Works 4 part 1/9

A. Sermons preserved in the Durlach codex. SERMON ON THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. By the favor of the Divinity, most beloved brothers, already near is the day on which we long to celebrate with joy the birthday of the Lord and Savior. And therefore I ask and admonish you: insofar as we can, with God's help let us labor, that on that day, with a sincere and pure conscience, with a clean heart and a chaste body, we may be able to approach the altar of the Lord, and may merit to receive His body and blood not unto judgment, but unto the remedy of our soul. For in Christ's body our life so consists, as the Lord Himself said: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.

Let him therefore change his life who wishes to receive life. For if he does not change his life, he will receive life unto judgment, and will be more corrupted by it than healed, more slain than made alive. For thus the Apostle said: He who eats the body of the Lord and drinks His blood unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself. And although it befits us to be adorned and resplendent with good works at every time, yet especially on the day of the Lord's birth, as the Lord Himself also said in the Gospel: Your works ought to shine before all men.

Consider, we beseech you, brothers, when any powerful or noble man desires to celebrate either his own birthday or his son's, with how great zeal, many days before, he commands whatever he sees soiled in his house to be cleaned handsomely, whatever is unseemly and unfitting to be cast out, whatever is useful and necessary to be brought forth. The house too, if it be dark, is whitewashed; the floors are cleaned with brooms and, sprinkled with various flowers, are adorned; whatever also pertains to the gladness of soul and body and to delights is provided with all solicitude. Why does he do all these things, dearest brothers, except that the day of his birthday may be celebrated with joy?

O man who must die, if then you prepare such great things at your own or your son's birthday, how great and of what quality ought you to prepare when about to receive the birthday of your Lord? If you prepare such things for one who must die, what things ought you to prepare for the Eternal One? Whatever therefore you would not wish to find in your house, labor as much as you can that God may not find it in your soul. Surely, if an earthly king or any householder invited you to his birthday, in what garments would you be eager to go adorned—how new and shining, how splendid—whose neither age nor cheapness nor any foulness would offend the eyes of the one inviting.

With such zeal therefore, insofar as you prevail, strive with Christ's help, that your soul, composed with the diverse ornaments of the virtues, adorned with the gems of simplicity and the flowers of sobriety, may proceed with a pure conscience to the solemnity of the eternal King—that is, the birthday of the Lord and Savior—bright with chastity, resplendent with charity, gleaming white with almsgiving. For Christ the Lord, if He shall recognize you thus composed to celebrate His birthday, will Himself deign to come in person and not only to visit your soul, but even to rest there perpetually and to dwell in it, as it is written: Among them will I walk and dwell in them; and again: Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone shall rise and open to me, I will go in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. How happy is that soul which has striven so to govern its life, with God's help, that it may merit to receive Christ as its guest and inhabitant! Just as, on the contrary, how unhappy is that conscience—to be lamented with a whole fountain of tears—which has so bloodied itself with evil works, darkened itself with the blackness of avarice, burned itself with the fire of wrath, defiled itself with continual luxury, destroyed itself with the tyranny of pride, that in it not Christ begins to rest, but the devil to hold dominion.

For such a soul, if the medicine of penance does not quickly come to its aid, will be forsaken by the light, seized by darkness, emptied of sweetness, filled with bitterness, invaded by death, rejected by life. Yet let not such a soul distrust the Lord's mercy, nor be broken by excessive despair; but rather let it swiftly run back to penance, and, while the wounds of its sins are still fresh and warm, let it so apply to itself wholesome medicines, because our Physician is almighty and is accustomed so to cure our sores that He does not let even traces of scars remain.

And therefore, most beloved brothers, just as at all times from adulteresses and most wretched concubines, so also from your own wives you ought to abstain for many days beforehand, as often as you dispose to celebrate either the Lord's birthday or the other solemnities. Flee drunkenness before all things; fight against wrath as against a most cruel beast; drive out hatred from your heart like a deadly poison; and let there be in you so great a charity that it may reach not only to friends but even to your very enemies, so that you may be able to say with security in the Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our debts, and so forth.

For whoever knows that he holds hatred toward even one man, I do not know whether he can approach the altar of the Lord in safety, especially since the blessed evangelist John cries out with terror and says: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer.' Now it is for you to judge whether a murderer, before he does penance, ought to presume to receive the Eucharist. Saint John added yet more and cries out saying: 'He who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and knows not whither he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes'; and again he says: 'Everyone who does not love his brother shall abide in death'; and again: 'If anyone says of himself that he loves God, and hates his brother, he is a liar.'

For he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, how can he love God, whom he does not see? Whoever therefore keeps hatred or anger in his heart, and under such thunder is neither terrified nor roused, must be believed to be not sleeping but dead. Pondering these things assiduously, therefore, most beloved brethren, let those who are good strive with the grace of God to persevere in good works; for it is not he who begins, but he who perseveres in the love of God unto the end, who shall be saved.

But those who recognize that they are slow to almsgiving, quick to anger, and headlong in pursuit of lust, let them hasten, with the Lord's help, to rescue themselves from evils, so that they may be worthy to fulfill what is good; that when the Day of Judgment comes, they may not be punished with the impious and sinners, but may be worthy to attain the eternal rewards together with the just and merciful, through the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. II. A SERMON ON THE NATIVITY. We read and faithfully hold that at the very beginning of the world's birth, God made us in the first man according to His own image and likeness. Behold, on this day, by a changed turn, God has been made according to our likeness.

In the first case He bestowed better things from His own; in the second He took upon Himself lesser things from ours. Through the tasting of the forbidden tree the heedless frailty of the first man was tempted to grasp at the divinity of his own Lord with a damnable ambition, the devil urging and saying: 'If you taste of this tree, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods.' Therefore let us acknowledge the admirable goodness of our tender Father. Man, at the enemy's prompting, wished through his pride to be God, and God was made man through mercy. Today, in a certain manner, there is renewed in us through Christ's divinity the appearance of that ancient and incipient age, when the first Adam was fashioned from the material of clay.

Behold, now too the second Adam is formed of virginal flesh as though from untouched and pristine earth. Behold, I say, once again, with the laws of nature suspended, a new man is brought to perfection into a new life by God alone at work. The Virgin's son is promised through the visitation of the Holy Spirit; what wonder if He is born without corruption, who is conceived of sanctification? For it was not fitting that He who brought salvation to us all should fail to grant to His mother alone the dignity of integrity. 'The Holy Spirit,' it says, 'shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.' It was clearly fitting that the mother, to be honored by a royal birth, should first be sanctified by the entrance of the heavenly King.

Wherefore let us not believe our Lord and Savior to be a mere man simply because we see Him also born as man. It is not right that He should not be believed to be God, for whom, as He was about to descend to the earth, a dwelling was prepared by God. And so, by the working of divine power, the womb of the believing woman is made fruitful; upon the mortal wood the tree of life is grafted; the Power that bears all things within itself is borne by weakness; and He who is not contained by earth, sea, and sky is received within the members of a single little body. From His own creature the Creator of all is born, and from His own streamlet the great fountain springs forth; the root of all is born from His own shoot, and the true Vine is made the fruit of its own branch.

Behold, the most longed-for day is at hand, shining with a twofold grace: illumined indeed by the brightness of the accustomed light, but shining forth above all with the radiance of the resplendent womb. Let us therefore confess first of all one God, our Lord, and there will remain no other whom we might call lesser. For whoever speaks of one as greater and another as lesser must of necessity confess that he has two gods. Let us therefore believe in one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: three persons, not three substances; three names and not three kingdoms. Why one God? Because there is one operation of power, the same concord of will, one divinity, one everlastingness, one majesty. But why three persons?

Because one is the Father, another the Son, another the Holy Spirit, yet in the equality of divinity there is nothing different. For in the Three there is one glory, one substance; and equality of powers makes unity, while the propriety of names and the number of persons make Trinity. Whence let us faithfully hold that our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners: as of God wholly God, so of man wholly man, without the taint of sin; according to His divinity equal to the Father, according to His humanity even lesser than the angels and younger than the mother whom He created. These are the most solid foundations of our life and hope.

It remains that upon these foundations the structure of good works should rise for us; and this we shall assuredly attain by imitating Him who for this reason was made man from God, that we might be able to imitate Him. And we shall imitate God by despising the world, by not pursuing revenge for injuries, by rejecting our own wills, by loving the glory of submission, by enduring tribulations with magnanimity, and by turning away from the honors and riches and delights of this body.

And so let us reserve all our delight, all our rest for that future homeland; and let us fill up our liberties and the enticements of present things and our desires with longings for things to come, sighing thither daily, presenting to our heart at every moment that which eye has not seen nor ear heard, thinking without ceasing on this: how we shall worthily meet Him at that second coming of His dread majesty, being about to render an account of our deeds, our words, our thoughts; so acting, so persevering in our place as though we were daily about to pass out of this life.

O day, the newness of all days, the gain of light and the loss of blindness, in which the eternal Sun, descending from the highest height of the Father's brightness, unlocked the entrance of the virginal womb, and sprinkled the darkness of the whole world with a gleaming coruscation. Bear, O faithful of Christ, your festive joys. A new thing has been done for us today, which long ago had been promised: that without loss to the virgin's chastity the breasts of the mother might give suck to a son. This is that newness announced by the prophecy of Jeremiah the prophet: 'The Lord,' he says, 'shall make a new thing upon the earth'; and, as though kindling a certain lamp for this darkness, he immediately added: 'A woman shall encompass a man.'

This, I say, is the new thing which I declare the Lord will make upon the earth: that a woman shall encompass a man. Attend, brethren, and rather go before me with your understanding. 'A woman,' he says, 'shall encompass a man.' O woman blessed above women, who both knew not a man and encompassed a man in her own womb; who is not touched by carnal intercourse and yet rejoices in fleshly offspring from a spiritual seed. Mary encompasses a man by giving faith to the angel, because Eve destroyed a man by consenting to the serpent. 'The Lord,' he says, 'shall make a new thing upon the earth.' Therefore, when the time came for exhibiting this newness, a heavenly messenger is sent ahead to the virgin; the angel greeted the maiden, unacquainted with a man's greeting.

The virgin is frightened by the newness of the words, to whom the angel says: 'Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with the Lord.' 'Do not,' he says, 'be frightened at my appearance, O mother of my Lord; I have come as the minister of your conception. He Himself has sent me to you, He who is to be born of you; He Himself announces to you through me the joy of Him who was pleased to unite in your womb a mystical marriage with human nature. You have found grace with God; behold, you shall conceive and bear a son—not a man of any ordinary merit, but the Savior of the whole world. Fear not,' he says, 'cast from you all dread, you who are about to conceive the joy of the world. Turn back, Mary, to the prophetic reading.'

For knowledge of the divine books cannot escape you, who are about to bring forth the very fullness of the prophets. Recall in the book of Isaiah the prophet the virgin whom you have read of, and rejoice, because it is you—you have been counted worthy to be her. You were there prefigured, O virgin. Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, not of a man but of the Holy Spirit; and you shall be with child and remain undefiled; you shall bear a son and suffer no loss of your virginity. And she said: 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.' Presently, therefore, the angel, having received the virgin's consent, sought again the dwellers of the heavenly region; and behold, suddenly an ineffable power penetrated the secret place of the virgin.

The Maker of the world enters the narrow confines of a human belly; the untouched mother is made with child; and behold, like a bridegroom from his chamber, Christ comes forth from Mary's womb. The power of majesty is hidden in the limbs of an infant; God hangs upon the breasts, is covered with the squalor of cheap swaddling-clothes, endures the narrowness of a most hard manger, and the Merciful One humbly suffers all, so long as the world, which had perished, might be set free. O blessed infancy, through which the life of our race was restored! O most welcome and delightful cries, through which we escaped the gnashing of teeth and the wailings of our fathers! O happy swaddling-clothes, with which we wiped away the filth of our sins! O splendid manger, in which lay not the fodder of beasts, but the food of angels was found!

Give suck, Mary, to your Creator; give suck to the Bread of heaven; give suck to the Price of the world. Offer the breast to Him who sucks, that for you He Himself may offer His cheek to the one who strikes. Let the infant be nourished with the milk of your breasts, that as a young man He may accept the drink of vinegar for you. Let your hands now carry Him, that His arms may afterward be fastened on the cross for you. Finally, do you as His mother minister to Him temporal substance, that He Himself may grant eternal life to us and to you, together with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. Amen. III. A SERMON ON THE BIRTHDAY OF SAINT STEPHEN. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which was read to us today, most beloved brethren, though it holds very much of wonder in its outward appearance, nonetheless contains no less of dignity in its mystery.

'Behold,' says the blessed Stephen, 'I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' Consider more attentively, most beloved brethren: when the blessed martyr saw our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God the Father, why did he testify that he saw the Son of Man, and not rather the Son of God—when surely he would seem to confer more honor upon the Lord if he had said he saw the Son of God rather than the Son of Man? But a sure reason demanded that it should thus both be shown in heaven and be proclaimed in the world. For the whole stumbling-block of the Jews lay in this: why our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the flesh was the Son of Man, should also be said to be the Son of God.

Therefore the divine Scripture beautifully recorded that the Son of Man stands at the right hand of God the Father, so that, to confound the unbelief of the Jews, He might be shown in heaven to the martyr, who was denied by the faithless in the world; and that the heavenly Truth might give testimony to Him whom earthly impiety refused to believe. Whence, although according to the psalm that was read, 'precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,' yet if anything can distinguish among the martyrs, he would seem to be the foremost above all who is the first. For since Saint Stephen was ordained a deacon by the apostles, he preceded the apostles themselves by a blessed and triumphant death.

And thus he who was inferior in order became first in suffering; and he who was a disciple in rank began to be a master in martyrdom, fulfilling that which the blessed prophet said in the psalm that was read: 'What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me?' For Stephen the martyr wished to be the first to render to the Lord that which, along with all mankind, he had received from the Lord. For the death which the Savior deigned to suffer for all, this he was the first to render back to the Savior. After these things sacred Scripture added and said: 'Bending his knees, he cried out saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' See, most beloved brethren, the affection of the blessed man; see the great and marvelous charity.

He was set in persecution, and for his persecutors he supplicated the Lord; and amid the shower of stones, when another might have forgotten even his own dearest ones, he commended his enemies to the Lord. For what did he say as he was being stoned? 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' For then he grieved more over their sins than over his own wounds, more over their impiety than over his own death. And rightly more. For in their impiety there were many things which ought to be lamented; but in his death there were no things which ought to be mourned. Their impiety was followed by eternal death, but his death by perpetual life. Let us therefore imitate in some measure, most beloved brethren, the faith of so great a master, the charity of so illustrious a martyr.

Let us love our brethren in the Church with that same spirit with which he then loved his enemies. But what is worse, sometimes we not only do not love our enemies, but do not even keep whole faith with our friends. But someone says: 'I cannot love my enemy, whom I daily endure as a most cruel foe.' O whoever you are, you attend to what a man has done to you, and do not consider what you have done to God. For since you have committed far graver sins against God, why do you not forgive a man a small thing, that God may deign to forgive you the whole? Recall what the Truth itself promised you in the Gospel, and what a kind of surety it made you, and what a covenant it entered into with you:

'For if,' He says, 'you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offenses. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your debts.' You see, brethren, that by the grace of God it is placed within our power in what manner we shall be judged by the Lord. 'If,' He says, 'you forgive, it shall be forgiven you.' I have said it often already, brethren, and I ought to say it more frequently: let no one deceive himself, let no one lead himself astray, for whoever holds hatred toward even one man in this world, whatever he offers to God in good works, he shall lose it all; for it is written: 'He who hates his brother is a murderer.' In this place 'brother' must be understood to mean every man. For we are all brethren in Christ.

Let no one, therefore, presume upon his virginity apart from charity; let no one trust in his almsgiving, no one in his fastings, no one in his prayers; for so long as he holds enmity in his heart, he will be able to appease God for himself neither by these nor by any other good works. But if he wishes to have God favorable, let him not disdain to hear good counsel. Let him hear, not me, but his own Lord: 'If you offer,' He says, 'your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then coming you shall offer your gift.'

But we, having strifes within and turning over deceits in our heart, as though we had a good conscience, presume to approach the altar, not fearing that which is written: 'He who eats the body of the Lord and drinks His blood unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself.' But someone says: 'It is a great labor to love an enemy and to supplicate for one's persecutors.' Nor do we deny it, brethren. It is indeed no small labor in this world, but great is the reward in the world to come. For through love of an enemy, of a man, you are made a friend of God—nay, not only a friend, but also a son, as He Himself said: 'Love your enemies,' and the rest.

If some powerful and rich man in this world wished to make you his adopted son, how you would serve! What indignations even from his servants, what most harsh and sometimes even most shameful services you would endure, in order to attain his fleeting and fragile inheritance! What another therefore endures for the sake of earthly substance, do you endure for the sake of eternal life. For we are convinced by most certain reasoning that for God's sake we indeed could, but are unwilling, to endure injury. Finally, if some powerful person does us an injury, if he even reviles us to our face, we do not dare to answer anything harsh—I will not say, to return like for like. Why is this? Lest from that powerful person we suffer things still greater than what we have already endured.

What the fear of man extorts from us, the love of Christ ought to require of us. If therefore a powerful person rages against us, we keep silent and dare say nothing; but if an equal, or perchance an inferior, does us even a slight insult, then, like a wild beast, without any patience and without any regard for God, we rise up, and either avenge our injury on the spot, or at any rate prepare our mind to return a greater like for like. What is this—that when a powerful person inflicts an injury on us, we take it patiently; but when an inferior does, we are inflamed with excessive fury? Because, where we have feared a man, there we are unwilling to fear God.

Wherefore I ask you, brethren, that, as much as we can, with God's help we prepare our heart for patience, and that in all things, even toward evil men, we strive to play the part of physicians, and hate not the men themselves, but their malice. Let us pray for the good, that they may ever ascend to better things; for the evil, that they may quickly flee to the amendment of their life and to the remedies of penitence—which very thing may He Himself deign to grant us as we pray, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God unto the ages of ages. Amen. IV. A SERMON ON SAINT STEPHEN. As often as we must exhort your charity, according to the Lord's precept, to the loving of enemies, I fear lest some may think and say that they can in no way fulfill this.

Perhaps they wish to raise this objection too, and say that they cannot always imitate Christ. Behold, I speak to you, O man, whoever you are who say that in the love of enemies you cannot imitate your Lord. Surely the blessed Stephen was a man and not God; he was that which you are; but what he did, he did not do except by the gift of Him whom you too entreat. See, nonetheless, what he did. He spoke to the Jews; he raged and he loved. Both I must demonstrate—both the one raging and the one loving. Hear the one raging. These are the words of Stephen, when he addressed the Jews: 'Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill?' You have heard the one raging.

The other I must show; hear also the one loving. Enraged and burning more grievously and rendering evil for good, they rushed to the stones and began to stone the servant of God. Here I prove your love, holy Stephen; here let us see you; here let us behold you; here let us discern you as the conqueror of the devil and the triumphant one. Behold, the blessed Stephen gazing upon Him who hung for him and was fastened on the wood of the cross—that very One while this man was being stoned. He said: 'Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.' You, blessed Stephen, what do you say? Let me hear and see you, that perhaps I may be able to imitate even you. First the blessed Stephen, standing, prayed for himself and said: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'

When he had said this, he bent his knees, and with knee bent he said: 'Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge'; and having said this, he fell asleep. O happy sleep and true rest! Behold what it is to rest blessedly: to pray for one's enemies. But I ask you, Stephen, to deign to explain to me: what was this, that standing you prayed for yourself, and for your enemies you bent your knee? For if you were present, you would doubtless answer this: 'Standing I prayed for myself, because for myself, who rightly served God, I did not labor in praying and obtaining; because he who prays for a righteous man does not labor.' Therefore standing he prayed for himself. Thence it came about that he prayed for the Jews, for the slayers of Christ, for the slayers of the saints, for those who stoned him.

Because he perceived that their impiety was excessive and great, such as could scarcely be pardoned, he bent his knee. Let us therefore imitate, most beloved brethren, insofar as God shall grant, the blessed Stephen; let us love not only friends but also enemies, because there is nothing whereby we can thus both redeem sins and conquer the devil and appease God. In short, the Lord Himself said: 'Give, and it shall be given to you; forgive, and it shall be forgiven you'; and again: 'If you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offenses,' and the rest. See, brethren, the mercy of our Lord. He has placed it within our power in what manner we shall be judged on the Day of Judgment.