Sermon 297
SERMO 297
ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL
The presumption of Peter. Fear from human weakness, love from divine grace.
Today the blood of the Apostles has made for us a festive day. This they repaid, what was expended for them by the blood of the Lord. Blessed Peter, as we have just heard, is commanded to follow: and yet he was contemplating to lead, when he said to the Lord: I will lay down my life for you. Presumption carried him, he did not know his own fear. He wished to go ahead, whom he should follow. He desired good, but did not keep the order. How bitter death was, he realized with bitter fear, and he washed the sin of bitter fear with bitter tears. Fear was questioned by a servant girl, love by the Lord. And what did fear respond, except human trembling? What did love respond, except divine profession? For to love God is the gift of God. When the Lord was asking Peter about love, he was demanding what he had given.
Peter is foretold to suffer what he will not want.
What, however, did the Lord foretell to Peter, about which this festive day is? When you were younger, he said, you girded yourself, and walked where you wished; but when you shall be old, another will gird you, and will carry you where you do not wish. Where is: I will be with you unto death? Where is: I will lay down my life for you? Behold, you will fear, behold, you will deny, behold, you will weep; and for whom you feared to die, he will rise again, and you will be strengthened. For what wonder is it that Peter feared, before Christ rose again? Behold, now Christ has risen, now the truth of the soul and the flesh appears, now what is promised is confirmed by example. The Lord is seen alive after the cross, after death, after the tomb. It is little that He is seen: He is touched, handled, proven. He did spend forty days with the disciples, coming in and going out, eating and drinking, not from necessity, but from power; not from need, but from charity: eating and drinking, not from hunger, nor from thirst, but teaching and demonstrating. Having been proven true and truthful, He ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, filled the believers and those praying, sent out the preachers. And yet after all these things, another girds Peter, and carries him where he does not wish. That which you wanted when the Lord predicted, then you wished when you had to follow.
The bitterness of death endured by the martyrs. Hence, the crown of the martyrs is more illustrious. Thorns trampled by stony feet.
Another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go. The Lord consoles concerning this by transforming our weakness into himself and saying: My soul is sorrowful unto death. Hence great martyrs, because they tread upon the sweetness of this world: hence great martyrs, because they endured the most bitter harshness of a bitter death. For if it is easy to bear death, what great thing did the martyrs endure for the death of the Lord? From where are they great, from where are they exalted, from where are they crowned much more splendidly than other men? From where, as the faithful know, are martyrs recited in their own place distinguished from the deceased; nor is prayer said for them, but the Church is commended to their prayers? Why is this, except that the death which they chose to receive for the confession of the Lord rather than deny Christ is indeed bitter? Indeed nature recoils from death. Look at the whole race of animals, you will find none that does not wish to live, that does not fear to perish. The human race has this sense. Death is harsh: but not, I say, because death is harsh, therefore life must be denied. Even Peter when an old man did not want to die. He did not indeed want to die, but he preferred to follow Christ. He preferred to follow Christ rather than not die. If there had been a broad way by which he could follow Christ without dying, who doubts that he would seize it and choose it? But there was no way to follow Christ to where he wanted to go but by a way which he did not want to suffer. Accordingly, the sheep followed the rams through that harshness of death. The holy Apostles are the rams of the sheep. The way of death is harsh, full of thorns: but these thorns crushed under the stony feet of Peter and when Peter passed.
The love of whose life is praised?
We do not blame, we do not accuse, even if this life is loved. But let this life be loved in such a way that in its love, sin is not committed. Let life be loved, but let life be chosen. I ask the lovers of life, and I say: Who is the man who wants life? Even in silence, you all respond: Who is the man who does not want life? I add what the Psalm added: Who is the man who wants life, and loves to see good days? It is answered: For who is the man who does not want life, and who does not love to see good days? If, therefore, you wish to come to life and see good days, because that is the reward, attend to the work of this reward: Keep your tongue from evil. This follows in the Psalm. Who is the man who wants life, and loves to see good days? It is added: Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit: turn away from evil, and do good. Now say, I want. I was asking, Do you want life? You were responding, I want. I was asking, Do you want to see good days? You were responding, I want. Hold your tongue from evil. Now say, I want. Turn away from evil, and do good. Say, I want. If indeed you want this; seek the work, and you run to the reward.
The crown is given to Paul as his due because grace, which was not owed, had preceded.
Pay attention to the Apostle Paul, for today is also his feast day. Both led a harmonious life, both shed their blood together, both received the heavenly crown, both consecrated today. Pay attention, therefore, to the Apostle Paul; recall the words we heard a little while ago when his Epistle was being read. "For I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day." He will not deny the debt owed, He who granted what was not due. The righteous judge will give the crown; He will give it: for He has one to whom He can give it. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith:" He will give the crown deserved by such merits; He will not deny the debt, as I said, He who granted what was not due. What is that which He granted that was not due? "I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence." What then did He grant that was not due? Let us hear the one confessing, and praising the giver of grace by his own confession. "Formerly," he said, "I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence." Was it owed to you, therefore, that you should be an apostle? What was owed to a blasphemer and a persecutor and a man of violence? What, if not eternal damnation? And in exchange for eternal damnation, what did he receive? "But I received mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief." This is the mercy that God granted not due. Hear him again saying elsewhere: "I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." Therefore, I see, Apostle, that you were not fit. How is it then, that it was given to you, to be fit? Why then are you what you were not fit to be? Hear: "But by the grace of God I am what I am." I was what I was by my punishment: I am what I am by the grace of God. "By the grace of God," he said, "I am what I am: and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I worked harder than any of them." So did you repay the grace of God? Did you receive and repay? Pay attention to what you said. "I pay attention," he said. "Not I, but the grace of God which is with me." Therefore, will the just God deny the deserved crown to this laborious Apostle, who fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith, to whom He granted the grace which was not due?
Our merits are gifts from God. We conquer through Him who loved us.
To whom, then, will He render the deserved crown, O little Paul, great one, to whom will He render it? Surely according to your merits. You have fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith: He will render the deserved crown to these your merits. But that the crown may be rendered to you, your merits are the gifts of God. Behold you have fought the good fight, finished the course. For you saw another law in your members, warring against the law of your mind, and bringing you into captivity to the law of sin which is in your members: whence for you to conquer, unless from what follows? Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Behold whence you fought, behold whence you labored, behold whence you did not faint, behold whence you conquered. See him fighting: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? or distress? or famine? or persecution? or nakedness? or peril? or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are put to death all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Behold weakness, labor, misery, dangers, temptations. Whence is the victory of those who contend? Hear what follows: But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. You have finished the course: by whom being led, by whom being guided, by whom being helped? What do you say here? I have finished the course, he says; but it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. You have kept the faith, it is true. Firstly, which faith? What did you give yourself? It is false what you said: As God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Do you not address certain of your fellow contenders, laboring and running with you in this race of life, to whom you say: For to you it has been granted in behalf of Christ? What has been granted? Not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Behold both have been granted, both to believe, and to suffer for Christ.
It is God's to guard His gifts in us.
But perhaps someone says: "Indeed, I received faith, but I kept it." You perhaps say this, whoever you are who hears these foolish things, "I received faith, but I kept it." Our Paul does not say this: "I kept it." For he looks back: "Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman labors in vain who keeps it." Work, guard: but it is good that you are guarded. For you are not sufficient to guard yourself. If you are forsaken, you will doze and sleep. However, he who guards Israel does not slumber or sleep.
Life should be loved, but the good life. All men want good things except for their own soul.
Therefore, we love life, and we in no way doubt that we love life: nor can we entirely deny that we love life. Therefore, let us choose life if we love life. What do we choose? Life. First good here; after this, eternal. First good here, but not yet blessed. Let a good life be led now, for afterward a blessed one is preserved. A good life is the task; a blessed life is the reward. Lead a good life, and you will receive a blessed one. What is more just, what is more orderly? Where are you, lover of life? Choose the good. If you wanted a wife, you would want only a good one: you love life, and choose an evil one? Tell me what evil thing you would want. Whatever you might want, whatever you might love, you want a good thing. You certainly do not want a bad horse, not a bad servant, not bad clothing, not a bad estate, not a bad house, not a bad wife, not bad children. You seek all good things: be good yourself, who seeks them. Why do you wrong yourself, that among all the good things you want, you alone want to be bad? Your estate is dear to you, your wife, your clothing, and, to come to the end, your shoe; and has your soul become worthless to you? Certainly, this life is full of labors, hardships, temptations, miseries, pains, fears: certainly, it is manifest that it is full of all these evils. And yet, even as it is full of all these evils, if anyone were to give it to us eternally just as it is, how much thanks would we give, so as to be always miserable? Not such a life does the true God promise, but the true truth. The true truth promises life, not only eternal but also blessed; where there is no trouble, no labor, no fear, no pain. There, full and entire certain security. Life under God, life with God, life of God, life itself is God. Such an eternal life is promised to us: and is this temporary one, this miserable and burdensome one, preferred? Is it preferred, I say, or not? It is preferred when you want to commit homicide, lest you die. For you fear lest a servant kill you, and you kill the servant. You fear lest your wife kill you, whom perhaps you suspect wrongly; and dismissing your wife, you desire adulterous marriages with another. Behold, by loving life, you have lost life: you have preferred temporal life to eternal, miserable to blessed. And what have you found? Perhaps when you preserve life, unwilling you expire. When you depart from here, you do not know. With what face do you approach Christ? With what face do you refuse punishment? I do not say, With what face do you ask for a reward? You will be condemned to eternal death, who choose temporal life, by the choice of which you despise the eternal.
A blessed life is not to be sought here. We make the days bad. For man, evil comes only from man. A person freed from his own evil cannot be harmed by anyone.
But you do not heed advice. You seek life, you seek good days. It is good that you seek, but it is not here. This precious stone has its own region, it is not born here. No matter how much you labor in digging, you will not find here what is not here. But do what is commanded, and what you love will be given. For behold, however long this life may be, will you find good days here? See what he added: Life and good days: lest life be, and be miserable because of bad days. Here, bad days abound: but bad days are not made by the sun, which runs coming from east to west, and proceeds the next day: but bad days, brothers, we make. If we all lived well, we would have good days even here. Indeed, from where comes evil for man, if not from man? Count how many things people suffer from externally. What does not seem to be done by human beings is very few. Evils abound for man from man. Theft by man, he suffered adultery in his wife by man, his servant was seduced by man, he was deceived by man, proscribed by man, attacked by man, led captive by man. Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Now you, whoever you are listening, think only of the enemy, whom you endure as a nearby evil, powerful, companion, citizen. Perhaps you think of the thief when you hear: Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man; and thus you pray, when you pray, that God may deliver you from an evil man, whether this or that enemy of yours. Do not be evil to yourself. Hear me: may God deliver you from yourself. For when God by His grace and mercy makes you good from evil; from what does He make you good, from what does He deliver you, if not from yourself, the evil man? Absolutely, my brothers, this is true, this is certain, this is fixed: if God has delivered you from yourself, the evil man, no other evil man will be able to harm you.
Paul liberated himself from evil.
I will propose an example which is discussed, concerning the Apostle Paul himself, whose day of suffering we celebrate. He was a persecutor, blasphemer, and insolent. He was a bad man; he himself was his own punishment. Furthermore, while he breathed out threats and thirsted for the blood of Christians, about to shed his own, having letters from the chief priests, that in Damascus he might find any followers of the Christian way, to bring them bound for punishment, treading the path of cruelty, knowing nothing of piety, he heard a voice from above, our Lord Jesus Christ himself from heaven saying: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. Struck by that voice, the persecutor was prostrated and the preacher raised up: he was blinded in the flesh, so that he might see in the heart; illuminated in the flesh, so that he might preach from the heart. What is seen, brothers? Saul was freed from the bad man; from whom, if not from himself Saul? Because he was freed from the bad man himself, what could another bad man do to him? These are the words of the Apostle Peter: And who will harm you, if you be lovers of good? A bad man persecuted, a bad man stoned, a bad man beat with rods: finally, a bad man seized, bound, dragged, and killed him. As many evils as he added, as much good did God prepare. Whatever he suffered was not a torment of punishment, but an occasion for a crown. See what it means to be freed from a bad man, that is, from oneself. Who, he says, will harm you, if you be lovers of good?
Evil things do not harm a man liberated from the evil within himself. How the feasts of the saints are to be celebrated.
But behold, evil men harm. So much they have done to you, O Paul. Paul responds to you: It was necessary for me to be freed from an evil man, that is, from myself. Otherwise, what do these evil men do to me? The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. Truly you are freed from the evil man, that is from yourself, so that other evil men would not harm you, but rather profit you. Therefore, beloved, let us celebrate the feast day of the saints, who have fought against sin even to bloodshed, and with the Lord granting and helping, overcame, in such a way that we may love; so let us love, that we may imitate; by imitating, we may deserve to reach their rewards.