Sermon 16B
SERMON 16/B Brothers, let us cleanse our hearts from all stain of sin, that we may worthily offer our prayers to God. Let us be vigilant and fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Be persistent in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving. Let each one strive to remain in the grace of God, avoiding every evil action. Let us love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who persecute and slander us. For thus we will be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. Amen.
Sermon on the Responsorial Psalm 40
He is perverse who attributes his sins not to himself but to fortune, fate, the devil.
With one voice we sing many, because in Christ we are one. For the people who say in the plural number "Our Father" are the same who say, "I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you." For many want to sin and do not want their sins attributed to themselves. But may your Holiness consider how proud men do not want to confess to God. For all the evil they do, they do not want to attribute to themselves, and they begin to say either fortune did it or fate did it. But they say, "The devil did it," so they do not say, "I did it." Let him who says these things remove them from his midst, for both fortune is the vanity of men and fate is emptiness, and he who thinks fate is something becomes foolish. And the devil, although he is our enemy, nonetheless overthrows those who consent. He does not have the power to compel, but the cunning to persuade. If, however, the devil were speaking evilly alone, and God were not speaking through the Scriptures teaching good, you would have an excuse before God. You would say, "Whom should I have consented to if not to him who was speaking to me, because you were silent to me?" But as the devil does not cease to persuade evil, and God does not cease to warn of good, why do your ears, positioned between the devil persuading evil and God commanding good, incline to the words of the devil and turn away from the words of God? The devil says to you, "Commit theft"; God says to you, "Do not commit theft." If you were to listen to both, you would be most wicked. And yet how could you obey both commanding different things when God Christ proclaims: "No one can serve two masters"? Now see what you are like, who despise God’s warnings and consent to being deceived by the devil. When you do this, pay attention, and now do not do this. And when you see that you have done wrong, confess to God, do not accuse the devil, so that you can truly say: "I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you." It was not fate that sinned, it was not fortune that sinned: Heal my soul for I have sinned against you. And what am I to do? Because I have sinned, I am sick. If I am sick, heal my soul. This is to confess to the doctor and to call upon the doctor. If you want to attribute your sins to others, as I said, either to fortune or fate or the devil, not to yourself, and again if you want to attribute your good deeds to yourself, not to God, you are perverse. For indeed, whatever evil you do, you do by your own malice; whatever good you do, you do by the grace of God.
What good you do, God does; what evil you do, you do.
But see how some people, unwilling to convert, turn to blasphemies, wanting to accuse God Himself. For when someone begins to blame fortune because it forced him to sin, and it sinned in him, he starts to blame fate. He is asked: "What is fortune, or what is fate?" And he begins to say that the stars compelled him to sin. See how gradually his blasphemy runs to God. Who placed the stars in the sky? Is it not the creator of all, God? So if He placed such stars there that compel you to sin, does He not seem to be the author of your sins? See how perverse you are, O man, who, when God accuses your sins, not to punish you, but to free you by punishing them, you, out of your own perversity, where you do something good you attribute it to yourself, where you do something bad you attribute it to God. Therefore convert yourself from this perversity. Be corrected, and begin to contradict yourself, and to speak contrary to yourself. For what did you say before? "What good I do, I do; what bad I do, God does." Rather, the truth is this: what good you do, God does; what bad you do, you do. By saying these things you do not sing in vain: I said: Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you. For if where you do evil, God does it, and where you do good, you do it, you speak iniquity against God. Listen also to what the psalm says about this: Do not, it says, exalt your horn on high, nor speak iniquity against God. For you spoke this iniquity against God, in that you wanted to attribute all good things to yourself, and all bad things to Him. By exalting the horn of pride you spoke iniquity against God. By humility you speak equity. What is the equity that you speak with humility? I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul for I have sinned against you.
In the good deeds that you do, do not exalt yourself above those who do not do good.
Therefore, when the psalm itself said: Do not lift up your horn on high, and do not speak unrighteousness against God, it immediately added: For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the deserts of the mountains; for God is the judge, He puts down one and exalts another. He sees two men, that is, two kinds of men. Whom, then, does He see as two men? One who is proud, another who confesses; one who speaks righteousness, another who speaks unrighteousness. Who speaks righteousness? The one who says: "I have sinned." But who speaks unrighteousness? The one who says: "Not I have sinned, but fortune has sinned, fate has sinned." Therefore, when you see two men, one speaking righteousness and another speaking unrighteousness, one humble and another proud, do not wonder because it follows that it says: For God is the judge, He puts down one and exalts another. And it is but little that I have said: Brother, do not speak in such a way that you attribute the good things you do to yourself, and the bad things to God. But even the good things which you do, if you attribute them to God in such a way and give thanks to God for them, so that you exalt yourself over others who do not yet do good works, and you seem to yourself already to have attained perfect righteousness because you do not commit murder, or do not commit adultery, or do not steal, or fast, or give alms, and you seem to yourself to have perfected righteousness because of this and scorn those who do not do these things, and you are proud as if healthy looking at the sick, and thus God rejects you. For no matter how much you have progressed, you should not consider how much you have passed by, but what is left to you, so that you do not end the way and rejoice exalted in the homeland in the king of that homeland, who for you made Himself humble.
The Example of the Pharisee and the Publican.
Therefore two men are shown in the temple by the Lord, and thus the Gospel says: He also said to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others, this parable. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisees were the leaders of the Jews, as either learned or holy men of theirs; but they considered the publicans as most wicked sinners. Therefore both went up into the temple to pray, and the Pharisee began to say: God, I thank you. See, because of the good he had, he gave thanks to God. But see where he is condemned, because he despised the one whom he saw as a sinner. Therefore, observe the following words: I thank you because I am not like other men, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, or even like this publican. He looked at him and despised him. And he exalted himself, and asked for nothing to be given to him, but only gave thanks for what he had, as if he were already perfect. And he began to list his merits to God: I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. He had come to the doctor to be healed, and showed his healthy members, hiding his wounds. But the publican stood at a distance, not daring to lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying: Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. See how he did not seek not to be accused. He accused himself and beat himself. He struck his breast with his fist, confessing to God with a fearful conscience. Let Your Holiness observe how he humbles one and exalts the other. Hear the following words of the Lord: Amen, I say to you, the publican went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee. And as if you were to say: "Lord, why so?" and he would say to you: Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Therefore, having this path of humility, dearest brothers, advance, abstain from all wickedness and malice. Cleanse again and again your manners with God's help, to whom you confess. Turned.