Sermon 240
SERMO 240
In the Paschal days
ON THE RESURRECTION OF BODIES, AGAINST THE GENTILES
The Gospels agreeing among themselves is a very laborious task.
During these days, as your Charity recalls, the Gospel readings concerning the resurrection of the Lord are solemnly read. For all four Evangelists could not remain silent about either His passion or His resurrection. For the Lord Jesus did many things, and not all wrote everything: but one wrote these things, another those; yet in the highest harmony of truth. John the Evangelist also recounts many deeds done by the Lord Jesus Christ, which none of them wrote. As many were done as ought to have been done then: as many were written as ought to be read now. To show that all four Evangelists, in what they all together say and do not omit, that is, either concerning the passion or the resurrection of Christ, did not say anything contradictory among themselves, is a very laborious task. For some thought they contradicted each other, while they were contrary to their own soul. And therefore the effort was made by those who could, with the Lord's help, to show that they were not contradictory among themselves. But, as I said, if I show this to you, and wish to discuss these matters among the people, the multitude of listeners is overwhelmed with tedium before the knowledge of truth is revealed. But I know your faith, that is, the faith of this entire multitude, and of those who are not here today, yet are faithful; I know their faith to be so certain about the truth of the Evangelists that they do not need my exposition. He who knows how to defend these matters is more learned, not more faithful. He has faith, he has the ability to defend the faith. Another does not have the ability, abundance, and learning to defend the faith, but has the faith itself. However, he who knows how to defend the faith is necessary for the wavering, not for the believers. In the defense of the faith, the wounds of doubt or unbelief are healed. Therefore, he who defends the faith is a good physician: but in you, there is no disease of unbelief. When does he know how to heal what you do not have? He knows how to apply the remedy, but there is no vice in you. The physician is not needed for the healthy, but for those who are ill.
Many dispute various things about the resurrection of the bodies.
The resurrection is proven against unbelievers by the omnipotence of God. However, what can be more expediently said for the time, and more conveniently heard, it is not advisable to withhold from you. Concerning the very resurrection, of which the Lord put forth an example in himself, so that we might know what we ought also to hope for in our bodies at the end of the age, many dispute many things; some faithfully, some unfaithfully. Those who dispute faithfully want to know more diligently what they should respond to the unbelievers: but those who dispute unfaithfully argue against their own souls, arguing against the power of the Omnipotent, saying, How can it be that the dead rise again? I say, it is God who does it, and you say, It cannot be done? I do not say, Give me a Christian, give me a Jew: but, give me a Pagan, a worshiper of idols, a servant of demons, who does not say that God is omnipotent. He can deny Christ, he cannot deny the omnipotent God. Whom therefore do you believe; as if I were speaking to a Pagan; whom do you believe to be the omnipotent God, him I say is the one who raises the dead. If you say, It cannot be done, you derogate the Omnipotent. But if you believe him to be omnipotent, then why do you reject me saying these things?
Christ, bearing the punishment without fault, both canceled the fault and the punishment.
If we were to say that the flesh will rise again to hunger, to thirst, to be sick, to labor, to be subjected to corruption; you would rightly have no obligation to believe. For this flesh now has either these necessities or calamities. And why this? Sin is the cause. In one, we have all sinned, and we all have been born into corruption. The cause of all our evils is sin. For men do not suffer these evils without cause. God is just, God is omnipotent: in no way would we suffer these things if we did not deserve them. But while we were in the punishments that we came to from sins, our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to be in our punishments without his own sins. By enduring punishment without guilt, He dissolved both the guilt and the punishment. He dissolved the guilt by forgiving sins; He dissolved the punishment by rising from the dead. This He promised, and he wanted us to walk in hope: let us persevere, and we will attain the thing. The flesh will rise incorruptible, the flesh will rise without flaw, without deformity, without mortality, without burden, without weight. What now causes you torment will later be your adornment. Therefore, if it is good to have an incorruptible body, why do we want to despair of God's doing this?
The opinions of philosophers are reviewed concerning the condition of the soul after death.
The philosophers of this age, who were great and learned, and better than others, felt that the human soul is immortal: not only did they feel this, but they defended it with as many arguments as they could, and left their written defenses to posterity. There are books; they are read. Therefore, I said that these philosophers were better than others in comparison to those worse; for there were philosophers who would say that when a man dies, no life remains afterwards. Those should undoubtedly be preferred over such. And in what they were better, though deviating in many things from the truth, yet in what they were superior, they were approaching the truth. Those who felt and said that human souls are immortal inquired about the evils of men, the sufferings and errors of mortals as much as men could; and they said, as best they could, that certain sins of I know not what previous life merited these bodies as if a prison for the soul. Then it was asked of them, what happens after, when a man is dead, what will be. And here they strained their wits; and labored, as much as they could, to give reason to humans, to themselves, or to others: and they said, the souls of men living badly, unclean with worst habits, when they leave their bodies, again immediately turn to other bodies, and endure the punishments here that we see; but those souls that lived well, when they leave their bodies, go to the heights of heaven, rest there in the stars and these conspicuous lights, or in whatever celestial and hidden secrets, forget all past evils, and again delight in returning to bodies, and come again to endure these things. Therefore, they wished to make this distinction between the souls of sinners and the souls of the righteous, because they say the souls of sinners, as soon as they leave their bodies, immediately turn to other bodies; but the souls of the righteous remain in rest for a long time; not always, however, but again they delight in bodies, and from the highest heavens, after such great righteousness, make a fall to these evils.
The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.
That is what very great philosophers have said. The philosophers of this world could find nothing more than this, about which our Scripture says: God made the wisdom of this world foolish. If He made wisdom foolish, how much more foolishness? If the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God? Yet there is a certain foolishness of this world that reaches God, about which the Apostle says: Since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. And he says: For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified; to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Lord Christ came, the wisdom of God: heaven thunders: frogs are silent. What the truth said, this is true. What He said, it is clear that the human race is indeed in evil because of sin. But whoever believes in the Mediator, who is established as the mediator between God and men (between the just God and unjust men, a just man in the middle, having humanity from below, righteousness from above; and therefore he is in the middle: one from here and one from there: because if both were from there, He would be there; if both were from here, He would lie with us, and He would not be in the middle): therefore, whoever believes in the Mediator, and lives faithfully and well, will indeed depart from the body, and will be at rest; but later will receive the body not for torment, but for adornment, and will live with God forever. There is nothing that delights him to return: because he has his body with him. Therefore, beloved, since I have proposed to you today what even the philosophers of this world say, whose wisdom God rejected as true foolishness, tomorrow, with the Lord's help, we will be able to explain.