Sermon 81
SERMO 81
ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL MT 18, 7-9
Where we are advised to beware of the scandals of the world
How we are fortified against scandals.
The divine readings, which we just heard as they were recited, admonish us to gain strength against the scandals that have been foretold, to fortify our Christian hearts, and this from the mercy of the Lord. For what is man, he says, except that you are mindful of him? Woe to the world because of scandals, the Lord says: Truth says: it terrifies and admonishes, it does not want us to be careless; for it certainly did not make us hopeless. Against this Woe, that is, against this evil to be feared, dreaded, and avoided, Scripture comforts us, exhorts us, and instructs us at that place where it is said: Great peace have they who love your law, and there is no stumbling block for them. It shows the enemy to be avoided, but it did not cease to show a fortified wall. You thought when you heard: Woe to the world because of scandals, where you might go outside the world, lest you suffer scandals. Therefore, to avoid scandals, where will you go outside the world, unless you flee to him who made the world? But how can we take refuge in him who made the world unless we hear his law, which is preached everywhere? It is not enough to hear it, unless we love it. For divine Scripture, making you secure against scandals, does not say: Great peace have they who hear your law. For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God. But because the doers of the law shall be justified, and faith works through love: Great peace, he says, have they who love your law, and there is no stumbling block for them. This thought is echoed also in what we sang by listening and responding: But the meek shall inherit the land and shall delight themselves in an abundance of peace. Because: Great peace have they who love your law. For they are the meek, those who love the law of God. For blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach him out of your law; that you may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked. How different the voices of Scripture seem, and they converge and agree into one meaning, so that whichever thing you could hear from that most abundant fountain, you also may acquiesce, agreeing with the truth, full of peace, fervent in love, fortified against scandals.
Gentle in affliction, untroubled by scandal.
Therefore, it is proposed to see, or to seek, or to learn how we should be meek: and from what I have now mentioned from the Scriptures, we are admonished to find what we seek. Let your Charity be attentive for a moment; a great matter is at hand, that we be meek: a necessary thing in adversities. For the adversities of this age are not called scandals: observe what scandals are. For example, someone established in some necessity is urged by pressure. This is not a scandal, because pressure is urging. Pressure also pressed martyrs, but they were not oppressed. Beware of scandal, not much of pressure. Pressure presses you, scandal oppresses you. So what is the difference between pressure and scandal? In pressure, you prepared to maintain patience, hold on to constancy, not abandon faith, not consent to sin. If you keep this, or if you have kept it, pressure will not be ruin to you: but that pressure will be useful to you for the same purpose as in the winepress, not that the olive is crushed, but that oil is drawn out. Finally, if in that pressure you give praises to God, how useful is the winepress, from which the liquid flows from you? The Apostles sat in pressure, chained, and in that pressure they sang hymns to God. What was pressed? what was extracted? Job sat in great pressure on the dung heap, destitute, without help, without substance, without sons; full, but with worms, which indeed pertains to the outer man. But because he was also full of God inwardly, he praised God, and that pressure was not a scandal to him. So where is the scandal? When his wife came to him and said: Say something against God, and die. For with everything taken away by the devil, Eve was kept, not for consolation, but for the temptation of her husband. Here is where the scandal was. She exacerbated his miseries, her own miseries along with his, and began to persuade him to blaspheme. But he, who was meek, because God had taught him from His law, and had softened him from evil days, had much peace in his heart loving the law of God, and it was not a scandal to him. She was the scandal, but it was not to him. Finally, see the meek, see one instructed in the law of God, I say the eternal law. For that law given on tablets to the Jews was not yet in the time of Job, but the eternal law still remained in the hearts of the pious, from which that which was given to the people was written. Because he had been softened by the law of God from evil days, and he had much peace loving the law of God, see how meek he is, what he answers. Learn from him what I proposed, who are the meek. You have spoken, he says, like one of the foolish women. Should we receive good from the hand of the Lord, and shall we not endure evil?
Who the meek are.
We have heard by example who the meek are: let us define them in words, if we can. The meek are those to whom in all good deeds, in all that they do well, nothing is pleasing except God; in all the sufferings they endure, God is not displeasing. Come, brothers, pay attention to this rule, to this standard; let us strive towards it, seek growth, in order to fulfill it. For what good is it that we plant and water, unless God gives the increase? Neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters; but God who gives the increase. Hear, you who wish to be meek, who desire to be softened by the evil days, who love the law of God; so that there may be no scandal in you, and you may have great peace, to possess the earth, and delight in the abundance of peace: hear, you who wish to be meek. Whatever good you do, do not please yourself. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, whatever good you do, let it please not yourself but God; whatever evil you suffer, let God not displease you. What more? Do this, and you will live. The evil days will not overtake you; you will escape what is said: Woe to the world because of offenses. To which world is woe foretold because of offenses, unless it is said of that world: And the world did not know him? Not that world of which it is said: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. A bad world, a good world: the bad world, all bad people in the world; and the good world, all good people in the world. As we often look at a field. This field is full: with what fruit? With wheat. Similarly we say, and we say truly, This field is full of chaff. A tree is full, full of fruit. Another says: It is full of leaves. And he who says: It is full of fruit, tells the truth: and he who says: It is full of leaves, tells the truth. Neither does the fullness of leaves take away the place of the fruit, nor does the fullness of fruit expel the crowd of leaves. It is full of both: but the wind seeks one thing, the farmer gathers another. Thus then, when you hear: Woe to the world because of offenses, do not be afraid; love the law of God, there will be no scandal for you.
"A stumbling block from the eye, from the hand, from the foot."
But his wife intervened, persuading him to some evil. You love her as one should love a wife: she is a part of you. But if your eye scandalizes you, if your hand scandalizes you, if your foot scandalizes you, you have just heard the Gospel, cut it off, throw it away from you. Whoever is dear to you, whoever is held in great regard by you, let them be great to you, let them be a beloved part of you, as long as they do not begin to scandalize, that is, to persuade you to some evil. Hear that this is a scandal. We established the example of Job and his wife: but there the scandal was not named. Hear the Gospel: the Lord, when he was preaching about his passion, Peter began to persuade him not to suffer. Get behind me, Satan, you are a scandal to me. The Lord absolutely taught you, who gave you the example of living, both what a scandal is, and how to avoid a scandal. To whom he had said a short time before: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, he had shown him to be a part of himself. But when he began to be a scandal, he cut off the part: he restored the part, he replaced the part. Therefore he will be a scandal to you, who begins to persuade you to some evil. And let your Charity attend: this often happens, not out of malevolence, but out of perverse benevolence. For your friend, who loves you and is loved by you in return, your father, your brother, your son, your wife, sees you in trouble, and wants to make you do evil. What is it, sees you in trouble? Sees you in some pressure. Perhaps you suffer that pressure on account of justice: therefore you suffer pressure, because you do not want to bear false witness. For example I shall say. Examples abound, because Woe to the world from scandals. Behold, for example, some powerful person seeks from you, for his own gain, for his own robbery, the service of false testimony. You refuse: you refuse the false, lest you deny the truth. Not to dwell too long, he becomes angry, he is powerful, he oppresses. A friend approaches, who does not want you to be in pressure, does not want you to be in trouble: I beg you, do what you are told. What great thing is it? Perhaps now just as Satan said to the Lord: It is written about you, that he has commanded his angels concerning you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Perhaps this friend of yours, because he sees you as a Christian, wants to persuade you with the law, what he thinks you should do. Do what he says. What? What he wants. But it is a lie, it is false. Have you not read: Every man a liar? Now this is a scandal. He is a friend, what will you do? He is an eye, he is a hand: Cut him off, and throw him from you. What does it mean: Cut him off, and throw him from you? Do not consent. This means: Cut him off, and throw him from you, do not consent. For our members in our body make unity by consent, live by consent, are connected by consent. Where there is dissent, there is disease or wound. Therefore he is your member: you will love him. But he scandalizes you; Cut him off, and throw him from you. Do not consent; turn him away from your ears, perhaps corrected he will return.
A lie is forbidden by divine law.
How will you do what I say, sever, and reject, and correct by that means perhaps? How will you do, answer. He wanted to persuade a lie from the Law. For he said: Speak. And perhaps he did not dare to say, Speak a lie: but thus, Speak what you wish. You say, But it is a lie. And he, to excuse himself: Every man is a liar. And you, brother: A mouth that lies, kills the soul. Note, what you heard is not a light matter: A mouth that lies, kills the soul. What does this powerful enemy of mine, who oppresses me, do to me, because you pity me, and pity the condition in me, and do not want me to be in evil; when you want me to be evil? What does this powerful one do to me? What does he oppress? The flesh. You say, the body is oppressed: I say, it is destroyed. How much more gently does he deal with me, than if I were to lie? He kills my flesh: I kill my soul. An angry powerful one kills the body: A mouth that lies, kills the soul. He kills the body; it would have died even if it were not killed: but the soul, which is not killed by iniquity, is received by truth for eternity. Therefore, keep what you can keep: let perish what is destined to perish sometime. You answered; and yet you have not solved Every man is a liar. Answer him to this as well, lest he seems to have said something to persuade a lie, bringing testimony from the Law, pressing you from the Law against the Law. For in the Law it is written: Thou shalt not bear false witness: and in the Law it is written: Every man is a liar. Consider what I reminded a little earlier, when I concluded with the words with which I could to the gentle man. He is gentle, to whom nothing is pleasing except God in all good deeds he does; in all evil he suffers, God does not displease. Therefore, respond to him, who says: Lie, because it is written: Every man is a liar: I do not lie, because it is written: A mouth that lies, kills the soul. I do not lie, because it is written: You will destroy all those who speak falsehood. I do not lie, because it is written: You shall not bear false witness. Even if he presses my flesh with pressures because he is displeased with the truth: I listen to my Lord: Do not fear those who kill the body.
Let humans act, not as humans, but as children of God.
How then is every man a liar? Or are you perhaps not a man? Respond quickly and truthfully, and that I may not be a man so that I may not be a liar. For see: God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that understood and sought after God. They have all turned aside, they have together become unprofitable: there is none that does good, no, not one. Why? Because they wanted to be the children of men. But to take them away from these iniquities, to redeem, heal, cure, and change the children of men, He gave them power to become the children of God. So what of it? You were men, if you were children of men: you were all men, you were liars; for every man is a liar. The grace of God comes to you, giving you the power to become children of God. Hear the voice of my Father saying: I said: You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. Because if you are men, children of men, if not children of the Most High, you are liars; because every man is a liar. If children of God, if redeemed by the grace of the Savior, if bought with precious blood, if reborn with water and the Spirit, if predestined for the inheritance of the heavens, certainly children of God. Therefore, now gods. What does lying have to do with you? For Adam was purely man, Christ was God and man, God the creator of all creation. Adam was man, Christ was the man mediator of God, the only begotten Son of the Father, God-man. Behold, you are far from God as a man, and God is far above man: He placed Himself in the middle as God-man. Acknowledge Christ, and through the man ascend to God.
When the slanders of the pagans must be refuted.
Now therefore, having been corrected, and if we have done anything, gentle ones, let us hold an unwavering confession. Let us love the law of God, so that we may escape what was said: Woe to the world because of offenses. Let us say something about offenses, with which the world is full, and how offenses increase, pressures abound. The world is devastated, the winepress is trodden. Come now, Christian, heavenly offspring, strangers on earth, who seek a city in heaven, who desire to be associated with holy angels, understand that you have come in order to depart. You pass through the world, striving towards Him who created the world. Let not the lovers of the world disturb you, who wish to remain in the world, and whether they want to or not, they are compelled to migrate: let them not deceive you, let them not seduce you. These pressures are not offenses. Be righteous, and they will be exercises. Tribulation comes: what you will choose, either exercise or damnation. How it finds you, such you will be. Tribulation is fire: does it find you as gold? it removes impurities: does it find you as chaff? it turns you into ashes. Therefore, the pressures which abound are not offenses. But what are offenses? Those sayings, those words, by which it is said to us: Behold what Christian times bring about, behold these are offenses. This is said to you so that you, if you love the world, may blaspheme against Christ. And your friend, your adviser says this to you: therefore, he is your eye. Your minister, your co-worker says this to you: therefore, he is your hand. Perhaps the one who sustains you, who lifts you up from earthly humility says this to you: therefore, he is your foot. Cast off, cut off, throw away from you, do not consent. Respond to such as he did, to whom false testimony was suggested. Respond you, too: say to the man saying to you, Behold, in Christian times there are so many pressures, the world is devastated: respond you, Christ foretold this to me before it happened.
The pressures of the failing world foretold.
Why are you disturbed? The pressures of the world disturb your heart, just as that ship where Christ was sleeping. Behold the cause, O thoughtful man, why your heart is disturbed: behold the reason. This ship in which Christ sleeps is the heart where faith sleeps. What new thing is being said to you, Christian? What new thing is being said to you? In Christian times, the world is devastated, the world fades. Did not your Lord say to you, "The world will be devastated"? Did not your Lord say to you, "The world will fade"? Why did you believe when it was promised, and are disturbed when it is fulfilled? Therefore the tempest rages in your heart: beware of shipwreck, awaken Christ. The Apostle says to dwell: Christ through faith in your hearts. Through faith, Christ dwells in you. Faith present, Christ is present: faith vigilant, Christ is vigilant: faith forgotten, Christ is asleep. Awaken, stir up, say: Lord, we perish! Look what the Pagans say to us: what is worse, what bad Christians say. Arise, Lord, we perish. Let your faith awaken, Christ begins to speak to you. Why are you disturbed? I have foretold all these things to you. I foretold them so that when evils come, you would hope for good, so you would not fail in evils. Are you surprised that the world is failing? Be surprised that the world is aging. Man is born, grows, and ages. Many complaints in old age: cough, phlegm, sore eyes, anxiety, fatigue. Therefore, man ages; he is full of complaints: the world ages; it is full of pressures. Did God provide little for you because in the old age of the world, He sent you Christ to renew you when all things are failing? Do you not know this was signified in the seed of Abraham? For the Apostle says the seed of Abraham, which is Christ. He does not say: And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ. Hence, a son was born to elderly Abraham because Christ was to come at the old age of this world. He came when all things were growing old, and made you new. The matter created, the matter established, the matter decaying, was already turning to decline. It was necessary that it be abundant in labors: He came to console you amid labors and to promise you eternal rest. Do not wish to cling to the old world, and do not refuse to rejuvenate in Christ, who says to you: The world is perishing, the world is aging, the world is failing, it labors with the breath of old age. Do not fear, your youth will be renewed like the eagle.
Complaints of the pagans against the Christian religion because of the devastation of Rome
"Behold," he says, "in Christian times Rome perishes. Perhaps Rome does not perish: perhaps it is scourged, not slain: perhaps it is chastised, not destroyed. Perhaps Rome does not perish if the Romans do not perish. For they will not perish if they praise God; they will perish if they blaspheme. For what is Rome if not the Romans? For it is not concerning stones and wood, not concerning high walls and vast fortifications. It was thus made that it might sometimes fall. When a man built, he placed stone upon stone; and when a man destroyed, he removed stone from stone. A man made it, and a man destroyed it. Is it an injury to Rome because it is said, It falls? Not to Rome, but perhaps to its artificer. We do an injury to its founder because we say, Rome, which Romulus founded, falls? The world will fall, which God founded. But neither does what man made fall, except when God wills; nor does what God made fall, except when God wills. For if man’s work does not fall without God’s will, how can God’s work fall by man’s will? Still, God made the world for you that it would fall; and thus He created you to die. The same man is the ornament of the city, the same man its inhabitant, ruler, governor; he comes in order to go, he is born to die, he enters to pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away: what wonder then if the city sometimes has an end? And perhaps at this time it has no end; yet sometime it will have an end. But why does Rome perish under the sacrifices of Christians? Why did its mother Troy burn under the sacrifices of the pagans? The gods, in whom the Romans placed their hope, indeed the Roman gods in whom the pagan Romans placed their hope, migrated from burning Troy to found Rome. The Roman gods were originally the Trojan gods. Troy burned, Aeneas carried away the fugitive gods: rather he carried away the foolish gods while fleeing. For the gods could be carried by one fleeing, but they themselves could not flee. And coming into Italy with those gods, he founded Rome with false gods. It is lengthy to pursue the rest, yet briefly I shall mention what their letters contain. Their well-known author speaks thus: The city of Rome, as I have understood it, was founded and held at the beginning by the Trojans, who, led by Aeneas in their flight, wandered with uncertain settlements. They had their gods with them, and they founded Rome in Latium, placing there the gods to be worshipped who were worshipped in Troy. Their poet introduces Juno, angry with Aeneas and the fleeing Trojans, and says:"
The hostile nation sails the Tyrrhenian sea.
Carrying Troy into Italy and the conquered Penates;
That is, carrying the defeated gods into Italy. Now, when the gods were being carried defeated into Italy, was it divine power, or an omen? Therefore, cherish the law of God, and let it not be a scandal to you. We ask you, we beseech you, we exhort you: be gentle, sympathize with those who suffer, support the weak; and in this occasion of many travelers, the needy, the working, let your hospitality abound, let your good works abound. What Christ commands, let Christians do, and only to their own harm do Pagans blaspheme.