Sermon 110A

SERMON 110/A

Sermon from the Gospel about the woman who had been bent for eighteen years and about those upon whom the tower fell >

Let us understand what the miracles of Christ signify.

We have often admonished your charity and, according to the measure of our abilities, with the Lord bestowing, have taught that the marvelous deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ in the holy gospel are not only great works and deeds - for what else can they be but all the more marvelous the more divine they are? - but also as though they are visible words, admonishing us to also understand what they signify. If we do not understand these, they delight us only by the miracle itself and elevate the heart in God's praise. Hence, just as someone admires and praises a writer beautifully writing by merely looking at what he writes, even if he does not know letters and is ignorant of the meaning, delights in the beauty of the strokes—unaware of the sense, praises the craft; but he who also knows how to read, reaps abundant fruit—so when we hear of the marvelous things the Lord did, even if we do not understand what they signify, we, as those who cannot read and only gaze at those letters, admire the work of the Maker, even if we do not know the purpose of the Signifier. What is more marvelous than this? A woman bent over for eighteen years by infirmity: in one moment by the word of the Lord, she stood erect, and the long-standing condition yielded to the command, because it obeyed the Sovereign. He loosened the bond of the entangler, accomplished the work of the Creator. She who was bent was straightened, she who was bound was freed, and this by one word, for He who made the word—and all things were made through Him—came to seek what was lost. Let us marvel, praise, and love. Yet after admiring the beautiful composition, let us seek the meaning of this writing a bit more attentively.

The composition of the evangelical narrative.

In that very same Gospel passage, in the same context where it is mentioned about the eighteen people upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and they died, and the woman infirm for eighteen years was healed and raised up. Both are there: they are narrated consecutively. In that same context, the Lord also speaks about that tree to which He came and found unfruitful for three years already. When He ordered it to be cut down, the vine-dresser interceded: let him put some manure around it and, if it bore fruit, well and good; but if not, it would be cut down. This was said about the tree in a figure, not done as a miracle. However, what was noted about the people upon whom the tower fell was neither said by the Lord in a figure, nor was it an event endorsed by any miracle: the people were crushed by the collapse. It may almost be ascribed to chance, except that the impious do not understand that not even a sparrow falls without the will of the Creator. Now, the Lord voluntarily recalled those eighteen individuals whom the tower’s collapse crushed, it had been reported to Him that some had been killed by King Herod in a shocking incident, such that their blood was mixed with their sacrifices. When people horrified by this reported it, the Lord said: Do you think they were sinners above all other men because this happened to them? Truly, I tell you: unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Then He added on His own accord, recalling and saying: Or those eighteen people upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and they died, do you think they were debtors above all other men—that is, sinners? Truly, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Then He speaks about that fig tree, and raises up the woman. I beseech you, help our weakness with your attention; first, I think we must inquire with no negligence what this means.

"All the evil... likewise die."

Amen, I say to you: unless you repent, you will all perish similarly. Similarly how? Like those whose blood Herod mingled with their sacrifices. Again, unless you repent, you will all perish similarly. Similarly how? Like those upon whom the tower fell. Since they died dissimilarly – in one way, those whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices, in another, those who were crushed by the collapse – how will all perish similarly unless they repent? Those who are to die in that manner will not die in this manner, and those in this manner, not in that; and yet, by merits, they die similarly. Divine Scripture cannot lie, the mouth of truth cannot lie. Indeed, if we understand, it is true. All the wicked, unjust, all the lost, criminals, flagitious, lovers of the world, lascivious and abject, unless they repent, perish similarly. How similarly? And in what manner are they, and in what manner are those? Not bodily and visibly, therefore similarly. For if bodily, they cannot die in both ways. But if we understand and compare spiritual things with spiritual, and take certain signs from bodily similarities for intelligible matters, all perish similarly. For all the wicked seek evil from God, and what they think good for themselves is evil, because they think wrongly. Why? Because of evil lust, from the work of flesh and blood, from the work of corruption, which certainly will not possess the kingdom of God. Therefore, their sacrifices, that is, prayers, mix with their blood, because they seek according to the flesh and blood. This is indicated and rebuked by a certain Scripture, saying: You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. You, therefore, offer your sacrifice: let it not be mixed with your blood; for you think carnally and, according to your carnal mind, ask God. For you are of flesh and blood; you want to incline God to your fleshly desires, while you ought to lift your heart to God, nor consider what the Apostle tells you: If you have risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, lest your prayers, coming from flesh and blood, penalize you with such punishment as those whose blood the angry king mingled with their sacrifices. Separate your sacrifice from your blood, say to your God: I will pay my vows which my lips have uttered. For the spiritual man judges all things. Yet he himself is judged by no one. Judging all things, he does not mix the sacrifice with blood.

"Recognize the crucified one... do penance."

How then do those who do not repent die similarly as those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell? Siloam is interpreted as "Sent." Who is sent, if not our Lord? The tower in Siloam, the cross of Christ. Therefore, if you have not been put to death, with evil desires of the flesh and blood nailed to His cross, the crucified one falls upon you. What is your sign? If you do not act, you do not sign. This is ruin, not grace. Recognize the crucified one, recognize the sufferer, recognize the one praying for his enemies, recognize the one loving and wishing to heal those from whom he suffered such things. If you recognize, repent and, if you ever desired evil, make sure you will good. Wipe away the guilt, that you may not fear the punishment. But if you do not do this, will Christ benefit you at all? He who eats unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself. If by eating unworthily he eats and drinks judgment to himself, what else but the tower falls upon him? For you will all likewise perish, he says – and he speaks the truth – unless you repent of your evil deeds. Moreover, if you act, you will be lifted up and be like that woman. Moreover, if you act, the filth of repentance, like a heap of dung, you will receive not fruitlessly, lest you be cut off.

"The number six signifies time."

It remains to inquire about the number why there are eighteen people and eighteen years, and how they correspond to the three years of that tree. The angry leader of the synagogue prompted us to solve such a question, because the Lord Jesus healed that bent woman on the Sabbath. He said to the crowds: There are six days on which one ought to work; come then and be healed, not on the Sabbath day. He is indeed convicted by the accusation regarding livestock. Hypocrites, he said, does not each one of you untie his ox or donkey on the Sabbath and lead it to water? He must indeed be convicted of something else since he is like a horse and mule without understanding. And he seemed to speak from Scripture, saying: There are six days on which one ought to work. From Scripture indeed, but he mingled sacrifice with blood, since what is said spiritually, he understood carnally. We, however, take occasion from this to understand and remember that for six days God worked on all things we see, the sky and the earth and all that is in them; but on the seventh day, God rested. And all those six days have an evening, because heaven and earth shall pass away; but that seventh day of rest does not have an evening, for when we too have rested after good works, we shall have no end in that rest. Therefore we find that all things were made in six days: by the number six time is signified. Moreover, if time is signified for you by the number six, look to the three years of the tree, because there a threefold time is signified: one before the law, another under the law, the third which we now have, indeed under grace. Whoever is not corrected even in this time, let him expect the axe, not safety. Because therefore that tree, at least in the third time, should be corrected and changed from sterility to fruitfulness, that it might heed him baptizing unto repentance: Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, and the six-number signifies time, undoubtedly those eighteen whom the tower oppressed were not corrected in that entire three-part time. For if six signifies time, three times six is eighteen.

"If you have your heart above, you are not bent."

But that woman in the time of grace is raised up in eighteen years, as she who had said: "They have bowed down my soul." For the soul is bowed down which is oppressed by earthly things, the soul is bowed down which is weighed down by the desires for things [it lies], the soul is bowed down which lies in having its heart lifted up to the Lord. For if you have a "heart lifted up," you are not curved. If you always seek earthly things, if you desire to be happy about earthly things, if you think you do not worship God fruitfully unless earthly happiness abounds for you, you are curved: your heart is not with the Lord. But this punishment comes from the dominion of the devil. The whole human race was held curved under the devil, the whole human race was weighed down by desires for earthly things; one came who would promise the kingdom of heaven. There is another life, there is the fellowship of angels; there is a homeland where no violent one, no enemy is feared; there is a homeland walled by the will of God, surrounded by the shield of God's good will, where the enemy is not allowed, where no friend perishes; there is a homeland where no one departs, no one succeeds. That homeland is called Jerusalem, Jerusalem is interpreted as "vision of peace." Straighten up from your curve, do not taste of the earth. You have risen with Christ, he is in heaven: stretch towards him and you will not be curved.

Christ accepted death for us.

But this you have not done, o malevolent human race, you did not do this before the law, you did not do this under the law: act under grace. In eighteen years He found you bent over who came upright, who came to be crucified for you, to free you from the bond of the devil. Bent over, the caution of the creditor kept you. For the devil had bound his debtors and had, in a way, placed them in shackles. He came, not a debtor, paid what he did not owe, and erased our handwritten bond. Where was the handwritten bond of our debt erased? By the blood of the just one. Why would he hold men in death, one appointed over death? He had them clearly by the condition of sin as his own tree: he conquered and held, he conquered and possessed. He rightfully held those he had deceived with evil persuasion. He came persuading good, having nothing evil, born of a virgin, not bearing the lineage of sin, but clothed in the penalty of death, having the likeness of sinful flesh, to free from the flesh of sin. Hear him going to his passion and saying: Behold, the ruler of the world is coming, and in me he will find nothing. Not as the world finds in you, not as in all mankind, in me he will find nothing. Therefore, if he finds nothing in you, why will you die? What follows? After he said: He will find nothing in me, as if it were said to him: "Why then will you die?" But that all may know, he says, that I do the will of my Father: arise, let us go from here. He rises and goes to his passion, to fulfill the will of the Father, as if sent by Siloam, not because he owed, but to repay for debtors, as it is said of him in prophecy: What I did not steal, then I restored. He alone therefore was undeserving of death. We all, however, are deserving, because we have equally drawn the merit of death. He did not draw any merit of death, and yet he underwent death for us. Therefore, he paid what he did not owe, freed the debtors, erased the old handwritten bonds, instituted new documents. What need do we now have to account for the old documents? He burned them in the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Forgive your debtor, so that your debts may be forgiven by God.

Recognize the redeemer, do not further make yourself a debtor. But for certain daily sins, even if minor, he has given a daily remedy. Say from faith, say from the heart, say from goodwill: Forgive us our sins. For, add not only by saying it but also by doing what follows: As we also forgive our debtors. Therefore God, to whom you are a debtor, willed to have you as a debtor. Your debtor is the one who commits injustice against you, who unjustly oppresses you, who wrongfully takes something from you. Your debtor owes you a penalty. Do you want to know who your debtor is? Consider, read. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc. The law has decreed that each one should suffer what he has done. On the contrary, the Gospel says: I say to you: love your enemies, not contrary to the law, as some wrongly understand, thinking that the gentleness of the Gospel is opposed to the harshness of the law. It is not so. The law shows you what is owed to you. The Gospel would not have made you a forgiver, except that the law showed you the debtor.