Sermon 2

SERMO 2

On Abraham When He is Tested by God

Abraham's piety and faith.

The renowned piety of our father Abraham has been brought to our memory through a recent reading. And it is something so marvelous that no heart could be considered so forgetful that it could ever slip away. However, I do not know how, but whenever it is read, it affects the minds of the listeners as if it is happening at that very moment. Great faith, great piety, not only towards God but also towards his only son, whom the father believed to suffer no harm, whatever was commanded concerning him by the one who created him. For Abraham could be the father of his son according to the operation of the flesh, but not the creator and maker according to the operation of majesty. Indeed, as the Apostle says, Isaac was not born to Abraham according to the flesh, but from a promise. Not because he was not produced from the flesh, but because he was received from the utmost despair. And unless God, who made the promise, was present, the old man would not have dared to hope for offspring from the bowels of his aged wife. But he believed that he would be born, and he did not weep for his death. His right hand was chosen for the sacrifice that he might die; but his heart was chosen for faith, that he might be born. Abraham did not tremble to believe when he was promised. He did not tremble to offer when it was demanded. Nor was the religion of the believer contrary to the devotion of the obedient. I say this. Abraham did not say to himself: "God spoke to me. When He promised a son, I believed that God would give me offspring. And what kind of offspring? That He told me: In Isaac shall your seed be called. And lest perhaps my seed might be called in Isaac, so that my son might die before me: In your seed, He said, all nations will be blessed." He who promised me a son and now demands that I kill him did not cause him to question himself as if about contrary and conflicting words of God promising a son to be born and afterwards saying: "Kill your son for me." But there was always unshakable faith in his heart, never failing in any way. For Abraham thought that the God who gave that one to be born from old people who was not, could also bring him back from death. What God had already done was greater when after such despair he saw that a son was given to him, which, considering human weakness, is impossible. He, therefore, added his soul to faith. He did not believe anything to be impossible for the Creator. As he believed, he received the son; so later he believed in the commanding God. Already in the received son, he had proven God. He believed he would receive the son, he believed he would kill. Everywhere faithful, nowhere cruel. He altogether brought the son to the place of the victim. He even armed his right hand with a knife. Consider who strikes, and whom he strikes. Consider who commands. Therefore pious Abraham, by obeying. What of God by commanding? Perhaps lest in weak, not to mention sacrilegious minds, He who commands might be displeasing. But if he who obeyed is pleasing, how does He who commanded displease? Because if Abraham did well by obeying, much better, and far better in an incomparable manner, God by commanding.

It is displeasing to the Manichaeans that God tested Abraham.

Perhaps the sacrament is being inquired. For God would not command this in vain, nor should it be taken carnally, something that, when read, perhaps stirred the hearts of some less understanding. He tested, it says, Abraham. So then, is God ignorant of things, so unknowing of the human heart that He finds out by testing a man? Far from it. But so that the man may find himself. Therefore, first, brothers, for those who oppose the Old Law, the holy Scripture; because some, not understanding, will sooner criticize what they do not understand than seek to understand it; and they are not humble inquirers, but proud slanderers; therefore, for these people who wish to accept the Gospel and reject the Old Law, thinking they can be on the way of God, and walk correctly on one foot, because they are not scribes trained in the kingdom of God, who bring forth from their treasure new and old things, therefore for such people, lest they perhaps lie hidden here, or even if they are not here, let those present have something to respond to such people, this question must be briefly solved. We say to such people, you accept the Gospel, you do not accept the Law; but we say that the same is the most merciful giver of the Gospel, as was also the terrible giver of the Law. For by the Law He terrified, by the converted Gospel He healed those whom He had terrified by the Law so that they might convert. The emperor gave the law, and many offenses were committed against the law. The law which the emperor gave knew only to punish sinners. It was necessary, therefore, that He who had sent the law should come in indulgence to absolve their offenses. But what does a perverse heart say, because it says it accepts the Gospel, but rejects the Law? Why does it reject it? "Because it is written," it says, "God tested Abraham. Am I to worship a God who tests?" Worship Christ, whom you have in the Gospel. He calls you back to understand the Law. But because they did not come to Christ, they remained in their delusion. For they do not worship Christ as He is preached in the Gospel, but as they have imagined Him for themselves. Therefore, on top of the veil of their natural foolishness, they add another veil of perverse opinion. And when can what shines in the Gospel be seen through a double veil? Displeases you a God who tests, displeases you also a Christ who tests. But when a Christ who tests pleases you, let a God who tests also please you. For Christ the Son of God is God, and with the Father, Christ is one God. Where then do we read of Christ testing? The Gospel speaks. It says: He said to Philip: You have loaves. Give them to eat. And the Evangelist follows: This he said testing him; for he himself knew what he would do. Bring now your mind to God testing Abraham. So too, God was saying this, testing Abraham; for he himself knew what he would do. The testing Christ is acknowledged, the testing God is acknowledged, let the testing heretic be corrected. For the heretic does not test as God tests. For God tests to reveal Himself to man, the heretic tests to close God to himself.

God tests in order to teach.

Therefore, let your Charity know that the temptation of God does not serve to allow Him to know something He did not know before, but that by His testing, that is, by His questioning, what is hidden in man is revealed. For man is not as well known to himself as to his Creator, nor are the sick as well known to themselves as to the physician. Man is sick. He suffers, the physician does not suffer, and he expects to hear from the one who does not suffer what he is enduring. Therefore, man cries out in the psalm: "From my hidden faults cleanse me, O Lord." For there are hidden things in man, hidden even from the man in whom they exist. And they do not come forth, nor are they revealed, nor are they discovered, except through testing. If God ceases to test, the teacher ceases to teach. But God tests in order to teach; the devil tests in order to deceive. However, if the one being tested does not give place to him, he is repulsed, vain and to be mocked. Therefore, the Apostle says, "Neither give place to the devil." But men give place to the devil through their desires. For men do not see the devil with whom they fight, but they have an easy remedy. Let them conquer themselves inwardly, and they will triumph over him outwardly. Why do we say this? Because man does not know himself unless he learns himself in temptation. But when he has learned himself, let him not neglect himself. For if he neglected himself while hidden, let him not neglect himself now known.

God is to be loved freely.

What then shall we say, brothers? Even if Abraham knew himself, we did not know Abraham. He had to be revealed either to himself or certainly to us: to himself, so that he might know from whom to give thanks; to us, so that we might know either what to ask from the Lord or what to imitate in man. What then does Abraham teach us? To speak briefly: not to place what God gives above God. As for the literal interpretation of the actions, before the hidden sacrament is expounded, that is, what is hidden in this mystery, whereby Abraham was commanded to kill his only son. Therefore, do not place even that which God grants you greatly above Him who granted it. And when He wishes to take it away from you, do not regard it as worthless, because God must be loved freely. For what reward from God is sweeter than God Himself?

Therefore Abraham fulfills the obedience of devotion. He hears from God, "Now I know that you fear God." This is understood in such a way that God made Abraham know Himself. Just as when the prophet speaks (I speak to Christians or those progressing in the school of God; what I say is neither crude nor new, but most common and evident to your Holiness along with us), when the prophet speaks, what do we say? "God said." We speak well. We also say, "The prophet said." Both are rightly said, and both are found in authority. And the Apostles understood the Prophets in such a way that they said, "God said." And in another place, "Isaiah said." Both are true because we find both in the Scriptures. Let a Christian solve the question I just proposed, and he will solve the one I proposed a little earlier. How? Because what man says from the gift of God, God says, according to that: "For it is not you who speak," and so forth; and again: "Behold, it is I, Paul, speaking to you"; and again: "It is Christ who speaks in me." Therefore, brothers, apply this rule to what sometimes seemed twisted, and it will be straight.

Great mysteries of the Divine Scriptures.

Therefore, let us all gaze upon Him, that He may feed our starving souls, He who hungered for us, who became poor though He was rich, that we might be enriched by His poverty. Just before this, we appropriately sang to Him: "All things look to You to give them their food at the proper time." If all things, then all of us. If all of us, then we too. Therefore, if we are to offer anything good in speech, it is not we who give it, but He from whom we all receive, because we all expect from Him. The time is right, let Him give, but let us do what He said to receive, that is, let us expect from Him. Let us gaze upon Him with our hearts. Just as the eyes and ears of the body are towards us, so the eyes and ears of the heart are towards Him. With the open ear of the heart, listen to the great mystery. Indeed, all the sacraments of the divine Scriptures are certainly great and divine. However, some stand out more and are more significant, which especially demand our attention, and which above all edify the fallen, satisfy the hungry, who are not satisfied in such a way that they become disdainful, but it is a satiety without disgust, dispelling want but not engendering contempt. Who is not moved by the command to sacrifice the only-begotten son by him who was promised? And especially, the matter being carried out as we have heard makes attentive minds seek to explain the mystery.

Whatever is written about Abraham both happened and is prophecy.

Above all, however, brothers, in the name of the Lord, we admonish and command you as much as we can, that when you hear the sacrament of the Scripture being explained, narrating what happened, first believe that what has been read happened as it is read, so that you do not look to build in the air, having removed the foundation of the deed. Abraham, our father, was a faithful man in those times, believing in God, justified by faith, as the scripture says, both old and new. He had a son from Sarah his wife, when both were already old, out of great desperation, according to man. But what is not to be hoped for from God, to whom nothing is difficult? He makes great things just as he makes small things; he raises the dead just as he creates the living. If a painter makes a mouse with the same skill with which he makes an elephant (different works, but the same art), how much more does God, who spoke, and they were made, commanded, and they were created? What is difficult for him who makes by his word? With what ease he created the angels beyond the heavens, with that ease the lights in the heavens, with that ease the fish in the sea, with that ease the trees and animals on earth, with that ease great as small. To whom, therefore, it was easy to make all things from nothing, is it astonishing that he gave an old couple a son? Such were the men God had in those times, and he made such heralds for the coming Son, that not only in what they said but also in what they did or what happened to them, Christ is to be sought and found. Whatever has been written about Abraham and happened, is also a prophecy, as the Apostle says in one place: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman, which are an allegory. These then are the two Testaments.

Made and sign also in the sacrifice of Isaac.

Therefore, now we do not say insensibly that Isaac was born to Abraham and signified something. Just as he was commanded to sacrifice his son, he obeyed God, led him to the place, arrived after three days, dismissed his two servants with the donkey, went himself where God had commanded; he lifted the wood on the altar, lifted his son upon the wood. Before the son came to the place of sacrifice, he carried the wood on which he would be lifted. Then, when he was almost struck, a voice sounded to spare him. And yet, without ceasing the sacrifice and without shedding blood, they departed. A ram appeared caught by its horns in a thicket. It was sacrificed, the sacrifice was completed. After the sacrifice was completed, it was said to Abraham: I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea. And your seed will possess the cities of its enemies. And through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you obeyed my voice. Therefore, observe when it happened and when the commemoration of the act itself is made. When that ram says: They have pierced my hands and my feet, and so forth. When that sacrifice performed in the psalm was completed, then it was said in the psalm: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations will worship before him. For the kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the nations. If it is said to be remembered, it was foreseen at some time, which we now see happening.

Faith works through love.

Let us see, therefore, how it was fulfilled, and from where it was fulfilled, with what preceding sacrifice it was fulfilled, what was said to Abraham: In your seed all nations shall be blessed. Blessed nations, which did not hear that, and now reading believe what he who heard believed. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God. That he believed God inwardly in his heart, in faith alone. But that he led his son to be sacrificed, that he armed his right hand without fear, that he was about to strike unless held back by a voice, is certainly great faith and a great work. God praised this very work, when He said: Because you have obeyed my voice. Why then does the Apostle Paul say: We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law; and in another place he says: And faith which works through love. How does faith work through love, and how is a man justified by faith apart from works of the Law? How? Pay attention, brothers. Someone believes, receives the sacraments of faith on his deathbed, and dies. The time for working was lacking for him. What do we say? That he was not justified? Clearly we say he was justified, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly. Therefore, this one was justified, and did not work. And the statement of the Apostle is fulfilled: We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. The thief who was crucified with the Lord believed in his heart unto righteousness and confessed with his mouth unto salvation. For faith which works through love, even if there is no exterior work to perform, is nonetheless kept fervent in the heart. For there were some under the Law, who boasted of the works of the Law, which perhaps they did not perform out of love, but out of fear, and wanted to appear just, and be preferred over the gentiles who did not do the work of the Law. But the Apostle, preaching faith to the gentiles, when he saw those who came to the Lord justified by faith, so that those who had already believed might work well, not because they deserved to believe for having worked well, exclaimed confidently and said that a man can be justified by faith apart from works of the Law; so that those were rather not just, who did what they did out of fear, while faith working through love operates in the heart, even if it does not manifest in an outward work.