Sermon 161

SERMO 161

ON THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE, (1 COR 6:9, 10, 15, 19):
"Do not be deceived; neither fornicators,
Neither idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate.
NOR MALE BEDMATES... WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Fornication must be avoided. The fornicator injures Christ.

We have heard the Apostle, as it was read, reprimanding and restraining human desires; and saying: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, taking the members of Christ, shall I make them members of a prostitute? By no means! Therefore, he said our bodies are members of Christ; because Christ is our head, as he was made man for us, the head of which it is said: He is the Savior of our body. But his body is the Church. If, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ had assumed only a human soul, only our souls would be his members; but since he also took a body, through which he is also the head to us, who consist of both soul and body, certainly our bodies are also his members. Therefore, if anyone wishing to commit fornication belittled himself, and despised himself in himself; let him not despise Christ in himself; let him not say: I will do it, I am nothing: All flesh is grass. But your body is a member of Christ. Where were you going? Return. Where did you wish to throw yourself? Spare Christ in yourself, recognize Christ in yourself. Therefore, taking the members of Christ, shall I make them members of a prostitute? For she is a prostitute who consents to you for adultery; and perhaps she herself, a Christian, takes the members of Christ and makes them members of an adulterer. You mutually despise Christ in yourselves, nor do you recognize your Lord, nor do you consider your price. But what kind of Lord is he, who made his servants his brothers? But it was little to make them his brothers, unless he made them his members. Has such great dignity become worthless? Because it was given so kindly, is no honor returned to it? If it were not given, it would be desired; because it was given, is it despised?

The fornicator is injurious to the Holy Spirit.

These bodies of ours, which the Apostle says are members of Christ, because of the body of Christ, which He took from our type of body; therefore, the same Apostle says these bodies of ours are the temple within us of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God. Because of the body of Christ, our bodies are members of Christ; because of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Which of these do you despise in yourself? Christ, of whom you are a member? Or the Holy Spirit, of whose temple you are? The prostitute herself, who agrees with you to do evil, you perhaps do not dare to bring into your bedroom, where you have your marital bed; but you seek some low and vile place in your house, where you wallow in filth. You therefore show respect to the bedchamber of your wife, and do not respect the temple of your God? You do not bring an impure woman where you sleep with your wife, and yet you go to the impure woman, although you are the temple of God? I think the temple of God is better than the bedroom of your wife. Wherever you go, Jesus sees you; who made you, and redeemed you when lost, and died for you when you were dead. You do not recognize yourself; but He does not turn His eyes away from you, not to help, but to punish. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers. Immediately He adds and terrifies those who give themselves false security, who say to themselves: I will act; for God does not deign to regard me doing such vile things. Hear what follows, attend to whose you are; for wherever you go, Jesus sees: But the face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. But from what earth? Remember where it is said; You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living.

Fornication excludes from the kingdom of God.

For perhaps the evil, unjust, adulterer, shameless, fornicator rejoices because he commits, and he grows old in what lust does not grow old, and he says to himself: Surely it is true: But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. Behold, I have already grown old, having committed so many things from my early age up to this day, I have buried many chaste ones before me, I have personally led the funerals of many chaste youths to the tomb, and I, shameless, have outlived the modest. What is meant when it is said that: The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth? There is another land where there is no shameless one, there is another land in the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers will inherit the kingdom of God. This means, He will cut off the memory of them from the earth. For many committing such things, they place hope for themselves; on account of those who living disastrously place hope for themselves in the kingdom of God, which they will not approach, it is said: He will cut off the memory of them from the earth. For there will be a new heaven, and a new earth, which the righteous will inhabit. There the wicked, there the evil, there the most worthless will not be allowed to dwell. Let him who is such choose now where he wishes to dwell, while there is time that he may be changed.

Two habitations, in fire or in the kingdom. How much is feared for the body.

There are indeed two dwellings: one in eternal fire, the other in the eternal kingdom. Suppose because in the eternal fire, one will be tormented differently than another; yet they will all be there, all will be tormented; less one, more another. Because it will be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for another city; and some traverse sea and land to make one proselyte, and when they have made him, they make him twice the son of Gehenna than they are themselves. Suppose because some are twice, some simply; suppose because some more, some less; there is no region where you can choose a place for yourself. Whatever milder torments there are, they are worse than those which you dread in this world. Consider how you tremble if someone accuses you falsely, lest you be thrown into prison; and you yourself live badly against yourself, so that you will be thrown into the fire? You tremble, you are disturbed, you grow pale, you run to the church, you desire to see the bishop, you roll at his feet. He asks, why? Free me, you say. What is happening? Behold, he is accusing me falsely. And what is he going to do to you? Lord, I am shaken; Lord, I am sent to prison; have mercy on me, release me. Behold how the prison is feared, how confinement is feared; and the burning of Gehenna is not feared! Finally, when calamity increases, and severe pressure rages, and it rages to death when it seems good to a man not to die, not to be killed, everyone cries out that help should be given, all assistance is implored; help, run, for the soul. The whole aggravation of the calamity is because it is said, for the soul. Help should indeed be given, and aid should not be denied to this fear; what can be done should be done, by whom it can.

The death of the soul is to be more feared than that of the body.

Nevertheless, I want to question the one who is in danger and who, by that name, stirs my innermost feelings; because he says: Run for the sake of your soul. To him, I easily respond: Indeed, I run for the sake of your flesh; would that you ran for the sake of your soul. And you should know that I run not for the sake of your soul, but for the sake of your body. I better listen to Christ telling the truth than to you murmuring in false fear. For the Lord himself says: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Certainly you want me to run for your soul; look, he whom you fear and under whose threats you tremble cannot kill your soul; he only rages against the body, you should not rage against your soul. It cannot be killed by him, but it can be by you; not by a spear, but by a tongue. The enemy who strikes you ends this life: But the mouth that lies kills the soul. From these things that men fear in this time, let them infer what they ought to fear. For he fears prison, and does not fear hell? He fears the torturers in interrogations, and does not fear the infernal angels? He fears temporal torment, and does not fear the punishments of eternal fire? In the end, he fears dying for a little while, and does not fear dying forever?

Life of the soul and life of the body, whence. The life of the soul is God.

He who is about to kill you, whom you fear, whom you dread, whom you flee, from whose terror you are not allowed to sleep, and if you see him in your dreams, when you sleep, you are terrified, what is he going to do to you? He is going to expel your soul from your flesh; see where your soul goes once expelled. For he cannot otherwise kill your flesh unless he expels your soul, by which your flesh lives. Indeed, by the presence of your soul your flesh lives, and as long as your soul is present in your flesh, your flesh must live. But he who seeks your death wants to eject your life from your flesh, by which your flesh lives.

Do you think there is no life in which your soul itself lives? For indeed, the soul is a kind of life by which your flesh lives. Do you think there is no other life in which your soul itself lives; or how does your flesh have life, with the soul by which your flesh lives, and does your soul itself also have some life of its own? And just as the flesh, when it dies, expires its soul, its life; likewise, does your soul, when it dies, expire some of its own life? If we find out what this life is, not of your body, which is your soul; but the life of the life of your body, that is, the life of your soul; if we find it, from this death, in which you fear lest your soul be cast out of the flesh, I think that you should fear more that death, lest the life of your soul be cast out of your soul. Therefore, I shall speak briefly: and why am I held by many things? The life of the body is the soul, the life of the soul is God. The Spirit of God dwells in the soul, and through the soul in the body, so that our bodies are also the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God. For the Spirit comes to our soul; because the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us; and he who holds the chief place possesses everything. Indeed, in you that rules which is better. God holding what is better, that is, your heart, your mind, your soul, surely possesses also the inferior through the superior, which is your body. Therefore, let the enemy rage, threaten death, act if allowed, drive out your soul from the flesh; let not your soul drive out its own life. If you rightly lament, and think it miserably to say to your powerful enemy: Do not strike, spare my blood; does not God say to you: Have mercy on your soul, pleasing God? Perhaps your soul says: Ask him not to strike; for I release you. For if he strikes, I cannot stay with you. Ask him not to strike, if you wish me not to leave you. What does it say to you, if you wish me not to leave you? You yourself; for you who speak are a soul. Therefore, if he strikes the flesh, you flee, you go out, you depart, earth lies in earth. Where will that be which animated the earth? That which was given to you by the breath of God, where will it be? If it does not expire its own life, that is, its God, it will be in that which it did not lose, it will be in that which it did not exclude from itself. But if you obey the infirmity of your soul, saying to you: He strikes, and I release you; do you not fear God saying to you: You sin, and I release you?

Vain fear and useful fear.

Let us take useful fear from vain fear. Vain fear is the fear of all humans afraid of losing temporal things, things that will pass away, and trembling to depart, wanting always to delay what they cannot escape. This fear of humans is vain; and yet it exists, and it is intense, and it cannot be resisted. Hence, humans must be rebuked, reproached, mourned, and lamented, fearing to die and doing nothing else but dying more slowly. Why do they not act to not die? Because whatever they do, they do not accomplish not dying. But can they do something by which they achieve never dying? In no way. Indeed, whatever you do, however much you watch, wherever you flee, whatever defenses you seek, whatever riches you use to redeem yourself, whatever tricks you use to deceive the enemy; you do not deceive the fever. For you do nothing else to avoid dying quickly at the hands of the enemy but to die more slowly from a fever later. You have something to do so that you never die. If you fear death, love life. Your life is God, your life is Christ, your life is the Holy Spirit. You do not please them by acting badly. He does not inhabit a ruinous temple, he does not enter a filthy temple. But groan to Him, that He might cleanse a place for Himself; groan to Him, that He might build a temple for Himself; what you have destroyed, let Him construct; what you have ruined, let Him reform; what you have cast down, let Him raise up. Cry out to God, cry out inwardly, cry out where He hears; for you also sin where He sees; there cry out, where He hears.

One who does not do evil out of fear of punishment is not yet to be praised. Of what use is the fear of hell?

And when you have corrected your fear, and have begun to fear usefully, not temporary torments, but the punishments of eternal fire, and therefore you will not be an adulterer; for from here we were speaking, because of the Apostle, who said: Your bodies are members of Christ; when therefore you will not begin to be an adulterer because you fear burning in everlasting fire, you are not yet to be praised; not indeed to be grieved for, as before, but yet not to be praised.

For what great thing is it to fear punishment? It is great, but to love justice is greater. I ask you, and I find you out. You inspect my vocal question, and make of yourself a silent one. Therefore, I say to you: When you are overcome by lust, consenting, why do you not commit adultery? And you will answer: Because I fear hell, I fear the punishment of eternal fire, I fear the judgment of Christ, I fear the fellowship of the devil, lest I be punished by him, and burn with him. What? Shall I say: You fear wrongly? How did I tell you concerning the adversary, because he sought to kill your body. For there rightly I said: You fear wrongly; your Lord made you secure, saying: Fear not those who kill the body. Now, when you tell me: I fear hell, I fear to burn, I fear to be punished eternally; what shall I say? You fear wrongly? You fear vainly? I dare not, since the Lord himself, removing fear, subjected fear; and he said, where he said: Fear not those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but fear him who has power to kill both body and soul in the fire of hell; so I say to you, this one fear. Therefore, when the Lord has instilled fear, and vehemently instilled it, and doubled the threat by repeating the word, shall I say: You fear wrongly? I will not say these things. Fear plainly, nothing better you fear; there is nothing you more ought to fear. But I ask you: If God did not see you when you commit, nor anyone convict you in his judgment, would you do it? Look at yourself. For you cannot respond to all my words, inspect yourself. Would you do it? If you would do it, then you fear punishment, you do not yet love chastity, you do not yet have charity; you fear servilely; there is dread of evil, not yet love of good. But yet fear, so that this dread may guard you, so that it may lead you to love. For this fear, by which you fear hell, and therefore do not commit evil, holds you; and thus it does not allow the willing to sin inwardly. For fear is a certain guard, as if a pedagogue of the law; the letter threatens, it does not yet help with grace. Yet let fear guard you, while you abstain in fear, and love will come; it enters your heart, and as much as it enters, so much does fear depart. For fear did this, that you might not commit; love does this, that you may not want to commit, even if you could do it with impunity.

Charity casts out one fear, introduces another.

I have told you what to fear, I have told you what to desire. Seek charity, let charity enter; admit it by fearing to sin, admit love not sinning, admit love living well. That, as I began to say, entering, fear begins to exit. The more it enters, the less fear there will be. When it has fully entered, there will be no fear; because perfect love casts out fear. Therefore, charity enters, expels fear. However, it does not enter alone. It has its own fear with it, which it introduces itself; but it is chaste, enduring forever. There is the servile fear, by which you fear to burn with the devil; chaste fear is, by which you fear to displease God. Consider, dearest ones, and inquire the very human affections. A servant fears to offend his master, lest he commands him to be beaten, to be chained, to be imprisoned, to be ground in the mill. Fearing these, the servant does not sin; but when he perceives the eyes of his master absent and has no witness who can convict him, he acts. Why does he act? Because he feared punishment, he did not love justice. But a good man, a just man, a free man (for only the just is free; for everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin), delights in justice itself; and if he could sin without a witness, he dreads the witness even if God; and if he could hear God saying to him: I see you when you sin, I will not condemn you, but you displease me; unwilling to displease the eyes of the Father, not of a terrifying judge, he fears, not lest he be condemned, not lest he be punished, not lest he be tortured; but lest he offend the father's joy, lest he displease the eyes of the loving one. For if he loves himself, and feels his Lord loving him, he does not do what displeases the one loving him.

The force of impure love.

Beware of wanton and dishonorable lovers; if anyone, driven by lascivious and depraved love for a woman, dresses himself differently than she likes, or adorns himself differently than she likes, she will say: "I do not want you to have such a cloak"; he does not have it; if during winter she says to him: "I love you in a cape"; he chooses to shiver rather than to displease her. Will she who is displeased condemn him? Will she send him to prison? Will she employ torturers? The only thing feared there is: "I will not see you"; the only thing trembled at there is: "You will not see my face." If an impudent woman says this and terrifies him, God says it and does not terrify? Surely very much; but if we love. But if we do not love, we are not terrified by that; but we are terrified as slaves, by fire, by Gehenna, by the most atrocious threats of Tartarus, by the most grievous torments of the devil and his angels and his punishments? We should be terrified from that. If we love less, we should at least fear those things.

Love makes sacred virgins.

Therefore, let there be no fornication. You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy them. Marriages are lawful; seek nothing more. For no great burden is imposed. A greater love imposed a greater burden on virgins. Virgins did not want what was permitted, so that they could more please Him to whom they devoted themselves. They desired that greater beauty of their heart. What do you command? As if they said: What do you command? Not to be adulteresses—this you command? Loving you, we do more than you command. Concerning virgins, the Apostle says, I have no commandment from the Lord. So why do they do this? But I give my advice. But those loving ones, to whom earthly marriages seemed worthless, who did not desire earthly embraces, so much accepted the command that they did not refuse the advice; in order to please more, they adorned themselves more. For the ornaments of this body, that is, of the outward man, the more they are desired, the greater the detriments to the inner man; but the less the ornaments of the outward man are desired, the more the inner man is adorned with beautiful morals. Hence Peter also says: Adorning themselves not in braided hair. For when he said: Adorning themselves, what else would be thought by carnal people than these visible ornaments? He promptly removed from thought what desire sought. Not, he says, in braided hair, nor in gold, or pearls, or costly clothing; but the hidden man of the heart, who is rich before God. For God would not give riches to the outward man and leave the inward one impoverished; He gave invisible riches to the invisible, and adorned the invisible invisibly.

The love of sacred virgins.

Desiring these ornaments, the girls of God, holy virgins, neither sought what was permitted, nor consented to what they were compelled. For many also overcame the contrary efforts of their parents with the fire of heavenly love. The father was angry, the mother wept; she did not care, for before her eyes was the beautiful one surpassing the sons of men. Indeed, she desired to be adorned for him, so that she might entirely take care of him. For she who is married thinks on the things of the world, how she may please her husband; but she who is unmarried thinks on the things of God, how she may please God. See what it means to love. He did not say: She thinks how not to be condemned by God. For this fear is still that servile fear, a guardian indeed of the wicked, that they might abstain from evil, and by abstaining be worthy to admit love to themselves. But those women do not think about how not to be punished by God, but how to please God, with interior beauty, with the beauty of the hidden man, with the beauty of the heart, where they are naked to his eyes; naked within, not without; whole both within and without. Let virgins teach the married men and married women, not to go into adultery. They do more than is permitted; let them not do what is not permitted.