Sermon 159B

Sermon 159/B

Sermon of the blessed Augustine on the words of the apostle:
O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God,
And from Psalm 59: God, you have rejected us
and you have destroyed us, you were angry and have had mercy on us,
It is good for me that You have humbled me,
that I may learn your justifications

The depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God is unsearchable.

Divine readings, which nourish us spiritually, remind us that we must preach to you who are expectant and attentive, and as from the Lord's storehouse, of which we are stewards, to set something before those who are hungry. The Apostolic reading was pronounced to us in these words, which your holiness remembers with us: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has first given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory forever, amen. But that the Apostle might exclaim and, as if terrified by a certain depth of God's judgments, say: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, he had previously said: God has concluded all in sin, that he might have mercy upon all. Therefore, after this statement where he says: God has concluded all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all, because truly there is a mysterious depth—that men were first manifestly guilty in their own conscience so that they could be helped upon confessing—he exclaimed: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Where is the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God? In that God concluded all in sin, that he might have mercy upon all. In what sin? Of unbelief. For he used this word: God has concluded, he says, all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. Therefore, may the Lord our God himself, whose riches the Apostle praises, be present and deign to impart to us some part of these secret and profound riches of his, so that we may somehow express what we feel is inexpressible, not to explain it, but to commend the inexplicable. For it seems that by a certain human weakness, the Apostle, as it were, failed in explaining what he rejoiced in contemplating. He saw something which he could not express in words, he perceived in his heart that for which words were inadequate, and he found no way to make us attentive to what he saw, except to exclaim and elevate our hearts by saying: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, so that raised, our hearts might be directed to Him whose riches he saw, and not to the mouth of the weak steward who could not explain those riches. Therefore, let us do this to the best of our ability, and we have directed your hearts to Him to whom we all belong and under whom alone we are all fellow students in this school, where the riches of God are, where the depth of riches is, where his unsearchable judgments and his ways past finding out are, where he concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

"Transgression preceded, humiliation followed."

He who enclosed all in unbelief seems to be angry, but he who has mercy on all is calm. Therefore, the chapter of the Apostle agrees with the psalm: God, you have rejected us and destroyed us, you were angry and have had mercy on us. Hear the angry and merciful one. God enclosed all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all. What did the Lord our God want to do? First to be angry, to reject, to humble, and afterwards to help, to call back the estranged, to hear the converted, to assist the one heard, to change the one assisted, to crown the one changed. Connect other testimonies of the Scriptures. The voice of a certain man laboring on this earth, that is, Adam himself, the human race - which the second man from heaven did not leave, so that they first became earthly, afterwards celestial. For because they were humbled, hence earthly; because they were cast down, hence earthly; because they were repelled, hence earthly; but because he who repelled and cast down and humbled had mercy on us, hence celestial. Let us therefore hear the voice of this man elsewhere saying: Before I was humbled, I sinned. Groaning in his humility, he acknowledged his sin; he attributed iniquity to himself, justice to God. For what does he say? Before I was humbled - which is the penalty that God inflicted -, he says, I sinned. So that God, who humbled me, may not seem unjust, my sin preceded, my humiliation followed. Therefore, my Lord God is a just judge. For I would not come to this humiliation unless I first sinned. And because this humiliation indeed seems to resonate with the anger of God's judge, but pertains to mercy, hear his voice elsewhere: It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteousness. Let your charity understand what he says: Before I was humbled, I sinned. He seems to groan in the punishment, to sigh in the chains, to seek help from him in this mortality and earthly infirmity by confessing, whom he had offended by sinning. For these words sound thus: Before I was humbled, I sinned, that is: I do not attribute my humiliation to you, my God: I did what was evil, you did what was just.

God moved by mercy humbles us.

These words match those words which we have sung. For he who says: "God, you have rejected us and destroyed us," he also says: "Before I was humbled, I sinned." For you have heard that God rejected; you have heard that God cast down, that is, from a height he threw to the ground. You have heard. Seek the cause, why God did this: "Before I was humbled," he says, "I sinned." You have heard your preceding sin and the consequent justice of God; hear also because even the justice of God itself, which humbled you, not only indicates the severity of a just judge but also the mercy of the compassionate one. For he says, as I mentioned a little before: "It is good for me that you have humbled me, so that I may learn your justifications." Therefore, what, my brothers? Was God angry when he humbled, or did he show compassion? If humiliation benefited us nothing, let it be attributed to the excessive severity of God; although, if so, we could not complain about his injustice. For the sinner must receive his deserved merit; let the proud and unjust not flatter himself; first let him find out what he deserves, so that he may thus recognize what God has given. Does the heart of any sinful man dare to renounce anything but punishment, to renounce anything but the most just penalty? Or if punishment has followed man's iniquity, can it be said to a just judge: "You did wrong to condemn a sinner"? Therefore, as sinners, let us renounce this, let us confess in our punishments both our sins and the justice of our God: for in this way we will deserve to find the mercy of God in our very punishment. This, dearest brothers, no one finds unless he has first humbled himself. And because I am about to say as I can, I do not think any of you will understand what I am about to say unless he first suppresses the smoke of pride, by which the eyes of the mind are darkened, so that the mercy of God in the punishment itself can be understood.

Moved by love, the father punishes the degenerate son.

But first consider this in daily life itself - for from there you can have a way to understand, because He did not abandon human mortality - with certain analogies in their very actions, to show us that punishment can be inflicted mercifully. What shall I say? You give discipline to your servant, and in giving discipline, surely in that very act of punishing, you are showing mercy, but I do not mean to the servant: perhaps you are so angry with the servant that you hate him. Indeed, you should not do this if you are a Christian; you should not do this if you consider yourself a human being; you should not do this if you consider that "servant" and "master" are indeed different names, but not "human" and "human." You should not persecute a sinning servant with hatred. But since this is often the way humans act, let us reject that analogy and use the son. No one can help but love their children: for a man is not to be praised who loves his son. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get, says the Lord, do not even tax collectors do the same? How much more, then, should those love their children, whom they beget to succeed them. No one can, by the very right of nature, hate the one they have begotten. Nor is a man to be praised for what is found in beasts. No one praises a man for loving his own children. You find this not only in the mildest of animals: the ferocity of lions is softened towards their offspring, tigers love their cubs, serpents nurture their eggs and hatchlings. Therefore, if those things which seem to be savage and harsh in nature do not retain harshness and savagery towards what they beget, what great thing does a man do by loving his son? But I said these things, brothers, so that you may see that punishment of a merciful person can exist from the example of children, from that matter which no one can hate. Therefore, someone sees his son becoming prideful, exalting himself against his father, usurping more than he ought, wanting to waste himself in frivolous pleasures, wanting to squander what he does not yet possess; and while he does this, he is happy, laughing, rejoicing, exulting; but the father restrains him through reprimand, punishment, and lashes, removes the laughter, brings in weeping, and it seems that he has taken away something good and brought in something bad - see what he has taken away: joy, see what he has brought in: groaning - and yet, if he had let that unpunished joy continue, he would be cruel; because he forced him to weep, he is found to be merciful. Therefore, if a father who forces weeping is found to be merciful, why do we not understand that our Creator could have done what we sang: God, you have rejected us and humbled us? But why this? Is it for destruction, is it for perdition? Listen to what follows: You were angry and you had mercy on us. Why is He justly angry with you? Connect this, since we have said: Before I was humbled, I sinned. What advantage do you gain from being rejected and humbled? It is good for me that you humbled me, so that I might learn your statutes.

Man subject to God, master of visible creatures.

Let us now turn our mind to that of the apostle: God has concluded all in unbelief so that He may have mercy on all. The first sin of man was pride: thus we read in Genesis, thus we find in other Scripture. What do we read in Genesis? That man, created and formed, was placed in paradise under a certain law, under a certain command; a command that showed him this: that he was made great, so that he might have someone greater over him. Therefore, God commanded that humility be always retained by the man subject to Him, that is, that the humility of the man constituted under God be preserved. Man was indeed made in the image of God, and as it is written elsewhere, He gave him the power of containing all things: everything was under him, but above him was the One who made all things. Thus, man ought to have regarded those things that were under him, so that he might more regard the One who was above him; for clinging to the superior, he would more securely possess the inferior; but departing from the superior, he would be subjected to the inferior. Just as if we suppose three men: one man having a servant and a master, as often happens that peculiar servants have servants. Consider this: he has a servant, he has a master; subject to one, superior to another; he is superior to the servant, inferior to his master. We have placed a third as the servant of a servant, but the first as the master of a master, and the middle one both servant and master: master of his servant and servant of his master. That third is only a servant, the first is only a master, the middle one is both a servant and a master. And he securely possesses his servant if he does not offend his master. And, indeed, we have mentioned three men: all are of the same kind, all subsist from the same substance and nature. Not so are those three: God, man, and the creature inferior to man. For the Creator and the created, the maker and the made, the craftsman and the work, the creator and the creature are of a different kind and not of the same substance. However, those things which were created are generally called created things, but they differ by natures, orders, merits, and places. For first, there are spiritual things, and afterward, carnal things, those that God created, that God made. Spiritual things have the first place, while corporal things have the last place. The human mind is something spiritual, where the likeness and image of God is imprinted; whereas all things we discern as subject to the senses of the body: they are known to all, they are seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched; hard and soft, hot and cold, rough and smooth, all these are called corporal things, and are inferior. Above all these things, man is constituted, but according to the mind, according to the intellect, according to that which in him is made in the image and likeness of God. For God is not circumscribed and enclosed by bodily form, such that He has a back on one side and eyes on another side, but He is a certain light—not the kind we see with our eyes, nor if you extend this kind we see with our eyes through the imagination of your thoughts and make fields of light, mountains of light, and trees of light, by flying through the vanities of your thoughts. Do you wish to understand spiritual light? Seek from where you understand.

Concerning knowledge which arises through the senses and concerning knowledge through intelligible light.

Understand this very light, I say, with which you understand. What did I say? You see white and black with bodily eyes, you are helped externally by light either of the sun or moon or lamp or any other little source of light. If that external light did not help your eyes, your eyes would be open in vain and would be called lights without cause. But what is open and healthy in you, that is the eye, and what is brought near for assistance externally, that is light, and what exists for you to see, that is colors and shapes, you know and distinguish. We have said this about the eyes. You hear voices, you know from where you hear. The eyes do not hear, nor do the ears see. Something is lacking to the eyes for sensing voices, and something is lacking to the ears for sensing colors. But nothing of these is lacking to you, because you see through the eyes, you hear through the ears. Therefore you recognize both what smells, and which member you bring near to sense the odor, you know. For you do not bring the ear near to sense the sweetness of the odor, but you bring what God created for you for smelling. Nor, when you want to taste some flavor, do you place it on the ears or on the eye: you know there is no sense there that discerns flavors. And if you wish to sense whether something is hard or soft, whether it is cold or hot? You know that you can sense touch with your whole body. You know these things. Well. Attend to that which is interior: who is this inside to whom all these senses report what humans sense? For these things are like instruments, these are as if subjected into servitude. There is some inner sense, an unknown commander to whom these messengers report whatever they find outside. But that interior one, who distinguishes all these things, is certainly superior to all these things. Therefore the eye has what to see, the ear what to hear, the nostrils what to smell, the mouth what to taste, the hands what to touch, and has the mind nothing that it can regard by itself alone? The mind indeed senses white and black, but with the eyes reporting; it itself senses in voices the melodious and the harsh, but with the ears reporting; it senses in odors the sweet-smelling and the foul-smelling, but with the nose reporting; it senses the sweet and the bitter, but with the mouth reporting; it senses the hard and the soft, but when the handling hand has reported. Therefore it can sense so many and various things with the body reporting: is it not able to sense anything by itself, with no body part reporting to it? Therefore seek what it senses by itself, and you will find where the image of God is. It sensed white and black through the eyes, the ears reported the melodious and the absurd. And lest I run again through each of these things that lie beside the body, the body's members reported. The just and the unjust, do the eyes report these? The mind discerns the just and the unjust and says: "This is just, this is unjust." Seek who reported it? If justice is color, the eyes reported it; if justice is sound, the ears reported it; if it is a scent, the nose reported it; if it is a taste, the mouth reported it; if it is hardness or softness, the hands reported it. If it is none of these, who reported it, except the inner light? Therefore this nature, this substance which you see as excellent, about which, if I wished to speak more abundantly, time would not suffice, is something interior, something divine made in us in the image and likeness of God, above all bodily things, and was so made that every bodily creature would be subjected to serve it, yet the mind itself is not God. For if it were God, would it have sinned? For God is unchangeable. Our mind, however, because it was created, because it was made, is not that which God is. It is changeable. We see even now the changes themselves. It is wise, it is foolish; it remembers, it forgets; it wills, it does not will; it rejoices, it is sad. These changes do not befall God, who is above the mind, and is the creator of the mind.

We offend God: through the body we are tortured.

But yet all this that I said above is the body; it is below God, below the lord and above the servant. These are three things, of which I was speaking a little before. If, therefore, three men, though all are men, are ordered by a certain condition of this life, so that one of them is only a lord, another is only a servant, and the other is both the servant of the lord and the lord of a servant; how do you think, and how much easier and more distinctly do you suppose the whole creation to be ordained? The nature and substance of the mind are placed under God, the nature of the whole body is placed under the mind. But as I was saying: then he safely possesses his servant, if he does not offend his lord, so that mind, if it does not by a certain pride, by which it wished to be of its own power, offend its lord, the whole nature of the body would always be subjected to it like a servant. But because by pride it offended the Lord, the creature of the body, which was given for service, was made for the torment of punishment, for the torment of vengeance. For by the difficulty of the body now the mind is tortured, whereas before it dominated the whole nature of the body. Just as if that man – for from here you better accept a clearer comparison, because even this itself, which we understand with difficulty, pertains to the punishment by which we were humbled: we give some evidence from custom. Place those three servants again before your eyes, because you understand this with difficulty, since it is more distinct; for these things are more distinct, the more they are different: for God is far different from the mind, and the mind far different from the body. But truly in those three, there is man, and man, and man. The nature is not different, but the condition makes the order; yet because those are in our habit, we more easily understand them, than those which are more distinct. Therefore now understand this, which we say. Make him in the middle – because he is a servant in such a way that he is also a lord; he is a lord so that he is also a servant: a servant of the superior, a lord of the inferior – therefore make him to have offended his lord. How did he offend? By a certain pride. For he considered that he also had a servant, and dared to raise himself against his lord, by that very fact by which he seemed to have the servant in his power. He raised himself against his lord, his lord commanded that he be beaten by his servant. For the lord of the lord was the lord of both. The servant did not have his servant in his power as much as the lord of both had them. When could he despise that lord, not a servant of anyone, so as not to beat his own lord, at the command of the greater lord of both? Therefore, our God commanded, because we offended Him, that we be tortured by our body; and our body became mortal, and we began to suffer penalties from there, from where we dared to be proud against the Lord. Therefore, now we are beaten by our servant. We are tortured in the pains of our flesh; the Lord has humbled us, so that we are punished by the servant.

Let us serve the Lord, whom we desire to be served by the body.

Why then was he humbled, that we might be chastised by a servant? Because we first transgressed: Before I was humbled, I transgressed. Therefore, being placed under the lash of your servant, cry out to the Lord your God, and say to Him: It is good for me that You have humbled me so that I may learn your statutes. What are these statutes of yours? Because, just as I have the body as a servant, you also have me as a servant. And just as I seek for the body to obey me, so I ought to obey you. Therefore I have learned your statutes from this, as if my Lord speaks to me from above and says: "O wicked servant, at least now in this state of humiliation, acknowledge whom you have offended and to whom you have been subjected. Certainly, you are tormented by your servant: you have a body and you want it to obey you in all things; you want it to follow when you lift your hand, to follow when you lift your foot. Even though I wish for you to be beaten by your servant, your servant still serves you." For when we want to walk and move our body, we command the feet, and they obey; we command the eye to see when we wish to look at something: it does not contradict us, it turns, it reports back to us. We bring the ear to sounds, it immediately reports what is sounding; we lift the hand to handle something, it does not resist. In that the body serves us, it indicates that we are its masters; in that it resists us, it indicates that we have a Master. But let us see in what matters your body does not obey you. For example, you can walk ten thousand paces, but you want twenty: it does not obey. You can walk fifty thousand, but you want sixty: it does not obey. You want to stay awake for two nights: it obeys in part, in another part it does not obey. You want to move your hand to lift something: you lift some things; in other things you try: it does not obey. Add to this so many troubling difficulties of its infirmity and corruption which cannot be counted, and observe how the body, being corrupted, burdens the soul. Thus, in what it serves you, it shows that you are its master; in what it resists you, it reminds you to serve your Master. Therefore, say to your Lord: It is good for me that You have humbled me so that I may learn your statutes. How do you learn His statutes? So that now you are not ashamed to serve your Lord, just as you want your body to serve you. And you begin now to serve your Lord, but still, just as you wish, your body does not yet fully serve you. For you believe, you who were unbelieving, you follow the precepts of your Lord, you walk the path, but justice is not yet perfected in you: for this reason, obedience in your servant is not yet perfected; there still remains some bitterness, lest this world should become sweet to you and that you do not desire your Lord who made the world.

Christ the Lord is our only hope.

Cry out from the ends of the earth to Him, O Church spread throughout the world, say in the psalm: From the ends of the earth I have cried to You, when my heart was overwhelmed. These things are written in the psalm: You have lifted me up on the rock, You have led me, because You have become my hope. For God has exalted us on the rock. On what rock? The rock was Christ, says the Apostle. And how did He become our hope there? Because our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we were made, He Himself is the Word of God, through whom all things were made. He took flesh from our mortal mass, and He took the death which pertained to the punishment of sin, He did not take sin, but in the mercy of freeing us from sin, He gave His own flesh up to death. For He was not given up unwillingly; He would not have been crucified unless He had given Himself up. Thus, when Judas betrayed Him, he betrayed one who was willing. Yet Judas is not credited with the merit of Christ's will, but with the merit of his own avarice. For when he betrayed the Lord, he did not consider our salvation, but his own greed and treachery. For Judas betrayed Him, Christ betrayed Himself, and the Father of Christ betrayed Him. They all seemed to do one thing. They did one thing, but not with one intention. The Father handed over the Son by mercy, the Son handed over Himself by the same mercy, Judas handed over his Master by treachery. It seems there is no difference between handing over and handing over, but there is a great difference between mercy and treachery. How did the Father hand Him over? Listen to the Apostle: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How did the Son hand Himself over? The same Apostle says of the Lord Himself: Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Therefore, He gave this flesh to be killed, so you might not fear anything for your flesh. He showed in His resurrection after three days, what you should hope for at the end of the world. Therefore, He leads you forth, because He has become your hope. You now walk toward the hope of resurrection, but if our head had not first risen, the other members would not find what to hope for.

Christ suffered willingly, not by necessity.

What then, my brothers? Although, even before the Lord suffered, his body served him as Lord, for he was not so bound to the body as if for punishment, as if for retribution, to be struck by a servant as we are; but whatever he wanted to suffer in his body, he suffered willingly and by his power, not by necessity and poverty, as he himself said: "I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Therefore, great power was in him; nevertheless, what he wanted to suffer in the flesh there he demonstrated, that you suffer deservedly. He suffered undeservedly, you suffer deservedly. But so that you may endure what you suffer deservedly, he who suffered undeservedly consoles you. Therefore, endure what you suffer, until your mortality passes away. Therefore, your kingdom will come with certain measures of time; he gives what he promised, because he has already shown in himself that he has risen. For he rose on the third day; he wanted to rise first and show us what we should hope for at the end. We thought the flesh would perish; therefore he did not want to take flesh from another place than where we also have flesh. For if he took it from somewhere else, we would say: "The flesh that was taken from another place could rise." Was it not taken from the same place where we took ours? Indeed, he did not admit a man's union to his mother, because he was the only Son of God. Since he had a Father above, he sought on earth only a mother. He showed us that what he created is not evil: he created male and female, he created both himself. But because man was seduced by the woman, women could despair of themselves, unless that sex was honored through the Virgin Mary. He chose to be born of a woman; it was fitting to take on a man, to be born a man. But not only did God create man, he also created woman himself. Women could despair of themselves, as I said, and say they do not pertain to the mercy of God, because man was deceived by a woman; he deigned to be born of a woman, taking on a man, and honored the sex; he showed himself the creator of both sexes, and afterward the liberator. For since through a woman death was prepared for man by the serpent, life was announced to men by women. For the risen Lord was first seen by women and announced to the male apostles. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ showed us in his flesh what we should hope for in the end. Therefore, he humbled us, that we might learn his justifications.

The cause of the sufferings which man endures is pride.

Now let us return humbled, who were cast down in pride. For the entire cause of our mortality, the entire cause of our weakness, the entire cause of all our torments, all our difficulties, all our hardships in this age, which the human race suffers, is nothing but pride. You have Scripture saying: "The beginning of every sin is pride." And what does it also say? "The beginning of pride of man is to apostatize from God." If pride seems to you to be a small evil, at least tremble at apostatizing from God. Further, if you tremble at apostatizing from God, remove the cause of apostasy. For pride made man apostatize from God. Because, therefore, it is itself the head of all our diseases - for we are sick in this life - just as a skilled doctor, when he sees a man languishing from various diseases, does not look at the proximate causes and ignore the origin of all causes - for if he cures the proximate causes while the source of diseases remains, the offshoots of calamity return, and for a time he seems to heal, but does not completely cure; however, that doctor is found to be most skilled who gathers well all the causes of all diseases, and having found the primary cause, from which all those diverse things seem to have sprouted like branches, cuts off the root, and the entire forest of pains is cut down - so the Lord Jesus Christ, why he is called Savior, and he who said: "The physician is not needed for the healthy, but for those who are ill," came to those who are sick, for the sick could not come to him; he sought those not seeking him, turned to the infirm, suffered many things, bore being killed by the blind, so that by his death he might heal their eyes - did all these things, and because he saw that the cause of all our diseases was pride, he healed us by his humility.

True is the flesh in which Christ was born and died.

Therefore, do not mock the humility of Christ. For many pagans mock Christ because He came humbly - and would that it were only pagans! - and many heretics who call themselves Christians do too. It offends them that Christ was born of a woman; it offends them that He was fixed on the cross and was wounded, and those wounds He received were real, and those nails that were driven in were real; it offends them and they say: "He feigned all those things, He pretended and did not endure them." So, has the truth freed you by means of a lie? Did you labor in deceit and were cured by deceit? How can that be? But whoever says these things shows what kind of masters they are themselves. For if the Lord has risen and presented His hands with their wounds to be touched by His doubting disciple, saying: "I will not believe unless I put my fingers into His side," He showed Himself not just to be seen by the eyes but to be touched by the hands; and when the disciple touched the wounds, he found the truth embodied and exclaimed: "My Lord and my God." So if Christ deceived, will you speak the truth? How can I listen to you, tell me. Do you wish me to listen to you as a teacher? "As a teacher," he says to me. What are you telling me, what are you teaching me? "I teach you," he says, "that Christ was not born of a woman, and did not have real flesh, and that death was not real, nor were those wounds real, and if those wounds were not real, then neither were those scars." And I learned differently from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, when His disciple doubted, offered him His scars. Certainly, He could have risen without any scars, He who healed the eyes of the man born blind. But why did He want to bring testimony through His scars? Because the testimony of the scars of the body was the remedy for the wounds of the mind. So are you going to teach me that those things were false, and that Christ pretended all these things, and the disciple deceived by falsehood exclaimed: "My Lord and my God"? So if He wanted to restore health through falsehood, how do I know whether you speak the truth to me or lie? For you do not consider it a crime to lie when you try to present Christ the author of lies to me. For I will say to you: "You are lying," and you to me: "By no means, I am not lying." You are certainly lying. "Far be it from me to lie." This is what you will say to me, so that I believe you. For tell me: "I am lying," and I wish to know if I should believe anything you say. And to believe anything you say, you will say to me: "Far be it from me to lie." Why do you say "Far be it from me to lie" if you do not consider lying a crime when you teach? So what you consider a crime for yourself, you assign to Christ? Therefore, let human deceptions be gone: Christ came as it is written in the gospel. Do not be offended by the humility of Christ; that humility offends pride. Do not be proud, and the humble Christ will not offend you.

"Do not disdain the humility by which you are healed."

The Apostle says: All things are clean to the clean. However, to the impure and unbelieving nothing is clean, but both their minds and consciences are polluted. With a pure heart, say: "A woman conceived, a virgin conceived." She conceived by faith, a virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, a virgin remained. Believe all these things, and do not let those innards seem unclean to you. Because even if that flesh had been entirely unclean, Christ, coming to the flesh, would purify the unclean, not become unclean from the unclean. See the humility of your Lord: if it horrifies you, you are proud. Humility horrifies the proud. As proud as you are, compel yourself so that the cup of your pride does not horrify you. For when you are proud, you swell; you are not great. If you swell, drink the cup, so that your innards may de-swell, so that you can be healthy. This cup the doctor has prepared for you, so that you may drink. The doctor himself has prepared the cup for you: drink the bitter cup if you wish to be healthy. Do you not see that you swell, do you not see that your innards are not healthy? You think you are great, and you swell. That is not greatness, but sickness. Do you want to be free of sickness, do you want to be free of swelling? Drink the cup of humility. He who came to you in humility prepared it for you. And lest you hesitate to drink, the doctor drank first, not because it was necessary for the doctor, but to remove the hesitation from the patient. Do not, therefore, despise humility, by which you are healed. The root of all diseases is pride. He who deigned to become the head of the Church came to heal the root of all diseases. With the root of all diseases removed, you will be healthy. Humble yourself and you will be healthy, and you will say more securely: It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I might learn your righteousness. For you have exalted yourself and have been humbled. Humble yourself and you will be exalted, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, God has concluded all in unbelief, so that He may have mercy on all.

Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Man departed from God, followed his desires, loosened the reins: by wandering and erring, he reached the worship of idols. Even the Jewish people, who worshipped one God, became proud and fell into iniquity. God, wanting to show them that they were weak, wanting to show them that they lie under the frailty of their flesh, and that the desire derived from their parents' lineage still remained in them, gave them the law and righteous, good, and holy commandments, as the Apostle says: Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. What then, he says, is good, made death to me? By no means! But sin, so that it may appear sin, worked death in me through what is good. See how he calls the law itself good, which was given to the Jews. He calls it good because God had given it. And truly, He had prescribed all good things in the decalogue. Was there anything evil: Do not steal, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, and so on, do not covet your neighbor's property? For even if you do not take it but merely covet it, the laws of the forum do not hold you, but God holds you in judgment. Therefore, brethren, consider: the law was given to the infirm Jews, but also to the proud. They began to try to do the righteousness of the law and suppress their desires, and they became guilty. Those who were previously iniquitous were not guilty of the law, nor were they transgressors. Whence the Apostle says: For where there is no law, there is no transgression. When the law is given, the one who acts against the law, even if he does what he was doing before, when he did this without the law, he was a sinner but not a transgressor; but when he does it after receiving the law, he is not only a sinner but also a transgressor. Therefore, because he is not only a sinner but also a transgressor, what the Apostle says is fulfilled: But the law entered so that the offense might abound. Why, then, did the offense abound? It is thus: God, you have rejected us and cast us off. He then continues and says: But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Since sin abounded, we rightly say: God, you have rejected us and cast us off, you were angry. But since grace abounded much more, we rightly add: And you had mercy on us. Thus, let not the Jews say: "We are something." For God has concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all.

Let us lament, for we are away from the Lord.

Let us know, therefore, dearest brothers, our life, our Lord Jesus Christ; let us hold the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ as the remedy for our pride. Let us believe in Him, let us hope entirely in His mercy, who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; and when perhaps we make progress in His justifications, let us not become proud and disdain others, but let us consider on the path of righteousness not how much we have passed, but how much remains for us to complete; and let us mourn everywhere, and let us mourn as long as we are strangers, because our joy will not be except in the homeland, when we have been made equal to the angels. As long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. Why are we away from the Lord? For we walk by faith, he says, not by sight. Faith is to believe what you do not see, sight is to see what you have believed. When therefore sight comes, that flame of charity will be more intense, because what you desired absent, you embrace present; what you believed absent, you see present. And if God believed is sweet, what will He be seen? When therefore all these things which still torment us because of the remnants of our sins are ended, then there will be the fullness of righteousness, then united with the angels we will sing the eternal hymn "alleluia": the praise of God will be without defect to us, nor will hunger drive us away from there, because the body does not hunger, unless it is corrupted and burdens the soul; nor will we thirst nor be sick nor grow old nor incline to sleep nor be fatigued by any weariness, but just as the bodies of angels are, such will our flesh be in the resurrection of the dead. Do not marvel because these bodies will be heavenly bodies in the resurrection of the dead. Consider that before we were, we were nothing, and from this believe what we will be when we have resurrected. Let each consider himself: before he was born, what was he, where was he, where was he hidden? All this distinction of body: ears, eyes, face, the spirit that animates the entire weight of the body, where were all these? Surely in the secret of nature, surely where they were not seen. They proceeded from there, God formed you who were not. What is great for God to make an angel from man, who made man from clay? What were you? and you are a man; you are a man, and will you not be an angel? Closer it is to make an angel from a man, than from what you were to make a man. He has done the more wonderful thing in you, will He not do what remains?

We see that the promises of God have been fulfilled.

You must believe, and your faith should not abandon Christ, should not abandon the gospel, should not abandon His promises. Understand that all things that are written are nearly fulfilled; few things remain. This Church, which you see spread throughout the world, did not exist a short time ago. You were pagans a few years ago, now you are Christians; your parents served demons, temples were once full of those offering incense, now the Church is full of those who praise God. How swiftly did God change human affairs? Before all these things came to pass, the scriptures were read, believed, but not seen; now we see those things which our ancestors read. If therefore so many things have been fulfilled, are the few remaining things not going to come? Believe firmly that they are coming, brothers, because all these things indeed came as they were written and foretold before they happened. Many thousands of years ago, when it was said to Abraham: 'In your seed all nations will be blessed,' it was said to one man: 'In your seed all nations will be blessed'; he considered himself as one and this seed, and his wife already old and worn with age, and it was said to him not only: "A seed will come from you" - which if it alone had been said, what would be more marvelous? -, it wasn't enough to say to an old man: "You will have a son," [but] "In your seed," He says, "all the nations will be blessed." God spoke marvels, He spoke impossibilities, but they were easy for Him. That one man believed what he did not see, and we see; what he believed, was given to us, indeed it was given back to him, what was exhibited in us. For from the seed of Abraham came Isaac, and from Isaac came Jacob, and from Jacob the people of the Jews, and from the people of the Jews came David, and from the seed of David came the Virgin Mary, and from the Virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the seed of Abraham, all nations will be blessed, because all nations are blessed in Christ. Behold, now what was promised to him has been given to us. Therefore, Almighty and faithful God, who fulfilled what He promised to one man, will He not fulfill what He promised to all? My brothers, let your faith be strengthened, let your hope be fortified. He did not deceive one man; will He deceive the whole world? He gave the whole world full of Christians to one man, will He not give the world to live with His Son Christ forever?

"The Church is not in part, but in the whole."

Holding these things, brothers, understand that the Church is not in a part, but in the whole. Christ bought all, He gave His blood for all: the whole world holds Christians, the unity of the Church is of Christ. Heretics argue in vain with the Church of Christ: it is not enough that they wish to disinherit themselves, they also slander the heirs. You, in unity, hold to the whole, do not let them deceive you to a part. If you follow them, you will go to a part; if they hear you, they will come to the whole: they win themselves for their gain. For Christ bought all, when He hung on the cross, my brothers: the bargains of Christ, the passion of Christ; there He bought us where He was crucified. There indeed He shed His blood, our price, there as it was foretold in the psalms still to come. See how many years ago it was foretold: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones; they looked and stared at me, they divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. All these things can scarcely be discerned whether they are heard in the psalm or recited from the gospel. Is it not that as they are sung in the psalm, so they are read in the gospel: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones? There Christ bought us, where all His bones were counted; where His hands and feet were pierced with nails, there He bought us. There indeed He shed His blood, which is our price. In that very psalm it is understood what He bought. Do you want to know? Ask the psalm itself. What did Christ buy, hanging on the tree? For after a few verses it says: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before Him. Why will they worship? Because the kingdom is the Lord's, and He rules over the nations. As if it were asked why, who is he to whom all the ends of the earth will turn and before whom all the families of the nations will worship? Because it says, his is the kingdom, and he rules over the nations. Why is it his? Because he bought it.

Let us rejoice because we belong to the lot of Christ.

Recently the enemy, the possessor, has rushed in, and this under the name of Christ. He can divide some of the garments of Christ; no one will divide that tunic which is woven from above. "They divided," he says, "my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." And the evangelist says: There was a certain tunic woven from the top, and those who crucified the Lord said among themselves: Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it. It was not placed in division; the tunic remained apart from division. Why did that tunic remain apart from division? Because it was woven from above. It was signified why it did not deserve to be divided, being woven from above. What is that is woven from above? Whence it is said to us "Lift up your heart." Thus, he who has his heart lifted up cannot be divided into parts, because he will belong to that tunic which cannot be divided. Therefore, my brothers, this tunic came by lot to our Lord Jesus Christ himself, because his lot is his inheritance. And since it was his inheritance, he bought it. Those, however, who are divided can belong to the other garments of Christ, because he is clothed in all. He is clothed in all who believe in him, in whatever way they are clothed. But all who seek earthly honors, temporal advantages, bodily illusions, are not woven from above, because they desire worldly things. Therefore, they can be divided. But that tunic which is woven from above, it cannot come into division. Rejoice that you belong to it, who are seedlings of the Catholic faith. Question your heart if you seek nothing from Christ except the kingdom of heaven: not vain things, not temporal things, not bodily images, not those things which delight in this world and on this earth. When you question yourselves, your conscience will answer "lift up your heart." And if you have "lifted up your heart," you are woven from above; if you are woven from above, you cannot be divided.