Sermon 198
SERMO 198
On the Kalends of January, Against the Pagans.
Feast of the Kalends of January.
We admonish your Charity, brothers, since we see that you have gathered today in a solemn manner, and more frequently than usual on this day; to remember what you have just sung, so that your tongue is not clamorous while your heart is mute; but cry out with affection to the ears of God as you have sounded with your voices to each other's ears. For you were singing this: Save us, O Lord our God, gather us from among the Gentiles, to confess your holy name. And now if the solemnity of the Gentiles, which happens on this day in worldly and carnal joy, in the clamor of the vainest and most base songs, in vile feasts and dances, in the celebration of that false festivity, if the things that the Gentiles do do not delight you, you will be gathered from among the Gentiles.
Separation of Christians from the Gentiles.
You certainly sang, and still the sound of the divine song is fresh in your ears: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles. Who can be gathered from among the Gentiles, except when he becomes saved? Therefore, those who are mixed with the Gentiles are not saved; but those who are gathered from the Gentiles are saved, by the salvation of faith, the salvation of hope, the salvation of the most sincere love, the salvation of the spirit, the salvation of the promises of God. Therefore, he who believes, hopes, and loves, is not immediately to be called saved. For it matters what he believes, what he hopes, and what he loves. For no one lives in any kind of life without these three affections of the soul: believing, hoping, and loving. If you do not believe what the Gentiles believe, do not hope for what the Gentiles hope for, do not love what the Gentiles love; you are gathered from among the Gentiles, separated, that is, you are set apart from the Gentiles. Nor should the physical mixture in such a separation of the mind frighten you. For what is so separated, as for them to believe the demons are gods, you to believe that the one and true God is? They hope for the vanity of the world, you hope for eternal life with Christ? They love the world, you love the maker of the world? Therefore, let a different belief, a different hope, a different love, prove itself in life, show itself in deeds. Will you celebrate the giving of New Year's gifts like a pagan, play dice, and get yourself drunk: how do you believe differently, hope differently, love differently? How do you sing with a free face: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles? For you are separated from the Gentiles, mixed in body with the Gentiles, with a dissimilar life. And how great this separation is, see if you now do, if you now prove. For now our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man for us, gave Himself as a price for us. Therefore, He gave His own price: for this purpose, He gave it to redeem, to gather from among the Gentiles. But if you mix with the Gentiles, you do not want to follow Him who redeemed you: you mix with the Gentiles in life, deeds, heart, believing such things, hoping such things, loving such things: you are ungrateful to your Redeemer, and you do not recognize your cost, the blood of the spotless Lamb. Therefore, if you want to follow your Redeemer, who redeemed you with His blood, do not mix yourself with the Gentiles in similarity of customs and deeds. They give New Year's gifts, you give alms. They are diverted by songs of luxury, you are diverted by the words of the Scriptures: they run to the theater, you to the church: they get drunk, you fast. If you cannot fast today, at least eat with sobriety. If you do this, you have sung well: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles.
The customs of Christians and Gentiles.
Therefore, many will struggle today in their heart with the word they have heard. For we have said, Do not give gifts to the household, give to the poor. It is not enough that you give this much, give even more. Do you not want to give more? At least give this much. But you say to me: When I give gifts, I also receive. What then, do you receive nothing when you give to the poor? Certainly, do not believe what the Gentiles believe; certainly, do not hope for what the Gentiles hope for. Behold, if you say you receive nothing when giving to the poor, you have become part of the Gentiles: in vain you have sung: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the Gentiles. Do not forget that instruction, where it is said: He who gives to the poor will never lack. Have you already forgotten what the Lord will say to those who have given to the poor: Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom? And what will be said to those who have not given: Cast them into eternal fire? Now, those who willingly heard what was said certainly stand with those who did not willingly hear. I now speak to true Christians. If you believe differently, hope differently, love differently; live otherwise, and demonstrate your different faith, hope, and charity with different manners. Listen to the Apostle admonishing: Do not, he says, be yoked together with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? And elsewhere he says: What the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you, he says, to be participants with demons. Therefore, their gods delight in their ways. But He who said: I do not want you to become participants with demons, wanted them separated in life and manners from those who serve demons. Indeed, those demons delight in songs of vanity, in frivolous spectacles, and the various basenesses of theaters, the madness of the circus, the cruelty of the amphitheater, the intense contests of those who engage in disputes and contentions up to enmities over depraved men, over mimics, over actors, over pantomimes, over charioteers, over hunters. Doing these things, they almost place incense to demons from their hearts. For deceiving spirits delight in the deceived; and they are nourished on the evil manners and vile and shameful lives of those they have seduced and deceived. But you, as the Apostle says, did not learn Christ in this way: if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him. Do not therefore become participants with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light: that we too, who proclaim to you the word of the Lord, may be able to rejoice with you and because of you in that perpetual light.