Sermon 164
SERMO 164
ON THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (GAL 6:2-5):
"Carry each other's burdens";
AND ABOUT THESE:
"Each one will carry his own burden."
AGAINST THE DONATISTS,
Shortly after the conference held in Carthage, he was pronounced
The law of Christ is fulfilled by those bearing each other's burdens.
The truth, through the Apostle, admonishes us all to bear one another's burdens; and in admonishing us to bear one another's burdens, it shows with what benefit we do this, adding and saying: And so you will fulfill the law of Christ; which will not be fulfilled unless we bear one another's burdens. What these burdens are, and how they ought to be borne, since we all ought to strive to the best of our abilities to fulfill the law of Christ, with the Lord's help I will try to show. Remember that you insist on me demonstrating this, and when I have done so, do not demand it again. I propose to demonstrate this, with the help of the Lord and your prayers for me, what burdens the Apostle commands us to bear with one another, and how they ought to be borne. If we do this, that benefit which was placed will naturally follow, so that we may fulfill the law of Christ.
Burdens must be distinguished.
Someone says: For the Apostle spoke obscurely, so do you attempt to explain what these burdens are, or how they should be borne by each other? There is a question there that forces us to distinguish burdens. And indeed, in that very section of the reading, you have it stated there: Each one will bear his own burden. Therefore, it immediately comes to your understanding: If each one will bear his own burden, how does he say: Bear each other's burdens? Unless because burdens must be distinguished, lest the Apostle be thought to speak contradictorily. For not far, not in another Epistle, not far above or below in this very same chapter; but in that very place, so that the same words are contiguous with one another, he placed both, both that each one will bear his own burden, and that he admonished and exhorted, that we should bear each other's burdens.
Two kinds of burden.
Therefore, there are certain burdens in which each one carries their own, neither carrying with another nor casting onto another; and there are certain burdens in which you rightly say to a brother: I carry it with you, or: I carry it for you. If therefore there is need of distinction, understanding is not easy. Hence, to those who thought a man could be contaminated by the sins of others, the Apostle responds: Each one will bear his own burden. Likewise, against those who might allow negligence to creep in, as if made secure by the fact that they would not be contaminated by the sins of others, they would care to correct no one: Bear one another's burdens. Briefly stated, briefly distinguished; and as far as I think, the manifestation of truth has not been hindered. For you have both heard briefly and understood quickly. I have not seen your hearts; but I have heard the voices of the heart as witnesses. Now therefore, as if secure in what has been understood, let us sometimes discuss more broadly; not to introduce understanding, but to commend what has been understood.
Each one his own burdens, sins.
The burdens which each one carries are sins. To those men who carry the loads of these detestable burdens and who sweat in vain under them, the Lord says: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. How does He give rest to those burdened with sins, except by granting the forgiveness of sins? The preacher of the world cries out from a certain watchtower of exalted authority: Hear, human race; hear, sons of Adam; hear, the laborious and unfruitful race: I see your labor, see my gift. I know you labor and are heavy laden; and what is more miserable, you bind destructive burdens to your shoulders; furthermore, what is worse, you ask for burdens to be added to you, not to be taken away.
The burden of greed. The burden of laziness.
Which of us in a short time can discuss the complexity and variety of these burdens? Yet let us mention a few from there and conjecture about the rest. Look at a man burdened with the load of greed, see him sweating, panting, thirsty under this load, and adding to the load by laboring. What are you expecting, O greedy one, embracing your burden and binding the evil load with chains of desire under your shoulders? What are you expecting? Why do you labor? Why do you gasp? Why do you desire? Surely to satisfy greed. O vain wishes and most wicked deeds! Are you expecting, then, to satisfy greed? It can press upon you, but you cannot satisfy it. Or perhaps it is not burdensome? Have you so far lost even sense under this load? Is greed not burdensome? Why then does it wake you from sleep, which sometimes even does not allow you to sleep? And perhaps you have with it another burden of sloth, and these two most wicked burdens pressing upon and tearing you apart. They do not command in equal terms, nor do they order alike. Sloth says: Sleep; greed says: Rise. Sloth says: Do not endure cold days; greed says: Bear storms even at sea. One says: Rest; the other does not allow rest. It commands not only: Go forth; but also: Sail across the sea, seek lands that you do not know. Wares must be carried to India; you do not know the language of the Indians, but the language of greed seems understandable. You will go unknown to the unknown; you give, you receive, you buy, you carry; you arrive risking dangers, you return with dangers, you cry out in the sea agitated by a storm: God, deliver me. Do you not hear the response: Why? Did I send you? Greed commanded you to acquire what you did not have; I commanded you to give to the poor without toil what you had at your door. It sent you to the Indians to bring back gold; I placed Christ at your door, from whom you would buy the kingdom of heaven. You labor under the command of greed, you do not labor under my command. We both commanded; you did not hear me: let him to whom you listened deliver you.
For the burdens of desire, take up the burdens of love.
How many carry these burdens? How many positioned beneath them cry out against those very burdens as I speak against them? They entered with burdens, they exit with burdens; they entered greedy, they leave greedy. I have labored by speaking against these burdens. If you cry out, set down what you are carrying. Finally, do not listen to me; listen to your Emperor shouting: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened. For you will not come unless you cease to labor. You want to run to me, but you cannot with heavy burdens. Come, he says, to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. I grant forgiveness for past sins, I will remove what weighed down your eyes, I will heal what harmed your shoulders. I will indeed take away the burdens, but I will not leave you empty of burdens: I will take away bad burdens and lay on good ones. For when he said: And I will refresh you; he added: Take my yoke upon you. Lust subjected you badly, but love will subject you beneficially.
Christ the teacher, what he wishes to be learned from him. The burden of Christ is light.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. If any human teaching has become vile to you, learn from me. Christ cries out as teacher, the only Son of God, the only truthful one, the truth itself cries out: Learn from me. What? Because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word, and all things were made through him. Could we learn from him to make the world, to fill the sky with lights, to order the changes of day and night, to command times and ages to go forth, to give power to seeds, to fill the earth with animals? The heavenly teacher commands us to learn none of these things: he does these as God.
But because this God deigned to be both God and man, listen to what he says to be refreshed in what concerns his divinity; listen to what he says to imitate in what concerns his humanity. He says, "Learn from me"; not to fabricate the world and create natures, nor even those other things which, as hidden God and manifest man, he accomplished; nor does he say: "Learn from me to drive out fevers from the sick, to cast out demons, to raise the dead, to command the winds and waves, to walk on the waters"; nor does he say this: "Learn from me". For he gave these powers to some of his disciples, to some he did not give them: but this, "Learn from me", he says to all; from this precept let no one excuse himself: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart". Why do you hesitate to bear this burden? Is this burden heavy, humility and piety? Is this burden heavy, faith, hope, charity? For these make one humble, these make one meek. And see that you will not be weighed down if you listen to him. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. What does it mean: it is light? What if it has weight, but less? Does avarice have more weight, and justice less? I do not want you to understand it this way. This burden is not the weight of one overburdened, but wings for one about to fly. For birds also have the burdens of their feathers. And what do we say? They carry them, and they are carried by them. They carry them on earth, they are carried by them in heaven. If you wish to show mercy to a bird, especially in summer, and you say: "These feathers burden this poor little bird," and you remove this burden; it will remain on the ground, the one you wanted to help. Therefore carry the wings of peace, receive the wings of charity. This is the burden, thus the law of Christ will be fulfilled.
Each one bears the burden of his own desire or love.
The burdens are distinct. See now, I don't know, someone greedy comes in; you know that greedy person, he stands with you, and you are not greedy; but you are even merciful, you give to the poor what you have, you do not covet what you do not have; you hear the Apostle saying: "Command the rich of this world not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who provides us with everything richly for enjoyment; let them do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and willing to share, laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." You have listened, recognized, learned, held on, acted. Do what you are doing, do not become slothful, do not cease. He who perseveres to the end will be saved. You did well to man, the man is ungrateful; do not regret having done well, lest by regretting you destroy what you accomplished through mercy; say in your heart: He does not see for whom I did it, but He sees for whom I did it; because if he saw, if he were not ungrateful, it would benefit him more than it would benefit me. Hold fast to God, who is not hidden from what I do; not only what I do, but even what I do from the heart; I hope for the reward from Him, who does not seek a witness of my deed. Such you are, and perhaps in the people of God stands next to you a greedy robber, coveting others' possessions. Whom you know to be such, and he is faithful, or rather called faithful, you cannot expel him from the Church, you have no access to correct and rebuke him, he will approach the altar with you; do not fear: Each one will bear his own load. Remember the Apostle, that you may come with peace of mind: Each one will bear his own load. Only let him not say to you: Carry with me. For if you wish to share greed with him, the load will not be lessened, but two will be burdened. Therefore let each bear his own burden, and you yours: because when the Lord threw off such a burden from your shoulders, He placed another; He threw off the burden of covetousness, placing the burden of charity. Therefore according to their desires each one bears his own load, the bad a bad one, the good a good one.
Burdens that must be shared.
Turn yourself now to that precept: Bear one another's burdens. For you have the burden of Christ; from which you should bear with another his own burden. He is poor, you are rich; his burden is poverty; you do not have such a burden. Be careful that when the poor man calls upon you, you do not say: Each one shall bear his own burden. Here, listen to another precept: Bear one another's burdens. Poverty is not my burden, but it is the burden of my brother. Be careful that wealth is not a greater burden for you. For you do not have the burden of poverty, but you have the burden of riches. If you consider rightly, it is a burden. He has one burden, you have another. Bear with him, and let him bear with you, so that you may carry each other's burdens. What is the burden of poverty? Not having. What is the burden of riches? Having more than is needed. Both he and you are burdened. Bear with him in not having, and let him bear with you in having more; so that your burdens may be equal. For if you give to the needy, you lessen for him the burden of not having, which was his burden; if you give to him, he begins to have; his burden of not having is lessened; he also lessens your burden, which is called having too much. Two of you walk the way of God in the pilgrimage of this age: you carry excessive unnecessary wealth, he carries no wealth; he joins you, desiring to be your companion; do not neglect, do not disdain, do not leave him. Don't you see how much you are carrying? Give something from it to the one who carries nothing and has nothing, and you will help your companion and relieve yourself. The apostolic sentence has been sufficiently, as I reckon, explained.
The Donatists are stubborn in schism.
Do not let them sell you delusions who say: We are holy, we do not carry your burdens, therefore we do not communicate with you. These carry greater burdens of division, greater burdens of cutting off, burdens of schism, burdens of heresy, burdens of dissent, burdens of animosity, burdens of false testimonies, burdens of slanderous accusations. We have tried, and we try, to lay these burdens off the shoulders of our brothers. They love holding those burdens to themselves, they do not want to be lesser, because they have been inflated by those burdens. For even he who puts down the burden he was carrying on his neck becomes as if lesser; but he has laid down the weight, not his stature.
He who tolerates the wicked does not thereby partake in their sins.
But you say, I do not partake in others' sins. As if I were to say to you: Come, partake in others' sins. I do not say this, I know what the Apostle says; but I say this. Because of others' sins, if they were true, and not more your own, you would not abandon the flock of God mixed with sheep and goats; you would not leave the Lord's threshing floor as long as the chaff is being threshed; you would not tear apart the Lord's nets as long as they draw good and bad fish to the shore. And how, you ask, would I endure whom I know to be evil? Would it not be better to endure him, than to carry yourself out? Behold how you would endure: if you heeded the Apostle saying: Each one will bear his own load; this sentence would set you free. For you would not partake in his greed, but you would partake with him at Christ's table. And what harm would it be to you, if you partook with him at Christ's table? The Apostle says: For whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself. Upon himself, not upon you. Surely if you are a judge, if you have received the power to judge, according to ecclesiastical rule, if he is accused before you, if he is convicted by true documents and witnesses, control, correct, excommunicate, degrade. Let tolerance be vigilant in such a way that discipline does not sleep.
Caecilianus, absent and innocent, is condemned. The laws of the emperors against the Donatists. Caecilianus acquitted three times. Primianus.
But they say, "Caecilian was condemned." Condemned? By whom? First in absence, then by traitors though innocent. These things were alleged, inserted in the records, and proven. They indeed tried to weaken the power of the truth and strove as much as they could to cloud its clarity with empty mists of accusations. The Lord was present; His clarity overcame their mists. And see how, unknowingly, they absolved the Church of the whole world, in whose communion we rejoice, whatever we might be within it. We do not defend ourselves, but we defend it; maintaining it, we defend the lord's threshing floor. I proclaim for the lord's threshing floor. Who you are within it, I do not want you to care; I await the winnowing fan. I do not want, I say, that you care about this; or if you want to care, do not care with contention, so that you may heal your brothers. Tend to the chaff, if you can; but do not neglect the wheat, if you cannot tend to the chaff. Sometimes the chaff is shaken out from the lord's threshing floor; sometimes also the grains, but not far. However, there are good workers, who go around the threshing floor and bring back what has been shaken out with some cleaning instruments, even if by pulling or even by compelling. The cleaning instruments are these worldly laws. Bring back, even with the earth, drag the wheat, lest the wheat perish because of the earth. They say, "Caecilian was condemned." He was once condemned in absence, thrice absolved in presence. We responded to them; and to the unteachable men, as much as we could, we briefly reminded them of their deeds, and said: Why do you recite against Caecilian the council of seventy bishops, passing sentences on an absent one? More sentences were passed by the council of the Maximianists against the absent Primianus. We said: Caecilian was condemned by those in his absence, Primianus was condemned by these in his absence. Just as these do not prejudice against the absent Primianus, so those could not prejudice against the absent Caecilian.
The Donatists condemned by their own opinion.
What do you think they answered in this distress? What indeed could they say? How could they escape, enclosed in the nets of truth? To violently break these nets, what did they say briefly and absolutely on our behalf? And indeed many things, and almost all in our favor, as the deeds will show, which your Charity is now about to read. But at this point I ask you, and I implore you through Christ, that you hold, say, and always have on your lips. For no shorter, more certain, and clearer sentence could be given on our behalf. So what did he say, when we objected: As these do not prejudice Caecilian, so also those do not prejudice Primianus. And the defender of their cause said: Neither does a case prejudice a case, nor a person prejudice a person. O brief, clear, true response! For he did not know what he said; but like Caiaphas, though he was the high priest, he prophesied: Neither does a case prejudice a case, nor a person prejudice a person. If neither a case prejudices a case, nor a person prejudices a person, then each one carries their own burden. Let him now go and object to you about Caecilianus; not to you, a mere human, but to the whole world he should object about Caecilianus. When he does this, he objects to the innocent on behalf of the innocent. Certainly, the deeds will show this very clearly. Caecilianus has been acquitted. But even assume he was not acquitted, assume he was found guilty; hear your own voice from the whole world: Neither does a case prejudice a case, nor a person prejudice a person. O heretical soul, incurable, spirited, when you pass judgment on yourself, why do you accuse the judge? If I corrupted him to judge in my favor, who corrupted you to condemn yourself?
What holds the Donatists in error.
Would that they think on these things at some time, or at least think on them late, or think on them when their animosity subsides; let them return to themselves, question themselves, scrutinize themselves, answer themselves, and not fear those to whom they have long sold falsehood for the sake of truth. For they fear to offend these; they are ashamed before human weakness, and are not ashamed before the most invincible truth. Certainly they fear this, lest it be said to them: Why then did you deceive us? Why did you lead us astray? Why did you speak so many evil and false things? They should reply, if they feared God. It was human to err, but it is diabolical to remain in error out of animosity. Indeed, it would have been better if we had never erred; but let us do at least what next best, to correct error sometime. We deceived because we were deceived; we preached false things because we believed those preaching false things. Let them say to their people: We erred together, let us together withdraw from error. We were leaders to the pit for you, and you followed when we led to the pit; and now follow when we lead to the Church. They could say these things; they could say to the indignant, to the enraged, and in time they would set aside their indignation, and love unity though late.
Patience must be shown towards them.
Nevertheless, brothers, let us be patient with them. They are in a state of fervor and swelling of the eyes whom we are treating. I do not say that we should cease to treat them, but that we should not provoke them to greater bitterness with insults; let us gently render reason, and not boast proudly of victory. For the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, says the Apostle, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, correcting with modesty those who dissent; if perhaps God may grant them repentance, and they may recover from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will. Therefore, bear patiently, if you are healthy, bear patiently, as far as you are healthy. For who is perfectly healthy? When the just King sits on his throne, who will boast of having a pure heart, or who will boast of being free from sin? Therefore, as long as we are such, we owe this to ourselves, that we bear one another's burdens. Turned to the Lord, etc.