Sermon 306
SERMO 306
On the Birthday of the Martyrs of the White-Robed Company
The glory of the martyrs is hidden to the foolish. Malice is a punishment.
As we have heard and sung in response: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," but in His sight, not in the sight of the foolish. For in the eyes of the foolish they seem to die, and their departure is considered a misfortune. Misfortune in the Latin language does not typically have the same meaning as it does in the language in which Scripture is spoken. For in Latin, misfortune is usually said of what evil men suffer: however, in that language, misfortune is also called the evil that people endure. Misfortune in this context is understood as punishment. Thus he said: "In the eyes of the foolish they seem to die, and their departure is considered a punishment: but they are at peace. And even though in the sight of men they have suffered torments," this is misfortune: "their hope, he says, is full of immortality; and though they have been punished a little, they will be well blessed in many ways." For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. But until it is revealed, it is hidden. And because it is hidden, therefore they seem to the foolish to die. But is it hidden from God as well, for whom it is precious? Therefore, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. To this hidden mystery, then, we owe the eyes of faith, so that we may believe what we do not see, and bravely endure the evils unjustly suffered.
Punishment does not harm if the cause is good. Pure Mass.
Let us have a chosen cause, lest punishment harm us. For an evil cause has no reward, but just torment. It is not, therefore, in man's power by what outcome he may end this life: but it is in man's power how he may live, so that he may end life securely. Nor would this be in his power, unless the Lord had given the power to become children of God. But to whom? To those believing in his name. This is the primary cause of the Martyrs, this is the Bright Mass of the Martyrs. If the cause is bright, the Mass is bright. For Mass is said from the multitude of the number; Bright, from the splendor of the cause. So many companions feared no robbers. But even if they were to walk alone, they would be fortified against robbery; because the road itself was the fortification. They placed snares for me by the path, he says. Therefore, whoever does not turn from the path, does not fall into the snare. However, we have both the utmost and faithful promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
Everyone, although in different ways of life, equally desires a blessed life.
Every man, whatever kind he may be, wants to be blessed. There is no one who does not wish for this, and wishes for it in such a way that he wishes it above all else; indeed, whoever desires other things, desires them for this one thing.
Men are driven by various desires, and one desires this, another that: there are different ways of living in the human race; and among the multitude of ways of living, each chooses and pursues something different: yet there is no one, whatever life he chooses, who does not desire a happy life. Therefore, the happy life is a common possession of all: but the way to reach it, the path to follow, and the method to attain it, is the subject of controversy. And so, if we seek a happy life on earth, I do not know whether we can find it: not because what we seek is bad, but because we do not seek it in its proper place. One says: Blessed are those who serve as soldiers. Another denies this and says: Blessed are those who cultivate the field. And this another denies, and says: Blessed are those who involve themselves in public affairs, defend cases, and control the life and death of men by their speech. Another denies this and says: Blessed are those who judge, who have the power to hear and discern. Another denies this and says: Blessed are those who sail, learn about many countries, and gather many profits. You see, beloved, in all this multitude of ways of living, not one pleases everyone: yet the happy life pleases everyone. What is this, that while no one life pleases everyone, the happy life pleases everyone?
What a blessed life is. All want to live, and to be healthy.
Therefore, let us define, if we can, the happy life, about which everyone responds, "This I want." Because therefore there is no one who, when asked whether they want a happy life, says, "I do not want it," and we are searching for what that happy life itself is; we must define something to which every sense agrees, and which no one says, "I do not want." What then, my brothers, what is the happy life that everyone wants, and not everyone has? Therefore, let us seek. If it were said to someone, "Do you want to live?" does he not hear it as if it were said, "Do you want to serve in the military?" For in that question, which is, "Do you want to serve in the military?" some would say to me, "I want to," and perhaps more would say, "I do not want to." But if I say, "Do you want to live?" I think there is no one who would say, "I do not want to." For all by nature are ingrained with the desire to live and the aversion to die. Likewise, if I say, "Do you want to be healthy?" I think there is no one who would say, "I do not want to," for no one wants to suffer pain. Health is valuable even to the wealthy, certainly in the poor it is the only possession. But what advantage is the wealth of a rich man if there is no health, which is a patrimony for the poor? The rich man would indeed very much want to trade his silver bed for the poor man's sackcloth, if sickness could migrate with the bed. Behold, the sense of everyone has agreed with me on these two things, life and health. Has the sense of everyone agreed to military service? Has it agreed to farming? Has it agreed to navigation? The sense of everyone has agreed to life and health.
When, therefore, a man is alive and healthy, does he seek nothing more? If he is wise, perhaps he ought to seek nothing more. For where life is perfect and health is perfect, if more is sought, what will it be but a flawed desire?
Life in sorrows is not truly life. Life should not be considered, unless it is happy.
The wicked will have life in torments. For the hour will come, as the Gospel says, when all who are in the graves will hear his voice: and those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. Thus, some to reward, some to torment; and both live, and none of them can die. Those who live in reward enjoy the sweetest life: but those who live in torment wish, if it were possible, to end such a life; and no one gives them destruction, so no one takes away torment. But observe Scripture speaking and distinguishing: it did not deem such a life worthy to be called life. In torments, in agony, in eternal fires, it did not wish to call it life: so that the very name of life might be one of praise, not sorrow; so that wherever you hear life, you do not think of torments. For to be always in torments is eternal death, not any kind of life. The Scriptures call this very thing the second death, after this first one, which we all owe to human condition. And the second death is called death, and no one there dies. More fittingly and rightly, I would say, no one there lives. For to live in pain is not to live. And how do we prove that Scripture spoke thus? Behold how; from this testimony that I just mentioned: For they will hear his voice, it says, and those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life. It did not say: of blessed life, but, to the resurrection of life.
Only the name of life draws happiness. For if the name of life did not have consequent happiness, it would not be said to God: Because with you is the fountain of life. Nor was it said there, Because with you is the fountain of blessed life. It did not add "blessed"; it merely said "life," so that you may understand "blessed." Why? Because if it were miserable, it would no longer be life.
The same is shown from another place in Scripture. Blessed life is not unless it is eternal.
Behold another testimony. Now we have said two. For it is said: Those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; likewise it is said: With you is the fountain of life. Nowhere is "blessed" added, but only life which is understood to be blessed; and which is not blessed, is not life. Receive another again from the Gospel. That rich man who did not want to let go of what he had, and was indignant at the loss of his possessions, which he was forced to let go of by dying: I believe with that very abundant supply of great, but still earthly things, though rejoicing, he was deterred by the fear of death, and as if his heart was saying to him, Behold, you rejoice in goods, and you do not know when a single fever will come. You collect, acquire, compare, and save, and rejoice: your soul is demanded back from you; these things you have prepared, whose will they be? With this thought, as much as is understood, as if often pricked by certain goads of fear, he approached the Lord, and said to him: Good Master, what shall I do to obtain eternal life? He was afraid to die, and was forced to die. There was no way for him to go, lest he perish. Constrained by the necessity of dying, and the longing to live, he approached the Lord and said: Good Master, what shall I do to obtain eternal life?
Among other things, he heard, so to speak, what pertains to the present matter: "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." This is what I had said I would prove. Nor did the one who asked say, "What should I do to attain a blessed life?" but simply said "eternal life." Not wanting to die, he sought the life which has no end. And is it not, as I have said, even in the torments of the wicked, life has no end? But he did not call this life. He knew that a life in pain and torment is not life: rather, it should be called death. Therefore, he sought eternal life: so that where life is heard, blessedness is not doubted. And the Lord did not say to him, "If you wish to enter into a blessed life, keep the commandments," but He also only mentioned life and said, "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." Therefore, that life in torment is not life; and that life alone is blessed: nor can it be blessed unless it is eternal. For this reason, the rich man, knowing he is daily interrupted by the fear of death, sought eternal life. For the blessed life, as it seemed to him, he already had. For he was rich and healthy, and I believe he said to himself: "I want nothing more, if it could be perpetual." For he had pleasures like those who are loved, because he sated foolish desires. Therefore, the Lord corrected him with one name of life, if he understood. He did not say, "If you wish to enter into eternal life," which the rich man sought, as though he already had obtained a blessed life: nor did He say, "If you wish to enter into a blessed life," knowing that if it is miserable, it is not even to be called life: but He said, "If you wish to enter into life; there it is eternal, there it is blessed; If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." Therefore life, which is eternal and blessed: because if it is not eternal, it is not blessed; if however it is eternal in punishments, it is not life.
True life is that which is eternal and blessed. For a blessed life, the certainty of eternity is necessary.
What is this, brothers? When I asked if you wished to live, you all responded that you did; when I asked if you wished to be healthy, you all responded that you did. But if health and life are feared to end, they are no longer life. For it is not always to live, but always to fear. If always to fear, always to torment. If eternal torment, where is eternal life? We certainly hold that life is not blessed unless it is eternal; indeed, it is not blessed unless it is life: because if it is not eternal, and if not with perpetual satisfaction, it is undoubtedly neither blessed nor life. We find this, all agree. We clearly find it in thought, not yet in possession. This is the possession that all seek: there is no one who does not seek it. Whether one is evil or good, he seeks it: but the good man seeks it confidently, the evil man shamelessly. Why do you seek good, evil one? Doesn't your own request show you how wicked you are, when you seek good while being evil? Don't you seek another’s property? Therefore, if you seek the highest good, which is life; be good, so that you may reach the good. If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments. But when we have come to life, why should I add eternal? why add blessed? simply life, because it is life itself, which is both eternal and blessed: when we have come to life, it will be certain for us that we will always be in it. For if we are there, and if we are uncertain whether we will always be there; even there, there will be fear. And if there is fear, there will be torment, not of the flesh, but, what is worse, of the heart. But where there is torment, what happiness is there? Therefore, it will be certain for us that in that life we will always be, and we will not be able to end it: because we will be in the kingdom of which it is said: And his kingdom shall have no end.
And the glory of the saints of God, whose death is precious in His sight, when Wisdom was showing, said, as you heard at the end of the reading: And their Lord shall reign forever. Therefore, we shall be in a great and everlasting kingdom; and for that reason great and everlasting, because it is just.
From the happiness of the kingdom of God, far be false suspicions, which here are the origin of evils.
No one deceives there, no one is deceived: there is no cause there to suspect your brother wrongly. For most of the evils of the human race arise from nothing else but false suspicions. You believe that a man who perhaps loves you, hates you; and through wicked suspicion, you become the most hostile enemy to one most friendly. What can he do, whom you do not believe, and cannot show you his heart? He speaks to you saying, I love you. But because he could say this to you even while lying (for these are the words of a liar, which are the same as a truth-teller's), not believing, you still hate. Therefore He wished to assure you against that sin, who said to you: Love your enemies. Christian, love even your enemies, lest by mistake you hate even your friends. Therefore, we cannot see our hearts in this life until the Lord comes, and illuminates the hidden things of darkness, and reveals the thoughts of the heart; and then praise shall be given to each one by God.
For life to be blessed, there must be truth and the knowledge of friends without fear of deception.
Therefore, if someone told us now, in whom we would undoubtedly believe, if a Prophet said, if God said in whatever way He desired, and through whomever He desired: “Live securely, everything will abound for you, none of you will die, none will fall ill, none will suffer; I have abolished death from the human race, I do not want anyone to die,” if He said this; we would rejoice as if made secure, and we would seek nothing further. It seems entirely this way to us. If we heard this, we would immediately want this added for us, that we might see each other's hearts, and not be envious; that we might see not with human suspicion, but with divine truth: that I might not be anxious about my friend, about my neighbor, whether he hated me or wished me harm, and by that very anxiety, I might do harm first before suffering it. We would undoubtedly seek this, we would seek certain life, and mutual knowledge of our hearts. For now, you understand what life I mean; so that by recommending it too often, I would not rather weary you than instruct you. Therefore, we would wish truth to be added to life, so that we might know our hearts mutually and not be deceived by our suspicions: so that we might be certain that we would not fall from that very eternal life. Add truth to life, and you will find a blessed life. For no one wants to be deceived, just as no one wants to die. Give me a man who wants to be deceived. Many are found who want to deceive: no one wants to be deceived. Compose yourself. You do not want to be deceived, do not deceive: what you do not wish to suffer, do not do. You want to come to a life where you are not deceived, now live a life where you do not deceive. You want to come to a life where you are not deceived? Who would not want this? The reward is delightful; do not disdain the task, whose reward it is. Now live a life where you do not deceive; and you will come to a life where you are not deceived. Truth will be the reward for the truthful, and eternity will be the reward for those who live well temporarily.
The way to life and truth is Christ. The martyrs followed a hard path after Christ, and they have paved it for us.
Therefore we all desire this, brothers, life and truth. But by what way do we come, by what way do we go? For although we do not yet possess it, we already believe and see by thought and reason where we are going to arrive: we are aiming for life and truth. Christ himself is this. By what way do you seek to go? "I am," he says, "the way." Where are you seeking to go? "I am the truth and the life."
Behold what the martyrs loved, for this reason they despised the present and transient. Do not marvel at their strength; love conquered pain. Therefore, let us celebrate the solemnity of the White Mass with a white conscience; and following the footprints of the martyrs and looking at the head of the martyrs and ours, if we long to come to such a great good, let us not fear the difficult journey. He who promised is truthful, he who promised is faithful, he who promised cannot deceive. Let us therefore say to him with a white conscience: For the words of your lips I have kept hard ways. Why do you fear the hard ways of sufferings and tribulations? He passed through them himself. You may answer: But he himself. The Apostles passed through them. You still answer: But the Apostles. I accept. Answer: then many men afterward passed through them too. Be ashamed: even women passed through them. If you have come to suffering in old age, do not fear death, for you are near death. Are you young? Even young men have passed through them, who still hoped for life for themselves: and boys have passed through, and girls have passed through as well. How is the way still rough, which many have smoothed by walking? Therefore, this is our constant and solemn reminder to you, brothers, that we celebrate the solemnities of the martyrs, not with a vain solemnity; but let us not fear to imitate with similar faith those whom we love in their solemnities.