Sermon 25A

SERMON 25/A

SERMON GIVEN IN THE BASILICA OF THE ANCESTORS
ABOUT THE RESPONSE TO PSALM 93:
"Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord,"
And from Your law You have taught him, so that You may calm him.
"From the evil days until a pit is dug for the sinner."

The wicked flourish like grass.

We have sung to the Lord: Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach him from Your law, so that You may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked. Therefore, the man taught by the Lord from the law of God, not taught in the law of God, but by the Lord from the law of God, is granted rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked. For in this world, the happiness of the wicked is the pit of the sinner. People are often disturbed by this, and frequently the religious, who do not dare to blame the Lord, yet wonder within themselves why the wicked are often happy. And especially those are disturbed who, knowing they live better lives, are tormented by miseries and calamities. For they see the wicked abounding in all kinds of earthly and temporal goods, in all happiness. And they sigh in their miseries and scarcely restrain their hearts from blaming God. Let them hear the Psalm, and be blessed. Let the Lord instruct them from His law. Let Him say to them from another Psalm: "Do not be envious of evildoers, nor be jealous of those who pracitice iniquity." However, you who were envious and jealous, were saying nothing but: "Why do they flourish?" Hear from the law of God: Because they will soon wither like grass. Grass flourishes: why do you praise its greenness? Ask the summer, they will soon wither. All flesh is grass: the grass withers, the flower falls. See to it that you have a root: The word of the Lord endures forever. Therefore, those wicked men flourishing like grass, green in winter, dry in summer. But you, with your root fixed in the Word of God, which endures forever, be a living tree in secret. For you are dead, says the Apostle, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. There is your root, there you live. For you have placed your hope there, if you have not believed in vain. Therefore, let the winter time not sadden you, in which many fruitful and productive trees without the honor of leaves in winter time and without the honor of fruits seem like dried-up, but they are not dried-up. When the grass flourishes, they do not even have leaves. But what I said about grass, I say also about the tree living in secret. What did I say about grass? If you marvel at its greenness, ask the summer. Between the grass of the flourishing grass in winter and the fruitful tree withering in winter, summer is the judge. Thus, between the pious laboring in this world and the impious flourishing in this world as if in winter time, the sun of justice is the judge. Behold, judgment is coming. The tree says to the flourishing grass: "Why do you exalt yourself? Summer will come to test us." Therefore, to mitigate such trees from the days of adversity, the Apostle addresses and consoles them, predicting summer, promising greenness. He says, "You are dead, and your life, where your root is, is hidden with Christ in God." When summer comes, when Christ appears, your life, where greenness is, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Finally, of that same sun of justice, what He is going to do in summer, learn the sentence: For the Son of Man will come in His glory, He says, and all the angels with Him, and all nations will be gathered before Him. Now see the trees and the grass: He will separate them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats; and He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Behold the judgment of summer. The heat of summer. What are the heats of summer? Even in fruitful trees, but greenness follows those heats. What then are the heats of summer? When the king righteous will sit on the throne, who will boast to have a pure heart? Who will boast to be clean from sin? Heavy heats. But the same judge who was feared consoles. He quickly gives refreshment to those who were heated or suffering from heat. For they lived in the root, they were not dried-up trees. See therefore their greenness. Come, blessed of My Father. Come. What you expected, receive; what you believed, see; what you hoped, have; what you loved, hold. Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom. This is the greenness in the summer of trees seemingly withering during winter, but living green in secret. Now observe the dryness of the grass. To whom the dry grass is destined: Depart into everlasting fire. Therefore, in good and fruitful trees, which have been granted rest from the days of adversity, the heat is comforted by the refreshment of rewards, comforted by the refreshment of the kingdom of heaven. There forever is lived. What is named in this earth some kind of herb "always lives," there it has its true place: there it truly lives, there is only life; no corruption, no neediness, eternal greenness is held, dryness is not feared. Depart into everlasting fire, it is said to the wicked. That is the pit of the sinner: it is being dug, this is what happens at this time. The happiness of the perverse man is the pit of the sinner. For he thinks, when he does evil and is happy, that God does not care for human affairs. That is the pit of the sinner.

What should be commanded to the rich of this world?

I speak, therefore, to Your Charity. Do not love the happiness of this world, and those of you who might have it, do not place your hope in it. It is deceitful, it deceives, it is not possessed. And if it is possessed, it should not be loved, it should not be hoped in, and it will not be a trap. The Apostle says, "Command the rich of this world, command the rich to be." But the rich of this world are Christians, they are faithful. Command them. What? Not to be proud, nor to place their hope in the uncertainty of riches. As the psalm also says: "If riches flow, do not set your heart on them." If it flows, it makes a river: you set your heart on it, and it carries you away. Therefore, if it happens that you become rich, do not yearn with greed: accept what is offered, do not seize what is alien; accept what is offered, but do not sell your justice. For if you sell justice, do not think you are accepting what is offered. You accept what is offered when someone gives willingly, not when someone gives unwillingly. "I sell justice," you say. "What harm is there in receiving something good?" Therefore, justice is for sale for you on this earth. You do not have justice so that you may receive a heavenly reward for it, but to sell it on earth. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. Freely given by your friend, inherited without harming innocence. Therefore, the Scripture does not condemn the rich, for it says: "Having food and covering, with these we shall be content." For those who want to be rich - it does not say those who are rich, but: those who want to be rich - by their desires fall into temptations and many harmful desires which plunge men into destruction and perdition. Do you want to know what it was accusing? The root of all evils is greed. Do not have such a root: for it is the root of withering hay.

You who are poor, do not despise yourselves.

Therefore, my brothers who are poor, do not despise yourselves. Nothing is as rich as faith. Your outer cell is empty, your inner chest is full. A full chest is a good conscience. The devil took away everything that the holy man possessed externally. He did not penetrate this chest. In it, he was rich who said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. The Lord gave, let not the devil boast, the Lord has taken away: for the evil one took away that which the good one permitted, who wished to test by tempting, so as to set an example for imitation. As it pleased the Lord, so it was done: blessed be the name of the Lord. If he was poor, how did he pour forth such precious things? The inner chest was full, whose profits increased by distributing them; in short, he poured out and did not lose. Therefore, whoever of you is poor, strive more to have inner riches, to have hearts full of virtues, justice, piety, charity, faith, hope. These are true riches, which you cannot lose even in a shipwreck. And let not the happiness of the wicked affect the good with sadness, may God relieve you from the days of evil. Evil days pass by, where this seems like perversity; and days will come when no evil person will be happy, and no good person will be unhappy.

Help the needy and you will lessen the burden.

But you who are wealthy in this world, do what the Apostle advises: He says, "Let the rich be rich in good works; be generous." For why would it be difficult, when there is an abundance from which to give generously? I think that why they are called resources is as if they were called "ease"; for scarcity is often called difficulty. Therefore, let them give easily, share. Let them have for themselves, but give to the needy; both help their companion and relieve themselves. O rich man, the poor man has been made your companion in this life. You see him laboring by not having, you by having. He, not having, has no support; you, having much, have the burden. Help his need and lighten your load. This is why it is said: Share. For the same Apostle says in another place: "It is not that there might be relief for others and hardship for you." Therefore share. Let them have, but share what they have in abundance. They hold onto what is sufficient, and do not lose what they give. They will gain more than they hold, here they will leave it behind, or consume it on their own uses. But what they give, what happens to it, hear this. It follows: "Let them store up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may lay hold on true life." What great thing is there that you have given, if in this place, where everything perishes, you have planned to move on? What you gave to the poor, you made them your carriers. Therefore, if you will be thus, you will not flourish as grass passing away in this world, but as an olive tree that is green even in winter, and it will be said of you: "But I am as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God." But as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, see what follows: "I have trusted in the mercy of God, not in the uncertainty of riches."