Sermon 260C

Sermon 260/C

On the Lord's Day of the Octave of Holy Easter

When a new offspring is born to Mother Church, we rejoice.

Neither new nor unheard of, but evident to your faith, I do not doubt, just as we are born carnally from parents, so we are born spiritually from God the Father and Mother Church. However, the same Lord God is both our creator from those parents and our recreator from Himself and the Church. In that generation, the bond of sin is contracted; in this one, it is dissolved. There we are born to succeed our dying parents; here, to remain united to them forever. Accordingly, if the children of men rejoice with fraternal love for their siblings born into the household, even more so should we, born from the same blood, congratulate those who are partakers of light rather than resent the division of inheritance. How much more, then, and more sincerely should we rejoice, since the same children of men by the grace of holy baptism are reborn as children of their Creator, when we are born to that inheritance which is whole for its heirs and entire for each individual? "The Lord," he says, "is the portion of my inheritance." Therefore, if, as the prophet David says, our inheritance is God Himself, and as the apostle John says: "God is love;" and as the apostle Paul says: "Love envies not;" the more coheirs and partners we see born to obtain such an inheritance, the more abundantly we rejoice with love, because love itself is proposed to be possessed by them. For where the inheritance is love itself, it indicates that one is not an heir who does not love his coheir. Therefore, those things which, with the help of the Lord, we are to speak to those for whom today completes the eighth day of baptism, embrace all the more willingly as you rejoice that they are joined to you in newfound brotherhood; and at the same time, let even the catechumens, whom the Church their mother has already conceived by some sacrament, be urged by the desire of new light, and hurry to be perfected and born.

Baptism was prefigured in the flood.

The solemnity of the octave days, which has beneficially subjected the nations throughout the whole world to the name of Christ, is most devotedly celebrated by all those regenerated through His baptism. Therefore, let us, with the Lord's help, attempt to recount in a few words what it means and what the reason for such a mystery is. Let your Christian learning consider with me what accords with the rules of our faith. For who does not know that the earth was once cleansed from iniquities by the flood, and that the mystery of the holy baptism, by which all the sins of man are washed away through water, was already preached at that time when the ark, made of incorruptible woods, which was a figure of the Church, contained only eight people? Therefore, what the number eight of people testified in the waters of the flood, by which sins were extinguished, is also testified in the waters of baptism, by which sins are washed away, by the number eight of days. For acts that carry significant meaning are compared to the sounds of our voice; just as one and the same thing can be spoken in various words and languages, so one and the same thing is usually signified not only by voices but also by many and varied figured acts without any change in meaning. For this reason, it is not because there are eight people there but eight days here that something different is being announced, but rather the same thing is signified differently, with different signs as though with different letters.

Sustained by the hope of eternal life, let us endure present hardships.

Therefore, the number eight prefigures things pertaining to the future age, where nothing fails or progresses in the sequence of time, but persists in a stable beatitude. And since the times of this age pass away in a repeated cycle of seven days, that day is rightly called the eighth, wherein after temporal labors, the saints arrive, distinguishing action and rest without any vicissitude of light and night; but for them, there will be perpetual vigilant rest, and action that is leisurely without sluggishness but tireless. Just as for the saints, after the passage of the sevenfold time, the eighth day is eternal happiness, so for the wicked, after passing through the same sevenfold duration, the eighth is penal judgment. Desiring to be freed from this, the one in the sixth Psalm, which is titled for the eighth, sorrowfully cites his weakness and says: “O Lord, do not reprove me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” Again, in the eleventh Psalm, where the title is similarly for the eighth, it is shown that for the very reward of eternal life, all adversities of this age must be tolerated; lest when iniquity begins to abound, love waxes cold, and he who does not persevere to the end cannot be saved. For when anyone wishes to rest in other people and finds in many, where he least expected, deceptions and deceits and vain arrogance, it is good for him to look to the eighth and eternal day, where his secure joy will not be wounded by any companionship with the wicked, and here he should groan and pray with tears: “Save me, Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the truths are diminished among the sons of men”; for thus the Psalm itself begins. But let him pray with certain hope according to the last words of the same Psalm; for it ends thus: “You, Lord, will keep us and guard us from this generation forever”; as if beginning from the seventh and leading into the eighth, from glory to glory as by the Lord’s Spirit.

In what the Sabbath differs from the eighth day.

For what is it that elsewhere through the Prophet he promises peace upon peace, unless it be that the Sabbath, which is signified on the seventh day, although it is contained in the same temporal cycle of days, nevertheless has rest promised to the saints on this earth; where no violent storm of this age disturbs them, resting in their God after good works? In order to signify this long before, after He had made all things very good, He Himself also rested on the seventh day. Was it for some other reason that it is written in the book of the holy Job: “Six times shall I deliver thee out of necessity, and in the seventh evil shall not touch thee”? But that day no longer has an evening, because without any incursion and overshadowing of sorrow, which is often confounded by the mixed company of wicked men, it transitions the saints into the eighth day, that is, eternal blessedness. For it is one thing to rest in the Lord during the continuation of time itself, which is signified by the seventh day, that is the Sabbath; but it is another to transcend all time, and to be united with the creator of time without any end, which is signified by the eighth day, which, not revolving together with the others, declares itself to be an indication of eternity. For indeed, with these seven continually revolving in succession, the course of all times is completed. But the friends of this world are not figured by the significations of these days; for they do not desire rest on the Sabbath of the seventh day, from which their intent might also be extended into the eternal eighth; rather, given to transitory celebrations, having deserted the creator, they fall into the worship of the creature and become impious. Hence he who sings for the eighth follows this rightly; and when he had said: “You, O Lord, will preserve us and keep us from this generation forever,” he immediately added: “The impious walk in a circle”; subjected, of course, to temporal matters, being ignorant of eternal wisdom.

We must strive for exaltation through the path of humility.

And indeed in these days, in which a certain significance is symbolized, the eighth, which is the first, is likewise found. For the same is called the first of the Sabbath, the Lord's Day; but that first withdraws when the second succeeds. In that truth, which this eighth and first signifies, both the first is eternity, which we deserted by sinning in the origin of the first parents, and we came into this mortality; and the last, as it were, the eighth, which after the resurrection is regained when the last enemy, death, is destroyed, so that this corruptible might put on incorruption, and this mortal might put on immortality; and the returning son may receive the first robe, which after the labor of a long journey, and the pasturing of swine, and the other hardships of mortal life, and the cycles of the seven times, the same newest and as it were eighth is restored. Therefore, not undeservedly, our Lord Himself on the same first and also eighth Lord's Day, deigned to demonstrate in his own flesh the example of bodily resurrection; who no longer dies, and death shall no longer have dominion over him. To which exaltation through humility we must strive. For proposing it to the two disciples who sought it, and desiring one to sit on his right and the other on his left, he said: Can you drink the chalice that I am to drink? So that they might understand, that the way to highness begins from the valley of tears; nor could they be made worthy to attain to the pinnacle of heaven, unless they first did not disdain the reproach of the cross.

Let our mind's intention be directed to the eighth, or eternal day.

For even the last verse of the eleventh Psalm, whose title begins "For the eighth", is fittingly understood as being spoken to the same Lord Jesus Christ, who, making the sons of men through Himself, both the Son of God and the Son of Man, as sons of God, multiplies them on this earth few in number due to the abundance of sins, and as grains on a threshing floor in the multitude of chaff, which seems to be everywhere as if it were alone, hiding and almost not appearing, He multiplies them in the heavenly Jerusalem according to His height, calling those things which are not as though they were. And from what height? Because blindness in part has happened to Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might come in, and so all Israel will be saved. It was exclaimed by the Apostle saying: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" Therefore, let us not seek the ruinous heights of temporal exaltations. For we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore, let the intention persevere in the eighth, where after all cycles of times the wicked walk. Since our conversation in hope precedes in heaven, let us live with Christ, in Christ, as equals of the angels of God, and made partakers of that eternity, He who did not refuse to become a partaker of our mortality. For as in the eighth sacrament, after seven days comes the eighth, so in the sacrament of Pentecost, after seven weeks, which we conclude on the forty-ninth day, the same eighth is added, to complete fifty; one in the smaller number, and the same one in the greater. For eternity, of which this eighth day is a sign, can neither be increased nor decreased; and there it is always today, for nothing succeeds something that is passing away. And that eternal day neither begins from the end of yesterday, nor ends at the beginning of tomorrow, but it is always today; for all past things have passed in that day without setting, and all future things will come in that day without rising.

Cleave to the good and choose the narrow path for yourselves.

Forgetting what is past, therefore, and reaching out to what lies ahead, following the aim towards the prize of the heavenly calling, dearest brothers and children, even when you put on the signs of the sacraments, always carry in your heart the hope of this eternal day; and change your clean garments, through which in the newness of your life a bright seed is written in your memory as a visible word, in such a way that you do not change what they signify, shining with the light of faith and truth; let them not be stained with any filth of perverse morals: so that on that day you may not be found naked, and may pass from the glory of faith to the glory of appearance without any difficulty. Moreover, since what is solemnly done today, once you have mingled with the people outside these barriers, by which spiritual infancy distinguished you from others, adhere to the good; and remember that evil communications corrupt good manners; be sober, just, and do not sin. For I have betrothed you to one man, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ; and I fear that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the chastity of God, which is in Christ. Friendship with this world adulterates souls, and makes them fornicate from the one true and legitimate spouse, from whom you received the ring of the Holy Spirit. Beware of the broad path that leads to destruction, and many are those who walk through it; do not fail on the narrow path, whose end is eternal broadness. And if ever, which by the fluctuations of this life's necessities must happen, you fall into various temptations, and are beset by the iniquities of many men, with the perseverance of faith and the joy of hope and the fervor of charity, sing for the octave, and say: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed; because the truths have diminished from the sons of men; each one has spoken vain things to his neighbor.

The sons of man are made sons of God through Christ.

But you, sons of men, now made sons of God, how long will you be heavy-hearted? Do not love vanity and seek falsehood, and you will give no place to the devil. Nor should each one of you, when amidst the tumults of temptations and scandals remains unwaveringly attached to Christ, and having embraced the word of God stands immovable, think that he alone is the single grain, because he does not see, surrounded everywhere by chaff, the companions of his granary. Let him consider that even in those times, before the blood of Christ was shed on the earth, the price of the world, the holy Elijah said: I alone am left; it was answered: I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to Baal. These seven thousand, when they were still being threshed on the floor of this world, had not yet touched each other in the mass; and therefore each one seemed to himself to be alone. There is a richer mass among all nations, which will be preserved for the Lord, and will be kept from this generation and forever; because with a hidden counsel according to His own depth, He will multiply the sons of men.