Sermon 176

SERMO 176

ON THE THREE READINGS OF THE APOSTLE (1 TIM 1, 15-16):
"Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance," etc.
Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
"Come, let us adore, and let us bow down to Him," etc.
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten lepers, who stood afar off; And lifted up their voices, saying: Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Whom when he saw, he said: Go, show yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before his feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said: Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger. And he said to him: Arise, go thy way; for thy faith hath made thee whole.
Where ten lepers were cleansed by the Lord.
AGAINST THE PELAGIANS

Readings and chants in the Church.

Listen attentively, brothers, to what the Lord deems worthy to admonish through the divine readings, with Him giving, and me ministering. We have heard the first reading of the Apostle: "This saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But for this reason, I obtained mercy, that in me Jesus Christ might display all His longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life." We have perceived this from the apostolic reading. Then we sang the Psalm, exhorting one another with one voice and one heart, saying: "Come, let us worship and bow down, let us weep before the Lord who made us: and let us anticipate His face with confession, and with psalms let us rejoice before Him." After this, the gospel reading revealed to us the ten lepers cleansed, and one of them, a foreigner, giving thanks to his healer. Let us, as much as we can within the time, consider these three readings, saying a few things about each; and, as much as we can strive, with the Lord's help, not to dwell on any one of them in such a way as to bring hindrance to the other two.

Thanksgiving owed by all to the doctor. Original sin in infants. Bishops are the guardians of orphans.

The Apostle presents to us the knowledge of thanksgiving. Remember what the final evangelical reading echoes, how the Lord Jesus praises the one giving thanks, reproves the ungrateful, cleansed in the skin, leprous in the heart. What then does the Apostle say? "This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance." What is this saying? That Christ Jesus came into the world. For what purpose? To save sinners. What about you? "Of whom I am the foremost." He who says, either: I am not a sinner, or: I was not, is ungrateful to the Savior. No human being in this mortal mass derived from Adam, no human being at all is not sick, none is healed without the grace of Christ. What about little children, if they are sick from Adam? For they too are brought to the Church; and if they cannot run there with their own feet, they run with the feet of others, to be healed. The mother Church lends them others' feet to come, others' heart to believe, others' tongue to confess: so that just as they are burdened by another's sin, so, when they are healed, they are saved by another's confession. Therefore, let no one whisper to you foreign doctrines. This the Church has always had, always held: this she received from the faith of the elders; this she perseveres in keeping until the end. For the physician is not needed by those who are well, but by those who are sick. Why then did the infant have need of Christ, if he is not sick? If he is well, why does he seek the physician through those who love him? If when infants are carried, they are said to have no sin of propagation at all, and they come to Christ; why are those who bring them not told in the Church: Take away these innocent ones from here: the physician is not needed by those who are well, but by those who are sick; Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners? This has never been said, nor will it ever be said. Therefore, let each one speak for another who cannot speak for himself, brothers. The possessions of orphans are greatly commended to bishops, how much more the grace of little ones? The bishop protects the orphan, lest, when the parents are dead, he be oppressed by strangers. He should cry out even more for the little one, whom he fears may be killed by the parents; let him cry out with the Apostle: "This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world, for no other reason, but to save sinners." He who comes to Christ has something to be healed in him: he who does not, has no reason to be offered to the physician. Let the parents choose one of two: either confess the sin to be healed in their little ones, or stop offering them to the physician. This is nothing other than wishing to offer the healthy to the physician. What do you offer? To be baptized. Whom? The infant. To whom do you offer? To Christ. Certainly to him who came into the world? Yes, he says. Why did he come into the world? To save sinners. Therefore, the one whom you offer, has something to be saved in him? If you say: He has, by confessing you remove it; if you say: He does not have, by denying, you hold it.

Paul, how the foremost of sinners.

"Sinners, he says, to save, of whom I am the foremost. Were there no sinners before Paul? Certainly even Adam himself before all, and the earth full of sinners destroyed by the flood, and how many thereafter. Whence is it true, 'I am the foremost'? He called himself foremost, not by the order of sinners, but by the magnitude of sin. He considered the magnitude of his sin, whence he called himself the foremost of sinners; just as among advocates, for example, some are called foremost: this one is foremost, not because he has more years since he began practicing law; but because from the time he started, he surpassed the others. Thus the Apostle may speak in another place as to why he is foremost among sinners: 'I,' he says, 'am the least of the Apostles, not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.' No one was more fierce among persecutors: therefore, no one was prior among sinners."

In Paul's healing, hope of salvation was brought to the desperate.

But I obtained mercy, he says. And why he obtained mercy, he explains the reason: That in me, he says, Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, for an example to those who shall believe in him to life everlasting. Christ, he says, who will grant forgiveness to sinners turning to him even up to his enemies, first chose me, the fiercest enemy; so that when he healed me, no one else might despair. Doctors do this: when they come to places where they are unknown, they first choose to heal desperate cases; so that in them they might both exercise benevolence and commend their teaching; so that everyone in that place might say to his neighbor: Go to that doctor, be assured, he heals you. And he: He heals me? Do you not see what I suffer? I know something similar: what you suffer, I also indeed suffered. Thus Paul says to every sick person, and to anyone wishing to despair of themselves: He who healed me, sent me to you, and said to me: Go to that despairing one, and tell him what you had, what I healed in you, how quickly I healed you. From heaven, I called, struck down with a single word and cast down, raised and chose with another, filled and sent with a third, freed and crowned with a fourth. Go, tell the sick, cry out to the despairing: This saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Why do you fear? Why do you tremble? Of whom I am the first. I, he says, speak to you, healthy to the sick, standing to the lying down, assured to the despairing. For this reason, I obtained mercy, that in me Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering. He bore with my disease for a long time and so took it away; like a good doctor he patiently endured a madman, tolerated me striking him, and granted that I might be struck for him. He showed all longsuffering in me, for an example to those who shall believe in him to life everlasting.

Our salvation is from God, not from ourselves. The benefits of grace. A double confession.

Therefore do not despair. You are sick, approach him, and be healed: you are blind, approach him, and be enlightened. And those who are healthy, give thanks to him: and those who are sick, run to him for healing; let all say: Come, let us adore, and prostrate ourselves before him, and weep before the Lord who made us, both men and saved ones. For if he made us humans, but we ourselves made ourselves saved; we did something better than him. For the saved man is better than any man. Therefore, if God made you a human, and you made yourself a good human; what you did is better. Do not exalt yourself above God: submit yourself to God, adore, prostrate, confess to him who made you: because no one recreates, unless he who creates, no one restores, unless he who made. This is also in another Psalm: He made us, and not we ourselves. Surely when he made you, you had nothing to do: but when you already are, you also have something to do; you would run to the doctor, implore the doctor, who is everywhere. And so that you might implore, he stirred your heart, and gave you the ability to implore; for it is God, he says, who works in you both to will and to act, for his good pleasure. For so that you might have a good will, his call preceded. Cry out: My God, his mercy will precede me. That you might be, that you might feel, that you might hear, that you might consent, his mercy preceded you. He preceded you in all things: you also precede him in something. In what, you ask, in what? Confess all these good things you have from God, and whatever evil you have from yourself. Do not despise him in your good things, praise yourself; do not accuse him in your evil things, excuse yourself: this is true confession. He who preceded you in so many good things, will come to you, and inspect his gifts and your evils; he inspects how you have used his good. Therefore, because he has preceded you in all these gifts, see in what you may precede his coming; listen to the Psalm: Let us come before his face with confession. Let us come before his face: that before he comes, he may be propitious; before he is present, he may be appeased. You have a priest through whom you can appease your God, and he himself with the Father is God to you, who is human for you. Thus you will rejoice in Psalms, coming before his face with confession. Rejoice in the Psalm: coming before his face with confession, accuse yourself; rejoicing in the Psalm, praise him. By accusing yourself, and praising him who made you; he who died for you will come, and will give you life.

Various and inconsistent doctrine is the leprosy of the mind.

Hold this, persist in this. Let no one vary, let no one be leprous. Inconstant doctrine, not having one color, signifies the leprosy of the mind: and this Christ cleanses. Perhaps you have varied in something, and you have inspected, and changed your opinion for the better; and what was varied has become of one color. Do not attribute this to yourself, lest you be among the nine who did not give thanks. One gave thanks, the rest were Jews; he was an alien, he signified the alien nations, that number gave tithes to Christ. Therefore, we owe to Him what we are, what we live, what we understand: that we are men, that we have lived well, that we have understood rightly, we owe to Him. Nothing is ours, except the sin that we have. For what do you have that you have not received? Therefore you, especially those who know what you hear, being cured from sickness, being cleansed from variety, raise your heart upward, and give thanks to God.