Sermon 21

SERMO 21

OF THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN IN PSALM 63:
"The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and will have hope."
"In Him shall all the upright in heart be praised."

Although he does not see Him, the righteous will rejoice in the Lord.

The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and will hope in Him, and all those who are upright in heart will glory. Certainly, we have sung this with voice and heart. These words are said to God by the Christian conscience and tongue: The righteous will rejoice, not in the world, but in the Lord. Light has arisen for the righteous, it says elsewhere, and gladness for the upright in heart. You might ask where the gladness comes from. Here you hear: The righteous will rejoice in the Lord. And elsewhere: Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. What is commanded to us? What is given? What is ordered? What is granted? That we may rejoice in the Lord. Who will rejoice in something he cannot see? Do we perhaps see the Lord? We hold this in promise. Now, however, we walk by faith, as long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. By faith, not by sight. When by sight? When it will be fulfilled what the same John says: Beloved, we are children of God now, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Then, therefore, there will be great and perfect gladness, then full joy, where hope no longer consoles but reality nourishes. However, even now, before the reality itself comes to us, before we come to the reality itself, let us rejoice in the Lord. For indeed the hope itself is not small, whose reality will later be. And in these temporal matters, in the joy, not of the Lord but of the world, many love something, and have not yet reached what they love. And yet the fervor runs in hope, it does not yet hold the reality. For example, you love money, you would not love it if you did not hope. You love a wife, not yet married but to be married, and perhaps she who is to be married is loved, and once married, she is hated. Why is this? Because once married, she did not appear as she was pictured in the mind to be married. But God does not become worthless once present, He is loved while absent. For however much the human mind has magnified the good that God is, it acts less and is far below, and it is necessary that acquisition finds more than planning thought formed. Therefore, we will love more when we see if we were able to love even before we saw. Now therefore we love in hope. Therefore, the righteous rejoice, he says, in the Lord. And immediately, because he does not yet see, and he will hope in Him.

We draw near to God in humility and charity.

However, we have the first fruits of the Spirit, and perhaps in some way, we approach Him whom we love, and what we eagerly desire to eat and drink, now we feebly taste and sample. How do we prove this? For God, whom we are commanded to love, in whom we are commanded to delight, is not gold, or silver, or earth, or heaven, or the light of this sun, or anything that shines from heaven, or anything that glistens on earth bathed in light. He is not any body. God is spirit. Therefore, it says, those who worship must worship in spirit and truth. Not in any place of the body, because He is not a body, not as if on a high mountain so that through the height of the mountain you might think you approach God. The Lord is indeed high, but He regards the humble; the high He knows from afar, the humble not from afar. Certainly, He is high, and surely, if He knows the high from afar due to His loftiness, He must regard the humble even from further away. "If He is far from the high in His height so as to know them from afar, how much more," someone might say, "should His loftiness be removed from the humble." It is not so. The Lord is indeed high and regards the humble. How does He regard them? The Lord is near to those who crush the heart. Do not, therefore, seek a high mountain, from where you think you might be nearer to God. If you exalt yourself, He withdraws far from you; if you humble yourself, He inclines towards you. The tax collector stood far off, and therefore God approached him more readily: he did not dare to lift his eyes to heaven, and already he had with him the one who made heaven. Why then do we rejoice in the Lord if the Lord is so far from us? And let Him not be far! You make Him far by your actions. Love and He will draw near; love and He will dwell with you. The Lord is near; be not anxious about anything. Do you wish to see whether, if you love, He will be with you? God is love. Why do your thoughts spread far and wide, and you say to yourself, "Do you think, what is God? Do you think, what is God like?" Whatever you imagine, it is not; whatever you grasp by thought, it is not. For if He were, He could not be comprehended by thought. But to take some taste, God is love. You will tell me: "Do you think, what is love?" Love is that by which we love. What do we love? The ineffable good, the beneficent good, the Creator of all good things. Let Him delight you, from whom you have whatever delights you. I do not speak of sin, for sin alone you do not have from Him. Except for sin, you have whatever else you have from Him.

Except for sin, you have everything else from God. Sin is nothing else but the bad use of good things.

Therefore, do not understand and say that it is a sin when I said: “Delight yourself in Him from whom you have whatever delights you” and say: “Behold, sin delights me, do I have sin from God?” Consider first whether perhaps sin does not delight you, but something else delights you when you commit sin. By loving a creature inordinately, contrary to decent use, contrary to what is lawful, contrary to the law and will of the Creator Himself, you sin in loving the creature. For you do not love the sin itself; but by loving what you love wrongly, you are ensnared by sin. You seek food in a net, and unknowingly you consume sin. Finally, you defend yourself thus: “If it is a sin to drink too much, why did God create wine? If it is a sin to love gold – I am a lover of gold, not the creator; God is the creator of gold – why did He create what is evil to love?” Thus with the rest that you love wrongly, in which all lust lies, where all faults are committed. Pay attention, observe, consider, and see that every creature of God is good. And there is no sin there, except because you misuse it. Therefore, hear this, O man. You say: “Why did God create what He prohibits me from loving? He would not have created it, and there would not be something for me to love. He would not have created a creature which He commands me not to love, and there would not be something for me to love, and by loving be condemned.” If the very creature, which you love wrongly because you do not love yourself, could speak, it would answer you: “Would you wish that God had not made me so there would be nothing for you to love? Would you wish that He had not made you so that there would be none to love?” Now see how unjust you are, and in your very words you are discovered to be most unjust. You want God to have made you, who is above you, but you do not want Him to have made any good thing below you. Whatever God made is good. But there are some great goods, some small goods, yet all are good. Some goods are heavenly, others are earthly. Some are spiritual goods, others are bodily goods. Some are eternal goods, others are temporal goods. Yet all good, because the good one made them good. Therefore it is said in a certain place of the divine Scriptures: Order love in me. God made you something good under Him; He made something inferior and below you. You are under another, yet above another. Do not, having left behind the higher good, lower yourself to an inferior good. Be upright, that you may be praised, because all the upright in heart will be praised. For why do you sin, except because you handle inordinately the things you received for use? Be well using inferior things, and you will rightly enjoy the higher good.

God is to be loved above all things.

Now listen and examine your own understandings, and question yourself who holds them, and the things which you handle. Behold, if in your business you place silver before gold, lead before silver, dust before lead, would you not be judged by all your associates—if perhaps you are a merchant—as the most foolish, and be excluded from their company, and be called harmful, and perhaps even need to be healed with a blow to the head? For what else will all your associates say when you declare: "Silver is more costly than gold, or better than gold?" Will they not shout: "You are insane, you are foolish, what are you going through?" Everyone in your house shouts: "What are you going through?" when you place silver before gold. And no one says to you: "What are you going through?" when you place gold before God. "How," you ask, "do I place gold before God? For if by some madness I have placed silver before gold, therefore I am called mad, because of two things, which I see both, which I regard both, which I handle both with my hand, I place the less valuable before the more valuable. How do I place gold before God? I see gold, I do not see God." Nor can you be excused on this account. Why do you love silver? Because it is precious, because it is valued highly. Why more gold? Because it is more precious. Silver is precious, gold is more precious. God is love itself.

The sinner prefers gold and other visible goods to the invisible God.

Behold, I will say something about the gift of God, to convince you more certainly how you place gold before God, although you see gold, but do not see God; and therefore you do not seem to place it before, because no one seems to place a thing he sees before something he does not see. Behold, I say something. What do you think? Is faith silver? Is it gold? Is it money? Is it cattle? Is it land? Is it heaven? It is none of these things, and yet it is something. Not only something, but also something great. Meanwhile, I am not speaking of that superior faith, by which you are called faithful, approaching the table of the Lord your God, responding in faith to the words of faith. Meanwhile, if I move this for a little while, I will speak of that faith which is also commonly called faith, not which the Lord your God commands you greatly but which you demand from your servant. I speak of that faith, because even that one is commanded to you by your Lord, that you should not defraud anyone, keep faith in business, keep faith to your wife in bed. And this faith your Lord commands you. What is this faith? Certainly you do not see it. If you do not see it, why do you cry out when it is broken to you? By your cry I convince you that you see it. You used to say: "How do I place gold before God? I see gold, I do not see God." Behold you see gold, you do not see faith. Or what is truer, you see faith. But when you demand it, you see it; when it is demanded of you, you do not want to see it? With the eyes of your heart open you cry: "Return the faith you promised." With the eyes of your heart closed you cry: "I promised you nothing." In both cases open your eyes. Unjust one, do not lose faith, but lose that very injustice. Return what you demand.

The manumission of a slave who has kept the faith.

You lead a slave to be freed in the church. Silence is made. Your document is read aloud or the execution of your desire is performed. You say that you free the slave because he has kept faith with you in all things. This you value, this you honor, this you reward with the gift of freedom. You do whatever you can. You make him free because you cannot make him eternal. Your God calls out to you and convicts you in your slave. He says to you in your heart: "You led your slave from your house to my house. You want to call him back free from my house to your house. Why do you serve poorly in my house? You give him what you can. I promise you what I can. You make the faithful servant free. I make you eternal, if you keep faith with me. Why do you still argue against me in your mind? Return to your Lord what you commend in your servant. Or perhaps you arrogate so much to yourself that you think you are worthy to have a faithful servant, whom you say: 'I have purchased,' and I am not worthy to have a faithful servant whom I have created?" These things the Lord your God speaks to you within, where no one hears except you, and He who speaks there truly. For what is truer than this speech? Do not become deaf. Behold, you love faith in your servant. Certainly, you do not see faith. Why do you love it in another, and everything I said in another, and in the servant whom you bought with money, yet not the one whom I created? Your Lord deals with you in double necessity. "Both I created you and bought you. Before you were, I made you," He says to you. "When you were sold under sin, I redeemed you." To free your slave, you break his chains. God will not break your chains. Your chains are the Gospel, where there is the blood by which you were bought. They remain, they are read daily, you are reminded of your condition, the price paid for you is recalled.

Return the faith to the Lord which you praise in the servant.

If your servant, whom you manumit, did not exhibit faith and did not make himself worthy of your manumission by keeping faith, and you found him in some frauds in your house, what would you shout? "Wicked servant, you do not keep faith with me? Do you not know that I bought you? Do you not know that I counted my blood for you?". You shout as much as you can and strike heaven with envious cries: "I gave my blood for you, wicked servant". And all who hear say: "He speaks the truth". If that servant of yours dared to respond to you in such an attack and by shouting, would you not be ashamed if he said to you: "Pray, what blood did you give for me? When did you buy me, and at least not even did you phlebotomize yourself". But you call your money your blood. You love your money so much that you call it your blood. Your Lord convicts you with your own voice. You call your money your blood, and for that reason, you demand faith from your bought servant, because you gave, not indeed blood, but a coin or gold for him. Recall what I have given. If you do not recall, I read your records. If you do not recall, read, read for yourself the death of the Savior, the spear of the strikers, the price of the Redeemer. Even a living man, as I said, can give his blood from a pierced vein and still live. Your Lord tells you even more: "Blood was not expressed from me alive. I bought you with my blood. I add, I bought you with my death". What do you have to say? Render faith to your Lord, which you demand from your servant. You see gold, you also see faith. You would not demand it if you did not see it; you would not praise it if you did not see it; you would not grant freedom if you did not see it. But you see gold with the eyes of flesh, you see faith with the eyes of the heart. The better the eyes of the heart, the better is what you see with the eyes of the heart. But you prefer gold to this faith which your Lord commands you. And you do not return what was entrusted and you say: "You gave me nothing". Or to him to whom you have not entrusted anything, you say: "Return what I entrusted to you". You do not give what you received, you demand what you did not give. Behold, acquire. Take thus and augment to yourself the clay by which you are oppressed, saying: "Give", which you did not entrust; denying what you received as a trust. Take, gather harmful profits. Behold, you have filled a chest, you have acquired much gold. Examine the chest of the heart, you have lost faith.

Do not turn away from the discipline of a merciful Father.

Return, therefore, if you have felt anything, if you have blushed, if you have corrected what was depraved and crooked, return, delight in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the things which the Lord has commanded, that you may rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in faith, rejoice in hope, rejoice in charity, rejoice in mercy, rejoice in hospitality, rejoice in chastity. All these are good things, internal treasures, gems, not of your chest, but of your conscience. Love to be rich in these treasures which you cannot lose through shipwreck, so that if you go out naked, you go out full. For thus you will be upright in heart, so that you may not blame your Lord if something adverse happens to you in this world, and you praise the scourge of the Father from whom you expect an inheritance. Escape under the hand of the one correcting you. Do not turn away from discipline, because he who corrects cannot err. He who made you knows what to do with you. Or do you perhaps think that your craftsman is so inexperienced that he knew how to make you but forgets what to do with you? Before you existed, he thought about you, for if he had not thought about you before you existed, you would not exist. And now, existing, remaining, living, serving him, will he despise you, will he overlook you? "He has despised me," you say, "for I prayed and he did not hear me." What if you were asking for what would be to your harm if you received it? "I wept before him and he did not give to me." O foolish child, for what did you weep? That you might receive carnal happiness, temporal happiness, earthly happiness? What if this happiness, which you desired and asked for and for which you wept, would have caused your downfall? I was just talking about your servant, now take an example from your son. Your little son weeps before you to lift him onto a horse. Do you listen to him? Do you heed him? Are you harsh or rather merciful? What is it, tell me, with what intention do you act? Surely this is the intention of love, who doubts it? You reserve the whole house for your grown son, but you do not lift the weeping little one onto a single horse. Everything you have, both the house and whatever is in the house, and the field and whatever is in the field, you reserve for him. And yet you do not lift the weeping little one onto the horse. Let him weep as much as he wants, let him weep all day, you do not heed, and in mercy you do not heed, and if you did heed you would be cruel. See therefore, consider whether this is what your Lord does to you when you ask for unsuitable things and do not receive them. For perhaps poverty would educate you, and abundance would corrupt you. You seek the abundance of corruption, while perhaps the poverty of education is necessary for you. Leave it to your God, who knows what to give you and what to take from you. For if he gives you what you wrongly ask, perhaps he gives it in anger. Hear examples from the law. He heard the Israelites desiring the desires of the belly and throat in anger; he did not heed Paul saying, "Remove the thorn from my flesh," in mercy.

An example of Saint Job who was not possessed by the things he owned.

Therefore, delight in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord, not in the world. For he indeed rejoiced in the Lord, who, when he had lost all the joy of the world, was left with the Lord in whom he could rejoice. There remained to him a wonderful, simple, perfect, unchangeable joy of his heart. What he had, he possessed; he was not possessed by it, but he was possessed by the Lord. He trampled down those things, but depended on Him. Those things were taken away which he trampled down; he clung to Him on whom he depended. Behold what it is to rejoice in the Lord. The Lord gave - look at the joy - the Lord took away. Did He take Himself away? What He gave, He took away; He who gave Himself offered. Therefore, he rejoices in the Lord: the Lord gave, the Lord took away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed be the name of the Lord. Why should it displease the servant what pleased the Lord? "I have lost gold," he says, "I have lost families, I have lost cattle, I have lost everything I had. I have not lost Him from whom I am. I lost what was with me, I have not lost Him whose I am. He Himself is my delight, He Himself is my riches." But why? Because he was not perverse, not upside down, he did not neglect Him who is above him and love those things which are below him. For that is indeed the perversity of wrongly using the creature.

Conclusion: Do you have gold? Use it well.

Why do you accuse the one who gave gold, you who rightly are accused of loving gold wrongly? Have gold, God says to you, I gave it to you, use it well. You want to be adorned with gold, rather adorn gold; you want honor, you want glory from gold, provide honor to gold, do not be the disgrace of gold. He has gold: he consorts with prostitutes, he commits fornication, he indulges in luxury, he performs pompous shows, he gives mad gifts to actors, he does not give to the hungry poor, he is not the honor of gold. Does not the one who rightly pays attention say this: "I grieve for the gold that has fallen upon him"? And you, if you have gold? For now you say: "I grieve for the gold that has fallen upon him. Oh, if I had it!". What would you do? "I would welcome strangers, feed the needy, clothe the naked, redeem captives." You speak well before you have it; how will you speak when you have it? If you are such, gold will be in your ornament. If you truly use gold in this way, since you love more Him who created gold, you will be righteous, loving higher things more, using lower things rightly. And you will delight in the Lord, the righteous will rejoice in the Lord. There will be no accusation against the Creator in you, there will be thanksgiving to the Redeemer. Amen.