Sermon 89

SERMO 89

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 21:19-12, WHERE JESUS CAUSED THE TREE TO WITHER;
And from those LC 24, 28 where he pretended to go further.

What the cursing of the fig tree should remind us.

The most recent reading of the holy Gospel has warned us, has terrified us, lest we have leaves and not have fruit. This, however, is briefly explained: lest words be present, and deeds be lacking. Great terror! Who does not fear, when in the very reading with the eyes of the heart sees a dry tree, and thus it is said to it: Never let fruit grow from you again. Let terror correct, let correction bring forth fruit. Without a doubt, the Lord Christ foresaw a certain tree deservedly becoming dry, because it had leaves and did not have fruit. That is the Synagogue, not called, but rejected. For from there the people of God were called, who truthfully and sincerely were expecting the salvation of God Jesus Christ in the Prophets. And because they were faithfully expecting, they deserved to recognize Him present. From there were the Apostles, from there the whole crowd preceding the Lord's beast of burden and saying: Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. There was a great crowd of faithful Jews, believing in Christ before the blood shed for them was poured out. For the Lord Himself had not come in vain, except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But after He was crucified among others, already exalted in heaven, He found the fruit of repentance: neither did He make them arid, but cultivated them in the field, and watered them with His word. From there were those four thousand Jews who believed, after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and those who were with them, spoke in the languages of all nations, and in some measure foretold the future Church by that diversity of languages. They believed then, and they too were the sheep that had perished of the house of Israel; but since the Son of Man had come to seek and to save that which was lost, He found even them. But I do not know where, as if preyed upon by wolves, they were hiding in the thickets; and because they were hiding in the thickets, He did not reach them to find them except torn by the thorns of suffering: yet He reached, He found, He redeemed. They had killed; not Him more than themselves. They were saved by the One killed for them. Indeed, the Apostles speaking, those who had pierced Him with a lance were pricked, they were pricked in conscience: being pricked, they sought counsel, received what was given, did penance, found grace, and believing, drank the blood they had shed in rage. But those who remained in the evil and sterile progeny up to this day and to the end, are figured in that tree. Now you come to them, and you find among them all the words of the Prophets. But these are leaves: Christ is hungry: He seeks fruit; but the reason He does not find fruit in them is because He does not find Himself in them. For he does not have fruit, he does not have Christ. But he does not have Christ who does not hold to the unity of Christ, who does not have charity. Therefore, by this connection, he does not have fruit who does not have charity. Listen to the Apostle: But the fruit of the Spirit is charity; as if about to commend a cluster, that is, fruit. But the fruit, he says, of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, long-suffering. Do not be surprised by the following, where charity begins.

A mountain sent into the sea by the Apostles.

Therefore, when the disciples marveled at the dryness of the tree, He commended faith to them and said: If you have faith and do not doubt—in other words, if you believe all things from God—you will not say, This God can do, and this God cannot do; but you shall presume upon the omnipotence of the Omnipotent. You will not only do this, but if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you pray for, believing, you will receive. We read about miracles performed by the disciples, or rather performed by the Lord through the disciples, for He says, Without Me, you can do nothing. The Lord could do many things without the disciples, but the disciples could do nothing without the Lord. He who could also make the disciples could not have been helped by them to make them. We read about the miracles of the Apostles, but we never read that a tree withered by them or a mountain was cast into the sea. Let us seek, therefore, where it happened. For the words of the Lord could not have been in vain. If you consider those ordinary and well-known trees and mountains, it did not happen. But if you consider the tree of which He spoke and the mountain of the Lord of which the prophet said: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord shall be manifested; if you consider these things, if you understand these things; it happened and it happened through them. The tree is the Jewish nation, but again, I say, rejected, not called: that tree, which we mentioned, is the Jewish nation. The mountain, as the prophetic testimony taught, is the Lord Himself. The dry tree is the Jewish nation without the honor of Christ: the sea is this world of all Gentiles. Now see the Apostles speaking to the tree to wither and sending the mountain into the sea. They speak in the Acts of the Apostles to the Jews who oppose and resist the word of truth, that is, having leaves but not bearing fruit, and they say to them: It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you, but since you reject it: You speak the words of the prophets, and you do not recognize Him whom the prophets foretold, that is, having leaves; Behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For this too was prophesied: Behold, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Behold, the tree has withered; and Christ is with the Gentiles, the mountain cast into the sea. For how could the tree not wither, placed in the vineyard of which it was said: I will command my clouds that they rain no rain upon it?

The curse of the tree prefigured something future.

For the Lord to commend this prophetically, that He had done this concerning this tree, not only wishing to exhibit a miracle, but to foretell something by the miracle; there are many things that remind and persuade us, indeed they extort belief from the unwilling. First, what had the tree sinned, since it had not borne fruit? If it had not borne fruit at its own time, that is, the time for those fruits, there would certainly be no fault in the tree; because a tree without sense could not be guilty. Added to this, as it is read in another evangelist narrating this same thing: The time of figs was not yet. For that time was when the fig tree brings forth tender leaves, which we know grow before the fruit; this we prove because the days of the Lord’s passion were drawing near, and we know the time when He suffered; and if we did not consider this, we ought certainly to believe the Evangelist saying: The time of figs was not yet. Therefore, if only a miracle was to be commended, and not something to be figured prophetically, much more mercifully would the Lord have done, and more worthily of His mercy, had He found a dry tree and made it green; just as He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead. But then, contrary to this, as if against the rule of His clemency, He found a green tree, not yet bearing fruit beyond its time, yet not denying its fruit to its husbandman, and made it dry: as if He were saying to man. It was not the dryness of this tree that pleased Me, but I wished to insinuate to you that I did this with a reason, because I wished to commend to you something for you to attend to more. I did not curse this tree, I did not inflict punishment on an insentient tree; but I scared you, if you noticed, so that you would not despise Christ being hungry, and that you might love to be enriched with fruit rather than overshadowed by leaves.

Anything said or done in Scripture can be understood in three ways.

This is the one thing that the Lord commends about himself, that he wanted to signify something. What else? Being hungry, he comes to the tree and seeks fruit. Did he not know that the time had not yet come? What the tree's caretaker knew, the Creator of the tree did not know? He therefore seeks fruit on the tree which it did not yet have. He seeks, or rather, pretends to seek. For if he truly sought, he erred. But far be it that he should err. Therefore, he feigned. Fearing that he feigned, you confess that he erred. You shun error, you run into feigning. We are troubled in the middle. If we are troubled, let us desire rain, that we may flourish, lest by saying something unworthy about the Lord, we wither instead. The evangelist indeed says, "He came to the tree, and did not find fruit on it." Of course he did not find it, it would not be said of him unless he either truly sought, or pretended to seek, what he knew was not there. Hence, we do not doubt, let us by no means say Christ erred. What then, do we say he feigned? Do we say this? How shall we escape from this? Let us say what the evangelist wrote, lest we dare to say anything from ourselves. What the evangelist wrote, let us say; and when we have said it, let us understand it. But to understand, let us first believe. For unless you believe, you will not understand, says the prophet. After the resurrection, the Lord Christ walked on the road with two of his disciples, who did not yet recognize him, to whom he was accompanying as a third traveler. They came to the place where they were heading, and the evangelist said, "He pretended to go farther." They, however, held him back, out of human kindness, saying that it was already evening and asking him to stay with them there: received into their hospitality, he breaks the bread, and in the blessed and broken bread he is recognized. Therefore, let us no longer fear to say, he pretended to seek, if he pretended to go farther. But another question arises. Yesterday, we highly commended the truth in the Apostles; how do we find feigning in the Lord himself? We must therefore say, brothers, and explain to you within our modest abilities, which the Lord grants us for your sake, and commend to you something to hold regularly in all the Scriptures. Everything that is said or done, is either known by its own property, or signifies something figuratively; or certainly has both, its own cognition, and a figurative signification. I proposed three things; examples must be given, and from where if not from the holy Scriptures? A statement to be taken literally: because the Lord suffered, because he rose and ascended into heaven, because we shall rise at the end of the world, because we shall reign with him eternally if we do not despise him. Take this statement literally; do not seek figures: as it is said, so it is. So also with deeds. The Apostle went up to Jerusalem to see Peter; the Apostle did this, it happened, it is his own. It reports to you a deed done: the very deed according to its property. Figuratively stated: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." If we take the stone literally, which stone did the builders reject, and it became the cornerstone? If we take the corner literally, on whose corner was this stone made the head? If we admit it is said figuratively, and you take it figuratively; the cornerstone is Christ; the head of the corner, the head of the Church. Why is the Church a corner? Because here he called the Jews, there the Gentiles, and as if two walls coming from different directions and converging in himself, he united by the grace of his peace. For he himself is our peace, who made both one.

Made in the form of a figure.

You have heard of the proper saying, the proper deed, the figurative saying: you are waiting for the figurative deed. There are many, but in the meantime, what comes to mind from the mentioning of the cornerstone, when Jacob anointed the stone which he had placed at his head while he slept, in which dream he had seen a great vision, ladders rising from the earth to heaven, and angels ascending and descending, with the Lord leaning upon the ladder, he understood what he ought to signify, whence he showed us by that vision's and revelation's understanding he was not foreign, he figured the stone for Christ. Do not wonder, therefore, that he anointed it, because Christ received his name from the anointing. But this Jacob was called in Scripture a man without deceit. This same Jacob, you know, was called Israel. Therefore, the Lord in the Gospel when he saw Nathanael said: Behold, a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit. And that Israelite, not yet knowing who was speaking with him, replied: How do you know me? And the Lord said to him: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you: as if to say: When you were in the shadow of sin; I predestined you. And he, because he remembered being under the fig tree, where the Lord was not, recognized the divinity in him, and responded: You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. He under the fig tree was not made a barren fig tree: he recognized Christ. And the Lord to him: Because I said to you: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you, therefore you believe; you will see greater things than these. What are these greater things? Amen, I say to you. Because that Israelite, in whom there is no deceit; look to Jacob in whom there is no deceit; and recall from where he speaks, a stone at his head, vision in a dream, ladders from earth to heaven, descending and ascending; and see what the Lord says to the Israelite without deceit: you will see heaven opened: Hear, Nathanael without deceit, what Jacob without deceit saw: you will see heaven opened, and angels ascending and descending; to whom? to the Son of Man. Therefore he anointed the stone at the head of the Son of Man; because the head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ. Nor did he say: Ascending from the Son of Man and descending to the Son of Man, as if he were simply up above: but, ascending and descending to the Son of Man. Hear the Son of Man crying out from above: Saul, Saul. Hear from below the Son of Man: Why do you persecute me?

An event truly happened and nonetheless was symbolic.

You have heard a saying of our own, that we shall rise again: a deed of our own, that as it is said, Paul went up to Jerusalem to see Peter. It is said figuratively: The stone which the builders rejected; the figurative deed, the anointed stone, which was at the head of Jacob. It is due to your expectation that both are, and it has been done both properly and means figuratively. We know Abraham had two sons, one from the maid, the other from the free woman; properly done, not only narrated but also done: do you expect a figure there? These are the two Testaments. Therefore, what is said figuratively is in some way feigned. But since it has an outcome of signification, and that very signification holds the faith of truth, it avoids the charge of falsehood. Behold, a sower went out to sow; and in sowing, some fell by the wayside, some fell on stony places, some fell among thorns, some fell on good ground. Who went out to sow, or when did he go out, or among which thorns, or on which stones, or on which way, or into which field? If you hear it feigned, you understand it as signifying: it is feigned. For if truly a man went out as a sower, and the seeds, as we have heard, were cast among these various places, it would not be feigned, but neither would it be a lie. It is not yet feigned, but not a lie. Why? Because it signifies something, that which is feigned does not deceive you. It seeks the understanding, not making you err. Wishing to commend this, Christ sought fruit, he was commending there a figurative, not a deceptive feigning; and because of this, a laudable, not criminal feigning; not to lead you into falsehood when examined, but when searched deeply, you find the truth.

Christ must be held for the breaking of bread.

I see what he is going to say: Explain to me what he meant, that he pretended to go further. For if he did not mean it, it is deceit, it is a lie. According to our explanations and very discreet rules, we must say this, what certain semblance of going further signified: he pretended to go further, and is held, so that he does not go further. Therefore, as to the physical presence, the Lord Christ was thought to be absent; he was thought to be absent, as if he would go further. Hold him faithfully, hold him at the breaking of bread. What shall I say? Did you recognize him? If you recognized him, there you found Christ. There is no need to speak further about the sacrament. To those who postpone to know this sacrament, Christ is further from them. Let them hold it, not let go; invite to hospitality, and they are invited to heaven.