Sermon 259

SERMO 259

ON THE LORD'S DAY OF THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

Let us equally believe and together we will see.

Today's day is a great sacrament of everlasting happiness for us. For not just as this day will pass, so will the life that this day signifies. Therefore, brothers, we exhort and beseech you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom our sins are forgiven, who wished our redemption to be his own blood, who deigned to make us, unworthy even to be called his servants, his brothers, that all your intent, for being Christians and bearing his name on your forehead and in your heart, be directed only to that life which will be ours with the Angels: where there is perpetual rest, eternal joy, unceasing happiness, no disturbance, no sadness, no death. This life can only be known by those who experience it; but they cannot experience it unless they believe. For if you demand that we show you what God promises you, we cannot. But you have heard how the Gospel of John concluded: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." And you wish to see, and so do I. Let us believe together, and we shall see together. Let us not be hard against the word of God. For, brothers, is it fitting that Christ should now descend from heaven and show his wounds to us? He deigned to show them to the faithless one to rebuke the doubters and instruct the believers.

"About the changes of the Church in the present times and at the end of the age."

Therefore, this eighth day at the end of the age signifies a new life: the seventh signifies the future rest of the saints on this earth. For the Lord will reign on the earth with His saints, as the Scriptures say, and will have here a Church into which no evil person will enter, separated and purified from all contamination of wickedness; which is signified by those one hundred and fifty-three fish, about which, as far as I remember, we have already discussed at some time. For here the Church will first appear in great clarity, dignity, and justice. There, it will not be permitted to deceive, to lie, to hide the wolf under the sheep's skin. For the Lord will come, as it is written, and will illuminate the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the thoughts of hearts: and then each will have praise from God. Therefore, the wicked will not be there: for they will already have been separated. Then, like a purified mass, the multitude of saints will appear, as it were, on the threshing floor, and thus will be sent into the celestial barn of immortality. For as the grain is first threshed and then purified there; and the place where the grain has endured the threshing, to be cleansed from the chaff, is adorned with the dignity of the purified mass. For indeed we see on the threshing floor after the winnowing, a heap of chaff on one side, and a heap of grain on the other. But we know where the chaff is destined to go; and how the grains bring joy to the farmers. Just as the grain first appears separated from the chaff on the threshing floor, and after such labors, that heap which was hidden in the chaff, which was not seen when it was being threshed, brings joy when observed; then it is sent into the barn and kept in secret: so in this age, you see how this threshing floor is being threshed, but the chaff is so mixed with the grain that it is difficult to discern: because it has not yet been winnowed. Thus, after the winnowing of the day of judgment, the mass of saints will appear, shining with dignity, powerful in merits, and bearing the mercy of their liberator. And he will be the seventh day. As if the first day in the whole age is the time from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham, and as the Gospel of Matthew divides it, the third from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the exile in Babylon; the fifth, from the exile to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, from the advent of the Lord, the sixth day is conducted, we are in the sixth day. And hence, just as man was formed in Genesis on the sixth day in the image of God, so in this time, as it were, the sixth day of the whole age, we are renewed in Baptism, to receive the image of our Creator. But when this sixth day has passed, rest will come after that winnowing, and the saints and just ones of God will have their Sabbath. After the seventh, when the dignity of the harvest, the splendor, and merit of the saints appear on the threshing floor, we will go into that life and that rest, about which it has been said: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." Then, as it were, we return to the beginning. For just as when these seven days have been completed, the eighth is the same as the first: so, after the completed and finished ages of the seven passing through the world, we will return to that immortality and blessedness from which man has fallen. And therefore, the sacraments of infants are fulfilled on the eighth. Hence also the septenary number seven times multiplied makes forty-nine; and adding one, it is as if we return to the beginning, and they become fifty: this number is celebrated by us up to Pentecost in mystery. Even according to that division of the number forty, to which a denarius is added as a reward, the same number appears again for different reasons. Both reasons lead back to the same number fifty. Which, multiplied by three for the mystery of the Trinity, makes one hundred and fifty. Adding that very Trinity, as if a witness and indicator of triplication and the Trinity, we understand the Church in those one hundred and fifty-three fish.

Have mercy on man, man, and God will have mercy on you.

But meanwhile, until we come to that rest, at this time when we labor, and we are in the night, as long as we do not see what we hope for, and we travel in the wilderness, until we come to the heavenly Jerusalem, as to the land of promise flowing with milk and honey: now, therefore, since temptations do not cease, let us do good work. Let there always be medicine, as if to be applied to daily wounds. But the medicine is in good works of mercy. For if you wish to obtain the mercy of God, be merciful. If you deny humanity to a man, when you are a man, God will also deny you divinity, that is the incorruption of immortality, by which He makes us gods. For God needs nothing from you: but you need from God. He asks nothing from you to be blessed Himself: but you, unless you receive from Him, cannot be blessed. What do you receive from Him? I do not know if you would dare to complain if you received something from Him who created all things, the most excellent thing He created. But He does not give you something of what He created; but He gives Himself to you to enjoy, Himself the creator of all things. For what could be more beautiful and better from those things created by Him than He who made them? And how will He give Himself to you? Is it as if according to your merits? If you seek what you deserved, consider your sins; hear God's judgment against the transgressing man: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Since the threat preceded when the command was given: “On the day you touch it, you will certainly die.” If you seek the merit of sins, what comes to mind except punishment? Therefore forget your merits, lest they cause you fear in your heart: or rather do not forget, lest through pride you repel mercy. We commend ourselves, brothers, to God by works of mercy. “Confess to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” Confess, for God has mercy and wants to forgive the sins of the confessing. But offer Him a sacrifice. Show mercy to the man, O man, and God will show mercy to you. You are a man, and another man, two miserable beings. But God is not miserable, but merciful. If a wretched man does not show mercy to the wretched, how does he demand mercy from Him who will never be wretched? See what I say, brothers. Whoever is cruel to a shipwrecked person, for example, is cruel until it happens to him to be shipwrecked. But if it happens, remembering his past life, when he sees a shipwrecked person, he is struck by a similar misery; and what the association of humanity could not bend to mercy, the sharing of calamity bends. He quickly has mercy on the servant, who once served. He quickly feels sorrow for the laborer defrauded of his wages, who was once a laborer. He deeply sympathizes with the man bitterly mourning his son, who has once mourned something similar. Therefore, no matter how great the hardness of human heart is dissolved by the similarity of misery. Therefore, if you, who either were miserable, or fear to be miserable (for as long as you live here, you must fear what you were not, and remember what you have been, and consider what you are): therefore, being placed both in the memory of past miseries, and in the fear of future ones, and in the affliction of present ones, do not have mercy on a calamitous man and one needing your help, and you expect that He has mercy on you, whom misery never touches? And you do not give from what you received from God, and you want God to give you from what He did not receive from you?

It is good to forgive offenses and to give one's own possessions.

Mercy, my brothers, all you who are going to your homes, and from here, we will scarcely see each other, except through some solemnity, perform mercy, because sins abound. There is no other rest, no other way by which we may reach God, by which we may be restored, by which we may be reconciled to Him, whom we have most dangerously offended. We are going to appear in His presence: there, let our works speak for us; and let them speak in such a way that they surpass our offenses. For whatever is greater, that will prevail, either for punishment, if the sins deserve it; or for rest, if the good works deserve it. Moreover, mercy is twofold in the Church: one in that title where no one spends money, not even labor; the other which requires from us either the duty of work or the expenditure of money. The one which demands nothing of outlay or labor from us is established in the soul, so that you forgive him who has sinned against you. For this almsgiving, your treasury is in your heart: there you manifest yourself before God. You are not told: Bring forth the purse, open the chest, unlock the granary; nor are you told: Come, walk, run, hasten, intercede, speak, visit, work. Standing in one place, you have cast out from your breast the grudge you hold against your brother; you have performed mercy, at no cost, with no labor, by mere goodness, by mere thought of mercy. For if we say: Give your goods to the poor; we may seem harsh. Certainly now we are mild and easy, when we say: Spend what you will not lose, forgive so that it may be forgiven to you. Yet let us also say this: Give and it shall be given to you. The Lord has united these in commandment, and expressed these two kinds of mercy. Forgive, and it shall be forgiven to you: mercy is in forgiving. Give and it shall be given to you: mercy is in giving. See if God does not give us more. You forgive a man, in what a man has harmed you: God forgives you, in what you have offended God. For is it as harmful to offend a man as to offend God? Therefore, He has given you more: because you have forgiven what a man has harmed, He forgives what has offended God. Note another aspect of mercy's management. You give bread, He gives salvation; you give a thirsty person a drink, He gives you the drink of His wisdom. Can these even be compared, what you give and what you receive? See how it must be loaned. If anyone wants to be a moneylender, we do not at all forbid it: but let him lend to Him who is not poor in paying back greater and more, and to whom even this very thing, whatever it may be that you give to Him, belongs, so that you may receive more and better.

Let us give alms to God with humility and cheerfulness.

I also advise your Holiness that you know he performs double mercy, who gives something to the poor so that he himself distributes it. For it ought not to be merely the kindness of the giver, but also the humility of the minister. Somehow, my brothers, the soul of the one who offers to the poor sympathizes with common humanity and weakness, when the hand of the giver is placed in the hand of the needy. Although one gives and the other receives, the minister and the one ministered to are joined. For it does not join us in calamity, but in humility. Your abundance will be yours, if the Lord wills, and your children's. But no mention is made of this earthly abundance, which you see subject to so many accidents. The treasure lies quietly in the house, but does not allow the owner to be at peace. The thief is feared, the burglar is feared, the unfaithful servant is feared, the bad and powerful neighbor is feared. The more it is held, the more it is feared. But if you distribute to God in the poor, you do not lose, and you are made secure, because God Himself guards for you in heaven, who also gives you what is necessary on earth. Do you perhaps fear that Christ might lose what you have entrusted to Him? Does not everyone choose a faithful steward from his own family to whom he entrusts his money? Though he may have the power not to take away, yet he does not have the power not to lose. What is more faithful than Christ? What is more divine than omnipotence? He can neither take anything from you, since He gave to you in hope that you might give to Him, nor lose anything, since the Almighty holds all things. You refresh the bowels when you hold love feasts. For it seems we minister, and our things are given, and through us they are given; yet those things are given which God gave to us. It is good, brothers, that you dispense with your own hand: it is very pleasing to God. He accepts, and will give to you, who gave to you before you should give to Him. The office of distribution ought to be joined with the office of ministry. Since you may have two rewards, why lose one? But whoever is less able to give to all, let him give to the poor according to his means, with cheerfulness. For God loves a cheerful giver. The kingdom of heaven is set forth to be bought at every price. It is not for anyone who has two pennies to say that he is not able to buy it. The widow that is spoken of in the Gospel bought it with so little.

After the paschal days, one must persevere in goodness.

The holidays are over, and now those of meetings, collections, and litigations succeed: see how you live in these, my brothers. From the leisure of these days, you ought to derive gentleness, not to meditate plans of quarrels. For there are men who rested during these days so that they could think up wickedness to practice after these days. We ask you to live as those who know that they will give an account to God of their entire life, not just of these fifteen days. Moreover, the questions of Scripture which I proposed yesterday and did not solve due to the constraint of time, I confess I owe them to you. But certainly, because the days that follow now also allow for the collection of money by legal and public right, demand this payment from me rather by Christian right. Now indeed all come for the sake of the solemnity: after these days, let the love of the law lead you to demand from me what I promised. For he who gives, gives to you through me: surely he gives to all of us. I indeed know the Apostle saying: Render to all their dues: to whom tribute, tribute; to whom custom, custom; to whom honor, honor; to whom fear, fear: owe no man anything, except to love one another. Only love is always to be rendered; no one is exempt from such a debt. What I owe, brothers, I will render in the name of the Lord. But, I confess to you, not do I restore to the sluggish by duty, but to the demanding.