Sermon 105A

SERMON 105/A

ABOUT THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL IN LUKE 11:5-13:
"Which of you has a friend" and so on.
ON PRAYER

Christ gave great hope of obtaining when he encouraged to pray. God does not regard abilities but wills.

The Holy Gospel, which we heard being read just now, exhorts us to prayer. It gives great hope because he who asks, seeks, and knocks does not return empty from the Lord. For he did not say that some ask and do not receive, but said, "Everyone who asks will receive, and he who seeks will find, and to him who knocks it will be opened." He also put forth a parable to the contrary: if a friend comes to a friend and asks for three loaves because a guest has come to him and he asks at an hour when it is already inconvenient to rise and give; he replies that he cannot give because he is already resting and his children are with him in the room; yet the friend does not stop asking: “I tell you,” he says, “not because of friendship but because of the inconvenience he experiences, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.” If he does not refuse who is overcome by inconvenience, how much less will He refuse who encourages you to ask? That parable was put there for this reason. If the friend does not refuse him who asks for three loaves because he is a friend and gives not because of friendship but to avoid inconvenience, will not God, who is Trinity, give Himself to us who ask? But I think that friend did not give his friend three loaves so that one might be white, another common, and another barley. Therefore, because God Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, gave great hope of obtaining when He encouraged us to pray, we must know what we ought to pray for. Who does not ask God? But it must be considered what one asks for. The giver is ready to give, but the petitioner needs to be corrected. You rise and ask God for riches. Do the sons of God ask for this as something great from God? Therefore, God Himself wanted to give riches to wicked men so that sons should not ask for them as something great from their Father. For by his actions, God somehow speaks to us, saying to us: Why do you ask riches of me? Is this the greatest thing I will give you? Look at whom I have given them to and be ashamed to ask for it. The faithful ask for what a player has. The Christian matron asks for what a prostitute has. Do not ask for these things in your prayers. Let her give them if she wishes; let her not give if she does not wish. For we must believe Him who says: “For the life of a man does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Why? Riches have harmed many. I do not know if it can be found that they have benefited anyone. Perhaps we find someone to whom they have not been harmful, but I do not know if it can be found that they have been beneficial. Perhaps someone says: Did not riches benefit him who used them well by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, receiving the strangers, redeeming the captives? Whoever does this, does it so that riches may not harm him. For if he did not have the riches from which he does these things, and yet he would still be such that he would do them if he had them? God regards not the most opulent possessions but the most pious wills. Were the Apostles rich? They left their nets and boat and followed the Lord. He who leaves the hope of the world leaves much, just as that widow who gave from two mites. “No one,” He says, “gave more;” and many who were rich gave much, but they did not give more than that widow in the gifts of God, that is, into the treasury. Many who were rich gave much, and He observed it, not because they gave much. But she went in with two mites. Who deigned to notice her? He who does not regard a full hand but a pure heart, He both observed and showed her; and showing her, He said that no one had given so much. For no one gave so much as she who left nothing for herself. Therefore, if you have little, you will give little; if you have more, you will give more. Nevertheless, when you give little from little, will you have less, or will you receive less because you gave less? If the gifts are considered, some are great, some small, some many, some few. But if the hearts of those who give are considered, you will sometimes find a needy heart in the rich and a wealthy heart in the poor. You observe much given, but do not observe how much he who gave much left for himself, how much finally he distributed, how much he took from others who gave something to the poor as if corrupting God's judgment. Therefore you act so that riches do not harm you by giving, not that they benefit you. For even if you are poor and give little from little, it would be imputed to you as much as to the rich giving much, or even more as to that widow. Let us consider that the kingdom of heaven is for sale as it were with the price of alms. A certain rich and exceedingly fertile possession is set before us to acquire, which, when we have gained it, when we reach it, we will not leave it to successors as we depart, but we will always possess it, never to leave it, never to migrate from it at all. Great possession, possession to be bought! It remains for you to ask its price, lest you cannot pay what it costs and so fail to purchase it, although you desire to have it. I tell you, in case you think you will not attain it; its price is as much as you have. I add something else for your joy, if you are not envious. When God has made you the possessor of this possession, you do not exclude another buyer. The Patriarchs purchased; did they exclude the most blessed Prophets? The Prophets purchased; did they not admit the Apostles to buy? The Apostles purchased, yet other buyers, the martyrs, followed them. Finally, many bought and it is still for sale. Let’s see if the rich could purchase it and the poor could not. Let’s see more recent buyers, passing over the ancient ones of this possession. By giving half of his possessions to the poor, when he was very rich, Zacchaeus bought it, the chief publican, who acquired much. The publicans were not called populists but those who contracted for public revenues. The Holy Gospel explains this to you when a certain apostle was called of whom it is written: “He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom." This one whom He called from the receipt of custom was also called Matthew the publican in another place. Therefore, Zacchaeus, after the Lord entered into him whom he received unexpectedly—he greatly desired to see him; because he was short, he could not see in the crowd; he climbed a tree and saw him passing by; so that he might see Him who was to hang on the tree for him, he suspended himself on wood—therefore, when the Lord entered into him, he was filled with joy, because He had already entered his heart: “I give half of my possessions". But he kept much for himself. Notice why he kept the other half: “And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." Much was kept, not to be possessed, but to pay back the stolen goods. A great buyer gave much. A little earlier rich, suddenly poor. Does Peter not buy the kingdom though he was poor with nets and a boat? To both, as much was worth as anyone had. After them, even that widow bought it. She gave two mites and bought it. Is there anything cheaper? Yes, something cheaper. I find a cheaper price for this great possession than those two mites. Listen to the seller, the Lord Jesus. “If anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of the least of these, I tell you the truth he will certainly not lose his reward." What is cheaper than a cup of water, and that cold, so that even wood might not be needed to buy? I do not know if you consider anything cheaper than this small price. And yet, it exists. He does not have what Peter had, much less what Zacchaeus had, he does not find even two mites. Is a cup of cold water lacking for a moment? “Peace on earth to people of good will." Let there no longer be that diversity of prices disputed. If we understand, if we truly think, good will is the price of that possession. It was bought by Peter, bought by Zacchaeus, bought by that widow, bought by him who offers a cup of cold water. It alone buys, if it has nothing except itself.

We should know what we ought to ask for. To ask for a good will.

Why have we said these things? What had we proposed? Because we must learn what to ask for from the chapter of the Gospel where the Lord gave us great hope, saying: "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Since He gave us great hope, we must know what to ask for. Hence it happens that I warn you not to seek, ask, and knock for great wealth when you pray. He who knocks wants to enter. The entrance is narrow. Why carry much? Therefore, you should first send ahead what you carry so that you may enter easily without burden through the narrow way. Do not, therefore, ask for great wealth from the Lord God. Do you fear to lack possessions and not purchase them? Have I not told you that you are worth as much as you have? And if you have nothing, you will be its price, because even if you have much, you will not purchase unless you give yourself. Perhaps you will answer me: What then should we ask of God? Do not ask even for the death of your enemies. These are malevolent prayers. I do not know whether you will be heard for your benefit when you rejoice in the death of an enemy. For who is not going to die? Who knows when they might die? You rejoice that another is dead. How do you know whether while you rejoice, you may expire? Learn to pray that your enemy; the enmities themselves die. Your enemy is a man. There are two names: man and enemy. Let the man live; let the enemy die. Do you not recall how Christ the Lord struck Saul, His enemy, a most ardent persecutor of His members, with a single voice from heaven, laid him prostrate, and killed him? He absolutely killed him, for the persecutor died, and a preacher rose. If you do not believe me that he died, interrogate him; let him be heard, let him be read. Hear his voice in his epistle: "I live, yet not I." "I live," he says, "not I." Therefore, he himself died. And how did he speak? "But Christ lives in me." Therefore, pray as much as you can that your enemy may die, and behold how he may die. For if he dies and does not depart from the body, you have only lost an enemy and gained a friend. Do not pray and ask God even for the visible deaths of your enemies. "What," you will say, "are we to ask for?" Honors of this world? They are passing smoke. You were safer in humility. Do you want to be in danger in exaltation? Indeed, honors are given only by God, just as wealth is; but He advised you to despise wealth, also teaching to whom He gives it; it is given to the good so that you do not think it is some evil; it is given to the wicked so that you do not consider it great good. Thus also with honors: worthy men receive them; unworthy men receive them too, so that the worthy do not regard them as great. Now, therefore, say, you ask, what should we ask for? I do not send you through many exclamations when I recalled the gospel testimony: "Peace on earth to men of good will." Ask for that good will itself. Riches, honors, and such things, do they make you good? Even if they are good, they are the smallest goods, used well by the good, and badly by the bad. Good will makes you good. Are you not ashamed to want to have good things while being bad? You have many goods: gold, silver, gems, estates, households, herds, flocks. Be ashamed before your goods. Be good yourself. For what is more miserable for you if your house is good, but your tunic, your sheep, finally your gallic, and your soul are bad? Therefore, learn to ask for the good, to put it this way, the good that makes good, that is: the good that makes people good. If you have goods used by the good, ask for the good from which you may be good. Good will makes you good. For those are also good, but they do not make you good. To know those goods are good, among them are those which the Lord mentioned: bread, fish, egg; to know they are good, He Himself said: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children." You are evil and give good things. Ask to be good. Therefore, He warned and said: "If you, being evil," to warn what to ask, that is, not to be evil but to be good. Therefore, let Him teach us what we ought to ask. There, in the same chapter of the Gospel, hear His subsequent words: "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, and yet you remain evil; therefore, to not remain evil, hear what follows: 'How much more will your Father who is in heaven give the good Spirit to those who ask Him.'" Behold, the good from which you will be good! The good Spirit of God makes good will in men. The price of that possession, which is called eternal life, is God Himself. What will be richer for us than eternal life? What, I say, will be richer for us when our possession will be God? Or perhaps I have done an injury because I said God will be our possession? I did not. I learned what I said. I found a holy man praying and saying: "Lord, the portion of my inheritance." Extend the purse of your greed, O greedy one, and find something greater than God, find something more valuable than God, find something better than God. What will you not have when you have Him? But gather gold and silver, as much as you can. Expel your neighbors; possess the expanded domain; reach the ends of the earth. Acquiring lands, add seas. Let what you see be yours; let what you do not see under the waters be yours. When you have all these things, what will you have if you do not have God? If, therefore, by having God the poor man is wealthy, and by not having God the rich man is a beggar, do not ask from Him anything besides Himself. What will He not give when He gives Himself? What will He give if He does not give Himself? Therefore, ask for the good Spirit; let Him inhabit you, and you will be good. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. And what follows? "If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." What did you desire riches for? Therefore, will the heir of God be poor? If you were the heir of a very wealthy senator, you would be rich; but will the heir of God be poor? A joint-heir with Christ, will you be poor? When your inheritance will be the Father Himself, will you be poor? Ask for the good Spirit, for now from Him you are asking for the good Spirit. For you already have something of His Spirit, that you may ask for His Spirit. For if you had nothing of it, you would ask for nothing. But because you do not have enough, both you have and you ask, until it is done as it is written: "He fills your desire with good things," until it is done as it is written elsewhere: "I shall be satisfied when Your glory is revealed." Blessed, therefore, are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, not this earthly bread, not this earthly water, not this earthly wine but righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.