Sermon 232

SERMO 232

In the days of Easter

The passion and resurrection of the Lord are narrated by all the Evangelists.

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was also read today, but from another book of the Gospel, which is according to Luke. For first it was read according to Matthew, and yesterday according to Mark, today according to Luke, as the order of the Evangelists holds, just as his passion is written by all the Evangelists. But these seven or eight days provide space so that the resurrection of the Lord may be read according to all the Evangelists; however, because the passion is read on one day, it is usually read only according to Matthew. At some point I wished that the passion would also be read every year according to all the Evangelists. It happened; people did not hear what they were accustomed to and were disturbed. However, he who loves the letters of God and does not always wish to be ignorant, knows everything and diligently inquires into everything. But just as God has distributed to each the measure of faith, so each one progresses.

The disciples do not believe the women announcing the resurrection.

Now let us attend to what we heard today in the reading; for what I also commended to your Charity yesterday, today we have heard more expressly: the disbelief of the disciples, so that we may understand how much has been granted to us by His beneficence that we may believe what we have not seen. He called them, instructed them, lived with them on earth, performed such great miracles before their eyes. And He raised the dead; He Himself was not believed to rise His own flesh. Women came to the tomb; they did not find the body in the tomb; they heard from angels that Christ had risen; the women announced to the men. And what is written? What did you hear? These things seemed to their eyes like delirium. Great misfortune of the human condition! When Eve spoke what the serpent had said, she was quickly heard. A lying woman was believed so that we might die; true-speaking women were not believed so that we might live. If women were not to be believed, why did Adam believe Eve? If women are to be believed, why did the disciples not believe the holy women? And therefore in this event the kind dispensation of our Lord is to be considered. For this is what the Lord Jesus Christ did, that it was first the female sex that announced His resurrection. Because by the female sex man had fallen, by the female sex man was restored; because the Virgin had given birth to Christ, a woman announced His resurrection. By a woman came death, by a woman came life. But the disciples did not believe as the women had said; they thought they were delusional, although they were announcing the truth.

Those two disciples consider Christ as one of the Prophets.

Behold, two others were walking on the road and talking among themselves about the things that had happened in Jerusalem, about the wickedness of the Jews, about the death of Christ. They were walking, conversing, and sorrowing as if Christ were dead, not knowing He had risen. He appeared to them and became the third traveler, engaging in friendly conversations with them. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. For it was necessary for their hearts to be better instructed; recognition was deferred; He asked them what they were discussing among themselves, so that they would confess to Him what He already knew. And what had you heard? They began to wonder as they were being questioned by someone who seemed unaware of such a well-known matter. Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened there? But He said: What things? About Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word. Was that it, O disciples? Was Christ merely a prophet, the Lord of Prophets? You assign the name of herald to your Judge. They had come to the words of strangers. What do I mean by the words of strangers? Recall when Jesus Himself said to His disciples: Who do men say that the Son of Man is? They answered with the opinions of strangers. Some say, they said, that You are Elijah; others that You are John the Baptist; others that You are Jeremiah or one of the prophets. These were the words of strangers, not of the disciples. And now behold, the disciples themselves have come to these words. Who do you say that I am? You have recounted to me the opinions of strangers; I want to hear your faith. Then Peter said, one for all, for unity was in all: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Not just any prophet, but the Son of the living God, the fulfiller of the prophets, the creator of angels. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He heard what was fitting for Him to hear from that voice and such a voice: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. It was the faith that deserved to hear this, not the man. For what was the man himself, except what the Psalm says: Every man is a liar?

Peter himself resisting in accepting the death of Christ.

Finally, immediately after these words, He foretold to them His passion and death. Peter was afraid and said: "Far be it from You, Lord; this will never happen to You." Then the Lord said: "Get behind Me, Satan." Peter, Satan? Where are those words: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona?" Is Satan blessed? Blessed by God. Satan from man. Finally, the Lord Himself explained why He called him Satan: "For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Wherefore then blessed? Because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Wherefore later Satan? You are not setting your mind on the things of God; when you did, you were blessed: but you are setting your mind on the things of man. See how the soul of the disciples alternated, almost from rise and set; at times standing, at times lying down; at times being enlightened, at times being darkened; because it was enlightened by God, darkened by its own. Where was it enlightened? "Draw near to Him and be enlightened." Where was it darkened? "He who speaks a lie speaks of his own." The Son of God had said, life had said, and they were afraid that life would die, when life cannot die at all and the Son of God had come for this very reason, to die; if He had not come to die, how would we live?

The Lord had predicted that He would die and immediately rise again.

Whence comes life to us, whence death to Him? Attend to this: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Seek death there. Where? Whence? How was the Word? The Word was with God, the Word was God. If you find flesh and blood there, you find death. Therefore whence death to that Word? But to us men placed on earth, mortal, corruptible, sinful, whence life? There was no way for Him to have death; we had no way to have life. He took death from us to give us life from Himself. How did He take death from us? The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He took from us what He offered for us. But whence life to us? And the life was the light of men. He is life to us, we are death to Him. But what sort of death? By honor, not by nature. Because He deigned, because He willed, because He had mercy, He died by power. I have the power to lay down my life and I have the power to take it up again. Peter did not know this, when he was frightened upon hearing of the Lord’s death. But behold the Lord had already said that He would die and rise again on the third day. What He predicted was done and those who had heard did not believe. Behold it is now the third day since these things happened and we were hoping that He was the one to redeem Israel. You were hoping, now you despair? Have you fallen from hope? He who walks with you lifts you up. They were disciples, they had heard Him, they had lived with Him, they knew Him as Teacher, they were instructed by Him and could not emulate and have the faith of the thief hanging on the cross.

Where the thief found hope, there the disciples lost it.

But perhaps some of you do not know what I said about the thief, not having heard the Passion according to all the Evangelists. For this Evangelist Luke narrated what I say. Since two thieves were crucified with Christ, this was also said by Matthew, but that one of the thieves insulted the Lord and the other believed in Christ, Matthew did not say, but Luke did. Let us recall the faith of the thief which Christ did not find in his disciples after the resurrection. Christ was hanging on the cross, and the thief was also hanging. He in the middle, they on the sides. One insults, the other believes, the one in the middle judges. For the one who insulted said this: If you are the Son of God, save yourself. And the other to him: Do you not fear God? If we suffer justly for our deeds, what has he done? And turning to him: Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom. Great faith. I do not know what can be added to this faith. Those who saw Christ raising the dead wavered; he believed in the one he saw hanging on the wood with him. When they wavered, then he believed. What a fruit Christ received from the dry wood. For what did the Lord say? Let us listen. Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. You delay yourself, I recognize you. When could the thief hope to go from robbery to judge, from judge to cross, from cross to paradise? Finally, he, considering his Merits, did not say: Remember me so that you may free me today. But: When you come into your kingdom, then remember me. As if to say, if torments are due to me until you come into your kingdom. And he: Not so, you have invaded the kingdom of heaven, you have used force, you have believed, you have seized it. Today you will be with me in paradise. I do not delay you: to such faith today I give what is due. The thief says: Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Not only did he believe he would be resurrected, but also that he would reign. To the one hanging, crucified, bleeding, clinging: When you come, he says, into your kingdom. And to them: We were hoping. Where the thief found hope, the disciple lost it.

Let us lead a good life, we who have risen with Christ.

Then already, dearest, we have known a great mystery. Listen. He was walking with them, he is received in hospitality, he breaks bread and is recognized. And let us not say that we do not know Christ; we know if we believe. It is a small thing, we know if we believe; we have if we believe. They had Christ at the banquet, we have Him within in the soul. It is more to have Christ in the heart than in the house. For indeed, our heart is more inward to us than our house. Now truly, where ought the faithful to recognize Him? The faithful recognize; but the catechumen does not know. Yet let no one close the door against him, that he may not enter.

Yesterday I exhorted and admonished your Charity, that the resurrection of Christ is in us if we live well; if our old bad life dies and our new life progresses daily. Here there are many penitents; when hands are laid on them, the line is very long. Pray for the penitents. And the penitents go to pray. I examine the penitents and find them living badly. How do they repent of what they are doing? If they repent, let it not be done. But if it is done, the name changes, the crime remains. Some have asked for a place of penance for themselves; some have been excommunicated by us and reduced to the place of penitents. And those who have asked for this for themselves wish to do what they were doing, and those who have been excommunicated by us and reduced to the place of penitents do not want to rise from there, as if the place of penitents were a chosen place. What ought to be the place of humility becomes the place of iniquity. To you I say, who are called penitents and are not, I say to you. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise, but I mourn and lament. And what do I do, having become a vile song? Change, change, I beg you. The end of life is uncertain. Every man walks with his own fall. You delay living well, while you think life will be long. You think life will be long and fear not a sudden death? But see, let it be long, see that it is good. And I seek one penitent and do not find. How much better it will be if it is long and good, than if it is long and bad! No one wants to have or endure a long bad dinner, almost everyone wants to have a long bad life. Surely, if it is great that we live, let that greatness be good. For what do you wish badly, tell me, in all your actions, thoughts, desires? On earth you do not want a bad harvest, surely not a bad one but a good one, a good tree, a good horse, a good servant, a good friend, a good son, a good wife. And why do I mention these great things, since you do not want to have even a bad garment, but a good one. You do not even want a bad boot, but a good one, or give me anything you want that is bad nor want anything good. I think you do not want a bad villa, but a good one. You only want to have a bad soul. Why have you offended yourself? What have you deserved badly from yourself? Among your good things you do not want to have badness, except yourself. I think because I speak as I usually do and some may do as they usually do. Surely I have not said but maybe. Let no one slander me because I have spoken more in fear than in certainty. Before God, I shake out my garments. I fear lest it be imputed to me because I fear. What do you want? I fulfill my duty, I seek your profit. From your good works I want to have joy, not money. For he who lives well does not make me rich. And yet let him live well and he does. My riches are nothing but your hope in Christ. My joy, my solace, and my relief from my dangers in these temptations is nothing but your good life. I beseech you, if you have forgotten yourselves, have mercy on me.