Sermon 254

SERMO 254

IN THE EASTER DAYS

We deserve one thing, we hope for another.

Thus it is, my brothers, thus is the misery of our condition and God's mercy, that the time of joy is preceded by the time of sorrow; that is, the time of sorrow is first, the time of joy is afterwards; the time of labor is first, the time of rest is afterwards; the time of calamity is first, the time of happiness is afterwards. Thus it is, as we have said, the misery of our condition and the divine mercy. For the time of sorrow, labor, and misery, our sins have brought about; but the time of joy, rest, and happiness will not come from our merits, but from the grace of the Savior. We deserve one thing, we hope for another; we deserve evil, we hope for good. This is made possible by the mercy of Him who created us.

Where the sorrow of Christians ought to proceed from.

But in the time of our misery, and, as Scripture says: in the days of our vanity, we must know from where this very sadness should arise. For sadness is like dung. Dung not placed in its proper place is filth. Dung not placed in its proper place makes the house filthy; placed in its proper place it makes the field fertile. See the place for dung provided by the farmer. The Apostle says: And who is it that makes me glad, except the one who is saddened by me? And elsewhere: Sadness, he says, according to God works repentance unto salvation which is not to be repented of. He who is sad according to God is sad through repentance for his sins. Sadness from one's own iniquity brings forth righteousness. First let it displease you what you are, so that you may become what you are not. Sadness, he says, according to God works repentance unto salvation which is not to be repented of. Repentance, he says, unto salvation. What kind of salvation? Not to be repented of. What is: not to be repented of? That which you cannot possibly regret at all. For we have had a life which we ought to have regretted; we had a life to be repented of, but we cannot reach a life not to be repented of, except through the repentance of a bad life. Brothers, as I began to say, do you find dung in a purified mass of wheat? Yet, it is through dung that one arrives at that brightness, that appearance and beauty; the path to a beautiful thing came through foulness.

God mercifully visiting the human race.

Rightly does the Lord in the Gospel speak of a certain barren tree: Behold, these three years I come looking for fruit on it, and find none. I shall cut it down, so that it may not hinder my field. The gardener intercedes; he intercedes now with the axe poised over the unfruitful roots and almost striking; the gardener intercedes, just as Moses interceded before God; the gardener intercedes and says: Lord, permit it, and this year as well; I will dig around it and fertilize it with a basket of manure: if it bears fruit, well; if not, you shall come and cut it down. This tree is the human race. The Lord visited this tree in the time of the Patriarchs, as in the first year. He visited it in the time of the Law and the Prophets, as in the second year. Behold, the third year has dawned in the Gospel. Now it almost should have been cut down: but mercy intercedes with mercy. For He who wished to show Himself merciful, put an intercessor before Himself. Let it be spared, He says, even this year; let it be dug around, the trench is a sign of humility; let a basket of manure be applied, that perhaps it may bear fruit. Indeed, because it bears fruit, and partly does not, its Lord will come and divide it. What does it mean to divide? Because there are good and evil people, but now as if in one assembly, as if constituted in one body.

The sorrow of the world produces death.

Therefore, my brothers, as I said, an opportune place for manure produces fruit, but an inopportune place makes the place unclean. Someone is sad, I find someone sad. I see manure, I seek the place. Tell me, friend, why are you sad? I lost money. An unclean place, no fruit. Let him hear the Apostle: Worldly sorrow produces death. Not only is there no fruit, but also great destruction. So it is with other matters related to worldly joys, which are too many to enumerate. I see another sad, groaning, weeping. I see much manure and I seek the place there. And when I saw the sad one, weeping, I looked and saw him praying. Sad, groaning, weeping, praying, something good came to my mind; but I still seek the place. For what if this one, praying and groaning with great tears, is asking for the death of his enemies? Even so, even so he weeps, he prays, he pleads. An unclean place, no fruit. More is found in the Scriptures. He asks that his enemy may die, and falls into the curse of Judas: Let his prayer become sin. I looked at another groaning, weeping, praying. I recognize the manure, I seek the place. I listened attentively to his prayer, and heard him say: I said: Lord have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. He groans about his sin, I recognize the field, I await the fruit. Thanks be to God. The manure in the right place is not idle, it brings forth grain. This is truly the time for fruitful sorrow, to grieve over the condition of our mortality, the abundance of temptations, the subtlety of sins, the adversities of desires, the conflicts of lusts against good thoughts always in turmoil, and from this we are sad.

Now is the time of sorrow, afterwards the time of praise will come.

This time of our misery and our groaning, if there is anyone who has such hope in groaning, is signified by those forty days before Easter; but the joy, which will come afterward, of rest, happiness, eternal life, of the kingdom without end, which is not yet, is signified by these fifty days, during which praises to God are said. For two times are signified to us: one before the resurrection of the Lord, the other after the resurrection of the Lord; one in which we are, the other in which we hope to be. The time of sorrow, signified by the days of Lent, we both signify and have; but the time of joy and rest and of the kingdom, signified by these days, we signify indeed through Alleluia, but we do not yet have praises, but now we sigh Alleluia. What is: Alleluia? "Praise the Lord." Why during these days in the Church the praises of God are frequently said after the resurrection, because for us too there will be eternal praise after our resurrection. The Lord's passion signifies our time, in which we weep here. The whips, chains, insults, spit, the crown of thorns, the wine mixed with gall, the vinegar on a sponge, the mockeries, the reproaches, finally the cross itself, the sacred limbs hanging on the wood, what do they signify to us, if not the time we endure, the time of sorrow, the time of mortality, the time of temptation? Therefore, a foul time, but let this foulness be in the field, not in the house. Let there be sorrow for sins, not for failed desires. A foul time, but if well used, a fertile time. What is more foul than a manured field? The field was beautiful before it had the manure basket. First, the field was brought to foulness, so that it might come to fruitfulness. Therefore, the foulness of this time is a sign, but let this foulness be for us the time of fertility. And let us see with the Prophet who says: We saw him. What kind of appearance? He had neither form nor comeliness. Why? Ask another Prophet. They counted all my bones. The bones of the one hanging were counted. A foul appearance, the appearance of the crucified, but this foulness gave birth to beauty. What beauty? The beauty of the resurrection, because fairer in form than the sons of men.

The Promiser God has become a debtor to us.

Let us therefore praise the Lord, brothers, because we hold his faithful promises, which we have not yet received. Do you think it insignificant that we hold the promiser, that we might already demand the debtor? God the promiser has been made a debtor. He has been made a debtor by his goodness, not by our prerogative. What have we given him that we might hold him as a debtor? Or perhaps because you have heard in the Psalm: What shall I render to the Lord? First, when he says: What shall I render to the Lord? these are the words of a debtor, not of one demanding debt. It has been proclaimed to him: What shall I render to the Lord? What is: What shall I render? I shall repay. For what? For all he has repaid to me. What has he repaid to you? First, I was nothing, and he made me; I was lost, he sought me; seeking he found me; captive he redeemed me; bought he freed me; from a servant he made me a brother. What shall I render to the Lord? You have nothing to repay. When you expect everything from him, what do you have to repay? But wait. I do not know what he wishes to say, when he asks: What shall I render to the Lord for all he has repaid to me? Looking around on all sides for what to repay, as if he found something. What did he find? I will take the cup of salvation. You were thinking to repay, still you sought to receive. See, I ask. If you still seek to receive, you will still be a debtor. When will you be a retributor? If therefore you will always be a debtor, when will you repay? You will not find anything to repay. Unless he gives, you will not have.

Man has nothing of his own except falsehood.

See, when you said: What shall I repay? it pertains to what you said: Every man is a liar. For whoever wishes to say that he repays anything to God is a liar. All things must be hoped for from Him. From ourselves apart from Him, nothing, unless perhaps sin and falsehood, because he who speaks a lie speaks of his own. Truly man abounds fully in his own. He certainly has falsehood there, and his heart is a treasury of falsehoods. He lies as much as he can, he does not fail. He fabricates whatever he can, lies whatever he can. Why? Because he has that freely, indeed he has it from himself; he did not acquire it. However, when it comes to the truth, if he wants to be truthful, it will not be from himself. Peter was a liar from his own. Where is the lie? The Lord promised us suffering, and he says: Far be it from you, this shall not happen. Every man is a liar. From where is the lie? Listen to the Lord Himself: You do not mind the things of God, but the things of man. But when Peter was truthful, when? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. From where to this lying man? Behold, a man says: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Who says it? Peter. What was Peter? A man who said the truth? Certainly, every man is a liar. Behold, behold his tongue, behold the truth from his tongue, how every man is a liar? Listen, because every man is a liar. Therefore he was truthful because it was not from his own. Therefore every man is a liar because it is from his own. So from where was Peter truthful? Listen to the Truth Himself: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. From where blessed? From your own? Far from it. Because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Let us praise with voices, let us praise with manners.

Let us therefore praise the Lord who is in heaven, beloved. Let us praise God. Let us say Alleluia. Let us signify in these days a day without end. Let us signify the time of immortality in place of mortality. Let us hasten to the eternal home. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they shall praise you forever and ever. The Law says, the Scripture says, the Truth says. We are coming to the house of God, which is in heaven. There we will not praise God for fifty days, but, as it is written: Forever and ever. We shall see, love, praise; neither what we see will fail, nor what we love will perish, nor what we praise will be silent; everything will be eternal, it will be without end. Let us praise, let us praise, but not with voices alone, let us also praise with deeds. Let the tongue praise, let life praise, let the tongue not contradict the life but let them have infinite charity. Turned to the Lord, etc.