Sermon 9

SERMO 9

TREATISE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE ON THE TEN STRINGS
SERMON HELD AT CHUSA

Let us rejoice at the mercy of the Lord, let us fear the judgment of the Lord.

Our Lord and God is merciful and compassionate, patient and greatly merciful and truthful. Just as He abundantly bestows mercy in the present age, He also threatens severe judgment in the age to come. The words I have spoken are written and contained in divine authorities, because: Merciful and compassionate is the Lord, patient and greatly merciful and truthful. It is greatly pleasing to all sinners and lovers of this world, because the Lord is merciful and compassionate, because He is patient and greatly merciful. But if you love so greatly the merciful one, also fear the last part which He said: And truthful. For if He said nothing else except: Merciful and compassionate is the Lord, and greatly merciful, it is as if you would turn yourself to security and impunity and to the license of sins. You would do what you wished, you would use the world, either as much as would be allowed to you or as much as your passion would dictate. And if anyone admonished and terrified you with well-meaning advice, to refrain yourself from excessive indulgence following your desires and abandoning your God, you would stand amidst the voices of the one admonishing, indeed with a shameless front, as if hearing divine authority, and you would read from the Lord’s book: "Why do you terrify me about our God? He is merciful and compassionate and greatly merciful." Lest men say such things, He added one word at the end, which He said: And truthful. And He shook off the joy of those presuming falsely, and induced fear in those grieving. Let us rejoice in the mercy of the Lord, but let us fear the judgment of the Lord. He spares, but He is not silent. He is silent, but He will not always be silent. Listen while He is not silent in the word, so that it does not come to you to hear when He is not silent in the judgment.

Just compose your case.

But now you may arrange your case. Arrange your case before the final judgment of your God. There is no reason for you to presume, when He comes, you will not bring false witnesses by whom He may be deceived, nor will you employ a lawyer with fraudulent and verbose skills, nor will you make any attempt to corrupt the judge. What then will you do before such a judge, whom you cannot deceive or corrupt? And yet there is something you can do. For then He Himself will be the judge of your case, who is now the witness of your life. We have called, and we have praised. Let us arrange our case. He who is witness to your works is also witness to these words. Let them not be in vain, let them be turned into lamentation. It is time to reconcile quickly with the adversary. God is so patient in seeing daily injustices and not punishing them, yet the judgment will swiftly come. Indeed, in the manner of human life, what seems long is short to God. But even the age and the human race, which seem long, what does it console? If the last day of the whole human race is far off, is the last day of each individual man far off? This I say: many years have passed since Adam, many years have flowed, and many more will flow, though not as many, yet the years will pass until the end of the age, just as these have passed. It seems long what remains, although it will not be as long as what has passed, yet from the passed time that has elapsed, the end of the remaining time is to be expected. There was once a day that was called today. From that until this today, has not whatever was future become past? It is considered as if it never was. So will be whatever remains until the end. But let this itself be long, let it be prolonged, as much as you suppose, as much as you say, as much as you think, as much as your thoughts imagine but scripture does not shape, as much as you want to prolong the day of judgment, will you prolong the last day for yourself, that is, of your life when you will depart from this body? Let old age be certain for you, if it can be. But for whom can it be? Is it not true that from the time a man begins to live, he is able to die? The possibility of death begins with life. On this earth and in the human race, he alone cannot die who has not yet begun to live. Therefore the uncertain day should be expected daily. And if the uncertain day should be expected daily, let reconciliation be made with the adversary, while he is with you on the way. For this life is called the way, through which all pass. And this adversary does not depart.

The Word of God is an adversary, with whom to compose a cause.

But who is this adversary? This adversary is not the devil, for Scripture would never urge you to agree with the devil. Therefore, there is another adversary whom man makes for himself. For if he were an adversary, he would not be with you on the way. He is with you on the way so that he may agree with you. He knows that unless you agree on the way, he will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and the officer will throw you into prison. These words are from the Gospel; they are remembered by those who have read or heard them. So who is the adversary? The Word of God. The Word of God is your adversary. Why is it an adversary? Because it commands contrary things that you do not do. It says to you: "There is one God, worship one God." You want, having disregarded one God like the legitimate husband of the soul, to fornicate with many demons, and what is worse, not openly forsaking and repudiating like apostates do, but, remaining in the house of your husband, you admit adulterers. That is, as a Christian you do not leave the Church, but consult astrologers, soothsayers, augurs, or sorcerers. As if not departing from the house of your husband, your adulterous soul, remaining in his marriage, fornicates. It is said to you: "Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," nor believe that Christ is a creature simply because he took on a creature for you. And you despise him who is equal to the Father and one with the Father. It is said to you to observe the Sabbath spiritually, not as the Jews observe it with carnal leisure. For they want to idle themselves with trifles and luxuries. Indeed, it would be better for the Jew to do something useful in his field than to be turbulent in the theater. And it would be better for their women to spin wool on the Sabbath than to dance shamelessly all day on their balconies. But you are told to observe the Sabbath spiritually, in the hope of the future rest that the Lord promises you. For whoever acts for the sake of that future rest, whatever he does, even though it may seem laborious, if he relates it to the promise of rest, he does not yet have the Sabbath in reality but has it in hope. But you want to rest so you may labor, whereas you ought to labor so you may rest. It is said to you: "Honor your father and mother." You insult your parents, though you do not wish to suffer the same from your children. It is said to you: "You shall not kill." But you wish to kill your enemy; and perhaps the only reason you do not kill him is because you fear the judgment of man, not because you think of God. Do you not know that He is a witness to your thoughts? With Him living whom you wish to die, He holds you a murderer in your heart. It is said to you: "You shall not commit adultery," that is, you shall not go to any woman other than your wife. But you demand this from your wife and are unwilling to give it to her. And while you ought to lead your wife in virtue since chastity is a virtue, you fall in the first assault of lust. You want your wife to be victorious while you, defeated, lie down. And while you are the head of your wife, she goes to God before you, whose head you are. Do you want your house to hang upside down? For the man is the head of the woman. But where the woman lives better than the man, the house is upside down. If the man is the head, he ought to live better and lead his wife in all good deeds so that she may imitate her husband, follow her head. Just as Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is commanded to follow her head and walk in its footsteps, so the head of every household is the man, and the woman is like the body. Wherever the head leads, there the body ought to follow. Why then does the head want to go where it does not want the body to follow? Why does the man want to go where he does not want his wife to follow? In commanding these things, the Word of God is an adversary. For men do not want to do what the Word of God commands. And what shall I say, that the Word of God is an adversary because it commands? I fear I may be an adversary to some because I speak these things. What does it matter to me? May He who terrifies me make me strong to speak, so that I do not fear the complaints of men. For those who do not want to keep chastity for their wives—and such people are abundant—do not want me to speak these things. But whether they wish or not, I will speak. For if I do not exhort you to agree with the adversary, I will remain at odds with him. He who commands you to do these things also commands us to speak them. If by not doing what he commands you to do, you are his adversaries, by not speaking what he commands us to say, we will remain his adversaries.

Against adultery.

Have I dwelled at length on the other points that I mentioned above? For we presume this about your Charity, that you worship one God. We presume this about the Catholic faith that is in you, that you believe the Son of God to be equal to the Father. And you do not take in vain the name of the Lord your God, as if you thought the Son of God to be a creature. For every creature is subject to vanity. But you believe that He is equal to the Father, God from God, the Word with God, the Word is God, by whom all things were made, light from light, co-eternal with Him who begat, one with Him who begat. But you believe this Word assumed a creature, assumed mortality from the Virgin Mary, and suffered for us. We read these things, we believe them to be saved. Neither did I dwell on the point that whatever you do, you do for the hope of the future. For I know that all Christians think about the future age. For he who does not think about the future age, nor is he a Christian for the sake of receiving what God promises at the end, is not yet a Christian. Nor did I dwell on the point where the Word of God says: Honor your father and your mother. For many honor their parents, and we rarely find parents complaining about the wickedness of their children, although they are not lacking; but still, since it rarely happens, it needed a brief admonishment. Nor did I want to dwell on the point where it is said: You shall not kill. For I do not believe there is a crowd of murderers here. But that evil, more widely spreading, has taken hold, and in this, that adversary is more vehemently irritated, who shouts so as to someday be a friend. Daily complaints are made, even though women themselves now do not dare to complain about their husbands. Thus, the custom invading all things is observed as law, so that perhaps even women are persuaded that it is allowed for men, but not for women. For they are accustomed to hear of women being brought to trial who were perhaps found with servants. They have never heard of a man being brought to trial because he was found with his maidservant, though it is a sin. In equal sin, it is not divine truth but human perversity that makes the man seem more innocent. And if perhaps today any man has suffered his wife to be more bold and murmuring, to whom it already seemed that it was permitted for the man, and he heard in the Church that it is not permitted for the man, if therefore he has suffered his wife, as we have said, more freely murmuring and saying to him: "What you do is not permitted. We heard this together. We are Christians. What you demand from me, return to me. I owe faith to you, you owe faith to me, we both owe faith to Christ. And if you deceive me, you do not deceive Him to whom we belong, you do not deceive Him who bought us." Hearing these and similar things, which he is not accustomed to, while he does not want to be made healthy in himself, he becomes insane against me. He gets angry, he curses. Perhaps he even says: "How did it happen that he came here, or that my wife went to church that day?" And I believe that he says this in his thoughts, for he does not dare to break out into speech openly, not even before his wife alone. For perhaps if he breaks out and says this, she can respond and say: "Why do you curse the one to whom you were shortly before giving acclamations? Surely we are spouses. How can you live harmoniously with me if your tongue is in discord?" Brothers, we look at your dangers, we do not attend to your wills. For if a doctor attends to the will of the sick, he never cures them. What ought not to be done, let it not be done. What God forbids, let it not be done. He who believes in God hears from Him what we say. Certainly, it would have been better for some who are unwilling to be corrected, that we should either not have come here if we were to speak thus, or because we have already come, not to say these things.

We sing better bitter things to you for a time.

The day before yesterday I remember saying to Your Holiness, that if we were lyre players or providing something similar to entertain your frivolous pursuits, which I now beg you to abandon, you would have kept us to set a date for performing, and each would contribute to us a reward according to his means. Why would we walk delighted by vain songs that are beneficial for nothing, sweet for a time, bitter in the future? For by such shameful songs the human spirits are enticed, enervated, and fall from virtue into vice. And because of these vices, they later feel pains and with great bitterness digest what they drank with temporary sweetness. Therefore, it is better that we sing you bitter things for a time, which will later become sweet within you. Nor do we demand any reward, except that you do what we say, or rather not do, if we ourselves say it. But if He who fears no one says it to all, and by whom it happens in His name and for the glory of His mercy that we also fear no one, we all have heard it, we all should do it, we should all agree with our adversary.

The first three commandments of the Decalogue pertain to God.

Consider me a harpist, what more could I sing to you? Behold, I bear a psaltery with ten strings. You sang this a little while ago before I began to speak. My chorus was you. Did you not sing a little while ago: To God I will sing a new song, I will sing to you on a ten-stringed psaltery. Now I am striking those very ten strings. Why is the voice of God’s psaltery bitter? Let us all play on the ten-stringed psaltery. I do not sing to you something you cannot do. For the Decalogue of the law has ten commandments. These ten commandments are distributed as follows: three pertain to God, seven pertain to people. Three to God, which I have already said: Our God is one, and we must make no likeness, and we must not forsake the one God, because the God Christ, the Son of God, is one with the Father. And therefore it should not be taken in vain by us, to think of him as made, that is, some creature through whom all things were made. Since he himself is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit, that is, in the gift of God, eternal rest is promised to us. From there we now receive the pledge. For the Apostle says: Who gave us the pledge, the Spirit. If we have received the pledge, so that we may begin to be calm in the Lord and in our God, to be gentle in our God, to be patient in our God, we will also be at peace in Him from whom we received the pledge, forever. This will be the Sabbath of Sabbaths, because of the rest pertaining to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the third commandment about the Sabbath, which we mentioned, which the Jews celebrate carnally, we acknowledge spiritually. For because it is called the Holy Spirit, for that reason God sanctified the seventh day, when he made all his works, as we read written in Genesis. There you do not find the sanctification named, except on that day when it is said: God rested from his works. For God was not tired, that it would be said: God rested from his works, but in that word rest was promised to you who labor. And because He made everything very good, so it is said: God rested, that you may understand that you too will rest after good works, and will rest without end. For all the previous days mentioned, that is, the previous days have an evening. This seventh day does not have an evening where God sanctified rest. It is said there: "Morning came, that the day might begin." It is not said: "Evening came, that the day might end," but it is said: Morning came, that the day might be without end. Thus, our rest begins as a morning, but it does not end, because we will live forever. To this hope, if we do whatever we do, we observe the Sabbath. That very third string of this Decalogue, that is, of the ten-stringed psaltery: commands pertain to him in the three strings.

To the love of neighbor pertain the seven strings of the dialogue.

If it were said to us: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and nothing were said about our neighbor, it would not be a decachord, but a trichord. However, the Lord added: And you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and intertwined it, saying: On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets, all the Law hangs on the two commandments, on the love of God and the love of neighbor. Therefore, the Decalogue pertains to the two commandments, that is, to the love of God and the love of neighbor. To the first commandment belong three strings, because God is Trinity. To the second commandment, that is, to the love of neighbor, belong seven strings: how one lives among men. For the number seven, as if of seven strings, begins with the honor of parents. Honor your father and your mother. For to his parents does a man open his eyes, and this life begins from their friendship. Whoever does not defer honor to his own parents, to whom will he show mercy? Honor your father and your mother. And the Apostle says: Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment. How is it first, when it is the fourth commandment, unless it is because it is the first in the number seven? It is first in the love of neighbor on the second tablet. For this reason, two tablets of the Law were given. God gave two tablets to his servant Moses on the mountain, on which the ten commandments of the law were inscribed on the two stone tablets - which is the psaltery of ten strings - three on one tablet pertaining to God, seven on the other tablet pertaining to the neighbor. Therefore, on the other tablet, the first is: Honor your father and your mother. Second: You shall not commit adultery. Third: You shall not kill. Fourth: You shall not steal. Fifth: You shall not bear false witness. Sixth: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Seventh: You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. Let us join these to the three pertaining to the love of God, if we wish to sing the new song on the psaltery of ten strings.

The old and new man, the old and new song.

Let your Charity pay attention, so that I may say what the Lord suggests. The people of the Jews received the law. They did not observe it in the Decalogue. And whoever obeyed, obeyed out of fear of punishment, not out of love for justice. They carried the psaltery, but did not sing. For to the singer it is pleasure, to the fearful it is a burden. Thus the old man either does not do it, or he does it out of fear, not out of love for holiness, not out of delight in chastity, not out of the temperance of charity, but out of fear. He is an old man, and an old man can sing an old song, not a new one. But so that he may sing a new song, he must be a new man. And how he can be a new man, listen—not to me, but to the Apostle saying: "Put off the old man and put on the new." And so no one would think, when he said, "Put off the old man and put on the new," that something must be set aside and something must be taken up when he commanded the changing of man, he added and said: “Therefore, putting aside falsehood, speak the truth.” This is what he meant by “Put off the old man and put on the new.” He said this: Change your ways. Love God, whom you previously disregarded. You loved the idle things of iniquity, the temporal pleasures; love your neighbor. If you do it out of love, you are singing a new song. If you do it out of fear, you still do it, you do carry the psaltery, but you are not yet singing. But if you do not do it, you throw away the psaltery itself. It is better to carry it at least, than to throw it away. But again, it is better to sing with pleasure than to carry with burden. And no one reaches the new song unless he is already singing with pleasure. For he who carries with fear is still in the old. And what am I saying, Brothers, pay attention. He has not agreed with his adversary, who still acts in fear. For he is afraid that God will come and condemn him. For he is not yet delighted by chastity, he is not yet delighted by justice, but fearing God's judgment, he refrains from acts. He does not yet condemn the lust that rages within him. He is not yet delighted by what is good. He does not yet have the sweetness there to sing a new song, but fears penalties from his old condition. He has not yet agreed with his adversary.

May God please you as He is.

For such men are often deceived by such thoughts, so as to say to themselves: "If it could be, God would not threaten us, would not say such things through His Prophets that frighten men, but would come to give everyone forgiveness, to pardon everyone, and afterwards come, sending no one into hell." Since he is unjust, he wants God to be unjust. God wants you to make yourself like Him, and you try to make God like you. Let God please you as He is, not as you want Him to be. For you are perverse, and you want God to be such as you are, not as He is. If, however, He pleases you as He is, you are corrected, and you will align your heart with that rule from which you are now alienated and distorted. Let God please you as He is, love Him as He is. He does not love you as you are, but hates you as you are. Therefore, He has mercy on you, because He hates you as you are, to make you what you are not yet. I said to make you what you are not yet. For He does not promise you that He will make you as He is. For you will be like Him, but in a certain way, that is, an imitator of God like an image, but not like the image which is the Son. For images even among men are diverse. A son of man bears the image of his father, and this is what his father is, because he is a man like his father. But in a mirror, your image is not what you are. For your image is different in the son, and different in the mirror. In the son, your image is according to the equality of substance; in the mirror, however, how far it is from the substance! And yet it is a certain image of you, though not such as it is in your son according to the substance. Thus in the creature, the image of God is not what it is in the Son who is what the Father is, that is, the Word of God through whom all things were made. Therefore, regain the likeness of God, which you lost through evil deeds. For just as the image of the emperor is different in a coin and different in the son—for the image is still an image, but it is impressed differently in a coin; it is held differently in the son, and differently in the solid gold coin with the emperor's image—so you are the coin of God, better in this respect because you are a coin of God with understanding and with a certain life, so that you know whose image you bear and in whose likeness you were made. For a coin does not know it bears the image of the king. Therefore, as I began to say, God hates you as you are, but loves you as He wants you to be, and therefore He urges you to change. Agree with Him, and first begin to wish well and hate yourself as you are. Let this be the beginning of your agreement with the word of God, that you first begin to hate yourself as you are. When you too begin to hate yourself as you are, just as God hates you as you are, you begin already to love God as He is.

The sick person agrees with the doctor.

Attend to the sick man. The sick man hates his sickness as it is, hence he begins to agree with the doctor. For the doctor also hates him as he is. Indeed, he wants him to be healthy because he hates the feverish state and is the pursuer of fever in order to be the liberator of the man. So too are avarice, lust, hatred, desire, luxury, and the frivolity of spectacles the fevers of your soul. You ought to hate them along with the doctor. Thus you agree with the doctor, strive with the doctor, and gladly listen to what the doctor orders, gladly do what the doctor orders, and as health progresses, the precepts also begin to delight you. How burdensome is food to the sick when they are being restored? And the sick consider the hour of their restoration worse than that of their attack. And yet, agreeing with the doctor, they force themselves, and although unwilling and struggling, they conquer themselves to take in something. With what eagerness do the healthy look forward to receiving more, from which the sick scarcely receive less? But how did this come about? Because they hated their fever and agreed with the doctor, and together they pursued the fever, both the doctor and the sick man. Therefore, when we say such things, we only hate your fevers, indeed in us the very Word of God hates your fevers, with whom you ought to agree. For what are we, except saving along with you, healing along with you?

You shall not commit adultery.

Do not look at me, but at the word of God. Do not be angry at your own remedy: for I have found no other way to pass. I have come to the fifth string, a man who touches the ten-stringed psaltery. Was I to skip the fifth string? No, I will strike it continually. For on it I see almost the whole human race lying, on it I see more toil. By striking it, what do I say? Do not commit adultery after other men's wives because you do not want your own wives to commit adultery after you. Do not go where you do not want them to follow. In vain you try to excuse yourself when you say: "Do I go to another man's wife? I go to my maid." Do you want her to say to you: "Do I go to another man? I go to my servant." You say: "It is not another man's wife to whom I go." Do you want it to be said to you: "It is not another man to whom I go"? May it never be that she says this. For it is better that she grieves for you than imitates you. For that chaste and holy woman and true Christian, who grieves for her fornicating husband, does not grieve for the flesh but grieves for charity’s sake, she does not want you to do it not because she herself does not do it, but because it is not good for you. For if she abstains so that you may not do it, if you do it, she will do it. But if she owes it to God, if she owes it to Christ what you demand, and she abstains because He commands it, and if the husband fornicates, she shows her chastity to God. For Christ speaks in the hearts of good women, speaks inwardly where the husband does not hear, because he is not worthy if he is such. Therefore He speaks inwardly and says, and comforts His daughter with such words: "You are tormented by your husband's insults, what did he do to you? Grieve, but do not imitate him to do evil, but let him imitate you in doing good. For in what he does evil, do not consider him your head, but me." For if he is the head in what he does evil, the body will follow its head, and both will go headlong. But to the end that the body does not follow its evil head, let it hold itself fast to the head of the Church, Christ. Owing her chastity to Him, showing her honor to Him, whether her husband is absent or present, she does not sin; because she is never absent from the One to whom she owes not to sin.

What a woman can do, a man cannot do?

Therefore, my brothers, do this so that you may agree with the adversary. What I say is not bitter, or if it is bitter, it heals. If this potion is bitter, let it be taken. Because the bowels are in danger, if it is bitter, let it be drunk. It is better to have a little bitterness in the throat than eternal torment in the bowels. Therefore, change yourselves. Whoever was not practicing this good of chastity, now do so. Do not say: "It cannot be done." It is shameful, my brothers, it is disgraceful for a man to say that what a woman does cannot be done. It is a crime for a man to say, "I cannot." Can a man not do what a woman can? For does she not bear flesh? She was first deceived by the serpent. Your chaste wives show you it can be done, which you do not want to do and say cannot be done. But perhaps you say it is easier for her because she is under much guard: the command of the law, the diligence of her husband, even the terror of public laws. It is also a great defense of her modesty and chastity. Many safeguards make a woman chaster; manliness itself should make the man so. For this reason, there is greater custody for the woman, because greater is her weakness. She blushes before her husband; do you not blush before Christ? You are freer because you are stronger. Because you easily conquer, you are entrusted to yourself. There is both the husband's diligence over her, and the terror of laws, and societal customs, and greater modesty. And God is over you, only God. For you find easily equals among men, before whom you are not ashamed because many do this. And such is the perversity of the human race that sometimes it must be feared lest the chaste be ashamed among the impure. Therefore, I do not cease to touch this fifth string because of this perverse custom and the stain of the whole, as I said, human race. If anyone among you commits murder, which God forbid, you want to drive him out of the homeland and immediately if possible, exclude him. If anyone steals, you hate him and do not want to see him. If anyone gives false witness, you abhor him, nor will he seem to you a man. If anyone covets another's goods, he is considered a robber and unjust. If anyone has lain with his maidservants, he is loved, kindly received, his wounds turned into jokes. But if anyone exists who says he is chaste, does not commit adultery, and it is known that he does not, he blushes to approach those unlike himself, lest they insult him, mock him, say he is not a man. To this extent has human perversity fallen, that a man is seen as bound by lust, and is not seen as the conqueror of lust. Those who triumph exalt and are not men; they lie defeated and are men! If you watched in the amphitheater, did you watch in such a way that he who lay beneath the beast seemed stronger to you than he who killed the beast?

In the inner struggle you are both a harper and a hunter.

But because you disregard the interior battle and delight in exterior battles, therefore you do not wish to belong to the new song, where it is said: "He teaches my hands to fight and my fingers to battle." For there is a battle that a man wages against himself, fighting against evil desires, restraining greed, crushing pride, suffocating ambition, slaughtering lust. These battles you wage in secret and are not defeated in the open. For this reason, your hands are taught to fight, and your fingers to battle. This is not in your spectacles. In those spectacles, the hunter is not the same as the harpist; the hunter does one thing, the harpist another. In God's spectacle, it is one and the same. Strum the same ten strings, and you will slay beasts. You do both at the same time. You strike the first string by which one God is worshipped; the beast of superstition falls. You strike the second string by which you do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; the beast of the error of wicked heresies, which thought otherwise, falls. You strike the third string where you do whatever you do for the hope of future rest; the cruelest of all beasts, the love of this world, is slain. For because of the love of this world, men labor in all endeavors. But you labor in all your good works, not for the love of this world, but for the eternal rest that God promises. See how you do both at the same time. You strike the strings and slay the beasts. That is, you are both a harpist and a hunter. Do such spectacles not delight you, where we do not gain the eyes of the editor, but the eyes of the Redeemer? "Honor your father and your mother"; you strike the fourth string so you honor your parents, the beast of impiety is slain. "You shall not commit adultery"; you strike the fifth string, the beast of lust falls. "You shall not kill"; you strike the sixth string, the beast of cruelty falls. "You shall not steal"; you strike the seventh string, the beast of rapacity falls. "You shall not bear false witness"; you strike the eighth string, the beast of falsehood falls. "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife"; you strike the ninth string, the beast of adulterous thoughts falls. For it is one thing not to do something outside of marriage, another not to desire another's wife. Therefore, there are two commandments: "You shall not commit adultery," and "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife." "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods"; you strike the tenth string, the beast of covetousness falls. Thus, with all these beasts falling, you safely and innocently dwell in God's love and human society. Striking the ten strings, how many beasts do you slay! For there are many heads beneath these heads. On each string, you do not kill single beasts, but flocks of beasts. Thus, you will sing the new song with love, not with fear.

What you do not want to be done to you, do not do to others.

Do not say to yourself, when perhaps you want to indulge in something luxuriantly: "I do not have a wife, I do what I want; for I am not sinning against my wife." Now you know your worth, now you know where you approach, what you eat, what you drink, indeed whom you eat, whom you drink. Abstain from fornications. Lest perhaps you might say to me: "I go to a brothel, I proceed to a harlot, I go to a prostitute, nor do I break that commandment which is said: You shall not commit adultery, for I do not yet have a wife nor do I do anything after her; nor do I violate that commandment where it is said: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Which commandment do I incur going to a public house?" Do we not find the string to pluck? Do we not find the string by which word we bind this fugitive? Let it not flee, it has where it is bound. But let it love, and it will not be a bond, but an ornament. In those very ten strings, we find it. For the ten commandments are referred to those two, as we have heard, to love God and neighbor, and those two to that one. But that one is: What you do not want to be done to you, do not do to another. Therein are contained the ten, therein are contained the two.

Do not corrupt the temple of God which is you.

But you say: "If I steal, I do what I do not want to suffer; if I kill, I do what I do not want to suffer from another; if I do not show honor to my parents, when I want it to be shown to me by my children, I do what I do not want to suffer; if I am an adulterer and plot something of that kind, I do what I do not want to suffer—for if anyone were asked, he would say: I do not want my wife to do such a thing—if I covet my neighbor's wife, I do not want anyone to covet mine, I do what I do not want to suffer; if I covet my neighbor's goods, I do not want mine to be taken away, I do what I do not want to suffer. But when I go to a prostitute, to whom do I do what I do not want to suffer?" What is more serious, to God Himself. May Your Holiness understand. For indeed: What you do not want to be done to you, do not do to another, pertains to two commandments. How does it pertain to two commandments? If you do not do to a man what you do not want to suffer from a man, it pertains to the commandment of neighbor, to the love of neighbor, to the seven chords. But if you want to do to God what you do not want to suffer from a man, what is this? You do not do to another what you do not want to suffer? Has man become dearer to you than God? "So how do I do it," he says, "to God Himself?" You corrupt yourself. "And how do I do injury to God because I corrupt myself?" How does someone who perhaps wants to stone your painted board, on which is your image placed idly in your house for your vain honor, neither sensing, nor speaking, nor seeing, do you any injury? If anyone were to stone it, would it not be an insult to you? But when you corrupt the image of God, which is yourself, through fornications and the dissipations of lust, do you consider that you have not approached any man's wife, do you consider that you have done nothing against your wife, who you do not have. And do you not consider through illicit lusts in fornication whose image you have violated? Lastly, God who knows what is useful for you, who truly governs His servants for their benefit, not His own—for He does not need servants as help, but you need the Lord for help—He, therefore, the Lord who knows what is useful for you, has granted a wife, nothing more. He has commanded this, He has ordered this, lest through illicit pleasures His temple, which you have become, should collapse. Do I say this? Listen to the Apostle: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? He says this to Christians, He says this to the faithful: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. Do you see how He threatens? You do not want your house to be corrupted, why do you corrupt the house of God? Certainly, you do not do to anyone what you do not want to suffer? There is therefore no way to escape. He is held who thought he could not be held. For all the sins of men either pertain to the corruption of shameful acts, or to crimes of harming. Because you cannot harm God in crimes, you offend Him in shameful acts, you offend Him in corruptions, you do Him injury. For you do injury to His grace, His gift.

Serve God in the way you want your servant to serve you.

If you had a servant, you would want your servant to serve you. Serve your better Lord, your God. You did not make your servant, both you and your servant were made by Him. You want the one with whom you were made to serve you, and you do not want to serve Him by whom you were made? Therefore, when you want your servant, a human being, to serve you, and you do not want to serve your Lord, you do to God what you do not want to endure. Therefore, that one commandment contains two, those two contain ten, those ten contain all. So sing a new song on a psaltery of ten strings. But to sing a new song, be new people. Love righteousness: it has its beauty. That is why you do not want to see it, because you love something else. For if you did not love something else, you would certainly see it. Why do you see it when you demand it? Why do you praise faith when you demand it from your servant? How beautiful a thing faith is! But it is beautiful when it is demanded from a servant; it is seen when it is sought from another. When it is demanded from you, it is not seen. You see gold, you do not see faith. As gold shines to the eyes of the body, so faith shines to the eyes of the heart. You open the eyes of the heart to it when you want your servant to show it to you. And if he shows it to you, you praise the servant and proclaim him and say: "I have a distinguished servant, a great servant, a faithful servant." What you praise in a servant you do not show to the Lord, and thus more wickedly because you want to have a better servant than God has in you. God commands your servant to be good to you. Just as He commands your wife that even if you commit adultery, she should not commit adultery, so He commands your servant that even if you do not serve your God, he should serve you. But see that this whole matter is for your admonition, not for your ruin. For because that servant serves you worthily though you are unworthy, that is, because he serves you well though you are unworthy and serves you faithfully and loves you purely, he owes that to God, not to you. Therefore, it is right that you also consider that you are under a Lord, to whom he also pays attention to serve you. Therefore, fulfill what is said: What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to another. But when you say "another," consider both your neighbor and God. Sing on a psaltery of ten strings, sing a new song, harmonize with the word of God, for He is with you on the way. Harmonize quickly with your adversary, lest you come to the judge with discord. If you do what you hear, you have harmonized with Him. But if you do not do it, you are still quarreling with Him, and you have not yet settled until you comply.

Beware of smaller sins because they are many.

To be in harmony, abstain from detestable corruptions, from detestable inquiries, from astrologers, from soothsayers, from sorcerers, from augurs, from sacrilegious sacrifices; abstain, as far as you can, from frivolous spectacles. If any worldly delights creep into your soul, exercise yourselves in mercy, exercise yourselves in almsgiving, in fasting, in prayers. For by these daily sins are cleansed, which cannot fail to creep into the soul, due to human frailty. Do not despise them because they are small; but fear them because they are many. Observe, my brothers. They are trivial, they are not great. There is no beast like a lion, so as to break the neck with one bite. But frequently, even many small beasts kill. If someone is thrown into a place full of fleas, will he not die there? They are indeed not greater, but human nature is weak, which can be destroyed even by the smallest beasts. So also with small sins: you observe that they are small; beware because they are numerous. How small are grains of sand! If more sand is put into a ship, it sinks it so that it perishes. How small are raindrops! Do they not fill rivers and bring down houses? Therefore, do not despise these things. But you will say: "And who can be without these?" Do not say this—for indeed no one can—God, mercifully seeing our frailty, has set against it remedies. What are the remedies? Almsgiving, fasting, prayers: these are the three. To speak truly in prayer, perfect almsgiving must be fulfilled. What are perfect alms? That from what abounds to you, you give to him who does not have, and that you forgive him who does you harm.

Small sins are cleansed by daily alms.

But do not think, Brothers, that daily adulteries are to be committed, and should be cleansed with daily alms. Daily alms are not sufficient for greater crimes, so that they cleanse them. It is one thing to change life, another to endure life. The former must be changed, so if you were an adulterer, do not be an adulterer; if you were a fornicator, do not fornicate; if you were a murderer, do not be a murderer; if you went to the mathematician and other sacrilegious pestilences, cease now. Do you think these things, unless they cease to be done, can be cleansed by daily alms? I speak of those daily sins which are easily committed by tongue, such as harsh words, or when someone lapses into immoderate laughter, or into such daily trifles. Even in those granted, there are sins. With a wife, if the mode of intercourse exceeds the due for procreating children, it is already a sin. For a wife is taken for this purpose, as even the records indicate where it is written: For the sake of procreating children. When you wish to use a wife more than the necessity for procreating children compels, it is already a sin. Even such sins are cleansed by daily alms. In the very food, which indeed is granted, if by chance you exceed the measure and take more than necessary, you sin. These are the daily things I speak of, but nevertheless they are sins and not light because they are numerous. Because, indeed, daily and numerous, the collapse from their multitude is to be feared, even if not from their magnitude. Such sins, Brothers, we say can be cleansed by daily alms. But give alms and do not cease. Pay attention to your daily life overflowing with these very sins, I speak of these minute ones.

Your alms should be like those of Zacchaeus, not the Pharisee's.

And when you give alms, do not do it proudly, nor pray as the Pharisee did there. But what did he say there? "I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess." And the blood of the Lord had not yet been shed! We have received such a great price for us, and yet we do not give as much as the Pharisee. And you have the Lord openly saying in another place: "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, they give tithes; if you give a hundredth part, you boast that you have done something great. For you consider what another does not do, not what God commands you to do. You measure yourself by comparison with someone worse, not by the command of someone better. It is not because the other does nothing that you do something great. But because there is rejoicing over some of your smallest works—for such is your barrenness that there is joy over small things—you flatter yourselves with the small grains of alms, and forget the heaps of sins. You perhaps brought out something small that another either did not have or did not bring out when he had it. Do not consider who does not do after you, but what God commands you to do. Finally, why do these secular desires not suffice for you whom you have surpassed, but you want to be rich, equal to those richer than you? You do not consider how many poorer you surpass; you want to surpass the richer ones. But there is a measure in almsgiving. Here it is said, "How long shall I do it?", and there it is not said, "How many rich ones have I surpassed?" The countless miseries of beggars are not considered, the subsequent multitudes of the poor are not looked at, but the few preceding rich ones are placed before your eyes. Why in good work is that Zacchaeus not considered, who gave half of his goods to the poor? But we are compelled to wish that at least that Pharisee is considered, who gave tithes of all he possessed.

A great excuse for greed.

Do not spare perishable treasures, vain treasures. Do not under the guise of piety increase money. "I save for my children": great excuse. He saves for his children. Let us see. Your father saves for you, you save for your children, your children for theirs, and so on for all, and no one will do the commands of God. Why do you not rather spend everything for Him who made you out of nothing? He who made you, He feeds you out of what He made, He feeds your children. For you do not commit your children better to your inheritance than to your Creator. And indeed men lie. Greed is evil. They wish to cover themselves up with the name of piety and whitewash, so that they may seem to save for their children what they save for greed. For as you know that it often happens thus, it is said of someone: "Why does he not give alms? Because he saves for his children." It happens that he loses one. If he was saving for his children, he should send a part after him. Why does he hold onto it in the world, and leaves him who went before in spirit? Return to him what is his, return what you were saving for him. "He is dead," he says. But he has gone before to God, his part is owed to the poor. It is owed to him to whom he has gone. It is owed to Christ: for to Him he has gone. And He himself said: "What you did to one of the least of these, you did to me, and what you did not do to one of the least of these, you did not do to me." But what do you say? "I save for his brothers." If he lived, would he not share with his brothers? O dead faith! For your son is dead. Whatever you say, you owe to the dead what you were saving for the living. "My son is dead, but nevertheless I save his part for his brothers." So you believe that he is dead? If Christ did not die for him, he is dead. But if there is faith in you, your son lives. He lives absolutely. He has not departed, but has gone before. With what face will you come to your son who went before, to whom going before you do not send his part to heaven? Or is it not able to be sent to heaven? It is absolutely able. Hear the Lord himself saying: "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." If therefore that treasure is better kept in heaven, should it not then be sent to your son, when if sent it would not perish? It will be kept here where it can perish, not sent there where Christ is the guardian? Surely what you hold here, and do not wish to send after your son, to whom do you entrust it? To your agents and stewards. You entrust to your agents his part who has gone before, and do not entrust it to Christ to whom he has gone? Or is your steward more fit for you, Christ less fit?

It is very little to be called a Christian.

You see, brothers, that it is a lie when men say: "I save for my children." It is a lie, my brothers, it is a lie. Men are greedy. Or at least they certainly would be compelled to confess what they do not want to, since they are ashamed to remain silent about what they are. They should pour out, vomit in confession what they carry. The chest is oppressed by the gluttony of iniquity. Let confession vomit it out, but do not return to the vomit like a dog. Be Christians. It is very little to be called Christian. How much do you give to actors? How much do you give to hunters? How much to disgraceful people? You give to those who kill you. For through those very exhibitions of pleasures, your souls are killed. And you are mad about who gives more. If you were mad about who saves more, you would not be bearable. Whoever goes mad saving more, that is avarice. Whoever goes mad giving more, that is extravagance. God wants neither a miserly nor an extravagant person. He wants you to place what you have, not to throw it away. You strive to win in doing worse, not giving effort to who might be better. And would that you did not strive to be worse. And you say: "We are Christians." You throw away your possessions to gain the favor of the people, you hold onto your possessions contrary to commands. Behold, Christ does not command, Christ begs, Christ is in need. I was hungry, says Christ, and you did not give me to eat. He wanted to be in need because of you, so that you might have a place to sow the earthly things He gave, and reap eternal life. Do not be lazy and wrongly complacent. Amend your morals, redeem your sins. And when you have done these things, give thanks to God, from whom you received the means to live well. And give thanks to Him in such a way that you do not insult those who do not yet live well, but encourage them with your own morals. By doing this, you will have as perfect justice as can be in this life. Living in good works, in prayers, in fasts, in alms for your minor sins, and abstaining from those great sins, you reconcile with your adversary, and you say securely in prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For you have what must be forgiven to you daily, who have what you forgive daily. Walking thus securely on the way, you will not fear the robberies of the devil, because Christ made Himself the way and the great thoroughfare, leading to the homeland. There, all security, all rest will be, where even the works of mercy will cease, because there will be no need for the poor. Therefore, it will be that Sabbath of Sabbaths, so that what we desire here, we will find there. Amen.