Sermon 215
SERMO 215
IN THE CONFESSION OF THE CREED
The creed must always be retained in mind and heart.
The Creed of the Most Holy Mystery, which you have all together received and which each of you has today recited, are the words in which the faith of Mother Church, established upon the firm foundation, which is Christ the Lord, is firmly strengthened. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Therefore, you have received and recited what you must always retain in mind and heart, what you should recite upon your beds, think about in the streets, and not forget between meals; in which even while your bodies are sleeping, your hearts should keep watch. For renouncing the devil, his displays and his angels, withdrawing your mind and soul from them, it is necessary to forget past things, and with the old age of former life despised, to renew life itself with holy habits according to the new person; and as the Apostle says, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, to follow the prize of the upward call of God; and to believe what you have not yet seen, so that you may rightfully attain what you have believed. For what anyone sees, why does one hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
We believe in God the Father almighty.
Faith, therefore, is this and the rule of salvation: to believe in God the Father almighty, creator of all things, king of the ages, immortal and invisible. Indeed, He is the omnipotent God, who in the beginning of the world made all things from nothing, who is before the ages, and who made and rules the ages. For He is not increased by time, or extended by place, or concluded or bounded by any material; but remains with Himself and in Himself a full and complete eternity, which human thought cannot comprehend, nor can tongue narrate. For if the gift which He promises to His saints, neither eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man; how can it be that the one who promises it, either be conceived by mind, or thought by heart, or narrated by tongue?
Who will describe the generation of the Word, whether eternal or temporal?
We believe also in His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, true God from true God, God the Father's Son, God, but not two gods; for He and the Father are one; and He intimated to the people through Moses, saying: "Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: the Lord your God is one God." But if you wish to contemplate how the eternal Son was born of the eternal Father without time; Isaiah the prophet rebukes you, saying: "Who shall recount His generation?" Therefore, the birth of God from God you can neither think nor narrate; you are only permitted to believe, so that you may be saved, just as the Apostle says: "For it is necessary for him who approaches God to believe that He exists, and He will be a rewarder to those who seek Him." But if you wish to know His birth according to the flesh, which He deigned to assume for our salvation, listen and believe that He was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Though who indeed can narrate even this very birth of His? For who can worthily estimate that God wished to be born as a man for the sake of men, that a virgin conceived without male seed, gave birth without corruption, and remained intact after giving birth? For our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to enter the virgin's womb, filled the woman's limbs without stain, nurtured His mother without corruption, formed by Himself, and came forth preserving the integrity of His mother's womb; so that He, from whom it was deemed fitting to be born, would invest her with the honor of mother and the sanctity of virgin. Who thinks of this? Who narrates it? Therefore, who indeed narrates this birth of his? For whose mind is sufficient to think, whose tongue sufficient to declare, not only that in the beginning was the Word, having no beginning of birth; but also that the Word became flesh, choosing a virgin to make her His mother, making a mother whom He kept as a virgin; the Son of God conceived by no mother, the Son of man sown by no man; bringing fecundity to a woman by coming, taking away nothing of integrity by being born? What is this? Who speaks it? Who is silent about it? And wonderful to say: what we cannot express, we are not allowed to be silent about; by sounding, we preach, what we cannot comprehend in thought. Indeed, we cannot fully speak of such a gift of God, because we are small for narrating His greatness; and yet we are compelled to praise, lest we remain ungrateful by being silent. But thanks be to God, because what cannot be suitably said, can be faithfully believed.
Mary conceived by believing, gave birth by believing.
Let us therefore believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. For the blessed Mary herself, whom she bore believing, conceived believing. For when she had been promised a son, she had asked how it would happen, since she had not known a man; indeed, she only knew the mode of conception and birth, which she herself had not experienced, but had learned from other women through the frequenting of nature, namely that a man is born from a man and a woman; she received an answer from the angel: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the holy one to be born from you will be called the Son of God. When the angel had said this, she, full of faith, and first conceiving Christ in her mind before in her womb, said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word. She said, let the one conceived without the semen of a man in a virgin be born; born of the Holy Spirit and an intact woman, in whom the intact Church might be reborn of the Holy Spirit. The holy one to be born from a human mother without a human father shall be called the Son of God; for he who was marvelously born of God the Father without any mother, it was fitting that he become the son of man; so that he might be born in that flesh, emerging from closed wombs small, in which he might enter risen great through closed doors. These are wondrous because they are divine; ineffable because they are inscrutable; the mouth of man is not sufficient to explain, because neither is the heart of man to investigate. Mary believed, and what she believed was done in her. Let us also believe, so that what happened might benefit us as well. Therefore, although this birth is marvelous: consider, O man, what your God has undertaken for you, the Creator for the creature; so that God, remaining in God, living eternally with the eternal, the Son equal to the Father, would not disdain to take on the form of a servant for the guilty and sinful servants. For indeed this was not exhibited by human merits. For because of our iniquities, we rather deserved punishment: but if he had observed iniquities, who would have endured? Therefore, for the impious and sinful servants, the Lord condescended to be born a servant and man of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Perhaps this may seem a small thing, that God came for men, the just for sinners, the innocent for the guilty, the king for captives, the Lord clothed in the flesh of humanity: that He was seen on earth and conversed with men. He was crucified and moreover, dead and buried. Do you not believe? Perhaps you say: When did this happen? Hear at what time: Under Pontius Pilate. The name of the judge is placed for your sake, lest you doubt the time. Therefore believe that the Son of God was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried. Indeed, nobody has greater love than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. Do you think nobody? Indeed, nobody at all. It is true; Christ said this. Let us ask the Apostle and he will answer us: "Christ," he says, "died for the ungodly." And again he says: "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." Behold, therefore, in Christ, we find greater love, who laid down His life not for His friends, but for His enemies. How great the love of God for men, and what kind of affection, to love even sinners so much that He would die out of love for them. For God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Believe this therefore yourself, and for your salvation do not be ashamed to confess it. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Finally, lest you doubt or be ashamed, when you first believed, you received the sign of Christ on your forehead, as in the house of modesty. Recall your forehead, lest you fear another's speech. For, as the Lord Himself says, "Whoever is ashamed of Me before men, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him before the angels of God." Therefore do not be ashamed of the ignominy of the cross, which God Himself did not hesitate to endure for you. Say with the Apostle: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And the same Apostle answers you: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He who was crucified by one people then is now fixed in the hearts of all peoples.
The faith in the resurrection distinguishes Christians from all other people.
But you, whoever you are, who wish to boast more of power than of humility, receive consolation, have exultation. For he who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried, on the third day he rose from the dead. Perhaps you also doubt here, perhaps you tremble. When it was said to you: Believe in the born, believe in the suffering, the crucified, dead, and buried; as if about a man you more easily believed. Now because it is said: On the third day he rose from the dead, do you doubt, O man? To provide one example out of many, consider God, think of the Almighty; and do not doubt. For if He could make you from nothing when you did not exist; why could He not raise His man, whom He had already made, from the dead? Therefore believe, brothers: when it concerns faith, there is no need to use long discourse. This faith alone is what distinguishes and separates Christians from all other men. For that he died and was buried, even pagans now believe, and Jews then saw; but that he truly rose from the dead on the third day, neither pagan nor Jew admits. Therefore, the resurrection of the dead distinguishes the life of our faith from unfaithful dead. For even the apostle Paul, when writing with Timothy, said: Remember, he says, Christ Jesus risen from the dead. Therefore let us believe, brothers; what we believe happened in Christ, we hope for this to come in us. For it is God who promises: He does not deceive.
Christ's ascension; judgment.
After He rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. Do you still perhaps not believe? Listen to the Apostle: He who descended, he says, is also he who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Take heed lest you feel the one whom you do not wish to believe as risen, as judging. For he who does not believe is already judged. For he who now sits at the right hand of the Father as our advocate, from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. Let us therefore believe, that whether we live or die, we may be the Lord's.
Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the flesh, eternal life.
Let us therefore believe in the Holy Spirit. For He is God, because it is written: God is Spirit. Through Him we have received the remission of sins, through Him we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, through Him we hope for eternal life. But be careful not to suffer error by counting, and think that I have said three gods, because I named one God three times. There is one substance of divinity in the Trinity, one power, one majesty, one name of divinity; as He Himself said to the disciples when He rose from the dead: Go, baptize the nations, not in many names, but in one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore believing in the divine Trinity and the triune unity, beware, beloved, lest anyone seduce you away from the faith and truth of the catholic Church. For he who preaches to you otherwise than what you have received, let him be anathema. Listen to the Apostle, not me, who says: But if even we, or an angel from heaven, preach to you otherwise than what you have received, let him be anathema.
Through the holy Church.
You certainly see, dearest ones, even in the very words of the holy Creed, how at the conclusion of all the rules that pertain to the sacrament of faith, a sort of supplement is added, so that it is said: Through the holy Church. Therefore, flee as much as you can from different and various deceivers, whose sects and names it is now too lengthy to recount due to their multitude. For we have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. I commend to your hearts this one thing: to turn away entirely your mind and hearing from anyone who is not catholic, so that you may be able to grasp the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life through the one, true, and holy catholic Church; in which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, is taught, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever.