Sermon 17
SERMO 17
SERMON ON PSALM 49
At the judgment, Christ will come manifest and will not be silent. Even now Christ speaks in many ways for our salvation.
We have sung: God will come manifest, our God, and He will not be silent. This scripture foretold that Christ God would come to judge the living and the dead. For when He first came to be judged, He was hidden; when He will come to judge, He will be manifest. How He was then hidden, understand from this where the Apostle says: For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But then He was silent when questioned, as the Gospel speaks, so that the prophecy of Isaiah saying: As a sheep to the slaughter he was led, and as a lamb before its shearer was without voice, so he opened not his mouth, might be fulfilled in Him. Therefore, He will come manifest, and He will not be silent. It is said: He will not be silent when judging, because He was silent when judged. For as far as His necessary voice to us is concerned, when was He silent? He was not silent through the Patriarchs, He was not silent through the Prophets, He was not silent through the mouth of His flesh. And if He were silent now, would He not speak through the Scriptures? The reader ascends, but He is not silent. The preacher speaks. If he speaks the truth, Christ speaks. If Christ were silent, I would not tell you these things. Nor was He silent through your mouth. For when you were singing, He was speaking. He does not remain silent. It is necessary that we listen, but with the ear of the heart, for it is easy to hear with the ear of the flesh. We should hear with those ears which the Master Himself sought when He said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear. For who before Him, when these words were spoken, was standing without ears of the flesh? Everyone had ears, and yet few had them. Not all had ears to hear, that is, to obey.
The desire of the shepherd is the salvation of the flock.
How terribly he spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, I believe you paid attention. I believe you heard how he said: I will send you to the house of Israel, not to a people of another language. However, the people do not want to listen to you because they do not want to listen to me. What does it show, except that God himself was speaking through the Prophet? Because indeed in those prophetic words we are mostly terrified, that is, we leaders who were placed to speak to his people, we first see our own faces in those words. For it was shown to us, with the reader sounding as if a mirror where we look at ourselves, and we saw ourselves. Look at yourselves. Behold, I do what I heard there. If you do not separate, he says, the just from the unjust, if you do not say to the sinner: You will die by death, and show him to turn away from his iniquities, he indeed will die in his sins, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you say and he disregards and does not obey, he will die in his crimes, but you will save your soul. I tell you, I save my soul. For truly, I am not in danger, but placed in destruction, if I remain silent. But when I have spoken, and fulfilled my duty, you must now watch your danger. But what do I want? What do I desire? What do I long for? Why am I speaking? Why am I sitting here? Why am I living? Except with this intention, that we might live together with Christ. This is my desire, this is my honor, this is my possession, this is my joy, this is my glory. But if you do not listen to me and yet I have not remained silent, I will save my soul. But I do not wish to be saved without you.
Sins of habit are not to be disregarded even if Christ is currently silent.
Therefore, do not disdain, my Brothers, the sins in which perchance you have already become accustomed. For every sin becomes cheapened by habit, and it seems to a man as if it were nothing. Hardness has already lost its pain. That which is very rotten does not hurt; that which does not hurt should not be considered healthy, but counted as dead. Pay attention to what Scripture says, and see there how you ought to live. Who does not disdain the sin of drunkenness? Such a sin abounds, and it is disdained. The heart of the drunkards has already lost reason, it does not feel pain, because it has no health. When something is pricked and hurts, either it is healthy or there is some hope of health in it. But when it is touched, pricked, or bound and does not hurt, it should be considered dead, or to be cut off from the body. But sometimes we spare and have no knowledge except to speak. We are slow to excommunicate, to cast out from the Church. Sometimes indeed we fear lest the one who is beaten becomes worse by the very scourge. But will He spare, will He be silent whom we ought to fear? You have heard in that very Psalm, my Brothers, when He enumerated the sins of the sinners, He said: You did these things and I was silent. Contrary to this it is said: He will come and not be silent. His presence will not be silent. For although the Lord Christ is signified as being silent during judgment, so that it might also be fulfilled in Him this prophecy which I mentioned a little earlier, apart from this, now God Himself through Himself the Lord Christ is silent. For He has ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. As long as He is there, until He comes, He is silent. We hear His voices in the books, we do not hear from His mouth. However, you have heard His voices from the Holy Scriptures in this place; you have heard them while you recall yourselves, and perhaps discuss these matters among yourselves.
Bad interpretations concerning the silence of God.
Do you hear Him when you commit adultery, and think you are hiding because man does not see you? He sees you, but He is silent. When you steal, you catch the eyes of the one from whom you steal, and if he does not notice, you do it. If you see that it cannot be hidden, you do not do it. If you do not do it because you fear to be seen, you have done it inwardly, you have done it in your heart. You hold yourself as a thief, and have taken nothing. But even if the opportunity arises to accomplish your evil deed, you steal and rejoice. Why? Because He is silent? Therefore, hear the psalm. It admonishes you, whoever you are, who perhaps stands here today and did something evil at night, it admonishes you, it says to you: These things you did and I was silent. You suspected iniquity, that I would be like you. O people, who neither have these words that I am going to say in your mouth, nor in your heart, you are happy! Are not people doing evil things daily, or those who repent of having done well and from perverse repentance pour out what they milked, do they not daily say and mutter among themselves: "Truly, if these things displeased God, would He allow them to happen? Or would those who do them be happy on earth? We see robbers, we see oppressors of the weak, we see expellers of neighbors, we see invaders of boundaries with violence, we see slanderers, and yet they are powerful, rich, and happy on this earth. If truly God saw these things, if He cared about these things, would He spare them?" They add this as well, which is worse: "God is not pleased except by the wicked." However, let it happen that someone does something good and some temptation follows, immediately they have at hand: "It is not expedient to do good. It is good for the one who does evil." Is it little that you wish to do evil, and do you curse those who do good? You did these things, He says, and I was silent. You suspected iniquity, that I would be like you. What does it mean: that I would be like you? Because you suspected that evil pleased me as it does you. You said this in your heart, you did not say it to your neighbor, but I heard when you said it in your heart. What is worse, they progress into these words, so that they do not even fear to be heard.
God will convict the sinner and place him before His face.
Therefore, you suspected iniquity because I will be like you. I will rebuke you. How you do not think, and when you do not think, I will rebuke you. I am silent with restraint, but I will not be silent when I judge. I will rebuke you. And what will I do to you when I rebuke you? I will place you before your own face. For now, when you do evil, you think that you are good because you do not want to see yourself. You blame others, you do not look at yourself, you accuse others, you do not think about yourself; you place others before your eyes, you place yourself behind your back. When I rebuke you, I do the opposite. I take you from your back and place you before your eyes. You will see yourself, and you will mourn for yourself. There will not be then a way to correct yourself. Therefore, you despise the time of mercy, the time of judgment will come. Because you sang to me in the church: I will sing of mercy and judgment to you, Lord. From our mouth it comes out, everywhere the church resounds of Christ: I will sing of mercy and judgment to you, Lord. It is the time of mercy so that we may be corrected; the time of judgment has not yet come. There is place, there is space; we have sinned, let us be corrected. The way is not yet finished, the day is not yet closed, it is not yet expired. Let us not despair, which is worse, because for those very human sins and tolerable ones, and so much more frequent as they are lesser, God has established in the Church times for showing mercy, daily medicine so that we may say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; so that with our faces washed by these words, we may approach the altar, so that with our faces washed by these words, we may communicate with the body and blood of Christ.
Many do not want to seek forgiveness.
What is more grievous, men so despise the very remedy that they not only do not grant pardon when wrong is done to them, but they do not even wish to ask for it when they themselves have done wrong. Temptation has entered, anger has crept in. Wrath has dominated as much as it could, so much that not only has the heart been tumultuous, but the tongue has spewed forth insults and wrongdoing. Do you not see where it has pushed you? Do you not see where it hurls you? See it, correct it. Say: "I did wrong," say: "I have sinned." For you will not die when you have said it, rather you will die if you do not say it. Believe, not in me, but in God. What am I? I am a man, I am your equal, I carry flesh, I am weak: let us all believe in God. Pay attention to yourselves. The Lord Christ Himself says - pay attention to yourselves -: If your brother sins, rebuke him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. If he does not listen to you, take with you one or two others. For by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. If he does not listen to them, tell it to the Church. If he does not listen to the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector. A heathen is a Gentile. A Gentile is one who does not believe in Christ. If he does not listen to the Church, consider him dead. But behold he lives, behold he enters, behold he makes the sign, behold he bends the knee, behold he prays, behold he approaches the altar. Let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector. Do not pay attention to those false signs of life in him. He is dead. How can it be that someone lives if even this remedy is despised? If I say to someone in your presence: "You did this," he will reply later: "What did it matter? Tell me inwardly, tell me inwardly that I did wrong, let me see my sin inwardly. Why do you accuse me before the people?" What if I did it and you did not correct it? What if I did it and you still persist? What if I did it, and it still seems right to you in your heart? Because he is silent, are you just? Because he does not avenge immediately, have you done nothing wrong? Do you not fear: I shall argue with you? Do you not fear: I shall set you before your face? Do you not fear?
Even if the judgment of God is far away, the whole human life is brief.
"But you say, 'The judgment is far off.' First, who told you that the day of judgment is far off? If the day of judgment is far off, is your own day far off? How do you know when it is? Did not many healthy men go to sleep and harden? Do we not carry our calamities with us in this flesh? Are we not more fragile than if we were made of glass? For glass, though fragile, if kept well, lasts for a long time, and you find cups from ancestors and forefathers from which grandchildren and great-grandchildren drink. Such great fragility, when guarded, has become very old. But we humans, fragile under so many daily hazards, walk about. And if these sudden accidents do not occur, still we are not able to live long. Human life is entirely short. From infancy to decrepit old age, it is entirely short. If Adam were still living and died today, what would the length of his life have profited him? Moreover, the very day, which naturally burns with deceitful fever, is uncertain. Every day men die. And those who live lead them out, celebrate their funerals, and promise life to themselves. No one says, 'I will amend myself, lest tomorrow I be what he is whom I led out.' Words please you; I seek deeds. Do not sadden me with your wicked habits, for my delight in this life is only your good life."