Sermon 308

SERMO 308

ON THE SAME SOLEMNITY

Herod in the difficulty of either committing perjury or a bloody crime.

Because of this passage, which we heard today when the Gospel was recited, I say to your Charity: you see the wretched Herod, who loved John, a holy man and a man of God. But because he rashly swore, drunken with joy and delight at the dancing, he promised to give whatever the girl who had pleased him by dancing had asked. But when she demanded a cruel and nefarious thing, he was indeed saddened; for he saw such a great crime being committed: but placed between his oath and the request of the girl, when he saw the bloody deed, he again feared the guilt of perjury; lest he offend God by perjuring, he offends God by raging. Someone says to me: What then should Herod have done? If I say, He should not have sworn: who does not see that he should not have done this? But I am not consulted about whether a man should swear; but what the man who has sworn should do. This is the great deliberation. He rashly swore: who does not know this? Nevertheless, he slipped, he swore. Behold, the girl demanded the head of holy John: what should Herod have done? Let us give him counsel. If we say, Spare John, do not commit the crime; we advise perjury. If we say, Do not perjure; we urge him to fulfill the crime. A bad situation.

Before you come therefore to this two-headed snare, take from your mouth rash oaths: before you come to this bad custom, I advise my brothers, I advise my sons: what is the need for you to come to this point, where we cannot find counsel?

Reckless oath not to be fulfilled by committing murder. The perjury of David is a great sin, though less than murder.

However, after carefully examining the Scriptures, one example came to my attention, where I see a pious and holy man fell into a rash oath, and preferred not to do what he had sworn, rather than fulfill his oath by shedding human blood. I remind your Charity. When Saul was persecuting the holy David ungratefully, David, with his men, went wherever he could, so that he might not be found by Saul and be killed. And one day, from a wealthy man, who was called Nabal, and was shearing his sheep, he asked for sustenance for himself and those who were with him. The merciless man refused to give, and what is worse, he responded insultingly. The holy David swore that he would kill him. For he was armed. And what was easy, and seemed just to do, persuaded by anger, he rashly made an oath; and he began to go to do what he had sworn. Abigail, Nabal’s wife, met him and brought him the necessities he had requested. She earnestly begged him, persuaded him, and turned him away from her husband's blood. He swore rashly, but did not fulfill the oath with greater piety.

Therefore, dearest ones, I return again to warn you. Behold, holy David, although not in anger, shed human blood; but who can deny that he swore falsely? He chose the lesser of two sins: but that was lesser in comparison to the greater. For, by itself, false swearing is a great evil. Therefore, you ought first to strive and to wrestle against your bad, bad, bad, and very bad habit; and remove swearing from your mouths.

One who swears when provoked by another does not sin in the same way as the other.

However, if someone challenges you to take an oath, believing that by swearing about the matter which he thinks you have committed or done, he can be satisfied, and perhaps you have not done it; to dispel his evil suspicion, if you swear, you do not sin as he who provoked you: because the Lord Jesus said: "Let your speech be, Yes, yes; No, no. Anything more than this comes from evil." He was speaking about oaths, where He wanted us to understand that the very oath is from evil. If you were provoked by another, it will be from his evil that you swear, not yours. And this is almost from the common evil of the human race, since we cannot see our hearts. For if we could see our hearts, to whom would we swear? When would an oath be demanded from us, when the very thought could be seen by the eyes of another?

Compelling someone to swear an oath when you believe they will swear falsely is worse than being a murderer.

Write in your hearts what I say: But he who provokes a man to take an oath, and knows that he will swear falsely, surpasses a murderer. Because a murderer will kill the body, but that one the soul; indeed, two souls, both of him whom he provoked to swear, and his own. Do you know that what you say is true, and that what he says is false, and compel him to swear? Behold, he swears, behold, he perjures himself, behold, he perishes: what have you gained? Indeed, you too have perished, who desired to satisfy yourself with his death.

Tutuslymen was scourged by divine chastisement for this sin.

I will say something that I have never said to your Charity, in this congregation, which happened in this church. There was here a certain man, simple, innocent, very faithful, well known by many of you, that is, by the citizens of Hippo, in fact, by all, called Tutuslymeni. Who among you, who are citizens, does not know Tutuslymeni? From him, I heard what I say. I don't know who denied him, either what had been entrusted to him, or what was owed to him; and he committed himself to the man's trust. Provoked, he challenged him to an oath. The man swore, and this one (Tutuslymeni) lost: but in this loss, the other man utterly perished. This grave and faithful man, Tutuslymeni, was then saying that on that very night he was brought before a judge, and with great force and terror, he came to a certain high and admirable man presiding, whom the officers of similarly high rank obeyed. He was ordered to be violently pulled back and questioned with these words: Why did you provoke the man to an oath, whom you knew to be falsely swearing? He replied: He denied me my thing. It was answered to him: And was it not better that you lost the thing you demanded than to destroy this man's soul with a false oath? Prostrate, he was ordered to be beaten. He was beaten so severely that the marks of the lashes appeared on the back of the waking man. But it was said to him, after he was corrected: Your innocence is spared, henceforth beware not to do such a thing. Indeed, he committed a grave sin and was corrected: but a much graver sin will be committed by him who, after this my sermon and this my admonition and exhortation, does anything of the sort. Beware of false oath, beware of rash oath. You will most securely avoid these two evils if you abstain from the habit of swearing.