Sermon 156
SERMO 156
ON THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (ROMANS 8:12-17):
"Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh,"
"That we may live according to the flesh," etc.
AGAINST THE PELAGIANS
He was in the Basilica of Gratian,
THE BIRTHDAY OF THE MARTYRS OF BOLITANA
In the Scriptures some things are hidden, some things are open.
The depth of the Word of God exercises study, it does not deny understanding. For if all things were closed, there would be nothing from which obscure things could be revealed. Again, if all things were covered, there would be nothing from which the soul could receive nourishment and gain the strength with which it could knock on closed doors. In the previous apostolic readings, which we have explained to your Love, as much as the Lord has deigned to help, we have endured much labor and anxiety. We sympathized with you, and were anxious both for us and for you. However, as I believe, the Lord has helped both us and you; and those things which seemed extremely difficult, He deigned to untangle through us, such that no question remained which would disturb a pious mind. For an impious mind even hates understanding itself; and a person sometimes, with an overly perverse mind, fears to understand, lest he be compelled to do what he has understood. About such people the Psalm says: They did not want to understand, in order to act well. But you, beloved, because it is good to think well of you, demand understanding, and God demands fruit. For understanding, as it is written, is good for all those who do it. Nevertheless, what remains and was read today, although it does not have as much difficulty as the earlier readings, which we have already, with the help of the Lord, passed through as we could, still requires your attention; as it is like a conclusion, because of what was said in the earlier readings, where there was labor, lest the Apostle be constituted guilty of all sins in a certain way by saying: For I do not do what I want. Then, lest the law appear either sufficient for a person having free will, even if no further divine help is extended, or certainly be believed to have been given in vain, the reason why the law was given is also stated, because it too was given for help, but not like grace.
The law was given. The necessity of medicinal grace.
For it is given, as we have already explained and you should hold, and we ought to commend to you more earnestly and diligently; it is given that man might find himself, not that disease might be cured, but that, through the increase of disease by transgression, a physician should be sought. And who is this physician, unless He who said: The physician is not needed for those who are well, but for those who are sick? Therefore, he who does not confess the Creator, arrogantly denies the Author. However, he who denies his own sickness judges the Savior as unnecessary. Therefore, let us both praise the Creator in our nature; and for the vice which we have inflicted upon ourselves, let us seek the Savior. And how do we seek the Savior? That He might give the law? It is not enough: For if a law had been given that could impart life, righteousness would certainly be by the law. If, therefore, no law has been given that can impart life, why was it given? It follows and shows why it was given; because even thus it was given as an aid, lest you consider yourself healthy. If therefore a law had been given that could impart life, righteousness would certainly be by the law. And as if we asked: Why then was it given? But Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. When you hear a promiser, expect a doer. Human nature was capable through free will of wounding itself: but already wounded and afflicted, it is not capable through free will of healing itself. For if you would wish to live intemperately to become sick, you do not require a physician for that; your own lapse suffices you. But when, acting intemperately, you begin to be sick, you cannot free yourself from sickness in the same way you could plunge yourself into sickness through intemperance. Yet the physician also prescribes temperance for the healthy. A good physician does this, he does not wish to be necessary for the sick. So the Lord God deigned to prescribe temperance to man created without vice; if he had kept it, he would not afterwards crave the physician for his illness. But because he did not keep it, he became weak, he fell; the infirm created the infirm, that is: the infirm begot the infirm. Yet God works what is good in all those born infirm, by forming the body, enlivening the body, providing sustenance, giving His rain and His sun upon the good and the bad; there is no cause for the good or the bad to accuse Him. Moreover, He did not wish to leave the human race condemned by His just judgment to everlasting destruction: but He also sent a physician, He sent a Savior; He sent one who would heal freely; it is little that He should heal freely, who would also reward those healed. Nothing can be added to this benevolence. Who is he that says: I will heal you, and give you a reward? He has done excellently. For He knew that He came as a rich man to the poor: and He heals the sick, and to the healed He gives, and He gives nothing less than Himself. The Savior is the aid of the sick, and the Savior Himself is the reward of the healed.
Read so as to use the law legitimately. The law is a tutor.
Therefore, brothers, what you were reminded of today, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For this we have been helped, for this we have received the Spirit of God, for this also in our labors we daily ask for assistance. The law which threatens for not fulfilling what it commands makes him be under it; these are under the law, not under grace. The law is good if anyone uses it lawfully. What is then: To use the law lawfully? To recognize one's disease through the law, and to seek divine assistance for healing. Because, as I said, and it must often be said: If the law could give life, righteousness would certainly be by the law, nor would a savior be sought, nor would Christ come, nor would he seek the lost sheep with his blood. For thus the same Apostle says in another place: For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died in vain. What then is the use of the law, and what assistance? Because Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Therefore, the law, he says, was our tutor in Christ Jesus. From this analogy, pay attention to the matter I am discussing. The tutor does not lead the child to himself, but to the teacher; but when the well-instructed child has grown, he will no longer be under the tutor.
The usefulness of the law.
Discussing these matters, the Apostle speaks elsewhere too: for he recommends this very persistently; but I wish it were not to the deaf. He persistently recommends this, commending faith to the Gentiles; because by faith they obtain help, so that they may fulfill the law, not through the law, but obtaining the strength to fulfill it through faith; for this reason the Apostle says and recommends these things persistently, on account of the Jews, who gloried in the law and thought that their free will sufficed for the law; and because of this, thinking that their free will sufficed for the law, ignorant of God's righteousness, that is, the righteousness given by God through faith, and wishing to establish their own, as if fulfilled by their own strength, not obtained by the cry of faith, they were not subject to the righteousness of God, as he says. For Christ is the end of the law, he says, for righteousness to everyone who believes. Therefore, when discussing this, he opposed himself: What then is the law? As if: What is the utility of the law? He answered: It was added because of transgressions. This is what he says elsewhere: The law entered so that the offense might abound. And what did he add there? But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Because in lighter illness the help of medicine was despised: the disease grew, and the physician was sought. What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions; hence the neck of the proud, attributing much to themselves, and arrogating much to their own will, as if they thought free will could suffice for righteousness: when it was in perfect liberty, that is, in paradise, it showed its strength, it showed how much it could do, but for falling, not for rising. Therefore, the law was added because of transgressions, until the seed to whom the promise was made should come, arranged through angels in the hand of a mediator.
The necessity of a mediator. What praiseworthy faith might be.
However, a mediator is not of one; but God is one. What does it mean: A mediator is not of one? Because indeed a mediator is between two. If God is one, and a mediator is not of one, we seek a mediator between what and God? Because a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Between what and what he is a mediator, we find the Apostle himself saying: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. If you were not lying down, you would not need a mediator: but because you are lying down, and cannot rise, in some way God stretched out His arm to you as a mediator. And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Therefore, let no one say: Because we are not under the law, but under grace; therefore let us sin, therefore let us do what we will. He who says this loves sickness, not health. Grace is a medicine. He who wishes to always be sick is ungrateful for the medicine. Therefore, brothers, having received help, with divine assistance extended to us from above, by the arm of the Lord, and the very arm of the Lord extending help to us by the Holy Spirit, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Because faith cannot work well, except through love. For indeed it is the faith of the faithful, lest it be the faith of demons; because even demons believe and tremble. Therefore, that praiseworthy faith is the true faith of grace, which works through love. But in order that we may have love, and from it we may be able to have good works, can we give it to ourselves, seeing that it is written: The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us? Love is so much a gift of God, that it is called God, with the Apostle John saying: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
To live according to the flesh is evil. Let the soul live according to God, the flesh according to the soul.
Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Not because the flesh is evil: for it is also a creature of God, and created by Him who also created the soul; neither that, nor that part of God, but both that and that creature of God. Therefore, the flesh is not evil: but to live according to the flesh is evil. God is supremely good, because He supremely is who said: I am who am. Therefore, God is supremely good: the soul is a great good, but not the highest good. But when you hear, God is supremely good, do not think it said only of God the Father, but of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For this Trinity is one, and one God, and supremely good. Thus clearly there is one God, so that when you are asked about the very Trinity, you answer thus: lest perhaps when you hear, There is one God, you think it is the Father Himself, the Son Himself, the Holy Spirit Himself. It is not so: but He who is the Father in that Trinity, is not the Son; He who is the Son in that Trinity, is not the Father; He who is the Holy Spirit in that Trinity, is neither the Son nor the Father; but the Spirit of the Father, and the same Spirit of the Son. For He is the one Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, consubstantial, equal. This whole Trinity, one God supremely good. The soul, however, as I said, created by the highest good, yet not the highest good, but a great good. Likewise, the flesh is neither the highest good, nor a great good; but still a small good. Therefore, the soul is a great good, but not the highest good; living between the highest good and the small good, that is, between God and the flesh, inferior to God, superior to the flesh; why does it not live according to the highest good, but lives according to the small good? This is said more plainly: Why does it not live according to God, but lives according to the flesh? For it is a debtor not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. The flesh ought to live according to it, not it according to the flesh. Let it live according to it, which lives from it. Certainly, let each live according to that from which it lives. From what does your flesh live? From your soul. From what does your soul live? From your God. Let each of these live according to its life. For the flesh is not its own life; but the soul is the life of the flesh. The soul is not its own life: but God is the life of the soul. Therefore, the soul ought to live according to God; for it is not a debtor to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: therefore, it ought to live according to God; if it lives according to itself, it fails; does it live according to the flesh and advance? Then the flesh correctly lives according to the soul, if the soul lives according to God. For if the soul, I do not say according to the flesh, but according to itself, as I said, wants to live; I will tell you what it is to live according to itself: it is good for you to know this, and very healthy.
Epicureans living according to the flesh, and Stoics according to the soul.
There were philosophers of this age; some believed that there was no happiness unless one lived according to the flesh and placed the good of man in bodily pleasure. These philosophers were called Epicureans, named after a certain Epicurus, their founder and teacher, and others like him. However, there were others, proud as if distancing themselves from the flesh, who placed all their hope of happiness in their soul and placed the highest good in their virtue. The affection of piety recognized the voice of the Psalm in you: you know, you recognize, you have learned how they were mocked in the holy Psalm: "Those who trust in their own strength." Such were the philosophers called Stoics. Those lived according to the flesh, these lived according to the soul, and neither the former nor the latter lived according to God. Therefore, when the Apostle Paul came to the city of the Athenians, where these schools of philosophers flourished with zeal and disputation, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles; where I rejoice that you anticipate our discourse by recognition and reflection, as it is written there: "They conversed with him, certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers"; they conversed with him, those living according to the flesh, they conversed with him, those living according to the soul, he conversed with them, living according to God. The Epicurean said: "To enjoy the flesh is good for me." The Stoic said: "To enjoy my mind is good for me." The Apostle said: "But for me, to adhere to God is good." The Epicurean said: "Blessed is he whose joy comes from the pleasure of his flesh." The Stoic said: "Rather, blessed is he whose joy comes from the virtue of his soul." The Apostle said: "Blessed is he whose hope is in the name of the Lord." The Epicurean errs: for it is false that a man is blessed whose joy comes from the pleasure of his flesh. The Stoic is also deceived: for it is false, and entirely mendacious, that a man is blessed whose joy comes from the virtue of his soul. Blessed, therefore, is he whose hope is in the name of the Lord. And because they are vain and lie: "And he did not look," he said, "on vanities and false insanities."
The soul according to itself living is carnal.
Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, like the Epicureans. But even if the soul wishes to live according to itself, it will be fleshly; it savors of the flesh, it does not rise from the flesh. For it is not possible to rise from there if one does not grasp the outstretched arm of the one lying down. For if you live according to the flesh. Where it is said: What can man do to me? there it is said: What can flesh do to me? For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Not this death, when one exits the body; for you will die this death even if you live according to the spirit: but that death, about which the Lord says terrifyingly in the Gospel: Fear him who has the power to destroy both soul and body in the Gehenna of fire. Therefore, if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
Our work in this life is the mortification of the flesh.
But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. This is our work in this life, to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit; to afflict, lessen, restrain, and kill daily. For how many things no longer delight those making progress, which previously delighted them? Therefore, when it delighted and was not agreed to, it was being put to death: because now it does not delight, it has been put to death. Trample on the dead, move on to the living: trample on the one lying, struggle with the one resisting. For one delight has died, but another lives: and you put that one to death by not consenting to it; when it begins to no longer delight at all, you have put it to death. This is our action, this is our battle. In this struggle when we fight, we have God as our spectator; in this struggle when we labor, we ask for God's help. For if He does not help us, I do not say we can win, but we cannot even fight.
Presumption about oneself must be avoided in the mortification of the flesh.
When the Apostle therefore said: "But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live," that is, those desires of the flesh, to not consent to which is great praise, to not have which is perfection: if you by the Spirit put to death these morbid deeds of the flesh, and those holding contention of death, you will live. Here it is now to be feared, lest anyone should again presume to put to death the deeds of the flesh by his own spirit. For not only is God a spirit: but also your soul is a spirit, and your mind is a spirit. And when you say: "With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin;" because the spirit desires against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. Therefore, lest you presume to put to death the deeds of the flesh by your own spirit, and perish through pride, and resistance be made to you being proud, not grace granted to you being humble; for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Lest perchance that pride should arise in you, see what follows. For when he had said: If by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live; lest human spirit should be uplifted here, and boast itself adequate and firm for this work, he added and said: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Why then would you now wish to exalt yourself, when you heard: If by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you will live? For you would have said: My will can do this, my free will can do this. What will? What free will? Unless He guides, you fall; unless He raises, you lie prostrate. How then by your own spirit, when you hear the Apostle saying: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God? Do you wish to lead yourself, and to be led by yourself to mortify the deeds of the flesh? What does it profit you that you will not be an Epicurean, and will be a Stoic? Whether you be an Epicurean, or be a Stoic, among the sons of God you will not be. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Not those who live according to their own flesh, not those who live according to their own spirit; not those who are led by the pleasure of the flesh, not those led by their own spirit; but: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
To good, we are driven and we act.
Someone says to me: Therefore we are acted upon, we do not act. I reply: On the contrary, you both act and are acted upon; and you act well when you are acted upon by the good. For the Spirit of God that acts upon you is your helper when you act. The very name of helper proclaims to you, because you yourself also do something. Recognize what you ask for; recognize what you confess, when you say: Be my helper, do not forsake me. You indeed invoke God as helper. No one is helped, if by Him nothing is done. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God: not by the letter, but by the Spirit; not by the law commanding, threatening, promising, but by the Spirit exhorting, enlightening, helping. The same Apostle says, We know that all things work together for good to those who love God. If you were not a worker, He would not be a co-worker.
Nothing good without the help of God. What is freedom without grace?
But here be diligently vigilant, lest perhaps your spirit says: If the cooperation and help of God withdraws, my spirit can do this; even if with toil, even if with some difficulty, it can still accomplish it. Just as if someone says: We indeed arrived with oars, but with some labor; oh, if we had wind, we would arrive more easily. The help of God is not so, the help of Christ is not so, the help of the Holy Spirit is not so. Without a doubt, if it is lacking, you will not be able to do any good. Indeed, you act with free will not being helped by Him, but badly. To this your will is adequate, which is called free, and by acting badly becomes the servile condemned. When I say to you: Without the help of God you do nothing, I mean nothing good. For to do evil you have free will without the help of God: although it is not truly free. For by whom anyone is overcome, to him he is a slave; and: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin; and: If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free.
Grace is necessary not only so that you may do it more easily, but that you may do it at all.
Absolutely believe this, thus you act with good will. Because you live, surely you act. For he is not a helper if you do nothing: he is not a co-operator if you do not work. Thus, nevertheless, know that you do good, so that the Spirit is the guiding helper; if he is absent, you can do no good at all. Not like some have begun to say, who have sometimes been forced to confess grace; and we bless God, because they have said this at some times; for by approaching they will be able to advance, and reach that which is truly correct. Now therefore they say that the grace of God helps, for doing things more easily. For these are their words: "To this end," they say, "God gave his grace to men, so that what they are commanded to do by free will, they can more easily fulfill through grace." By sail more easily, by oar more difficultly: yet even by oar it is traveled. On a mount more easily, on foot more difficultly: but even on foot it is reached. It is not thus. For the true Master who does not flatter anyone, does not deceive anyone, the truthful teacher, and also the Savior, to whom the most troublesome pedagogue has led us; when speaking of good works, that is, of the fruits of the branches and shoots, does not say: Without me indeed you can do something, but more easily through me; does not say: Your fruit you can produce without me, but richer through me. He did not say this. Read what he said: The Gospel is holy, all proud necks are bowed. Augustine does not say this, the Lord says this. What does the Lord say? Without me you can do nothing. Now when you hear this: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, do not let yourselves be downcast. For God does not build his temple from you as from stones which have no movement of their own: they are lifted and placed by the builder. Living stones are not like this: And you, as living stones, are being built into a temple of God. You are led, but also run; you are led, but also follow; because when you have followed, it will be true that without him you can do nothing. For it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God's mercy.
The old law and the new law. The spirit of servitude and of freedom.
Perhaps you were about to say: And the law is sufficient for us. The law gave fear: and see what the Apostle added here, when he said: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; because when they are led by the Spirit of God, they are led by love: For the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us; then he added: For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. What is: again? As with a most troublesome schoolmaster terrifying. What is: again? Just as on Mount Sinai you received the spirit of bondage. Someone might say: One is the spirit of bondage, another the spirit of liberty. If it were another, the Apostle would not say: again. It is therefore the same spirit, but on tablets of stone in fear, on tablets of the heart in love. Now, three days ago, you who were present heard how the people, far off, were terrified by voices, fire, smoke on the mountain; but how the Holy Spirit, the same finger of God, coming on the fiftieth day after the shadow of Passover, came, and sat upon each of them with tongues of fire. Therefore now not in fear, but in love; that we may not be slaves, but sons. For he who still does good because he fears punishment does not love God, he is not yet among the sons; nonetheless, one should at least fear punishment. Fear is a servant, love is free; and so to speak, fear is the servant of love. Let not the devil possess your heart, let the servant precede in your heart, and keep the place for the coming mistress. Act, act at least out of fear of punishment, if you cannot yet out of love for righteousness. The mistress will come, and the servant will depart; because: Perfect love casts out fear. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. It is the New Testament, not the Old. The old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new; all of them from God.
Father and Father, because two peoples in Christ.
Finally, what follows? What then have we received, as if you would say: But you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. The Lord is feared, the father is loved. You have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. This cry is of the heart, not of the throat, not of the lips; it sounds within, it sounds to the ears of God. With mouth closed, and lips unmoved, Susanna cried out with this voice. But you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father. Let the heart cry out: Our Father who art in heaven. Then why not only Father? What does: Abba, Father, mean? For if you ask what abba is, it is answered to you: Father. For abba means father in Hebrew. Why did the Apostle wish to place both? Because he saw the cornerstone, which the builders rejected, and has become the head of the corner, not without reason called angular, except because it receives into its embrace both walls coming from different directions. On this side circumcision, on the other the foreskin, as far from each other and themselves as they are from the corner; however, as close to the corner as they are to each other; in the corner, however, they are joined together. For he is our peace, who made both one. Thus on this side circumcision, on the other the foreskin, the concord of the walls, the glory of the corner. You have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry out: Abba, Father.
The Spirit is rather an earnest than a pledge.
What kind of thing is it, if the pledge is such? It should not be called a pledge, but an earnest. For a pledge is taken away when the thing itself is returned. However, the earnest is given from the thing itself which is promised to be given; so that when the thing is returned, what was given is fulfilled, not changed. Therefore, let each one look at his heart, whether he says from the innermost marrow of his heart and with sincere love: Father. It is not now asked how great this love is, whether it is great or small or moderate; I ask whether it even exists. If it is born, it grows by hiding, it will be perfected by growing, and when perfected, it will remain. For that which is perfect does not incline toward old age, nor will it come from old age to death; it will be perfected so that it remains eternal. For see what follows. We cry out: Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. It is not our spirit that bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God; but the Spirit of God, the earnest, bears witness for that thing which has been promised to us. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
The inheritance of the children of God.
If however children, also heirs. For we are not children in vain. This is the reward: And heirs. This is what I was saying a little earlier, because our physician both grants us health and further deigns to bestow a reward. What is that reward? An inheritance. But not like the inheritance of a human father. For he leaves it to his children, not possessing it along with his children; and yet he makes himself great, and desires to be thanked, because he wished to give what he could not take away. For would he take it with him when dying? I think because if he could, he would have left nothing here for his children. Heirs of God in such a way that God Himself is our inheritance, to whom the Psalm says: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. Indeed heirs of God; if that is too little for you, listen, so that you may rejoice even more: Indeed heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Turned to the Lord, etc.