Sermon 151

SERMO 151

ON THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (ROM 7:15-25):
"For I do not do the good I want to do"
"But what I do not want, this I do," etc.

A passage of the Apostle dangerous for those understanding it poorly.

The divine reading which is recited from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul, whenever it is read, it must be feared lest it be poorly understood and give an occasion to men who are seeking an occasion. For men are indeed inclined to sin, and they barely restrain themselves. Therefore, when they hear the Apostle saying: "For I do not do the good I want; but the evil I hate, this I do"; they do evil, and as if displeased with themselves because they do evil, they think they are similar to the Apostle, who said: "For I do not do the good I want; but the evil I do not want, this I do." Therefore, it is sometimes read, and it then imposes on us the necessity of disputing, lest men, poorly taking wholesome food, turn it into poison. Therefore, let your Charity be attentive, until with the Lord's help, I say to you; so that where you may see me perhaps toiling in the difficulty of some obscurity, you may assist me with the affection of piety.

The just man's life here is a struggle, not yet a triumph. The voice of triumph.

Therefore, first recall, as you are accustomed to hear by the grace of God, that the life of the righteous in this body is still a battle, not yet a triumph. However, there will someday be a triumph of this battle. For this reason, the Apostle spoke of both voices of battle and voices of triumph. We just heard the voices of battle: For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. The desire is present within me, but the ability to carry it out is not. But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. When you hear "waging war," when you hear "making me a prisoner," do you not recognize a battle?

The voice of triumph is not yet heard; but because it is to come, the Apostle teaches you, saying: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality; there is the voice of triumph: then the saying that is written will come to pass: Death is swallowed up in victory. Let the triumphant say: Where, O death, is your contest? We shall say this; one day we shall say; and that one day is not far off. For not as much remains of the world, as much as has already passed. Therefore, we shall say this then. But now in this battle, lest this reading be a trumpet of the enemy rather than ours to those who misunderstand it, from which he is encouraged, not overcome; pay attention, I beseech you, my brothers, and fight those who fight. For those who do not yet fight, you will not understand what I am saying; those who already fight will understand. My voice will be in the open, yours will be in silence. First, recall what he wrote to the Galatians, from which this can be better explained. For he says, speaking to the faithful, speaking to the baptized, to whom surely all sins had been forgiven in the holy bath; yet speaking to them, speaking to fighters, he says: I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He did not say: do not do them; but: do not complete them. Why is this? He follows and says: For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary to each other; so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law; of course, but under grace. If you are led by the Spirit; what is it to be led by the Spirit? To consent to the Spirit of God commanding, not to the flesh desiring. Yet it desires and resists; and it wants something, and you do not want; persevere, so that you do not want.

The destruction of desires ought to be in our prayers.

Nevertheless, your desire should be such towards God that it is not in itself a lust which you resist. See what I have said: I say, your desire should be such towards God that it is not entirely a lust which must be resisted. For you resist, and by not consenting you conquer; but it is better not to have an enemy than to conquer. This enemy will sometimes not be. Turn your mind to the voice of triumph, and see if it will be. Where is, O death, your contention? It will be no more. Where is, O death, your sting? You will seek its place, and not find it. For this is not, as you ought especially to hear; for this is not like some other nature, as the Manicheans rave. It is our weakness, it is our vice. It will not be separated elsewhere, but it will be cured nowhere. Therefore do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Indeed it would be better to fulfill what the law said: You shall not covet. This is the fullness of virtue, the perfection of righteousness, the palm of victory: You shall not covet. Because this cannot now be fulfilled, at least let that be fulfilled which the holy Scripture likewise says: Follow not your lusts. It is better not to have them; but since they are, do not follow them. They do not want to follow you; do not follow them. If they want to follow you, they will not be; because they will not rebel against your mind. They rebel, rebel against them; they fight, fight against them; they assault, assault against them; just see this: that they do not conquer.

How to resist evil desires and bad habits.

Behold, I will place something from which you might understand the rest. You know that there are sober men; they are fewer, but they exist. You know there are also drunkards; they are abundant. A sober person is baptized; as far as drunkenness is concerned, he has nothing with which to fight; he has other desires with which he must fight. But so that you may understand the rest, let us place in the middle the struggle of one enemy only. A drunkard is baptized; he has heard, and heard with fear, among other evils by which the kingdom of God is excluded from those living wickedly, that drunkenness is also mentioned; because where it is said: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves; there it is added: Nor drunkards, etc., will inherit the kingdom of God. He heard and feared. He is baptized, all things with which he was intoxicated are forgiven him; the adversary habit remains. Therefore, the one reborn has someone to fight against. All his past sins are forgiven him; let him be vigilant, watchful, let him fight, lest at any time he becomes intoxicated. Therefore, the desire for drinking rises, it tickles the mind, induces dryness in the throat, lies in wait for the senses; it even wants to infiltrate the wall, approach the enclosed one, and drag him captive if it can. He fights, let him fight back. Oh, if only it did not exist! If it approached through bad habit, it will die through good habit; only do not satisfy it, do not satiate it by yielding, but kill it by resisting. Yet as long as it exists, it is an enemy. If you do not consent to it, and never become intoxicated, it will become lesser and lesser each day. For its strength lies in your subjection. For if you yield to it and become intoxicated, you give it strength. Is it not against me, and not against you? I advise, speak, and preach from a higher place; I forewarn what evil awaits the drunkards. There is no reason for you to say: I did not hear; there is no reason for you to say: God takes my soul away from the hand of the one who was silent to me. But you struggle because you yourself made a powerful adversary through bad habit. You did not work to nurture it; work to overcome it. And if you are less suitable against it, ask God. Yet if it does not conquer you, although your bad habit wrestled with you, if it does not conquer you, you have done what the apostle Paul says: You fulfill not the desires of the flesh. Desire came to being by tickling; but it is not fulfilled by drinking.

Desire is innate to us and arose from the first sin. Christ was conceived without sin, so that He might dissolve sin.

What I said about drunkenness, this applies to all vices, this applies to all desires. For we are born with some, we acquire others by habit. For because of those with which we are born, infants are baptized, so that they may be freed from the guilt of original sin, not from the bad habit, which they did not have. Therefore, we must always fight, because that very lust with which we are born cannot be ended as long as we live; it can be diminished daily, but it cannot be ended. Because of that, it is said that this is our body of death. The Apostle says about it: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." This law was born when the first law was transgressed. This law was born, I say, when the first law was despised and transgressed. What is the first law? The one man received in paradise. Were they not naked, and were not ashamed? Why were they naked and were not ashamed, except because the law in their members did not yet war against the law of their mind? Man did a deed deserving punishment, and he found a shameful motion. They ate against the command, and their eyes were opened. For what? Previously, in paradise, were their eyes closed or blind and they wandered aimlessly? Far from it. For how could Adam name the birds and the beasts when all the animals were brought to him? How could he name them if he did not see? Then it was said: "The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes." Therefore, they had open eyes; and they were naked, and were not ashamed. But their eyes were opened to something they had never felt, something they had never feared in the movement of their bodies. Their eyes were opened for perceiving, not for seeing; and because they felt shameful, they sought to cover it. "They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." They felt it there, where they had covered it. Behold where original sin is drawn from, behold why no one is born without sin. Behold why the Lord did not wish to be conceived in the usual manner, whom the virgin conceived. He who came without it, solved it; he who did not come from it, solved it. Hence one and one: one to death, one to life. The first man to death, the second man to life. But why to death for that man? Because he was merely man. Why to life for this man? Because he is God and man.

The apostles' struggle against desire is set forth, so that we may not despair.

Therefore, the Apostle does not act according to his will; for he wishes not to desire, and yet he desires; thus he does not act according to his will. Was that evil desire dragging the Apostle, enslaved, into fornication and adultery? God forbid. May such thoughts not ascend into our hearts. He was struggling, not being subdued. But because he did not even want to have this to fight against, he said: "I do not do what I want." I do not want to desire, and I do desire. Therefore, I do not do what I want; but still, I do not consent to the desire. For he would not otherwise say: "Do not fulfill the desires of the flesh," if he himself were fulfilling them. But he set his struggle before your eyes, so you would not fear your own. For if the blessed Apostle had not said this, when you saw desire being stirred in your members, to which you did not consent; yet, when you saw it being stirred, perhaps you might despair about yourself and say: "If I belonged to God, I would not be so moved.” See the Apostle fighting, and do not make yourself despair. "I see another law," he says, "in my members waging war against the law of my mind." And because I do not want it to wage war; for it is my flesh, I myself am, it is a part of me: "I do not do what I want; but the evil I hate, this I do;" because I desire.

To do or to accomplish neither good nor evil, what it is.

What then do I do that is good? Because I do not consent to evil desires. I do good, and I do not complete the good; and my enemy desire does evil, and does not complete evil. How do I do good and not complete good? I do good when I do not consent to evil desires; but I do not complete good so as not to desire at all. Again then, my enemy how does it do evil and not complete evil? It does evil because it stirs up evil desire; it does not complete evil because it does not drag me to evil. And in this battle is the whole life of the saints. Now what shall I say of the impure, who do not even fight? Subjugated, they are dragged; nor are they dragged, because they willingly follow. This, I say, is the fight of the saints; and in this battle man is always in danger, until he dies. But in the end, that is, in the triumph of that victory, what is said? rather what does the Apostle say while contemplating triumph? Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your contention? The voice of the triumphant. Where, O death, is your sting? But the sting of death is sin; by whose puncture death was made. Sin is like a scorpion: it stung us, and we died. But when it is said, Where, O death, is your sting? by which sting you are made, not that you made; when therefore it is said, Where, O death, is your sting? surely it will not be; because sin will not be. But the sting of death is sin. Against sin the law was given. But the strength of sin is the law. How is the strength of sin the law? It entered that transgression might abound. How is this? Because man was a sinner before the law; the law being given and transgressed, he was also made a transgressor. Men were held guilty by sin; the law being given, they were made more guilty by transgression.

The grace of Christ sometimes overcomes desire. Now what should the faithful do?

Where is hope, unless what follows: Where sin abounded, grace superabounded? Therefore this soldier and, in a certain way, highly practiced in this battle, so practiced as to be also a leader, when he labored in this battle against the enemy, and said: I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members, a foul law, a wretched law, a wound, a wasting sore, a languor; he added: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? And to the one groaning was help given. How was help given? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord will deliver you from the law of this death, that is, from the body of this death, the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When will you have a body in which no concupiscence remains? When this mortal shall have put on immortality, and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and will be said to death: Where is thy contention, O death? And it will not be: Where is thy sting, O death? And it will be nowhere. But now what? Hear: So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. With the mind I serve the law of God, by not consenting; but with the flesh the law of sin, by concupiscing. Both with the mind the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin. And I delight in this, and I concupisce in that; but I am not conquered; it titillates, it lies in wait, it knocks, it tries to draw: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? I do not always want to win; but I sometimes want to come to peace. So now, brothers, hold this mode; with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin; but from necessity, because you concupisce, not because you consent. Sometimes this concupiscence so lies in wait for the saints, that it does to those sleeping what it cannot to those awake. Why did all of you acclaim, unless because all of you recognized it? It is embarrassing to linger here, but let it not be burdensome to pray to God about it. Turned to the Lord, etc.