Sermon 256

SERMO 256

IN THE PASCHAL DAYS

ON ALLELUIA

Now we sing Alleluia with anxiety, then without care.

Since it has pleased our Lord God that we, placed here in bodily presence, should sing Alleluia with your Charity, which in Latin means "Praise the Lord," let us praise the Lord, brothers, with life and tongue, heart and mouth, voices and manners. For thus God wishes Alleluia to be said to Him, that there may be no discord in the one who praises. Therefore, let our tongue agree with our life and our mouth with our conscience. Let, I say, our voices agree with our manners, lest perhaps good voices testify against bad manners. O happy Alleluia in heaven, where the temple of God is the angels! For there is the highest harmony of those who praise, where there is secure exultation of those who sing: where no law in the members resists the law of the mind; where there is no quarrel of desire, in which the victory of charity may be endangered. Here therefore let us sing Alleluia still solicitous, that there we may be able sometime to sing securely. Why here solicitous? Do you not want me to be solicitous when I read: "Is not human life on earth a temptation?" Do you not want me to be solicitous when it is still said to me: "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation?" Do you not want me to be solicitous, where temptation is so abundant that the prayer itself prescribes to us, when we say: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors?" Daily petitioners, daily debtors. Do you want me to be secure, where I daily ask for indulgence for sins, help against dangers? For when I have said for past sins: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors;" immediately for future dangers I add and join: "Lead us not into temptation." But how is the people in good when they cry out with me: "Deliver us from evil?" And yet, brothers, in this still evil let us sing: Alleluia to the good God, who delivers us from evil. Why do you look around for whence He delivers you, when He delivers you from evil? Do not go far, do not strain your mental gaze in all directions. Return to yourself, look at yourself. You are still evil. Therefore when God delivers you from yourself, then He delivers you from evil. Hear the Apostle, and understand from what evil you are to be delivered. "I delight," he says, "in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members resisting the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is." Where? "Taking me captive," he says, "in the law of sin, which is in my members." I thought because it took you captive under some unknown barbarians; I thought because it took you captive under some unknown foreign nations, or under some unknown masters. "Which is," he says, "in my members." Exclaim therefore with him: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" From where will someone deliver? Tell from where. Another one says from the guard post, another from the prison, another from the captivity of the barbarians, another from fever and sickness; tell us, Apostle, not where we are to be sent, or where we are to be taken; but what we carry with us, what we ourselves are, tell us: "From the body of this death." From the body of this death? "From the body," he says, "of this death."

We will enjoy the glory of God with mind and body.

Another one says: This body of death does not pertain to me; it is my prison temporarily, my chain temporarily: I am in the body of death; I am not the body of death. You argue, therefore you are not freed. For I, he says, am spirit; I am not flesh, but I am in the flesh; when I have been freed from the flesh, what then will become of the flesh? Do you want me, brothers, to respond to this argument, or the Apostle? If I respond, the weight of the word might be ignored because of the insignificance of the one delivering it. I will remain silent. Listen with me to the Teacher of the Gentiles, listen with me to the Chosen Vessel; so that the controversy of dissension may be removed from you. Listen, but first state what you were saying. Surely you were saying: I am not flesh, but spirit. I groan in my prison; when this chain and this prison are dissolved, I go away free. The earth is returned to the earth, the spirit is received in heaven; I go, I abandon what I am not. So, is this what you were saying? This, he says. I will not respond to you: let the Apostle respond, respond, I implore you. You preached to be heard; you wrote to be read; all was done so that you might be believed. Say: Who will deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. From where does it liberate you? From this body of death. But are you not yourself this body of death? He responds: Therefore I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. But I myself; how through different things are you yourself? With mind, he says, because I love; with flesh, because I lust; indeed victorious, if I do not consent; yet still a struggler, with the adversary pressing. And how, O Apostle, when you have been liberated from this flesh, will you no longer be anything but spirit? The Apostle responds, with death already imminent, with the debt which no one escapes: I do not lay down the flesh forever, but set it aside temporarily. Therefore, will you return to this body of death? And what then? Let us rather hear his words. How do you return to the body, from which you have cried out with such pious voice to be liberated? He responds: I indeed return to the body, but no longer of this death. Listen, ignorant one, deaf to the daily readings; listen, how he returns to the body, indeed, but not of this death. Not because he has obtained another body, but because this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. My brothers, when the Apostle said this corruptible, this mortal, he seemed to touch the flesh with his voice. Therefore, not another. No, he says, I do not lay down an earthly body, and take up an airy body, or take up an ethereal body. I take up the same body, but not any longer of this death. Because this corruptible, not another, but this must put on incorruption; and this mortal, not another, but this must put on immortality. Then the saying that is written will come to pass: Death is swallowed up in victory. Let Alleluia be sung. Then the saying that is written, which is not the word of those still fighting but of those triumphing: Death is swallowed up in victory. Let Alleluia be sung. Where, O death, is your sting? Let Alleluia be sung. But the sting of death is sin. But you will seek its place and not find it.

Sing and walk!

But even here among dangers and temptations, both from others and from ourselves, let the Alleluia be sung. For faithful is God, who will not allow, he says, you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. Therefore, let us also sing Alleluia here. Man is still guilty, but God is faithful. He did not say: He will not allow you to be tempted, but: He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear; but will also make with the temptation an escape, so that you may be able to endure it. You have entered into temptation: but God will also make an escape, so that you do not perish in temptation; that as the vessel of the potter, you may be shaped by preaching, fired under tribulation. But when you enter, think of the exit; because God is faithful, the Lord will guard your entrance and your exit. Moreover, when this body has been made immortal and incorruptible, when every temptation has perished; for indeed the body is dead; why is it dead? Because of sin. But the spirit is life, the words of the Apostle; why? Because of righteousness. Do we therefore let the dead body remain? No, but listen: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you; He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. For now the body is natural, then it will be spiritual. For the first man was made into a living soul, the last man into a life-giving spirit. Therefore He will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit dwelling in you. O happy Alleluia there! O secure! O without adversary! Where there will be no enemy, and no friend perishes. Here praises to God, and there praises to God; but here from the anxious, there from the secure; here from those dying, there from those always living; here in hope, there in reality; here on the way, there in the homeland. Therefore now, my brothers, let us sing, not for the delight of rest, but as a solace in labor. How travelers are accustomed to sing; sing, but walk: console your labor by singing, do not love laziness; sing and walk. What does "walk" mean? Advance, advance in good. For there are some, according to the Apostle, progressing in worse. If you advance, you walk, but advance in good, advance in right faith, advance in good morals: sing and walk. Do not err, do not turn back, do not remain. Turned to the Lord.

And after the Sermon:

Tomorrow the feast of the holy martyrs Marianus and James dawns; but, since we are still somewhat occupied due to the cause of such a great assembly of the holy council, on the third day of the same feast day, with the Lord's help, we will deliver to you the due sermon.