Sermon 77A

SERMON 77/A

TRACTATUS
On the Canaanite Woman According to Matthew

What the Canaanite woman teaches us.

That woman, who was crying out after the Lord, you heard how she sought, asked, knocked, and it was opened to her. Therefore, it teaches us to seek, so that we find; to ask, so that we receive; to knock, so that it is opened to us. Why then was the Lord unwilling to grant what was asked? Was He unmerciful? But He knew when to give, who delayed giving; for He was not denying His gift, but was exercising her desire. Therefore, let us cry out to Him, as we have now sung: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for my soul hopes in You. Have mercy on me, says, O God: why? Because my soul has hoped in You. This, says He, is the sacrifice which I offer to You, that You may hear me: because my soul has hoped in You. Who has hoped in God and been abandoned? It even happens in great temptations; and however much we progress in God, we live under pardon. Did not the Lord Jesus teach the little lambs, and not the rams themselves, to pray? His disciples, our Apostles, the very leaders of the flock, of whom we are the children, as it was said: Offer to the Lord the sons of rams; He was teaching those very rams to pray, when He told them to say: Forgive us our debts. If this daily prayer exists, we live under pardon. And all our sins were forgiven in baptism, and we live under pardon. We progress, if our hope in God is nurtured and strengthened by Him helping us, so that we restrain all lust. Let us fight: our struggle is known to Him, who knows how both to watch and to help.

The sacrifice of the mind is to trust in the Lord.

You have heard, when the Apostle was read: We know, he says, that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal. See who says what. The law, he says, is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin; for what I do, I do not know. What does he mean: I do not know? I do not accept, I do not approve. For I do not do what I want, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. What does he mean: I agree with the law? Because what I do not want, the law does not want that either: therefore, when I do what I do not want, and this is not wanted by the law, I agree with the law that it is good. But it is spiritual, and I am carnal; what, then, will happen? Do we do what we do not want, and if we do all sorts of bad things, will we be unpunished? Let it not be, do not promise yourself this, O man, pay attention to what follows: But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. What is the sin he speaks of, if not the desire of the flesh? And lest you think it does not pertain to you, he said, that sin dwells in me. And what does he mean: I do not do it? I desire with the flesh, but with the mind I do not consent. The flesh desires, the mind does not consent: behold the struggle. Remain, mind, in your fight, and ask help from the Lord your God. Remain, mind, in your fight, and cry out as that woman: Lord, help me. Remain, mind, in your fight, and cry out as you have sung: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. Behold the sacrifice: My soul has trusted in you. In baptism, iniquity is erased, but weakness remains; however, in the resurrection, there will be no iniquity, and weakness will be consumed. When this mortal body puts on immortality, and this corruptible body puts on incorruption, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your sting? And if the contention of death is our struggle, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. He called the desire of the flesh sin; I desire, but with the mind I do not consent, and the desire to evil does not cease to incite. This is the contention of death. However, then the external enemy, the devil, will be underfoot, when the internal enemy, desire, will be healed, and we will live in peace. What kind of peace? That which eye has not seen, nor ear heard. What kind of peace? That which no heart has conceived, no discord pursues. What kind of peace? Of which the Apostle said: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts. Of this peace, the prophet Isaiah speaks: Lord our God, give us peace; for you have given us all things. You promised Christ, and you gave. You promised His cross, and the shedding of His blood for the remission of sins, and you gave. You promised His ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit from heaven, and you gave. You promised the Church spread throughout the whole world, and you gave. You promised the future heretics for our exercise and proving, and victory of the Church over their errors, and you gave. You promised the abolishment of idols of the nations, and you gave. Lord our God, give us peace; for you have given us all things.

Every day must be fought against desire.

Meanwhile, until we come to that peace where we will have no enemy, let us fight long, faithfully, and vigorously, so that we may deserve to be crowned by the Lord God. The Apostle James says: No one, when tempted, should say that they are tempted by God. He speaks of temptation that is for seduction. God, he says, is not the tempter of evils, and he tempts no one; but each one is tempted by their own desire, being drawn away and enticed by it. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Therefore, each one is tempted by their own desire; thus, let them fight, let them resist, do not consent, do not be dragged away, do not allow it to conceive what it will bear. Behold, temptation flatters, it stirs, it presses, it demands that you do something evil; do not consent, and it will not conceive. If you think willingly, it conceives; it will bring forth for you to die. See what the Apostle says: Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Sin is sweet, but death is bitter: beware of the sweetness of sin, lest you feel the bitterness of death; beware of desire, and even if not in deed, certainly in word. You hear something willingly that you should not hear, you say what you should not say, you think what you should not think. Nothing is faster than thought; it has incredible wings; it flings itself from the heart, and precedes language; evil is thought before it is spoken. Do not stand there. A thought creeps in: go away from there, proceed elsewhere, do not linger there. You do not intend to do evil: why do you willingly think what you do not wish to do? My brothers, for whom these sins are not great, doubting to persist in them, the Lord says: Say, forgive us our debts. However much you may advance, you have that desire within you. Before death is swallowed up in victory, thus say: Forgive us our debts. Do not raise your head in pride, fear God: we live under pardon. Say with all your heart: Forgive us our debts. This concerns the past, what has been done, what has been said, what has been thought: regarding the future, what? Listen, and say what follows: Lead us not into temptation. Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation. What is: to enter into temptation? To consent to evil desire. Have you consented? you have entered: or quickly leave. Before you come to sin, kill your consent; rejoice that you have not done it, regret that you have thought it.

Sin should be feared more than death.

Brothers, let us have a wise heart: let us fear God who promises great things, who threatens terrible things. This life will end someday. You see that people pass away from here daily: death can be postponed, but it cannot be taken away. Whether we wish it or not, this life will end; let us desire that life which has no end; to which life there is no way to pass except through death. Let us not fear, therefore, that which will come someday; let us fear that which, if it comes, and takes hold of us in sins, draws us not to temporal but to eternal death; which may God avert from all, and from us, and from you. O man, do you not fear to die eternally, who acts in such a way as to be punished or die eternally? Let the fear of this death teach you how the future death is to be feared. You fear death: can you escape death? Whether you like it or not, it must come. You fear death, you should fear sin more; for by sin the soul dies, sin is the enemy of your soul. You will be resolved from sin someday, but freed from the fetters of corruptible flesh, see that you are not bound by the fetters of gehenna. When freed, you should be free, not a servant. Beware of fraud, because of that covetousness which is called avarice; beware of shameful gains, because of the covetousness which is called avarice; because this avarice is also the root of all evils, as Scripture says. Beware of drunkenness, beware of adultery, theft, lying, false testimony. Beware of blasphemies, enchantments, incantations, and various superstitions. Beware of usury and interest; do not have fellowship with moneylenders, dismiss them. A day will come when it will be said to them: Your money be with you to destruction. A day of judgment will come, when for this money, and with this money, they will burn in eternal fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That money will be a testimony against them. Do not give or take it in such a way, lest you begin to render a bad account of yourselves to God on the day of judgment. For what does it profit them, except that for the money, which they will either lose while alive or leave behind when dead, they lose their soul, which they cannot redeem? As the holy Gospel says: What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Therefore, beware, my brothers, of usury and interest, and do not say: And from what shall we live? This is not to seek life but death. Do not say: And from what shall we live? There are other means by which men conduct themselves. Do not do what God prohibits, do not live from it. O wretched and miserable, and unhappy! You attend to the fact that you live from it, and do not attend to how you will die from it. And from what, you ask, shall I live? This a pimp can also tell me, this a robber can also tell me; should robbery or pimping be practiced for that reason, because those who do them live from them? Woe to the wretched who live from them, because they die from them. It is better to beg than to live from illicit actions. Finally, it is better for a man to die than by living from illicit actions to bring about that he is tormented by eternal death. This death ends pain: that death remains in eternal pains. Believe, understand, fear, abstain from every evil thing; study the word of God, love to hear what God wills, and what He promises to those who do His will. And for it to be done what He commands, God is to be prayed to, and God helps.

[Explicit Treatise on the Canaanite Woman according to Matthew].