Sermon 305A

Sermon 305/A

On the Birth of Saint Lawrence
Held at Carthage in the Restored Basilica, on the third Ides of August

Laurence's day in Rome is very solemn. Continuous solemnities would bring weariness.

Due to the audience’s fastidiousness, the discourse had to be withdrawn, but because of the martyr’s devotion, it had to be presented; thus, with the help of the Lord, it will be moderated so that it is neither burdensome nor unduly diminished, sufficient as much as is needed. A most solemn day has dawned in Rome, which is celebrated by a great multitude of people; although we are absent in body, we join our brothers in one body, under one head, present in spirit. For it is not only where his body’s tomb is located that his merit’s memory resides; devotion is due everywhere; the body is placed in one location, but the spirit triumphs with Him who is everywhere. Blessed Lawrence was young in body, as we have learned, a man of heavy spirit, whose younger age greatly commended him, and whose unfading crown was more distinguished. He was, moreover, a deacon, inferior in office to a bishop, yet equal in crown to an Apostle. This solemnity of all glorious martyrs has been established in the Church so that those who have not seen the sufferers may be led to imitation by faith, commemorated through solemnity. For what the annual order does not repeat might well fade from the hearts of men. And not all martyrs can have fervent solemnities everywhere, for they would not be absent daily; indeed, there cannot be found even one day in the course of the year in which martyrs were not crowned in various places. But if fervent solemnities were continuous, they would bring tedium; intervals, however, renew the affection. We should only listen to what is commanded, and attend to what is promised; in the celebration of any martyr, we should prepare our heart in such a way for his festivity that we are not separated from his imitation.

The book of Cyprian to Fortunatus was read. The glory of the martyrs, the glory of Christ.

For he was a man, and we are men; by whom he was made, by him also we; by what price he was bought, he also and we. Therefore a Christian man ought not to say: Why me? Rather, he ought not to say: Not I; but: Why not I too? You have heard blessed Cyprian, both example and trumpet of the martyrs: "In persecution," he says, "militia is crowned, in peace conscience is crowned." Therefore let no one think that the time is absent for him; the time of suffering is not always present, but the time of devotion always is. Nor should anyone consider himself weak, where God works strength; lest, while fearing for himself, he despairs of the very worker. For this reason, God willed that in the examples of the martyrs, all ages and both sexes should be present: old men were crowned, young men were crowned, youths were crowned, boys were crowned, men were crowned, women were crowned. And in women, all ages were crowned; nor did a woman say: I am unequal in sex to overcoming the devil. She looked more at the enemy to be cast down, by whom she was cast down, and to be fought by faith, to whom she had yielded by seduction. Did women also presume upon their own strength? For it was said to every human being: "For what do you have that you did not receive?" Therefore the glory of the martyrs is the glory of Christ preceding the martyrs, fulfilling the martyrs, crowning the martyrs. Nevertheless, although peace is at one time, persecution at another, is any time lacking in trials? Never is it lacking: that lion, the dragon, neither rages always nor always lies in wait, but always persecutes. When savagery is open, traps are not hidden; when traps are hidden, savagery is not open; that is, when as a lion he roars, he does not creep like a dragon; when he creeps like a dragon, he does not roar like a lion; yet, whether he is a lion or a dragon, he always persecutes. When the roaring stops, beware of traps; when traps are revealed, avoid the roaring lion. Both the lion and the dragon can be avoided, if the heart is always kept in Christ. Whatever is to be feared in this life will pass away; but in the other life, both what is to be loved does not pass away, and what is to be feared does not pass away.

The Gospel reading from Matthew 23, 29-39.

Surely, just now in the Gospel, the Lord was addressing the Jews and said to them: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you build the tombs of the Prophets, and say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have participated with them in the killing of the Prophets. Certainly, you testify against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the Prophets. And you will fill up the measure of your fathers. For when they said: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have participated with them in the killing of the Prophets, they confirmed that they are the sons of those men. But we, if we follow the right path, do not call those our fathers who killed the prophets, but call those our fathers who were killed by their fathers. For as one degenerates by conduct, so he becomes a son by conduct. For indeed, brothers, we are called the sons of Abraham, although we have never known the face of Abraham, nor are we born of his lineage of flesh. How then are we his sons? Not by flesh, but by faith. For Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Therefore, if Abraham was righteous because he believed, all who imitate the faith of Abraham after him are made the sons of Abraham. The Jews, born of the flesh, have degenerated; we, born of strangers, by imitating have attained what they lost by degenerating. May it never be then that Abraham is their father, although they descended from the flesh of Abraham. Their fathers were those whom they admitted themselves. They say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have participated with them in the killing of the Prophets. How can you say you would not have agreed with those whom you call your fathers? If they were your fathers, you are a son; if you are a son, you would have agreed with them. But if you would not have agreed, you are not a son; if you are not a son, they are not your fathers. Therefore, the Lord convinces them from this that they will do what those did because they called them their fathers. Surely, he said, you testify against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the Prophets, because you called them your fathers. And you will fill up the measure of your fathers.

Dances recently prohibited by St. Cyprian.

And now let us consider who are the children of the slain, and who are the children of the slayers. And you see many running to the memorials of the martyrs, blessing their chalices from the memorials of the martyrs, returning filled from the memorials of the martyrs; and yet examine them, and you will find them among the persecutors of the martyrs. For through them come tumults, seditions, dances, all luxuries, which God hates; and now, because they cannot stone those already crowned, they persecute them with chalices. Who were they, and whose children were they, whose dances were recently and almost in yesterday's memory prohibited from the place of the holy martyr Cyprian? Certainly they danced there, and rejoiced there; and they awaited that very festivity with great vows, as if they were rejoicing, and always desired to come to that day. Among whom are they to be numbered? Among the persecutors of the martyrs, or among the children of the martyrs? They appeared, when, having been prohibited, they swelled into sedition. The children praise, the persecutors dance; the children sing hymns, those extend feasts. Therefore, it does not matter how they seem to honor; for such they are, when they honor, as those were who said: If we had been in those times, we would not have consented to our fathers in the killing of the martyrs, or in the killing of the Prophets. Consent now to the faith of the martyrs, and we believe that you would not have consented to the killers of the martyrs. From what were the martyrs crowned? I believe, by walking in the way of God, by enduring, by even loving their enemies, by praying for them. This is the crown of the martyrs, this is the merit of the martyrs. Do you love, imitate, praise? You are a child of the martyr. Do you lead a contrary life? You will bring forth a contrary hand then.

Persecution is never lacking for Christians.

Therefore, most beloved, since persecution, as I said, is never absent, and the devil either lies in wait or rages, we must always be prepared, with a heart fixed in the Lord, and, as much as we can, in these troubles, tribulations, and temptations, pray for strength from the Lord, since by ourselves we are small and insignificant. What can we say about ourselves? You heard about the apostle Paul when he was read: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” As it says in the Psalm: “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations, Lord, delight my soul.” Just as it is said in the Psalm: “According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, so your consolations, Lord, delight my soul,” so it is said by the Apostle: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” We would falter when the persecutor is present if the comforter were absent. And because the strength to endure or some relief from life’s burdens for necessary ministry did not come from themselves, see what he said: “I make known to you, brothers, the affliction that came upon us in Asia, that we were burdened exceedingly, beyond our strength.” That affliction surpassed human strength: did it also surpass divine help? He said, “We were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength.” How much beyond strength? See that he speaks of the strength of the soul: “So that we despaired even of life.” How burdened was the Apostle by the multitude of oppressions that he, whom love urged to live, was wearied of life! How love impelled him to live, that love of which he says elsewhere: “But to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sakes.” Behold, such a great persecution had increased, and such a tribulation, that he despaired even of life. Behold, fear and trembling came upon him, and darkness covered him, as you heard when it was said in the Psalm. For it is the voice of the body of Christ, the voice of the members of Christ. Do you wish to recognize your own voice there? Be a member of Christ. “Fear,” he says, “and trembling fell upon me, and darkness covered me. And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove? And I will fly and be at rest.” Does it not seem that the Apostle said this when he said: “So that we despaired even of life”? He somehow suffered weariness from the snare of the flesh; he wished to fly to Christ; the abundance of tribulations beset his path but did not block it. He was weary of life, but not in that eternal life, of which he says: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But since he was held here by love, what follows? “But if to live in the flesh means fruitful labor for me, then I do not know which I prefer. I am hard-pressed between the two: having a desire to depart and be with Christ.” Who will give me wings like a dove? “But to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sakes.” He yielded to his whispering fledglings; he covered them with outspread wings, he nursed the fledglings, as he himself said: “I became small in your midst, like a nurse caring for her children.”

The condition of the hen when she nourishes the chicks.

And see, brothers, it was just read in the Gospel: How often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks, and you were not willing! Observe the hen, observe also other birds that nest before our eyes; they nurture the eggs, they feed the chicks: you will see none weaken with their offspring. Look at the appearance of the hen, when she feeds her chicks, how her voice changes, and breaks into a certain hoarseness. The feathers themselves are not gathered and lively, but disheveled and languid; so that, if you see another bird, whose nest you are unaware of, you cannot tell if she has eggs or chicks; but when you see a hen, even if you do not see her eggs or her chicks, from her voice and bodily appearance, you can understand she is a mother. What then did our mother Wisdom do? She was weakened in the flesh to gather the chicks, to beget, to nurture. But God's weakness is stronger than men; under these wings of the weakness of His flesh, yet under the hidden power of His divinity, He wanted to gather the children of Jerusalem. He had taught this to His Apostle, for He Himself was doing this in him; for the Apostle himself says: Do you want proof of the one speaking in me, Christ? And he says the sufferings of Christ were abundant in him: not his own sufferings, but the sufferings of Christ. For he was in the body of Christ, and was a member of Christ; and whatever was done in the Apostle, and in his member, by nurturing the chicks, was done by the head. Therefore this Apostle, considering the weakness of his chicks, desired to fly like a dove, but remained like a hen out of love for his children. We had within ourselves, he says, the answer of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from such a great death, and delivers us; in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us again. He delivers and will deliver, what does he say? He preserves our life for you. For He delivered us from many deaths, so that he would not be overwhelmed by persecutors, so that he would not be crowned sooner than was necessary for the chicks, according to what he said: But to remain in the flesh is necessary for you. But this I am confident of, that I will remain, and will stay with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith. Desire dragged him toward something else, necessity kept him elsewhere. To depart, he says, and to be with Christ, is far better. He did not say: necessary, but better. For what is better is desirable for its own sake; what is necessary is taken on for need: hence it is called necessary.

The works of necessity are like a ship to the homeland.

The necessity of a necessary thing gives it its name; hence, the food we use now is necessary for us to sustain temporal life; but the best food is the food of virtue and wisdom, the living bread, always refreshing, never failing. That one is the best, this one is necessary. Therefore, when the necessity of hunger and sustaining the mortal body passes, this food will no longer be necessary. For what does the Apostle say? "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food; but God will destroy both it and them." And when will he destroy them? When this animal body, rising again, becomes spiritual; for there will be no want there, and no works of necessity will be there. For all these things, brothers, both the good works that are said to be done here, and even those very works which we are admonished to perform daily, are works of necessity. What is so good, what so splendid, what so praiseworthy for a Christian, as to break bread for the hungry, to bring the needy without shelter into the house, to see the naked and clothe them, to see the dead and bury them, to see one in quarrel and reconcile, to see the sick and visit or care for him? All these works are praiseworthy. Observe and see because necessity begets them. For you break bread because you see the hungry; if no one were hungry, for whom would you break bread? Remove the necessity of another's misery, and there will be no need for your mercy. But still, through these works, born of necessity, we attain to that life where there will be no necessity, just as through a ship to the homeland. In the homeland, always to remain, never to journey, a ship will not be needed; but that ship, which will not be needed there, indeed brings us there. When we arrive, these things will not exist; but if they are not fulfilled here, it is impossible to reach there. Therefore, be zealous in good works of necessity, so that you may be blessed in the enjoyment of that eternity where necessity will die away, for the mother of all necessities, death itself, will die. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. When it will be said to death: "Where is your victory, O death? Where is your sting, O death?" To the consumed and conquered death it will be said, for the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Whatever is taken here as aid is in some way the beginning of death. We can say what will not be in heaven; who can say what will be there?

But now all works of necessity are fought with death: for every deficiency draws towards death, and every sustenance calls back from death; and thus the body is mutable, so that in a way, some deaths drive out other deaths. Whatever is taken up, where it cannot endure for a long time, is in a way the beginning of death. Now look at this life: if whatever is taken up, where it cannot endure for a longer time, and if you remain there longer, you die, it is the beginning of death; and yet, unless it is taken up, another death is not driven out. For example, one does not eat: if he eats and digests, he is refreshed. When he does not eat, he takes up fasting, so that he may repel from himself the death that gluttony would cause; unless he takes up abstinence and fasting, he will not repel it from himself. Again, in this fasting which he took up to repel the death of gluttony, if he wishes to persevere in it, he will fear the other death of hunger. Therefore, just as he took up fasting to avoid the death of gluttony, so he will take up food to avoid the death of fasting. For whatever of these things you take up, if you persevere in it, you will fail. You were exhausted from walking: if you keep on walking, you will fail from the very exhaustion and die. Therefore, so that you do not fail from walking, you rest by sitting; endure in sitting, and from that, you will die. Heavy sleep had oppressed you; you must wake up to avoid dying. By watching, you will die, unless you sleep again. Give me what you take up as an aid, to drive away the evil that was pressing upon you, where you are so secure that you want to persevere in it; whatever you take up, it itself will be feared. Therefore, in every mobility and mutability of failures and aids, there is a fight with death. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, it shall be said to death: Where is your victory, O death? Where is your sting, O death? We will see, we will praise, we will endure. There will be no lack, no aid will be required. You will not find a beggar to break bread for, or an outsider to take into your house. You will not find someone thirsty to whom you may offer a cup; nor someone naked to clothe; nor someone sick to visit; nor someone disputing to reconcile; nor someone dead to bury. All are satisfied with the food of righteousness and the drink of wisdom, all are clothed with immortality, all live in their eternal homeland; the very health of all is eternity, eternal health, eternal harmony. No one disputes, no one seeks a judge, no one seeks an arbitration of composition, no one a sentence of vengeance; no sickness, no death.

Not yet knowing what God is, we do not know what we will be either.

These things we could say, which will not be there; but what will be there, who can tell? What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. Therefore rightly did the Apostle say: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Whatever you may have suffered, O Christian, know that it is nothing compared to what you will receive. Surely we hold this by faith: let this not depart from your heart. It is not possible to conceive and see what you will be; therefore, what will it be, if it cannot be grasped by him who will grasp it? Surely we will be what we will be, and we cannot grasp what we will be. It surpasses all our frailty, it surpasses all our thought, it surpasses all our understanding: and yet we will be that. Beloved, says John, we are children of God; indeed already by adoption, faith, pledge. We have received the pledge, brothers, the Holy Spirit. Does He who gave such a pledge deceive? Children of God, he says, we are, and it has not yet appeared what we will be. We know, he says, that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. He said: It has not yet appeared, and he did not say what has not yet appeared. It has not yet appeared what we will be. He would say: We will be that, and such we will be. Whatever he would say, to whom would he say it? I do not dare to say: Who would say it? but surely: To whom would he say it? And indeed there was perhaps one who would say it, because it is he who leaned on the breast of Christ, and from his breast in that banquet drank wisdom; with this wisdom filled, he uttered: In the beginning was the Word. Therefore he said: We know that when it appears what we will be, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. Like whom? Surely like him, whose children we are. Beloved, he says, we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we will be. We know that when it appears, we will be like him, whose children we are, because we will see him as he is. So now, if you wish to be like whom you will be, if you wish to know like whom you will be, behold him, if you can. You cannot yet. Therefore, you do not know like whom you will be; therefore, you do not know how much like him you will be. Therefore, not yet knowing what he is, you do not know what you will be either.

The prayers of pastors and the faithful are necessary for one another.

Therefore, meditating on this, beloved, let us always await our eternal joy and always pray for strength in our labors and in temporal temptations, whether we for you, or you for us. For do not think, brothers, that our prayers are necessary for you, and your prayers are not necessary for us; prayers for one another are mutually necessary for us, because these prayers for one another are kindled by charity, and this sacrifice fragrantly and most sweetly ascends to the Lord as from an altar of piety. For if the Apostles said that prayers should be made for them, how much more so for us, who are far inferior but somehow desirous of following their footsteps, and neither able to know nor daring to speak how much we attain? Therefore, such men wanted to be prayed for by the Church, and they said: Because we are your glory, just as you are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. They prayed for each other before the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, glory in the day, weakness before the day. Let us pray in weakness, so that we may rejoice in glory. And indeed, at different times, however, we will all arrive there at one time; the times of departure from here are different, but there is one time for receiving there. For once and all together we will be gathered, to receive that which we have believed and desired at different times; just as those workers in the vineyard, some were hired at the first hour, others at the third hour, others at the sixth, others at the ninth, and others at the tenth. They were called at different times, but the wage is paid to all at one time. Turned to the Lord, etc.