Sermon 255A

Sermon 255

IN THE DAYS OF EASTER

OF ALLELUIA

On Alleluia.

It is fitting for us to say as many praises as we can to our Creator. For when, dearly beloved brothers, we praise the Lord, we confer something upon ourselves, as we extend ourselves in His love. For we have sung: Alleluia. Alleluia is a new song.

Allow yourselves to be nourished by the mother Church.

The new man sings a new song. We have sung: you have sung too, children, who have recently been renewed by Him; and we sang with you, because we were redeemed at the same price. What brotherly love requires, I remind you, not only you, but also those who hear, I admonish as brothers and sons; brothers, because one mother, the Church, gave birth to us; sons because through the Gospel I have begotten you. Live well, most beloved sons, so that you may have good reasons for having received such a great sacrament. Let vices be corrected, morals arranged, virtues embraced; let piety, holiness, chastity, humility, and sobriety be present in each of you; so that offering such fruits to God, He may delight in you, and you in Him. Let us also rejoice at the progress of your hope, seeing in you the fruits of the reward of our hope. Love the Lord, for He loves you; frequent this mother, who gave birth to you. See what this mother has bestowed upon you, to unite the creature with the Creator, to make slaves the sons of God, to make the slaves of the devil the brothers of Christ. You will not be ungrateful for these so great benefits of hers if you show her the worthy service of your presence. Nor can anyone have God the Father propitious who has despised the mother Church. This therefore holy and spiritual mother daily prepares spiritual nourishment for you, by which not your bodies but your souls may be refreshed. She bestows upon you heavenly bread, she offers you the saving cup; she does not want any of her children to suffer from such hunger. Act on your behalf, beloved ones, do not desert so great a mother; that you may be filled with the abundance of her house, and drink from the torrent of her delights, and present you to God the Father as worthy sons, whom she will diligently and piously nurture and lead to eternal life, intact and free.