Sermon 167
SERMO 167
ON THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (EPH 5:15-16):
"See then that you walk circumspectly;"
Not as unwise, but as wise.
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Days of evil whence.
You have heard the Apostle being read; indeed, we have all heard him, saying to us: See that you walk carefully; not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. The days are made evil, brothers, by two things: wickedness and misery. Evil days are led by the wickedness of men and the misery of men. Moreover, these days, as far as the span of hours is concerned, are orderly; they follow their turns, mark the times; the sun rises, the sun sets, the times pass. To whom are the times troublesome, if men are not troublesome to themselves? Therefore, as I have said, two things make evil days: the misery of men and the wickedness of men. But the misery of men is universal; wickedness ought not to be universal. From the time Adam fell and was expelled from paradise, days have never been anything but evil. Let us ask these children who are born why they begin with weeping, though they can also laugh. A child is born, and immediately weeps; after I know not how many days, it laughs. When it was weeping at birth, it was a prophet of its own calamity; for tears are witnesses of misery. It has not yet begun to speak, and already it is a prophet. What does it prophesy? That it will be in labor or in fear. And if it lives well and is just, it will certainly always fear, placed amid temptations.
The righteous are never here without persecution.
What does the Apostle say? All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution. Behold, because the days are evil, the righteous cannot live here without persecution. Those who live among the wicked suffer persecution. All the wicked persecute the good, not with iron and stones, but with life and manners. Was any wicked man persecuting the holy Lot in Sodom? No one was troublesome to him; and yet he lived among the impious, and among the unclean, the proud, the blasphemers, he suffered persecution, not by being beaten, but by living among the wicked. Whoever hears me, and does not yet live piously in Christ, begin to live piously in Christ, and you will prove what I say. Finally, when the Apostle was recounting his dangers: In dangers, he said, on the sea, in dangers on the rivers, in dangers in the desert, in dangers among robbers, in dangers among false brethren. Other dangers may cease, but dangers from false brethren will not cease until the end of the world.
Redeem the time.
Let us redeem the time; for the days are evil. Perhaps you expect me to explain what it means to redeem the time. I will say it, though few hear, few bear it, few undertake it, few act on it; nevertheless I will say it, because even those few who will hear me live among the wicked. To redeem the time, this is: when someone brings a lawsuit against you, lose something in order to be free for God, not for lawsuits. So lose; from what you lose, the cost is for time. Indeed, when you go out for your necessities to the market, you give coins, and you buy for yourself bread, or wine, or oil, or wood, or some utensil; you give and you receive, you lose something, you acquire something; this is buying. For if you lose nothing and have what you did not have before, either you found it, or you received it as a gift, or acquired it by inheritance. However, when you lose something in order to have something, then you buy; what you have is bought; what you lose is the price. Just as you lose coins to buy something for yourself, so lose coins to buy peace for yourself. Behold, this is to redeem the time.
A Punic proverb agreeing with the precept of Christ.
There is a well-known Punic proverb, which I will indeed tell you in Latin, because not everyone knows Punic. It is an ancient Punic proverb: The plague seeks a coin; give it two, and it will go away. Does this proverb not seem to be born from the Gospel? For what else did the Lord say, except: Redeeming the time, when He said: If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well? He wants to sue you and take your tunic, he wants to draw you away from your God by lawsuits; you will not have a calm heart, you will not have a tranquil mind, you will be disturbed by your thoughts, you will be irritated against your very adversary. Behold, you have lost time. How much better it is, therefore, to lose money and redeem the time? My brothers, in your cases and in your dealings, when they come to us to be judged, if I tell a Christian man to lose something of his for the sake of redeeming the time, with how much more care and confidence should I tell him to return what belongs to another? For I hear both are Christians. Now the litigious one, who wants to make a case against another and take from him even for a settlement, rejoices at these words. The Apostle said: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, I make a complaint against that Christian, whether he wills it or not, he gives me something to redeem the time, because he heard the bishop. Tell me, if I will say to him: Lose something, so that you may have rest; will I not say to you: Litigious one, wicked son of the devil, why do you try to take what belongs to another? You have no case, and you are full of deceit. If, therefore, I say to him: Give him something, so that he may withdraw from deceit; where will you be, who will have money from deceit? He who redeems time from you to avoid deceit, tolerates evil days here; but you who feed on deceit, you will have evil days here, and after these, you will have worse ones on the day of judgment. But you might laugh at this, because you seize money. Laugh, laugh, and scorn; I will distribute, the one who demands will come.