Sermon 305

SERMO 305

ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MARTYR LAURENCE

[The Guide to the Table of St. Cyprian]

A grain multiplied by death.

Your faith recognizes the grain that fell into the earth and, having died, was multiplied. Your faith, I say, recognizes this grain, for it dwells in your mind. For no Christian doubts what Christ said about Himself. But indeed, with that grain having died and having been multiplied, many grains have been scattered on the earth: among which is the blessed Lawrence, whose sowing we celebrate today. From those grains scattered throughout the whole world, we see how great the harvest has sprung up, we rejoice, we exist: if, however, we also, through His grace, belong to the granary. For not everything that is in the harvest belongs to the granary. The same beneficial and nourishing rain feeds both the wheat and the chaff. Far be it that both are stored together in the granary; even though both are nurtured together in the field and both are threshed together on the threshing floor. Now is the time of choosing. Before the winnowing comes, let there be a separation of behaviors: just as on the threshing floor, the grain is still distinguished in cleansing, but is not yet finally separated by the winnowing fan.

The soul here is not to be loved. Christ is troubled as death approaches because He transforms us into Himself.

Hear me, holy grains, who I do not doubt are here; for if I doubt, I will not be a grain myself: listen, I say, to me; rather listen to the first grain through me. Love not your souls in this world: do not love, if you do love; so that by not loving, you may save them: because by not loving, you love more. Whoever loves his soul in this world, will lose it. A grain speaks, a grain that fell to the earth and was mortified to be multiplied, it speaks: let it be heard, because it does not lie. What it admonished, it did itself: it instructed with a precept, preceded by example. Christ did not love his soul in this world; hence he came to lose it here, to lay it down for us, and to take it up when he wished. But because he was such a man, as to be also God: for Christ is Word, soul, and flesh, true God and true man; but a man without sin, who would take away the sin of the world: of greater power indeed, as to be able to say truthfully: I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me; but I lay it down of myself, and take it up again. Therefore, since he had such power, why did he say: Now my soul is troubled? The human God with such power, why is he troubled, except because in him is the image of our weakness? I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again. When you hear this from Christ, he is in himself; when you hear this, I say, from Christ, he is in himself: when his soul is troubled with death approaching, he is in you. For indeed his body would not be the Church, unless he were also in us.

Christ died by power, he rose again by power.

Therefore, attend to Christ: "I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it up again; no one takes it from me." I slept: for he says in the Psalm: "I slept." As if he were saying: Why do they rage? Why do they rejoice? Why are the Jews elated, as if they have done something? I slept. I, he says, I who have the power to lay down my life, by laying it down, I slept, and I took rest. And since he had the power to take it up again, he added: And I arose. But giving glory to the Father: Because, he says, the Lord has sustained me. These words where he says: Because the Lord has sustained me, do not enter into your minds as if his body was not raised up by Christ himself. The Father raised him, and he also raised himself. From where will we show that he also raised himself? Recall what he said to the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Therefore, understand Christ as having been born from the virgin by power, not by condition, but by power: dead by power, dead in this way by power. He was using the unknowing evils for his good and converting the raging mad people for the use of his power for our blessedness, and in those by whom he was dying, he saw those who would live with him; and seeing them still mad in the insane populace, he said: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." I, he says, I, the doctor, touch the vein, I look at the sick from the wood; I hang, and I touch; I die, and I vivify; I pour out blood, and from it, I make a healing medicine for my enemies. They rage and spill it; they will believe and drink.

When death threatens, let us not be disheartened.

Therefore, Christ Himself, our Lord and Savior, head of the Church, born of the Father without a mother; He, I say, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as far as He Himself is concerned, laid down His life with authority, and took it up again with authority. Properly speaking, this authority does not pertain to: My soul is troubled. He transformed us into Himself; He saw us, He inspected us, He received and cherished us when we were weary; lest perhaps, when the last day should come for any of His members, on which this life would be ended, they might be troubled through weakness, and despair of salvation, and say they do not belong to Christ, since they were not so prepared for death that no perturbation would arise in them, no sadness would darken their most devout mind. Therefore, because His members would be endangered by despair, when, death approaching, someone would be troubled, unwilling to end this miserable life, hesitant to begin the never-ending one: lest they be broken by despair, He considered His weak ones, He collected His not very strong limbs to His bosom, He covered His not very strong ones like a hen covers her chicks; and as if He speaks to them: Now my soul is troubled. Recognize yourselves in me, so that when perhaps you are troubled, you do not despair, but recall your gaze to your head, and say to yourselves, When the Lord said: My soul is troubled, we were in Him, we were signified. We are troubled, but we do not perish. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you trouble me? Do you not wish to end this miserable life? It is all the more miserable because it is loved in wretchedness, and you do not want it to end: it would be less wretched if it were not loved. What kind of blessed life is it, when such a miserable life is loved, only because it is called life? Why then are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you trouble me? You have something to do. Are you exhausted within yourself? Hope in the Lord. Are you troubled within yourself? Hope in the Lord, who chose you before the foundation of the world, who predestined you, who called you, who justified you as a sinner, who promised you eternal glorification, who endured an undeserved death for you, who shed His blood for you, who transformed you into Himself when He said: My soul is troubled. You belong to Him, and you fear? And is anything in the world going to harm you, for whom He died, through whom the world was made? You belong to Him, and you fear? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how will He not also freely give us all things with Him? Resist perturbations, lest you consent to the love of the world. It titillates, flatters, ensnares: do not believe it, hold fast to Christ.