Sermon 306
On the Feast of the Martyrs of the Massa Candida

1. 1. As we have heard, and as we have answered in our singing: Precious is the death of the saints of the Lord (Ps 116:15 (115:15)), but in his sight (Ps 116:15 (115:15)), not in the sight of the foolish. For in the eyes of the foolish they seemed to die, and their departure was accounted a malice (Wis 3:2-3). "Malice" in the Latin tongue does not usually have the meaning that it has in the language in which Scripture spoke. For in the Latin language "malice" is usually the word by which men are called evil; but in that language "malice" also means the evil that men suffer. So "malice" in this passage is understood as punishment. This, then, is what was said: In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to die, and their departure was accounted a punishment: but they are in peace. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, this is the malice, their hope, it says, is full of immortality; and having been chastened a little, they shall be well rewarded in much (Wis 3:3-5). For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come, which shall be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). But until it is revealed, it is hidden. And because it is hidden, therefore in the eyes of the foolish they seemed to die (Wis 3:2). But surely, because it is hidden, is it also hidden from God, in whose sight it is precious? Therefore precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). To this hidden mystery, then, we owe the eyes of faith, that we may believe what we do not see, and that, having suffered evils unjustly, we may bear them bravely.

2. 2. Let the cause be a chosen one for us, lest the punishment harm us. For a bad cause has no reward, but only a just torment. It is not, then, in a man's power by what kind of end he finishes this life; but it is in a man's power how he lives, so that he may finish his life secure. And not even this would be in our power, had not the Lord given the power to become sons of God (John 1:12). But to whom? To those who believe in his name (John 1:12). This is the first cause of the martyrs, this is the white throng of the martyrs. If the cause is white, the throng too is white. For it was called a "throng" (massa) from the great number, and "white" (candida) from the splendor of its cause. So many companions did not fear robbers. But even had they walked one by one, they would have been fortified against robbery, because the way itself was a fortification. Beside the path, it says, they laid snares for me (Ps 140:5 (139:6)). Therefore he who does not turn aside from the way does not fall into the snare. And we have the supreme and faithful promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

2. 3. Now every man, whatever he may be, wants to be happy. There is no one who does not want this, and who does not want it in such a way that he wants it above all else; indeed, whoever wants other things wants them for the sake of this one thing.

3. 3. Men are carried away by various desires, and one desires this, another that: there are different ways of living in the human race; and in the multitude of ways of living, one man chooses and pursues one thing, another another; yet there is no one, whatever way of life he has chosen, who does not desire the happy life. The happy life, then, is the common possession of all; but the question is by what road one comes to it, in what direction one tends, by what path, once taken, one arrives. And so, if we seek the happy life on earth, I do not know whether we can find it: not because what we seek is evil, but because we do not seek it in its proper place. One says: Happy are those who serve as soldiers. Another denies it, and says: Happy, but rather those who till the field. And another denies this too, and says: Happy are those who are engaged in the forum with popular renown, who plead cases, who govern by their tongue the life and death of men. And another denies this, and says: Happy, but rather those who judge, who have the power of hearing and discerning. Another denies this, and says: Happy are those who sail the seas, who learn of many regions, who gather many profits. You see, dearly beloved, that in all this multitude of ways of living not one pleases all; and yet the happy life pleases all. What is this, that while no particular way of life pleases all, the happy life pleases all?

4. 4. Let us define, then, if we can, the happy life, about which all will answer: This I want. For since there is no one who, when asked whether he wants the happy life, says: I do not, and yet we are asking what that happy life itself is, we ought to define something to which every sense assents, and which no one says of: I do not want it. What then, my brothers, what is the happy life, which all want and not all have? Let us seek it, then. If someone is asked, Do you want to live? does he hear it in the way he would if he were asked: Do you want to be a soldier? For in that question, which is, Do you want to be a soldier? some would say to me, I do; and perhaps more, I do not. But if I say, Do you want to live? I think there is no one who says, I do not. For all have it implanted by nature to want to live and not want to die. Likewise, if I say, Do you want to be healthy? I think there is no one who says, I do not; for no one wants to suffer pain. Health is precious even in the rich man, and certainly in the poor man it is all he has. But what good is wealth to the rich man, if there is no health there, which is the poor man's patrimony? The rich man would gladly exchange his silver bed for the poor man's sackcloth, if sickness could depart along with the bed. See, the sense of all has agreed with me on these two things, life and health. Has the sense of all agreed on soldiering? Has the sense of all on farming? Has it on seafaring? The sense of all agrees on life and health.

5. 4. When, then, a man is alive and healthy, does he seek nothing more? If he is wise, perhaps he ought to seek nothing more. For where there is perfect life and perfect health, if more is sought, what will it be but a vicious desire?

5. 5. The wicked will have life amid torments. For the hour will come, as the Gospel says, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice: and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). So the one group goes to reward, the other to torment; and both live, nor can any of them die. Those who live in reward embrace a most sweet life; but those who live in torment desire, if it could be done, to end such a life; and no one grants them destruction, just as no one takes away their torment. But see how Scripture speaks and distinguishes: it did not deign to call such a life "life." Amid torments, amid sufferings, amid everlasting fires, it would not call it "life," so that the very name of life might be praise and not grief; so that wherever you hear "life," you should not think of torments. For to be forever amid torments is everlasting death, not any kind of life. The Scriptures call it the second death, after this first death, which we all owe to the human condition. And the second death is both called death, and no one there dies. I might more fittingly and better say, no one there lives. For to live amid sufferings is not to live. And from where do we prove that Scripture so spoke? See from where: from this testimony which I have just recalled: For they will hear his voice, it says, and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life (John 5:28-29). It did not say: of the happy life; but, to the resurrection of life (John 5:29).

6. 5. The name of life alone draws happiness with it. For unless the name of life carried happiness as its consequence, it would not be said to God: For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). For it is not said there either, For with you is the fountain of the happy life. It did not add "happy"; it said only of life, so that you might understand "of the happy life." Why? Because if it were miserable, it would no longer be life at all.

6. 6. Here is another testimony. We have already given two. For it was said: Those who have done good, to the resurrection of life (John 5:29); likewise it was said: With you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). Nowhere was "happy" added: but only that life is understood which is happy; and that which is not happy is not life either. Take yet another from the Gospel. That rich man who did not want to let go of what he had, and was indignant at the loss of his possessions, which by dying he was compelled to let go: I believe that, while he rejoiced in that most overflowing abundance of great but nevertheless earthly things, he was interrupted by the fear of death, and his heart said to him, as it were: See, you rejoice in your goods, and you do not know when a single fever may come. You gather, you acquire, you obtain, and you keep, and you rejoice: your soul is required of you; these things which you have prepared, whose will they be? When, as far as we can understand, he was often pricked by this thought as by certain goads of fear, he came to the Lord and said to him: Good Teacher, what shall I do to obtain eternal life? (Mark 10:17) He feared to die, and was compelled to die. There was nowhere he might go to avoid perishing. Hemmed in by the necessity of dying and the desire of living, he came to the Lord and said: Good Teacher, what shall I do to obtain eternal life? (Mark 10:17)

7. 6. Among other things, he heard—rather, let us say what pertains to the present matter: If you would enter into life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17). This is what I had said I would prove. Nor did the one who asked say: What shall I do to obtain the happy life; but he said only eternal life (Mark 10:17). By not wanting to die, he sought a life that has no end. And does not, as I said, even the life of the wicked amid torments have no end? But this he did not call life. He knew that what would be amid sufferings and torments was not life: he knew it should rather be called death. Therefore he sought eternal life: so that where life is heard, there should be no doubt about happiness. And the Lord did not say to him: If you would enter into the happy life, keep the commandments; but he too named life alone, and said: If you would enter into life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17). So that life amid torments is not life; and that alone is life which is happy; nor can it be happy unless it is eternal. For this reason that rich man, knowing that he was daily interrupted by the fear of death, sought eternal life. For the happy life, as it seemed to him, he already had. For he was rich and healthy, and I believe he said to himself: I want nothing more, if only it could be perpetual. For he had pleasures, as it were lovable ones, because he was satisfying foolish desires. Accordingly the Lord, by the one name of life—if he understood it—corrected him. He did not say: If you would enter into eternal life, which the man sought, as though already having the happy one; nor did he say: If you would enter into the happy life, knowing that if it is miserable it should not be called life either: but he said: If you would enter into life; there it is eternal, there happy; If you would enter into life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17). So it is life, which is eternal and happy: because if it is not eternal, it is not happy; but if it is eternal in punishments, it is not life.

8. 7. What is it, brothers? When I asked whether you wanted to live, you all answered that you did; whether you wanted to be healthy, you all answered that you did. But if health and life are feared lest they should end, then it is no longer life. For it is not to live forever, but to fear forever. If to fear forever, then to be tormented forever. If the torment is everlasting, where is the eternal life? We hold for certain that there is no happy life except the eternal; indeed, that there is no happy life unless there is life: because if it is not eternal, and if it is not with perpetual satisfaction, then beyond doubt it is neither happy nor life. We have found it; all agree. We have found it plainly in thought, not yet in possession. This is the possession that all seek: there is no one who does not seek it. Be he evil, be he good, he seeks it: but the good man confidently, the evil man shamelessly. Why do you, evil man, seek the good? Does not your very request answer how dishonest you are, when you, an evil man, seek the good? Are you not seeking something that belongs to another? If, then, you seek the highest good, that is, life, be good, so that you may arrive at the good. If you would enter into life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17). But when we have arrived at life, why should I add "eternal"? why should I add "happy"? once for all, "life," because that itself is life which is both eternal and happy: when we have arrived at life, it will be certain to us that we shall be in it forever. For if we are there, and are uncertain whether we shall be there forever, even there there will be fear. And if there is fear, there will be torment, not of the flesh, but, what is worse, of the heart. But where there is torment, what happiness is there? It will, then, be certain to us that we shall be in that life forever, and shall not be able to end it: because we shall be in the kingdom of him of whom it was said: And of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33).

9. 7. And when Wisdom set forth the glory of the saints of God, whose death is precious in his sight, she said, as you heard at the end of the reading: And the Lord will reign over them forever (Wis 3:8). We shall be, then, in a great and everlasting kingdom; and great and everlasting because it is just.

9. 8. There no one deceives, no one is deceived: there is no place there for you to suspect evil of your brother. For most of the evils of the human race arise from nowhere else than from false suspicions. You believe of a man that he hates you, when perhaps he loves you; and through a wicked suspicion you become the bitterest enemy of your dearest friend. What is he to do, whom you do not believe, and who cannot show you his heart? He speaks to you, saying, I love you. But because he could say this to you even while lying (for the words of a liar are the same as those of one who speaks the truth), by not believing him you have hated him all the same. Therefore he wanted to make you secure against that sin, who said to you: Love your enemies (Matt 5:44). Christian, love even your enemies, lest unawares you hate even your friends. So we cannot see one another's hearts in this life, until the Lord comes, and brings to light the things hidden in darkness, and discloses the purposes of the heart; and then every man will have his praise from God (1 Cor 4:5).

10. 9. So if someone were now to say to us—someone whom we would beyond doubt believe, if a prophet said it, if God said it in whatever way he willed and through whomever he willed—Live secure, all things will abound for you, none of you will die, none will fall sick, none will suffer pain; I have taken away death from the human race, I do not want anyone to die—if he said this, we would exult as if made secure, and would ask for nothing more. So it seems to us altogether. If we heard this, we would at once want this also to be added for us: that we might see one another's hearts, and not envy; that we might see not by human suspicion but by divine truth: that I might not be anxious about my friend, about my neighbor, lest he hate me, lest he wish me ill, and lest by that very anxiety I do the evil before I suffer it. Without doubt we would seek this; we would seek a sure life, and the mutual knowledge of one another's hearts. For now you understand what life I mean; lest by commending it too often I dull rather than instruct. So we would want truth to be added to life, that we might know one another's hearts, and not be deceived by our suspicions: and that we might be certain of that perpetual life itself, that we should not fall from it. Add truth to life, and you find the happy life. For no one wants to be deceived, just as no one wants to die. Show me a man who wants to be deceived. How many are found who want to deceive: but no one wants to be deceived. Settle it with yourself. You do not want to be deceived, so do not deceive: what you do not want to suffer, do not do. You want to come to a life where you are not deceived, so live now a life where you do not deceive. You want to come to a life where you are not deceived? who would not? The reward delights you; do not disdain the work whose reward it is. Live now a life where you do not deceive; and you will come to a life where you are not deceived. To the truthful, truth will be given as a reward, and to one who lives well in time, eternity will be given as a reward.

10. 10. So we all want this, brothers, life and truth. But by what road do we come, by what do we go? For where we are coming to, even though we do not yet hold it in possession, yet already in thought and reason we believe and see: we tend toward life and truth. Christ himself is this. By what way do you seek to go? I am, he says, the way (John 14:6). Where do you seek to go? And the truth and the life (John 14:6).

11. 10. See what the martyrs loved, and therefore they despised present and passing things. Do not marvel at their courage: love conquered pain. Let us celebrate the solemn feast of the Massa Candida with a white conscience; and following the footsteps of the martyrs and gazing upon the head of the martyrs and of us, if we long to come to so great a good, let us not fear the hard road. He who promised is truthful, he who promised is faithful, he who promised cannot deceive. Let us say to him, then, with a white conscience: Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways (Ps 17:4 (16:4)). Why do you fear the hard ways of sufferings and tribulations? He himself passed along them. You answer, perhaps: But it was he. The apostles passed along them. You still answer: But they were the apostles. I accept that. Answer: many men passed along them afterward too. Blush: women passed along them too. Did you come to suffering as an old man? do not fear death, if only because you are near to death. Are you young? young men passed along them too, who still hoped for life: boys passed along them too, girls passed along them too. How is the road still rough, which so many have smoothed by walking? This, then, brothers, is our solemn and constant reminder to you: that we celebrate the feasts of the martyrs not with an empty solemnity; but that we should not be afraid to imitate, by a like faith, those whom we love in their feasts.

Sermon 306/A
On the Feast of the Massa Candida

1. We are celebrating the solemn day of the blessed and many martyrs, that is, of the Massa Candida. Blessed, because poor in spirit; blessed, because meek; blessed, because they mourn; blessed, because they hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed, because merciful; blessed, because pure in heart; blessed, because they have suffered persecution (See Matt 5:3-10), not in vain, not having a bad cause, but for the sake of righteousness (Matt 5:10). For it is the cause, not the punishment, that makes a martyr of Christ. He bears the punishment secure who prudently chooses his cause, so that what he suffers is for the sake of righteousness; lest he both suffer here, and be led from tribulations to the most wretched tribulations. Their soul was patient before the Lord, it waited for the Lord; it did not hasten to receive the reward. For this is to wait for the Lord: that you receive it when he has willed to give it. For he will give it: for either the truth does not deceive, or the Almighty will lack the means to give what he has promised, or the Eternal will fear some successor. Therefore he will give: only let our soul wait for the Lord. So, then, the soul of the martyrs waited, one soul of many; not whitened on the outside, but white within. Their soul, then, waited for the Lord: and the Lord was their helper and their protector. In their sufferings they hoped and endured: hoping for eternal things, they endured the passing. And when they have come, what will they receive? They will be intoxicated by the abundance of your house, and you will give them drink from the torrent of your delight (Ps 36:8 (35:9)). Let no one here think of the pleasure of the body: there is another pleasure, invisible, from an invisible fountain. Then mark what follows. As though you were asking from where that future pleasure will come, he added and said: For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). See the life that does not die, see the health that does not sicken. For vain is the salvation of man (Ps 60:11 (59:13)). There is certainly nothing in human affairs more precious than this health: and yet it is vain. How then are the rest to be held here? What are a man's riches, what are a man's delights, what are a man's powers, if the salvation of man is vain? Therefore, brothers, let us desire that salvation, let us ask for it with all our prayers, let us strive to come to it by our conduct; let us seek it by believing it, by hoping for it, by loving it. But if he grants this present health, let us give thanks. For surely it was to this health that the gift made to the ten lepers pertained; to this health it pertained that ten lepers were cleansed by the Lord Christ; and yet the grateful one is praised, the ungrateful are accused. So when we receive this health too from him, let us give thanks, and if need be, for his sake let us despise even what he has given, so that we may come to greater things. May it be with you, may it dwell in your hearts, may it work in your thoughts, may whatever truth you hear flourish in your good conduct.

Sermon 306/B
A Sermon Delivered on the Twelfth of the Kalends of September on the Feast of the Martyr Quadratus

1. The Lord our God, to whom together we give thanks, has granted that we should see you and be seen by you. And if this is the reason why our mouth was filled with joy and our tongue with exultation (Ps 126:2 (125:2))—because we have seen one another in mortal flesh—what will our joy be when we see ourselves there, where we shall fear nothing about one another? The Apostle says: rejoicing in hope (Rom 12:12). Our joy, then, which is now, is in hope, not yet in reality. But hope that is seen is not hope, he says; for what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:24-25). But if pilgrim companions rejoice with one another on the road, what joy will they obtain in the homeland? On this road the martyrs strove, and by striving they walked, and by walking they did not stick fast. For those who love walk; for we run to God not by steps but by affections. Our road, then, seeks those who walk. There are three kinds of men that it hates: the one who remains behind, the one who turns back, the one who strays. From these three evil kinds may our step, with the Lord's help, be claimed and defended. Now indeed, when we are walking, one walks more slowly, another more quickly; yet both walk. So those who remain behind must be roused, those who turn back must be called back, those who wander must be led onto the road, the slow must be exhorted, the swift imitated. He who does not advance has remained behind on the road; he who perhaps turns aside from a better resolution to what, being worse, he had left behind, has turned back; he who deserts the faith has strayed from the road. Let us be reasonably with the slow—but called on by the swifter—yet with those who are walking.

2. Who is it that does not advance? He who has thought himself wise; he who has said: It is enough for me to be what I am; he who has not heeded the one who said: Forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on according to my purpose toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14). He called himself a runner, he called himself a follower; he did not remain behind, he did not look back, far be it that he strayed, he who taught the way itself, who both held and showed it. And that we might imitate his swiftness, he said: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). We reckon, then, dearest brothers, that we are walking the road with you. If we are slow, go before us; we do not envy, we are looking for someone to follow. But if you think that we are walking swiftly, run with us. There is one thing toward which we all hasten, both those who walk more slowly and those more quickly. The Apostle himself says this: But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on according to my purpose toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14). The order of the words is: But one thing I do, I press on (Phil 3:13-14). And in order to say this, what did he say above? Brothers, I do not reckon myself to have laid hold of it (Phil 3:13). Behold one who does not remain behind, who does not reckon himself to have laid hold; behold one who does not want to be a pilgrim forever, behold one who does not stick fast on the road, behold one who will rejoice in the homeland. I, he says. Who? I who labored more than all of them (1 Cor 15:10). And yet, where he says: I labored more than all of them, he did not say: I do not reckon myself to have laid hold. There the "I" is well placed, where there is room for humility, not for pride. I, he says, as far as concerns me, do not reckon myself to have laid hold (Phil 3:13). This is his own. But where he says: I labored more than all of them, there follows: yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10). Does not the grace of God lay hold? Rightly there the "I"; for not to lay hold belongs to our weakness; to lay hold belongs to the help of divine grace, not to human weakness. Who, then, is there to show us, who is there to teach us, who is there worthily to suggest to us, how it can be true—what nevertheless is true beyond doubt—that there is nothing of ours in us except sin? Let piety know this, let weakness accuse itself of this, let love long to be healed of this. Not that I have already received it, he says, or am already perfect (Phil 3:12). And then he added: Brothers, I do not reckon myself to have laid hold (Phil 3:13). And when he exhorted them to run, and to stretch the heart toward what lies ahead, he said: Let as many of us as are perfect be of this mind (Phil 3:15). He had said above: Not that I have already received it or am already perfect; and afterward he says: Let as many of us as are perfect be of this mind (Phil 3:15). You had said that you, so great an apostle, were imperfect; now you find many who are perfect, and you say: Let as many of us as are perfect be of this mind. There is, then, a perfection and a perfection.

3. He is a perfect traveler who is not yet a perfect arriver. The perfect traveler approaches well, walks well, keeps to the road; but still he is a traveler, he has not yet laid hold. For surely, if he walks, and walks on the road, he walks somewhere, and is trying to arrive at something. To where, then, he was trying to arrive, the Apostle had not yet laid hold. And he exhorts the perfect to know that they are not yet perfect, to know their imperfection. The perfection of the traveler is to know that he has not yet arrived at that toward which he tends; for he knows how much he has traversed, how much remains to him. Let us know, then, that we are not perfect, as many of us as are perfect, lest we remain imperfect. What shall we say, brothers? Was not the martyr Quadratus perfect? What is more perfect than a square (quadratus)? The sides are equal, the shape is equal on every side; whichever way you turn it, it stands, it does not topple. O beautiful name, showing the figure, and pointing to the thing to come! Quadratus was called this even before, and was not yet crowned; he had not yet appeared in the trial through which he might be that square; and yet, when he was named, the one predestined before the foundation of the world was foretold, and, so that he might be called this, this in him suffers along with him, that it might be fulfilled; and yet he was walking, and yet he was still on the road; and, as long as he was in this body, everything was feared—both that he might remain behind, and that he might turn back, and that he might go off course. But now he has run, he has finished the road, he has stood on solid ground; he has been built together by the craftsman of the Lord's ark, which by way of figure was commanded to be built of squared timbers. Now he fears no trial: he heard the one who called, and he too heard the one who summoned, he followed the savior, he carries the indweller. He despised the world when it flattered, he conquered it when it terrified, he escaped it when it raged. Great, brothers, is the glory of the martyrs, first in the Church; whatever others there are, they are second. For it was not without reason that it was said to certain people: You have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin (Heb 12:4). When does he endure, when does he bear the world raging, who cannot scorn it flattering?

4. The same Apostle says: I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification (Rom 6:19). It is a very great thing that he seems to exhort. Let each one measure himself by these words of the Apostle: let him not stroke himself with flattery; let him weigh himself, and tell himself the truth. What does he expect to hear from me? Let him tell it to himself. I have set out to set before you a mirror, where each one may look at himself. I am not the brightness of the mirror, which reports his face to one who gazes at it. For I mean now those faces which we have within; those I can reach by the ear, I cannot see. But I do set before you a mirror: let each one look at himself, and report himself to himself. Take these very words of the Apostle, which I have recalled, in place of a mirror. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh: just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification (Rom 6:19). What is the "so"? As that, so this too. When you presented your members as weapons of iniquity to sin for uncleanness, did it delight you? I ask: attend, answer. Did it delight you? I hear you answering, even while silent; for you would not do it, unless it delighted you. As, then, you presented your members to serve uncleanness unto iniquity, and did these things with delight, so let righteousness someday delight you. God does not want you to do it from fear, he says to you; for surely you did not do that from fear? So, he says, so. Just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification. To righteousness you are driven by fear; to uncleanness you ran by love. What is more beautiful than righteousness, I ask you? It is worthy to be loved at least in the way uncleanness was loved. When you ran to uncleanness, you were forbidden, and you went; you offended your father, and you ran; you were ready to be disinherited, and not to be parted from its wickedness. What will you say? Righteousness requires of you this, which uncleanness had from you. You have heard the Gospel: I have not come to bring peace upon the earth, but a sword (Matt 10:34). He said he would separate children from their parents. So heed that sword. Perhaps you want to serve God, and your father forbids it? When you loved uncleanness, you ran even though your father forbade it; now righteousness forbids you to be its lover; here too you have found a father who forbids. Exert your liberty, you who then exerted your lust. You were ready then to be disinherited, and not to be parted from the wickedness of that uncleanness; be ready to be disinherited, and not to be parted from the beauty of righteousness. It is a great thing, but it is just. Who is there who would dare to say: But uncleanness ought to have been loved more than righteousness? Meanwhile righteousness makes a step for you. Surely, it says, I am unlike it; surely there is a very great distance between the darkness of that uncleanness and my light, between that wickedness and my beauty, between its comeliness and my comeliness; surely there is a very great distance. Meanwhile I set down a step. So I will it: for I am owed more, I am altogether owed more; by as much as I differ, by so much am I owed. But I speak in human terms, I defer the divine. Why do I defer the divine? I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Therefore the "so," because I am still sparing your weakness. Therefore, just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness unto iniquity, so now indeed you owe more, but at least walk thus, arrive at this. But pass on from here too. Meanwhile I speak in human terms: but, as that, so this too.

5. Was Quadratus like this? Not merely like this, but more, and worthily more. For attend to those uncleannesses, and see what godliness and love, and the beauty of righteousness, and the sweetness of sanctification require of you more; attend to what they require of you more. The lover of uncleanness does not want his evil deeds to be known: he fears lest he be condemned for them, he fears prison for them, he fears the judge, he fears the executioner. He covets the chastity of another man's wife, he deceives the husband; he seeks darkness, he dreads a witness, he is afraid of the judge; he fears to be known, because he fears to be punished for it. But now that which the beauty of righteousness requires of you more—which the Apostle meanwhile deferred when he said: I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh (Rom 6:19)—hear it from the Lord: What I tell you in the dark, that is, in secret, speak in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops (Matt 10:27). Does an adulterer proclaim his disgrace upon the housetop? But why does he not only not proclaim it upon the housetop, but seek to be hidden by the roof? Why does he do this? Because the love of uncleanness could go only so far: for he fears to be uncovered, he fears to be punished. But these lovers of that invisible beauty, lovers of that comeliness in which is he who is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44:3)); these lovers, then, of that beauty—from where comes it that they do not fear to proclaim upon the housetops what they have heard whispered? Ask from where the former fears: lest he be recognized and punished. Ask from where this latter does not fear: the Lord himself, going on, added it. For when he had said: What I tell you in the darkness, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops, he said: Do not fear those who kill the body (Matt 10:28)—so that what you hear in the dark you may say in the light, so that what you hear whispered you may proclaim upon the housetops, do not fear those who kill the body. Let the adulterer fear those who kill the body: for when that adulterer has lost the body, he loses the workshop of his pleasures. Let him fear to lose the body who lives by the body; for all that he covets he works through the body; therefore in him pleasure does not suffice; he burns with desire, until he comes to the most unclean pleasure of the body. But you, man of God, if you have the eyes of the heart, by which you may see the beauty of love, by which you may see the beauty of godliness—if you have the eyes of the heart, see by what you may enjoy your beloved; for to enjoy her, you do not seek the members of the body. Let the lover of filthy pleasure fear that his body be destroyed; but peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

6. How far are you from this love, O Christian! Would that you might arrive even at that human level, and do good with delight, as before you sinned with delight. For if you do good with delight, if you believe in Christ with delight, if you enjoy his wisdom with delight to the measure of your capacity, if you hear and do the commandment with delight, then that human level has begun to be in you, on account of your weakness. You have begun now to have a good gift, but you have not yet fulfilled the Square. But, as I said, if you have arrived, draw near; there is still a road, do not remain behind. There is still something for you to do; do not fear, and hide your good deeds by being afraid. Your critics, your harassers, what do they say to you? You, a great apostle! your feet hang down from heaven for you: where do you come from? And you are afraid to say: From the Church, lest it be said to you: Are you not ashamed, you bearded man, to go where widows and little old women go? Lest you hear this, you are afraid to say: I was in church. How will you bear a persecutor, you who shudder at a mocker? And surely it is a time of peace. They ought to blush: so many blush who have come over, and so few do not blush who have stayed behind. And these have come over: to where? But those have stayed behind: where? These have come over to the light of peace; those have stayed behind in the darkness of confusion. Are you not ashamed to be ashamed of what should be gloried in? They are not ashamed of shameful things: and are you ashamed of things to be gloried in? And where is it, what you have heard: Draw near to him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not blush (Ps 34:5 (33:6))?

7. I have said these things, my brothers, because, as I know and greatly grieve, the tongues of a few pagans are feared—pagans not raging, but only mocking—and the minds of those who want to believe are held back, since they do not yield to the exhortations of Christians. And why more? or what am I to say? You see some pagan or other being harassed, lest he become a Christian, and you, a Christian, are silent; you count it a great thing that he spares you, that is, that he does not mock you. When he frightens that man off, do you say in your heart: Thanks be to God? He said nothing to me. You flee, not in the flesh, but in the mind. You stand there, and you flee; you fear lest the slanderous tongue be turned against you, and you do not come to the aid of the one whom you ought to gain for Christ. You do not help, you are silent; as I said, you flee not in the flesh but in the mind, you are a hireling, you see the wolf coming, and you flee. And what more am I to say? Just now we all heard it. Let the Lord frighten us: he who is to be loved is himself to be feared. Whoever, he says, is ashamed of me before men (and see when he was saying these things: when the world did not believe, but raged). Whoever is ashamed of me before men, I will be ashamed of him before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever confesses me before men, I too will confess him before my Father who is in heaven (Matt 10:32-33). Do you want to be denied by Christ, or to be confessed by Christ? You will keep your mocker far off, when you have made yourself a denier of Christ. What he promises will come: he who has shown forth so much—will he be found false about the day of judgment alone? Far be it. Let them keep their faithlessness—indeed, let them rather be rid of their faithlessness; but set yourselves before them as men to be imitated in confession, not to be overcome in silence. For if they find Christians who are stronger defenders of the weak, by the assertion of the faith, by the freedom of confessing, by the prudence of teaching, by the love of instructing, they will be silent, believe me; for they have nothing to say. It is an empty voice, a clanging cymbal; what has ceased in their temples has remained in their mouths.

Sermon 306/C
A Sermon of Saint Augustine the Bishop, at the Table of Cyprian, on Saint Quadratus

1. We have heard how the evangelical trumpet sounded, exhorting the martyrs to the contest by which they would conquer the world: Whoever wants to save his soul will lose it; but whoever loses it for my sake will find it (Matt 16:25). By saving he will lose it, by losing he will find it. What is this, but that there is a certain salvation of the soul according to this world, and there is another salvation of the soul according to God? At the moment of trial, then, by which the martyrs were tested, so that one or the other was set before them—either the denial of Christ, or the trial of death—without doubt those who wanted to save their souls according to the world denied Christ, and lost them; but those who according to the world lost their souls confessed Christ, and found them. For to whom is the soul more safely entrusted than to its Creator? Who can preserve what was, except he who could make what was not? Learning and teaching this, that Quadratus—for he was a bishop—whose feast we celebrate today, together with all his people, clergy and laity, confessed Christ. He sent ahead the flock that he was shepherding: four days later Quadratus followed. For the Massa Candida, whose feast was celebrated four days ago, was the people of God, entrusted to his governance. What a great wall, mortared with tile-dust, this Quadratus ruled! And those so many souls, and out of so many souls, did not yet see the Church which we see; they did not yet see it, and out of themselves they were building it, and into its framework, by dying, the living stones were running. And behold, we see the Church spread throughout the whole world, then great in a few, now wide and spread abroad among many; and we behold fulfilled the predictions of the prophets, which preceded all the future things that we see. But, in order that this might come about, when there was a small number, the courage was great. By passing along the narrow road they widened it, and by treading on rough things and passing along them, they went before us. Whoever in those times bore various tribulations for the name of Christ followed these. O blessed ones, in losing their souls! O happy losses! So do those cast away, so do those lose, who sow. For who would doubt that, in all sowing, those things that are sown are cast away, are buried? But how great is the hope of the harvest, which the sower's hope precedes! And when it is sown, no one sees the harvest; the whole is entrusted to God, committed to the earth. The earth keeps it, the earth makes it fruitful, the earth multiplies it; but with him working by whom heaven and earth were made.

2. The name of this martyr prompts us to say something about holy squareness. Holy Noah was commanded to build the ark of squared timbers. What was chosen in the squareness, what was prefigured, except that no one can throw down a square as it stands? For wherever you set it, it will stand. Wear yourself out by rolling it, labor at throwing it down; and in throwing it down you will find the one you have thrown down just as he stood before he was thrown down. Everywhere a standing place is set for him. Losses were set before him, the goods of those who confess Christ were taken away: Quadratus stood. Exiles were set before him, and the loss of his earthly homeland; with the spiritual homeland in mind, Quadratus stood. Torments and savage tortures were dealt out; with the great sufferings of Gehenna in mind, Quadratus stood. Vast worldly rewards were promised, that Christ might be denied; with the heavenly crown in mind, Quadratus stood.

3. Such ought the Christian to be: but, in order to be such, Christ must be called upon. Let him make us square, let him rule us, let him not permit the one who is falling to fall. For it was not without reason said: The righteous man falls seven times, and rises again (Prov 24:16). We should not refer what was said to the falls of some grave sin. For he falls gravely who was innocent and becomes a murderer; he falls who was chaste and becomes an adulterer. It was not of such falls that it was said: The righteous man falls seven times and rises again; but this was said of the falls of tribulations. For to fall is to be humbled. However much the righteous man has been humbled, he rises again. He is square who is turned and stands. And in saying Seven times, he put it for the whole, signifying by the perfect number, however often he falls. Seven times, however often; just as it is, Seven times a day I will praise you (Ps 119:164 (118:164)). His praise is always in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). And that you may know this to be the sense in these words, the righteous man falls seven times and rises again, let us look at the surrounding context, what holy Scripture said before, and what it added after these words: there the sense will appear plainly. What, then, does Scripture say, where this sentence is placed? Do not liken the wicked to the pastures of the righteous, and do not be led astray by the fullness of the belly (Prov 24:15 (LXX)). And there follows: For the righteous man falls seven times, and will rise again; but the wicked will be weakened in evils (Prov 24:16 (LXX)). Now from the words that follow this sentence, this meaning begins to shine forth: The righteous man will fall seven times and will rise again, but the wicked will be weakened in evils. So he who falls seven times and will rise again is not weakened in evils; and this is the very thing—to fall and rise again, to be humbled and not be weakened.

4. What is it, then, that was said above: Do not liken the wicked to the pastures of the righteous, and do not be led astray by the fullness of the belly (Prov 24:15 (LXX))? As the Lord deigns to grant, I will say what I can; let one who knocks harder find something better. Behold, dearly beloved, we preach to you the word of God; you all hear it, you are all delighted, you all rejoice: you do not all do it. These are the very pastures where the soul of the righteous is fed; but there too the soul of the unrighteous is fed. The righteous and the wicked hear together; they hear together, and together, when the sermon is finished, they say: We are fattened. But you, distinguish the one who is more healthfully fed from the one who is himself also fed, and has fullness of belly, but does not have stability of mind. Distinguish, then, and do not liken the wicked to the pastures of the righteous, that is, do not compare him to the feeding righteous man. Do not liken, that is, do not compare. For the one is fed in one way, the other in another. Do not think the two alike: do not liken the righteous man to the other. But you hear that this man too holds to the Scriptures: do not be led astray by the fullness of the belly. Do not liken the wicked to the pastures of the righteous, because he too is fed and rejoices in these things; and do not be led astray by the fullness of the belly, because he holds it all. How each has been fed, let trial inquire, let trial test. Behold, I show the pastures of the righteous: he will fall seven times and rise again. Behold, I show the pastures of the wicked: but the wicked is weakened in evils. The righteous man is fed: like a squared stone, whichever way you turn it, it will stand. The wicked man is fed: like a round stone, it will stand nowhere.

5. Such, then, ought we to be: but God must be called upon, that we may be able to be such. I will hope in him, for he will deliver me from the snare of the hunters and from the harsh word (Ps 91:3 (90:3)). The snare of the hunters: the plots of the persecutors; the harsh word: the bitter reproach. How much these heard, who by losing their souls found them! What snares were set before them in their trials! And one soul of all said: My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net (Ps 25:15 (24:15)). I will hope in him, for he will deliver me from the snare of the hunters. How many slanders they heard! and they knew them to be false. Does not grief burn, when a false charge is heard? But there was in them true patience, because a white conscience shone. And from where was this to them, except that he himself delivers them from the snare of the hunters and from the harsh word, who had said to them: You will be blessed when they speak every evil against you (Matt 5:11)? This is the harsh word. They did not say: What is it to me to suffer this reproach? Why am I a Christian, that I should always hear these false charges? They did not say it, because they stood square; and they were rescued, heeding the one who said: You will be blessed, for your reward is great in heaven (Matt 5:12). Was it that, because those trials existed then, they alone could contend? The evils of the world abound; let us too contend. The snare of greed is set before you, that you may betray someone. Be square: scorn what is promised, despise what is offered, look up to what is deferred. What is deferred is more certain than what is offered. What is offered either deserts you while you live, or is deserted by you when you die; what is deferred, when it has come, is not ended. It will neither desert you, nor be deserted by you. There you will be, you will not move on. For blessed, it says, are those who dwell in your house, forever and ever they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). They will praise you, because they will love you. And how will they love you, when they see you, if they so loved you when, not seeing, they believed in you? The snare of fear is set before you, that, when you are afraid, you may commit some evil, and do to yourself what the one who frightened you could not do. For the one who frightened you could kill your flesh; you, by doing evil, kill your soul. These things have never been lacking in human affairs: the contests of trials have never been lacking. Let our eyes be ever toward the Lord.

6. In this world, my brothers, we do not know what is to our advantage. Riches have profited many who have used them well; though it was not the riches themselves that profited, but the mind of the one using them; who, even if he did not have riches, would hold the divine sentence, peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14). Yet how many riches have harmed, who counts them? How many riches have ruined, when are they reckoned? They are seen every day, and those who see are not corrected. So riches have profited some, let us grant it: yet they have also harmed very many. Worldly powers have profited some, let us accept it: yet how many they have harmed! Still, we ought not to be blind. Can it be said that the kingdom of heaven has harmed anyone? Can it be said that living without end with Christ has harmed anyone? But those goods are not here, because they are not from here: they are not of the world. Do not, then, 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 is from the world. And the world passes away, and its desire; but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).

7. Behold the structure of the saints, behold the building of the squared. So then the things that we do not know whether they profit us or harm us, let us leave to God, who both does not hear some when he is favorable, and hears them when he is angry; and again, hears them when he is favorable, and does not hear them when he is angry. To him, I say, let us commit such things, who both does not hear some when he is favorable and hears them when he is angry; and again hears them when he is favorable and does not hear them when he is angry. So when through inexperience we ask for what is not to our advantage, let him be favorable, and not hear us. Therefore he who has been heard, and whose desire has been fulfilled, ought not to boast. The desire of the Israelites was fulfilled when they spurned the manna and craved meat. And read what is written: While the food was still in their mouths (Ps 78:30 (77:30)). What shall I say of men? The devil was heard, that he was believed worthy to be allowed to tempt God's servant. The demons were heard, that they should go into the swine. What great thing, then, is it to be heard? It matters very much in what matter you are heard. If you ask for what is to your advantage, and are heard, God is favorable. Or do we perhaps know what we ask, and the apostle Paul did not know? Behold, I have shown you the ungrateful people heard, but to their own harm; the devil heard, the demons heard. Hear the Apostle not heard, with God favorable. Surely you say in your hearts: If the devil was heard, how much more ought the Apostle to be heard? And yet what does the same Apostle say? Lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations (2 Cor 12:7). After he was not heard, then he found the reason why he was not heard. So he did not keep silent about it, but set it forth first. For so great a man was about to say a marvelous thing and contrary to opinion—so holy a chosen vessel, who labored more than all of them; yet not he, but the grace of God with him. When he read the promise of God, While you are still speaking I will say, Here I am (Isa 58:9), he asks once, and is not heard: he asks again, and is not so heard: he asks a third time, and is altogether not heard. Lest, he says, I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me (2 Cor 12:7). Many suspect many things about this passage: but it is better believed, what is said by the better authorities, that the apostle Paul suffered a certain most acute pain of the head; therefore he said he was buffeted, because he suffered in the head, lest he be exalted. He was struck there where, in pride, one ought not to be raised up. And what does he say, what did he add? Therefore I asked the Lord three times that it might depart from me; and he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:8-9). O not to be heard! this is rather to be helped. A harsh medicine, but healthful, so great a physician applied to the sick man. The sick man, under the bite of the medicine, asked the physician to take away what he had applied; the physician did not hear him according to his will, and therein the more heard him according to his health.

8. Do we not see these things every day in human affairs, as a kind of harsh and inexorable mercy? How many contrary things the sick ask of their physicians, and with how much mercy the physicians refuse! They refuse, and they spare; they would be cruel if they granted. The physician knows this: and does God not know it? He who was created along with you knows how to deal with you in this way; and he who created you both does not know how to deal with you? Surely, dearly beloved, in all tribulations, in all fears, in all joys, ask God that, concerning temporal things, he grant what he himself knows to be to your advantage. But as for eternal things—such as hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:9-10), and the like—ask for these securely, they cannot harm you. Choose, love, gather them; for he opens his hand and fills every soul with blessing. And when you have given, it says, they will gather (Ps 104:28 (103:28)). Let no one doubt about the goods on high: and if they are deferred, they will be given; the reward is not denied, but the desire is exercised. Let us long for them long: because great is what we are to receive. Let us thirst long: because we shall drink from the fountain of life. Yet, dearly beloved, what we ask not shamelessly—because the Apostle taught it—let us ask: that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life, and with all godliness and love.

Sermon 306/D
A Sermon on the Feast of Saint Quadratus

1. The blessed Apostle brought forward a testimony from the Scriptures in which he commended to us the glory of the martyrs. Because it is written, he says: I believed, therefore I have spoken, we too believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor 4:13). For if they had only believed and did not speak, they would not have suffered. So by believing they laid hold of life, and by speaking they found death—but a death in which the corruptible body was sown and incorruption was reaped. This sense, that is, that we believe and therefore also speak, the same Apostle expounded thus in another place: With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10:10).

2. Here perhaps someone may ask: "How is confession made unto salvation, when the martyrs, at the very time they were confessing, were being killed? Surely, then, confession is <not> made unto salvation." You have forgotten: Give us help from trouble, for vain is the salvation of man (Ps 60:11 (59:13))? Plainly they confessed with the mouth unto salvation—the salvation proper to the faithful, proper to Christians, not the salvation common to men and beasts. For even that salvation which is common to men and cattle, from whom is it, except from the Creator of all? For from him by whom we were made so as to exist, we have received that we can be saved. And it is known to the faithful that God is the Creator not only of man but also of beast. Hence: You will save men and beasts, Lord, according to the multiplication of your mercy, O God (Ps 36:6-7 (35:7)). For because you are God and Creator of men, the multiplication of your mercy reaches to the salvation even of beasts. What, then, do men have more, except what follows: But the sons of men will hope under the cover of your wings (Ps 36:7 (35:8))? They will hope for what, except another salvation, not of this time, but eternal? For one salvation is held, another is hoped for; and therefore the martyrs were most strong in faith, because they despised what they held, in order to receive what they hoped for. Salvation and salvation: one they knew, another they believed; one they saw, another they did not see. What faith, then, dearly beloved, what faith! Despise what you see, and faith will arrive.

3. Hence a certain distinction between "men" and "the Son of man" grows clear to us. But all sons of men are men. Why are not all men sons of men? Because Adam and Eve were men, not sons of men. Which of these two did the Lord Christ prefer to be? Because it was fitting that he who had made man should become man for the sake of man, and should become what he had made, lest what he had made should perish. He could certainly form his flesh from wherever he willed, a true man with true flesh. For, in order to form the first man, he did not seek a father or a mother. He did not seek the seed of man, in order that the first man might come to be. It came also to this, that he himself who had made man should become man. He did not want only to be man, which he could be if he willed, but he preferred to be the Son of man. And how vehemently, how constantly he commends that he is the Son of man! Notice and consider, when the holy Gospels are read aloud, how incomparably more abundantly he calls himself the Son of man than the Son of God! For the majesty worthy of God had to be commended briefly, but the humility of the Most High had to be impressed more often. Among other places, then, where the Lord Jesus constantly testifies that he is the Son of man, let us recall especially that where he says to his disciples: Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am? (Matt 16:13) Whom do they say you are, except the Son of man? But many are sons of men, the same in kind, unequal in virtues or conditions. So he says: Who do men say that I am? The answer was that some said he was Elijah, others Jeremiah, others John the Baptist or one of the prophets, as though the Son of man were one of the great men. But these were men with whom even beasts share salvation. But you, he says, who do you say that I am? (Matt 16:15)—as though they were not men. He says: This and that men say I am, men pertaining to "man." But you, surely sons of men pertaining to the Son of man, who do you say that I am? Then Peter answered, one for all, the unity in all, and said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16). Christ commends his humility. Peter confesses Christ's majesty. So it was fitting, so it was right. Hear, Peter, what Christ is for you, and you, say who for you is the Son of man. For whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? Who is this who was made the Son of man for you? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I, he says, commend my humility, you, acknowledge my divinity. I say what I have been made for you, you, say from where I made you.

4. So that temporal salvation, common to men and beasts, was despised by the martyrs—the salvation they had with Adam the man, not with the Son of man. But the sons of men, pertaining to the Son of man, in order to despise the salvation common to men and beasts, will hope under the cover of your wings (Ps 36:7 (35:8)). What then, dearly beloved—for the martyrs to despise that salvation, is that salvation not some good? If it were not a good, who would boast that he despises what is no good? Let him despise a good in order to come to a better. We are speaking of that salvation which no one who seeks it is to be blamed. We see men do nothing else, as far as concerns the support of the present life, except that this salvation be either restored if it has failed, or obtained if it is lacking. But how long—there will be an end of this, like it or not—how long will you be able to hold this salvation, you who cannot recall the last day? A certain boundary of the final day is fixed for each one. To that boundary all run, and they run not willingly, but are driven. To this boundary we are nearer today than yesterday, tomorrow than today; and what has always been unknown—when—will someday come. So let us live carefully, because we do not know when we shall die. We do not know when, and we do not know how near is this thing we have said, "someday." And so the most blessed martyrs, when they had come to the moment of trial, so that either temporal life had to be retained by admitting an uncertain "when," or that life had to be seized which is to be retained without end—Why do you marvel, my brothers?—because they had faith, weighed and chose, conquered because they chose the better, chose because they loved, and in order to love—from where, except that they had it because they were loved? O blessed! O glorious! O strong! O great! O happy! O dedication to God! O on every side square! It is a good, but a temporal one, that you despised. It is an eternal and incorruptible good that you chose. Deservedly you stood firm in confession: wherever the persecutor wanted to turn you, you did not topple.

5. This is to be truly blessed: he in a marvelous way whitened you from blood. The divine word says in the Apocalypse: These are they who have come out of great and much tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white (Rev 7:14). Where did they make them white? In the blood (Rev 7:14), not of just anyone, but of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). All blood stains; the blood of the Lamb whitens. How does it whiten? Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). For that is no marvel, that they washed their robes in blood. For something can be washed in blood, whence a certain poet says: They wash their necks and shoulders with abundant blood (Virgil, Aeneid 12.722). They wash; but do they whiten? Therefore the divine word was watchful, and when it had said: They washed their robes, it added what you would marvel at: and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For how would whatever was washed not be whitened by that blood, of which it was said: This is my blood, which will be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 26:28)?

Sermon 306/E
A Sermon of Saint Augustine the Bishop on the Feast of the Holy Martyr Quadratus

1. The day of the solemn feast of the crown of Quadratus, foretold to Your Charity, has dawned today: let us celebrate it both by gathering and by preaching. We speak of the glory of the martyrs before God and men as often as we celebrate their feasts. Let frequent celebration be frequent exhortation, that there may be exultation. We have sung a psalm well suited to the feast of a martyr: Like a heap of sand I was thrust, that I might fall, and the Lord upheld me (Ps 118:13 (117:13)). For the whole choir of martyrs says this, the body of Christ in the world, living amid trials like Lot in Sodom, seeing many things it does not want, but by no means consenting to the deeds of the wicked. For the human mind is driven to sin in various ways, either by the enticement of pleasure or by the bite of tribulation; and whoever, so as not to sin through enticement, has conquered pleasure, has made great progress, yet has not reached perfection. For the love of righteousness ought to be so great that pleasure yields to it, and that it does not itself yield to pain. Whoever has come to this, has reached perfection. Therefore the martyrs are believed to have gone out of the world perfect, because they conquered by striving not only against the pleasures of the world, but also against tribulations. Finally, as the faithful know, among the Christian sacraments we do not pray for the martyrs. And not only do we not pray for them, but we commend ourselves to their prayers.

2. This perfection Paul's letter to the Hebrews demands, by rebuking and requiring it, where it is said: For you have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin (Heb 12:4). That perfection is demanded; he to whom it is said, "You have not yet done it," is admonished to do it. For you have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin. But the martyrs resisted to the point of blood. Yet they did not contend against the persecuting man, but against the plotting devil, and—if you gather the truth—against their own weakness. For in the man himself a great contest is waged, where the theater is the conscience; but the supreme spectator is the inspector of the conscience. But if he were only the inspector of the conscience and not the helper, every contender would fail. Accordingly, in the very words we sang you have what I say: Like a heap of sand, it says, I was thrust, that I might fall. Why, then, did you not fall? And the Lord upheld me (Ps 118:13 (117:13)). As though confessing, he said this about his weakness. As far as concerns me, he says, I would have fallen, but the Lord upheld me. Be, then, in the Lord, abide in the Lord, and when trial thrusts you, you will not fall, because you do not yield. If by not resisting you do not yield, by not consenting you do not fall.

3. Take a likeness from the very name of the one whose feast we celebrate: he was called Quadratus (the Square). When you thrust a squared stone, it yields, and does not fall. It yields by not resisting, but it does not fall by remaining upright on every side. For a square is upright on every side: it is thrust on one side, received on another, it can never fall. Deservedly the Lord God too commanded the ancient righteous man Noah to build the ark of squared timbers. He wanted timbers used for the building that were both incorruptible and squared: incorruptible for the sake of eternity, squared for the sake of avoiding the trial. Let us too be squared, indeed let the whole body of Christ be the Massa of the Square. For it has a cornerstone, as was sung: The stone, it says, which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner (Ps 118:22 (117:22)). How, then, has it become the head of the corner, which the builders rejected? He means the Pharisees and scribes and teachers of the law. They rejected this one as though he were not the one; they said: "He is not the one. We do indeed await the Christ, but we do not recognize this one." By confessing that they awaited the Christ, they were, as it were, builders; but by saying that they did not recognize the very one who was true, they rejected the cornerstone, because they themselves were not on the rock but on sand. So those builders, by boasting rather than by doing the work, rejected the cornerstone. But lest you wonder how a stone rejected by the builders became the head of the corner, Scripture added: This was the Lord's doing (Ps 118:23 (117:23)). By those builders indeed rejected, but made the head of the corner by the Lord. From opposite sides two walls ran into this corner: the circumcision and the uncircumcision. If you consider where they come from, what is so different? If you consider where they cohere, what is so much one? For walls coming from opposite directions make a corner, but cohering with one another in one place in the bond of peace. It came to pass: they came from the circumcision, they came from the uncircumcision, they were joined to one another in the cornerstone. What the Apostle says was fulfilled: He is our peace, who made both one (Eph 2:14).

4. Accordingly, dearly beloved, striving toward the cornerstone, come as squares, that the builder may not reject you. Yet hope wholly in God: he himself squares who binds together. You, says the apostle Peter, like living stones, are built together into a holy temple of God (1 Pet 2:5). We ought so to think of the temple of God that we likewise know that God does not need a temple, but the temple needs God; lest we suppose that we do God a favor, in giving him somewhere to dwell. That God dwells in you profits you. By indwelling, he so makes you blessed; he is not made blessed by the dwelling. For he is so the true Lord, who does not need a servant, and yet has a servant whom he does not need, but for whom he provides. For human weakness needs a servant, that the servant may do some work which the master cannot, and in doing what he can, may help the master who cannot. But God is almighty; he who made you does not need you. For you do not merit anything because you carry the Lord, you who merited to be made by the Lord. Do not reckon that you do God a favor because you believe in God. For if you do not believe, you are harmful not to him, but to yourself. This voice is expressed in the psalm where it is said: I said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)). Therefore my Lord is the true God the Lord, who has no need of my goods, but I of yours.

5. Let no one think himself capable of squaring himself, just as he was capable of corrupting himself, because no one ought to think himself capable of healing himself, even if he was capable of wounding himself. Darkness is in the eye's power, for it is closed and darkness is in it. When you have closed it, you are in darkness. So it was in your power to be in darkness by closing your eyes; but is it in your power to see, when you have opened your eyes, unless light is present in which you can see? The closing of your eyes had no need of help in order not to see, but the opening of the eyes has need of help in order to see. For unless light is present—whether of the sun or a lamp or the moon or any kind of light—unless it is present to the opening, your eyes, even open, see nothing. Ours, then, is to receive, ours is to have. But what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7)

6. Therefore the godly voice says like a heap of sand (Ps 118:13 (117:13))—not a heap of sand, but like a heap of sand; for the body of Christ, though it was made solid and squared, was thought a heap of sand by the blind, and because it was thought a heap of sand, therefore it did not fall. Yet it did not even attribute this to its own strength, since it added: The Lord upheld me (Ps 118:13 (117:13)). In all these trials of the world, then—for Sodom has not yet burned, indeed another great Sodom, for that one burned as an example, another is kept for judgment—in these trials of the world, then, let us daily meditate on contending against sin to the point of blood (Heb 12:4), which is said in another saying: Strive for the truth unto death (Sir 4:28). What was said there, against sin, this was said here, for the truth. And what was said there, to the point of blood, this was said here, unto death. The mind itself ought to be that of a martyr, for God is not delighted by shed blood: he has many martyrs in secret. Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

7. Nor is that persecution to be wished for, which our forefathers suffered from earthly powers, that they might become martyrs. The world does not cease, the abundance of trials does not cease. Sometimes there is a fever, and you contend. To pass over the various threats of adversaries, the various trials of each individual, what I had begun to say: there is a fever, and you contend. You are in bed, and you are an athlete. You are sick, and you fight, and you conquer. For what if, to one who is feverish and set in danger of death, someone comes who promises to drive away your fever by certain incantations—and those incantations are unlawful, diabolical, to be detested and anathematized—and then by the one who urges this on you, and of those who have been so healed, many examples are set before you, and it is said to you: "When that man had this, he did this for him, he chanted over him, he purified him, he was present to him, and he was made well. Inquire of him, ask him, hear him." And let them too say: "It truly happened; we were almost dead, and so we were delivered, and let it be a matter of faith to you that if you admit that incantation, you will at once be delivered from that plague." If you do not consent, will you not be a martyr, who chose rather to die, and did not consent to the sacrilege? For what the wicked judge said to the martyr set on the chain or the rack: "Consent to the sacrifice, and I release you from this tribulation," this the devil says in secret to the feverish man: "Consent to this sacrilege, and I release you from this fever."

8. If, then, you do not consent, if you conquer not a man but the devil, not just any fellow sinner of yours, but the very prince of sinners—but because your struggle is not against flesh and blood, that is, against the men from whom you suffer the troubles of either persuasions or tribulations, but against the principalities and powers and rulers of the world, not of heaven and earth, but of this darkness (Eph 6:12), that is, of the unclean and the wicked, from whom, when delivered, the Apostle says: You were once darkness (Eph 5:8)—if, then, you do not consent, do not think yourself no martyr. Your feast is indeed not celebrated, but your crown is prepared. For it is the custom for the feast of those to be celebrated who contended publicly. How many martyrs have gone forth from a bed, and from that sickness passed as victors to the things above. Know, then, that you are being tried, if you suffer anything of this kind, if anything of this kind is urged upon you; there you have need to have the mind of a martyr, since he who made you watches you, and he who called you helps you. There it is for you to say that word of the saints which I found: God is able to deliver me from this deadly fever, but even if not (See Dan 3:17-18). Let the enchanter be a contest for you, because the one to whom you speak is not a transgressor. So after these words, whatever pleases your Lord concerning you will be done. Either you are restored alive, or you are joined to the angels. He will do what he has chosen concerning you: be you prepared for either, if you want to be square. Turned to the Lord . . .

9. Do you think that those words of the psalm which you have just heard: The Lord chastening has chastened me, and has not handed me over to death (Ps 118:18 (117:18)), are only the voice of Daniel, who closed the mouths of the lions? Do you think this is only the voice of the three young men, who by faith made trial of the flames among which they walked about? Do you think this voice is theirs alone: The Lord chastening has chastened me, and has not handed me over to death, because the lions did not devour the one, nor the fires burn the others? Far be it! Do not suppose this; this voice is not theirs alone: it is also that of the Maccabees. For the God of these was not another, and of those another; nor was he present to these and absent from those, nor a helper to these and angry with those. He is the same God, able to deliver in either way, that he may show that he holds all things in his power. By closing the mouths of the lions, he chastened Daniel in his humiliation, but did not hand him over to death. By cooling the fires, he chastened the three young men in their humiliation, but did not hand them over to death. By making the Maccabees victors in the fire, who would not yield to torments, but would contend against sin to the point of blood, chastening he chastened them, and did not hand them over to death. For all those live. To what death did he not hand them over, I say? The devil wanted to hand them over to the second death, the eternal death, not the passing one. So those he openly delivered, those he secretly crowned; neither these nor those did he hand over to death.

10. We ought, then, always to be prepared for either, as I said. For God is able to deliver from every tribulation. But above all we ought to pray that he deliver us from tribulation, that we may be victors over tribulation, that we may not yield to tribulation unto sinning. And do not think yourself a martyr only if it is said to you: "Deny Christ," and you do not deny. When you think of doing something against righteousness, nothing else is said to you than: "Deny Christ." Surely the great martyr John the Baptist was beheaded, and yet it was not said to him: "Deny Christ." He spoke the truth to a bad king: the angry king ordered him shut up, the delighted king ordered him killed. For there was dancing so that he might be killed: she danced, he fell. For he fell rather, by killing a righteous man. For the one killed did not fall, but he who ordered the killing. And yet it was not said to him: "Deny Christ," but because he died for the truth, he died for Christ, who said: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

11. And he who says to you: "Bear false witness for me," says nothing else to you than: "Deny Christ." For if you confess Christ with the tongue and bear false witness, there comes to be in you what Paul says: For they confess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him (Titus 1:16). You confessed by word, you denied by deed. God judges the denier by deed more than the confessor by word. For deeds are more than words. To do and to say is good; but to say and not to do is not. So you think yourself a martyr, if you contend. "Bear false witness for me." "I will not." "Just take this and say it." "I will not take it." You have conquered greed. If you conquer fear too, you have contended against sin to the point of blood. He who did not entice you with a reward will try to break you with threats, proposing that he will pursue enmities, will harm you more gravely, and, when he has the power, will kill you—and perhaps he already has it—what do you do? He does not say: "Deny Christ," yet he says: "Act against Christ," that <is> against him who said: You shall not bear false witness (Exod 20:16). How many such trials there are daily, not against all, as against the whole Church, as if a heap of sand is being thrust which is thought a heap of sand, but for the most part the enemy fights against the single grains, sometimes tempting one by one. What does it matter whether he tempts one by one, or compels all together? The tempter is not lacking, but let the wrestler not be lacking either, because the one who crowns will not be lacking. Turned to the Lord . . .

Sermon 307
On the Beheading of Blessed John the Baptist

1. 1. When the holy Gospel was being read, a cruel spectacle was set before our eyes: the head of holy John on a platter, a deadly dish of cruelty, on account of hatred of the truth. The girl dances, and the mother rages: and amid the delights and wantonness of the banqueters a rash oath is sworn, and what is sworn is impiously fulfilled. It happened to John as he himself had foretold. For he had said of the Lord Jesus Christ: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). The one was diminished in his head, the other increased on the cross. The truth bore hatred. It could not be borne with an even mind that the holy man of God admonished them: he who surely sought the salvation of those whom he so admonished. They answered him evil for good. For what would he say, except that with which he was full? And what would they answer, except that with which they were full? He sowed wheat, but found thorns. He said to the king: It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife (Mark 6:18). For lust conquered the king: he kept with him his brother's forbidden wife. Yet he so pleased the king that he did not rage. He honored the one from whom he heard the truth. But the detestable woman conceived a hatred, which someday, given the time, she would bring forth. When she was in labor, she bore a daughter, a dancing daughter. And that king who held John a holy man, who feared him on account of the Lord, even though he did not obey him, after John's head on a platter was asked of him, was grieved. But on account of the oath and on account of those reclining at table, he sent the executioner, and fulfilled what he had sworn.

2. 2. This passage admonishes us, dearly beloved, that for the sake of your life and conduct we should treat something for you concerning oaths. False swearing is no light sin: indeed, so great a sin is it to swear falsely, that on account of the guilt of false swearing the Lord forbade all swearing. For he says: It was said, You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord: but I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by any other oath whatever; nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let there be in your mouth, Yes, yes; No, no. Anything more than this is from evil (Matt 5:33-37).

2. 3. But we find in the holy Scriptures that the Lord swore, when Abraham obeyed him even to the immolation of his beloved son. The angel spoke to him from heaven, saying: By myself I swear, says the Lord, that because you have obeyed my voice, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake, blessing I will bless you, and I will fill up your seed, like the stars of heaven, and like the sand of the sea; and in your seed all nations will be blessed (Gen 22:16-18). That you see Christians filling the whole world, the truthful oath of God brings to pass. And likewise in the Psalms it was prophesied of the Lord Jesus Christ: The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4 (109:4)). Those who know the Scriptures know what Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, brought forth when he blessed Abraham. We need not recall this, on account of the catechumens. The faithful, however, recognize how it was prophesied beforehand, what we now see fulfilled. And from where is this? Because the Lord has sworn. And the Lord has sworn, and he will not repent (Ps 110:4 (109:4)): not as Herod repented because he had sworn.

3. 4. Since, then, the Lord has sworn, why did the Lord Christ forbid his own to swear? I will say why. It is not a sin to swear truly. But because it is a great sin to swear falsely, far from the sin of swearing falsely is he who does not swear at all; he draws near to false swearing who swears even truly. The Lord, then, who forbade swearing, did not want you to walk on the bank of the river, lest your foot slip in the narrow place, and you fall. But the Lord swore, you say. He swears secure who does not know how to lie. Let it not move you that the Lord swore; for perhaps no one ought to swear except God. For when you swear, what do you do? You call God as witness. You call him, he calls himself. But you, a man, because in many things you are deceived, for the most part you call truth as witness for your falsehood. Sometimes even unwillingly a man swears falsely, when he thinks what he swears to be true. This is indeed not so great a sin as that of one who knows it to be false, and yet swears. How much better, and altogether far removed from this grave sin, is he who hears the Lord Christ, and does not swear?

4. 5. I know this is hard for your habit: but it was hard for our habit too. By fearing God we took swearing from our mouth. See, we live among you: who has ever heard us swearing? Had I not been accustomed to swear daily? But when I read, and feared, I struggled against my habit, and in the very struggle I called upon the Lord as helper. The Lord gave me the help of not swearing. Nothing is easier for me than not to swear. I have admonished Your Charity of this, lest you say, Who can do it? Oh, if only God were feared! oh, if only perjurers trembled! the tongue is bridled, the truth is kept, swearing is taken away.

Sermon 308
On the Same Feast

1. 1. On account of this passage, which we heard today when the Gospel was being read, I say to Your Charity: you see that this wretched Herod loved John, a holy man and a man of God: but because he had rashly sworn, drunk with joy and with delight at the dancing girl, he promised that he would give whatever that girl, who had pleased by her dancing, should ask. But when she asked for a cruel and wicked thing, he was indeed grieved; for he saw so great a crime being done: but, set between his oath and the girl's request, where he saw the bloody deed, there in turn he feared the guilt of perjury; lest he offend God by perjuring, he offended God by raging. Someone says to me: What then ought Herod to have done? If I say, He ought not to have sworn: who does not see that he ought not to have done this? But I am not consulted about a man, whether he ought to swear; but what he ought to do who has sworn. That is the great deliberation. He swore rashly: who does not know it? Yet he slipped, he swore. Behold, the girl asked for the head of holy John: what ought Herod to have done? Let us give him counsel. If we say, Spare John, do not commit the crime; we counsel perjury. If we say, Do not perjure; we provoke him to fulfill the crime. A bad situation.

2. 1. Before you come, then, to this two-headed snare, take rash oaths from your mouth: before you come to this bad habit, I admonish my brothers, I admonish my children: what need is there for you to come to this point, where we cannot find counsel?

2. 2. Yet, the Scriptures searched more diligently, one example occurs to me, where I see a godly and holy man fallen into a rash oath, and preferring not to do what he had sworn, rather than to fulfill his oath by the shedding of a man's blood. I recall it, then, to Your Charity. When the ungrateful Saul was persecuting holy David, he went with his men wherever he could, lest he be found by Saul and killed. And on a certain day, from a rich man who was called Nabal, and was shearing his sheep, he asked for support of food, for himself and those who were with him. The merciless man refused to give, and, what is graver, answered insultingly. Holy David swore that he would kill him. For he was armed. And what had been easy, and seemed just to do at the urging of anger, he poured out an incautious oath; and he began to go, to do what he had sworn. Abigail, the wife of Nabal, ran to meet him, and brought him the necessaries he had asked for. She begged him humbly, bent him, and called him back from her husband's blood. He had sworn rashly, but did not fulfill the oath, by a greater godliness.

3. 2. Accordingly, dearly beloved, I return again to admonishing you. Behold holy David did not indeed in anger shed a man's blood; but who can deny that he swore falsely? Of two sins he chose the lesser: but that was the lesser in comparison with the greater. For weighed in itself, false swearing is a great evil. First, then, you ought to labor, and to fight against your bad habit, bad, bad, and very bad; and to take swearing from your mouths.

3. 3. But if someone provokes you to an oath, thinking perhaps that he can be satisfied in this way, if you swear concerning that matter which he thinks you have committed or done, and perhaps you did not do it; lest an evil suspicion remain in him, if you swear, you do not sin as does the one who provoked you: because the Lord Jesus said: Let there be in your mouth, Yes, yes; No, no. Anything more than this is from evil (Matt 5:37). He was speaking, however, about swearing, where he wanted us to understand that swearing itself is from evil. If you are provoked by another, it will be from his evil that you swear, not from your own. And this is close to the common evil of the human race, since we cannot see one another's hearts. For if we could see one another's hearts, to whom would we swear? When would an oath be exacted from us, when the very thought would be seen by the eyes of our neighbor?

4. 4. Write in your hearts what I say: he who provoked a man to an oath, and knows that he will swear falsely, surpasses the murderer. For the murderer will kill the body, that one the soul; indeed, two souls, both of the one whom he provoked to swear, and his own. You know that what you say is true, and that what he says is false, and you compel him to swear? Behold, he swears, behold, he perjures himself, behold, he perishes: what have you found? Indeed you too have perished, who wanted to glut yourself on his death.

5. 5. I will say something which I have never said to Your Charity, among this people, which happened in this church. There was here a certain man, simple, innocent, well-faithful, known to many of you, that is, to the people of Hippo, indeed to all, called Tutuslymeni. Who of you who are citizens does not know Tutuslymeni? From him I heard what I say. Someone—I do not know who—denied him either what he had entrusted, or what was owed him; and he committed himself to the man's good faith. Disturbed, he provoked him to an oath. The other swore, this man lost his case: but while this man lost, the other utterly perished. So this Tutuslymeni, a serious and faithful man, said that on that very night he was presented before a judge, and that with great force and terror he came to a certain lofty and admirable man presiding on high, to whom there obeyed a retinue of others likewise lofty; that, being troubled, he was ordered to be called back, and was questioned in these words: Why did you provoke a man to an oath, whom you knew would swear falsely? He answered: He denied me my property. It was answered him: And was it not better that you should lose the property you were demanding, than that you should destroy that man's soul by a false oath? Thrown down, he was ordered to be beaten. He was beaten so gravely that, on the back of the waking man, the marks of the blows appeared. But it was said to him, after he was corrected: Your innocence is spared; henceforth beware lest you do it. He indeed committed a grave sin, and was corrected: but a much graver sin will he commit, who after this sermon of mine and this admonition and exhortation of mine does anything of the sort. Beware of false swearing, beware of rash swearing. From these two evils you will most safely beware, if you take from yourselves the habit of swearing.

Sermon 308/A
Delivered at Carthage in the Mappalia, That Is, in the Basilica of the Blessed Martyr Cyprian, During the Vigil of His Feast

1. We speak to Your Charity in the house of God what the present psalm has prompted. Who is it that says: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. I will clothe his enemies with confusion; but upon him my sanctification will flourish (Ps 132:17-18 (131:17-18)); and what that lamp is which he prepared for his Christ; and who the enemies of his Christ are, whom through that lamp he clothed with confusion; and what the sanctification of him who prepared a lamp for his Christ, which will flourish upon his Christ. For in all these words only that seems plain and open which he here says: my Christ; for nothing else is to be understood than Christ our Lord and Savior. Searching out, then, as far as God grants, the depth of meaning here, we find that God the Father says this. So God the Father, that is, the person of God the Father, speaks through the prophet: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. But that the Son of God is the same as the Christ of God need not be expounded to Christians. The speaker being found, then, let us see what the lamp is, prepared by God the Father for Christ the Son. The Lord himself says of John the Baptist: He was a burning and shining lamp, and you wanted to exult for an hour in his light (John 5:35). So he called John a lamp, kindled from the fountain of light. That he might bear witness to the truth. For in this blindness men lay, and in this weakness of the inner eye, so that the sun of righteousness was sought through a lamp. For if anyone had a clean eye of the heart, he would gaze upon it first, and would not seek a lamp for its testimony. For when he had said of that lamp: You wanted to exult for an hour in his light, but I, he says, have a testimony greater than John (John 5:36). So a lamp was kindled for the weak in the night. And how did he kindle it? The Father says to Christ his Son concerning John: Behold, I send my messenger before you, who will prepare the way before your face (Mal 3:1). He prepared a lamp for his Christ.

2. How did he clothe his enemies with confusion through that very lamp? And first see what we said, that the lamp was kindled from the fountain of light. John himself testifies: But we, he says, have received of his fullness (John 1:16). Now John was so preeminent in excellence that he was thought not sent before Christ, but to be Christ himself. But he, if he had been a lamp extinguished, and smoking with the reek of pride, when it was sent to him by the Jews, and it was said to him: Who are you? Are you the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet? (John 1:19-21) would have said: I am. For he had found an occasion for his boasting, with the error of men freely conferring a false honor upon him. Did he labor to persuade them of this, which the earlier ones who questioned were saying? But he was sent, a humble man, to prepare the way for the exalted; hence the friend of the bridegroom, because the servant who knows the Lord. And he said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness; prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths (John 1:23). I am not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. And they: Who then are you? (John 1:22) And what did he say? I am the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord. For Isaiah had already foretold these things; and of whom he foretold them, is there understood. You have read this, he says, in Isaiah, and perhaps, having read it, you did not know of whom it was said: I am the one of whom it was said. But see how greatly he casts himself down, who was so exalted that he was thought to be Christ; see how greatly he casts himself down. I indeed, he says, baptize you in water; but he who comes after me is greater than I (See Matt 3:11; John 1:27). And he could be said to be somewhat greater than I. He says he is greater than himself. Say, how much greater? Of whom I am not, he says, worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal (John 1:27).

3. From this now understand the dispensation, why John was sent ahead before Christ. You see how much less he is, and how much greater he confesses him to be, that he says himself unworthy to loosen the strap of his sandal. How great is this one, who says himself unworthy to loosen the strap of this man's sandal? How great is he? where do we seek it? If we seek from John himself how great John is, we do not find it; for he humbles himself, and says nothing of himself, even truly, in a boastful way. How great, then, John is—he who is not worthy to loosen the strap of the sandal of one who was thought a man—from whom shall we hear it? Let us question the Lord himself, and say to him: Lord, John bore great witness of you, and although his great excellence appeared among men, so that he was thought to be Christ, and when it was asked of him who he was, he said he was not the Christ, he said one greater than himself would come, and so much greater that he is not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal. Like a faithful lamp he spoke of your excellent light. This John says of you. Let us see who he is who says these things of you, how great is he who so humbled himself before you, and confessed you so much greater than himself. Who is he? He says these things of you: do you say something to us of him. Hear the Lord's voice concerning John: Among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11). But what does he say? But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matt 11:11). He means himself: for God is not arrogant, when he commends his own greatness. What is: He who is least? He who is later in age, greater in majesty. For the Lord Christ was born later than John, but in that which he was made for our sake, not in that through which we were made. He who was born after John hears from the Father: not before John, not before David, not before Abraham, but: Before the morning star I begot you (Ps 110:3 (109:3)). If, then, something was accommodated to our weakness, that the lamp should precede the day, and the lamp was believed concerning the day, how much more is the day to be believed concerning the lamp, because among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11)? A man, then, than whom none greater had been born, when he says himself unworthy to loosen the strap of someone's sandal, what is he, whose sandal-strap a man than whom none was greater is not worthy to loosen? If now John is so great a man that there can be no greater man, whatever is greater than he is more than a man. If now John is so great a man that no man is greater than he, then he who is greater than he is more than a man. And he who is more than a man, yet for the sake of man a man, deservedly the sanctification of the Father flourishes upon him.

4. For upon him the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove: the flower of holiness in the form of a dove, in a simple and innocent shape, was then shown more fully to John himself, that it might be fulfilled: And upon him my sanctification will flourish (Ps 132:18 (131:18)). I, he says, did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, upon whomever you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And I, he says, have borne witness to what I saw, that he is the chosen one of God (John 1:33-34). Of whom does he bear witness? Of the one upon whom he saw the sanctification of the Father flourish. From where did he see the Holy Spirit descending? For the Spirit never withdrew from the Son, nor the Son ever from the Spirit, nor the Son ever from the Father, nor the Father from the Son, nor the Spirit from the Son and the Father; but these things are understood in one way by a purified mind, and shown in another way to the eyes. At no time does the Father precede the Son, at no time does the Son follow the Father; at no time, because there there is no time. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the creator of times, one God. There, then, it is not for you to say: The Father is prior, the Son is later; from whom the Father, from him the Son. Ask: From whom is the Father? You surpass in thought the earth, heaven, the angels, things visible, things invisible, the whole creation, and you ask: From whom did the Father begin? Eternal things are not so inquired into; do not ask "from whom," except of what begins. Do not ask "from whom"—from whom begins whatever has begun, and what begins from no one, because it does not begin. But just as the Father does not begin, neither does the Son begin, but the Son is the splendor of the Father. Just so is the splendor of fire, from which the fire; and the splendor of the Father, from which the Father. But from whom is the Father? From eternity to eternity. Therefore the splendor of the Father too is from eternity to eternity; and yet, because it is his splendor, it is his Son, and so it did not begin in time, in that it was begotten of the Father. Who can see this? File your heart, shake off the dust, wash away the stain; let whatever disturbs the inner gaze be cared for and healed, and there will appear what is said and believed before it is seen.

5. Yet for now we believe, brothers. What do we believe? That the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit precede one another at no time. Since, then, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit precede one another at no time, yet I could not name the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit unless these names occupied times, and were occupied by their times. The Father is not prior and the Son later, and yet I could not say it except as one prior and another later, and all the syllables occupied their times, and the second syllable in my words could not sound until the first had passed. Times were carried out in my syllables, when I said the things that have no times. So then, my brothers, when that Trinity was shown perceptibly to this flesh, the whole Trinity appeared at the river, where the Lord was baptized by John. For he was baptized, he came up from baptism, the dove descended, and a voice sounded from heaven: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt 3:17). The Son in the man, the Spirit in the dove, the Father in the voice. The undivided reality was shown distinctly; if indeed it is to be called a reality, but rather the cause of all realities, if indeed a cause. For what do we say, when we speak of God? And yet we speak, and he allows himself to be spoken of, who is not as he is thought, and cannot be spoken in the way he is thought. But as far as concerns men, brothers, behold, he appeared through a dove, and it was fulfilled: But upon him my sanctification will flourish (Ps 132:18 (131:18)). For "will flourish" was said, will appear clearly; for nothing in a tree is clearer than the flower, nothing brighter. Come now, we have arrived at the last words of the antiphon, but upon him my sanctification will flourish. I recall that I passed over who the enemies are who were confounded by the lamp.

6. I have prepared a lamp for my Christ (Ps 132:17 (131:17)). The Father says of his Son. What lamp? John. Ask the Son himself. He was a burning and shining lamp (John 5:35). I will clothe his enemies with confusion (Ps 132:18 (131:18)). The open enemies of Christ, who are they, but the Jews? For Christ has hidden enemies. All who live unjustly and impiously are enemies of Christ, even if they are sealed with his name, even if they are called Christians. For to them he will say: I do not know you; and they say to him: Lord, in your name we ate and drank, in your name we did many mighty works (See Luke 13:26-27; Matt 7:22). What, "we ate and drank in your name"? For they did not boast of their food as a great thing, and on that ground say that they belonged to Christ. There is a certain food which is eaten and drunk, and it is Christ; and by enemies Christ is eaten and drunk. The faithful know the immaculate Lamb on whom they feed; and would that they so feed that they be not debtors to punishment! For as the Apostle says: Whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor 11:29). So they are enemies of Christ who prefer to live unjustly than to obey him, and, when it is said that he will come to judge the living and the dead, they fear lest he come. If it were allowed them, they would bring it about that he not come. Because they could not bring it about that he not come, they would bring it about that he not return. The Jews already wanted to do this, that he not return. For the son was sent to those bad tenants, to the bad lessees unwilling to render the rent, and stoning the servants sent to them. Then the householder, the lord of the vineyard, said: I will send my son; perhaps they will reverence him. But they thought, saying: This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours (Matt 21:37-38). They could not bring it about that he not come from the Father, and they tried to bring it about that he not return to the Father. But to what good? They indeed saw and despised him as mortal, but in him they could kill nothing but death. In the death of Christ, death died. He, rising, ascended to the Father, and is to come. What do you fear? Love, and you will be secure. Do we not pray: Your kingdom come (Matt 6:10)? So, brothers, do we pray, and fear lest we be heard?

7. But these, as I had begun to say, are hidden enemies. Let us speak of those open ones, who openly envied, raged, seized, scourged, mocked, crucified, killed, and guarded him when buried. Let us see how they were clothed with confusion through that lamp. When these same enemies saw the miracles in the Lord: Tell us, they say, by what authority you do these things? (Matt 21:23) They asked with a hostile mind, so that, if he should confess his authority, they might hold him as guilty of blasphemy, as it were. But just as he did with the coin, when they wanted to slander him—if he said: Let the tribute be rendered to Caesar, as though he had cursed the Jewish people, whom he had made subject and tributary; but if he said: Let it not be rendered, they would accuse him before Caesar's friends and ministers, that he forbade it to be rendered; but he: Show me, he said, the coin: Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered: Caesar's. Render therefore to Caesar what is Caesar's, and what is God's to God (Matt 22:19-21). This is to say: If Caesar seeks his image on the coin, does God not seek his image in man? So here too the slandering enemies spoke evil with heart and heart (Ps 12:2 (11:3)). For it would have said only with heart, unless those who spoke such things had a double heart, and, as was said a little before, a doubled heart, not a simple one. For see how much it matters. Of the many servants of God it was said that they had one heart: There was, it says, to them one soul and one heart toward God (Acts 4:32). Many simple ones have one heart, one deceitful one has two hearts. So, because they spoke with heart and heart: Tell us by what authority you do these things? that is, if you say we honor you, if you say we venerate you, if you say we entreat you. This seems to sound from one heart. But from another—for there was a double one there—if you say we slander you, if you say we will find what we may hold against you, if you say we will find what we may accuse you of. Such are the enemies: but let them be confounded by the lamp; now you will see them confounded. And rightly, because it is the time. We are keeping the lamp-lighting; let the enemies of Christ be confounded through the lamp which the Father prepared for his Christ. For he was a burning lamp (John 5:35), the Lord himself says. What, then, did he answer these who said: Tell us by what authority you do these things? I too will ask one word. Tell me, the baptism of John, from where is it? from heaven, or from men? But they, troubled among themselves: If we say, from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? (Matt 21:24-25) that is: Why do you ask me by what authority I do these things, when of me that man bore witness whom you questioned? So, if we say: From heaven; he will say to us: Why did you not believe him? If we say: From men, we fear the people. For all held John as a prophet (Matt 21:25-26). On this side fearing the people, on that side fearing the truth; here timid, there envious; everywhere blind, they answered: We do not know (Matt 21:27). The lamp was brought forth, the darkness fled; for, although they were present in body, they fled in heart, by saying that they did not know what they knew. The sign of flight, the fear of the heart; they feared to be stoned by the people, if they said the baptism of John was from men; they feared to be convicted by Christ, if they said the baptism of John was from heaven. They fled confounded. So at the naming of John they feared, troubled they were silent. And he: Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things (Matt 21:27).

8. So John the Baptist was prepared as a lamp for Christ our Lord; his slandering, questioning enemies withdrew confounded when the light of the lamp was brought forth; it was fulfilled: I will clothe his enemies with confusion (Ps 132:18 (131:18)). But we, brothers, both recognizing the Lord through John the Baptist the forerunner, indeed also through the testimony of the Lord himself, of whom he says: I have a testimony greater than John (John 5:36), believing in Christ, let us be made the body of him who is the head, so that there may be one Christ, head and body; and when all of us are made one, it will be fulfilled: But upon him my sanctification will flourish (Ps 132:18 (131:18)). Turned to the Lord.

Sermon 309
On the Feast of Cyprian the Martyr

1. 1. So gracious and religious a solemnity, by which we celebrate the passion of the blessed Martyr, demands of your ears and hearts the sermon we owe. Without doubt the Church was then sad, not at the loss of one falling, but at the longing for one departing; ever desiring to see present so good a ruler and teacher. But those whom the anxiety of the contest had afflicted, the crown of the victor consoled. And now, not only without any sadness, but even with immense gladness, we recall by reading and loving all that was then done; and on this day it is now granted to rejoice, not to fear. For we do not dread him coming terribly, but await him returning cheerfully. It is fitting, then, with exultation to recall as past that whole passion of the most faithful and most strong and most glorious Martyr, which the brethren then sustained with anxiety as still to come.

1. 2. First, then, that for the faith of confessing Christ he was sent into exile at Curubis—it was not holy Cyprian who was harmed, but much was bestowed on that city. For where would he be sent, where that one would not be, on account of whose testimony he was being sent? Christ, therefore, who says: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20), received his own member in every place, wherever the fury of the enemy drove it. O foolish unbelief of the persecutor! If you seek the exile to which a Christian may be ordered to go; first, if you can, find from where Christ may be forced to go out. You think to shut the man of God out from his homeland into a foreign one—the man who in Christ is nowhere an exile, in the flesh everywhere a pilgrim. But now it delights us to consider and recall, after that which Cyprian had not felt, but the enemy thought, was exile, what followed in the order of his passion. For when the holy martyr Cyprian, chosen by God, had returned from the city of Curubis, to which he had been sent in exile by the order of the proconsul Aspasius Paternus, he remained in his gardens: and from there he daily expected men to come to him, as had been shown to him.

2. 3. What further could the persecutor's onslaught rage against a heart ever prepared, strengthened too by the coming revelation of the Lord? For when would he desert one who suffers patiently, whom he did not allow to be taken unawares not knowing? Now, then, as to the fact that two men were sent to present him for the passion, who even lifted him with themselves into the chariot and set him in the middle; this too was of divine admonition, that, rejoicing, he might recall that he belonged to the body of him who was reckoned among the wicked. For Christ, hung on the wood between two thieves, was offered as an example of patience. But Cyprian, between two officers, carried by chariot to the passion, was following the footsteps of Christ.

2. 4. And that, when he had been deferred to another day and was among his guards, and when the multitude of brothers and sisters, gathering there, kept vigil before the doors, he ordered the girls to be guarded—with how great attention is this to be considered? with how great praise to be proclaimed? with how great heralding to be commended? With the death of his body near, the pastoral vigilance in the pastor's soul was not dying; and the care of guarding the Lord's flock was held with a sober mind even to the last day of this life: nor did the hand of the bloody executioner, now very near, shake off from his soul the diligence of a most faithful steward. So he thought of being a future martyr, that he did not forget that he was a bishop: caring more how he might render to the prince of the shepherds an account of the sheep committed to him, than what he might answer the unbelieving proconsul concerning his own faith. For he loved the one who had said to Peter: Do you love me? Feed my sheep (John 21:17). And he was feeding his sheep, for whom, imitating him, he was preparing to shed his blood. He ordered the girls to be guarded, knowing that he had not only a simple Lord, but also a wily adversary. And so against the lion openly roaring in confession he armed his manly breast, against the wolf lying in wait for the flock he fortified the female sex.

3. 5. So truly does he take counsel for himself who thinks of God as judge, before whom each will plead the cause of the life he has led and of the office laid upon him by God: where every man receives, as the Apostle testifies, the things he has done through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10). So does he take counsel for himself who, living by faith, and taking care lest he be taken unawares by the last day, counts every day his last, and so leads conduct pleasing to God even to the last day. So did blessed Cyprian, both a most merciful bishop and a most faithful martyr, take counsel for himself, not as the deceitful tongue of the devil, through the mouth of the impious judge possessed by him, seemed to admonish him, saying: "Take counsel for yourself." For when he saw his immovable mind, when he said to him: "The princes have ordered you to perform the rites"; and Cyprian answered: "I will not do it": he added and said: "Take counsel for yourself." This is the deceitful tongue of the devil: even if not of this man who did not know what he was saying, yet of the one who was speaking through him. For the proconsul was speaking, not so much according to the ruling men, whose commands laid upon him he was boasting of, as according to the prince of the power of the air, of whom the Apostle says: Who works in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2): whom Cyprian knew to be working through this man's tongue too, which the man himself did not know. Cyprian knew, I say, when he heard from the proconsul: "Take counsel for yourself," that what flesh and blood said stupidly, this the devil said deceitfully: and he beheld in one work two: the one with his eyes, the other by faith. This one did not want him to die, that one did not want him to be crowned: accordingly he was placid toward this one, cautious toward that one; to this one he answered openly, that one he conquered secretly.

4. 6. "Do," he said, "what has been commanded you: in so just a matter there is no deliberation." For that one had said: "Take counsel for yourself." To this it was answered: "In so just a matter there is no deliberation." For he takes counsel who either imparts or seeks advice. But the proconsul did not want to receive counsel from Cyprian, but rather was admonishing him to receive it from him. But Cyprian: "In so just a matter," he says, "there is no deliberation." I do not yet take counsel, because I do not yet doubt: for justice itself has taken away doubt from me. But the righteous man, that he may die secure in the flesh, lives certain in the faith. Many martyrs had preceded Cyprian, whom he had kindled by his most ardent exhortations to conquer the devil; and it was surely just that those whom, speaking truly, he had sent ahead, he should, suffering, intrepidly follow: therefore "in so just a matter there is no deliberation." What shall we say to these things? at what shall we exult here? With so great a conception of joys, into what does our heart and our mouth break forth, except into that very last word of the venerable Martyr? For when Galerius Maximus had read the decree from the document: "It is my pleasure that Tascius Cyprian be punished by the sword," he answered: "Thanks be to God." Having, then, the memory of the present place concerning so great a matter, the festivity of a most solemn day, the setting forth of a most healthful example, let us too say with all our marrow: Thanks be to God.

Sermon 310
On the Feast of Cyprian the Martyr

1. May the Holy Spirit teach us in this hour what we ought to say: for we are about to say something concerning the praise of Cyprian the most glorious martyr, whose feast we celebrate today, as you know. This name the Church so frequents—that is, "feasts" (Natales, "birthdays")—that it calls the precious deaths of the martyrs "birthdays." So, I say, the Church frequents this name, that even those who are not in her say it with her. For who today—I will not say in this our city, but indeed throughout all Africa and the regions overseas—not a Christian only, but a pagan, or a Jew, or even a heretic, could be found, who would not say with us the birthday of the martyr Cyprian? What is this, brothers? When he was born, we do not know; and because he suffered today, we celebrate his birthday today. But we would not celebrate that day, even if we knew it. For on that day he contracted original sin: but on this day he conquered all sin. On that day he came forth from the tedious womb of his mother into this light, which entices the eyes of the flesh: but on this day he departed from the most hidden bosom of nature to that light which happily and blessedly illuminates the sight of the mind.

2. He governed the Church of Carthage while living, he honored it by dying. There he held the episcopate, there he consummated his martyrdom. For in that place where he laid down the spoils of his flesh, a savage multitude had then gathered, which through hatred of Christ would shed the blood of Cyprian: there today a venerating multitude runs together, which on account of the birthday of Cyprian drinks the blood of Christ. And so much the more sweetly in that place, on account of the birthday of Cyprian, is the blood of Christ drunk, as the more devoutly there, on account of the name of Christ, the blood of Cyprian was shed. Finally, as you know, whoever of you know Carthage, in the same place a table has been built to God; and yet it is called the table of Cyprian, not because Cyprian ever feasted there, but because he was immolated there, and because by his very immolation he prepared this table, not on which he might feed or be fed, but on which a sacrifice may be offered to God, to whom he too was offered. But that that table, which is God's, may also be called Cyprian's, this is the reason; that, as it is now surrounded by attendants, there Cyprian was surrounded by persecutors: where now it is honored by friends praying, there Cyprian was trampled by enemies raging: lastly, where it has been raised up, there he was laid low. Sing to God, sing a psalm to his name: who has ascended over the setting (Ps 68:4 (67:5)); he himself did these things over the slain.

3. But since Carthage had his chair, let Carthage have his memorial; from where would we celebrate his birthday feasts, unless precious in the sight of the Lord were the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15))? Into all the earth his sound went out, and to the ends of the world his words. He faithfully taught what he was to do, he bravely did what he had taught. By living justly he came to a precious death, and by dying unjustly he came to a glorious life; and he obtained the triumphal name of martyr, because he carried through, even to blood, the contest for the truth.

4. But because he not only said things that were heard, but also wrote things that were read, and came to some places through foreign tongues, but to others through his own letters, and became known to many regions, partly through the fame of his most brave passion, partly through the sweetness of his most pleasant reading: let us eagerly celebrate this day, and so all with one mind entreat, that in the greater Church we may merit to hear and see our common father; about to have both joy from his sermon, and profit from the glory of his passion, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sermon 311
On the Feast of Cyprian the Martyr

1. 1. The passion of the most blessed Cyprian the martyr has made this a festive day for us: the celebrity of whose victory has gathered us, most devoted, in this place. But the celebration of the martyrs' solemnity ought to be the imitation of their virtues. It is easy to celebrate the honor of a martyr: it is a great thing to imitate the faith and patience of a martyr. Let us so do this that we desire that: let us so celebrate this that we rather love that. What do we praise in the martyr's faith? That he contended even to death for the truth, and therefore conquered. He despised the world flattering, he did not yield to it raging: therefore he went a victor to God. Errors and terrors abound in this world: the most blessed Martyr overcame errors by wisdom, terrors by patience. Great is what he did: following the lamb, he conquered the lion. When the persecutor raged, the lion roared: but because the lamb was looked to above, the lion was trodden below: he who by death destroyed death, hung on the wood, shed his blood, redeemed the world.

2. 2. First the blessed Apostles, rams of the holy flock, saw the Lord Jesus himself hanging, grieved at him dying, were terrified at him rising, loved him in his power, and they themselves shed their blood for what they saw. Consider, brothers, what it was to be sent through the whole world, to preach that a dead man had risen, had ascended into heaven; and for that preaching to suffer all that the raging world would inflict—losses, exiles, chains, torments, flames, beasts, crosses, deaths. This for whom? For surely, my brothers, was Peter dying for his own glory, or preaching himself? One was dying, that another might be honored; one was being killed, that another might be worshiped. Would he do this, except from the ardor of love, out of awareness of the truth? They had seen what they were saying: for when would they die for a thing they had not seen? What they had seen, they ought to have denied. They did not deny it: they preached as dead the one they knew to be alive. They knew for what life they despised life: they knew for what happiness they bore passing unhappiness, for what rewards they despised these losses. Their faith would not be weighed against the whole world. They had heard: What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his soul? (Matt 16:26) The enticement of the world did not retard them as they hastened, as they departed from things soon to pass—happiness, however and in whatever way shining, to be left here, not to be carried over to another life, sometime to be left here even by the living.

3. 3. Despise the world, then, Christians; despise the world, despise it. The martyrs despised it, the apostles despised it, blessed Cyprian despised it, whose memory we celebrate today. You want to be rich, you want to be honored, you want to be healthy: he despised all this, at whose memorial you have gathered. What, I beg you, do you love so much, which the one you so honor despised? whom, if he had not despised these things, you certainly would not so honor. Why do I find you a lover of those things whose despiser you venerate? Surely, if he had loved these, you would not venerate him. So do not love them either: for he entered, and closed the door against you. Despise them too; and enter after him. The way you may enter lies open: Christ is the gate. And the door is open to you, when his side was pierced by the lance. Recall what flowed from there; and choose by what you may be able to enter. From the side of the Lord, hanging and dying on the wood, after it was pierced by the lance, water and blood flowed forth. In the one is your cleansing, in the other your redemption.

4. 4. Love, and do not love: love unto something, and unto something do not love. For there is what may be loved unto progress, and there is what may be loved unto hindrance. Do not love the hindrance, if you do not want to find torment. What you love on earth is a hindrance: it is birdlime to spiritual wings, that is, to the virtues by which one flies to God. You do not want to be caught, and you love the birdlime? Are you not caught just because you are sweetly caught? The more it delights, the more strongly it strangles. I say these things: and you praise, and you cry out, and you love. There answers you—not I, but wisdom: I want conduct, not voices. Praise wisdom by living; not by sounding, but by sounding in harmony.

5. 5. The Lord says in the Gospel: We sang to you, and you did not dance (Matt 11:17). When would I say this, if I did not read it? Vanity mocks me, but authority aids me. If I had not said first who said this, who of you could bear me saying: We sang to you, and you did not dance? Surely in this place, even if a psalm is to be sung, is anyone to dance? Once, not very many years ago, the wantonness of dancers had even invaded this place. This so holy a place, where lies the body of so holy a Martyr, as many remember who are of an age; this place, I say, so holy, the pestilence and wantonness of dancers had invaded. Through the whole night wicked things were sung here, and to those singing there was dancing. When the Lord willed, through our holy brother your bishop—from the time the holy vigils began to be celebrated here—that pestilence, struggling a little, afterward yielded to diligence, blushed at wisdom.

6. 6. Since, then, by God's favor these things are not done here now, because we do not celebrate games for demons, where such things are usually done for the delight of those who are worshiped, and by their uncleanness they usually deprave their worshipers, but here the sanctity and solemnity of the martyrs is celebrated; here there is no dancing, and where there is no dancing, yet from the Gospel it is read: We sang to you, and you did not dance (Matt 11:17). They are rebuked, scolded, accused, who did not dance. Far be it that that wantonness should return: hear rather what wisdom wants to be understood. He sings, who gives the command; he dances, who does it. What is it to dance, but to be in harmony with the song by the motion of the limbs? What is our song? I will not bring it forth myself, let it not be mine. I am better a minister than an author. I tell our song: 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 is from the world. And the world passes away, and its desire: but whoever does the will of God abides forever, just as God also abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).

7. 7. What a song, my brothers! You have heard the singer, let us hear the dancers: do you with the harmony of your conduct what the dancers do with the motion of their limbs. Do this within: let your conduct be in harmony. Let desire be uprooted, let love be planted. Whatever comes from that tree is good. Desire can beget nothing good: love nothing evil. And it is said, and it is praised; and no one is changed. Far be it, it is not true what I have said. The fishermen were changed, afterward very many senators too were changed: Cyprian was changed, whose memory we keep today. He himself writes, he himself testifies, of what kind his life once was, how wicked, how impious, how worthy of disapproval and detestation. He heard the singer: he showed himself dancing, not in body, but in mind. He fitted himself to the good song, he fitted himself to the new song: he fitted himself, he loved, he persevered, he contended, he overcame.

8. 8. And you say: The times are troublesome, the times are grievous, the times are wretched. Live well, and you change the times by living well: you change the times, and you have nothing to murmur about. For what are times, my brothers? The spaces and rollings-on of the ages. The sun has risen, and after twelve hours have passed it sets in another part of the world; another day in the morning it rises, again it sets; count how often: these are the times. Whom has the rising of the sun harmed? whom has the setting of the sun harmed? So time has harmed no one. Those who are harmed are men; those by whom they are harmed are men. O great grief! men are harmed, men are despoiled, men are oppressed. By whom? not by lions, not by serpents, not by scorpions; but by men. Those who are harmed grieve. If they could, would they not do the very thing they blame? Then we find the man who was murmuring, when he could do the thing he was murmuring about. I praise, I praise, if he did not do what he was accusing.

9. 9. But those, dearly beloved, who seem powerful in the world, how are they praised when they do less than they can? Scripture itself praised such a one: Who could transgress, and did not transgress; who did not go after gold (Sir 31:10-11). Gold ought to go after you, not you after gold. For gold is good. For God created nothing evil. Do not you be evil; and gold is good. Behold, I set gold between a good man and a bad one. Let the bad man take it; the needy are oppressed; judges are corrupted, laws are perverted, human affairs are thrown into confusion. Why this? Because a bad man took the gold. Let the good man take it; the poor are fed, the naked are clothed, the oppressed are freed, captives are redeemed. How many goods come from the gold which a good man has? how many evils from the gold which a bad man has? Why then do you sometimes say in irritation: Oh, if only there were no gold at all? Do not you love gold. If you are evil, you go after gold: if you are good, it goes after you. What is, it goes after you? You lead, you are not led: because you possess, you are not possessed.

10. 10. So let us return to the words of holy Scripture. Who did not go after gold. Who could transgress, and did not transgress. Who is this, and we will praise him? (Sir 31:8-9 (Vulgate)) Who is this, or who is this? How many hear: and who is this? And yet far be it that I should despair of there being someone here—indeed not someone, but several. Far be it that I should despair of the threshing-floor of so great a householder. He who sees the threshing-floor from afar thinks it only chaff: but he who knows how to look closely finds the grain. Where the chaff offends you, there a heap of grain lies hidden. Where what is pounded in the threshing offends you, there is what the threshing purges: there it is, be certain; there it is. In short, he is certain who sowed, who reaped, who gathered to the floor: he knows there is something there to fill the granary, when it has been winnowed. There was some small winnowing in the time of persecution: what grain came forth from it? From it bloomed the Massa Candida of Utica: from it came so great and choice a grain, this most blessed Cyprian. How many rich men then despised what they had? How many poor men then failed in the trial? Behold, in that trial, as in a winnowing, it did not harm the rich to have gold; what did it profit the poor not to have gold? Those conquered, those failed.

11. 11. Nothing makes good conduct but good loves. Let gold be taken away from human affairs: rather, let gold be present, to test human affairs. Let the human tongue be cut off because of the blasphemers of God: and then from where will come the praisers of God? What has the tongue done to you? Let there be one who sings well, and the instrument is good. Give a good mind to the tongue: good things are said, the discordant are reconciled, the mourning are consoled, the dissolute are rebuked, the angry are restrained; God is praised, Christ is commended, the mind is inflamed to love; but divine, not human; spiritual, not carnal. These good things the tongue does. Why? Because the mind that uses the tongue is good. Give a bad man to the tongue: there will be blasphemers, quarrelers, slanderers, informers. All evils from the tongue, because he who uses the tongue is bad.

12. 11. Let not things be taken away from human affairs: let there be things, and let there be the use of good things. For there are some goods which exist only in good men, and there are other goods which are common to good and bad. Goods which exist only in good men: godliness, faith, justice, chastity, prudence, modesty, love, and the like. Goods which are common to good and bad: money, honor, the power of this world, office, the very health of the body. And these are goods, but they seek good men.

13. 12. Now here that murmurer, who always looks for something to criticize—and this in God; who, would that he would return to himself, see himself, criticize himself, correct himself—that critic and arguer, then, will soon object to me concerning God: And why does God, who governs all things, give these goods to the bad? He would give them only to the good. Do you expect to hear from me the counsel of God? Who, from whom, and what? Yet according to my measure, as much as I grasp, as much as he deigns to grant, I declare to you what perhaps will not suffice for you, but there is someone here for whom it will suffice. So let me sing: for truly in so great a multitude there cannot be lacking to me one who will dance. Behold, hear, you wise man, but in reverse: hear. That God gives these goods even to the bad, if you are willing to understand, is your instruction, not God's perversity. Still I know you have not understood what I said: hear, then, what I was saying—he to whom I was saying it, who criticize God and accuse God, because he gives these earthly and temporal goods even to bad men, which by your sense you think he ought to give only to the good. For from this it is that a deadly impiety has crept upon some, so that they altogether believe God does not regard human affairs. For they say and dispute: Surely, if God regarded human affairs, would that man have riches, would that man have honors, would that man have power? God does not care for human affairs: for if he cared, he would give these things only to the good.

14. 13. Return to your heart, and from there to God. For from what is near you return to God, if you return to your heart. For when these things offend you, you have gone out even from yourself: you have become an exile from your own breast. You are moved by things that are outside you, and you lose yourself. You are within, these things lie outside; outside they are good, but they are outside. Gold, silver, all money, clothing, retinues, households, herds, honors, are outside. If these lowest goods, earthly goods, temporal goods, passing goods, were not given to the bad too, they would be believed great by the good. Therefore God, who gives these goods to the bad, teaches you to desire better things. Behold I say, by this moderation of human affairs God your Father in a certain way addresses you: and like a foolish child he teaches you with these words, which, as I can, I bring forth to you, the more confidently the more he deigns to remain in me. Imagine that God, who renewed you and adopted you, says to you: O son, what is it that daily you rise, and pray, and bend the knee, and strike the earth with your forehead, and sometimes even weep, and say to me: My Father, my God, give me riches? If I gave them to you, you think you have obtained something good, and great.

15. 13. Because you asked, you received: behold, make good use of it. Before you had it, you were humble: you began to have riches, and you despised the poor. What kind of good is it, by which you have been made worse? You were made worse, because you were bad: and you did not know what could make you worse; therefore you asked these things of me. I gave, and I tested: you found out, and you were found out. You lay hidden when you did not have. Correct yourself: vomit out greed, drink in love. What great thing is it that you ask of me, your God says to you? Do you not see to whom I have given these things? do you not see to what sort of men I have given them? If it were a great good that you ask of me, would a robber have it? would a faithless man have it? would my blasphemer have it? would a disreputable actor have it? would a shameless harlot have it? Would all these have gold, if gold were a great good?

16. 13. But you say to me: Is gold then not good? Indeed gold is good. But bad men do bad things with good gold: good men do good things with good gold. Because, then, you see to whom I have given these things; ask better things of me, ask greater things of me; ask spiritual things of me, ask me myself of me.

17. 14. But evil things, you say, happen in the world, harsh, unclean, hateful. It is foul, let it not be loved. Behold, it is such, and so it is loved. The house is in ruins, and one is loath to move. Mothers or nurses, lest infants suck too long, when they have seen them growing up, and that it is no longer fitting to be nourished with milk—and yet the infants gape troublesomely for the breast—smear their nipples with some bitterness, by which the little one, offended, no longer seeks the milk. Why, then, is it still sucked so delightedly, if the world has been made bitter to you? God has filled the world with bitterness; and you gape, you lean upon it, you suck; you take pleasure only from this and that. How long? What if it were sweet? how it would be loved! Do these things offend you? choose another life. Love God, despise these things. Look down on human affairs, you who at some time will go from here: for you will not be here forever. And yet, bad as the world is, bitter as the world is, full of calamities as the world is, if it were said to you by God that you would be here forever, joy would not contain you, you would exult, you would give thanks. From what? Because you would not end your misery. That very thing is the greater unhappiness, which forces itself to be loved. It would be less, if it were not loved: it is the worse, the more it is loved.

18. 15. There is another life, my brothers: there is after this life another life, believe it. Prepare yourselves for it: despise all present things. If you have them, do good from them: if you do not have them, do not burn with desire. Move, transfer ahead of you: let what you have here go there where you are to follow. Hear the counsel of your Lord: Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves dig through and steal; but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, where no moth corrupts. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also (Matt 6:19-21). You hear daily, faithful man, Lift up your heart: and as if you heard the contrary, you sink your heart into the earth. Move. Do you have the means? do good. You do not have the means? do not murmur against God. Hear me, O poor: What do you not have, if you have God? Hear me, O rich: What do you have, if you do not have God?

Sermon 312
On the Feast of Cyprian the Martyr

1. The solemnity of so gracious and joyful a day, and the festivity, so happy and pleasant, of the crown of so great a Martyr, demands the sermon I owe. But his prayers carry so great a burden with me, that if I render anything less than is owed, may he not despise me as I speak to you, but refresh all of you by praying for you. I will indeed do what I am certain is most welcome to him, that I praise him in the Lord, while concerning him I praise the Lord. For he was gentle, even when he sustained the perils of this turbulent and stormy life in various trials, and that man well knew how to sing to God with a truthful heart: Let the meek hear, and be glad (Ps 34:2 (33:3)). And now, having left the land of the dying, blessed he possesses the land of the living. For he was of those of whom it was said: Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the land (Matt 5:5). But what land, except that of which it is said to God: You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6))? Or if the land of the living is nothing but the body of those who rise, taken from earth and changed into heavenly glory; he is no longer groaning in the weakness of this mortality, for whom to remain in the flesh was not best, but necessary for our sake; but loosed and freed from the bond both of debt and of chains, he awaits at rest with Christ the redemption of his body. For he who was not conquered by the trial of his living flesh is secure about the restoration of it when buried.

2. So let his soul be praised in the Lord, that the meek may hear and be glad. Let the good soul be praised in the Lord, in whose possession it becomes good, by whose inspiration it thrives, by whose illumination it shines, by whose forming it is beautiful, by whose filling it is fruitful. For when he deserts it, it once tossed about dead, dark, deformed, barren, before it had believed in Christ. For what did eloquence profit him, a pagan, by which as by a precious cup he both drank and proffered deadly errors? But when the kindness and humanity of our God the Savior shone forth, he cleansed him, believing in him, from worldly desires, and made him a vessel for honor, useful to his house, prepared for every good work. Nor did he, like an ungrateful man, keep silent about these things. For far be it that, knowing God, he should not glorify him as God: but he gave thanks, not impiously swallowing back his former things which he had vomited, but piously recalling the things he had changed. For writing to his friend, that he too from darkness, which is what was in him, might become light in the Lord: I, he says, when I lay in darkness and in blind night, and when in the surge of a tossing world I wavered, unsteady and doubtful, straying with wandering steps, ignorant of my own life, a stranger to truth and light. And a little after: For as I myself, he says, was held entangled in the many errors of my former life, from which I did not believe I could be freed; so I was compliant to the vices clinging to me, and, in despair of better things, I cherished my evils as though now my own and homebred.

3. Behold what sort of Cyprian Christ found: behold what sort of soul that uprooter and planter approached to strike and to heal. For not in vain does he say: I will kill, and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal (Deut 32:39); nor in vain, as a figure of things to come, was it said to Jeremiah: Behold, I have set you today over the nations and kingdoms, to uproot, and to dig out, and to destroy, and to rebuild, and to plant (Jer 1:10). So the uprooter and planter approached that soul; and he overturned the old Cyprian, and, having laid himself there as the foundation, he built the new Cyprian upon himself, and made the true Cyprian out of himself. For the Church says to Christ: My beloved is a cluster of cyprus to me (Song 1:14). So when he was made a Christian by Christ, then truly he was also made Cyprian from cyprus. For he became the good fragrance of Christ in every place, as the apostle Paul says: he who was himself destroyed as a persecutor, and built up as a preacher. We are, he says, the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place, both among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to some indeed a fragrance of life unto life, but to others a fragrance of death unto death. And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor 2:15-16) For some lived by imitating Cyprian: others perished by envying Cyprian.

4. To him be praise, to him glory, who, by justifying through faith the soul of his servant, rescued it from the impious, and made it his sword, that is, a twice-sharpened blade; so that through that tongue the folly of the Gentiles, laid bare, might be struck; through which before, covered and veiled, it seemed beautiful to the prudent; and so that the instrument of so noble an eloquence, by which unworthy ornaments were being made for the ruinous teachings of demons, might be turned to the building up of the Church, at whose growth those teachings would collapse; and so that the trumpet of so great a voice, which used to whet the contests of forensic lies, might rouse devoted martyrs warring for Christ and glorying in him, to lay low the devil by the precious deaths of the saints. Among whom was Cyprian himself, who by his godly and holy eloquence—no longer raising fabulous smoke, but radiant with the light of the Lord—was kindled; who by dying lived, judged he overcame the judge, struck he conquered the adversary, and killed he killed death. For he who in the school of human perversity had taught both his own and others' tongues to speak lies, so that what the adversary objected might be denied with cunning deceit, had now in another school learned by confessing to avoid the adversary. For where the enemy turned the name of Christ into a charge, there Christ turned the punishment into praise.

5. And if anyone still perhaps asks who has conquered, to pass over the heavenly kingdom of the saints, which unbelievers refuse to believe because they cannot see it; now in this earth, in this life, in houses, in fields, in cities, in the whole world, behold there are fervent praises of the martyrs: where are the raging accusations of the impious? Behold how the memorials of the slain are honored, now let those men show the idols of the demons. What will they do to them in judging, who by dying overturned their temples? How will he condemn their proud deceits by the splendor of his soldiers rising again, who extinguished their smoking altars by the blood of the dying?

6. Among these legions of Christ, the most blessed Cyprian, a teacher of glorious battles and himself a glorious warrior, so taught what he was to do, and did what he had taught; so that both in the words of the teacher the mind of the martyr might be known beforehand, and in the mind of the sufferer the words of the teacher might be recognized. For he was not like those of whom the Lord says: What they say, do; but what they do, do not do: for they say and do not do (Matt 23:3). This man, because he believed, spoke; because he spoke, he suffered. So he taught in his life what he did; and he did in his death what he taught. To him be praise, to him glory, to the Lord our God, the king of the ages, the creator and re-creator of men, who enriched the Church of this city with such a bishop, and consecrated the spaciousness of this place with so holy a body. To him be praise, to him glory, who deigned to predestine that man among his saints before the ages, to create him among men at the opportune time, to call him wandering, to cleanse him filthy, to form him believing, to teach him obedient, to rule him teaching, to help him fighting, to crown him conquering. To him be praise, to him glory, who made such a man, in whom he especially showed his Church against how great evils, and before how great goods, love is to be set, and how no love belongs to a Christian by whom the unity of Christ is not kept. This unity he so loved, that for love's sake he did not spare the bad, and for peace's sake he tolerated the bad; both free in saying what he himself felt, and peaceable in hearing what he knew his brothers felt. Deservedly in the Catholic Church he merited the height of so great an honor, whose most harmonious bond he preserved with such humility. Wherefore, dearly beloved, having paid, according to my powers, the sermon owed to so gracious a festivity, I exhort your love and devotion that we pass this day honorably and soberly, and that we offer to the day on which the most blessed Cyprian suffered, that which he loved so that he might suffer it.

Sermon 313
On the Feast of Cyprian the Martyr

1. A most holy and most solemn day, and to this Church, by reason of its adornment, more familiar and more illustrious, has dawned today for our gladdening, which the most blessed Cyprian illumined for us by the glory of his passion. For the praises of this reverend bishop and venerable martyr no tongue would suffice, not even if he praised himself. So in this our sermon, which as owed we render to your ears concerning him, approve rather the affection of will than exact the effect of ability. For so too with the praises of God, for which not only speech but not even any thought is enough, when the holy praiser saw himself less able, he said: Make the freewill offerings of my mouth pleasing, O Lord (Ps 119:108 (118:108)). This I too would say: let this also be my devotion, that if I am not equal to unfolding what I want, it may be reckoned to my account, because I want to.

2. For what are the praises of so great a Martyr but the praises of God? Or whose honor is Cyprian turned to God with his whole heart, but his to whom it was said: God of hosts, turn us (Ps 80:7 (79:8))? Whose work is Cyprian the teacher, but his to whom it was said: Teach me your statutes (Ps 119:12 (118:12))? Whose work is Cyprian the pastor, but his who said: I will give you pastors after my heart, and they will feed you with discipline (Jer 3:15)? Whose work is Cyprian the confessor, but his who said: I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which your enemies will not be able to resist (Luke 21:15)? Whose work is Cyprian, the endurer of so great a persecution for the truth, but his to whom it was said: The patience of Israel, O Lord (Jer 14:8); and of whom it was said: For from him is my patience (Ps 62:5 (61:6))? Lastly, whose work is Cyprian, the victor in all things, but his of whom it was said: In all things we more than conquer through him who loved us (Rom 8:37)? So we do not withdraw from the praises of God, when we praise the works of God, and the battles of God in the soldier of God.

3. For thus the Apostle exhorts: Stand, having girded your loins in truth, and clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace: in all things taking the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:14-17). What is it to be clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, and to take the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, but to be armed by the Lord with his gifts? Nor would it suffice for this soldier to be armed only, unless he had obtained to be helped by the very armed one by whom he had been armed. For surely the most godly Martyr, in that conflict of his passion, did pray and say: Judge, O Lord, those who harm me, fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of arms and shield, and rise up to my help. Pour out the sword, and shut up the way against those who persecute me: say to my soul, I am your salvation (Ps 35:1-3 (34:1-3)). How could he be conquered, whom the Lord so led forth armed, the armed one so helped?

4. But far be it that we should believe with a childish heart that God is armed with certain bodily instruments. Of what kind those arms are, by which God's soldiers are usually helped by the armed God, they themselves confess, being helped, where exclaiming and giving thanks they say: Lord, you have crowned us as with the shield of your good will (Ps 5:12 (5:13)). But the sword of God, that is, the blade of God, which sword the body of Christ, which is the Church, prays to be poured out and shut up against those who persecute it; can indeed be understood where the Savior himself says to his body: I have not come to bring peace upon the earth, but a sword (Matt 10:34). By which spiritual sword he separated from his martyrs, longing for heavenly joys, the earthly affections that wickedly flatter, by which they would be drawn back, bound, from heaven to earth, unless the sword of Christ cut between. But there is also another most evident sword of God: the soul of the righteous man in the hand of God; of which it is said to him in the Psalm: Rescue my soul from the impious, your sword from the enemies of your hand (Ps 17:13 (16:13)). What he said, my soul, this he repeated, your sword; what he said, from the impious, this he repeated, from the enemies of your hand.

5. This sword he poured out by scattering his martyrs everywhere: and shut up the way against those who persecuted the Church; so that, because they were not bent by the voices of preachers, they might be broken by the virtues of those who died. For God forges for himself strong arms against his enemies—those very ones whom he makes friends. So the soul of the most blessed Cyprian was a great sword of God, splendid with love, sharp with truth, driven and brandished by the power of the fighting God: what wars did it complete? what bands of gainsayers did it overcome by refuting them? how many hostile ones did it strike? how many adversaries did it lay low? In the hearts of how many enemies did it slay the very enmities by which it was assailed, and make them friends, by whom God might fight more abundantly against others? But when the time came that, as though the enemies were prevailing, he was seized, then indeed, lest, oppressed and conquered, he should yield to the hands of the impious, there was present the one through whom he was rendered unconquered: he received the victory, after no further contest remained for him to win except, namely, over this world and over the prince of this world. He was altogether present to his most faithful witness, contending even to death for the truth, he did what he had been entreated to do, he rescued his soul from the impious, his sword from the enemies of his hand. The holy flesh of which conquering soul, as the scabbard of that sword, we adorn in this place with the loftiness of the divine altar; to be rendered to that same triumphal soul in the resurrection, and thenceforth to be laid down in no death.

Sermon 313/A
Delivered at Carthage at the Table of the Blessed Martyr Cyprian, on His Feast, the Eighteenth of the Kalends of October

1. The holy solemnity of the most blessed martyr, which has gathered us in the name of the Lord, demands that something be said of the merits and glory of so great a martyr: but nothing can be said worthily; for the human tongue could perhaps suffice for his virtues and glory, if he had been willing to praise himself. Nevertheless let us too praise him by devotion rather than by ability, indeed let us praise the Lord in him; the Lord in him, and him in the Lord. For what he would be without the Lord, the voice of the martyrs from the Psalm was just now heard when it was read: Our help is in the name of the Lord (Ps 124:8 (123:8)). If the help of all of us is in the name of the Lord, how much more the martyrs'! Where there is a greater fight, there a greater help is necessary. For there are two things that make the narrow way of Christians: the rejection of pleasure, and the endurance of suffering. You conquer, whoever contends. If you conquer what pleases and what terrifies. You conquer, I say, Christian, whoever contends, if you conquer what pleases and what terrifies. One is what pleases, another what terrifies. We treat of the glory of the martyrs. It is easy to celebrate the feasts of the martyrs; it is hard to imitate the passions of the martyrs.

2. The narrow and strait way of Christians, as I had begun to say, two things make: the contempt of pleasure, and the endurance of suffering. So whoever contends, let him know that he contends with the whole world; and contending with the whole world, let him conquer these two, and he conquers the world. Let him conquer whatever flatters, let him conquer whatever threatens; for the pleasure is false, the punishment passing. If you want to enter by the narrow gate, close the gates of desire and fear; for by these that tempter tempts to overthrow the soul. The door of desire tempts by promising; the door of fear tempts by threatening. There is something you may desire, so that you do not desire these things; there is something you may fear, so that you do not fear these things. Let desire not be taken away, but changed; let fear not be extinguished, but transferred to something else. What did you desire, you who yielded to the flattering world? What did you desire? The pleasure of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the ambition of the age. Some three-headed dog of hell, I know not what, is this. But hear the apostle John, who reclined on the breast of the Lord, and belched forth in the Gospel what he drank at Christ's banquet; hear him saying: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone 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 (1 John 2:15-16). So "world" is called this heaven and earth. He does not blame the world itself, who says: Do not love the world; for he who blames this world blames the maker of the world. Hear "world" named twice in one place under different senses. Of the Lord Christ it was said: He was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (John 1:10). The world was made through him: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 124:8 (123:8)). The world was made through him: I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:1-2 (120:1-2)). This world was made by God, and the world did not know him. What world did not know him? The lover of the world, the lover of the work, the despiser of the maker. Let your love migrate: break the ropes from the creation, bind yourself to the Creator. Change your love, change your fear; for nothing makes good and bad conduct but good or bad loves. This is a great man, someone will say, he is good, he is great. From what, I ask? He knows many things. I ask what he loves, not what he knows. Do not, then, love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him: for all that is in the world—surely in the lovers of the world—the things that are in the lovers of the world, are the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ambition of the age. In the desire of the flesh is pleasure; in the desire of the eyes is curiosity; in the ambition of the age is pride. He who conquers these three, has nothing at all left in desire for him to conquer. Many branches, but a threefold root. How many evils the appetite of fleshly pleasure has, how many evils it does! From it adulteries, fornications; from it luxuries, drunkennesses; from it whatever titillates the senses unlawfully, and penetrates the mind with a pestilent sweetness, binds the mind to the flesh, casts the ruler down from the citadel, subjects the commander to a servant. And what right thing will a man be able to do, perverse in himself?

3. What evils base curiosity does, the vain desire of the eyes, the eagerness for trifling spectacles, the madness of the racecourses, the contests of games with no reward! The charioteers contend for some reward; for what reward do the people quarrel over charioteers? But the charioteer delights, the hunter delights, the actor delights. Does baseness then delight what is honorable? Change also the desire of spectacles; the Church offers to your mind more honorable and venerable spectacles. Just now the passion of blessed Cyprian was being read; with the ear we were hearing, with the mind we were watching, we saw him contending, in a way we feared for him in danger, but we hoped for the help of God. Indeed do you want to know quickly what is the difference between our spectacles and those of the theaters? We, as far as a sound mind thrives in us, desire to imitate the martyrs whom we watch; we, I say, desire to imitate the holy martyrs whom we watch contending. Honorable spectator, when you watch in the theaters, you are mad if you dare to imitate the one you love. Behold, I watch Cyprian, I love Cyprian. If you are angry, curse me, and say: May you be such! I watch, I am delighted, as far as I can I embrace with the arms of the mind: I see the contender, I rejoice in the victor. Be angry, as I said, and say to me: May you be such! See whether I do not embrace it, see whether I do not wish it, see whether I do not desire it, see whether I cannot say myself unworthy, yet cannot flee or turn away. Do you watch, be delighted, love. Do not be angry, if I say: May you be such! But I spare you, I do not say it; recognize a friend, change your spectacles with me. Let us love such men, of whom we need not blush; let us love such, whom we may wish to imitate, as far as we are able. But that man who is watched is disreputable; is the one who watches honorable? Let the desire of the buyer cease, and there will be nothing shameful for sale. By watching you confirm the infamy. Why do you provoke what you accuse? I marvel if the infamy of the one you love does not splash you. But let it not splash you, let honor remain unstained, if it can, the spectatress of lusts, the buyer of shameful pleasures. Do I dare forbid spectacles? I dare forbid, I dare plainly; this place gives me confidence, and he who appointed me in this place. The holy martyr was able to endure raging pagans; shall I not dare to instruct listening Christians? Shall I dread silent offenses, when he despised open furies? I will say it outright: surely I shall be refuted in the hearts of my hearers, if I say what is false. Excellently did it act, altogether excellently, the ancient Roman discipline, which assigned every kind of actor to a place of infamy. To them no honor in the senate-house, not even in the plebeian tribe; everywhere removed from the honorable, and set out for sale to the honorable. What have you removed from the senate-house for the sake of dignity, and set for yourself in the theater for the sake of pleasure? Let your pleasure be in harmony with your dignity. And those very wretches are bound over to the voices of the watchers, to the desires of the watchers, to the maddening pleasures of the watchers. Remove all these, and they are freed; he does mercy upon them who refuses to watch.

4. Let these things be said about the desire of the eyes. How much evil the ambition of the age has! There is all pride: and what is worse than pride? Hear the sentence of the Lord: God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). So the ambition of the age is malignant. Someone will say: Without it the powers of the age cannot exist. They certainly can. Some author of theirs, I know not who, says: Each transfers his own fault upon his occupation (See Sallust). They certainly can. A ruler is set in power; let him rule himself, and he has ruled. But does the human mind proceed to exaltation? Let exaltation be bridled: let him know that he is a man, who judges concerning a man. The dignity is unequal, but the very frailty is common. He who thinks of this piously and holily, both has power, and does not proceed to exaltation. Cyprian conquered all these things. For what did he not conquer, who despised life itself, overflowing with all trials? The judge threatened him with death; he confessed Christ, ready to die for Christ. When death has come, no ambition will remain, no curiosity of the eyes, no appetite for filthy and carnal pleasures; one life despised, all are overcome.

5. So let the blessed one be praised in the Lord. When could he do this, if the Lord had not helped? When would he conquer, if the spectator, who was preparing the crown for the victor, did not supply strength to the laborer? He too rejoices indeed, he rejoices for us, not for himself, when he is praised in the Lord. For he is very gentle, and it is written: In the Lord my soul will be praised; let the meek hear and be glad (Ps 34:2 (33:3)). He was gentle: he wants his soul to be praised in the Lord. Let his soul be praised in the Lord. Let his body too be honored, because precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). Let it be celebrated holily, as celebrated by Christians. For we do not set up an altar, as to a god, to Cyprian, but we have made Cyprian an altar to the true God.

Sermon 313/B
Delivered in the Same Place and on the Same Day, on the Feast of the Aforesaid Martyr

1. We have sung a psalm: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth (Ps 124:6 (123:6)). Thanksgiving is owed to the gifts of God. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. It is surely a voice of thanksgiving, and a worthy thanksgiving. And when does human thanksgiving suffice for such divine gifts? When in this place the most blessed martyr shed his sacred blood, I do not know whether there was here so great a throng of raging men, as there is now a multitude of those praising. Again I say—for it delights me to see the people in the house of the Lord gathering most religiously in this place, and to compare times with times—hence again I say and repeat, and commend to your minds with all the devotion I can: when in this place the most blessed martyr shed his sacred blood, I do not know whether there was here so great a throng of raging men, as there is now a multitude of those praising. But even if there was, there was, blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. When they killed, they believed they had conquered; they were being conquered by the dying, and rejoiced. If they were being conquered, surely they raged. So the throng of the raging departed, the multitude of the praising succeeded. Let it say, let the multitude of the praising say: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. To whose teeth? To the teeth of enemies, to the teeth of the impious, to the teeth of the persecutors of Jerusalem, to the teeth of Babylon, to the teeth of the enemy city, to the teeth of the throng raging in crimes, to the teeth of the throng persecuting the Lord, deserting the Creator, turning itself to the creation, worshiping the thing made by hand, despising him by whom it was made. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

2. It is the voice of the martyrs: it is surely the voice of those who chose to be killed for the name of Christ, rather than to live by denying Christ. If, then, those wanted to kill, these were killed; those did what they wanted, these suffered; how then: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth? What kind of thanksgiving is it: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth? Because the persecutors wanted not to kill, but to devour, that is, to transfer into their own body. They were pagans, they were impious, they were worshipers of demons and idols; they wanted to make us this, when they desired to devour us. Consider what we do with food, when we eat. What surely do we do, but transfer it into our own body? It was the body of the impious: those devoured them, who consented with them to impious things; without doubt they passed into their body. The martyrs, then, when these insisted that Christ be denied and the idol adored, resisted constantly, spurned the idol, confessed Christ, and by not consenting did not pass into their body. Let them say, let them say, let them gloriously say, let them happily say, let them truly say: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. The net is faithlessness, the net is impiety, the net is the denial of Christ. The nets are stretched out. You hear the hunters. If you want to beware of the hunters, despise those who terrify. You know what hunters do. On one side they stretch nets, on the other side they frighten the beasts, which they drive into the nets. Do you fear the evil by which you are terrified? Worse is that to which you flee. So the holy martyrs, seeing where the hunters had stretched the nets—for the persecutor threatened death for this, that the Savior be denied—suffered, but by suffering were not caught. With what fat prey, with what richness of hunting would impious Babylon be fed, if the Lord were denied by Cyprian the bishop! With what fat, with what hunting, with how excellent a prey would impious Babylon be fed, if by Cyprian the bishop, the teacher of the nations, the frustrater of idols, the betrayer of demons, the winner of pagans, the strengthener of Christians, the inflamer of martyrs; if, then, by so great and so good a man the Lord were denied, with what hunting would impious Babylon rejoice! Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Let them have raged, let them have persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, bound, struck, burned, exposed to beasts; Christ was not denied, the confessor of the Lord was crowned. They lost their savagery, the martyrs found glory. Blessed be the Lord, let the Christian people say, let it say it altogether, it is fitting that it say: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Now let this place say it: it is filled with a people of those confessing, it is filled with a people of those adoring the one true God; let this place say it: for then this crop was being sown, when that place was being watered with the blood of the martyr. Do not marvel, O earth, at your fertility, if you were watered to sprout this.

3. So blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. For by what strength of ours were we snatched from the teeth of the impious? We arrogate nothing to ourselves, we attribute this not to our own power. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. For what were we, when we were terrified, the weak by the strong, the lowly by the lofty, the needy by the rich, the destitute by the abundant? What were we, unless our help were in the name of the Lord, of him who made heaven and earth (Ps 124:8 (123:8))? Exult, exult, Jerusalem: exult you too, not given to the teeth of the hunters; exult you too: you too have teeth. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes (Song 4:2). You too have teeth, O holy Jerusalem, city of God, Church of Christ, you too have teeth. To you it is said in the Song of Songs: Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes coming up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and there is no barren one among them (Song 4:2). Well, well, that you did not fear the teeth of Babylon. The teeth of Babylon were the powers of the age; the teeth of Babylon were the teachers of unlawful rites. To these teeth you were not given. Acknowledge your teeth: do you what they wanted to do. Convert: you too have teeth. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes. What is: of shorn ewes? Of those laying down their worldly burdens. What is: of shorn ewes? Of those laying down their fleece, as the loads of the worldly burden. Those were your teeth, of whom it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that they sold all their goods, and laid the prices of their things before the feet of the Apostles, that it might be distributed to each, as there was need. You received the fleeces of your shorn ewes. That flock came up from the washing of holy baptism. They all bore, because they fulfilled the two commandments. You remember, you have recalled, like men instructed you cried out, when I recalled the two commandments; but what they were, I did not say, and yet I received the sign of your heart by your voice. You recognized them. Yet I will say them for the sake of those who come to church more rarely. The Lord says, the most truthful Teacher says, the prince of martyrs says: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40). So your teeth therefore conquered, because they bore such twins. To you having such teeth it is said, to you it is said, O Church, in the figure of the most blessed Peter: Rise, kill and eat (Acts 10:13). Rise, it was said to Peter—when the vessel let down from heaven in the figure of animals carried all the nations—to the hungry Peter, that is, to the eager Church: Rise, what do you hunger for? Rise, food is prepared for you. You have teeth: Kill and eat. Kill what they are, make them what you are; kill what they are, turn them into what you are. You heard well, having such teeth, you killed well, you ate well. The very judges, whom you did not fear, you drew to yourself; the very powers of the age, whom you did not fear, you converted to yourself; those raging you spurned, those honoring you made. It was fulfilled, what was promised to your Lord: And all the kings of the earth will adore him, all nations will serve him (Ps 72:11 (71:11)).

4. These things the persecutors did not believe, when they raged. How many of those very persecutors, who saw the most blessed Cyprian shedding his blood, bending his knees, offering his neck to the executioner, saw it here, watched it here, here exulted over so great a spectacle, here, here insulted him dying! How many of them, which I do not doubt, afterward believed! It is not to be doubted, it is to be believed without doubt. The Jews, the killers of Christ, who when he hung shook their heads insulting, and against him said the words they wanted, afterward exulting believed in the very Lord whom they crucified. For the voice of the Physician hanging on the cross could not be empty, making for the frenzied a medicine of health out of his own blood. So that voice could not be empty and vain: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). It was plainly not empty. There was there a multitude of those for whom this voice resounded from the mouth of Truth. For afterward, when the miracle was done, the Holy Spirit coming from heaven, when the Apostles spoke with the tongues of all nations, marveling at the sudden miracle, pricked at once, turned to him whom they killed, believing they drank the blood which raging they had shed. This plainly, even concerning the blessed Cyprian, the holy martyr of Christ, is by no means to be doubted, that very many of those who watched him slain impiously believed in his Lord, and perhaps even themselves, by imitating, shed their blood for the name of Christ. Lastly, about those let it be uncertain; about those who were then present at this place, who saw holy Cyprian struck in this place, let it be uncertain whether they believed. Surely all these, or almost all, whose voices I hear exulting, are the children of those insulting.

Sermon 313/C
A Treatise on the Feast of Saint Cyprian

1. The distinguished martyr of Christ, through whom he especially ruled, increased, adorned, and illumined this Church, today by the anniversary celebration of his passion commends to our memory—not recalling him as one slipped away, but as fixed and abiding—more joyfully and gratefully. So it behooves us with a solemn sermon to praise in the Lord the soul of his servant, that the meek may hear and be glad (Ps 34:2 (33:3)). For that soul, while it dwelt in these dying members, despised the death that would someday come, in order to acquire the life that would abide without end; by faithful and prudent counsel losing what, even retained, would perish, in order to find what could not perish. For temporal life, if it is retained by denying Christ, both is itself ended, and the everlasting is not found. How much more advisedly, then, to acquire the one by neglecting the other, than by wrongly loving the one to lose both? This is the common counsel of the holy martyrs, the common exchange: to despise fleeing things, in order to acquire abiding things; by dying to live, lest they die by living: and to live forever by dying once, rather than to die twice and afterward not deserve to live, by deferring the death that is to come, and, when it has come deferred, by not at all coming to the life that is to abide. This, I say, is the common counsel of the holy martyrs, the common exchange; this they learned from their teacher and redeemer and Lord alike, because he said to all: He who loves his soul will lose it, and he who loses it for my sake will find it in eternal life (John 12:25). Accordingly the soul, when it is loved, perishes, and is found when it is lost; let it perish if it loves, lest it perish while it is loved. For in two ways can what was said be understood: He who loves his soul will lose it. He who loves his soul in this world, will lose it in the world to come; and: he who loves his soul in the world to come, will lose it in this world. According to the former way, he who loves his soul by fearing to die for Christ, will lose it so as not to live in Christ; and he who loves his soul so as to live in Christ, will lose it by dying for Christ. For it follows: And he who loses it for my sake, will find it in eternal life. And he who said: For my sake, this is the true God, and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

2. Since, then, this is the office of all the saints, this martyr of ours has today a reward, not only from himself, but also from many. For he diffused the good fragrance of Christ far and wide by teaching, by living, by dying; by teaching about Christ, by living in Christ, by dying for Christ. Wherefore, dearly beloved, since no other than Christ can be understood here, where the bride the Church says: My beloved is a cluster of cyprus to me (Song 1:14), signifying by the most fragrant tree the most fragrant grace; surely, just as in his right faith he was made a Christian by Christ, so in his good fragrance he was made Cyprian from cyprus. For the apostle Paul too says: We are the good fragrance of Christ in every place (2 Cor 2:15). So the good fragrance of Christ is in our Cyprian from this seat; not that it sufficed for this city only, nor for Africa alone, of which this is the head; but it so diffused itself far and wide, that from the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is praised in him, in whom his soul will be praised, that the meek may hear and be glad (Ps 34:2 (33:3)). For what region on earth can be found, where his eloquence is not read, his teaching praised, his love loved, his life proclaimed, his death venerated, the festivity of his passion celebrated? How many warriors against the devil did the trumpet of his sermon kindle to the example of his passion! How many afterward, not only reading his words, but also marveling at his fame, having loved him by learning, by loving followed him! So some by teaching he sent ahead to be imitated, others by suffering he preceded as those who would imitate. The mouths of those barking against the teaching of Christ he confounded; he rendered virgins beautiful to Christ, not in bodies and colors, but in conduct; he broke the stings of zeal and envy, and checked their poisons; disputing healthfully on the Lord's Prayer, so that we may understand what we ask; and he made a book for the lapsed, pastorally counseling and clemently sympathizing, and brought down the contemptuous to the humility of sorrow, and raised the sorrowing from the depth of despair; he praised patience, persuaded it, displayed it; he ground down the brows of heretics by the demonstration and preaching of unity; with him treating of mortality, and commending the joys of immortal life, in the minds of the faithful all fear of the dying and grief of the mourning blushed for shame; he convicted the most vain and most pernicious worship of idols even by the attestation of secular letters; to the greatest usefulness of almsgiving and heavenly gains, earthly avarice being refuted, he inflamed Christian souls. And why say more? Many everywhere have the great body of his books. But let us give the more abundant thanks to the Lord, that we have merited to have the holy body of his members; where with more ardent affection we may pour out our prayers to the Lord, to whom it pleased, and by whose grace he became such, and may praise him in the Lord, through whom we rejoice that the Lord was so praised.

Sermon 313/D
A Treatise on the Feast of Cyprian

1. We celebrate today the holy solemnity of that martyr who sent many martyrs before himself by his eloquence, and led out many after himself by his example. What, then, worthy of so great a matter shall we offer to so great a man, except that he not wait to be praised by us, but not cease to pray for us? For we are, even if not in the merit in which he was here, certainly in that life in which he too labored. For he led a mortal life, and now, leading it . . . he merited to obtain the immortal. But this manner of leading the mortal life, and of coming to the immortal, was not prescribed to him by himself, but by the leader, king, commander, forerunner, helper, savior, deliverer, the crowner of all martyrs, namely the Lord our God and Savior Jesus Christ, the only Son of God that we might be created, and the Son of man that we might be re-created; by him who knows not how to lie, who neither deceives nor is deceived, the rule was prescribed in which is set the manner of leading the mortal life and coming to the eternal. This blessed Cyprian knew and taught: nor did he only teach, but he also did it; thereby showing that he did not deceive those whom he taught, because by teaching he lived, and by living he did it. What, then, did the Lord do? What manner did he appoint of leading the mortal life, and the merit of obtaining the immortal life? Just now we heard, when the holy Gospel was read: He who wishes to follow me, he says, let him deny himself (Matt 16:24). As though it seemed obscure, the heavenly teacher added still, and says: He who loves his soul will lose it; and he who loses it for my sake will find it (Matt 16:25). This is the manner of leading the mortal life, of obtaining the immortal life; about this manner, with the favor of the one whose solemnity we keep, and his praying for us, let Your Charity hear something from us. [For great is the reward set before us, most beloved brothers.] Surely we celebrate the solemnity of the most blessed martyr: to this festivity the whole multitude of brothers and sisters gathers, and rejoice celebrating the birthday of the martyr. If it is a birthday, he was born; that he might be born, he was conceived. Where was he conceived? In this life in which he was born. This life we all know to be full of tribulations: that life in which blessed Cyprian was reborn here, we know well; yet we celebrate his birthday. And who of us is there, who would dare in the smallest part to compare his own birthday, which he celebrates in his house, to these birthdays of the blessed martyrs? Whoever does this, will judge himself a sacrilegious man.

2. So let us see what it is, "let him deny himself"; for great is the reward set before us, most beloved brothers. We have heard the confession of the most blessed martyr Cyprian: I worship one God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them (See Acts 4:24; Ps 146:6 (145:6)). God is silent, but the works of God speak: behold in what God, behold in what sort of God—indeed, not in what sort and such, but in God—behold in whom Cyprian believed. What, then, is it, "let him deny himself"? Deny yourself. What is, deny yourself? Are you compelled to deny God? deny yourself, and do not deny God. Do not love this temporal life as yours, and labor against eternal life; rather yield to eternal life, that you may be made eternal: deny yourself, that you may confess God; deny yourself, O man, that you may be made an angel; deny yourself, O mortal man, that, having confessed God, you may merit to live forever. Behold, you love the temporal life: you do not want to deny it, and you want to deny God. God, whom you denied, whom you refused to confess, withdraws from you; and you will have the temporal life, which you refused to deny. So let us see how long you are going to have this life. Behold, tomorrow, and after tomorrow another tomorrow, and after many tomorrows the end comes. And where will you go? where will you go out? Surely to God, whom you denied. O wretched, unhappy man! both you denied God, and the temporal life, like it or not, you lost. For this life, most beloved brothers, whether we will or not, passes, runs; let us, then, deny ourselves in this temporal life, that we may merit to live forever. Deny yourself, confess God. Do you love your soul? lose it. But you say to me: How do I lose what I love? You do this in your house. You love wheat, and you scatter the wheat, which you had stored in the granary with such diligence, which with such labor of harvest and threshing you had purged; now stored, now cleaned, when the time of sowing comes you will bring it out, scatter it, bury it, so as not to see what you scatter. Behold, by loving wheat, you scatter wheat; by loving life, pour out life; by loving your soul, lose it; because when you have lost it for God's sake in this time, in the future you will find it unto eternal life. So by loving life, pour out life.

3. It is hard, it is troublesome, it is a sad thing; I sympathize with you, because the Lord our God too sympathized with us. For he showed himself in you, and you in himself, when he said: My soul is sorrowful even to death (Matt 26:38). He suffered for us, let us suffer for him; he died for us, let us die for him, that we may live forever with him. But perhaps you hesitate to die, O mortal man, who at some time will die, because you were born mortal. Do you want not to fear death? Die for God. But perhaps you fear to die because death is a sad thing. Consider the harvest: the time of sowing has cold; but if the farmer refuses to be saddened by the cold in winter, he will not rejoice in summer. Consider whether you are therefore lazy to sow, because the sadness of cold is in the sowing. Heed the Psalm: Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds (Ps 126:5-6 (125:5-6)). So we were singing. What we sang, let us do: let us sow our souls in this time, like wheat in winter, that we may reap them unto eternal time, like wheat in the summer time. So the holy martyrs, so all the righteous, laboring on earth, weeping cast their seeds: for this life abounds in weeping. And what follows? But coming they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). Your seed, the shedding of blood; your sheaf, the crown received.

4. This our martyr believed, this he taught before he did it, this he did because he had already taught it. Those to whom blessed Cyprian spoke, he taught by speech alone; we hold his teaching doubled; we hold the sermon in writing, the example in memory. So let him exhort us, and pray for us; let him obtain for us from the Lord such a will as he himself spoke of in his passion, saying: A good will, which knows God, cannot be changed. And when the threatening judge said to him: Take counsel for yourself, that judge seemed to hate, not to love, the man, when he said to a mortal man: Take counsel for yourself; that is, take counsel for yourself, that you may now live a few days, and die forever. But holy Cyprian did not attend to the judge, a man, having power on earth; but he attended to the judge God, who made heaven and earth. So blessed Cyprian, unless he denied himself, unless, loving his soul, he lost it, that by losing he might find it, would have said to him: I take counsel indeed, and I give thanks, because you give me room for taking counsel, or a delay for thinking; or surely: Now receive my devotion, I undertake the rites of the princes. He would have said this, he would not have denied himself; and by perversely loving his soul, he would not have lost it: that is, he would not have sown what he might reap. But now, despising the cold of winter, thinking of the gladness of summer, he answered the man, as an adversary whom he saw, convicting the one whom he did not see. For what the devil was doing through that judge, the judge himself was ignorant of, but holy Cyprian knew. He answered him, saying: Do what has been commanded you. This "command" the holy martyr was attending to more deeply, mindful of the Lord his God, who, standing before Pontius Pilate, when that one said inflamed: Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to kill you? answered him, truthful and the truth: You would have no power over me, unless it were given you from above (John 19:10-11). Truly, brothers, it was not because the emperor had commanded this, that holy Cyprian suffered, but because he had commanded it who was bestowing such a martyr upon us. So, mindful of the Lord his God, he answered the judge: Do what has been commanded you; in so just a matter there is no deliberation. About doubtful matters one usually takes counsel: if I still take counsel, I still doubt. In so just a matter there is no deliberation. What is this just matter? It is just that I follow the martyrs, whom by speaking I made to go before me to martyrdom; it is not just that I forsake those who have gone before me. For if I do not do what I taught, with them crowned the rest will grow cold. It is just, then, that I fulfill what I taught, and by fulfilling teach what I have fulfilled. This blessed Cyprian did. In so just a matter there is no deliberation; he received the sentence, he merited the crown. The judge saw whom he afflicted, he did not see where he sent him; because, to see it, he was not worthy. What, then, shall we do about so great gifts of God, most beloved brothers, except what the martyr himself said? For at the last, when the judge said: It is my pleasure that Tascius Cyprian be punished by the sword, Cyprian said: Thanks be to God. And so let us too, set in this solemnity, seeing these things with the eyes of faith, and hoping that we too will come where he hastened, all say: Thanks be to God. Turned to the Lord.

Sermon 313/E
A Treatise on the Feast of Saint Cyprian

1. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom is our hope of eternal salvation, for this reason, though he was God, became man, lest man, made far from God, should think himself left in the distance and deserted. So, made the Mediator, he in a certain way filled up the time of distance, by which we were separated from God, so that through him we might not only not remain far off, but might even be able to draw near. For nothing is so joined as the Word and God; again, nothing is so joined as flesh and man. Since, then, the Word and God was far from flesh and man, the Word became flesh, and joined man to God. So this our Lord and Savior, the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh—not by conversion into flesh, but by the assumption of flesh—taught those who believe in him to live, taught them to die; to live without desire, to die without fear. He taught us to live, that we might not die forever; he taught us to die, that we might live forever. So out of the number of those whom he taught this, blessed Cyprian stood out; living as one knowing that he would die, and dying as one having it certain that he would rise again, commended to God by a twofold grace, that grace, namely, which he received from him to whom he was pleasing. But he was pleasing to him by his gift: for as far as concerned himself, he had that by which to displease, not by which to please; but, as it is written: Where sin abounded, grace superabounded (Rom 5:20). That truthful and true martyr, the servant of God, true by the gift of God, confesses in his writings what kind of man he was before; he does not forget what he was, lest he be ungrateful to him through whom he ceased to be such. So he is commended to God by a twofold grace, by the episcopate and by martyrdom. His episcopate defended and held unity; his martyrdom taught and fulfilled confession.

2. O how great, how wonderful is faith! Faith is something great, and where is it? For we see one another's faces, our shape, our clothing, and finally we perceive our words and voices with the ear; where is faith, of which I now speak? let it be shown to our eyes. Behold, faith is not seen: and yet that whole multitude which is seen here in the house of God, faith itself, which is not seen, has drawn. So faith is great, as the Lord too says in the Gospel: According to your faith be it done to you (Matt 9:29). Likewise the Lord our God himself, praising the faith of certain people, says: I have not found such great faith in Israel (Matt 8:10). So it is no wonder, if through faith which is not seen the life which is seen is despised, that the life which is not seen may be acquired. With this faith holy Cyprian was full: with this faith are filled not false but true Christians, who with their whole heart and with unshaken faith believe God. But the heretics and Donatists, who falsely boast that they belong to Cyprian, if they attended to his episcopate, would not separate themselves; if to his martyrdom, would not cast themselves headlong. He is not at all a disciple of Christ, he is not a companion of Cyprian, the heretic separated in heresy, or the Donatist cast headlong in death.

3. Let us consider, most beloved brothers, Christ teaching, Cyprian following; and those crying out from across the way that they are Christians, that they belong to Cyprian. Hear what Christ teaches: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you (John 14:27). The Donatist or heretic is not a disciple of Christ; the enemy of peace is not a disciple of Christ. See whether the Lord our God himself said this and did not do it, who said: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you. He tolerated Judas the devil among his disciples, he did not separate him; he was admitted to the Lord's supper, when he had already received the price of the Lord. For he wanted to sell Christ, he did not want to be redeemed by Christ. So our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ taught that separation is to be avoided, and division to be broken off, and peace and unity to be loved. Which peace he in a certain way leaves to his disciples, our Apostles, in his last testament. For, about to go to the Father, he said: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you; and he did not separate Judas from himself, who could not err, if he had wanted to separate him; for he would not separate an innocent man for a guilty one, or by separating the guilty desert the innocent. He knew what he was doing, and did not do it; he did not make separation, who commanded that peace be loved. He knew what he was doing, and did not do it; he who knew did not do it, lest he who did not know should dare to do it. Judas separated himself from the Lord. He was tolerated to the very end: he gave the kiss of peace who did not have peace; and yet he received the kiss of peace. By that kiss he was not joined, but condemned; for the Lord gave him the kiss as though he said to him: Behold what I have, behold what you do not have. For Christ was the head of his body singing and saying: With those who hated peace I was peaceable (Ps 120:7 (119:7)). So in that one tolerated to the end, the Lord Jesus Christ vehemently commended that separation is not to be made, but unity to be loved, and peace to be kept.

4. This we have said about keeping peace, on account of the heretics, who have separated themselves from the Catholic Church, and daily separate themselves, and falsely call themselves Catholics. So we have recalled this command of the Lord's peace on account of the heretics. But let us see what the Lord says also about martyrdom; we ought to recall it on account of the Donatists too, who cast themselves headlong; the Lord's teaching is to be commended. For the devil said to the Lord, when he tempted him—and the Lord was tempted, that we might learn to resist the tempter—so the devil said to him: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (Matt 4:6). For he had taken him up onto the pinnacle of the temple; he did not recognize his Lord, and was teaching the precipice as to a man. Not knowing it, he was tempting in the true Christ what he was preparing to persuade false Christians to do. For the Donatists are not false Christians, but are altogether not Christians, who hear what was suggested by the devil, and do not hear what was answered by Christ. For what did the Lord our Master and Savior answer the devil suggesting such things? Get back, Satan, for it is written: you shall not tempt the Lord your God (Matt 4:7, 10). For the devil suggested from Scripture, and the Lord answered from Scripture. For the devil had said to the Lord: For it is written: He has given his angels charge concerning you; in their hands they will lift you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone (Matt 4:6). Throw yourself down, he says, and if you are the Son of God, the angels take you up: what do you fear? The Lord could both cast his flesh down, and not let it die; but what the devil suggested to the present Christ, Christ did not teach the future Christians such things. For this too the devil suggests to the Donatists, saying: Throw yourselves down, the angels take you up; by such a death you do not go to punishment, but proceed to a crown. They would be Christians, if they gave ear to Christ, and did not believe the devil, who first separated them from the peace of the Church, and afterward gave them over headlong. We ask them, and we say: If voluntary death delights you, and you think it beautiful, with no enemy pressing, no adversary killing, to die of your own accord, why do you run quickly to the precipice, never to the noose? There is another death at hand, and hanging by a noose rather keeps the limbs of the dying whole, than the precipice you choose; why then do you not hang yourselves in a noose, when you want to die? They answer: Far be it from us, let the noose be anathema; for Judas the traitor hanged himself in a noose. O wretched and unhappy men, what is this madness, to refuse to do what the traitor did, and to do what the master of the traitor, the devil, taught them? Judas, that he might betray Christ, as it is written: Satan entered into his heart (John 13:27); he who persuaded him to betray Christ, the same persuaded him to hang himself in a noose. For he repented that he had betrayed righteous blood, but his repentance had no hope; he repented, but despaired, he did not believe he would receive pardon. He did not come to him whom he had betrayed, and ask forgiveness; he did not ask forgiveness, he did not implore deliverance, he did not commend himself to be redeemed by his blood. For the Lord would not be cruel toward Judas, who was merciful toward the Jews. Judas sold Christ to be killed, the Jews bought Christ to be killed. Do you want to know that he would have spared the seller? He prayed for the buyers; hanging on the cross he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). But those who crucified Christ, who wanted to remain in that sin, perished, because they refused to repent; they despaired of forgiveness, they did not merit pardon. But if any of them ran to the forgiveness of Christ himself to be freed, to whose shedding of blood they had run, incited by the devil, they repented, and merited forgiveness. They were baptized: raging they shed the blood of Christ, believing they drank it.

5. So the devil, who persuaded the heretics to separation, the Donatists to casting themselves headlong, the same persuaded Judas both to betrayal and to despair and to the noose. You then, Donatist, who want to kill yourself, who avoid the noose of the traitor, why do you not avoid the precipice of the devil? The devil persuaded Judas to tie his own neck; the same it is who suggested to the Lord that he throw himself down. So avoid the devil in both: as in the noose you avoid the devil, so in the precipice you ought not to consent to the devil. For the devil, suggesting the precipice, what did he hear from the Lord? Get back, Satan! O Donatist, say this to the devil, when he suggests the precipice to you; who has also filled you, that, cast headlong, you may be worshiped. For truly, brothers, both they cast themselves down, and they are cast down by their own perverse peoples. Those are the greater murderers, who gather with honor the bodies of those cast down, who catch the blood of those cast down, who honor their tombs, who get drunk at their graves. For those, seeing such honor offered to those cast down, others are inflamed to the precipice; those get drunk over them with wine, those are drunk with fury and the worst error. Against these blessed Cyprian, commending the peace of Christ, teaching his passion. Attend to both in him: he held peace in unity, he held martyrdom in confession. For our Lord Jesus Christ himself had surely come to suffer, and had foretold that he would suffer, and we would not be redeemed unless he had suffered; he had even said: I have power to lay down my soul, and to take it up. No one takes it from me; I myself lay it down of myself (John 10:18). And of the Father it had been said: Who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32). And of our Lord Jesus Christ himself: Who loved me, and handed himself over for me (Gal 2:20). Since, then, he had come for this, that the Father should hand him over to the impious to redeem us, and he handed himself over to the impious to redeem us, yet after the supper given he withdrew to the mountain, he fled the eyes of his persecutors; he willed that men come to him, he did not bring himself forward of his own accord. Attend to Cyprian imitating him. You heard, when his passion was read, that he said to the proconsul: Since discipline forbids that anyone offer himself. See how he knew the discipline of suffering; he surely roused men to suffering; yet he did not cast them headlong, did not push them, that they should offer themselves of their own accord. And to blessed Cyprian himself men were sent, and he was led, yet he did not offer himself of his own accord. But the Donatists cast themselves headlong of their own accord, and come to men, and say: Kill us. Those say: We do not kill you. O mad, O perverse men! You come to this point: you are going to say you are a martyr, in order to make either a homicide or a murderer; so that they come to men, and arm them against themselves, and by terrifying compel them to kill. If they had a sound heart, they would both dread the precipice, and not commit homicide; but they do this, which their father the devil taught them, and their master Donatus instructed them. Against these blessed Cyprian bravely defended both unity and peace.

6. So men are sent to him: he is led to the proconsul, he stands before the tribunal of the judge, a man. For he had withdrawn into his gardens because of the persecution, as the Lord after supper to the Mount of Olives. The Lord on the Mount of Olives poured out and cherished the oil of peace; Cyprian in his gardens was nourishing a grain of mustard seed. He, led from there, stood in body before the proconsul, but in heart before the savior; he honored the human power, he did not deny the divine glory. First from there he was sent into exile. He confessed Christ, he went on to exile; from there, led to martyrdom, he was brought, like a branch to the pruning-knife, not of cutting off, but of purging. For the Lord said: I am the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears fruit, my Father purges it, that it may bear more fruit; and every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will cut it off, and it withers, and is cast into the fire (John 15:5, 1-2, 6). So attend to the purged branch, Cyprian the martyr; attend to the branches cut off, the heretics and Donatists. Why do you say that you belong to this man, to this man bearing the fruit of peace and unity, purged by the knife of martyrdom to receive the crown of eternal salvation? Why do you compare yourselves to this man, heretics and Donatists, cut off by separation, defiled by casting yourselves headlong? Blessed Cyprian stands, confesses Christ, does not consent to that to which he is compelled; he receives the temporal sentence of the judiciary, he becomes a judge with Christ forever. He receives the sentence, and "Thanks be to God" rightly, because he confessed rightly. O mad Donatists! O rabid ones! Thanks be to God. They say they celebrate the birthday of Cyprian; their "Praise to God" all Christian men dread. For the Donatists are gathered for all their crimes; that they may cast themselves down: "Praise to God!" they shout; in the mouth: "Praise to God!" in deeds: "Hateful to God." And so whoever then, a Catholic Christian standing far off, hears: "Praise to God!" already trembles, already looks for where to flee, lest he see their headlong leaps. Behold how the Donatists have made bitter the praises of God.

7. But let us, attending to the teaching of Christ, set the example of Cyprian in our hearts, beseeching the Lord God, with the prayers of the saints also helping, that we may not fear such men, and may not be silent to them about the faith and hope that is in us. Let us, then, confess Christ, and not fear men, nor by fearing be silent. For blessed Cyprian too, leading his life among persecutors and gentiles, when he was among the worshipers of idols, did not fear the power of temporal rule, nor was silent that idols were not gods. Not only in churches was he not silent, but he also showed it in his writings. Did he say: I will consider the times; those who rule worship idols; I will refrain from confounding them, who though temporal are yet emperors? Was he silent? did the good pastor, seeing the wolf, flee? For what does it profit, if the pastor is present in body, and flees in heart? For he who is silent through fear flees in heart. For on the contrary God would say to him: I have set you as a watchman (Ezek 3:17); you should speak, not be silent: but you were silent, lest you be killed. Had I not said: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matt 10:28)? Behold, when you fear the death of your flesh, you have made so many deaths of your soul. So blessed Cyprian was not silent, neither to heretics, nor to Donatists, nor to the emperors themselves. He said, and securely said, and certain in the Lord his God he said, that the demons were not gods. We too say, that heretics are not martyrs, that the Circumcellions are not martyrs. Blessed Cyprian did not fear the worshipers of demons; let us not fear the gatherings of heretics, let us not fear the congregations of those cast headlong. Let us only pray to the Lord in mind, that no one have the counsel of being silent. And if they kill us for our faith, let us say: Thanks be to God; and if they do not kill us, how much is it that we are going to live here? And if we reach the last gray hairs, how much is it? Surely we are going to die? Surely on account of the few days of this life ought the ministry of our heart and tongue to rest? Far be it. But if this our life is necessary to Your Charity for the sake of this ministry, obtain it from the Lord; we cannot be silent. You can ask God that, if we are still necessary to you, he preserve us for you, and you for us; he is able to preserve all of us from threats, from wickednesses, from the plots of all enemies, from the perversities of all heretics; whom, because we wish well, and want to convert, he himself knows, who is the inspector and ruler of our heart. But perhaps they will repay us evil for good. Has it now begun to happen, that evil is repaid to the servants of God for good? It is an old thing, the examples stand; nor will this cease, nor will it cease until the end; and we are now in the very end of the age.

8. And so, my brothers, I entreat Your Charity, that you have a firm and prepared heart in God. And let us all pray to God, that the Lord lead us as he knows how, and guard our ways, both bodily and spiritual; for nothing will befall us or you that he has not willed. But do not think that the prayers of the saints for all of us before God can be empty; by whose prayers our prayers and yours too will not be vain before God. I will give you an example from holy Scripture. Tabitha, a widow woman, used to clothe widows: it happened that she died; word was sent to Peter the apostle, he came. There were shown to him the tunics which she had woven for the poor. The Lord was moved with mercy: he heard Peter, he restored the widow, a good worker, to the light. So, just as she was restored from the grave by the prayers of the widows, so too the Lord is able, by the prayers of blessed Cyprian and all the saints, to free us from every evil.

Sermon 313/F
Delivered in the Basilica of the Blessed Martyr Cyprian in the Mappalia on the Day of His Feast

1. First let me answer my brother and colleague. This morning I said that love ought to be restless, not lazy; but, because he wished it, let us obey, both him, and God through him, and you, and may he give obedience in you. We have sung: I have hoped in the mercy of God (Ps 52:8 (51:10)). Let us say a few things about our hope. And the words of our sermon will indeed have an end suited to the time; but hope itself, of which we speak, ought to endure, and not cease with our sermon. Let us speak, and let us cease; but it always cries out to God. Yet even hope itself—it will be hard, perhaps, what I say, but it will not offend if I show why I say it, and I believe it will not offend—but even hope itself will not be everlasting. For when the reality comes, hope will not be; for it is called hope only so long as the reality is not yet held, as the Apostle says: But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:24-25). If, then, hope that is seen is not hope, because what a man sees, why does he hope for it? and it is called hope for this reason, because we hope for what we do not see; when there comes what we may see, hope will not be, because the reality will be. Nor will it then be a curse to be without hope; but now to be without hope is a curse and a reproach to anyone. And woe to him who is now without hope! For it is bad to be without hope, because one is not yet with the reality; then let hope cease to be, when the reality will be held.

2. But what is that reality itself which will be held? What is it that will succeed hope? For we see now that men hope for many earthly things, and according to the world the very life of no man is without hope; and, until he dies, each one is not without hope; there is hope in boys, that they may grow, be educated, learn something; hope in young men, that they may take wives, beget sons; hope in the parents of sons, that they may rear them, educate them, see grown the children they fondled as little ones; to name above all the very life of human hope, which is, as it were, more natural, and more excusable, and more common. For there are many common hopes, much to be criticized; but let us hold to this one, which is civil and natural. For each one is born for this, that he grow, be married, beget sons, educate them, and even be called a father of sons. What more does he seek? And the hope is not yet ended: he wishes to join wives to his sons, and still hopes. And when he has obtained this too, he wishes for grandsons; and when he has these, behold there is now a third succession, and the old man is loath to give place to the boys: still he seeks for himself something to wish, seeks what to hope, and seems benevolent. Would, he says, that that boy might call me grandfather, and that I might hear it from his very mouth, and die! The boy grows, calls him grandfather, and he does not yet acknowledge himself a grandfather; for surely, if he is a grandfather. If he is an old man, why does he not acknowledge that he ought now to move on, that those born may succeed? And when he has heard the name of honor from the little one's voice, he himself wants to educate him. Surely there remains for him to hope for a great-grandson too? Thus he dies, and hopes; and he hopes for one thing after another, when he has received what he was hoping for. But by receiving what he was hoping for, he is not satisfied, he gapes after other things. Why had it come, what you were hoping for? Surely now that you might make an end; you go on: the end is not extended. And how many this hope deceives, this common hope! First, it does not satisfy when it comes, and to how many it does not come! How many hoped for wives, and could not take them! How many hoped for those with whom it would go well, and took those who would torment them! How many wished for sons, and could not have them! How many groaned over the bad ones they had! So all things. Someone hoped for riches: either, not having obtained them, he was tortured by desire, or, having obtained them, racked by fear. And there is no one who ceases to hope, no one is satisfied, so many are deceived, and they do not rest from the hope of the world.

3. Let our hope at last be not deceptive, but satisfying, and something so good that there can be nothing more. What, then, is the reality that we hope for, which when it comes hope will cease, because the reality will succeed? What is it? Is it earth? No. Something that is born on earth, like gold, silver, a tree, a crop, water? None of these. Something that flits in the air? The soul shrinks from it. Is it perhaps heaven, so beautiful, and adorned with lights? For what among these visible things is more delightful, what more beautiful? Nor is it this. And what is it? These things delight, these things are beautiful, these things are good; seek who made them, he is your hope. He is now your hope, he will be afterward your reality; he is the hope of the believer, he will be the reality of the seer. Say to him: You are my hope (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). For now you say well: You are my hope; for you believe, you do not yet see; it is promised to you, you do not yet hold it. As long as you are in the body, you are a pilgrim away from the Lord; you are on the road, not yet in the homeland. The very ruler and founder of the homeland became the way, to lead you through; so say to him now: You are my hope. What afterward? My portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). What is now your hope, will afterward be your portion. Let your hope be in the land of the dying, and your portion will be in the land of the living. Turned to the Lord.

(Erfurt 6 = Sermon 313/G)
A sermon of Saint Augustine

1. I give thanks to the Lord our God because, that I might keep this day with you, he deigned to grant it both to me and to you. With a most devoted gathering we celebrate the solemnities of a most illustrious martyr. The adornment of confession, the ruler of the Africans and teacher of the Church, a most true and most sincere martyr and both instructor and ruler, teaching what he was to do, doing what he had taught, sending many before himself by precept, drew many after himself by example. But who did this in him, except he who made him? For God made both the man and the believer and the martyr: the man when he created him, the believer when he called him, the martyr when he crowned him. Such martyrs we venerate without scruple; for illustrious and clear to all are the passions which they bore for the Lord. This blessed Cyprian too was sent like a sheep into the midst of wolves; by his word he chastised the wolves, and like a shepherd he answered for the sheep and shed his blood for the sheep. He held the simplicity of the dove and the cunning of the serpent: by the simplicity of the dove he harmed no one, by the cunning of the serpent he guarded his own head. When serpents are struck, they set all the coils of their members against the blow for the sake of the head, and with great zeal guard the place where they live. How did holy Cyprian guard his head? The head of the man is Christ (1 Cor 11:3); so he guarded his head, when, his body set against the persecutors, he did not deny Christ.

2. <...> eager and glad, let us celebrate the sincerity of devotion; let it suffice us, brothers! Let us not persecute the martyrs with cups, whom the pagans persecuted with stones! I see, by God's favor, this place full with the eagerness of your gathering. Surely now we are not eating—do not question your bellies, but your minds!—surely now we are not drinking? Our food and drink ought to be that of the inner man. For the burdened outer man weighs down the inner, whence the Lord says: Let not your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness (Luke 21:34), because by drunkenness bodies are filled and hearts are weighed down. How much we ought to avoid this, when we celebrate the birthdays of the martyrs! For that they might reach those crowns, they despised such things as are now celebrated as things to be longed for, when men set about celebrating their solemnities. For if we love the martyrs, let us follow the footsteps of the martyrs! Imitate the one you love: this is the fruit of love, the footstep of imitation.

Sermon 313/H
On the Day of Saint Eulalia

1. On the solemnities of the martyrs holy readings suited to them are recited, which commend to us that their victories were foretold beforehand, and were fulfilled through the help of him who had promised these things. If the world hates you, says the Lord, know that it hated me first. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own (John 15:18-19). Of this world the Lord Christ never was, because he was not a sinner. But his disciples were of the world: but, that they might not be of the world, he chose them out of the world, who never was of the world. For openly he said this to them in another place: I have chosen you out of the world (John 15:19). I chose what I made, not what I found. For whose merits did he find but evil ones, when he came? But those whom he found evil, he made good. He made the redeemed out of captives, servants out of the redeemed, brothers out of servants, members out of brothers.

2. Since, then, they had been made his members, what were they to suffer, except what he himself suffered? By his own example he showed what they ought to do. Do we think it was said to the disciples alone, the world hates you (John 15:18), or to all Christians? But now all Christians are the world itself, that is, the whole world. What, then, has remained of the world, to hate us? Yet whatever has remained hates us. Whoever are pagans, without doubt hate Christians. We do not hate them, but seek them. Whoever are reprobate Jews, like the chaff of that threshing-floor which was winnowed by the cross, they too hate us. Whatever there is in the human race of heretics, which has gone out of the Church, they all hate us. And however many and however great they are, if the remnants are counted against us, so they hate us. How the whole world rages! Behold, those who suffered as martyrs, suffered before the whole world. Who were they, to endure the great roaring lion, unless Christ helped? Wherever they went, wherever they passed, they were cursed, seized, stoned, struck, burned with fire, exposed to beasts, smitten with the sword. Behold, those against whom there was raging are crowned; those who raged, where are they?

3. But that which the Lord says: The hour will come, when whoever kills you will think he is rendering service to God (John 16:2), does not pertain to those martyrs about whom this is whose solemnity we celebrate. For this holy Eulalia, of the province of Spain, a holy and strong woman, who by her affection overcame her sex, like holy Crispina, like blessed Cyprian, like many other holy martyrs, like the Eight, like the Twenty, and all their companions, believed out of the multitude of the gentiles, and were killed by the pagans. How then can it be said, that there was fulfilled in them what the Lord says: The hour will come, when whoever kills you will think he is rendering service to God? They are not the ones of whom it was said; because those who killed them thought they were rendering service not to God, but to idols. So they are killed, that they may not perish: they are humbled, that they may be exalted; they die, that they may live. So it was done. Therefore after the fragrance of the ointments the rest too ran, the Twenty, and the Eight, some this way, some that: Cyprian, Crispina, Eulalia. And who could number them all? A few grains were sown, and made so great a harvest, and filled the granaries of Christ.

Sermon 314
On the Feast of Stephen the Martyr

1. Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of the Lord; today we celebrate the birthday of the servant: but we celebrated the birthday of the Lord, on which he deigned to be born; we celebrate the birthday of the servant, on which he was crowned. We celebrated the birthday of the Lord, on which he received the garment of our flesh: we celebrate the birthday of the servant, on which he cast off the garment of his flesh. We celebrated the birthday of the Lord, on which he was made like us: we celebrate the birthday of the servant, on which he was made near to Christ. For as Christ by being born was joined to Stephen, so Stephen by dying was joined to Christ. But the Church frequents the day both of the nativity and of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ with the homage of a twofold devotion, since each is a medicine. For he was born, that we might be reborn: he died, that we might live forever. But the martyrs came to evil contests by being born, dragging original sin: but by dying they passed to most certain good things, ending all sin. For if the rewards of future blessedness did not console those set in persecution, when would they sustain those torments from various sufferings? If blessed Stephen, set under a shower of stones, had not thought of future rewards, how would he have borne that hail? But he carried in his mind the precept of him whose presence he beheld in heaven; and, suspended toward him by a most ardent love, he desired to leave the flesh as quickly as possible, and to fly to him: nor did he now fear death, because he saw living Christ, whom he knew to have been killed for him; and through this he too hastened to die for him, that he might live with him. For what the most blessed Martyr saw, set in that struggle, you recall without doubt his words, which you are accustomed to hear from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Behold, he says, I see the heavens opened, and Christ standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). He saw Jesus standing: therefore he stood, and did not fall; because Jesus, standing above and watching from above his soldier contending below, supplied unconquered strength to him, that he should not fall. Behold, he says, I see the heavens opened. Blessed man, to whom the heavens lay open. But who opened heaven? He of whom it is said in the Apocalypse: Who opens, and no one shuts; shuts, and no one opens (Rev 3:7). When Adam was cast out of paradise, after that first and unspeakable sin, heaven was closed against the human race: after the passion of Christ the thief entered first, afterward Stephen saw it opened. Why do we marvel? That he faithfully saw, faithfully made known, and forcibly entered?

2. Come, brothers, let us follow him; for if we follow Stephen, we will be crowned. But he is especially to be followed and imitated by us in the love of enemies. For you know that, surrounded by a crowded gathering of enemies, when he was being battered by frequent blows of stones from this side and that, placid and intrepid, mild and gentle among the stones by which he was being killed, gazing on him for whom he was being killed, he did not say: Lord, judge my death; but, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). He did not say: Lord Jesus, avenge your servant, whom you see condemned to this punishment of death; but, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). So the most blessed Martyr, persisting in the testimony of the truth, and burning with the spirit of love, as you know, came to a most glorious end; and he who, having been called, persevered to the end, obtained in the end what he was called, and Stephen, by the glory of his name, was led to the crown. So when blessed Stephen first shed his blood for Christ, the crown, as it were, came forth from heaven; that those who followed should receive it as a reward, who imitated the courage of the one going before in the battle. Afterward frequent martyrdoms filled the earth. Whoever afterward shed their blood for the confession of Christ, placed that crown on their head, and kept it whole for those who would follow. And now, brothers, it hangs from heaven: whoever longs for it will fly swiftly to it. And to exhort Your Holiness briefly and clearly, there is no need of many words: let whoever desires the crown follow Stephen. Turned to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 315
On the Solemnity of Stephen the Martyr

1. 1. How the most blessed Stephen was ordained a deacon, the seventh together with six others, and how he came to the heavenly crown, you heard when the reading itself was read. This first merit of the first Martyr was commended to Your Charity: that, whereas of other martyrs we scarcely find Acts which we can recite on their solemnities, this man's passion is in the canonical book. The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Canon of the Scriptures. This book begins to be read from the Lord's day of Easter, as the custom of the Church holds. In this book, then, whose title is the Acts of the Apostles, you heard how seven deacons were chosen and ordained by the Apostles, among whom holy Stephen was. The Apostles first, the deacons after. And the first martyr is from the deacons rather than from the Apostles: the first victim from the lambs rather than from the rams.

1. 2. But how great a likeness of passion he had with his Lord and his Savior! False witnesses against this man, just as against that one: and about the very same matter. For you know and recall what the false witnesses said against the Lord Christ: We heard him say, I destroy this temple, and after three days I build another new one (See Matt 26:61; Mark 14:58). But the Lord had not said this: but the falsehood wanted to be near to the truth. How are they false witnesses? They heard him say: Destroy this temple, and after three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). But the Evangelist says: But he was speaking of the temple of his body (John 2:21). The false witnesses, for what was said, Destroy, said, I destroy. They changed a little in the syllables: but the false witnesses were the worse, the more they wanted by slander to approach the truth. And what was objected against this man? We heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this temple, and will change the custom of the Law (Acts 6:14). They bore false witness, and prophesied true things. Just as that Caiaphas, their master, the chief of the priests, giving counsel to the Jews, that Christ should be killed, said this: It is expedient that one die, rather than that the whole nation perish (John 11:50). But the Evangelist says: This he said not of himself, but, being high priest of that year, he prophesied that Christ was to die for the nation (John 11:51). What is this, brothers? Great is the power of truth. Men hate the truth, and prophesy the truth without knowing it. They do not act, but it is acted concerning them. So these false witnesses came forth like the false witnesses, but those for whose sake Christ was killed.

2. 3. They brought him into the council, that they might have a greater trial. But the friend of Christ, when he had stated his case, proclaimed the truth of his Lord. He was about to die: why should a godly tongue be silent before the impious? Why should he not die for the truth? Unequal to his Lord in this one thing, for the sake of a certain mystery, as far as concerns the likeness of the passion. For that one is God by the excellence of majesty. When the Lord was led to his passion, questioned, he preferred to be silent: this man was not silent. Why did that one prefer to be silent? Because it had been foretold of him: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isa 53:7). But why did this man refuse to be silent? Because it had been said by the Lord himself: What I tell you in the dark, say in the light; and what you hear in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops (Matt 10:27). How did holy Stephen proclaim upon the housetop? Because he trampled the muddy house, the flesh. For he who does not fear death tramples the flesh. He first expounded to them from the beginning the law of God, from Abraham to Moses, to the giving of the law, to the entry into the land of promise; that he might commend that there was no true testimony from which they were stirring up slander. Then concerning Moses he gave them a great likeness to Christ. Moses, rejected by them, himself also freed them: rejected, he freed them. He did not return evil for evil: indeed he returned good for evil. So too the Lord Christ, rejected by the Jews, will himself afterward free them.

3. 4. But now he who dies, has died. The Jews whom you see will have the time of their deliverance, through the very one whom they rejected; but they do not know it. Now those who blaspheme perish: then there will be others, not these. When we say these things, we promise salvation not to others, but to themselves. The nation will be freed, not these. Attend and receive a likeness. Does not God now free the Gentiles? All nations believe in Christ, and from sons of the devil become sons of God. Yet those parents of ours, from whom we were born, who worshiped idols, perished with the idols.

3. 5. You heard, and you saw the spectacles of the heart. The sound was in your ears, the vision in your minds. You watched the great struggle of holy Stephen, who in the struggle was being stoned. Who? He who shortly before was teaching the law. What law was he teaching? The one which they received on tablets of stone. Deservedly made of stone, they stoned the friend of Christ. Stiff-necked (after he had taught, he began to rebuke), and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? (Acts 7:51-52) He seems to rage: a fierce tongue, a gentle heart. He cried out, and he loved. He raged, and he wanted them to be saved. Who would not believe him angry, who would not believe him inflamed with the torches of hatred, when he said: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears? Meanwhile the Lord looked from heaven, and saw. Heaven was opened: he saw Jesus, as it were exhorting his athlete. Nor was he silent about what he saw: Behold I see, he says, heaven opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of majesty (Acts 7:56). They, hearing this, as though it were blasphemy that he had said, stopped their ears, ran to the stones. In the Psalm it had been said: Like the deaf asp, that stops its ears (Ps 58:4 (57:5)). They plainly displayed what had been foretold of them. He began to be stoned. Now attend to him raging, recall the hard words: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears. As though he were an enemy: as if, were it possible, he desired to kill them all. Let him say this who does not see the heart. His heart lay hidden: but his last words were heard, and his hidden things were laid open, when he was being stoned. Lord Jesus, he says, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). To you I have spoken: for you I die. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Because you have helped, he whom you receive has conquered. Receive my spirit, from the hand of those who hate yours. This holy Stephen said standing.

4. 5. And after this he bent the knee, and said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). Where is the Stiff-necked? Is this the whole of what you were crying out? is this the whole of what you were raging? Outwardly you were crying out, and inwardly you were praying.

4. 6. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59): this standing. For he was demanding a debt, when he said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He was demanding the debt that had been promised to the martyrs: the debt of which the Apostle says: For I am already being offered, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me on that day (2 Tim 4:6-8). He will render, he will render what he owes. He who was before a debtor of punishments, afterward began to hold God as a giver of rewards. From where was the apostle Paul a debtor of punishments? Because he was an enemy of the Church, because a persecutor. Hear him: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor 15:9). I am not worthy, he says worthy. Why are you not worthy? To suffer punishments, to enter into the fires of Gehenna, to be tortured according to my merits, of this I was worthy: to be an apostle, I was not worthy. From where, then, came this to you, of which you were not worthy? There followed: But by the grace of God I am what I am (1 Cor 15:10). By my own evil I was what I was: by the gift of God I am what I am. So that afterward he might demand the debt, he first received the undeserved. What debt afterward? There remains for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me on that day. He will render to me, it is owed to me: first the undeserved. What? I am not worthy to be called an apostle: but by the grace of God I am what I am. So too holy Stephen: Lord Jesus, standing with confidence, because he had served well, fought well, had not yielded to the enemy, had trampled fear, had spurned the flesh, had conquered the world and the devil: hence he stood when he said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

4. 7. When this man was demanding a good debt, the apostle Paul was heaping up for himself a debt. The one was asking a good debt: the other was adding to a bad debt. For what do you think, brothers? When Stephen was being stoned, you heard, but perhaps you did not notice, the false witnesses about to stone Stephen laid their garments at the feet of a certain young man, by name Saul.

5. 7. This Saul, and afterward Paul: the persecutor Saul, the preacher Paul. For "Saul" is a name from Saul. Saul was the persecutor of King David. Such was Saul toward David, as Saul toward Stephen. But afterward when he had been called from heaven; called, prostrated, changed, when he began as an apostle to preach the word of God; he changed his name, and called himself Paul. And why did he choose this? Because "Paul" is little, "Paul" is small. We are accustomed to speak so: I will see you after paulum, that is, after a little. From where, then, Paul? I am the least of the Apostles (1 Cor 15:9). Great, divine spectacles! He who was the persecutor at the killing of Stephen, was afterward made the preacher of the kingdom of heaven. How he raged in that killing, do you want to hear? He kept the garments of those stoning, that he might stone with the hands of all. So after holy Stephen, standing, demanded his debt, saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; attending to his enemies, who by stoning him were making a bad debt for themselves, and were adding to that treasure of which the apostle Paul says: But you, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom 2:5): he attended to them, and pitied them, and bent the knee for them. For himself he stood, for them he bent the knees. He distinguished the righteous from the sinners: for the righteous, standing, he asked, because he was demanding a reward; for the sinners he bent the knees, because he knew how difficult it was to be heard for men so wicked. Although righteous, although set under the very crown, he did not presume, but bent the knee: not attending to what he himself was worthy to receive by asking, but to what they were worthy of, from whom he wanted to remove the dreadful punishments. Lord, he says, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60).

5. 8. What Stephen was, humble, Christ was, sublime: that he was bowed to the earth, this Christ was hung on the wood. For recall that he too said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). He sat in the chair of the cross, and taught Stephen the rule of godliness. O good Teacher, you pronounced well, you taught well. Behold your disciple prays for his enemies, prays for those who stone him. He showed how the humble ought to imitate you the sublime, the creature the creator, the victim the mediator, man God and man: God, but yet on the cross man; God Christ, but on the cross man, when he said with a clear voice: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

6. 8. That man says to himself: He prayed for his enemies, because he is Christ, because he is God, because he is the Only-begotten; what am I, to do this? If your Lord is too much for you, do you not know that Stephen is your fellow servant? God taught through Stephen, who was not emptied out. If you see that these things went before in the Gospel, my brothers, let no one say in his heart, Who does that? Behold, Stephen did it: from himself? did he do it from his own? But if he did it from the gift of God; surely he did not enter, and close it against you? Surely he did not cross the bridge, and cut it off? Is it too much for you? Ask, you too. The fountain flows, it has not dried up.

6. 9. And truly I say to Your Charity, my brothers: exercise yourselves, as much as you can, to display gentleness, even toward your enemies. Bridle the anger which goads you to vengeance. For anger is a scorpion. If it has stirred you with its inner flames, you think it some great thing, if you avenge yourself on your enemy. If you want to avenge yourself on your enemy, turn against your own anger: for it is your enemy, which kills your soul. O good man—for I do not want to say, bad man; I rather say what I want you to be, than what you are—O good man, what will your enemy do to you? what is he going to do, that he may be able to do much; that God should permit him the whole of what he desires? He desires to shed your blood. It is difficult indeed, and even enemies are rare, who rage to the point of death. Even enemies themselves are accustomed, when they have seen those they persecute afflicted, to turn their anger into mercy. You hardly find an enemy who rages to the point of death. But suppose, to the point of death. Set yourself such an enemy as rages to the point of death. What is he going to do? What the Jews did to Stephen: for himself punishment, for the other a crown. Will your enemy kill you as though you were not going to die, as though you were always going to live? Your enemy is going to do to you what at some time a fever was going to do: if he kills you, he will be like your fever. So will he harm you by killing you? No: rather, if you die well, and have loved him, he will add something to your heavenly reward. Do you not know how much those stoners bestowed on holy Stephen? Did they know that to him for his goodness a crown was to be rendered, to them for their malice a punishment? How much the devil bestowed? He himself made all the martyrs for us. But will he go from here? But of his benefits, what he did not want, that will be imputed to him which he himself desired, not what God was doing through him. So your enemy, whoever he is, to the point of death, will harm you nothing.

7. 10. See what anger harms. Acknowledge your enemy: acknowledge her with whom you fight in the theater of your breast. A narrow theater; but God watches: there tame your enemy. Do you want to see how truly she is your enemy? Now I show you. You are about to pray to God: the hour will come when you will say: Our Father, who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). You will come to that verse: Forgive us our debts. What follows? As we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). There that enemy stands against you. She hedges the way of your prayer: she raises a wall, and there is no way for you to pass. You said all of it well: Our Father. You ran on: Forgive us our debts. And what afterward? As we also forgive our debtors. Behold, that adversary contradicts; not before the veil, but within: in the very sanctuary of your heart, there she cries out at you, contradicts. What an enemy, brothers, who contradicts? As we also forgive. You are not permitted to rage against your enemy: against her rage. Better is he who conquers anger, than he who takes a city (Prov 16:32), Scripture says. What I have just said is written: Better is he who conquers anger, than he who takes a city. Does not a warring commander, when he comes to some enemies, and finds a fortified city, equipped with armed men, excellent, opposing him, if he takes it, if he conquers it, if he overthrows it, seek triumphs? But as Scripture says: Better is he who conquers anger, than he who takes a city. It is in your hand. You cannot destroy her, you can restrain her. If you are strong, conquer anger: and spare the city. I see you attentive, I know how well you have received it. May God be present to your contests, that it may profit you to have watched the struggle of so great a Martyr; that, as you saw him conquering and favored him conquering, so you too may conquer in your heart.

Sermon 316
On the Solemnity of Stephen the Martyr

1. The most blessed and in Christ most glorious martyr Stephen has already fattened us by his own sermon: but after that fattening I set before you, from the sermon of my ministry, a kind of second table. And what sweeter thing do I find to set on it than Christ and the Martyr himself? For that one is the Lord, this one the servant: but Stephen, from a servant, a friend. We, however, without doubt are servants: may he grant that we be friends too. Yet what sort of servants? Such as can with an untroubled conscience sing: But to me your friends are made very honorable, O God (Ps 139:17 (138:17)). Before holy Stephen was killed in the open, and crowned in secret, you heard what sort of man he was, chosen by the Apostles. Among those deacons he is named first, as among the Apostles Peter. So when he had been ordained by the Apostles, in a short time he preceded his ordainers to the passion: he was ordained by them, but he was crowned first. What, then, did you hear, when his passion was read? But Stephen, full of grace and the Holy Spirit, did great wonders and signs among the people, through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 6:8). Understand who, through whose name. You who know how to love Stephen, love him in Christ. For this he wants, this is pleasing to him: from this he rejoices, this he holds acceptable. For he did not want to boast his own name among those who stoned him. Attend to whom he confessed, when he was being stoned; whom he confessed on earth, whom he saw in heaven; for whom he handed over his flesh, to whom he commended his soul. For do we read, or can we anywhere read in sound doctrine, that Jesus did or does signs through the name of Stephen? Stephen did them, but through the name of Christ. He does this even now: whatever you see is done through the memorial of Stephen, is done in the name of Christ; that Christ may be commended, Christ adored, Christ awaited as judge of the living and the dead, and that by those who love him there may be standing at his right hand. For when he comes, they will stand at the right, they will stand at the left: blessed, those at the right; wretched, those at the left.

2. Yet let the most blessed Stephen imitate his Lord. In a marvelous way he suffered among the stones, hard, those throwing—what, but what they were? That you may know that he suffered hard men; he said this to them: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). You want to die, you hasten to be stoned, you burn to be crowned. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit. When he said such things, they raged, and gnashed with their teeth. Add, Stephen, add what they cannot bear, add what they cannot endure: add something by which they may stone you, that we may find what to celebrate. The heavens were opened: the Martyr saw the head of the martyrs; he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father: he saw, that he might not be silent. They did not see, but they envied; and therefore they did not see, because they envied. He was not silent about what he saw, that he might come to him whom he saw. Behold, he says, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of majesty (Acts 7:56). They held their ears, as though against blasphemy. You recognize them in the Psalm: Like the asp, it says, deaf and stopping its ears, that it may not hear the voice of the charmer, and the medicine compounded by a wise man (Ps 58:4-5 (57:5-6)). For just as asps are said, when they are charmed, that they may not break forth and come out of their caverns, to press one ear to the earth, and to stop the other with their tail, and yet the charmer brings them out: so these too were still hissing in their caverns, when they were seething in their hearts. They were not yet breaking forth: they stopped their ears. Now let them break forth, let it appear who they are: let them run to the stones. They ran, they stoned.

3. What did Stephen do? what? Attend first to the one whom the good friend was imitating. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he hung on the cross, said: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46). This as man, as crucified, as born of a woman, as clothed in flesh; as about to die for us, as about to be in the tomb, as about to rise on the third day, as about to ascend into the heavens. For all these things are in the man. As man, then: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. He said: Father: Stephen: Lord Jesus. What does he too say? Receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). You said to the Father, I to you. I acknowledge the Mediator. You came to lift up one lying down: you did not fall with me. Receive, he says, my spirit. This he prayed for himself: another thing came into his mind, by which to imitate his Lord. Recall the words of the one hanging on the wood, and attend to the words of the one confessing while being stoned. What did that one say? Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Perhaps among them then was Stephen, those who did not know what they were doing. For many afterward believed. And it is uncertain to us from where the most blessed Stephen was, whether from those who had first believed in Christ, like Nicodemus who came to him by night, who merited to be buried there where this man too was, because through him this man too was found: whether, then, he was among these, or perhaps among those who after the ascension of the Lord, when the Spirit came, when the disciples were filled, and were speaking in the tongues of all nations, pricked, said to the Apostles: Men, brothers, what shall we do? (Acts 2:37) tell us. For they despaired of salvation, because they had killed the Savior. And Peter said to them: Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and you will receive the Holy Spirit, and your sins will be forgiven you (See Acts 2:38). Do you think all? What of sins remained, when even that sin was forgiven, by which the forgiver of sins was killed? What is worse, than to kill Christ? This was blotted out. What then? Perhaps Stephen was among them. If he was among them; for him too that prayer availed: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. Yet Saul too was among them. When Stephen the lamb was being stoned, that man was still a wolf, still he thirsted for blood; still he thought too little his own hands by which he might stone, he kept the garments of those stoning. So recalling what was said for him, if he too was among those of whom the Lord said, when he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do; imitating, then, in this very thing too his Lord, that he might be his friend, he too said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). But how did he say it? With his knee placed on the earth. He commended himself standing: when he prayed for his enemies, he bent the knee. Why did he commend himself standing? Because he was commending a righteous man. Why for them did he bend the knees? Because he was praying for the wicked. Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge.

4. Do you think Saul heard these words? He heard, but mocked: and yet he belonged to Stephen's prayer. Still he was raging, and already Stephen was being heard for him. For you know now, to say something about Saul, and afterward Paul; surely you know: in the same book it is written how Paul believed. Stephen being killed, the Church at Jerusalem suffered a most grave persecution. The brothers who were there were put to flight: only the Apostles remained; the rest were put to flight. But like burning torches, wherever they came, they kindled. Foolish Jews, when they put them to flight from Jerusalem, were casting coals of fire into the forest. Still Saul, for whom Stephen killed was not enough—which we gladly recall, because we now worship him—what did he do? He received letters from the priests and scribes, that wherever he found men of this way, that is, Christians, he might bring them bound to take the punishments such as Stephen had taken. And angry Saul went, the wolf went to the sheepfolds, to the flocks of the Lord: like a rabid wolf he thirsted for blood, panted for slaughter, went along the way. And he from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) Wolf, wolf, why do you persecute the lamb? When I was killed, I killed the lion. Why do you persecute me? Put off the wolf: from the wolf be a sheep, from the sheep a shepherd.

5. This is a most sweet picture, where you see holy Stephen being stoned, you see Saul keeping the garments of those stoning. This is Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, this is Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus (See Rom 1:1). You heard the voice well: Why do you persecute me? You were laid low, you were raised up: the persecutor prostrated, the preacher raised up. Say, let us hear: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, by the will of God (See Eph 1:1). Surely not by your will, O Saul? By your will we know, we have seen your fruits: Stephen was killed by your will. By the will of God, we see your fruits: everywhere you are read, everywhere you are recited, everywhere you turn opposing hearts to Christ, everywhere a good shepherd you gather great flocks. With him whom you stoned, with Christ you reign. You both see yourselves there; you both now hear our sermon; pray both of you for us. He will hear you both, who crowned you, one first, the other afterward: one who suffered persecution, the other who persecuted. That one was then a lamb, but that one was a wolf: but now both are lambs. Let the lambs acknowledge us, and see us in the flock of Christ: let them commend us by their prayers, that they may obtain a quiet and tranquil life for the Church of their Lord.

Sermon 317
On Stephen the Martyr

1. 1. The martyr Stephen, blessed and the first after the Apostles ordained a deacon by the Apostles, crowned before the Apostles; he illumined those lands by his suffering, he visited these by his death. But he would not, though dead, visit, unless even dead he lived. A scanty dust gathered so great a people: the ash lies hidden, the benefits lie open. Consider, dearly beloved, what God keeps for us in the region of the living, who bestows so much from the dust of the dead. The flesh of holy Stephen is spread abroad through individual places: but the merit of his faith is commended. Let us so expect to obtain temporal benefits, that by imitating him we may merit to receive the eternal. What the blessed Martyr set before us to imitate in his passion, to attend to this, to believe this, to fulfill this, is truly to celebrate the solemnities of the Martyr. Our Lord, among the great and healthful, divine and most lofty precepts which he gave to his disciples, this seems hard to men, that he commanded them to love their enemies. A hard precept, but a great reward. Finally, when he admonished this, see what he said: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44). You have heard the work, expect the reward; and see what he adds: That you may be, he says, sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). This we see, this we cannot deny. Surely it was not said to the clouds: Rain upon the fields of my worshipers, and withdraw from the fields of my blasphemers? Surely it was not said to the sun: Let those who worship me see you, let those who curse me not see you? Benefits from heaven, benefits from earth: the fountains gush, the fields grow fat, the trees are laden with fruits. The good have these things, the bad have them too; the grateful have them, the ungrateful have them. He who bestows so great things on the good and the bad, do we think keeps nothing for the good? This he gives to the good and the bad, which he gave also to the stoners of Stephen: but this he keeps for the good, which he gave to Stephen.

2. 2. Especially, then, brothers, by the example of this Martyr, let us learn to love our enemies. The example is set before us from God the Father, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil (Matt 5:45). The Son of God too said this, after the receiving of his flesh, through the mouth of his flesh, which he took up by loving his enemies. For he who came into the world as a lover of his enemies, found absolutely all his enemies, found no friend. For his enemies he shed his blood: but by his blood he converted his enemies. The sins of his enemies he blotted out by his blood: by blotting out their sins, he made friends out of enemies. Of these friends was Stephen too: indeed he is and will be. Yet the Lord himself first showed on the cross what he admonished. For with the Jews everywhere raging, growing angry, mocking, insulting, crucifying, he said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). For blindness crucifies me. Blindness was crucifying him: and crucified, he made for them an eye-salve from his blood.

2. 3. But men lazy at the precept, greedy for the reward, who do not love their enemies, but desire to avenge themselves on them, nor attend to the Lord, who, if he wanted to avenge himself on his enemies, there would not remain one to praise him; when they hear this passage of the Gospel, in which the Lord on the cross said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do; they say to themselves, He could do this, as the Son of God, as the only-begotten of the Father. For the flesh hung, but God lay hidden within. But what are we, to do these things? Did he who commanded it deceive us? Far be it: he did not deceive. If you think it too much for you to imitate your Lord, attend to Stephen your fellow servant. The Lord Christ, the only Son of God: surely Stephen was not this? The Lord Christ, born of an uncorrupted virgin: surely Stephen was not this? The Lord Christ came, not in the flesh of sin, but in the likeness of the flesh of sin: surely Stephen was not this? He was born as you are; he was born from where you too were; he was reborn from him from whom you too were; he was redeemed at the price at which you too were; he is worth as much as you are worth. One instrument was made for us. The Gospel is the instrument, where we were all bought: where you are, there he is. Because we are servants, it is an instrument: because we are sons, it is a testament. Attend to him, attend to your fellow servant.

3. 4. Is it too much for you, because you have weak eyes, to gaze at the sun? Look at the lamp. For the Lord said to his disciples: 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 (Matt 5:15). The house is the world: the lampstand is the cross of Christ: the lamp shining on the lampstand is Christ hanging on the cross. On that very lampstand there shone also that man, who before kept the garments of those stoning, from Saul Paul, from a wolf a lamb, both small and great; a snatcher of lambs, and a shepherd of lambs: on that very lampstand he shone, when he said: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14). So let your light shine, he says, before men (Matt 5:16). Behold the light of Stephen shines, this lamp shines: let us attend to it. Let no one say, It is too much for me: he was a man, you are a man. But he did not receive from himself. Did he receive, and close it against you? The fountain is common: drink from where he drank. By the benefit of God he received: he who gave abounds; and you too ask, and receive.

4. 5. The Lord bitterly and sharply reproved the Jews, but by loving: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites (Matt 23:13). When he said these things, who would not say that he hated them? He came to the cross, and said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). So too Stephen in his sermon first reproved: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears. These are the words of holy Stephen, when he addressed the Jews: Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears; you have always resisted the Holy Spirit, as your fathers also did. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? (Acts 7:51-52) By saying these things, he seems to hate, seems to rage. The tongue cries out, the heart loves. We have heard the crying tongue, let us prove the loving mind. For when they had run to the stones, hard men to a hard man, they hurled at him their own equals. He was stoned with stones, who was dying for the Rock; as the Apostle says: But the Rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). And though there was such constancy in teaching, see what patience there was in death. For these were shaking his body with the blows of stones, and he was praying for his enemies: the outer man was being battered, and the inner was supplicating. But the Lord who had girded him, who had tested him, who had set his mark upon him, not on the hand, but on the forehead, watched his soldier from above, about to help the one contending, to crown the one conquering. Finally he showed himself to him. For behold, he says, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). He alone saw, because he appeared to him alone. And what does he say for himself? Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). For himself praying he stood, for them he bends the knee: for himself erect, for them bowed; for himself lofty, for them humble: he bent the knee, and said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). And having said this, he fell asleep. O sleep of peace! He who slept among the stones of his enemies, how will he wake in his own ashes? He slept secure, quiet in peace; because he commended his spirit to the Lord.

5. 5. So Stephen loved his enemies. For he who, praying for himself, stood, for them bent the knee. Surely he fulfilled what is written. He was a true imitator of the Lord's passion and an approved perfect disciple of Christ, who fulfilled in his own passion what he had heard from the master. For the Lord, when he hung on the cross, said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34); and blessed Stephen, when he was already nearly overwhelmed by stones, said thus: Lord Jesus, do not lay this sin to their charge (Acts 7:60). O apostolic man, now from disciple a master. For it behooved the first martyr to follow the teaching of Christ the Master. He prays for the impious, prays for the blasphemers, for those stoning him. Because, then, it was difficult to be heard for such men, weakness drew near, that love might be strengthened. He bent the knees, he wrung it out. Do you think he was not heard, when he said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge? He was heard. For many of them believed. But I do not send you far off. That Saul, who stoned with the hands of all, who kept the garments of those stoning, Stephen was heard for him. Afterward he was raging; having received writings against the Christians he went on raging; he thirsted for blood, panted for slaughter. And the Lord, who had heard Stephen for him: Saul, Saul, he says, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) He whom you killed prayed for you. And I choose you, that you may confess me and die for me.

6. 5. So let us celebrate the birthday of holy Stephen and honor it with due veneration. We have celebrated the birthday of the Lord; let us celebrate that of the servant too. We have kept the nativity of the Savior; let us keep the birthday of the martyr too. The uncorrupted virgin Mary bore our Lord, and holy mother Church brought forth the glorious Stephen to the palm of martyrdom.

Sermon 318
On Stephen the Martyr

1. Your Holiness awaits to know what has been placed today in this place. They are the relics of the first and most blessed martyr Stephen. You heard, when the reading of his passion was read from the canonical book of the Acts of the Apostles, how he was stoned by the Jews, how he commended his spirit to the Lord, how also at the last, his knees bent, he prayed for those stoning him. His body from that time until these times lay hidden; but recently it appeared, as the bodies of the holy martyrs are wont to appear, by the revelation of God, when it pleased the Creator. So some years ago, when we were young men set at Milan, the bodies of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius appeared. You know that Gervasius and Protasius suffered long after the most blessed Stephen. Why then theirs first, and his afterward? Let no one dispute: the will of God seeks faith, not a question. But the truth was revealed to him who showed the things found themselves. For by preceding signs the place was shown; and as it had been revealed, so too it was found. Many received relics from there, because God willed it, and they came here. So both the place and the day are commended to Your Charity: each to be celebrated in honor of God, whom Stephen confessed. For we in this place have not made an altar to Stephen, but from the relics of Stephen an altar to God. Such altars are pleasing to God. Do you ask why? Because precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). They were redeemed by the blood, who shed their blood for the Redeemer. He shed it, that their salvation might be redeemed: they shed it, that his Gospel might be spread abroad. They returned the favor, but not from their own: for that they might be able to do this, he gave it; and that there might come to be what could be done by them, he gave it. By showing favor, he gave the occasion. It came to pass, they suffered, they trampled the world.

2. It was a small thing for them to despise the delights of the world; they conquered punishments, threats, torments. For to despise what delights, for the confession of God, is very great: but it is less to despise what delights, than to conquer what troubles. Suppose it said to someone, Deny Christ, and I give you what you do not have: he despised what delights, and did not deny. But that persecutor added: You do not want to receive what you do not have? I take away what you have. Gain does not taste so sweet as loss grieves: because it is easier not to eat than to vomit. He did not acquire, he did not eat: what he had acquired he lost, what he had eaten he vomited. In not eating the gullet is cheated, in vomiting the stomach is overturned. So he is stronger in the confession of Christ who did not fear losses, than he who despised gains. But what kind of losses? The loss of money, the loss of patrimony, the loss of all the things he had. But the enemy had not yet drawn near. The things perished, which lay outside. If they were not loved while they were had, they did not sadden when they were lost. And to say it briefly, when they are lost, they leave as much grief as, when they were had, they could be loved. But for the persecutor of those times, when the saints were being killed, it was too little to say: I take away what you have. I torture, he says, I bind, I kill. He who did not fear this, conquered the world. They carried the contest for the truth to the highest, who contended even to these things. This is what he says in the Epistle to the Hebrews: For you have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin (Heb 12:4). They are the perfect, who contended against sin to the point of blood. What is "against sin"? Against a great sin: against the denial of Christ. You know how Susanna contended against sin to the point of blood. But lest women alone have consolation from this, and men seek something of their own number, such as appeared in Susanna: you know how Joseph contended against sin to the point of blood. The case is similar. And she had as her false witnesses those very men, to whom she refused to consent, lest she sin; and he had that very woman, to whom he refused to consent. To both, those to whose sin there was no consent, bore false witness; and those who heard believed: but they did not conquer God. She is freed, he too is freed. What, if they had died too, would they not be more freed, when secure they would be crowned? Why did I say, secure they would be crowned? Because no trial would remain. For although Susanna was freed, she was still to be tried; and Joseph himself, freed, was still to be tried. From where, to be tried? because human life on earth is a trial (Job 7:1). To death the whole is trial: after death only blessedness; but of the saints, whose death is precious in the sight of God. So both she against sin, that is, against adultery, and he against such a sin, contended to the point of blood. It is a greater sin to deny Christ, than to commit adultery. Adultery is of the flesh, to lie down unlawfully: adultery of the heart is to deny the truth. In faith, in mind, there ought chastity to be. There first our parent Eve was corrupted. Do you want to know in that corruption the greatness of the iniquity? Attend in us, who were born of it, the greatness of the calamity. As witness of this my word I will cite holy Scripture: From a woman, it says, was the beginning of sin made, and because of her we all die (Sir 25:24 (25:33 Vulgate)). What she received as punishment, this the martyrs despise for victory. God threatened them with death, lest they sin: the enemy threatened the martyrs with death, that they might sin. They sinned, that they might die: the martyrs died, lest they sin. From where punishment was inflicted on them, from there glory was raised up for these.

3. So they contended, and conquered. The earlier ones conquered: but they did not cut off the bridge by which they crossed, and forbid our approach. It lies open to whoever pleases: nor is such a persecution as they suffered to be wished for; but the trial of human life is daily. Sometimes a faithful man falls sick, and there the tempter is. There is promised him, for his health, an unlawful sacrifice, a harmful and sacrilegious amulet, a wicked incantation, a magical consecration is promised, and it is said to him: This man and that were in worse danger than you, and so escaped; do it, if you want to live; you will die, if you do not do it. See whether it is not, You will die, if you do not deny Christ. What the persecutor said openly to the martyr, this the hidden tempter says to you sidelong. Make for yourself this remedy, and you will live: is this not, Sacrifice, and you will live? If you do not do it, you will die: is this not, If you do not sacrifice, you will die? You have found an equal fight, seek an equal palm. You are in bed, and you are in the stadium; you lie, and you wrestle. Remain in the faith; and while you are wearied, you conquer. So you have, dearly beloved, no small consolation, a place of prayers. Let the martyr Stephen be honored here: but in his honor let the crowner of Stephen be adored.

Sermon 319
On Stephen the Martyr

1. 1. May the Lord grant me to say a few things healthfully, who granted to holy Stephen to say so many things bravely. He began so to speak to his persecutors, as though he feared them: Men, brothers and fathers, hear (Acts 7:2). What more gentle? what more clement? He won over the hearer, that he might commend the Savior. He began softly, that he might be heard for a while. And because he had been accused of this, that he had spoken words against God and the Law, he expounded that very Law to them, that he might be the preacher of that Law, of which he was accused of being the destroyer. This we both heard and you heard: many words of ours are not necessary, because you have heard many. This only I exhort, for the building up of Your Charity, that you may know that holy Stephen sought the honor of Christ, that you may know that the holy Martyr was the witness of Christ, that you may know that he did then so great miracles in the name of Christ. For this you healthfully know, that holy Stephen did miracles in the name of Christ, but that the Lord Christ did no miracle in the name of Stephen: that you may distinguish the servant from the Lord, the worshiper from God, the adorer from the one to be adored. For when you distinguish, then he loves you. For he did not shed his blood for himself, but shed it for Christ.

2. 2. See to whom he commended his soul. Behold, he says, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). He saw Christ, confessing Christ, about to die for Christ, about to go on to Christ; and at the last, when the blows of stones grew thick, and hard wounds were hurled from hard hearts, he saw himself near, not to destruction, but to his departure; he saw his soul now about to depart, and commended it. To whom? To him whom he saw, to him whom he worshiped, to him whom he served, to him whose name he preached, to him for whose Gospel he laid down his soul, to him he commended his very soul. Lord, he says, Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). You have made me a victor, receive me into the triumph. Receive my spirit. They persecute, do you receive: they cast out, do you take in. Say to my spirit: Enter into the joy of your Lord (Matt 25:21). For this is: Receive my spirit.

2. 3. But his spirit, into what did Jesus receive it? into what dwelling? into what heaven of heaven? Who comprehends it? who can unfold it.

3. 3. Do you want to hear it in brief? Hear Christ himself: Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me (John 17:24). To be where Christ is, what thought can comprehend it? whose speech suffices to unfold this? Let it be commended to faith, let it not be awaited from the tongue. You heard, when the Gospel was read: Where I am, there will my minister be also (John 12:26). Read the Greek manuscript, and you will find "deacon." For what the Latin rendered "minister," the Greek has "deacon"; because truly "deacon" in Greek is "minister" in Latin: just as "martyr" in Greek is "witness" in Latin; "apostle" in Greek, "one sent" in Latin. But we are now accustomed to use the Greek names for the Latin. For many manuscripts of the Gospels have it thus: Where I am, there will my deacon be also. Think this said, because this is said: Where I am, there will my deacon be also. So rightly his deacon: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). You promised that the Gospel would be read, I preached the Gospel: Where I am, there will my deacon be also. I stood forth to you as your deacon, I ministered to you my blood, I laid down for you my soul; render to me your promise.

4. 4. And for the Jews, for those stoning him, for the bloody hearts, for the cruel souls, how did he pray? He bent the knee. So great the humility of Stephen, so great the guilt of that people. For himself, standing, he asked; for them he bent the knee. Did he prefer them to himself? Far be it: it is not to be believed. He loved his enemies: but of the neighbor it was said: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39). Why then did he bend the knee? Because he knew that he was praying for the wicked; and the more malignant they were, the more difficult it was for him to be heard. The Lord hanging on the cross: Father, he says, forgive them (Luke 23:34): Stephen under the stones, with knee bent: Lord, do not lay this offense to their charge (Acts 7:60). He followed the footsteps of his pastor, like a good sheep: a good lamb followed the Lamb, whose blood took away the sin of the world. He fulfilled what the apostle Peter says: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we may follow his footsteps (1 Pet 2:21).

5. 5. See the man following the footsteps of his Lord. Christ on the cross: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46): Stephen under the stones: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). Christ on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34): Stephen under the stones: Lord Jesus, do not lay this offense to their charge (Acts 7:60). How could this man not be there where was the one he followed, where was the one he imitated?

6. 6. He triumphed, he was crowned. His body lay hidden for so long a time, it came forth when God willed, it illumined the lands, it did so great miracles, dead it makes the living dead, because he is not even dead. So this I commend to Your Charity, that you may know that his prayers obtain many things, yet not all things. For we find even in the booklets that are presented, that he had difficulties in obtaining things, and yet afterward received the benefit, the faith of the suppliant not failing. There was no ceasing, there was praying, and afterward God gave it through Stephen. There are words of Stephen praying, and it was answered him: She for whom you pray is not worthy, she did this and that. And yet he insisted, asked, received.

7. 6. He gave us to understand, that in whose name he did these things before he laid down his flesh, in his name his prayers do them, that benefits may be obtained for those to whom he knows they ought to be given.

7. 7. But he prays as a servant. A certain angel was being worshiped along with John. The angels are such before God, that if we are good, and have perfectly merited him, we will be made equal to the angels: They will be, he said, equal to the angels of God (Luke 20:36). The angel was showing many miracles to holy John the Evangelist; troubled by the miracles, he adored him. The man adored the angel; and the angel to the man: Rise, what are you doing? Adore him: for I am the fellow servant of you and of your brothers (See Rev 22:8-9).

8. 7. If so great humility appeared in an angel, how great do you think it ought to be in a martyr, as it is? Let us not, then, believe Stephen to be proud, when we think that he does what he does by his own power. Through the fellow servant let us receive benefits, to the Lord let us give honor and glory. What more shall I say to you, and speak at length? Read the four verses which we have written in the chamber, read them, hold them, have them in heart. For we wished to write them there for this reason, that whoever wishes may read them, may read them when he wishes. That all may hold them, therefore they are few: that all may read them, therefore they are written publicly. There is no need to seek a manuscript: let that vault be your manuscript. We have indeed come forth somewhat earlier than usual: but because a long reading was recited, and the heat is heavy, let us defer to the Lord's day the booklet of God's benefits through him, which we were to read today.

Sermon 319/A
On Stephen the Martyr

1. Surely our care is your building up, and our joy is your salvation: salvation both temporal and everlasting. For we have the promise, as the Apostle said, of the present life and of that to come (1 Tim 4:8). But present salvation God gives both to men and to beasts, God gives it both to the good and to the bad; this temporal salvation the martyrs despised for the sake of eternal salvation. You rejoice without doubt over ours; and we in Christ rejoice over your salvation. But strive that on that day too we may rejoice with you; because what the Apostle said for his dispensation, so great and ample that we scarcely follow its traces, this is what he was saying to those whom he was building up, when he said: You are my joy and my crown (Phil 4:1). Whoever, then, profit in Christ from our labors, are our joy and crown: because it is ours to dispense faithfully, not our own money, but the Lord's; it is yours to receive it with great care and anxiety. For I can be a giver, not an exactor; and a giver, not as of my own property, but of God's; whence I too live: because we all belong to one great house, we all have one householder. He has a large storeroom, from which both we and you can live. Only let us ask him to wipe away loathing; let him first give hunger, and so reach out the bread. From where I live, from there I speak; from where I am fed, this I minister. For with you I am poor; the riches are common, our Lord. The life of us all is happy and eternal. So: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31).

Sermon 320
On Stephen the Martyr, Delivered on the Day of Easter Itself

We are accustomed to hear booklets concerning the miracles of God through the prayers of the most blessed martyr Stephen. The booklet of this man is his appearance; in place of writing his story is given to be known, in place of paper his face is shown. You who know what, in sorrow, you were accustomed to see in him, read now in gladness what you see: that the Lord our God may be more abundantly honored, and that what is written in the booklet may be written into your memory. Pardon me, that I do not render a long sermon: for you know my weariness. That yesterday, fasting, I could do so much and not fail, and that today too I may speak with you, the prayers of holy Stephen have granted. Turned to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 321
The Monday of Easter Week

We said indeed yesterday, as Your Charity remembers: The booklet of this man is his appearance. Yet because he has made known to us some things which you ought to know, for the greater admiration and glory of our Lord, concerning the memorials of his saints, of whom it was said: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)); it is fitting also to give a booklet, which has all the things we have learned from his mouth. But if the Lord wills, today it will be prepared, and recited to you tomorrow.

Sermon 322
The Tuesday of Easter Week

1. Yesterday we promised Your Charity a booklet, where you may also hear, concerning that man healed, the things you could not see. If, then, it please Your Charity—indeed, because what pleases me also ought to please you—let both brothers stand in your sight: that those who had not seen him may see in this man what that man was suffering. Let both, then, stand, the one to whom grace has been given, and the other for whom mercy is to be sought.

2. I ask, most blessed lord papa Augustine, that you order this my booklet, which by your command I have presented, to be recited to the holy people.
While we were still dwelling in our homeland, Caesarea of Cappadocia, our brother, the elder by birth, afflicted our common mother with grave and intolerable injuries, to such a degree that he did not hesitate even to lay hands on her. This all of us sons, gathered together alike, bore patiently, so that we did not say even a word to our brother on behalf of our mother, asking why he did this. But she, stirred by the goads of a woman's grief, resolved to punish her injurious son by cursing him. And when, after cockcrow, she hastened to the font of holy Baptism to call down the anger of God upon her said son, then some demon, I know not who, in the likeness of our uncle, as is understood, met her, and asked her first where she was going. She answered him that she was going to curse her son for his intolerable insult. Then that enemy, since he could easily find a place in the heart of the raging woman, persuaded her to curse them all. And she, inflamed by his viperous counsels, prostrated herself at the holy font and seized it, and with hair disheveled and breasts bared she asked this above all from God, that, banished from our homeland and wandering through foreign lands, we should terrify the whole human race by our example. Soon an effective vengeance followed the mother's prayers, and at once that brother of ours, the greater in age and in fault, was seized by such a trembling of the limbs as Your Holiness saw in me until three days ago. And, the order being kept in which we had been born, within one year the same punishment seized us all. But the mother, seeing her curses come to such efficacy, could no longer bear the awareness of her impiety and the reproach of men: but binding her throat with a noose, she ended her grievous life with a more dismal end. So we all, not bearing our reproach, and leaving our common homeland, were scattered abroad in different directions. But of us all, ten brothers, the one who follows me first in the order of birth merited healing at the memorial of the glorious martyr Lawrence, which was recently placed at Ravenna, as we have heard. But I, who am sixth of them in the order of birth, together with this sister of mine, who follows me in age, wherever among the nations, wherever in the lands I had learned there were holy places in which God worked miracles, took the road with great love of the longed-for healing. But to be silent about the other most celebrated places of the saints, I came also to Ancona, a city of Italy, where the Lord works many miracles through the most glorious martyr Stephen, by the same circuit. But I could not be healed elsewhere, because by divine predestination I was kept for this place. Nor did I pass over Uzalis, a city of Africa, where the blessed martyr Stephen is proclaimed often to work great things. Nevertheless, three months ago, that is, on the day of the Kalends of January, both I and my sister, who is here with me, still held by the same affliction, were admonished by an evident vision. For someone of clear aspect, and venerable with white hair, said to me that within the third month the longed-for healing would be at hand for me. But to my sister Your Holiness appeared in a vision, in that form in which we see you present: by which it was signified to us that we ought to come to this place. For I too afterward often saw Your Beatitude through other cities on the journey by which we were coming, exactly such as I now behold. Admonished, then, by evident divine authority, we came to this city about fifteen days ago. Of my affliction either your eyes are witnesses, or my wretched sister, who, for the instruction of all, offers an example of our common evil: that those who see in her what I was like, may recognize in me how much the Lord has worked through his Holy Spirit. I prayed daily with great tears in the place where the memorial of the most glorious martyr Stephen is. But on the Lord's day of Easter, as others who were present saw, while praying with great weeping I held the railing, suddenly I fell. Estranged from my senses, where I was I do not know. After a little I rose up, and did not find that trembling in my body. So, not ungrateful for so great a benefit of God, I have presented this booklet; in which I have set forth both what you did not know of our calamities, and what you have learned of my soundness and salvation: that you may both deign to pray for my sister, and give thanks to God for me.

Sermon 323
Delivered After the Booklet on Saint Stephen

1. 1. By the mercy of God, brothers, as is to be believed, all those brothers, whom one anger of God, the maternal blow, struck, will someday come to the health of this man over whom we rejoice. Nevertheless let children learn to obey, let parents fear to grow angry. It is written: The blessing of the father strengthens the houses of the children: the curse of the mother uproots the foundations (Sir 3:9). Now these men are not in the foundations of their homeland throughout the lands: they offer a spectacle everywhere, they set forth their punishment; they offer their misery to the eyes, they terrify the pride of others. Learn, children, what Scripture says, to render the honor due to parents. But you too, parents, when you are offended, remember that you are parents. The mother prayed against her children, she was heard; because God is truly just, because she had truly suffered an injury. One of them had both laid on insulting words and laid on hands; and the rest bore their mother's injury patiently, nor answered one word against their brother on her behalf. Just is God, who heard her praying, heard her grieving. But what of that wretched woman? Was she not, from where she was the sooner heard, thereby the more punished? Learn to ask this of God, where you need not fear to be heard.

2. 2. But let us, brothers, strive to give thanks to the Lord our God for the one who has been healed; and for her who is still held, let us pour out prayers. Let us bless God, because he held us worthy to see this. For what are we, that I appeared to these men without knowing it? For they saw me, and I did not know it: and they were admonished to come to this city. Who am I? I am one man of many, not of the great. And truly, that Your Charity may hear, I marvel much, and rejoice that it was granted to us: since this man could not be healed even at Ancona; indeed he could, but for our sake it was not done, because it could most easily have been done. For many know how many miracles are done through the most blessed martyr Stephen in that city. And hear what you may marvel at: his memorial was there of old, and it is there. But perhaps you say: His body had not yet appeared, from where was the memorial there? The cause indeed lies hidden: but what report has brought to us, I will not keep silent to Your Charity. When holy Stephen was being stoned, some even innocent men, and especially of those who had already believed in Christ, were standing around: it is said that a stone came against the elbow, and, struck off from there, came before a certain religious man. He took it, and kept it. He was a man of the seafarers, the lot of his voyage brought him to the shore of Ancona, and it was revealed to him that that stone ought to be laid there. He obeyed the revelation, and did what was commanded: from that the memorial of holy Stephen began to be there, and there was a rumor that the arm of holy Stephen was there, men not knowing what had happened. But it is rightly understood that it was therefore revealed there, that he should lay there the stone which was struck off from the elbow of the Martyr, because in Greek "elbow" is called %aigkwvn%. But let those who know what miracles are done there teach us. Those miracles did not begin to be done there, except after the body of holy Stephen appeared. Behold, there this young man was not healed, that he might be kept for our eyes.

2. 3. At Uzalis, where my brother Evodius is bishop, ask how many miracles are done there, and you will find out. But, passing over the others, I make known to you one which was done there, that you may see how great is the presence of majesty there.

3. 3. A certain woman suddenly lost in her lap her sick son, a catechumen, whom by hastening she could not help: who, crying out, said, My son the catechumen is dead.

3. 4. And while Augustine was saying these things, the people from the memorial of holy Stephen began to cry out, Thanks be to God! Praise to Christ! In which continuous shouting, the girl who was healed was led to the apse. When she was seen, the people, with joy and weeping, with no words interposed, but only with an interposed clamor, prolonged the shouting for some time: and when silence was made, Augustine the bishop said: "It is written in the Psalm: I said, I will declare against myself my offense to the Lord my God, and you forgave the impiety of my heart (Ps 32:5 (31:5)). I said, I will declare: I had not yet declared: I said, I will declare, and you forgave. I commended this wretched woman—rather, this woman once wretched—I commended her to your prayers. We resolved to pray, and we were heard. Let our joy be thanksgiving. Mother Church was the sooner heard, than was, to her ruin, that cursing mother." Turned to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 324
In Which Augustine Completes the Part of the Sermon Just Preceding, Interrupted by the Miracle

1. The sermon of yesterday, which was interrupted by a greater joy, ought to be completed by us. For I had set out, and had begun to speak to Your Charity, why these brothers seem to me to have been directed by divine authority to this city, that here in them the long-desired and long-awaited healing might be fulfilled. And wanting to say this, I had first begun to commend to Your Charity the holy places in which they were not healed, and from which they were directed to us. And I spoke of Ancona, a city of Italy: I had begun to speak of Uzalis, a city which is in Africa (it has as bishop my brother, whom you know, Evodius); because the fame of the same martyr and of his works had driven them to come to that city too. There was not given what could have been given, that here it might be given where it ought to have been given. But when I wished briefly to recall the divine works through the holy Martyr, the others being omitted, I had set out to tell one: which, as I tell it, the health of that girl restored, a sudden tumult of gladness arose, and compelled us to end the sermon otherwise. So we know that such a miracle was done there among many others, which surely cannot all be recalled. A certain woman lost in her lap a sick catechumen son, an infant at the breast. When she had seen him lost and irreparably perished, she began to weep for him more faithfully than as a mother. For she did not desire her son's life except in the world to come, and she lamented that this had been taken from her and had perished. Filled with the affection of confidence, she took him dead, and ran to the memorial of the blessed martyr Stephen, and began to demand her son from him, and to say: Holy martyr, you see no consolation has remained to me. For I cannot say that my son has gone before me, whom you know has perished: for you see why I lament. Give back my son, that I may have him before the sight of your crowner. When she prayed these and such things, with tears in a way not asking, but, as I said, demanding, her son came back to life. And because she had said, You know why I seek him: God too wanted to show her true mind. At once she took him to the presbyters, he was baptized, he was sanctified, he was anointed, hands were laid on him, all the sacraments completed, he was taken up. But she led him away with such a countenance, as though she were leading him not to the rest of the tomb, but to the bosom of the martyr Stephen. The faithful heart of the woman was proved. Where, then, God did such a miracle through his Martyr, could he not heal these men there? And yet they were directed here to us. Turned to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 325
On the Feast of the Twenty Martyrs

1. On the solemn day of the holy Martyrs the sermon owed is to be rendered. As we are about to speak of the glory of the martyrs, briefly to speak of the just cause of the martyrs, let the prayers of the martyrs help us. For this Your Holiness ought to recall through these solemnities, first, lest we think that we confer anything on the martyrs, because we celebrate their most solemn days. They do not need our festivals, because in heaven they rejoice with the angels: but they rejoice with us, not if we honor them, but if we imitate them. Although even that we honor them profits us, not them. But to honor and not to imitate is nothing other than to flatter mendaciously. For this, then, these festivals are established in the Church of Christ, that through them the congregation of the members of Christ may be admonished to imitate the martyrs of Christ. This is altogether the usefulness of this festival, there is no other. For if God is set before us to be imitated, human frailty answers, that it is too much for it to imitate him to whom it cannot be compared. If next the example of our Lord Jesus Christ himself is set before us for imitation, who for this reason, though he was God, was clothed with mortal flesh, that he might impart a precept to men bearing mortal flesh, and show an example; of whom too it is written: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we may follow his footsteps (1 Pet 2:21): yet here too human frailty still answers, What likeness have I and Christ? He, though flesh, yet Word made flesh. For the Word became flesh, that it might dwell among us (John 1:14): he took up flesh, he did not lose the Word; he received what he was not, he did not lose what he was. For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19). What likeness, then, have I and Christ? To take away, then, all the excuses of unbelieving weakness, the martyrs built us a paved road. For it had to be built with stone slabs, on which we might walk securely. They made it by their blood, by their confessions. Finally, despising their bodies, to Christ coming to win the nations, sitting as it were on that beast of burden, they spread their bodies like garments. Who is there who is ashamed to say, I am unequal to God? Plainly unequal. Am I unequal to Christ? Even to the mortal Christ I am unequal. Peter was what you are, Paul was what you are, the Apostles and Prophets were what you are. If you are loath to imitate the Lord, imitate the fellow servant. The throng of servants has gone before, the excuse of the lazy is taken away. Lastly he still says: I am unequal to Peter, unequal to Paul. Are you unequal to the truth? Rusticity is crowned, vanity is not excused. Lastly, are you unequal to boys? are you unequal to girls? are you unequal to holy Valeriana? If you are still loath to follow, do you not want to cling to Victoria? For so the series of the holy twenty Martyrs was recited to us. It began with the bishop Fidentius, and closed with the faithful woman holy Victoria. The beginning from faith, the end at victory.

2. See, then, brothers: so celebrate the passions of the martyrs, that you think of imitating the martyrs. They, that they might have a fruitful punishment, chose the cause. For they attended to the Lord saying, not Blessed are those who suffer persecution; but: Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness (Matt 5:10). Choose the cause, and do not care about the punishment. But if you do not choose the cause, both here and in the future you will find punishment. Let not the punishments and penalties of evildoers, of the sacrilegious, of the enemies of peace, and of the enemies of truth move you. For they do not die for the truth: but they die for this, that the truth may not be announced, that the truth may not be preached, that the truth may not be held, that unity may not be loved, that love may not be cherished, that eternity may not be held. O worst cause! therefore a fruitless punishment. Do you not attend, you who boast of your punishment, that there were three crosses, when the Lord suffered? Between two thieves the Lord suffered: the punishment did not distinguish, but the cause distinguished. So the voice of the martyrs is in that Psalm: Judge me, O God (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). He does not fear the judgment: for he has nothing that the fire may consume in him; where all is gold, why is the flame dreaded? Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). Surely he did not say: Distinguish my punishment? It would be said to him, The thief suffered punishment. Surely he did not say: Distinguish my cross? There the adulterer too was shut up. Surely he did not say: Distinguish my chain? There thieves too are bound. Surely he did not say: Distinguish my wound? By the sword the wicked too were slain. Since, then, he saw all things common to good and bad in their sufferings, he cried out, and said: Judge me, O Lord, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy. If you distinguish my cause, you crown my patience. Let these things suffice for Your Charity, by way of exhortation, in this holy place; since the days are short, and there still remain for us in the greater basilica things to do with Your Charity.

Sermon 326
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. The solemnity of the most blessed Martyrs has made this a more joyful day for us. We rejoice, because the Martyrs passed from the land of labor to the region of rest: but this they merited not by dancing, but by praying; not by drinking, but by fasting; not by brawling, but by enduring. Their parents were saddened, I believe, when they went off to their passion: but they rejoiced and said: I rejoiced in the things that were said to me, We will go into the house of the Lord (Ps 122:1 (121:1)). Do not, parents, do not weep over our joys. If you do not want those whom you reared to go into Gehenna; you ought to imitate, not hinder. They knew where they were going, and the unbelieving parents wept without cause. But then, loving their fleshly children, they mourned: afterward, believing in God, they said: You have turned my mourning into joy for me, you have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness (Ps 30:11 (29:12)). Would, brothers, that the sackcloth of penitence be torn in us, and the price of pardon be poured out. The Martyrs laid down here all the burdens of the gains of this world, they left them here, and the road which leads to life, unburdened like good soldiers, they ran; as it is written: As having nothing, and possessing all things (2 Cor 6:10). And truly on earth they had nothing, but in heaven they possessed perpetual happiness. To heaven they devoutly hastened, and ran the way of life securely; and still set far off, they stretched out their hands to the palm. Run, saints; so run that you may lay hold. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who do violence seize it (Matt 11:12). It is not narrow: whoever wants to be happy, let him hasten to the kingdom of heaven. To no one is it closed, except to him who has shut himself out. Christ is ready to receive his confessors. He himself says from above: I watch you, the contending I will help, the conquering I will crown.

2. Holding this promise, the Martyrs counted the terrors and threats of the persecutor as nothing. For when the persecutor said: "Sacrifice to the idols," they answered: "We do not do it, because we have an eternal God in heaven, to whom we always sacrifice; for we do not offer sacrifice to demons." And the judge: "Why then do you act against the sacred decree?" They answered: "Because the heavenly Master says to us in the Gospel: Whoever leaves father and mother, and wife, and children, and all that he possesses, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will possess eternal life (See Matt 19:29)." And the judge: "So you will not obey the commands of the Emperors?" And they answered: "We will not." And he: "What authority then can you have, when you see that you are subject to punishment?" And the Martyrs said: "We bear the authority of the eternal King, therefore we do not care for the authority of mortal man." Then, sent into prisons, they were loaded with chains. How much it was said by the impious: Where is their God? (Ps 42:3 (41:4)) Let their God come, in whom they believed, and free them from the prisons, snatch them from the sword, snatch them from the beasts. All these things they were saying, but those set upon the rock they did not throw down. They raged, but those did not fear. They knew where they were leaving them, and where they were hastening. The Martyrs the confessors are crowned, and the judges the deserters remained. So God wants to test each Christian, that, tested, he may want to crown him with the Martyrs.

Sermon 327
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. We have sung to God with the voice of the martyrs: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). It is the voice of the martyrs. Who would dare to say: Judge me, O God, except one who has the best cause? The soul is tempted by promises and threats, it is soothed by enticements, it is tortured by pains: all were conquered for Christ by the unconquered martyrs. The promising world was conquered, the raging world was conquered. Pleasure did not hold them, torment did not terrify them. Gold purged in the furnace does not fear the fire of Gehenna. So, as if purged by the fire of tribulation, the most blessed martyr securely says: Judge me, O God. Whatever good you find in me, judge. You gave me what may please you; find it in me, and judge me. The sweetness of the world did not hold me, the tribulation of the world does not twist me away from you. Judge me, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy. Many suffer tribulations; they have an equal punishment, but they do not have an equal cause. Adulterers suffer many evils, evildoers suffer many evils, robbers and murderers suffer many evils, all the wicked suffer many evils, many evils, he says, I too your martyr suffer: but distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy, of robbers, of murderers, of all the wicked. They can suffer such things as I: they cannot have such a cause. I am purged in the furnace; they turn to ash. Heretics too suffer, and more from themselves; and they want to be called martyrs. But against them we have sung: Distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy. It is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause.

2. In the passion of the Lord there were three crosses; one punishment, but an unequal cause. At the right one thief, at the left the other thief: in the middle the judge, hanging on the cross between both, as though pronouncing from the tribunal, heard one saying: Free yourself, if you are righteous; heard the other reproving his fellow and saying: Do you not fear God? We suffer these things for our evils; but this man is righteous (See Luke 23:39-41). He had a bad cause, and he distinguished the cause of the martyrs. For what else is: We suffer these things for our evils; but this man is righteous? Who would distinguish the cause of the martyrs from the cause of the impious suffering punishment? This man, he says, is acknowledged righteous; we suffer for ourselves, we suffer for our evils. Lord: see what he says to the companion of his punishment. Christ was hanging equally; but he was not equally cheapened. The Lord was acknowledged by the hanging man. There was one fellowship of the cross; there was not one reward. What do I say? Do you give Christ a reward, who is the giver of rewards? Lord, he says, remember me, when you come into your kingdom (Luke 23:42). He saw him hanging, saw him crucified; and he hoped he would reign. Remember me, he says, not now, but when you come into your kingdom. I have done many evils, he says, I do not hope for quick rest for myself: let my torments suffice until your coming. Now let me be tortured; when you come, then spare me. He deferred himself; but Christ offered paradise to one not asking for it. Remember me: but when? When you come into your kingdom. And the Lord: Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). My disciples have forsaken me, my disciples have despaired of me; and you on the cross knew me, you did not despise me dying, you hoped I would reign: Today you will be with me in paradise. I do not withdraw from you. The cause was distinguished; was the punishment? So it is a good voice: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy. Let all of us who live in this world labor to have a good cause: that if anything befalls us in this world, we may go out from here with a good cause.

Sermon 328
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. 1. In the Psalm we said to the Lord our God: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). Precious is the death of the holy martyrs; because their price is the blood of their Lord. For he suffered by his own passion, because they were to suffer after him. He himself went before, and many followed. For the way was very rough; but he made it smooth, when he himself passed before all. Therefore the rest did not fear to pass, because he passed first. For he died, and terrified his disciples. He rose again, and took away their fear, and gave them love. For when Christ died, the disciples trembled, and thought that he had perished. When they followed, there see the grace of God. Then the thief believed, when the disciples trembled. For there was one thief on the cross with him, and he so believed in him that he said: Lord, keep me in mind, when you come into your kingdom (Luke 23:42). Who taught him, but he who hung beside him? For he was fixed at his side: but he dwelt in his heart.

1. 2. But in this psalm, where we said: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints: there is written also what you heard: I said in my ecstasy, Every man is a liar (Ps 116:11 (115:2)).

2. 2. What do we say, brothers? Every man is a liar. Were the martyrs then liars too? But if the martyrs were truthful; how is it true: Every man is a liar? Scripture says: Every man is a liar. If we say, The martyrs were truthful; we make Scripture a liar. But if Scripture said truly, that every man is a liar; then the martyrs were liars. How then can we show both Scripture truthful and the martyrs truthful? Or perhaps the martyrs were not men? But if they were men, how is it true: Every man is a liar? What then shall we do? Shall we labor to show you that both Scripture is true, and every man is a liar; and the martyrs were truthful, because they died for the truth? For they are martyrs for this reason, because they suffered for the truth. For "martyr" is a Greek word, and in Latin it is called "witness." If, then, they were true witnesses, they spoke true things; and by speaking true things they received crowns. But if they were false witnesses, which far be it, they went not to crowns, but to punishments: because it is written: The false witness will not be unpunished (Prov 19:5). So let us show them truthful. They have already shown themselves so, when they were even willing to die for the truth. How then is Scripture truthful, which says: Every man is a liar? Let us ask our Lord Jesus Christ; and he himself will resolve this question for us. From where does he have to resolve it for us? From the Gospel, of which we were just speaking, when it was being read to you.

3. 3. For you heard, when the Gospel was read, that the Lord Jesus said to the martyrs: When they hand you over, do not think what you may speak, or what you may say, for it will be given you in that hour what you may speak. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you (Matt 10:19-20). Because if you speak, you say a lie: because every man is a liar. So the Lord himself saw that every man is a liar, and gave the martyrs his Spirit; that not they themselves should speak, but his Spirit: that they might not be liars, but might be truthful. Behold why they were truthful; because not they themselves were speaking, but his Spirit. And now what we speak to you, if we speak of our own, we say a lie. But if the things we say to you are of the Spirit of God, therefore they are true. And do you make progress: do not want to speak of your own, if you want to speak true things; that you may not remain men who are liars, but may be truthful sons of God.

4. 4. All heretics too suffer for falsehood, not for the truth: because they lie against Christ himself. All pagans, the impious, whatever they suffer, they suffer for falsehood. Let no one, then, exalt himself and glory in his suffering, but first show the truth of his tongue. You show the punishment, I ask the cause. You say, I have suffered: I say why you suffered. For if we attend to the sufferings alone, robbers too are crowned. Surely that man does not dare to say: I suffered such and such things? Why? Because it is said to him: For your evil deeds; you had a bad punishment, because you first had a bad cause. If glorying is to be from suffering; the devil too can glory. See how much he suffers, whose temples everywhere are overturned, whose idols everywhere are broken, whose priests and possessed everywhere are struck. Surely he cannot say: I too am a martyr, because I suffer so much! So let the man of God first choose for himself the cause, and securely approach the punishment. Because if in a good cause he approaches the punishment, after the punishment he will receive also the crown.

5. 5. So the righteous man will be in everlasting remembrance, and will not fear the evil report (Ps 112:6-7 (111:7)). For there comes the judge of all the living and the dead, as we read in the Gospel. And it is true, since those things which we now see were not, when they were said to be future. That you now see the name of Christ preached among all nations, men turned to one God, idols abandoned, demons abandoned, temples overturned, images broken; all these things were not yet, yet they were being said, and now are seen. In what Letters, then, are these things written which we now see (but they were written then, when they were not seen, but promised as future), in those same Letters we read what has not yet come. For the day of judgment has not yet come, the resurrection of the dead has not yet come, he has not yet come to judge, who had first come to be judged. Judged unjustly, about to judge justly. Deferring his power, when he wishes to show his patience. So he is to come, and as he promised that he would come with his angels, so he will come and appear in brightness to all, even those rising again.

6. 5. For each one is to rise again with his own cause. For such as he now is when he dies, and is received into the prison, such he comes forth to the judge. Now he needs to set his cause in order, shut up he cannot. Those, then, who have good causes are received into rest: but those who have bad causes are received into punishments. But they are to suffer greater punishments, when they have risen again: in comparison with which those are such which evil men who are dead suffer, as are the dreams of men who are tortured in their sleep. For their souls suffer, the flesh does not suffer. But the torment is greater, if one is tortured awake.

7. 5. So when all have risen again, and appeared before the just judge, as he himself foretold, he will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats: he will set the goats at the left, but the sheep at the right. And he will say to those who are at the right: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the origin of the world (Matt 25:34). At this voice those at the right rejoice, the righteous rejoice. But to those who are at the left he is to say: Go into the eternal fire with the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). From this evil report the righteous man will not fear.

7. 6. So, though they have not yet received their fruits, the holy martyrs are now blessed, since their souls are with Christ. But what is prepared for them in the resurrection, who can unfold in words? What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9). If no one can unfold in words the great goods which the good faithful are to receive; not without cause are such rewards prepared for those who contended even to blood for the truth. The world did not entice them, terror did not break them, torments did not conquer them, flatteries did not deceive them. Their very bodies will have great adornments, in which they suffered great torments.

8. 6. But let us, if we love them, imitate them, so that first we choose a good cause, and for the good cause bear with an even mind whatever is troublesome in this world. For many did not choose the cause, and for a bad cause died bad. They lost patience because they did not hold wisdom. For it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause. For if the punishment makes the martyr, then the thief too, when he is killed, is a martyr. Do you want to know that it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause? Attend to those three crosses where the Lord was crucified in the middle of two thieves. The punishment was equal, but the cause separated those whom the punishment joined. One of those thieves, while he hung, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he first said to his fellow—for the other thief, his fellow, insulted the Lord Jesus Christ and said to him: Free yourself, if you are the Son of God—and that other thief: Do you not fear God? he said to his fellow, we suffer these things for our evil deeds, but this man is the holy one of God (See Luke 23:39-41). O confessing, for if he confessed, he was not hanging without cause! Then he said to the Lord Christ himself: Lord, keep me in mind when you come into your kingdom (Luke 23:42). What faith! Whom he saw crucified, he hoped would also reign. The thief did not despise the common punishment in Christ. He saw him dying like himself, and hoped he would reign over himself. Great this thief! He did violence and seized the kingdom of heaven. Where did he learn it? He was robbing in the pass, he was led to the judge, he received the sentence, from the pass to the judge, from the judge to the cross. Where did he learn what he said, except that the master who taught was beside him? For the Lord Christ, the master of all, hung at his side and taught in his breast. Why have I said these things, brothers? Because it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause. There were three crosses. The punishment equal, but the cause unequal. One to be condemned, the other to be saved, in the middle the condemner and the Savior. He punishes one, he frees the other. That cross was a tribunal.

9. 6. So, brothers, let us strive, while we live, to hold the true faith, to be in the true Church of God, to lead a good life, if we love the martyrs, that we may be able to imitate them, who had a good cause. But let no one say: I cannot be a martyr because there is no persecution now. The trials do not cease. The fight is on, and the crown is prepared. When, perhaps? Behold, to recall something—for it is a long matter to relate all the things in which the Christian soul is tried and, with God's favor, conquers and gains a great victory, no one seeing, shut up in the body; it fights in the heart, it is crowned in the heart, but by him who sees in the heart—behold, then, to say something: perhaps one of you falls sick. As human cases go, how many are in danger! And they come to him who lies in bed and say to him, or make for him, amulets or charms, I know not what, and he is tried and it is said to him: "Let this and that be done." All who do these things perish with the devil, because all these things are not the sacraments of angels but the contrivances of demons. Whoever, then, despises these things, and hears at some time: "Unless you do these things you will die," but answers him: "It is better for me to die than to do this," lies in bed and carries on a martyrdom. In bed, weary and worn out by fevers, he cannot move himself, and he wrestles. He does not move his limbs, and with the arms of faith he chokes the lion of whom the apostle Peter says: Do you not know that your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour? (1 Pet 5:8) He described the devil as a roaring lion going about and seeking to take something from the sheepfold or to harm it. He does not cease. Never until the end does he abstain from his plots. If, then, our adversary does not sleep, we fight daily. And we do not see our very adversary, and we conquer. Why do we not see him? Because we feel within and tame the thing by which he wants to conquer us. You do not see your enemy the devil, but you feel your avarice in you. You do not see the devil your enemy, but you feel your lust in you. You do not see the devil your enemy, but you feel your anger. Conquer what you feel within, and those who lie in wait outside are conquered. This, then, is to love the martyrs, this is to celebrate the days of the martyrs with devout godliness, not to gorge oneself with wine but to imitate their faith and patience.

Sermon 329
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. Through the so glorious deeds of the holy martyrs, by which the Church flourishes everywhere, with our very own eyes we prove how true is what we have sung, that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)): when it is precious both in our sight, and in the sight of him for whose name it was done. But the price of these deaths is the death of one. How many deaths did one dying buy, who, if he did not die, the grain of wheat would not be multiplied? You heard his words when he was drawing near to his passion, that is, when he was drawing near to our redemption: Unless a grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it remains alone: but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24). For he transacted a great exchange on the cross; there the purse of our price was loosed: when his side was opened by the lance of the striker, there flowed out the price of the whole world. The faithful were bought, and the martyrs: but the faith of the martyrs was proved; the blood is witness. What was spent on them, they returned, and fulfilled what holy John says: As Christ laid down his soul for us, so we too ought to lay down our souls for the brothers (1 John 3:16). And elsewhere it is said: You have sat at a great table, consider diligently the things set before you, since you ought to prepare such things (Prov 23:1 (LXX)). The table is great, where the delicacies are the very lord of the table. No one feeds his guests from himself: this the Lord Christ does; he himself is the inviter, he himself the food and drink. So the martyrs recognized what they were eating and drinking, that they might render such things.

2. But from where would they render such things, unless he gave from where they might render, who first spent? Hence too the Psalm, where we have sung what is written: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, what does it commend to us? There a man considered how much he received from God; he looked around at how many gifts of the grace of the Almighty who created him, who sought him lost, who gave pardon to him found, who helped him fighting with weak strength, who did not withdraw himself from him in danger, who crowned him conquering, who gave himself as the reward: he considered all these things, and cried out, and said: What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he has rendered to me? (Ps 116:12 (115:12)) He did not want to be ungrateful, he wanted to repay, and what to repay he did not have. He did not say: What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he gave me; but, for all the things he has rendered to me? He did not give, but rendered. If he rendered, we had spent something. Plainly we had spent our evils, he rendered his goods: for he rendered good things for evils, while we had rendered evil things for ourselves. So he asks what to render; he suffers straits, from where to pay the debt he does not find: What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he has rendered to me? And as though he found what he might render: I will take, he says, the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord (Ps 116:13 (115:13)). What is this? Surely he was thinking to repay. Still he seeks to receive: I will take the cup of salvation. What is this cup? The cup of suffering, bitter and healthful: the cup which, unless the physician first drank it, the sick man would fear to touch. This is that cup: we recognize this cup in the mouth of Christ saying: Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me (Matt 26:39). For the sons of Zebedee too, through their mother, sought lofty places, that one of them might sit at the right, the other at the left: to whom he said: Can you drink the cup, which I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) Do you seek the height? Through the valley one comes to the mountain. Do you seek the seat of brightness? First drink the cup of humility. Of that cup the martyrs said: I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Do you not fear, then, lest you fail there? No, he says. Why? Because I will call upon the name of the Lord. How would the martyrs conquer, unless he conquered in the martyrs, who said: Rejoice, for I have conquered the world (John 16:33)? The Emperor of the heavens ruled their mind and tongue, and through them overcame the devil on earth, and crowned the martyrs in heaven. O blessed who so drank that cup! they ended their pains, and received honors. Attend, then, dearly beloved: what you cannot with your eyes, think with your mind and soul, and see that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)).

Sermon 330
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. The solemnity of the blessed Martyrs, and the expectation of Your Holiness, demands a sermon from us. For we understand that we ought to discourse on what is suited to this day. This you want, this we want: may he do it in whose hand are both we and our sermons; may he grant the ability, who bestowed the will. For in this the martyrs blazed: kindled with the love of invisible things, they despised the visible. What did he love in himself, who despised even himself, lest he lose himself? For they were temples of God, and they felt the true God dwelling in them; therefore they did not worship false gods. They had heard, had drunk in thirstily, and had handed over to the inmost marrow of the heart, and in a way had made part of their own flesh, what the Lord said: If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself. Let him deny himself, he says, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matt 16:24). From this I want to say something, and your attention terrifies me, the duty commands.

2. What is it, I ask you: If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me? (Matt 16:24) We understand what is: Let him take up his cross; let him sustain his tribulation: for take up is to bear, to endure. Let him patiently, he says, receive all that he suffers for my sake. And follow me. Where? Where we know that he went after the resurrection. For he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. There he has set us too. Meanwhile let hope go before, that the reality may follow. How hope ought to go before, those know who hear, Lift up your heart. But it remains to seek, as much as the Lord helps, and to examine, and, with him opening, to enter, and, with him granting, to find, and to bring forth to you what we have been able to find: what it is that he says: Let him deny himself. How does he deny himself who loves himself? So indeed reason has it, but human reason: a man says to me, How does he deny himself who loves himself? But God says to a man, Let him deny himself, if he loves himself. For by loving himself, he loses himself: by denying himself, he finds himself. He who loves his soul, he says, will lose it (John 12:25). He commanded who knows what he commands, because he knows how to counsel who knows how to instruct, and he knows how to restore who deigned to create. He who loves, let him lose. It is a sad thing to lose what you love. But sometimes even the farmer loses what he sows. He brings it out, scatters it, casts it away, buries it. Why do you marvel? This despiser and loser is a greedy reaper. What was done, winter and summer proved; the joy of the reaper showed you the counsel of the sower. So he who loves his soul will lose it. Let him who seeks fruit in it sow it. This, then, is, let him deny himself, lest by perversely loving it he lose himself.

3. For there is no one who does not love himself; but the right love is to be sought, the perverse to be guarded against. For whoever, having forsaken God, loves himself, and has forsaken God by loving himself, remains not even in himself, but goes out even from himself. He goes out an exile from his own breast, by despising the inner things, by loving the outer. What did I say? All who do evil things, do they not despise their own conscience? But he sets a limit to his iniquity, whoever blushes at his conscience. So because he despised God in order to love himself, by loving outside what he himself is not, he despised even himself. See, hear the Apostle bearing witness to this thought: In the last times, he says, dangerous times will be at hand (2 Tim 3:1). What are the dangerous times? Men will be lovers of themselves (2 Tim 3:2). This is the head of the evil. Let us see, then, whether they remain even in themselves, by loving themselves; let us see, let us hear what follows: Men will be, he says, lovers of themselves, lovers of money (2 Tim 3:2). Where are you who loved yourself? Surely you are outside. I ask you, are you money? Surely you who, neglecting God, loved yourself, by loving money deserted even yourself. First you deserted yourself, afterward you lost yourself. For the love of money made you lose yourself. You lie for the sake of money: The mouth that lies kills the soul (Wis 1:11). Behold, when you seek money, you have lost your soul. Bring out the balance of truth, not of greed: bring out the scale, but of truth, not of greed; bring it out, I beg you, and place on one side money, on the other the soul. Now you weigh, and out of greed you apply fraudulent fingers; you want the side that has the money to sink. Place it, do not weigh it: you want to commit fraud against yourself; I see what you are doing. You want to prefer money to your soul; to lie for its sake, to lose the soul. Place it, let God weigh; let him who knows not how to be deceived, nor to deceive, himself weigh. Behold, he himself weighs; see him weighing, hear him reporting: What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world? (Matt 16:26) It is the divine voice, the voice of one weighing, and not deceiving; reporting, admonishing. You were placing money on one side, and on the other the soul; see where you placed the money. What does he who weighs answer? You placed the money: What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his soul? (Matt 16:26) But you wanted to weigh the soul against gain: weigh it against the world. You wanted to lose it, that earth might be acquired by you: this has more weight than heaven and earth. But you do this, because by forsaking God, and loving yourself, you have gone out even from yourself; and other things now, which are outside, you value more than yourself. Return to yourself: but again, having returned to yourself, turned upward, do not remain in yourself. First from the things that are outside return to yourself, and then give yourself back to him who made you, and sought you lost, and found you a fugitive, and turned you, turned away, back to himself. Return, then, to yourself, and go to him who made you. Imitate that younger son; for perhaps you are he. I speak to the people, not to one man; although all can hear me, I speak not to one, but to the human race. Return, then, be that younger son, who, living on his substance prodigally dispersed and lost, was in need, fed swine, wearied with hunger took breath, recalled to memory his father. And what does the Gospel say of him? And returning to himself (Luke 15:17). He who had forsaken even himself, returning to himself, let us see whether he remained in himself. Returning to himself, he said: I will arise. So he had fallen. I will arise, he says, and will go to my father (Luke 15:18). Behold, now he denies himself, who has found himself. How does he deny himself? Hear: And I will say to him, I have sinned, he says, against heaven, and before you. He denies himself. I am no longer worthy to be called your son (Luke 15:18-19). Behold what the holy martyrs did. They despised the things that were outside; all the enticements of this world, all errors and terrors, whatever pleased, whatever terrified, they despised it all, they trampled it all. They came even to themselves, and attended to themselves; they found themselves in themselves, they displeased themselves: they ran to him by whom they might be formed, in whom they might live again, in whom they might remain, in whom might perish what they themselves had begun to be by their own selves, and might remain what he himself had founded in them. This is to deny oneself.

4. This the apostle Peter could not yet grasp, when, to our Lord Jesus Christ foretelling his passion, he said: Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen (Matt 16:22). He feared lest the Life should die. Just now, when the holy Gospel was read, you heard what blessed Peter answered the Savior foretelling his passion for us, and in a way promising it. The captive was contradicting the Redeemer. What are you doing, Apostle? how do you contradict? how do you say: This shall not happen? So the Lord is not to suffer? The word of the cross is a stumbling block to you: to those perishing it is folly. You are to be redeemed, and you contradict the merchant? Let him suffer: he knows what he is doing, he knows why he has come, he knows how he seeks you, he knows how he finds you. Do not teach your master; seek from his side your price. You rather hear the one correcting: do not you want to correct; it is perverse, it is backward. Hear what he says: Get behind me (Matt 16:23). And because he said it, I say it; I will not be silent about the word of the Lord, nor do I do insult to the Apostle. The Lord Christ says: Get behind me, Satan. Why Satan? Because you want to go before me. Do you not want to be Satan? Get behind me. For if you go behind me, you follow me: if you follow me, you will take up your cross, and you will not be my counselor, but my disciple. For why were you frightened, when the Lord foretold his death? why were you frightened, except that you too feared to die? By fearing to die, you did not deny yourself; by wrongly loving yourself, you denied him. But afterward the blessed apostle Peter, after he had thrice denied the Lord, blotted out that fault by weeping: strengthened by the Lord rising, built up, he died for him whom, fearing to die, he had denied; by confessing he found death, but by finding death he laid hold of life. And behold, now Peter does not die; all fear has passed away, no tears for him any longer, all things have withdrawn, he remains blessed with Christ. For he trampled all the enticements outside, the threats and terrors: he denied himself, took up his cross, and followed the Lord. Hear too the apostle Paul denying himself: Far be it from me, he says, to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14). Hear him still denying himself: I live, he says, now not I. An open denial of himself: but now follows a glorious confession of Christ, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20). What is it, then, Deny yourself? Do not you yourself live in yourself. What is, Do not you yourself live in yourself? Do not do your own will, but his who dwells in you.

Sermon 331
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. 1. By that evangelical trumpet, when the Lord says: He who loves his soul will lose it; and he who loses it for my sake will find it (Matt 10:39), the martyrs were kindled to battle; and they conquered, because they presumed not on themselves, but on the Lord. He who loves his soul will lose it. In two ways can what was said be understood: He who loves his soul will lose it. If you love it, you lose it. And in another way: Do not love it, lest you lose it. The former way has this sense: If you love it, lose it. If, then, you love it, if you love it, lose it. Sow it here, and you will reap it in heaven. If the farmer does not lose the wheat in the seed, he does not love it in the harvest. The other way is thus: Do not love it, lest you lose it. Those seem to themselves to love their souls, who fear to die. If the martyrs had so loved their souls, without doubt they would have lost them. For what would it profit to hold the soul in this life, and lose it in the future? what would it profit to hold the soul on earth, and lose it in heaven? And what is it to hold it? how long to hold it? What you hold, perishes from you: if you lose it, you find it in yourself. Behold, the martyrs held their souls. And how would they be martyrs, if they had always held them? But behold, if they had held them, would they have lived until this day? If by denying Christ they had held their souls in this life, would they not long since have passed from this life, and lost their souls altogether?

2. 1. But because they did not deny Christ, they passed from this world to the Father. They sought Christ, by confessing; they held him, by dying. So at a great gain they lost their souls; losing hay: meriting a crown: meriting a crown, I say, and holding life without end.

2. 2. So it comes to pass, indeed it has come to pass in them, what the Lord added next: And he who loses his soul for my sake will find it (Matt 10:39). He who loses it, he says, for my sake. The whole cause is there. He who loses it, not in any way whatever, not for any cause whatever, but for my sake. For the martyrs had already said in prophecy: For your sake we are put to death all the day long (Ps 44:22 (43:22)). Therefore it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause.

3. 2. When the Lord suffered, the cause distinguished the three crosses. He was crucified between two thieves: on this side and that the criminals fixed, in the middle he himself. And as though that wood were a tribunal, he condemned the one insulting, he crowned the one confessing. What will he do as judge, if he could do this when judged? So now he was distinguishing the crosses. For, if the punishment were questioned, Christ was like the thieves. But if anyone questions the cross, why Christ was crucified; he answers us, For your sake. So let the martyrs too say: And we died for your sake. He for our sake, we for his sake. But he for our sake, that he might confer a benefit on us: we for his sake, not to impart a benefit to him. Accordingly, in both ways counsel was taken for us: both what flows from him comes to us, and what is done for his sake returns to us. For he is the one of whom the soul says, which rejoices in the Lord: I said to the Lord, You are my God; for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)). For what is, my goods, but those given by you? And how does he need any good, from whom is given every good?

4. 3. He gave us nature, that we might exist: he gave a soul, that we might live: he gave a mind, that we might understand: he gave nourishment, that we might sustain our mortal life: he gave light from heaven, fountains from earth. But all these are gifts common to good and bad. If he gave these also to the bad, does he then keep nothing proper for the good? He keeps it plainly. And what is that which he keeps for the good? What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9). For what ascended into the heart of man was below the heart of man: therefore it ascended into the heart, because above it is the heart by which it ascends. What he keeps for the good, the heart ascends there. Not what ascends into your heart, but to where your heart ascends, this God keeps for you. Do not, when you hear, Lift up your heart, hear it as deaf. So what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man; the eye has not seen, because it is no color; the ear has not heard, because it is no sound; nor has it ascended into the heart, because it is no earthly thought. So understand: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9).

5. 4. Still you will perhaps ask me what this is. Ask him, who has begun to dwell in you. Yet I too say what I feel about it. For you ask this, what God keeps as proper for the good, if he lavishes so much on both bad and good. And when I said: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, there are those who say, Do you suppose what it is? Behold what it is that God keeps for the good alone, whom yet he himself has made good: behold what it is. Briefly our reward was defined through the prophet: I will be their God, and they will be my people (See Lev 26:12; Jer 31:33). I will be their God: he promised himself to us as a reward. Seek another, if you find a better. If I said, He promised gold; you would rejoice: he promised himself, and are you sad? If a rich man does not have God, what does he have? Do not seek anything from God, except God. Love freely, desire him alone from him. Do not fear poverty: he gives himself to us, and suffices us. Let him give himself to us, and suffice us. Hear the apostle Philip in the Gospel: Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us (John 14:8).

6. 5. Why, then, do you marvel, brothers, if the martyrs, lovers of God, bore so much, to acquire God? See how much the lovers of gold suffer. They commit themselves to sailing through the harshness of winter: so they boil with avarice, that they dread no cold; they are tossed by the winds, suspended and plunged by the waves; by unspeakable perils they are driven even to death. Let them too say to gold: For your sake we are put to death all the day long (Ps 44:22 (43:22)). Let the martyrs say to Christ: For your sake we are put to death all the day long. The voice indeed is similar: but the cause is very dissimilar. Behold both said, these to Christ, those to gold: For your sake we are put to death all the day long. Let Christ answer his martyrs, If you will die for me, you will find both yourselves and me. But let gold answer the greedy, If you are shipwrecked for me, you will lose both yourselves and me. So loving and imitating; not loving in vain, but loving and imitating, let us celebrate the days of the martyrs, and mitigate these our heats with the refreshment of joys. For with them we will reign without end, if we love them faithfully and not vainly.

Sermon 332
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. When we offer honor to the martyrs, we honor the friends of Christ. Do you ask what cause made them friends of Christ? Christ himself shows it: for he says: This is my commandment, that you love one another (John 15:12). Those love one another who watch actors together, those love one another who get drunk together in taverns, those love one another who are joined by a bad conscience. Since, then, Christ had said: This is my commandment, that you love one another, he ought to have distinguished the love. He surely did: hear. For when he had said: This is my commandment, that you love one another; he soon added as I have loved you (John 15:12). So love one another, for the sake of the kingdom of God, for the sake of eternal life. Love together, but love me. You would love one another, if together you loved an actor: rather love one another, by loving together him who cannot displease, the Savior.

2. The Lord drew nearer, and taught further: as though we said to him, And how did you love us, that we too may know how we ought to love ourselves? Hear: Greater love than this no one has, than that he lay down his soul for his friends (John 15:13). So love one another, that each one lay down his soul for the rest. For this the martyrs did, which John the Evangelist too says in his Epistle: As Christ laid down his soul for us, so we too ought to lay down our souls for the brothers (1 John 3:16). You approach the table of a powerful one: you who are faithful know to what table you approach: recall the Scripture saying: When you approach the table of a powerful one, know that you ought to prepare such things (Prov 23:1 (LXX)). To what table of a powerful one do you approach? To one who offers you himself, not a table seasoned by the art of cooks: Christ offers you his table, namely himself. Approach this table, and be filled. Be poor, and you will be filled. The poor will eat, and be filled (Ps 22:26 (21:27)). Know that you ought to prepare such things. That you may understand, attend to John the expositor. For perhaps you did not know what is: When you approach the table of a powerful one, know that you ought to prepare such things. Hear the expositor: As Christ laid down his soul for us, so we too ought to prepare such things. What is, to prepare such things? To lay down our souls for the brothers (1 John 3:16).

3. That you might be filled, you approached poor: from where will you prepare such things? Ask from him who invited you, that you may have from where to feed him. Unless he himself gives to you, you will have nothing. But have you already some love? Do not impute even this to yourself: For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) Have you already some love? Ask that he increase it, ask that he perfect it, until you come to that table, than which there is no greater in this life. Greater love than this no one has, than that he lay down his soul for his friends (John 15:13). You approached poor, you withdraw rich: indeed you do not withdraw, but by remaining you will be rich. From him the martyrs received what they suffered for him: believe it; from him they received it. The householder gave them from where they might feed him. Him we have, from him let us ask. And if we are less worthy to receive, through his friends, who fed him from his own gift, let us ask. Let them pray for us, that he may give to us too. And that we may have more, we receive from heaven. Hear John his forerunner: A man cannot receive anything, unless it has been given him from heaven (John 3:27). So both what we have, we have received from heaven; and that we may have more, we receive from heaven.

4. It is the city which descends from heaven: let us be such that we may enter into it. For you heard what sort enter, what sort do not enter. Do not be such as you heard would not enter: especially fornicators. For when Scripture recalled those who will not enter, it there named murderers too: you were not frightened. It named fornicators: I heard that you beat your breasts. I heard, I heard, I saw: and what I did not see in your beds, I saw in the sound, I saw in your breasts, when you beat your breasts. Cast out from there the sin: for to beat the breast, and to do these same things, is nothing else than to pave over sins. My brothers, my sons, be chaste, love chastity, embrace chastity, love purity: because God the author of purity, in his temple, which you are, seeks it; far from the temple he drives out the unclean. Let your wives suffice you, because you want to suffice your wives. You do not want anything to be done by her apart from you: do not do anything apart from her. You are the lord, she the handmaid: God made both. Sarah, says Scripture, obeyed Abraham, calling him lord (1 Pet 3:6). It is true; the bishop has subscribed to these tablets: your wives are your handmaids, you are the lords of your wives. But when it comes to that business by which the sex is distinguished, and each sex mingles with itself: The wife does not have power over her own body, but the husband (1 Cor 7:4). You rejoiced, you raised yourself up, you boasted. Well did the Apostle say, excellently did the Chosen Vessel say: The wife does not have power over her own body, but the husband. Because I am the lord. You praised: hear what follows, hear what you do not want, I ask that you want it. What is this? Hear: Likewise the husband too; that lord; likewise the husband too does not have power over his own body, but the wife (1 Cor 7:4). This hear gladly. The vice is taken from you, not the lordship: your adulteries are forbidden, women are not set over you. You are a man (vir), show it: for "man" is from "virtue," or "virtue" from "man." Have you, then, virtue? Conquer lust. The head of the woman, he says, is the man (1 Cor 11:3). If you are the head, lead, and let her follow: but see where you lead. You are the head, lead where she may follow: but do not go where you do not want her to follow. Lest you fall into the precipice, see that you walk on the straight path. So prepare yourselves to enter to that new bride, to that beautiful one, adorned by her husband, not with necklaces, but with virtues. For if chaste, and holy, and good you enter, you too will be members of that new bride, the blessed and glorious heavenly Jerusalem.

Sermon 333
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave great security to his witnesses, that is, to his martyrs, anxious because of human frailty, lest perhaps by confessing him and dying they should perish, saying to them: A hair of your head will not perish (Luke 21:18). Do you, then, fear lest you perish, whose hair will not perish? If your superfluous things are so guarded, in how great safety is your soul? Does the hair not perish, which when it is cut you do not feel, and your soul perishes, through which you feel? He foretold indeed that they would suffer many hard things, that by foretelling them he might make them more prepared, and that they might say to him: My heart is ready (Ps 57:7 (56:8)). What is: My heart is ready, but: My will is ready? So the martyrs have a ready will in martyrdom, but: The will is prepared by the Lord (Prov 8:35 (LXX)). But to those evil, hard, and harsh things to come, recalled, he added: In your patience you will possess your souls (Luke 21:19). In your patience, he says; for it would not be your patience, if your will too were not there. In your patience; but from where ours? Ours is what is had from us, ours is also what is given to us; for if it be not ours, it is not given. For how do you give anything, except that it become his to whom you give it? Open is that confession: Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from him is my patience (Ps 62:1, 5 (61:2, 6)). He himself says to us: In your patience. Let us too say to him: From him is my patience. He made it yours by giving: do not be ungrateful by assigning it to yourself. Do we not in the Lord's Prayer say that what is from God is ours too? Daily we say: Our daily bread. You have already said: our; and you say: give us. Behold our, behold give us; by his giving it becomes ours. If by his giving it becomes ours, by our being proud it becomes another's. You say: our, and you say: give us. Why then do you assign to yourself what you did not give yourself? For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) You say: our; and: give us. Acknowledge the giver: confess that you receive, that he may gladly deign to give. What if you did not need, you who beg, and are proud? Or do you not beg, who ask for bread? Our eternal bread, Christ in the equality of the Father; our daily bread, Christ in the flesh; eternal without time, daily in time. Yet he himself is the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:41). The martyrs are strong, the martyrs are firm, but bread strengthens the heart of man (Ps 104:15 (103:15)).

2. So now let us hear the apostle Paul saying, when he drew near to his passion, presuming on the crown prepared for him. I have fought, he says, the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest there remains for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me on that day; and not only to me, but to all who love his appearing (2 Tim 4:7-8). The Lord will render to me the crown, the righteous judge. So he owes what he will render: therefore the righteous judge will render it; for, the work inspected, he cannot deny the wage. What work does he inspect? I have fought the good fight, that is a work; I have finished the course, that is a work; I have kept the faith, that is a work; there remains for me a crown of righteousness, that is the wage. But in the wage you do nothing; in the work you do not act alone. The crown is to you from him; but the work is from you, yet only with him helping. But since the apostle Paul, before, when he was Saul, was a most cruel and savage persecutor, he merited absolutely no good, indeed he merited very much evil; for he merited to be condemned, not chosen. And behold, suddenly, while he was doing evil, and meriting evil, by one heavenly voice he is laid low; the persecutor is cast down, the preacher is raised up. Hear him confessing this very thing: Who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and insolent, but I obtained mercy (1 Tim 1:13). Surely there he did not say: The righteous judge will render to me? I obtained mercy, he says; I merited evils, I received good things. He has not dealt with us according to our sins (Ps 103:10 (102:10)). I obtained mercy, the things owed me were not rendered; for if the things owed were rendered, punishment would be rendered. I did not, he says, receive what was owed; but I obtained mercy. He has not dealt with us according to our sins.

3. As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our iniquities from us (Ps 103:12 (102:12)). Turn away from the West, turn to the East. Behold one man: Saul and Paul; Saul in the West, Paul in the East; the persecutor in the West, the preacher in the East. There the sins set, from there righteousness rises. In the West the old, in the East the new; in the West Saul, in the East Paul. From where this to Saul, from where this to the cruel one, from where this to the persecutor, from where this to the non-shepherd? For he was a ravening wolf, of the tribe of Benjamin, he himself said it. But it had been said in prophecy: Benjamin a ravening wolf, in the morning he seizes, and at evening he divides the food (Gen 49:27). First he devoured, afterward he feeds. He seized, he plainly seized. Read it, he seized: read the book of the Acts of the Apostles. He had received letters from the priests, that whomever he found following the way of Christ, he might bring bound to be punished. He went, he raged, he panted for slaughter and blood: behold he seizes. But it is still morning, there is vanity under the sun; evening comes to him, when he is struck with blindness. His eyes are closed to the vanity of this world, others within are illumined. A vessel a little before of perdition, he becomes a vessel of election, and behold it is fulfilled: he will divide the food; his divisions of the food are recited daily. See how he divides the food. He knows what suits whom: he divides, not haphazardly, he does not dispense confusedly. He divides, that is, he distributes, distinguishes; he does not dispense haphazardly and confusedly. He speaks wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor 2:6); but to certain ones unable to take solid food, dividing he says: I gave you milk to drink (1 Cor 3:2).

4. Behold, he who a little before was doing—what? I do not want to recall it. Rather let me recall the man's wickedness, that I may approve God's mercy. From him Christ was suffering, he suffers for Christ; Paul is made from Saul, a true witness from a false one. He who scattered, gathers; he who attacked, defends. From where this to Saul, which we say? Let us hear him. You ask, he says, from where this to me? It is not, he says, from me: I obtained mercy. It is not, he says, to me from me: I obtained mercy. What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he has rendered to me? (Ps 116:12 (115:12)) For he rendered, but not evils for evils; he rendered plainly, but not evils for evils, he rendered good things for evils. What, then, shall I render? I will take the cup of salvation (Ps 116:13 (115:13)). Surely you were going to repay? Still I have received: but now plainly, my passion drawing near, I will render good things for good things, not good things for evils. So first the Lord owed evils for evils; but he refused to render evils for evils, but rendered good things for evils. By rendering good things for evils, he found how to render good things for good things.

5. For behold, in Paul, before Saul, he found nothing good. Since he had found nothing good in him, he forgave the evils, he rendered good things. Since, then, you say, he first rendered him good things, he went before; but by giving good things, by which he might render good things, behold he rendered the wage for these good things, for the good works; to the one fighting the good fight, finishing the course, keeping the faith, he renders good things. But what good things? Those which he himself gave. Did he not himself give it, that you might fight the good fight? If he did not himself give it, what is it that you say in another place: I labored more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10)? Behold again you say: I have finished the course. Did he not himself give it that you might finish the course? If he did not himself give it that you might finish the course, what is it that you say in another place: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:16)? I have kept the faith. You kept it, you kept it: I acknowledge it, I approve it; I confess it, you kept it; but: Unless the Lord guards the city, in vain does he watch who guards it (Ps 127:1 (126:1)). So with him himself helping, and him himself giving, you both fought the good fight, and finished the course, and kept the faith. Pardon me, Apostle, I know nothing of your own things, except evils. Pardon me, Apostle; we say it, because you taught it; I hear you confessing, I do not find you ungrateful. We know absolutely nothing of your own things prepared by you for yourself, except evils; since, then, God crowns your merits, he crowns nothing but his own gifts.

6. Let no arguments tear this faith and true godliness from your hearts—lest anyone be exalted over free choice in good works (works which, whoever receives them, let him so receive them that he knows the giver, that whoever it is may not be ungrateful to the giver, may not be proud against the physician, being either still sick, or not made well by himself)—this faith, I say, and true godliness let no arguments tear from your hearts. Keep what you have received. For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) This is to confess to God, to say what the apostle Paul says: But we have not received the spirit of this world. The spirit of this world makes men proud, the spirit of this world makes them puffed up, the spirit of this world makes a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing (Gal 6:3). But against the spirit of this world, what does the Apostle say? Against the spirit of this world, puffed up, proud, given over, swollen, not solid, what does he say? We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God (1 Cor 2:12). How do you prove it? That we may know the things that have been given us by God (1 Cor 2:12). So let us hear the Lord saying: Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). And that: No one has anything, unless it has been given him from above (John 3:27). And: No one comes to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him (John 6:44). And that: I am the vine, you are the branches; as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me (John 15:5, 4). And that which the apostle James testifies, saying: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17). And that which the apostle Paul, to check the presumption of those who glory in free choice, cries out and says: What do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7) And that: By grace we have been saved through faith, and this not of ourselves; for it is the gift of God, that no one may be exalted (Eph 2:8-9). And that: To you it has been given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him (Phil 1:29). And that: God, who has begun a good work in you, will perfect it (Phil 1:6). So, diligently and faithfully thinking on these things and the like, let us not agree with those who, exalting free choice into pride, try rather to cast it down than to lift it up; but humbly let us consider what the Apostle says: It is God who works in you both to will and to perfect (Phil 2:13).

7. Let us give thanks to our Lord and Savior, who, with no preceding merits, healed us when wounded, and reconciled us when enemies, and redeemed us from captivity, led us back from darkness to light, recalled us from death to life; and, humbly confessing our frailty, let us beseech his mercy, that, because according to the psalmist his mercy goes before us, he may deign not only to keep in us, but also to increase his gifts or benefits, which he himself deigned to give; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon 334
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. This indeed is the voice of all the good faithful Christians, but especially of the glorious martyrs: If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom 8:31) The world raged against them, the peoples meditated vain things, the princes gathered together as one: new tortures were devised, and ingenious cruelty invented incredible punishments. They were overwhelmed with reproaches, charged with false crimes, shut up in intolerable prisons, torn with hooks, slain with iron, exposed to beasts, burned with fires, and the martyrs of Christ said: If God is for us, who is against us? The whole world against you, and you say: Who is against us? They answer you: And what is the whole world, when we die for him through whom the world was made? Let them say, let them say, let us hear, let us say together: If God is for us, who is against us? They can rage, they can curse, they can slander, they can drive us with false reproaches, finally they can not only kill the body, but even tear it; and what will they do? For behold God is my helper, and the Lord is the upholder of my soul (Ps 54:4 (53:6)). Tell me, blessed martyr: your body is torn, and you say, It does not pertain to me? Yes, I said it. Why? tell us why. Because the Lord is the upholder of my soul. My body is restored through my soul. Does my hair not perish, and the head perish? My hair does not perish. But by dogs your body is torn. And what is it to me? Even if by dogs my body is torn, yet by the Lord it is raised up. The world is the slayer of my body, but the Lord is the upholder of my soul. And what harm does it do me, since the Lord is the upholder of my soul, that the world is the slayer of my body? What have I lost? what have I forfeited? When the Lord is the upholder of my soul, he will be also the restorer of my body. What will be lacking to me, if the enemy tears my limbs, when God numbers my hairs? Christ, exhorting his martyrs, that they should dread nothing from the enemy persecutors: The hairs, he says, of your head are all numbered (Luke 12:7). Shall I, then, fear for the loss of my limbs, when I have received security about the number of my hairs? So let us say, let us say from faith, let us say in hope, let us say with most ardent love: If God is for us, who is against us?

2. Behold the king against you, and you say, who is against us? Behold all the people against you, and you say: Who is against us? From where do you prove it, O glorious martyr; from where do you prove to me what you say: If God is for us, who is against us? For it is manifest that if God is for you, who is against you? But prove that God is for you. Do I then not prove it? Behold I teach it: Who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32). This which follows, you heard when the Apostle was read. For when he had said: If God is for us, who is against us? as though it were said to him: Prove that God is for you: at once he brought a great proof, at once he introduced the Martyr of martyrs, the Witness of witnesses; namely him whom the Father did not spare, his own Son, but handed him over for us all: hence the Apostle proved that he had truly said: If God is for us, who is against us? Who even did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all. How has he not with him given us all things? (Rom 8:32) When with him he gave us all things, he also gave us himself. Surely the raging of the world does not terrify me, to whom the maker of the world has been given? Let us rejoice that Christ has been given to us, and let us fear no enemies of Christ in this world. For see who has been given to us: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). He is Christ, he is the only-begotten Son of God, he is coeternal with the begetter. All things were made through him (John 1:3). How have the things which were made through him not been given to us, when he himself has been given to us, through whom all things were made? And that you may know that it is he: The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Desire and seek the life of Christ given to you; and until you reach it, hold as a pledge the death of Christ. For, promising us that he would live with us, he could give us no greater pledge than to die for us. Your evils, he says, I bore, shall I not render my goods? He promised, he made a bond, he gave a pledge; and do you doubt to believe? He promised, when he walked here among men; he made a bond, when he wrote the Gospel. To his pledge daily you say, Amen. You have received the pledge, daily it is paid out to you. Do not despair, you who live on the pledge.

3. Or is perhaps an injury done to the only-begotten Son, when it is said that he has been given to us, as though he were to be our possession? Plainly he is to be. For what if someone today gives you a pleasant and fertile estate, where it would delight you always to dwell because of the pleasantness, from which you could easily support yourself because of the fertility; would you not embrace the gift, and give thanks to the giver? In Christ we are to abide. How will he not be our possession, where we will abide, and from where we will live? Let Scripture say this too, lest we seem by our conjectures to have usurped anything against the discipline of the word of God. Hear what someone says to him, who knew that if God is for us, who is against us? The Lord, he says, is the portion of my inheritance (Ps 16:5 (15:5)). He did not say: O Lord, what, do you give me some inheritance? Whatever you give me is cheap. You be my inheritance, I love you, I love you wholly, with my whole heart, my whole soul, my whole mind I love you. What will be to me whatever you give me besides yourself? This is to love God freely, to hope God from God, to hasten to be filled by God, to be satisfied by him. For he himself suffices you; besides him nothing suffices you. Philip knew this, when he said: Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us (John 14:8). When, then, will be what the Apostle says at the end: That God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28), that he himself may be to us whatever here without him we desire, and in desire for which for the most part we sin against him? In place of all things he himself will be to us, when God will be all in all. You sin against God to eat, you sin against God to be clothed, you sin against God to live, you sin against God to be honored. And when shall I number all things? Do not sin against God for the sake of these things. For the sake of food do you sin against God? food eternal will God be to you. For the sake of clothing do you sin against God? with immortality God will clothe you. For the sake of honor do you sin against God? your honor will be God. For the sake of love of temporal life do you sin against God? eternal life God will be to you. Do not sin against him for the sake of anything. For you ought to love him freely, who himself can satisfy you in place of all things.

Sermon 335
On the Feast of the Martyrs

1. Since it is the day of the holy martyrs, from what should it rather delight us to say something, than of their glory? May the Lord of the martyrs help us, because he himself is their crown. With the voice of the martyrs we heard a little before the blessed apostle Paul proclaiming: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? This is the voice of the martyrs: Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? or famine? or nakedness? or peril? or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are put to death all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us (Rom 8:35-37). This is the voice of the martyrs, to endure all things, and to presume nothing of themselves, to love him who is glorified in his own: that he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). They knew too that which we sang a little before: Rejoice in the Lord, and exult, you righteous (Ps 32:11 (31:11)). If the righteous rejoice in the Lord, the unrighteous know not how to rejoice except in the world. But that is the first battle-line to be conquered: first the delights are to be conquered, and afterward the pains. How can he overcome the world raging, who cannot overcome it flattering? This world flatters, by promising honors, riches, pleasures: this world threatens, by holding out pains, want, humiliations. He who does not despise what it promises, how can he overcome what it threatens? Riches have their delight: who does not know it? But righteousness has more delight. Be delighted by riches with righteousness: but where such a moment of trial falls, that these two come into trial, riches and righteousness, and you cannot have both, but if you put your hand to riches, you must lose righteousness; if you put your hand to righteousness, riches perish: now choose, now fight; now let us see whether you sang not without cause: Rejoice in the Lord, and exult, you righteous: now let us see whether you heard not without cause: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? And indeed he passed over all the things with which the world flatters; and he wanted to recall to you, whom the world flatters. Why? Because he was foretelling the contests of the martyrs, those contests, namely, where they conquered persecution, hunger, thirst, want, ignominy, at the last the fear of death and the most savage enemy.

2. But see, brothers, that it is all the art of Christ that does it. The Apostle admonishes us, that we prefer the love of Christ to the world. How great distresses they suffer, who want to seize the goods of others! Or persecution, he says? Even that does not break them. Avarice is terrified, the greedy man seizes and fears the penalty, he boils for plunder. Many also suffer hunger, while they acquire and make gains, whom we order to fast, and they excuse themselves on account of the stomach. They have leisure all day to count their coins, and they sleep fasting. Or nakedness, he says? what shall I say of nakedness? Daily merchants escape naked from shipwreck, and again sail toward danger. From what do men daily run risk, except for the sake of acquiring riches? Nor does the sword forbid them. Forgery is a capital crime, and yet an inheritance is diminished. If, then, temporal desire merits this, why should not the inheritance of Christ merit it? The greedy man says in his heart, who perhaps does not dare with his tongue: Who will separate us from the desire of gold? Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? The greedy too can say to gold: For your sake we are killed all the day long. Excellently, then, do the holy martyrs say in the Psalm: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). Distinguish, he says, my tribulation: the greedy too are troubled. Distinguish my distress: the greedy too suffer distress. Distinguish my persecutions: the greedy too suffer them. Distinguish my hunger: for acquiring gold the greedy too go hungry. Distinguish my nakedness: for gold the greedy too are stripped. Distinguish my death: for gold the greedy too die. What is: Distinguish my cause? For your sake we are put to death all the day long. They for the sake of gold, we for your sake. A like punishment, but a distinguished cause. Where the cause is distinguished, there the victory is certain. So if we look to the cause, we love the solemnities of the martyrs. Let us love in them, not the sufferings, but the causes of the sufferings. For if we loved the sufferings only, we will find many who suffer worse things in bad causes. But let us attend to the cause, attend to the cross of Christ: there was Christ, there were also thieves. A like punishment, but an unlike cause. One thief believed, the other blasphemed. The Lord, as from a tribunal, judged between both: him who blasphemed he condemned to Tartarus; the other he led with himself into paradise. Why this? Because, though the punishment was equal, the cause was unequal. So choose the causes of the martyrs, if you want to come to the palms of the martyrs.

Sermon 335/A
On the Solemnity of the Martyrs of Whom One Was Called Primus, Another Victoria Perpetua

1. "Martyr" is a Greek name, in Latin they are called "witnesses"; if, then, they are witnesses, for the truth of their testimony they suffered so much. Truth served God, iniquity lied to itself. For so it is written; the body of Christ, which is the Church, speaks in the Psalm: Unjust witnesses rose up against me, and iniquity lied to itself (Ps 27:12 (26:12); Ps 26:12 (LXX)). Witnesses and witnesses: unjust witnesses, and just witnesses; both witnesses of the devil, and witnesses of Christ. We saw, we watched, we heard both kinds of witness, when the passion of the blessed martyrs, whose day of solemnity is kept, was read. Questioned, they answered that they had held an assembly, because they were Christians. This is the testimony of truth. The judge said: "Since you have confessed to a crime." This is the testimony of iniquity. God was preached, and it was called a crime. In the preaching of God truth obeyed God; in the calling it a crime iniquity lied to itself. For what they said turned back upon themselves, and the false crime was condemned by a true crime. Our martyrs did not commit a crime; the martyrs of Christ did not commit a crime by gathering themselves in an assembly to praise God, to hear the truth, to hope for the kingdom of heaven, and to despise the present most wicked world. These did not commit a crime. This is called godliness, the name of this thing is religion, the name of this thing is devotion, the name of this thing is true testimony. What crime, then, did they commit, who moreover killed those who confessed their godliness? "Let that man and that man," says the judge of iniquity, the witness of falsehood, "let that man and that man be punished by the sword." Behold the crime. Hear too the voice of godliness: Thanks be to God, said the testimony, Primus first; Victoria Perpetua closed the testimony. I believe Your Charity noticed, when the passion of the saints was read, that he who confessed first was called Primus before the last; Victoria Perpetua at the end. O victory without blemish! O end without end! For what is perpetual victory, but victory without end? This is to conquer the enticements of the flesh, to conquer the threats of the perverse judge, to conquer the pain of the body, to conquer the love of life.

2. I will say, if I can, with the Lord's help, my brothers, what I feel: in the holy martyrs the love of life was conquered by the love of life. You who applauded, understood; but for the sake of those who did not understand, suffer me, who understood, to open a little what I said. This I said: in the holy martyrs the love of life was conquered by the love of life; by loving life they despised life. Who, by loving silver, despises silver? who, by loving gold, despises gold? who, by loving estates, despises estates? No one despises what he loves. We find martyrs who loved life and despised life. They would not come to that life, if they did not trample this one. They knew what they were doing, who by spending acquired. Do not think, dearly beloved, that they lost their judgment, when they loved life, and despised life; they did not lose their judgment. They scattered the seeds and sought the harvest. I see the farmer's judgment, and I recognize in the martyrs wisdom. The farmer, by loving wheat, scatters wheat. You who do not know what the sower is doing, perhaps would rebuke him, and say: What are you doing, madman? what you gathered with such labor, you bring out, you scatter, you take from your eyes, you cast into the earth, moreover you bury it? He answers you: I love the wheat, therefore I cast away the wheat; if I did not love it, I would not cast it away; I want it to grow, not to perish. Behold what our martyrs did, incomparably wiser than the farmers. For the sowers scatter few grains, and the reapers gather many. But both what they scatter and what they gather has an end; what is scattered is not much, what is gathered is much, yet both are finite. And would you not have our martyrs scatter a life that would someday be ended by death, that they might receive a life that has no death? Good lenders, good sowers; he who multiplies is God. He himself multiplies the crops in the field; he himself nourishes whatever is born of the earth. God can multiply grains: can he not preserve his martyrs? Behold I tell you, hear what they heard.

3. You too heard just now, when the Gospel was read; what was promised them, you received: They will hand you over, he says, in councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you, and some of you they will kill; but I say to you: A hair of your head will not perish, and in your patience you will possess your souls (See Matt 10:17; Luke 21:16-19). You will possess, and you do not lose; for there no enemy persecutes, no friend dies. There you will be, where the perpetual day has no yesterday preceding, nor tomorrow following. There you will be good lenders, where the devil cannot follow you. Bear for a time; rejoice forever. Hard are the things you endure, but great fruit has what you sow. Read what was said of you, when you sowed: Going they went and wept, casting their seeds (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). To what fruit? to what end? to what consolation? But coming they will come in exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). From these sheaves crowns are made. So let us celebrate the days of the martyrs, by honoring the passions of the martyrs, not by loving the drinking-cups. Turned to the Lord.

Sermon 335/B
On the Feast of the Holy Martyrs

1. We call the holy martyrs blessed above other men, who contended against sin even to blood; and we call them blessed, because for the truth they underwent death, and by dying found life. For they would not die, unless man had sinned; for man, if he kept the commandment, would live. God threatened him with death, if he sinned: so by fear of death he ought to have abstained from the offense; but he rather believed the deceiving serpent, than the Creator counseling him. He did not believe God, and found what he did not believe. So nature by its own force runs into death: and, as far as is in it, struggles not to die; but it dies unwilling, because it sinned willing. For the first man, by sinning, did not despise death, but, even if he sinned, did not believe he would die. It was said to him: Do not touch: if you touch, by death you will die. Surely he did not say: I will touch, and I will die? Surely he did not say to himself: God has threatened me with death, that I should not taste of that tree; I will rather taste, and find out what is in that food; and if death follows, what is it to me? He did not say this: because by pride and curiosity he wanted to sin, but by nature he did not want to die. Finally even the serpent itself, indeed the devil in the serpent, the persuader to sin, the overthrower of faith, did not take from him the fear of death by contempt of death. For he did not say to him in persuading him to evil: You fear to die; and what is it to die? Death is no evil, without cause you fear what is no evil. He did not say this to him: for he knew how much the will recoils from death by nature. But what did he say to him? You will not die by death (Gen 3:4). He did not persuade contempt of death, but took away faith in death. So he did what he was persuaded to do, not because he despised death, but because he did not believe he would die. Death followed the sinner: it begot us, not such as he was created, but such as by sinning he had become. We were born, drawing fault and punishment from the transgressor. One came against one: because through one man death, and through one man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22). So one came against one: nor did he come in the way that the one had come whom he came to help; but he came from a virgin, he came without lust, he came conceived not by desire but by faith. So one came against one. That he might help man, he took up something of the kind; but he did not take up the whole that the one had whom he came to help. So he came, and found us lying in fault and punishment; he took up the punishment alone, and loosed both the fault and the punishment.

2. So the Lord Christ took up the martyrs to be exhorted, not only by his word, but also by his example, that they should not fear death. Christ's exhortation was not such as the serpent's seduction. For the serpent said: If you sin, you will not die by death. Christ said: If you sin, by death you will die. What is: If you sin, by death you will die? If you deny me, indeed if you do not deny me, you will die. But do not fear those who kill the body (Matt 10:28). O man, do not now fear those who kill the body. Then you ought to have feared death, lest you come into death; then if you feared death, you would not come into death: now if you fear death, you will be freed from death. But dismiss the devil's seductive persuasion. The Lord our God himself said one thing then to man, says another now. Then he said to him: Do not sin, lest you die; now he says to him: Die, lest you sin. Then he said to him: By sinning you come to death; now he says to him: By dying you arrive at life. So the punishment of the sinner has become the instrument of virtue: then by hearing the devil they died, now we by dying for the truth overcome the devil. Why do you exalt yourself, my captor? By your own I conquer you. You persuaded sin, and took away faith in death; you said: You will not die; I believed, and I died. You persuaded, you deceived, you tricked, you held, by evil persuasion you sent me into death; but by dying for Christ you lost those whom you possessed. You have nothing by which to terrify, when death itself is taken up, lest one sin, which ought to have been feared, lest we sin. Against your poisonous whispers the martyr sings: I will sing to my God, as long as I live (Ps 146:2 (145:2)). So when you are dead, you do not sing to God? Indeed then you sing more, than while you live. For now it is not "long," which has an end. I would not say that even Adam himself lived long, if he died today; for what would the long times past profit, when they were past? He lived long, yet he lived: but if he lives, tell me, and if what lives will have no end, then I say it is long. We Christians, to whom eternal life is promised, ought not to understand what some author of the pagans understood, who said: For what is this very "long," in which there is something last? Take away the end, and I acknowledge length; but if you add an end, I prove brevity. So I will sing to my God, as long as I live. So we ought to take that "long," that it may truly be long. As long as I live, therefore always, because I live, refer it to that: Blessed are those who dwell in your house, forever and ever they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). This reward the holy martyrs loved, and by loving life they were willing to die. Because, then, they died patiently, do you think they loved death? Far be it, they loved life, they desired life: they wanted to live without death, who chose to die for life; they despised what is not long, that they might come to what is long.

3. But what kind of persecutor is he, who comes and says: Deny Christ, if you do not want me to kill you? For the sake of life shall I deny life? for the sake of a short life shall I deny eternal life? What if you spare me today, and tomorrow a fever kills me? Why, by threatening me with death, do you want to take away my faith? If a fever kills me, it does not take away my faith. This life, which you say you give, is not in your power: so for its sake I will not deny Christ, who has both death and life in his power. So shall I deny him, who as long as he wishes I live here, not as long as you wish here? And when I cease to live here, I come to him, where there is nothing but to live. Behold, if you do not deny him, I kill you. I know who speaks, through you he now says to me: Deny, and you will not die. Almost this he said to me then too: Touch, and you will not die. I refused then, now I beware of you. So however sweet this life is, and no one wants to end it, miserable as it is. If this life, such as it is, is so sweet, what is that life, my brothers? Attend to the glory of the martyrs: unless death were bitter, the glory of the martyrs would be nothing. If death is nothing, what great thing did the martyrs despise? Attend to the Lord himself: Greater love than this no one has, than that he lay down his soul for his friends (John 15:13). And he who had power to lay down his soul, and had power to take it up again, yet, that he might transfigure us into himself, My soul, he says, is sorrowful even to death (Matt 26:38). To blessed Peter too: When you have grown old, he says, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not want (John 21:18), even when you have grown old. What kind of life, then, is the happy life, if it must be loved even when miserable? The action of this life, which is so loved, what is it? To desire, to fear, to hope, to be deceived, to labor, to fall sick: true sadness, false gladness: to pour out prayers, to fear trials. What kind of life is this? who can describe its misery with any eloquence? Yet it is loved. But the action of that life, what is it? I will not go on longer, I will not describe it long: I will sing to my God, as long as I live.

4. The martyrs were lovers of life, therefore they were endurers of death. Nevertheless, my brothers, so sweet is this life, foul, miserable, so sweet that the martyrs could not despise it for the truth and for eternal life, except with the help of him who commanded that they despise it. Often even desire despises death, but where there is no soundness: one vice is pressed by another, for desire is of this world. Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world: if anyone 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 (1 John 2:15-16). Often men despise death through the desire of the flesh; they despise death through the desire of the eyes, they despise death through the ambition of the age: but all these are of the world. He who despises death for the love of God, can in no way fulfill it without the help of God. Finally, even the martyr himself, when he said: I will sing to my God, as long as I live, and was meditating on eternal life, roused, turned himself, and said: Do not trust in princes (Ps 146:3 (145:3)). Lest, when the prince spares you, you trust in him: let the Prince of princes, God himself, help you, that you may have faith. Be faithful from faith: and do not trust in princes, and in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation (Ps 146:3 (145:3)). Therefore not even in yourself, because salvation is the Lord's (Ps 3:8 (3:9)). For what you are by yourself, and as far as concerns yourself, do you want to know? His spirit will go out, and he will return to his earth; on that day all their thoughts will perish (Ps 146:4 (145:4)). Behold what you are, if in you there is nothing but you. Since, then, you ought not to trust in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation—for their salvation is not in them from themselves; whence it was said: Salvation is the Lord's, and your blessing is upon your people (Ps 3:8 (3:9))—if you do not trust in men, in whom there is no salvation, neither ought you to trust in yourself, because you are a man, in whom there is no salvation.

5. Answer now, and tell me: If I do not trust in myself, then I do not despise death; I do not fulfill the commandment, that I should not deny Christ. Blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob (Ps 146:5 (145:5)). You indeed despise death; you believe, and fulfill the commandment; you trample the threats of the persecutors; you most ardently love and desire eternal life. It is true that you do; but: Blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob. Take away the helper, I find nothing but the deserter. The deserter Adam, the helper Christ. What is that deserter, but what was said to him: You are earth, and into earth you will go (Gen 3:19)? His spirit will go out, and he will return to his earth. But the helper underwent death, and taught us to despise what he took up. And the helper says to me: You fear sin, but therefore you want to sin, lest you die. Behold I suffer what you fear. What you fear I suffer; fear that which I do not do. What do you fear? Death. Behold I suffer it. Fear that which I do not do, sin. Who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet 2:22). So do not do what he did not do, and do not fear what he suffered. For you are not going to do death, but to suffer it; fear your deed, not your suffering. Fear what you do willing, not what you suffer unwilling; death does not kill you, if you are not death to yourself. Nevertheless not even death itself would be, if sin had not been. It is to be despised, it is true, it is to be trampled, it is passing: why even it at all? Would that it alone! What is: Would that it alone? Would that the first death alone, loosing the spirit from the flesh. Fear the second death, where the soul is not parted from the flesh, but the soul is tortured with the flesh. Do not fear the passing death, fear the abiding one: none is worse than where death does not die. By fearing death you wanted to sin: sin killed the inner man in you; sin killed the very life of your flesh. Finally, that death of the body would not follow, unless the death of the soul had preceded. The soul deserted God willing, and deserts the flesh unwilling. Yet the Lord did not desert the flesh unwilling: when he willed he died, because when he willed he was born. But why this? Lest you should fear, behold all was done. And do we fear death: we fear death, as though we were going to escape death. Fear what you can avoid, that is, sin. You can avoid sin, you cannot avoid death; and yet what cannot be escaped is feared more than what can be avoided. We have recognized ourselves, we have seen ourselves, we have examined ourselves; let us groan in ourselves, let us pour out prayers, lest we enter into trials. Let us not presume on our own strength to conquer these things: for blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God (Ps 146:5 (145:5)); not in himself, because he is a man. But cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man (Jer 17:5).

Sermon 335/C
A Sermon of Blessed Augustine the Bishop on One Martyr

1. Because the birthday of the blessed martyr has dawned, the day on which the Lord wanted us to celebrate with you, let us, with his giving, discourse something of the glory and patience of the martyrs. The glory indeed was despised, the patience was proved. For the glory lay hidden in the heavens, the patience was exercised on earth. He who does not shudder at their patience, let him come to the glory. For it is thought misery to suffer hard and harsh things in the flesh, because it is truly troublesome. Unless it were troublesome to men, it would not be glorious to the martyrs.

2. Set before your eyes two persons, as it were: one of desire, one of love. By desire I mean the love of sinning, for there is sometimes a desire which is called in a good sense. Likewise by love I mean the love of living rightly, for sometimes love too is called in a bad sense. Therefore I wanted to define what I said. The faithful desire the kingdom of heaven. Even thieves are called dear (cari) to one another. But there is no love (caritas) in those whom a bad conscience joins to one another, but in those whom wisdom delights in fellowship.

3. Consider, then—and distinguish—how many evils greedy men suffer, and for the things they desire, how hard things they sustain, which seem intolerable to men who do not desire them. But love makes them strong. But the love of evil is called desire, the love of good love. There are many things which are loved by the greedy, sometimes so diverse, that they are even found to be contrary to one another. Avarice gathers money, luxury scatters it. The one is needy, the other prodigal, and what is so contrary to one another as to gather and to scatter? Yet avarice commands one to sustain, by bearing pain, both how great things are done and how hard and harsh things . . . the pleasure you love. Yet even that itself sometimes, in the madness of love, is both loved basely and for its sake many things are borne bravely.

4. It is no wonder, then, dearly beloved, if love too has the strength of its own love. This the martyrs had, in it they endured all hard things. They loved what they did not see, but they believed it certain, and as far as it can be discerned by a man bearing flesh, they discerned it with the heart. For does not this flesh truly have its own beauty? And does not unfading wisdom have its own beauty? But the beauty of wisdom the wicked perceive and at length sometimes desire. For they too would want to be wise, if it were permitted them both to hold what they love and at the same time to have wisdom. Without doubt they would want both, they did not reject wisdom. You find a lover of fleshly pleasure wanting to be wise too. But you find a wise man a despiser of fleshly pleasure. It is very rare that you find a lover of pleasure a despiser of wisdom. If he could, he would have both, but he prefers one to the other, and so he imposes on himself, a wretch. He defrauds himself who loses better things by loving worse, but he does not feel the fraud in heavenly things who is delighted in base things.

5. Give me, then, a lover of the good of whom the Apostle says: And who can harm you if you are lovers of the good? (1 Pet 3:13) For in that which you love you suffer no loss. Whatever he who rages against you takes from you, he will not lose you, the lover, who made you. And as much as earthly things are taken away, so much are heavenly gifts increased, if for the love of them these are taken away. For it matters why you lose anything. And therefore let it be not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause. So we do not justify those martyrs who suffered many things, except when we attend to why they suffered. For your sake, he says—it is the voice of the martyrs—for your sake we are put to death all the day long (Ps 44:22 (43:22)). Take away: for your sake; what does it profit: we are put to death all the day long? Add: for your sake; what harm is it to be put to death all the day long? To be put to death all the day long for your sake, not only does no harm but even profits very much. The cause is in this which is said: for your sake; the suffering is in this which is said: we are put to death all the day long. You build the suffering well, if you do not take away the foundation, the love of God.

6. It matters what you say: "for your sake." For even that lascivious lover who ran into and clung to the beauty of the flesh, so boasts to his beloved: "For your sake, for your sake," he says, "I bore the anger of my father, for your sake I was beaten by a most severe father and by most harsh masters. For your sake I spent absolutely whatever I had, for your sake I remained in want." How many things you say: "for your sake"! And nothing for you? Indeed not only nothing for you but even everything "for your sake."

7. If money could hear its lovers, how many would say to it: "For your sake I bore a hard winter at sea, for your sake I sustained so many shipwrecks, for your sake, perishing in the waves, I made jettison, for your sake I lost both you; for, attending to what I still desired to have, I lost what I had." How many things: "for your sake"! But it is deaf, the thing to which you speak, nor does it hear you if for its sake you lose even yourself. And what does it profit, when for the sake of money you have perished? Both you perish and you do not find it. Indeed, if you have any, by perishing here you leave it behind. You pass on; then comes another lover of it. How many, loving it, left it behind, and by loving and by passing on perished. For although man walks in an image, yet he is troubled in vain (Ps 39:6 (38:7)). It is to be pitied that, although he walks in the image of God indeed, he is troubled in vain: He treasures up, and does not know for whom he gathers (Ps 39:6 (38:7)). For why is he troubled, except to treasure up? Behold, treasure up, but where wisdom commands, not where avarice abides.

8. Concerning money the Lord gave counsel, lest what has been acquired perish. Make for yourselves, he says, friends of the mammon of iniquity, that they too may receive you into eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). The martyrs, having a good cause and for the love of God sustaining many things, were received by certain ones when hungry, were clothed when naked, were taken in when strangers. For there is service to those set in tribulation. They were made friends from the mammon of iniquity. So the Lord gave good counsel even about money, if anyone hears it. For surely, if you love your money, you ought to beware lest it perish. If it has perished to them, it perishes to you. For from you it falls, to another it accrues. Do something from it, that it may not perish to you. And since it will depart before you, treasure up in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth corrupts (Matt 6:20). The place is fortified, why do you hesitate to move? What you have, send ahead, that you may come where you have sent it. Buy something from it for yourself which cannot perish. You know, dearly beloved, with what counsel the greedy for money act when they see themselves to have some coins. What do they say? "It is a round thing, it rolls, it perishes, it must be bound by the purchase of some possession." And they want to bind their money by buying an estate. And behold they bought an estate, they will have an estate. Surely the estate will not always have them? But neither will they have it, for after a little time they will move on without delay. Where you have bound your money, you cannot bind your soul there. For the time will come when your soul will be required of you. What you bought, whose will it be? So you will neither have the estate, nor will the estate have you, unless perhaps according to the body you are there dead and buried. For then something marvelous happens: it will have you, you will not have it.

9. So good and golden counsel of the Lord is given to him to whom it is said: "Move to where you do not lose." "What counsel is given! But I will not see it," you say. Afterward you will see it. But this which you have sent ahead you will not see. For you have given it at interest. You gave one thing, another will be rendered to you. He is almighty whom you wanted to make your debtor. He receives small things, but gives great. He receives few things, he will render very many. He created for you such an earth: you will cast a few grains to fill your granaries. If he created for you such an earth, what does he keep for you sowing good works, who made heaven and earth?

10. But we speak to the deaf greedy, whether to the lascivious loving beautiful bodies, or to the avaricious gathering and treasuring up money on earth. We speak to the deaf, they do not hear us. Lord, let them be healed that they may hear. To you nothing is impossible. To you no disease is incurable, because you are a great physician, especially because you showed toward us your love going before, because you did not spare your own Son, but handed him over for us all. How have you not with him given us all things. Open wide your throat, greedy man, now despise the few things, you will have many. He had conquered, ground down, trampled greed who said: As having nothing, and possessing all things (2 Cor 6:10).

11. So to many of the lascivious and avaricious the holy martyrs seemed to be mad when for the name of Christ they suffered so much and always truthfully confessed him. They were pressed to deny; confessing, they were killed, burned, exposed to beasts, openly they suffered horrible things; in secret they were crowned unspeakably. If earthly things were sought from them, what can be added to this glory by which their birthdays are celebrated? Many brave men went mad for glory, and said that blood must be shed for the homeland, nor did they hesitate to shed it, knowing that life itself passes away but that glory, even immortal, remains in them. What glory of theirs is to be compared to the glory of the martyrs? Who could find in the glory of this earth, who could find in the glory of human affairs, what an orator could find, what a fisherman could find? The tombs of brave men who died for the homeland are at Rome. To whose tomb has an Emperor deigned to enter? Behold, if earthly glory had been to be desired, not even of that were they defrauded who sought so great an honor among the angels. We see their glories on earth and are amazed. What would we feel if we saw them in heaven? How great an amazement of wonder would seize us if we saw the martyrs glorying among the angels, whose birthdays we see the peoples celebrating?

12. But seek the invisible things of the martyrs, my brothers. What they loved, love. What they endured, even if you do not endure it, prepare your minds to endure. First, as much as you can, choose the cause. For, the cause not being chosen, do not the martyrs suffer such things as thieves have often suffered, such as adulterers, such as evildoers, such as the sacrilegious? If you attend to the punishments, they are equal; if to the very many causes, they are far from one another. What has such proximity and likeness, and yet no nearness, as three crosses: one of the Lord and two of thieves? There were three, all were crosses, all were in one place, all those bodies hung on the wood, but the cause distinguished all. In the middle the Savior; on either side the guilty. That cross was a tribunal: he hung and distinguished; judged he hung and judged those hanging. Of those two guilty ones one merited punishment, the other a reward. Why did the other merit a reward? Because he changed his cause on the cross. Hanging he believed in him who was sent into far places; when the Lord came into his kingdom, then he wished to be kept in his mind. But what did the Lord say, when that one had said: Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom (Luke 23:42), as though saying: "I know my cause, I know my merits, so I am to be tortured for my deeds, but at least when you come, have mercy"; that one deferred, this one offered: Amen, amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43); why do you send yourself far, when I come? today you will be with me in paradise; him whom you hope will come I am never absent, and I am everywhere and there I come; but today you will be with me in paradise, because where you will be happily, without me you will not be able to be happy. So all the souls of the blessed, their bodies not yet received, are happy with Christ, are happy only from Christ. For him they loved, him they cherished, in him they had righteousness, in him wisdom, in him knowledge, in him the hidden treasures of knowledge and wisdom. How many things they despised here by suffering. They strongly refused to be rich. For what does the poor man lack if he has God?

13. Love what is good, my brothers, nothing is more beautiful, even if it is not seen except with the eyes of the heart. To you I speak. Behold, all the things you see through the eye of the flesh are beautiful: heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them, the stars gleaming from heaven, the sun filling the day, the moon tempering the night, the flying things, the swimming things, the walking things, men too, among all things made to the image of God, praisers of the creation, lovers of the creation, but only if they are lovers of the Creator. Whatever you love so as to neglect God, none but God made it. Whatever, I say, you love so as to neglect God, none but God made it. For if it were not beautiful, it would not be loved by you. And from where would it be beautiful, unless it were created by him who is invisibly beautiful? You love gold, God created it. You love beautiful bodies and the flesh, God created it. You love pleasant estates, God created them. You love this light as a great thing, God created it. If on account of what God created you neglect God, I beg you, love God himself too. For how worthy he is to be loved, how worthy he is to be loved because he created all that you love. So love it that you love him more. I do not want you to love nothing, but I want it ordered. Prefer the heavenly to the earthly, the immortal to the mortal, the everlasting to the temporal. Prefer the Lord to all, not by praising but by loving. For it is easy to prefer him by praising. Trial comes: I ask you whether you prefer by loving what you preferred by praising. For when you are asked: What is better: money or wisdom, money or righteousness, finally money or God? you do not hesitate to say: wisdom, righteousness, God. As you do not hesitate to say it, so do not hesitate to choose it. What is better: righteousness or money? And like boys, when they are questioned in school, you cry out vying with one another, "righteousness." I know you all, I hear your thoughts: righteousness is better. But trial will come. It sets out money on the other side. And trial says to you: "You can have this money; if you commit fraud the money accrues." But righteousness will say: "What do you choose? Now is the time for me to test your tongue." A while ago, questioned, you preferred righteousness to money; but now, the two set out: here money, there righteousness, as though blushing you close your eyes against righteousness, you stretch out your hand to the money. Ungrateful, foolish man, when, questioned by me, you preferred righteousness to money, you gave testimony against yourself. Surely God does not seek another witness after you convict yourself. In praising, righteousness was preferred, in choosing, money was preferred. Do you not see on whose side you wanted to be? On the perishing side of the perishing one. For money without doubt is perishing, because both the world will pass away and all its desire (1 John 2:17). Choose righteousness, because he who does the will of God abides forever, as he himself abides forever (1 John 2:17).

Sermon 335/D
On the Martyrs

1. The holy martyrs, when they suffer evils here, hope in the Lord. For by hope they were saved: they walk toward the promises, they do not yet hold what is given. Because, then, they hoped under the cover of his wings, that they might bravely and patiently sustain the evils of the world, what will you give them? They will be intoxicated by the abundance of your house (Ps 36:8 (35:9)). If he had more to say, he would say it. For what would he say? "They will drink"? Even a little is drunk. What would he say? "They will be filled"? Even the sober are filled. They will drink so much that they will be intoxicated. For in that intoxication they forget all past evils. O holy intoxication! Would that in this intoxication we were all drunk.

2. Behold what kind of intoxication those desire who get drunk in the places of the martyrs, and those whom the martyrs were persecuted with stones, they persecute with cups; moreover they even dance, and give the members of Christ for the sport of demons, and think they please the martyrs while they please the unclean spirits. How great things are these we say? Let them at least attend to those at whose memorials they get drunk: if these had loved such things, they would not be martyrs.

3. Do not think, then, most beloved brothers, that you cannot have the merits of the martyrs because there are no persecutions, such as there were in those times when the martyrs were crowned. There are no persecutions now, but the trials never cease. Surely, my brothers, there are Christian men of those sons of men who hope under the cover of the wings of God. And when the time of hope has passed, and the joy of the reality has come, they will be intoxicated by the abundance of his house and he will give them drink from the torrent of his delight. From where will he give them drink? From where will they be intoxicated? Hear from where. For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). The intoxication of life is to live without end. This intoxication is undigestible: no one digests it and returns to thirst. So there are men of that number of the sons of men hoping under the cover of the wings of God, who wrestle in their bed and conquer, conquer and are crowned. But men pertaining to "man," not sons of man, because they care for nothing but this salvation which, when it passes, they reckon none will follow, even if they are called Christians, when this salvation begins to be in danger for them, seek soothsayers, send to astrologers, hang unlawful remedies on their necks. They desire salvation and bind their own neck, they bind the neck of the outer man and choke the throat of the inner. But he who says: "I will not"—a friend suggesting, and a neighbor muttering, or a neighbor woman or maid, sometimes even from his own household register—he who says: "I will not: I am a Christian; God forbids this; they are the sacraments of demons; hear the Apostle: I do not want you to become partners of demons (1 Cor 10:20)"—it is answered him by the one who suggests it: "Do it and you will be well; this man and that man did it. What? Are they not Christians? Are they not faithful? Do they not run to church? And yet they did it and are well. That man did it and was at once healed. Do you not know him, that he is a Christian, faithful? Behold he did it and is well." But that sick man, because he does not love the salvation common to men and beasts, says: "If that man was made well from there, I refuse to be made well from there. For he can make me well to whom it was said: You will save men and beasts, Lord, as you have multiplied your mercies, O God (Ps 36:6-7 (35:7))." See the athlete of God, hear the athlete of Christ! O man sick and well! O weak and strong! O lying in bed and reigning in heaven! "But behold he refuses. Surely he does not take from me that divine salvation? It follows: But the sons of men will hope under the protection of your wings (Ps 36:7 (35:8)). But this salvation you do not see because the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord (Ps 37:39 (36:39)). I know that he keeps it for me. He who made me himself remakes me. But by death do you terrify me, for whom Life itself died? Christ gave his death to the impious, will he not give life to the godly?" He who says these things, and spurns such remedies, the more approved, the more they are called as if proven by experience, who flees such things, is a martyr in his bed. He grows faint and conquers, he barely moves his limbs and carries through battles. So this man suffers no evil, even if he dies of that disease. For he does not perish, but loses nothing, then rather he finds what he seeks. He will go out to his Lord, his forehead signed with the cross of Christ, to whom by unlawful amulets he did no injury. Will he, then, not give him what he promised, whom he himself protected as he fought? Surely the Lord protected him lest he suffer any evil, and helped his contest that the devil might be conquered by him. For many say, my brothers: "How did the martyrs conquer the devil?" As the good faithful conquer him. Hear the Apostle saying: Your struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). For flesh and blood raged against the holy martyrs. What is flesh and blood? Mortal men. Emperors, prefects, judges, soldiers, were flesh and blood. The raging peoples, the furious crowds, what else are they but flesh and blood? So lest the martyrs hate these furious and raging men, and, rendering in the heart evil for evil, be conquered by evil, the Apostle instructs them whom they have for their battle. Your struggle is not, he says, against flesh and blood. Those whom you see raging, raving, crying: Crucify, crucify (Luke 23:21), are flesh and blood. They are not alone, they are not those whom you see, the devil rages through them. Do you beware the devil the thief in your gold. Why do you fear in hay the hay? Why do you fear earth for the sake of earth. What is the impious man but earth? For what do you fear him, except for your earth, that is, for your flesh which was made of earth? Another's earth passes away and your earth will rise again. So do not fear these men, but pray for them and speak to them: "Why do you rage, brother, why are you stirred up? To me indeed you rage, but to yourself you perish. Oh, if you would change your mind! Oh, if you would change your life! Because we all are going to die and rise again. I indeed have hope in God, for whom I suffer these things. But you, if you remain in this faithlessness, a little while, and you will not be, and would that you were not, for your own good, but you will be, for your own harm, with inextinguishable fire and the worm that does not die!" But that man says this: "These are the very words of proud Christians boasting about the resurrection. Who came from there and made known to you that what you say is true?" "You speak truly: your grandfather did not come from there, but your Lord returned from there, the very God whom you persecute in me, and for his sake you kill me as guilty, by whom God is not offended."

4. Let us return to our order, my brothers. Your struggle is not against flesh and blood. They rage indeed but they are vessels of another. Fear the armed one, not the bow; that is, the devil, not the man through whom the devil works. Yet do not fear even him, but beware. How will you not fear him? By hoping under the cover of the wings of God, from whom is the salvation of the righteous, because he is their protector in the time of tribulation (Ps 37:39 (36:39)). For your struggle is not, he says, against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers and rulers of the world (Eph 6:12), that is, of men loving the world. He did not call those unclean spirits rulers of heaven and earth, but rulers of the world, because by "world" he meant men, lovers of the world, because by them they are ruled to rage. As they have been instigated, so they go to you. The prince of the power of this air, says the Apostle, that is, the devil. And what did he add? Who now works in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2). These children of disobedience: flesh and blood. So let them be guarded against, because in them the devil works to rage against you. Beware him, love these; assail him, pray for these, that even from them he may be driven out, and that those who were before your persecutors may become your imitators. So they are to be guarded against. But you will say: "I do not see them. How do I fight against them?" Against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, he said. By "in the heavenly places" he means this air. For not in that heaven where are the sun, moon, stars, where birds fly and yet are called the birds of heaven; so the unclean spirits, since they were lofty angels, thrust down into this air, indeed as into their prison, seduce those with whom they may burn.

5. Do not, then, say that there are no persecutions, because the trials do not cease. So abstain from unlawful things, from amulets, from incantations, from astrologers, from soothsayers. When you fall sick, do not seek such things and do not withdraw from God, lest you perish. But you will say with the Apostle: For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10). You lie in bed and you are an athlete of God. You do not move your limbs and you carry through battles. The fever does not withdraw and faith toward God goes forward. But behold a neighbor stands by, and a friend, and a maid—I have already said it, perhaps from the household register—carrying wax or an egg in her hands and says: "Do this and you will be saved. Why do you prolong your sickness? Make this amulet. I have heard one who there invokes the name of God and of the angels and you will be well. To whom do you leave your widowed wife, to whom your tender children?" But that man: "I will not do it, because I am a Christian. May I rather die than perish by this." Hear the word of a martyr. See whether this is not what the pagan said: "Sacrifice and you will live." But that man: "I will not do it." O merits of the martyrs that never withdraw! Those conquered in the arena, this man in his bed, those over the slayer, this man over the seducer. But he is not conquered, with him protecting who for him hung on the wood.

Sermon 335/E
On the Martyrs

1. The Lord wanted us to celebrate with you the solemn day of the blessed martyrs. From this, then, let us speak something, which the Lord may grant, who wanted the ark, in which he figured the Church, to be built of squared timbers. For a square, wherever in the dust, you find standing. A marvelous thing and as it were impossible but yet attend and you will find it; a square can be thrown down, it cannot fall. The martyrs were thrown down on the earth of humility but they did not fall, because in heaven they are crowned. There was no martyr who was not square in truth.

2. The glory of the martyrs in their solemnities can be noted by men, but how great it is in the sight of God cannot be seen. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). How precious, and indeed in the sight of the Lord! For when they were killed in the sight of men, they were cheap. How would the blood of the martyrs have been shed so abundantly unless it had been cheap to those shedding it? Those who killed the martyrs did not know that he was sowing. For from those few falling into the earth this crop rose up. So precious, even then when it seemed cheap to human eyes, in the sight of the Lord was the death of his saints, and how precious! What was the price of the death, but the death of the holy of holies? What is the holy of holies? It is known, there is no need for us to say it. Why then do we marvel if the death of the saints is precious, for whom the holy of holies died? He himself was that first grain of which this is. Of himself he spoke in the Gospel: A grain of wheat, he says, unless it falls into the earth remains alone. But if it falls and dies it bears much fruit (John 12:24). Christ was sowing and the Church was sprouting. And the grain fell and the grain rose and the grain ascended into heaven where there is a multitude of grains. Ask the Psalm; the grain that fell, where is it? Be exalted above the heavens, O God (Ps 57:5 (56:6)). The crop, where is it? Why, before I spoke, did you cry out, except because you too belong to that crop? Yet I will say also what you know. For it delights me to say what I ought, that from this I may merit to have what I believe. Where is that grain which fell? Be exalted above the heavens, O God. Where is his crop? And over all the earth your glory (Ps 57:5 (56:6)).

3. But perhaps, dearly beloved, you may have noticed in the holy readings which were recited a little before a certain not contemptible question. For in the book of holy John which is called the Apocalypse, when the glory of the martyrs was read, it was said of them: And in their mouth no lie was found and they are blameless (Rev 14:5). Again the psalm which was sung and which we heard, suiting the martyrs: Every man is a liar (Ps 116:11 (115:2)). The martyrs are praised and it is said: In their mouth no lie was found. And again from the voice of a martyr it is said: I said in my ecstasy: every man is a liar. If every man is a liar, then he who said this is a liar, but because he who said this is not a liar, then every man is a liar. And yet he himself who said this, because he was a man, was he not a liar? How did he say truly: Every man is a liar? If I found one man truthful, I would refute the sentence saying every man is a liar. So many thousands were found of those who were read from the Apocalypse, in whose mouth no lie was found, and it is read to me: Every man is a liar. Or perhaps we should sympathize with this man who said it, since he said it troubled. For he says: I said in my ecstasy. "Ecstasy" is understood as fear. For many manuscripts, where it is written: I said in my ecstasy, have: I said in my fear. Some have: in the excess of my mind. Since, then, some put "excess of mind," others put "fear," he who put the very Greek word thought it a saving of effort, lest the rashness of translation should weaken the force of the expression. Perhaps, then, since fear is a terror moving the mind from its place, therefore he could not absurdly translate it who said "fear," so that it agreed with him who said: in the excess of my mind. Perhaps, then, so that, set in trial and prepared to deny, he may have said in his fear: Every man is a liar, that is: What need is there that by speaking the truth I should die? But if I deny Christ and say what is false, I will remain a liar: Every man is a liar. Let him not believe his fear, in his fear perhaps he is deceived. And when he was trembling he received strength to say: O Lord, I am your servant and the son of your handmaid: you have broken my bonds (Ps 116:16 (115:7)). My great bond was the love of living, and in it the cause of dying. For many by loving to live have died forever. And again, many martyrs by despising life with an end have obtained life without end. As he who loves money, often by loving money neglects money, that by neglecting money he may gain more money. Whence the well-known saying of a certain known man: "To despise money at the right place is sometimes the greatest gain." And this the moneylenders do. Money, by giving, they acquire, as though they sow a little to reap much. So too the martyrs, by loving life despised life. By fearing death, they died; by wanting to live, they refused to live. So many bonds hold the soul: love of riches, love of powers, love of the affection of wife, parents, children, brothers, love of the homeland, love of one's land, love of this light, love of any kind of life only because it is life. By these bonds, then, while it is held back, it came to the trial, that if it confesses Christ all would be broken. Terrified and bound by so many tethers, fearing to be loosed, he said in his fear: Every man is a liar. Let us pardon him fearing, let us favor him rejoicing: You have broken my bonds. Love made truthful him whom fear had made a liar. See Peter saying: With you even to death (Matt 26:35). See him promising in presumption, denying in fear; troubled by the questioning of one maid he said: I do not know, I am not acquainted (See Matt 26:70). Do you think he did not at once say: Every man is a liar? But he wept bitterly and with most abundant tears washed away the filth of fear. And the Lord rose again and strengthened him by the example of his resurrection. He saw living him whom he had grieved over dying. Now Christ no longer found him fearing and denying. For why did he deny, except that he feared to die, except that he despaired of the resurrection? The Lord rose, showed himself to his eyes, strengthened him in love by asking him three times about love, who had three times denied him in fear, poured in the Holy Spirit. The short life grew cheap, the infinite was loved, and Peter suffered. Fear perished, love conquered. When he was questioned: Every man is a liar. When he suffered: You have broken my bonds.

4. We can say this, and on account of the fear of the speaker not reckon true the sentence by which it was said: Every man is a liar. But the apostle Paul corrects this sense, who set this testimony from the Scriptures and said: God alone is truthful, but every man is a liar as it is written (Rom 3:4). So every man is a liar. Understand it as the voice of truth, not of fear, for if you understand it as the voice of fear, not of truth, you charge the Apostle with falsehood. It is altogether true: Every man is a liar. And it is true what was said of so many thousands of men: In their mouth no lie was found. When the martyrs suffered, they confessed Christ, they did not deny that they were Christians. That they had held an assembly against the command of the kings, then unbelievers, they professed without doubt and trembling. On account of this no lie was found in their mouth. And if perhaps before they had any lies, on account of which it is true: Every man is a liar, they washed those away by that truth, they covered them by that love, because love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8).

5. Still let the more diligent searcher of the Scriptures question me and say to me: What then, when they were truthful, were they not men? In confession, in passion, when they were truthful, surely then were they not men? But if they were men, and were truthful, how is it true: Every man is a liar? I say plainly, I say without injury to the martyrs, indeed I say with the glory of the martyrs, that he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). Plainly insofar as they were men, they were liars. How then did they speak truly? Because the Lord had said to them: For it is not you who speak (Matt 10:20). Have you not heard today's reading too from the holy Gospel: Do not premeditate what you may say: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom (Luke 21:14-15). I will give you, for every man is a liar. So every man of his own a liar, of God truthful. In himself a liar, in God truthful. For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Attend to Peter himself: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16). A truthful man, but surely not because a man? Not of his own, because every man is a liar. But from where? Hear the Lord himself: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood, that is, man, because every man is a liar, did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt 16:17). So of your own a liar, of mine truthful. For all things that the Father has are mine (John 16:15). Finally a little after, do you want to hear Peter among all men, because he too is a man, do you want to hear Peter a man and therefore a liar? At once the Lord began to foretell his future passion and death. Where is Peter? Where the man? Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen (Matt 16:22). A man, a lying man, as a man of his own. And do you want to know that of his own? What did the Lord at once say? Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me (Matt 16:23). Why, except that he lied, except that, deceitful, he spoke his own? But from where does he lie? For you do not savor the things that are of God, but the things that are of men (Matt 16:23).

6. So all good things are to us from the highest good. All good things are to us from the perpetual fountain of goodness. Unless perhaps we have goodness from God and patience of our own. For thus the reading of the Gospel closed: And in your patience you will possess your souls (Luke 21:19). So someone will say: Our truth is not ours, since every man is a liar, and the one, who is of God, is truthful, when truthful. But our patience is ours. The Lord himself says: In your patience you will possess your souls. Do not be exalted, lest you lose what you have received. For it is your patience for this reason, because you have it, if indeed you have it. It is yours because you have it, not because you have it from yourself. For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) As we say: Give us this day our daily bread, and you say "our" and you say "give us." So what you call "our," is not from you so as to be yours. For if God did not make ours what he gave, he surely would not give it; what he gives you, by receiving becomes yours. But let us prove this of patience, lest perhaps the bread be so, but the patience be not so. Who said to us: In your patience you will possess your souls, who but Christ, but God? To whom we say: Shall not my soul be subject to God, for from him is my patience? (Ps 62:1, 5 (61:2, 6)) He himself says to us: In your patience you will possess your souls. We say to him: For you are my patience (Ps 71:5 (70:5)). Whence the weak may say to virtue, if he wants to have virtue: I will love you, O Lord, my strength (Ps 18:1 (17:2)). Let us pray that we may have what we do not yet have. Let us not be ungrateful for the things we have. For we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God (1 Cor 2:12).

Sermon 335/F
On the Martyrs

1. But what shall we say of the martyrs? How great a security was given them, that they did not care even about the dividing of their members? Does he take care about the number of the hairs and not take care in the resurrection about the wholeness of the members? So confess Christ. Choose for yourself one of two. Do you want Christ to confess you before his Father? Yes, you say. So do you too confess Christ before men.

2. For the holy martyrs did not presume on themselves but sought consolation from Christ. Therefore they conquered. Hear the voice of those not presuming on themselves. It is the voice of the holy martyrs: Unless the Lord had been in us, let Israel now say, unless the Lord had been in us, when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive (Ps 124:1-3 (123:1-3)). The martyrs say: Unless the Lord had been in us, unless he himself had helped, unless he himself had strengthened the heart in faith, unless he had given patience, unless he had supplied strength to those contending, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive. What is: they would have swallowed us alive? Thus, as we know Christ, as we know that he suffered and rose again, as we know that he is to come to the judgment of the living and the dead, unless he had helped, they would have swallowed us. He said "alive," that is, knowing. It is another thing to be ignorant of Christ. Therefore he is swallowed because he thinks there is no savior. Therefore he is swallowed but dead he is swallowed. For he who knows Christ the savior and denies him, is swallowed alive. He knows, so that, knowing, alive and aware he perishes. He denies and as though he does not perish. But rather then he perishes. Behold they denied Christ, they were released from the prisons, from the chains. Tell me: Did they perish or did they not perish? I ask the faith of the heart, not the eyes of the flesh. You see that it is not to perish to perish, and to perish not to perish. So it was said: He who finds his soul will lose it (Matt 10:39). By losing he does not lose, by not losing he rather will lose. Why do you deny Christ? O you who now rejoice loosed from chains. You answer: "I feared for my soul," you say. "I was to be killed. Therefore I denied. I took counsel for my soul lest I lose it." Rather you lost it, you were swallowed alive. If you had feared, you would not have lost it. Fool! you feared for your body not for your soul. Have you not heard him who said: Do not fear those who kill the body, but can do nothing to the soul? (Matt 10:28) Nor did you take counsel for the very body, because on the day of judgment the souls will burn with the body. You feared for the body lest the persecutor kill you. Behold he does not kill you because you denied Christ. You removed the persecutor by denying Christ. Remove the fever if you can. Behold it is coming, behold it will increase, behold it will cast you out of the body. Where will you go who have gone out of the body? But what I had begun to say, you did not take counsel even for the very body. For while your soul is being consumed and seething in the torments of fire your body rots, will be reduced to ash. And were the martyrs, you say, not men? Their bodies too are turned into ash. And when the voice comes from heaven, you will both rise again. The martyr comes forth, you come forth too. But see who where, where he where you. You have indeed a confused resurrection, but those who did well to the resurrection of life, but those who did evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29). Of what judgment? Of what punishment? Hear Isaiah the prophet: Their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched (Isa 66:24). If you do not amend while you live, behold where you rise again, to the burning, to the flames where the fire will not be quenched and the worms will not die. What is it that you feared? For what did you fear? For the body. Behold there clings to the body the Gehenna of fire and the worm. You see that when you feared you did not take counsel even for it. Do not fear and do fear. Do not fear lest here your soul be cast out by the persecutor. Do not fear lest your body be killed. You did not fear for the soul and you took counsel for the body. Both of soul and of body God will be your upholder, both the restorer of your soul and the restorer of your body.

Sermon 335/G
On the Martyrs

1. And so our martyrs loved God much. Because they had perfect love in them, therefore they did not fear the savagery of the persecutor. So the perfect love of the martyrs made them fear nothing. On every side the persecutors raged. On every side they suffered the storms and tempests of this world. They were strong in God and in Christ. Their own people weeping persecuted them more than their enemies raging. On this side the enemy terrified. On this side the wife lamented: "To whom do you leave us? Consent, live with us, God forgives! To whom do you leave our loneliness?" These things that man threatens: "Unless you do it I will torture, kill, burn." Between the threats of the persecutor and the tears of the wife, he stood, neither broken on this side, nor bent on that, fixed in God, upright in Christ, laughing at the threats of the persecutor—for the persecutor could not threaten eternal punishments—despising even the tears of the wife, because the marriage of the soul with Christ is greater. Hoping for the heavenly he spurned the earthly. Seeing the future he was not terrified by the present, and, love being fulfilled, as it is written: it casts out fear (1 John 4:18). For there was nothing that a man perfect in love should fear. But we find it said elsewhere: The fear of the Lord, chaste, abiding forever and ever (Ps 19:9 (18:10)). Here it is said: Perfect love casts out fear, there because the fear of the Lord abides forever and ever. So there are two fears: one which love casts out, the other abiding forever and ever. So there is an earthly fear, there is also a chaste one, nor could it be better called than chaste.

2. So, as I had begun to say, why do you boast of your bad punishment, O schismatic, which has no good cause? So let us honor the martyrs within in the Catholic Church, having grace not audacity, godliness not rashness, constancy not obstinacy, gathering not scattering. Accordingly hear the martyr praying: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). He did not say: my punishment, but: my cause. For he attended to the martyr of the martyrs, the head of the martyrs, the lord of the martyrs, the example of the martyrs, the spectator of the martyrs, the helper of the martyrs, the crowner of the martyrs. He attended to him not magnifying the punishment, but distinguishing the cause. For he himself said: Blessed are those who suffer persecution (Matt 5:10). Still it is confused. The adulterer suffers persecution for the sake of lust, the murderer for the sake of cruelty, the thief for the sake of fraud, the rest of the wicked suffer persecution for their crimes. What you say let me hear. Blessed are those who suffer persecution. You have recalled the punishment. Distinguish the cause. Hear, he says, I distinguish. Follow: those who suffer persecution, for the sake of righteousness. Why do you exaggerate the punishment to me? O false witness, prove the righteousness. So it is not the punishment that makes the martyrs, but the cause. Do not exaggerate your punishment, prove first your righteousness, which you are not going to do but you will indeed prove by the cutting off of your iniquity. If you want, brothers, to imitate the true martyrs, choose for yourselves the cause, that you may say to God: Judge me, O Lord, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). Distinguish not my punishment, for the nation that is not holy has this too, but my cause which none has but the holy nation. So choose for yourselves the cause, a good and just cause, since blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:10).

Sermon 335/H
On the Birthday of the Martyrs

1. All the solemnities of the most blessed martyrs admonish us how much the present life is to be despised, and how much the future is to be sought. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ himself, the prince of martyrs, whose passion was the price of the martyrs, who was born not by the condition of a mortal but by the dignation of mercy, both willed to die and to rise again. For he would not have died, if he had not willed to die; nor would he have risen, unless he had died. So he willed both for this reason: by dying he commended to us the contempt of the present life; by rising, the desire of the future life. Behold in my passion and resurrection both of these for you, that is, both what you may endure in this life, and what you may desire in the future. So one life, laborious, full of troubles, trials, fears, and pains, by which this world runs its course, Christ showed us in his passion; but that life where no one will grieve, no one will fear, where no one will die, no one will be reconciled because no one will quarrel, he showed us by his resurrection, as though saying: Behold what you may suffer and what you may hope, that you may suffer the passions, that you may hope the resurrection. And what a resurrection! Not such as was the resurrection of Lazarus dying again. Christ rising, rising from the dead, as the Apostle says, dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9). I know that you desire such a life. For who would not desire it? Even the impious gentiles want to be immortal. But they do not believe that they can be immortal. For those who have not received the faith have lost the hope of immortality. So it is no great thing to desire immortality: for this is the desire even of the impious; but it is indeed great to believe that we will be immortal, and so to live that we may be able to come to that very immortality. Therefore every man wants to have, if he could, the power of an angel, but he does not want to have the righteousness of an angel. He wants to have immortality, and he does not want to have godliness. They want where one arrives, and they refuse the way by which one arrives.

2. So you, brothers, I admonish, exhort, and beseech, that as you devoutly celebrate the solemnity of the martyrs, so you love the holy conduct of the martyrs. They are martyrs, but they were men. By their prayers they help us, but they were what we are. So do not despair of their merits. For he who gave to them, can give also to us. For we do not worship them as gods, but honor them on account of God, but we worship that God who is both our Lord and theirs. They by his grace are his friends, let us be at least his servants. Nevertheless if we truly love the martyrs and follow their footsteps, why shall not we too be friends of God, by his grace, not by our merit? In our happiness he himself is praised, who makes us, from wretched, happy. For we through ourselves could make ourselves wretched; but to make ourselves happy we are not able. Let us run to him, let us supplicate him, and what they received, we too will receive.

3. Yesterday I exhorted Your Charity: whoever of you are catechumens, that you hasten to the washing of regeneration, all delays set aside; whoever were living damnably in sins and shameful things, uncleannesses, that you change your life, do penance, do not despair of life; whoever also are doing penance (and what is sweet to you is not the penance for sins but the license), that you change your life and be all prepared to be reconciled according to the will of God, since what God has willed is better for man, not what we will. Let us indeed ask him who is able to free us from all things, and to give us peace, as he freed the three boys from the furnace. Those boys, or rather young men—for by custom they are called three boys, for Scripture them h . . .

Sermon 335/I
On the Birthday of the Martyrs

1. We know what we have sung, and we hold it well: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). For by his price the death of the saints is precious. So it is not to be wondered at that the death of those is precious who were bought at so great a price. For the world is not weighed against the blood of him through whom the world was made. But that he might have blood which he might shed for us, the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). So his blood is the price of us all, which blood nevertheless was shed for the forgiveness of sins. For what were sinners worth, or how much were they worth? Was that blood truly the price of sinners? Indeed Christ died for the impious. Hear the Apostle: God commends his love toward us, he says, because when we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8-9). When we were still sinners, were we worth so much? Indeed, we would be worth nothing, if we remained sinners. That buyer of ours by his price cleansed what he had bought. For how would a sinner be bought at so great a price, unless he were cleansed by his price?

2. So what we were before he bought us, let us not look back upon, lest we remain on the way. And let us not look back, and yet hold it in memory. For if we look back, we return to it; if we forget, we are ungrateful. So what we were, it is both good to remember and quick to hate: to remember that we may give thanks, to hate lest we return to the old things. For Jesus did not die for sinners by loving sinners. Which indeed, if we seek it on the surface, presents some difficulty of question. For how did he not love those for whom he willed to die? And who are they for whom he willed to die? You heard the Apostle: When we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If, then, he loved those for whom he died, and they are sinners for whom he died, then he loved sinners. Let the sinner be silent, let the Savior speak. I know from where comes what you say, O sinner: you love to be a sinner. For you would not say: the Savior loved sinners, unless you loved to be a sinner. So let the sinner, as I said, be silent; let the Savior speak. What does the Savior say? Behold you have now been made well, sin no more, lest something worse befall you (John 5:14). How threateningly he forbade what you loved! So he loves what you wished to be, to whom he threatens such things, if you roll back to what you were?

3. How then did he die for sinners, if he does not love sinners? Plainly not loving sinners, he died for sinners. Understand, and you do not labor. You ask me how he did not love sinners who died for sinners. Tell me first what I ask you, and you yourself will answer yourself about what you had asked. What each one loves, does he want it to exist, or not want it to exist? I think that, if you love your children, you want them to exist; but if you do not want them to exist, you do not love them. And whatever you love, you want it to exist, nor do you at all love what you desire not to exist. What then did the Lord want, when he died for us? That we be sinners, or that we be freed from sins? If he died for us for this reason, that he might blot out our sins, surely he did not love what he blotted out? Who blots out what he loves? If you are faithful, if you have believed in him, if you have your heart on high, that he might write what you are, he blotted out what you were.

4. See him. Hear him speaking in the psalm through prophecy: Their weaknesses, he says, were multiplied, afterward they made haste (Ps 16:4 (15:4)). What is: Their weaknesses were multiplied? The law entered in, that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20). And what: afterward they made haste? Where the offense abounded, grace superabounded (Rom 5:20). What then? Afterward they made haste, because, filled with diseases, they sought the physician. What then? I will not gather their assemblies, he says, of bloods (Ps 16:4 (15:4)). What is: I will not gather their assemblies of bloods? I will not gather them through those sacrifices of cattle, not of bloods, but of one blood, on account of which blood precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15 (115:15)). So now I will not gather their assemblies of bloods. For by those bloods they were convicted, not cleansed. There was given, there was shed one cleansing blood, for many convicting bloods. One blood was given, and what then? Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips (Ps 16:4 (15:4)). Before that one blood was shed, when their assemblies were gathered of bloods, their names did not die: the adulterer was an adulterer; the thief was a thief; the striker was a striker; the sacrilegious was sacrilegious. One blood was shed: I will not be mindful of their names through my lips. Do not err, says the Apostle, neither fornicators, nor those serving idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the rapacious, nor the slanderous, will possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10); these were their names. And that you may know that these were their names, hear what follows: And these things indeed you were (1 Cor 6:11). And where is: Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips? But you were washed, but you were sanctified (1 Cor 6:11). So now what you were you are not.

5. Surely God loves sinners: surely sinners, through his blood, what they were they are not. How are they loved, since the Lord Christ loved the righteous, not sinners? What he wanted to make he loved, not what he found. The physician, if he fulfills what he is called, loves the healthy, not the sick. And I plainly dare to say, and it is true, he came to the sick for this reason, because he does not love the sick. What I said seems contrary, but I ask: Why did he come to the sick? To make him well. So he does not love the sick. What he wants to make he loves, what he wants to take away he does not love. So the holy martyrs were made well, bought at so great a price, redeemed by their Creator. Twice servants, because both made and bought. And from where twice servants, thence free: bondsmen of the Creator, brothers of the Redeemer. That you may see the servants, read the Gospel as an instrument; there see where they are bought. Attend to the very transaction: the purse of their price hung on the wood, was struck, was poured out. He poured out, and bought: you read, and you find the instrument of servants. He made them brothers from servants, and what was the instrument of servants became the testament of sons. Amen.

Sermon 335/J
On the Birthday of the Martyrs

1. The holy martyrs, witnesses of Christ, fought against sin even to blood, because he himself was in them, through whom they conquered. And now, those who fight against sins recognize the fight and desire the crown. For when the enemies of the name of Christ persecuted the martyrs, those fought within themselves, and conquered without. But they did not conquer without, unless they first conquered within. Behold I tell you how the enemy came to the martyr. And he seized him, and bound him, and led him to the judge. The judge said to him: Deny Christ if you want to live. But he did not deny, because he wanted to live. How then did he first fight within? Because the sweetness of this life said: Deny. He did not listen, and confessed Christ. Conquering within the sweetness of life, he conquered without the persecutor.

2. What is it, then, that I said? Now too those fight who fight against sin, and those who recognize the fight desire the crown. For this I said a while ago, and I owe you to expound what it is. You heard when the Apostle was read. I recall the very words. For if you live according to the flesh, he says, you will die. But if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live (Rom 8:13). This is the Christian fight: to mortify by the spirit the deeds of the flesh. A deed of the flesh is to covet another man's wife. The very being delighted and coveting is already a delight of the flesh. He does not yet commit adultery, but already desire titillates him. But conscience will conquer, if patience is held. Who is there who does not suffer such a war? All suffer it but not all conquer. But as not all conquer, so neither are all conquered. But there are those who do not even fight. For when desire has risen in his heart, in that very hour he consents to it. But he does not do it for this reason, because he does not find a place. He who does not do it for the reason that he does not find a place, meanwhile has had no place on earth, and has lost his place in heaven.

3. Desire rose, and you rose. But you cannot come to another man's wife. Already you walk bound, because where you consented, there you remained captive. But he who does not consent is not conquered by desire. It fights by that delight. Do you fight by contradiction. It will say: Let us do it, that we may live with delight. Answer you: Let us not do it, that we may live without end. So long do you fight with it, until it too begins not to rise. Or if at some time it has risen for a little, it quickly blushes and perishes. What I said of the love of another man's wife, this I say of the love of drunkenness, of the love of money, this I say of the love of pride and all the rest where there are bad loves and bad conduct.

4. But he who contradicts those bad loves, becomes a Christian by good conduct. And he fights daily in conscience, that from him who sees it he may ask the crown, when he has conquered. But would he conquer, if he himself fought? Leave him there alone, and he is conquered. So when you do not consent to the desires of the flesh presuming on yourself, you are alone, and because you presume on yourself, you alone act. But when, reckoning nothing to your own strength, you hand yourself wholly to God, it is God who for you works both to will and to perfect according to your good will (Phil 2:13). And therefore he said: If by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live. Let human frailty claim nothing here for itself, let it reckon nothing to its own efforts and nothing to its own strength, because if it imputes it to itself, it makes a place for pride, and pride makes a place for ruin. But he who reckons to God the whole of what he has accomplished, makes a place for the Holy Spirit. And therefore the Apostle says: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom 8:14). If, then, we are sons of God, the Spirit of God leads us, the Spirit of God rules us. Whatever evil we do is ours. But whatever good we do is God's, who works in us both to will and to perfect according to our good will (Phil 2:13).

Sermon 335/K
On the Anniversary of the Burial of a Bishop

1. This solemnity, my brothers, is in honor of God on account of a servant of God. For a servant, when he is rightly honored, is honored in the name of his Lord. So the blessed . . . servant of God, today laid down the burden of his flesh and committed to the earth his flesh that will rise again. Earth was rendered to earth, the spirit to the Spirit of God. But the laying down of the body is to each man such as he was in the body. For death is a certain middle thing, which in itself is neither good nor bad; for when the last day of this life comes, it distinguishes and separates two things that had been joined, the invisible soul from the visible flesh, the perceiving soul from the flesh in which the soul perceives, because flesh without the soul perceives nothing. So these two joined things, very unlike one another, soul and flesh, separated make death. Accordingly death, which disjoins and separates these two, seems in itself neither good nor bad, but to the good it is good and to the bad it is bad.

2. You heard the Apostle saying: What I should choose I do not know. But I am pressed by two, having the desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ: for that is much the best; but to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake (Phil 1:22-24). One thing is good, another is necessary. "Good" has the name of goodness, "necessary" has the name of necessity. If all were learned, what need was there for the apostle Paul to be held longer in this life? But because many were to be built up, the architect was held, who knew most skillfully to lay the foundation Christ in the hearts of believers. So too the blessed . . . dispensed the word and sacrament of God as long as the Lord willed. But when it pleased the householder to call his servant out of the house of clay and transfer him to heaven, the clay house itself too was committed to the earth, and that clay house awaits the resurrection when it will see the Creator. For the day will come, as the Lord says, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and those who did well will come forth to the resurrection of life, but those who did evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). Life is to be loved, judgment to be feared. Here choose what you love, avoid what you fear; for no one avoids the judgment by fearing it, but by living well. For what does it profit to fear and to live badly? If you live badly and fear, you will come to what you love, but do you escape what you fear?

3. Here, then, is the contest, this life is a theater to God watching: here is the battle, here the conflict with all the vices and especially with the prince of the vices, as with Goliath. For the devil challenges the soul as it were to single combat. He is conquered when one stands, but in the name of the Lord, not in the strength of the warrior. Whatever evil and unlawful thing is suggested to your heart, whatever malignant desire has arisen against your mind from your flesh, these are the darts of that enemy, who challenges you to single combat. Remember that you are fighting. The enemy is invisible, but invisible too is your protector. You do not see with whom you contend, but you believe in him by whom you are protected. And if you have the eyes of faith, you see him too: for every faithful one sees with the eyes of faith the adversary daily challenging. But from where do you fight? From where, do you think? Behold, as David did. From the river he chose five smooth stones. The river is the passing of temporal things: in this passing of temporal things, the human soul received the law from God. And since the law is first contained in the five books of Moses, he chose five stones from the river. But they were called smooth, because he who used them was smooth, because he was gentle, because he was meek, because he was submissive: For my yoke is smooth, and my burden is light (Matt 11:30). But what does the law profit if there is no grace?

4. Therefore he put those five stones into a pail of milk, because milk signifies grace, because it is given freely. The woman receives food: the things necessary for the support of the body pass into the juice of the flesh, the rest, superfluous, are discharged by their own ways, the juice of milk runs to the breasts that it may freely feed the hungry little ones. For the mother has full breasts and seeks lips into which to pour, and the milk, if no one sucks it, burdens the mother. So the holy ones of God have their breasts full of the grace of God: they seek into whom to pour it. And the Lord himself, to nurse us as it were, see what he did. His wisdom, which none of us could comprehend with the mind as it were solid food, but the angels are fit to receive it, for the angels live on that very food: but men cannot use such food, because they are weak, what then did God do, but what a godly mother? Because a little infant cannot take solid food, the mother transfers the solidity of the food into flesh, and as it were makes it flesh that it may be fit for the infant. So God made the Word flesh that it might be fit for us little ones. Behold solid food: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God (John 1:1). This solidity the angels eat: they feed and are refreshed, and there is no failing of that on which they feed. Who of us could approach, with the weakness of this mind and flesh, to feed there on what was said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing. 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 (John 1:1-5)? To this solidity what human weakness can approach? What ease of ours can take it in? But do not be frightened, O throng of little ones! The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

5. Therefore, to signify this grace, the servant of God put five stones into the pail in which he was accustomed to receive the milk when he milked, and he went forth to the fight armed with grace, and the more unconquered the more faithful. That man cursed by his gods (1 Sam 17:43), this man did not return a curse for a curse, but that man spoke, this man presumed. Worthy were those by whom he might be cursed, worthy is our God by whom one might presume. With one stone he laid low so monstrous and terrible an enemy. He received it on the forehead, and fell, where he did not have the sign of grace. David ran, stood over the prostrate but not yet utterly extinguished—he lay but still somehow lived—and with that man's own sword he slew the remnants of life. And this signifies something. My brothers, by the first dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as of that spiritual David who had come from the family of David, our enemy received it on the forehead, and was laid low. There lay all the superstition of the gentiles, which could not afterward raise itself against the Church of God, because even when it raised itself, then it was acting, but martyrdom was being crowned. Then, the Church advancing, since that Goliath was carrying a great broadsword or blade, that is, a most monstrous sword, the eloquence of this world which subjected many minds to itself, many servants of God learned even that eloquence, that Goliath might be killed by his own sword. How eloquent was holy Cyprian, how gleaming his blade appeared in his letters. It is the sword of Goliath, but wrested from him already lying, that the enemy might be slain. With that very eloquence we daily fight with Goliath, and would that it might befall us, with him slain, to triumph. But daily from his remnants he fights in the hearts of men: let us in the name of the Lord overcome him.

6. Let no one, my brothers, absolutely no one contend with any vice in his heart and presume on himself. Do not be negligent in fighting, but neither proud in presuming. Whatever it is that moves you, whether from ignorance or from desire, come to the fight, do not be sluggish, but call upon the spectator that he may help the laborer. So you conquer. Otherwise you do not conquer because it is not you who conquer. For did David conquer? Attend to his words and see that he himself did not conquer. For he says: The battle is God's (1 Sam 17:47). What is it to say: This battle is God's, but: God fights through me? Of myself he uses as it were his vessel; he himself lays low the enemy, he himself frees the people, he himself gives the glory, not to us but to his name. So by fighting thus and confessing him, we securely end this life, and, the contest finished, we rest in the bosom of holy rest, where the blessed . . . rests, surely after grave contests, surely after marvelous battles. For a man fights, sometimes with no other man seeing. For no other man sees in your heart what thoughts you suffer, under what suggestions you are in danger, by what desires you are goaded. Some things flatter, some terrify: it is to be feared lest you be caught by those flattering, lest you be broken by those terrifying. In this contest what remains but to say: In the name of the Lord my God I will overcome him (See Ps 118:10-12 (117:10-12)); in this contest what remains to say but: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory (Ps 115:1 (113:9))? If you hold these things, having the law in the pail of milk, you will be unconquered. Easily will be laid low whatever struggles against you, that he who appointed you the contest may watch you contending and help you laboring and crown you conquering.

Sermon 335/L
A Sermon on One Righteous Man

1. We celebrate today the memory of a righteous man. So this sermon is owed to Your Charity by our ministry, that we say something from that which, with the Lord's consent, we have sung with heart and mouth: The righteous man will be in everlasting remembrance, he will not fear the evil report (Ps 112:6-7 (111:7)). For this psalm was read that it might remind us for whose good this solemnity is held. For it is not because the holy Church celebrates by an anniversary return the last days of the righteous and holy who go out of this world, that thereby honor is increased for those righteous, but an example of imitation is set before us.

2. For if we despise the memory of the righteous, we do not love the righteous, and we reckon them, the dead, among the dead, which far be it from us, that we should be like those Sadducees of whom, just now when the Gospel was read, we heard that, not believing the resurrection of the dead, and supposing that there is nothing of life after this life, they set before the Lord a question about seven men, who had one woman, succeeding one another in marriage to her. For they troubled the Jews with this question, but they will not trouble Christians, because they did not convict Christ, but rather were convicted by Christ. Who, then, are troubled by such a question? Those who think that the dead rise again for this, that they may live in that world likewise as they live in this world. Therefore they said: All the brothers died, and all had had one woman, afterward she too died: in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? (Matt 22:28) The Jews were troubled. Why were they troubled? Because they hoped for a carnal life after death. The Jews were troubled, but he whom the Jews killed was not troubled, and therefore Christ resolved this question that Christians might not be troubled in it. So let us hear our Master answering. For he says: You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor take wives, but will be like the angels in heaven (Matt 22:29-30). Why then do you wait to learn whose wife she will be, where no one will have a wife? A wife is necessary in human affairs, that there may be born those who will live, to succeed those who will die. But there what need is there of a spouse, where there is no need of offspring? For what need is there that children be born, where parents do not die, where all have one Father whom they cannot carry to the grave? Because, then, in the resurrection this is promised us, that we will be like the angels in heaven, in such everlasting remembrance the righteous man will be and he will not fear the evil report. But in what everlasting remembrance he will be is plain, but from what evil report he will not fear is hidden. So it behooves that through us you be reminded of what you know, not hearing what you do not know. Now I recall it and you all will recognize from what evil report the righteous man will not fear.

3. The righteous man will be in everlasting remembrance, in which everlasting remembrance now the soul of the righteous lives in rest with the saints, removed and segregated from all the punishments and darkness of the impious; but at the end of the world, the body received, no longer mortal but immortal, no longer animal but spiritual, which is sown in dishonor and will rise in glory (1 Cor 15:43), he will be made equal to the angels of God and the righteous man will be in that everlasting remembrance. But from what evil report will he not fear? Hear this too, and so act that you may not fear the evil report. For our Lord Jesus Christ says, who cannot be deceived, who deceives no one: When the Son of man comes in his glory, he says, all the nations will be gathered before him, and he separates them as a shepherd the sheep from the goats: the sheep he sets at the right, the goats at the left (Matt 25:31-33). He recalls their good works, he rebukes their evil ones. Not to make it long, he will say to those who are at his right: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the origin of the world (Matt 25:34). In this everlasting remembrance the righteous man will be. What will he say to those at the left? Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). From this evil report the righteous man will not fear. Let us choose, then, while we live, where we are to be after death. For according to the merits of each the righteous judge is to give rewards. Let us watch, therefore, as much as by his gift we can, that we may have as our advocate that same Son of God, who is the judge of all.

Sermon 335/M
A Sermon on One Righteous Man

1. We celebrate today the day of a dead righteous man, and he is not here. But if you want to know where he is, ask the reading which you first heard: The righteous man, if he is overtaken by death, will be in refreshment (Wis 4:7). For what refreshment is there in this world, in which all things are full of tribulations, and when the tribulations spare us, are full of trials? For this world, whether it threatens or flatters, is to be feared. But let God be feared, and the world rather despised, so that it is the more to be guarded against. If, then, we want to be in refreshment, when death overtakes us, let us be righteous.

2. Perhaps someone says: It is too much for me. For let us attend to what is written: The righteous man, if he is overtaken by death, will be in refreshment, and when we ask who is righteous, the Psalm terrifies us: Every man is a liar (Ps 116:11 (115:2)). Let us hear the book of Wisdom: The righteous man, if he is overtaken by death, will be in refreshment; let us hear the Psalm: I said in the excess of my mind: every man is a liar. Surely holy Domitian was not a man? But if he was a man, and every man is a liar, how was he righteous, if he was a liar? or how is he in refreshment, if he was not righteous?

3. Let us attend, then, dearly beloved, we have, full of witnesses for this thought, no little refreshment in that we hear the Apostle saying: For to this end Christ died, that he might be Lord both of the living and of the dead; and: For whether we live or die, we are the Lord's (Rom 14:9, 8). He is the righteous one, he will not lose his own: we are certain that Christ was not a liar. Christ a man, and not a liar. How then every man a liar? Because Christ was so a man, that he was not only a man. He, unless he were both God and man, would be a liar. So great and so good a one died for us, and do we fear death? He went before and rose again: we are his members and we follow the head.

4. For the Psalm too consoles us: What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he has rendered to me? (Ps 116:12 (115:12)) He who said: I said in the excess of my mind: every man is a liar, a lying man gives thanks to the Lord, and does not find what to render to him for so great benefits, which he received from him. For what did we receive from him, when we ask what to render and do not find it? We did not exist and he created us; and the beasts did not exist and he created the beasts; more, that he made us to his own image: we had perished and he sought us; he gave us the death of his Son as a pledge, and promised us the life of his Son; from all our sins in the saving baptism he cleansed us, and because by living here we afterward contracted what he might forgive, that we might say: And forgive us our sins (Luke 11:4), he taught us; he cleansed the whole in the baptized, he cleansed the whole in the reborn living one; he does not leave us to die; he does not permit us to die; I mean in sin, which death is malignant and eternal; he admonishes the one called, instructs, helps, forgives, frees. What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he has rendered to me? What do you say, man? What do you want to render? Whatever you find, you received from him.

5. So we will come, we will come, if we live by faith, for then we will be righteous because the righteous lives by faith (Rom 1:17), so we will come to that reward which will be equal for all. The boys believe, they came at the first hour; the adolescents believe, they came at the third hour; the young men believe, they came at the sixth hour; the more grave believe, they came at the ninth hour; the decrepit believe, they came at the last hour. They came at different hours and received one reward. So the last were made first and the first last. What is, the last first and the first last? Because what the first received, this the last also received. What is that denarius? Eternal life. Why is it equal for all? Because there no one lives more, no one less. To this let us tend, let us trust in the Lord, let us escape the way of trial, let us have the life of happiness.

Sermon 336
On the Dedication of a Church

1. The celebration of this gathering is the dedication of a house of prayer. So this is the house of our prayers, but the house of God is we ourselves. If the house of God is we ourselves, we are being built up in this world, that we may be dedicated at the end of the world. The building, indeed the building-up, has labor, the dedication has exultation. What was done here, when these things were rising, this is done now when those who believe in Christ are gathered. For by believing, timbers and stones are cut, as it were, from the woods and mountains: but when they are catechized, baptized, formed, they are, as it were in the hands of craftsmen and workers, hewn, lined up, planed. Nevertheless they do not make the house of the Lord, except when they are joined together by love. These timbers and stones, if they did not cohere with one another in a certain order, if they did not knit themselves peaceably, if by cohering with one another they did not in a certain way love one another, no one would enter here. Finally, when you see in some structure stones and timbers cohering well with one another, you enter secure, you do not fear collapse. So the Lord Christ, wanting to enter, and to dwell in us, said, as though building: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (John 13:34). A commandment, he says, I give you. For you were old, you were not yet making me a house, you were lying in your ruin. So that you may be drawn out of the oldness of your ruin, love one another. Let Your Charity consider, then, that this house is still being built throughout the whole world, as was foretold and promised. For when the house was built after the captivity, as another psalm has it, it was said: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 96:1 (95:1)). What there it said, a new song; this the Lord said, a new commandment. For what has the new song, but the new love? To sing belongs to the lover. The voice of this singer is the fervor of holy love.

2. Let us love, let us love freely: for we love God, than whom we find nothing better. Let us love him for his own sake, and ourselves in him, yet for his sake. For he truly loves a friend, who loves God in the friend, either because he is in him, or that he may be in him. This is true love: if we love for the sake of something else, we hate rather than love. For he who loves iniquity: what does he hate? perhaps his neighbor, perhaps his neighbor woman? Let him be afraid, he hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). Hatred of the soul, love of wickedness. So against the hatred of wickedness, love of the soul. You who love the Lord, hate evil (Ps 97:10 (96:10)). God is good, evil is what you love, and you love your own evil self: how do you love God, when you still love what God hates? For you heard that God loved us: and it is true, he loved us; and what sort we were when he loved us, if we attend to it, we blush. But we do not blush for this reason, because, loving us such, he made us to be not such. We blush at the recollection of past things, we rejoice in the hope of future things. For why should we still blush for what we were, and not rather be confident because by hope we have been saved? Finally we heard: Draw near to him, and be enlightened, and your faces will not blush (Ps 34:5 (33:6)). If the light withdraws, you return to confusion. Draw near to him, and be enlightened. So he is light, we without him are darkness. If you withdraw from the light, you will remain in your darkness: but if you draw near, you will not shine from your own: For you were once darkness, says the Apostle to the faithful from unbelievers: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). If, then, light in the Lord, darkness without the Lord. Further, if light in the Lord, and darkness without the Lord; draw near to him, and be enlightened.

3. Attend in the Psalm of dedication, which we just sang, to the building from the ruin. You have torn my sackcloth (Ps 30:11 (29:12)): this pertains to the ruin. What then to the building? And you have girded me with gladness (Ps 30:11 (29:12)). The voice of dedication: That my glory may sing to you, and I may not be pricked (Ps 30:12 (29:13)). Who is it that speaks? In his words recognize him. If I expound, it is obscure. So I will say his words, you will at once recognize the speaker, that you may love the one addressing you. Who is it that could say: Lord, you have rescued my soul from hell (Ps 30:3 (29:4))? Whose soul has now been rescued from hell, but that of which it was said in another place: You will not leave my soul in hell (Ps 16:10 (15:10))? A dedication is set forth, and a deliverance is sung: the song of the dedication of the house is jubilated, and it is said: I will exalt you, Lord, for you have upheld me, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me (Ps 30:1 (29:2)). Attend to the Jewish enemies, who thought they had killed Christ, conquered him as an enemy, destroyed him as a man like the rest and mortal. He rose on the third day, and this is his voice: I will exalt you, Lord, for you have upheld me. Attend to the Apostle saying: Wherefore God exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name (Phil 2:9). And you have not made my enemies rejoice over me. They indeed rejoiced in the death of Christ, but in his resurrection, ascension, preaching some were pricked. So in his preaching and the proclamation through the constancy of the Apostles some were pricked and converted, some were hardened and confounded; yet none rejoiced. Now when the churches are filled, do we think the Jews rejoice? The churches are built, dedicated, filled, how do they rejoice? Not only do they not rejoice, but they are even confounded; and the voice of the one exulting is fulfilled: I will exalt you, Lord, for you have upheld me, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me. You have not made them rejoice over me: if they believe in me, you will make them rejoice in me.

4. Not to say much, let us come at last to those things which we sang. How does Christ say: You have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness? (Ps 30:11 (29:12)) His sackcloth was the likeness of the flesh of sin. Let it not grow cheap to you, that he says, my sackcloth: there was enclosed your price. You have torn my sackcloth. We escaped to this sackcloth. You have torn my sackcloth. In the passion the sackcloth was torn. How then is it said to God the Father: You have torn my sackcloth? How it is said to the Father, do you want to hear? You have torn my sackcloth. Because he did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32). For he acted through the Jews not knowing, whence the knowing might be redeemed, and the denying confounded. For they do not know what good they have worked for us by their evil. The sackcloth was hung up, and the impious one as it were rejoiced. The persecutor tore the sackcloth with the lance, and the Redeemer poured out our price. Let Christ the redeemer sing, let Judas the seller groan, let the Jew the buyer blush. Behold Judas sold, the Jew bought, they did bad business, both were damaged, the seller and the buyer lost themselves. You wanted to be buyers: how much better would you have been redeemed? That one sold, this one bought: an unhappy transaction; neither does this one have the price, nor does this one have Christ. To this one I say: Where is what you received? To that one I say: Where is what you bought? To this one I say: Where you sold, you deceived yourself. Exult, Christian, in the transaction of your enemies you have conquered. What this one sold and that one bought, you have acquired.

5. So let our head say, let the head say, killed for the body, dedicated for the body; let him say, let us hear: You have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness (Ps 30:11 (29:12)), that is, you have torn my mortality, and girded me with immortality and incorruption. That my glory may sing to you, and I may not be pricked (Ps 30:12 (29:13)). What is, I may not be pricked? Let the persecutor no longer bear the lance against me, that I may be pricked: for Christ rising from the dead dies no more, death will no longer have dominion over him: for in that he died, he died to sin once; but in that he lives, he lives to God. So too let us, he says, reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but living to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:9-11). So in him we sing, in him we are dedicated. For where the head went before, we hope the members too will follow. For by hope we have been saved: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:24-25), by patience we are built up. But perhaps there too is our voice, if we attend well, if we gaze diligently, if we have a keen eye; not as the carnal lovers of bodies are wont: if, then, we direct the spiritual eye, in the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ we find ourselves too. For not in vain did the Apostle say: Knowing that our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we may no longer serve sin (Rom 6:6). Recognize there your voice: That my glory may sing to you, and I may not be pricked. For now, while we carry these burdens of the mortal body, there is no lack of what may prick us. For if the heart is not pricked, why is the breast beaten? When, then, the dedication of our body too comes, which went before in the example of the Lord, then we will not be pricked. For the pricking, which we have from sin, the lance of the striker signified. Finally, since it is written: From a woman was the beginning of sin made, and through her all die (Sir 25:24 (25:33 Vulgate)): recall from what member she was made, and see where the Lord was pricked with the lance. Recall, I say, recall our first condition: for not in vain, as I said: Our old man was crucified together with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we may no longer serve sin. Surely Eve, from whom the beginning of sin was made, was taken, to be formed, from the side of the man. He lay sleeping, when it was done: he hung dead, when it was done. Two kindred things are sleep and death, side and side, the Lord was pricked in the place of sins. But from that side was made Eve, who would put us to death by sinning; but from this side was made the Church, who would give us life by giving birth.

Sermon 337
On the Dedication of a Church

1. The good works of the faithful from their temporal and earthly substance, when they are stored up in the heavenly treasuries, faith sees this, which has the eye of godliness in the heart. Whence even these buildings, which are erected for gathering the religious assemblies, when faith has inspected them with the eye of the flesh, it praises inwardly what it discerns outwardly, and receives by the visible light that in which it may rejoice by the invisible truth. For faith is not occupied in inspecting how beautiful are the members of this dwelling; but from how great a beauty of the inner man these works of love proceed. So the Lord will render to his faithful, who work these things so godly, so cheerfully, so devoutly, that he may set them too in the construction of his own building, where the living stones run, formed by faith, made solid by hope, joined together by love. There the wise architect, the Apostle, laid the foundation Christ Jesus, himself the chief cornerstone, as Peter too recalls from the prophetic Scripture, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and honored by God (1 Pet 2:4, 7). By cleaving to him, we are made peaceful; by leaning on him, we are made firm. For he is at once both foundational, because he himself rules us; and angular, because he himself joins us. He is that rock, on which the wise man building his house perseveres most safely against all the trials of this world: neither does it slip when the rain rushes in, nor is it overturned when the river floods, nor is it moved when the winds blow. He is also our peace, who made both one (Eph 2:14): for in him neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Gal 6:15). For these two, as it were walls coming from opposite directions, had been far from one another, until, led to him as to a corner, they were even in him joined to one another.

2. And so, just as this visible building was made for gathering us bodily; so that building, which we ourselves are, is constructed for God to dwell in spiritually. For the temple of God is holy, says the Apostle, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). As this we construct with earthly masses, so let us raise that with well-ordered conduct. For this now, while we are visiting it, that will be dedicated at the end of the world when the Lord comes, when this our corruptible will put on incorruption, and this our mortal will put on immortality: because he will conform the body of our humility to the body of his glory. For see what he says in the Psalm of dedication: You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have torn my sackcloth and girded me with gladness: that my glory may sing to you, and I may not be pricked (Ps 30:11-12 (29:12-13)). For when we are being built, our humility groans to him; but when we will be dedicated, our glory will sing to him: because in the building-up there is labor, in the dedication gladness. While stones are cut from the mountains, and timbers from the woods, while they are formed, hewn, fitted together; there is labor and care: but when the dedication of the finished building is celebrated, joy and security succeed the labors and cares. So also the spiritual building, whose inhabitant is God, will be not for a time, but forever; while men are segregated from an unbelieving life to faith, while whatever in them is not good and is perverse is cut off and pruned away, while they become fit, peaceful, and godly joinings; how many trials are feared, how many tribulations sustained? But when the day of the dedication of the eternal house comes, when it will be said to us: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt 25:34); what will that exultation, what security will there be? Brightness will sing, and weakness will not be pricked. When he will show himself to us who loved us, and handed himself over for us; and who appeared to men as what he was made in his mother, will appear to them God the maker as what he was in the Father: when the eternal inhabitant himself will enter his house, perfect and adorned, established in unity, clothed with immortality; he will fill all things, will shine in all things, that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).

3. This one vision a certain man sought from the Lord; and that certain man, if we will, is we ourselves. For desire of this he labored in his groaning, for this he washed his bed every night, and watered his couch with tears. For on account of this his tears were bread to him day and night, while it was said to him every day: Where is your God? (Ps 42:3 (41:4)) For he himself says: 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, and be protected, his temple (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). He himself the inhabitant of his own, himself the dwelling. For those who dwell in the house of God, are themselves also the house of God: which contemplates his delight, and is protected, his temple, and is hidden in the hiding of his face. This hope we hold, the reality we do not yet see. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:25), and by patience we are built up.

4. Come, then, brothers, if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: savor the things that are above, not the things that are on earth (Col 3:1-2). For Christ our foundation too was placed there for this reason, that we might be built up toward what is above. For just as in earthly masses to be constructed, whose heavy bodies surely sink only to the depths, the foundation is placed at the bottom: so for us, on the contrary, that foundational stone is placed above, that it may snatch us upward even by the weight of love. So eagerly work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to work according to his good will (Phil 2:12-13). Do all things without murmuring (Phil 2:14). And as living stones be built up together into a temple of God (1 Pet 2:5): and as incorruptible timbers make of yourselves the house of God. Be made square, be hewn, in labors, in necessities, in vigils, in tasks, be prepared for every good work: that in eternal life you may merit to rest as in the framework of the fellowship of the angels.

5. For this place was built temporally, nor will it last forever: just as our very bodies too, for whose necessity, through the works of mercy, it was made, are surely not everlasting, but temporal and mortal. But we have a dwelling from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor 5:1): where our very bodies too, by the change of the resurrection, will be heavenly and everlasting. And now, although not yet through sight, as it will be face to face, yet through faith God dwells in us: and to him so dwelling we are made a dwelling-place through good works; which works are not eternal, but lead to eternal life. Of these is also this work, by which this basilica was built: for we will not work such buildings there. No place to fall in ruin is built there, into which no inhabitant to die enters. Yet now let your temporal work be good, that your reward may be eternal. Now, I say, build the house of faith and hope by spiritual love in every good work, which then will not be; because there will be no need. So lay in your hearts the foundations, the apostolic and prophetic admonitions; spread out your humility like a pavement without stumbling; fortify the saving doctrine in your heart with prayers and sermons as with firm walls, illumine them with the divine testimonies as with lamps, support the weak as columns, protect the needy as roofs: that the Lord our God may restore eternal things for temporal goods, and may possess you, perfect and dedicated, forever.

Sermon 338
On the Dedication of a Church

1. When good works, even those that are done for God's sake, are shown to men, when the good and religious do them, human praises are not sought, but things to be imitated are set forth. For the mercy that is done in a good work is twofold, bodily and spiritual. To the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, help is given by bodily mercy: yet these same things, when they are shown, both provoke others to imitation, and feed their spirits and minds too. One is fed by the good work, another by the good example: for both hunger. The one wants to receive whereby he may be nourished, the other wants to see what he may imitate. The reading of the holy Gospel too, which was just recited, admonishes us of this truth. For to Christians believing in God, working well, expecting the hope of eternal life for their good works, it is said: You are the light of the world (Matt 5:14). And to the whole Church spread abroad everywhere it is said: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt 5:14). It will be, he says, in the last times the manifest mountain of the house of the Lord, prepared on the top of the mountains (Isa 2:2). It is the mountain which grew from a small stone, and by growing filled the whole world. On it is built the Church, which cannot be hidden.

2. Neither do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house (Matt 5:15). Well does the reading occur, when lampstands are dedicated, that there may be one who works, a lamp placed on the lampstand. For the lamp is the man who works well. But what is the lampstand? But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14). So he who does according to Christ, and does for the sake of Christ, that he may glory only in Christ, is a lampstand. Let him give light to all, let them see what they may imitate: let them not be lazy, not dry: let what they see profit them; let them not be seeing with the eyes, and blind in heart.

3. But lest perhaps it occur to someone, that the Lord as it were commands good works to be hidden, where he says: Beware of doing your righteousness before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you will not have a reward with your Father who is in heaven (Matt 6:1): this question must be resolved, that we may know how we obey the Lord, and may not be unable to obey him, when we hear him commanding the contrary. Here he says: Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds (Matt 5:16): here he says: Beware of doing your righteousness before men, to be seen by them. Do you want to know how this question is to be resolved, and that, unless it is resolved, it will be troublesome if it remains unresolved? Certain men do well, and fear to be seen; and with all zeal, as much as they can, they cover their good works. They watch for when no one sees them: then they hand out something, fearing lest they offend against that precept where it was said: Beware of doing your righteousness before men, to be seen by them. But the Lord did not command good works to be hidden, but in good works not to think of human praise. Finally, when he said: Beware of doing your righteousness before men: where did he end it? To be seen by them. That they may do it for this reason, that they may be seen by men; let them seek this fruit of the good work, let them bear this away: let them expect nothing else, let them desire nothing of higher and heavenly profit. But if one does it only for this reason, that he may be praised: this the Lord forbade. Beware of doing it. How? To be seen by them. Beware of having this fruit, the sight of men.

4. But he commands our works to be seen, and says: 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 (Matt 5:15). And: So let your works shine before men, that they may see, he says, your good deeds. And he did not stop there: but, that they may glorify, he added: your Father, who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). It is one thing to seek your own praise in a good work, another to seek the praise of God in a good work. When you seek your own praise, you have remained in the sight of men: when you seek the praise of God, you have acquired eternal glory. So let us so act, that we may not be seen by men, that is, let us so act, that we may not seek the sight of men as a reward: but let us so act, that from those seeing and imitating us we may seek the glory of God, and may know that if he did not make us such, we would be nothing.

Sermon 339
On the Day of His Ordination

1. This day, brothers, admonishes me to think more attentively of my burden, about whose weight, even though I must think day and night, yet in some way this anniversary day drives it home to my senses, so that I cannot dissemble at all from thinking about it. And as much as the years come on—indeed, go off—and make us nearer to the last day, which without doubt is at some time surely to come, the keener and the fuller of goads is my thought, what account I can render to the Lord our God for you. For this is the difference between each of you and us, that you are going to render an account almost of yourselves alone; but we both of ourselves, and of all of you. Therefore the burden is greater, but well carried it acquires greater glory, but unfaithfully borne it casts one down to the most monstrous punishment. What, then, must I do most of all today, but commend to you my danger, that you may be my joy? But my danger is, if I attend to how you praise, and dissemble how you live. But he knows, under whose eyes I speak, indeed under whose eyes I think, that I am not so much delighted by popular praises, as goaded and tormented, how those who praise me live. But to be praised by those living badly I do not want, I shrink from it, I detest it, it is to me grief, not pleasure; but to be praised by those living well, if I say I do not want it, I lie; if I say I want it, I fear lest I be more eager for emptiness than for solidity. So what shall I say? I neither fully want it, nor fully do not want it. I do not fully want it, lest I be in danger in human praise; I do not fully reject it, lest those to whom I preach be ungrateful.

2. But my burden is what you just now heard, when the prophet Ezekiel was read. For it is too little that the day itself admonishes us to think of that burden; moreover such a reading is recited, as may strike great fear into us, that we may think what we carry; because unless he who imposed it carries it with us, we fail. Behold you heard: The land, he says, over which I shall bring the sword, and it sets for itself a watchman who sees the sword coming, and speaks, and announces it; but when the sword comes, that watchman is silent, and the oncoming sword kills the sinner; the sinner indeed will die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman. But if he sees the sword coming, and sounds the trumpet, and announces it, and the one to whom he announces it does not heed it, that man indeed will die in his iniquity, but the watchman has freed his soul. And you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the children of Israel (Ezek 33:2-7). He expounded what he meant by the sword, he expounded what he meant by the watchman, he expounded what death he meant; he did not permit us in the obscurity of the reading to excuse our negligence. I have set you, then, he says, a watchman. If I say to the sinner: By death you will die, and you are silent, and he dies in his sin, he indeed will die in his sin worthily and justly, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you say to the sinner: By death you will die, and he does not heed himself, he will die in his iniquity, but you have freed your soul (Ezek 33:8-9). And he adds the words which he wanted said to the people of Israel: So you will say to the children of Israel: What is this that you say among yourselves: our iniquities are upon us, in our sins we waste away, how can we live? Thus says the Lord: I do not want the death of the impious, so much as that the impious turn back from his perverse way, and live (Ezek 33:10-11). This he willed that we announce to you. If we do not announce this, we are going to render a bad account of this watch. But if we announce it, we have done what pertains to us. Do you see to it; we are now secure. But how secure, while you are in danger and to die? We do not want our glory to be with your punishment. Security indeed is given, but love makes us anxious. Behold we say it and you know that I have always said it, you know that I have never been silent. Thus says God: I do not want the death of the impious, so much as that the impious turn back from his worst way, and live. What is it that the impious said? He spoke the words of the impious and the wicked: Our iniquities are upon us, in our sins we waste away, how can we live? The sick man despairs, but the physician promises hope. The man said to himself: How can we live? God says: You can live. If every man is a liar (Ps 116:11 (115:2)), God alone is truthful: let him blot out what the man said, and write what God said. Do not despair, you can live, not from your past evils, but from your future goods; you will blot out your evils, if you withdraw from evil. All things, whether good or bad, are blotted out by change. From a good life you bent yourself to a bad one, you blotted out the good. See where you attend, what you take in; two treasures are prepared for you; what you send, this you will find; God is a faithful keeper, he will render to you what you have done.

3. But there are others, who perish not by despair; they do not say to themselves: Our iniquities are upon us, in our sins we waste away, how can we live? but in another way they deceive themselves: they flatter themselves about the excessive mercy of God, so that they are never corrected. For they say this: even if we do evil things, even if we commit iniquities, even if we live luxuriously and wickedly, even if we despise the poor and needy, even if we exalt ourselves in pride, even if we have no grief of heart for our evils, is God going to destroy so great a multitude, and free a few? So there are two dangers: one which we just now heard from the prophet, the other which the Apostle did not pass over in silence. For against those who by despairing die, like gladiators as it were destined for the sword, gaping after pleasures and living wickedly, despising their souls as if already condemned, he says what they say to themselves: Our iniquities are upon us, and in our sins we waste away, how can we live? But the other, whence the Apostle says: Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and mercy and long-suffering? (Rom 2:4) Against those who say: God is good, God is merciful, he will not destroy so great a multitude of sinners and free a few; for surely if he did not want them to exist, they would not even live: when they do such great evils and live, surely if it displeased God, he would at once take them from the earth. Against these the Apostle: Are you ignorant, he says, that the patience of God leads you to repentance? But you according to the hardness of your heart and your impenitent heart are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works (Rom 2:4-6). To whom does he say this? To those who say: God is good, he will not render. He will render indeed to each according to his works. What do you do? You store up. What? Wrath. Add wrath upon wrath, increase the treasure; what you store up will be rendered to you, he to whom you entrust it does not defraud you. But if you cast into another treasure good works, the fruits of righteousness, whether continence, or virginity, or marital chastity; if you are a stranger to fraud, to murder, to crime; if you remember the needy, because you too are needy; if you remember the poor, because you too are poor, however much you abound in riches, you are clothed in rags of flesh; if, thinking these things and doing these things, you cast into the good treasure, through the day of judgment, he who defrauds no one, and will render to each according to his works, will say to you: Take what you sent, because it abounds; when you sent it, you did not see, but I was keeping it as I was going to render it. Because truly, brothers, each one, what he sends into the treasure, because he sends it knows, nor sees when he has sent it. Put a treasure buried in the earth, having one opening or little crack, through which you may send it: gradually whatever you acquire you send, and you do not see it; if what you have sent and have not seen the earth keeps for you, will not he who made heaven and earth keep it for you?

4. Lighten, then, brothers, lighten my burden, and carry it with me: live well. We have today to feed our fellow poor, and with them humanity is to be shared; but for you my dishes are these words. To feed all with handleable and visible bread I am not able; I feed from where I am fed; I am a minister, not the householder; I set before you from where I too live, from the Lord's treasure, from the banquet of that householder, who for our sake became poor, though he was rich, that by his poverty we might be enriched (2 Cor 8:9). If I set bread before you, the bread broken, you would each take away your own morsels; and if I set out much, very little would reach each one. But now what I say, both all have the whole, and each one has the whole. For surely you did not divide the syllables of my word among yourselves? Surely you did not carry off the single words of the spoken sermon? Each one of you heard the whole. But let him see how he heard it, because I am a dispenser, not an exactor. If I do not dispense, and keep the money, the Gospel terrifies me. For I could say: What is it to me, to be a trouble to men? to say to the wicked: Do not act wickedly, live thus, act thus, cease to act thus? What is it to me, to be a burden to men? I have received how I may live: let me live as I am commanded, as I am ordered. Let me assign what I have received: why should I render an account of others? The Gospel terrifies me. For to that most leisured security no one would defeat me: nothing is better, nothing sweeter, than to search the divine treasure with no one making a din; it is sweet, it is good; but to preach, to convict, to rebuke, to build up, to busy oneself for each one, is a great burden, a great weight, a great labor. Who would not flee this labor? But the Gospel terrifies me. A certain servant came forward, and said to his lord: I knew you to be a troublesome man, reaping where you did not sow (Matt 25:24); I kept your money, I refused to dispense it: take what is yours; if anything is less, judge; if it is whole, do not be a trouble to me. But he said: Wicked servant, out of your own mouth I condemn you (Luke 19:22). Why this? Because you called me greedy, why did you neglect my gains? But I feared to give, lest I lose. Do you say this? For for the most part it is said: Why do you rebuke? what you say is lost on that man; he does not hear you. And I, he says, refused to give, lest I lose your money. He said to him: You should have given my money, and I, coming, would have exacted it with interest (Luke 19:23); I had set you as a dispenser, he says, not an exactor; you would exercise the dispensing, you would leave to me the exacting. Fearing this, then, let each one see how he receives. If I, dispensing, fear, should he who receives be secure? Let him who was bad yesterday be good today. This is my dispensing: let him who was bad yesterday be good today. He was bad yesterday, and is not dead; if he had died bad, he would have gone where he would not return from. He was bad yesterday, he lives today; let it profit him that he lives, let him not live badly. Why then does he want to add to yesterday's evil today's? Do you want to have a long life, and not want a good one? Who would bear a long evil, even a dinner? Has the blindness of the mind grown so callous, is the inner man so deaf, that he wants to have all good things, except himself? Do you want to have an estate? I deny that you want to have a bad estate. You want to have only a good wife, only a good house. Why should I run through each thing? You do not want to have a bad boot, and you want to have a bad life? As if a bad boot would harm you more than a bad life. When a bad and tight boot has hurt you, you sit, you take it off, you throw it away or mend it or change it, lest you hurt your toe, and you put it on. A bad life, by which you lose your soul, you do not care to correct. But this plainly I see whence you are deceived: a harmful boot causes pain, a harmful life causes pleasure: the one harms, the other pleases; but what pleases for a time, afterward hurts the worse; but what hurts for a time healthfully, afterward gladdens with infinite pleasure and abundant joy.

5. See the one enjoying and the one grieving, that rich man enjoying, and that poor man grieving: the one feasted, the other was tormented; the one was honored, surrounded by his household, the other was licked by dogs; the one was made over-full by his banquets, the other was not satisfied even with crumbs. The pleasure passed, the need passed; the good things of the rich man went by, the evils of the poor man; evils succeeded for the rich man, good things for the poor man. The things that passed by were not recalled; the things that succeeded were not lessened. The rich man burned in hell, the poor man rejoiced in the bosom of Abraham. The poor man had earlier desired a crumb from the rich man's table, the rich man afterward desired a drop from the poor man's finger. The want of the one was ended by the limit of satiety, the pleasure of the other was carried out without end by succeeding grief. To the banquets succeeded thirst, to pleasure grief, to purple fire. This is the dinner which Lazarus was seen to have in the bosom of Abraham; this we want all of you to have, this we want us to have together. For what would the dinner be that I might offer you, if I invited all of you, and this church were full of tables of feasters? These things are passing. Think on these things which I say, that you may come to those banquets which you will never end. For there no one is undigested by feasting; nor are those banquets such that they feed us by their corruption, and refresh us by their failing; and they will be whole, and we are refreshed by them. If our eye is fed by light, and the light does not fail, what will those banquets be, in the contemplation of truth, in the sight of eternity, in the praises of God, in the security of happiness, with the mind stable, the body immortal, our flesh wasting with no old age, no hunger wearying our soul? There no one grows, no one decreases; there no one is born, because no one dies; there you are not compelled to do any works, which now we exhort you to do.

6. For just now you heard the Lord saying, he said it to all of us: When you make a feast, do not call your friends (Luke 14:12)—he showed where you should be generous: do not your kinsmen, who have whence to repay you—but call the poor, the weak, the blind, the lame (Luke 14:13), the needy, who have not whence to repay you. And surely you will not lose? It will be repaid to you in the repayment of the righteous (Luke 14:14). Do you dispense, he says, I receive, I note it down, I render it. God said this, and he exhorted us to do these things, and to render it to us. When he has rendered it to us, who will take it from us? If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom 8:31) We were sinning, and he gave us the death of Christ; we live justly, and will he deceive us? For Christ died not for the righteous, but for the impious (Rom 5:6). If he gave to the wicked the death of his Son, what does he keep for the righteous? What does he keep for them? He has nothing better to keep for them, than what he gave for them. What did he give for them? He did not spare his own Son (Rom 8:32). What does he keep for them? The Son himself, but as God to be enjoyed, not as man to die. Behold where God calls you. But as you attend to where, deign to attend to by what way too, deign to attend to how too. But surely, when you have come, will this be said to you: Break your bread for the hungry; if you see one naked, clothe him? Surely this chapter will be recited to you: When you make a feast, call the lame, the blind, the needy, the destitute? There no one will be destitute, there no one lame, no one blind, no one weak, no one a stranger, no one naked; all healthy, all vigorous, all abounding, all clothed with eternal light. Whom do you see there a pilgrim? It is itself our homeland: here we are pilgrims, let us desire it. Let us do the commands, that we may exact the promises, let us take the things freely given. For if we exact them, as though God did not want to give: he will plainly give them, he will defraud no one. Consider this, my brothers, see how great goods the Lord our God gives to the bad: light, life, health, fountains, fruits, generations, for the most part honors, heights, powers; all these good things he gives both to the good and to the bad. Do we think there is nothing he keeps for the good, who gives such great good things even to the bad? Let no one bring this into his heart. My brothers, great good things God keeps for the good, but what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9). You cannot think it before you receive it. You can see it when you have received it; to think it before you receive it you cannot. What is it that you want to see? . . . It is no lyre, no flute, no sound, that makes pleasure in the ears. What do you want to think? It has not ascended into the heart of man. And what do I do? I neither see, nor hear, nor think, what do I do? Believe. A great means, a great vessel, where you can receive a great gift, is faith. Prepare yourself a vessel, because you are to approach a great fountain: prepare yourself a vessel. What is: Prepare? Let your faith grow, let your faith be increased, let your faith be strengthened; let your faith not be slippery and muddy, let your faith not be broken by the tribulations of this world but baked by them. But when you have done this, and have faith as a fit, capacious, firm vessel, God will fill it. For he will not say to you, as men say to one begging and saying: Give me some wine, I beg you; and he: I give it, come and I do it. The other brought a jar, and says: As you had bidden I came; and he: I thought you were going to bring one little flask: what have you brought, or where have you come? I am not able to give so much: take back the larger vessel you brought, and bring something small; bring me something to which my poverty can suffice. God does not say this: he is full, you will be full, and when he has filled you, he himself will have as much as he had before he filled you. Abundant are the gifts of God, you find no such on earth; believe, and you will prove it, but not now. And when, you will say? Wait for the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened (Ps 27:14 (26:14)); that when you have received it you may say: You have put gladness into my heart (Ps 4:7 (4:8)).

7. Wait for the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord (Ps 27:14 (26:14)). What is: Wait for the Lord? That you may receive when he gives, not exact when you want. The time of giving is not yet: he has waited for you, do you wait for him. What is it that I said: He has waited for you, do you wait for him? If you now live justly, if you are now turned to him, if your past deeds displease you, if you have now been pleased to choose a good new life, do not hasten to exact; he waited for you, that you might change your bad life; do you wait for him, that he may crown the good life. If he did not wait for you, there would be no one to whom he might give; so wait, because you have been waited for. But you who do not want to be corrected, O whoever you are here who still do not want to be corrected—as if there were one! rather I ought to have said: Whoever you are here, if indeed you are here, who have resolved to be corrected; yet I will so speak as though to one—whoever does not want to be corrected, what do you promise yourself? Do you perish by despairing, or by hoping? Whoever you are who perish by despairing, you say this in your soul: My iniquity is upon me, in my sins I waste away, what hope is there for me of living? Hear the prophet saying: I do not want the death of the impious, so much as that the impious turn back from his worst way, and live (Ezek 33:11). Do you perish by hoping? What is, you perish by hoping? You say this in your soul: God is good, God is merciful, he forgives all things, he will not render evil for evil. Hear the Apostle saying: Are you ignorant that the patience of God leads you to repentance? (Rom 2:4) What then remains? As if you have done something if what I said has entered your heart. I see what is answered me: It is true, and I do not despair, so as to perish by despairing; nor do I hope wrongly, so as to perish by hoping. I do not say to myself: My iniquity is upon me, I now have no hope; nor do I say that to myself: God is good, he will render evil to no one; I say neither this nor that; the prophet presses me, the Apostle presses me. And what do you say? Still a little time I will live as I want; afterward, when I have corrected myself—surely it is true what the prophet says: I do not want the death of the impious, so much as that the impious turn back from his worst way, and live—when I am converted, he will blot out all my evils: why do I not add something to my pleasures, and live as long as I want, as I want, intending afterward to turn to God? Why do you say this, brother, why? Because God promised pardon, if I change. I see, I know, he promised pardon; through the holy prophet he promises it, and through me his least servant he promises it. It is true what he promises: he promised it through his Only-begotten. But why do you want to add bad days to bad days? Sufficient for the day is its own evil: yesterday was a bad day, today is bad too, tomorrow will be bad too. Or do you think they are good days, when you satisfy your pleasures, when you nourish your heart in luxury, when you plot against another's chastity, when you sadden your neighbor by fraud, when you deny things entrusted to you, when you swear falsely for a coin, when you set out for yourself a good dinner? Do you think because of this that you lead a good day? How can it come about that a day is good, when the man is bad? Do you want to add bad days to bad days? I ask, he says, that a little be remitted to me. Why? Because God promised me pardon. But that you will live tomorrow no one has promised you. Or read to me, as you read to me the prophet, the Gospel, the Apostle, that when you are converted, God blots out all your iniquities: read to me where tomorrow is promised you, and live badly tomorrow. Although, my brother, I ought not to have said this to you. Perhaps your life will be long; if it will be long, let it be good; why do you want to have a long life, and a bad one? Or it will not be long: and that long life ought to delight you, which has no end. Or it will be long: and what evil will there be, that you have lived well a long time? You want to live badly a long time, you do not want to live well; and yet no one has promised you tomorrow. Correct yourself: hear from Scripture. Lest you despise me as a man making a birthday speech, I speak to you from Scripture: Do not delay to be converted to the Lord (Sir 5:7). These words are not mine, but they are mine too; if I love them, they are mine; love them and they are yours. This sermon, which I now speak, is Holy Scripture: if you despise it, it is your adversary. But hear the Lord saying: Agree with your adversary quickly (Matt 5:25). What is this terrible sermon? You came to gladness, today is called the bishop's birthday: should I set out anything by which I sadden you? Indeed I set out this, that the lover may rejoice, the despiser be angry; it is better for me to sadden the despiser, than to defraud the faithful.

8. Let all hear, I recite words from Scripture. O bad delayer, O bad seeker of tomorrow, hear the Lord saying, hear Holy Scripture foretelling. From this place I am a watchman. Do not delay to be converted to God, nor put it off from day to day (Sir 5:8). See whether he did not see those, see whether he did not look upon those, who say: Tomorrow I live well, today I will live badly. And when tomorrow comes, you will say this. Do not delay to be converted to God, nor put it off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you (Sir 5:8-9). What have I done? Can I blot it out? I fear to be blotted out. Can I be silent about it? I fear to be silent. I am compelled to preach, terrified I terrify. Fear with me, that you may rejoice with me. Do not delay to be converted to God. Lord, see that I say it: Lord, you know that you terrified me, when your prophet was read. Lord, you know in that chair my trembling, when your prophet was read. Behold I say: Do not delay to be converted to God, nor put it off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you. But I do not want him to destroy you; I do not want you to say to me: I want to perish; because I do not. It is better: I do not want my own, than: I want yours. If your lethargic father were sick in your hands, and you, a young man, were present to the sick old man, and the physician said: Your father is in danger, this sleep is a kind of deadly heaviness: watch him, do not let him sleep; if you see him sleeping, rouse him; if it is too little to rouse him, pinch him; and if this too is too little, goad him, lest your father die; you would be present, you would be a young man burdensome to the old man. He, dissolving into a sweet sickness, would close his eyes pressed by that heaviness; you, on the contrary: Do not sleep. And he: Let me be, I want to sleep; and you: But the physician said: If he wants to sleep, let him not sleep. And he: I beg, let me be, I want to die. But I do not want it, you the son say to your father. To whom? Surely to one wishing to die. And yet you want to defer the death of your father, and to live somewhat longer with your dying old father. The Lord cries out to you: Do not sleep, lest you sleep forever; wake up, that you may live with me, that you may have a Father whom you never carry to the grave. And you are deaf.

9. What have I done, the watchman? I am free, I do not burden you. I know some will say: What did he want to say to us? He terrified us, burdened us, made us guilty. Rather, I wanted to free you from guilt. It is foul, it is base, that I should deceive you, if God does not deceive me. The Lord threatens death to the impious, the most wicked, defrauders, the criminal, adulterers, seekers of pleasures, his despisers, those murmuring about the times, and not changing their conduct; the Lord threatens them death, threatens hell, threatens everlasting destruction. What do they want, that I should promise what he does not promise? Behold the steward will give you security: what does it profit you, if the householder does not accept it? I am a steward, I am a servant. Do you want me to tell you: Live as you want, the Lord will not destroy you? The steward gave you security: the security of the steward is worth nothing. Would that the Lord gave it to you, and I made you anxious! For the security of the Lord is worth it, even if I am unwilling; but mine is worth nothing, if he is unwilling. But what is security, brothers, either mine or yours, except that we attentively and diligently hear the commands of the Lord, and faithfully await his promises? In those things in which we are wearied, because we are men, let us implore his help, to him let us groan; let our prayers not be for worldly things, passing, transitory and vanishing like vapor; but let our prayers be for fulfilling righteousness itself, and for sanctification for the name of God; not for conquering a neighbor, but for conquering lust; not for satisfying, but for taming avarice. From this let our prayers be: let them help us within as we struggle, and crown us as we conquer.

Sermon 340
On the Day of His Ordination

1. Always indeed, from the time this burden, of which a difficult account is rendered, was laid on my shoulders, the care of my honor disquiets me: but I am much more moved by the consideration of this weight, when its anniversary day, renewing the former memory, so sets it before my eyes, that, what I already received before, I hold as though I were drawing near to receive it today. But what is dreaded in this office, except that what is perilous in our honor should delight us more than what is fruitful in your salvation? Let me, then, be helped by your prayers, that he may deign to bear my burden with me, who does not disdain to bear me myself. When you pray this, you pray for us too. For this my burden, of which I now speak, what else is it but you? Pray for me strength, as I pray that you be not heavy. For the Lord Jesus would not call his burden his own, unless he carried it with the one carrying it. But you too uphold me, that according to the apostolic precept we may carry one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. If he does not carry it with us, we sink; if he does not carry us, we sink. Where it terrifies me, that I am for you, there it consoles me, that I am with you. For to you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian. The former is the name of an office undertaken, the latter of grace; the former is of danger, the latter of salvation. Finally, as on a great sea we are tossed by the tempest of that activity; but recalling by whose blood we have been redeemed, we enter as it were the harbor of security by the tranquility of this thought; and laboring in this our own office, we rest in the common benefit. If, then, it delights me more that I have been bought with you, than that I have been set over you, then, as the Lord commanded, I will be the more abundantly your servant, lest I be ungrateful for the price by which I merited to be your fellow servant.

2. For I ought to love the Redeemer, and I know what he said to Peter: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep (John 21:17). This once, this again, this a third time. Love was questioned, and labor was commanded: because where love is greater, labor is less. What shall I render to the Lord for all the things he has rendered to me? (Ps 116:12 (115:12)) If I say that I render this, that I feed his sheep, even this I do not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10). Where, then, shall I be found a renderer, when everywhere I am gone before? And yet, because we love freely, because we feed his sheep, we seek a reward. How will this be? how does it agree: I love freely so as to feed; and: I demand a reward because I feed? In no way would this be, in no way would a reward be sought from him who is loved freely, unless the reward were he himself who is loved. For if we render this, in return for his redeeming us, because we feed his sheep, in return for the very thing, that he made us to be shepherds, what do we render? For bad shepherds, which far be it from us, we are by our own malice; but good ones, which is present to us from him, we cannot be except by his grace.

3. Whence we too, my brothers, command, asking, that you not receive the grace of God in vain. Make our ministry fruitful. You are God's tillage (1 Cor 3:9): receive from without the planter and the waterer, but from within the giver of the increase. The restless are to be rebuked, the faint-hearted consoled, the weak upheld, the gainsayers refuted, the plotters guarded against, the unskilled taught, the slothful roused, the contentious checked, the proud restrained, the despairing lifted up, the quarreling pacified, the needy helped, the oppressed freed, the good approved, the bad tolerated, all loved. In this so great and so manifold and varied action of diverse matters help us both by praying and by obeying; that it may delight us not so much to be over you as to profit you.

4. For just as it is expedient for us to strive to beseech the mercy of God for your salvation, so it behooves you too to pour out prayers to the Lord for us. Nor let us judge this incongruous, which we know the Apostle did; for he so desired to be commended to God by prayers, that he himself supplicated the whole people, saying: Pray for us (1 Thess 5:25). And therefore we ought to say this, which may both exhort ourselves and instruct you. For just as we must think with great fear and anxiety how we may fulfill the office of the priesthood without reproach; so you too must observe to be eager to have humble obedience to all that is commanded you. Let us pray, then, together, most beloved, that my episcopate may profit both me and you; for it will profit me, if I say the things to be done; you, if you do the things heard. For if both we for you and you for us pray without ceasing with the perfect love of charity, we will come happily to eternal blessedness, with the Lord's help. Which may he himself deign to grant, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon 340/A
On the Ordination of a Bishop

1. Today, since God deigned to lead us to you, a third sermon is rendered to Your Charity; but in the past two days you heard that which especially pertains to you; for today indeed a bishop is ordained for you by the gift and mercy of God; so we ought to say this, by which we may both exhort ourselves, and inform him, and instruct you. For he who is over a people ought first to understand that he is the servant of many. And let him not disdain this: let him not, I say, disdain to be the servant of many; because the Lord of lords did not disdain to serve us. For from the carnal dregs there had crept upon the Apostles, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, a certain appetite for loftiness, and the smoke of pride had begun to go into their eyes. For, as we read written in the Gospel: There arose a contention among them, which of them was the greater (Luke 22:24). But the Lord, the physician present, repressed their swelling. And when he saw from what vice that contention had come, he said to them, and setting little children before him: Unless one becomes like this child, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:3). In the child he commended humility. For he did not want his own to have such minds as children have, when the Apostle says in another place: Do not become children in your minds. And he added: But be infants in malice, that you may be perfect in your senses (1 Cor 14:20). But pride is a great malice, and the first malice, the beginning and origin, the cause of all sins; it cast down the angel, and made him the devil. The cup of pride that fallen one offered too to the man standing: he raised into pride him who was made to the image of God; now unworthy too, because proud. He envied, and persuaded him to despise the law of God, and to enjoy his own power. And how did he persuade him? If you eat, he says, you will be like gods (Gen 3:5). See, then, whether pride did not persuade him. He had been made a man, he wanted to be a god: he took on what he was not, he lost what he was; not that he lost human nature, but he lost blessedness both present and future. He lost that by which he was to be lifted up, deceived by him who had been cast down from there.

2. Therefore the apostle Paul, when among the other episcopal virtues he recalled, in that reading which we just heard read, this too he added: Not a neophyte, as if new in the faith, lest, lifted up in pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil (1 Tim 3:6). What is: fall into the judgment of the devil? Not to be judged by the devil, but to be condemned with the devil; for the devil will not be our judge; but because he himself fell through pride, and on account of pride, made impious, will be condemned with everlasting fire. Let him beware, he says, to whom a lofty place is given in the Church, lest, lifted up in pride, he fall into the judgment into which the devil fell. So the Lord, addressing the Apostles, and confirming them in holy humility, after he set out the example from the child, said to them: Whoever wants to be greater among you, will be your servant (Matt 20:26). Behold, I have done no injury to my brother, your future bishop, because I wanted him to be and admonished him to be your servant. For if I did it to him, I did it first to myself; for I speak not as just anyone about a bishop, but as a bishop; and what I admonish, I myself fear, and recall to mind what the holy Apostle himself said: I do not so run, as if at an uncertain mark: I do not so fight, as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, preaching to others, I myself be found a reprobate (1 Cor 9:26-27).

3. So, that you may hear it briefly, we are your servants: your servants, but also your fellow servants; we are your servants, but we all have one Lord; we are your servants, but in Jesus, as the Apostle says: But we ourselves your servants through Jesus (2 Cor 4:5). Through him we are servants, through whom we are also free; for he himself says to those who believe in him: If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36). Shall I, then, hesitate to become a servant through him, through whom, unless I became free, I would remain in a ruinous servitude? We are set over you, and we are servants; we are over you, but only if we profit you. In what, then, the bishop set over you is a servant, let us see. In that in which the Lord himself is too. For when he said to his Apostles: Whoever wants to be greater among you, will be your servant, lest human pride should be indignant at the servile name, he at once consoled them, and, setting himself forth as an example, exhorted them to what he had commanded. Whoever among you wants to be greater, will be your servant. But see how: As the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister (Matt 20:28). Let us ask what he ministered. If we attend to bodily ministrations, we see the disciples ministering to him; but he was sending them, to buy food, to prepare food. Finally it is written in the Gospel, when the day of his passion drew near, his disciples said to him: Lord, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? (Matt 26:17) And he commands where it is to be prepared: and they go, and prepare, and minister. What, then, is it that he says: As the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister? Hear what follows: He came not, he says, to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his soul a redemption for many (Matt 20:28). Behold how the Lord ministered: behold what sort of servants he commanded us to be. He gave his soul a redemption for many: he redeemed us. Who of us is fit to redeem anyone? Indeed by his blood, by his death we were redeemed from death, by his humility we who were lying down were raised up; but we too ought to confer our little portions on his members, because we have been made his members: he is the head, we are the body. Finally the apostle John, exhorting us in his epistle to the example of the Lord, who had said: He will be your servant, whoever among you wants to be greater; as the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his soul a redemption for many; exhorting us, then, to the likeness, says: Christ laid down his soul for us: so we too ought to lay down our souls for the brothers (1 John 3:16). The Lord himself too, speaking after the resurrection: Peter, do you love me? And he answered: I love you. This he said three times, this he answered three times; and the whole three times the Lord: Feed my sheep (John 21:15-17). Where do you show me that you love me, except by feeding my sheep? What are you going to bestow on me by loving me, when you expect all things from me? What, then, you may do by loving me, you have: Feed my sheep. This once, and again, and a third time. Do you love me? I love you. Feed my sheep. For three times he had denied through fear: three times he confessed through love. Then, when the Lord had commended his sheep to him a third time, to him answering and confessing love, and condemning and blotting out fear, he at once added: When you were young, you girded yourself, and went where you wanted; but when you have become older, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not want. But this he said signifying by what death he was to glorify God (John 21:18-19). He proclaimed to him his cross, foretold to him his passion. So, going there, the Lord says: Feed my sheep; suffer for my sheep.

4. Such ought the good bishop to be; if he will not be such, he will not be a bishop. What does it profit a wretched man, if he is called Felix (Happy)? If you see some wretched, troubled man, who is called Felix, and you say to him: Come here, Felix, go, Felix, rise, Felix, sit, Felix, and he, amid all these names, is always unhappy; something like this it is, when one is called a bishop, and is not. What does the honor of the name confer on him, but an increase of guilt? But who is the one who is called a bishop, and is not? He who rejoices in the honor more than in the salvation of the flock of God, who in this loftiness of ministry seeks his own things, not the things of Jesus Christ; he is called a bishop, but is not a bishop, the name is empty for him. And you see men speaking nothing else. Did you see the bishop? did you greet the bishop? Where do you come from? from the bishop. Where are you going? to the bishop. So that he may be what he is called, let him hear, not me, but with me; let us hear together, together let us as fellow disciples in one school learn from one master, Christ, whose chair is in heaven for this reason, because first it was a cross on earth. He taught the way of humility: descending to ascend, visiting those who lay in the depths, and lifting up those who wanted to cleave to him.

5. Finally, perceive it most evidently by hearing. Two of his disciples, brothers, the sons of Zebedee, John and James, beyond the rest desired his loftiness, and through their mother, because they themselves were ashamed, they said to him, sending her in, that she might speak their desires: Lord, she said, grant that in your kingdom one son of mine may sit at your right hand, the other at the left (Matt 20:21). And the Lord to them, not to her: You do not know what you ask. And he added: Can you drink the cup which I am to drink? (Matt 20:22) What cup, but that of which he says, drawing near to his passion: Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me? (Matt 26:39) Can you, he says, drink the cup which I am to drink? And they at once, greedy for loftiness, forgetful of weakness: We can, they said. And he: My cup indeed you will drink: but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to give to you; it is prepared for others by my Father (Matt 20:23). For whom is it prepared, if not prepared for the disciples? Who will sit there, if the Apostles will not sit? It is prepared for others, it is not prepared for you; for others, not for the proud. And well does he too set forth humility, when he said: It is prepared for others by my Father; when surely he himself was preparing it, he said it was prepared by his Father; lest here too he should seem arrogant, and should not build up to humility, for the sake of which he was saying all these things. For the Father does not prepare what the Son does not prepare, nor does the Son prepare what the Father does not prepare, since he himself says: I and the Father are one (John 10:30); he himself also says: Whatever things the Father does, these same the Son likewise does (John 5:19). The teacher of humility in word and work: for in word, always from the beginning of the creation, he never was silent, through angels, through prophets, to teach man humility; he deigned to teach it also by his own example. Our Creator came humble, created among us: he who made us, who was made for our sake: God before the ages, man in time, that he might free man from time. The great physician came to heal our swelling. From the East to the West the human race lay like a great sick man, and required a great physician; first this physician sent his servants, and afterward he himself came, when by some he was despaired of. As a physician too, when he sends his servants, as if to do something easy; but when there is a great danger, he himself comes; so the human race labored in great danger, wrapped in all vices, especially flowing from the fountain of pride: and therefore he came to cure that very pride by his own example. Blush still to be proud, O man, for whose sake God was humbled. God would have humbled himself much, if he were only born for your sake; he deigned even to die for you. So he was here on the cross in the man, when the persecuting Jews shook their heads before the cross, and said: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him (See Matt 27:42). But he kept his humility, therefore he did not come down; he had not lost his power, but was demonstrating his patience. For consider his very effect and power, and see how easily he could come down from the cross, who could rise from the tomb. But humility was for you, patience was for you; if it was not to be demonstrated, it was not to be commanded; but if it was to be commanded by word, it was to be demonstrated and commended by example. This, then, let us attend to in the Lord: let us see his humility, let us drink the cup of his humility, let us press ourselves close to him, let us meditate on him. It is easy to think of loftiness, it is easy to rejoice in honors, it is easy to lend the ears to flatterers and adulators. To bear reviling, to hear reproach patiently, to pray for the insolent, this is the cup of the Lord, this is the banquet of the Lord. Are you invited by a greater? Consider that you ought to prepare such things (See Prov 23:1 (LXX)).

6. The Apostle, describing a bishop, set this first: He who desires the episcopate, desires a good work (1 Tim 3:1). What is this? As though he inflamed all to desire the episcopate, and the ambitious will be better than the modest, and those usurping for themselves with a certain arrogance things not even owed to them, will be better than those who avoid even owed things through fear? Far be this, this is not so; he did not teach this, that we should be ambitious to attain the episcopate. But hear what he said, if I can explain what I feel. The Apostle's sense is clear to those who understand, but to the proud and ambitious cloudy and obscure. So the Apostle says this: He who desires the episcopate, desires a good work. It is not to desire the episcopate, to desire the episcopate: it is to desire a good work. But does he want to be a bishop, who does not do a good work, but his own work? That man does not desire the episcopate. This is what I was saying a little before: he seeks the name, not the reality. I want to be a bishop: oh, if I were a bishop! Would that you were! Do you seek the name, or the reality? If you seek the reality, you desire a good work; if you seek the name, you can have it even in a bad work, but with a worse punishment. What, then, shall we say? are there bad bishops? Far be it, there are not: plainly I dare to say, there are no bad bishops; because if they are bad, they are not bishops. You again call me back to the name, and say: He is a bishop, for he sits in the chair. There is even a straw-watchman in the vineyard.

7. He said among other things: The husband of one wife (1 Tim 3:2); but how much better of none? He said how far one must go, that it be not more than from one; but much better, if not even one. Having children that obey (1 Tim 3:4): that, if he has them, he have them obedient; not that he should try to have them, if he does not have them. For he commended discipline over children, for the sake of ruling the house: For he who does not know how to be over his own house, how will he have diligence for the Church of God? (1 Tim 3:5) They are the words of the Apostle himself. And how will a bishop be without children, if he is a good bishop? Finally your bishop, in the name of Christ, helped by the grace of Christ, refused to have carnal children, that he might have spiritual ones. It pertains to you to obey him worthily, to obey worthily, to serve him with worthy service; and he will have obedient children, for few so many, for earthly heavenly ones, for heirs coheirs.

8. We have spoken of good bishops, and of bad bishops; we have said what we ought to be, and what we should avoid being. But what is this to you, O people of God? Something to you too. For we want you to be built on the rock, to rise a temple to God, to become fit for receiving God, that your hope not fluctuate in the uncertain, but be placed on the solid. Whatever sort we are, you ought to be secure. Indeed it is good for us that we ought to be good bishops set over you, not only to be called so, this is good for us; for to such a great reward is promised. But if we will not be such, but bad, which far be it, and seek our honors for our own sake, neglect the commands of God, count your salvation as nothing, greater punishments await us, than the rewards which are promised. But far be it from us, and pray for us; for the higher the place we are in, the greater the danger we are in. For we think what account we render of the obedience of men, what of the cursings of men. Many obey us, many detract from us, and curse us. Those who obey make us run more danger than those who curse; for the obedience of men titillates our pride, the cursings of men exercise our patience: in one place I fear a fall, in another I fortify the foundation. For: The reproaches of men, says one of the servants of God to me, do not fear (Isa 51:7). The Lord Jesus Christ too says: You will be blessed, when men curse you, and say every evil against you, lying, for my sake (Matt 5:11). For if those who curse also speak true things, they do not speak evil, because they speak true things; but they speak evil who speak false things. But what did the Lord promise us? Rejoice and exult, because your reward is abundant in heaven (Matt 5:12). My curser increases my reward: my flatterer wants to lessen my reward. But what shall I say, brothers? That our reward may be increased, ought we to wish that you be cursers? We do not want our reward increased by your evil. Be blessers, obey; let us be in danger, and you not be lessened. What then, if a people falls in with a bad bishop? The Lord and the bishop of bishops made you secure, that your hope be not in man. Behold in the name of the Lord I speak to you a bishop; what sort I am, I do not know: how much less you? For what I am at this hour, I can somehow perceive: what I will be at some time, how do I know? As Peter presumed, and Peter was shown to himself; the sick man did not know himself, but he was not hidden from the physician. He spoke, presumed, dared to promise: With you even to death. I will lay down my soul for you. And that physician, inspecting the vein of his heart: You will lay down your soul, he says, for me? Amen I say to you, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times (See John 13:37-38).

9. So may the Lord grant, your prayers helping us, both that we be this, and that we persevere to the end in being this, which you want us to be, all of you who wish us well, and which he wants us to be, who called us and commanded us; may he help us to fulfill what he commanded. But whatever sort we are, let your hope not be in us. I derogate from myself, that I as a bishop say this; I want to rejoice over you, not to be puffed up. Whomsoever at all I find placing hope in me, I do not congratulate him; he is to be corrected, not made firm; he is to be changed, not stabilized. If I cannot admonish him, I grieve; but if I can admonish him, I no longer grieve. As now in the name of Christ I speak to the people of God, I speak in the Church of God, I speak as a servant of God of whatever sort: let your hope not be in us, let your hope not be in men. If we are good, we are ministers; if we are bad, we are ministers. But the good are faithful ministers, truly ministers. What we minister, attend to; if you hunger, and do not want to be ungrateful, mark from whose storeroom it is brought forth. In what sort of little vessel it is set before you, what you are eager to eat, let it not pertain to you. In a great house of a householder, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of earthenware (2 Tim 2:20). There is a silver vessel, a golden vessel, an earthen vessel; do you attend to whether it has bread, and whose this bread is, by whose gift it is ministered. Attend to him of whom I speak, by whose gift this bread is ministered. He himself is the bread: I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51). So we minister to you Christ for Christ, himself under himself; that he may reach you, that he may be the judge of our ministry. For if a bishop is a thief, he will never say to you from this seat: Commit theft; but he will say to you only: Do not commit theft. For this he receives from the storeroom of the Lord. If he wants to say something else, you spurn him, and say: This is not from the storeroom of the Lord, you are telling me your own things. He who speaks a lie, speaks of his own (John 8:44). So let him say to you according to God: Do not commit theft, nor adultery, nor murder; let him say to you according to God, that you fear, that you not be exalted, that you turn from the love of the world, that you place your hope in the Lord. These things let him say to you according to God. If he himself does not do them, what is it to you? The Lord your God is Christ, he has made you secure. The scribes, he says, and Pharisees, in the image of those set over you, have sat in the chair of Moses; what they say, do: but what they do, do not do; for they say, and do not do (Matt 23:2-3). What will you say to this? whence will you excuse yourself in the judgment of Christ? Will you say: Therefore I did evil, because I saw my bishop not living well? It is answered you: You chose for yourself one with whom you would be condemned, not one with whom you would be freed. You imitated him living badly; why did you rather imitate him, and not hear me through him? For did I not say to you in my Gospel, that, when you see bad superiors, you should do what they say, but not do what they do? You would hear me through them, and not perish through them.

10. If, then, even the bad can say good things, let us now answer Christ too, and say, for the sake of learning, not of despising or harassing: Lord, if the bad can say good things—whence you admonished, and commanded, saying: What they say, do, but what they do, do not do—if, then, the bad can say good things, how do you say in another place: Hypocrites, you cannot speak good things, since you are bad? (Matt 12:34) Attend to a thing bound, until by his help you see it loosed. Again I set out the question. Christ says: What they say, do: but what they do, do not do; for they say, and do not do. What then, but that they say good things, and do bad things? And therefore what they say, we ought to do; what they do, we ought not to do. In another place: Surely they do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Every tree is known by its fruit (Matt 7:16; 12:33). What then, how shall we obey? how shall we understand? Behold they are briars, they are thorns. Do it. You bid me gather a grape from thorns; in one place you bid, in another you forbid: how shall I obey? Hear, understand. When I say: What they say do, but what they do do not do, attend first to what I say: They have sat in the chair of Moses, I said. When they say good things, not they themselves say it, but the chair of Moses. He put "chair" for doctrine: not that the chair speaks, but the doctrine of Moses; it is in their memory, it is not in their works. But when they themselves say it, when they themselves speak, that is, when they speak of their own, what do they hear? How can you speak good things, since you are bad? For attend to another likeness. From thorns do not pluck a grape: for a grape can never be born of thorns. But have you not noticed the branch of a vine going by growth into a hedge, and wrapping itself in thorns, and putting forth a shoot among the thorns, sending down a cluster? You are hungry, and you pass by, and you see a cluster hanging among the thorns; you do not do it, you do not pluck it. You are hungry, and you want to pluck it; pluck it, stretch out your hand diligently and cautiously; beware the thorns, pluck the fruit. So too when a most wicked or bad man speaks to you the doctrine of Christ, hear it, receive it, do not despise it. If he is a bad man, the thorns are his; if he says good things, that is the cluster hanging among the thorns, it is not born of thorns. So, if you are hungry, pluck it, but watch the thorns. For if you begin to imitate his deeds, while you gladly hear him, you have incautiously stretched out your hand; you ran into the thorns before you reached the fruit; you come away wounded, you come away torn; the fruit, which is of the grape, no longer profits you, but the thorns, which are of its own root, harm you. For, lest you be deceived, attend to where you plucked the fruit: there is the branch. Direct your eyes to the branch, and see that it pertains to the vine, goes out of the vine, proceeds from the vine, but runs into the thorns. Surely, then, ought the vine to draw in its branches? So too the doctrine of Christ, by growing and proceeding, has inserted itself into good trees, has inserted itself into bad thorns; it is said by the good, it is said by the bad. Do you see from where the fruit is, from where is born what feeds you, and from where is born what pricks you; they are mingled in the public face, but distinguished in the root.

11. But attend to this, my brothers, that we may say something too of our sharper grief, attend to this, why our brothers separated themselves from us. Let them tell us, why? The bishops were bad. They sat in their chairs, they sat in the chairs of Christ, they were in the unity of Christ: one ought not to be separated from the unity. They themselves were bad: you would do what the Lord commanded: What they say do, but what they do do not do (Matt 23:3). Why did you separate yourself from the chair of Christ? If a pestilent man sat there, you would hear through him, you would not imitate him. And yet can you prove it, when you say: A pestilent man sat there? But I prove you pestilent, who have left the chair of Christ. What you say is hidden; what I say, I prove. Your separation punishes you, your tearing apart punishes you. We were bought together, purchased at one price; the tablets of our price are recited, the instrument of our purchase is the holy Gospel. I am opened, I read. What do I open? what do I read? Where we were bought, where we are brothers and fellow servants, where we are established in unity. For what Christ bought, he did not keep silent, lest someone should take from him his possession, and substitute another's; he plainly did not keep silent about what he bought. Open the tablets, read; the documents are drawn up, he did not buy without writing, he foresaw there would be future slanderers; he plainly did what may be objected to the slanderers. What is read, is believed; but it is read—see by whom it was written, see by whom spoken, by whom taken down. He was speaking, the Apostles were taking it down: they left it written for us. Let us read the instrument, then, brothers: why do we quarrel? What if the tablets of our Lord, our buyer, take away the lawsuit from us? You say the Church of Christ is among the Africans and in Africa; I say the Church of Christ is spread through all nations. Behold where the question is, behold whence the brawl among brothers. You quarrel for the part: you quarrel, that you may remain in the part. I contradict you, that you may possess the whole. Understand a harmonious lawsuit, understand a lawsuit of love. I do not say to you: You are conquered, withdraw. For from the beginning the dividers of the inheritance displeased our Lord Jesus Christ. For when he preached the truth among the peoples, one from the crowd said: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (Luke 12:13). And the Lord, who refused to confirm the division, who had come to make unity—for we heard just now too in the Gospel about that very unity: I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them too, that there may be one flock, and one shepherd (John 10:16)—the Lord, then, who loved unity, hated division, said to that man: Tell me, man, who appointed me a divider of the inheritance among you? I say to you: Beware of all greed (Luke 12:14-15). He refused to be a divider of the inheritance: he had come to gather unity, to give one inheritance throughout the lands. Let the instruments of his inheritance be read; let them be read, as I had begun to say. He rose from the dead, showed himself to his disciples, not only to be seen, but also to be touched and handled. Handle, he says, and touch, and see that a spirit does not have bones and flesh as you see me to have (Luke 24:39). For they had thought him to be a spirit, not a body; a phantasm, not the truth. And while they still marveled for joy, he said to them: Did you not know that, when I was still among you, I said these things to you, that all things must be fulfilled that are written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me? (Luke 24:41, 44) What is this? what is written of him in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms? Hear: That Christ must suffer (Luke 24:46). I believe it, he says. Rightly, brothers: attend to the rest. I read the tablets of the Lord, I read the instrument or rather the testament of our inheritance; let us read, let us understand: why do we quarrel? Behold I read, hear the rest: Christ must suffer. Do you believe with me? I believe it, he says. And rise from the dead on the third day. Do you believe with me? I believe it plainly. Believe the rest too, and the discord is finished. What is that in the rest? And that repentance and the forgiveness of sins be preached in his name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Behold what I read, this is the Church of Christ: Through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Hold it with me, and you will take away the discord. If you are not in it, you will be in the part. By your loss you conquer, by your gain you are conquered. Acknowledge that you are conquered, and you will hold it with me, spread through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. The tablets of the Lord are read, the Lord's Gospel speaks; why do you slander me, that I burned those tablets? Who ought to be believed to have burned them: he who obeyed them, or he who despises them? Whoever burned them, from wherever they were brought forth, let us read, let us hear, let us do, let us be in harmony; let us leave the past to the past; let us leave the passing things to those who have passed.

12. Their advocate, their defender, in the midst of the proceedings of our conference cried out in his straits: "Neither does a cause prejudge a cause, nor a person a person." Did Caecilian sin? Indeed Caecilian did not sin, but suppose Caecilian sinned; hear at least your own defender. "Neither a cause a cause, nor a person a person." One person would not prejudge one person: and will it prejudge the ends of the earth? Will it prejudge the inheritance of Christ going through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem? Did Caecilian sin: does Christ therefore lie? And yet Caecilian did not sin; but you do not want to be a good Christian. What is it to me about a man? This I was speaking to you, to this I was building you up. My hope is not in Caecilian, I have not placed my hope in man. If Caecilian was good, I will congratulate a good brother; if he was bad, I am not the judge of the hidden things of a brother. So, the honoring of Caecilian and his memory set aside for a little, I appeal to my Lord, I appeal to Christ against my brother. Not as that man did, I do not say to him: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (Luke 12:13); but I say: Lord, tell my brother to hold the inheritance with me. So that I have appealed to the Lord against my brother is not against my brother, but for my brother; I do not want him disinherited, I do not want to possess it alone; for I know that what I possess will not become narrow, if many possess it with me. What I possess is called love, which is the more enlarged by a numerous possessor.