Sermon 82

SERMO 82

ABOUT THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL MT 18:15-18:
"If your brother sins against you,"
"Rebuke him between you and him alone."
AND ABOUT THE WORDS OF SOLOMON (PROV 10, 10, ACCORDING TO THE LXX).
"Nodding with the eyes with deceit, he accumulates sadness for men."
And the rest.

Preliminary observation.

Our Lord admonishes us not to neglect each other's sins, not by seeking what to criticize, but by seeing what to correct. He indeed said that one has a sharp eye to remove the speck from his brother's eye, who does not have a beam in his own eye. But what this means, I briefly suggest to your Charity. A speck in the eye is anger: a beam in the eye is hatred. Therefore, when one who hates reproves an angry person, he wants to remove the speck from his brother's eye, but he is hindered by the beam, which he himself carries in his own eye. A speck is the beginning of a beam. For, when a beam is born, it is first a speck. By watering the speck, you lead it to become a beam: by nurturing anger with malicious suspicions, you lead it to hatred.

What the difference is between the anger of one who reproves or punishes and hatred.

There is much difference between the sin of the angry and the cruelty of the one who hates. For we also get angry with our children: who is found to hate their children? Even in the case of animals, sometimes a mother cow turns away the suckling calf out of a certain annoyance, angered: but she embraces it with a mother's affection. She seems to annoy it when she pushes it away: yet it is sought after if it is missing. Nor do we otherwise give discipline to our children, except by somewhat getting angry and showing indignation: yet we would not give discipline unless we loved them. Thus not everyone who gets angry, hates; so much so that sometimes one is proved to hate more if they do not get angry. For consider a boy wanting to play in the river, in whose current they might perish: if you see this and patiently allow it, you hate; your patience is his death. How much better is it to get angry and correct him, than to allow him to perish without getting angry? Therefore, hatred must be avoided above all, the beam must be taken out of the eye. For there is a great difference when someone in anger exceeds the measure of a word, which afterward they erase by repenting; and it is another thing to keep hidden snares in the heart. Finally, much difference lies between these words of Scripture: "My eye is troubled because of anger." But what is said about that one? "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer." There is much difference between a troubled eye and an extinguished one. A speck troubles, a beam extinguishes.

Hatred harms him who hates more than the other.

Therefore, let us first persuade ourselves, so that what we were admonished about today, we may be able to do well and fulfill, above all not to hate. For then, when the plank is not in your own eye, you rightly see whatever is in your brother's eye; and you suffer until you remove from your brother's eye what you see to be harming his eye. The light that is in you does not allow you to neglect the light of your brother. For if you hate and wish to correct, how do you amend the light, having lost the light? For Scripture also clearly says in the same place where it is written: "He who hates his brother is a murderer." It says, "He who hates his brother is in darkness until now." Hatred is darkness. Moreover, it cannot happen that he who hates another does not harm himself first. For he tries to harm the other externally but devastates himself internally. As much as our soul is greater than the body, so much more should we take care that it is not harmed. But he who hates another harms his own soul. And what will he do to him whom he hates? What will he do? Take away money, but does he take away faith? Harm reputation, but does he harm conscience? Whatever harms, harms externally. Consider what harms yourself. For internally he is his own enemy who hates another. But because he does not feel what evil he does to himself, he rages against another, living all the more dangerously by not feeling what evil he does to himself; for by raging, he has lost his sense. You raged against your enemy: while you raged, he was stripped, you were unjust. There is much difference between being naked and being unjust. He lost money, you lost innocence. Ask who has suffered the graver loss. He lost a perishable thing, you became perishable.

With what spirit a brother is to be corrected.

Therefore, we ought to rebuke with love; not with eagerness to harm, but with the intent to correct. If we are such, we excellently do what we are admonished today: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him between you and him alone. Why do you rebuke him? Because you are pained that he sinned against you? Far be it. If you do it for your own sake, you do nothing. If you do it for his sake, you do excellently. Finally, consider from the very words whose love you ought to do it for, whether yours or his. If he listens to you, he says, you have gained your brother. Therefore, do it for his sake, so that you gain him. If by doing this you gain him, he would have been lost if you had not done it. Why then do many people disregard these sins and say: What great thing have I done? I sinned against a man. Do not disregard it. You have sinned against a man: do you want to understand that by sinning against a man you perish? If he against whom you sinned rebukes you between you and him alone, and you listen to him, he has gained you. What does it mean, he has gained you; except that you would have perished if he had not gained you? For if you had not perished, how did he gain you? Therefore, let no one disregard it when they sin against a brother. For the Apostle says in one place: Thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ: because we have all become members of Christ. How do you not sin against Christ when you sin against a member of Christ?

The remedy for this sin.

Therefore, let no one say, "I have not sinned against God, but I have sinned against my brother, against a man: it is a slight sin, or no sin at all." Perhaps you say, "It is slight because it is quickly healed." You have sinned against your brother: make amends, and you are healed. You have quickly done a deadly thing, but you quickly found the remedy. Who among us hopes for the kingdom of heaven, my brothers, when the Gospel says: "Whoever says to his brother, Fool, shall be liable to the hell of fire"? Great terror; but see the remedy there: "If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar." God is not angry because you delay presenting your gift: He seeks you more than your gift. For if you come to your God with a bad mind against your brother, carrying a gift, He answers you: "You are lost, what have you brought to me?" You offer your gift, and you are not God's gift. Christ seeks more whom He redeemed with His blood than what you found in your barn. Therefore, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother; and thus coming, you will offer your gift. See how quickly the guilt of hell is dissolved. Not yet reconciled, you were guilty of hell: reconciled, you safely offer your gift at the altar.

Forgiveness must be sought from the one whom you have harmed.

However, men are quick to inflict injuries and slow to seek reconciliation. "Ask," he says, "forgiveness from the man whom you have offended, from the man whom you have hurt." He responds: "I will not humble myself." Listen to your God, even if you scorn your brother: "He who humbles himself will be exalted." Do you not wish to humble yourself, you who have fallen? There is a great difference between someone who is humbling himself and someone who is lying down. You are already lying down, and you do not wish to humble yourself? You might have rightly said, "I do not wish to descend," if you had not wished to fall.

What must be done by him who has suffered an injury.

Therefore, this is what the one who has acted unjustly should do. But what should the one who has suffered do? What we have heard today: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him privately, just between the two of you. If you ignore this, you are worse. He committed the injustice, and by doing so, inflicted a grave wound upon himself: do you ignore your brother's wound? Do you see him perishing, or having perished, and neglect him? You are worse by being silent than he is by reviling. When then someone sins against us, we should have great care, not for ourselves; for it is glorious to forget injuries: but forget your injury, not your brother's wound. Therefore, rebuke him privately, just between the two of you, aiming for correction, sparing his shame. For perhaps due to shame, he begins to defend his sin, and whom you want to make better, you make worse. Therefore, rebuke him privately, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother: for he would have perished if you did not act. But if he does not listen to you, that is, if he defends his sin as if it were righteousness, bring along one or two others with you; because every matter is to be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he does not listen to them, tell it to the Church: if he does not listen even to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Do not consider him any longer among the number of your brothers. Even so, his salvation should not be neglected. Although we do not count Gentiles and Pagans among the number of brothers, we nevertheless always seek their salvation. Therefore, we have heard the Lord advising in this way and prescribing with such care, so as to add immediately: Amen I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. You begin to regard your brother as a tax collector, binding him on earth: but make sure you bind justly. For unjust bonds are broken by justice. However, when you have corrected him and reconciled with your brother, you have loosed him on earth. When you loose on earth, he will be loosed in heaven. You do much good, not to yourself, but to him; for he has harmed himself greatly, not you, but himself.

The Gospel is reconciled with Solomon. The harmony of the Old and New Testament.

Since these things are so, what is it that Solomon says, which we first heard today from another reading: "Nodding the eyes with sorrow, he heaps up sadness for men: but he who rebukes openly, makes peace"? If therefore he who rebukes openly, makes peace; how is it: "Rebuke him between you and him alone"? It must be feared that the divine precepts are not contrary to themselves. But let us understand that there is supreme concord there, not as some vainly suppose, who err sadly thinking that the two Testaments in the Old and New Books are contrary to each other: so as to think that this is contrary, because it is in the book of Solomon, this in the Gospel. For if some unskilled and slanderous critic of the Divine Scriptures were to say, "Behold where the two Testaments contradict each other. The Lord says: Rebuke him between you and him alone. Solomon says: He who rebukes openly, makes peace. Does the Lord therefore not know what He prescribes? Solomon wants the forehead of the sinner to be crushed; Christ spares the shame of the blushing one. For it is written there: He who rebukes openly, makes peace: here however: Rebuke him between you and him alone; not publicly, but secretly and in private. Do you want to know, whoever thinks such things, that the two Testaments do not contradict each other, because one is found in the book of Solomon, the other in the Gospel? Hear the Apostle. Certainly the Apostle is a minister of the New Testament. Therefore, hear the Apostle Paul instructing Timothy and saying: "Rebuke those who sin before all, that others also may fear." Now it seems not the book of Solomon with the Gospel, but the Epistle of the Apostle Paul seems to conflict. Let us set Solomon aside for a moment without offense: let us hear Christ the Lord and Paul His servant. What do you say, Lord? "If your brother sins against you, rebuke him between you and him alone." What do you say, Apostle? "Rebuke those who sin before all, that others also may fear." What do we do? Do we hear this controversy as if judges? God forbid. Rather, being placed under judgment, let us knock, so that it may be opened to us: let us flee under the wings of the Lord our God. For He did not speak contrary to His Apostle, because He spoke in him too, as He says: "Do you want to receive proof of Christ who speaks in me?" Christ in the Gospel, Christ in the Apostle: Christ therefore said both; one with His own mouth, the other with the mouth of His herald. For when the herald says something from the tribunal, it is not written in the Acts that the herald said: but it is written that he said it, who ordered the herald what to say.

Correction must sometimes be secret, sometimes public.

Therefore, brothers, let us hear these two precepts in such a way that we understand, and let us be established peacefully between the two precepts. Let us be in agreement with our hearts, and Scripture is in no way discordant. It is truly so, both are true indeed: but we must discern that sometimes this, sometimes that, is to be done; sometimes a brother should be corrected between you and him alone, sometimes a brother should be corrected in the presence of all, so that the others may also have fear. If we do this sometimes and that other times, we will maintain the harmony of the Scriptures, and in doing and obeying, we will not err. But someone says to me: When do I do this, when that: lest I correct between me and him alone when I ought to correct in the presence of all; or then correct in the presence of all, when I ought to correct in private?

When it ought to be secret, when public.

Your Charity will soon see what we must do at times: but let us not be sluggish in doing it. Pay attention and see: If your brother sins against you, correct him between you and him alone. Why? Because he has sinned against you. What does it mean: He has sinned against you? You know that he has sinned. Because it was secret when he sinned against you; seek secrecy when you correct what he sinned. For if only you know that he has sinned against you, and you wish to accuse him before everyone; you are not a corrector, but a betrayer. Observe how the just man, Joseph, spared with great kindness the great disgrace he suspected about his wife, before he knew where she had conceived from: because he sensed she was pregnant and knew he had not approached her. Thus remained a certain suspicion of adultery: and yet because only he sensed it, only he knew it, what does the Gospel say about him? But Joseph, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example. The husband’s pain did not seek vengeance: he wanted to help the sinner, not to punish the sinning person. Though, he says, he did not want to make her a public example, he intended to dismiss her secretly. While he was considering these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream; and revealed what it was, since the man's bed was not violated, for she had conceived the Lord of both from the Holy Spirit. So your brother has sinned against you; if only you know it, then he has truly sinned against you alone. For if he wronged you in the presence of many, he has also sinned against those whom he made witnesses to his iniquity. For I say, dearest brothers, that you can recognize this within yourselves. When someone wrongs my brother in my presence, may it be far from me to consider that wrong as something foreign. He has absolutely wronged me too: even more so, he has wronged me, whom he thought he pleased by what he did. Therefore, those things that are sinned in the presence of all must be corrected in the presence of all: those things that are sinned secretly must be corrected secretly. Distribute the times, and Scripture agrees.

The manner of reproof, why it should be done in secret.

Let us act thus and it must be done thus, not only when we are sinned against, but when someone sins, so that it is unknown to others. We must rebuke in secret, argue in secret; so as not to expose the person while wanting to reproach publicly. We wish to rebuke and correct: what if the enemy seeks to hear what to punish? For the bishop knows some murderer, and no one else knows him. I want to rebuke publicly, but you seek to report him. Indeed, I neither expose nor neglect: I rebuke in secret; I place the judgment of God before his eyes; I terrify his bloody conscience; I persuade him to repent. We must be endowed with this love. Hence, sometimes men admonish us, as if we do not rebuke: either they think we know what we do not know, or they think we are silent about what we know. But perhaps what you know, I also know: but I do not rebuke in your presence because I wish to heal, not accuse. There are adulterers in their homes, they sin in secret; sometimes they are betrayed to us by their wives, often jealous, sometimes seeking the welfare of their husbands: we do not expose them publicly, but we rebuke in secret. Where the evil occurred, there the evil dies. Yet we do not neglect that wound; above all, showing the man established in such a sin and bearing a wounded conscience, that wound is deadly: because sometimes those who commit such things, by some perverse means, disdain it; and somehow they gather no and vain testimonies for themselves, saying, God does not care about carnal sins. Where is what we heard today: Fornicators and adulterers God will judge? Behold, pay attention, whoever suffers from such a disease. Hear what God says: not what your mind, favoring your sins, says to you, or your friend, tied by the same chain of iniquity with you, or rather your enemy and his. Therefore hear what the Apostle says: Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Life must quickly be corrected.

Therefore, brother, be corrected. Do you fear that your enemy might accuse you; and do you not fear that God might judge you? Where is faith? Fear when there is reason to fear. The day of judgment is indeed far off; but the last day of each person cannot be far off; because life is short. And because that shortness is always uncertain, you do not know when your last day will be. Correct yourself today, for the sake of tomorrow. Let correction benefit you now even in secret. For I speak openly, and in secret I reprove. I knock on the ears of all: but I address the consciences of some. If I were to say, You, adulterer, correct yourself: first, I might say what I do not know; perhaps what I had rashly heard, I might suspect. I do not say, You, adulterer, correct yourself; but, whoever among this people is an adulterer, correct yourself. Public correction, but secret correction. I know that he who will have feared, corrects himself.

The sins of the flesh are not to be despised.

Let him not say in his heart, "God does not care about the sins of the flesh." The Apostle says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? Whoever destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. Let no one deceive himself." But perhaps someone might say, "My soul is the temple of God, not my body." He also added testimony, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh is as the flower of grass." What an unfortunate interpretation! A punishable thought! Flesh is called grass because it dies; but what dies for a time does not rise with sin. Do you want to know an even clearer meaning from this? The same apostle says, "Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?" (No longer despise bodily sins: see how even your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God.) Did you despise bodily sin, despise that you sin against the temple? Your very body is a temple of the Spirit of God within you. Now see what you do with the temple of God. If you chose to commit adultery in the church within these walls, would anything be more wicked? But now you yourself are the temple of God. You enter the temple, you leave the temple, you remain in the temple at your home, you rise in the temple. See what you do, see that you do not offend the inhabitant of the temple, lest he departs from you and you fall into ruin. The Apostle says, "Do you not know that your bodies (he was speaking from fornication, so they would not despise bodily sins) are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a great price." If you despise your body, consider your price.

Correction must not be delayed.

I know, and with me, every man who has considered a little more attentively, that no one who fears God does not correct himself under His words, except he who thinks he has more time to live. It is this very thing that has killed many, when they say: Tomorrow, tomorrow: and suddenly the door is closed. He remained outside with the voice of a raven, because he did not have the moan of a dove. Tomorrow, tomorrow; the voice of a raven. Groan like a dove, and strike your breast: but giving yourself blows to the chest, be corrected by the beating; lest it seem that you are not striking your conscience, but rather paving a bad conscience with blows, making it more solid, not more correct. Groan with a not empty groan. For perhaps you say to yourself: God has promised me forgiveness when I correct myself; I am safe: I read the divine Scripture: On the day that a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does justice, all his iniquities I will forget. I am safe; when I correct myself, God will give me forgiveness for my evils. And what am I to say? Will I voice a complaint against God? Will I say to God: Do not give him forgiveness? Will I say that this is not written, that God did not promise this? If I say these things, I say all falsehoods. You say well, you speak truly; God has promised forgiveness to your correction, I cannot deny it: but tell me, I beg you; look, I agree and I concede and I acknowledge that God has promised you forgiveness; but who has promised you tomorrow? Where do you read for me that you will receive forgiveness if you correct yourself; read there for me how long you will live. I do not read it, you say. Therefore, you do not know how long you will live. Be corrected and always ready. Do not fear the last day, as a thief who, while you are sleeping, digs through the wall: but stay awake, and correct yourself today. Why do you delay until tomorrow? There will be a long life. Let that long life be good. No one defers a good long meal, and yet you want to have a long bad life? Certainly, if it will be long, it is better that it be good: if it will be short, it is good that it be spent well. But men neglect their life so much that they do not want to have a bad life, except that. You buy an estate, you seek a good one; you want to marry, you choose a good wife; you want children to be born, you wish for good ones; you rent sandals, and you do not want bad ones: and you love a bad life! What has your life done to offend you, that you want only it to be bad, so that among all your good things, you alone may be bad?

The pastor ought to correct wrongdoings and carry the burden of his ministry.

Therefore, my brothers, if I wanted to correct one of you in private, perhaps he would listen to me: I correct many of you in public; everyone praises me; let someone listen to me. I do not love a praiser in voice, and a despiser in heart. For when you praise, and do not correct yourself, you are a witness against yourself. If you are evil and what I say pleases you, displease yourself: because if you, being evil, displease yourself, you will please yourself when corrected, which I said the day before yesterday, unless I am mistaken. In all my words, I propose a mirror. These words are not mine, but I speak at the Lord's command, by whose threat I do not keep silent. For who would not choose to remain silent and not to give an account of you? But we have already taken up a burden that we cannot and should not shake off from our shoulders. You have heard, my brothers, when the Epistle to the Hebrews was read: Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account: let them do this with joy and not with sorrow; for this would be unprofitable for you. When do we do these things with joy? When we see people making progress in the words of God. When does a worker rejoice in the field? When he looks at the tree and sees fruit; when he looks at the harvest and sees abundance of crops in the threshing floor: he did not labor in vain, he did not bend his back in vain, he did not wear out his hands in vain, he did not endure cold and heat in vain. This is what it means: let them do this with joy and not with sorrow; for this would be unprofitable for you. Did he say: it would be unprofitable for them? No; he said: it would be unprofitable for you. For when those leaders are saddened by your evil deeds, it is profitable for them; the sadness itself is beneficial for them: but it is not profitable for you. But we want nothing to be good for us that is not good for you. Therefore, together in the Lord's field, brothers, let us work well; so that together we may rejoice in the reward.