Sermon 280
SERMO 280
ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE MARTYRS PERPETUA AND FELICITAS
Perpetua and Felicity, having obtained the reward of perpetual happiness through remarkable martyrdom.
Today's day brings to our memory, by annual repetition, and in some way represents the day on which the holy servants of God, Perpetua and Felicitas, adorned with the crowns of martyrdom, flourished in perpetual happiness, bearing the name of Christ in battle, and simultaneously finding their own name in the reward. We have heard their exhortations in divine revelations and the triumphs of their sufferings, as they were read; and all these things arranged and illuminated by words, we have perceived with our ears, seen with our minds, honored with our devotion, and praised with our love. Nevertheless, a solemn discourse is also due from us to such devout celebration, which if I present unequal to their merits, I still offer a diligent affection with the joy of such a great festivity. For what could be more glorious for these women, whom men more easily admire than emulate? But this is especially the praise of Him in whom they believed, and in whose name, running with faithful zeal, they are found, regarding their inner person, neither male nor female; so that in those who are women in body, the virtue of the mind hides the sex of the flesh, and it is disgraceful to think of in their members what could not appear in their deeds. Thus the dragon is trampled by a chaste and victorious foot, when the ladder is shown, by which the blessed Perpetua may go to God. Thus the head of the ancient serpent, which was the downfall of a falling woman, was made a step for her ascending.
Glory of the martyrs.
What is sweeter than this spectacle? What is stronger than this contest? What is more glorious than this victory? Then when holy bodies were thrown to the beasts, the nations roared throughout the amphitheater, and the peoples devised vain things. But He who dwells in the heavens laughed at them, and the Lord mocked them. Now, however, the descendants of those whose voices wickedly raged against the flesh of the martyrs, praise the merits of the martyrs with pious voices. Nor was the amphitheater then filled with such a great multitude of men to kill them as the church is now filled with to honor them. Charity witnesses with reverence every year what impiety with sacrilege committed on a single day. They also watched, but with a far different intention. They, by shouting, did what the beasts did not fulfill by biting. But we both pity what the impious did and venerate what the pious suffered. They saw with the eyes of the flesh what they poured out into the savagery of their hearts: we see with the eyes of the heart what was snatched from them so they might not see. They rejoiced in the dead bodies of the martyrs, we grieve for their dead minds. They, without the light of faith, thought the martyrs extinguished; we see with the most faithful gaze them crowned. Finally, their insult has become our exultation. And indeed, ours is religious and eternal: theirs at that time was impious, now clearly it is nothing.
The greatest rewards of the martyrs. The love of this laborious life.
The rewards of martyrs, dearest ones, we believe to be the greatest, and we believe this very rightly. But if we attentively consider their struggles, we will by no means marvel that they are so great. For, although this life is laborious and temporal, yet there is such sweetness in it that while humans cannot make it so they do not die, yet by many and great efforts they strive that they might not die soon. Nothing can be done to remove death, and whatever can be done, is done to delay it. Surely, it is troublesome for every soul to labor: and yet even by those who expect neither good nor evil after this life, all labors are performed so that all labor may not end in death. What about those who, either through error, suspect future false and carnal delights after death, or through right faith, hope for a rest that is ineffably tranquil and blessed—do not even they strive and with great concern act not to die soon? For what else do they intend with so many labors, so much servitude, whether of medicine or of other services, which either the sick require or are rendered to the sick, except that the end of death may not be reached soon? How much, therefore, should the lack of death's infliction in the future life be compared, given that its mere delay is so precious in this life? For there is such a sweetness, I don't know how, in this sorrowful life, and such a great horror of death in the nature of the living that even those who are passing through death to a life in which they cannot die do not wish to die.
Martyrs have despised both death and pains for Christ.
Thus, martyrs of Christ, with sincere love, certain hope, and unfeigned faith, disregard the greatest pleasure of living and the fear of dying with outstanding virtue. Turning their back on the promising and threatening world, they stretch forward. They ascend by trampling the head of the serpent that hisses in various ways. For he who subjugates the love of this life, which is the tyrant, conquers all desires. And there is no bond in this life that holds him who is not held by the love of this life. The fear of death and bodily pains are usually mixed together. For sometimes one, sometimes the other triumphs in man. Tortured, he lies so as not to die; and even as he is about to die, he lies so as not to be tortured. He speaks the truth, not enduring the torments, so that he may not be tortured for lying. But let any of these prevail in any minds. The martyrs of Christ have conquered both for the name and righteousness of Christ: they neither feared to die nor to suffer. He who lived in them conquered in them; so that those who lived not for themselves but for Him might not die even when dead. He provided them with spiritual delights so that they would not feel bodily discomforts; enough for their training, not for their failing. Where was that woman, when she did not feel herself fighting against the roughest cow, and when she asked about what was to come as if it had already passed? Where was she? What was she seeing that she did not see these things? What was she enjoying that she did not perceive these things? By what love was she alienated, by what spectacle was she distracted, by what cup was she intoxicated? And still, she was held by the bonds of the flesh, still carried dying limbs, and was still burdened by a corruptible body. What, when the souls of martyrs, freed from these bonds after the perils of dangerous combat, are received and refreshed with angelic triumphs, where it is not said to them, "Fulfill what you were commanded," but, "Receive what I promised"? With what joy do they now spiritually feast? How secure in the Lord and with what sublime honor do they glory, which can anyone teach by an earthly example?
The happiness of the martyrs is different before and after the resurrection.
And this indeed is the life that the blessed martyrs now have, which, although it cannot be compared with any felicities or sweetnesses of this age, is a small portion of the promise, or rather a consolation of delay. But the day of retribution will come, where, with the bodies restored, the whole man will receive what he deserves. There, too, the limbs of that rich man, which once were adorned with temporal purple, will be tormented with eternal fire, and the flesh of the poor man, covered with sores, changed, will shine among the Angels: although even now he thirsts for the drop from the finger of the poor man in hell, and he rests delightfully in the bosom of the just one. For just as there is a great difference between the joys and miseries of those sleeping and those awake; so there is a great difference between the torments or joys of the dead and those who rise again: not that the spirits of the deceased, as of those sleeping, must be deceived; but that the rest of souls without bodies is one thing, and the clarity and happiness of the Angels with heavenly bodies is another, with which the multitude of the faithful who rise again will be equal: in which the most glorious martyrs will shine with the particular light of their honor, and the very bodies in which they endured unworthy torments will be turned into fitting ornaments for them.
The solemnities of the martyrs, with what spirit they are to be celebrated. The martyrs take pity on us, and pray for us.
Therefore, let us devoutly celebrate their festivities, as we do, with sober cheerfulness, chaste congregation, faithful thought, and confident preaching. It is no small part of imitation to rejoice in the virtues of the better. They are great, we are small: but the Lord has blessed the small with the great. They have preceded, they have excelled. If we cannot follow them in action, let us follow them in affection: if not in glory, at least in joy: if not by merits, by wishes: if not by passion, by compassion: if not by excellence, by connection. Let us not consider it little that we are members of His body, of whom they are also members, to whom we cannot be equated. For if one member suffers, all the members suffer together: thus when one member is honored, all the members rejoice together. Glory to the head, from which both the higher hands and the lower feet are cared for. Just as He laid down His life for us: so too did the martyrs emulate Him, and laid down their lives for the brethren, and that this abundant fertility of peoples like seed would arise, they watered the earth with their blood. Therefore, we are also the fruits of their labor. We admire them, they pity us. We congratulate them, they pray for us. They spread their bodies like garments, when the colt carrying the Lord was led into Jerusalem: we at least, cutting branches from the trees, pluck hymns and praises from the Holy Scriptures, which we offer for the common joy. Nonetheless, we all obey the same Lord, follow the same master, accompany the same leader, are joined to the same head, strive towards the same Jerusalem, pursue the same charity, and embrace the same unity.