Sermon 278

SERMO 278

(On the calling of the apostle Paul, and the commendation of the Lord's prayer)

[FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL]

Paul, from persecutor to preacher of Christ. An example of God's grace given in Paul, so that no sinner might despair.

Today, a reading from the Acts of the Apostles was pronounced, where the apostle Paul, from being a persecutor of Christians, became a proclaimer of Christ. Today, in those regions, even the places themselves testify to what happened then: and now it is read and believed. The benefit of this event is what the Apostle himself recounts in his Epistles. For he says that the forgiveness of all his sins, and of that fury and madness by which he dragged Christians to death, was granted to him for this purpose, being the minister of the fury of the Jews, whether in the stoning of the holy martyr Stephen, or in bringing others to punishment; so that no one may despair of himself, who has been involved in great sins and entangled in great crimes, as if he would not receive forgiveness, if he were to be converted to the one who, hanging on the cross, prayed for the persecutors, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He became from a persecutor a preacher and teacher of the Gentiles. "At first," he says, "I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an injurious person; but I obtained mercy for this reason, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering, for a pattern to those who are going to believe in him for eternal life." For by the grace of God we are saved from our sins, in which we are sick. His, his medicine is what heals the soul. For it could wound itself, it could not heal itself.

To be ill and to recover are not equally under a man's control. From the free will of man comes the seed of death. Who is properly a physician?

For even in his own body, man has the power to fall ill, but he does not have the same power to recover. For if he exceeds the measure, lives intemperately, and does things that are detrimental to health and destructive of well-being, he can fall into illness in one day if he wishes. However, when he has fallen, he does not recover at will. For to become ill, he himself engages in intemperance, but to recover, he seeks the help of a physician. As we have said, he cannot have the power to regain health in the same way he has the power to lose it.

Thus also according to the soul, so that by sinning man would fall into death, so that from being immortal he would become mortal, so that he would be subjected to the deceiver, the devil, it was in his free will; by inclining towards lower things, he abandoned higher things, and by lending his ear to the serpent, he closed his ear to God, and being placed between the instructor and the deceiver, he chose to obey the deceiver rather than the instructor. For whence he heard God, thence he heard the devil. Why then did he not rather believe the better one? Therefore, he found it true what God had foretold, false what the devil had promised. This is the first origin of our evils, this is the root of all miseries, this is the seed of death from the own and free will of the first man: who was made in such a way that if he obeyed God, he would always be blessed and immortal; if he neglected and despised His command, who wanted to preserve perpetual salvation in him, he would rush into the disease of mortality. Then, therefore, the physician is despised by the healthy, now he treats the sick. For the precepts that medicine gives to maintain health are different; for they are given to the healthy, so that they do not become sick: but the ones which the sick already receive are different, so that they may recover what they have lost.

It was good for a man to obey the doctor when he was healthy, so that the doctor would not be needed. For the healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do. Indeed, a doctor is properly called one through whom health is restored. For God is always needed as a doctor even for the healthy, so that health itself is maintained. Therefore, it was good for him to keep perpetual health, in which he was created. He despised, he abused, and by his own intemperance fell into the bad condition of this mortality: let him now listen to the doctor giving instructions, so that he may rise from that place where he himself fell through sin.

The sick man, by observing the doctor's instructions, becomes healthy only gradually.

But certainly, brothers, just as in medicine itself, healthy practices dictated by the wisdom of health remain in what they have; but if one begins to fall ill, he starts to follow the prescription, and begins to act, if he truly cares to regain good and complete health. However, when he starts doing this, he is not immediately healthy; but by observing for a long time, he reaches that health which he had lost by being less temperate: this benefits him because he already begins to observe, so that he does not increase the illness, and so that he not only does not become worse, but also begins to have better health, gradually becoming healthy: for there is a hope of perfect health, when a person starts to be less and less ill. So also living justly in this life, what is it but hearing the precepts of the law, and doing them? So, are those who follow the precepts of the law already healthy? Not yet: but they act in order to become healthy. Let them not cease from doing this: because what was once lost is gradually recovered. For if man were to return quickly to his former blessedness, it would be easy for him to fall into death by sinning.

With the doctor's orders, the pain of the incision must also be endured.

Anyone, for example, falls into bodily illness through intemperance; something has arisen in his body that needs to be cut away: without doubt, he will suffer pains, but those pains will not be unfruitful. If he does not want to suffer the pains of cutting, he will suffer the worms of rot. Thus the doctor begins to say: Observe this and that, do not touch this, do not use this food or drink, do not be restless about that thing. He begins to comply, already observing the commandments; but he is not yet healthy. So what good does it do to observe? Lest the plague that has happened to him increase, and to also lessen it. What then follows? It is proper to add to the observation of the commandments also the hands of the cutting doctor, and to endure the salutary pains inflicted. Thus, if the one placed in the foul ulcer says, What good is it to me because I observe the commandments, if I suffer the pains of cutting? it is answered, But by both you will be healed, both by observing the commandments and by enduring the pains. For it is enough that you have done this to yourself, by not observing while you were healthy. Therefore, trust the doctor until you are healed: for it is the merit of your ulcer, whatever troubles you suffer.

Christ the physician heals us gradually.

Thus, the physician Christ comes to the afflicted and the laboring, who says: "The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." He calls sinners to peace, he calls the sick to health. He commands faith, he commands self-control, temperance, sobriety; he restrains the lust of greed: he tells us what to do, what to keep. Whoever keeps these can already be said to live justly according to the command of medicine: but he has not yet received that health and that complete well-being, which God promises through the Apostle, saying: "This perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality." Then the word that is written will come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" Then there will be full health, and equality with the holy angels. But now, before that happens, my brothers, when we begin to observe the precepts that the physician commands, when we suffer even some temptations and tribulations, let us not think that we observe in vain, because greater pain seems to follow those precepts which you observe. For what you suffer tribulations, it is the hand of the cutting physician, not the sentence of the punishing judge. This is done so that health may be perfect: let us endure, let us bear the pains. Sin is sweet: therefore, through the bitterness of tribulation, the pernicious sweetness is digested. It pleased you when you did evil: but by doing it you fell into infirmity. Conversely, medicine causes you pain for a time, so that you may receive perpetual health. Use it, and do not repel it.

An antidote against all sins. Two precepts are opposed to the two kinds of sins.

Indeed, before all things, let not that antidote depart, which against all decay, against the poisons of all sins is very powerful, so that you may say, and truly say to the Lord your God: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For this is the covenant which the physician has written and established with the sick. For there are two kinds of sins; one by which God is sinned against, the other by which man is sinned against. Hence there are also those two commandments, on which the whole Law and the Prophets depend: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And in these are also contained the ten commandments of the Law, where three commandments pertain to the love of God, seven to love of neighbor: concerning which we have sometimes sufficiently treated.

He sins against God, who corrupts His temple in himself.

Just as there are two commandments, so there are also two kinds of sins. For one sins either against God or against man. However, one sins against God also by corrupting His temple in oneself: for God has redeemed you with the blood of His Son. And even before you were redeemed, whose servant were you, if not of Him who created all things? In a special way, He wanted to possess you, redeemed by the blood of His Son. And you are not your own, says the Apostle; for you were bought with a great price: glorify and carry God in your body. Therefore, He who redeemed you made you His house. Do you want to destroy your own house? Neither does God want to destroy His, which is you yourself. If you do not spare yourself for your own sake, spare yourself for the sake of God, who made you His temple. For the temple of God is holy, says he, which temple you are; and: If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. These sins, when men commit them, they think they are not sinning, because they do not harm any man.

Corrupters of themselves, not the innocent. Who is innocent?

Therefore, I wish to make this known to Your Holiness, as much as the brief time permits, what evil they do who corrupt themselves with gluttony, drunkenness, fornication; and they respond to those who reproach them, "I did it with my own resources, with my own possession: whom did I rob? whom did I take from? against whom did I act? I wish well to myself from what God has given me." This person seems innocent, as though he harms no one. But how is he innocent, who does not spare himself? For only he is innocent who harms no one: because the rule of love for one's neighbor comes from himself. For God said this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. How, therefore, is the love of your neighbor intact in you, when the love of yourself is wounded through intemperance? Then God says to you: When through drunkenness you wish to corrupt yourself, you do not overthrow the house of anyone, but my house. Where will I dwell? In these ruins? in this filth? If you were to welcome any servant of mine as a guest, you would restore and clean the house so that my servant could enter: do you not clean the heart where I wish to dwell?

The manner of using permitted things is difficult to maintain. The immoderate use of a wife, unless it is for the purpose of procreating children.

I have therefore mentioned one single matter, brothers, so that you can see how those who destroy themselves sin, even when they seem innocent to themselves. But since it is difficult in the weakness and mortality of this life for a person not to exceed the measure a little in those things of which he makes use out of necessity, this remedy must be applied: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: if it is said, and truly said. You are forbidden to commit adultery, so as not to harm your neighbor. For just as you do not want anyone to approach yours, so you should not approach another's wife. But if you use your own more excessively, do you seem to harm anyone since you use what is yours? But by using it immoderately even though it's granted to you, you corrupt the temple of God in yourself. No stranger accuses you; but what answer will your conscience give to God, speaking through the Apostle: That each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God? For who has a wife who uses his wife in such a way that he does not exceed the law of begetting children? For this is why she was given: the terms written in your marriage prove it. You agreed on how you would live: the writing of the agreement sounds in your ears: For the purpose of procreation. Therefore, do not approach, if you can, except for the purpose of procreation. If you exceed the measure, you act against those terms and against the agreement. Isn't it obvious? You will be a liar and a violator of the agreement: and God seeks the integrity of His temple in you and does not find it; not because you used your own, but because you used it immoderately. For you drink wine from your own cellar, yet if you drink in such a way that you get drunk, you have not sinned because you used your own thing: for you have turned the gift of God into your own corruption.

God Himself is offended by the immoderate use of permitted things. A remedy against the sins of such immoderation.

What then, brothers? Certainly it is manifest, and the conscience of all announces, that it is difficult to use permitted things in such a way that the measure is not somewhat exceeded. But when you exceed the measure, you offend God, whose temple you are. For the temple of God is holy, which you are. Let no one deceive himself: Whoever corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt. The sentence is declared, you are held guilty. What will you say in your prayers when you beseech God, whom you offend in his temple, whom you drive out of his temple? How will you cleanse again in yourself the house of God? How will you bring him back to you? How, unless by saying from your true heart, in words and actions: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors? For who will accuse you of using your food, your drink, your spouse immoderately? No one among men will accuse you: but yet because God reproves, demanding of you the integrity of his temple and the incorruption of his dwelling, he has given you a remedy, as if saying: If by exceeding the measure you offend me, and I hold you guilty where no man accuses you; forgive the man who has sinned against you, so that I may forgive you what you sin against me.

Despising that remedy, no hope of salvation remains.

Hold fast to this strongly, brothers. For anyone who renounces this antidote, no hope of salvation remains for them whatsoever. Whoever tells me, "I do not forgive the sins that people might commit against me," there is no way I can promise salvation to them. For I cannot promise what God does not promise. For I would not be a steward of the word of God, but a steward of the serpent. The serpent promised good to the sinner, but God threatened death. For what happened to them but what God threatened? And what the serpent promised is far from what occurred. Do you want me, brothers, to tell you: Even if you sin, even if you do not forgive the sins of others, you will be absolutely saved when Christ Jesus comes and gives forgiveness to everyone? I do not say this, because I do not hear it; I do not say what is not said to me. God indeed promises forgiveness to the sinner, but forgiving all past sins to those who convert, believe, and are baptized. This is what I read, this is what I dare to promise, this is what I promise, and what I promise is promised to me. And when it is read, we all hear it: for we are fellow students, and there is one teacher in this school.

Grave sins, which demand more intense labor of penance. Light sins overwhelm by their multitude, unless they are forgiven by God.

Therefore, all past things are forgiven to those who are converted: but there are certain grave and deadly sins of this life, which are not relaxed except through the most vehement distress of the humiliation of the heart, contrition of the spirit, and the tribulation of penance. These are forgiven by the keys of the Church. For if you begin to judge yourself, if you begin to displease yourself; God will come to have mercy. If you are willing to punish yourself, He will spare you. But he who does penance well, punishes himself. He must be severe towards himself so that God may be merciful to him: as David says: Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. But by what merit? He says in the same psalm: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. If you acknowledge, then He forgives. There are, however, light and small sins, which cannot be entirely avoided, which indeed seem smaller, but through their multitude weigh you down. For a heap of wheat is collected from the smallest grains, and yet ships are loaded from it: and if they are overloaded, they sink. One lightning bolt strikes someone down and kills them: but if there is excessive rain, even small drops in multitude kill many. One stroke slays, but the multitude extinguishes. Great beasts kill a man with one bite: however, many small creatures when gathered together often kill, and bring such destruction that the proud people of Pharaoh deserved to be judged with such plagues. Therefore, if these sins, although small, are so many that accumulated they make a heap which weighs you down; God is good, who even forgives those, without which this life cannot be led. But how does He forgive if you do not forgive what is committed against you?

Bail out, by forgiving the debts of our debtors.

This saying is in the heart of man, like a bilge cask, from which the ship is pumped out at sea. For it can only admit water through the cracks of its joinery. Gradually, however, by applying a thin liquid, it makes a large accumulation, so that if it is not pumped out, it will overwhelm the ship. So also, in this life, we have certain cracks of mortality and fragility through which sin enters from the waves of this world. Let us seize this saying, like a bucket, to pump out the bilge, lest we be submerged. Let us forgive our debtors, that God may forgive our debts. By this saying (if it is truly done as stated), you pump out whatever had flowed in. But be cautious: for you are still at sea. For when you have done this once, it is not enough, unless you traverse the sea to that solidity and firmness of the homeland, where you are shaken by no waves, nor do you release what is not admitted into you, nor wish to be forgiven what you do not admit.

Hatred must quickly be set aside, lest it corrupt the heart.

I believe I have sufficiently commended this to your Charity, and I commend it because of these waves in which we are in danger, so that we may hold on to a saving remedy. And see also how much he sins, who strives to harm the innocent; since he can no longer be endured, who does not forgive what has been harmed against him. Let our brothers, therefore, take heed, and see against whom they have had any bitterness of hatred. If they have not yet forgiven them, at least in these days they should see what they can do about these in their hearts. Or surely, if they think themselves safe, let them put vinegar in the vessels in which they have been accustomed to keeping good wine. They do not put it in, and they are cautious, lest the vessel be spoiled: and they put hatred into their heart, not fearing that some corruption may work there? Keep therefore, brothers, that you harm no one, as much as you can: and if any excess of this permitted use of things has crept in due to the weakness of human life, since it pertains to the corruption of the temple of God; hold and turn it, so that what has been committed in you, you quickly forgive people, so that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your sins.