 3:6), made bright, not darkened by the color of a lie?—this one, then, who had called them to the wedding, found a man not having a wedding garment, and said to him: Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? But he was struck dumb. For he found nothing to answer. And the householder who had come in said: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (See Mt 22:12-13). So great a penalty for so small a fault? Great indeed. It is called a small fault, not to have a wedding garment: small, but only to those who do not understand. Why would he be so angry, why would he pass such judgment, that on account of a wedding garment which the man did not have he should send him with bound hands and feet into the outer darkness, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth, unless it were a very grave fault not to have a wedding garment? I say this: because you were invited through me, and if he invited you, he invited you through us. You are all at the banquet; have a wedding garment. I expound what it is, so that you may all have it; and if anyone is now listening to me who does not have it, before the householder comes and inspects his guests, let him change for the better, let him receive the wedding garment, let him recline in security.

6. For in truth, dearly beloved, that man who was cast out from there does not signify one single man: far from it. They are many. And the Lord himself, who put forward this parable—the Bridegroom himself who called the guests together and gives the guests life—he himself expounded to us that that man signifies not one man but many, there, in that very place, in the same parable. I do not go far afield, I expound it right there, right there I break it and set it out to be eaten. For when that man who did not have a wedding garment had been sent into the outer darkness, he then went on and added: For many are called, but few are chosen (Mt 22:14). You cast out one from here, and you say: For many are called, but few are chosen. Without doubt the chosen were not cast out: and they were the few who had remained reclining; and there were many in that one man, because that one man is one body of the wicked, who does not have a wedding garment.

7. What is the wedding garment? Let us seek it in the holy Writings. What is the wedding garment? Without doubt it is something that the wicked and the good do not have in common: let us find this, and we find the wedding garment. Among the gifts of God, what is there that the good and the wicked do not have in common? That we are men and not beasts is a gift of God: but this we have in common with the good and the wicked. That light rises for us from heaven, that rains come down from the cloud, that springs flow, that fields bear fruit—these are gifts, but common to good and wicked. Let us enter into the wedding; let us leave outside the others who, though called, did not come. Let us consider the guests themselves, that is, the Christians. Baptism is a gift of God; the good and the wicked have it. The good and the wicked alike receive the sacraments of the altar. Wicked Saul, hostile to a holy and most just man, prophesied; while he was persecuting him, he prophesied (See 1 Sam 19:23-24). Are only the good said to believe? The demons also believe, and tremble (Jas 2:19). What am I to do? I have shaken out everything, and I have not yet reached that garment. I have unrolled my bundle, I have considered everything, or nearly everything, and I have not yet reached that garment. In a certain place the apostle Paul brought me a great bundle of great things; he laid it out before me, and I said to him, Show me whether perhaps here you have found that wedding garment. He began to shake out each thing and to say: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I have all knowledge and prophecy and all faith, so as to move mountains; if I distribute all I have to the poor, and hand over my body to be burned (See 1 Cor 13:1-3). Great garments: yet none of them is the wedding garment. Now bring out to us the wedding garment. Why do you keep us in suspense, Apostle? Prophecy perhaps is a gift of God that the good and the wicked do not have. If I do not have love, he says, I am nothing, it profits me nothing (See 1 Cor 13:2-3). Behold the wedding garment: clothe yourselves, O guests, so that you may recline in security. Do not say: We are too poor to have that garment. Clothe others, and be clothed. It is winter: clothe the naked: Christ is naked; and whoever of you does not have the wedding garment, he will give it. Run to him, ask him: he knows how to sanctify his faithful, he knows how to clothe his naked ones. So that, having the wedding garment, you may not fear the outer darkness, the binding of limbs and hands and feet; let your works not fail. If they fail, what will he do whose hands are bound? Where will he flee whose feet are bound? Hold fast that wedding garment, clothe yourselves with it, and recline in security, when he comes to inspect. The day of judgment will be here: he who once was naked is now granted a great span of time in which to be clothed.

1. It seems hard and heavy, what the Lord has commanded: that if anyone wants to follow him, he should deny himself (See Mk 8:34). But what he commands is not hard or heavy, since he himself helps so that what he commands may be done. For that too is true which is said to him in the Psalm: Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways (Ps 17:4 (16)). And that is true which he himself said: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Mt 11:30). For whatever is hard in the commandments, love makes it easy. We know how much love itself accomplishes. Very often even a base and wanton love accomplishes much: how many hard things men have endured, how many unworthy and unbearable things they have borne, to reach what they loved—whether it be a lover of money, who is called greedy; or a lover of honor, who is called ambitious; or a lover of beautiful bodies, who is called wanton? And who could enumerate all the loves? Yet consider how all lovers labor, and do not feel that they are laboring: and they labor most when anyone is kept from their labor. Since, then, men are of as many kinds as their loves, and there should be no other concern about how one lives than that what is to be loved be chosen rightly—why are you surprised, if the one who loves Christ and wants to follow Christ, by loving him, denies himself? For if a man perishes by loving himself, surely he is found by denying himself.

2. The first perdition of man was love of self. For if he did not love himself, but set God before himself, he would want to be always subject to God: he would not turn to neglecting God's will and doing his own. For this is what it is to love oneself: to want to do one's own will. Set God's will above these things: learn to love yourself by not loving yourself. For that you may know it is a vice to love oneself, the Apostle says: For men will be lovers of self (2 Tim 3:2). And does not the one who loves himself trust in himself? For he begins, having forsaken God, to love himself, and is driven away from himself toward loving the things that are outside himself: so much so that when the same Apostle had said, Men will be lovers of self, he immediately added, lovers of money. Now you see that you are outside yourself. You began to love yourself: stand within yourself, if you can. Why do you go outside? Have you been made rich with money, lover of money? You began to love what is outside yourself: you have lost yourself. So when a man's love proceeds even from himself to the things that are outside, he begins to vanish away with vain things, and to expend his strength prodigally, as it were. He is emptied out, poured out, made destitute, and feeds swine: and laboring in feeding swine, he at last remembers and says: How many hired servants of my father eat bread, and here I am perishing with hunger (Lk 15:17)? But when he says this, what was told of that very son who poured out everything on harlots, who wanted to have in his own power what was being kept well for him with his father; who wanted to have those things at his own disposal, poured them out, and was made destitute—what is said of him? And returning to himself (Lk 15:17). If he returned to himself, he had gone out of himself. Because he had fallen away from himself and gone out of himself, he first returns to himself, so as to return to him from whom he had fallen away from himself. For just as by falling away from himself he remained in himself, so by returning to himself he ought not to remain in himself, lest he go out of himself again. Returning to himself, so as not to remain in himself, what did he say? I will arise and go to my father (Lk 15:18). See, the place from which he had fallen away from himself—he had fallen away from his father; he had fallen away from himself, he had gone out of himself toward the things that are outside. He returns to himself, and goes on to the father, where he may keep himself most safely. If, then, he had gone out of himself, and away from him from whom he had gone out, then by returning to himself, so as to go to the father, let him deny himself. What is it to deny himself? Let him not presume upon himself, let him sense that he is a man, and let him look to the prophetic saying: Cursed is everyone who sets his hope in man (See Jer 17:5). Let him withdraw himself from himself, but not downward. Let him withdraw himself from himself, so as to cling to God. Whatever good he has, let him attribute to him by whom he was made; whatever evil he has, he himself made it for himself. The evil that is in him, God did not make; let him destroy what he made, since by it he fell away. Let him deny himself, he says, and take up his cross, and follow me (See Mk 8:34).

3. Where is the Lord to be followed? We know where he went: a very few days ago we celebrated that same feast. For he rose again, and ascended into heaven: there he is to be followed. Surely there is no cause for despair, since he himself promised—not because man can do anything. Heaven was far from us before our head had gone into heaven. Now why should we despair, if we are members of that head? There, then, he is to be followed. And who would not want to follow him to such a throne? Especially since on earth there is much labor amid fears and griefs. Who would not want to follow Christ there, where there is the highest happiness, the highest peace, perpetual security? It is good to follow him there: but we must see by what way. For the Lord Jesus was not speaking these words at the time when he had already risen from the dead. He had not yet suffered, he was about to come to the cross, about to come to dishonor, to insults, to scourges, to thorns, to wounds, to mockeries, to reproaches, to death. The way is, as it were, made rough: it makes you sluggish; you do not want to follow. Follow. What man made for himself is rough, but what Christ trod down by returning is worn smooth. For who would not want to go to exaltation? Loftiness delights everyone: but humility is the step. Why do you stretch your foot beyond yourself? You want to fall, not to climb. Begin from the step, and you have climbed. This step of humility those two disciples were unwilling to heed, who said: Lord, command that one of us may sit at your right hand in your kingdom, and the other at your left (See Mt 20:21). They sought loftiness, they did not see the step. But the Lord showed the step. For what did he answer? Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink (See Mt 20:22)? You who seek the summit of loftiness, can you drink the cup of humility? Therefore he did not simply say, Let him deny himself, and follow me; but he added: Let him take up his cross, and follow me (See Mk 8:34).

4. What is it: Let him take up his cross? Let him bear whatever is burdensome: thus let him follow me. For when he begins to follow me in my conduct and my precepts, he will have many who contradict, many who forbid, many who dissuade, and this from those who are, as it were, Christ's companions. They walked with Christ, those who forbade the blind men to cry out. So whether it be threats or flatteries or any kind of hindrance, if you want to follow, turn it into a cross; bear it, carry it, do not give way. By these words of the Lord martyrdoms seem to be exhorted. If there is persecution, should not everything be despised for Christ? The world is loved: but let him by whom the world was made be preferred. The world is great: but greater is he by whom the world was made. The world is beautiful: but more beautiful is he by whom the world was made. The world is pleasant: but more delightful is he by whom the world was made. The world is evil: and good is he by whom the world was made. How shall I be able to unravel and explain what I have said? Let God help. For what have I said? what have you applauded? Behold, here is a question, and yet you have already applauded. How is the world evil, if he by whom the world was made is good? Did not God make all things, and behold, very good? Does not Scripture testify of each thing that God made it good, by saying: And God saw that it was good? And at the end it concluded the whole in this way, that God made all things, and behold, very good (See Gen 1; Gen 1:31).

5. How then is the world evil, and good is he by whom the world was made? How? Because the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:10). The world was made through him—heaven and earth, and all that is in them: the world did not know him—the lovers of the world; the lovers of the world, and despisers of God: this world did not know him. So then the world is evil, because those are evil who prefer the world to God. And good is he who made the world, heaven and earth and sea, and even those who love the world. For only this, that they love the world and do not love God, he himself did not make in them. But themselves, as far as their nature is concerned, he himself made: as far as their fault is concerned, he himself did not make. This is what I said a little while ago: let man blot out what he himself made, and he will be pleasing to him who made him.

6. For there is also a good world in men themselves; but made out of an evil one. For the whole world, if you take men to be the world—apart from what we call the world, namely heaven and earth and all that is in them—if you call men the world, the one who first sinned made the whole world evil. The whole mass is corrupted at the root. God made man good: so Scripture has it: God made man upright, and men themselves have devised many schemes (Eccl 7:29). From the many run to the one, gather the scattered into one: flow together, be fortified, remain with the one; do not go into the many. There is blessedness. But we flowed away, we went on into perdition: we were all born with sin, and to what we were born we also added by living badly, and the whole world became evil. But Christ came, and chose what he made, not what he found: for he found all evil, and by his grace made them good. And another world was made: and the world persecutes the world.

7. Which is the world that persecutes? The one of which it is said to us: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. Whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ambition of the age, which is not from the Father but from the world. And the world passes away, and its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides forever, as God also abides forever (See 1 Jn 2:15-17). Behold, I have spoken of both worlds, both the one that persecutes and the one that is persecuted. Which is the world that persecutes? All that is in the world, the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ambition of the age, which is not from the Father but from the world: and the world passes away. Behold, this is the world that persecutes. Which is the world that is persecuted? Whoever does the will of God abides forever, as God also abides forever.
But behold, the one that persecutes is called the world: let us prove whether the one that suffers persecution is also called the world. Or are you really deaf to the voice of Christ saying, or rather to the holy Scripture testifying: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19)? If the world hates you, he says, know that it hated me first (See Jn 15:18). Behold, the world hates. Whom, except the world? Which world? God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The condemned world persecutes; the reconciled world suffers persecution. The condemned world is whatever is outside the Church; the reconciled world is the Church. For the Son of man did not come, he says, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (See Jn 3:17).
But in this holy, good, reconciled, saved world—or rather, to be saved, but now saved in hope: For in hope we were saved (Rom 8:24)—in this world, then, which is the Church, which as a whole follows Christ, he said universally: Whoever wants to follow me, let him deny himself (See Mt 16:24). For this is not something that virgins ought to hear and married women ought not; or that widows ought and married women ought not; or that monks ought and the married ought not; or that clergy ought and laity ought not: rather, the whole Church, the whole body, all the members distinguished and distributed by their proper offices, should follow Christ. Let the whole follow, she the only one, let the dove follow, let the bride follow, let her follow who was redeemed and endowed by the blood of the bridegroom. Virginal integrity has its place there; widowed continence has its place there; conjugal chastity has its place there: adultery has no place there; unlawful and punishable wantonness has no place there. But those members which have their place there, each in its kind, and in its place, and in its measure, let them follow Christ; let them deny themselves, that is, let them not presume upon themselves; let them take up their cross, that is, let them endure in the world for Christ whatever the world brings on. Let them love him who alone does not deceive, who alone is not deceived, who alone does not deceive: let them love him, because what he promises is true. But because he does not give it at once, faith wavers. Endure, persevere, bear, carry the delay, and you have borne the cross.

8. Let the virgin not say: I alone will be there. For Mary will not be there alone, but Anna the widow will also be there. Let the married woman not say: A widow will be there, not I. For Anna will be there, and Susanna will not fail to be there. But let those who are to be there clearly prove themselves from this: that those who here have the lower place should not envy, but should love in others the better place. For example, my brothers, that you may take note: one has chosen the married life, another has chosen the continent life; if the one who has chosen the married life desires adulteries, he has looked back; he has desired what is unlawful. But the one who afterward wants to return from continence to marriage has looked back: he chose what is lawful, and he has looked back. Are marriages then to be condemned? No. Marriages are not to be condemned: but see where the one who chose them had reached. He had already gone forward. When he was living wantonly as a young man, marriage was before him; he was making for it: but when he chose continence, marriage is behind him. Remember, the Lord says, Lot's wife (Lk 17:32). Lot's wife, by looking back, remained fixed (See Gen 19:26). So let each one fear to look back from where he was able to arrive: and let him walk on the way, let him follow Christ; forgetting what is behind, stretching out to what is ahead, let him follow, according to his inward purpose, to the prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus (See Phil 3:13-14). Let the married set the unmarried before themselves; let them confess that these are better: let them love in them what they themselves do not have; and let them love Christ in them.

1. Brothers, as for what you have just heard Scripture warning and saying, that we should keep watch on account of the last day, let each one think about his own last day, lest perhaps, when you suppose or imagine that the last day of the world is far off, you doze toward your own last day. Concerning the last day of this world, hear what he said: that no one knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father (See Mk 13:32). Here indeed there is a great question, lest, being carnally minded, we suppose that the Father knows something that the Son does not know. For surely when he said, The Father knows, he said it because in the Father the Son too knows. For what is there in the day that was not made in the Word, through whom the day was made? Let no one, he says, ask about the last day, when it will be; but let us all keep watch by living well, lest the last day of any one of us find us unprepared, and lest, in whatever state each one departs from here on his own last day, in that state he be found on the last day of the world. It will be of no help to you what you have not done here. Each one's works will help him, or his works will weigh him down.

2. And how did we sing to the Lord in the psalm? Have mercy on me, Lord, for man has trampled me (Ps 56:1 (55)). He is called man who lives according to man. Indeed, to those who live according to God it is said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High (Ps 82:6 (81)). But to the reprobate, who were called to be sons of God, and chose rather to be men, that is, to live according to man: But you, he says, will die like men, and fall like one of the princes (Ps 82:7 (81)). For the fact that man is mortal ought to serve him for discipline, not for boasting. On what does a worm, who will die tomorrow, pride himself? I say to Your Charity, brothers: proud mortals ought to blush before the devil. For though he is proud, yet he is immortal; he is a spirit, though a malignant one. For him the last day of punishment is reserved unto the end, yet he does not suffer the death that we suffer. But man heard: You will die the death (See Gen 2:17). Let him make good use of his punishment. What do I mean: Let him make good use of his punishment? Let him not go from it into pride, from which he received his punishment; let him acknowledge himself mortal, and break his haughtiness. Let him hear it said to him: Why does earth and ashes pride itself? (Sir 10:9) Even if the devil prides himself, he is not earth, he is not ashes. Therefore it was said: But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes (Ps 82:7 (81)). You consider only that you are mortal, and like the devil you are proud. Therefore let man make good use of his punishment, brothers; let him make good use of his evil, so as to profit toward his good. Who does not know that it is a punishment that we must die; and what is worse, when we do not know it? The punishment is certain, the hour uncertain; and of this punishment alone are we certain in human affairs.

3. Our other things, both good and evil, are uncertain; death alone is certain. What do I mean? A child is conceived; perhaps it is born, perhaps a miscarriage occurs. So it is uncertain: perhaps it grows, perhaps it does not grow; perhaps it grows old, perhaps it does not grow old; perhaps it will be rich, perhaps poor; perhaps honored, perhaps brought low; perhaps it will have children, perhaps it will not; perhaps it will take a wife, perhaps it will not; and whatever else you may name among good things. Look also to the evils: perhaps it falls sick, perhaps it does not fall sick; perhaps it is struck by a serpent, perhaps it is not struck; perhaps it is devoured by a beast, perhaps it is not devoured. And consider all evils: everywhere it is, perhaps it will be, perhaps it will not be. But can you say: Perhaps it dies, perhaps it does not die? Just as physicians, when they have examined a sickness and recognized it to be mortal, pronounce this: He dies, he will not escape it. From the moment a man is born, it must be said: He will not escape. When he was born, he began to fall sick. When he has died, he indeed ends his sickness; but he does not know whether he passes on to a worse one. That rich man had ended his luxurious sickness, he came to a tormenting one. But that poor man ended his sickness and came to health (See Lk 16:19-25). But he chose here what he would have afterward; and what he reaped there, he sowed here. Therefore while we live we ought to keep watch, and we ought to choose what we may hold in the future.

4. Let us not love the world. It oppresses its lovers, it does not lead them to good. One must labor in it rather lest it seize us, than fear lest it fall. Behold, the world falls: the Christian stands, because Christ does not fall. For why does the Lord say: Rejoice, because I have conquered the world (See Jn 16:33)? Let us answer him, if it please him: Rejoice, but you yourself! If you have conquered, you rejoice. Why we? Why does he say to us, Rejoice, except because he conquered for us, fought for us? For where did he fight? Because he took on a man. Take away that he was born of a virgin, take away that he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man (See Phil 2:7); take this away, and where is the wrestling? where the contest? where the temptation? where the victory, which no battle preceded? 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 nothing was made (Jn 1:1-3). Would a Jew crucify this Word? Would an impious man insult this Word? Would this Word be struck with blows? Would this Word be crowned with thorns? But that he might suffer these things, the Word was made flesh (Jn 1:14); and having suffered these things, by rising again he conquered. Therefore he conquered for us, to whom he showed the security of the resurrection. So you say to God: Have mercy on me, Lord, for man has trampled me (Ps 56:1 (55)). Do not you yourself trample yourself, and do not let man conquer you. For behold, a powerful man frightens you. With what does he frighten you? I despoil, I harm, I torture, I kill. And you cry out: Have mercy on me, Lord; for man has trampled me. If you speak truly, you are attending to yourself; because you fear the threats of man, a dead man tramples you; and because you would not fear unless you were a man, man tramples you. What then is the remedy? O man, cling to God, by whom you were made man: cling to him, presume upon him, call upon him, let him be your strength. Say to him: In you, Lord, is my strength (See Ps 18:1 (17)). And you will sing in the face of the threats of men; and what you will then sing, the Lord himself says: In God I will hope, I will not fear what man can do to me (See Ps 56:11 (55)).

1. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (See Mt 9:12-13). It is the Lord's voice; and he calls sinners to this end, that they may not always be sinners; lest perhaps men suppose, because the Lord loved sinners, that they should always want to have sins, so that Christ may love them. Christ loves sinners as a physician loves the sick man—but so as to kill the fever and save him. He does not want him always to be sick, so as to have someone always to visit; rather, he wants to heal him. Therefore the Lord did not come to call the righteous but sinners, that he might justify the ungodly. From an idolater he made a believer, from a drunkard a sober man, from a spendthrift a frugal man, from a miser one who does not give to huntsmen, applauding the devil, but gives to the poor and is to be crowned by Christ, acquiring for himself that which cannot pass away. What the Lord did was more difficult; for he who made the godly man out of the ungodly, will he not give a reward to the godly? Consider, my brothers: which is more incredible, to make a godly man out of an ungodly one, or to make an angel out of a godly man? The ungodly and the godly are contrary to each other; the godly and the angel are not contrary. Will he not fill you from what is near, who changed you from what was contrary? For once you have begun to be godly, you begin to imitate the angelic life; but when you were ungodly, you were far from the life of the angels. But when faith comes, you are justified, and you are humbled before God, you who used to blaspheme God; and you who had turned to the creature now long for the Creator.

2. Behold what he has bestowed on you: he has displayed the Church throughout the whole world; as he promised it, so he has displayed it. It was foretold that idolatry would one day be slain and taken away; our forefathers read it, and did not see it; but we read it and see it. For does the one who sees believe? He believes who does not see; it is one thing to believe, another to see. Believe what you do not see, so that by believing what you do not see you may deserve to see what you believe. The merit of vision is faith; the reward of faith is vision. Why do you seek the reward before the work? Believe, then, and walk in faith; your salvation is in hope. The best Physician, then, has begun to cure you, the Physician to whom no disease is incurable. Do not fear your past crimes, however monstrous, however incredible, that you may perhaps have committed; the diseases are great, but greater is the Physician. Do not, then, be anxious about the past; in one moment of the sacrament they will be forgiven, and absolutely all will be forgiven. Hear on this matter what was said by the Apostles to the Jews who crucified the Lord: Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins are forgiven you (See Acts 2:38). It was done: they were baptized, they believed, they approached the Lord's body, they came to drink the blood which they had shed. To all who had been made guilty, the forgiver of sins grants pardon—not the praiser of sins—he who did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

3. Briefly, then, we say to Your Holiness: let every Christian make the effort, if he is still a catechumen, that his sins may be forgiven him. For already he bears the sign of Christ on his forehead, already he enters the church, already through him alone is the name invoked; but he still carries the burden of his sins; they are not yet forgiven, because they are not forgiven except in holy baptism. And let him not say to himself: I am afraid to become one of the faithful, lest I sin afterward. For that he may not sin afterward, he has it in his power; but that he may not have sinned, does he have that in his power? He has what he can do, so as not to sin; what can he do, so as not to have sinned? For what is done is done; the past you cannot make undone; but what is to come, you can refrain from doing. Why then is he led astray by the devil with perverse counsel? He fears future sins, which he has not yet committed; he does not fear the past ones, which he carries already committed. Those you have not yet done; these already press upon you; perhaps you will not do those—indeed, if you are unwilling, you will not do them—but these, even if you wish, you can blot out. I cannot, you say. Then flee to him who blots them out.

4. Come to grace. For you have received the power, since it is written: He gave them power to become sons of God (Jn 1:12). Begin, then, to be a son, you who were a wicked servant, though you had already begun to be in the great house. Where you began to be a servant, aspire to be a son; let the sins you carry be forgiven you. Why do you fear those that are not, and do not fear those that are? But when through the remission of sins you have been made new, all the past forgiven, if you receive here a generous span of living, so that good works may follow your faith, then live as one made a son of the household of so great a father, as one upon whom the name of God is invoked. Live thus: make progress, despise the present, hope for things to come; let temporal things grow cheap to you, let eternal things grow bright. Let us keep the Physician's precepts, that we may deserve to enjoy eternal health: for whoever does the will of God abides forever, just as God abides forever for him (See 1 Jn 2:17).

1. The miracles of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus move all who hear them and believe them: but they move different people in different ways. For some, astonished at his bodily miracles, do not know how to look at greater things: but others, the very deeds they hear were done in bodies, they now admire still more in souls. The Lord himself says: For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he will (Jn 5:21). Not, of course, that the Son raises some and the Father others; but the Father and the Son raise the same ones: for the Father does all things through the Son. Therefore let no one who is a Christian doubt that even now the dead are raised. But every man has eyes with which he can see the dead rise as the son of this widow rose, who has just now been read of from the Gospel: but the eyes with which men may see the dead rise in the heart, not all have, except those who have already risen in the heart. It is a greater thing to raise up one who will live forever, than to raise up one who will die again.

2. Over that young man raised up, the widowed mother rejoiced (See Lk 7:11-15): over men raised up daily in spirit, mother Church rejoices. He indeed was dead in body; but they in mind. His visible death was visibly mourned: their invisible death was neither sought out nor seen. He sought it who knew the dead: he alone knew the dead, who was able to make them living. For unless the Lord had come to raise the dead, the Apostle would not say: Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you (Eph 5:14). You hear of one sleeping, when he says: Rise, you who sleep: but understand one dead, when you hear: And arise from the dead. Those who are visibly dead are often called sleepers. And clearly all who can be awakened by the one who is able to awaken them are sleeping. For one is dead to you who, however much you strike him, however much you pinch him, however much you tear at him, does not wake. But to Christ that man was sleeping to whom it was said: Rise; and at once he rose. No one wakes a man in bed as easily as Christ wakes a man in the tomb.

3. We find three dead persons raised by the Lord visibly, thousands invisibly. But how many dead he raised visibly, who knows? For not all the things he did are written: John says this: Jesus did many other things, which, if they were written, I suppose that the whole world could not contain the books (See Jn 21:25). So there are without doubt many others who were raised: but not in vain are three recorded. For our Lord Jesus Christ wanted the things he did bodily to be understood also spiritually. For he did not work miracles merely for the sake of miracles: but so that the things he did might be wonders to those who saw, and truths to those who understood. Just as one who sees the letters in a beautifully written book, and does not know how to read, praises indeed the scribe's hand, admiring the beauty of the characters; but what those characters mean, what they indicate, he does not know; and he is a praiser with his eyes, but not a knower with his mind: another, however, both praises the craftsmanship and grasps the meaning; he, namely, who can not only see, which is common to all, but also read, which one who has not learned cannot do. So those who saw Christ's miracles, and did not understand what they meant, and what they intimated in a certain way to those who understand, only marveled that they were done: but others both marveled at the deeds and attained their meaning. Such ought we to be in the school of Christ. For whoever says that Christ worked miracles only so that they should be nothing but miracles, can also say that he did not know that it was not the season for fruit, when he sought figs on the tree (See Mk 11:13). For it was not the season for that fruit, as the Evangelist testifies: and yet, being hungry, he sought fruit on the tree. Did Christ not know what the countryman knew? Did the creator of the tree not know what the cultivator of the tree knew? When, then, being hungry, he sought fruit on the tree, he signified that he was hungry for something, and seeking something else: and finding that tree without fruit, full of leaves, he cursed it; and it withered. What had the tree done, by not bearing fruit (See Mk 11:14, 20)? What fault is barrenness in a tree? But there are those who cannot bear fruit by the will. Barrenness is the fault of those whose fruitfulness is a matter of the will. So the Jews were those who had the words of the Law and did not have the deeds, full of leaves and bearing no fruit. I have said this to persuade you that our Lord Jesus Christ worked miracles in order to signify something by those miracles, so that, besides the fact that they were wonderful and great and divine, we might also learn something from them.

4. Let us see, then, what he wanted us to learn in the three dead persons whom he raised. He raised up the dead daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, on whose behalf, when she was sick, he was asked to free her from her sickness. And as he was going, she was reported dead; and as though he were now being wearied in vain, word was sent back to her father: The girl is dead, why do you trouble the Master further (See Mk 5:35)? But he went on, and said to the girl's father: Do not fear, only believe (Mk 5:36). He came to the house, and found the funeral rites already prepared: and he said to them: Do not weep, for the girl is not dead, but sleeps (See Mk 5:39). He spoke truly: she was sleeping, but to him by whom she could be awakened. Awakening her, he gave her back alive to her parents. He also raised up this young man, the widow's son, of whom we have now been reminded, so that from this we might speak with Your Charity of these things which he himself deigns to grant. You have just now heard how he was raised (See Lk 7:11-15). The Lord was drawing near the city; and behold, a dead man was being carried out already beyond the gate. Moved with mercy, because the widowed mother was weeping, deprived of her only son, he did what you have heard, saying: Young man, I say to you, arise. That dead man arose, began to speak; and he gave him back to his mother (See Lk 7:14-15). He also raised up Lazarus from the tomb. And there, when the disciples with whom he was speaking knew that he was sick (for he loved him): Lazarus, he said, our friend sleeps (Jn 11:11). They, thinking it the healthful sleep of a sick man: If he sleeps, they said, Lord, he is safe (See Jn 11:12). And he, speaking now more plainly: I tell you, Lazarus our friend has died (See Jn 11:14). Speaking truly in both: He has died to you, he sleeps to me.

5. These three kinds of dead persons are three kinds of sinners, whom Christ raises even today. For that dead daughter of the ruler of the synagogue was inside in the house, not yet carried out from the inner walls into public. There she was raised inside, given back alive to her parents. But this one was indeed no longer in the house, yet not yet in the tomb; he had been carried out from the walls, he had not been committed to the earth. He who raised the dead woman not yet carried out, raised the dead man already carried out, not yet buried. The third remained, that he should raise even one buried: and this he did in Lazarus. So there are those who have sin inside in the heart, but do not yet have it in the deed. Someone has been stirred by some desire. For the Lord himself says: Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28). He has not yet approached in body, he has consented in heart: he has a dead man inside, he has not yet carried him out. And as it happens, as we know, as men daily experience in themselves, sometimes when the word of God is heard, as though the Lord were saying, Arise, the consent to wickedness is condemned, and one breathes again unto salvation and justice. The dead man rises in the house, the heart revives in the secret place of thought. That resurrection of the dead soul has taken place inside, within the hiding places of conscience, as though within the household walls. Others, after consent, go on into the deed, as though carrying out the dead man, so that what was hidden in secret appears in public. Are those, then, who have proceeded into the deed already despaired of? Was it not also said to that young man: I say to you, arise (See Lk 7:14)? Was he not also given back to his mother? So then he too who has already done it, if perchance, admonished and stirred by the word of truth, he rises at Christ's voice, is given back alive. He could go forward, he could not perish forever. But those who, by doing what is evil, also entangle themselves in evil habit, so that the very habit of evil does not let them see that it is evil, become defenders of their own evil deeds: they grow angry when they are rebuked; so much so that the men of Sodom once said to the just man who rebuked their most wicked will: You came to dwell, not to give laws (See Gen 19:9). So great was the habit of unspeakable foulness there, that now wickedness was justice, and the one who forbade was rebuked rather than the one who did it. Such men, weighed down by malignant habit, are as it were buried. But what shall I say, brothers? Buried in such a way that, as was said of Lazarus: He already stinks (See Jn 11:39). That mass laid upon the tomb is the very hard force of habit, by which the soul is weighed down, and is not allowed either to rise or to breathe again.

6. It was said: He has been four days (See Jn 11:39). Truly, by a certain fourfold progress the soul comes to this habit of which I speak. For the first is, as it were, the tickling of delight in the heart; the second, consent; the third, the deed; the fourth, habit. For there are some who utterly cast aside the unlawful things that come before their thoughts, so that they are not even delighted. There are some who are delighted, and do not consent: death is not yet complete, but in a way begun. To delight is added consent: now there is that condemnation. After consent one proceeds to the deed: the deed is turned into habit: and there arises a kind of despair, so that it is said: He has been four days, he already stinks. The Lord came, then, for whom of course all things were easy; and he showed you a certain difficulty. He was deeply moved in spirit, he showed that there is need of much loud rebuke for those who have hardened in habit. Yet at the voice of the Lord crying out, the chains of necessity were broken. The dominion of hell trembled, Lazarus was given back alive. For the Lord frees even from evil habit those who have been four days dead: for he too who had been four days dead was sleeping, when Christ willed to raise him. But what does he say? See the manner of the raising. He came forth from the monument alive, and could not walk. And the Lord to the disciples: Loose him, and let him go (See Jn 11:44). He raised the dead man, they loosed the bound man. See that something pertains to the proper majesty of God who raises. Someone set in evil habit is rebuked by the word of truth. How many are rebuked and do not hear! Who then works inwardly with the one who hears? Who breathes life within? Who is it who drives out the secret death, who gives secret life? Is it not that after the chidings, after the rebukes, men are left to their own thoughts, and begin to turn over within themselves what an evil life they lead, by what a wretched habit they are weighed down? Then, displeased with themselves, they resolve to change their life. These have risen; those have come to life again to whom what they have been is displeasing: but coming to life again, they cannot walk. These are the chains of their guilt. There is need, then, that the one who has come to life again be loosed and permitted to go. This office he gave to the disciples, to whom he said: What you loose on earth is loosed also in heaven (See Mt 18:18).

7. These things, then, dearly beloved, let us hear in such a way that those who live may live; that those who are dead may come to life again. Whether sin is still conceived in the heart and has not proceeded into the deed; let him repent, let the thought be corrected, let the dead man rise within the house of conscience. Or if he has already committed what he thought; let him not even so despair. The dead man did not rise inside; let him rise once carried out. Let him repent of the deed, let him come to life again soon: let him not go into the depth of burial, let him not receive from above the mass of habit. But perhaps I am now speaking to one who is already weighed down by the hard stone of his own habit, who is already pressed by the weight of habit, who already, having been four days dead, stinks. Let not even him despair: he is deeply dead, but Christ is high. He knows how to break earthly burdens by crying out, he knows how to give life inwardly through himself, to hand over to the disciples the one to be loosed. Let such men also do penance. For after Lazarus was raised, after four days, no stench at all remained in the living man. Therefore let those who live, live: but whoever are dead, in whichever of these three deaths they find themselves, let them act so as to rise again quickly.

1. Since we are admonished by the Lord's words from the divine readings, believing from this that God wishes to speak to us, we set forth to Your Charity, with his help, a sermon on the remission of sins. For when the Gospel was being read, you listened most attentively, and the event was narrated and turned over before the eyes of your heart. For you saw, not with the flesh but with the mind, the Lord Jesus Christ reclining in the house of the Pharisee (See Lk 7:36), and, having been invited by him, not disdaining it. You saw also the woman, notorious in the city—notorious indeed by an evil reputation—who was a sinner, bursting in uninvited upon the banquet where her physician was reclining, and seeking health with devout shamelessness. Bursting in as though importunate upon the banquet, but opportune for the benefit (for she knew how great a disease she labored under, and she knew that the one to whom she had come was fit to heal her): she approached, then, not to the head of the Lord, but to his feet, and she who had long walked badly sought the right footsteps. First she poured out tears, the blood of the heart, and washed the Lord's feet with the service of confession. With her hair she wiped them, she kissed them, she anointed them: silent, she was speaking; she did not utter speech, but she displayed devotion.

2. Because, then, she touched the Lord, by bathing, kissing, wiping, anointing his feet: the Pharisee who had invited the Lord Jesus Christ, because he was of that kind of proud men of whom the prophet Isaiah says: Who say, Depart far from me, do not touch me, for I am clean (See Isa 65:5); supposed that the Lord did not know the woman. This he was thinking within himself, and saying in his heart: If this man were a prophet, he would know what woman has come to his feet (See Lk 7:39). He believed him not to know, because he did not drive her away, because he did not forbid her to approach, because he allowed himself to be touched by a sinful woman. For how did he know that the Lord did not know? What if he did know, O Pharisee, inviter and mocker of the Lord? You feed the Lord, and you do not understand by whom you are to be fed. How do you know that the Lord did not know what that woman had been, except because she was allowed to approach, except because, while he allowed it, she kissed his feet, except because she wiped them, except because she anointed them? For ought not this to have been permitted—an unclean woman to do these things at clean feet? If such a woman, then, had approached the feet of that Pharisee, he would have said what Isaiah says of such: Depart from me, do not touch me, for I am clean (See Isa 65:5). But she approached the Lord unclean, that she might return clean: she approached sick, that she might return whole: she approached confessing, that she might return professing.

3. For the Lord heard the Pharisee thinking. Now from this let the Pharisee understand—if he could not see her sinning—that the one who was able to hear him thinking. He set before the man, then, a likeness of two who owed money to one creditor. For he wanted to heal him too, that he might not eat bread with him for nothing: he was hungry for the one feeding him; he wanted to amend him, to slay him, to eat him, to pass him into his own body: just as he said also to that Samaritan woman: I thirst (See Jn 4:7). What is: I thirst? I desire your faith. The Lord's words, then, are spoken in this likeness; and both things are accomplished, so that both that inviter may be healed, together with his fellow guests, who alike saw the Lord Jesus Christ, alike did not know him; and so that that woman may have confidence in her confession, and be pricked no further by the stings of her conscience. One owed, he said, fifty denarii, the other five hundred; he forgave them both: which loved him more (See Lk 7:41-42)? He to whom the likeness was set forth answered what reason of course compelled him to answer: I suppose, Lord, the one to whom he forgave more (See Lk 7:43). And looking toward the woman, he said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave no water for my feet: she has washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss: but she, from the time she entered, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil: but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I say: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, because she has loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little (See Lk 7:44-47).

4. A question arises that must surely be resolved, one that desires the attention of Your Charity, lest perhaps we be unable, given the brevity of the time, to remove and clear away all its obscurity with words; especially since this flesh, wearied by the heat, now longs to be refreshed, and, demanding its due, hindering the soul's eagerness, shows what was said: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mt 26:41). We must fear, and greatly fear, lest from these words of the Lord, not well understood, there should creep upon those who favor their carnal desires and are sluggish to be led out from them into liberty, that opinion which arose in the tongues of slanderers even when the Apostles were preaching, whence the apostle Paul says: And as some say that we say, Let us do evil that good may come (See Rom 3:8). For someone says: If to one to whom little is forgiven, he loves little; but to one to whom more is forgiven, he loves more: it is expedient to love more than to love less; therefore we ought to sin much, and to owe much that we may desire to have forgiven us, so that we may love more the forgiver of great debts. For that sinful woman, the more she owed, the more she loved the forgiver of her debts, the Lord himself saying: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, because she has loved much. And why did she love much, except because she owed much? Then he added and joined: But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Is it not expedient, he says, that much rather than little be forgiven me, so that I may love the more my Lord? You certainly see the depth of the question: I know, you see it. You see the narrowness of the time, and this too you see and feel.

5. Receive, then, a few words. If I do not do justice to the magnitude of the question, store up the present sermon meanwhile, and hold me debtor for the future. Suppose now two men, that under clearer examples you may consider what I have proposed. One of them is full of sins, he has long lived most wickedly; the other of them has sinned little: both come to grace, both are baptized; they enter as debtors, they go out free: more was forgiven to the one, less to the other. I ask how much each loves. If I find that the one to whom more sins were forgiven loves more, then it was more useful that he sinned much, the great iniquity was more useful, so that love might not be lukewarm. I ask the other how much he loves, I find less: for if I find that he too loves as much as the one to whom much was forgiven, how shall I answer the words of the Lord? how will it be true, what the Truth said: To whom little is forgiven, loves little (See Lk 7:47)? Behold, someone says, little was forgiven me, I did not sin much; and I love as much as this man, to whom much was forgiven. Do you speak the truth, or Christ? Was your lie forgiven you for this, that you should lay a charge against the forgiver of the lie? If little was forgiven you, you love little. For if little was forgiven you, and you love much, you contradict him who said: To whom little is forgiven, loves little. So I believe him the more, who knows you better. You think little was forgiven you—you love just a little. What then, he says, ought I to have done? To commit many evils, that there might be many for him to forgive me, so that I might be able to love more? It cramps us; but the Lord, who set forth these true things, free me from the straits.

6. This was said on account of that Pharisee, who thought he had either no sins or few. For he would not have invited the Lord unless he loved him somewhat. But how little it was! He gave no kiss, not even water for the feet, much less tears: he did not attend him with that service with which that woman did, who knew of what she was being healed, and by whom she was being healed. O Pharisee, you love little for this reason, that you suspect little is forgiven you: not because little is forgiven, but because you think what is forgiven to be little. What then, says he? I, who have not committed murder, am I to be reckoned a murderer? I, who have not committed adultery, am I to be punished as for adultery? Or are those things to be forgiven me which I have not committed? Behold, again let us set up two men, and let us speak to them. One comes, a suppliant sinner, covered with thorns like a hedgehog, and exceedingly timid like a hare. But the rock is a refuge for hedgehogs and hares (See Ps 104:18 (103)). He comes, then, to the rock, finds refuge, receives help. The other has not committed many sins: what shall we do with him, that he may love much? what shall we persuade him? Shall we go against the Lord's words: To whom little is forgiven, loves little (See Lk 7:47)? Yes, clearly, to whom little is forgiven. But O you who say you have not committed many sins, why? under whose governance? Thanks be to God, that by your movement and your voice you have shown that you have understood. Now, as I see, the question is resolved. This man committed many sins, and was made a debtor of many; that one, by God's governance, committed few. To the one God credits what he forgave; to this one he likewise credits what he did not commit. You were not an adulterer in that past life of yours, full of ignorance, not yet enlightened, not yet discerning good and evil, not yet believing in him who was governing you while you knew it not. This your God says to you: I was governing you for myself, I was keeping you for myself. That you might not commit adultery, the persuader was lacking: that the persuader might be lacking, I brought it about. Place and time were lacking; and that these might be lacking, I brought it about. The persuader was present, the place was not lacking, the time was not lacking: that you might not consent, I frightened you. Acknowledge, then, the grace of him to whom you owe even what you did not commit. To me that man owes what was done, and which you saw forgiven: to me you too owe what you did not do. For there is no sin which one man has done, that another man cannot do, if the ruler by whom man was made is absent.

7. Now then, since we have resolved this deep question, as best we could, in so very small a brevity of time—or if we have not yet resolved it, let us be held as debtors, as I said—let us rather look briefly at the matter of the remission of sins. Christ was thought to be a man, both by the one who invited him and by those who reclined with him. I know not what more that sinful woman had seen in the Lord. For why did she do all those things, except that her sins might be forgiven her? She knew, then, that he could forgive sins: but they knew that a man cannot forgive. And we must believe that all of them—that is, both those reclining and that woman approaching the Lord's feet—all of them knew that a man cannot forgive sins. Since, then, they all knew this, she who believed that he could forgive sins understood him to be more than a man. Indeed, when he had said to the woman, Your sins are forgiven you, at once they said: Who is this who even forgives sins (See Lk 7:49)? Who is this, whom now the sinful woman has recognized? You, reclining as though well, do not know the physician: because perhaps you have lost even your mind to a greater fever. For a man in a frenzy laughs, and is wept over by the healthy. Yet you know this well, you hold it well: hold it, that a man cannot forgive sins. She who believed they were forgiven her by Christ, believed Christ to be not only a man but also God. Who is this, they say, who even forgives sins? And the Lord, to those who said, Who is this, did not say: The Son of God, the Word of God: he did not say this, but, allowing them to remain a while in what they thought, he resolved the question of their being moved. For he who saw those reclining heard those thinking; turning to the woman: Your faith, he says, has saved you (See Lk 7:50). Those who say, Who is this who even forgives sins? who think me a man—let them think me a man. Your faith has saved you.

8. The good Physician healed not only the sick who were present, but also foresaw those to come. There would be men who would say: I forgive sins, I justify, I sanctify, I heal whomever I baptize. Of that same number are these too, who say: Do not touch me (See Isa 65:5). So much are they of that number, that recently, at our conference—which you can also read in the very Proceedings—when a seat was offered them by the official, that they might sit with us, they thought they should answer: It is written for us not to sit with such men, namely lest through the contact of the benches our contagion, as it were, should reach them. See whether it is not: Do not touch me, for I am clean (See Isa 65:5). But on another day, where it was more opportune, we reminded them of this most wretched vanity, when the matter of the Church was being discussed, that the wicked in her do not contaminate the good; we answered them, since they were unwilling to sit with us and said they had been admonished by the Scripture of God, namely because it is written: I have not sat in the council of vanity (See Ps 26:4-5 (25)): we said, If you were unwilling to sit with us because it is written, I have not sat in the council of vanity, why did you enter together with us, when it is written next: And with those who do iniquity I will not go in (See Ps 26:4 (25))? Therefore in this, that they say, Do not touch me, for I am clean, they are like that Pharisee who had invited the Lord, and for that reason thought that he did not know the woman, because he had not forbidden her the touch of his feet. But in another respect the Pharisee was better, because, while he thought Christ a man, he did not believe that sins could be forgiven by a man. So the understanding of the Jews appeared better than that of the heretics. What did the Jews say? Who is this who even forgives sins (See Lk 7:49)? Does a man dare to claim this for himself? What says the heretic on the contrary? I forgive, I cleanse, I sanctify. Let Christ answer him—not I, but Christ: O man, when I was thought a man by the Jews, I gave the forgiveness of sins to faith. Not I, Christ answers you. O heretic, you, being a man, say: Come, woman; I make you whole! When I was thought a man, I said: Go, woman; your faith has made you whole (See Lk 7:50).

9. They answer, understanding neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertions (See 1 Tim 1:7): they answer and say: If men do not forgive sins, then what Christ says is false: What you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven (See Mt 18:18). You do not know why this was said, how it was said. The Lord was about to give the Holy Spirit to men, and he wanted it to be understood that sins are forgiven by the Holy Spirit himself to his faithful, not by the merits of men. For what are you, O man, but a sick man to be healed? Do you want to be my physician? Seek a physician along with me. For that the Lord might show this more plainly—that sins are forgiven by the Holy Spirit whom he gave to his faithful, not by the merits of men—in a certain place, rising from the dead, he said: Receive the Holy Spirit; and when he had said, Receive the Holy Spirit, he at once added: If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven him (See Jn 20:22-23): that is, the Spirit forgives, not you. But the Spirit is God. So God forgives, not you. But what are you in relation to the Spirit? Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor 3:16)? And again: Do you not know that your bodies are a temple in you of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God (See 1 Cor 6:19)? So God dwells in his holy temple, that is, in his holy faithful, in his Church: through them he forgives sins, because they are living temples.

10. But he who forgives through a man can also forgive apart from a man. For he is no less fit to give by himself, who is able to give through another. He gave to some through John; to John himself, through whom did he give? Rightly, then, God wishing to show this, and to attest to this truth, when certain men in Samaria had been evangelized, and had been baptized—baptized by Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons first chosen—they did not receive the Holy Spirit, though they had been baptized. Word was sent to the disciples who were in Jerusalem, and they came to Samaria, so that those who had been baptized might receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of their hands (See Acts 8:5-17). And so it was done: they came and laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. For then the Holy Spirit was given in such a way that he even appeared to have been given. For those who received him spoke in the tongues of all nations: to signify that the Church among the nations would speak in the tongues of all. They received the Holy Spirit, then, and he plainly appeared in them. When Simon had seen this, thinking it to be something of men, he wanted it to be his too. What he thought to be of men, he wanted to buy from men. How much money, he said, do you want to take from me, that the Holy Spirit may be given through the laying on of my hands? Then Peter, detesting him, said: You have no part nor lot in this faith. Did you think the gift of God could be bought with money? Let your money be with you unto perdition (See Acts 8:18-20): and the rest that he fittingly said there.

11. But why I wished to recall this, let Your Charity attend. It was necessary that God should first show that he works through men: but then by himself, lest men should think, as Simon thought, that it was something of men, not of God. Although the disciples themselves already knew this. For a hundred and twenty men had been gathered, when the Holy Spirit came upon them through the laying on of no one's hands (See Acts 1:15; 2:1-4). For who had then laid hands on them? And yet he came, and filled the first ones. After that scandal of Simon, what did God do? See the teacher, not by words, but by deeds. That same Philip, who had baptized the men, and the Holy Spirit had not come upon them, unless the Apostles had assembled and laid hands on them—he baptized the eunuch, that is, a certain officer of queen Candace, who had worshiped in Jerusalem, and returning from there was reading the prophet Isaiah in his chariot, and did not understand. Admonished, Philip approached the chariot, expounded the reading, instructed his faith, evangelized Christ. The eunuch believed in Christ, and said, when they had come to a certain water: Behold, water, what prevents me from being baptized (See Acts 8:36)? Philip said to him: If you believe in Jesus Christ? He answered: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (See Acts 8:37). At once he went down with him into the water. The mystery and sacrament of baptism being completed, lest the gift of the Holy Spirit should be thought of men, it was not awaited, as then, that the Apostles should come, but at once the Holy Spirit came (See Acts 8:38-39). Simon's notion was undone, lest he should have imitators in such a notion.

12. Then another, more wonderful example. Peter came to Cornelius the centurion, to an uncircumcised gentile man: he began to preach Christ Jesus, both to him and to those who were with him. While Peter was still speaking—I do not say, before he had laid on hands, but before he had even baptized, and while those who were with Peter were doubting whether the uncircumcised should be baptized (for a scandal had arisen between the Jews who had believed and those who had been made faithful from among the Gentiles, that is, between the Jews and the Christians who were being baptized uncircumcised)—that God might remove this question, while Peter was speaking, the Holy Spirit came, filled Cornelius, filled those who were with him. And by that very attestation of a great deed, it was as though it were cried out to Peter: Why do you doubt about the water? I am already here (See Acts 10:44-47).

13. Therefore let any soul, secure in being freed from much wickedness by the Lord's grace—being cleansed in the Church as from unclean prostitution—believe, approach the feet of the Lord, seek the footsteps of the Lord, confess while pouring out tears, wipe them with her hair. The feet of the Lord are the preachers of the Gospel. The hair of the woman is her superfluous possessions. Let her wipe with her hair, let her wipe indeed, let her work mercy: and when she has wiped, let her kiss; let her receive peace, that she may have love. She approached such a one, she was baptized by such a one as the apostle Paul was: let her hear from him: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (See 1 Cor 11:1). But if she was baptized by some other who seeks his own, not the things of Jesus Christ (See Phil 2:21): let her hear from the Lord: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (See Mt 23:3). Let her be secure even in him, whether she fall in with a good evangelist, or with one who does not do what he says. For from the Lord she securely hears: Go, woman; your faith has saved you (See Lk 7:50).

1. Hear about the passage of the Gospel that the Lord has granted. For it was read that the Lord Jesus acted differently when one man offered himself to follow him, and was rejected; another did not dare, and was urged on; a third put it off, and was blamed. For that he said, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go (See Lk 9:57); what is so prompt, what so eager, what so ready, and what so fitted for so great a good, as to follow the Lord wherever he goes? You marvel at this, saying: What is this, that to the good master, the Lord Jesus Christ, inviting disciples to whom he would give the kingdom of heaven, one so ready was displeasing? But because he was such a master as foresees things to come, we understand, brothers, that this man, if he followed Christ, would have sought his own, not the things of Jesus Christ. For he himself said: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 7:21). And this man was of those very ones, and did not know himself as the physician saw him. For if he were already looking on himself as feigning, if he already knew himself deceitful and treacherous, he did not know to whom he was speaking. For he is the one of whom the evangelist says: He had no need that anyone should bear him witness of man: for he himself knew what was in man (See Jn 2:25). What then did he answer? The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head (See Lk 9:58). But where does he not have it? In your faith. For the foxes have holes in your heart, you are deceitful: the birds of the air have nests in your heart, you are puffed up. Deceitful and puffed up, you will not follow me. How does the deceitful man follow simplicity?
And to the other, immediately, who was silent and saying nothing, promising nothing, he says: Follow me (See Lk 9:59). As much evil as he saw in the one, so much good he saw in the other. Follow me, you say to one unwilling. Behold, you have a man ready. I will follow you wherever you go: and you say to the unwilling one: Follow me? This one, he says, I turn away; because I see holes there, I see nests. Why then is he troublesome to this one, whom you provoke and who excuses himself? Behold, you even compel him, and he does not come; you exhort, and he does not follow. For what does he say? I will first go to bury my father (See Lk 9:59). The faith of his heart showed itself to the Lord: but devotion put it off. But the Lord Christ, when he prepares men for the Gospel, wants no excuse of this carnal and temporal devotion to be interposed. This indeed the law of God also has, and the Lord himself reproved the Jews, because they were destroying that very commandment of God (See Mt 15:3-6). And the apostle Paul set it down in his Letter, and said: This is the first commandment with a promise (Eph 6:2). What? Honor your father and your mother (Eph 6:2). Surely God said it. So this young man wanted to obey God, and to bury his father: but there is a place, and there is a time, and there is a matter, which serves this matter, this time, this place. The father must be honored, but God must be obeyed. The begetter must be loved, but the Creator must be preferred. I, he says, call you to the Gospel; for another work I have need of you: this is greater than what you want to do. Let the dead bury their dead (See Lk 9:60). Your father is dead: there are other dead who may bury the dead. Who are the dead burying the dead? Can a dead man be buried by dead men? How do they wrap, if they are dead? how do they carry, if they are dead? how do they mourn, if they are dead? And they wrap, and they carry, and they mourn, and they are dead: because they are unbelievers.

2. He taught us what is written in the Song of Songs, where the Church says: Set love in order within me (See Song 2:4). What is: Set love in order within me? Make steps, and render to each what is owed. Do not subject the former things to the latter. Love your parents, but set God before your parents. Consider the mother of the Maccabees: My sons, she says, I do not know how you appeared in my womb (See 2 Macc 7:22). I was able to conceive you, I was able to bear you; I was not able to form you: hear him, then, set him before me; do not consider how I shall remain without you. She commanded, and they followed. What the mother taught her sons, this the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching this man to whom he said: Follow me (See Lk 9:59).
The third, looking back to his own, is blamed. Election according to grace. For now another disciple put himself in the midst, to whom no one had said anything: I will follow you, Lord, he said; but I will first go to take leave of those who are at home (See Lk 9:61). I believe the sense is this: Let me give word to mine, lest perhaps, as is wont to happen, they should look for me. And the Lord: No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven (See Lk 9:62). The East calls you, and you attend to the West. In this passage we learn this: that the Lord chose those whom he willed. And he chose them, as the Apostle says, both according to his grace, and according to their righteousness. For these are the words of the Apostle: Consider, he says, what Elijah says: Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have overthrown your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee before Baal (See Rom 11:2-4). You think you alone are a servant laboring well: there are others who fear me, and not few. For I have seven thousand there. And he added: So then also at this present time. For some Jews believed, and many were rejected: like that man too who carried the holes of foxes in his soul. So then, he says, also at this present time, a remnant has been saved through the election of grace (See Rom 11:5); that is, it is the same Christ now as then, who also said then to that Elijah: I have left myself. What is: I have left myself? I chose them, because I saw their minds presuming upon me, not upon themselves, nor upon Baal. They were not changed, they are as they were made by me. And you who speak, unless you presumed upon me, where would you be? Unless you were full of my grace, would you not yourself too bend the knee before Baal? But you are full of my grace; because you presumed nothing of your own strength, but the whole of my grace. Do not, then, glory in this, as to think that in your service you have no fellow servants: there are those whom I chose, as I chose you, namely presuming upon me: as the Apostle says: And now a remnant has been saved through the election of grace.

3. Beware, O Christian, beware of pride. For though you be an imitator of the saints, always attribute the whole to grace: because, that there might be a remnant, the grace of God in you, not your merit, brought it about. Of this very remnant the prophet Isaiah had spoken, recalling: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we would have become as Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah (Isa 1:9). So then, he says, also at this present time a remnant has been saved through the election of grace. But if by grace, he says, then no longer of works; that is, no longer be lifted up by your merit: otherwise grace is no longer grace (See Rom 11:5-6). For if you presume upon your own work, then a wage is paid you, grace is not bestowed. But if it is grace, it is given freely. I now ask: Do you believe in Christ, O sinner? You say: I believe. What do you believe? That all your sins can be freely remitted you through him? You have what you believed. O grace freely given! What do you, righteous man, believe—that you cannot keep righteousness without God? Then attribute the whole, that you are righteous, to his goodness: but that you are a sinner, ascribe to your own iniquity. Be your own accuser, and he will be your pardoner. For every crime, every misdeed, or sin, is of our negligence: and all virtue and holiness is of God's indulgence. Turned toward the Lord.

1. In the reading of the Gospel which has just been recited, we are admonished to ask what is the harvest of which the Lord says: The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest (See Lk 10:2). Then he added to his twelve disciples, whom he also named Apostles, another seventy-two, and sent them all, as appears from his words, to a harvest already prepared. What, then, was that harvest? For that harvest was not among these Gentiles, where nothing had been sown. It remains, then, that we understand this harvest to have been among the people of the Jews. To that harvest the Lord of the harvest came, to that harvest he sent reapers: but to the Gentiles, not reapers, but sowers. Let us understand, then, that the harvest was made among the people of the Jews, the sowing among the peoples of the Gentiles. For from that harvest the Apostles were chosen. There, when it was being reaped, it was ripe; because there the Prophets had sown. It is a delight to look upon God's husbandry, and to take pleasure in his gifts, and in the laborers in his field. For in this husbandry he was working who said: I have labored more than all of them (See 1 Cor 15:10). But strength was given him for working by the Lord of the harvest: therefore he added: Not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10). For that he was engaged in husbandry he shows well enough, where he says: I planted, Apollos watered (1 Cor 3:6). And this Apostle, from Saul become Paul, that is, from the proud the least (for "Saul" is named from Saul: but "paulus" means little: whence, interpreting his own name in a way, he says: I am the least of the Apostles (See 1 Cor 15:9)): this Paul, then, that is, the little and least, sent to the Gentiles, says he was sent especially to the Gentiles. He himself writes, we read, we believe, we preach. He himself says, then, in his Letter which is to the Galatians, that, already called by the Lord Jesus, he came to Jerusalem, and conferred the Gospel with the Apostles, and that right hands were given to him, and a sign of concord, a sign of agreement, that what they had learned from themselves differed from him in nothing. Then he says it pleased both him and them, that he should go to the Gentiles, but they to the circumcision (See Gal 2:1-9); he the sower, they the reapers. Rightly too the Athenians, though not knowing it, told him his own name. For hearing the word from him: Who is this, they said, sower of words (See Acts 17:18)?

2. Attend, then, and let it delight you to look with me upon God's husbandry, and in it two harvests, one past, the other to come: the past among the people of the Jews, the one to come among the peoples of the Gentiles. Let us prove this: and from where, except from the Scripture of God the Lord of the harvest? Behold, we have it said here in the present passage: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest (See Lk 10:2). But because in that harvest there would be Jewish opponents and persecutors: Behold, he says, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves (Lk 10:3). Let us show something more plainly about this harvest in the Gospel according to John: at the well where the Lord sat wearied, great mysteries indeed were enacted, but the time is too short for all to be treated. But what pertains to the present matter, hear. For we undertook to show the harvest among the peoples in whom the Prophets had preached: for they were sowers, that the Apostles might be reapers. The Samaritan woman speaks with the Lord Jesus, and among other things, when the Lord had told her how God ought to be worshiped, she says: We know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ, and he will teach us all things (See Jn 4:25). And the Lord to her: I who speak with you am he. Believe what you hear: why do you seek what you see? I who speak with you am he (See Jn 4:26). But what she had said: We know that the Messiah is coming, whom Moses and the Prophets announced, who is called Christ. For now the harvest was in the ear. It had received the Prophets as sowers to bring it forth, it awaited the Apostles, ripe, as reapers. As soon as she heard this, she believed, and left her water jar, and ran in haste, and began to announce the Lord. The disciples had then gone to buy bread: returning, they found the Lord speaking with the woman, and they marveled. Yet they did not dare to say to him: What, or why, do you speak with her (See Jn 4:27)? They held their wonder within themselves, they pressed down their boldness in their heart. To this Samaritan woman, then, the name of Christ was not new; she already awaited him coming, she had already believed that he would come. Whence had she believed, unless Moses had sown? But hear this more expressly. The Lord then said to his disciples: You say that summer is yet far off; lift up your eyes, and see the regions white for the harvest (See Jn 4:35). And he adds: Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors (See Jn 4:38). Abraham labored, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Prophets; they labored by sowing; at the coming of the Lord the harvest was found ripe. The reapers, sent with the sickle of the Gospel, carried the sheaves to the Lord's threshing floor, where Stephen would be threshed.

3. But here that Paul comes forward, and is sent to the Gentiles. And he does not keep silent about this in commending the grace which he received especially and properly. For he says in his Scriptures that he was sent to preach the Gospel where Christ had not been named. But now, since that harvest has been made, and all the Jews who remained, let us attend to the harvest which we are. For it was sown by the Apostles and the Prophets. The Lord himself sowed (for he himself was in the Apostles, since Christ himself also reaped. For they did nothing without him: he is perfect without them. For he himself said to them: Without me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5)). Christ, then, sowing now among the Gentiles, what does he say? The sower went out to sow (See Mt 13:3). There reapers are sent to reap, here the sower went out to sow, tireless. For what did he fear, that some fell on the way, some on rocky places, some among thorns? If he feared those difficult soils, he would not come to the good soil. What is it to us, what have we now to do with disputing about the Jews, and speaking of the chaff? The eye to us—not on the way, not on the rock, not among the thorns, but in the good soil (My heart is ready, O God (See Ps 57:7 (56); Ps 108:1 (107)))—from which come the thirtyfold, the sixtyfold, the hundredfold (See Mt 13:8). That is less and that is more; but the whole is wheat. Let there be no wayside, where the enemy, like a bird, carries off the seed trampled by passers-by. Let there be no rock, where a little soil at once makes to sprout what cannot bear the sun. Let there be no thorns—the desires of the world, the cares of a vicious life. For what is worse than the care of life, which does not allow one to come to life? What more wretched, than by caring for life to lose life? What more unhappy, than by fearing death to fall into death? Let the thorns be rooted out, let the field be made ready, let the seeds be received, let the harvest be reached, let the granary be desired, let not the fire be feared.

4. It pertains to us, then—whom, such as we are, the Lord has set as laborers in his field—to say these things to you, to sow, to plant, to water, even to dig around some trees and apply a basket of dung; it pertains to us to do these things faithfully: to you, to receive faithfully: to the Lord, to help us as we work, you as you believe, all as we labor, but conquering the world in him. I have said, then, what pertains to you: I want to say what pertains to us. But perhaps it seems to some of you that I have said I want to say something superfluous, and speaking within himself in his thought he says: O if only he would now dismiss us! He has already said what pertains to us; what pertains to himself, what is it to us? I think it better that, in alternating and mutual love, we belong to you. For now you are one household, and we are all dispensers of that same household, we all belong to one Lord. Nor what I give do I give of my own; but of his from whom I too receive. For if I give of my own, I will give a lie. For he who speaks a lie speaks of his own (See Jn 8:44). You ought, then, to hear what pertains to the dispenser, whether that in yourselves, if you find such, you may rejoice together, or that in this very thing you may be instructed. For how many in this people will be dispensers? And we too were there where you are: and we who now seem to measure out food from the higher place to our fellow servants, a few years ago in the lower place were receiving food with our fellow servants. A bishop, I speak to laymen: but from this I know to how many future bishops I am speaking.

5. So let us see how we ourselves understand what the Lord commanded those whom he was sending to preach the Gospel and to reap the prepared harvest. Let us see. Do not, he says, carry a purse or a bag or sandals, and salute no one on the way. And into whatever house you enter, say: Peace to this house. If there is a son of peace there, your peace will rest upon him; if not, it will return to you (See Lk 10:4-6). All must be run through briefly. Do not, he says, carry a purse. What do we do? We carry a purse, we admit it, when we make a journey: we carry a little provision on the way. Nor a bag. Perhaps we do not carry a bag. Nor sandals. What? Did he command us to walk barefoot? You yourselves see: we walk shod. For we do not utter words and hide our feet; before your eyes we walk shod. And indeed, if anyone salutes us on the way and we do not salute him, we shall be judged proud; we are blasphemed unto the blaspheming of the Lord. So we salute men even on the way. That, indeed, is easy, when we enter a house, to say: Peace to this house. But just as we are pressed by the purse, by the sandals (let us look to the Lord himself, in case he might console us and grant us the understanding of these words. For even this, which we said is easy, that on entering a house we say, Peace to this house, than which nothing is easier), what follows, if we take it carnally, there too we are in peril. For what does he say? Say: Peace to this house. Nothing easier. But what follows? If there is a son of peace in that house, your peace will rest upon him; if not, it will return to you. What is this? How will peace return to me? Shall I then have it, if it returns; if it has rested, have I lost it? Far be this from the mind of the sound. So neither must that be taken carnally, and through this perhaps neither the purse, nor perhaps the sandals nor the bag, and most of all that where, if we take it simply, without examination, pride seems imposed upon us, that we salute no one on the way.

6. Let us attend to our Lord, the true example and help. Let us prove that he is the help: Without me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5); let us prove that he is the example: Christ suffered for us, Peter says, leaving us an example, that we should follow his footsteps (See 1 Pet 2:21). This Lord of ours had a money box on the way; that very money box he had entrusted to Judas. He endured a thief indeed. But I, with my Lord's leave, desiring to learn, say to my Lord: Lord, you endured Judas the thief; from where did you have what was to be stolen from you? Me, a wretched, weak man, you admonished not even to carry a purse. You carried a money box, and there was something for the thief to take. If you had not carried it, neither would he have found what to take away. What remains, except that he say to me: Understand what you hear: Do not carry a purse? What is the purse? Money shut up: hidden wisdom. What is: Do not carry a purse? Do not become wise in your own eyes. Receive the spirit: a fountain ought to be in you, not a purse; from which it may be poured out, not where it may be shut up. The bag is the same as the purse.

7. What are the sandals? What are the sandals we use? They are leather from carrion. They are the hides of dead animals, coverings for our feet. What, then, are we commanded? To renounce dead works. This he admonishes in the figure of Moses unto glory, when the Lord said to him: Loose your sandals. For the place where you stand is holy ground (See Exod 3:5). What is so holy a ground as the Church of God? Standing in her, then, let us loose our sandals, let us renounce dead works. For about these sandals with which we walk shod, that same Lord of mine consoles me. If he had not been shod, John would not say of him: I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal (See Mk 1:7). Let understanding obedience, then, look on; let proud hardness not creep in. I, he says, fulfill the Gospel, because I walk barefoot. You can. I cannot. What we have received together, let us guard. Let us burn with love: let us love one another. And so it will come about that I love your strength, and you bear my weakness.

8. But what seems good to you, who were unwilling to understand how these things were said, and are forced, through a perverse understanding, to calumniate the Lord himself about the money box and the sandals? What seems good to you? Does it then please you that, while making a journey, we meet our dear ones and do not salute them, the elders, nor return greeting to the younger? Do you for that reason fulfill the Gospel, because you salute and keep silent? Here indeed you will be like, not a traveler making a journey, but a milestone showing the way. So let us put off stupidity, let us understand the Lord's words, and salute no one on the way. For not without cause are we commanded this; otherwise he would not want us to do what he commanded. What, then, is: Salute no one on the way? It can indeed be taken simply thus; because he commanded us to do the enjoined things in haste, and said it thus: Salute no one on the way, as though saying: Pass over everything, until you complete what is enjoined, in that manner of speech by which sayings are wont to be heightened in the custom of speaking. Nor let us go far afield. In the same sermon a little later he says: And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to hell (See Lk 10:15). What is: Exalted to heaven? Did the walls of that city touch the clouds, reach the stars? But what is: You are exalted to heaven? You seem too happy to yourself; too powerful, too proud you are. Just as, then, this was said for heightening: You are exalted to heaven, to that city which surely did not ascend or rise up to heaven, so for the heightening of haste it was said: Run so, do so what I have enjoined, that not even the least things should delay you in doing it; but, despising everything, hasten to the appointed end.

9. But there is another thing here that I rather think on. I do not pretend to ignore what pertains more to me, to all of us dispensers, but also to you the hearers. He who salutes speaks salvation. For the ancients too wrote thus in their letters: so-and-so to so-and-so, salvation. The salutation received its name from salvation. What, then, is: Salute no one on the way? Those who salute on the way salute by occasion (I see you have quickly understood; yet I ought not to finish now. For you have not all understood quickly. I saw some who understood by their voice; more I see who are still seeking in silence. But because we speak of the way, let us walk as on the way. You who are swift, await the slow, and walk together). What, then, did I say? He who salutes on the way salutes by occasion, he was not going to the one whom he salutes. He was doing something else, this other thing met him. He was seeking one thing, he found across his path another thing to do. What, then, is it to salute by occasion? To announce salvation by occasion. But what else is it to announce salvation, than to preach the Gospel? If, then, you preach, do this through love, not by occasion. For there are men who, seeking something else, announce the Gospel: of whom the Apostle, groaning, says: For all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ (See Phil 2:21). And these saluted, that is, they announced salvation, they preached the Gospel, but they were seeking something else, and therefore they saluted by occasion. And what is this? If you are such, whoever you are, you do it: rather (not such whoever you are who do it, but perhaps some such one) who do it, if you are such, you do not do it, but it is done concerning you.

10. For the Apostle even admitted such men; yet he did not command that they should be such. And they themselves do something, and profit comes from them. They seek something else and announce Christ. What the announcer seeks, do not be concerned; hold what he announces. What he wants, do not attend to, it does not pertain to you. Hear salvation from his mouth; hold salvation from his mouth. Do not be the judge of his heart. But you see him seeking other things. What is that to you? Hear salvation. What they say, do (See Mt 23:3). He made you secure. What? What they say, do. They do evil things: What they do, do not do (See Mt 23:3). They do good things, they do not salute on the way, they do not announce the Gospel by occasion; be imitators of them, as they are of Christ. A good man preaches to you: pluck the grape from the vine. A wicked man preaches to you: pluck the grape hanging on the hedge. The cluster grew with its entangled tendril among the thorns, and it did not sprout from the thorns. Clearly, when you see something of the sort and are hungry, pluck carefully, lest, when you put your hand to the grape, you be torn by the thorns. This is what I say: hear what is good in such a way that you do not imitate evil manners. Let him preach by occasion, let him salute on the way; it will harm him that he did not hear the precept of Christ: Salute no one on the way; it will not harm you, who, whether from one passing by or one coming, hear salvation, hold salvation. Hear the Apostle, as I had promised, admitting these men: For what then, so long as in every way, whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is announced? And in this I rejoice, but I will also rejoice. For I know that this turns out for my salvation through your prayer (See Phil 1:18-19).

11. Therefore let such Apostles of Christ, preachers of the Gospel, not saluting on the way—that is, not seeking something else, but announcing the Gospel with genuine love—come to a house and say: Peace to this house (See Lk 10:5). They do not say it with the mouth only; what they are full of, they pour out. They preach peace and they have peace. They are not such as those of whom it was said: Peace, peace, and there is no peace (See Jer 6:14). What is: Peace, peace, and there is no peace? They preach it and do not have it; they praise it and do not love it; they say, and do not do (See Mt 23:3). But nevertheless do you receive peace, whether by occasion or in truth Christ is announced. He, then, who is full of peace and salutes: Peace to this house, if there is a son of peace there (See Lk 10:5-6), his peace rests upon him; if not—for perhaps there is no son of peace there—he who saluted has lost nothing: it will return, he says, to you (See Lk 10:6). That returns to you which did not depart from you. For this he wanted to say: It profits you that you announced; it profited him nothing who did not receive it. Not because he remained empty did you for that reason lose your reward. It is rendered to you for your will; it is rendered to you for the love which you expended. He will render it to you who made you secure with the angelic voice: Peace on earth to men of good will (See Lk 2:14).

1. What our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples at that time was being written down, and was being prepared for us to hear. So we have heard his words. For what would it profit us, if he were seen and not heard? Nor does it now harm us at all, that he is not seen, and yet is heard. He says, then: Whoever despises you despises me (Lk 10:16). If he said only to the Apostles: Whoever despises you despises me; then despise us. But if his word has reached us, and called us, and set us in their place; see that you do not despise us, lest the injury reach him which you do to us. For if you do not fear us, fear him who said: Whoever despises you despises me. But what do we say to you, we who do not want to be despised by you, except that we may rejoice in your good conduct? Let your good works be the solaces of our perils. Live well, lest you die badly.
And in these words I have said: Live well, lest you die badly, do not consider those who perhaps lived badly and died in their beds; and the pomp of their funeral was conducted, and they were laid in costly sarcophagi, in tombs most beautifully and laboriously built: and because perhaps each of you says to himself, I would like to die so, do not think I meant to say something vain; for I said that I want you to live well, lest you die badly.

2. On the contrary, perhaps someone comes to mind who both lived well and, according to the opinion of men, died badly: perhaps he died in a collapse, perhaps he died in a shipwreck, perhaps he died by beasts; and every carnal man says in his heart: What is it to live well? Behold, that man lived so, and died so. Return, then, to the heart (See Isa 46:8); and if you are faithful, you will find Christ there; he himself speaks to you there. For I cry out: but he in silence teaches more. I speak through the sound of speech: he speaks within through the fear of thought. So let him plant in your heart my word: since I have dared to say, Live well, lest you die badly. Behold, since faith is in your hearts, and Christ is there, he himself can teach what I desire to sound forth.
Recall in the Gospel that rich man, and that poor man: the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, and fattened with daily banquets; but that poor man lying before the rich man's gate, hungry, and seeking the crumbs from his table, full of sores, licked by dogs (See Lk 16:19-21). Recall, then: from where do you recall, except because Christ is there in your hearts? Tell me what you have asked him within, and he has answered you. For it follows, and he says: It came to pass that the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. But the rich man also died, and was buried in hell. And when he was in torments, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Lazarus resting in Abraham's bosom. Then he cried out, saying: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip his finger in water, and let it drip on my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame (See Lk 16:22-24). Proud in time, a beggar in hell. For that poor man came to a crumb: but he did not come to a drop. Of these two, then, tell me, who died well, and who died badly? Do not question your eyes, return to the heart. For if you question your eyes, they answer you falsely. For very splendid and worldly-painted are the things that could be displayed for that dying rich man. What troops of mourning menservants and maidservants there could be? what pomp of clients? what splendor of funeral? what costliness of burial? I believe him buried under spices. What then shall we say, brothers—that he died well, or died badly? If you question your eyes, he died most excellently: if you seek your inner master, he died most wretchedly.

3. If, then, the proud who hoard their goods, and bestow nothing from them on the poor, die thus: how do they die who seize the goods of others? So I spoke truly: Live well, lest you die badly, lest you die as that rich man did. The time after death alone proves a death evil. On the contrary, attend to that poor man: not with the eyes, for you will err; let faith attend, let the heart see. Set him before your eyes, lying on the ground, full of sores, dogs coming and licking his sores. But when you recall him such before your eyes, at once you spit, you turn away your face, you stop your nostrils. See with the eyes of the heart. He died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man's household was seen mourning: the angels were not seen rejoicing. What, then, did Abraham answer the rich man? Remember, son, that you received good things in your life (See Lk 16:25). You thought nothing good, except what you had in this life. You received them: but the days passed: and you lost it all, and you remained to be tormented in hell.

4. It is fitting, then, brothers, that these things be said to you. Attend to the poor, whether lying or walking about: attend to the poor, do good works. You who are accustomed to, do it: and you who are not accustomed to, do it. Let the number of those who do good works increase: since the number of the faithful also increases. What you do, how great a good it is you do not yet see: because the countryman too, when he sows, does not see the crop, but entrusts it to the earth. Why do you not trust God? Our harvest will come. Reckon that, though laboring now, we act, laboring we work, ready to receive, as it is written: Going they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves (See Ps 126:6 (125)).

1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which have just been recited from the Gospel, admonish us that there is some one thing toward which we tend, while we labor in the multitude of this world. But we still tend toward it as pilgrims, not yet abiding; still on the way, not yet in the homeland; still by desiring, not yet by enjoying. Yet let us tend toward it, and without sloth and without intermission let us tend, that we may at length be able to arrive. Martha and Mary were two sisters, both sisters not only in flesh but also in religion; both clung to the Lord, both with one accord served the Lord present in the flesh. Martha received him, as pilgrims are wont to be received. But still it was a handmaid who received the Lord, a sick woman the Savior, a creature the Creator. She received him to be fed in the flesh, while she was to be fed in the Spirit. For the Lord willed to take the form of a servant, and, having taken the form of a servant, to be fed in it by servants, by condescension, not by condition. For this too was condescension, to offer himself to be fed. He had flesh, in which indeed he would hunger and thirst: but do you not know that in the desert the angels ministered to him when he was hungry (See Mt 4:11)? Therefore, that he willed to be fed, he bestowed upon the one feeding. And what wonder, if he also bestowed it on the widow through holy Elijah, whom he first fed by the ministry of a raven (See 1 Kgs 17:4-16)? Had he failed in feeding him, when he sent him to the widow? By no means; rather, by the service shown to his servant, he was arranging to bless the devout widow. So then the Lord was received as a guest, who came into his own, and his own did not receive him: but as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God (See Jn 1:11-12); adopting servants, and making them brothers; redeeming captives, and making them coheirs. Yet let none of you perhaps say: O blessed are they who deserved to receive Christ into their own house! Do not grieve, do not murmur that you were born in times when you no longer see the Lord in the flesh: he has not taken that condescension from you. When you did it to one of the least of mine, he says, you did it to me (See Mt 25:40).

2. These few things about the Lord being fed in the flesh, but feeding in the spirit, we have said as the time allowed: let us come to the matter which I proposed concerning unity. Martha, arranging and preparing to feed the Lord, was occupied about much serving: Mary her sister chose rather to be fed by the Lord. She in a way deserted her sister laboring about much serving, and sat herself at the Lord's feet, and, being at leisure, was hearing his word. A most faithful ear had heard: Be still, and see that I am the Lord (See Ps 46:10 (45)). The one was troubled, the other was feasting: the one was arranging many things, the other was gazing on one. Both offices were good: but still, which is the better, what shall we say? We have one whom to ask, let us hear together. Which is better, we have already heard when it was read, and, as I recall it, let us hear again. Martha appeals to her guest, lays before the judge the petition of devout complaints, that her sister deserted her, and neglected to help her laboring so in the serving. While Mary did not answer, but was nevertheless present, the Lord judges. Mary preferred, as one at leisure, to commit her cause to the judge, and was unwilling to labor in answering. For if she prepared a speech for answering, she would relax the intentness of hearing. So the Lord answered, who did not labor in word, because he was the Word. What, then, did he say? Martha, Martha—the repetition of the name is a sign of love, or perhaps of stirring intentness: that she might hear more attentively, she was called twice: Martha, Martha, hear: You are occupied about many things, but one thing is needful (See Lk 10:41-42): that is, one thing is necessary. Not one work as a single work: but it is a work, it is expedient, it is necessary; this one thing Mary had chosen.

3. Think on the one, my brothers, and see, in the very multitude, whether anything delights but the one. Behold, by God's favor how many you are: who could bear you, unless you had a taste for the one? Whence in the many this quiet? Give one, and there is a people: take away the one, and there is a mob. For what is a mob, but a multitude disturbed? But hear the Apostle: I beseech you, brothers. He was speaking to a multitude: but he wanted them all to make one. I beseech you, brothers, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same knowledge (See 1 Cor 1:10). And in another place: Of one mind, thinking one thing, nothing through contention, nor through vainglory (See Phil 2:2-3). And the Lord to the Father concerning his own: That they may be one, as we also are one (See Jn 17:22). And in the Acts of the Apostles: And of the multitude of believers the soul was one and the heart one (See Acts 4:32). Therefore magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together (See Ps 34:3 (33)). Because one thing is necessary, that one heavenly thing, the one where the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. See that unity is commended to us. Certainly our God is Trinity. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but the Spirit of both: and yet these three are not three gods, not three almighties, but one almighty God, the Trinity itself one God: because one thing is necessary. To this one thing he does not lead us, unless we, being many, have one heart.

4. Good are the services about the poor, and especially the due services about the holy servants of God, the religious offices. For they are repaid, not given, as the Apostle says: If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things (See 1 Cor 9:11)? They are good, we exhort you to them, and in the word of the Lord we build you up; do not be slothful in receiving the saints. Once, not knowing it, by receiving those whom they did not know, some received angels (See Heb 13:2). These things are good: yet better is what Mary chose. For that has occupation out of necessity: but this has sweetness out of love. A man wants to be of service when he serves; and sometimes he cannot: what is lacking is sought, what is at hand is prepared; the mind is stretched. For if Martha sufficed for those things, she would not ask her sister's help. They are many, they are diverse, because they are carnal, because they are temporal: even if they are good, they are passing. But what does the Lord say to Martha? Mary has chosen the better part (See Lk 10:42). Not you the bad, but she the better. Hear why the better: Which will not be taken from her. From you the burden of necessity will one day be taken: eternal is the sweetness of truth. What she chose will not be taken from her. It is not taken away, but rather increased. In this life it is increased, in the other life it will be perfected, never taken away.

5. But you, Martha—be it said with your leave—blessed in good service, for this labor of yours you seek a reward, rest. Now you are occupied about much serving, you want to feed mortal bodies, even those of the saints: but when you come to that homeland, will you find a pilgrim to receive into hospitality? will you find one hungry, for whom to break bread? one thirsty, to whom to hold out drink? a sick man, whom to visit? a quarreler, whom to reconcile? a dead man, whom to bury? All these will not be there: but what will be there? What Mary chose: there we shall be fed, we shall not feed. Therefore that will be there full and perfect, which here Mary chose: from that rich table, from the word of the Lord, she was gathering crumbs. For do you want to know what will be there? The Lord himself says of his servants: Amen I say to you, that he will make them recline, and will pass by, and will minister to them (See Lk 12:37). What is to recline, except to be at leisure? What is to recline, except to rest? What is: He will pass by, and will minister to them? First he passes by, and so ministers. But where? At that heavenly banquet, of which he says: Amen I say to you, many will come from east and west, and will recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (See Mt 8:11). There the Lord feeds, but first he passes over from here. For, that you may know, "Pasch" is interpreted "Passover." The Lord came, did divine things, suffered human things. Is he still spat upon? is he still struck? is he still crowned with thorns? is he still scourged? is he still crucified? is he still wounded with a lance? He has passed over. Indeed the Gospel too speaks thus, when he kept the Pasch with his disciples. What does the Gospel say? But when the hour had come, that Jesus should pass over from this world to the Father (See Jn 13:1). So he passed over, that he might feed: let us follow, that we may be fed.

1. When the holy Gospel was being read, we heard that the Lord was received into hospitality by a devout woman, and she was called Martha. And while she herself was occupied in the care of serving, her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet and heard his word. The one labored, the other was at leisure; the one dispensed, the other was filled. Yet Martha, laboring much in that occupation and business of serving, appealed to the Lord, and complained about her sister, that she did not help her laboring. But the Lord answered Martha on Mary's behalf; and he himself became her advocate, he who had been appealed to as judge. Martha, he says, you are occupied about many things, whereas one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her (See Lk 10:41-42). We have heard both the appeal to the judge, and the sentence; which sentence answered the one who appealed, and defended the one who was accused. For Mary was intent on the sweetness of the Lord's word. Martha was intent on how she might feed the Lord; Mary intent on how she might be fed by the Lord. By Martha a banquet was being prepared for the Lord, in whose banquet Mary was already taking delight. So when Mary was sweetly hearing the most sweet word, and was being fed with a most intent heart, the Lord being appealed to by her sister, how must we suppose she feared, lest the Lord should say to her: Rise, help your sister? For she was held by a wondrous sweetness, which is surely greater of the mind than of the belly. She was excused, she sat more secure. But how was she excused? Let us attend, let us look, let us examine what we can; let us too be fed.

2. For what? Do we suppose that Martha's service was reproved—she whom the care of hospitality had occupied, who had received the Lord himself into hospitality? How was she rightly reproved, who rejoiced in so great a guest? If this is true, let men leave off what they minister to the needy; let them choose for themselves the better part, which will not be taken from them. Let them be at leisure for the word, let them long for the sweetness of doctrine, let them be occupied about saving knowledge; let them have no care who is a stranger in the village, who needs bread, who clothing, who is to be visited, who redeemed, who buried; let works of mercy be at leisure, let knowledge alone be pursued. If it is the better part, why do we not all seize it, when we have the Lord himself as our patron in this cause? For we do not fear in this matter that we offend his justice, when we hold his sentence as patron.

3. And yet it is not so; but as the Lord said, so it is. In the way you understand it, it is not so; but it is so, in the way you ought to understand. Behold, attend. You are occupied about many things, whereas one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part (See Lk 10:41-42); not you the bad, but she the better. Why the better? Because you about many things, she about one. The one is preferred to the many. For the one is not from the many, but the many from the one. Many are the things that were made; one is he who made them. Heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them, how many they are! Who would number them? who would conceive their multitude? Who made these? And God made all things, and behold, very good (See Gen 1:31). Very good the things he made: how much better is he who made them? Let us attend, then, to our occupations about many things. Service is necessary for those who will refresh bodies. Why this? Because there is hunger, because there is thirst. Mercy is necessary for misery. You break bread for the hungry, because you have found one hungry. Take away hunger, if you can: for whom do you break bread? Take away pilgrimage: to whom do you show hospitality? Take away nakedness: for whom do you prepare a garment? Let there be no sickness: whom do you visit? Let there be no captivity: whom do you redeem? Let there be no quarrel: whom do you reconcile? Let there be no death: whom do you bury? In that future age these evils will not be: therefore neither these services. Rightly, then, Martha was about the bodily—I know not what to call it, necessity, or will, or will of necessity?—of the Lord; she was serving mortal flesh. But who was in mortal flesh? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1). Behold what Mary heard. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). Behold whom Martha served. Therefore Mary chose the better part, and it will not be taken from her; for she chose what will always remain: therefore it will not be taken from her. She wanted to be occupied about one thing; she already held it: But for me, to cling to God is good (See Ps 73:28 (72)). She sat at the feet of our head; the more humbly she sat, the more she received. For water flows together to the lowness of the valley; it runs down from the swellings of the hill. So the Lord did not reprove the work, but distinguished the gift. You are occupied, he says, about many things; but one thing is necessary. Mary has now chosen this for herself; the labor of multiplicity passes, and the love of unity remains. Therefore what she chose will not be taken from her; but from you, what you chose—this surely follows, this is understood—from you, what you chose, will be taken away. But it will be taken away for your good, that what is better may be given. For labor will be taken from you, that rest may be given. You sail, she is already in the harbor.

4. You see, then, dearly beloved, and, as I judge, you now understand, in these two women, who were both pleasing to the Lord, both lovable, both disciples; you see, then, and understand something great—whoever of you understand—which you ought to hear and know, even you who do not understand; in these two women two lives are figured, the present and the future, the laborious and the restful, the toilsome and the blessed, the temporal and the eternal. There are two lives, which I have described as briefly as I could: now think on them more copiously yourselves. What this life has—I do not say a bad, unjust, wicked, luxurious, impious life; but a laborious one, full of toils, chastened by fears, anxious with temptations; this very innocent life I mean, such as it was fitting for Martha to have—this, then, as far as you can, examine, and on this, as I said, think more copiously than we speak. But the wicked life was absent from that house, it was neither with Martha nor with Mary; and if it ever was, it fled when the Lord entered. There remained, then, in that house which had received the Lord, in the two women two lives; both innocent, both praiseworthy; one laborious, the other at leisure; neither criminal, neither slothful. Both innocent, both, I say, praiseworthy; but one laborious, as I said, the other at leisure; neither criminal, which the laborious must beware; neither slothful, which the leisurely must beware. There were, then, in that house these two lives, and the very fountain of life. In Martha was the image of present things, in Mary of things to come. What Martha did, there we are; what Mary did, this we hope for; let us do this well, that we may have that fully. For what do we have of it, in what measure do we have it, as long as we are here? How much is it that we have of it? What is it that we have of it? For even now something of it is done. Withdrawn from business, household cares set aside, you have gathered, you stand, you hear; in as much as you do this, you are like Mary. And you do what Mary does more easily than I what Christ does. Yet if I say anything of Christ, for that reason it feeds you, because it is Christ's, because it is the common bread, from which I too live, if I live. But now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord (See 1 Thess 3:8); not in us, but in the Lord; because neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (See 1 Cor 3:7).

5. Yet how much is it that, by hearing and understanding, you take and grasp of that life, whose image Mary bore—how much is this? Let this night of the world pass. In the morning I will stand before you, and I will contemplate (See Ps 5:3 (5)). To my hearing you will give joy and gladness, and the humbled bones will exult (See Ps 51:8 (50)). Humbled bones, like the limbs of one clinging. This Mary did: she was humbled, and was filled. She was sitting; what, then, is it that I said: In the morning I will stand and contemplate? How does she sit like one standing, if morning signifies the future age? The night of the present age being past: I will stand, he says, and I will see, I will stand and contemplate. He did not say: I will sit. How does Mary, sitting, bear the image of so great a thing, if it is, I will stand and contemplate? Do not let these things trouble you, it is the poverty of the flesh; both cannot be required of the body, that at the same time, at one moment, it both stand and sit. For if it sits, it does not stand; if it stands, it does not sit; the body cannot do both at once. But if I prove that the mind can, will there be any cause for us to doubt? Because if even now it can do something of the sort, much more easily then will man be able, every difficulty being ended. Behold, from where you may take an example. Paul himself says: Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord (See 1 Thess 3:8). So great an Apostle, rather Christ through the Apostle, commanded us to stand. How does that same Apostle likewise, rather Christ himself through the Apostle, say to us: Yet in what we have attained, let us walk in it (See Phil 3:16)? Here to stand, here to walk; it is too little to walk, so run, that you may attain (See 1 Cor 9:24). Attend, then, dearly beloved, and understand; he commands us both to walk, and commands us to stand; not that, when we stand, we should cease to walk, or, when we walk, we should cease to stand; but both at once, let us both stand and run. What is it: both stand and run? Both remain and make progress. Make your ways, Lord, known to me (See Ps 25:4 (24)). Surely, by the ways of the Lord being made known, what are we commanded, except to walk? Lead me, Lord, in your way (See Ps 27:11 (26)); what do we wish, except to walk? And again, as though to be fixed in one place: Do not give my feet to be moved (See Ps 66:9 (65)). And rejoicing in another place and giving thanks: And he did not give my feet to movement (See Ps 66:9 (65)). If it were said to him: How did you wish the ways of the Lord to be made known to you, how did you wish to be led by him in his way, and you wish your feet not to be moved, and you give thanks that your feet were not given to movement? how did you walk, who did not move your feet? he would answer you: I both walked, because I acted; and I stood, because I did not depart. Do not wonder, then, brothers; behold, what the body cannot do, the mind can. According to the body, when you walk, you do not stand; when you stand, you do not walk; according to the mind, according to faith, according to the intentness of the mind, both stand and walk, both remain and make progress, because Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord, and so run, that you may attain. So then, dearly beloved, you will both sit and stand. We shall sit, because we shall humbly gaze on the Creator; we shall stand, because we shall remain forever.

6. For I add more: we shall also recline, which surely is neither to sit nor to stand. We shall recline. I would not dare to say it, unless the Lord promised it: He will make them recline. Promising a great reward to his servants: He will make them recline, he says, and passing by he will minister to them (See Lk 12:37). This life is promised us, that the Lord will make us recline, and passing by will minister to us. This too was said, when the centurion's faith was marveled at and praised: Amen I say to you, that many will come from East and West, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (See Mt 8:11). A great promise, a happy repayment. Let us act so as to deserve it, let us be helped that we may be able to come there, where, as we recline, the Lord will minister to us. For what will it be to recline, except to rest? and what will it be to minister, except to feed? What is that food? what is that drink? Surely Truth itself. That food refreshes, and does not fail: it feeds, and by feeding makes whole; nor is it consumed in the one it feeds, but remaining whole, it makes whole. Do you not believe that God can feed thus, when even now your eye is thus fed by this light? Your eye is fed with light. Let many see, it is so great; let few see, it is so great; and those eyes are refreshed, and it itself does not fail. It takes from it, and does not diminish it; it plucks, and does not cut it off. Can this light do this for the eye, and God not be able to do it for changed man? He can, clearly he can; why do you not yet grasp it? Because you are occupied about many things; Martha's business has occupied you, rather all of us. For who is at leisure from this service of helping? who breathes free from this care? Let us do this innocently, let us do it in love; that too will come, that we should recline, and he passes by, and will minister to us. For he would not then minister to us, unless he passed over from here to the Father; for he was here, when he was promising. And lest we should think he would display to us something such as the form of servant we were contemplating: Passing by, he says, he will minister to them. And the Evangelist concerning this passing over: But when the hour had come, that Jesus should pass over from this world to the Father (See Jn 13:1). So long a time, he says, I am with you, and you have not known me (See Jn 14:9)? If he knew what he heard, he would answer: I have not known you, because you have not yet passed over. Whence also to Mary it is said after the resurrection: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father (See Jn 20:17).

7. Therefore, dearly beloved, I beseech you, I exhort you, I admonish, I charge, I ask, let us together desire that life, let us run together by coming to it, that we may stand fast in it by persevering. The hour comes, and that hour will be without end, when the Lord will make us recline, and will minister to us. What, except himself? Why do you ask what you may eat? You have the Lord himself. For what will there be from which we may be fed, what, except In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1)? What will it be to recline, except to rest? what will it be to be fed, except to be delighted ineffably by his contemplation? Delight is at your right hand (See Ps 16:11 (15)). One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek; not many things, about which I am occupied: but one thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord (See Ps 27:4 (26)). This is not the blessedness of those who labor. Be still and see: what? that I am the Lord (See Ps 46:10 (45)). A great vision, a happy contemplation. But what else is it: Recline and eat, except: Be still and see? Therefore let us not be carnally minded, nor think, so to speak, of luxurious banquets. These things will pass: they are to be endured, not loved. If you want to fulfill in them the office of Martha, let moderation be present, let mercy be present; moderation in tempering, mercy in dispensing. Labor passes, and rest will come; but to rest only through labor. The ship passes, and comes into the homeland; but to the homeland only through the ship. For we sail, if we attend to the waves and storms of this world. Nor do I doubt that we are not drowned for this reason, that we are carried by the wood of the cross.

1. We have heard our Lord, the heavenly master and most faithful counselor, exhorting us—the same who urges us to ask, and is the giver when we ask. We have heard him in the Gospel exhorting us to ask him insistently, and to knock even to the likeness of importunity. For he set before us, by way of example: If any of you had a friend, from whom he asked three loaves at night, when a friend had come to him from a journey, and he had nothing to set before him: but if that friend should answer that he was already resting, and his servants with him, and that he ought not to be troubled by his entreaties—but if the other should keep insisting by knocking and persevere, and not depart frightened off by shame, but, compelled by necessity, press on: he would rise, even if not for friendship's sake, certainly because of the other's importunity, and would give him as many as he wished (See Lk 11:5-8). But how many did he want? That man wanted nothing more than three. In this likeness, then, the Lord added an exhortation, and altogether spurred us to ask, to seek, to knock, until we receive what we ask, what we seek, for what we knock, using a contrasting example: as about that judge who neither feared God nor reverenced men, and yet, when a certain widow appealed to him daily, overcome by weariness, gave what he could not, unwilling, of kindness (See Lk 18:2-5). But our Lord Jesus Christ, a petitioner among us, a giver with the Father, would surely not exhort us only to ask, unless he wished to give. Let human sloth blush: he wants to give more than we to receive: he wants to have mercy more than we to be freed from misery: and surely, if we are not freed, we shall remain wretched. For he, in that he exhorts us, exhorts us for our own sake.

2. Let us awake, and believe the one who exhorts, obey the one who promises, and rejoice toward the one who gives. For perhaps a friend has sometime come to us too from a journey, and we did not find what to set before him; and we suffered need, and received both for ourselves and for him. For it cannot but be that someone has suffered a friend asking something which he could not answer: and then he finds himself not to have, when he is compelled to give. A friend comes to you from a journey, that is, from the life of this world, in which all pass like pilgrims, nor does any remain as possessor; but to every man it is said: You have been refreshed, pass on; make your journey, give place to the one coming. Or perhaps some friend of yours, wearied from an evil way, that is, an evil life, not finding the truth, by hearing and grasping which he might become blessed, but exhausted in all the desire and want of the world, comes to you, as to a Christian, and says: Give me an account, make me a Christian. And he asks what perhaps you, through the simplicity of faith, did not know: and there is nothing from which you may refresh the hungry, and, admonished, you find yourself in want; and when you want to teach, you are compelled to learn: and while you blush before the one who questioned, not finding in yourself what he sought, you are compelled to seek, that you may deserve to find.
And where will you seek? Where, except in the Lord's Books? Perhaps what he asked is set down in a book, but it is obscure. Perhaps the Apostle said this in his Letter. He said it in such a way that you can read it, you cannot understand it: you are not permitted to pass over. For the questioner urges; you are not allowed to question Paul himself, or Peter, or some Prophet. For now that household rests with its Lord, and the ignorance of this world is strong, that is, it is midnight, and the hungry friend urges. Perhaps simple faith sufficed for you, it does not suffice for him. Is he to be deserted? is he to be cast out of the house?

3. Therefore to the Lord himself, to him with whom the household rests, knock by praying, ask, insist. Not as that friend set in the likeness, overcome by weariness, will he rise and give. He wants to give: you, knocking, have not yet received; knock, he wants to give. And what he wants to give, he defers, that you may desire the deferred thing more, lest what is quickly given grow cheap.
But when you have come to the three loaves, that is, to the food and understanding of the Trinity, you have both that from which you live, and that from which you may feed. And do not dread the pilgrim coming from the way, but by receiving him make him a domestic citizen: and do not fear lest you run out. That bread will not run out, but will end your need. It is bread, and bread, and bread: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Eternal Father, coeternal Son, coeternal Holy Spirit. Unchangeable Father, unchangeable Son, unchangeable Holy Spirit. Creator both Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. Shepherd and giver of life, both Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. Food and eternal bread, both Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. Learn, and teach; live, and feed. God, who gives to you, gives you nothing better than himself. Greedy man, what else were you seeking? Or if you seek something else, what suffices you, for whom God does not suffice?

4. But there is need that you have love, have faith, have hope: that what is given may be able to be sweet to you. And these very things are three, faith, hope, love. And these very things are gifts of God. For faith we received from him: As God, he says, has apportioned to each a measure of faith (See Rom 12:3). And hope we received from him, to whom it is said: In which you have given me hope (See Ps 119:49 (118)). And love we received from him, of which it is 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). But these three likewise are somewhat diverse; but all gifts of God. For these three remain, faith, hope, love: but the greater of these is love (See 1 Cor 13:13). Among those loaves no loaf was said to be greater than the others: but simply three loaves were asked and given.
Behold, another three: Who of you, if his son asks him for bread, will hold out a stone to him? Or who of you, if he asks for a fish, will hold out a serpent to him? Or if he asks for an egg, will hold out a scorpion to him? If, then, you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons; how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him (See Lk 11:11-13; Mt 7:9-11)? Let us, then, consider these three again, in case those three are there, faith, hope, love: but the greater of these is love. Set, then, three things, bread, fish, egg: the greater of these is bread. Therefore we rightly understand by bread, among these three, love. For this reason he set a stone opposite to bread, because hardness is contrary to love. By the fish we understand faith. A certain holy man said, and it delights us to say it: The good fish is devout faith. It lives among the waves, nor is it broken or dissolved by the waves. Devout faith lives among the temptations and storms of this world: the world rages, and it is whole. Only watch against that serpent contrary to faith. For in faith she is betrothed, she to whom it is said in the Song of Songs: Come from Lebanon, my bride, coming and passing through from the beginning of faith (See Song 4:8). And for this reason betrothed, because the beginning of betrothal is faith. For something is promised by the bridegroom, and she is held by the promise believed. But the Lord set the serpent opposite to the fish, the devil opposite to faith. Therefore to this betrothed one the Apostle says: I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (See 2 Cor 11:2): and: I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so also your minds be corrupted from the chastity which is in Christ (See 2 Cor 11:3); that is, which is in the faith of Christ. For Christ to dwell, he says, by faith in your hearts (See Eph 3:17). Let the devil, then, not corrupt faith, let him not devour the fish.

5. There remains hope, which, as it seems to me, is compared to the egg. For hope has not yet come to the thing: and an egg is something, but it is not yet a chick. Four-footed animals, then, bring forth their young, but birds the hope of their young. Hope, then, exhorts us to this, that we despise present things, await things to come; forgetting what is behind, that we stretch out with the Apostle to what is before. For he says thus: But one thing, forgetting what is behind, stretching out to what is before, according to my intent I follow on to the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus (See Phil 3:13-14). Nothing, then, is so hostile to hope as to look back, that is, to set hope in those things which slip past and pass away: but in those which have not yet been given, but are one day to be given, which will never pass away. But when the world swarms with temptations, like the sulfurous rain of Sodom, the example of Lot's wife must be feared. For she looked back; and where she looked, there she remained. She was turned into salt (See Gen 19:26), to season the prudent by her example. The apostle Paul speaks thus of this hope: For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await it through patience (See Rom 8:24-25). For what a man sees, why does he hope for? It is an egg. It is an egg, and is not yet a chick. And it is covered with a shell: it is not seen, because it is covered; let it be awaited with patience; let it grow warm, that it may come to life. Be intent, stretch out to what is before, forget the past. For the things that are seen are temporal. Not looking, he says, at the things that are seen, but at 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 4:18). On those things, then, which are not seen, stretch out your hope: await, endure. Do not look back. Fear the scorpion for your egg. See that it strikes with the tail, which it has behind. Let not the scorpion, then, destroy your egg, this world your hope, so to speak, with that poison which is contrary, which is in the tail behind. How much the world says to you, how much it clamors behind your back, that you may look back: that is, that you may set your hope in present things (and not even present; for things that never stand still are not to be called present); and that you may turn your mind away from what Christ promised and has not yet given, but, because he is faithful, will give, and may want to rest in a perishing world.

6. For God mingles bitternesses with earthly happinesses, that another happiness may be sought, whose sweetness is not deceptive: and from these very bitternesses the world tries to turn you away from that toward which you stretch out before, and to turn you back. From these very bitternesses, from these very tribulations you murmur, and say: Behold, everything perishes in Christian times. Why do you clamor? God did not promise me this, that these things would not perish: Christ did not promise me this. The Eternal promised eternal things: if I believe, from mortal I shall become eternal. Why do you clamor, O unclean world? why do you clamor? Why do you try to turn me away? You want to hold me, perishing yourself: what would you do, if you remained? Whom would you not deceive, sweet, if, bitter, you feign nourishment? If I have hope, if I hold hope, my egg has not been struck by the scorpion. I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be always in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33)). Let the world be happy, let the world be overthrown: I will bless the Lord, who made the world. I will bless him utterly. According to the flesh let it go well, according to the flesh let it go badly: I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be always in my mouth. For if I bless when it goes well, and blaspheme when it goes badly, I have received the scorpion's sting, pricked I have looked back; which be far from us. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done: blessed be the name of the Lord (See Job 1:21).

7. The city that bore us carnally remains. Thanks be to God. Would that it might be generated spiritually too, and pass with us to eternity. If the city that bore us carnally does not remain, the one that bore us spiritually remains. The Lord building Jerusalem (See Ps 147:2 (146)). Did he, by sleeping, lose his building, or, by not guarding it, let the enemy in? Unless the Lord guards the city, in vain does he keep watch who guards it (See Ps 127:1 (126)). And what city? He who guards Israel does not sleep, nor will he slumber (See Ps 121:4 (120)). What is Israel, except the seed of Abraham? What is the seed of Abraham? except Christ? And to your seed, he says, which is Christ (Gal 3:16). And what of us? But you are Christ's: therefore you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (See Gal 3:29). In your seed, he says, all the nations will be blessed (See Gen 22:18). A holy city, a faithful city, a city on earth a pilgrim, founded in heaven. O faithful one, do not corrupt hope, do not lose love, gird your loins, ascend, hold out your lamps, await the Lord, when he comes from the wedding (See Lk 12:35-36). Why are you terrified, that earthly kingdoms perish? For this reason the heavenly was promised you, lest you perish with the earthly. For these things were foretold to perish, foretold altogether. For we cannot deny what was foretold. Your Lord whom you await said to you: Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (See Mt 24:7). Earthly kingdoms have changes: he will come of whom it was said: And of his kingdom there will be no end (Lk 1:33).
Those who promised this to earthly kingdoms were not led by truth, but lied out of flattery. A certain poet of theirs brought in Jupiter speaking, and said of the Romans:
The truth plainly does not answer thus. This kingdom, which you gave without end, O you who gave nothing, is it on earth, or in heaven? Surely on earth. And even if it were in heaven: Heaven and earth will pass away (See Mt 24:35). The things that God himself made will pass away; how much sooner what Romulus founded? Perhaps, if we wished to harry Virgil from this and to taunt him, why he said this; in part he would take us up, and would say to us: I too know it; but what was I to do, who was selling words to the Romans, unless by this flattery I promised something that was false? And yet even in this I was cautious, when I said, I have given empire without end, I brought in their own Jupiter, who said this. I did not speak a false thing in my own person, but I imposed on Jupiter the person of falsity: as God was false, so the seer was a liar. For do you want to know that I knew these things? In another place, when I did not bring in Jupiter the stone speaking, but spoke in my own person, I said:
See that I said the kingdoms would perish. I said the kingdoms would perish, I did not keep silent. That they would perish, by the truth he did not keep silent: that they would remain forever, by flattery he promised.

8. Therefore let us not lose heart, brothers: there will be an end to all earthly kingdoms. Whether the end is now, God sees. For perhaps it is not yet, and out of a certain weakness, or mercy, or misery, we wish that it not yet be: yet shall it for that reason not be? Fix your hope in God, desire eternal things, await eternal things. You are Christians, brothers, we are Christians. Christ did not come down into the flesh for pleasures: let us rather endure present things than love them: of adverse things the ruin is manifest, of prosperous things the flattery is false. Fear the sea even when it is calm. Not in vain at all do we hear: Lift up your heart. Why do we set our heart on earth, when we see that the earth is overthrown? We can only exhort you, that you may have what to say, and what to answer for your hope to the mockers and blasphemers of the Christian name. Let no one by murmuring turn you away from the expectation of things to come. All who, on account of these adverse things, blaspheme our Christ are the scorpion's tail. Let us set our egg under the wings of that gospel hen, who cries: Jerusalem, Jerusalem—to that false and lost city—how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen her chicks, and you would not (See Mt 23:37)? Let it not be said to us: How often have I wished, and you would not? For that hen is the divine Wisdom: but she took on flesh, that she might suit her chicks. See the hen, bristled in feathers, with drooping wings, with broken voice, and shaken, and weary, and faint, suiting herself to her little ones. Let us set our egg, then, that is, our hope, under the wings of that hen.

9. You have perhaps noticed how a hen cuts a scorpion to pieces. Would, then, that that hen might also cut to pieces and devour these blasphemers, creeping on the earth, coming out of their caverns, and stinging wickedly; that she might pass them into her body, and turn them into an egg. Let them not be angry: we seem stirred; but we do not return curses for curses. We are cursed and we bless, blasphemed we entreat (See 1 Cor 4:12-13). But let no one say: He spoke of Rome, it was said of me: O if only he would keep silent about Rome: as though I were a mocker, and not rather an entreater of the Lord, and your exhorter, such as I am. Far be it from me to mock. May God turn it away from my heart, and from the grief of my conscience. Did we not have many brothers there? do we not still have them? Did not a portion of the pilgrim city of Jerusalem dwell there in great numbers? did it not there endure temporal things? but it did not lose eternal things. What, then, do I say, when I do not keep silent about her, except that what they say of our Christ is false—that he himself destroyed Rome, that gods of stone and of wood guarded Rome? Add cost: of bronze. Add more: of silver and gold: The idols of the nations are silver and gold (See Ps 115:4 (113); Ps 135:15 (134)). He did not say: Stone; he did not say: Wood; he did not say: Earthenware: but what they hold for great, silver and gold. Yet that very silver and gold have eyes, and do not see (See Ps 115:5 (113)). Gods of gold and gods of wood are unequal in cost: in having eyes and not seeing, they are equal. Behold to what guardians learned men entrusted Rome—guardians having eyes, and not seeing. Or if they could preserve Rome, why did they themselves perish first? They say: Then Rome perished. Yet they perished. Not, they say, did they themselves perish, but their images. How then could they guard your roofs, who could not guard their own images? Alexandria long ago lost such gods. Constantinople, from the time it was founded as a great city—since it was founded by a Christian emperor—long ago lost those very false gods: and yet it both grew, and grows, and remains. As long as God wills, it remains. For we do not, because we say this, promise eternity to that city either. Carthage remains in the name of Christ, and Caelestis was long ago overthrown, because she was not heavenly, but earthly.

10. And what they say is not true, that Rome was at once captured and afflicted when the gods perished. It is utterly untrue: those very images were overthrown before; and so the Goths were conquered along with Radagaisus. Remember, brothers, remember: it is not long ago, it is a few years, recall it. When all the images in the city of Rome had been overthrown, Radagaisus, king of the Goths, came with a huge army, much more numerous than Alaric's was. Radagaisus was a pagan man: he sacrificed to Jupiter daily. It was reported everywhere that Radagaisus did not cease from sacrifices. Then all those said: Behold, we do not sacrifice, he sacrifices; we are bound to be conquered by the one sacrificing, we to whom it is not lawful to sacrifice. God, showing that temporal welfare itself, earthly kingdoms themselves, do not lie in those sacrifices, Radagaisus was conquered, with the Lord's help, in a wondrous way. Afterward came the Goths, who did not sacrifice—though by Christian faith they were not Catholics, yet enemies of idols; they came as opponents of idols, and they themselves captured the city: they conquered who presumed upon idols, and who still sought the lost idols, and who still wished to sacrifice to the lost ones. But there too were our people, and they were afflicted: but they knew how to say: I will bless the Lord at all times (Ps 34:1 (33)). They were afflicted in the earthly kingdom: but they did not lose the kingdom of heaven: rather, by the exercise of tribulations, they were made better for laying hold of it. And if in tribulations they did not blaspheme, they came out, as it were, whole vessels from the furnace, and were filled with the Lord's blessing. But these blasphemers, pursuing earthly things, desiring earthly things, setting their hope in earthly things—when, willy-nilly, they have lost them, what will they hold? where will they remain? Outside nothing, within nothing: an empty chest, an emptier conscience. Where is rest? where is salvation? where is hope? Let them come, then, let them cease to blaspheme, let them learn to adore: let the stinging scorpions be eaten by the hen, let them be turned into the body of the one passing them on; let them be exercised on earth, let them be crowned in heaven.

1. The holy Gospel, which we have just heard as it was read, exhorts us to prayer. It gives great hope, because he who asks, seeks, and knocks does not go away empty from the Lord. For he did not say that some ask and do not receive, but Everyone, he says, who asks will receive, and the one seeking will find, and to the one knocking it will be opened (See Lk 11:10). And he set forth a likeness by way of contrast: if a friend comes to a friend, and asks for three loaves because a guest has come to him, and asks at that hour when it is already troublesome to rise and give; the other answers that he cannot give because he is now resting and his children are with him in the bedroom; yet the first does not cease to ask: I tell you, he says, that, not because of friendship, but because of the annoyance he suffers from him, he will rise and give him as many as he needs (See Lk 11:5-8). If the one who is overcome by annoyance does not refuse, how does the one refuse who exhorts you to ask? For this the likeness was set forth. If, to one asking three loaves, the one who is a friend does not refuse, and gives not because of friendship but lest he suffer trouble, will God, who is the Trinity, not give us himself when we ask? But I think that friend would not give his friend three loaves so that one might be white, another common, another of barley. Since, then, God Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, gave great hope of obtaining when he exhorted us to pray, we ought to know what we should pray for. For who does not ask God? But what one should ask is to be considered. The giver is ready to give, but the petitioner must be amended. You rise and ask God that you may have riches. Ought the sons of God to ask this of God as a great thing? For this reason God himself willed to give riches even to the worst of men, that his sons might not ask them of their Father as a great thing. For by his very works God in a way addresses us, and says to us: Why do you ask riches of me? Is this the whole of what I shall give you as a great thing? Consider to whom I have given them, and blush to ask this. The faithful man asks what an actor has. The Christian matron asks what a harlot has. Do not ask these things in your prayers. Let her give them if she wills; let her not give them if she wills. For we must believe him who says: For a man's life does not consist in abundance (See Lk 12:15). Why? Riches have harmed many. But I do not know whether anyone can be found whom they have profited. Perhaps we find one whom they have not harmed. I do not know whether one can be found whom they have profited. Perhaps someone says: Did riches, then, not profit the one who used them well by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, receiving pilgrims, redeeming captives? Whoever does this acts so that riches may not harm him. For what if he did not have those riches with which he did these things, and yet were such as to do them if he had them? God does not weigh most opulent means, but most devout wills. Were the Apostles rich? They left only their nets and their little boat, and followed the Lord (See Mt 4:20-22). He left much who left the hope of the world, like that widow too with the two mites which she put into the treasury (See Mk 12:42). No one, he says, gave more; and many rich men gave much; they did not give more than that widow into the gifts of God, that is, into the treasury. Many rich men were putting in much, and he was watching—not because they were putting in much. But she came in with two mites. Who deigned even to see her? He saw her who does not regard the full hand but the heart. He both saw her and pointed her out; and pointing her out, he said that no one put in so much. For no one put in so much as she who left herself nothing. If, then, you have little, you will give little; if you have more, you will give more. Yet, when from your little you give a little, will you have less, or receive less because you gave less? If the things given are examined, some are great, some small, some many, some few. But if the hearts of those who give are examined, you will find sometimes in the many a needy heart, in the few an opulent heart. For you regard the many things given, and do not regard how much he kept for himself who gave much, how much in the end he doled out, how much of others' property he took away, who gives something of it to the poor, as though to bribe God the judge. This, then, you do by giving: that riches may thus not harm you, not that they may profit you. For even if you were poor, and from your little gave a little, as much would be reckoned to you as to the rich man giving much, or even more, as to that woman. For let us suppose that the kingdom of heaven is, as it were, for sale at the price of alms. There has been set before us for purchase a certain fertile and most opulent possession, which, when we have acquired it, when we have come to it, we shall not, departing, leave to our successors, but shall always possess it, never to leave it, never to migrate from it entirely. A great possession, a possession to be bought! It remains for you to ask how much it is worth, lest perhaps you be not worth as much as it is worth, and cannot buy it, although you long to have it. Lest you think you cannot attain it, I tell you its price: it is worth as much as you have. I add another thing for you to rejoice at, if you are not envious. When God has made you the possessor of this possession to be bought, you will not exclude another buyer. The Patriarchs bought it; did they exclude the most blessed Prophets? The Prophets bought it; did they not admit the Apostles to the buying? The Apostles bought it, and yet other buyers, the martyrs, came to them. In the end, so many bought it and it is still for sale. Let us see, then, whether the rich could buy it and the poor could not buy it. Let us see more recent examples, let us omit the most ancient buyers of this possession. Having given half his goods to the poor, when he was very rich, Zacchaeus bought it, a chief of the publicans (See Lk 19:2), who had acquired much. But publicans were so called not as commoners, but as those who farmed the taxes. The holy Gospel explains this to you when a certain apostle was called of whom it is written: He saw a certain man sitting at the tax booth, Matthew by name (See Mt 9:9). This man whom he called from the tax booth is in another place called Matthew the publican (See Mt 10:3). So that Zacchaeus, after the Lord had entered to him, whom he received most unexpectedly—for he greatly desired to see him; because he was small in stature, he could not in the crowd; he climbed a tree and from there saw him passing; that he might see him who for his sake was to hang on the wood, he suspended himself on the wood—so then, when the Lord had entered to him, he is filled with joy, because his heart had already entered before: Half my goods I give (See Lk 19:8). But he kept much for himself. Note why he kept the other half: And if I have taken anything from anyone, he says, by fraud, I restore fourfold (See Lk 19:8). Much was kept, not that it might be possessed, but as something from which plunder might be restored. The great buyer gave much. A little before rich, suddenly poor. Was it because he bought from so great a store, that Peter the poor man did not buy from his nets and little boat? For each it was worth as much as each had. After these, that widow too bought. She gave two mites and bought it. Is there anything cheaper? There is. I find for this so great possession a cheaper price than those two mites were. Hear the seller himself, the Lord Jesus. If anyone, he says, gives a cup of cold water to one of the least of mine, amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (See Mt 10:42). What cheaper than a cup of water, and that cold, lest he be forced even to buy wood? I do not know whether you suppose that anything can be found cheaper than this trifling price. And yet there is. He does not have as much as Peter had, much less does he have as much as Zacchaeus had, nor does he find two mites. Is a cup of cold water lacking for the moment? Peace on earth to men of good will (See Lk 2:14). Let that diversity of prices be examined no further. If we understand, if we truly think on it, good will is the price of that possession. It bought in Peter, it bought in Zacchaeus, it bought in that widow, it bought in the one who holds out a cup of cold water. It alone buys, if one has nothing besides it.

2. Why have we said these things? What had we proposed? That we ought to learn what we should ask from the passage of the Gospel where the Lord gave us great hope, saying: Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, and the one seeking will find, and to the one knocking it will be opened (See Lk 11:9-10). Because he gave great hope, we ought to know what we should ask. Hence it came about that I admonished you that, when you pray, you should not as a great thing ask, seek, knock for riches. He who knocks wants to enter. Narrow is that by which you enter. Why do you carry much? You ought, then, to send ahead what you carry, that you may be able through the narrow way easily, without a burden, to enter. Do not, then, ask of the Lord God riches as a great thing. Why do you fear lest you have less and not buy that possession? Did I not tell you it is worth as much as you have? And if you have nothing, you yourself will be its price, because, even if you have much, you will not buy it unless you give yourself too. You answer me perhaps: What, then, ought we to ask of God? Do not ask even for the death of your enemies. These are malevolent prayers. I do not know whether you are heard for your good when you rejoice at an enemy's death. For who is not going to die? Who knows when he is going to die? You rejoice that another has died. How do you know that, while you rejoice, you may not yourself expire in the end? Learn to pray that your enemy—let the very enmities die. A man is your enemy. There are two names: man and enemy. Let the man live; let the enemy die. Do you not recall how Christ the Lord struck his enemy Saul, the bitterest persecutor of his members, with one voice from heaven, laid him low, killed him (See Acts 9:3-4)? He utterly killed him, for the persecutor died, the preacher was raised up. If you do not believe me that he died, ask himself; let him be heard, let him be read. Hear his voice in his letter: But I live, now not I (See Gal 2:20). I live, he says, not I. So he himself died. And how did he speak? But Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20). Pray, then, as much as you can, that your enemy may die, but see how he may die. For if he has died and has not departed in body, you have only lost an enemy and acquired a friend. Do not, then, pray and ask of God even the visible deaths of your enemies. What, you will say, are we to ask? The honors of the world? They are smoke passing away. In the lowly place you were safer. In the lofty do you plan to be in peril? And honors indeed none gives but God, like riches; but that you might despise riches, he admonished you also to whom they are given; they are given to the good, lest you think them some evil; they are given also to the wicked, lest you think them a great good. So it is also with honors: the worthy receive them; the unworthy also receive them, lest the worthy hold them for a great thing. Now, then, say, you ask, what we should ask. I do not send you off with the many exclamations, when I recalled the gospel testimony: Peace on earth to men of good will (See Lk 2:14). Ask for that very good will. Riches, honors, and whatever such things there are—do they make you good? Even if they are goods, they are the least of goods, which the good use well, but the wicked badly. Good will makes you good. Are you not, then, ashamed if you want to have good things and be wicked? You have many goods: gold, silver, gems, estates, households, herds, flocks. Blush before your goods. Be good yourself too. For what is more unhappy than you, if your farm be good, your tunic, your sheep, in short your sandal, and your soul will be bad? Learn, then, to ask for a good that, so to speak, makes good—that is, a good that makes men good. If you have goods which the good use, ask for a good from which you may be good. Good will makes you good. For those are goods too, but they do not make men good. That you may know they are goods, among them are those which the Lord recalled: bread, fish, egg (See Lk 11:11-12); that you may know they are goods, he himself says: If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons (See Lk 11:13). You are evil and you give good things. Ask that you may be good. For he therefore admonished and said: If you, though you are evil, that he might admonish what they should ask, that is, that they should not be evil, but be good. Let him himself, then, teach us what we should ask. There, in that very passage of the Gospel, hear his following words. If you, he says, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, and yet you are to remain evil; therefore, that you may not remain evil, hear what follows: How much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to those who ask him (See Lk 11:13). Behold the good from which you may be good! The good Spirit of God makes good will in men. The price of that possession, which possession is called eternal life, is God himself. Eternal life—what will be richer for us? What, I say, will be richer for us, when our possession will be God? Have I perhaps done wrong because I said God will be our possession? I have not. I learned what I said. I found a holy man praying and saying: Lord, the portion of my inheritance (See Ps 16:5 (15)). Stretch out the bosom of your desire, O greedy man, and find something greater than God, find something more precious than God, find something better than God. What will you not have when you have him? But gather to yourself gold, silver, as much as you can. Shut out your neighbors; possess by enlarging your possession; reach the ends of the earth. The lands acquired, add the seas. Let what you see be yours; let what you do not see, under the waters, be yours. When you have all these, what will you have if you will not have God? If, then, by having God a poor man is rich, and by not having God a rich man is a beggar, do not ask of him anything besides himself. What will he not give when he gives himself? What will he give, if he does not give himself? Ask, then, for the good Spirit; let him dwell in you, and you will be good. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom 8:14). And what follows? But if sons, then heirs—heirs indeed of God, but coheirs of Christ (See Rom 8:17). What is it that you were desiring riches? An heir of God, then, will be poor? An heir of some most opulent senator, you would be rich; and an heir of God will you be poor? A coheir of Christ, will you be poor? When your inheritance will be the Father himself, will you be poor? Ask for the good Spirit, since you ask for the good Spirit already from the good Spirit himself. For you have something of that Spirit so as to ask for that Spirit. For if you had nothing of it, you would ask nothing. But because you do not have as much as suffices, you both have and ask, until what is written comes about: Who satisfies your desire with good things (See Ps 103:5 (102)), until what is written in another place comes about: I shall be satisfied when your glory is made manifest (See Ps 17:15 (16)). Blessed, then, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—not this earthly bread, not earthly water, not earthly wine, but righteousness—for they shall be satisfied (Mt 5:6).

1. You have heard the holy Gospel, how the Lord Jesus, in what he was saying to the Pharisees, was surely admonishing his own disciples, lest they should think righteousness lies in cleansing of the body. For the Pharisees every day, before they dined, washed themselves with water: as though a daily washing could be the cleansing of the heart. Indeed, he showed what kind of men they were. He who saw them said it: for he discerned not only their face, but also their inner parts. Indeed, that you may know this, that Pharisee to whom Christ answered thought within himself, made no sound with his voice, and yet the Lord heard him. For within himself he reproved the Lord Christ, because he had come thus to his banquet unwashed. He was thinking, the Lord was hearing, and therefore answering. What, then, did he answer? Now you Pharisees cleanse what is outside the dish: but within you are full of deceit and plunder (See Lk 11:39). O to come to dinner! how he did not spare the man by whom he had been invited? Rather, by chiding he spared him, that he might spare him, corrected, in the judgment. Then what did he show us? That Baptism too, which is applied once, cleanses through faith. But faith is within, not outside. Whence it is said and read in the Acts of the Apostles: Cleansing their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). And the apostle Peter in his Letter speaks thus: So, he says, he gave you too a likeness from the ark of Noah, how eight souls were saved through water. And he added: So you too in like fashion Baptism will save; not the putting off of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience (See 1 Pet 3:20-21). This appeal of a good conscience the Pharisees despised, and they washed what was outside: within they remained most filthy.

2. And what did he say to them afterward? Nevertheless give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (See Lk 11:41). Almsgiving is praised: do it and prove it. But attend a little: it was said to the Pharisees. These Pharisees were Jews, the elite, as it were, of the Jews. For the more noble and learned were then called Pharisees. They had not been washed by the Baptism of Christ: in Christ the only-begotten Son of God, who walked among them, and was not recognized by them, they had not yet believed. How, then, does he say to them: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you? If the Pharisees heard him, and gave alms, then according to his word all things would be clean to them; what need was there that they should believe in him? But if they could not be cleansed unless believing in him who cleanses the heart by faith; what is: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you? Let us attend, and perhaps he himself explains it.
When he had said these things, without doubt they thought that they did give alms. And how did they give? They tithed all their goods, from all their fruits they drew off the tenth part, and gave it. Not easily does any Christian do this. Behold what the Jews did. Not wheat only, but also wine and oil: nor this only, but even contemptible things, on account of the precept of God, cumin, rue, mint, and dill they tithed entirely: that is, they drew off the tenth part, and gave alms (See Lk 11:42). I believe, then, that they called it back to themselves, and thought the Lord Christ spoke emptily, as though to those who did not give alms: when they themselves knew their own works, that they tithed even the most minute and contemptible of their fruits, and gave alms. They laughed at him within themselves, saying such things, as though to men who did not give alms.

3. The Lord, knowing this, at once added: Nevertheless woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, who tithe mint, cumin, and rue, and every herb (See Lk 11:42). That you may know it, I know your alms. Certainly these are your alms, these your tithes: you tithe even the minute and contemptible things of your fruits: And you leave the weightier things of the Law, judgment and love (See Lk 11:42). Attend. You have left judgment and love, and you tithe herbs. This is not to give alms. And these, he says, you ought to do, and not to omit those. Which to do? Judgment and love, justice and mercy; and not to omit those. Do those: but set these first.

4. If these things are so, what did he say to them: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (See Lk 11:41)? What is: Give alms? Do mercy. What is, Do mercy? If you understand, begin with yourself. For how are you merciful to another, if you are cruel to yourself? Give alms, and all things are clean to you. Give true alms. What is alms? Mercy. Hear the Scripture: Have mercy on your soul, pleasing God (See Sir 30:24). Give alms, have mercy on your soul, pleasing God. Your soul begs before you, return to your conscience. Whoever you are who live badly, whoever you are who live faithlessly, return to your conscience: and there you find your soul begging, you find it needy, you find it poor, you find it wretched, you find it perhaps not even needy, but struck dumb by want. For if it begs, it hungers for righteousness. When you have found your soul such (these things are within in your heart), first give alms, give it bread. What bread? If the Pharisee asked, the Lord would say to him: Give alms with your soul. For this he said to him; but he did not understand, when he related to them the alms they gave, and they thought they were hidden from Christ; and he said to them: I know that you do them; you tithe mint and dill, cumin and rue: but I speak of other alms: you despise judgment and love. In judgment and love give alms with your soul. What is, in judgment? Look, and find; be displeased with yourself, pass sentence on yourself. And what is love? Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole soul, and your whole mind; love your neighbor as yourself (See Mt 22:37-39); and you have done mercy first with your soul, in your conscience. But if you pass over this alms, give what you will, bestow as much as you will; draw off from your fruits, not tithes, but halves; give nine parts, and leave one for yourself: you do nothing, when you do not do it with yourself, and with yourself you are poor. Let your soul be fed, lest it perish of hunger. Give it bread. What bread, he says? He himself speaks with you. If you would hear, and understand, and believe the Lord, he himself would say to you: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (See Jn 6:51). Would you not first give this bread to your soul, and do alms with it? If, then, you believe, you ought to act so as first to feed your soul. Believe in Christ; and the things that are within will be cleansed, and the things that are outside will be clean. Turned toward the Lord, and so on.

1. You who fear God, I do not doubt that you hear his word with fear, and do it with cheerfulness; that what he promised, you may now hope for, and afterward receive. We have just now heard the Lord commanding us, Christ Jesus the Son of God. The Truth has commanded us, which neither deceives nor is deceived: let us hear, let us fear, let us beware. What, then, did he command? I say, he says, to you, abstain from all greed (See Lk 12:15). What is: from all greed? What is: all? Why did he add: all? For he could say thus: Beware of greed. It mattered to him to add: all; and to say: Beware of all greed.
Why he said this—the very occasion, as it were, from which the sermon arose—appears to us in the holy Gospel. For a certain man appealed to him against his brother, who had taken away the whole patrimony, and was not giving his brother his share. So you observe what a good cause this petitioner had. For he was not seeking to seize others' goods, but was seeking his own, left to him by his parents: he was demanding them with the Lord appealed to and judging. He had an unjust brother: but he had found a just judge against his unjust brother. Should he, then, in so good a cause, lose this occasion? Or who would say to his brother, Give your brother his share, if Christ did not say it? Would that judge, whom perhaps the richer, plundering brother was corrupting with a bribe, say it? Wretched, then, and destitute of his father's wealth, having found so great a judge, he approaches, appeals, asks, sets forth his cause most briefly. For what need was there to plead the cause at length, when he was speaking to one who could even see the heart? Lord, he says, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (See Lk 12:13). The Lord did not say to him, Let your brother come. But neither did he send for him to be present, nor, when he was present, say to the petitioner: Prove what you said. He was asking half the inheritance, asking half on earth: in heaven the Lord was offering the whole. The Lord was giving more than he was asking.

2. Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. A just cause, a brief cause. But let us hear him both judging and teaching. Man, he says: Man: for you who hold this inheritance for a great thing, what are you but a man? He wanted to make him something more than a man. What did he want to make him more, from whom he wanted to take away greed? What did he want to make him more? I tell you: I have said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High (Ps 82:6 (81)). Behold what he wanted to make him, to number among the gods the one who has no greed. Man, who set me a divider between you (See Lk 12:14)? And the apostle Paul, his servant, when he said: I beseech you, brothers, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you (See 1 Cor 1:10), did not want to be a divider. Indeed he admonished those who ran to his name, and divided Christ: Each of you says: I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul (See 1 Cor 1:12-13)? See, then, how wicked are the men who want to divide him who did not want to be a divider. Who, he says, set me a divider between you?

3. You asked a favor: hear counsel. I say to you, beware of all greed (See Lk 12:15). Perhaps, he says, you would call him greedy and covetous, if he sought another's goods: but I say, do not covetously and greedily seek even your own. This is, all. Beware, he says, of all greed. A great weight. If perhaps this weight is laid upon the weak; let him be asked, who lays it on, to deign to give strength. For it is not to be held lightly, my brothers, when our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, who died for us, who gave his blood as a price to redeem us, our advocate and judge; it is no light thing, when he says: Beware. He knows how much evil it is: we do not know; let us believe him. Beware, he says. Of what? from what? Of all greed. I keep my own, I take not another's. Beware of all greed. Not only is he greedy who seizes another's goods; but he too is greedy who covetously keeps his own. But if he is so blamed who covetously keeps his own; how is he condemned who seizes another's? Beware, he says, of all greed: for a man's life does not consist in abundance from the things which he has there (See Lk 12:15). He who stores up many things, how much does he take from them to live on? When he has taken from them, and in a way set apart in thought what suffices for him to live on, let him see for whom the rest remains: lest perhaps, while you keep what you may live on, you gather what you may die by. Behold Christ, behold truth, behold severity. Beware, says truth: Beware, says severity. If you do not love truth, fear severity. A man's life does not consist in abundance from the things he has. Believe him, he does not deceive you. Do you say the contrary? Rather, a man's life does consist in abundance from the things he has. He does not deceive you: you deceive yourself.

4. From this occasion, then, since that petitioner was seeking his own share, and did not desire to invade another's, arose this saying of the Lord, that he should not say: Beware of greed, but should add, of all greed. That was too little: he gives another example, about a certain rich man, whose region had yielded well. There was, he says, a rich man, whose region had yielded well (See Lk 12:16). What is, had yielded? The region he possessed had brought forth great fruits. How great fruits? That he found nowhere to put them: he was suddenly made cramped through abundance, the old greedy man. For how many years had now passed, and yet those barns had sufficed? So much, then, was produced that the places that used to suffice did not suffice. And the wretched man was seeking counsel, not how to dole out what had been produced in excess, but how to keep it: and by thinking he found counsel. He seemed wise to himself, by finding counsel. He thought prudently, he saw wisely. What did he see wisely? I will pull down, he says, my old barns, and make new, larger ones, and fill them: and I will say to my soul (See Lk 12:18). What do you say to your soul? Soul, you have many goods laid up for very many years, rest, eat, drink, feast (See Lk 12:19). This the wise finder of counsel said to his soul.

5. And God to him: who does not disdain to speak even with fools. Perhaps one of you says: And how did God speak with a fool? O my brothers, with how many fools he speaks here, when the Gospel is recited! When it is read, are not those who hear and do not do it fools? What, then, does the Lord say? Because that man again seemed wise to himself in finding counsel: Fool, he says; Fool, who seem wise to yourself: Fool, who said to your soul: You have many goods laid up for very many years: today your soul is required of you (See Lk 12:20). The one to whom you said: You have many goods; today it is required, and it has no good. Let it despise these goods, and be itself good; so that, when it is required, it may depart secure. For what is more unjust than a man, who wants to have many goods, and does not want himself to be good? You are unworthy to have, who do not want to be what you want to have. For do you want to have a bad farm? Surely not, but a good one. A bad wife? No, but a good one. In short, a bad little cottage? Or even a bad boot? Why a bad soul alone? He did not here say to this fool, thinking vain things, building barns, and not seeing the bellies of the poor; he did not say to him: Today your soul will be snatched to hell: he said none of these things; but, it is required of you. I do not tell you where your soul is to go: yet from here, where you keep so much for it, willy-nilly, it is to migrate. Behold, fool, you thought to fill new, larger barns, as though there were nothing to be done with it.

6. But perhaps that man was not yet a Christian. Let us hear, brothers, we to whom, as believers, the Gospel is recited, by whom the one who said those things is adored, whose sign is carried by us on the forehead, and held in the heart. For it matters very much where a man has the sign of Christ, whether on the forehead, or both on the forehead and in the heart. You have heard what the holy prophet Ezekiel was saying today, how, before God sent the exterminator of the wicked people, he first sent the marker, and said to him: Go, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who groan and mourn over the sins of my people, which are done in the midst of them (See Ezek 9:4). He did not say, which are done outside them; but, in the midst of them. Yet they groan and mourn: and therefore they are marked on the forehead; on the forehead of the inner man, not the outer. For there is a forehead in the face, there is a forehead in the conscience. Indeed, sometimes when the inner forehead is struck, the outer reddens: either it reddens with shame, or it pales with fear. There is, then, a forehead of the inner man. There those were marked, lest they be laid waste: because, although they did not correct the sins that were done in the midst of them; yet they grieved, and by that very grief they separated themselves; and, separated unto God, they were mingled to the eyes of men. They are marked secretly, they are not harmed openly. Afterward the destroyer is sent, and it is said to him: Go, lay waste, spare not the lesser, the greater, males, females: but to those who have the mark on the forehead, do not draw near (See Ezek 9:5-6). How great security has been given you, my brothers, who in this people groan and mourn the iniquities that are done in the midst of you, and do them not?

7. But that you may not do iniquities: Beware of all greed (See Lk 12:15). I tell you more broadly, what is all greed. In lust he is greedy, for whom his own wife does not suffice. And idolatry itself has been called greed (See Col 3:5); because even in divinity itself he is greedy, for whom the one true God does not suffice. What soul makes for itself many gods, except a greedy soul? What soul makes for itself false martyrs, except a greedy soul? Beware of all greed. Behold, you love your own, and you boast, because you do not seek another's: see what evil you do by not hearing Christ saying: Beware of all greed. Behold, you love your own, you take not another's: from labor you have it, from justice you have it: you were left an heir, he bestowed it on you whom you deserved well of: you sailed, you were in peril, you committed no fraud, you swore no lie, you acquired what God willed: and you keep it covetously, as though with a good conscience, because you have nothing from evil, and seek not another's. If you do not hear him who said: Beware of all greed, hear how much evil you are going to do on account of your own. Behold, it happens, for example, that you become a judge. You are not corrupted, because you seek not another's: no one gives you a bribe, and says: Judge against my adversary. Far be it; a man who seek not another's, when can this be persuaded to you? See what evil you are going to do on account of your own. He who wants you to judge badly, and to pass sentence in his favor against his adversary, is perhaps a powerful man, and can bring a false charge against you, so that you lose your own. You attend to his power, you think on it, you think on your own goods which you keep, which you love: not those you possessed, but those to which you have wickedly clung. You attend to your birdlime, on account of which you have not the wings of virtue to free yourself: and you say within yourself, I offend this man, he can do much for the moment; he will lay evil charges about me, and I am proscribed, and I lose what I have. You are going to judge badly, not when you seek another's, but when you keep your own.

8. Give me a man who has heard Christ, give me a man who has heard with fear: Beware of all greed: and let him not say to me, I am a poor man, a commoner, of the middle sort, one of the herd; when do I hope to be a judge? I do not fear that temptation, whose peril you have set before my eyes. Behold, I tell the poor man too what he ought to fear. A rich and powerful man calls you to give false witness for him. What will you do now? Tell me. You have a good little store: you labored, you acquired, you kept. He demands: Give false witness for me, and I give you so much and so much. You who seek not another's: Far be it from me, you say: I seek not what God did not want to give me, I take it not; depart from me. You do not want to take what I give? what you have, I take. Behold, now prove yourself, now question yourself. Why do you attend to me? Attend to yourself within, see yourself within, examine yourself within; sit by yourself, and set yourself before yourself, and stretch yourself on the rack of God's precept, and torture yourself with fear, and do not caress yourself: answer yourself. Behold, if anyone should threaten this, what will you do? I take from you what you acquired with so great labor, unless you give false witness for me. Give that man: Beware of all greed. O my servant, he will say to you, whom I redeemed and made free, whom from a servant I adopted as a brother, whom in my body I set as a member, hear me: Let him take what you acquired, me he will not take from you. Lest you perish, do you keep your own? Did I not tell you: Beware of all greed?

9. Behold, you are troubled, behold, you waver: your heart is shaken, as a ship by storms. Christ sleeps: wake the sleeper, and you will not suffer the raging storm. Wake him who wanted to have nothing here, and you have everything; who came even to the cross for you, whose bones, as he hung naked, were counted by the mockers (See Ps 22:17 (21)): and beware of all greed. Greed of money is too little: beware the greed of life. A dreadful greed, a fearful greed. Sometimes a man despises what he has, and says: I do not give false witness. I do not give it, you say to me? I take what you have. Take what I have: you do not take what I have within. For he had not remained poor who said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed therefore be the name of the Lord. Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked I shall return to the earth (See Job 1:21). Naked outside, within clothed. Naked outside of rags, and rotten rags; within clothed. With what? Let your priests be clothed with righteousness (See Ps 132:9 (131)). But what if he should say, when you have despised what you possess, what if he should say: I kill you? Answer him, if you have heard Christ: You will kill me? Better you kill my flesh, than I by a false tongue my soul. What will you do to me? You will kill the flesh: the soul goes forth free, at the end of the age to receive again even the flesh it despised. What, then, will you do to me? But if I give false witness for you, by my tongue I kill myself; and not in the flesh do I kill myself: For the mouth that lies kills the soul (See Wis 1:11). Perhaps you do not say this. Why do you not say it? You want to live: do you want to live more than God has appointed? Surely you beware of all greed? God willed you to live up to this point, to which this man approached you. Perhaps he is going to kill you, to make you a martyr. Do not have a greed of living; and do you not have an eternity of dying? You see that everywhere that greed, when we want more than is needful, makes us sin? Let us beware of all greed, if we want to enjoy eternal wisdom.

1. The Lord Jesus, the bestower of love, is the accuser of greed. For he wants to root out the bad tree and plant the good tree. From love of the world no good fruit springs. From the love of God no bad fruit. These are the two trees of which the Lord himself, speaking, says: A good tree does not bear bad fruits. But a bad tree bears bad fruits (See Mt 7:18). Our sermon, then, when it is from the Lord God, is an axe to the root of the bad tree (See Mt 3:10). That very sermon from the holy Gospel which sounded forth struck the bad trees. It prunes, it does not cut off. For what he who made you did not want you to have, know that it is not expedient for you. The Lord does not want us to have love of the world. Let no one, then, say: I seek my own, not another's. Beware of all greed (See Lk 12:15). If you love too much your own things which can perish, you will truly lose your own things which cannot perish. I, you say, neither want to lose my own nor to take another's. This is the excuse of a certain greed, it is not the glory of love. Of love it was said: It does not seek its own, but the things of others (See 1 Cor 13:5; Phil 2:4). It does not seek its own advantages, it seeks the salvation of the brothers. For this man too who appealed to the Lord, if you attended, if you noticed, was seeking his own, not another's. For his brother had taken away the whole and had not given his brother the share owed. He saw the Lord just, for he could not find a better judge, and he appealed to him and said: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (See Lk 12:13). What more just? Let him take his share, give me mine. Neither I the whole, nor he the whole, because we are brothers. And the very thing they were seeking to divide they would always have whole if they lived in concord. Everything that is divided is diminished. If they were in concord in their house as they were while their father lived, each would even possess the whole. For example: if they had two farms, both would belong to both, and to one asking about each, they would say it is theirs. Whose is the farm? if you asked one of them: Ours, he would answer. Likewise the other, if you asked whose it was, similarly: Ours. But if each had taken one, the possession would be diminished, the answer changed. Then if it were asked whose this farm is, he would answer: Mine. Whose is that? My brother's. You did not acquire one, but lost one because you divided. Since, then, he seemed to himself to have a just greed because he was seeking his own share, was not desiring another's, as though presuming on the justice of his cause, he appealed to the just judge. But what did the just judge say to him? Man—for you do not relish the things of God, but the things of men—who set me a divider of the inheritance between you (See Lk 12:14)? He denied what was asked, but greater is what he gave than what he denied. The one asked for judgment about possessing the inheritance. The other gave counsel about not having greed. Why do you seek a farm? Why do you seek land? Why do you seek a share? If you have not greed, you will have the whole. See, you greedy ones, the one who had not greed, who said: As having nothing, and possessing all things (See 2 Cor 6:10). You, then, he says, ask of me that your brother give you the share of your inheritance. I, he says, say to you: Beware of all greed (See Lk 12:15). You think yourself to beware of greed for another's property. I say to you: Beware of all greed. And you want too much to love your own, and on account of your own property, to put down your heart from heaven, and, wanting to lay up treasure on earth, you seek to oppress your soul; for the soul has its riches as the body has its own.

2. In the end a certain rich man is set forth as a warning to beware of all greed. What is, of all? Even of those things which are called yours. A certain rich man is set forth, whose region had yielded (See Lk 12:16), that is, his possessions in the region; abundant fruits came forth: for "yield" means prosperity. And he thought within himself, saying, what you have heard when the Gospel was read: What shall I do, where shall I gather my fruits (See Lk 12:17)? He had nowhere to put them. He had too much. He was cramped by plenty, not by want. How wretched he was, whom not want but abundance disturbed! As though he did not have anywhere to put it from where he would lose nothing! And he seemed to himself to have found great counsel: I have found, he says, what I shall do. I will pull down my old storehouses and make new, larger ones, and fill them, and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods for a long time. Rest, eat, drink, feast. But God said to him: Fool (See Lk 12:18-20)—you seem wise to yourself because you found counsel for casting down small storehouses and making larger ones. You are a fool where you seem wise to yourself. Why did you do this, to say to your soul: You have many goods for so long a time? This night your soul is required of you (See Lk 12:20). Where is the long time? This night your soul is required. These things you have prepared, whose will they be? Are you not vainly troubled? You lay up treasure and do not know for whom you gather it (See Ps 39:6 (38)). He had nowhere to put it! And where were the poor? What the cramping of your storehouses no longer held, let your brother receive, let your Lord receive, who says: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (See Mt 25:40). You commit it to storehouses, and will you not lose it? You migrate to heaven, and will you lose it? You have nowhere to put it? Dole it out, and await what is repaid you. You put it in the hand of the poor, you receive it from the hand of the rich one. The one who has not where—who gave it to you? He who gave it to you wants to receive something from what he gave. He who made you is in need from you. If for your good he is in need from you, give from what you have. For you have earthly fruits; do you have eternal life? How great a possession it is! At how cheap a price it is to be had! Do you want to know at how cheap a price it is to be had? Such is the possession, such a possession is eternal life, to which when you have come (O fool, who reckon on earth and will lose heaven!), such is that possession, to which when you have come, you cannot migrate from there, but will even possess it perpetually and without any end. How great it is, you see. At how cheap a price it is to be had, attend. It is worth as much as your storehouses do not hold, what they cannot hold, what overflows, on account of which you want to make them larger. But what is it? How great is the price of the possession? If it were given to the poor as porters? For you know and see that those to whom you give on earth walk about. What you give they carry to heaven, and when they have carried it to heaven, you do not receive back what you give. For in exchange for earthly things you are to receive heavenly, for mortal immortal, for temporal eternal. If you lent at interest and for so much silver received so much gold—for example, for a pound of silver a pound of gold—what would be richer than you? Would you contain yourself for joy, when it was permitted you to come to such interest? What is this interest? See what you give, what you receive. You give what here you let go, you receive what you never lose. For you give that from which you do not live (for therefore the Lord said, if you noticed, in that very reading of the Gospel: A man's life does not consist in abundance from the things he has (See Lk 12:15)), that you may receive that from which you always live. The riches of the flesh are gold, silver, grain, wine and oil, estates, possessions; these are the riches of the flesh. The flesh itself, how much does it have of them, when the belly has been filled? You see that the rest lie superfluous. If you were forced to eat as much as you have, would you not be forced to expire?

3. Beware, then, brothers, of all greed (See Lk 12:15). On little is life lived on this earth, and great eternal life is bought at little. Did Zacchaeus seem to have bought it more dearly? For he was very rich, a chief of the publicans (See Lk 19:2). And when the Lord entered his house, salvation was thus made there: Half, he says, of my goods I give to the poor (See Lk 19:8). From much he bought much. Why the other half? If I have taken anything from anyone, I restore fourfold (See Lk 19:8). Behold why the other half was kept, not that it might be covetously possessed, but that what was owed might be restored. From much he bought who had many riches and gave half to the poor. Whatever he gave, what is it? How many are the riches of any powerful man? What is the whole earth? What is earth and sea? Attend to heaven, attend to the stars, attend to the whole creation. If you despise a few things, you will possess the Creator himself for an inheritance. Your Lord says this to you: Beware of all greed. Beware of acquiring earthly things, and I will fill you. Answer and say: With what will you fill me? For this you were seeking, when you despised the few things, to be filled with greater things. Because you gave something of your fruits and heard from your Lord: I will fill you, you will say: He is going to fill my house with gold, with silver. I will fill you. You ask that I fill your house. I will fill you if you are my house. Acknowledge and love the one who made you, and he will fill you, not with anything of his, but with himself. You will have God, you will be full of God. These are the great riches of the soul. The riches of the body are superfluous, because our body seeks little to get by on. The riches of the soul are not superfluous. As much as God will give you, as much devotion as God will bestow on you, as much love as he will bestow, as much justice as he will bestow, as much chastity as he will bestow, whatever he will bestow of himself, cannot be superfluous. Your inner riches are great. What are they called? God. O poor man, then, do you have nothing, if you have God? O rich man, then, do you have anything if you do not have God?

4. Therefore, to return to the words of the Lord, let us beware of all greed. Of all? you will say. It is my property. He will say: Of all. For has it been said to you not to have your own property? Have it, but without greed. For so you will have it. But if you covet it, you will be had, you will not have. Do not love money, if you want to have money. For if you do not love it, you will have money. If you love it, money will have you. For you will not be the master of money, but the servant, and since a servant, where it drags you, you will follow. Are you not a servant when you are dragged by greed of it? Does its love not rouse you from sleep? If you were the servant of a man, perhaps he would allow you to sleep. If you do not have money and are greedy, out of that very greed you keep awake to have it. If you have it, out of fear you keep awake lest you lose it. You fear even lest through it you yourself perish: I think, when you had less, you slept secure.

5. Beware of all greed (See Lk 12:15). May it profit you, brothers, that you are poor. Do not want to be rich. Let God suffice for you, because he does not desert you. He thought of you before you existed, and does he not think that you may live? You have already believed in him, praised him, hoped in him, and will what he knows to be necessary for us be lacking to you? What he gives to strangers, will he refuse to his own? Is he going to refuse his praisers, who gives to his blasphemers? When you have him, reckon that you have all things. For your Father knows, the Lord himself says in the Gospel, what is necessary for you, before you ask him (See Mt 6:8). And of the things of the body he spoke thus: Seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness of God, and all these things will be added to you (See Mt 6:33). But sometimes the just man suffers hunger, and sees the unjust man belching from indigestion. Do not wonder. The one is tested, the other condemned. He is tested who in that very want praises God. He is condemned who through that very plenty offends God. Scripture says: The rich and the poor have met one another, but the Lord made them both (Prov 22:2). Where have they met one another? On a certain way. What is that way? This life. Here the rich and the poor have met one another, because a rich man is born, a poor man is born. They have met one another. They have seen each other on the way. Both walk the way, one laden, the other relieved. But he who is relieved is hungry, he who is laden groans. Let him who is laden relieve himself. Let him give something of it to the one who met him, and neither shall the one be hungry, nor the other groan, and both arrive. Whence comes your groaning, O rich man? Because you have nowhere to put it? There is a place to put it. I do not want you to groan. Look on the hungry, and you have a place to put it. Do you fear lest you lose it? Then all the more you do not lose it.

6. Something that happened, both very pleasant and to be told to Your Charity. A certain devout man of middling means sold a gold coin for the needs of his house. And because he was devout, he took a hundred small coins from the top of the price and doled them out to the poor, so as to put the rest into his house for his needs. That he might be tested, a thief was let in upon him, and he lost the whole price of the gold coin. The devil did this so that he might repent of having given something to the poor, and might say: O Lord, none please you but those who do evil. Men do evil and acquire. I did good and lost everything. But he did not say this; for he was foursquare, he stood even when turned. So when he had lost the whole price of the gold coin from which he had given a hundred small coins to the poor: Wretched me, he said, that I did not give it all! What I gave, I did not lose; this I could lose, what I did not give. There came to his mind what he had heard from the Gospel or what he had read, and believed. For it is the very counsel of our Lord. Recall and see. Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where the thief does not approach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (See Mt 6:19-21). The thief could take his money, his heart he could not put down from heaven.

7. Therefore have what you have, so as to provide for the needy. For when the Lord Christ had said: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you; these things you have prepared, whose will they be (See Lk 12:20)? to a man not seizing another's, but immoderately loving his own, he added and said: So is everyone who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God (See Lk 12:21). Do you want to be rich toward God? Give to God. Give not from great means but from your own will. For not, if you give a little from the little you have, is the little you gave little accepted. God does not weigh means but wills. Recall that widow, brothers. You have heard Zacchaeus: Half my goods I give to the poor (See Lk 19:8). He gave much from much, and bought that possession of the kingdom of heaven, as it were, at a great price. Considered as to how great it is, whatever you give is cheap to it. Yet he seems to have given much, because he was very rich. Recall that poor widow, who was carrying two mites (See Mk 12:42), and those who were present watched the rich casting in much into the treasury, and attended to the great things being put in. She came in, put in two mites. Who deigned even to see her? But the Lord so saw her that he saw her alone, and he himself commended her to those who did not see, that is, that she might be attended to who was not even seen. Do you see, he says, this widow, and then they attended to her, she put in more, he says, into the gifts of God than those rich men (See Mk 12:43), great things from much. They were gazing at the huge gifts of the rich and praising them. When did they see those two coins, even if they saw the widow herself afterward? She put in more, he says, into the gifts of God than those rich men. For they put in much from much, but she put in the whole that she had. She had much, because she had God in her heart. It is more to have God in the soul than gold in the purse. Who put in more than she who left herself nothing?

8. Yet, dearly beloved, attend, because we were speaking of buying that heavenly possession. Was it worth as much as Zacchaeus bought it for, and not worth as much as that widow had? Its price was what Zacchaeus gave, its price was also the two small coins. To one comparing half of Zacchaeus's goods and the two mites, there is no comparison. Compare the will of Zacchaeus and the will of the widow. There you will find them unequal, here equal. Let not your heart, then, be saddened, when from your little you give a little. What is little to the poor man is much to him who knows the poor and the rich. For God knows with what mind you give, with what will you give. Only, beware of all greed, and give whatever out of love. Do we find anything cheaper than two mites? A cup of cold water. He who gives, he says, a cup of cold water to one of the least of mine, amen I say to you, will not lose his reward (See Mt 10:42). Now how much is a cup of cold water worth, for which not even wood was doled out to heat it? Therefore he did not say only a cup of water, but added "cold." You see how great it is, and how great is that which it bought. Is there anything cheaper than a cup of cold water? What? Nothing. If, then, there is, how is it nothing? It is both nothing and is nothing. There is what you give: but peace on earth to men of good will (See Lk 2:14). This was bought at this price by the Patriarchs and remained for sale for the Prophets. Was it for that reason not kept for others? The Prophets bought it: they left it to be bought by the Apostles. The Apostles bought it: they kept it to be bought by the martyrs. The martyrs bought it, and it is whole for us to buy. Let us love and we buy. There is no reason for you to say: It is worth so much and I do not have it. Let me take so great a loan and from it pay it, as men are wont to say when they fix a certain price for a house or a possession for sale. Do not go round your chests, return to your conscience, where you find the price of the possession. If there be there faith, hope, love, give and you buy, and when you have given you do not lose. For not, having given faith, do you lose faith, or, having doled out hope, do you lose hope, or, when you have given love, will you remain without love. They are fountains: by flowing they abound.

9. Behold, you are poor and you build a church. Whence this, if you are poor, except that you are rich in soul? Act, then, with the Lord's help, so that you may complete it. For God loves a cheerful giver (See 2 Cor 9:7). When you give cheerfully, it is reckoned to you. But when you give with sadness, you both have nothing outside, and within, where there is sadness, there is anguish. The coin perishes, that is not bought, since good will buys it. Give little, give much, let the will be good and you buy. And in that you build a church, by God's favor, you build for yourselves. It is another thing that you give to the poor: and they pass and come. This you build for yourselves. It is the house of your prayers, where you may gather, where you may do the things that are divine, where you may say hymns and praises to God, where you may pour out prayers, where you may receive the sacraments. You see that it is the house of your prayers. Do you want to make it? Be yourselves the house of God, and that house is made. Amen.

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ both came to men, and departed from men, and is going to come to men. And yet he was here when he came, nor did he withdraw when he departed, and he is going to come to those to whom he said: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age (See Mt 28:20). According to the form of a servant, then, which he took for us, at a certain time he was born, and was killed, and rose again, and now dies no more, nor will death any longer have dominion over him (See Rom 6:9): but according to his divinity, by which he is equal to the Father, he was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (See Jn 1:10). About this you have just now heard the Gospel, what it admonished us, making us cautious, and wanting us to be unencumbered and ready to await the last things: so that after the last things, which in this world are to be feared, there may follow a rest which has no end. Blessed are they who shall have been made partakers of it. But then they will be secure, who now are not secure: and again then they will fear, who now refuse to fear. For this expectation and on account of this hope we have been made Christians. Is not our hope away from this world? Let us not love the world. From the love of this world we have been called, that we may hope for and love another world. In this we ought to abstain from all unlawful desires, that is, we ought to have our loins girded: and to glow and shine in good works, that is, to have our lamps burning. For the Lord himself said to his disciples in another place of the Gospel: 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 (See Mt 5:15). And to show whence he was speaking, he added and said: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (See Mt 5:16).

2. Therefore he wanted our loins to be girded, and our lamps burning. What is, the loins girded? Turn away from evil (See Ps 34:14 (33)). What is to shine? what is to have lamps burning? This is: And do good (See Ps 34:14 (33)). What is it that he added and said: And you, be like men awaiting their lord when he comes from the wedding (See Lk 12:36): except what follows in that psalm: Seek peace, and follow it (See Ps 34:14 (33))? These three—that is, abstinence from evil, and the doing of good, and the hope of the eternal reward—are recalled in the Acts of the Apostles, where it is written that Paul taught them about self-control, about justice, and the hope of eternal life (See Acts 24:25). To self-control pertains: Let your loins be girded (See Lk 12:35). To justice pertains: And lamps burning (See Lk 12:35). To the expectation of the Lord pertains the hope of eternal life. So then: Turn away from evil, this is self-control, these are the loins girded: And do good, this is justice, these are the burning lamps: Seek peace and follow it, this is the expectation of the age to come: therefore: Be like men awaiting their lord when he comes from the wedding.

3. But having these precepts and promises, why do we seek on earth good days (See Ps 34:12 (33)), where we cannot find them? For I know that you seek them, when either you are sick, or you are in tribulations, which abound in this world. Since when one's age sinks toward its end, even an old man is full of complaints, and of no joys. Among all the tribulations by which the human race is worn down, men seek nothing but good days, and they want a long life, which here they cannot have. For even a long human life is constrained by such brevity, compared to the breadth of that whole age, as a single drop compared to the whole sea. What, then, is a man's life, even that which is called long? They call a life long which in this world is short: and, as I said, groans abound even to decrepit old age. This whole is little and brief: and yet how it is sought by men? With how much diligence, how much labor, how much care, how much watchfulness, how much effort do men seek to live here long and grow old? But this very living long, what is it, except to run to the end? You had yesterday, you want to have tomorrow too. But when this and tomorrow have passed, you have less of it. Therefore you wish the day to dawn, that there may approach you the day to which you do not want to come. You hold some feast for your friends, you hear there well-wishers say to you, May you live many years: you want what they said to come. What? That years and years may come, and you do not want the end of the years to come? Your zeals are contrary: you want to walk, and you do not want to arrive.

4. Nevertheless, as I said, if so great care is in men, that with daily, great, and perpetual labors they desire to die later; with how great care must we act, that we may never die? About that no one wants to think. Daily good days are sought in this world, where they are not found: and no one wants to live so as to come there where they are found. Therefore the same Scripture admonishes, and says: What man is there who wants life, and loves to see good days (See Ps 34:12 (33))? Scripture so questioned, as though to know what would be answered it: knowing that all men would seek life, and good days. For their desire it questioned, as though it were answered from the heart of all, I want it: so it said: What man is there who wants life, and loves to see good days? Just as even at this hour, in which I speak to you, when you heard me say: What man is there who wants life, and loves to see good days? you all answered in your heart, I do. For I too who speak with you want life and good days: what you seek, this I too seek.

5. Just as, if gold were necessary to us all, and I, wanting to come to the gold along with you, and it were somewhere in your field, in a place subject to your power, and I saw you seeking gold, and said to you, What do you seek? you would answer me, Gold. And I would say to you, You seek gold, and I seek gold: what you seek, I too seek; but you do not seek it where we can find it. So then hear me, where we can find it: I take nothing from you, I show you the place: rather let us all follow him who knows where what we seek is. So now too, because you desire life and good days, we cannot say to you, Do not desire life and good days: but we say this, Do not here seek in this world life and good days, where they cannot be good. Is not life itself like death? But the days themselves hasten and pass; because today excluded yesterday: tomorrow is born for this, to exclude today. The days themselves do not stand still: why do you want to stand still with them? Therefore your desire, by which you want life and good days, I not only do not repress, but even more vehemently kindle. Indeed seek life, seek good days: but let them be sought where they can be found.

6. For do you want to hear with me the counsel of him who knows where good days are, and where life is? Hear it not from me, but with me together. For a certain one says to us: Come, sons, hear me (See Ps 34:11 (33)). And let us run together, and stand, and prick up our ears, and understand with the heart the Father who said: Come, sons, hear me; the fear, he says, of the Lord I will teach you (See Ps 34:11 (33)). And what thing he wants to teach, and for what thing the fear of the Lord is useful, follows: What man is there who wants life, and loves to see good days (See Ps 34:12 (33))? We all answer, We want it. Let us hear what follows. Restrain your tongue from evil, and let your lips not speak guile (See Ps 34:13 (33)). Now say, I do. Just now when I said: What man is there who wants life, and loves to see good days? we all answered, I do. Come, let someone answer me, I do. Then: Restrain your tongue from evil, and let your lips not speak guile. Now say, I do. So you want good days and life; do you not want to restrain your tongue from evil, and your lips not to speak guile? Eager for the wage, sluggish for the work. And to whom not working is the wage paid? Would that in your own house you would pay the wage even to one working. For I know that to one not working you do not pay. Why? Because to one doing nothing you owe nothing. And God has set forth a wage. What wage? Life and good days, which we all desire, and to which days we all strive to come. He is going to give the promised wage. What wage? Life and good days. And which are the good days? Life without end, rest without labor.

7. He has set forth a great wage: with so great a wage set forth, let us see what he has commanded. For now, kindled by the wage of so great a promise and by love of the wage, let us prepare our strength, our sides, our arms for his command. As though he were going to command us to carry great burdens, perhaps to dig something, perhaps to raise some engine? He has not commanded you a laborious thing, but the member which among all the members you move quickly, this he has charged you to restrain: Restrain your tongue from evil. It is no labor to raise a structure; and is it labor to hold the tongue? Restrain your tongue from evil. Do not speak a lie, do not speak accusations, do not speak calumnies, do not speak false witness, do not speak blasphemies: Restrain your tongue from evil. See how you are angry, if anyone speaks evil of you. As you are angry at another, when he speaks evil of you: so be angry at yourself, when you speak evil of another. Let your lips not speak guile. What is within in your heart, let this be said outside. Let not one thing cover the breast, and the tongue utter another. Turn away from evil, and do good. For how shall I say to him, Clothe the naked, who still wants to strip the clothed? For he who oppresses his fellow citizen, how does he receive the pilgrim? Therefore in order, first turn away from evil, and do good: first gird your loins, and then light the lamp. And when you have done this, securely await life and good days. Seek peace, and follow it (See Ps 34:14 (33)): and then with a good face you will say to the Lord: I have done what you commanded, repay what you promised.

1. We have heard the Gospel, and in it the Lord rebuking those who know how to interpret the face of heaven, and do not know how to find the time of the faith of the kingdom of heaven drawing near. He said this to the Jews: but the word reaches us too. The Lord Jesus Christ himself thus began the preaching of his Gospel: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (See Mt 4:17). Likewise John the Baptist, his forerunner, thus began: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (See Mt 3:2). And now the Lord rebukes those who refuse to repent, as the kingdom of heaven draws near. The kingdom of heaven, as he himself says, will not come with observation (See Lk 17:20). And again he himself says: The kingdom of heaven is within you (See Lk 17:21). Therefore let each one prudently receive the warnings of the master, that he may not lose the time of the Savior's mercy, which is now bestowed, as long as the human race is spared. For man is spared for this, that he may be converted, and there may be no one to be condemned. Let God see when the end of the age comes: yet now is the time of faith. Whether the end of the age will find any of us here, I do not know: and perhaps it will not find us. The time for each of us is near, because we are mortal. We walk among mishaps. If we were of glass, we would fear mishaps less. What more fragile than a vessel of glass? And yet it is preserved, and lasts through ages. For although mishaps are feared for a glass vessel, old age and fever are not feared for it. We, then, are more fragile and weaker: because both all the mishaps which do not cease in human affairs we daily dread, surely by our fragility; and if the mishaps themselves do not befall, time walks on: a man avoids a blow, does he avoid his exit? he avoids the things that befall from without, is what is born within driven off? In short, now the inner parts breed worms, now some sickness suddenly seizes: in the end, however much a man is spared, at last when old age comes, there is no way to defer it.

2. Accordingly let us hear the Lord, let us do in ourselves what he commanded. Let us see who is that adversary, of whom he frightened us, saying: If you go with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort on the way to be freed from him; lest perhaps he hand you over to the ruler, and the ruler to the officer, and you be cast into prison, from which you will not come out until you pay the last farthing (See Lk 12:58-59). Who is this adversary? If the devil; we are already freed from him. What price was given for us, that we might be redeemed from him? Of which the Apostle says, speaking of our very redemption: Who rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love (See Col 1:13). We have been redeemed, we renounced the devil: how shall we make an effort to be freed from him, lest he again make us captive sinners? But he is not the adversary of whom the Lord warns us. For in another place another evangelist set it down in such a way that, if we join both sayings, and compare both sayings of the two Gospels with each other, we may quickly understand this adversary. For behold, what did he say here? When you go to the ruler with your adversary, make an effort on the way to be freed from him (See Lk 12:58). But another evangelist set this very thing down thus: Be agreeing with your adversary quickly while you are with him on the way (See Mt 5:25). The rest are similar: Lest perhaps the adversary hand you over to the judge, the judge to the officer, the officer into prison (See Mt 5:25). Both evangelists explained this similarly. One said: Make an effort on the way to be freed from him: the other said: Agree with him. For you cannot be freed from him, unless you agree with him. Do you want to be freed from him? Agree with him. Is it the devil, with whom a Christian ought to agree?

3. Let us seek, then, that adversary with whom we ought to agree, lest he hand us over to the judge, and the judge to the officer: let us seek him, and let us agree with him. If you sin, your adversary is the word of God. For example, perhaps it delights you to get drunk: it says to you: Do not. It delights you to gawk and to trifle: it says to you, Do not. It delights you to commit adultery: the word of God says to you, Do not. In whatever sins you may want to do your own will, it says to you, Do not. It is the adversary of your will, until it becomes the author of your salvation. O how good an adversary, how useful an adversary! It does not seek our will, but our profit. It is our adversary, as long as we too are our own. As long as you are an enemy to yourself, you have the word of God as an enemy: be a friend to yourself, and you are in concord with it. You shall not commit murder (See Exod 20:13): hear it, and you are in concord. You shall not commit theft (See Exod 20:15): hear it, and you are in concord. You shall not commit adultery (See Exod 20:14): hear it, and you are in concord. You shall not give false witness (See Exod 20:16): hear it, and you are in concord. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife (See Exod 20:17): hear it, and you are in concord. You shall not covet your neighbor's property (See Exod 20:17): hear it, and you are in concord. In all these you have been in concord with this adversary of yours: and what have you lost for yourself? Not only have you lost nothing: but you have even found yourself, who had perished. The way is this life: if we have agreed with him, if we have consented to him; the way ended, we shall not fear the judge, the officer, the prison.

4. When is the way ended? It is not ended for all at one hour. Each one has his hour, when he ends the way. The way is called this life: you have ended this life, you have ended the way. We walk; and the very living is going forward. Unless perhaps you think that time goes forward, and we stand still? It cannot be. As time goes forward, we too go forward: and the years do not come to us, but rather depart. Men greatly err, when they say: This boy is still of little sense, the years come to him, and he will be prudent. Attend to what you say. They come, you said: I show that they depart, when you say, They come. And hear how easily I prove it. Suppose we know his years from the time he was born: for example, that we may wish him well, he will live eighty years, he will reach old age. Write eighty years. He has lived one year: how many do you have in the sum? how many did you hold? Eighty. Subtract one. He has lived ten: seventy remain. He has lived twenty: sixty remain. Surely they came: what is this? They come, that our years may go away: they come, I say, that they may go. For they do not come to stand with us: but as they pass through us, they wear us away, and make us be worth less and less. Such is the way on which we have come. What shall we do with that adversary, that is, with the word of God? Agree with him. For you do not know when the way will be ended. When the way has been ended, the judge remains, and the officer, and the prison. But if you keep good will toward your adversary, and agree with him; instead of a judge you will find a father, instead of a cruel officer an angel taking you up into Abraham's bosom, instead of a prison paradise. How quickly on the way you have changed everything, because you agreed with your adversary!

1. Hear what the Lord has granted concerning the fig tree, which had three years and bore no fruit, and concerning the woman who had eighteen years in infirmity. The fig tree is the human race; the three years are three times: one before the law, the second under the law, the third under grace. And it is not unfitting that the fig tree be understood as the human race. For the first man, when he sinned, covered his shame with fig leaves; he covered those things from which we are born; the members, which before the sin were to be gloried in, after the sin were made shameful. Indeed: They were naked, and were not ashamed (See Gen 2:25); there was nothing for which to blush, when sin had not gone before; nor could they blush at the works of their Creator, because to the good works of their Creator they had mixed no evil work of their own. From there, then, was born the human race: man from man, the liable from the debtor, the mortal from the mortal, the sinner from the sinner. These, then, he calls in this tree, who through all time refused to bear fruit; and the axe hung over the roots of the unfruitful tree. The vinedresser intercedes: the punishment is deferred so that help may be applied. And that the vinedresser intercedes—every holy person within the Church prays for those who are outside the Church. And what does he pray? Lord, let it alone this year too (See Lk 13:8). That is, in this time under grace spare the sinners, spare the unbelievers, spare the barren, spare the unfruitful. I will dig around it, and apply a basket of dung; if it bears fruit, well; if not, when you come you will cut it down (See Lk 13:8-9). When you come, when? In judgment. When you come, when? From there he is to come to judge the living and the dead (See Acts 10:42). Meanwhile it is now spared. But what is it, to dig a trench around it, except to teach the humility of penitence? For a trench is lowly ground. Understand the basket of dung in a good sense. It is filth, but it gives fruit. The filth of the cultivator is the grief of the sinner; those who do penance, do it in filth, if only they understand, and do it truly. To this tree, then, it is said: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (See Mt 4:17).

2. What of that woman, having eighteen years? Recall. In six days God completed his works. Three times six, eighteen. What, then, the three years signified in the tree, this the eighteen years signified in that woman (See Lk 13:11). She was bent over, she could not look up, because she was hearing in vain, Lift up your heart. But the Lord raised her up. There is hope, but for sons. So then, until the day of judgment comes, a man gives himself much credit. And what is man? Not even the just man is anything, as far as pertains to the man himself. For a just man is a great something, a man, but yet a just man is a just man by the grace of God. For: What is man, that you are mindful of him (See Ps 8:4 (8))? Do you want to see what man is? Every man is a liar (Ps 116:11 (115)). We have sung: Arise, Lord, let not man prevail (See Ps 9:19 (9)). What is: Let not man prevail? Were the Apostles not men? Were the martyrs not men? Jesus himself deigned to be a man. What, then, is: Arise, Lord, let not man prevail, if every man is a liar? Arise, truth, let not falsehood prevail. So a man, if he wants to be something, let him not be of his own; if he wants to be of his own, he will be a liar; if he wants to be truthful, he will be of God, not of his own.

3. Therefore: Arise, Lord, let not man prevail (See Ps 9:19 (9)). So great did the lie prevail before the flood; after the flood eight men remained; through them the earth was filled with lying men. The people of God was chosen; so great miracles were done, divine benefits granted beforehand. He was led to the land of promise, freed from the slavery of the Egyptians; Prophets were sent to him, he received a temple, he received a priesthood, he received an anointing, he received a law; but: Alien sons have lied to me (See Ps 18:45 (17)). At last the promised one was sent. Let not man prevail, or because God has now become man. But even he, doing divine things, was despised; bestowing so great benefits, he was seized, scourged, hung up. So far did man prevail, to seize the Son of God, to scourge the Son of God, to crown the Son of God with thorns, to hang the Son of God on the wood. So far did man prevail: but to the point that, taken down from the wood, he was laid in the tomb. If he had remained there, man would have prevailed. But this prophecy addresses even him: Lord, you deigned to come in the flesh, the Word flesh, the Word above us, the flesh before us, the Word flesh between God and man; you chose a Virgin from whom to be born according to the flesh, you found a Virgin to be conceived in, born, you left her a Virgin. But you were not recognized: you appeared, and lay hidden; weakness appeared, power lay hidden. All this, that you might pour out your blood, our price. You did so great wonders, you bestowed benefits on the infirmities of the sick; you received evils for goods, you were insulted; you hung on the wood, the head was wagged by the impious before you, and it was said: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (See Mt 27:40). Had you then lost your power, or were you rather showing patience? And yet they insulted you, yet they mocked you, yet they departed, you slain, as though victors. And behold, you lie in the tomb. Arise, Lord, let not man prevail (See Ps 9:19 (9)); let not the impious enemy prevail, let not the blind Jew prevail. For when you were crucified, the blind Jew seemed to himself to have prevailed: but you rose again and he was made guilty. Arise, Lord, let not man prevail. And it was done. And what remains, except that: The nations be judged in your sight (See Ps 9:19 (9))? For he rose again, as you know, ascended into heaven, from there to come to judge the living and the dead.

4. Come now, unfruitful tree, do not mock, because you are spared; the axe is deferred, do not be carefree: it will come, you will be cut down. Believe, he is going to come. All these things that you see were not. The Christian people throughout the whole world once was not; in prophecy it was read, on earth it was not seen; but now it is both read and seen. The Church herself was thus addressed; it was not said to her: See, daughter, and hear, but: Hear, and see (See Ps 45:10 (44)); hear the things foretold, see the things fulfilled. So then, dearly beloved, Christ was not born of the Virgin: he was promised and born; he had not done wonders: they were promised, and he did them; he had not yet suffered: it was promised, and it was done; he had not risen: it was foretold, and it was fulfilled; he had not ascended into heaven: it was foretold, and it was fulfilled; his name was not throughout the whole world: it was foretold, and it was fulfilled; idols were not destroyed and broken: and it was done; heretics attacking the Church were not: it was foretold, and it was fulfilled; so the day of judgment is not yet, but, because it was foretold, it will be fulfilled. He who in so great things appeared truthful, will he be a liar in the day of judgment? He made us a bond of his promises; for by promising, God made himself a debtor, not by receiving a loan. Can we say to him: Repay what you received? Who first gave to him, and it shall be repaid to him (See Rom 11:35)? We cannot say: Repay what you received; but we plainly say: Repay what you promised.

5. He promised to our fathers: but he made a written guarantee, which we too might read. If he reckons accounts with us, he who deigned to make a guarantee, and says: Read my debts, that is, of my promises, and reckon what I have repaid; reckon, see what I owe: how much I have repaid! It is little that I owe: from the little that remains, do you think me an unfaithful promiser? Therefore let him who is barren do penance, and bear fruit worthy of penance (See Lk 3:8). He who is bent over, and gazes on the earth, rejoices in earthly happiness, thinks this alone to be the life where he can be blessed, does not believe in another; whoever is so bent over, let him be raised up; if he cannot of himself, let him call upon God. For was even that woman raised up of herself? Woe would be to her, if he had not held out his hand.

1. We have often admonished Your Charity, and, to the measure of our strength, with the Lord bestowing it, we have taught that in the holy Gospel the wondrous deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ are not only mighty acts and works—for what else are they, but the more wonderful the more divine?—but are also, as it were, visible words, admonishing us to understand also what they signify. And if we do not understand them, they delight by the miracle alone and lift up the heart in the praise of God. Accordingly, just as one admires and praises a scribe writing beautifully, merely by looking at what he writes, even one who does not know letters and, ignorant of the meaning, is delighted by the beauty of the characters—not knowing the sense, he praises the stroke; but one who also knows how to read takes a rich fruit—so when we hear what wonders the Lord did, even if we do not understand what they signify, like those who cannot read and gaze on those characters alone, we marvel at the work of the doer, even if we do not know the will of the one signifying. What more wonderful than this deed? For eighteen years a woman was held bent over by infirmity: in one moment she was straightened by the word of the Lord, and an illness of many years yielded to him commanding, because it obeyed him ruling. He loosed the bond of the one who entangled her, he did the work of the Creator. She was straightened who was bent, she was loosed who was bound (See Lk 13:11-13), and this by a word, because he who made the word—and all things were made through him (See Jn 1:3)—came to seek what had perished (See Lk 19:10). Let us marvel, let us praise, let us love. Yet, after admiring the stroke of this writing, let us a little more attentively seek its meaning.

2. For in that same gospel place, in that same context where there is mention of eighteen men upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and they died (See Lk 13:4), the woman infirm for eighteen years was also healed and straightened (See Lk 13:11-13). Both are there: it is narrated in one continuous passage. In that same continuous passage too is what the Lord says about that tree, to which he came and found it unfruitful, in the third year already. When he commanded it to be cut down, the vinedresser interceded: that he should apply some dung to it after digging around it, and, if it bore fruit, well; if not, that he should come and cut it down (See Lk 13:6-9). This about the tree was said in a figure, not done in a miracle. But that about the men upon whom the tower fell was neither said in a figure by the Lord, nor was the matter commended by any miracle: the men were crushed by a collapse (See Lk 13:4). As though it could be reckoned to chance, except that the impious understand that not even a sparrow falls without the will of the Creator (See Mt 10:29). But that the Lord might of his own accord recall those eighteen men whom the collapse of the tower crushed, it had been reported to him that certain men had been slain by king Herod in a horrid manner, so that he mingled their blood with their sacrifices (See Lk 13:1). When men shuddered at this, they reported it. And the Lord said: Do you suppose that they, because this happened to them, were sinners above other men? Amen, I say to you: unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (See Lk 13:2-3). Then of his own accord he added, and recalling it joined: Or those eighteen men upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and they died, do you suppose that they were debtors above other men—that is, sinners? Amen, I say to you, that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (See Lk 13:4-5). Then he speaks of that fig tree, and now straightens the woman (See Lk 13:6-13). I beseech you, help our weakness with your attention; first what this means I think we ought not negligently to seek.

3. Amen, he says, I say to you: unless you repent, you will all likewise die. Likewise how? Like those, namely, whose blood Herod mingled with their sacrifices. Again: unless you repent, you will all likewise die. How likewise? Like those upon whom the tower fell. Since they died unalike—differently surely those whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices, differently those whom the collapse crushed—how will all, unless they repent, die likewise? Those who are to die in that way are not to die in this way, and those in this way, surely not in that; and yet by their deserts they die likewise. Divine Scripture cannot lie, the mouth of truth cannot lie. Plainly, if we understand it, it is true. All the wicked, the unjust, all the lost, the criminal, the shameful, lovers of the world, the wanton and the abject, unless they repent, die likewise. How likewise? Both as those, and as those. Not bodily and visibly, therefore likewise. For if bodily, they cannot die in both ways. But if we understand and compare spiritual things with spiritual (See 1 Cor 2:13), and draw certain signs from bodily likenesses to intelligible things, all die likewise. For all the unjust ask evil things of God, and what they think good for themselves are evil, because they think badly. From what? From evil desire, from the work of flesh and blood, from the work of corruption, namely, which will not possess the kingdom of God (See 1 Cor 15:50). So their sacrifices, that is, their prayers, are mingled with their blood, because they ask according to flesh and blood. This a certain Scripture indicates and rebukes, saying: You ask and do not receive, because you ask badly, that you may consume it in your desires (See Jas 4:3). You, then, offer your sacrifice: let it be mingled with your blood; for you relish carnally, and according to what you relish carnally, you ask God. For you are of flesh and blood; you want to bend God to your flesh, when you ought to lift up your heart to God, and you do not attend to what the Apostle says to you: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; relish the things that are above, not the things that are on earth (See Col 3:1-2), lest your prayers, coming from flesh and blood, punish you with such a punishment as that with which those were punished whose blood the angry king mingled with their sacrifices (See Lk 13:1). Separate your sacrifice from your blood, say to your God: I will repay you my vows, which my lips have distinguished (See Ps 66:13-14 (65)). For the spiritual man judges all things. He himself is judged by no one (See 1 Cor 2:15). By judging all things, he does not mingle the sacrifice with the blood.

4. How, then, do those who do not repent die likewise, as those died upon whom the tower of Siloam fell? "Siloam" is interpreted "Sent." Who is the Sent one, except our Lord? The tower in Siloam, the cross of Christ. If, then, you are not mortified, fixed to his cross by the evil desires of flesh and blood, the crucified one falls upon you. Why do you sign yourself? If you do not act, you do not sign. This is a collapse, not grace. Acknowledge the crucified, acknowledge the one suffering, acknowledge the one praying for his enemies (See Lk 23:34), acknowledge the one loving and wishing to heal those from whom he suffered such things. If you acknowledge, repent, and if you ever willed evil, make yourself will good. Blot out the fault, lest you fear the penalty. But if you do not, will Christ profit you anything? He who eats unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself (See 1 Cor 11:29). If by eating unworthily he eats and drinks judgment to himself, what else but that the tower falls upon him? For you will all likewise die, he says—and he says truly—unless you repent of your evil deeds. Further, if you act, you will be straightened and will be like that woman (See Lk 13:13). Further, if you act, you receive the filth of penitence, like a mound of dung, not unfruitfully, lest you be cut down (See Lk 13:8-9).

5. It remains to ask about the number, why eighteen men, and eighteen years, and how they accord with the three years of that tree. That angry ruler of the synagogue admonished us to resolve a question of this kind, because the Lord Jesus on the Sabbath healed that bent-over woman. For he said to the crowds: There are six days on which one ought to work; come then and be healed, not on the Sabbath day (See Lk 13:14). He is indeed convicted, beast by beast. Hypocrites, he says, does not each of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox and lead it to water (See Lk 13:15)? Nor ought he to be convicted from elsewhere, who was like the horse and the mule, having no understanding (See Ps 32:9 (31)). And yet he seemed to himself to speak from Scripture, when he said: There are six days on which one ought to work. From Scripture indeed, but he mingled the sacrifice with the blood, since he relished carnally what was said spiritually. Yet let us take from him an occasion of understanding, and we too recall that in six days God made all that we see, heaven and earth and all that is in them; but on the seventh day God rested (See Gen 2:2). And all those six days have an evening, because heaven and earth will pass away (See Mt 24:35); but that seventh day of rest has no evening, because, when we too have rested after good works, we shall have no end in that rest. We find, then, that in six days all things were made: by the number six time was signified. Further, if time is signified to you by the number six, look at the three years of the tree, because there a threefold time is signified: one before the law, another under the law, the third which we now pass under grace. Whoever even in this time is not corrected, let him await the axe, not security. Since, then, that tree, at least in the third time, was to be corrected and changed from barrenness to fruitfulness (See Lk 13:6-9), so as to hear him who baptizes unto repentance: Bear fruits worthy of repentance (See Lk 3:8), and the number six signifies time, without doubt those eighteen whom the tower crushed (See Lk 13:4) were not corrected in that whole threefold time. For if six signifies time, three times six are eighteen.

6. But that woman, in the time of grace, is straightened in eighteen years (See Lk 13:11-13), as if she had said: They have bent down my soul (See Ps 57:6 (56)). For the soul is bent which is weighed down by earthly things, bent is the soul which is burdened by the desires of things, bent is the soul which lies in saying it has its heart lifted up to the Lord. For if you have your "heart lifted up," you are not bent. If you always seek earthly things, if you desire to be happy from earthly things, if you do not think you worship God fruitfully unless earthly happiness has abounded for you, you are bent: your heart is not with the Lord. But this punishment came from the dominion of the devil. The whole human race was held bent under the devil, the whole human race was weighed down by earthly desires; there came one who would promise the kingdom of heaven. There is another life, there is the fellowship of angels; there is a homeland in which no violent man, no enemy is to be feared; there is a homeland walled by the will of God, surrounded by the shield of God's good will (See Ps 5:12 (5)), into which the enemy is not allowed, from which a friend does not perish; there is a homeland where no one departs, no one succeeds. That homeland is called Jerusalem, "Jerusalem" is interpreted "vision of peace." Be straightened from your crookedness, do not relish the earth. You have risen with Christ (See Col 3:1), he is in heaven: stretch toward him, and you will not be bent.

7. But you did not do this, O malignant human race, you did not do this before the law, you did not do this under the law: do it under grace. After eighteen years he found you bent, who came upright, who came to be crucified for you, that he might loose you from the bond of the devil (See Lk 13:16). The creditor's bond held you bent. For the devil had bound his debtors and, in a way, put them in fetters; that one came, no debtor, paid what he did not owe, and blotted out our handwriting (See Col 2:14). The handwriting of our debt, from where was it blotted out? By the blood of the just one. For why would the one set over death hold men unto death? He held them, plainly, by the condition of sin, as his own tree: he conquered and held, conquered and possessed. By right he held those whom by evil persuasion he had deceived. There came one persuading good things, having nothing evil, born of a virgin, not bearing the offshoot of sin, but clothed with the penalty of death, having the likeness of sinful flesh, that he might free us from sinful flesh (See Rom 8:3). Hear him going to his passion and saying: Behold, the ruler of the world comes, and in me he will find nothing (See Jn 14:30). Not as the world in you, not as in the whole human race; in me he will find nothing. So if he will find nothing in you, why will you die? What follows? After he said: In me he will find nothing, as though it were said to him: "Why then will you die?", but that all may know, he says, that I do the will of my Father: rise, let us go from here (See Jn 14:31). He rises and goes to his passion, that he may fulfill the will of the Father, like the one sent to Siloam, not because he owed it, but that he might repay for the debtors, as it was said of him in prophecy: What I did not seize, then I was paying (See Ps 69:4 (68)). He alone, then, was unworthy of death. But we are all worthy, because we have together drawn the desert of death. He drew no desert of death, and yet he undertook death for us. Therefore he paid what he did not owe, freed the debtors, blotted out the old handwriting (See Col 2:14), set up new documents. What need have we now to keep an account with the old documents? He burned them with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

8. Acknowledge the redeemer, do not make yourself a debtor any longer. But for certain daily, even if lesser, sins, he gave a daily remedy. From faith say, from the heart say, from good will say: Forgive us our sins. For add, not only by saying, but also by doing, what follows: As we also forgive our debtors (See Mt 6:12). So God, whose debtor you are, wanted you to have a debtor. Your debtor is he who does you wrong, who oppresses you unjustly, who takes something from you unfairly. He is your debtor, he owes you a penalty. Do you want to know that he is your debtor? Look, read. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (See Exod 21:24), and so on. The law decreed that each should suffer what he did. On the contrary, when the Gospel says: I say to you: love your enemies (See Mt 5:44), it does not speak against the law, as some, ill understanding, suppose, that the gentleness of the Gospel is contrary to the harshness of the law. It is not so. The law shows what is owed to you. The Gospel would not make you a remitter, unless the law showed you a debtor.

1. . . . whom there arrogant pride had taken captive. But now, he says, knowing God, or rather known by God (See Gal 4:9). Therefore knowing, because known. For how has God now known? He predestined before the foundation of the world (See Eph 1:4). But what is: He has now known? He has now made you know.

2. Therefore let the Church of Christ say, let mother Church the Catholic say, let the body of that head which ascended into heaven say, the holy body, the great body, the body spread throughout the whole world, let that harvest say which the grain made that fell into the earth—for it says, as you know, that grain drawing near to its passion: The grain, he says, unless it falls into the earth, remains alone; but when it has fallen into the earth, it brings forth much fruit (See Jn 12:24-25); one grain fell into the earth, and made a most copious fruit; this harvest is the whole world—let it say, and let it not say it arrogantly, let it acknowledge from whom it receives what it says, what it says. What, then, should it say? I have known that the Lord is great. I have known. I was a little flock when my head was crucified. In the few I was terrified. While Christ spoke, Peter presumed; with Christ seized, Peter denied. Because the rock was laid hold of, the feet wavered, and in Peter the rest fled. He alone denied, because he alone had remained with the one he denied. How much more easily could those deny, who before they were questioned fled, and did not hold fast. The harvest did not yet glory, because the grain was being sown. He is seized, afflicted with insults, hung on the wood, mocked by the bystanders as though by victors. Where are the supports of the Apostles? Where are the rams, the future leaders of the flock? Where, in short, is that great multitude, going before and following the Lord's mount with branches of trees, and saying: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (See Mt 21:9)? Then all the many were lukewarm in love, pressed down by fear. The Church does not yet say, with Christ hanging: I have known that the Lord is great. Where do we find this? There, in those two with whom, as they made their way after the resurrection, he joined himself, and as a third traveler began to converse with them. They were going along the way, and the Way was going with them, and yet they did not recognize the Way. The Way questioned them on the way: What is this that you discuss among yourselves? And they: Are you alone a stranger in Jerusalem? Do you not know the things that have been done concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a great prophet in words and deeds, and our rulers seized and crucified him? But we were hoping that he was the one who would redeem Israel (See Lk 24:17-21). You were hoping, you hope no longer. Where is what you were? But behold, in the crowd of gainsayers, of those raging and silencing the flock of Christ and awaiting what would come to be, behold, off to the side, someone hangs with Christ, and believes in Christ. I mean that thief, brothers, the one who knew the giver of grace, and did not despise the sharer of his penalty. He denies who followed, he acknowledges who is fixed. The rest are silent, all despair, and that one says: Lord, remember me, when you come into your kingdom (See Lk 23:42). The one whom he discerns fastened, he presumed would reign. Behold, there was at least one to say: I have known that the Lord is great. Great grace. Then he knew him great when the Jews thought him conquered. What greatness, my brothers, what greatness in the one hanging, in the crucified? Hanging with the hanging one, fixed in the abiding one, he knew that he was a grain of mustard seed (See Mt 13:31-32). The tree itself he did not yet see, and the seed itself he already knew. But behold, let the things that follow come to pass. Let him lay down his soul, because he has the power to take it up again (See Jn 10:18). Let him be taken down from the wood, let him be laid in the tomb. Let him sit in heaven, let him send the Holy Spirit. Let the few gathered be filled, let them speak in all tongues, let them signify the nations everywhere about to believe. Let this come to pass. Let this too be fulfilled. Let it be preached in Jerusalem. Let Stephen be kindled by the fire of love . . . and the crowds of the Jews. Let them rage, let them in frenzy kill the physician, because they already killed his master. Let him pardon the raging, let him pray for those who stone him, let him sleep. Let the rest come and confess Christ, let them be killed for Christ. Let Peter himself, a little before the great denier, become by love a confessor. Let so many thousands of the peoples of the Jews believe, let them lay all the prices of their goods before the feet of the Apostles. Let the Church grow from Jerusalem into all Judea and Samaria, by growing let it come to us, that I may run through it briefly. Let the martyrs be killed everywhere, sown with the grain from which the fertility of the harvest may sprout. Let the nations be converted, let the temples of demons be cast down, let the images be broken, let the worshipers of idols believe. Let the three measures, leavened, cry out (See Mt 13:33): I have known that the Lord is great. By the leaven it knew. (The three measures are the whole human race; recall the flood, from which the rest were restored; three remained; Noah had three sons, from them the human race was restored; that woman who hid the leaven is wisdom.) Behold, the whole world cries out in the Church of God: I have known that the Lord is great.

3. Certainly few are those who are saved. You recall the question from the Gospel just now recited to us. It was said to the Lord: Are those few who are saved (See Lk 13:23)? The Lord to this, what? He did not say: Not few, but many are those who are saved. He did not say this. But what did he say, when he had heard: Are those few who are saved? Strive to enter through the narrow gate (See Lk 13:24). When, then, he had heard: Are those few who are saved? the Lord confirmed what he heard. Through the narrow gate few enter. In another place he himself says this: The way is hard and narrow that leads to life, and few are they who enter by it. But broad and spacious is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they who walk by it (See Mt 7:13-14). Why should we rejoice at the multitudes? Hear me, you few. I know that many hear, and few obey. I see a threshing floor, I seek grains. And the grains are scarcely seen, when the floor is threshed, but it is to come that it be winnowed. Few, then, are those who are saved in comparison with the many lost. For those few will make a great heap. When the winnower comes, bearing the winnowing fan in his hand, he will cleanse his threshing floor; the wheat he will store in the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (See Mt 3:12). Let not the chaff mock the grain. He speaks this truly, he will deceive no one. Be, then, among the many, many, but in comparison with certain of the many, few. So great a heap is to come forth from this floor, that it will fill the granary of heaven. For he is not contrary, who said: Few are they who enter through the narrow gate, many perish by the broad way. Would he be contrary to himself who once said: Many will come from East and West (See Mt 8:11)? Many will come, certainly few. Both few and many. Some, then, the few, others the many? No, but the same are the few who are the many: few in comparison with the lost, many in the fellowship of the angels. Hear, dearly beloved, hear what is written: After this I saw, coming from every tongue and nation and tribe, with white robes and palms, a multitude which no one could number (See Rev 7:9). This is the heap of the saints. With how much clearer a voice will the winnowed floor speak, separated from the shipwrecked crowd of evil and false Christians, set apart from the chaff separated for the eternal fire—those who press, do not touch (for a certain woman touched the hem, the crowd pressed Christ (See Lk 8:44-45))—all the damnable being separated, then, the purged heap standing at the right hand, fearing none of the wicked to be mingled with it, fearing to lose none of the good, about to reign with Christ, with how much confidence will it say: I have known that the Lord is great.

4. If, then, my brothers, I speak to grains, if those predestined to eternal life acknowledge what I say, let them speak by works, not by words. We are compelled to say to you what we ought not. For we ought to find in you what we might praise, not to seek what we might admonish. Yet behold, I say it briefly, I do not linger. Acknowledge hospitality; through it one comes to God. You receive a guest, of whom you too are a companion on the way, because we are all pilgrims. He is a Christian who recognizes himself to be a pilgrim both in his own house and in his own homeland. Our homeland is above, there we shall not be guests. For each of us here is a guest even in his own house. If he is not a guest, let him not pass on from there; if he is going to pass on, he is a guest. Let him not deceive himself, he is a guest. Willy-nilly, he is a guest. But he leaves that house to his sons, a guest to guests. Indeed, even if you were in an inn, would you not depart when another came? This you do in your own house too. Your father gave place to you, you are going to give place to your sons. Neither remaining do you remain, nor do you leave it to those who will remain. If we all pass on, let us work something that cannot pass on, so that when we have passed on and come there from where we do not pass on, we may find our good works there. Christ the Lord is the keeper. Why do you fear lest you lose what you dole out? Turned toward the Lord, and so on.
We bring to Your Charity's knowledge what it knows. The anniversary day of the ordination of the lord elder Aurelius dawns tomorrow. Through my humility he asks and admonishes Your Charity that you deign to assemble most devoutly at the basilica of Faustus. Thanks be to God.

1. Holy readings have been set before us, both for us to hear, and from which to bring forth, with the Lord's help, something of a sermon. In the apostolic reading thanks are given to God for the faith of the nations, surely for this reason, because he himself made it. In the psalm we said: God of hosts, turn us, and show your face, and we shall be saved (See Ps 80:7 (79)). In the Gospel we have been called to a supper. Rather, others called, we not called but led; not only led but even compelled. For we heard thus, that A certain man made a great supper (See Lk 14:16). Who is this man, except the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (See 1 Tim 2:5)? He had sent that the invited might come; because the hour had now come, that they should come. Who are the invited, except those called through the Prophets sent before? How long is it, from which Prophets are sent and invite to Christ's supper! And they were sent to the people of Israel. Often they were sent, often they called, that men might come to the hour of the supper. But those, while they accepted the inviters, refused the supper. What is: They accepted the inviters, refused the supper? They read the Prophets, and killed Christ (See Acts 7:52). But when they killed Christ, then, not knowing it, they prepared the supper for us. The supper now prepared, Christ slain, after Christ's resurrection the supper of the Lord which the faithful know was commended, and confirmed by his hands and mouth, the Apostles were sent, to whom the Prophets had been sent before. Come to the supper—for so it had been appointed, that Christ should be slain—the Apostles said: Come to the supper.

2. They made excuses, who refused to come. How did they make excuses, brothers? There were three excuses. One said: I have bought a farm, I go to see it: hold me excused (See Lk 14:18). Another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, I want to prove them: hold me excused (See Lk 14:19). The third said: I have taken a wife: hold me excused, I cannot come (See Lk 14:20). Do we suppose these are not the excuses that hinder all men who refuse to come to this supper? Let us seek them, let us examine them, let us find them: but that we may beware of them. In the bought farm, dominion is noted. So pride is chastised. For to have a farm, to hold it, to possess it, to subject men to oneself in it, to lord it, delights. An evil vice, the first vice; for the first man wanted to lord it, who refused to have a Lord. What is "to lord it," except to rejoice in one's own power? There is a greater power: let us be subject to him, that we may be able to be safe. I have bought a farm: hold me excused. Pride, invited, refused to come.

3. Another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen. Would not "I have bought oxen" suffice? There is surely something which by its obscurity provokes us to seek and understand, and, because it is shut, exhorts us to knock. "Five yoke of oxen"; the senses of this flesh. Five are counted the senses of this flesh, which is known to all; and those who perhaps have not noticed, when reminded, without doubt recognize it. The senses of this flesh are found to be five; sight in the eyes, hearing in the ears, smell in the nostrils, taste in the gullet, touch in all the members. White and black and colored in whatever way, bright and dark, we perceive by seeing; harsh and tuneful, we perceive by hearing; sweet-smelling and foul-smelling, we perceive by smelling; sweet and bitter, we perceive by tasting; hard and soft, smooth and rough, hot and cold, heavy and light, we perceive by touching. They are five, and they are yokes. But that they are yokes, in the first three senses easily appears; there are two eyes, two ears, twin nostrils: behold three yokes. But in the gullet, that is, the sense of tasting, a certain doubling is found; because nothing tastes by tasting, unless it is touched by the tongue and palate. The pleasure of the flesh, which pertains to touch, is more hiddenly doubled; for it is outside and inside: so it too is twofold. Why are they called yokes of oxen? Because through these senses of the flesh earthly things are sought, and oxen turn the earth. But there are men removed from faith, given to earthly things, occupied with carnal things; they refuse to believe anything, except what they perceive by this fivefold sense of the body. In its senses they set for themselves the rules of all truth. I, he says, do not believe, except what I see; behold what I have known, behold what I know. It is white, it is black, it is round, it is square, it is colored thus or thus; I have known it, I know it, I hold it; nature itself teaches me. I am not compelled to believe what cannot be shown me. It is a voice: I perceive that it is a voice; it sings well, it sings badly, it is sweet, it is harsh; I have known it, I know it, it has reached me. It smells good, it smells bad: I perceive it, I know it. This is sweet, this bitter; this salty, this tasteless; what more you may tell me, I do not know. By touching I have known what is hard, what is soft, what is smooth, what is rough, what is warm, what is cold; what more will you show me?

4. By such a hindrance our apostle Thomas was held, who about the Lord Christ, that is, about Christ's resurrection, would not believe even by the eyes alone. Unless I put, he said, my fingers in the place of the nails and wounds, in his side, I will not believe (See Jn 20:25). And the Lord, who could rise again without any trace of a wound, kept the scars, that they might be touched by the doubter, and the wounds of the heart be healed. Yet, about to call to the supper, against the excuses of the five yoke of oxen: Blessed, he says, are they who do not see, and will believe (See Jn 20:29). We, my brothers, called to the supper, were not hindered by these five yokes. For we did not desire to see the face of the Lord's flesh in this time, nor did we long to admit to our ears the voice proceeding from the mouth of that flesh; we sought no temporal odor in him; a certain woman poured over him most precious ointment, that house was filled with the fragrance; but we were not there; behold, we did not smell it, and we believed. He gave the disciples the supper consecrated with his own hands; but we did not recline at that banquet, and yet that very supper we eat daily by faith. And do not think it a great thing to have been present at that supper, which he gave with his own hands, without faith. Faith afterward proved better than faithlessness then. Paul, who believed, was not there; Judas, who betrayed, was there. How many even now at this very supper, although they did not then see that table, nor look with their eyes on what the Lord carried in his hands, nor taste it with their gullet, yet, because it is the same that is now prepared, how many even now at this very supper eat and drink judgment to themselves!

5. But from where did an occasion, as it were, arise for the Lord to speak of this supper? One of those reclining had said—for he was at the banquet to which he had been invited: Blessed is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God (See Lk 14:15). As though this man sighed for something far off, and the bread itself was reclining before him. For what is the bread from the kingdom of God, except he who says: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (See Jn 6:51)? Do not prepare the gullet, but the heart. From there this supper was commended; behold, we have believed in Christ, when by faith we receive. In receiving, we know what we should think. We receive a little, and in the heart we are fattened. Therefore not what is seen, but what is believed, feeds. So we did not seek even that last sense—we did not say: If they believed who saw the Lord himself rising (if what is said is true) with their eyes, touched him with their hands; we did not touch him: why do we believe? If we thought such things, we would be hindered from the supper by those five yoke of oxen. And that you may know, brothers, that not the delight of these five senses, which soothes and brings in pleasure, but a certain curiosity was noted, he did not say: I have bought five yoke of oxen, to feed them, but: To prove them. He who wants to prove them, through the yokes of oxen does not want to doubt, just as holy Thomas through those very yokes refused to doubt. Let me see, let me touch, let me put my fingers. Behold, he says, put your fingers into my side, and do not be unbelieving (See Jn 20:27). I was slain for you: through the place you want to touch, I poured out blood, that I might redeem you; and do you still doubt about me, unless you touch me? Behold, this too I grant, behold, this too I display: touch, and believe. I have found the place of the wound: heal the wound of doubt.

6. The third said: I have taken a wife. This is the pleasure of the flesh; how many it hinders! Would that outside, and not within. There are men who say: It is not well with a man, unless the delights of the flesh are present. These are they whom the Apostle notes, saying: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die (See 1 Cor 15:32). Such things that proud rich man said at his banquets: Let us eat and drink: for tomorrow we die. Who has risen from there to here? Who has told us what is done there? We take with us this, that in this time it is well with us. He who says this has taken a wife: he embraces the flesh, he delights in the pleasures of the flesh, he excuses himself from the supper; let him beware, lest he die of an inner hunger. Attend to John, the holy apostle, the evangelist: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world (See 1 Jn 2:15). O you who come to the Lord's supper: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. He did not say: Do not have, but: Do not love. You had, you possessed, you loved: you clung. The love of earthly things is the birdlime of spiritual wings. Behold, you desired: you clung. Who will give you wings like a dove's (See Ps 55:6 (54))? When will you fly, where you may truly rest, when here, where you have clung badly, you wanted perversely to rest? Do not love the world; it is the divine trumpet. The assembly of this trumpet is the whole world. To the whole world it is said: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. Whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him: for all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ambition of the age (See 1 Jn 2:15-16). From the bottom he began: where the Gospel ended, from there he began; and from where the Gospel began, there he set his end. The desire of the flesh: I have taken a wife. The desire of the eyes: I have bought five yoke of oxen. The ambition of the age: I have bought a farm (See 1 Jn 2:16; Lk 14:18-20).

7. But for this reason these senses were commended as a whole by the eyes alone, because the eyes have the primacy among the five senses. Therefore, although sight properly pertains to the eyes, we are accustomed to call "seeing" through all five senses. How? First, what pertains to the eyes themselves, you say: See how white it is, attend and see how white it is; this pertains to the eyes. Hear and see how tuneful it is; can you say conversely: Hear and see how white it is? This which is said, "see," runs through all the senses; but the property of the other senses does not run through itself. Attend and see how white it is; hear and see how tuneful it is; smell and see how sweet it is; taste and see how sweet it is; touch and see how soft it is. Surely, since there are five senses, we would rather say thus: Hear and perceive how tuneful it is, or: Smell and perceive how sweet it is; taste and perceive how sweet it is; touch and perceive how warm it is; feel and perceive how smooth it is; feel and perceive how soft it is. None of these is wont to be said. For even the Lord himself, when after the resurrection he had appeared to his disciples, and they, seeing him, still wavered in faith, thinking they saw a spirit: Why, he said, do you doubt, and why do thoughts rise in your heart? See my hands and my feet (See Lk 24:38-39). And it is too little, See: Touch, he said, and feel and see (See Lk 24:39). Attend and see: feel and see. With the eyes alone see; with all the senses see. Because he was seeking the inner sense of faith, he applied himself also to the outer senses. We have received nothing from the Lord by these outer senses; by hearing we heard, by the heart we believed (See Rom 10:10); and that very hearing not from his mouth, but from the mouth of his preachers, from the mouth of those who were already supping and inviting us by belching forth.

8. Let us, then, take away from our midst vain and evil excuses: let us come to the supper, by which we may be fattened within. Let not the haughtiness of pride hinder us, let not unlawful curiosity lift us up or hold us and turn us from God; let not the pleasure of the flesh hinder us from the will of the heart. Let us come, and be fattened. And who came, except beggars, the weak, the lame, the blind? But those did not come, the healthy rich, as though walking well and seeing keenly, that is, presuming much on themselves, and therefore the more despairing the more proud. Let the beggars come: because he invites, who for our sake became poor, when he was rich, that by his poverty we beggars might be enriched (See 2 Cor 8:9). Let the weak come: because the healthy have no need of a physician, but the sick (See Mt 9:12). Let the lame come, who say to him: Direct my steps according to your word (See Ps 119:133 (118)). Let the blind come, who say to him: Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death (See Ps 13:3 (12)). Such came at the hour, those first invited being rejected by their excuse. They came at the hour, they entered from the streets and lanes of the city. And the servant who had been sent answered: Lord, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room. Go out, he says, into the ways and hedges; and whomever you find, compel them to enter (See Lk 14:21-23). Those you find, do not wait for them to consent: compel them to enter. A great supper, a great house I have prepared; I will not allow a place to be empty there. The nations came from the streets and lanes; let heretics and schismatics come from the ways and hedges. Compel them to enter. Here they find peace, for those who build hedges seek divisions. Let them be drawn from the hedges, let them be torn from the thorns. They have stuck in the hedges, and they refuse to be compelled: Let us enter, they say, by our own will. The Lord did not command this: Compel them, he says, to enter. Outside let necessity be found, within will shall be born.

1. We ought not to linger on matters already treated, but, just as we ought not to linger on them, so they ought to be recalled. Your prudence remembers that last Sunday we undertook a sermon to be discoursed on the two sons, who were recited today too from the Gospel (See Lk 15:11-32), which could not be brought to its end. But the Lord our God, after that tribulation, wished us to speak with you today too. The debt of the sermon must be repaid, the debt of love must always be held; the Lord will be present, that our humility may suffice for your expectation.

2. A man having two sons is God having two peoples; the elder son is the people of the Jews; the younger, the people of the Gentiles. The substance received from the Father is mind, understanding, memory, talent, and whatever God gave us for understanding and worshiping him. Having received this patrimony, the younger son set out into a far country (See Lk 15:13); far, namely, even unto the forgetting of his Creator. He squandered his substance by living prodigally (See Lk 15:13); spending, and not acquiring; expending what he had, and not receiving what he did not have; that is, consuming all his talent in luxuries, in idols, in all the depraved desires which the Truth called harlots.

3. Nor is it a wonder that a famine followed this luxury. But there was want in that country (See Lk 15:14); not a want of visible bread, but a want of invisible Truth. From want he rushed in upon a certain ruler of that country (See Lk 15:15). This ruler is understood as the devil, the prince of demons, upon whom all the curious rush; for all unlawful curiosity is a pestilent want of truth. But he, torn from God by a famine of talent, was reduced to servitude, and was allotted the office of feeding swine; that is, of him whose servitude the lowest and unclean demons are wont to rejoice in; for not in vain did the Lord allow the demons to go into the herd of swine (See Mt 8:31-32). But he was fed here on husks, with which he himself was not filled; we understand the husks as worldly doctrines, sounding, not fattening, fit for the food of swine, not of men; that is, from which the demons rejoice, not from which the faithful are justified.

4. At last at some time he saw where he was, what he had lost, whom he had offended, and upon whom he had rushed; and he returned to himself (See Lk 15:17); first to himself, and so to the father. For he had said perhaps: My heart has forsaken me (See Ps 40:12 (39)); whence it was necessary that he should first return to himself, and so recognize himself to be far from the father. This Scripture rebukes in certain men, saying: Return, transgressors, to the heart (See Isa 46:8). Returning to himself, he found himself wretched: Tribulation, he says, and grief I found, and I called on the name of the Lord (See Ps 116:3-4 (114-115)). How many, he says, of my father's hired servants abound in bread! But I here perish with hunger (See Lk 15:17). Whence would this come into his mind, except that the name of God was already being preached? And there was bread among certain men, who indeed did not hold it well, and sought something else, of whom it is said: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (See Mt 6:2). For such men are to be held hired servants, not sons, such as the Apostle designates, when he says: Whether by occasion, or in truth, Christ is announced (See Phil 1:18). For he wants certain men to be understood, who, by seeking their own, are hired servants, by announcing Christ abound in bread.

5. He rises, and returns; for by lying down and falling he had remained. The father sees him from afar, and runs to meet him; for his is the voice in the psalm: You have known my thoughts from afar (See Ps 139:2 (138)). What thoughts? Those by which he said within himself: I will say to my Father: I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired servants (See Lk 15:18-19). For he was not yet saying it, but was thinking to say it; yet the father heard him as though already saying it. For sometimes anyone set in some tribulation and temptation thinks to pray; and in that very thought he meditates what he will say to God in prayer, as a son demanding by his right the mercy of the father. And he says within himself: I will say to my God this and that; for I do not fear, when I have said this, when I have so wept, that my God will not hear me. Saying these things, very often he is already heard; for when he thought these things, he did not hide his thought from the eyes of God. He was there, when he was planning to pray, who was going to be there when he should begin to pray; therefore it is said in another psalm: I said, I will declare against myself my offense to the Lord (See Ps 32:5 (31)). See how he still says what he said within himself, what he planned; and at once he added: And you forgave the impiety of my heart (See Ps 32:5 (31)). How near is God's mercy to the one confessing! For God is not far from the contrite of heart; for so you have it written: The Lord is near to those who have crushed their heart (See Ps 34:18 (33)). So then this man had crushed his heart in the country of want; for he had returned to the heart, to crush the heart; he had left the heart proud, he had returned to the heart angry. He is angry at himself, about to punish, but his own evil; he had returned about to deserve the father's good. He spoke angry, according to what is said: Be angry, and do not sin (See Ps 4:4 (4); Eph 4:26). For every penitent is angry at himself; for, because he is angry, he punishes himself. Hence all those movements in the penitent who truly repents, who truly grieves; hence the tearing of hair, hence the girding with sackcloth, hence the beating of the breast. Certainly all these are signs of a man raging against himself, and angry at himself. What the hand does outside, this the conscience does within; in thoughts it strikes itself, beats itself, and, to say it more truly, kills itself. For by killing himself he offers to God the sacrifice of a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise (See Ps 51:17 (50)). Accordingly that man, crushing his heart, humbling it, beating it, kills his heart.

6. Although he was still planning to say to the father, and was saying within himself: I will arise, and go, and say (See Lk 15:18), when he knew his thoughts from afar, the father ran to meet him. What is it to run to meet, except to bestow mercy beforehand? When he was still, he says, far off, the father, moved with mercy, ran to meet him (See Lk 15:20). Why was he moved with mercy? Because this one was already worn out with misery. He fell upon him, running (See Lk 15:20); that is, he put his arm upon his neck. The Father's arm is the Son: he gave that he should carry Christ; which burden does not weigh down, but lifts up. My yoke, he says, is easy, and my burden is light (See Mt 11:30). He fell upon him raised up; falling upon him, he did not allow him to fall again. So light is the burden of Christ, that it not only does not press down, but even lifts up. For not as those are called light burdens which are less burdensome, yet have some weight of their own; and it is one thing to carry a heavy burden, another to carry a light burden, another to carry no burden. He seems pressed down who carries a heavy burden; he is less pressed who carries a light burden, but still is pressed; but he seems to walk with most unencumbered shoulders who carries no burden. Christ's burden is not such: for it is expedient to carry it, that you may be lifted up; if you put it down, you are more pressed. Nor let this seem to you, brothers, as though impossible. Perhaps some example is found, from which you may see even bodily what I say; and it is even a wonder, and altogether incredible. Note this in birds. Every bird carries its feathers: attend, and see how they fold their wings, when they come down to earth, that they may rest, and lay them, in a way, on their sides. Do you think them burdened? let them take off the burden, and they will fall; the less the bird carried that burden, the less it flew. So you take off that burden from them as though merciful; if you want to be merciful, spare it; or, if the feathers are now removed, nourish it, that the burden may grow, and it will fly from the earth. Such a burden indeed he desired who said: Who will give me wings like a dove's, and I will fly, and rest (See Ps 55:6 (54))? In that the father fell upon his son's neck, he lifted him up, did not press him down; he honored, did not burden him. For how is a man fit to carry God, except because, carried by God, he carries him?

7. So the father commands the first robe to be brought to him, which by sinning Adam had lost. Now that the son is received in peace, now that he is kissed, he commands the robe to be brought, the hope of immortality in baptism. He commands a ring to be given, the pledge of the Holy Spirit, and sandals on the feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, that the feet of the one announcing good might be beautiful (See Isa 52:7; Eph 6:15). This, then, God does through his servants, that is, through the ministers of the Church. Do they give the robe of their own, the ring or the sandals of their own? They owe ministry, they expend service; he gives, from whose storeroom and from whose treasure these are brought forth. He commanded the fatted calf also to be slain (See Lk 15:23), that is, that he should be admitted to the table at which Christ is fed upon slain; for to each one coming from afar and running to the Church it is then slain, when it is preached as slain, when one is admitted to his body. The fatted calf is slain, because he who had perished is found.

8. And the elder brother, returning from the field, is angry, and refuses to enter. He is the people of the Jews, whose disposition appeared also in those who had already believed in Christ. For the Jews were vexed that the Gentiles came by so great a saving, with no burdens of the law imposed, without the pain of carnal circumcision, that in their sin they received the saving baptism; they were vexed to feast on the fatted calf. Indeed those had already believed: and an account was given them, and they were quieted. But when even now perhaps some Jew, who has had the law of God in mind, and lived there without complaint—such as Saul said he himself had been there, who among us became Paul, the greater the lesser, the more exalted the more he was made least—for Paul is least; whence we say: A little while later I speak to you, a little while before. See what it is, a little while before: a short time before. What, then, is Paulus? For I am the least of the Apostles (See 1 Cor 15:9), he himself said—so any Jew there is such that he knows and has in his conscience that from his early age he worshiped the one God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God preached through the Law and the Prophets, and observed the preachings of the Law, begins to think about the Church, seeing the human race run in the name of Christ; when he thinks about the Church, he draws near to the house from the field. For so it is written: When the elder brother came from the field, and drew near to the house (See Lk 15:25). For just as the younger son grows daily among the believing pagans, so the elder son, though rarely, yet returns among the Jews. They think on the Church, they marvel what that is; they see the law with themselves, the law with us: the Prophets with themselves, the Prophets with us: with themselves now no sacrifice, with us a daily sacrifice; they see that they were in the Father's field, but yet do not eat of the calf.

9. A symphony too is heard sounding from the house, and a chorus. What is a symphony? a concord of voices; those who disagree, sound discordant; those who agree, sound concordant. This symphony the Apostle taught, saying: I beseech you, brothers, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you (See 1 Cor 1:10). Whom would this holy symphony not delight, that is, an agreement of voices not discrepant, not in anything absurd and dissonant, which would offend the hearing of a good listener? And the chorus pertains to that very concord; in a chorus nothing delights but the one voice of many, tempered, having from all a unity, not sounding discordant in any disagreeing variety.

10. When he had heard these things sounding from the house, angry, he refused to enter (See Lk 15:28). As it truly happens, that a Jew of good merit among his own says, can the Christians do so much? We hold the ancestral laws; God spoke to Abraham, from whom we are born. Moses received the Law, who, freeing us from the land of Egypt, led us through the Red Sea. Behold, these men holding our Scriptures sing our psalms throughout the whole world, and have a daily sacrifice; but we have lost both the sacrifice and the temple. And he asks the servant, what is being done here? Let the Jew ask any servant; let him open the Prophets, let him open the Apostle, let him ask any one; neither the Old Testament nor the New kept silent about the calling of the nations. Let us understand the servant questioned as the Book examined; you will find Scripture there saying to you: Your brother has returned, and your father has slain for him the fatted calf, because he received him safe (See Lk 15:27). Let the servant say this: whom did the father receive safe? The one who was dead and lived again, him he received to be saved. And the slaying of the fatted calf was owed to him who had gone far off; for by going far off from God he was impious. The servant, the apostle Paul, answered: For Christ died for the impious (See Rom 5:6). Vexed within himself he does not enter angry, but when the father addresses him he entered; he refused to enter at the servant's answer. And truly, my brothers, this happens; we very often convince the Jews from the Scriptures of God, but the servant is still speaking, the son is angry; so that, though they are conquered, they refuse to enter. What is this? The voices of the symphony moved you, the chorus moved you, the festivity and feast of the house, the feasting on the slain fatted calf, these moved you. No one shuts you out. To whom do you speak? As long as the servant addresses, that one is angry, he refuses to enter.

11. Return to the Lord saying: No one comes to me, unless the Father has drawn him (See Jn 6:44). The Father, then, goes out, and asks the son: this is to draw; a superior applies a greater force by asking than by commanding. But this is what happens, dearly beloved, when such men, occupied with the Scriptures, and having some sort of conscience in good works, so that they can say to their father: Father, I have not transgressed your commandment (See Lk 15:29), hear it. Then, therefore, when one is conquered from the Scriptures, and they find nothing to answer, they grow angry, they resist, as though wishing to conquer. Afterward you leave him with his thought, and God begins to speak within; this is the Father going out, and speaking to the son: Enter and feast.

12. And he in turn: Behold, so many years I serve you, and I never transgressed your commandment; and you never gave me a kid, that I might eat it with my friends. Behold, this son of yours has come, who consumed his patrimony with harlots, and you have slain for him the fatted calf (See Lk 15:29-30). These are inner thoughts, where now in hidden ways the Father speaks; for he acts, and answers within himself, no longer the servant giving an answer, but the father in a way asking, gently admonishing: What is this? We hold the Scriptures of God, and we have not departed from the one God; we did not spread out our hands to a strange god (See Ps 44:20 (43)): him alone we have known, him we have always worshiped, who made heaven and earth; and we did not receive a kid. Where do we find a kid? among sinners. Why does this elder son complain to himself that a kid was not given him? He was seeking to sin, of which he might feast; plainly he was vexed at that. This is what the Jews now grieve at, this is what they recover their senses about, and understand that Christ was not given them for this reason, because they thought him a kid. For they recognize their voice in the Gospel, in those Jews above saying: We know that this man is a sinner (See Jn 9:24). He was a calf, but, when you thought him a kid, you remained without this feast. You never gave me a kid; because the Father did not have a kid, who knew him as a calf. You are outside: because you did not receive a kid, enter now to the calf.

13. For what does the father answer? Son, you are always with me (See Lk 15:31). The father attested that the Jews were near, who always worshiped the one God. We have the testimony of the Apostle saying that they were near, but the nations far. For speaking to the nations he says: Coming, namely Christ, he evangelized peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near (See Eph 2:17). Far off, as to the younger son; showing the Jews, because they did not go far off to feed swine, did not forsake the one God, did not adore idols, did not serve demons. I do not speak of all: lest the lost and seditious Jews come to your mind; let those come to mind by whom these are rebuked, the grave, keeping the commandments of the Law, not yet entering to the fatted calf, but already able to say: I did not transgress your commandment (See Lk 15:29); who, when he begins to enter, the Father says to him: You are always with me. You are indeed with me, because you did not set out far off, but yet you are still wrongly outside the house; I do not want you to be apart from our feast. Do not envy the younger brother: You are always with me. God indeed did not attest to that which had perhaps been said less cautiously and boastfully: I never transgressed your commandment; but he says: You are always with me; he does not say: You never transgressed my commandment. This is true, what God said, not that of which the man perhaps rashly boasted, though in certain things perhaps a transgressor, yet not departing from the one God; so that the father too speaks truly: You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours (See Lk 15:31). Because they are yours, are they not the brother's? How are they yours? To one having them in common, not to one quarreling apart. All that is mine, he says, is yours. What he says is his own, he gave as into possession. Did he subject heaven and earth, or the heights of the angels? It must not be so understood; for the angels will not truly be subjected to us, to whose equality the Lord promises us we shall come in a great reward: They will be, he says, equal to the angels of God (See Lk 20:36). But there are other angels, whom the saints will judge: Do you not know, says the Apostle, that we shall judge angels (See 1 Cor 6:3)? For there are angels always holy, there are angels that are transgressors; we shall be made equal to the good angels, we shall judge the evil angels. How, then, is all that is mine yours? Truly all that is God's is ours, yet not all subjected; for you say one thing: My servant, another: My brother. Whatever you say is yours, you say truly, when you speak truly, it is yours; but is the brother yours by the same right as the servant? You say one thing, my house, another, my spouse; you say one thing, my sons, another, my father, my mother; apart from me, I hear, all things are yours. My God, you say; but yet, my God, is it as my servant? Rather, my God, as my Lord. So we have one superior, our Lord, whom we may enjoy; we have the other things inferior, which we may rule over. All things, then, are ours, if we are his.

14. All that is mine, he says, is yours (See Lk 15:31). If you will be peaceable, if you are pleased, if you rejoice at the brother's return, if our feasts do not sadden you, if you do not remain outside the house, although you have now come from the field, all that is mine is yours. But it is fitting for us to feast and rejoice (See Lk 15:32), because Christ died for the impious (See Rom 5:6), and rose again. For this is what was said: Because your brother was dead, and lived again; he had perished, and is found (See Lk 15:32).

1. What we are admonished, we ought to admonish. The recent gospel reading admonished us to make friends from the mammon of iniquity, that those who make them may themselves be received by them into eternal dwellings. Who are they who will have eternal dwellings, except the holy ones of God? And who are they who are to be received by them into eternal dwellings, except those who serve their need, and cheerfully supply what they require! Let us recall, then, that at the last judgment the Lord will say to those who will stand at his right hand: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat (See Mt 25:35): and the rest that you know. And when they asked when they had shown him these services, he answered: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (See Mt 25:40). These least are those who receive into eternal dwellings. This he said to those on the right, because they did it: this he said to those on the left, because they refused to do it. But those on the right who did it, what did they receive, or rather what are they to receive? Come, he says, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (See Mt 25:34-35, 40). Who, then, are the least of Christ? They are those who left all their own, and followed him, and whatever they had they distributed to the poor; that they might serve God unencumbered, without the worldly fetter, and lift up their shoulders, freed from the burdens of the world, on high, as though winged. These are the least. Why least? Because humble, because not lifted up, not proud. Weigh these least, and you will find a heavy weight.

2. But what is it that he says, that they are to be made friends from the mammon of iniquity? What is the mammon of iniquity? First, what is mammon? For it is a word that is not Latin. It is a Hebrew word, akin to the Punic tongue. For these tongues are associated with each other by a certain nearness of meaning. What the Punic speakers call "mammon," in Latin is called "gain." What the Hebrews call mammon, in Latin is called riches. So that we may say the whole in Latin, our Lord Jesus Christ says this: Make friends for yourselves from the riches of iniquity (See Lk 16:9). Some, by ill understanding this, seize the goods of others, and bestow something of them on the poor, and think they do what is commanded. For they say: To seize the goods of others is the mammon of iniquity; to dole out something of it, especially to needy saints, this is to make friends from the mammon of iniquity. This understanding must be corrected, rather utterly blotted out from the tablets of your heart. I do not want you to understand it so. From just labors make alms: from what you rightly have, give. For you are not going to bribe the judge Christ, that he may not hear you along with the poor, from whom you take. For if you despoiled someone weak, you the stronger and more powerful, and he came with you to any man in this land as judge, having some power to judge, and wished to plead his cause with you, if you gave the judge something from that plunder and spoliation of the needy man, that he might judge for you, would that judge even please you? To be sure, he judged for you, and yet so great is the force of justice, that he displeases even you. Do not paint yourself such a God, do not set in the temple of your heart such an idol. Your God is not such as you yourself ought not to be. If you do not judge thus, but judge justly; even so your God is better than you: he is not inferior; he is more just, he is the fountain of justice. Whatever good you have done, from there you took it; and whatever good you belched forth, from there you drank. Do you praise the vessel, because it has something from it, and find fault with the fountain? Do not want to make alms from usury and interest. To the faithful I speak, to those to whom we dole out the Body of Christ I speak. Fear, correct yourselves: lest I say afterward, You do it and you do it. And I think, that if I do, you ought not to be angry at me, but at yourselves, that you may be corrected. For to this avails what was said in the Psalm: Be angry, and do not sin (See Ps 4:4 (4)). I want you to be angry, but so as not to sin. But that you may not sin, at whom have you to be angry, except yourselves? For what is a penitent man, except a man angry at himself? That he may receive pardon, he exacts a penalty from himself; and he rightly says to God: Turn your eyes from my sins, for I acknowledge my sin (See Ps 51:9, 3 (50)). If you acknowledge, he too pardons. You who used to do it, do not do it: it is not lawful.

3. But now if you have done it, and have such monies, and have filled your purses from it, laid up treasure from it: from evil is what you have, now do not add evil, and make friends for yourselves from the mammon of iniquity. Did Zacchaeus have from good? Read and see. He was a chief of the publicans, that is, one to whom the public taxes were brought: from there he had his riches. He had oppressed many, taken from many, heaped up much. Christ entered his house, and salvation came upon his house: for so the Lord himself says: Today salvation has been made to this house (See Lk 19:9). But see that very salvation. First he desired to see the Lord, because he was small in stature: but the crowd hindering, he climbed into a sycamore tree, and saw him passing. But he looked at him, and said: Zacchaeus, come down; I must stay with you (See Lk 19:5). You hang, but I do not hang you up, that is, I do not put you off. You wanted to see me passing, today you will find me dwelling with you. The Lord entered to him: filled with joy he said: Half my goods I give to the poor (See Lk 19:8). Behold how he runs, who runs to make friends from the mammon of iniquity. And lest he be held guilty from elsewhere: If I have taken anything from anyone, he said, I will restore fourfold (See Lk 19:8). He inflicted a condemnation on himself, lest he run into damnation. So you who have from evil, make good from it. You who do not have from evil, do not acquire from evil. Be good, you who make good from evil: and when you have begun to do some good from evil, do not yourself remain evil. Your coins are turned into good, and do you remain evil?

4. There is indeed another understanding too; and I will not keep silent about it. The mammon of iniquity is all the riches of the world, from wherever they are. For from wherever they are gathered, it is the mammon of iniquity, that is, they are the riches of iniquity. What is, they are the riches of iniquity? It is money, which iniquity calls by the name of riches. For if you seek true riches, there are others. With such riches naked Job abounded, when he had a heart full toward God, and brought forth praises to God, all his things lost, like most precious gems (See Job 1:21). From what treasure, if he had nothing? These are the true riches. But these are called riches by iniquity. You have them, I do not blame it: an inheritance came, your father was rich, and left them to you. You acquired them honestly: from just labors you have a full house, I do not blame it. Yet even so do not call them riches. For if you call them riches, you will love them: and if you love them, you will perish with them. Lose them, lest you perish: give, that you may acquire: sow, that you may reap. Do not call these riches; because they are not true. They are full of poverty, and always subject to mishaps. What kind of riches are they, for which you fear a thief, for which you fear your servant, lest, having killed you, he carry them off and flee? If they were true riches, they would give you security.

5. Therefore those are the true riches, which, when we have them, we cannot lose. And lest perhaps on account of them you fear a thief, they will be there where none can carry them off. Hear your Lord: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where the thief does not approach (See Mt 6:20). Then they will be riches, when you have made them migrate. As long as they are on earth, they are not riches. But the world calls them riches, iniquity calls them so. God therefore the mammon of iniquity, because iniquity calls those things riches. Hear the Psalm: Lord, free me from the hand of the sons of strangers, whose mouth has spoken vanity; and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are like new plants established from their youth. Their daughters arrayed, adorned round about like the likeness of a temple. Their storerooms full, overflowing from this into that. Their oxen fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplied in their goings. There is no breaking down of the wall, nor passage, nor outcry in their streets (See Ps 144:11-14 (143)). You have seen the Psalm, what kind of happiness it described: but hear what it is, those it set forth as sons of iniquity. Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. These it set forth, and said their happiness only upon earth. And what did it add? They called blessed the people that has these things (See Ps 144:15 (143)). But who said it? The sons of strangers, foreigners, and not belonging to the seed of Abraham: they called blessed the people that has these things. Who said it? Whose mouth has spoken vanity. Therefore it is vain to say that those are blessed who have these things. And yet it is said by those whose mouth has spoken vanity. By them are called those riches, which are called the mammon of iniquity.
But you, what do you say? Because those sons of strangers, because those whose mouth has spoken vanity, called blessed the people that has these things; you, what do you say? These riches are false, give me true ones. You blame these, show what you praise. You want me to despise this, show what I should prefer. Let the Psalm itself say. For he who said: They called blessed the people that has these things; gives us such an answer, as though we said to him, that is, to the Psalm itself, Behold, you have taken these from us, and given us nothing: behold, we despise these, these; from what shall we live? from what shall we be blessed? Because those who spoke, they themselves will receive from themselves. For they said that men having riches are blessed. You, what do you say?

6. He answers as though so questioned, and says: They call the rich blessed: I say: Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself (See Ps 144:15 (143)). You have heard the true riches, make friends from the mammon of iniquity, and you will be the blessed people, whose God is the Lord himself. Sometimes we pass along the way, and see most pleasant and rich estates, and say: Whose is that estate? It is asserted to be so-and-so's: and we say, Blessed man: we speak vanity. Blessed he whose is that house, blessed he whose is that estate, blessed he whose is that herd, blessed he whose is that servant, blessed he whose is that household. Take away vanity, if you want to hear the truth. Blessed is he whose God is the Lord himself. For not he whose is this estate is blessed: but he whose is that God. But that you may announce most plainly the blessedness of things, you say that your estate has made you blessed. Why? Because from it you live. For when you praise as a great thing your estate, you say this: It feeds me, from it I live. Attend to that from which you live. He is the one from whom you live, to whom you say: With you is the fountain of life (See Ps 36:9 (35)). Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself. O Lord my God, O Lord our God, that we may come to you, make us blessed in you. We do not want it from gold, nor from silver, nor from estates: we do not want it from these earthly and most vain things, the passing things of a perishable life. Let our mouth not speak vanity. Make us blessed in you, because we shall not lose you. When we have held you, we shall neither lose you, nor shall we perish. Make us blessed in you, because blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself. Nor is he angry if we say of God, Our estate. For we read that the Lord is the portion of my inheritance (See Ps 16:5 (15)). A great thing, brothers, both we are his inheritance, and he is our inheritance: because both we cultivate him, and he cultivates us. There is no injury to him that he cultivates us. For if we cultivate him as our God, he cultivates us as his field. And that you may know that he cultivates us, hear the one whom he sent us: I am, he says, the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the husbandman (See Jn 15:5, 1). Therefore he cultivates us. But if we render fruit, he prepares the granary. But if under so great a cultivator we want to be barren, and bring forth thorns instead of wheat: I do not want to say what follows, let us end with joy. Turned toward the Lord, and so on.

1. The faith of Christians, which is mocked by the impious and unbelieving, is this: that we say there is another life after this life, and that there is a resurrection from the dead, and that there is, after this age has passed, at the end a judgment. Since this was not believed among human affairs, but was preached and announced by the Prophets, the servants of God, and by the law that was given through Moses, and still seemed incredible to men, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came, to persuade men of this. He, although he is the Son of God, born of the Father invisibly and ineffably, coeternal with the Father, and equal to the Father, and with the Father one God, although he is the Word of the Father, through whom all things were made (See Jn 1:3), and the counsel of the Father, through whom all things are governed, laid down so great a greatness of his, and his incomprehensible majesty and power, which could not be known by men, to the earth, by taking flesh, and appearing to the eyes of men. Since, then, God, that is, the divinity itself, was not seen in Christ, the flesh that was seen was despised; but he proved his inner divinity by miracles; and when he seemed such as could be spurned by human eyes, he did so great things, that in his very works the Son of God might appear. Since, then, he did great things, commanded useful things, corrected vices, chastised, taught virtues, even wrought healings of bodies, that he might heal the minds of the unbelieving, the angry people, where he was born and reared and did these great things, killed him. But he, who had come to be born, had surely come also to die; nor did he want the death of his flesh, which he had taken on for the sake of demonstrating the resurrection by example, to be unfruitful, but rather allowed it by the hands of the impious, so that, when they refused to do what he commanded, he might suffer what he willed. It was done; Christ was killed, buried, rose again, as we know, as the Gospel attests, as it has already preached throughout the whole world; and still you see that the Jews refuse to believe in Christ, even now after he rose from the dead, and glorified in the eyes of his disciples ascended into heaven, while now the proclamations of the Prophets are fulfilled throughout the whole world. For all the Prophets, who foretold that Christ would be born, and would die, and would rise again, and would ascend into heaven, also foretold that his Church would be throughout all nations. But the Jews, if they did not see Christ rising, and going to heaven, would at least see the Church spread throughout the whole world, which surely, when it was being fulfilled, the foretold sayings of the Prophets were being fulfilled.

2. In them is fulfilled what we have just now heard from the Gospel; for they therefore do not hear Christ, who rose from the dead, because they did not hear Christ set on earth. For this Abraham said to that rich man, who was tormented in hell, and wanted someone to be sent to those above, to announce to his brothers what is done in hell, and that, before they came to those places of torments, they might live well, doing penance for their sins, that they might deserve to go rather into Abraham's bosom, not to those torments where that rich man arrived. Since, then, that rich man did this, late merciful, who had despised the poor man lying before his gate, and therefore perhaps because he was proud toward him, his very tongue was burning, and there he desired a drop of water. Since, then, he had not done among those above what he ought to have done so as not to come there, late he began to be merciful even for others. But what does Abraham say? If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if someone rises from the dead (See Lk 16:31). It is altogether true, brothers; the Jews today are therefore not persuaded to believe in him who rose from the dead, because they did not hear Moses and the Prophets: for if they wished to hear them, they would find there foretold what has now been fulfilled, and they still refuse to believe. What, then, we have said of the Jews, let us apply to ourselves, lest, while we attend to others, we too fall into that same impiety. The Gospel, dearly beloved, is not read to the Jews; Moses and the Prophets are read, whom they refuse to hear; but if they wished to hear them, they would believe in Christ, because Moses and the Prophets foretold that Christ would come. Let us, then, not be such, when the Gospel is read to us, as they are, when the Prophets are read to them; for among them, as I said, the Gospel is not recited, among us it is recited.

3. Behold, you have just now heard from the Gospel two lives, one present, the other to come: the present we have, the one to come we believe; in the present we are, to the one to come we have not yet arrived. While we are in the present, let us acquire the merit of the one to come; for we are not yet dead. Is the Gospel recited in hell? Which surely, if it were recited, that rich man would hear it in vain, because penitence could no longer be fruitful. To us it is read there, and there heard by us, where, while we live, we can be corrected, lest we come to those torments. Do we believe what is read, or do we not believe? Far be it that we suppose this of Your Charity, that you do not believe; for you are Christians, nor would you be Christians in any way, if you did not believe the Gospel of God; because, then, you are Christians, it is manifest that you believe the Gospel. We have heard, it has just now been recited: There was a rich man, surely proud, surely lifting himself up in his riches, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day (See Lk 16:19). But there lay at his gate a certain poor man full of sores, by name Lazarus, whose sores even the dogs licked; and he desired to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table (See Lk 16:20-21), and could not. Behold the crime of the rich man, that surely he desired to be filled with the crumbs, and could not, with whom humanity ought to have been shared. That rich man, then, if he had compassion on the poor man lying before his gate, and wanted to be merciful from those riches, would come there too, where that poor man came. For it was not poverty that led that Lazarus to rest, and not humility; or indeed it was not riches that drew that rich man back from so great a rest, but pride and unbelief. For that you may know, brothers, that among those above this rich man was an unbeliever, let us prove it from his very words, which he spoke in hell. Attend. He wanted someone to go from the dead, to announce to his brothers what is done in hell; and when this was not granted him, Abraham saying: They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them; not, father Abraham, he said, but, if someone goes there from the dead, they will be persuaded (See Lk 16:29-30), he shows that he himself too, when he was among those above, did not believe Moses and the Prophets, but desired someone to rise for him from the dead. Attend to such men now, and see where they will be; by the example of this rich man we are admonished, if you have faith. How many there are who now say: Let it be well with us, while we live; let us eat and drink, and enjoy these delights. What is this that is said to us, that there will be something afterward? who has returned here from there? who has risen here from there? These things are said; this that rich man said, and, what alive he did not believe, dead he experienced. Better that alive he be fruitfully corrected, than that dead he be unfruitfully tormented.

4. Now then let us change those very words, if perhaps there is anyone among us who is wont to say these things. For God does not now show what he commands us to believe; for this reason he does not show it, that it may be the reward of faith. For if he shows it to you, what merit do you have because you believe? it is now not to believe, but to see; rather God does not show it to you, that you may believe. He commands you what you should believe, he keeps for you what you may see. But if you do not believe, when he commands faith, he does not keep his sight for you; but that is kept for you, from which that rich man was tormented in hell. And when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes, who is now announced to have come in such a way that he is also hoped to be going to come, he will come with the repayments of the faithful and the unbelieving: about to give rewards to the faithful, about to send the unbelieving into eternal fire. And he said this in the Gospel, how he will judge at the end: that he will set some at the right hand, others at the left, and will separate all nations, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats; the just to be at the right hand, the impious at the left; to the just he will say: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (See Mt 25:34); but to the impious and unbelieving: Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (See Mt 25:41). What more could the judge profit you, than to tell you his definitive sentence, that you may not be able to run into it? Brothers, everyone who threatens does not want to strike; for, if he wanted to, he would hasten, and strike. He who says: Beware, does not want to find whom he may strike. Men procure blows for themselves, men purchase penalties for themselves, who refuse to believe God so long saying: Beware. And indeed the penalty of one erring which is here, what is it? Perhaps some affliction, and some scourge either for amendment or for proving. For either each one is amended for his sins, lest he fall, unamended, into greater penalties; or the faith of each is proved, with what endurance or with what patience he remains under the scourge of the Father, not murmuring about the Father chastising, and rejoicing toward the one caressing, but so rejoicing toward the one caressing that he gives thanks even to the one chastising: because he scourges every son whom he receives (See Heb 12:6). How much the martyrs suffered, how much they endured! what chains, what squalor, what prisons, what tortures, what flames, what beasts, what kinds of death! They trampled on everything. For they saw something in spirit, so that what they saw in body they did not care about; there was in them the eye of faith, the eye was stretched to things to come, they despised present things. But the one whose eye is extinguished as to things to come, dreads present things, and does not arrive at things to come.

5. There is, then, a faith that is built up in us. Now whoever does not want to believe that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, that he suffered, that he was crucified, let him believe the Jews that he existed and was killed, let him believe the Gospel that he was born of the Virgin and rose again; for there is reason to believe. And the enemy Jews do not dare to say: Christ was not among our nation; or: There was no such man, whoever it is, whom the Christians worship. He existed, they say, and our parents killed him, and he died as a man. If we find the things that followed his death foretold by the Prophets—that the whole world would run to his name, that all nations and all peoples of the nations would adore him (See Ps 72:11 (71)), that even all kings were to be put under his yoke—and we see fulfilled after Christ's death what was foretold before Christ's birth, how do we deceive ourselves, if we refuse to believe the rest, when we see many things fulfilled in us? For we ourselves, brothers—not only we who are here Christians, but we the whole world now are. A few years ago we did not exist; and it is a wonder how it came about that what for so many ages did not exist now exists. We read this in the Prophets; lest we think it happened by chance, we find it foretold. For from this our faith is increased, from this it is built up, from this it is strengthened. There is no one who can say: It happened suddenly. Whence? Behold this which never was on earth. Sometimes in the Scriptures God was held a debtor in them, but to repay the debt in his own time. But from what did God owe? had he received a loan from anyone, who bestows all things on all besides, who made those to whom he might give? For not even the men themselves were, to whom anything might be given. Someone can say: Did God grant these goods to my merits? Suppose he granted these goods to your merits. That you might exist, to whose merits did he grant it? When you were not, what did he give you? That you might be, freely; for you had not deserved that before you existed. Believe him, that the rest too he has deigned to give you freely. We have, then, the grace of God, and the whole world held God in a way a debtor; rather, it did not hold him, because it did not know the guarantee he had made. By promising he made himself a debtor, not by receiving a loan. For in two ways one is called a debtor: Repay what you received, or what you promised. Since of what God promised it cannot be said: Repay—for he received nothing from man, who gave the whole to man—it remains that he is not a debtor, except because he deigned to promise.

6. This promise was in the Scriptures: these Scriptures among one nation, the Jewish, which he chose to be born of the flesh of his servant, his faithful one, who believed in him. And how was that nation born? From the aged Abraham, and from the barren Sarah: that Isaac might be brought to birth, that he might be born, from whom came the nation of the Jews, a miracle is wrought. The old man hoped for nothing from his members, dared to wish for nothing from the barrenness of his wife; what he did not at all reckon on, God offered him, and he believed God offering, who dared not wish it from God. And when he had believed, and a son had been born to him, of whom he believed innumerable offspring would be born, God asked that very son to be immolated to him. But Abraham was of so great faith, that he did not hesitate to immolate the only one, of whom he had received the promise. Did he hesitate and say to God: Lord, you granted me a son as a great thing in old age; after great vows, after great joy, a son was born to me unhoped for; do you demand that I kill him? was it not better not to give, than to take away the given? He did not say these things, but believed that whatever he saw God to will was profitable. This is faith, brothers. Certainly that poor man was taken up into Abraham's bosom, and that rich man to the torments of hell. That you may know riches are not in fault, Abraham was rich, in whose bosom Lazarus rested. This rich man was rich on earth, as we have Scripture teaching; he had much gold, silver, herds, household; he was rich, but he was not proud. That you may know that in the rich man pride alone was tormented, vices alone were tormented. These had deserved punishment, not the substance of God; for the substance of God is good, to whomever it is given; but for the one using well a reward is acquired, to the one using badly a punishment is repaid. But attend, how Abraham had riches. Did he keep them for his sons? If he offered the son himself at God's command, how did he despise riches?

7. So this Scripture, where God by promising had made himself a debtor, lay hidden among the Jews. Our Lord Jesus Christ came, born according to that Scripture, because according to it he was rendered; suffering according to that Scripture, because in it he was foretold as about to suffer; rising according to that Scripture, because in it he was foretold as about to rise; ascending into heaven according to that Scripture, because in it he was foretold as about to ascend. After he had ascended, unknown to the Jews, he began to send his Apostles to the nations, and, in a way, to rouse the sleepers, and to say: Rise, receive the debt that was long ago promised you. Who is it who rouses his creditor, and offers him what he owes? For not because they held God a debtor did the nations rise; they were called, they began to attend to Scripture, and to find there that what they were receiving had long ago been promised them. They received Christ promised, and displayed; they received the grace of God, the Holy Spirit promised, and displayed; they received the Church itself spread through all nations, promised and displayed. The idols which the nations worshiped, God had promised he would overthrow; it is read in the Scriptures, there you find it. You see how God has done in our times what he promised so many thousands of years before. For men had turned themselves, from him by whom they were made, to that which they themselves had made; and since he who makes is always better than what he makes, therefore God is better, not only than the man he made, but than all angels, virtues, powers, seats, thrones, dominions, because he himself founded all things; so that whatever man makes is lower than man himself. To so great madness had men been led, that they adored an idol; who ought to be condemned if they adored the craftsman who made the idol. It is manifest, brothers, that the craftsman is better than the idol he made; and, when men would be detestable if they adored the craftsman, they adore the very idol, which was made by the craftsman. They would be detestable in adoring the craftsman; but they would be better than those who adore the idol. If, then, the better are condemned, how do I lament the worse? But if I said that the one adoring the craftsman is to be condemned, the one who forsakes the craftsman and adores the idol, who surely forsook the better and betook himself to the inferior, how is he to be condemned? But what better one did he first forsake? God, by whom he himself was made. Does he seek the image of God? He has it in himself; for the craftsman could not make the image of God, but God could make an image for himself. But he did not make another thing for you, but made you yourself in his image. By adoring the image of a man, which the craftsman made, you wear away the image of God, which God impressed on you. Therefore, when he calls you to return, he wants to render you that image, which you yourself by earthly desire, by rubbing it, as it were, have lost and obscured.

8. Hence it is, brothers, that God seeks his image from us; this he recalls in those Jews, when they showed him a coin (See Mt 22:19). For first they wanted to tempt him, when they said: Lord, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar (See Mt 22:17)? so that, if he said: It is lawful, they might calumniate him, that he wanted Israel to be under a curse, whom he wanted to be a tributary, to be subjugated to a king, to give tribute. But if he said: It is not lawful to pay tribute, they would calumniate him, that he commanded against Caesar, and was the author of their not paying their tribute which they owed, because they were subjugated. He saw them tempting, as truth sees falsehood, and briefly convicted the lie from the mouth of those lying. For he did not pronounce sentence against them from his own mouth, but made them pronounce sentence against themselves, because it is written: By your mouth you will be justified, and by your mouth you will be condemned (See Mt 12:37). Why, he says, do you tempt me, hypocrites? Show me a coin. They showed it. Whose, he says, image and inscription does it have (See Mt 22:18-20)? They answered: Caesar's. And he: Render therefore to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's (See Mt 22:21). Just as Caesar seeks his image in your coin, so God seeks his image in your soul. Render to Caesar, he says, what is Caesar's. What does Caesar seek from you? his image. What does God seek from you? His image. But Caesar's is in the coin, God's image is in you. If at any time you lose a coin, you lament, because you have lost Caesar's image, when you adore an idol, do you not lament, because you do wrong in yourself to the image of God?

9. Hold, then, brothers, the promise of the Lord our God, and number now from that number of his promises how much he has rendered. Christ was not yet born, he was promised in Scripture; he rendered him, he was born. He had not yet suffered, had not yet risen; and this he rendered; having suffered, been crucified, he rose. His passion is our reward, his blood is our redemption. He ascended into heaven, as he had promised; and this he rendered. He sent the Gospel through all lands; therefore he willed there to be four Gospels, that the whole world might be signified by the number four, from East and West, from North and South. Therefore he willed to have twelve disciples, so that three, in a way, distributed through four might appear; because the world was called in the Trinity, in the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. He rendered this; he sent the Gospel, as he foretold: How beautiful are the feet of those evangelizing, of those who announce peace, who evangelize good things! (See Isa 52:7; Rom 10:15) as he foretold: There are no speeches, nor words, whose voices are not heard; their sound went out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (See Ps 19:3-4 (18)). As he said, so he sent; the Gospel is written through all lands. The Church too first suffered persecution; he rendered it, because he had promised martyrs as well. Recite the guarantee: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his just ones (See Ps 116:15 (115)). He rendered the martyrs too, because he had promised them as well. What was to be rendered afterward? All the kings of the earth will adore in his sight (See Ps 72:11 (71)). Kings too believed, who first, by persecuting the martyrs, had made them; we see, then, that now too kings have believed. He rendered too what he had promised, that at the command of kings the idols might be broken, at whose first command the Christians were killed. He took away the idols too, because he had promised: And there will be a regard upon the idols of the nations (See Isa 2:18-20). Since, then, he has rendered so much, brothers, why do we not believe him? Is God a less fit debtor? If he had rendered us nothing at all yet, we held a fit debtor, who made heaven and earth; for he was not going to be poor, so as not to have from where to repay; or to deceive, since he himself is truth. Or is God so great a power, that he can be succeeded, that he has no time to repay?

10. It is just, brothers, that God be believed, before he renders anything; because in no way can he lie, he cannot deceive: he is God. So our fathers believed him. So Abraham believed him. Behold, a faith truly to be praised and proclaimed. He had received nothing from him, and believed the one promising; we do not yet believe, who have already received so much. Could Abraham say to him: I will believe, because you promised me this, and rendered it? At the first command he believed, he had received nothing else of the sort. Go out from your land, it was said to him, and from your kindred, and go into the land that I will give you (See Gen 12:1). And he believed at once, and he did not give him that land, but kept it for his seed. And he promised to his seed, what? In your seed all the nations will be blessed (See Gen 22:18). His seed is Christ: because of Abraham came Isaac, of Isaac Jacob, of Jacob the twelve, of the twelve the people of the Jews, of the people of the Jews the Virgin Mary, of the Virgin Mary our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ was made the seed of Abraham; and what had been promised to Abraham, we find fulfilled in us. In your seed, he says, all the nations will be blessed. He believed this, before he had seen anything; he believed, and did not see what was promised. But we see what was promised to him; and whatever was promised to him was to be. For what of the dowry has he not yet rendered? He announced labors to come in this world, and that his holy ones and his faithful would be in labors, and would bring forth fruit with endurance; he foretold it, and we see it; by those very labors we are worn down. What labors foretold are not yet here? For do not think, brothers, that, because you see human affairs now worn down, this is not written in the Scripture of God. The whole is written, and endurance is enjoined on Christians, and good things still more to come, because the evils have come which were foretold to come. For if the things that were said did not come, they would take away our faith even in the good things; but for this reason the evils came first, that we might believe the good things to come.

11. Now the world is like a winepress, it is under pressure; but, if you are dregs, you go through the sewers; if oil, you remain in the vat. For there must be pressures. Attend to the dregs, attend to the oil. Pressure sometimes occurs in the world: for example, famine, war, want, dearness, need, mortality, plunder, greed; there are pressures of the poor, labors of cities: these we see. And they were foretold to come, and we see that they are. We find men murmuring amid these pressures, and saying: Behold, in Christian times how many evils there are! Before Christian times how many good things abounded! There were not such evils. From the pressure these come out as dregs, they run through the sewers; their mouth is for that reason black, because it blasphemes: it does not shine. The oil glistens. But you find another man from that same pressure, and from that same threshing that threshed him; is it not the same threshing that threshed him? You have heard the voice of the dregs, hear the voice of the oil: Thanks be to God! Blessed be your name! All these evils with which you wear us down were foretold; we are secure, because the good things too are to come. When we, both we and the wicked together, are amended, your will is done. We know you the Father promising, we know you the Father scourging; instruct us and render the inheritance which you promised at the end. We bless your holy name, because you were never a liar; all things, as you foretold, so you have displayed. In these praises flowing forth from that very pressure, the oil runs into the vats. Yet because this whole world is a winepress, whence too another likeness is given: As gold and silver are tested in the furnace, so the temptation of tribulation tests the just (See Sir 2:5), the likeness of the goldsmith's furnace too is set forth. In a narrow pot are three things: fire, gold, and chaff. And there you see an image of the whole world; there is chaff, there is gold, there is fire; the chaff is burned, the fire burns, the gold is tested. So too in this whole world there are the just, there are the impious, there is tribulation; the world is like the goldsmith's furnace, the just like gold, the impious like chaff, tribulation like fire. Would the gold be purified, unless the chaff were burned? It comes about that the impious are reduced to ashes; for when they blaspheme, and murmur against God, they are made ashes. There the purified gold—the just, who tolerably bear all the troubles of this world, and in their tribulations praise God—the purified gold is gathered into the treasuries of God; for God has treasuries, into which to put the purified gold; he has also filthy places, into which to put the ash of the chaff. From this world the whole comes out. You see what you are. For the fire must come; if it finds you gold, it will take away the dross; if it finds you chaff, it will burn you, and reduce you to ash. Choose for yourself what you are. For you cannot say: I will be without fire; you are already in the goldsmith's furnace, where the fire must come. Rather you must be there, because you can in no way be without fire.

12. Why, then, do we not believe, brothers, that both the end of the age and the day of judgment will come, that there each of us may receive the things he did in the body, whether good or evil (See 2 Cor 5:10), when we see so many things promised, displayed, and given? Why do we not choose for ourselves, while we live, that place where we may always live? Suppose we have been negligent, let us today be diligent. We ought not to be negligent; what tomorrow is, you do not know. The patience of God admonishes us to do this, that we should correct both ourselves and our life, if it has been evil, and while there is time choose better things. Or do you think that God sleeps, and does not see those doing evil? But perhaps he teaches us patience and first displays patience. He finds a man, perhaps, to have made progress, and not to do what he used to do, that is, evil. This man endures someone malicious, and wants God to take him away; and he murmurs against God, because he keeps that enemy of his, perhaps doing evil, and does not take him away. He has forgotten that God dealt patiently with him too, and, if he had wanted to act severely first, there would be no one to speak. Do you demand God's severity? Because you have crossed over, let another cross over too; for not, because you have already crossed over, have you cut off the bridge of God's mercy; there is still one to cross over. He made you good, when you were evil; he wants another too to be himself good from evil, just as you were made good from evil. So all come in their own order; but some refuse to come, others come. For to such men the Apostle says: But you, according to the hardness of your heart and your impenitent heart, lay 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 (See Rom 2:5-6). Then if a wicked man wants to persevere in evil, he is not your companion, but he will be your tester; for, if he is wicked, and you good, by tolerating the wicked one you are proved good; you will receive the crown of your proving, but he will have the punishment in the evil of his perseverance. But what God is doing, let us patiently await his good patience, his fatherly discipline. He is a Father, he is kind, he is merciful; rather, if he lets us drift, then he is badly angry at us.

13. For attend, brothers, and see those amphitheaters, which now fall. Luxury built them; do you think that devotion built them? Nothing built them but the luxury of impious men. Do you not want what luxury built to fall some day, and what devotion builds to rise? For God allowed, when these were being built, that some day men might recognize the evils they were doing. But because they refused to recognize them, the Lord Jesus Christ came; he began to foretell them their evils, he began to overturn what they held as great; and they say: Christian times are evil. Why? because what you used to die at is overturned for you. But all good things abounded, they say, when these things were done. Yes indeed, so that good things might be made from them. If, then, you know that God once gave you abundance, and you used it badly, and used it unto perdition, see that that abundance made you drift, and lose your soul. Does not a severe father come, and begin to say: This boy is undisciplined; I entrusted to him this or that, how he lost this, and that? If we do not give the seed of the earth, unless it be good, lest the seed perish, how do you want God to give to us, undisciplined and negligent of our life, his abundance for using badly, and you do not want God to cut off the driftings of men? My brothers, he is a physician, and he knows how to cut off a rotten member, lest other places too rot from it. One finger, he says, is cut off there; because it is better that one finger be lacking, than that the whole body rot. If a man, a physician, does this by his art, if the art of medicine takes away some part of the members, lest all rot, why should God not cut whatever he knows to be rotten in men, that they may come to health?

14. Do not, then, brothers, be wearied at God scourging, lest he forsake you, and you perish forever; but rather let us ask him to moderate the very blows, and so temper them that we do not fail under them; and let us ask that he amend with health, measure it out, and render afterward what he promised his holy ones. See what Scripture said: The sinner has provoked the Lord; according to the greatness of his wrath he will not seek it out (See Ps 10:4, 13 (9)). What is: according to the greatness of his wrath he will not seek it out? Because he is greatly angry, he will not seek it out, that is, he will let them perish. If, then, he is greatly angry when he does not seek out, he is also greatly merciful when he exercises. But then he exercises, when he scourges, when he fixes our heart to himself. Let us, then, hold his salvation, and not flee his scourge; this teaches us, this admonishes, in this he builds us up. His own Son, who came for this, to console us, what good did he endure here? tell me. Surely he is the Son of God, the Word of God, through whom all things were made (See Jn 1:3); what good did he endure here? Is he not the one who, when he cast out demons, heard such insults, that it was said to him: You have a demon (See Jn 8:48)? To the Son of God, who cast out demons, the Jews said: You have a demon. The demons were already better, who confessed the Son of God, than they; for the demons confessed, and they did not confess. But so great was his power, and so great his greatness, and so great his patience, that he tolerated all things. He was scourged, he heard insults, he received slaps, he was spat upon in the face, he was crowned with thorns, he was crucified, at the last he was hung on the wood, he was mocked, he was made sport of, he was killed, he was buried. The Son of God endured so much here; if the Lord, how much more the servant? if the Master, how much more the disciple? if he who created us, how much more we his creation? who, that he might give us an example, left us patience. Why do we fail in that patience, as though we had lost our head, who went before us to heaven? For our head went before to heaven, as though saying: Behold, by which way come: through troubles, through patience; this is the way I handed you. But where does the way lead, by which you see me ascend? Into heaven. He who does not want to go this way, does not want to arrive there; he who wants to come to me, let him come by the way I showed. And you cannot arrive except through the way of troubles, griefs, tribulations, straits. So you will arrive at the rest, which is not taken from you. But do you want that rest which is for a time, and to depart from the way of Christ? Observe the torments of that rich man who was tormented in hell; because he too desired present rest, and found eternal penalties. Dearly beloved brothers, choose rather the harder things, which without end will have rest forever. Turned toward the Lord.

1. If the holy reading terrifies us healthfully in this life, after this life no one terrifies us; for the fruit of fear is correction: for I did not say only, if the divine reading terrifies us, but if it healthfully terrifies us; for many know how to fear, but do not know how to be changed. But what is more barren than unfruitful fear? For how the hearts of us all trembled and shook, when we heard that that proud rich man, the despiser of the poor man lying at his gate, was so tormented in hell that not even suppliant prayers could profit him anything; and that it was answered him, not cruelly but justly, that he could not be helped! For at that time, when the mercy of God would have helped him had he been converted, he neglected impunity, and deserved torment. He was spared when he was proud, and rejoiced in the boastings of his riches, not thinking of the torments to come, which in that pride he knew neither how to believe nor to fear. Yet at some time he came to them. And what is: at some time? For how great was the delay of his dignity and pride? How great is the delay of the flower of grass, as you have just now heard, when the letter of the apostle Peter was read, the testimony commended from prophecy: All flesh is grass, and the brightness of man like the flower of grass: the grass withered, and the flower fell; but the Word of the Lord abides forever (See 1 Pet 1:24-25; Isa 40:6-8).

2. However much, then, this flesh is clothed in purple and fine linen, what is it more than flesh and blood, and grass that withers? And however much dignity and honor men offer this flesh, it is indeed a flower, but a flower of grass; for the flower of grass cannot remain while the grass withers, but, as the grass withers, so the flower falls. We have, then, that by which we may hold ourselves, that we may not fall, because the Word of the Lord abides forever. Did the Word of God despise us, brothers? did he look down on this fragility and mortality of ours, and say: It is flesh, it is grass; let the grass wither, and the flower of grass fall, let it not be helped? Rather, he took on our grass, that he might make us gold: for the Word of the Lord, which abides forever, did not disdain to be for a time grass, not that the Word itself should be changed, but that it might bestow a better change on the grass. For the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14); and the Lord suffered for us and was buried, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, now not grass, but incorrupt and incorruptible gold. A change, then, is promised us, dearly beloved brothers; yet until we come to that change, this grass must pass, that is, all the dignity of the flesh passes away with the age, all this fragility grows old. In that rich man the grass had passed, the flower of grass had passed too; but if in the time of his grass, and in the time of the flower of his grass, he had understood the Word of the Lord which abides forever, and, all the cushions of pride laid down and leveled, had spread himself out before God, and, if he refused to throw away his riches, yet had given something of them to those very poor lying there, he would have been refreshed after the time of this grass; he would not ask mercy without cause, who, when he could, did not show mercy.

3. So, my brothers, when it was read, and we heard the voice in the Gospel: Father Abraham, send Lazarus, let him dip his finger in water, and drip it on my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame (See Lk 16:24), how we were all struck in heart, lest something of the sort befall us after this life, and we entreat in vain! For there is no place of correction, when this life has passed. This life is like a stadium; either we conquer here, or we are conquered. The one conquered in the stadium, does he seek to wrestle outside the stadium, that he may recover the crown he lost? What then? if we have feared, if we have shuddered, if our inner parts have trembled, let us change ourselves, while there is time; that is the fruitful fear. For no one, brothers, can be changed without fear, without tribulation, without trembling. We beat our breasts, when the conscience of sins pricks us; what we beat is something within, some evil conception; let it break out into confession, and there will perhaps be nothing to prick; let all sins break out into confession. For that rich man too, swollen in fine linen, had within what, would that it had broken out while he lived; perhaps the perpetual flame would not have been applied to him; but because then he was proud, that moisture had made a swelling, not an eruption. But the poor man Lazarus lay at the gate full of sores (See Lk 16:20). Let no one, then, be ashamed, brothers, to confess sins; for to lie low pertains to humility. Yet see how they exchange turns. When the tribulation of confessions has passed, the refreshment of merits comes; for the angels will come, will take up this sore-covered man, and will set him in Abraham's bosom, that is, in eternal rest, in the secret place of the great Father; for the bosom signifies a secret place, where the wearied one may rest.

4. So this man lay at the gate full of sores, but the rich man despised him; he desired to be filled with the crumbs that fell from his table, the dogs themselves fed his sores, and by the rich man he was not fed. Attend, brothers, because the poor man is in need: Blessed, he says, is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor (See Ps 41:1 (40)); attend, and do not despise him as a sore-covered man lying at the gate. Give to the poor, because he receives, who both wished to be in need on earth, and to enrich from heaven. For the Lord says: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a guest, and you received me, and the rest. And they: When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or a guest? And he: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (See Mt 25:35-40). In his least ones laboring on earth he mercifully wished, in a way, his own person to be, helping from heaven all who labor. To Christ, then, you give, when you give to the needy; or do you fear, lest either such a keeper lose anything, or such a rich man not repay? God is almighty, Christ is almighty; you can lose nothing: entrust it to him, and you lose nothing. When do you entrust it? when you give to the poor. Such riches do not pass away, when the flesh passes like grass, and the brightness of man like the flower of grass. And so, brothers, if we have been terrified, lest after this life we suffer such penalties and torments of burning flame, as the proud and unmerciful rich man endured, now, while there is time, let us be corrected; for then there is no place of helping, because there is no place of correcting; for then each one is helped, when he is corrected. This life is for correction, this life is for help and aid. Turned toward the Lord.
[Here ends the treatise on the rich man and the poor man Lazarus.]

1. The holy Gospel, which we have just now heard recited, admonished us about the remission of sins. Hence you are to be admonished by our sermon. For we are ministers of the word, not our own, but surely of God and our Lord, whom no one serves without glory, whom no one despises without punishment. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who, abiding with the Father, made us, and, made for us, remade us; that same Lord our God says to us, as we have heard: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him: and if he sins against you seven times in a day, and coming says: I repent, forgive him (See Lk 17:3-4). By seven times in a day he wished nothing else to be understood than however often; lest perhaps he sin eight times, and you refuse to pardon. What, then, is seven times? Always, however often he sins and repents of it. For this is: Seven times a day I will praise you (See Ps 119:164 (118)); which is in another psalm: His praise shall always be in my mouth (See Ps 34:1 (33)). And why seven times is set for that which is always, there is a most certain reason; for by seven days coming and returning the whole of time is turned.

2. Whoever, then, you who think of Christ, and desire to receive what he promised, do not be slothful to do what he commanded. For what did he promise? Eternal life. And what did he command? Give your brother pardon. As though he said to you: You, a man, give a man pardon, that I, God, may come to you. But, to omit, or rather for the time being pass over, those higher divine promises, in which our Creator will make us equal to his angels, that we may live with him and in him and from him without end: to say not this for the time being, this very thing which you are bidden to give your brother, do you not want to receive from your God? This very thing, I say, which you are bidden to give your brother, do you not want to receive from your Lord? Tell me if you do not want it, and do not give. What is this, except that you pardon the one asking, if you ask pardon for yourself? Or if you have nothing for which you should be pardoned, I dare say: Do not pardon. Although I ought not to say even this. Even if you have nothing for which you should be pardoned, you ought to pardon; because God too pardons, who has nothing for which he should be pardoned.

3. You will say: But I am not God, I am a sinful man. Thanks be to God, that you confess you have sins. Therefore pardon, that they may be forgiven you. Yet God himself exhorts us to imitate him. First the Lord Christ himself, of whom the apostle Peter said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his footsteps (See 1 Pet 2:21). And surely he himself had no sin, and died for our sins, and shed his blood for the remission of sins. He took on for us what he did not owe, that he might free us from the debt. He did not owe death, nor we to live. Why? Because we were sinners. Neither was death owed to him, nor life to us: what was not owed to him he received, what was not owed to us he gave. But since the matter is the remission of sins, lest you think it too much for you to imitate Christ, hear the Apostle saying: Forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (See Eph 4:32). Be therefore (they are the Apostle's words, his, not mine) be therefore imitators of God (See Eph 5:1). Is it presumptuous to imitate God? Imitators of God. Surely it is presumptuous. As most beloved sons (See Eph 5:1). You are called a son: if you refuse the imitation, why do you seek the inheritance?

4. I would say this if you had no sin which you desired to be relaxed for you. But now whoever you are, you are a man: be you just, you are a man; be you a layman, you are a man; be you a monk, you are a man; be you a cleric, you are a man; be you a bishop, you are a man; be you an apostle, you are a man. Hear the voice of the apostle: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (See 1 Jn 1:8). Who said it? That John, that John the evangelist, whom the Lord Christ loved above the rest, who reclined upon his breast (See Jn 13:23), he himself says: If we say: he did not say: If you say that you have no sin; but: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (See 1 Jn 1:8). He joined himself in the fault, that he might be joined also in the pardon. If we say: see who says it: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity (See 1 Jn 1:8-9). How does he cleanse? By pardoning, not as though not finding what to punish, but finding what to forgive. So if we have sins, brothers, let us pardon the penitent. Let us not retain enmities in our heart. For those who retain enmities harm rather their own heart.

5. I want you, then, to be one pardoning, because I hold you asking pardon. You are asked, pardon: you are asked, and you will ask; you are asked, pardon; just as you too ask that you be pardoned. Behold, the time of praying will come: in the words you are going to say, I will hold you. You are going to say: Our Father who are in heaven (See Mt 6:9). For you will not be in the number of the sons, if you are not going to say: Our Father. So you are going to say: Our Father who are in heaven. Continue: Hallowed be your name. Say still: Your kingdom come. Continue still: Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. See what you add: Give us this day our daily bread. Where are your riches? Behold, you beg. Yet, of what we are speaking, say still after: Give us this day our daily bread. Say still what follows: Forgive us our debts. You have come to my words: Forgive, he says, us our debts. Do, then, what follows. Forgive us our debts. By what right? by what pact? by what agreement? by what guarantee recited? As we too forgive our debtors (See Mt 6:12). It is too little that you do not forgive: you even lie to God besides. The condition is set, the law is fixed: Forgive, as I forgive. So he does not forgive, unless you forgive. Forgive, as I forgive. You want it to be forgiven you when you ask, forgive the one asking. These prayers the heavenly Jurist composed: he does not deceive you; ask according to the heavenly law: say: Forgive, as we too forgive; and do what you say. He who lies in his prayers lacks the benefit: he who lies in his prayers both loses the cause and finds the penalty. And if someone lies to the Emperor, when he comes, he is convicted that he lies; but when you in praying lie, you are convicted in the very prayer. For God does not seek witnesses against you to convict you. He who composed the prayers for you is your advocate: if you lie, he is your witness; if you do not correct yourself, he will be your judge. Therefore both say it, and do it. Because if you do not say it, asking against the law you do not obtain; but if you say it and do not do it, you will even be guilty of a lie. There is no way to pass over this verse, except that what you say be fulfilled. Can we blot out this verse from our prayer? Or do you want that to be there: Forgive us our debts: and blot out what follows: As we too forgive our debtors? You will not blot it out, lest you be blotted out first. In prayer, then, you say: Give; you say: Forgive: that you may receive what you do not have, and what you have offended in be relaxed for you. You want to receive, give; you want it to be forgiven you, forgive. It is a brief connection. Hear Christ himself in another place: Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (See Lk 6:37-38). Forgive, and it will be forgiven you. What will you forgive? What others have sinned against you. And what will be forgiven you? What you have sinned. And you: Give, and it will be given you. You who desire eternal life, support the temporal life of the poor, sustain the temporal life of the poor, and for that so small and earthly seed you will receive a harvest, eternal life. Amen.

1. We have heard a most healthful precept from the holy Gospel, that we should forgive the sin to a brother who has sinned against us. Lest it suffice to have done this once, but however often he sins it is to be forgiven, if he asks pardon. So he says this: If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns to you saying: I repent, forgive him (See Lk 17:4). If you understand "seven times in a day," then however often; for the number seven is wont to be set for the whole. Whence is that: The just man falls seven times and rises (See Prov 24:16); that is, however often he has been humbled by some tribulation, he is not deserted, but freed from all his tribulations. Whence is that: Seven times a day I will praise you (See Ps 119:164 (118)); for this is seven times a day, which is always. So this, seven times a day, which is said elsewhere: His praise shall always be in my mouth (See Ps 34:1 (33)). For we do not sound the praises of the Lord with the tongue only, and when we are silent do not praise; clearly in all our good thoughts, in all our acts and good conduct we praise him, from whom we rejoice to have received these things. For we see even the Apostles asking that faith be increased for them (See Lk 17:5). Did they themselves give the first beginnings of faith to themselves, and ask the increases from the Lord? Far be it. So they asked this, that he who began might himself perfect, according to the Apostle saying: Because he who began a good work in you will perfect it unto the end (See Phil 1:6). And what we have just now sung, what else does it show, dearly beloved? Lead me, he says, Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth (See Ps 86:11 (85)). He does not say: Bring me to your way; for this too he himself does; but not, when he has brought, let him forsake. It is too little, then, to have brought to the way, unless there follow having led in the way, and having led through to the homeland. Since, then, we have all good things from God, in all our good works, when we think of the giver of all goods, we praise God without end: but when we praise God, if we live well, without end, let us bless the Lord at all times, and may his praise for this reason be always in our mouth (See Ps 34:1 (33)). Seven times, he says, a day I will praise you: by the number seven signifying the whole:

2. Therefore if your brother sins against you seven times in a day, and coming says: I repent, forgive him (See Lk 17:4). Let it not be a weariness to you, always to pardon the penitent. If you are not a debtor, you would be a troublesome exactor with impunity; but since, being a debtor, you have a debtor, and you are the debtor of one who has no debt, see what you do with your debtor: for this God will do with his. Hear and fear: Let my heart rejoice, he says, that I may fear your name (See Ps 86:11 (85)). If you rejoice when it is forgiven you, fear so as to forgive. For how much you ought to fear, the Savior himself shows, setting forth in the Gospel that servant with whom the master made a reckoning, and found him a debtor of a hundred thousand talents: He ordered him to be sold, and all that he had, and to be repaid. He, falling at the feet of his master, began to beg, that he might receive a delay, and deserved remission. But he, going out from the face of his master, all the debt relaxed for him, found himself too his debtor, his fellow servant, who owed him a hundred denarii, and, gripping his throat, began to drag him to payment. When it was forgiven him, his heart rejoiced, but not so as to fear the name of the Lord his God. The servant said to the fellow servant, what the servant had said to the master: Have patience with me, and I will repay you. But he: No, today you repay. It was reported to the householder; and, what you know, he not only threatened him that he would not afterward remit, if he found him a debtor, but folded the whole that he had relaxed back upon his head, and ordered him to repay whatever he had bestowed (See Mt 18:23-34). How, then, is it to be feared, my brothers, if there is faith in us, if we believe the Gospel, if we do not think the Lord a liar? Let us fear, let us observe, let us beware, let us forgive. For what do you lose, by that which you forgive? You give pardon, not money.

3. Although even in dispensing money itself you ought not to be dry trees. In dispensing money you bestow on the needy: in giving pardon you forgive the one sinning; both the Lord sees, both he rewards, both he commended in one place: Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (See Lk 6:37-38). But you neither pardon nor dispense: you hold anger, you keep money. Beware, anger, where you cannot be freed by money: Treasures will not profit the unjust (See Prov 10:2). This is not my saying, but a divine one: those who have read know it. I read it that I might say it, I believed it that I might speak it: treasures will not profit the unjust. They seem to profit, but they will not profit. Perhaps in the present: perhaps, if yet they profit anything; but in that day they will not profit. Let them be held, and they will not profit; let them be despised, and they will profit. You use justice well then, if you love it: because, if you do not love it, you will not have it. Fortitude, temperance, chastity, love, and the other goods of the soul you use well, if you love them: money you use well then, if you do not love it. In short, money, if it is loved, let it be kept in heaven; if it is to be feared lest it be lost, let it be guarded in a safer place. For neither does your servant keep faith with you in preserving money, while your Lord deceives you. Do you not hear him saying: Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven? Behold, he did not command you to lose it, but to make it migrate: Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where the thief does not approach, nor moth corrupt; for where your treasure is, there is your heart too (See Mt 6:20-21). On earth you lay up treasure, on earth you set your heart. What will become of your heart on earth? It wastes away, rots, turns to ash. Lift up on high what you love, and there love it. And do not think you will receive back the same that you set down: for you set down mortal things, you will receive immortal; you set down temporal things, you will receive eternal; you set down earthly things, you will receive heavenly; in short, you dole out what your Lord gave you, and you will receive a reward from that same Lord of yours.

4. But you will say: How am I to set it in heaven? by what engines am I to ascend into heaven with my gold and silver? Why do you seek engines? Migrate. Your porters are the poor, and through the wearing down of the world they have been made porters. In short, you make a transfer: here you give, and there you receive. Surely if you give here, you will receive there, and from the one to whom you give, from him you will receive. Let not now some ragged beggar come to your mind; but let this come to your mind: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (See Mt 25:40). In the poor man receives the one who made the poor man: from the rich man receives the one who made the rich man; for what he gave, from it he receives; from his own you give to Christ, not from your own. For why do you boast, that here you found many things? Recall how you came. Everything here you found; and, having found many things, if you use them badly, you have swelled with pride. Did you not come forth naked from your mother's womb (See Job 1:21)? Give, then, give, lest you lose what you have. If you give, you are to find it there: if you do not give, you are to leave it here; yet, whether you give or do not give, you are to migrate. But sometimes—even if a trifling excuse, and one to be reproved and rejected from the ears of the faithful—yet greed has some excuse, refusing to dole out to the poor from what abounds. For it says to itself: If I give, I will not have it; and giving much, I will be in need: and afterward I will seek one from whom I myself may receive. It ought to abound for me, not only for food and clothing, both for my house and my household, but also on account of good fortune, that I may have what to expend on a slanderer, that I may have from which to redeem myself: human affairs are full of mishaps; I ought to keep for myself, from which I may be able to free myself.

5. You say these things, when you want to keep money; what will you say, when you do not want to give pardon to the one sinning? If it irks you to dole out money to the needy, dole out pardon to the penitent. What do you lose, if you give? I know what you lose, I know what you let go; I see it, but you let it go for your own good: you let go anger, you let go indignation, you let go from your heart hatred of your brother. Shall these remain there, where you will be? Anger, indignation, abiding hatred, what does it make of you? What evil does it not make of you? Hear Scripture: He who hates his brother is a murderer (See 1 Jn 3:15). So even if he sins against me seven times in a day, shall I forgive him? Forgive. Christ said this, the truth said it, to whom you sang: Lead me, Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth (See Ps 86:11 (85)). Do not fear, he does not deceive you. But there will be, you will say, no discipline; all sins whatever will always be unpunished; for it always delights to sin, when the one who sins thinks you will always pardon. It is not so. Let discipline both keep watch, and benevolence not sleep. For why do you think you render evil for evil, when you give discipline to the one sinning? Far be it: you render good for evil; and then you do not do well, if you do not give it. Sometimes indeed even discipline itself is tempered with gentleness: it is given. But is it not one thing to extinguish it by negligence, another to temper it with gentleness? Let discipline keep watch: pardon, and strike. See the Lord himself, hear the Lord himself, think of him to whom we daily beggars say: Forgive us our debts (See Mt 6:12). And do you suffer weariness, when a brother constantly says to you: Forgive me, the penitent? How often do you say this to God? are you silent from this supplication in any prayer? Do you want God to say to you: Behold, yesterday I pardoned, the day before I pardoned, for so many days I pardoned; how often do I still pardon? Do you not want him to say to you: Always you come with those words, always you say: Forgive us our debts, always you beat your breast; and like hard iron you are not corrected. But because we were dealing with discipline, does not the Lord our God forgive us, because from faith we say: Forgive us our debts? And yet, although he forgives us, what was said of him? what is written of him? For whom God loves he rebukes. But perhaps with words? He scourges every son whom he receives (See Heb 12:6). Lest the sinful son, scourged, be indignant at being rebuked, even the Only-begotten himself, without sin, deigned to be scourged. So give discipline, but from the heart let go anger. For so the Lord himself says, when he dealt with that debtor, to whom he folded back the whole debt, because he was inhuman to his fellow servant: So, he says, your heavenly Father will do to you too, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts (See Mt 18:35). Where God sees, there forgive; from there do not lose love, exercise healthful severity; love and strike, love and beat. For sometimes you flatter, and rage. How do you flatter and rage? Because you do not reprove sins; and those sins are going to kill the one whom by sparing perversely you love. Your word, sometimes harsh, sometimes hard, which will wound, attend to what it will do. Sin lays waste the heart, demolishes the inner parts, suffocates the soul, destroys the soul: have mercy, strike.

6. Set before your eyes, dearly beloved, that you may understand more plainly what I say, two men. Some heedless little boy wanted to sit where they knew a serpent lay hidden in the grass. If he sat, he would be bitten, and would die: two men knew this. One says: Do not sit there. He is despised; he will go to sit, he will go to perish. The other says: This one does not want to hear us; he must be rebuked, held, dragged away, struck with a slap: whatever we can do let us do, lest we lose the man. Another says: Let him be, do not strike, do not offend, do not hurt. Which of these is merciful? The one sparing, that the man may die by the serpent; or the one raging, that the man may be freed? And so understand it: those who are subject to you, you also correct; impose discipline on their conduct, keep benevolence. From the heart forgive, within let there be no anger; because that anger, when fresh, is a thin and as it were contemptible splinter; fresh anger disturbs the eye, like a splinter in the eye: My eye is disturbed in anger (See Ps 6:7 (6); Ps 31:9 (30)); but that splinter is nourished by suspicions, strengthened by length of time; this splinter is going to come to a beam. Inveterate anger will be hatred; now where there is hatred, there will be murder: He who hates his brother is a murderer (See 1 Jn 3:15), he says. And sometimes men having hatred in their heart reprove the angry. Do you hold hatred, and reprove the angry one? You see the splinter in your brother's eye, you do not see the beam in your own (See Mt 7:3). Let the sermon be concluded. Let the Lord be invoked, that he may deign to grant what he commands: Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (See Lk 6:37-38).

1. The gospel reading, dearly beloved, which we have just now heard—not indeed procured by us, as is wont to be done, but yet by the appointment of the Lord, who governs our acts—accords vehemently with this psalm of which we have determined to speak to Your Charity. For the Lord was speaking of his last coming and the end of the age, and had already recalled many terrible things which human affairs must suffer, as the end draws near (See Lk 17:26). Then, rebuking those who want to live secure, not in the region of security, he terrified them dreadfully; saying that the coming of the Son of man to that judgment—a thing to be trembled at by all, but yet even to be desired by the devout faithful—would be thus; saying, then, that his coming would be thus, as it was in the days of Noah, he gravely terrified every heart, if faith is there: For as, he says, in the days of Noah, they ate and drank, married, took wives, bought, sold, while the ark was being built by Noah, and the flood came and destroyed them all (See Lk 17:26-27; Mt 24:38-39). For they were living a ruinous security, all worldly joys, and in these they delighted, until Noah entered the ark, and the flood found them naked and destitute. So saying this, even now he terrified every soul, but we have a time of waking up. The day of judgment is not yet, the flood is not yet; still the incorruptible timbers are being cut from the wood, still the ark is being built (See Gen 6:14).

2. For if those were fools, and by the merit of their own madness and contempt perished, who did not say in their heart: "Not without cause does this servant of God, just, accepted by God and wise, with so great effort, with so great works, build so great an ark, except because he knew something to threaten the age. In a way the building of this ark is a herald crying: Turn to God." For if they thought this and changed their life and, turning themselves from impiety to God, made satisfaction to him for their offenses, groaning to his mercy, they would not have perished. For God was not merciful in Nineveh (See Jonah 3:10) and would be cruel to the whole human race, if it turned itself. In three days Nineveh will be overthrown (See Jonah 3:4), said Jonah, on account of their excessive sins. What so brief as three days? Yet they did not, in so great a narrowness of time, despair of God's mercy: to bend his clemency they believed even three days' lamentation and tears to suffice. If, then, so great a city had a space of three days to bend the mercy of God, through the space of a hundred years, in which the ark was built, if those men changed their ways and conduct, by appeasing God offered the sacrifice of a contrite heart (See Ps 51:17 (50)), would they not without any doubt escape unharmed that destruction by the mercy of him whom they had bent? So the three days of the Ninevites convict the hundred years of the ark being built. But there is another greater than Noah: see how great a time it is, see, from which he builds this ark. I think, brothers, that if the years are reckoned from which Christ began, by cutting incorruptible timbers from the wood of the nations, to set up and build the framework of this ark—that is, the Church—more are found than a hundred and than two hundred and than three hundred. And behold, so many years have passed, and still it is being built, still Noah cries out, still the building itself cries out. Nothing will destroy men, except unbelief. Let them change their ways; let them believe God promising so much, threatening so much, deceiving in nothing.

3. It is long to say many things from here, and on account of the narrowness of the time and our common fragility we hasten to the treatment of this psalm. But I would wish someone to tell me briefly, why he does not change his evil ways and make them good. What does he lose by it? If he believes, let him do it, because it will be true; if he doubts, let him do it, lest it be true. For believers it is firm, for doubters it is doubtful. I enumerate so many things from the beginning of the age to this day, which happened according to the Scriptures, so that we read absolutely nothing in the Scriptures of God which we do not already see fulfilled in great part. Very few things remain: are those alone false? Will the few things that remain be false? Brothers, what great thing is it? We desire a work of a middling heart. Number the many past things that happened, and believe the few that remain. Let the faithful man consider, that it is most firmly true; or at least let him consider this, lest perhaps it be true.

4. For example, you had a journey by a short way, and you had proposed to go by the better road. Someone reported to you, absolutely anyone, that that road was beset by robbers. This road, which was reported to you to be beset by robbers, is level, easy, pleasant, hospitable, delightful; but someone reported to you that it was infested by robbers and so beset, that either it could not be passed or could be passed only with the greatest difficulty and peril. There is another road: it has much labor, difficulty, hardness, narrowness; delights are not only not found there, but scarcely fitting hospitality is shown. Does not your heart say to you at once, wanting to gain a few days of this life and looking ahead to a life one day to end: "We go better this way; even with labor and difficulty and want, even with the wearing down both of ourselves and of our beasts, yet we go better this way"? Why better? Because safer. But now someone wanting to lead you by that delightful road says to you: "And have you so quickly believed the one who said this road was beset by robbers?"; if you know the man to be faithful—and perhaps so known to you that he never deceived you—what will you answer? "It cannot be that that man deceives me; I know the man, I have proved him a serious man, I hold many proofs of him: he always told me the truth, he never lied." But you knew the man to be such: let us set another, who did not know him. Would not this one too say: "I indeed do not know the man and am ignorant how truthful he is: it can be that he tells the truth, it can be that he lies; yet on account of that very doubt, lest perhaps what he says be true, why do I not rather endure the laborious expense, than undergo the delightful road with peril?"

5. Come now, my brothers, we are Christians; we all want to make a journey; even if we do not want to, we make a journey: no one is allowed to remain here, the rolling of the times compels all coming into this life to pass on. There is no place for sloth: walk, lest you be dragged. There meets us, as we make our journey and are set, as it were, at a certain fork in the road, a certain man, not a man, but God, on account of men a man; he said to us: "Do not go this way; this passage seems indeed easy and light and delightful, worn by many and broad, but the end of this road has destruction. Since to stand and to dwell here you are neither permitted nor is it expedient for you, you must go, but go this way: through certain difficulties you are to walk, but the difficulty quickly ended you will come to a great breadth of joys, and you will escape those ambushes which no one escapes who wants to walk that way." This one said this—I think, because he is known to us, if faith is in us. Or does it still please us to explore the faith of this one? Let us recall past times and the ancient Scriptures. Is not this man the Word of God? Was not the Word afterward made flesh and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14)? But before it was made flesh and dwelt among us, did it not itself speak through the patriarchs and prophets? See what they announced to the human race.

6. God spoke, surely by his Word, to Abraham, that his nation would first come to be—when he himself, to whom it was said, by reason of old age now was not—first there would come to be a nation from the aged Abraham and from Sarah, an old and barren woman: it was believed, it was done (See Gen 17-21); that this very nation, that is, the people thence born according to the flesh, would serve in Egypt and through how many years: it was done; that it would be freed from that captivity: it was freed; that it would receive the land of promise (See Gen 15:13-16): it received it. Many things were said through the prophets; and it was said to Abraham himself that he should attend not only to that people, but in your seed, he says, all the nations will be blessed (See Gen 22:18). Near things were said, things far in the future were said: the near things were done; the things that were far in the future are now being done. The word of God spoke through the prophets that that nation would sin, would be handed into the hands of its enemies, because it offended the Lord: all things were done; that it would come into the captivity of Babylon: this too was done; that thence a king, Christ, would come: Christ too came, Christ was born; because he himself foretold himself to be going to come, Christ too came. It was said that the Jews would crucify him: they crucified him. It was foretold that he would rise again and be glorified: it was done, he rose again, ascended into heaven. It was foretold that in his name all the earth would believe, it was foretold that kings would persecute his Church: these things were done. It was foretold that kings would believe in him: we already hold the faith of kings, and do we doubt about the faith of Christ? The cleavings of heresies too were foretold: do we not see them too, and groan amid them, clamoring on every side? It was foretold that the nations would press the Church on account of the idols: and it was done; it was foretold that the idols themselves were to be destroyed through the Church and the name of Christ: and this too we see fulfilled. Scandals were foretold in the Church itself, weeds were foretold, chaff was foretold: all these we both behold with our eyes and, with whatever fortitude bestowed by the Lord we can, we tolerate. In what did this one deceive you, who said to you: "Go this way"? Say securely, if you are faithful, taking so many proofs of this one who speaks to you—prove him by deeds, because he deigned so to be proved. Say: "He tells me the absolute truth, I hold all his sayings as true, in nothing did he lie. Such I have known him, he is the word of God. Through the mouths of his servants he spoke, and did not deceive: can what he says by his own mouth deceive?" But the one to whom he is not yet known, who still doubts about Christ, let him too say: "I will go this way, lest perhaps he tell the truth, in whom now the whole world has believed"; and yet it will so come about as he foretold.

7. Brothers, many who do not believe will be found on the last day as that multitude was found in the days of Noah. None escaped, except those who were in the ark. Such men, then, accommodate yourselves: the craftsman's hands are here, Christ builds the ark. Fit yourselves to it, give yourselves to his hands, be squared, be joined together; let no one refuse the fingers of this craftsman. His grace knows how to compose you of itself; only do not you be the rotten wood of perverse pride. So it will be; yet, my brothers, many mock these things.
I see the narrowness of the time withdrawing from me the exposition of the psalm. For I do not want to leave unfulfilled the place of the Gospel undertaken, as far as the Lord suggests. For the present, then, if it please Your Charity, let us defer the psalm. It is not drawn out long: soon there will be the gift, as they call it. We too have a presenter, to whom we may assemble. If the peoples run from that broad road (See Mt 7:13), mocking and jeering that faithful shower of the way, to watch a gift which they are not to receive—and whoever would receive it would deceive himself; yet to that which they are not to receive, they run, they flow together—how much more eagerly ought we to assemble, who are to receive what we are to watch! If from me, that you may not assemble, nothing is poorer than I; but if from him from whom I too am, nothing is richer than he, nothing richer than that poor one for our sake (See 2 Cor 8:9). From him let us all receive, in him let us all rejoice. And if perhaps he shows you through me what he deigns to give, love the presenter's servant too, but on account of the presenter, because I too, brothers, in him and on account of him love you. For apart from him we all are nothing.

8. So briefly what of the gospel reading is perhaps obscure to anyone I will not keep silent about, with the Lord's help. Let men fear, lest they be found thus on that last day. Let us fear, my brothers. We now exult, rejoice, acclaim. I ask you: let that day find us ready. He does not lie who says it, he never lied; if you still doubt, beware lest perhaps it be true. But one of you says to me: "It is necessary, then, that it sink into the heart of the faithful"; for I am not going, merely by speaking these things now, to make all such as the Lord said: If anyone does not take up his cross and follow me (See Lk 14:27), or to make all such as the Lord said: If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your goods, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me (See Mt 19:21). Brothers, is that way then to be feared, where the leader says: Follow me? I know that I am not going to make all to whom I speak, or certainly very many, suddenly such. Now, then, because it has been heard from the thunder of the Gospel—if there are faithful hearts that take fright—because it was said: In the days of Noah it was thus, they ate, drank, married, took wives, bought, sold, until Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all (See Lk 17:26-27), many say to themselves: "We are bidden to await that day, and not to be found such as those were found outside the ark who perished in that flood. Certainly the word of God terrifies us, the gospel trumpet terrifies us. What do we do, if a wife is not to be taken?"—a young man says this, some youth—"is there to be no eating, no drinking, must one always fast?" Many say these things. And one who perhaps wanted to buy something says to himself: "Is something now no longer to be bought, lest I be found in the number of those who perished?"

9. What then do we do, if it is so? It must be wept over, as the apostles were saddened over the human race, when they heard the Lord saying what perfection was: Sell all your goods and come, follow me (See Mt 19:21), because the one to whom it was said departed saddened (See Mt 19:22). And when he called him a good master, of whom he was seeking counsel of eternal life (See Mt 19:16-17), he seemed a good master, so long as he should say what was asked. He said it, and saddened him. But as that man departed sad, the Lord followed and said: How hard a rich man enters the kingdom of heaven! (See Mt 19:23) Hard, but yet at least hard. But there was added a following example by the Lord, and what he had called hard he pronounced impossible. It is easier, he says, for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven (See Mt 19:24). As though he shut it against the rich. What will happen, what will happen? It is shut: Knock and it will be opened to you (See Mt 7:7). "With what," he says, "shall we knock?" With what, except with hands? "What is: with what, except with hands?" With what, except with works? Let us see, brothers, whether the Lord offered the rich too a place for such works. Let us say this from the Scriptures, lest we be found not so much announcers as flatterers. First the same Lord in that very place: Sell all your goods and come, follow me. For the disciples were saddened, because the Lord said this. And saddened surely not about themselves, for they themselves had left all and were following the Lord (See Mt 19:27). And saddened, what did they say? Who then can be saved (See Mt 19:25)? Now here I question the apostles: O chief members of Christ, O pillars of that resurrection to be made firm, why so, why who then can be saved?; has despair been made about the rich? The rich are few, thousands of the poor will be able to be saved. What did the Lord say? It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven. Did he say: "It is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, than a man into the kingdom of heaven"? He said: a rich man. Quickly may I say it, brothers—we all indeed wish well, because this is commanded and this is hoped, but yet I attend in the Scriptures to a coming heap of chaff to be consumed by fire (See Mt 3:12), and I can say: Would that as few went into the fire, as few as the rich are! Behold, brothers, in this whole people that hears these things, how many are rich? I did not say this, that they themselves should go into the fire; but however many are to go, and those who are to go, would that they could be as few, as few as the rich are in the human race! But now both from the number of the rich many are to go into the kingdom of heaven, and from the number of the poor many are to go into eternal fire. Until I open this in few words, attend.

10. The Lord said that it was easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven (See Mt 19:24). And the disciples, saddened, said: Who then can be saved (See Mt 19:25), attending to so many thousands of the poor and in the human race so few rich. But what? They attended prudently, not who was rich in means, but who burned with greed. Someone is called and appears rich by abundance of all things. But this man holds all those things for nothing, despises them and truly holds them as a possessor, is not held, as it is written: His hope is in the Lord his God (See Ps 146:5 (145)); not arrogant, not boastful, not overbearing to oppress the poor, not greedy, not gaping after the goods of others, not badly guarding and hoarding his own, but truly rich toward God (See Lk 12:21) and not reckoning those riches except the giver of riches, such a one is both rich and enters the kingdom of heaven. For to the saddened disciples the Lord said: "What is hard for men is easy for God (See Mt 19:26). You were moved by the difficulty, because I named a camel through the eye of a needle, and what is truly hard and impossible for men is most easy for God. If he wills, even that most enormous beast, which is called a camel, he passes through the eye of a needle." And he deigned to do this of himself, and therefore even a rich man can enter the kingdom of heaven, because for his sake the camel entered through the eye of a needle. What is this? Let us see, whether it appears. For not without cause did John the Baptist too, the herald of that same Lord, have a garment of camel's hair (See Mt 3:4), because, with that judge to come after him before whom he went, he had, as it were, a cloak from him. I clearly recognize, the camel being named, a certain figure of my Lord; I recognize the great one, and yet with a lowly neck, I recognize the great one, whom no one would burden with sufferings, unless he set himself down on the earth. I see too the eye of the needle, through which that so great one entered. In the needle I understand the pricking, in the pricking the passion, in the eye the straits. Now then the camel has entered through the eye of the needle: let not the rich despair, who will follow into the kingdom of heaven.

11. But what kind of rich? Behold, someone off to the side, covered in rags, exulted and laughed, when it was said that a rich man does not enter the kingdom of heaven. "I," he says, "will enter. These rags will procure this for me; they will not enter who do us wrongs, who oppress us." Plainly such will not enter, but you too see whether you will enter. What if you are poor and greedy, what if you are pressed by want and burn with greed? If, then, you are such, whoever you are who are poor, you did not refuse to be rich, but you could not. Peace, he says, on earth to men of good will (See Lk 2:14). God therefore does not regard your means, but your will. Attend to what your heart is full of, not to what your chest is empty of. So if you are such, of an evil life, of an evil wish, withdraw from the number of God's poor; you will not be among those of whom it is said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (See Mt 5:3). Behold I find such a rich man—from comparison with whom you boasted and dared to aspire to the kingdom of heaven—I find one poor in spirit, that is, humble, devout, following the will of God and, if perhaps he loses something of that store of things, saying at once: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord (See Job 1:21). O meek rich man, not resisting the will of God, truly rejoicing from that land of the living (See Ps 27:13 (26))! For blessed are the meek, because they will possess the earth by inheritance (See Mt 5:5). But you perhaps are insolent, you have nothing in your cellar, and out of the phantasy of your desires you dream most vain treasures. This one rather, this one rich man will enter; against you the kingdom of heaven will be shut, because it will be shut against the greedy, it will be shut against the proud and covetous. "But poor was that widow who put two mites into the treasury!" (See Mk 12:42) Yes indeed: she poor, but Zacchaeus rich. Did the widow enter, and was Zacchaeus shut out? Rather, for this reason it is truly the kingdom of the free, because it is given equally to both the poor and the rich. In that kingdom Zacchaeus will not be richer than that widow, even though here he gave more than she. For this one gave half his goods to the poor (See Lk 19:8), she gave two mites. Their means were unequal, but they had equal love.

12. So the rich man enters the kingdom of heaven. What kind is described, hear; how the way is made for him, how he is called to enter, hear, you who have the substance of the world, hear and do something before the flood, hear the Apostle writing to Timothy: Charge the rich of this world (See 1 Tim 6:17). And as though he asked what the Lord commanded: "Sell all you have, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come with me, follow the Lord"—the Lord had already commanded this: let him hold Christ the commander, who holds the promiser. Who wills, let him do it; let him undertake the things heard from the Lord. To certain others the Apostle says—and through the Apostle the Lord: Or do you want proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? (See 2 Cor 13:3) What then? Charge, he says, the rich of this world, what is the chief of evil, what is feared in riches, not to be high-minded (See 1 Tim 6:17). Let us briefly describe this. A rich man easily says: "Wicked servant"; he is, as it were, high-minded and, unless he says it, perhaps does not govern his house. For very often he governs more by a terrible word than by an atrocious lash. He says this, perhaps the necessity of governing the house compels him to say it: let him not say it within, let him not say it in the heart, let him not say it in the eyes and ears of God; let him not think himself better for that reason, because he is rich; let him consider the fragility of his flesh, with his garments laid aside. What shall I say, brothers, what shall I say? Let him think, if all those outer ornaments are taken away, what a rich man can be, because he is flesh and blood (See Mt 16:17), because together he came from that mass from Adam and Eve, but the rich man cannot consider that: with difficulty you withdraw all the ornaments from him. Nor is it to be wished that they be withdrawn, it was to be wished that they be thrown away. Therefore with difficulty is he persuaded what kind he is, whom all these things surround. Let him think of himself in his mother's womb, once naked and destitute (See Job 1:21), like that poor man too; one thing received him being born; what received him will so remain here, as it was not brought here. Thinking these things the rich man within is poor in spirit (See Mt 5:3), that is, he blows away pride, lowers himself. And if he has a terrible face toward those who must be governed by him, yet within there is a humble heart under the eyes of God, and he knows with what conscience he beats his breast. But what follows, see whether it appears in them. For he did not say this: Not to be high-minded, and shut it; for every rich man would answer you: "God knows I am not high-minded; and if perhaps I shout, and if I say something harsh, God knows my conscience, that out of the necessity of governing I say these things, not that I lift myself above others"—as though more powerful, because richer. Within God sees these works. What follows, let us see. Not to be high-minded, he says, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches (See 1 Tim 6:17). Still here too he may say it; and whether he says the truth, God alone can see, whether he does not presume on the things he has, whether he does not set his hope there; for there follows: But in the living God, who furnishes us all things to enjoy (See 1 Tim 6:17).

13. "And then what?", he says. Let them be rich in good works. This now comes out even to the eyes of men, there is no hiding it. Either it is done and appears, or it is not done and there is no way to lie about it. Let them be rich in good works, let them readily give, share (See 1 Tim 6:18). There humility appears. You have: let it be common to you and to the one who does not have. Let them share. And for what good is this? Let them lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may obtain the true life (See 1 Tim 6:19). If the rich are such, let them be secure: when the last day comes, they will be found in the ark, they will be in the building, they will not belong to the destruction of the flood; let them not take fright, because they are rich. And if a young man cannot contain himself, he is allowed to take a wife. Will the last day, then, find him among those of whom he said: They took wives? It will not find him so, if it finds such a one as the Apostle says. Behold how he joins together in the ark those who feared. For the Apostle says: For the rest, brothers, the time is short. And what follows? It remains that those who have wives be as though not having them, and those who buy as though not buying, and those who weep as though not weeping, and those who rejoice as though not rejoicing, and those who use this world be as though not using it: for the figure of this world passes away. I want you to be without anxiety (See 1 Cor 7:29-32). Brothers, if you want to be secure, do not set your happiness in these things. And if either some duty or the necessity of weakness compels you to use these things, do not trust in them, do not cling to them, count them among the transitory and temporal. For all these things slip away in a certain river of things. You see that all those adversities, which press human affairs, cut down all these superfluous things.

14. Brothers, daily there is murmuring against God: "Evil times and hard times." Trifles are flogged, of which we were speaking: Evil times, hard times, troublesome times; and yet gifts are presented. They are evil, they are hard: let them correct men. Do you call the time hard? How much harder you, who are not corrected by the hard time! So great still flourishes the madness of pageants, after so many superfluous things men gape! Greed has no end, not even when cut down. By what things, I ask, by what doings do they wish for prosperity, what are they going to do when they wish for security? Let some security be given: we shall see how many diseases come forth into the open, how much luxury will overflow, greater than now. Security and quiet, for the sake of theaters and organs and flutes and pantomimes! You want to use badly what you wish for, therefore you do not receive it. Hear, hear the apostolic voice, much freer than mine—for I know how many I offend; consider me more timid: I do not dare to wound your weakness—hear from the Apostle what you do not want: You desire, and do not have—they are apostolic words—you kill and are envious, and cannot obtain; you quarrel, you war, and do not have; you ask, and do not receive, because you ask badly, that you may spend it in your desires (See Jas 4:2-3). Surely he flattered no one; in many rotten parts the iron reached even to the living. Let us be healed, brothers, let us be corrected, let us be corrected: he is to come who has come and was mocked and, because he came, is still mocked; he is to come, and there will be no leisure to laugh. My brothers, let us correct ourselves: behold, there will be better times, and behold they will be now. What do you hope for here? Change your place, change your dwelling: "Lift up your heart." What do you hope for here? The human race arose, came to a certain youth—these things flourished in the world—it sinks and declines into old age, it is now nearly decrepit. What do you hope for here? Seek something else. Do you seek rest? You seek a good thing: seek it in its own region. There is one place from which he came down to you, another to which he bids you ascend. Do not hope for times, except such as are read in the Gospel; I do not say such or such: daily the Lord's books are for sale, the reader reads; buy for yourself and you too read when you have leisure, rather make it so that you have leisure: for it is better to have leisure for this than for trifles. Read what kinds of things are foretold unto the end of the age, and believe yourself, do not flatter yourself. Not because Christ came are things evil, but because they were hard and evil, he came who would console.

15. Attend, my brothers: it had to be that the times be such, troublesome and hard. What would we do, if so great a consoler were not present? The human race was to be gravely sick. As a physician taking on one great sick man, from Adam to the end, that is, taking on the whole wounded human race—for, from the time we were born here, from the time we were sent out of paradise, surely there is sickness, but at the end it would be greater, and perhaps near to health for some, near to death for some. Since, then, the human race was sick, that great physician, taking on the sick man, lying on a certain great bed, the whole world, like a most skilled physician, attended to the times of the sick man, and saw and foresaw what would be, since indeed he himself procured that same sickness, on account of his justice, for the vengeance of our sin. So in the gentler times of our sickness, first that physician sent his servants to inspect us, he sent the prophets. They spoke, they preached; he cured some through them and healed them. They foretold a certain great worsening to come in the final sickness, and a certain great tossing of this sick man, for whose healing it would be needful that the physician himself be presented and himself come. So our physician said this: "In the last time the sick man will be more strongly and more violently tossed, for taking up whose healing it is needful that I come at that time; I will refresh, I will console, I will exhort, I will promise, I will heal the believer." So it was done. He came, was made man, a sharer of our mortality, that we might be able to be made sharers of his immortality. And still the sick man is tossed. And when he pants in the fever and is greatly burning, he says to himself: "Since this physician, I suffer sharper fevers, I am more gravely tossed. O enormous burnings, whence did it come to me? I think he did not enter the house with a good foot." So say all who are still sick of vanity. Why are they still sick of vanity? Because they refuse to receive from him the draught of sobriety. You see those wretches tossed by their cares and various tribulations and terrors of the world, and saying: "Since Christ came, we suffer these times; since there are Christians, in all things the world fails." O foolish sick man, not because the physician came has your sickness become graver, but for this reason the physician came, because your sickness was to be graver: he foresaw it, he did not make it; but he came that he might console you and you might be truly well.

16. For what is taken from you, what is removed, except the superfluous? For you were gaping after harmful things, the things you were gaping after were not useful for your fever. Is the physician harsh, because he snatches harmful fruits from the hand of the sick man? What does he take from you, except the evil security which you desired to drink up unto the ruin of your inner parts? And this, that you groan and murmur, pertains to his medicine. Wanting to cure, lest you be tormented unwilling. It is necessary that the times be harsh. Why? Lest earthly happiness be loved. Surely it is fitting—it is medicinal—that this life be disturbed, that the other life be loved. Behold, if with such sloth men still cling to earthly things, still rave in the theaters, what if everything smiled on vanity, what if your trifles were nowhere struck? Behold so many bitternesses are mingled, and still the world is sweet. Come now, my dearly beloved brothers, I beseech you by the Lord, by his cross, by his blood, by his love, by his humility, by his loftiness I beseech and adjure, do not hear these things in vain, do not think that we truly stand in this place as it were for a spectacle. His mercy knows, under whose eyes we so tremble, that we are led by the office of love to say these things to you, and compelled by that fear by which we know that we ourselves are to render an account of all things to the Lord himself (See Rom 14:12).

1. The reading of the holy Gospel builds us up to pray and to believe, and to presume not upon ourselves, but upon the Lord. What greater exhortation to praying, than that a likeness about an unjust judge should be set before us? For the unjust judge, neither fearing God nor reverencing man, yet heard the widow appealing to him, overcome by weariness, not inclined by devotion. If, then, he heard who hated what he was asked, how does he hear who exhorts us to ask? Since, then, the Lord persuaded us by this contrary comparison: That we ought always to pray, and not to fail (See Lk 18:1); he added and said: Yet when the Son of man comes, do you think he will find faith on earth (See Lk 18:8)? If faith fails, prayer perishes. For who prays for what he does not believe? Whence the blessed Apostle too, when he exhorted to praying, said: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (See Rom 10:13). And to show that faith is the fountain of prayer, and that the stream cannot go where the head of the water is dried up, he added and said: But how will they call on him in whom they have not believed (See Rom 10:14)? Therefore, that we may pray, let us believe; and that the very faith by which we pray may not fail, let us pray. Faith pours forth prayer, the poured-forth prayer obtains the firmness of faith. Faith, I say, pours forth prayer, the poured-forth prayer obtains firmness even for faith itself. For lest faith fail in temptations, therefore the Lord says: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation (See Mt 26:41). Watch, he says, and pray, lest you enter into temptation. What is it, to enter into temptation, except to go out from faith? For temptation prevails as much as faith fails; and temptation fails as much as faith prevails. For that Your Charity may know more plainly, that the Lord said about faith, lest it fail and perish: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation: in that place of the Gospel he says: This night Satan has asked to vex you like wheat; and I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail (See Lk 22:31-32). Does the one who protects pray, and the one who is in peril not pray? But what the Lord said: When the Son of man comes, do you think he will find faith on earth? he said of faith that is perfect. For that itself is scarcely found on earth. Behold, the Church of God is full: who would come here, if there were no faith? Who would not move mountains, if his faith were full? Attend to the Apostles themselves: having left all their own, having trampled the hope of the world, they would not follow the Lord, unless they had great faith; and yet if they had full faith, they would not say to the Lord: Increase faith for us (See Lk 17:5). See too that man confessing both of himself (see faith, and not full faith), who, when he had offered his son to the Lord to be healed of an evil demon, and was asked whether he believed, answered and said: I believe, Lord, help my unbelief (See Mk 9:24). I believe, he says: I believe, Lord: so there is faith. But help my unbelief: so the faith is not full.

2. But because faith is not of the proud, but of the humble: He said to certain men who seemed to themselves just, and despised the rest, this likeness: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee said: Thanks to you, God, that I am not like the rest of men (See Lk 18:9-11). Let him say at least, Like many men. What is, like the rest of men, except all besides himself? I, he says, am just, the rest sinners. I am not like the rest of men, the unjust, plunderers, adulterers. And behold, from the nearby publican an occasion of greater swelling. Like, he says, this publican. I, he says, am alone, this man is of the rest. I am not, he says, such as this man, by my righteous deeds, by which I am not unjust. I fast twice on the Sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess (See Lk 18:12). What he asked of God, seek in his words, you will find nothing. He went up to pray: he refused to ask God, but to praise himself. It is too little, not to ask God, but to praise himself; over and above to insult the one asking. But the publican stood afar off: and yet he himself drew near to God. The conscience of the heart removed him, devotion brought him close. But the publican stood afar off: but the Lord regarded him from close at hand. For the Lord is high, and regards lowly things (See Ps 138:6 (137)). But the high ones, such as that Pharisee was, he knows from afar. The high things indeed he knows from afar, but he does not pardon. Hear still the humility of the publican. It is too little, that he stood afar off: he did not even lift his eyes to heaven? That he might be regarded, he did not regard. He did not dare to look up: conscience pressed him down, hope lifted him up. Hear still: He beat his breast. He exacted penalties from himself: therefore the Lord spared the one confessing: He beat his breast, saying: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. Behold one who asks. Why do you wonder, if God pardons, when he himself acknowledges himself? You have received the dispute about the Pharisee and the publican; hear the sentence: you have heard the proud accuser, you have heard the humble defendant; hear now the judge. Amen I say to you. The Truth says, God says, the judge says: Amen I say to you, that publican went down justified from the temple, rather than that Pharisee (See Lk 18:13-14). Tell, Lord, the cause. Behold I see the publican go down from the temple more justified than the Pharisee. I ask why. You ask why? Hear why. Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be exalted (See Lk 18:14). You have heard the sentence, beware the evil cause: I say another thing, You have heard the sentence, beware pride.

3. Let those now see, let them hear these things, I know not what men prattling impiously, and presuming on their own strength let them hear, who say: God made me a man, I make myself just. O worse and more detestable than the Pharisee! That Pharisee indeed proudly said he was just, but yet he gave God thanks for it. He said he was just; but yet he gave God thanks. Thanks to you, God, that I am not like the rest of men. Thanks to you, God: he gives thanks to God, that he is not like the rest of men: and yet he is reproved as proud and puffed up; not because he gave God thanks, but because, as it were, he desired nothing to be added to himself. Thanks to you, that I am not like the rest of men, the unjust. So you are just; so you ask nothing; so you are now full; so the human life on earth is not a temptation (See Job 7:1); so you are now full; so you now abound; so there is now no reason for you to say: Forgive us our debts (See Mt 6:12). What, then, is the one who impiously fights against grace, if the one who proudly gives thanks is reproved?

4. And behold, after the dispute spoken and the sentence pronounced, even little ones come forward, rather are brought and offered to be touched. To be touched by whom, except the physician? Surely the healthy: to whom are infants offered to be touched? To whom? To the Savior. If to the Savior, surely to be saved. To whom, except him who came to seek and to save what had perished (See Lk 19:10). Where had these perished? As far as pertains to themselves properly, I see them innocent, I seek the guilt. Whence? I hear the Apostle: Through one man sin entered the world. Through one, he says, man sin entered the world, and through sin death; and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned (See Rom 5:12). Let the little ones, then, come, let them come: let the Lord be heard: Let the little ones come to me (See Lk 18:16). Let the little ones come, the sick to the physician, let the lost come to the redeemer: let them come, let no one forbid. In the branch they have committed nothing yet: but in the root they have perished. Let the Lord bless the little with the great (See Ps 115:13 (113)): let the physician touch both little and great. We commend the cause of the little ones to the elders. Speak for those who are silent, pray for those who weep. If you are not in vain elders, be guardians: protect those who cannot yet plead their own cause. The perdition was common, let the finding be common: together we had perished, together let us be found in Christ. The merit is unequal, but the grace is common. They have nothing of evil, except what they drew from the fountain: they have nothing of evil, except what they drew from their origin. Let them not hinder from salvation those who have added much to what they drew. He who is greater in age, is greater also in iniquity. But the grace of God blots out what you drew, blots out also what you added. For where sin abounded, grace superabounded (See Rom 5:20).

1. The Lord appeared after the resurrection to his disciples, as you have heard, and greeted them, saying: Peace to you (See Lk 24:36). This is peace, and the salutation of salvation: for the salutation itself received its name from salvation. But what is better, than that salvation itself should greet a man? For our salvation is Christ. For he himself is our salvation, who was wounded for us, and fastened with nails to the wood; and, taken down from the wood, laid in the tomb. But from the tomb he rose, the wounds healed, the scars preserved. For he judged it expedient for his disciples that his scars be preserved, from which the wounds of the heart might be healed. What wounds? The wounds of unbelief. For he appeared to their eyes displaying true flesh: and they thought they saw a spirit. This is no light wound of the heart. Indeed, they made a malignant heresy who remained in that wound. But do we not think the disciples were wounded, because they were quickly healed? Let Your Charity consider, if they had remained in that wound, so as to think that the buried body had not risen, but a spirit in the image of a body had deceived human eyes: if they had remained in that faith, rather in that faithlessness, not their wounds, but their death would have to be lamented.

2. But what does the Lord Jesus say? Why are you troubled, and thoughts rise in your heart (See Lk 24:38)? If thoughts rise in your heart, the thoughts come from the earth. It is good for a man, not that a thought should rise in his heart, but that his heart itself should rise on high: where the Apostle wanted to set the hearts of believers, to whom he said: If you have risen with Christ, relish the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things on earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God: when Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory (See Col 3:1-4). In what glory? Of the resurrection. In what glory? Hear the Apostle saying of this body: It is sown in dishonor, it will rise in glory (See 1 Cor 15:43). This glory the Apostles refused to give to their Master, their Christ, their Lord: they did not believe that he could raise up his body from the tomb; they thought him a spirit, and saw flesh, and did not trust even their own eyes. And we believe them announcing it and not displaying it. Behold, they did not believe Christ himself displaying himself. An evil wound: let the medicines of the scars come forth. Why are you troubled, and thoughts rise in your heart? See my hands and my feet (See Lk 24:38-39), where I was fastened with nails. Touch and see. But you see, and do not see. Touch and see. What? That a Spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me have (See Lk 24:39). Saying this (so it was recited) he showed them his hands and feet (See Lk 24:40).

3. And while they still wavered and marveled for joy. Now there was joy, and still the wavering remained (See Lk 24:41). For an incredible thing had been done, but yet done. Is it now incredible, that the flesh of the Lord rose from the tomb? The whole world has believed this: he who did not believe remained unclean. Then, however, it was incredible: and it was persuaded not only to the eyes, but also to the hands, so that through the sense of the body faith might descend into the heart, and faith descending into the heart might be able to be preached through the world, to those not seeing or touching, and yet believing without doubt. Have you here, he says, anything to eat (See Lk 24:41)? How much does the good builder add to the building of faith? He was not hungry, and sought to eat. And he ate by power, not by necessity. Let the disciples, then, acknowledge the true body, which the world acknowledged at their preaching.

4. If perhaps there are some heretics, who still have in their heart that Christ displayed himself to the eyes, and Christ's flesh was not true; let them now lay that aside, let the Gospel persuade them. We rebuke them, because they relish this: he will condemn them, if they persevere in relishing this. Who are you, who do not believe that the body laid in the tomb could rise? If you are a Manichee? who do not even believe him crucified, because you do not even believe him born; you preach that he displayed all things false. He displayed false things, and you tell the truth? You do not lie with the mouth; but did he lie with the body? Behold, you judge that what was not appeared to the eyes; that it was a spirit, not flesh. Hear him: he loves you, lest he condemn you. Hear him saying: behold, he says to you, unhappy one; he speaks to you: Why are you troubled, and thoughts rise in your heart? See, he says, my hands and my feet. Touch and see, because a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me have. The Truth said these things, and deceived? It was a body, it was flesh; what had been buried appeared. Let doubt perish, let worthy praise follow.
So he showed himself to the disciples. What is, himself? The head of his Church. The Church to come throughout the world was foreseen by him, was not yet seen by the disciples. He showed the head, he promised the body. For what did he go on to add? These are the words that I spoke to you, while I was still with you (See Lk 24:44). What is this, while I was still with you? Was he not then with them, when he was speaking with them? What is, while I was still with you? With you mortal, which I now am not. I was with you, when I was about to die. What is, with you? With those about to die, myself about to die. Now no longer with you: because with those about to die never again about to die. This, then, I was saying to you. What?

5. That all things must be fulfilled, which are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms about me (See Lk 24:44). I told you, that all things must be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding. Come, then, Lord, make keys, open, that we may understand. Behold, you say everything, and you are not believed. You are thought a spirit; you are touched, struck, and still those who touch you waver. You admonish from the Scriptures, and still they do not understand. The hearts are shut, open, and enter. He did it: Then he opened their understanding (See Lk 24:45). Open, Lord, and to the one doubting about Christ open the heart. Open the understanding of the one who believes Christ to have been a phantasm. Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them. What? That so it must be. That so it is written, and so it must be. What? That Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day (See Lk 24:46). They saw this; they saw him suffering, they saw him hanging, they saw him present after the resurrection, living. What, then, did they not see? The body, that is, the Church. They saw him, they did not see her. They saw the bridegroom, the bride still lay hidden. Let him promise her too. So it is written, and so it must be that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day. This is the bridegroom.

6. What of the bride? And that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (See Lk 24:47). This the disciples did not yet see: the Church through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, they did not yet see. They saw the head: and from the head they believed the body. By that which they saw, they believed what they did not see. We too are like them: we see something which they did not see; and we do not see something which they saw. What do we see, which they did not see? The Church through all nations. What do we not see, which they saw? Christ set in the flesh. As they saw him, and believed of the body: so we see the body, let us believe of the head. Let our things seen help one another. Christ seen helped them, that they might believe the Church to come: the Church seen helps us, that we may believe Christ to have risen. Their faith was fulfilled, ours too is fulfilled: theirs was fulfilled about the head, ours is fulfilled about the body. The whole Christ became known both to them and to us: but the whole was not seen by them, nor was the whole seen by us. By them the head was seen, the body believed: by us the body is seen, the head believed. Yet to no one is Christ lacking: in all he is full, and still the body remains to him. They believed, through them many of Jerusalem believed; Judea believed, Samaria believed. Let the members come, let the building come to the foundation. For no one can lay a foundation, the Apostle says, other than the one that is laid, which is Christ Jesus (See 1 Cor 3:11). Let the Jews rage, let them be filled with zeal: let Stephen be stoned, let Saul keep the garments of those stoning, Saul the future apostle Paul. Let Stephen be killed, let the Jerusalem Church be disturbed (See Acts 7:58; 8:1): let the burning timbers depart from there, let them come and kindle. For the timbers in a way were burning in the Jerusalem Church with the Holy Spirit, when they had toward God one soul, and one heart (See Acts 4:32). With Stephen stoned that heap suffered persecution: the timbers were scattered, and the world was kindled.

7. In short, following these things, that raging Saul received letters from the chief priests, and began to go raging, breathing slaughter, thirsting for blood, that from wherever he could, whomever he could he might drag bound, snatch to punishment, sate himself with shed blood (See Acts 9:1-2). But where is God, where is Christ, where the crowner of Stephen? Where, except in heaven? Let him see Saul too, let him mock the raging one, let him cry from heaven: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (See Acts 9:4)? I am in heaven, you on earth; and yet you persecute me. You do not touch the head, but you trample my members. But what do you do? what do you accomplish? It is hard for you to kick against the goad (See Acts 9:5). However much you kick, you torment yourself. Lay aside, then, the fury, take health. Lay aside evil counsel, seek good help. By that voice he was laid low. Who was laid low? The persecutor. Behold, he was conquered by one voice. Why were you going? why were you raging? Those you sought, now you follow: those you persecuted, now for them you suffer persecution. The persecutor who was laid low rises a preacher. He heard the Lord's voice. He was blinded, but in body, that he might be enlightened in heart. Led to Ananias, catechized about many things, baptized, he came forth an apostle (See Acts 9:8-18). Speak, preach: preach Christ, disseminate, O good ram, lately a wolf. See him, attend to him, who was raging: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (See Gal 6:14). Pour out the Gospel: what you conceived in the heart, disseminate by mouth. Let the nations hear, let the nations believe: let the nations sprout, let the bride for the Lord be born, purpled, from the blood of the martyrs. And from her how many came? how many members clung to the head, and cling now, and believe? And these were baptized, and others will be baptized, and after us others will come. Then, I say, at the end of the age the stones will come to the foundation, living stones, holy stones, that at the end the whole building may be built up by that Church; rather, by this very Church, which now sings a new song, while the house is being built. For so the Psalm itself has it: When the house was being built after the captivity. And what? Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth (See Ps 96:1 (95)). How great a house! But when does it sing the new song? When it is being built. When is it dedicated? At the end of the age. Its foundation is already dedicated: because he ascended into heaven, and dies not. When we too have risen, to die no more, then we shall be dedicated.

1. The passage of the Gospel that was read, dearly beloved brothers, requires a pure eye of the heart. For we have received our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his divinity for the founding of all creation, according to his humanity for the restoring of fallen creation, with John evangelizing. But in that very Gospel we find what kind and how great a man John was, that from the dignity of the dispenser may be understood of how great a price is the Word, which could be spoken through such a one; rather, how of no price is that which surpasses all things. For by a price either a salable thing is bought, or is set below it, or exceeds it. When anyone buys a thing for as much as it is worth, the price is made equal to the thing that is bought; when for less, it is set below it; when for more, it exceeds it. But to the Word of God nothing can be made equal, nor be set below it for exchange, nor anything set above it. For all things can be set below the Word of God, because all things were made through him (See Jn 1:3); yet they are not set below it as though they were the price of the Word, that anyone might give something, to receive it. Yet if it can be said, and some reasoning or custom of speaking admits this name, the price for buying the Word is the buyer himself, who gives himself for himself to this Word. And so when we buy something, we seek something to give, that we may have the thing we want to buy, the price given. And what we give is outside us; and if it was with us, that which we give becomes outside us, that what we buy may be with us. Whatever price he who buys something finds, he must find such a thing, that he gives what he has, and receives what he does not have; yet let the one from whom the price departs remain, and let that come to him for which he gives the price. But he who wants to buy this Word, who wants to have it, let him not seek outside himself what to give, let him give himself. And when he has done this, he does not lose himself, as he loses the price, when he buys something.

2. The Word of God, then, is set before all: let them buy who can; and those can who devoutly will. For in that Word is peace: And peace on earth to men of good will (See Lk 2:14). Therefore let him who wants to buy give himself. This is, as it were, the price of the Word, if it can in any way be said, when the one who gives does not lose himself, and acquires the Word for which he gives himself, and acquires himself in the Word to which he gives himself. And what does he give to the Word? Not something alien to it, for which he gives himself; but what was made through the Word itself, this is rendered to it to be remade. All things were made through him (See Jn 1:3). If all things, surely man too. If heaven, if earth, if sea, if all that is in them, if the whole creation; surely he more manifestly, who, made in the image of God, was made man through the Word.
We do not now treat, brothers, how what was said can be understood: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (See Jn 1:1). It can be understood ineffably; it is not by the words of man that it comes to be understood. We treat the Word of God, and say why it is not understood. We do not now say it that it may be understood, but we say what hinders it from being understood. For it is a certain form, a form not formed, but the form of all formed things; an unchangeable form, without fall, without defect, without time, without place, surpassing all things, being to all both a certain foundation in which they are, and a summit under which they are. If you say that all things are in it, you do not lie. For that very Word was called the Wisdom of God; and we have it written: You made all things in Wisdom (See Ps 104:24 (103)). Therefore in it are all things; and yet, because it is God, under it are all things. We say how incomprehensible is what was read; yet it was read, not that it might be comprehended by man, but that man might grieve because he does not comprehend, and find from what he is hindered from comprehending, and remove those things, and long for the perception of the unchangeable Word, himself changed from worse to better. For the Word does not make progress or grow, with a knower coming to it; but it is whole, if you remain; whole, if you depart; whole, when you return; remaining in itself, and renewing all things. So it is the form of all things, an unfashioned form, without time, as we said, and without spaces of places. For whatever is contained in place is circumscribed. A form is circumscribed by bounds, it has limits from where and to where it is. Then what is contained in place and stretched out by a certain mass and space is less in part, than in the whole. May God make you understand.

3. But daily, from the bodies that are before our eyes, which we see, which we touch, among which we are, we can judge that any body in place has a form. But everything that occupies a space of place is less in part than in the whole. A part of the human body, for example, the arm; surely the arm is less than the whole body. And if the arm is less, it occupies a smaller place. Likewise the head, because it is a part of the body, is in a smaller place, and the head is less than the whole body. So all things that are in place are smaller in part than in the whole. Let us feel nothing such about that Word, let us think nothing such. Let us not imagine spiritual things from the suggestion of the flesh. That speech, that God, is not less in part than in the whole.
But you cannot think anything such. Such ignorance is more devout than presumed knowledge. For we speak of God. It was said: And the Word was God (See Jn 1:1). We speak of God, what wonder if you do not comprehend? For if you comprehend, it is not God. Let there be a devout confession of ignorance rather than a rash profession of knowledge. To touch God somewhat with the mind is a great blessedness; but to comprehend him is altogether impossible. To the mind God pertains, he is to be understood; to the eyes body, it is to be seen. But do you think you comprehend a body with the eye? You cannot at all. For whatever you look at, you do not look at the whole. Whose man's face you see, you do not see his back, at the time you see his face; and when you see his back, at that time you do not see his face. So you do not so see, as to comprehend; but when you look at another part, which you had not seen, unless memory works with you to remember that you had seen what you depart from, you would never say you had comprehended anything even on the surface. You handle what you see, you turn it this way and that, or you yourself go round it to see the whole. So by one look you cannot see the whole. And as long as you turn it to see, you see parts; and by joining together that you saw the other parts, you seem to inspect the whole. But here it is not the sight of the eyes, but the liveliness of memory, that is understood. What, then, can be said of that Word, brothers? Behold, we speak of bodies subject to our eyes, they cannot be comprehended by a look; what eye of the heart, then, comprehends God? It suffices that it touch him, if the eye is pure. But if it touches, it touches with a certain incorporeal and spiritual touch, yet does not comprehend; and this, if it is pure. And a man becomes blessed by touching with the heart that which always remains blessed; and that is perpetual blessedness itself, and from it a man becomes living, perpetual life; from it a man becomes wise, perfect wisdom; from it a man becomes enlightened, it is everlasting light. And see how you, by touching, are made what you were not, while you do not make that which you touch to be what it was not. This I say: God does not grow from the knower, but the knower from the knowledge of God.

4. Let us not think, dearly beloved brothers, that we bestow a benefit on God, because we said that we give a price in a way. For we do not give him anything by which he may be increased, who is both whole when you fall, and remains whole when you return, ready to be seen so as to make blessed those converted, and to punish with blindness those turned away. For he avenges first in the soul turned away from him, by the beginning of penalties, by blindness itself. For he who turns himself from the true light, that is, from God, is at once made blind. He does not yet feel the punishment, but he already has it.
And so, dearly beloved brothers, let us understand the Word of God to be born incorporeally, inviolably, unchangeably, without temporal birth, yet born from God. Do we think we can in any way persuade certain unbelievers that what is said by us as the Catholic faith—which is contrary to the Arians, by whom the Church of God has often been tempted—does not shrink from the truth, when carnal men more easily accept what they are accustomed to see? For some have dared to say: The Father is greater than the Son, and precedes him in time; that is, the Father is greater than the Son, and the Son is less than the Father, and is preceded by the Father in time. And so they argue: If he was born, surely the Father was before the Son was born to him. Attend; let him be present to us, with your prayers helping, and with us desiring with devout intent to take in what he grants, what he suggests; let him be present to us, that we may be able in some way to explain what we have begun. Yet, brothers, I say beforehand, if I cannot explain it, do not think that reason has failed, but the man. And so I exhort and beseech you to pray; let the mercy of God be present, and make the matter to be so said by us, as you ought to hear and we to say. This, then, they say: If he is the Son of God, he was born. This we confess. For he would not be the Son, if he were not born. It is manifest, faith admits it, the Catholic Church approves it, it is true. They add then: If the Son was born to the Father, the Father was before the Son was born to him. This faith spits out, Catholic ears spit it out; he who relishes this is anathematized, is outside, does not belong to the participation and fellowship of the saints. Therefore, he says, give me a reason, how the Son could both be born to the Father, and be coeval with him from whom he was born?

5. And what do we do, brothers, when we suggest spiritual things to carnal men—if indeed we ourselves too are not carnal—when we convey these spiritual things to carnal men, to a man accustomed to earthly birth, and seeing the order of this creation, where there is succession and decease, where he distinguishes begetters and begotten by age? For after the father the son is born, surely to succeed his father who is to die. This we find in men, this in other living things, parents earlier in time, sons later in time. By this custom of seeing, they desire to transfer carnal things to spiritual things, and by attention to carnal things are the more easily seduced. For the reason of the hearers does not follow those who preach such things, but the custom, which also loosed those very men, so that they preached such things. And what do we do? Shall we be silent? Would that it were allowed! For perhaps by being silent something worthy might be thought of the ineffable thing. For whatever can be spoken is not ineffable. But God is ineffable. For if the apostle Paul says he was caught up to the third heaven, and says he heard ineffable words (See 2 Cor 12:2-4); how much more is he himself ineffable, who showed such things, which he to whom they were shown cannot speak? And so, brothers, it would be better if we could be silent, and say: This faith has, so we believe; you cannot grasp it, you are a little one; it must be patiently borne, until you nourish your wings; lest, when you want to fly unfledged, it be not the breeze of liberty, but the fall of rashness. What says he in reply? O if he had what to say, he would say it to me! For the one who fails this is an excuse. He is conquered by truths, who does not want to answer. The one to whom this is said, if he does not answer, even if in himself he is not conquered, yet he is conquered among the wavering brothers. For weak brothers hear, and think there really is nothing to be said; and perhaps they think it true, that there is nothing to be said, yet not that there is nothing to be felt. For a man can say nothing that he cannot also feel; he can also feel something that he cannot say.
Yet, the ineffability of that majesty being preserved, lest, when we have given some likenesses against them, anyone think that by these likenesses we have already arrived at that which can neither be said nor thought by little ones (surely even if it can by some greater ones, it can in part, it can in a riddle, it can through a mirror; but not yet face to face); let us too give some likenesses against them, by which they may be refuted, not by which it may be grasped. For when we say that it can very well be, can be understood, that he was both born and coeternal with him from whom he was born, in order to refute this and show it as though false, they give us likenesses. From where? From the creature, and they say to us: A man surely existed before he begot a son, he is greater than his son; and a horse existed before it begot its offspring, and a sheep, and the other animals. They apply likenesses from creatures.

6. What, must we labor, that we too may find likenesses of the things we assert? What? If I did not find any, could I not rightly say: The birth of the Creator perhaps has no likeness in the creature? For as much as he surpasses, in what is there, the things that are here, so much does he surpass, in what is born there, the things that are born here. All things are here through God; and what yet is to be compared to God? So all things that are born here, are born with him bringing it about. And so perhaps no likeness of his birth is found, just as no likeness is found of his substance, and his immutability, divinity, his majesty. For what like can be found here? If, then, perhaps not even a likeness of his birth is found, am I therefore oppressed, because I did not find likenesses for the Creator of all, desiring to find in the creature what was like the Creator?
And truly, brothers, I shall not find temporal likenesses, which I can compare to eternity. But even those you have found, what are they? For what have you found? That the father is greater in time than the son; and therefore you want the Son of God to be less in time than the eternal Father, because you found the son less than the temporal father. Give me an eternal father here, and you have found a likeness. You find the son less than the father in time, the temporal son less than the temporal father. Have you found me a temporal son less than the eternal Father?

7. Since, then, in eternity there is stability, but in time variety; in eternity all things stand, in time some come, some succeed; you can find a son less in the variety of time succeeding his father, because he himself too succeeded his father, the temporal son the not-eternal father. What, then, can we, my brothers, find in the creature coeternal, when in the creature we find nothing eternal? Find an eternal father in the creature, and I find a coeternal son. But if you do not find an eternal one, and they conquer themselves in time; it suffices that for a likeness we find a coeval one. For one thing is coeternal, another coeval. We daily call coeval those who have the same measure of times; not one preceded by the other in time, yet both began to be, whom we call coeval. If we can find something coeval that is born to that from which it is born; if there can be found a coeval begetter and begotten; here we find coeval things, there let us understand coeternal things. If here I find the begotten to have begun to be from that from which the begetter began, surely we understand that the Son of God did not begin to be from that from which the begetter did not begin. Behold, perhaps, brothers, we find something in the creature, which is born from another thing, and yet begins to be from that time from which began that from which it is born. This is from that from which that began, that from that from which that did not begin. This, then, is coeval, that coeternal.

8. I judge Your Holiness has already understood what I say, that temporal things cannot be compared to eternal; but that coeval things can, by some thin and small likeness, be compared to coeternal things. And so let us find coeval things, and be admonished by the Scriptures to these likenesses. We read in the Scriptures of Wisdom itself: For it is the brightness of eternal light (See Wis 7:26). Likewise we read: A mirror without stain of God's majesty (See Wis 7:26). Wisdom itself was called the brightness of eternal light, was called the image of the Father; hence let us take a likeness, that we may find coeval things, from which we may understand coeternal things. O Arian, if I find that the begetter does not precede in time that which it begot, that the begotten is not less in time than that from which it was begotten; it is just that you grant me that these coeternal things can be found in the Creator, when coeval things could be found in the creature. Now indeed I think this occurs to some brothers. For some anticipated me from the time I said: For it is the brightness of eternal light. For fire pours out light, light is poured out from fire. If we ask what exists from what, daily when we light a lamp, we are admonished of a certain invisible and inexpressible thing, that some lamp of our understanding may be able to be lit in this night of the age. Attend to him who lights the lamp. The lamp not lit, there is not yet fire, there is not yet the brightness that goes out from the fire. But I ask, and say: Does the brightness exist from the fire, or the fire from the brightness? Every soul answers me: for God willed to sow in every soul the beginnings of understanding, the beginnings of wisdom; every soul answers me, and no one doubts, that that splendor exists from the fire, not the fire from the splendor. Let us set, then, the fire as the father of that splendor; because we have already said in advance that we seek coeval things, not coeternal. If I want to light a lamp, there is not yet fire there, not yet that splendor; but as soon as I have lit it, together with the fire the splendor too exists. Give me here fire without splendor, and I believe you that the Father was without the Son.

9. Attend: so great a thing has been said by us as we could, with the Lord helping the intent of your prayer and the preparation of your heart, you have received as much as you could grasp. Yet those things are ineffable. Think nothing worthy was said, even in that very point by which coeval things are compared to coeternal, temporal to ever-abiding, extinguishable to immortal. But because the Son was called the image of the Father, let us take from here too some likeness in things far differing, as we said in advance. An image exists from a mirror of a man gazing at the mirror. It cannot serve us for the evidence of this matter, which we somehow try to explain. For it is said to me: He who attends to the mirror, surely already existed, and was already born. The image exists as soon as the gazer has come to exist. For he who looks existed even before he came to the mirror. What, then, shall we find, from which we can dig out such a likeness, as we dug out from fire and splendor? Let us begin from the smallest thing. You easily know how water often returns the images of bodies. This we say: When anyone either passes over water or stands, he sees there his image. Let us set, then, something born over water, like a shoot or grass, is it not born with its image? As soon as it begins to exist, its image begins to exist with it, it does not precede its image in being born; it is not shown me that something was born over water, and afterward its image appeared, while that first appeared without an image; but it is born with its image; and yet the image is from it, not it from the image. It is born, then, with its image, and the shoot and its image begin to be together. Do you not confess that the image is from that shoot, not the shoot begotten from the image? Therefore from that shoot you confess the image. And so both the begetter, and what is begotten, began to be together. Therefore they are coeval. If the shoot is always, the image too is always from the shoot. But what is from another, surely is born. Therefore the begetter can always be, and always with him what is born from him. For there we boiled over, there we labored, how the everlasting birth might be understood. Therefore the Son of God is so called by that by which the Father too is, that he has one from whom he is; not by this, that the Father was first, and afterward the Son. Always the Father, always the Son from the Father. And because whatever is from another is born; always therefore the Son born. Always the Father, always the image from him; just as that image of the shoot was born from the shoot, and if the shoot is always, the image too would always be born from the shoot. You could not find coeternal things begotten to eternal begetters, and you found coeval things born to temporal begetters. I understand the coeternal Son born to the eternal begetter. For what is coeval to the temporal, this is coeternal to the eternal.

10. Here now there is a little thing for you to note, brothers, on account of blasphemies. For it is always said: Behold, you have given likenesses; but the splendor that is poured out from fire shines less than the fire itself; and the image of the shoot surely has less of the proper quality, than the shoot from which the image is. These things have a likeness, but do not have a likeness in every way; therefore they do not seem to be of the same substance. What, then, shall we say, if someone says: Such, then, is the Son to the Father, as the splendor to the fire, and the image to the shoot? Behold, I have understood the eternal Father, I have understood the coeternal Son—yet do we say, like the poured-out splendor shining less than the fire, or like the poured-out image existing less than the shoot? No: but the equality is in every way. I do not believe it, he says, because you have not found a likeness. But believe the Apostle, because he could see what I said. For he says: He did not count it robbery to be equal to God (See Phil 2:6). Equality is joined in every way. And what did he say? Not robbery. Why? Because that is robbery, which is another's.
Yet from these two comparisons and two kinds, we have perhaps found a likeness in the creature, by which we may understand the Son both coeternal with the Father and in no way less. But we cannot find that in one kind of likenesses; let us join both kinds. How both kinds? One from which they themselves give likenesses, and the other from which we have given them. For they gave likenesses from those things which are born in time, and are preceded in time by those from which they are born, as man from man. The one greater in time first born; but yet man and man, that is, of the same substance. For man begets man, and horse a horse, and beast a beast. They beget unto the same substance, but not unto the same time. They are diverse in time, but are not diverse in nature. What, then, do we praise here in that birth? Surely equality of nature. But what is lacking? Equality of time. Let us hold here the one thing that is praised, that is, equality of nature. But in that kind of likenesses, which we gave from the splendor of fire and from the image of the shoot, you do not find equality of nature, you find coevality. What do we praise here? Coevality. What is lacking? Equality of nature. Join the things you praise. For in creatures something you praise is lacking, in the Creator nothing can be lacking; because what you find in the creature proceeded from the Creator the maker. What, then, in coeval things? Should not this which you praise there be given to God? But what is lacking is not to be attributed to the majesty, in which there is no defect. Behold, I offer you coeval begetters with begotten; you praise coevality there, but you blame the inequality. What you blame, do not attribute to God; what you praise, attribute it; and you attribute to him from that kind of likenesses, for coevality, coeternity, that he is coeternal who is born with him from whom he is born. But from the other kind of likenesses, which is itself too a creature of God, and ought to praise the Creator, what do you praise there? Equality of nature. Now on account of that distinction you had given coeternity; give on account of this, equality; and the birth of the same substance is perfect. For what is more demented, my brothers, than that I should praise in the creature something that is not in the Creator? I praise in man equality of nature, and do not believe it in him who made man? What is born of man is man; and what is born of God, will it not be that which he is from whom it is born? I do not dwell on works that God did not make. Let all his works, then, praise the Creator. I find here coeval, I recognize there coeternal. Here I find equality of nature, there I understand equality of substance. The whole, then, is there which here is found in single parts and single things. The whole, then, is there together, and not only this which is in creatures; the whole I find there, but as in the Creator, by so much the greater, in that these are visible, those invisible; these temporal, those eternal; these changeable, those unchangeable; these corruptible, those incorruptible. In short, in man himself those which we find, man and man, are two men; there the Father and the Son are one God.
To the Lord our God I give inexpressible thanks, that from this most scrupulous and most laborious place he has deigned to free my weakness, at your asking. Before all things yet keep this, that whatever we could gather from the creature, either by sense of body, or by thought of mind, the Creator inexpressibly transcends. But do you want to touch him with the mind? Purge the mind, purge your heart. Make clean the eye, by which that, whatever it is, may be touched. Make clean the eye of the heart: For blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God (See Mt 5:8). But for the unclean heart, what more mercifully could be procured or granted by him, than that that Word, of which we have said so many and so great things, and said nothing worthy; than that that Word, through which all things were made, should become what we are, that we might be able to touch that which we are not? For we are not God; but we can with the mind, or the inner sharpness of the heart, see God. Our sharpnesses, worn down by sins, blunted, cast down by weakness, desire to see; but we are in hope, in the reality we are not yet. We are sons of God. This John says, who says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (See Jn 1:1); who reclined upon the breast of the Lord, who drew these secrets from the bosom of that heart; he himself says: Most beloved, we are sons of God; and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that when it appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (See 1 Jn 3:2). This is promised us.
But that we may arrive, if we cannot yet see the Word God, let us hear the Word flesh; because we have been made carnal, let us hear the Word made flesh. For therefore he came, therefore he took on our weakness, that you might be able to grasp the firm speech of God bearing your weakness. And it is rightly called milk. For he gives milk to little ones, that he may give the food of wisdom to the greater. Suckle patiently, that you may be eagerly fed. For how does milk too come to be, by which infants are suckled? Was it not food on the table? But the infant is unfit to eat the food that is on the table; what does the mother do? She incarnates the food, and makes milk from it. She makes for us what we can grasp. So the Word was made flesh, that we little ones might be nourished by milk, who were indeed infants for food. But there is this difference, that when the mother makes the incarnated food into milk, the food is turned into milk; but the Word, remaining unchangeably, took on flesh, that it might be in a way interwoven. What it is, it did not corrupt, did not change, that through your condition it might speak to you, not transmuted and converted into man. For inconvertible and unchangeable, and remaining altogether inviolable, it was made what you are to you, what it itself is to the Father.
For he himself, to the weak, what does he say, that they may, that sight recovered, touch from some part the Word, through which all things were made? Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (See Mt 11:28-29). What does the master, the Son of God, the Wisdom of God, through whom all things were made, proclaim? He calls the human race, and says: Come to me, all you who labor, and learn from me. You thought perhaps the Wisdom of God would say: Learn how I made the heavens and the stars; all things too in me, before they were made, were numbered; how in the power of unchangeable reasons even your hairs are numbered (See Mt 10:30). Did you think these and such things she would say? No. But first that: For I am gentle and humble of heart. Behold what you may grasp, see, brothers, surely it is small. We stretch toward great things, let us grasp small things, and we shall be great. Do you want to grasp the loftiness of God? Grasp first the humility of God. Deign to be humble for your own sake, because God deigned to be humble for that same you; for not for his own sake. Grasp, then, the humility of Christ, learn to be humble, do not be proud. Confess your weakness, lie patiently before the physician. When you have grasped his humility, you rise with him; not as though he too rises insofar as he is the Word; but you rather, that more and more he may be grasped by you. You understood at first waveringly and hesitatingly; you understand afterward more certainly and clearly. He does not grow, but you make progress, and as it were he seems to rise with you. So it is, brothers. Believe the precepts of God, and do them, and he will grant you the strength of understanding. Do not presume, and as it were set knowledge before the precept of God; lest you remain lower, not more solid. Attend to the tree; it seeks the depths first, that it may grow up high; it fixes its root in the lowly, that it may stretch its top to heaven. Does it strive except from lowliness? But you, without love, want to comprehend lofty things; without a root you seek the breezes? That is a fall, not an increase. With Christ dwelling by faith in your hearts, be rooted and founded in love, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God (See Eph 3:17-19).

1. All you who seek the many words of man, understand the one Word of God: In the beginning was the Word. But in the beginning God made heaven and earth (See Gen 1:1). But the Word was, when we heard: In the beginning God made. Let us acknowledge the Creator; for he is the Creator who made, but the creature what he made. For the creature that was made was not, as the Word God always was, through whom it was made. But when we heard: The Word was, with whom was it? We understand the Father, who did not make, nor create that same Word, but begot it. For in the beginning God made heaven and earth. Through what did he make them? The Word was, and the Word was with God; but what kind of Word? Did it sound and pass away? Was it thought and turned over? No. Was it remembered, and uttered? No. What kind of Word, then? Why do you ask me many things? God was the Word. When we hear: God was the Word, we do not double God; but we understand the Son. For the Son is the Word of God. Behold the Son, and what except God? For God was the Word. What of the Father? Surely God. If the Father is God, and the Son is God, do we double God? Far be it! The Father is God, the Son is God; but the Father and the Son are one God. For the Only-begotten was not made, but born. In the beginning God made heaven and earth; but the Word was from the Father. Was the Word, then, made by the Father? No. All things were made through him (See Jn 1:3). If all things were made through him, was he too perhaps made through himself? Through whom you hear all things were made, do not think him made among all things. For if he too was made, all things were not made through him, but he himself was made among the rest. You say: He was made; surely through himself? Who is it who makes himself? If, then, he was made, how were all things made through him? Behold, he himself too was made, as you say, not I, because I do not deny him begotten. If, then, you say he was made, I ask through what, I ask through whom. Through himself? Then he was, before he came to be, to make himself. But if all things were made through him, understand that he himself was not made. If you cannot understand, believe that you may understand. Faith precedes, understanding follows; since the Prophet says: Unless you believe, you will not understand (See Isa 7:9). The Word was. Do not, then, seek time for him, through whom times were made. The Word was. But you say: At some time the Word was not. You lie, nowhere do you read it. But I read to you: In the beginning was the Word. Why do you seek before the beginning? But if you can find anything before the beginning, that itself will be the beginning. He is mad who seeks anything before the beginning. What, then, says he was before the beginning? In the beginning was the Word.

2. But you say: And the Father was; and before the Word? What do you seek? In the beginning was the Word. What you find, understand; do not seek what you cannot find. There is nothing before the beginning. In the beginning was the Word. The Son is the splendor of the Father. Of the Wisdom of the Father, which is the Son, it was said: For it is the brightness of eternal light (See Wis 7:26). Do you seek the Son without the Father? Give me light without brightness. If at some time the Son was not, the Father was a dark light. For how was the light not dark, if it had no brightness? Therefore always the Father, always the Son. If always the Father, always the Son. Do you ask me whether the Son was born? I answer: Born. For he would not be the Son, if not born. But when I say: Always the Son; I say this: Always he is born. And who understands: Always he is born? Give me everlasting fire, and I give you everlasting splendor. Let us bless God, who gave us the Sacred Scriptures. In the splendor of light do not be blind. Brightness is begotten from light, and yet the brightness is coeternal with the begetter. Always the light, always its brightness. It begot its brightness; but was it ever without its brightness? Let it be allowed to God to beget everlastingly. I ask, hear of whom we speak; hear, attend, believe, understand. We speak of God. We confess and believe the Son coeternal with the Father. But man, he says, when he begets a son, the one who begets is greater, and the one who is begotten is less. Behold, it is true; in men the one who begets is greater, and the one who is begotten is less, and he comes to the strength of his father. But why, except because, while the one grows, the other grows old? Let the father stand still in time, and by growing the son follows him, and you will see him equal. But behold, I give you from which to understand. Fire begets a coeval splendor. You do not find in men except lesser sons, greater fathers; you do not find coeval ones; but I give you, as I said, a splendor coeval with the fire its father. For fire begets splendor, but never without splendor. Since, then, you see splendor to be coeval with fire, allow God to beget a coeternal one. Let him who understands rejoice; but let him who does not understand believe. For the word of the Prophet cannot be made void: Unless you believe, you will not understand (See Isa 7:9).

1. That our Lord Jesus Christ was made man by seeking lost man, our preaching has never kept silent, and your faith has always held; but that this Lord of ours, who was made man for our sake, was always God with the Father, and will always be, rather always is; because where time does not pass, there is no: He was, and: He will be. For what is said: He was, now is not; what is said: He will be, is not yet; but always he is, because he truly is, that is, he is unchangeable. Just now the gospel passage admonished us, a great and divine secret. For this beginning of the Gospel holy John belched forth, because he drank from the breast of the Lord. For recall, and it was read to you very recently, how that same holy John the Evangelist reclined on the bosom of the Lord. Wishing to expound this openly, he said: Upon the breast of the Lord (See Jn 13:23); that we might understand what he meant by, on the bosom of the Lord. For he who reclined upon the breast of the Lord, what do we think he drank? Let us not think, but let us drink; for now we too have heard what we may drink.

2. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (See Jn 1:1). O what preaching! O the belching forth of the fat of the Lord's breast! In the beginning was the Word. Why do you seek what was before? In the beginning was the Word. If the Word had been made (for he is not made through whom all things were made); if the Word had been made, Scripture would say: In the beginning God made the Word; as it said in Genesis: In the beginning God made heaven and earth (See Gen 1:1). Therefore in the beginning God did not make the Word, because in the beginning was the Word. This Word that was in the beginning, where was it? Follow: And the Word was with God. But we are wont, hearing human words daily, to hold cheap this name of Word. Here do not hold cheap the name of the Word: God was the Word. This, that is, the Word, was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him nothing was made (See Jn 1:2-3).

3. Stretch out your hearts, help the poverty of our sermon. What I am able to say, hear; what I am not able to, think. Who comprehends the abiding Word? All our words sound and pass away. Who comprehends the abiding Word, except him who abides in it? Do you want to comprehend the abiding Word? Do not follow the river of the flesh. For this flesh is a river; for it does not abide. As from a certain hidden fount of nature, men are born, men live, men die; and we do not know whence they come, nor know whither they go. The water lies hidden, until it comes forth from the fount; it runs and appears in the river; but again it lies hidden in the sea. Let us despise this river, flowing, running, ceasing, let us despise it. All flesh is grass, and all the honor of the flesh like the flower of grass. The grass withered, the flower fell. Do you want to abide? But the Word of the Lord abides forever (See Isa 40:6-8; 1 Pet 1:24-25).

4. But that he might help us: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14). What is: The Word was made flesh? The gold was made grass. The grass was made to be kindled; the grass was kindled, but the gold remained; and in the grass it did not perish, and it changed the grass. How did it change it? It raised it up, gave it life, lifted it to heaven, placed it at the Father's right hand. But that it might be said: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, let us recall a little what went before. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God. To become, because they were not; but he was in the beginning. He gave, then, them power to become sons of God, to those believing in his name; who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (See Jn 1:11-13). Behold they are, in whatever age of the flesh they may be; you see the infants; see and rejoice. Behold they are: but they were born of God. The womb of the mother, the water of Baptism.

5. Let no one with a poor little soul feel, and turn over within himself most beggarly thoughts, and say to himself: How was it in the beginning the Word, and the Word with God, and the Word was God; all things were made through him; and behold the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us? Hear from what it was made. Surely to those believing in his name he gave power to become sons of God. Nor let those themselves to whom he gave power to become sons of God think it impossible to become sons of God. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Do not think it too much for you, to become sons of God; for your sake the Son of man was made, who was the Son of God. If he himself was made, that he might be less who was more; can he not make from that by which we were less, that we may be able to be something more? He came down to us, and shall we not ascend to him? He took on for us our death, and will he not give us his life? He suffered on your account your evils, and will he not give you his goods?

6. But how, he says, could it come about that the Word of God, by which the world is governed, through which all things both were created and are created, confined himself in the flesh of a Virgin; left the world, and forsook the angels, and was shut up in the womb of one woman? You do not know how to think divine things. The Word of God (I speak to you, O man, of the omnipotence of the Word of God I speak to you) was able to do absolutely the whole, because the Word of God is both omnipotent, and could both remain with the Father, and come to us; and proceed in the flesh to us, and lie hidden with him. For not, if he had not been born of flesh, would he not be. He was before his flesh; he himself created his mother. He chose her in whom he might be conceived, he created her of whom he might be created. Why do you wonder? I speak to you of God: God was the Word (See Jn 1:1).

7. I am dealing with something of the Word, and the human word perhaps can do something similar; though far unequal, far distinct, in no particle to be compared, yet to be conveyed to you by some likeness. Behold, the word I speak to you, I first had in my heart; it came forth to you, nor did it depart from me; it began to be in you, what was not in you; it remained with me, when it went out to you. Just as, then, my word was put forth to your sense, nor did it depart from my heart; so that Word was put forth to our sense, nor did it depart from its Father. My word was with me, and went forth into voice: the Word of God was with the Father, and went forth into flesh. But can I do with my voice, what he could with his flesh? For I cannot hold my flying voice; he not only held his flesh, that it might be born, live, act; but even raised it up dead, and lifted to the Father a certain vehicle in which he came forth to us. You may call the flesh of Christ a garment, you may call it a vehicle, and, in the way he himself perhaps deigned to signify it, you may call it his mount; because on that mount he lifted up the one who had been wounded by robbers (See Lk 10:34); in short, what he himself said more openly, you may call it a temple (See Jn 2:19-21); this temple now knows death, sits at the right hand of the Father; in that temple he is to come to judge the living and the dead. What he admonished us by precept, he showed by example. What he showed in his flesh, this you ought to hope for in your flesh. This is faith, hold what you do not yet see. There is need that you remain, by believing, in that which you do not see; lest, when you see, you blush.

1. The beginning of John's Gospel: In the beginning was the Word (See Jn 1:1). So he began, this he saw, and transcending the whole creation, the mountains, the airs, the heavens, the stars, the Seats, Dominations, Principalities, Powers, all the Angels, all the Archangels, transcending all things, in the beginning he saw the Word, and drank. Above all creation he saw, from the breast of the Lord he drank. For he is John the holy evangelist, whom Jesus especially loved; so that he reclined upon his breast (See Jn 13:23, 25). There was this secret, that from there might be drunk what was belched forth in the Gospel. Happy those who hear and understand. Of the following happiness are those who, even if they do not understand, believe. For how great a thing it is to see the Word of God, who can explain in human words?

2. Lift up your hearts, my brothers; as much as you can, lift them up; whatever occurs to you through the imagination of any body, spit it out. If the Word of God occurs to you, just as you think of the light of this sun—however much you spread it, however much you extend it, you set no bounds of that light in thought—to the Word of God it is nothing. Whatever such the soul thinks, is less in part than in the whole. Think the Word everywhere whole. Understand what I say; as much as I can, I confine myself through my straits for your sake. Understand what I say. Behold, this light from heaven, which is called by the name of sun, when it has come forth, it illumines the lands, unfolds the day, makes shapes, and distinguishes colors. A great good, a great gift of God to all mortals; let his works magnify him. If the sun is so beautiful, what is more beautiful than the maker of the sun? And yet see, brothers; behold, it pours its rays through the whole earth; it penetrates open things, closed things resist; it sends its light through windows, but does it through the wall too? To the Word of God all things lie open, from the Word of God nothing lies hidden. See another difference, how far the creature is from the Creator, especially the bodily. When the sun is in the East, it is not in the West. Its light indeed, poured out from that great body, reaches even into the West; but it itself is not there. When it begins to set, then it will be there. When it rises, it is in the East; when it sets, it is in the West. By these two works of his he gave names to places. Because it is in the East when it rises in the East, he made the East to be called; because it is in the West when it sets in the West, he made the West to be called. By night it appears nowhere. Is the Word of God so? When it is in the East, is it not in the West, or when it is in the West, is it not in the East? Or does it at some time forsake the lands, and go under the lands, or behind the lands? Everywhere it is whole. Who can explain this in words? Who sees this? By what proof shall I prove to you what I say? I, a man, speak; to men I speak; weak, I speak to weaker; and yet, my brothers, I dare to say, that what I tell you, whether through a mirror, or in a riddle, I somehow see, I somehow understand, even in my heart, the word about this matter. But it seeks to go out to you, and finds no worthy vehicle. The vehicle of the word is the sound of the voice. What I say within myself, I seek to tell you, and words fail. For I want to speak of the Word of God. By how great a Word, by what kind of Word? All things were made through him (See Jn 1:3). See the works, and be in awe of the Worker. All things were made through him.

3. Return with me, human weakness, return then. Let us comprehend human things themselves, if we can. We who speak are men too, and we speak to men, and we put forth the sound of the voice. To the ears of men we carry the sound of our voice, and through the sound of our voice and the understanding we somehow set it through the ear in the heart. From here, then, what we can, as we can, let us speak, this let us comprehend. But if we are not able to comprehend even this, what are we for that? Behold, you hear me: I make a word. If anyone goes out from here and is asked outside what is being done here, he answers: The Bishop is making a word. I make a word about the Word. But what kind of word, about what kind of Word? A mortal word, about the immortal Word; a changeable word, about the unchangeable Word; a transitory word, about the eternal Word. Yet attend to my word. For I had told you: The Word of God is everywhere whole. Behold, I make a word for you; it reaches all what I say. That what I say might reach all, did you divide what I say? If I fed you, so that I wanted to fill not your mind, but your belly, and set before you loaves with which you might be filled; would you not divide my loaves among yourselves? Could my loaves reach each one of you? If they reached one, the rest would have nothing. Behold, I speak, and you all have it. It is too little that you all have it; you all have the whole. The whole reaches all, the whole reaches each. O wonders of my word! What, then, is the Word of God? Hear another thing. I said: What I said came forth to you and did not depart from me. It reached you, nor was it separated from me. Before I said it, I had it, and you did not have it; I said it, and you began to have it, and I lost nothing. O miracle of my word! What, then, is the Word of God? From small things conjecture great. Consider earthly things, praise heavenly things. I am a creature, you are creatures; and so great miracles come to be from my word in my heart, in my mouth, in my voice, in your ears, in your hearts. What is the Creator? O Lord, hear us. Make us, because you made us. Make us good, because you made us men, enlightened. These newly whitened, enlightened, hear through me your word. For, enlightened by your grace, they stand before you. This is the day that the Lord made (See Ps 118:24 (117)). But let them labor for this, let them pray for this, that when these days have passed, they may not become darkness, who have been made the light of the miracles and benefits of God.

1. Christ, then, was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (See Jn 1:10). Which world was made through him, which world did not know him? For the world that was made through him did not itself fail to know him. What is the world that was made through him? Heaven and earth. How did heaven not know him, when in his passion the sun was darkened, how did the earth not know him, when at his hanging it trembled (See Mt 27:45, 51)? But the world did not know him whose prince is the one of whom it was said: Behold, the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me (See Jn 14:30). Evil men are called "the world," unbelieving men are called "the world." From this they received the name, from what they love. By loving God, we are made gods. So by loving the world, we are called "the world." But God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (See 2 Cor 5:19). The world, then, did not know him, all of it surely?

2. He came into his own, and his own did not receive him (See Jn 1:11). Into his own . . . All things are his, but those are called properly his own from whom his mother was, from whom he had taken flesh, to whom he had sent ahead the heralds of his coming, to whom he had given the law, whom he had freed from the slavery of Egypt, whose carnal father he chose, Abraham. Because he spoke truly: Before Abraham, I am (See Jn 8:58). Nor did he say thus: Before Abraham was, I am, or: Before Abraham was, I was made, or: Before Abraham was, I am. For in the beginning was the Word (See Jn 1:1), it was not made. Therefore: He came into his own, and his own did not receive him.

3. But as many as received him . . . (See Jn 1:12). For surely there the Apostles who received him, there those who carried branches before his mount, who went before and followed and spread their garments and said with a loud voice (See Mt 21:8-9): Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Then the Pharisees said to him (See Lk 19:39): Restrain the boys, let them not cry these things to you. And he: If these are silent, the stones will cry out (See Lk 19:40). He saw us when he said these things: If these are silent, the stones will cry out. What stones except those who worship stones? If the little Jews are silent, the nations, great and small, will cry out. What stones except those of whom this John speaks, who came to bear witness to the light (See Jn 1:7)? For when he saw those Jews priding themselves on the race of Abraham, he said to them: Brood of vipers. They called themselves sons of Abraham and he said to them: Brood of vipers. Did he do wrong to Abraham? Far be it! From their conduct he gave the name, who, if they were sons of Abraham, would imitate Abraham. As he himself too says to those who say to him: We are free and have never served anyone, we have Abraham for father. And he: If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the deeds of Abraham. You want to kill me, because I tell you the truth, this Abraham did not do (See Jn 8:33, 39-40). From him you were born but you have degenerated. So what does John say? Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Because they came to be baptized with John's baptism unto repentance. Who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear, then, fruit worthy of repentance and do not say in your hearts: We have Abraham for father. God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham (See Mt 3:7-9). God is able from these stones which he saw in spirit; he was speaking to them and foreseeing us. For God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. From which stones: if these are silent, the stones will cry out. Now you have heard and you cry out. It is fulfilled: the stones will cry out. For we come from the nations. In our forefathers we adored stones, therefore we were called dogs. Recall what that woman heard who cried out after the Lord because she was a Canaanite, a worshiper of idols, a handmaid of demons. What did Jesus say? It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to dogs (See Mt 15:26). Have you never noticed how dogs lick anointed stones? So are all worshipers of images. But grace has come to you. But as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God. Behold, you have now the newly born: He gave them power to become sons of God. To whom did he give it? To those who believe in his name (See Jn 1:12).

4. And how do they become sons of God? Who were born not of bloods, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God (See Jn 1:13). Attend, then; these were born of God, having received power to become sons of God. They were born of God, not of bloods. What is the first birth? What is the wretched birth, coming from wretched ones? But those who were born of God, what was that from which they were first born? Mingled of bloods, of the bloods of male and female, of the mingling of the flesh of male and female, thence they were born. Now from what were they born of God? The first birth from male and female, the second birth from God and the Church.

5. Behold, they were born of God. How did it come about that they were born of God who first were born of men? How did it come about that he dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14)? A great change; he made flesh, they spirit. What is this? What condescension, my brothers! Lift up the mind to hoping for and grasping better things. Do not give yourselves over to worldly desires. You were bought with a price (See 1 Cor 6:20); for your sake the Word was made flesh (See Jn 1:14), for your sake he who was the Son of God was made the Son of man, that you who were sons of men might become sons of God. What was he? What was he made? What were you? What were you made? He was the Son of God who was made the Son of man. You were sons of men who are made sons of God. He shared evils with us and is to give us goods. But by that very thing by which he was made the Son of man, he differs from us. We are sons of men through the desire of the flesh. He is the Son of man through the faith of the Virgin. The mother of any man lay with a man and conceived. But each one is born of a man his father and of a woman his mother. But Christ was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He came to us but did not much depart from himself. Rather, from himself, in that he was God, he never departed but added what was of our nature. For there came to be what was not, he did not lose what he was, made the Son of man, but did not cease to be the Son of God. Through this he is the Mediator in the middle. What is: in the middle? Neither above nor below. How neither above nor below? Not above because flesh, not below because not a sinner, but yet insofar as God, always above. For he did not so come to us that he forsook the Father; he went from us, he went and did not forsake us; he will come to us and will not forsake him.

1. What we have heard said by the Lord Jesus Christ to Nathanael, if we understand it well, does not pertain to him alone. For the Lord Jesus himself saw under the fig tree the whole human race. For in this place it is understood that by the fig tree he signified sin. Not everywhere does it signify this, but in this place, as I said, namely by that fittingness of signifying by which you know the first man, when he sinned, was covered with fig leaves (See Gen 3:7). For with these leaves they covered their shame, when they blushed at their sin; and the members which God gave them, they themselves made shameful to themselves. For one ought not to blush at the work of God: but the cause of sin preceded the confusion. If iniquity had not preceded, nakedness would never blush. For they were naked, and were not confounded. For they had committed nothing for which they should be confounded. But why did I say this? That by the fig tree we may understand sin to have been signified. What is it, then: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you? When you were under sin, I saw you. And looking indeed at the event, Nathanael recalled that he had been under the fig tree, where Christ was not. But he was not there by bodily presence; but by spiritual knowledge where is he not? And because he knew that he had been alone under the fig tree, where the Lord Christ was not, when he said to him: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you; he both recognized the divinity in him, and exclaimed: You are the king of Israel (See Jn 1:48-49).

2. The Lord says: Because I said to you: I saw you when you were under the fig tree, therefore you marvel; you will see greater things than these. What are these greater things? And he said: You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (See Jn 1:50-51). Let us recall the old history written in the holy Book, that is, in Genesis. When Jacob slept in a place, he put a stone at his head; and in dreams he saw a ladder reaching from earth all the way to heaven; and the Lord leaned upon it; and the angels were ascending and descending by it. This Jacob saw. The dream of a man would not be written, unless some great mystery were figured in it, and something great prophesied were understood in that vision. In short, Jacob himself, because he understood what he had seen, set a stone there, and poured oil over it (See Gen 28:11-18). For you recognize chrism: recognize Christ too. For he himself is the stone which the builders rejected; he himself was made the head of the corner (See Ps 118:22 (117)). He himself is the stone, of which he himself said: Whoever stumbles on that stone will be shattered; but on whom that stone falls, it will crush him (See Mt 21:44). He is stumbled on as he lies: but he will fall upon them, when he comes from on high to judge the living and the dead. Woe to the Jews, because while Christ lay humbly, they stumbled on him. This man, they say, is not from God, who breaks the Sabbath (See Jn 9:16). If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (See Mt 27:40). Madman, the stone lies, and therefore you laugh. But when you laugh, you are blind; when you are blind, you stumble; when you stumble, you are shattered; when you have been shattered while he lies thus, afterward when he comes from on high you will be crushed. So Jacob anointed the stone. Did he make an idol? He signified, he did not adore. Now then hear, attend to this Nathanael, on whose occasion the Lord Jesus wished to expound to us the vision of Jacob.

3. You know, who have been instructed in the school of Christ, that Jacob himself is also Israel. There are two names: for he was one man. He received the first name, Jacob, when he was born, which is interpreted: Supplanter. But when those twins were born, the brother Esau was born first, and the hand of that younger one was found on the foot of the elder. He held the foot of his brother going before him in being born, afterward he himself too followed. And on account of this deed, because he held the heel of his brother, he was called Jacob (See Gen 25:24-26), that is, Supplanter. But afterward, when he was returning from Mesopotamia, an angel wrestled with him on the way. What strength can be compared, of an angel and a man? So it is a mystery, so it is a sacrament, so it is a prophecy, so it is a figure; so let us understand. For see too the manner of the wrestling. While he wrestled, Jacob prevailed over the angel. A great signification. And when the man had prevailed over the angel, he held him; yet that man held the one whom he had conquered. And he said to him: I will not let you go, unless you bless me. When the conqueror was blessed by the conquered, Christ was figured. So that angel, who is understood as the Lord Jesus, said to Jacob: You will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel; which is interpreted: Seeing God. Then he touched the sinew of his thigh, that is, the breadth of Jacob's thigh, and it withered for him; and Jacob was made lame (See Gen 32:24-31). He is the one conquered. So much could the conquered one do, that he both touched the thigh, and made him lame. Therefore he was conquered willingly. For he had the power to lay down his strength, and the power to take it up again (See Jn 10:18). The conquered one is not angry, because the crucified is not angry. For he even blessed him, saying: You will not be called Jacob, but Israel. Then the "supplanter" became "seeing God." And he touched, as I said, his thigh, and made him limp. Attend in Jacob to the people of the Jews, those thousands following and going before the mount of the Lord, who, joined to the Apostles, adored the Lord and cried: Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (See Mt 21:9). Behold Jacob blessed. Now he remained lame in those who are now Jews. For the breadth of the thigh signifies the multitude of the race. Of whom the Psalm, when it had prophesied that the nations would believe, says: A people whom I did not know, served me, in the hearing of the ear it obeyed me (See Ps 18:43-44 (17)). I was not there, and I was heard; here I was, and I was killed. A people whom I did not know, served me, in the hearing of the ear it obeyed me. So faith is from hearing, but hearing through the word of Christ (See Rom 10:17). And there follows: Alien sons have lied to me, of the Jews. Alien sons have lied to me, alien sons have grown old, and have limped from their paths (See Ps 18:45-46 (17)). I have assigned Jacob to you, both blessed and lame.

4. But from this occasion we must not pass over what can perhaps of itself stir some of you; what it means, that, whereas the name of Abraham, the grandfather of this Jacob, was changed (for he too was first called Abram, and God changed his name for him, and said: You will not be called Abram but Abraham (See Gen 17:5), from that time he was not called Abram. Seek in the Scriptures, and you will see, before he received the other name, he was not called except Abram; after he received it, he was not called except Abraham. But this Jacob, when he received another name, heard the same words: You will not be called Jacob, but you will be called Israel (See Gen 32:28). Seek the Scriptures, and see that both were always called, both Jacob and Israel. Abram having received the other name, he was not called other than Abraham; Jacob having received the other name, he was called both Jacob, and Israel. The name of Abraham had to be unfolded in this age; for here he was made the father of many nations, from which he received the name. But the name of Israel pertains to the other age, where we shall see God. So the people of God, the Christian people, in this time is both Jacob and Israel; Jacob in reality, Israel in hope. For the lesser people of the greater people is called the supplanter of the brother. Did we supplant the Jews? But we are called their supplanters, because for our cause they were supplanted. Unless they had been blinded, Christ would not be crucified; if Christ were not crucified, that precious blood would not be poured out; if that blood were not poured out, the world would not be redeemed. Since, then, their blindness profited us, therefore the elder was supplanted by the younger brother, and the younger was called "Supplanter." But how long is this?

5. A time will come, the end of the age will come, and all Israel will believe; not those who are now, but the sons of those who will be then. For now these, walking in their own ways, will go to their own places, will pass over to perpetual damnation. But when one whole people has been made, that will come to be which we sing: I shall be satisfied, when your glory is made manifest (See Ps 17:15 (16)). When the promise comes which is promised us, that we may see face to face. Now we see through a mirror in a riddle and in part; but when both peoples, now purged, now raised up, now crowned, now changed into the immortal form and into perpetual incorruption, will see God face to face, and now there will not be Jacob, but only Israel; then the Lord will see him in the person of this holy Nathanael, and will say: Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. When you hear: Behold, truly an Israelite, let Israel come to your mind; when Israel comes to your mind, let his dream come to your mind, in which dream he saw the ladder from earth all the way to heaven, the Lord leaning over it, the angels of God ascending and descending. This dream Jacob saw. But after this he was called Israel: that is, a little later, coming from Mesopotamia and making his journey. If, then, Jacob saw the ladder, who was also called Israel; and this Nathanael too is truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile; therefore, when he had marveled because the Lord said to him: Under the fig tree I saw you; he said to him: You will see greater things than these. And likewise he told him the dream of Jacob. To whom did he tell it? To the one he called an Israelite, in whom there was no guile. As though saying: Of him by whose name I called you, his very dream will appear in you; do not hasten to marvel, you will see greater things than these. You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending to the Son of man (See Jn 1:51). Behold what Jacob saw: behold why Jacob poured oil over the stone; behold why Jacob the prophet signified and figured Christ. For that deed was a prophecy.

6. Now what you await, I know: what you want to hear from me, I understand. I will say this too briefly, as the Lord grants: The angels ascending and descending to the Son of man (See Jn 1:51). How is it that if they descend to him, he is here; if they ascend to him, he is above? But if they both ascend to him and descend to him, he is both above and here. In no way can it come about that they ascend to him, and descend to him; unless he is both there to which they ascend, and here to which they descend. How do we prove that he is both there and here? Let Paul answer us, who was first Saul. He himself experienced that, when he was first a persecutor, and afterward was made a preacher: first Jacob, afterward Israel; who was himself too of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin (See Phil 3:5). In him let us see Christ above, Christ below. First the very voice of the Lord from heaven shows this: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (See Acts 9:4)? Had Paul ascended into heaven? Had Paul at least thrown a stone into heaven? He persecuted the Christians, bound them, dragged them to be killed, sought them everywhere as they hid, and when they were found spared them by no reasoning. To him the Lord Christ said: Saul, Saul. From where does he cry? From heaven. Therefore he is above. Why do you persecute me? Therefore he is below. All things, though briefly, as I could, I have expounded to Your Charity. I have doled out what pertains to me: but what pertains to you, think of the poor. Turned toward the Lord, and so on.

1. You know, brothers: for believing in Christ you have learned it, and constantly we too in our ministry commend it to you; that the medicine for the swelling of man is the humility of Christ. For man would not have perished, unless he had swelled with pride. For the beginning, as Scripture says, of all sin is pride (See Sir 10:13). Against the beginning of sin, the beginning of righteousness was necessary. If, then, the beginning of all sin is pride; from where would the swelling of pride be healed, unless God deigned to become humble? Let man blush to be proud; since God was made humble. For when it is said to a man to humble himself, he disdains it; and that men want to be avenged when they are hurt, pride makes them. When they disdain to be humbled, they want to be avenged; as though another's penalty could profit anyone. The one hurt and having suffered injury wants to be avenged; from another's penalty he seeks a medicine for himself, and acquires a great torment. Therefore in all things the Lord Christ deigned to be humbled, offering us the way: if only we deign to walk by it.

2. Behold, among other things the Son of the Virgin came to a wedding; he who, when he was with the Father, instituted weddings. As the first woman, through whom sin came, was made from a man without a woman; so the man, through whom sin was blotted out, from a woman without a man. Through that one we fell, through this one we rise. And what did he do at that very wedding? From water, wine. What is more powerful? He who could do such things deigned to be in need. He who made wine from water, could make bread too from stones. It was the same power: but then the devil tempted, therefore Christ did not do it. For you know that when the Lord Christ was tempted, the devil suggested this to him. For he was hungry, because he deigned even this, because even this pertained to humility. The bread hungered, as the Way failed, as Health was wounded, as Life died. When, then, he was hungry, as you know, the tempter said to him: If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves. And he answered the tempter, teaching you to answer the tempter. For the commander fights for this, that the soldiers may learn. What did he answer? Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And he did not make loaves from stones, who surely could make them so, as wine from water. For it is of the same power to make bread from stone; but he did not do it, that he might despise the will of the tempter. For the tempter is not conquered except by being despised. And when he had conquered the devil the tempter, the angels came, and ministered to him (See Mt 4:1-11). He, then, who could do so much, why did he not do that, and did this? read, rather recall, what you just now heard, when he did this, that is, wine from water; what did the Evangelist add? And his disciples believed in him (See Jn 2:11). Was the devil then going to believe?

3. He, then, who could do so much, was hungry, thirsted, was wearied, slept, was seized, beaten, crucified, killed. This is the way: walk by humility, that you may come to eternity. Christ God is the homeland to which we go; Christ man is the way by which we go. To him we go, through him we go; why do we fear lest we go astray? He did not depart from the Father, and came to us. He sucked the breasts, and held the world. He lay in the manger, and fed the angels. God and man, the same God who is man, the same man who is God. But not from what makes him man is he God. God, because the Word: man, because the Word was made flesh; both by remaining God, and by taking on the flesh of man; by adding what he was not, not losing what he was. So even now, having now suffered through that very humility, now dead, now buried, now he has risen, now ascended into heaven, there he is and sits at the right hand of the Father: and here he is needy in his poor. Yesterday too I commended this to Your Charity, on account of what he said to Nathanael: You will see greater things than these. For I tell you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending to the Son of man (See Jn 1:51). We asked what it was, and spoke long; must we today too repeat the same things? Let those who were present recall: yet I recall it briefly.

4. He would not say: Ascending to the Son of man, unless he were above; he would not say: descending to the Son of man, unless he were also below. He himself above, he himself below; above in himself, below in his own; above with the Father, below in us. Whence too that voice to Saul: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (See Acts 9:4)? He would not say: Saul, Saul, except because he was above. Saul was not persecuting him above; he who was above would not say: Why do you persecute me? unless he were also below. Fear Christ above, acknowledge him below. Have Christ above bestowing, here acknowledge him in need. Here he is poor, there he is rich. That Christ is poor here, he himself speaks for us: I was hungry, I thirsted, I was naked, I was a guest, I was in prison. And to some he said: You ministered to me; to some he said: You did not minister to me (See Mt 25:35-43). Behold, we have proved Christ poor: Christ rich, who does not know? And here too it pertained to his very riches, that he turned water into wine. If he is rich who has wine, what kind of rich is he who makes wine? So Christ is both rich and poor: as God rich, as man poor. Now too the man himself, rich, has ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father: yet still here, poor, he hungers, thirsts, is naked.

5. What are you? Rich, or poor? Many say to me: I am poor; and they say truly. I acknowledge a poor man having something, I acknowledge also one in need. But someone has much gold and silver. O that he might acknowledge himself poor! He acknowledges himself poor, if he acknowledges the poor man next to him. For what? However much you have, whoever you are who are rich, you are a beggar of God. We come to the hour of prayer, and there I prove you. You ask. How are you not poor, who ask? I add more: You ask for bread. Or are you not going to say: Give us this day our daily bread (See Mt 6:11)? You who ask for daily bread, are you poor, or rich? And yet Christ says to you: Give me from what I have given you. For what did you bring, when you came here? All things which I created, created yourself you found here: you brought nothing, you will take nothing hence. Why do you not give me from my own? Because you are full, and the poor man is empty. Attend to your beginnings: you were both born naked. You too, then, were born naked. Many things here you found: did you bring anything with you? I ask for my own: give, and I repay. You had me as a bestower, make me quickly a debtor. It is too little what I said: You had me as a bestower, make me a debtor; let me have you as a moneylender. You give me few things, I will repay more. You give me earthly things, I will repay heavenly. You give me temporal things, I will restore eternal. I will give yourself back to you, when I have given you back to me.

1. Most recently the gospel reading sounded in our ears, and made us attentive to learn what the things read meant. This, I judge, is expected of me, this I promise, with the Lord helping, to expound according to my strength. For without doubt those miracles were not done in vain, and figured something for us toward eternal salvation. For the health of the body that was restored to the man, for how long a time was it? For what is your life, says holy Scripture? It is a vapor, it says, appearing for a little while; thereafter it will be wiped out (See Jas 4:14). That health was restored to the body of that man for a time, some duration was restored to a vapor. Therefore it is not to be held as a great thing: Vain is the salvation of man (See Ps 60:11 (59)). And recall, brothers, that prophetic and gospel saying, because in the Gospel this testimony is read: All flesh is grass, and all the honor of the flesh like the flower of grass; the grass withered, the flower fell; the Word of the Lord abides forever (See Isa 40:6-8; 1 Pet 1:24-25). The Word of the Lord gives honor even to grass, and an honor not transitory: for it gives the flesh too immortality.

2. But first the tribulation of this life passes, in which he furnishes us help, to whom we said: Give us help from tribulation (See Ps 60:11 (59)). For this whole life, to those who understand, is a tribulation. For there are two torturers of the soul, not torturing at the same time, but alternating the torment. The names of these two torturers are fear and grief. When it is well with you, you fear; when it is ill, you grieve. Whom does the prosperity of this world not deceive, whom does its adversity not break? In this grass and in the days of grass the safer way must be held, the Word of God. For when it was said: All flesh is grass, and all the honor of the flesh like the flower of grass; the grass withered, the flower fell; as though we ask: What hope for grass? What stability for the flower of grass? but the Word, it says, of the Lord abides forever (See Isa 40:6-8). And whence, you say, comes the Word of the Lord to me? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14). For the Word of the Lord says to you: Do not spurn my promise, because I did not spurn your grass. This, then, which the Word of the Lord bestowed on us, that we should hold to it, lest we pass away with the flower of grass; this, then, which it bestowed on us, that the Word should become flesh, taking on flesh, not changed into flesh; remaining and assuming, remaining what it was, assuming what it was not; this, then, which it bestowed on us, that pool too signifies.

3. Briefly I say: that water was the Jewish people; the five porticoes, the Law. For Moses wrote five books. So the water was surrounded by five porticoes, as that people was constrained by the law. The troubling of the water is, in that people, the Lord's passion. He who went down was healed, only one: because that is unity. To whomever this passion of Christ is displeasing, they are proud; they refuse to go down, they are not healed. And I, he says, am I to believe God in the flesh, God born of a woman, God crucified, scourged, dead, wounded, buried? Far be it that I believe this of God; it is unworthy. Let the heart speak, not the neck. To the proud the humility of the Lord seems unworthy, therefore from such health is far off. Do not lift yourself up: if you want to be healed, go down. Devotion ought to take fright, if Christ were said to be changeable in the flesh. But now the truth commends to you an unchangeable Christ, as far as pertains to the Word. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; not as though it sounded, and passed away; because God was the Word (See Jn 1:1). Your God, then, remains unchangeable. O true devotion: your God remains; do not fear, he does not perish; and through him you too do not perish. He remains, he is born of a woman; but in the flesh. But the Word also made the mother. He who was before he came to be, made for himself her in whom he might come to be. He was an infant; but in the flesh. He sucked, grew, took food, ran through the ages, came to youth; but in the flesh. Wearied, he slept, but in the flesh. He suffered hunger and thirst; but in the flesh. Seized, bound, scourged, afflicted with insults, at last crucified, killed; but in the flesh. Why do you take fright? The Word of the Lord abides forever (See Isa 40:8). He who spurns this humility of God does not want for himself health from the deadly swelling of pride.

4. So the Lord Jesus Christ bestowed through his flesh hope on our flesh. For he took on what we knew in this earth, what here abounded, to be born and to die. To be born and to die, here abounded; to rise again and to live forever, was not here. He found here cheap earthly wares, he brought heavenly wares from a foreign land. If you take fright at death, love resurrection. He gave you help from his tribulation: for your salvation had remained vain. So, brothers, let us acknowledge and love the salvation that is a foreigner in this world, that is, everlasting, and in this world let us live as foreigners. Let us think that we pass on, and we shall sin less. Let us rather give thanks to the Lord our God, that he willed the last day of this life to be both brief and uncertain. From first infancy to decrepit old age is a brief span. What it would have profited Adam to have lived so long, if he had died today? What is long, where there is an end? No one calls back yesterday: today is pressed by tomorrow, to pass on. In that small span let us live well, that we may go there from where we do not pass on. Even now, while we speak, surely we pass on. The words run, and the hours fly; so our age, so our acts, so our honors, so our misery, so this happiness of ours. The whole passes, but let us not take fright: The Word of the Lord abides forever (See Isa 40:8). Turned toward the Lord, and so on.

1. Not unfamiliar things are repeated to your ears or your hearts; yet they restore the affection of the hearer, and in a way the things recalled renew us; nor is it irksome to hear what is known, because the things that are the Lord's are always sweet. So is the exposition of the divine Scriptures, as are the divine Scriptures themselves; even if they are known, they are yet read for remembrance. So too their exposition, even if it is known, is yet to be repeated, that those who have forgotten may be reminded, or those who perhaps have not heard may hear; and that those who hold what they have been accustomed to hear, by repetition it may come about that they cannot forget. For we recall that we have already spoken to Your Charity about this passage of the Gospel. Nor is it yet irksome to recall the same things to you, just as it was not irksome to repeat the same reading to you. The apostle Paul says in a certain Letter: To write the same things to you, is indeed not irksome to me, but for you it is necessary (See Phil 3:1). So we too to say the same things to you, for us is not irksome, but for you safe.

2. The five porticoes, in which the sick lay, signify the law, which was first given to the Jews and the people of Israel through the servant of God, Moses. For Moses himself, the minister of the law, made five books. On account of the number of books, then, which he wrote, the five porticoes figured the law. But because the law was not given to heal the sick, but to betray and show; for so the Apostle says: For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would altogether be from the law; but Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise from the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (See Gal 3:21-22); therefore in those porticoes the sick lay, they were not healed. For what does he say? If a law had been given which could give life. Therefore those porticoes, which figured the law, could not heal the sick. Someone says to me: Why then was it given? The apostle Paul himself expounded it: Scripture, he says, shut up all things under sin, that the promise from the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. For those who were sick thought themselves healthy. They received the law, which they could not fulfill; they learned in what disease they were, and implored the hands of the physician; they wanted to be healed, because they recognized that they labored; which they would not recognize, unless they could not fulfill the law given. For man seemed innocent to himself, and from that very pride of false innocence became more insane. To tame pride, then, and to lay it bare, the law was given; not to free the sick, but to convict the proud. So let Your Charity attend: for this the law was given, to betray diseases, not to take them away. Therefore those sick, who could be sick more secretly in their own houses, if those five porticoes were not there, were betrayed to the eyes of all in those porticoes, but by the porticoes were not healed. So the law was useful for betraying sins, because man, made more abundantly guilty by transgression of the law, might, his pride tamed, implore the help of the one having mercy. Attend to the Apostle: The law crept in, that the offense might abound; but where the offense abounded, grace too superabounded (See Rom 5:20). What is: the law crept in, that the offense might abound? As he says in another place: For where there is no law, neither is there transgression (See Rom 4:15). A man can be called a sinner before the law, a transgressor he cannot. But when, the law received, he has sinned, he is found not only a sinner, but also a transgressor. Since, then, transgression is joined to sin, therefore the offense abounded. But the offense abounding, human pride learns at last to be subjected, and to confess to God, and to say: I am weak (See Ps 6:2 (6)). To say too those words of the Psalm, which only a humbled soul says: I said: Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (See Ps 41:4 (40)). Let the weak soul say this, at least convicted by transgression; and not healed, but shown by the law. Hear Paul himself too showing you that the law is both good, and yet that, except by the grace of Christ, it does not free from sin. For the law can forbid, and command: to bring medicine, that what does not allow a man to fulfill the law may be healed, it cannot, but grace does that. For the Apostle says: For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. That is, now I see that what the law reproves is evil; and what the law commands is good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and making me captive under the law of sin (See Rom 7:22-23). This, from the penalty of sin, from the propagation of death, from the condemnation of Adam, fights against the law of the mind, and makes captive to the law of sin, which is in the members. This man was convicted; he received the law that he might be convicted; see what it profited him that he was convicted. Hear the following words: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (See Rom 7:24-25).

3. Attend, then. Those porticoes signified the law, carrying the sick, not healing them; betraying, not curing. But who cured the sick? He who went down into the pool. But when did the sick man go down into the pool? When the angel gave a sign by the moving of the water. For that pool was so sanctified, that an angel came, and moved the water. Men saw the water; but from the moving of the troubled water they understood the presence of the angel. If anyone then went down, he was cured. Why, then, was that sick man not cured? Let us consider his words: I have no man, he says, to put me into the pool when the water has been moved; for while I come, another goes down (See Jn 5:7). So you cannot afterward go down, if another goes down before you? It is signified here, that only one was cured at the moving of the water. Whoever went down first, he alone was cured; but whoever went down afterward, was not healed at that moving of the water; but waited until it was moved again. What, then, does this sacrament mean? For it is not without cause. Let Your Charity attend. Waters are set in the Apocalypse as a figure of peoples. For when he had seen many waters, John asked in the Apocalypse what it was, and it was said to him that they are peoples (See Rev 17:15). So that water signified the people of the Jews. For just as that people was held in the law by the five books of Moses, so that water was surrounded by five porticoes. When was the water troubled? When the people of the Jews was troubled. And when was the people of the Jews troubled, except when the Lord Jesus Christ came? The passion of the Lord, the troubling of the water. For the Jews were troubled, when the Lord suffered. Behold, to that very troubling pertains what was just now read. The Jews wanted to kill him, not only because he did these things on the Sabbath, but because he called himself the Son of God, making himself equal to God. For Christ called himself the Son of God in one way, in another it was said to men: I said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High (See Ps 82:6 (81)). For if he so made himself the Son of God, as any man can be called a son of God (for by the grace of God men are called sons of God), the Jews would not be angry. But because they understood him to call himself the Son of God in another way, according to which it is: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (See Jn 1:1); and according to what the Apostle says: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (See Phil 2:6); they saw a man, and were angry, because he made himself equal to God. But he knew himself equal, but where they did not see. For what they saw, they wanted to crucify; what they did not see, they were judged by. What did the Jews see? What the Apostles too saw, when Philip said: Show us the Father, and it suffices us. But what did the Jews not see? What not even the Apostles themselves, when the Lord answered: So long a time I am with you, and you have not known me? He who sees me, sees also the Father (See Jn 14:8-9). So because the Jews could not see this in him, they held him as a proud and impious man, making himself equal to God. There was a troubling, the water was troubled, the angel had come. For the Lord too was called the Angel of great counsel (See Isa 9:6 LXX), because the messenger of the Father's will. For "Angel" in Greek is in Latin "Messenger." And you have the Lord saying that he announces to us the kingdom of heaven. So that Angel of great counsel had come, but the Lord of all angels. And for this reason an Angel, because he took on flesh: but the Lord of angels, from this, that all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made (See Jn 1:3). For if all things, then the angels too. And therefore he himself was not made, because all things were made through him. But what was made, was not made without the Word working. But the flesh, which was made the mother of Christ, could not be born, except by the Word, which was afterward born of her, being created.

4. The Jews, then, were troubled. What is this? Why does he do these things on the Sabbath? And most of all at those very words of the Lord: My Father works until now, and I work (See Jn 5:17). It troubled them what they understood carnally, that on the seventh day God rested from all his works (See Gen 2:2). For it is written in Genesis, and most excellently written, and there is a reason why it is written. But they, thinking that God, as it were wearied, rested after all things on the seventh day, and therefore blessed it, because in it he was refreshed from weariness, did not understand, fools, that he who made all things by a word could not be wearied. Let them read, and tell me how God could be wearied, saying: Let it be made; and it was made. Today if a man should so do, as God did, who is wearied? He said: Let there be light; and there was light. Likewise: Let there be a firmament; and it was made (See Gen 1:3, 6); or if he said, and it was not made, he was wearied. In another place briefly: He himself said, and they were made; he himself commanded, and they were created (See Ps 33:9 (32)). He who so makes, then, how does he labor? But if he does not labor, how does he rest? But in that Sabbath, where God is said to rest from all his works, in the rest of God our rest is signified; because there will be a Sabbath of this world, when the six ages have passed. As it were, the six days of the age pass. One day passed from Adam to Noah; another from the flood to Abraham; the third passed from Abraham to David; the fourth passed from David to the migration to Babylon; the fifth from the migration to Babylon to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the sixth day is enacted. In the sixth age, in the sixth day we are. Therefore let us be reformed to the image of God, because on the sixth day man was made to the image of God (See Gen 1:26-27). What formation did there, this reformation does in us; and what creation did there, this re-creation does in us. After this day in which we now are, after this age, there is to come the rest which is promised to the saints, which was prefigured in those days. Because indeed, after all that he made in the world, he made nothing new afterward in creation. Created things themselves will be turned and changed. For from the time created things were established, nothing more has been added. But yet, unless he who made it governed the world, what was made would fall; he can only administer what he made. Because, then, nothing has been added to creation, he is said to have rested from all his works; but because he does not cease to govern what he made, rightly the Lord said: My Father works until now. Let Your Charity attend. He completed, he is said to have rested; for he completed the works, and added nothing. He governs what he made: so he does not cease. But with as great ease as he made, with as great ease he governs. For do not think, brothers, that he did not labor when he founded, and labors because he rules; as in a ship those who build the ship labor, those who steer labor; for they are men. For he, with as great ease as he said, and they were made, with as great ease and judgment governs all things through the Word.

5. Not because human affairs seem perverse, should it seem to us that there is no governance of human affairs. For all men are ordered in their places: but to each one it seems that they have no order. Only see what you want to be: for however you want to be, the Maker knows where to place you. Attend to the painter. Various colors are set before him, and he knows where to place each color. Surely the sinner wanted to be a black color; does the order of the Maker therefore not know where to place him? How much does he order from the black color? How many ornaments does the painter make? From it he makes hair, makes a beard, makes eyebrows; he makes the forehead only from white. See what you want to be: do not be concerned where he orders you who does not know how to err, he knows where to place you. For so through these laws of the world we see this come about. Someone wanted to be a housebreaker: the law of the judge knows that he acted against the law; the law of the judge knows where to place him: it orders him most excellently. He indeed lived badly: but the law did not order him badly. From a housebreaker he will be a mine-worker: from the work of the mine-worker how many works are built? The penalty of that condemned man is the ornaments of the city. So then God knows where to place you. Do not think that you disturb the counsel of God, if you want to be perverse. He who knew how to create you, does he not know how to order you? It is good there that you strive toward it, that you may be placed in a good place. What was said of Judas by the Apostle? He went to his own place (See Acts 1:25). With the divine providence surely working, because by his evil will he wanted to be evil, but God did not make the evil by ordering it. But because he himself, evil, wanted to be a sinner, he did what he willed, but suffered what he did not will. In that he did what he willed, his sin is detected; in that he suffered what he did not will, the order of God is praised.

6. Why did I say this? That you may understand, brothers, that it was most excellently said by the Lord Jesus Christ: My Father works until now. Because he does not forsake the creation which he made. And he said: As he works, I too work (See Jn 5:17). There already he signified himself equal to God. My Father, he says, works until now, and I work. That carnal sense about the Sabbath was troubled. For they thought the Lord, wearied, had rested, so as to do nothing. They hear: My Father works until now, they are troubled. And I work: he made himself equal to God, they are troubled. But do not now take fright. The water is troubled, the sick man is to be healed. What is this? Therefore they are troubled, that the Lord may suffer. The Lord suffers, the precious blood is poured out, the sinner is redeemed, grace is granted to the one sinning, and saying: Wretched man that I am, who has freed me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ (See Rom 7:24-25). But how is he cured? If he goes down. For that pool was such that one went down into it, not up to it. For there could be such pools too, so constructed that one went up to them. But why was that one made such, that one went down into it? Because the passion of the Lord seeks the humble. Let the humble go down, let him not be proud, if he wants to be healed. But why one? Because the Church is one through the whole world, unity is saved. Where, then, one is saved, unity is signified. By "one" understand unity. From unity, then, do not depart, if you do not want to be exempt from this salvation.

7. What, then, does it mean that he was sick for thirty-eight years? I know, brothers, that I have already said these things; but even those who read forget, how much more those who rarely hear? Let Your Charity attend a little. In the number forty the completion of justice is figured. The completion of justice, because here we live in labor, in toils, in continence, in fastings, in vigils, in tribulations; this very thing is the exercise of justice, to bear this time, and to fast in a way from this world; not from the food of the flesh, which we do rarely; but from the love of the world, which we ought always to do. He, then, fulfills the law who abstains from this world. For one cannot love what is eternal, unless he ceases to love what is temporal. Attend to the love of man: think of it as the hand of the soul. If it holds something, it cannot hold something else. But that it may be able to hold what is given, let it let go what it holds. This I say, see that I say it openly: He who loves the world cannot love God; he has his hand occupied. God says to him: Hold what I give. He does not want to let go what he held: he cannot receive what is offered. Did I say: Let someone not possess? If he can, if perfection requires this of him, let him not possess. If he cannot, hindered by some necessity, let him possess, let him not be possessed; let him hold, not be held; let him be the master of his property, not the servant; as the Apostle says: For the rest, brothers, the time is short; it remains that those who have wives be as though not having them; and those who buy, as though not possessing; and those who rejoice, as though not rejoicing; and those who weep, as though not weeping; and those who use this world, as though not using it: for the figure of this world passes away. I want you to be without anxiety (See 1 Cor 7:29-32). What is: Do not love what you possess in this world? Let it not hold your hand, by which God is to be held. Let your love not be occupied, by which you can tend to God, and cling to him who created you.

8. You say, and answer me: God too knows that I possess innocently. Temptation proves it. What you possess is troubled for you, and you blaspheme. Just now we were suffering such things. What you possess is troubled, and you are not found the one you were, and you show that one thing is in your voice now, and another the day before in your voice. And would that you would at least defend even your own with an outcry, and not try with boldness to usurp another's; and, what is worse, lest you be reproved, you say that what is another's is yours. But what need is there? This I admonish, this I say, brothers, and I admonish fraternally; God commands, and I admonish, because I am admonished. He frightens me, who does not allow me to be silent. From me he demands what he gave. For he gave it to be doled out, not to be kept. But if I keep it, and hide it, he says to me: Wicked and slothful servant, why did you not give the money to the moneychangers, that I, coming, might demand it with interest (See Mt 25:26-27)? And what will it profit me, that I lost nothing of what I received? It is too little for my Lord, he is greedy: but the greed of God is our salvation. He is greedy, he seeks his own coins, he gathers his image. You should give, he says, the money to the moneychangers, and I, coming, would demand it with interest. And if perhaps forgetfulness made me not admonish you; the temptations and tribulations which we suffer would admonish you. Surely you have heard the word of God. Blessed be the Lord and his glory. For you have gathered, and you hang on the word of the dispenser of God. Do not attend to our flesh, through which it is presented to you; because the hungry do not attend to the cheapness of the little vessel, but to the dearness of the food. God proves you. You have gathered, praise the word of God; temptation will prove how you hear: you will have affairs, in which it will be shown what kind you are. For even one who today shouts insults was yesterday gladly hearing. Therefore I forewarn, therefore I say, therefore I am not silent, my brothers, because the time of questioning will come. For the Lord questions the just and the impious. Surely you sang this, surely we sang it together: The Lord questions the just and the impious. And what follows? But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (See Ps 11:5 (10)). And in another place: In the thoughts of the impious there will be questioning (See Wis 1:9). Not where I question you, there God questions. I question your tongue, God questions your thought. But he knows how you hear, and knows how to demand, who commands that I give. He willed me to be a doler-out, the exacting he kept for himself. To admonish, to teach, to rebuke is ours; but to save and to crown, or to condemn and send into hell, is not ours. But the judge will hand over to the officer, the officer into prison. Amen I say to you, you will not come out from there, until you pay the last farthing (See Mt 5:25-26).

9. Let us return, then, to the matter. The completion of justice is shown by the number forty. What is it to fulfill the number forty? To restrain oneself from the love of this world. Continence from temporal things, lest they be ruinously loved, is, as it were, to fast from this world. Therefore the Lord fasted forty days (See Mt 4:2), and Moses (See Exod 34:28), and Elijah (See 1 Kgs 19:8). He, then, who gave servants to be able to fast forty days, could he not fast eighty or a hundred? Why did he not want more than he gave servants, except because in that very number forty is the mystery of fasting, to restrain oneself from this world? What is it to say this? What the Apostle says: The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (See Gal 6:14). He, then, fulfills the number forty. And what does the Lord show? That Moses did this, Elijah did this, Christ did this, the law too, the Prophets too, the Gospel too teaches this; lest you think there is one thing in the law, another in the Prophets, another in the Gospel. All the Scriptures teach you nothing else, but continence from the love of the world, that your love may run toward God. It is figured that the law teaches this, that Moses fasted forty days. It is figured that the Prophets teach this, that Elijah fasted forty days. It is figured that the Gospel teaches this, that the Lord fasted forty days. Therefore on the mountain those three appeared, the Lord in the middle, Moses and Elijah at the sides. Why? Because the Gospel itself has testimony from the law and the Prophets (See Mt 17:1-3). But why is the completion of justice in the number forty? In the Psalter it was said: God, I will sing you a new song; on a ten-stringed psaltery I will play to you (See Ps 144:9 (143)). Which signifies the ten precepts of the law, which the Lord came not to abolish, but to fulfill. But that law itself, through the whole world, is established to have four corners: the East, the West, the South and the North, as Scripture says. Whence too the vessel, which carried all kinds of animals figured, which was shown to Peter, when it was said: Slay and eat (See Acts 10:13), that it might be shown that the nations would believe and enter into the body of the Church, just as what we eat enters into our body, was let down from heaven by four corners (these are the four parts of the world) showed that the whole world would believe. So in the number forty is continence from the world. This is the fullness of the law: but the fullness of the law is love. Therefore before Easter we fast forty days. For it is a sign, before Easter, of this laborious life of ours, where in labors and toils, and continence, we fulfill the law. But after Easter, that is, we celebrate the days of the Lord's resurrection, signifying our resurrection. Therefore fifty days are celebrated: because the wage of a denarius is added to the forty, and it becomes fifty. How is the denarius a wage? Have you not read that those who were hired for the vineyard, whether those at the first, or those at the sixth, or those at the last hour, could receive only a denarius (See Mt 20:1-10)? When the wage of our justice has been added to it, we shall be in the fifty. Then it will be free for us only to praise God. Therefore through those days we say Alleluia. For Alleluia is the praise of God. In this fragility of mortality, in this forty here, as it were before the resurrection, let us groan in prayers, that then we may praise. Now is the time of desiring, then will be the time of embracing and enjoying. Let us not fail in the time of the forty, that we may rejoice in the time of the fifty.

10. But who is it who fulfills the law, except him who has love? Ask the Apostle: The fullness of the law is love (See Rom 13:10). For the whole law is fulfilled in one saying, in that which is written: Love your neighbor as yourself (See Gal 5:14). But the precept of love is twofold: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. This precept is great. The other is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. They are the Lord's words in the Gospel: On these two precepts the whole law hangs and the Prophets (See Mt 22:37-40). Without twofold love the law cannot be fulfilled. As long as the law is not fulfilled, it is weakness. Therefore he who was sick for thirty-eight years had two less. What is: He had two less? He did not fulfill those two precepts. What does it profit that the rest are fulfilled, if those are not fulfilled? Do you have thirty-eight? If you do not have those two, the rest will profit you nothing. You have two less, without which the rest are worth nothing, if you do not have the two precepts which lead to salvation. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become sounding bronze, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I know all sacraments and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains; but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my substance, and if I hand over my body to be burned; but do not have love, it profits me nothing (See 1 Cor 13:1-3). They are the Apostle's words. All those things, then, which he said, are, as it were, thirty-eight years: but because love was not there, it was weakness. Who, then, will heal from this weakness, except him who came to give love? A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (See Jn 13:34). And because he came to give love, and love perfects the law; rightly he said: I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (See Mt 5:17). He healed the sick man, and told him to carry his pallet, and go into his house. This he said also to the paralytic whom he healed (See Mt 9:6). What is it: to carry our pallet? The pleasure of our flesh. Where we lie sick, it is, as it were, our bed. But those who have been healed restrain and carry it, are not held by that very flesh. So, healthy, restrain the fragility of your flesh, that by the sign of the forty-day fast from this world, you may fulfill the number forty, who healed that sick man, who came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

11. Having heard this, direct your heart to God. Do not deceive yourselves. Question yourselves then, when it is well in the world; question yourselves then, whether you love this world, or whether you do not love it; learn to let go, before you are let go. What is it: to let go? Not to love in mind. While what you are to lose is still with you, either living or dying you let it go, it cannot be with you always; while, then, it is still with you, loose the love; be ready in the will of God, to hang upon God. Hold yourself to him whom you do not lose unwilling; that if it happen that you lose these temporal things, you may say: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed be the name of the Lord (See Job 1:21). But if it happen, and God wills this, that those things you have be with you to the end; freed from this life, you receive the denarius of the fifty, and there comes to be in you the completion of blessedness, when you sing Alleluia. Having these things which I have recalled in memory, may they avail that you do not love the world. Its friendship is evil, it is deceitful, it makes one an enemy of God. Quickly in one temptation a man offends God, and becomes an enemy. Rather, he does not then become an enemy, but then is betrayed to have been an enemy. For when he loved and praised, he was an enemy; but neither did he himself know it, nor others. Temptation comes, the vein is touched, and the fever is betrayed. And so, brothers, the love of the world, and the friendship of the world make men enemies of God. And it itself does not display what it promised, it is a liar, and deceives. Therefore men do not cease to hope in this world, and who comes to all that he hopes for? But to whatever he comes, at once that grows cheap to him to which he comes. They begin to desire other things, other things are hoped for as dear; which when they come, whatever comes to you, grows cheap. Hold, then, to God, because he never grows cheap, because nothing is more beautiful. For these things grow cheap for this reason, because they cannot stand, because they are not what he is. For to you, O soul, nothing suffices except him who created you. Whatever else you grasp is wretched; because he alone can suffice you who made you to his likeness. From that very voice it was said: Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us (See Jn 14:8). There alone can there be security, and where there can be security, in a way there will be an insatiable satiety. For you will neither be sated, so as to want to depart; nor will anything be lacking, so that you suffer, as it were, want.

1. It is often asked, how it is written in the book of the law called Genesis, where is the beginning of the holy Scriptures, why God completed all his works on the sixth day, and on the seventh day, that is, the Sabbath day, rested from all his works, when his Son, through whom all things were made, says: My Father works until now, and I work (See Jn 5:17). For saying this he refuted the Jews, who calumniated him, that on the Sabbath day he said to a man: Rise, take up your pallet, and walk (See Jn 5:8); for it is not lawful for Jews to carry burdens on the Sabbath. What, then, does he mean? Is the Son contrary to the Word of the Father, when he himself is the Word of the Father? We ought, then, to understand, lest we remain like the Jews; for they took the Sabbath so carnally, that they thought God to be at leisure from that Sabbath day. Or if they did not think this, perhaps they believed that he too works in his creation through six days, and on every Sabbath rests and is at leisure for himself, and after the manner of children rejoices at the holidays. So, then, this question is resolved, because it is true that God in six days filled and completed his works by founding creatures, but on the Sabbath rested, not from administering creatures, but from founding them. For this worldly mass, that is, heaven and earth and all that is in them, if it is not ruled by him, falls. But he rules the world without labor, not as that man carried his pallet. And if it is well understood, God at the same time both rests and acts; for everyone who acts without labor, rests even in the work itself. If you ask me whether God is at leisure, would we be living if he were at leisure? Again if you ask me whether God has rest, I will answer you: And what is it that he will give us, if he himself does not have it? Therefore I will answer: He both has rest, and works until now. This you cannot do; but he is God, which you are not. The time had now come, then, when the shadows should pass, and the day breathe, as it is written in the Song of Songs: Until the day breathe, and the shadows be removed (See Song 2:17).

2. When, then, the Lord Jesus bade that sick man, whom he made healthy, take up his pallet, he was removing the old shadows. The time had now come, then, that there should come to pass what the Apostle says: Let no one, therefore, judge you in food and drink, or in respect of a feast day, a new moon, and Sabbaths, which is a shadow of things to come (See Col 2:16-17). Those Jewish observances commanded by God were, then, shadows of things to come; and the very things which had been to come, Christ coming began to make present; what was awaited had arrived; what was signified was seen. Let not the shadows hinder, then, let them be removed, let us see the light. In whom? In Christ. For this reason he says: In your light we shall see light (See Ps 36:9 (35)); and: To those who sat in the shadow of death, light has risen for them (See Isa 9:2; Mt 4:16). The man is healthy, and do you calumniate about the pallet? He who told the sick man to carry the wood was the one who for him was to hang on the wood. The foolish impiety of the Jews! Whom you saw lying, you see walking; and do you accuse him for carrying? He who gave health to the one walking, gave strength to the one carrying. Be a Christian, O Judea, and understand the Sabbath; as long as you are a Jew, you can observe the Sabbath, you cannot understand it. Unless you pass over to the truth, you cannot have what you celebrate.

3. What is it that I said: You cannot have what you celebrate? For you can by the Sabbath leisure celebrate rest; but unless you pass over to Christ, you cannot come to eternal rest; you will remain in shadow, without light. Pass over, then, to Christ, that the veil may be taken away. For the Apostle says this: To this day, as long as Moses is read, a veil is set upon their hearts; which is not unveiled, because in Christ it is done away with. The veil, not Moses, is done away with; the veil, not the law. Attend how the Lord came, and the veil is done away with; when he hung on the wood, the veil was torn. O great mystery! O ineffable sacrament! The transgressors of the law crucified the author of the law, and the secrets of the law lay open. Was not that cross a key? It held the Lord, and unlocked the closed things. But the Jews, even with the veil torn, have a covered face: But we, says the Apostle, with unveiled face contemplating the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (See 2 Cor 3:14-18). They could have the law in stone; O if they had it in the heart, they would be with us. But we, brothers, let us have the law in our hearts; let us show it not by praises of word, but by good works. Alms must be given, it is time; let your fruits be seen; let me rejoice over my labors. You cannot say to the sick man: Rise and walk; you can say: Until you rise, lie and eat. You cannot heal the sick, you can clothe the naked. Do what you can; God does not demand of you what you cannot.

4. Concerning the very doing of mercy you have heard what holy Tobit admonished his son Tobias: As you have substance, son, so do; if you have much, do much; if little, share from that little (See Tob 4:8). The widow, who brought two mites, how little she had! And the Lord saw her (See Mk 12:42-43). Surely if they neglected her, because she brought no more than two mites, the heart of the wise one could see what she gave. Who put more into the gifts of God, than she who left herself nothing? Tobit did not admonish his son this: From what you have, he says, share; he did not say: Give all. Do this which Tobit admonished. Many did even that; they left all their own, gave all their own to the poor, kept nothing for themselves. Nothing, do we think? And where is God? For what does the poor man not have, if he has God? Or what does the rich man have, if he does not have God? Do it, then, and marvel at the words of Scripture. The blind father spoke to the seeing son, admonished him to give alms; who among other things said: For alms frees from death. This is no wonder; for though the blind man spoke to the seeing, yet a living man to a living. What follows is a wonder. For when he had said of alms: It frees from death, he added, and does not allow to go into the darkness (See Tob 4:10-11). O father, you always gave alms; why have you come to this darkness of blindness? The son, then, could have said this to his father; but he knew what he was saying, and the son understood what he heard. There are other darknesses, into which alms do not allow those to enter who love to give them. What are those darknesses? Of which the Lord himself says: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (See Mt 22:13). These are called the outer darkness. Why? Because they are outside God; he who comes to them, and who enters into them, departs far from God. In short, he sends the wicked servant into the outer darkness; but to the good he says: Enter into the joy of your Lord (See Mt 25:21). It is evil to go out into darkness; it is good to enter into light, where there is no darkness at all, neither of heart nor of flesh.

5. So in this Tobit there was blindness of the flesh, but a great light of the heart. The son held the father's hand, lest he stumble against a place; the father showed the son the way of life, lest he offend God. The one held the hand; the other showed the way, where it is truly perilous to stumble. In what light was he, when he said these things? Surely his eyes were closed, and yet he said: Son, give alms; alms free from death. Did he see nothing, who said this? Rather he saw, not white and black, but just and unjust; he discerned, not colors, but conduct. Blessed son, who heard a blind man seeing, blind in the flesh, seeing in the heart! For his blindness passes, God cured him, he received his eyes; but even if he did not receive his eyes in this flesh, would not those eyes one day be closed in death? For all the saints, when they go out from here, come to light; cheap to those seeing God is the light of this sun. The father exhorted the seeing son, and admonished him about alms; he said many things about alms, almost this alone he admonished his dearest and only son. How great is the force in them, how great the power! What is given, and what is received? What is spent, and what is bought? Is it not said to us: Your fathers bought the kingdom of heaven with alms? Both they bought it, and left it for us to buy. Let all buy it, let all possess it; no one will suffer straits; we shall be the possession of God, our possession will be God. For we worship God, and God worships us. But what I said: We worship God, all accept; what I said: God worships us, perhaps I offended some. Do we worship him, not he us? It is good for us that he worship us; for unless he cultivate this field, it will be filled with thorns. Who is the husbandman, except he who cultivates the field? Hear, then, the Lord Christ, and do not take fright, when it is said to you, God cultivates you: I am, he says, the vine, you the branches, and my Father the husbandman (See Jn 15:5, 1). Therefore we worship God that we may have fruit, and he cultivates us; both come to be for the sake of our fruit. For from barren we are made fruitful and fruit-bearing; dry and thirsting we are filled with him; but the fountain does not know how to be dried up. The whole, then, comes to be for our sake. Let us give thanks to him who created us, and called us to reign with him.

1. The hidden and secret things of the kingdom of God first seek believers, whom they may make understanders. For faith is the step of understanding; but understanding is the reward of faith. The Prophet says this openly to all who seek understanding too hastily and out of order, and neglect faith. For he says: Unless you believe, you will not understand (See Isa 7:9). So faith itself too has a certain light of its own in the Scriptures, in the Prophecy, in the Gospel, in the apostolic readings. For all these things which are recited to us for a time are lamps in a dark place, that we may be nourished toward the day. The apostle Peter says: We have a more certain 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 (See 2 Pet 1:19).
You see, then, brothers, how perverse and vicious by haste are those who, like immature conceptions, before birth seek an abortion; who say to us: Why do you bid me believe what I do not see. Let me see something, that I may believe. You bid me believe, while I do not see. I want to see, and by seeing to believe, not by hearing. Let the Prophet say: Unless you believe, you will not understand. You want to ascend, and you forget the step. Surely perversely. O man, if I could already show you what you might see, I would not exhort you to believe.

2. So: Faith is, as it is defined elsewhere, the substance of those who hope, the conviction of things that are not seen (See Heb 11:1). If they are not seen, how are they convicted that they are? For whence are these things that you see, except from that which you do not see? Surely you see something, that you may believe something, and from what you see, you may believe what you do not see. Do not be ungrateful to him who made you see, from which you may be able to believe what you cannot yet see. God gave you eyes in the body, reason in the heart. Rouse the reason of the heart, raise up the inner dweller of your inner eyes, let it take up its windows, let it inspect the creation of God. For there is someone within who sees through the eyes. For when you think intently of something elsewhere, the inner dweller being turned away, you do not see the things that are before your eyes. For the windows open in vain, when he who attends through them is absent. So the eyes do not see, but someone sees through the eyes. Raise him up, rouse him. For he was not denied you. God made you a rational animal, set you over the beasts, formed you to his image (See Gen 1:26-27). Should you so use your eyes as a beast, only to see what you may add to the belly, not to the mind? Raise up, then, the rational gaze, use your eyes as a man, attend to heaven and earth, the ornaments of heaven, the fruitfulness of earth, the flights of birds, the swimmings of fishes, the force of seeds, the order of the seasons. Attend to the things made, and seek the maker. Look at what you see, and seek what you do not see. Believe in him whom you do not see, on account of these things which you see. And lest you think yourself exhorted by my speech, hear the Apostle saying: For the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, through the things that are made, are understood and beheld (See Rom 1:20).

3. You set these things aside, nor attended as a man, but as an irrational animal. The Prophet cried to you, and cried in vain: Do not be like the horse and the mule, who have no understanding (See Ps 32:9 (31)). You saw these things, then, and set them aside. The daily miracles of God had grown cheap not by their ease, but by their constancy. For what is more difficult to know, than that a man is born who was not, that by dying he departs into hidden things who was, that by being born he comes forth into the open who was not? What so wonderful, what so difficult to know, but for God easy to do? Marvel at these things, awake. You know how to marvel at unusual things. Are they greater than what you are accustomed to see? Men marveled that our Lord God Jesus Christ fattened so many thousands from five loaves, and do not marvel that through few grains the lands are filled with crops (See Mt 14:17-21). Water made wine, men saw, and were amazed (See Jn 2:9). What else comes from rain through the root of the vine? He made those things, he made these. Those that you may be fed, these that you may marvel. But both are to be marveled at, because they are works of God. A man sees unusual things and marvels. Whence is the very man who marvels? Where was he? Whence did he come forth? Whence the form of the body? Whence the distinction of members? Whence this comely bearing? From what beginnings? From how contemptible ones? And he marvels at other things, when the marveler himself is a great miracle. Whence, then, are these things that you see, except from that which you do not see? But, as I had begun to say, because these things had grown cheap to you, he himself came to do unusual things, that even in the usual ones you might recognize your craftsman. He came to whom it was said: Renew the signs (See Sir 36:6), to whom it was said: Make wonderful your mercies (See Ps 17:7 (16)). For he bestowed them. He bestowed them, and no one marveled. So he came small to the small, the physician came to the sick, who could come when he willed, return when he willed, do whatever he willed, judge as he willed. And what he wills, that very thing is justice. And what he wills, I say, that very thing is justice. For not unjust is what he wills, nor can what he does not will be just. He came to raise up a dead man, to give back, while men marveled, to the light a man who was in the light, who daily brings to the light those who were not.

4. He did these things, and was despised by many, attending more not to how great things he did, but to how small a one did them, as though saying within themselves: These things are divine, but this one is a man. Two things, then, you see, divine things and a man. If divine things cannot be done except by God, see lest in the man God lie hidden. Attend, I say, to what you see, believe what you do not see. He did not forsake you, who called you to believe. Although he bade you believe that which you cannot see, yet he did not leave you seeing nothing, from which you might be able to believe what you do not see. Are the very creatures small signs, small indications of the Creator? He came too, and did miracles. You could not see God, you could see a man. God was made man, that in one there might be for you both what you would see, and what you would believe. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (See Jn 1:1). You hear, and do not yet see. Behold, he comes, behold, he is born, behold, he takes on a body, behold, he comes forth from a woman, who made male and female. He who made male and female, was not made through male and female. For you were perhaps going to despise the one who was born, you do not despise how he was born, because he always was before he was born. Behold, I say, he took on a body; he was clothed with flesh, he came forth from the womb. Now do you see? Now, I say, do you see flesh? I ask, but I show the flesh. You see something, and do not see something. Behold, in the very birth, behold there are now two, both what you may see, and what you may not see. But that through that very thing which you see, you may believe what you do not see. You had begun to despise, because you see who was born. Believe what you do not see, because he was born of a virgin. How little, he says, is he who was born. But how great is he, who was born of a virgin! And he who was born of a virgin brought you a temporal miracle. He was not born of a father, namely of a human father, and was born of a mother. But let it not seem impossible to you, because he was born through a mother alone, who made man before father and mother.

5. So he brought you a temporal miracle, that you might seek and marvel at him, the eternal. For he himself who like a bridegroom came forth from his chamber (See Ps 19:5 (18)), namely from the virginal womb, where holy nuptials were made, the Word and the flesh, brought, I say, a temporal miracle, but he himself is eternal, he himself is coeternal with the Father, he himself is he who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (See Jn 1:1). But this you could not see. He made for you that by which you might be healed, that you might be able to see what you did not see. What you despise in Christ is not yet the contemplation of the healed, but the medicine of the sick. Do not hasten to the vision of the healthy. The angels see, the angels rejoice, the angels are fed and live, nor does that from which they are fed fail, nor is their food diminished. In the lofty thrones, in the parts of the heavens, in those things which are above the heavens, the Word is seen by the angels, and is rejoiced in, and is eaten, and abides. But that man might eat the bread of angels (See Ps 78:25 (77)), the Lord of angels was made man. This is our salvation; the medicine of the weak, the food of the healthy.
And he spoke to men, and said what you have heard: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing (See Jn 5:19). Now, do we think, is there anyone who understands? Now, do we think, is there anyone in whom the eye-salve of the flesh makes progress toward gazing somehow on the splendor of the divinity? He spoke, let us too speak. He, because he is the Word; we, because we are from the Word. But why do we, somehow, speak of the Word? Because we are made to the likeness of the Word through the Word. As much, then, as we grasp, as much as we can be partakers of his ineffability, let us too speak, and let no one contradict us. For our faith has preceded, that we may say: I believed, therefore I have spoken (See Ps 116:10 (115)). I speak, then, what I believe. Whether even what I somehow see, he sees more; this you cannot see. But when I have said it, he who sees what I say, whether he believes both that I see what I said, or does not believe it, what is that to me? Let him see it sincerely, and of me let him believe what he wills.

6. The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing (See Jn 5:19). Here the error of the Arians rises up, but rises up to fall, because it is not humbled to rise (See Ps 20:8 (19)). What is it that moved you? You want to call the Son less. For you heard: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. From this you want the Son to be called less. I know this, I know it. This moved you. Believe that he is not less. You cannot yet see, believe. This is what I was saying a little before. But how, you will say, shall I believe against his very words? He himself says: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. Attend to what follows too: For whatever the Father does, these the Son too does (See Jn 5:19). He did not say: "such things." Let Your Charity attend a little, lest you make a din for yourselves. There is need of a tranquil heart, of devout and dedicated faith, of religious intent, not on me the little vessel, but on him who sets the bread in the little vessel. Attend, then, a little. For in those things which we said above, exhorting to faith, that the mind imbued with faith might be capable of understanding, the things that were said sounded festive, glad, easy, gladdened your minds, you followed, you understood what I said. But what I am going to say, I do not indeed despair that some will understand, yet I do not hope that all will understand. And because God set before us through the gospel reading something from which to speak, nor can we avoid what the master set forth, perhaps I fear lest those who have not understood, who perhaps will be the more numerous, think that I spoke to them in vain. But yet on account of those who have understood I do not speak in vain. Let him who understands rejoice; let him bear patiently what he does not understand who does not understand; let him bear what he does not understand, and defer it until he understands.

7. He did not, then, say: Whatever the Father does, such things the Son does, as though the Father did some things, and the Son did other things. For it seemed as though he had said this, since above he said: The Son does nothing of himself, except what he sees the Father doing (See Jn 5:19). Attend. Nor there did he say, except what he hears the Father commanding, but: He sees, he says, the Father doing. If, then, we question the carnal understanding, or rather sense, he set before himself, as it were, two craftsmen, the Father and the Son, the Father doing with nothing seen, the Son doing with the Father seen. It is still a carnal gaze. Yet that we may understand the things that are higher, let us not turn away from these lower and abject things. First let us set before our eyes something thus, let us suppose there are two carpenters, father and son. The father made a chest, which the son could not make, except he saw the father making it. He attended to the chest the father made, and made another chest like it, not the same one. I defer a little the following words, and now I question the Arian: Do you so understand it, as I set it forth? The Father made something, which when the Son saw the Father doing, he himself too made some such thing. For this the words seem to sound, by which you were moved. For he did not say: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he hears the Father commanding; but he said: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. Behold, if you so understand it, the Father made, and the Son attended, that he too might see what he should do, but should do some other such thing, such as the Father had made. This which the Father made, through whom did he make it? If not through the Son, if not through the Word, you have run into the blasphemy of the Gospel. For all things were made through him (See Jn 1:3). So now what the Father had made, he had made through the Word. If he had made it through the Word, he had made it through the Son. Who is the other who attends, to make some other thing which he saw the Father doing? You are not wont to say that the Father has two sons. There is one only-begotten begotten of him. But through his mercy he is alone unto divinity, and not alone unto inheritance. The Father made coheirs to his only-begotten, not those whom he begot of his substance as he begot him, but those whom from his household he adopted through him. For we were called unto the adoption of sons, as holy Scripture testifies (See Eph 1:5).

8. What, then, do you say? The Only-begotten himself speaks, the only-begotten Son himself speaks in the Gospel, the Word itself made words for us, we heard him saying: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. Now the Father has made it so that the Son sees what he should do, and yet the Father does nothing except through the Son. Surely you are troubled, heretic, surely you are troubled; but you are troubled as though hellebore has been taken, that you may be healed. Now you do not find yourself, your opinion and your carnal gaze, as I judge, you yourself condemn. Set the eyes of the flesh behind you, raise up, if you have anything in the heart, gaze on divine things. You hear indeed human words through a man, through the Evangelist. Through the Gospel you hear human words, as a man. But you hear of the Word of God, that you may hear human things, and know divine things. The master stirred up, that he might instruct; he sowed a question, that he might move attention. The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. It was consequent that he should say: For whatever the Father does, such things the Son does. He did not say this, but: Whatever the Father does, these same things the Son too does (See Jn 5:19). The Father does not do some things, the Son other things, because all that the Father does, he does through the Son. The Son raised Lazarus (See Jn 11:43-44), did the Father not raise him? The Son enlightened the blind man (See Jn 9:6-7), did the Father not enlighten him? The Father enlightened through the Son in the Holy Spirit. It is a Trinity, but one working, one majesty, one eternity, one coeternity, and the same works of the Trinity. The Father does not create some men, the Son others, the Holy Spirit others. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit create one and the same man. And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, creates.

9. You attend to the plurality of persons, but acknowledge the unity of divinity. For on account of the plurality of persons it was said: Let us make man to our image and likeness. He did not say: I will make man, and attend when I make him, that you too may be able to make another. Let us make, he says. I hear plurality. To our image. Again I hear plurality. Where, then, is the singularity of divinity? Read what follows: And God made man (See Gen 1:26-27). It is said: Let us make man, and it is not said: The gods made man. The unity is understood in that it was said: God made man.
Where, then, is that carnal intent? Let it be confounded, hidden, destroyed. Let the Word of God speak to us. Now, devout, now believing, now imbued with faith and having acquired some merit of understanding, let us turn ourselves to the Word itself, to the fountain of light, and say together: Lord, the Father made the same things as you; because whatever the Father does, he does through you. We heard you the Word in the beginning: We did not see, but we believe. There consequently we heard, that all things were made through you (See Jn 1:3). All things, then, that the Father does, he does through you. The same things, then, you do as the Father. What is it? Why did you want to say: The Son cannot do anything of himself? For I see a certain equality of you with the Father, in that I hear: Whatever the Father does, these same things the Son does (See Jn 5:19). I acknowledge the equality, here I understand, here I grasp as I can: I and the Father are one (See Jn 10:30). What is it: That you can do nothing, except what you see the Father doing? What is this?

10. Perhaps he says to me, rather let him say to all of us: This which I said: The Son cannot do anything, except what he sees the Father doing, how do you understand my seeing? What is my seeing? Set aside a little the form of servant, which he took on for your sake. For in that form of servant our Lord had eyes and ears in the flesh, and in that human form such as we too bear there was the same figure of body, the same lineaments of members. That flesh had come from Adam, but he was not Adam. So the Lord, walking either on earth or on sea, as it pleased him, as he willed, because whatever he willed he could, looked at what he willed. He cast his eyes, he saw. He turned away his eyes, and did not see. Behind was one who followed, before was one who would be seen. With the eyes of the body he saw what was before. But nothing lay hidden from his divinity. Set aside, set aside, I say, a little the form of servant. See the form of God, in which he was before the world was made, in which he was equal to the Father. Through him receive this and understand what he says to you: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal to God (See Phil 2:6). There see him, if you can, that you may be able to see what his seeing is. In the beginning was the Word. How does the Word see? Has the Word eyes, or do our eyes find themselves in him, and not carnal eyes, but the eyes of devout hearts? For blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God (See Mt 5:8).
You look at Christ, man and God. He shows you the man, he keeps for you God. And see that he keeps God for you, who showed himself man to you. He who loves me, he says, keeps my commandments. He who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love him. And as though it were said: What will you give him whom you love? And I will show, he says, myself to him (See Jn 14:21). What is this, brothers? The one whom they already saw, he himself promised that he would show himself to them. To whom? To those by whom he was seen, or to those by whom he was also not seen? So speaking he says to a certain Apostle, asking to see the Father so that it would suffice him, and saying: Show us the Father, and it suffices us. And he, standing before the eyes of the servant, in the form of servant, keeping for deified eyes the form of God, said to him: So long a time I am with you, and you have not known me? He who sees me, sees the Father too (See Jn 14:8-9). You seek to see the Father, see me. You see me, and do not see me. You see what I took on for you, you do not see what I kept for you. Hear the commandments, purge the eyes. Because: He who loves me, keeps my commandments, and I will love him. As though to one keeping my commandments, and as though to one healed by my commandments, I will show myself to him.

11. If, then, brothers, we cannot see what the seeing of the Word is, where do we go? What vision do we perhaps too hastily demand? What do we want shown to us that we cannot see? Therefore these things have been said which we desire to see, not that we can yet grasp. For the seeing of the Word, if you see it, perhaps in that which you see, the seeing of the Word, you will see the Word itself, so that the Word is not one thing, the seeing of the Word another, lest there be there something compounded and coupled and double and joined together. For it is something simple with ineffable simplicity. Not as a man, where the man is one thing, the seeing of the man another. For sometimes the seeing of the man is extinguished, and the man remains. This is what I was saying, that I would say something which not all could understand, though may the Lord too bring it about that some understand. My brothers, to this I exhort, that we may see the seeing of the Word. Is this beyond your strength, because they are small? Let them be nourished, let them be perfected. From what? From the commandments. What commandments? He who loves me, keeps my commandments. What commandments? For now we want to grow, now to be strengthened, now to be perfected, that we may see the seeing of the Word. Say now, Lord, what commandments? A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (See Jn 13:34). This love, then, brothers, let us draw from the richness of the fountain, this let us grasp, in it let us be nourished. Grasp that by which you may be capable. Let love beget you, love nourish you, love perfect you, love strengthen you, that you may see the seeing of the Word, that the Word is not one thing, and his seeing another; but that the very thing which is the seeing of the Word, this is the Word. And quickly perhaps you will understand, that this which was said: The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing, is such, as if he said: He would not be the Son, unless he were born of the Father. Let it suffice, brothers. I know that I have said something which perhaps when thought is laid open, when said in many words is perhaps obscured.

1. Our hope, brothers, is not of this time, nor of this world, nor in that happiness by which men are blinded who forget God. This we ought first to know and hold with a Christian heart, that we have not been made Christians for the goods of the present time; but for something else, which God already promises, and man does not yet grasp. For of this good it was said: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him (See 1 Cor 2:9). Therefore because this good, so great, so glorious, so ineffable, did not find a man to perceive it, it held God to promise it. For now what is promised him, blind man in heart does not perceive; nor can it be shown him in the present, what he himself to whom it is promised will be. For even a newborn infant, if it could understand the words of one speaking, when it itself could neither speak, nor walk, nor do anything, but as we see it weak, lying, in need of another's aid, could only understand one who spoke to it, and said to it: Behold, just as you see me walking, working, speaking, after a few years you will be such; attending to itself and to him, although it saw what was promised; yet considering its weakness, it would not believe, and yet would see what was promised. But to us, lying as it were as infants in this flesh and weakness, what is promised is both great, and is not seen; and faith is raised up by which we believe what we do not see, that we may deserve to see what we believe. Whoever mocks this faith, so as to think therefore that he ought not to believe, because he does not see; when there comes what he did not believe, he blushes; confounded he is separated, separated he is condemned. But he who has believed, is set apart to the right hand, and will stand with great confidence and gladness among those to whom it will be said: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the origin of the world. But the Lord concluded, when he said these words, thus: Those will go into the eternal burning, but the just into eternal life (See Mt 25:34, 46). This is the eternal life, which is promised us.
Because men love to live in this earth, life was promised them; and because they greatly fear to die, eternal was promised them. What do you love? To live. This you will have. What do you fear? To die. You will not suffer it. This seemed to suffice for human weakness, that it should be said: You will have eternal life. The human mind grasps this, somehow from what it does, it grasps what is to come. But how much does it grasp from this little that it does? Because it lives, and does not want to die; it loves eternal life, it wants always to live, never to die. But even those who will be tortured in penalties have a will to die, and cannot. It is not, then, a great thing to live long, or to live always: but it is a great thing to live blessedly.

2. Let us love eternal life, and from this let us know how much for eternal life we ought to labor, when we see men, lovers of the present temporal and ending life, so labor for it, that when the fear of death comes, they do whatever they can, not to take away, but to defer death. How much a man labors, when death threatens, by fleeing, hiding, giving whatever he has, and redeeming himself, laboring, sustaining torments and troubles, calling in physicians, and whatever else a man can do? See that, his labors and means consumed, he can bring it about that he live a little while; that he live always, he cannot. If, then, with so great labor, so great effort, so great expenses, so great insistence, so great watchfulness, so great care it is brought about that one may live a little longer; how must it be brought about that one may live always? And if those are called prudent who in every way act to defer death, and live a few days, lest they lose a few days, how foolish are those who so live as to lose the eternal day?
This alone, then, can be promised us, that the gift of God may somehow grow sweet to us, from this which we now have: because of his gift we have it that we may live, that we may be safe. Let us, then, set before our eyes such a life, when eternal is promised, that we may remove from it whatever troublesome thing we suffer here. For we find more easily what is not there, than what is there. Behold, here we live, we shall live there too. We are safe when here we are not sick, nor does anything hurt in the body; we shall be safe there too. And when it is well with us in this life, we suffer no penalties; we shall suffer none there either. Set, then, here a man living, safe, suffering no penalties; if anyone should grant him that he be always so, and this good not cease, how much would he rejoice? How much would he be exalted? How would joy without penalty, without torment, without end of life, not be contained in him? If God promised us only this, which I have said, which now, in such words as I could, I have described and commended; for how much would it have to be bought, if it were for sale, how much would have to be given, that it might be bought?

3. Whatever you had would suffice, even if you possessed the whole world. And yet it is for sale: buy it if you will. Nor be much in a heat about a great thing on account of the greatness of the price. It is worth as much as you have. So to buy something great and precious you would prepare gold, or silver, or money, or some fruits of flocks or crops, which would be born in your possession, that you might buy this something great and glorious, by which you would live happy in this earth. And this buy, if you will. Do not ask what you have, but what kind you are. This thing is worth you. It is worth as much as you are. Give yourself, and you will have it. Why are you troubled? Why are you in a heat? Are you going to seek yourself, or buy yourself? Behold, you who are, what kind you are, give yourself to that thing, and you will have it. But I am evil, you will say, and perhaps it does not accept me. By giving yourself to it, you will be good. That you give yourself to this faith and promise, this is to be good. But when you have been good, you will be the price of that thing itself, and you will have, not what I said alone, safety, soundness, life, and life without end; not this alone you will have, I take away still other things. There will not be there to grow weary and to sleep: there will not be there to hunger and to thirst; there will not be there to grow and to grow old; because there will not even be to be born, where whole numbers abide. The number that is, is itself; nor is there need that it be increased, because it does not there come about that it be diminished. Behold how much I have taken away, and I have not yet said what will be there. Behold now there is life, now there is soundness, now no penalty, no hunger, no thirst, no defect, none of these; and yet I have not yet said: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has ascended into the heart of man (See 1 Cor 2:9). For if I have said it, what is written is false: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has ascended into the heart of man. For whence would it ascend into my heart, that I should say: What has not ascended into the heart of man? It is believed, and is not seen: not only is it not seen, but it is not even spoken. How, then, is it believed, if it is not spoken? Who believes what he does not hear? But if he hears it that he may believe it, it is spoken; if it is spoken, it is thought; if it is thought and spoken, it enters into the ears of men. And because it would not be spoken unless it were thought, it also ascends into the heart of man. Now behold this question of so great a thing troubles us, so that we cannot explain the question in words. Who explains the thing?

4. Let us attend, then, to the Gospel, just now the Lord was speaking, and let us do what he himself said: He who believes in me, he says, makes a passage from death to life, and does not come into judgment. Amen I say to you, that the hour will come, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear, will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he gave the Son to have life in himself (See Jn 5:24-26). By begetting he gave; because he begot, he gave. For the Son is of the Father, the Father is not of the Son, but the Father is the Father of the Son, and the Son is the Son of the Father. Yet the Son is begotten of the Father, not the Father of the Son, and always the Son; therefore always begotten. Who grasps this, always begotten? For every man, when he hears begotten, it occurs to him: therefore there was a time, when this one who was begotten was not. What, then, do we say? Not so: there was not a time before the Son, because all things were made through him (See Jn 1:3). If all things were made through him; even times were made through him; how could there be times before the Son, through whom times were made? Take away, then, all times, the Son always with the Father. If the Son is always with the Father, and yet the Son, always begotten; if always begotten, always with the begetter was the one who was begotten.
I never saw this, you will say, anyone begetting, and always with him whom he begot; but the one who begot preceded, and the one who was begotten followed in time. You say well: I never saw this, because this pertains to that, which eye has not seen. You ask how it may be said? It cannot be said: because neither has ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (See 1 Cor 2:9). Let it be believed, and worshiped. When it is believed, it is worshiped; when it is worshiped, it is grown; when it is grown, it is grasped. For still in this flesh; as long as we are pilgrims from the Lord, to the holy angels, who see these things, we are infants, to be suckled by faith, to be fed by sight. For so the Apostle says: As long as we are in the body, we are pilgrims from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight (See 2 Cor 5:6-7). We are to come to sight, which is so promised us through John in his Letter: Most beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We are sons of God already through grace, through faith, through the sacrament, through the blood of Christ, through the redemption of the Savior: We are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared, what we shall be. We know that when it appears, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (See 1 Jn 3:2).

5. Behold for what we are nourished to grasp, behold for what we are nourished to perceive, to eat; yet so that what is eaten is not diminished, and he who eats is invigorated. For now food invigorates by being eaten; but the food that is eaten is diminished, but when we have begun to eat justice, to eat wisdom, to eat that immortal food; we are both invigorated, and that food is not diminished. For if the eye knows how to be fed by light, nor yet diminishes the light; for the light will not be less, because it is seen by more; it feeds the eyes of more, and yet is as great as it was; and they are fed, and it is not diminished; if God gave this to the light, which he made for the eyes of the flesh, what is he himself, light to the eyes of the heart? If, then, some great food were praised to you, which you were going to eat, you would prepare your belly; God is praised to you, prepare your mind.
Behold what your Lord says to you: The hour will come, he says, and now is. The hour will come, and that hour is now, when: what? When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear, will live (See Jn 5:25). Those, then, who do not hear, will not live. What is: Those who hear? Those who obey. What is: Those who hear? Those who believe and comply, they will live. So before they believed and obeyed, they lay dead; and they walked, and were dead. What were they worth, because they walked dead? And yet if anyone among them died in body, they would run, prepare a tomb, wrap, carry, bury, the dead the dead, of whom it was said: Let the dead bury their dead (See Mt 8:22). Such dead are so raised by the word of God, that they may live in faith. Those who were dead in unbelief, are roused by the word. Of that hour the Lord said: The hour will come, and now is. For by his word he raised the unbelieving dead; of whom the Apostle says: Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you (See Eph 5:14). This is the resurrection of minds, this is the resurrection of the inner man, this is the resurrection of the soul.

6. But this is not the only one, there remains also that of the body. He who rises in the soul, for his own good rises in the body. For not all rise in the soul: all are to rise in the body. In the soul, I say, not all rise, but those who believe and obey; because: Those who hear, will live. But as the Apostle says: Faith is not of all (See 2 Thess 3:2). If, then, faith is not of all, not all rise in the soul. When the hour of the resurrection of the body comes, all will rise; be they good, be they evil: all will rise. But he who first rises in the soul, for his own good rises in the body; he who does not first rise in the soul, to his own harm rises in the body. He who rises in the soul, rises in the body unto life; he who does not rise in the soul, rises in the body unto penalty. Because, then, the Lord commended to us this resurrection of souls, to which we all ought to hasten, in which to labor that we may live, and by living persevere unto the end; it remained that he commend to us also the resurrection of bodies, which is to be at the end of the age. But hear how he commended this too.
When he had said: Amen I say to you, that the hour will come, and now is, when the dead, that is, the unbelieving, will hear the voice of the Son of God, that is, the Gospel, and those who hear, that is, who obey, will live, that is, will be justified, and will be unbelieving no longer; when, then, he had said this, since he saw that we must be taught also about the resurrection of the flesh, and not so left, he went on and said: For as the Father has life in himself, so he gave the Son to have life in himself. This to raise minds, this to give life to minds. Then he added: And he gave him power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man (See Jn 5:26-27). This Son of God is the Son of man. For if the Son of God remained the Son of God, and did not become the Son of man, he would not free the sons of men. He himself who had made man, was made what he made, lest what he made perish. But he was so made man, that he remained the Son of God. For he was made man by taking on what he was not, not by losing what he was; remaining God, he was made man. He took you on, he was not consumed in you. Such, then, came he to us, the Son of God the Son of man, doing and made, creator and created; creator of the mother, created of the mother: such came he to us. According to that by which he is the Son of God, he said: The hour will come, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. He did not say: "the Son of man"; for he was commending the truth, in which he is equal to the Father. And those who hear, will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he gave the Son to have life in himself; not by participating, but: in himself. For we do not have life in ourselves, but in our God. But that Father has life in himself; and he begot such a Son, who would have life in himself; he would not become a partaker of life, but he himself would be life, of which life we would be partakers; plainly so that he might have life in himself, and himself be life. But that he might become the Son of man, he received from us. The Son of God in himself; that he might be the Son of man, he received from us. Of his own the Son of God, of ours the Son of man. What is less, he received from us; what is more, he gave us. For he even died from that by which he is the Son of man, not according to that by which he is the Son of God. Yet the Son of God died: but according to the flesh he died, not according to the Word which was made flesh, and dwelt among us (See Jn 1:14). Therefore that he died, he died of ours; that we live, we live of his. Neither could he die of his own, nor we live of our own. This, then, as God, as the Only-begotten, as equal to the begetter, the Lord Jesus commended to us, that if we hear we shall live.

7. But: And, he says, he gave him power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man (See Jn 5:27). Therefore that form is to come unto judgment. The form of man is to come unto judgment; therefore he says: He gave him power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man. The judge here will be the Son of man; that form will here judge which was judged. Hear, and understand, the Prophet had already said this: They will see him whom they pierced (See Zech 12:10; Jn 19:37). They will see that very form, which they struck with a lance. He will sit as judge, who stood under a judge. He will condemn the true guilty, who was made a false guilty one. He himself will come, that form will come. This too you have in the Gospel: when before the eyes of his disciples he went into heaven, they stood and attended, and the angelic voice sounded: Men of Galilee, why do you stand? and so on. This Jesus will so come, as you see him going into heaven (See Acts 1:11). What is: he will so come? He will come in that very form: For he gave him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man. But see for what reason this was fitting, and this was right, that those to be judged should see the judge. For both the good and the evil were to be judged. But blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God (See Mt 5:8). It remained that in the judgment the form of servant be shown both to the good and the evil, the form of God be kept for the good alone.
For what will the good receive? Behold, now I say: what a little before I did not say; and yet by saying it I do not say it. For I said that there we shall be safe, we shall be sound, we shall be living, we shall be without penalties, we shall be without hunger and thirst, we shall be without defect, we shall be without the loss of our eyes. All this I said; and what more we shall have, I did not say.

8. We shall see God. But this will be so great, and so great a thing it will be, that in comparison with it the whole is nothing. I said that we shall be living, that we shall be safe and sound, that we shall not suffer hunger and thirst, that we shall not fall into weariness, that sleep will not press us. All this, what is it to that happiness, by which we shall see God? Because, then, God himself as he is cannot now be shown, whom yet we shall see; therefore what eye has not seen, nor ear heard (See 1 Cor 2:9), this the good will see, this the devout will see, this the merciful will see, this the faithful will see, this they will see who will have a good lot in the resurrection of the body, because they had a good obedience in the resurrection of the heart.
So will the evil too see God? Of whom Isaiah says: Let the impious be taken away, lest he see the glory of God (See Isa 26:10 LXX). So both the impious and the devout will see that form; and when the sentence has been said: Let the impious be taken away, lest he see the glory of God, it remains that concerning the devout and good there be fulfilled what the Lord himself promised, when he was here in the flesh, and was seen not only by the good, but also by the evil. He spoke among the good and the evil, and conspicuous to all, God hidden, man manifest; God ruling men, man appearing among men; he spoke, then, among them, and said: He who loves me, keeps my commandments; and he who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love him. And as though it were said to him: And what will you give him? And I will show, he says, myself to him (See Jn 14:21). When did he say this? When he was seen by men. When did he say this? When he was seen even by those by whom he was not loved. How, then, was he going to show himself to those who loved him, except such as those who loved him did not see? Therefore because the form of God was kept, the form of man was shown; through the form of man speaking to men, conspicuous and visible, both to the good and the evil he showed himself, for those who loved him he kept himself.

9. When will he show himself to those who love him? After the resurrection of the body, when the impious will be taken away, lest he see the glory of God. For then: When he appears, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (See 1 Jn 3:2). This is eternal life. For all that we were saying is nothing to that life. That we live, what is it? That we are safe, what is it? That we shall see God: a great thing. This is eternal life; he himself said it: But this is eternal life, that they may know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent (See Jn 17:3). This is eternal life, that they may know, see, grasp, know what they had believed, perceive what they could not yet grasp. Now let the mind see what eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had ascended into the heart of man; this will be said to them at the end: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Those, then, evil ones will go into the eternal burning. But the just where? Into eternal life (See Mt 25:34, 41, 46). What is: "eternal life"? This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

10. Speaking, then, of the future resurrection of the body, and not leaving us, he said: He gave him power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this, because the hour will come. There he did not add: and now is; because that hour will be afterward, because that hour will be at the end of the age, because that hour will be the last, will be at the last trumpet. Do not marvel, because I said this: He gave him power to do judgment too, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel. I said this, because a man must be judged by men. By what men to be judged? Those whom he finds living? Not only. But what? The hour will come, when those who are in the tombs. How did he express those dead in the flesh? Those who are in the tombs, whose corpses lie buried, whose ashes are covered, whose bones are scattered, whose flesh now is not, and yet to God is whole. The hour will come, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and all will come forth (See Jn 5:28-29). Be they good, be they evil, they will hear the voice, and will come out. All the chains of hell will be broken: all that has perished, rather is thought to have perished, will be restored. For if God made man who was not, can he not repair what was?

11. I think that when it is said: God will raise the dead, no incredible thing is said, because it is said of God, not of man. It is a great thing that will come to pass, and an incredible thing that will come to pass. But let it not be incredible, because see who does it. He is said to be the one who will raise you, who created you. You were not, and you are; and made, will you not be? Far be it, do not believe it. God did something more wonderful, when he made what was not: and yet he made what was not; and is he not believed to be about to repair what was, by those very ones whom he made what they were not? Is this what we repay to God, who were not, and were made? Is this what we repay him, that we believe he cannot raise up what he made? Is this the reward which his creature renders him? Did I make you for this, God says to you, O man, before you were, that you would not believe me that you will be what you were, you who could be what you were not? But behold, he says, in the tomb which I see, there is ash, there are ashes, there are bones; and will this too receive life, skin, flesh, and rise again? What, this ash, these bones, which I see in the tomb? Either in the tomb you see ash, you see bones; in your mother's womb there was nothing. This you see, either they are ash, or they are bones; you, before you were, were neither ash, nor were there bones; and yet you were made, when you were not at all: and do you not believe that these bones (in whatever way they are, of whatever kind they are, yet they are) will receive the form they had, when you have received what you did not have? Believe: for if you believe this, then your soul will be raised. And if your soul is raised now: The hour will come, and now is; then for your good your flesh will rise, when the hour will come, that all who are in the tombs may hear his voice, and come forth. For not because you hear and come forth, ought you now to rejoice: hear what follows: Those who did good things, unto the resurrection of life; but those who did evil things, unto the resurrection of judgment (See Jn 5:29). Turned toward the Lord . . .

1. We have heard the words of the holy Gospel: and this can stir someone, that the Lord Jesus says: If I bear witness about myself, my witness is not true (See Jn 5:31). How, then, is the witness of the truth not true? Is he not the one who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (See Jn 14:6)? Whom, then, must one believe, if the truth must not be believed? For surely he does not want to believe except falsehood, who does not choose to believe the truth. This, then, was said according to them, so that you may understand it thus, and from these words conceive this sense: If I bear witness about myself, my witness is not true, that is, as you suppose. For he knew that his witness about himself was true; but on account of the weak, on account of the unbelieving, on account of those not understanding, the sun sought lamps. For their bleariness could not bear the brightness of the sun.
Therefore John was sought, to bear witness to the truth; and you have heard what he says: You went to John. He was a lamp burning and shining, and you wanted to exult for an hour in his light (See Jn 5:35). That lamp was prepared for their confounding, because of this it was said so long a time before in the Psalms: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. Why a lamp for the sun? His enemies I will clothe with confusion: but upon him will flourish my sanctification (See Ps 132:17-18 (131)). In short, here they were confounded in a certain place through that very John, when the Jews said to the Lord: By what power do you do these things? Tell us. To whom he answered: Tell me, you too: The baptism of John, is it from heaven, or from men? They heard, and were silent. For they quickly thought within themselves: If we say: From men, the people will stone us; because they hold John a prophet. If we say: From heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? Because John bore witness to Christ. Cramped in their hearts by their own questions, and ensnared in their own snares, they answered: We do not know. What other voice could be that of darkness? It is right indeed for a man, when he does not know, to say: I do not know. But when he knows, and says: I do not know, he is a witness against himself. Surely they knew the excellence of John, and that his baptism was from heaven; but they did not want to yield to him to whom John bore witness. But when they said: We do not know, Jesus answered them: Neither will I tell you by what power I do these things (See Mt 21:23-27). And they were confounded, and it was fulfilled: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ; his enemies I will clothe with confusion.

2. Are not the martyrs witnesses of Christ and do they not bear witness to the truth? But if we think more carefully, when those martyrs bear witness, he himself bears witness to himself. For he himself dwells in the martyrs, that they may bear witness to the truth. Hear one of the martyrs, the apostle Paul himself: Or do you want to receive proof of him who speaks in me, Christ (See 2 Cor 13:3)? So while John bears witness, Christ bears witness to himself, who dwells in John. Let Peter bear witness, let Paul bear witness, let the other Apostles bear witness, let Stephen bear witness; he himself bears witness to himself, who dwells in all. For he without them is God, but they without him, what are they?
Of him it was said: He ascended on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men (See Eph 4:8; Ps 68:18 (67)). What is: he led captivity captive? He conquered death. What is: he led captivity captive? The devil procured death, and the devil himself was led captive by the death of Christ. He ascended on high. What do we know higher than heaven? Plainly and before the eyes of his disciples he ascended into heaven (See Acts 1:9). This we know, this we believe, this we confess. He gave gifts to men. What gifts? The Holy Spirit. He who gives such a gift, what kind is he himself? For great is the mercy of God; he gives a gift equal to himself, because his gift is the Holy Spirit, and the whole Trinity is one God: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What did the Holy Spirit bestow on us? Hear the Apostle: The love of God, he says, has been poured out in our hearts. Whence, O beggar, has the love of God been poured out in your heart? By what, or in what, has the love of God been poured out in the human heart? We have, he says, this treasure in earthen vessels. Why in earthen vessels? That the eminence of the power may be God's (See 2 Cor 4:7). In short, when he had said: The love of God has been poured out in our hearts; lest anyone think that it was from himself that he loves God, he at once added: through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5). Therefore, that you may love God, let God dwell in you, and love himself from you; that is, let him move you to his love, kindle you, enlighten you, rouse you.

3. For there is a struggle in this body: as long as we live, we fight; as long as we fight, we are in peril; but in all these things we overcome, through him who loved us (See Rom 8:37). Our battle you have heard, just now when the Apostle was read: The whole, he says, Law is fulfilled in one saying, in that which is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (See Gal 5:14). This love is from the Holy Spirit. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. First see whether you yet know how to love yourself; and I entrust to you a neighbor, whom you may love as yourself. But if you do not yet know how to love yourself; I fear lest you deceive your neighbor as yourself. For if you love iniquity, you do not love yourself. The Psalm is witness: But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (See Ps 11:5 (10)). But if you hate your soul, what does it profit you that you love your flesh? If you hate your soul, and love your flesh, your flesh will rise; but that your soul may be tortured. Therefore the soul must first be loved, which must be subjected to God, that this servitude may keep its order, the soul to God, the flesh to the soul. Do you want your flesh to serve your soul? Let your soul serve God. You must be ruled, that you may be able to rule. For this struggle is so perilous, that if the ruler lets go, ruin follows.

4. What struggle? But if you bite and devour one another, see that you be not consumed by one another. But I say: Walk in the Spirit. I speak the Apostle's words, which were just now recited from his Letter: But I say, Walk in the Spirit and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. But I say: Walk in the Spirit, and the desires of the flesh; he did not say: Do not have them; nor did he say this: Do not do them; but: do not fulfill them (See Gal 5:15-16). But what this is, with the Lord helping, I will say as I can; be present, that you may understand, if you walk in the Spirit. But I say: Walk in the Spirit, and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Let what follows come: in case something, so that what here is obscure may more easily be understood in his following words. For I said, not in vain did the Apostle refuse to say: Do not have the desires of the flesh; nor even did he want to say: Do not do the desires of the flesh; but he said: Do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. He set before us the very struggle. In this battle we are engaged, if we serve God as soldiers. What, then, follows? For the flesh desires against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh. For these things are contrary to one another, that you may not do those things that you want (See Gal 5:17). If this is not understood, it is most perilously heard. Therefore anxious lest men perish by ill understanding, I have undertaken to expound these words of the Apostle, with the Lord helping, to Your Charity. We have leisure, we began in the morning, the hour of dinner does not press; on this day, that is, the Sabbath, especially those are wont to assemble who hunger for the Word of God. Hear and attend; I will say it as diligently as I can.

5. What is this, then, that I said: It is heard perilously, if it is not understood? Many, conquered by carnal and damnable desires, commit all kinds of misdeeds and shameful acts, and wallow in such most wicked uncleannesses, which it is shameful even to say; and they say to themselves these words of the Apostle. See what the Apostle said: That you may not do those things that you want. I do not want to do it, I am forced, compelled, conquered, I do what I do not want (See Rom 7:15), as the Apostle says: Because the flesh desires against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh, that you may not do those things that you want (See Gal 5:17). You see how perilously it is heard, if it is not understood. You see how it pertains to the office of the shepherd to open covered fountains, and to minister pure, harmless water to the thirsting sheep.
Do not, then, be conquered, when you fight. See what kind of war he set forth, what kind of battle, what kind of quarrel, within, within yourself. The flesh desires against the spirit. If the spirit too does not desire against the flesh, commit adultery. But if the spirit desires against the flesh, I see a struggle, I do not see one conquered, there is a battle. The flesh desires against the spirit: adultery delights. I confess that it delights. But the spirit desires against the flesh: chastity too delights. Therefore let the spirit conquer the flesh: or at least let it not be conquered by the flesh. Adultery seeks darkness, chastity desires light. As you want to be known, so live; as you want to be known to men, even apart from the eyes of men so live; since he who made you sees you even in the darkness. Why is chastity praised publicly by men? Why do not even adulterers praise adultery? He who seeks the truth, then, comes to the light (See Jn 3:21).

6. But adultery delights. Let it be contradicted, resisted, fought against. For you do not lack that by which you may fight. Your God is in you, the good Spirit has been given to you. And yet the flesh itself is allowed to desire against the spirit, by depraved suggestions and inborn delights. Let what the Apostle says come to pass: Let not sin reign in your mortal body (See Rom 6:12). He did not say: Let it not be. It is already there. And it is for this reason called sin, because it befell by the desert of sin. For in paradise the flesh did not desire against the spirit, nor was that battle there, where peace alone was; but transgression having been made, after man refused to serve God, and was given over to himself; nor so given over to himself that he could even possess himself; but possessed by him by whom he was deceived; the flesh began to desire against the spirit. And it desires against the spirit in the good: for in the evil it has nothing against which to desire. For it desires against the spirit there, where the spirit is.
For when he says: The flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, do not think this was given only to the spirit of man. It is the Spirit of God who fights in you against you, against that which is in you against you. For you refused to stand before the Lord; you fell, you were broken; just as a vessel when it falls from the hand of a man to the ground, you were broken. And because you were broken, therefore you are adverse to yourself, therefore you are against yourself. Let there be nothing in you against you, and you will stand whole.

7. For that you may know that this office pertains to the Holy Spirit, in another place the Apostle says: For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live (See Rom 8:13). In these words man already was lifting himself up, as though by his own spirit he could mortify the deeds of the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live. Expound to us, Apostle, by what spirit. For man too has a spirit pertaining to his proper nature, by which he is man. For man consists of body and spirit. And of that very spirit of man it was said: No one knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him (See 1 Cor 2:11). I see, then, that man himself too has his spirit pertaining to his nature, and I hear you saying: But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live. I ask by what spirit: mine, or God's? For I hear your words, and am still moved by ambiguity. For when spirit is said, sometimes it is of man, and the spirit of a beast is also called spirit; as it is written, that through the flood all flesh died, which had in it the spirit of life (See Gen 7:21-22). And by this both the spirit of a beast is called spirit, and the spirit of man is called spirit. Sometimes even the wind is called spirit; as it is in the Psalm: Fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of the storm (See Ps 148:8). Since, then, spirit is said in many ways, by what spirit did you say, O Apostle, that the deeds of the flesh are to be mortified? mine, or God's? Hear what follows, and understand. The question is removed by the following words. For when he had said: But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live; he at once added: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (See Rom 8:14). You act, if you are led; and you act well, if you are led by the Good. Therefore what he said to you: If by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live; and it was ambiguous to you of what spirit he had spoken, in the following words understand the teacher, recognize the Redeemer. For that Redeemer gave you the Spirit, by which you may mortify the deeds of the flesh. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. They are not sons of God, if they are not led by the Spirit of God. But if they are led by the Spirit of God, they fight; because they have a great helper. For God does not so watch us fighting, as the people watch hunters. The people can favor the hunter, they cannot help him in peril.

8. So then here too: The flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And what is: That you may not do those things that you want (See Gal 5:17)? For here is the peril of the ill understander. Let now there be the office of whatever sort of expounder. That you may not do those things that you want. Attend, all you holy ones who fight. I speak to those doing battle. Those who fight understand: he who does not fight does not understand me. For he who fights, I do not say understands me, but anticipates me. What does a chaste man want? That no desire at all opposed to chastity rise in his members. He wants peace, but does not yet have it. For when it comes to that, where no desire at all to be opposed rises, there will be no enemy with whom we may struggle; nor is victory awaited there, because over an enemy already conquered there is triumph. Hear that very victory, with the Apostle himself saying: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. But when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality; then will come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Hear the voices of those triumphing: Where is, O death, your contention? Where is, O death, your sting (See 1 Cor 15:53-55)? You struck, you wounded, you cast down; but he who made me was wounded for me. O death, O death! He who made me was wounded for me, and by his death conquered you. And then those triumphing will say: Where is, O death, your contention? Where is, O death, your sting?

9. But now, when the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, there is contention with death: we do not do what we want. Why? Because we want there to be no desires, but we cannot. Willy-nilly, we have them; willy-nilly, they tickle, flatter, prick, infest, want to rise. They are pressed down, not yet extinguished; as long as the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Is this so even when a man is dead? Far be it. You lay down the flesh, how do you drag the desires of the flesh with you? But if you have fought well, you are received unto rest. From which rest you are to be crowned, not condemned; that afterward you may be led to the kingdom. Therefore, as long as one lives here, brothers, it is so; so we too who have grown old in this warfare, have indeed lesser enemies: but yet we have them. Our enemies are in a way wearied now even by age; but yet, wearied, they do not cease to infest the quiet of old age with whatever sort of stirrings. The battle of the young is sharper: we know it, we passed through it. The flesh, then, desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; that you may not do those things that you want (See Gal 5:17). For what do you want, O holy ones, O good warriors, O strong soldiers of Christ? what do you want? That there be no evil desires at all. But you cannot. Wage the war, hope for the triumph. For now meanwhile there is fighting. The flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; that you may not do those things that you want; that is, that there be no desires of the flesh at all.

10. But do what you can; what the Apostle himself says in another place, which I had already begun to recall: Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to obey its desires. Behold what I do not want; evil desires rise, but do not obey. Arm yourself, take the instruments of wars. The precepts of God are your arms. If you hear me well, even from what I say you are armed. Let not, he says, sin reign in your mortal body. For as long as you bear a mortal body, sin fights against you; but let it not reign. What is: Let it not reign? That is, to obey its desires. If you begin to obey, it reigns. And what is to obey, except that you offer your members as weapons of iniquity to sin (See Rom 6:12-13)? Nothing is more glorious than this teacher. What do you want me now to expound to you? Do what you have heard. Do not offer your members as weapons of iniquity to sin. God gave you power through his Spirit, to hold your members. Lust rises, hold your members; what is the one which has risen going to do? Hold your members: do not offer your members as weapons of iniquity to sin; do not arm your adversary against you. Hold your feet, lest they go to unlawful things. Lust has risen, hold your members; hold your hands from all crime; hold your eyes, lest they attend badly; hold your ears, lest they gladly hear words of lust; hold the whole body, hold the sides, hold the upper parts, hold the lower. What does lust do? It knows how to rise, it does not know how to conquer. By rising constantly without cause, it learns even not to rise.

11. Let us return, then, to the words which I had set forth as obscure from the Apostle, and we shall now see them to be plain. For I had set forth this, that the Apostle did not say: Walk in the Spirit, and do not have the desires of the flesh; because it is necessary that we have them. Why then did he not say: Do not do the desires of the flesh? Because we do them; for we desire. The very desiring is doing. But the Apostle says: Now it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me (See Rom 7:17). Therefore what must you beware of? This without doubt, that you not fulfill it. A damnable lust rose, it rose, it suggested: let it not be heard. It burns, it does not restrain itself, and you would wish that it not burn. And where is: That you may not do those things that you want? Do not give your members. Let it burn without cause, and it consumes itself. In you, then, those very desires come to be. It must be confessed, they come to be. Therefore he said: Do not fulfill them. But let them not be fulfilled. You decided to do it, you fulfilled it. For you have fulfilled it, if you decide that adultery is to be committed, and therefore do not do it because a place was not found, because opportunity is not given, because perhaps she is chaste about whom you seem to be stirred; behold, now she is chaste, and you are an adulterer. Why? Because you fulfilled the desires. What is: you fulfilled them? In your mind you decided that adultery was to be committed. Now, far be it, if your members too were employed, you have rolled down into death.

12. Christ raised up the dead daughter of the ruler of the synagogue in the house (See Mk 5:41-42). She was in the house, she had not yet been carried out. So is a man who has decided on a shameful deed in the heart; he is dead, but lies within. But if he comes even to the perpetration by the members, he is carried out. But the Lord raised up also the young man, the widow's son, when, dead, he was being carried out beyond the gate of the city (See Lk 7:12-15). So then I dare to say something: You decided in your heart, if you call yourself back from your act, you will be healed before you perpetrate it. For if you do penance in your heart, because you had decided on an evil and wicked and shameful and damnable thing; there where you lay dead within, so within you have risen. But if you have fulfilled it, now you are carried out, but you have one to say to you: Young man, I say to you, arise (See Lk 7:14)! Even if you have perpetrated it, repent of it, return soon; do not come into the tomb. But here too I have a third dead man, who was even led to the tomb. Now he has above him the weight of habit, an earthly mass presses him much. For he has been much exercised in shameful deeds, he is weighed down by his excessive habit. Christ too cries out: Lazarus, come forth (See Jn 11:43)! For the man of most wicked habit now stinks. Rightly there Christ cried out; nor only cried out, but cried out with a loud voice (See Jn 11:43). For at the cry of Christ even such men, though dead, though buried, though stinking, yet they too will rise; they will rise. For of no one lying low must one despair under such a raiser. Turned toward the Lord . . .

1. Let Your Charity attend to the gospel reading, which has freshly sounded in our ears, while we say a few things which the Lord grants. The Lord Jesus was speaking to the Jews, and saying to them: Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life; they themselves bear witness about me. Then a little after: I, he says, came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. Then a little after: How can you believe me, awaiting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory which is from God alone? At last he says: I do not accuse you before the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you hope. For if you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me too; for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe his words, how can you believe me (See Jn 5:39-47)? To these things set before us divinely, from the mouth of the reader, but by the ministry of the Savior, hear a few things, not to be numbered, but to be weighed.

2. For it is easy to understand all these things about the Jews. But we must beware, lest, while we attend too much to them, we take our eyes from ourselves. For the Lord was speaking to his disciples; and surely what he spoke to them, he spoke also to us who come after. For it pertains not to them alone, what he says: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age (See Mt 28:20); but to all Christians to come afterward too, and to those who will come forth even to the end of the age. Speaking to them, then, he says: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (See Mt 16:6). Then they thought the Lord had said this because they had not brought loaves; they did not understand that: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, was said as this: Beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees. What was the doctrine of the Pharisees, except what you just now heard? Seeking glory from one another, awaiting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory which is from God alone. Of these the apostle Paul says thus: I bear them witness, that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Zeal, he says, for God they have; I know, I am aware, I was among them, I was such. They have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge? What is this, Apostle, not according to knowledge? Expound to us what knowledge you commend, which you grieve is not in them, and want to be in us. Following, he added, and opened what he had set down closed. What is: They have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge? For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wanting to establish their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God (See Rom 10:2-3). To be ignorant of the righteousness of God and to want to establish one's own, this is to await glory from one another and not to seek the glory which is from God alone, this is the leaven of the Pharisees. From this the Lord bids us beware. If the servants bid it, and the Lord bids it, let us beware; lest we hear: Why do you say to me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?

3. Let us leave the Jews, then, for a little, to whom the Lord was then speaking. They are outside, they do not want to hear us. They hate the Gospel itself, they procured false witnesses against the Lord, to condemn him living; other witnesses they bought with money against him dead. When we say to them: Believe in Jesus, they answer us: Are we to believe in a dead man? But when we add: But he rose again, they answer: Far be it; his disciples stole him from the tomb. The Jews, buyers of falsehood, love falsehood, and despise the truth of the Lord Redeemer. What you speak, O Jew, your parents bought with money; and this remained in you, what they bought. Attend rather to him who bought you, not to the one who bought a lie for you.
But these, as we said, let us leave; let us attend to these brothers of ours, with whom we are dealing. For Christ is head and body. The head is in heaven, the body is on earth; the head is the Lord, the body is his Church. But you remember it was said: The two will be in one flesh. This sacrament is great, says the Apostle, but I say in Christ and in the Church (See Eph 5:31-32). If, then, the two are in one flesh, the two are in one voice. Our head, the Lord Christ, spoke to the Jews the things we heard, when the Gospel was read, the head to his enemies; let the body too, that is the Church, speak to its enemies. You know to whom it speaks. What has it to speak? I did not say it of my own, that the voice may be one; because the flesh is one, the voice is one. This, then, let us say to them: I speak with the voice of the Church. O brothers, scattered sons, straying sheep, cut-off branches, why do you calumniate me? Why do you not recognize me? Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life; they themselves bear witness about me; our head says to the Jews, what the body says to you: You will seek me, and not find me (See Jn 7:34). Why? Because you do not search the Scriptures, which bear witness about me.

4. Testimony for the head: To Abraham the promises were made and to his seed. It does not say: And to seeds, as in many; but as in one: And to your seed, which is Christ (See Gal 3:16). Testimony for the body to Abraham, which the Apostle recalled. To Abraham the promises were made. I live, says the Lord; by myself I swear, that because you obeyed my voice, and did not spare your beloved son for my sake, blessing I will bless you, and fulfilling I will fulfill your seed like the stars of heaven, and like the sand of the sea; and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed (See Gen 22:16-18). You have testimony for the head, you have for the body. Hear another, brief, and comprehended in almost one sentence, for the head and for the body. Of the resurrection of Christ the Psalm spoke: Be exalted above the heavens, O God. At once for the body: And above all the earth your glory (See Ps 57:5 (56)). Hear testimony for the head: They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones; they themselves considered and gazed on me, they divided my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast a lot (See Ps 22:16-18 (21)). Hear at once for the body, after a few words: All the ends of the earth will be reminded, and will turn to the Lord; and all the peoples of the nations will adore in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule the nations (See Ps 22:27-28 (21)). Hear for the head: And he like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber. And in that same Psalm hear for the body: Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (See Ps 19:4-5 (18)).

5. These things to the Jews, and to these our own. Why? Because these Scriptures of the Old Testament both the Jews accept, and these our own accept. But Christ himself, whom they do not accept, let us see whether these accept. Let him too say, let him say both for himself who is the head, and for his body which is the Church, because in us too the head speaks for the body. Hear for the head: He rose from the dead, found the disciples hesitating, doubting, for joy not believing; he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said to them: That so it is written, and so it must be that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day. You have for the head; let him say also for the body: And that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (See Lk 24:46-47). Let the Church, then, say to its enemies, let it say. It says it plainly, it is not silent: but let them hear. Brothers, you have heard the testimonies, now recognize me. Search the Scriptures, in which you hope to have eternal life; they themselves bear witness about me. What I have said is not of my own, but of my Lord's, and yet you still turn away, you still shuffle. How can you believe me, awaiting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory which is from God alone? Because, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, you have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wanting to establish your own, you are not subject to the righteousness of God. What else is it, to be ignorant of the righteousness of God, and to want to establish one's own, but to say: I sanctify, I justify; what I give, this is holy? Leave to God what is God's: acknowledge, man, what is man's. You are ignorant of the righteousness of God, and want to establish your own. You want to justify me; it suffices you that you be justified with me.

6. It was said of the Antichrist, and all so understand what the Lord says: I came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive (See Jn 5:43). But let us hear John too: You have heard that the Antichrist comes, and now many antichrists have come to be (See 1 Jn 2:18). But why do we take fright at the Antichrist, except because he is going to honor his own name, and despise the name of the Lord? What else does he do who says: I justify? It is answered him: I came to Christ, not with my feet, but with my heart I came; where I heard the Gospel, there I believed, there I was baptized; because I believed in Christ, I believed in God. And he: You are not clean. Why? Because I was not there. Say why I am not cleansed, a man who was baptized in Jerusalem, a man who was baptized, for example, among the Ephesians, to whom you read the Letter given, and whose peace you spurn? Behold, the Apostle wrote to the Ephesians: the Church was founded, it remains until now; and more richly it remains, more manifold it remains, it holds what it received from the Apostle: If anyone announces to you other than what you received, let him be anathema (See Gal 1:9). What, then? What do you say to me? I am not clean? Baptized there, am I not clean? Indeed you are not. Why? Because I was not there. But he who is everywhere was there. He who is everywhere was there, in whose name I believed. You, coming from I know not where, rather not coming, but wanting me to come to you, set here, say to me: You are not rightly baptized, because I was not there. See who was there. What was said to John? Upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, this is he who baptizes (See Jn 1:33). Him you have seeking you; rather, because you envied him to me, baptized, you have lost him.

7. Understand, then, my brothers, our voice and theirs, and see what you choose. We say this: Are we holy, God knows; are we wicked, this too he knows the more; do not set your hope in us, of whatever sort we are. If we are good, do what is written: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (See 1 Cor 11:1). But if we are evil, not even so are you deserted, not even so are you left without counsel; hear the one saying: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (See Mt 23:3). But those on the contrary: Unless we are good, you have perished. Behold, there is another who will come in his own name. Will my life, then, depend on you, and my salvation be bound to you? Have I so forgotten my foundation? Was not the rock Christ (See 1 Cor 10:4)? Does not he who builds upon the rock—the wind, the rain, the rivers do not throw him down (See Mt 7:24-25)? Come, then, with me, if you will, upon the rock, and do not want to be a rock for me.
Let the Church, then, say also that last thing: If you believed Moses, you would believe me too; for he wrote about me (See Jn 5:46); because I am his body, of whom he wrote. And of the Church Moses wrote. For I spoke Moses's words: In your seed all the nations will be blessed. Moses wrote this in the first book. If you believed Moses, you would believe Christ too. Because you despise the words of Moses, it is necessary that you despise the words of Christ. They have there, he says, Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. No, father Abraham; but if someone comes from the dead, him they will hear. And he: If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither, if someone rises from the dead, will they believe (See Lk 16:29-31). This was said of the Jews; was it then not said of heretics?

8. He had risen from the dead who said: It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day. This I believe. I believe, he says. Do you believe? Why do you not believe what follows? Because you believe: It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day; this was said of the head; believe also what follows about the Church: That repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name through all nations (See Lk 24:46-47). Why do you believe about the head, and not believe about the body? What has the Church done to you, that you want, as it were, to behead it? You want to take away the head of the Church, and believe in the head, leave the body, as a lifeless body. Without cause you flatter the head, as a devout servant. He who wants to behead, tries to kill both head and body. They blush to deny Christ, and do not blush to deny the words of Christ. Christ neither we have seen with the eyes, nor you. The Jews saw him, and killed him. We have not seen him, and we believe; his words are with us. Compare yourselves to the Jews; they despised him hanging on the wood, you despise him sitting in heaven; at their prompting the title of Christ stood, while you stand the Baptism of Christ is blotted out. But what remains, brothers, except that we pray even for the proud, that we pray even for the lifted up, who so exalt themselves? Let us say for them to God: Let them know that to you is the name Lord; and not men, but you alone are the Most High over all the earth (See Ps 83:18 (82)). Turned toward the Lord . . .

1. A great miracle was done, dearly beloved, that from five loaves and two fishes five thousand men were filled, and the remaining fragments filled twelve baskets (See Jn 6:9-13). A great miracle: but we shall not much marvel that it was done, if we attend to the doer. He multiplied in the hands of those breaking them five loaves, who multiplies the seeds sprouting in the earth, so that few grains are cast in and the granaries are filled. But because he does that every year, no one marvels. It is not the cheapness of the deed that takes away wonder, but its constancy. But the Lord, when he did these things, spoke not only through words, but also through the very miracles, to those who understand. The five loaves signified the five books of the Law of Moses. The old law is barley to the gospel wheat. Great mysteries about Christ are contained in those books. Whence he himself says: If you believed Moses, you would believe me too; for he wrote about me (See Jn 5:46). But just as in barley the kernel lies hidden under the chaff; so in the veil of the mysteries of the law Christ lies hidden. As those mysteries are expounded and unfolded as bread; so those loaves too grew, when they were broken. And this which I have expounded to you, I have broken bread for you. The five thousand men signify the people set under the five books of the law. The twelve baskets are the twelve Apostles, who too were filled from the fragments of the law. The two fishes are either the two precepts of love of God and neighbor, or the two peoples from circumcision and uncircumcision, or those two sacred persons of king and priest. These things, when they are expounded, are broken; when they are understood, are eaten.

2. Let us turn to him who did these things. He himself is the bread, which came down from heaven (See Jn 6:41); but the bread that refreshes, and does not fail; the bread that can be taken, cannot be consumed. That bread the manna too signified. Whence it was said: He gave them the bread of heaven, man ate the bread of angels (See Ps 78:24-25 (77)). What is the bread of heaven, except Christ? But that man might eat the bread of angels, the Lord of angels was made man. For if he had not become this, we would not have his flesh; if we did not have his flesh, we would not eat the bread of the altar. Let us hasten to the inheritance, because we have received a great pledge of it. My brothers, let us desire the life of Christ, because we hold as a pledge the death of Christ. How will he not give us his goods, who suffered our evils? In these lands, in this malignant world, what abounds, except to be born, to labor and to die? Examine human affairs, convict me, if I lie; attend to all men, whether they are in this world for anything else, than to be born, to labor and to die. These are the wares of our region, these abound here. To such wares that Merchant came down. And since every merchant gives and receives; he gives what he has, and receives what he does not have; when he buys something, he gives money, and receives what he buys; Christ too in this trade gave and received. But what did he receive? What abounds here, to be born, to labor and to die. And what did he give? To be reborn, to rise again, and to reign forever. O good Merchant, buy us. What shall I say, buy us, when we ought to give thanks, because you have bought us? You dole out to us our price, we drink your blood; so you dole out to us our price. And we read the Gospel, our deed of purchase. We are your servants, we are your creation; you made us, you redeemed us. Anyone can buy his servant, he cannot create him; but the Lord both created and redeemed his servants; created them, that they might be; redeemed them, lest they be captive forever. For we fell into the hands of the prince of this world, who seduced Adam and made him a servant, and began to possess us as homeborn slaves. But the Redeemer came, and the deceiver was conquered. And what did our Redeemer do to our captor? For our price he stretched out a trap, his cross; he set there, as it were as bait, his blood. But he could pour out that blood, he did not deserve to drink it. And in that he poured out the blood of one who was no debtor, he was bidden to give back the debtors; he poured out the blood of an innocent one, he was bidden to depart from the guilty. For he poured out his blood for this, that he might blot out our sins. Whence, then, the deceiver held us, was blotted out by the blood of the Redeemer. For he held us only by the chains of our sins. These were the chains of the captives. He came, bound the strong one with the chains of his passion; he entered his house, that is, into the hearts where he dwelt, and snatched his vessels (See Mt 12:29). We are the vessels. These he had filled with his bitterness. This bitterness he gave even to our Redeemer to drink in gall. He had filled us, then, as his vessels; but our Lord, snatching his vessels and making them his own, poured out the bitterness, filled them with sweetness.

3. Let us love him, then, because he is sweet. Taste, and see that the Lord is gentle (See Ps 34:8 (33)). He is to be feared, but more to be loved. He is man and God: one Christ man and God; as one man, soul and body; but God and man are not two persons. In Christ there are indeed two substances: God and man; but one person, that the Trinity may remain, lest, with the man being added, a quaternity come to be. How, then, can it come about that God does not have mercy on us, for whose sake God became man? Much is what he did: more wonderful is what he did, than what he promised; and from what he did, we ought to believe what he promised. For this which he did, we would scarcely believe, unless we also saw it. Where do we see it? In the believing peoples, in the multitude brought to him. Because what was promised to Abraham was fulfilled; and from the things we see, we believe the things we do not see. Abraham was one man, and it was said to him: In your seed all the nations will be blessed (See Gen 22:18). If he attended to himself, when would he believe? He was one man, and was already old, and had a barren wife, and one already so advanced in age that she could not conceive, even if she were not barren. There was nothing at all from which anything could be hoped. But he attended to the one promising, and believed what he did not see. Behold, what he believed, we see. Therefore from the things we see, we ought to believe the things we do not see. He begot Isaac, we did not see it; and Isaac begot Jacob, and this we did not see; and Jacob begot twelve sons, and these we did not see; and his twelve sons begot the people of Israel; a great people we see. Now I have begun to say the things we see. From the people of Israel the Virgin Mary was born, and bore Christ; and behold, in Christ all the nations are blessed. What is truer? What more certain? What more open? Desire with me the age to come, you who have been gathered from the nations. In this world God fulfilled his promise about the seed of Abraham. How, then, will he not give us his eternal promises, us whom he made to be the seed of Abraham? For this the Apostle says: But if you are Christ's, they are the Apostle's words, then you are the seed of Abraham (See Gal 3:29).

4. We have begun to be something great; let no one despise himself: we were nothing, but we are something. We said to the Lord: Remember that we are dust (See Ps 103:14 (102)); but he made man from dust, and gave life to the dust, and in Christ our Lord has already led that very dust to the kingdoms of heaven. Because from here he took flesh, from here he took earth, and lifted earth to heaven, who made earth and heaven. If, then, two new things not yet done were set before us, and it were asked of us: What is more wonderful, that he who is God should become man, or that he who is man should become a man of God? What is more wonderful, what more difficult? What did Christ promise us? What we do not yet see: that is, that we be men of his, and reign with him, and not die forever. As though this is believed difficult, that a man born should come to that life, where he never dies. This is what we believe with a heart shaken out, shaken out, I say, from the dust of the world, lest the dust itself close the eyes of our faith. This is what we are bidden to believe, that when we are dead, even with dead bodies we shall be in life, where we shall never die. This is wonderful: but more wonderful is what Christ did. For what is more incredible, that a man should live always, or that God should at some time die? Is it more credible that men receive life from God? That God receive death from men, I think is more incredible. And it has already been done: let us believe too what is to be. If what is more incredible has been done, will he not give us what is more credible? For God is able to make men angels, who made earthly and horrible seeds into men. What shall we be? Angels. What were we! It is shameful to recall; I am forced to consider, and I blush to say. What were we? From what did God make men? What were we before we were at all? We were nothing. When we were in our mothers' wombs, what were we? It suffices that you recall it. Lift up your minds from that from which you were made, and think what you are. You live: but the grasses and trees too live. You feel: the beasts too feel. You are men: you have surpassed the beasts, you are higher than the beasts; because you understand how much he has bestowed on us. You live, you feel, you understand, you are men. But to this benefit what can be compared? You are Christians. For if we had not received this, what would it profit us that we were men? So we are Christians, we belong to Christ. Let the world rage, it does not break us; because we belong to Christ. Let the world flatter, it does not seduce us; we belong to Christ.

5. We have found a great patron, brothers. You know that men make themselves great from their patrons. To one threatening someone, the client of a greater man answers: My lord's head being safe, you do nothing to me. How much more strongly and certainly do we say: Our head being safe, you do nothing to us? Since our patron is our head. Whoever make themselves great from some man as patron, are his clients; we are the members of our patron. Let him bestow us on himself, and let no one tear us away from him. Since whatever labors we have endured in this world, the whole that passes is nothing. Goods will come that will not pass; through labors one comes to them. But when one has come, no one tears us away from there. The gates of Jerusalem are shut, they receive even bars, so that it is said to that city: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion. For he strengthened the bars of your gates, he blessed your sons in you. Who set your borders peace (See Ps 147:12-14 (146)). The gates shut, the bars set, no friend goes out, no enemy comes in. There we have true and certain security, if here we do not let go the truth.

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who called himself bread, seeks the hungry (See Jn 6:35). But nothing hungers for this bread except health of mind, that is, of the inner belly. From this visible bread take a likeness. Since sick men, who through disease have contracted a loss of appetite, can praise the best bread but cannot eat it, so too the inner languor of the inner man is not moved to eat this heavenly bread, since it is pressed by loss of appetite, and, although it praises, is not delighted to take it. But the Lord himself says, as we have heard: Work for the food that does not perish, but that abides unto eternal life (See Jn 6:27), distinguishing it from this visible and bodily food, of which in another place: Everything that goes into the mouth, goes into the belly and is sent out into the privy (See Mt 15:17)—therefore it perishes. Work, then, for the food that does not perish, he says, but that abides unto eternal life. This food he called bread and showed himself to be bread. But what is it to work for this food, except to eat this food? For if this food is bread, likewise it is Christ. Who of us works Christ, who of us makes Christ, except by doing what Christ commanded? You are, says the Apostle, the body of Christ and members (See 1 Cor 12:27). Let us work Christ, that is, let us work this food.

2. Well did those who questioned and heard, hear for us and question for us. What, they say, shall we do, that we may work the work of God (See Jn 6:28)? And with that wonderful and great brevity: This is, he says, the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent (See Jn 6:29). This is brief: if you weigh it, it is great. It is quickly said, not easily fulfilled. Someone of so great a multitude of bystanders says to me, he says: "Who of us is there who has not believed in Christ?" If, then, we have all believed in Christ, we now find nothing to be admonished. Why? Because this is the work of God. Do you seek anything else than to do the work of God and to await the reward of God? Why, then, do you trouble yourself, why are you occupied with the great pages of Scripture and labor by running through them to seek and find how you may do the work of God? Behold you have, with your Lord speaking to you, truth and brevity: do not stretch yourself, do not sweat, do not labor, do not boil. This is the work of God, that you believe, he says, in him whom he sent. Where, then, is what James admonishes, saying: You believe that God is one? You do well. The demons too believe and tremble (See Jas 2:19)? Do not think, he says, that you do something great by believing that God is one: The demons too believe and tremble. But perhaps the demons have no belief about the Son of God? And what is it that they say to him: We know who you are (See Mk 1:24)? Or perhaps they speak lying? do they say what they do not know? Behold in another place more plainly: You are the holy one of God, they say, also You are the Son of God, they say. When Peter said this, he heard from the Lord: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you, Simon Bar-Jona, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (See Mt 16:17-18). On account of what all this? Because he said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (See Mt 16:16). This the demons too said, to whom it was said: Be silent (See Mk 1:25). Who easily discerns these things, whence the like voice is not praised, except because the heart is unlike? Understand, then, dearly beloved, at our admonishing, what you daily read and say. The demons too believed Christ to be, and to be the Son of God. They believed Christ, but did not believe in Christ. Now the whole intent of our sermon leans on this, as far as we can, if with the Lord helping we can, to explain what it is to believe in Christ.

3. For this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent (See Jn 6:29). He did not say "believe him" or "believe him to be," but believe in him. We have heard the words of the prophets: we believe them, but we do not believe in them. We have heard the Apostles preaching: we believe their preaching, but we do not believe in them. We do not believe in Paul, but we believe Paul. For he repels from himself certain men wanting to set their hope in him and, as it were, to believe in him, that they should not be in him, but he with them in Christ. Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in his name (See 1 Cor 1:13)? In short, not only the Apostles and holy teachers, but even we ourselves, not to be compared even to their least footsteps, daily say: "Believe me," but we never dare to say: "Believe in me." "Believe me": who does not say it? "Believe in me": who says it, or who that says it is not mad? In whom, then, must one believe? Of whom the same Paul says: To the one believing in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness (See Rom 4:5). Not, then, does Paul justify the ungodly, for then you would believe in him and your faith would be reckoned unto righteousness: for you would believe in him who justifies the ungodly. For when you do not believe in him—for Paul does not justify the ungodly, nor Elijah, nor any angel, but the just one of the just, the holy one of the holy, of whom it was said: That he himself may be just and justifying the one who is of faith (See Rom 3:26). Of you it can be said that you are just, but it is never heard that you are also justifying. For what is justifying, except making just? As enlivening is making living, as saving is making safe, so justifying is making just. Who is it who makes just? He who came just without sin. Who is it who makes just? He who was not made just here, but came just. Behold in whom we should believe, that we may do the work of God, because this itself is the work of God, to believe in him who justifies the ungodly.

4. "It suffices me, then," someone says; "I have believed in Christ: why do you admonish me further? This is the work of God: let him who promised the reward demand nothing else of me. For he who promises the reward commands me what to do, and pledges what I shall receive. He circumscribes the boundary of the work, when I have burned with love of the reward. He himself says to me: 'Do you want to live forever?', on account of the one who asked: What shall I do, that I may have eternal life?, 'Do you want to live forever? Do this, and you will live.' When I have asked: What shall I do?, he answers most briefly: 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.'" Why, then, to that rich man: If you want to come to life, keep the commandments, and when he said: "What commandments?", the precepts of the law were numbered: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not give false witness, honor father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (See Mt 19:16-19)? Could he not have answered also him, with that briefest summary, saying What shall I do, that I may have eternal life?: "Believe in me"? For this is the work of God, since above he defined it, to which thing he added nothing. This is the work of God—what more do you seek?—that you believe in him whom he sent. To that man precepts are given, and many, to us it is said: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. Or did the Lord perhaps deal graciously with us; did he want to burden that man, not relieve him? Far be it! Let us understand, then, if we can—which we, as we can, promised we would explain—what it is to believe in Christ, and let us do this, work this, in this make progress daily, to this come from day to day, until by coming we arrive. For at the beginning of our faith we promised this too, that we have begun in some part, and, when we have completed it, nothing further will be demanded of us. For this is the work of God, nor is there any other work of God, except that we believe in him whom he sent.

5. And since a little before we distinguished that it is one thing to believe him, to believe him to be, and to believe in him—to believe him is to believe that the things he speaks are true, to believe him to be is to believe that he himself is Christ, to believe in him is to love him—now examine these of yours: to believe that the things he speaks are true, to believe that he himself is Christ, to love Christ. To believe that the things he speaks are true, many even of the wicked can do. For they believe them to be true and do not want to do them: they are sluggish to work. But to believe that he himself is Christ, this even the demons could. So Peter: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, said it loving; the demons said it fearing. But not everyone who fears loves, everyone who loves fears. But perhaps—rather not perhaps, but certainly—everyone who loves fears, but with a chaste fear—for the fear of the Lord is chaste, abiding forever and ever (See Ps 19:9 (18))—not with a servile fear. For perfect love casts out fear (See 1 Jn 4:18). It is one thing to fear lest he come, another to fear lest he forsake. For to fear lest he come was in those who said: We know who you are. Why have you come before the time to destroy us (See Mt 8:29)? But the fear lest he forsake was in the one who had said: I will be with you even unto death (See Mt 26:35). When, then, you hear: "Believe in Christ," let it be too little for you to believe Christ, that is, that the things Christ speaks are true; let it be too little for you to believe Christ to be, that is, that he himself is the one whom God foretold through the prophets; but believe in Christ, that is, love Christ. When you have fulfilled this, nothing further will be demanded of you, since the fullness of the law is love (See Rom 13:10). When you have so believed in Christ, as to love Christ with that ardor, see whether these will not be your words: Who will separate us from the love of God (See Rom 8:35)? Do not, then, long seek how to do what Christ commands: you cannot but do it, if you love Christ. Love, and you do it. As much as you love, so much you do; as much less you do, the less you love. Fulfill love, and you perfect the work. See how truly it was said: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent, that is, that by loving you go into him, that is, be incorporated into him.

6. For someone can answer me and admonish me to speak more cautiously: "You said this is to believe in Christ, to love Christ, and you said we ought to believe in Christ, but not to believe in Paul; ought we then not to love Paul?" Therefore, as we distinguished between believing and believing, so the loving itself must be distinguished. I love Paul, and do not believe in Paul. I do not love Christ, unless I have believed in Christ. For I love Paul, but not—by loving—do I go into Paul: I will be with Paul, I will not be in Paul. For what is Apollos, what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed (See 1 Cor 3:5), not in whom you believed. Therefore, brothers, to believe in God is the work, by believing and loving to go into Christ. Believe in God, says Christ himself, and believe in me (See Jn 14:1). What prophet dared to say this, what patriarch, what apostle, what martyr, what angel? Therefore let us believe in him, let us love him, but by loving be incorporated into him. Let us understand our God both made man for our sake, and from this, that God was made man, justifying us. For if he were man only, he would have to be justified with us, he would not be the justifier. But now because he is our God and on account of nature was made man what he was not, on account of possession remained what he was, that in him at once we might have both that by which we go and that to which we come. Let us believe in him, that is, let us love him as God, that by loving we may go into him, from whom by neglecting we had departed.

7. But if this is in us, the bread delights; now there is no loss of appetite; we do not praise and shrink, but even the praised bread, silent, we eat, because we love, the loss of appetite being turned away, because the languor being healed. For what will our soul repay him, which says: What shall I repay the Lord?, which says: Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his repayments, who is merciful to all your iniquities (See Ps 116:12 (115); Ps 103:2-3 (102))? This was done, when we were washed. But what follows comes to be: Who heals all your languors (See Ps 103:3 (102)). As much as the languors are healed, so much the heavenly food delights; so much the bread of life that came down from heaven delights (See Jn 6:41), as much as our languors are healed. But by whom are they healed, except him to whom we said: Turn us, God of our health (See Ps 85:4 (84))? Turn us: you turn us, because, before you heal us, we are averse and refuse to touch the praised bread out of loss of appetite. We are averse when languid, we are turned when healed. Turn us, then, God of our health, and turn away your anger from us. For the languor itself is the anger of God. He who believes in the Son, has eternal life (See Jn 3:36). Why? Because he has worked the work of God. For this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. But he who is unbelieving toward the Son, will not have life, but the anger of God abides upon him (See Jn 3:36). It will not come upon him, but abides upon him. He is forsaken, not healed. Attending, then, the one who said: Turn us, God, because we cannot be turned, except insofar as we are healed, added: of our health. For this bread does not delight the unhealthy. As though he set forth the cause, then, from which we may be turned. What is: Turn us? Heal us. For in that we are not healthy, we are turned less to the bread of salvation. We praise, but are not delighted. Who would not approve, who would not say: "It is true," when I have said: What you do not want done to you, do not do to another (See Tob 4:15)? "It is true": you cry out, and you cry out nothing truer. Eat what you praise. You want to deceive a man, you want to be deceived by no one. You want to be enriched from another's evil, you do not want anyone to be enriched from your evil. Do you not set up a law against yourself, and is your heart not prescribed by which you are punished? Why do you not want it done to you, if it is good? Why do you do it, if it is evil? What will you answer, what will you say? "It delights me to do it and it delights me to do it," "this delights and this delights": they are the words of one languishing. Cry out: Turn us, God of our health, and turn away your anger from us (See Ps 85:4 (84)).

8. For in that same psalm this too was said: The Lord will give sweetness, and our earth will give its fruit (See Ps 85:12 (84)). But the fruit of the Spirit is love (See Gal 5:22). Whence this fruit, unless the Lord gives sweetness, by which the love of God has been poured out in our hearts? Not from ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5). You see that the Lord will give sweetness, that our earth may give its fruit. You see that our earth, that is, our heart, our soul, our earth does not give its fruit, unless God rains. The earth was moved. It was moved to give birth and to bear. But why was it moved? For the heavens dripped not of themselves, but from the face of God (See Ps 68:8 (67)). For what is Apollos, what is Paul? Ministers of God through whom you believed (See 1 Cor 3:5). They are the clouds of God: unless they are filled, they do not pour out. The earth, then, was moved—with God of our health turning us—the earth was moved, for the heavens dripped from the face of God. By God it was moved, for it would not be moved, except for the voluntary rain, as there follows. After it was said: The earth was moved, for the heavens dripped from the face of God, lest you think that very rain of the heavens to be not God's, a rain, he says, voluntary, not owed—for what did he owe us, except punishment? A rain, then, voluntary—because with the shield, he says, of your good will you have crowned us (See Ps 5:12 (5)), not by the brightness of our merits, but with the shield of your good will—a rain, then, voluntary, God setting apart for his inheritance, and it was weakened (See Ps 68:9 (67)). She is weakened too who gives birth. For the earth was moved to give birth, nor would it bear, unless weakness preceded. But you perfected it (See Ps 68:9-10 (67)).

9. What is it was weakened? It did not presume upon itself. What is it was weakened? It hoped the whole from you. What is it was weakened? When I am weak, then I am strong (See 2 Cor 12:10). Therefore it was weakened, it understood it was of the grace of God, not of its own merits, of its own strength; it understood, it was weakened, and lost presumption, that it might receive blessing. It was weakened. Let it not, then, presume upon itself, let it cry to the Lord, weak: Turn us, God of our health. There follows, then: And it was weakened, but you perfected it. Why did you perfect it? Because it was weakened, because it understood that it could not be perfected by itself. Therefore because it was weakened, you perfected it. That same earth cries out in Paul: On account of which I asked the Lord, that he would take it from me (See 2 Cor 12:8), namely the goad of my flesh for correction. For why did he say this was applied to him, except to restrain his own presumption and strength? For lest by the greatness, he says, of revelations I be lifted up, there was given me a goad of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (See 2 Cor 12:7). Therefore be weakened. The voluntary rain has been set apart for you, not owed. Cry out from weakness, because I am not worthy to be called an apostle (See 1 Cor 15:9). Therefore be weakened, that he may perfect you. For he said to you, praying: My grace suffices you, power is perfected in weakness (See 2 Cor 12:9).

10. So that same Apostle, in the reading we heard, concluded thus: That I may be found in him. How in him? Not having my own righteousness. For if your own, not in him. What is not having my own? As though gained by me, because fulfilled by my own strength. Not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith (See Phil 3:9). How my own, if it is from the law? A troublesome question, but we are now wearied. Accordingly if I say something less, let him fill it up whose we are. And I may be found in him not having my own righteousness. If he did not add: which is from the law, who would not think he meant this: Not having my own righteousness, as though that which comes from human teaching? Whence the Lord Christ said in another place: My teaching is not mine (See Jn 7:16), that is, human, it is not of this conspicuous substance which you see. For how is it not his, when the teaching of the Father is his Word? And who, except Christ, is his Word? Would men, then, think the Apostle had said this, when he says: I may be found in him not having my own righteousness, unless he added: which is from the law, but the righteousness which is from the faith of Jesus Christ (See Phil 3:9)? Why? Did not Christ too give the law? If you had the righteousness which is from the law, how would you have your own, when you did not give yourself the law, but received it from Christ, from the Son of God? For Christ did not begin to be from the Virgin, but from the Father, before the mother whom he created from whom he might be created, when he made that from which he might come to be. For the mother Zion, said the man, and the man was made in her. And—who was made man in her—he himself, the Most High, founded her (See Ps 87:5 (86)). He himself, then, made her in whom he might come to be. He himself, then, was in the time of Moses, who gave the law, because surely Moses, with many intervening steps, was from Abraham; but Christ says: Before Abraham, I am (See Jn 8:58). It is too little to say before Abraham, before all the angels, before heaven and earth, before all creation: For all things were made through him (See Jn 1:3).

11. What, then, is that I may be found in him not having my own righteousness, and he added: which is from the law? I will say, if I can briefly; the giver of grace will perfect it in your hearts. What is it, except that the Jews so had the law itself, that they did the works of the law out of fear of damnation, not out of the fire of love? Therefore because they acted out of servile fear, they were servants. But if you begin out of love to do what is written in the law: You shall not covet (See Exod 20:17), whence is this to you, except that the love of God has been poured out in your heart, not from yourself, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you (See Rom 5:5)? Since a voluntary rain, God setting apart for his inheritance, and it was weakened (See Ps 68:9 (67)), that it might hope nothing of itself. For it was said to it: "Do," and it did; "Do not kill," and it did not kill; "Do not commit adultery with another's wife," and it did not commit adultery. It was said: "Do," and it did. It was said: "Love what you do," and it was weakened. You do not kill your enemy out of fear: if impunity were given, would you not spare him? Would you do what David did, to whom the Lord so gave his enemy into his hands, that he might do to him what he willed? He chose to spare, he chose to spare the one whom he was permitted with impunity to kill (See 1 Sam 24:4-7; 26:7-9). If, then, impunity were granted you about killing your enemy, would you spare him? How would you spare him lest he die, of whom you say: "O that he would die"? Therefore the law imposed forbade the evil deed to the one fearing in servile fashion, it did not root out the evil desire. You restrain yourself from the deed, but you have the desire to do it. Why do you have the desire to do it? Because you do not have the love of righteousness. Therefore there is nothing further to be forbidden you. Love. What do I do, to love? . . . Therefore out of love, because, if you do it out of fear, you do not love. Your righteousness it will be, though from the law, because you do not do what the law forbids, yet your own: for you do not do it out of fear, not out of love. When will it not be your own righteousness? If it is from the faith of Christ. For by believing in him you obtained what he commands.

12. This the Scripture of the present psalm attends to. Does not God say: Turn to me (See Zech 1:3)? The Scriptures are full of it. Turn to me, turn to me. For the languor began to be moved. For what is: Turn to me? Not—which is easily done—that you who attended to the West attend to the East. Would that you do this within, because this is not easy! You turn your body from hinge to hinge: turn your heart from love to love. Turn to me: God cries out. The earth feared, lest, not turned, it be condemned; it moved itself, that it might be turned: the languor did not follow, the bread did not delight the sick. Turn to me. The languor saw it could not do what was commanded, and cried out from the prophet: Turn us, God; faith entered the heart; it asked that what was commanded be done, it said: Turn us, God. Because it was weakened, but you perfected it, that I may be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but the righteousness of Christ which is from faith. What is from faith? Which it obtained by asking, as much as it could not under the one commanding. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (See Rom 10:13). This is the righteousness of faith which we preach; this is the living bread that came down from heaven (See Jn 6:51), healing that it may be eaten, strengthening because it is eaten, fattening because it is desired, since of it it was said to our soul, that it satisfies your desire with good things (See Ps 103:5 (102)). And so on.

1. We have heard the truthful Master, the divine Redeemer, the human Savior, commending to us our price, his blood. For he spoke to us of his body and blood; he called the body food, the blood drink. The faithful recognize the sacrament of the faithful. But those who hear, what else do they do than hear? When, then, commending such food and such drink, he said: Unless you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you will not have life in you (and this he said of life—who else but life itself? But it will be death to that man, not life, who has thought life a liar); his disciples were scandalized, not indeed all, but very many, saying within themselves: This saying is hard, who can hear it (See Jn 6:53, 60)? But when the Lord had known this within himself, and had heard the murmurs of their thought, he answered those thinking, and not making a sound with their voice, that they might know they had been heard, and cease to think such things. What, then, did he answer? Does this scandalize you? If, then, you should see the Son of man ascending where he was before (See Jn 6:61-62)? What does he mean: Does this scandalize you? Do you think that of this body of mine which you see, I am going to make parts, and cut up my members, and give them to you? What is: If, then, you should see the Son of man ascending where he was before? Surely he who could ascend whole, could not be consumed. So both from his body and blood he gave us a saving refreshment, and so great a question he resolved briefly from his wholeness. Let those eat, then, who eat, and those drink who drink; let them hunger and thirst: let them eat life, let them drink life. That eating is to be refreshed: but you are so refreshed, that that from which you are refreshed does not fail. That drinking, what is it, except to live? Eat life, drink life: you will have life, and life is whole. But then this will be, that is, life will be to each one the body and blood of Christ; if what in the sacrament is taken visibly, in the very truth is eaten spiritually, drunk spiritually. For we have heard the Lord himself saying: It is the Spirit that gives life, but the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are, he says, some who do not believe (See Jn 6:63-64). They said: This saying is hard, who can hear it? It is hard, but to the hard: that is, incredible, but to the unbelieving.

2. But that he might teach us that believing itself too is of gift, not of merit: As, he says, I told you, no one comes to me, unless it has been given him by my Father (See Jn 6:65). But where the Lord said this, if we recall the earlier parts of the Gospel, we shall find that he said: No one comes to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him (See Jn 6:44). He did not say: "Leads him"; but: draws him. That violence is done to the heart, not the flesh. Why, then, do you wonder? Believe, and you come; love, and you are drawn. Do not think this a harsh and troublesome violence: it is sweet, it is pleasant; that very sweetness draws you. Is not a sheep drawn, when grass is shown to it as it hungers? And I think it is not driven by the body, but bound by desire. So you too, come to Christ: do not meditate long journeys; where you believe, there you come. For to him who is everywhere one comes by loving, not by sailing. But since even in such a journey waves and storms of various temptations abound; believe in the crucified, that your faith may be able to ascend the wood. You will not be drowned, but will be carried by the wood. So, so on the waves of this world sailed the one who said: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (See Gal 6:14).

3. But it is a wonder that, Christ crucified being preached, two hear, one despises, the other ascends. Let him who despises impute it to himself; let him who ascends not arrogate it to himself. For he heard from the truthful Master: No one comes to me, unless it has been given him by my Father (See Jn 6:65). Let him rejoice, because it has been given: let him give thanks to the giver with a humble heart, not an arrogant one; lest what the humble deserved, the proud lose. For even those who already walk in that just way, if they attribute it to themselves and their own strength, perish from it. Therefore, teaching us humility, the holy Scripture through the Apostle says: With fear and trembling work out your own salvation. And lest they ascribe anything from it to themselves, because he said: work out, he at once added: For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for good will (See Phil 2:12-13). It is God who works in you; therefore: with fear and trembling, make a valley, receive the shower. The low places are filled, the high are dried up. Grace is rain. Why, then, do you wonder, if God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (See Jas 4:6)? Therefore: with fear and trembling; that is: "with humility." Do not be high-minded, but fear (See Rom 11:20). Fear, that you may be filled; do not be high-minded, lest you be dried up.

4. But now, you say, I walk this way; it was necessary that I learn, it was necessary that I know through the teaching of the Law what I should do: I have free choice of will; who will separate me from this way? If you read diligently, you will find that someone, out of a certain abundance of his, which yet he had received, began to lift himself up; but the merciful Lord, to teach humility, took away what he had given; and he suddenly remained destitute, and, confessing through remembrance the mercy of God, said: I said in my abundance: I shall not be moved forever. I said in my abundance. But I said; I, a man, said it: Every man is a liar (See Ps 116:11 (115)). I said. Therefore: I said in my abundance; so great was the abundance, that I dared to say this: I shall not be moved forever. What then? Lord, in your will you bestowed strength on my beauty. But you turned away your face from me, and I was made troubled (See Ps 30:6-7 (29)). You showed me, he says, that that in which I abounded was of yours. You showed me from where I should ask, to whom I should attribute what I had received, to whom I ought to give thanks, to whom I should run thirsting, from whom I should be filled, and, filled, to whom I should keep it. For my strength I will keep to you (See Ps 59:9 (58)), so that by your bestowing I may be filled, by your keeping I may not lose. My strength I will keep to you. That you might show me this: You turned away your face from me, and I was made troubled. Troubled, because dried up; dried up, because exalted. Say, then, dry and parched, that you may be filled again: My soul is like land without water to you. Say: My soul is like land without water to you (See Ps 143:6 (142)). For you had said, the Lord had not said: I shall not be moved forever. You had said it presuming upon yourself; but not upon your own, and you thought it as it were of your own.

5. What, then, does the Lord say? Serve the Lord in fear, and exult to him with trembling (See Ps 2:11). So too the Apostle: With fear and trembling work out your own salvation, for it is God who works in you (See Phil 2:12-13). Therefore: Exult with trembling. Lest at any time the Lord be angry. I see that by crying out you anticipate me. For you know what I am going to say, by crying out you anticipate. And whence have you this, except that he taught you to whom by believing you have come? This, then, he says: Hear what you know; I do not teach, but recall by preaching: rather I do not teach, because you know it; nor recall, because you remember; but let us say together what you hold with us. This the Lord says: Lay hold of discipline, and exult, but: with trembling, that you may always humbly hold what you have received. Lest at any time the Lord be angry, surely at the proud, attributing to themselves what they have, not giving thanks to him from whom they have it. Lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way. Did he say: Lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you not come to the just way? Or: Lest at any time the Lord be angry, and he not lead you to the just way, or not admit you to the just way? You now walk in it, do not be proud, lest you perish even from it. And you perish, he says, from the just way. When his anger blazes up shortly upon you. Not for long. Where you are proud, there you lose what you had received. Frightened by these things, a man, as though saying: What then shall I do? There follows: Blessed are all who trust in him (See Ps 2:12); not in themselves, but: in him. By grace we have been saved, not of ourselves, but it is the gift of God (See Eph 2:8).

6. Perhaps you say: What does it mean that he says this often? Again this, and a third time this: and almost never does he speak, except when he says this. Would that I do not say it without cause. For there are men ungrateful to grace, attributing much to a needy and wounded nature. It is true, man received great powers of free choice when he was created; but by sinning he lost them. He slipped down into death, was made weak, was left half-alive on the road by robbers; the passing Samaritan, which is interpreted "Keeper," lifted him onto his mount; he is still being led to the inn (See Lk 10:30-34). Why is he lifted up? He is still being cured. But it suffices, he says, that in Baptism I received the remission of all sins. Is it that, because iniquity was blotted out, weakness is ended? I received, he says, the remission of all sins. It is utterly true. All sins were blotted out in the sacrament of Baptism, all utterly, spoken, done, thought, all were blotted out. But this is what was poured in on the road, oil and wine. You retain, dearly beloved, how that half-alive man wounded by robbers on the road was consoled, receiving oil and wine for his wounds (See Lk 10:34). Now surely his straying had been pardoned, and yet the languor is healed in the inn. The inn, if you recognize it, is the Church. The inn now, because by living we pass on: it will be a house, from which we shall never migrate, when we come whole to the kingdom of heaven. Meanwhile in the inn let us be willingly cured, let us not, still languid, glory in health; lest by being proud we do nothing else, than that by never being cured we are healed.

7. Bless the Lord, my soul. Say to your soul, say: You are still in this life, you still bear fragile flesh, the body that is corrupted still weighs down the soul (See Wis 9:15); still, after the wholeness of remission you have received the remedy of prayer; still surely you say, until your languors are healed: Forgive us our debts (See Mt 6:12). Say, then, to your soul, a humble valley, not an upraised hill; say to your soul: Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his repayments. What repayments? Say, enumerate, give thanks. What repayments? Who is merciful to all your iniquities. This was done in Baptism. What comes to be now? Who heals all your languors. This comes to be now: I acknowledge it. But as long as I am here, the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul. Say, then, also what follows: Who redeems your life from corruption (See Ps 103:2-4 (102)). After the redemption from corruption what remains? When this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then will come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is, O death, your contention (See 1 Cor 15:54-55)? There rightly: Where is, O death, your sting? You seek its place, and do not find it. What is the sting of death? What is: Where is, O death, your sting? Where is sin? You seek it, and it is nowhere. For the sting of death is sin (See 1 Cor 15:56). They are the Apostle's words, not mine. Then it will be said: Where is, O death, your sting? Nowhere will there be sin, neither that may seize you, nor that may attack you, nor that may tickle the conscience. Then it will not be said: Forgive us our debts (See Mt 6:12). But what will be said? O Lord our God, give us peace: for you have repaid us all things.

8. In short, after the redemption from all corruption, what remains except the crown of righteousness? It surely remains, but even in it, or under it, let not the head be swollen, so as to receive the crown. Hear, attend to the Psalm, how that crown does not want a swollen head. When it had said: Who redeems your life from corruption; Who crowns you, it says. Now here you were going to say: He crowns you, my merits confess it, my virtue did this: a debt is repaid, not granted. Hear rather the Psalm. For this too you say: Every man is a liar (See Ps 116:11 (115)). Hear what God says: Who crowns you in compassion and mercy (See Ps 103:4 (102)). Out of mercy he crowns you, out of compassion he crowns you. For you were not worthy that he should call you, and call you justify you, and justified glorify you. A remnant has been saved through the election of grace. But if by grace, then no longer of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace (See Rom 11:5-6). For to the one who works, the wage is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt (See Rom 4:4). The Apostle speaks: Not according to grace, but according to debt. But he crowns you in compassion and mercy: and if your merits preceded, God says to you: Examine well your merits, and you will see that they are my gifts.

9. This, then, is the righteousness of God. Just as it is said: the salvation of the Lord (See Ps 3:8 (2)), not by which the Lord is saved, but which he gives to those whom he saves: so too the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord is called the righteousness of God, not by which the Lord is just, but by which he justifies those whom he makes just from the ungodly. But some, just as the Jews once, both want to be called Christians, and, still being ignorant of the righteousness of God, want to establish their own, even in our times, in the times of open grace, in the times when the grace once hidden is now revealed, in the times when grace is manifest now on the threshing floor, which once lay hidden in the fleece. I see that few have understood, more have not understood, whom I will by no means defraud by being silent. One of the ancient just men, Gideon, asked a sign of the Lord, and said: I ask, Lord, that this fleece which I set on the threshing floor be drenched, and the threshing floor be dry. It was done: the fleece was drenched, the whole threshing floor was dry. He wrung out the fleece in the morning into a basin; since to the humble grace is given: and in the basin you know what the Lord did to his disciples (See Jn 13:5). Again he asked another sign: I want, he says, Lord, that the fleece be dry, the threshing floor drenched (See Judg 6:37-40). And this too was done. Recall the time of the Old Testament, grace is hidden in the cloud, like rain in the fleece. Attend now to the time of the New Testament, examine the nation of the Jews, you will find it like a dry fleece: but the whole world, like that threshing floor, is full of grace not hidden, but manifest. Whence we are compelled to lament much our brothers, who contend not against hidden grace, but against open and manifest grace. The Jews are pardoned. What of the Christians? why are they enemies of the grace of Christ? Why presuming upon themselves? why ungrateful? For why did Christ come? Was not nature here? Was not nature here, which you deceive by praising it much? Was not the Law here? But the Apostle says: If righteousness is through the Law, then Christ died in vain (See Gal 2:21). What the Apostle says of the law, this we say to these of nature: If righteousness is through nature, then Christ died in vain.

10. What, then, was said of the Jews, this we see altogether in these. They have zeal for God. I bear them witness, that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. What is: Not according to knowledge? For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wanting to establish their own, they are not subject to the righteousness of God (See Rom 10:2-3). My brothers, suffer with me. Where you find such men, do not conceal it, let there not be in you a perverse mercy: utterly, where you find such men, do not conceal it. Refute the gainsayers, and bring those who resist to us. For already on this cause two councils have sent to the Apostolic See: thence too rescripts have come. The cause is finished: would that the error might one day be finished! Therefore we admonish that they may take note, we teach that they may be instructed, we pray that they may be changed. Turned toward the Lord . . .

1. As we heard, when the holy Gospel was read, the Lord Jesus Christ exhorted us by the promise of eternal life to eat his flesh and drink his blood. You who heard these things, have not all yet understood them. For you who are baptized and faithful, know what he said. But those among you who are still called catechumens, or hearers, could be present hearing when it was read, but understanding? Therefore our sermon is directed to both. Those who already eat the flesh of the Lord, and drink his blood, let them consider what they eat, and what they drink: lest, as the Apostle says, they eat and drink judgment to themselves (See 1 Cor 11:29). But those who do not yet eat, and do not yet drink, let them hasten, invited to such a banquet. Through these days the teachers feed, Christ feeds daily, his table is that which is set in the midst. What is the reason, O hearers, that you see the table, and do not approach the banquet? And perhaps just now when the Gospel was read, you said in your hearts: We wonder what it is that he says: My flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink (See Jn 6:55)? How is the flesh of the Lord eaten, and the blood of the Lord drunk? We wonder what he says? Who shut you out against this, that you should not know it? It is veiled: but if you wish, it will be revealed. Approach the profession, and you have resolved the question. For what the Lord Jesus said, the faithful now know. But you are called a catechumen, you are called a hearer, and you are deaf. For you have the ears of the body open, because you hear the words that were said: but you still have the ears of the heart shut, because you do not understand what was said. I argue, I do not merely discourse. Behold it is Easter, give your name for Baptism. If the festivity does not rouse you, let curiosity itself lead you: that you may know what was said: He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him (See Jn 6:56). That you may know with me what was said, knock, and it will be opened to you. And as I say to you: Knock, and it will be opened to you; so I too knock, open to me. Sounding in your ears, I knock at your breast.

2. But if the catechumens must be exhorted, my brothers, not to delay to approach so great a grace of regeneration; how great care ought we to have in building up the faithful, that it may profit them that they approach; that they not eat and drink such a banquet to themselves for judgment? But that they may not eat and drink for judgment, let them live well. Be exhorters not by your words, but by your conduct: so that those who are not baptized may so hasten to follow you, that they do not perish by imitating you. You who are married, keep faith of the bed to your wives. Repay what you demand. Husband, you demand chastity of the woman, offer her an example, not a word. You are the head, see where you go. For you ought to go that way which is not perilous for them to follow: rather, where you yourself want her to follow, there you ought to walk. From the weaker sex you demand strength: both of you have the desire of the flesh; let the one who is stronger conquer first. And yet, what must be grieved, many men are conquered by women. Women keep the chastity which men refuse to keep: and in that they do not keep it, they want to seem men; as though for this the sex is stronger, that the enemy may more easily subjugate it. There is a struggle, a battle, a fight. The man is stronger than the woman, the man is the head of the woman (See 1 Cor 11:3). The woman fights, and conquers: do you yield to the enemy? Does the body stand, and the head lie low? But you who do not yet have wives, and yet already approach the Lord's table, and eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, if you are going to take wives, keep yourselves for your wives. Such as you want them to come to you, such ought they too to find you. What young man is there who does not want to take a chaste wife? And if he is going to receive a virgin, who does not desire her untouched? You seek one untouched, be untouched. You seek a pure one, do not be impure. For it is not that she can, and you cannot. If it could not be, neither could she. But because she can, let it teach you that it can be done. And her, that she may be able, God rules. But you will be more glorious, if you do it. Why more glorious? Her the guardianship of parents presses, the very modesty of the weaker sex restrains: in short, she fears the laws, which you do not fear. Therefore you will be more glorious, if you do it; because if you do it, you fear God. She has many things to fear besides God: you fear God alone. But he whom you fear is greater than all. He is to be feared in public, he in secret. You go out, you are seen; you enter, you are seen; the lamp burns, it sees you; the lamp is put out, it sees you; you enter the bedroom, it sees you; you turn things over in your heart, it sees you. Fear him, him whose care it is to see you; and at least by fearing be chaste. Or if you want to sin, seek where he does not see you, and do what you will.

3. But you who have already vowed, chastise the body more strictly, and do not allow yourselves to loose the reins of desire even toward the things that are permitted; so that you may not only turn aside from unlawful intercourse, but also despise the lawful gaze. Remember, in whatever sex you are, whether men or women, that you lead the life of the angels on earth. For the angels do not marry, nor take wives. This we shall be, when we rise again (See Mt 22:30). How much better are you, who what men will be after the resurrection, this you begin to be before death? Keep your degrees: for God keeps your honors for you. The resurrection of the dead has been compared to the stars set in heaven. For star differs from star in glory, as the Apostle says: So too the resurrection of the dead (See 1 Cor 15:41-42). For virginity will shine there in one way, conjugal chastity will shine there in another way, holy widowhood will shine there in another. They will shine diversely: but all will be there. The splendor unequal, the heaven common.

4. Considering, then, your degrees, keeping your professions too, approach the flesh of the Lord, approach the blood of the Lord. He who knows himself to be otherwise, let him not approach. Be rather pricked by my sermon. For those rejoice together who know how to keep for their spouses what they demand of their spouses; those who know how to keep continence in every way, if they have vowed this to God; but those who hear me saying: Whoever do not keep chastity, do not approach that bread, are saddened. And I would not want to say this: but what do I do? Shall I fear man, so as to keep silent about the truth? Therefore if those servants do not fear the Lord, am I too not to fear him? As though I do not know it was said: Wicked and slothful servant, you should give, and I would demand (See Mt 25:26-27). Behold I have given, O Lord my God; behold in your sight and in the sight of your angels and in the sight of your own people I have doled out your money: for I fear your judgment. I have given, you demand. Even if I do not say it, you will do it. Therefore I rather say this: I have given, you turn them, you spare. Make chaste those who were unchaste, that together in your sight, when the judgment comes, we may rejoice, both the one who doled out and the one to whom it was doled out. Does this please you? Let it please you. Whoever you are who are unchaste, correct yourselves, while you live. For I can speak the word of God, but the unchaste persevering in wickedness, from the judgment and condemnation of God I cannot free.

1. What kind of voice of the Lord have you heard inviting us? Who invited, whom did he invite, and what did he prepare? The Lord invited servants, and prepared for them as food himself. Who would dare to eat his Lord? And yet he says: He who eats me, lives because of me (See Jn 6:57). When Christ is eaten, life is eaten. Nor is he killed that he may be eaten, but he gives life to the dead. When he is eaten, he refreshes, but does not fail. Let us not fear, then, brothers, to eat this bread, lest perhaps we finish it, and afterward not find what to eat. Let Christ be eaten: he lives when eaten, because he rose again slain. Nor when we eat do we make parts of him. And indeed in the sacrament it is so done, and the faithful know how they eat the flesh of Christ; each one receives his part, whence too the grace itself is called parts. By parts it is eaten, and remains whole entire; by parts it is eaten in the sacrament, and remains whole entire in heaven, remains whole entire in your heart. For he was whole with the Father, when he came into the Virgin; he filled her, nor did he depart from him. He came into the flesh, that men might eat him; and he remained whole with the Father, that he might feed the angels. For that you may know, brothers (both you who know and you who do not know, you ought to know), when Christ was made man, man ate the bread of angels (See Ps 78:25 (77)). Whence, how, by what way, by what merits, by what dignity would man eat the bread of angels, unless the creator of the angels became man? Securely, then, let us eat: that which we eat is not finished; and let us eat, lest we be finished. What is it, to eat Christ? It is not only this, to receive his body in the sacrament; for many receive it unworthily, of whom the Apostle says: He who eats the bread, and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself (See 1 Cor 11:27, 29).

2. But how is Christ to be eaten? As he himself says: He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him (See Jn 6:56). If, therefore, he abides in me, and I in him, then he eats, then he drinks; but he who does not abide in me, nor I in him, even if he receives the sacrament, acquires a great torment. He who abides in me, then, which he says, in another place he himself says: He who does my commandments, abides in me, and I in him (See Jn 14:21, 23). See, then, brothers, that if you are separated, you who are faithful, from the body of the Lord, it is to be feared lest you die of hunger. For he himself said: He who does not eat my flesh, nor drinks my blood, will not have life in him (See Jn 6:53). If, then, you are separated, so as not to eat the body and blood of the Lord, it is to be feared lest you die; but if you receive it unworthily, and drink unworthily, it is to be feared lest you eat and drink judgment. Great straits are upon you. Live well, and the straits are widened. Do not promise yourselves life while living badly: what God does not promise, a man deceives himself, when he promises it to himself. An evil witness, you promise yourself what the truth denies you. The truth says: If you live badly, you will die forever; and you say to yourself: Do I both live badly, and live forever with Christ? How can it be, that the truth lies, and you speak the truth? Every man is a liar (See Ps 116:11 (115)). Therefore you cannot live well, unless he helps, unless he gives, unless he grants it. Therefore pray, and eat. Pray, and you will be freed from these straits. For he will fill you, both in acting well, and in living well. Let your conscience be examined. Your mouth will be filled with the praise of God and with exultation; and you will say to him, freed from great straits: You have freed my steps beneath me, and my footsteps were not weakened (See Ps 18:36 (17)).

1. It is set before us, with the Lord's help, to discuss this most recent passage of the Gospel, and it is no small question, lest the truth be in peril, and falsehood glory. But neither can the truth perish, nor falsehood prevail. But what question this reading has, hear a little; and, made attentive by the question set forth, pray that we may be sufficient for the resolution. There was a feast day of the Jews, Tabernacles: these are the days, as far as appears, which they observe even today, when they call them booths. For they have this solemnity from the building of tents; since a tent is called skenopegia, Tabernacles is the building of a tent. These feast days were kept among the Jews: and it was called one feast day, not because it was done on one day, but because it was carried out in a continuous festivity; like the feast day of Passover, like the feast day of unleavened bread, and yet, as is manifest, that feast day is kept through several days. So this solemnity was in Judea; the Lord Jesus was in Galilee, where he was reared, where he had kinsmen and relatives too, whom Scripture calls brothers. His brothers said, then, to him, as we heard read: Pass over from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples too may see your works which you do. For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be in the open. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world. Then the Evangelist adds: For not even his brothers believed in him. If, then, they did not believe in him, they added envious words. Jesus answered them: My time has not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you: but it hates me, because I bear witness about it, that its works are evil. You go up to this feast day. I do not go up to this feast day, because my time is not yet fulfilled. Then follows the Evangelist: When he had said these things, he himself remained in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up, then he himself too went up to the feast day, not openly, but as it were in secret (See Jn 7:2-10). This far the question extends, the rest is open.

2. What, then, is asked? What moves us? What is in peril? Lest the Lord, or rather, to say it more openly, lest Truth itself be believed to have lied. For if we want it thought to have lied, the weak man will receive authority for lying. We have heard people say that he lied. For those who think he lied, say this: He said he would not go up to the feast day, and he went up. First, then, as far as in the short time we can, let us see whether he lies who says something and does not do it. For example, I said to a friend: Tomorrow I will see you; a greater necessity arose, which detained me; not for that did I speak falsely. For when I promised, I felt what I said. But when something else greater arose, which hindered the fulfillment of my promise, I did not want to lie, but I could not fulfill the promise. Behold, as I judge, I have not labored to persuade, but only admonished your prudence, that he does not lie who promises something and does not do it, if, so that he should not do it, something else arose, which hinders his promise, not which convicts him of falsehood.

3. But he who hears me says: Can you say this of Christ, that either he could not fulfill what he wanted, or did not know the future? You do well, you suggest well, you rightly admonish: but, O man, share with me the anxiety. Him whom we do not dare to call less able, do we dare to call lying? I indeed, as far as I judge, as far as for my weakness I can judge, choose that a man be deceived in something, than that he lie in something. For to be deceived pertains to weakness, to lie to iniquity. You hate, he says, Lord, all who work iniquity. And at once: You will destroy all who speak a lie (See Ps 5:5-6 (5)). Either iniquity and the lie are worth the same; or it is more: You will destroy, than you hate. For not he who is hated is at once punished with destruction. Let that question be true, whether sometimes it is necessary to lie; for I do not now examine it: it is full of hiding places, it has many recesses; there is no leisure to cut them all, and to come to the living. Therefore let its cure be deferred to another time; for perhaps without our sermon it will be healed by divine help. But what I deferred, what I want to treat today, attend and distinguish. Whether one must sometimes lie, this I said is a difficult and most hidden question, this I defer. But whether Christ lied, whether the Truth said anything false, this we have undertaken today, admonished from the gospel reading.

4. But what the difference is between being deceived and lying, I say briefly. He is deceived who thinks that what he says is true, and because he thinks it true, therefore he says it. But this which the one deceived says, if it were true, he would not be deceived: if not only it were true, but he also knew it to be true, he would not lie. He is deceived, then, because it is false, and he thinks it true; but he says it only because he thinks it true. There is error in human weakness, but it is not in the soundness of conscience. But whoever thinks something to be false and asserts it as true, he himself lies. See, my brothers, distinguish, you who have been nourished in the Church, instructed in the Lord's Scriptures, not untaught, not rustic, not ignorant. For among you are learned and erudite men and those well instructed in various letters: and you who have not learned those letters which are called liberal, it is greater that you have been nourished in the word of God. If I labor in explaining what I feel, help me both by attention of hearing and by prudence of thinking. Nor will you help, unless you are helped. Whence let us pray for one another in turn, and await common help together. He is deceived, who, when it is false, thinks that what he says is true: but he lies who thinks something to be false, and says it as true, whether that be true, or false. Note what I have added. Whether that be true, or false, yet he who thinks it false, and asserts it as true, lies: he aims to deceive. For what does it profit him, that it is true? Meanwhile he himself thinks this false, and says it as though it were true. It is true in itself, that which he says, in itself it is true: with him it is false, his conscience does not have this which he speaks; he thinks one thing in himself to be true, he brings forth another outside as the truth. The heart is double, not simple; he does not bring forth what he has there. The double heart was long ago condemned. Deceitful lips, in heart and heart they have spoken evil things. It would suffice for him to say: In heart they have spoken evil things; whence is: deceitful lips? What is deceit? When one thing is done, another held out. Deceitful lips, not a simple heart; and because not a simple heart, therefore in heart and heart (See Ps 12:2 (11)); therefore twice heart, because the heart is double.

5. Do we suppose, then, of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he lied? If it is less to be deceived, than to lie; him whom we do not dare to say is deceived, do we dare to say lies? But he neither is deceived, nor lies: but altogether, as it is written (for it is understood of him, of him it ought to be understood): Nothing false is said to the king, and nothing false will go out of his mouth (See Prov 16:10 LXX). If he meant any man as king, let us set Christ the king before a man king. But if, what is more truly understood, it is Christ of whom he spoke (for to him nothing false is said, because he is not deceived; from his mouth nothing false proceeds, because he does not lie); let us seek how we may understand the gospel passage, and not, as though by heavenly authority, build a chasm of lying. But it is more absurd to seek to expound truth and to prepare a place for lying. What do you teach me, I ask you, who expound this passage to me? What do you want to teach me? I do not know whether you dare to say: Falsehood. For if you dare to say this, I turn away my ears, and stop them with thorns, so that if you try to crowd in upon me, I will depart even pricked, without the Gospel expounded. Tell me what you want to teach me, and you have resolved the question. Say, I beg you: behold I am present; my ears are open, my heart is ready, teach. But I ask what? I do not go through many things. What are you going to teach? Whatever doctrine you are going to turn over in the midst, whatever sinews you are going to apply in the dispute, say this alone, I ask one of two things: Are you going to teach me truth, or falsehood? What do we think he will answer, lest he depart; lest, while he gapes and tries to express words, I forsake him at once? what will he promise, except truth? I hear, I stand, I await, I most intently await. Behold, he who promised that he would teach me truth, insinuates falsehood about Christ. How, then, will he teach truth, who is going to call Christ a liar? If Christ lies, am I to hope that you are going to tell me the truth?

6. See another thing. What does he say? Christ lied. Where, I ask you? Where he said: I do not go up to the feast day (See Jn 7:8), and he went up. I indeed would want to examine this passage, lest perhaps Christ did not lie. Rather, because I do not doubt that Christ did not lie, this passage either I will examine and understand, or, not understanding, I will defer. Yet I will not say that Christ lied. Suppose I did not understand it: I will depart not knowing. For it is better with devotion not to know, than with madness to judge. Yet let us try to discuss it, lest perhaps, with him helping who is the Truth, we may find something, and we be found something, and that something will not in the truth be a lie. For if by seeking I find a lie, I find not something, but nothing. Therefore let us seek where you say Christ lied. Because he said, he says: I do not go up to the feast day, and he went up. Whence do you know that he said it? What if I say, rather not I, but someone; for far be it that I say this; what if another says: Christ did not say this? Whence do you convict him, whence are you going to prove it? You are going to open the book, find the reading, show it to the man, rather with great confidence of breast thrust the book at the one resisting: Hold, attend, read, you carry the Gospel. What, then, I ask you, why do you trouble me a little? Do not press, say it more plainly, more tranquilly. Behold, I carry the Gospel, and what of it? He: The Gospel says that Christ said what you deny. And therefore will you believe that Christ said this, because the Gospel says it? Plainly so, he says. I much wonder, how you say that Christ lies and the Gospel does not lie. But lest perhaps, when I say Gospel, you attend to the book, think parchment and ink to be the Gospel, see what the Greek name means: the Gospel is "good news," or "good announcement." Does the messenger, then, not lie, and he who sent him lie? This messenger, namely the Evangelist, that we may say the name too, this John who wrote this, did he lie about Christ, or speak the truth? Choose what you will, I am ready to hear you for either. If he lied, there is nothing by which you prove that Christ said those things. If he spoke the truth, from a fountain of falsehood truth does not flow. Who is the fountain? Christ: let John be a little stream. The little stream came to me, and you say to me: Drink securely; and while you frighten me about the fountain itself, while you say there is falsehood in the fountain, you say to me: Drink securely. What do I drink? What did John say? That Christ lied? Whence did John come? From Christ. Will he who comes from him tell me true things, when he from whom he comes was lying? I have read plainly in the Gospel: John reclined upon the breast of the Lord (See Jn 13:25); but I think that he drank the truth. What did he drink? What, except what he belched forth? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. What was made, in him is life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it; yet it shines, and if I perhaps have something of obscurity, nor am able to comprehend it perfectly, it shines. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; he came to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light (See Jn 1:1-8): who? John; who? John the Baptist. For of him the Evangelist John says: He was not the light; of whom the Lord says: He was a lamp burning and shining (See Jn 5:35). But a lamp can both be lit and put out. What then? Whence do you distinguish? About what place do you ask? He to whom the lamp bore witness, was the true light. Where John added: true, there you seek a lie. Hear still John the Evangelist belching forth what he drank: And we saw, he says, his glory. What did he see? What glory did he see? Glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (See Jn 1:14). See, then, see whether we ought not to restrain weak or rash disputations, and presume nothing false about the truth, give to the Lord what is owed; let us give glory to the fountain, that securely we may be filled. But God is truthful: but every man is a liar (See Rom 3:4). What is this? God is full: every man is empty; if he wants to be filled, let him approach the full one. Approach him, and be enlightened (See Ps 34:5 (33)). Further, if man is empty, because he is a liar, and seeks to be filled, and with haste and eagerness runs to the fountain, wants to be filled, he is empty. But you say: Beware of the fountain, there is a lie there. What else do you say than: There is poison there?

7. Now, he says, you have said everything, now you have restrained me, now you have chastised me. Tell me how he did not lie, who said: I do not go up, and went up. I will say it, if I can; let it not be too little for you, that even if I have not set you in the truth, yet I have restrained you from rashness. Yet I will say it, which you too now, if you remember the words I commended, I think you recognize. The very words resolve the question. That feast day was kept for many days. To this, namely today's, feast day, he says, this surely today's when they were hoping, he did not go up; but when he himself was arranging it. In short, attend to what follows: When he had said these things, he himself remained in Galilee. Therefore he did not go up to this feast day. For his brothers wanted him to go first; therefore they had said to him: Pass over from here into Judea (See Jn 7:3). They did not say: Let us pass over, as though they would be his companions; or: Follow us into Judea, as though they would go first; but as though they would send him ahead. This he willed, that they should go before: this he avoided, commending the weakness of man, hiding his divinity; this he avoided, just as when he fled into Egypt (See Mt 2:14). For it was not from inability: but this too was of the truth, that he might give an example of taking care; lest any servant of his say: I do not flee, because it is shameful; when perhaps it would be expedient to flee. About to say to his own: When they persecute you in this city, flee to another (See Mt 10:23); he himself offered this example. For when he willed, he was seized; when he willed, he was born. This, then, lest they go before, and announce that he was coming, and ambushes be prepared: I do not go up, he says, to the feast day. He said: I do not go up, that he might be hidden; he added: this, lest he lie. He brought in something, he took away something, he deferred something; yet he said nothing false, because nothing false proceeds from his mouth. In short, after he said these things: But when his brothers had gone up, the Gospel says; attend, read what you were offering me; see whether the reading itself does not resolve the question, see whether I took from elsewhere what I should say. This, then, the Lord awaited, that they should go up first, lest they announce that he would come. After his brothers had gone up, he himself too then went up to the feast day, not openly, but as it were in secret (See Jn 7:10). What is as it were in secret? There he acts as it were in secret. What is: as it were in secret? Because not even this was in secret. For he did not truly try to lie hidden, who had it in his power when he should be seized. But in that concealment, as I said, he offered an example of taking care against the ambushes of enemies, to the weak disciples, who did not have the power, when they did not want it, of not being seized. For he too went up openly afterward, and taught them in the temple, and some said: Behold, here he is, behold, he teaches. Surely our rulers said that they wanted to seize him: behold, he speaks openly, and no one lays a hand on him (See Jn 7:25-26).

8. But now if we attend to ourselves, if we think of his body, because we too are himself. For even if we ourselves were not himself, it would not be true: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me (See Mt 25:40). If we ourselves were not himself, it would not be true: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (See Acts 9:4)? Therefore we too are himself, because we are his members, because we are his body, because he is our head (See Eph 5:23), because the whole Christ is head and body. Perhaps, then, he foresaw us, that we would not keep the feast days of the Jews, and this is: I do not go up to this feast day (See Jn 7:8). Behold neither Christ, nor the Evangelist lied: of which two if it were necessary to choose one, the Evangelist would pardon me, in no way would I set the truthful one before Truth itself; the one sent before him by whom he was sent I would not prefer. But thanks be to God, as I judge, what was obscure has been laid bare. Your devotion will help toward God. Behold, as I could, I have resolved the question, both about Christ and about the Evangelist. Hold the truth with me, friend, embrace love without contention.

1. Your Charity knows that we all have one Master, and under him are fellow disciples. Nor are we for this reason your masters, because we speak to you from a higher place: but the master of all is he who dwells in all of us. He himself just now in the Gospel spoke to all of us, and said to us, what I too say to you: but he says of us, both to us and to you: If you abide in my word, not surely in mine, who now speak; but in his, who just now spoke from the Gospel: If you abide in my word, he says, you are truly my disciples. To be a disciple it is too little to approach, but to abide. He did not, then, say: If you hear my word; or: If you approach my word; or: If you praise my word: but see what he said: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will free you (See Jn 8:31-32). What do we say, brothers? To abide in the word of God, is it labor, or not? If it is labor, attend to the great reward; if it is not labor, you receive the reward freely. Let us abide, then, in him who abides in us. We, if we do not abide in him, fall; but he, if he does not abide in us, does not for that reason lose his house. For he knows how to abide in himself, who never forsakes himself. But far be it from a man, to abide in himself, who has lost himself. Therefore we abide in him out of need: he abides in us out of mercy.

2. Now then, if it is set forth what we ought to do, let us see what we are to receive. For he enjoined a work, and promised a reward. What is the work? If you abide in my word. A brief work; brief in word, great in deed: If you abide. What is: If you abide? If you build on the rock. O how great this is, brothers, to build on the rock, how great it is! The rivers came, the winds blew, the rain came down, and struck against that house, and it did not fall: for it was founded upon the rock (See Mt 7:25). What is it, then, to abide in the word of God, except to yield to no temptations? What is the reward? You will know the truth, and the truth will free you. Suffer with us, because you perceive my voice to be blunt; help me with quietness. O reward! You will know the truth. Perhaps someone would say: And what does it profit me, to know the truth? And the truth will free you. If the truth does not delight, let liberty delight. In the custom of the Latin tongue "to be freed" is said in two ways; and most of all we are accustomed to hear this word, so that whoever is freed is understood to escape a peril, to be without troubles. But properly "to be freed" is said to be made free: just as to be saved, to be made safe; to be healed, to be made whole; so to be freed, to be made free. Therefore I said: If the truth does not delight, let liberty delight. This sounds more evidently in the Greek tongue, nor can it be understood otherwise. And that you may know that it cannot be understood otherwise; when the Lord spoke, the Jews answered: We have never served anyone; how do you say: The truth will free you (See Jn 8:33)? That is: The truth will make you free, how do you say it to us, who have never served anyone? Whom you see, they say, not to have the necessity of servitude, how do you promise them liberty?

3. They heard what they ought: but they did not do what they ought. What did they hear? Because I said: The truth will free you; you attended to yourselves, that you do not serve a man, and you said: We have never served anyone. Every: Jew and Greek, rich and poor, honored and private, emperor and beggar, everyone who commits sin, is a servant of sin (See Jn 8:34). Everyone, he says, who commits sin, is a servant of sin. If men acknowledge their servitude, they will see from where they may receive liberty. Someone freeborn is taken captive by barbarians, from freeborn he is made a servant; a merciful man hears, considers that he has money, becomes a redeemer, goes to the barbarians, gives money, redeems the man. Plainly he gave back liberty, if he took away iniquity. But who took away iniquity? Man from man? He who served among the barbarians, was redeemed by his redeemer; and there is much difference between the redeemer and the redeemed; yet under the mistress iniquity perhaps they are fellow servants. I ask the redeemed: Do you have sin? I have, he says. I ask the redeemer: Do you have sin? I have, he says. Therefore neither do you boast yourself redeemed, nor do you lift yourself up, redeemer: but flee both to the true liberator. It is too little that those who are under sin are called servants; they are also called dead. What a man fears lest captivity do to him, iniquity has already done to him. For what, because they seem to live, did he therefore err who said: Let the dead bury their dead (See Mt 8:22)? Therefore all under sin are dead, dead servants, dead by serving, servants by dying.
Who, then, frees from death and from servitude, except one free among the dead? Who is free among the dead, except one without sin among sinners? Behold, the prince of the world comes, our Redeemer himself says, our Liberator: Behold, the prince of the world comes, and will find nothing in me (See Jn 14:30). He holds those whom he deceived, whom he seduced, to whom he persuaded sin and death; in me he will find nothing. Come, Lord; come, Redeemer, come; let the captive recognize you, let the captor flee you: be a liberator for me. He found me lost, in whom the devil found nothing of his own that he does. The prince of this world found flesh in the Lord, he found: and what kind of flesh? Mortal, which he could hold, which he could crucify, which he could kill. You err, deceiver, the Redeemer is not deceived: you err. You see in the Lord mortal flesh, it is not sinful flesh: it is the likeness of sinful flesh. For God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. True flesh, mortal flesh, but not sinful flesh. For God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that from sin he might condemn sin in the flesh. For God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh: in flesh, yet not in sinful flesh; but in the likeness of sinful flesh. For what? That from sin, which surely was none in him, he might condemn sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (See Rom 8:3-4).

4. If, therefore, it was the likeness of sinful flesh, not sinful flesh; how is it: That from sin he might condemn sin in the flesh? The likeness too is wont to take the name of the thing of which it is the likeness. A man is called true: but even if you show one painted on a wall, and ask what it is, the answer is: A man. So flesh having the likeness of sinful flesh was called sin, that it might be a sacrifice for sin. The same Apostle says in another place: Him who did not know sin, he made sin for us (See 2 Cor 5:21). Him who did not know sin; whom who did not know sin, except him who said: Behold, the prince of the world comes, and will find nothing in me (See Jn 14:30)? Him who did not know sin, he made sin for us; that very Christ knowing no sin, God made sin for us. What is this, brothers? If it were said: He made sin in him, or: He made him have sin; it would seem intolerable: how do we tolerate what was said: He made him sin, so that Christ himself is sin? Those who know the Scriptures of the Old Testament recognize what I say. For not once was it said, but several times, very often sacrifices for sins were called sins. There was offered, for example, for sin a goat, a ram, whatever: that very victim which was offered for sin was named sin (See Lev 4-5). So sin was called the sacrifice for sin: so that somewhere the Law says, that the priests ought to set their hands upon the sin (See Lev 4:29). Therefore: Him who did not know sin, he made sin for us; that is: he was made a sacrifice for sin. Sin was offered, and sin was blotted out. The blood of the Redeemer was poured out, and the bond of the debtor was blotted out. This is the blood which was poured out for many for the remission of sins.

5. What is it, then, that you have foolishly exulted, my captor, because my Liberator had mortal flesh? If he had sin, look: if you found anything of yours in him, hold it. The Word was made flesh (See Jn 1:14). The Word is creator, the flesh is creation. What is yours there, enemy? And the Word is God, and the soul of a man is a creature, and the flesh of a man is a creature, and the mortal flesh of God is a creature. Seek sin. But what do you seek? Truth speaks: The prince of this world will come, and will find nothing in me (See Jn 14:30). Therefore he did not fail to find flesh, but nothing of his own, that is, no sin. You deceived the innocent, you made them guilty. You killed the innocent; you destroyed one whom you ought not, give back what you held. Why, then, for an hour did you exult, because you found mortal flesh in Christ? It was your trap: from where you rejoiced, from there you were caught. Where you exulted to have found something, from there now you grieve to have lost what you possessed. Therefore, brothers, we who believe in Christ, let us abide in his word. For if we abide in his word, we are truly his disciples. For not those twelve alone, but all of us who abide in his word, are truly his disciples. And we shall know the truth, and the truth will free us; that is, Christ the Son of God, who said: I am the truth (See Jn 14:6). He will make us free; that is: he will free us, not from barbarians, but from the devil; not from the captivity of the body, but from the iniquity of the soul. He alone is the one who so frees. Let no one call himself free, lest he remain a servant. Our soul will not remain in servitude, because daily our debts are forgiven.

1. The Lord Jesus, as we heard when the holy Gospel was read, opened the eyes of a man who was born blind. Brothers, if we attend to our inherited penalty, the whole world is blind. Therefore Christ the enlightener came, because the devil had been the blinder. He made all to be born blind, who deceived the first man. Let them run to the enlightener, let them run, believe, receive clay made from spittle. The spittle is, as it were, the Word, the earth is the flesh. Let them wash their face in the pool of Siloam. But it pertained to the Evangelist to expound to us what Siloam signifies, and he says: Which is interpreted: sent. Who is the sent one, except he who said in that very reading: I, he says, came, that I might do the works of him who sent me (See Jn 9:4, 7)? Behold Siloam; wash your face, be baptized, that you may be enlightened, and may see, you who before did not see.
Behold, first to this, what was said, open your eyes: I, he says, came that I might do the works of him who sent me. Now here the Arian rises up, and says: Behold, you see that Christ did not do his own works, but the Father's who sent him. He would never say this, if he saw, that is, if he washed his face in the one who is sent, as in Siloam. What, then, do you say? Behold, he says, he himself said it. What did he say? I came, that I might do the works of him who sent me. Not, then, his own? No. And what is it that he himself says, he himself Siloam, he himself the sent one, he himself the Son, he himself the Only one whom you complain to be degenerate? What is it that he says: All things which the Father has, are mine (See Jn 16:15)? You say that he did another's works; because he said: I will do the works of him who sent me. I say that the Father had things that were another's; I speak according to your heart. Whence do you want to prescribe to me that Christ said: I came, that I might do the works of him, as though not mine, but of him who sent me?