Sermon 306B
Sermon 306/B
SERMON GIVEN ON THE TWELFTH DAY BEFORE THE CALENDS OF SEPTEMBER, ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE MARTYR QUADRATUS
Three kinds of people walking on the way.
The Lord our God has granted, to whom we give thanks together, that we might see you and be seen by you. And if this is why our mouth is filled with joy and our tongue with exultation because we have seen each other in mortal flesh, what will our joy be like when we see each other where we fear nothing of each other? The Apostle says: Rejoicing in hope. Therefore, our joy, which is now in hope, is not yet in reality. But hope that is seen is not hope, he says: for what a man sees, why does he hope? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. If, however, companions rejoicing together while journeying, what joy will they have in the homeland? On this road, the martyrs have struggled, and in struggling, they have walked, not stumbling in walking. For those who love walk; for we run to God not with steps, but with affections. Therefore, our road seeks walkers. There are three kinds of people it hates: those who remain, those who turn back, those who go astray. May our steps, with the Lord's help, be avenged and defended from these three evil kinds. Now, when we are walking, one walks more slowly, another more quickly; yet both walk. So those who remain must be stirred up, those who turn back must be recalled, those who go astray must be led to the path, the slow must be encouraged, the swift must be imitated. Whoever does not advance remains on the way; whoever deviates from a better purpose to what they previously abandoned for the worse, has turned back; whoever deserts the faith has gone astray from the way. We must have care with the slow, but from the swifter, while still walking together.
The example of the Apostle must be followed. Nothing is in us except sin.
Who is it that does not make progress? The one who thinks himself to be wise; the one who says: It suffices for me what I am; the one who does not pay attention to him who said: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He said he was running, he said he was following; he did not stay, he did not look back; far be it from him to have gone astray, who taught the very way, who both held it and showed it. To imitate his speed, he says: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Therefore we believe, dearest brothers, that we are walking with you on the way. If we are slow, go ahead of us; we do not envy, we seek those to follow. But if you think we are proceeding quickly, run with us. There is one thing toward which we all hasten, both those who walk more slowly and those who walk more quickly. This is what the Apostle himself says: But one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The order of the words is: But one thing I follow. But before saying this, what did he say? Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. Behold, he who does not remain, he who does not consider that he has apprehended; behold, he who does not wish to wander, behold, he who does not linger on the way, behold, he who will rejoice in the homeland. He says: I. Who: I? The one who labored more than all of them. And yet, where he says: I labored more than all of them, he did not say: I do not consider that I have made it my own. It is well said “I” where there is a place for humility, not for pride. He says: As far as I am concerned, I do not consider that I have made it my own. This is himself. But where he says: I labored more than all of them, he follows with: Not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Could the grace of God not apprehend? Rightly there “I”; for not apprehending is of our weakness; apprehending is by the help of divine grace, not human weakness. Who then is it that shows us, who is it that teaches us, who is it that worthily insinuates to us, how it is true – which, however, is undoubtedly true – that our own there is nothing but sin? Let piety know this, let weakness accuse itself of this, let love desire to be healed of this. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. And then he adds: Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. And when he exhorted to run, and to stretch out for what lies ahead, he said: Let those of us who are mature think this way. Earlier he said: Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; and later he says: Let those of us who are mature think this way. You yourself had said that even such a great Apostle was imperfect; now you find many perfect ones, and you say: Let those of us who are mature think this way. Therefore, there is perfection and perfection.
The perfection of the traveler, what it may be. The name Quadratus, a sign of future things. The glory of the martyrs, first in the Church.
He is a perfect traveler, who is not yet a perfect arriver. A perfect traveler approaches well, walks well, holds the way; but still a traveler, he has not yet apprehended. For certainly, if he walks, and walks on the way, he walks to some place, and tries to reach something. Therefore, what the Apostle was trying to reach, he had not yet apprehended. And he urges the perfect to know they are not yet perfect, to know their own imperfection. The perfection of the traveler is to know he has not yet arrived at what he aims for; for he knows how much he has crossed, how much remains for him. Therefore, let us know we are not perfect, as many of us are perfect, lest we remain imperfect. What shall we say, brothers? Is not martyr Quadratus perfect? What is more perfect than Quadratus? His sides are equal, his form is equitable in all respects; whichever way he turns, there is a stance, not a ruin. O beautiful name, representing form, and indicating a future reality! Quadratus was already called by this name before, and was not yet crowned; he had not yet appeared in temptation, through which he would become quadratus; and yet, when he was called, he was predestined before the foundation of the world, and, to be called by this name, this is what he endures in him, so that it may be fulfilled; and yet he walked, and was still on the way; and, as long as he was in this body, he was wholly feared, lest he should remain, or turn back, or go astray. But now he has run, finished the way, stood on solid ground; he has been built by the artificer of the Lord's ark, which was commanded to be built of squared timbers in figure. Now he fears no temptation: he has heard the caller, and he also has heard the one calling, followed the savior, carried the inhabitant. He despised the flattering world, conquered the frightening one, escaped the raging one. Great is, brothers, the glory of the martyrs, the first in the Church, whatever other followings there may be. It is not said for nothing to some: You have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin. When he tolerates, when he endures the raging world, who cannot despise the flattering one?
The words of the Apostle should be taken as a mirror. Justice is worthy of being loved in the same way as impurity was loved.
The Apostle also says: I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. It is a very great thing that he seems to exhort. Let each one measure himself in these words of the Apostle: do not flatter yourself with adulation; weigh yourself and speak the truth to yourself. What does he expect to hear from me? Let him tell himself. I prepared to set forth a mirror, in which each may look upon himself. I am not the brightness of the mirror that announces to the face looking at it. For I speak of those faces now, which we have within; those I can address through the ear, but I cannot see. Certainly, I set forth a mirror: let each one look upon himself and announce to himself. Receive the very words of the Apostle, which I have mentioned, in place of a mirror. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh: just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. What is it: so? Just as that, so also this. When you presented your members as instruments of iniquity to sin for impurity, did it please you? I ask: pay attention, respond. Did it please you? I hear the respondent, even if silent; for you would not have done it unless it pleased you. Just as, therefore, you presented your members to serve impurity for iniquity, and you did this with delight, let righteousness also please you. I do not want you to do it out of fear, says God to you; did you do that out of fear? "So" he says, "so." Just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity for iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. You are compelled to righteousness by fear: you ran to impurity by love. What is more beautiful than righteousness, I ask you? It deserves to be loved, at least as impurity was loved. When you ran to impurity, you were forbidden, and you went; you offended your father, and you ran; you were ready to be disinherited, and not to separate from that depravity. What will you say? Righteousness requires from you what impurity had from you. You heard the Gospel: I came not to bring peace, but a sword. He said he would separate children from parents. Therefore, pay attention to that sword. Perhaps you wish to serve God, and your father forbids it? When you loved impurity, you ran even with your father forbidding it; now justice, your lover, forbids you; you have here also a father forbidding. Exercise your freedom, who then exercised your desire. You were prepared then to be disinherited, and not to separate from that impurity's depravity; be prepared now to be disinherited, and not to separate from the beauty of righteousness. It is great, but it is just. Who dares to say: But impurity ought to have been loved more than righteousness? Meanwhile, righteousness makes a step for you. Certainly, he says, I am different; certainly, there is a great distance between the darkness of that impurity and my light, between that depravity and my beauty, between that honor and my honor; certainly, there is a great distance. Meanwhile, I set a step. I wish so: for I owe more, I owe entirely more; as much as I differ, I owe that much. But I speak humanly, I defer the divine. Why do I defer the divine? I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Therefore, so, because I still spare the weakness. Therefore, just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity for iniquity, so now, indeed, you owe more, but at least thus walk, reach this. But also pass beyond this. Meanwhile, I speak in human terms: but, just as that, so also this.
Quadratus loved her more worthily. The lover of pleasure fears to lose the body, the lover of invisible beauty does not fear.
Did Quadratus do so? Not plainly so, but more, and more worthily. For observe those impurities, and see what more piety and charity, and the beauty of justice, and the sweetness of sanctification demand from you: see what more they demand from you. A lover of uncleanness does not wish his evil deeds to be known: he fears that he may be condemned because of it; he fears prison, he fears the judge, he fears the executioner. He desires another man's wife's chastity, deceives the husband; he seeks darkness, shuns a witness, fears the judge; he fears to be known, because he fears to be punished because of it. Now indeed, that which the beauty of justice requires more from him, which the Apostle temporarily deferred, when he said: I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, hear this from the Lord: What I say to you in darkness, that is, in secret, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the rooftops. Does the adulterer proclaim his crime on the rooftop? But why does he not only not proclaim it on the rooftop, but seeks to be concealed by the roof? Why does he do this? Because love of uncleanness has thus far prevailed: he fears to be exposed, he fears to be punished. But those lovers of that invisible beauty, lovers of that charm, where that most beautiful of sight among the sons of men is; therefore lovers of that beauty, why do they not fear to preach on the rooftops what they heard in the ear? Ask why he fears: lest he be known and punished. Ask why this one does not fear: the Lord himself followed and added. When he said: What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the rooftops. Do not fear, he says, those who kill the body, that you may speak what you hear in darkness in the light, that you may preach what you hear in the ear on the rooftops, do not fear those who kill the body. Let the adulterer fear those who kill the body: for when that adulterer loses the body, he loses the workshop of pleasures. Let him fear to lose the body, who lives from the body; for all that he desires, he accomplishes through the body; therefore in him pleasure is not enough; he burns with desire, until he reaches the most unclean pleasure of the body. But you, man of God, if you have the eyes of the heart, with which to see the beauty of charity, with which to see the beauty of piety, if you have the eyes of the heart, see whence you enjoy your love, so that you may enjoy it, you do not seek the body's members. Let the lover of filthy pleasure fear the body's destruction, but peace on earth to men of good will.
Doing good must be done with delight. He cannot tolerate a persecutor, who shudders at an insulter.
How far you are from this love, O Christian! Would that you might reach that human level, and do good with delight, just as before you sinned with delight. For if you do good with delight, if you believe in Christ with delight, if you enjoy His wisdom according to your capacity with delight, if you listen to and do the commandment with delight, that human aspect because of your weakness has begun to be in you. Already you have started to have the good gift, but you have not yet fulfilled the Square. But, as I said, if you have reached it, proceed, there is still a way ahead, do not remain. There is still something to do; do not be afraid, and do not hide your good deeds out of fear. What do the critics, the agitators, say to you? "Great Apostle you are! Your feet hang from heaven: where do you come from?" And you are afraid to say: "From the Church," lest you be told: "Are you not ashamed, bearded man, to go where widows and little old women go?" For fear of hearing this, you are afraid to say: "I was in the Church." How would you bear a persecutor, when you shudder at an insulter? And indeed, it is a time of peace. They should have been ashamed: so many are ashamed who have joined, and so few who have remained are not ashamed. And these have joined: to what? But those have remained: where? These have joined in the light of peace; those have remained in the darkness of confusion. Are you not ashamed to be ashamed of what should be gloried? They are not ashamed of shameful things: and you are ashamed of things worth glorying? And what of that which you heard: "Draw near to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed"?
The free assertion of faith must be opposed to the treachery of the pagans.
These things I have said, my brothers, because I know, and grieve greatly, that the tongues of a few pagans, not violent but merely insulting, are feared, and that the minds of those willing to believe are held back, when they do not heed the exhortations of the Christians. And what more? Or what shall I say? You see some pagan being harassed so that he does not become a Christian, and you, a Christian, remain silent; you consider it a great thing that he spares you, that is, that he does not insult you. When he is deterred, you say in your heart: Thanks be to God? He said nothing to me. You flee, not in body, but in mind. You stand there, and you flee; you fear that the slanderous tongue may turn against you, and you do not help the one whom you should gain for Christ. You do not help, you remain silent; as I said, you flee not in body but in mind, you are a hireling, you see the wolf coming, and you flee. And what more shall I say? We all heard now. The Lord must make afraid: He who is to be loved, He Himself must be feared. He who, He says, will have been ashamed of me before men (and consider when He said these things: when the world did not believe but raged). He who will have been ashamed of me before men, I will be ashamed of him before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever will have confessed me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. Do you want to be denied by Christ, or do you want to be confessed by Christ? You will have the insulter far away, when you have made Christ your denier. What He has promised will come: He who has shown so much, will He be found deceitful concerning the day of judgment alone? Far be it. Let them keep their faithlessness, or rather let them themselves lack their faithlessness; but propose yourselves to them as examples to be imitated in confession, not to be surpassed in silence. For if they find Christians who are strong defenders of the weak by the assertion of faith, freedom of confession, wisdom of teaching, and love of instructing, they will be silent, believe; for indeed they have nothing to say. It is an empty voice, a resounding cymbal; what ceased in their temples, remains in their mouths.