Sermon 308A

SERMON 308/A Seek not the things you see, but the things promised. The visible things are temporal, the invisible are eternal. In the way that gold shines, and straw is dark, thus are the meanings of the Scriptures to be distinguished.

LIVING IN CARTHAGE IN THE MAPPALIA, THAT IS, IN THE BASILICA OF THE BLESSED
OF MARTYR CYPRIAN, THROUGH HIS BIRTHDAY VIGIL

The sun of justice does not need the testimony of a lamp for the eye of a pure heart.

We speak to your charity in the house of God about what the present Psalm has reminded us. Who is it that says: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. His enemies I will clothe with shame; but upon him my sanctification shall flourish; and what is that lamp which he has prepared for his Christ; and who are the enemies of his Christ, whom he clothes with shame through that lamp; and what is his sanctification, who prepared a lamp for his Christ, which will flourish upon his Christ. In all these words, it seems clear and open that he says here: For my Christ; for nothing else is to be understood than Christ the Lord and our Savior. Therefore, when exploring, as God grants, the depth of this meaning, we find that God the Father says this. Therefore, God the Father, that is, the person of God the Father speaks through the Prophet: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. However, it is not necessary to explain to Christians that the Son of God is also the Christ of God. Having found the person speaking, let us see what the lamp prepared by God the Father for Christ the Son is. The Lord himself speaks about John the Baptist: He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. Therefore, he called John a lamp, kindled from the source of light. To bear witness to the truth. For men lay in this blindness and in this infirmity of the inner eye, so that the sun of righteousness would be sought through the lamp. For if anyone had a clear eye of the heart, he would first gaze upon it, nor would he seek a lamp for its testimony. For when he had said about that lamp: You were willing to rejoice for a while in his light; but I, he says, have greater testimony than John. Therefore, a lamp was kindled for the weak in the night. And how did he kindle it? The Father says to his Christ the Son about John: Behold, I send my angel before you, who will prepare your way before you. He has prepared a lamp for his Christ.

Hence the friend of the bridegroom, John, because the servant is the follower of the Lord.

How does He clothe His enemies with confusion through the very lamp? But first see what we have said, that the lamp is kindled from the source of light. John himself testifies: We have received from His fullness. And John was so preeminent in excellence that he was thought to be the Christ Himself, not before Him. However, if he were an extinguished lamp, and smoky with the smell of pride, when he was sent by the Jews and was asked: Who are you? Are you the Christ, Elijah, or the Prophet? He would say: I am. For he would have found an occasion for his boastfulness, with undue honor being willingly given by the error of men. Was he striving to persuade this, what those who questioned him were saying? But he was sent humble to prepare the way for the exalted; hence the friend of the bridegroom, because a servant knowledgeable of the Lord. And he said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness; make straight the way of the Lord. I am not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. And they said to him: Who then are you? And what did he say? I am the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way for the Lord. For this was already predicted by Isaiah; and concerning whom he predicted, it is understood there. You have read this, he said, in Isaiah, and perhaps you have read it and did not know from whom it was said: I am he of whom it is said. But consider how much he abases himself, who was so exalted that he was thought to be Christ. He humbles himself as follows: Indeed, he said, I baptize you in water; but He who comes after me is greater than I. And He could be said to be somewhat greater than me. He declares Him to be much greater. Say, how much greater? Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.

Testimony of John, about Christ. Christ about John. He who is greater than John is more than a man.

Now understand from here the dispensation, why John was sent before Christ. You see how much lesser he is and how much he admits Him to be greater, saying that he is not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal. How great is he who says himself unworthy to untie this Man's sandal strap? How great is he? Where do we seek? If we ask John himself how great John is, we do not find it; for he humbles himself and speaks nothing boastfully of himself, even truthfully. How great then is John, who is not worthy to untie the sandal strap of Him who was thought to be a man, from whom we are about to hear? Let us ask the Lord Himself and say to Him: Lord, John has borne great testimony about You, and although his great excellence appeared among men, so that he was thought to be the Christ and was asked who he was, he said he was not the Christ, but that a greater one than he should come, so much greater that he is not worthy to untie His sandal strap. Like a faithful lamp, he spoke of Your excellent light. This is what John said about You. Let us see who it is who spoke these things about You, how great is he who so humbled himself to You and confessed You to be much greater than himself. Who is he? He said these things about You: Tell us something about him. Hear the voice of the Lord concerning John: Among those born of women, none has arisen greater than John the Baptist. But what does He say? Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. He speaks of Himself: for God is not boastful when He commends His own greatness. What does it mean, 'He who is least'? He who is later in age is greater in majesty. For the Lord Christ was born later in age than John, but in that which was made for us, not in that through which we were made. He who was born after John hears from the Father: not before John, not before David, not before Abraham, but: I have begotten You before the morning star. If then, something was accommodated to our infirmity, so that the day was preceded by a lamp, and was believed about the day from the lamp, how much more should it be believed about the lamp from the day, because: Among those born of women, none has risen greater than John the Baptist? Therefore, a man than whom no greater was born, when he says that he is not worthy to untie the sandal strap of a certain one, what is He whose sandal strap's untying he is not worthy of, than whom no man was greater? If already John is such a great man, that no man could be greater, whatever is greater than him is more than a man. If already John is such a great man and no man could be greater than him, he who is greater than he is, is more than a man. And who is more than a man, yet became man for man's sake, rightly the sanctification of the Father flourishes over him.

The three Persons of the Trinity are co-eternal.

For the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove: the flower of holiness was then shown more fully in the form of a dove, in a simple and innocent manner, to John himself, so that it might be fulfilled: "And upon him my sanctification will flourish." He said, "I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove and remaining on him, he it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I," he said, "bear witness that I have seen this, and he is the chosen one of God." What testimony does he bear? Upon whom he saw the sanctification of the Father flourishing. Whence did he see the Holy Spirit descending? For the Spirit never departed from the Son, nor the Son from the Spirit, nor the Son from the Father, nor the Father from the Son, nor the Spirit from the Son and the Father; but these things are understood differently by a purified mind and differently shown to the eyes. The Father never precedes the Son in time, the Son never follows the Father in time; for there is no time there. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the creator of times, one God. Therefore, there is no saying: The Father is prior, the Son posterior; from whom the Father, from him the Son. Ask: From whom is the Father? You surpass with thought the earth, heaven, angels, visible and invisible, the whole of creation, and you ask: From whom did the Father begin? Eternal things are not thus inquired; do not ask from whom, unless it has a beginning. Do not ask from whom, from whom does anything begin that begins, and what begins from no one, because it does not begin. Just as the Father does not begin, the Son does not begin, but the Son is the radiance of the Father. So is the radiance of the fire, from which is the fire; and the radiance of the Father, from whom is the Father. From whom is the Father? From eternity to eternity. Therefore, also the radiance of the Father is from eternity to eternity; and yet, because it is his radiance, his Son, and so he does not begin in time, as being begotten by the Father. Who can see this? Purify your heart, shake off the dust, wash away the stain; whatever disturbs the inner sight must be cured and healed, and what is said and believed will appear, before it is seen.

The Trinity in the baptism of Christ how it appeared. Canticle.

Now, however, we believe, brothers. What do we believe? That the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not precede one another in time. Therefore, since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not precede one another in time, I still could not name the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit without those names involving time and being held by their respective times. The Father is not earlier and the Son is not later, yet I could not say it without mentioning one first and another later, and all syllables kept their own times, and the second syllable could not sound in my words unless the first had passed. Time was completed in my syllables when I spoke those things that do not have time. So, my brothers, when that Trinity was sensibly shown to this flesh, the whole Trinity appeared in the river where the Lord was baptized by John. For He was baptized, ascended from baptism, the dove descended, and a voice sounded from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Son in the man, the Spirit in the dove, the Father in the voice. The undivided reality was shown distinctly; if it can be called a reality, but rather the cause of all things, if it can be called a cause. What do we say when we speak of God? And yet we speak, and He allows Himself to be spoken of, who is not as He is thought, nor can He be spoken of as He is thought. But as far as humans are concerned, brothers, behold, He appeared through the dove, and it is fulfilled: "My sanctification will flourish upon him." For it is said "will flourish," it will appear clearly; nothing in a tree is clearer than the flower, nothing more lucid. Come now, we have come to the last words of the psalm, "My sanctification will flourish upon him." I remember that I passed over who are the enemies who were confounded through the lamp.

Enemies of Christ, some openly, others secretly. Eucharist. We pray that the kingdom of Christ may come, and we fear lest we be heard.

I prepared a lamp for my Christ. The Father speaks of His Son. What lamp? John. Ask the Son Himself. He was the burning and shining lamp. I will clothe His enemies with confusion. Who are His open enemies, if not the Jews? For Christ has hidden enemies as well. All who live unrighteously and impiously are enemies of Christ, even if they are marked with His name and called Christians. To whom He will say: "I never knew you"; and they say: "Lord, in Your name we ate and drank, in Your name we performed many miracles." What, we ate and drank in Your name? They did not boast of their own foods, and from there they claimed to belong to Christ. There is a certain food that is eaten and drunk, and it is Christ; and by His enemies Christ is eaten and drunk. The faithful know the spotless Lamb which they consume; and may they consume so as not to be debtors to punishment! For as the Apostle says: "Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment upon themselves." Therefore, the enemies of Christ are those who choose to live unrighteously rather than obey Him, and when it is said He will come to judge the living and the dead, they fear His coming. If it were up to them, they would prevent Him from coming. Because they could not stop Him from coming, they would try to stop Him from returning. The Jews already tried this, to prevent His return. For the son was sent to those wicked tenants, to the bad caretakers who would not give the reward and who stoned the servants sent to them. Then the master of the house, the lord of the vineyard, said: "I will send my son, perhaps they will respect him." But they thought among themselves, saying: "This is the heir, come let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours." They could not prevent Him from coming from the Father, and they tried to prevent Him from returning to the Father. But to what end? They saw and despised Him as mortal, but in Him they could only kill death. In the death of Christ, death died. He, rising again, ascended to the Father and will come again. Why do you fear? Love, and you will be secure. Do we not pray: "Thy kingdom come"? Therefore, brothers, do we pray and fear lest we be heard?

The open enemies of Christ are the Jews; how they were confounded by the testimony of the lamp. Many simple people have one heart, one deceitful person has two hearts.

But these, as I began to say, are hidden enemies. Let us speak of those open ones, who openly envied, raged, held, scourged, mocked, crucified, killed, and guarded the buried one. Let us see how they were clothed in confusion by that lantern. When they saw miracles in the Lord, the same enemies said: Tell us, by what power do you do these things? They asked with an inimical mind, so that if he confessed his power, they might hold him as a blaspheme. But how did he act with the coin, when they wanted to accuse him, if he said: Pay tribute to Caesar, as if he had spoken against the Jewish people, making them subject and tributary; if he said: Do not pay, they could denounce him to Caesar's friends and ministers for prohibiting the payment; but he said: Show me the coin: Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered: Caesar's. Therefore, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. This is to say: If Caesar seeks his image on the coin, does not God seek His image in man? Thus these inimical slanderers spoke with a double heart and mouth. For it is said once in the heart, unless those who spoke such things had a double heart, and from where it was said a little before, a joined heart, not a simple one. See how significant this is. It was said of many servants of God that they had one heart: It was, he says, one soul and one heart towards God for them. Many simple ones have one heart, one deceitful one has two hearts. Therefore, because they spoke with a double heart and mouth: Tell us by what power you do these things? that is, if you say we honor, if you say we revere, if you say we worship. This seems to sound from another heart. From another indeed, for there was a double heart there, if you say we accuse, if you say we will find a reason to hold you, if you say we will find a reason to accuse you. Such enemies: but let them be confounded by the lantern; now you will see them confused. And well, the time is fitting. We perform the lamp lighting, let the enemies of Christ be confounded by the lantern that the Father prepared for His Christ. He indeed was the burning lantern, the Lord himself said. What then did he respond to those saying: Tell us by what power you do these things? I will also ask one word of you. Tell me, from where is the baptism of John? From heaven or from men? They were troubled among themselves: If we say from heaven, he will say to us, why did you not believe him? that is to say: Why do you ask me by what power I do these things, when he bore witness about me, whom you questioned? Therefore, if we say: From heaven; he will say to us: Why did you not believe him? If we say: From men, we fear the people. For all held John as a prophet. Fearing the people on one side, and fearing the truth on the other; timid here, envious there; blind everywhere, they answered: We do not know. The lantern was brought out, the darkness fled; for although they were present in body, they fled in heart, saying they did not know what they knew. The evidence of flight is the fear in the heart; they feared being stoned by the people if they said John's baptism was from men; they feared being convicted by Christ if they said John's baptism was from heaven. They fled, confused. At the mention of John, they feared, troubled into silence. And he said: Neither will I tell you by what power I do these things.

A lamp was therefore prepared for Christ our Lord, John the Baptist; his enemies, slanderous questioners, retreated confused when the light of the lamp was brought forth; it was fulfilled: I will clothe his enemies with shame. But we, brothers, recognizing through John the Baptist the precursor the Lord, and even more through the testimony of the Lord himself, of whom he said: I have a greater testimony than John, believing in Christ, let us be made the body of his head, so that Christ may be one head and body; and in all of us having been made one it will be fulfilled: And upon him shall my sanctification flourish. Turned to the Lord.