Sermon 313E

Sermon 313/E

Treatise on the Birth of Saint Cyprian

The Word was made flesh not by a conversion into flesh, but by the assumption of flesh. The bishopric of Cyprian defended unity, martyrdom taught confession.

The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom our hope for eternal salvation lies, became man for this purpose, even though He was God, so that man, being made distant from God, would not think himself abandoned and deserted in his remoteness. Therefore, that Mediator so fulfilled the time of remoteness during which we were separated from God, that through Him we not only would not remain far off but also could come close. For nothing is so united as the Word and God; likewise, nothing is so united as flesh and man. Therefore, when the Word and God were far from the flesh and man, the Word was made flesh and united man to God. Hence, our Lord and Savior, the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh, not by conversion into flesh but by the assumption of flesh, taught those who believe in Him to live and to die; to live without greed, to die without fear. He taught us to live so that we might not die eternally; He taught us to die so that we might live eternally. Among those whom He taught this, the blessed Cyprian stood out; living in such a way as knowing he would die, and dying as if certain of his resurrection, he was commended to God by double grace, that grace which he received from Him who was pleased. It pleased Him by His gift; for as far as it pertained to himself, he had cause to displease, not to please; but as it is written: Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. The truthful and true martyr, servant of God, true by the gift of God, confesses in his writings what he had been before; he does not forget what he was, lest he be ungrateful to Him by whom he ceased to be so. Therefore, he is commended to God by double grace, by his bishopric and his martyrdom. His bishopric defended and held unity; his martyrdom taught and fulfilled confession.

How great is the faith in Cyprian.

Oh, how great, how marvelous is faith! Faith is something great, and where is it? For we see each other's faces, our form, our clothes, lastly we perceive our words and voices with our ears; where is the faith of which I now speak? Let it be shown to our eyes. Behold, faith is not seen: and yet this entire multitude, which is seen here in the house of God, has been attracted by that faith which is not seen. Therefore, great is faith, as the Lord also says in the Gospel: "According to your faith be it unto you." Likewise, the Lord our God, praising the faith of some, said: "I have not found so great faith in Israel." It is not strange, therefore, if by the faith which is not seen the life which is seen is despised, so that the life which is not seen may be acquired. With this faith Saint Cyprian was filled: with this faith true Christians, not false ones, are filled, who believe in God with all their heart and unshaken faith. However, heretics and Donatists, who falsely claim to belong to Cyprian, if they would consider his episcopate, they would not separate themselves; if they would consider his martyrdom, they would not cast themselves down. The one who is a heretic, separated in heresy, or a Donatist cast down in death, is by no means a disciple of Christ, nor a companion of Cyprian.

The Lord commanded that Judah be tolerated until the end, to avoid separation.

Let us consider, dearest brothers, Christ teaching, Cyprian following; and those who claim sideways to be Christians, to pertain to Cyprian. Hear what Christ teaches: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you. A Donatist or heretic is not a disciple of Christ; a disciple of Christ is not an enemy of peace. See whether the Lord our God Himself said and did this, who said: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you. He tolerated Judas the devil among His disciples, He did not separate him; he was admitted to the Lord's Supper, even when he had already received the price of the Lord. For he wanted to sell Christ, he did not want to be redeemed by Christ. Thus, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ taught that separation is to be avoided, and division to be cut off, peace and unity to be loved. This peace He left to His disciples, our Apostles, as if by a last testament. For, about to go to the Father, He said: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you; and He did not separate Judas from Himself, who could not have erred if He had wished to separate him; for He did not separate the innocent for the guilty, nor in separating the guilty would He abandon the innocent. He knew what He would do, and He did not do it; He did not make separation, who commanded peace to be loved. He knew what He would do, and He did not do it; He did not make separation who knew, lest he who did not know dared to do it. Judas separated himself from the Lord. He was tolerated until the end: he gave the kiss of peace, who did not have peace; and yet he received the kiss of peace. By that kiss he was not united, but condemned; thus, the Lord gave him the kiss, as if saying: Behold what I have, behold what you do not have. For Christ was the head of the singing body and saying: When I was with those who hate peace, I was peaceful. Therefore, in tolerating him to the end, the Lord Jesus Christ strongly recommended that separation is not to be made, but unity is to be loved, and peace is to be preserved.

The Donatists falsely call themselves Catholics. The madness of the Donatists who choose the precipice, they abhor the snare. He would spare his seller, who prayed for the buyers.

We have said this about preserving peace because of heretics, who have separated themselves from the Catholic Church, and daily separate themselves, and falsely call themselves Catholics. Therefore, we mentioned this command of the Lord about peace because of the heretics. Let us see what the Lord says about martyrdom; we must also mention this because of the Donatists, who precipitate themselves; the teaching of the Lord must be commended. For the devil said to the Lord when he tempted Him - the Lord was tempted so that we might learn to resist the tempter - the devil said to Him: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” For he had taken Him atop the pinnacle of the temple; he did not recognize his Lord, and was teaching Him as though He were a mere man to throw Himself down. The devil, in his ignorance, tempted the true Christ, preparing to persuade false Christians. For the Donatists are not false Christians, but not Christians at all, for they listen to what the devil suggests, but do not hear what Christ answers. What did our Lord and Master, our Savior, reply to the devil suggesting such things? "Get behind me, Satan, for it is written: you shall not tempt the Lord your God." The devil suggested from Scripture, and the Lord replied from Scripture. For the devil had said to the Lord: "For it is written: He will command His angels concerning you; in their hands, they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." "Throw yourself down," he says, "and if you are the Son of God, the angels will catch you: what are you afraid of?" The Lord could have thrown down His flesh and not allowed Himself to die; but what the devil suggested to the present Christ, Christ did not teach future Christians to do. For this the devil suggests to the Donatists, saying: “Throw yourselves down, the angels will catch you; by such death, you do not go to pain but to a crown.” They would be Christians if they were to lend their ear to Christ and not believe the devil, who first separated them from the peace of the Church and afterward led them to ruin. We ask them and say: If voluntary death delights you, and you think it noble to die willingly without any enemy pressing upon you, without any adversary killing you, why do you rush to a precipice, and never to a noose? There is another easy death, and the suspension by a noose preserves the dying person’s limbs more intact than the fall you choose; why then do you not hang yourselves in a noose when you wish to die? They respond: “May it never be, let the noose be anathema; for Judas the traitor hanged himself with a noose.” O wretched and unhappy ones, what madness is this, not willing to do what the traitor did, but doing what the master of the traitor, the devil, taught them? Judas, to betray Christ, as it is written: "Satan entered into his heart"; he who persuaded him to betray Christ, persuaded him to hang himself with a noose. For he repented because he had betrayed innocent blood, but his repentance had no hope; he repented, but despaired, not believing he would receive forgiveness. He did not come to Him whom he had betrayed and ask for pardon; he did not ask for pardon, implore release, or commit himself to the redeeming blood of Him. For the Lord would not be cruel to Judas if He was merciful to the Jews. Judas sold Christ to be killed, the Jews bought Christ to be killed. Would you know that He would have spared the seller? He prayed for the buyers; hanging on the cross He said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." But they who crucified Christ, who wished to remain in that sin, perished, because they would not repent; they despaired of forgiveness, they did not deserve pardon. But if any of them ran to the forgiveness of the same Christ to be freed, whom, incited by the devil, they hastened to shed His blood, they repented, and they deserved forgiveness. They were baptized: they shed the blood of Christ in their rage, they drank it in faith.

The Donatists honor the graves of those who have been cast down. By the example of Christ, Cyprian did not voluntarily present himself to the persecutors.

Therefore, the devil, who persuaded the heretics to separation, and the Donatists to precipitation, is the same one who persuaded Judas both to betrayal and to despair and the noose. You, therefore, Donatist, who wants to kill yourself, who avoids the noose of the traitor, why do you not avoid the precipice of the devil? The devil persuaded Judas to hang himself; he is the same who suggested to the Lord to leap off the precipice. Therefore, avoid the devil in both cases: just as you avoid the devil in the noose, so you should not consent to the devil in the precipice. For what did the devil, who suggested the precipice, hear from the Lord? "Get behind me, Satan!" O Donatist, say this to the devil when he suggests the precipice to you; who also has filled you, that being precipitated you are worshipped. Indeed, brothers, both they precipitate themselves, and they are precipitated by their perverse people. They are greater murderers who collect with honor the bodies of the precipitated, who gather the blood of the precipitated, who honor their graves, who get drunk at their tombs. For seeing such honor given to the precipitated, others are inflamed to the precipice; they get drunk on wine over them, and they get drunk with fury and the worst error. Against these, blessed Cyprian, commending the peace of Christ, teaching suffering. Observe both in him: he maintained peace in unity, he held on to martyrdom in confession. For our Lord Jesus Christ himself certainly came to suffer, had predicted he would suffer, and we would not be redeemed unless he had suffered; he also said: "I have the power to lay down my life and to take it again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord." And it was said about the Father: "He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." And about our Lord Jesus Christ himself: "He loved me and gave himself for me." Therefore, since he came for the Father to deliver him to the wicked to redeem us, and he delivered himself to the wicked to redeem us, yet after supper given he withdrew to the mountain, fled the eyes of his persecutors; he wished them to come to him, not to offer himself voluntarily. Look at Cyprian imitating him. You heard, when his passion was read, that he said to the proconsul: "For the discipline forbids that anyone should offer himself." See how he knew the discipline of suffering; he certainly was urging towards suffering; yet he did not precipitate, did not impel them to offer themselves voluntarily. And to blessed Cyprian himself, they were sent and brought to him, yet he did not offer himself voluntarily. But the Donatists voluntarily throw themselves from the precipice, and come to men, and say: "Kill us." They say: "We do not kill you." O insane, o perverse ones! You come to this point: you say you are a martyr to make either a murderer or a homicidal; so that they come to men and arm them against themselves, and by terror force them to kill. If they had a sound mind, they would both dread the precipice and not commit murder; but they do what their father the devil taught them, and what their teacher Donatus instructed. Against whom blessed Cyprian strongly defended both unity and peace.

The pruned branch, Cyprian; the cut branches, Donatists. "Thanks be to God" of Cyprian, "Praises be to God" of the Donatists.

He is therefore sent to him: he is brought before the proconsul, standing before the tribunal of a human judge. For he had withdrawn to his gardens due to the persecution, just as the Lord did after dinner on the Mount of Olives. The Lord on the Mount of Olives watered and nurtured the oil of peace; Cyprian in the gardens nurtured the mustard seed. He was brought from there to stand bodily before the proconsul, but in heart before the Savior; he honored human authority, but did not deny divine glory. From there he was first sent into exile. Having confessed Christ, he went into exile; from there he was led to martyrdom, brought forth like a branch to the pruning hook, not for removal, but for cleansing. For the Lord said: I am the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that bears fruit, my Father prunes, so that it may bear more fruit; every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he cuts off, and it withers, and it is thrown into the fire. Therefore, consider the cleansed branch, the martyr Cyprian; consider the cut-off branches, the heretics and Donatists. What do you say pertains to him, bearing fruit of peace and unity, cleansed by the pruning hook of martyrdom to receive the crown of eternal salvation? What do you compare to this, heretics and Donatists, cut off by separation, tainted by downfall? Blessed Cyprian stands, he confesses Christ, does not consent to what he is compelled; he receives the temporal judicial sentence, he becomes a judge with Christ in eternity. He receives the sentence and rightly gives thanks to God, because he rightly confessed. O insane Donatists! O rabid ones! Thanks be to God. They say they celebrate the nativity of Cyprian; all Christian men fear their praises. The Donatists are gathered for all their crimes; that they throw themselves down: thanks be to God! they shout; in word: thanks be to God! in deeds: hateful to God. Therefore, any Catholic Christian standing at a distance who hears: thanks be to God! now trembles, now seeks where to flee, lest he sees their downfall. Behold how the Donatists have embittered the praises of God.

From the book of Cyprian "That Idols Are Not Gods". Aug. ready to die for the faith. Always evils are given in return for good to the servants of God.

But we, attending to the teaching of Christ, place the example of Cyprian in our hearts, beseeching the Lord God, with the help of the prayers of the saints, that we may not fear such men and not be silent to them about the faith and hope that is in us. Therefore, let us confess Christ and not fear men, nor, by fearing, be silent. For even blessed Cyprian, living among persecutors and pagans, while being among idol worshippers, did not fear the power of temporal authority, nor was he silent that idols were not gods. Not only did he not keep silent in churches, but he also demonstrated it in writings. Did he say: "I will consider the times; those who rule worship idols; I will spare confusing them, though they are temporal, yet they are emperors?" Did he keep silent? Did the good shepherd seeing the wolf flee? For what is the benefit if the shepherd is present in body but flees in heart? For he who remains silent out of fear flees in heart. For God would say to him: "I have made you a watchman; you would say, you would not be silent: but you remained silent so that you might not be killed. Did I not say: ‘Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul?’ Behold, while you fear the death of your flesh, you have caused many deaths of your soul." Therefore, blessed Cyprian neither remained silent among heretics, nor Donatists, nor even to the emperors themselves. He spoke, and he spoke securely, and he spoke with certainty in the Lord his God, that demons were not gods. We also say, that heretics are not martyrs and that the Circumcellions are not martyrs. Blessed Cyprian did not fear the worshipers of demons; we should not fear the gatherings of heretics nor the assemblies of those who hurl themselves down. Let us only pray to the Lord in spirit, that no one may have the counsel of silence. And if they kill us for our faith, let us say: "Thanks be to God;" and if they do not kill us, how long shall we live here? And if we reach old age, how long is it? Are we not going to die? Should the ministry of our heart and tongue cease for a few days of this life? Far from it. But if this life of ours is necessary for your charity because of this ministry, obtain it from the Lord; we cannot be silent. You can pray to God so that if we are still necessary for you, He preserves us for you, and you for us; He is able to preserve all of us from threats, from wickedness, from the snares of all enemies, from the perversities of all heretics; whom, since we wish them well and want them to be converted, He knows who is the inspector and ruler of our heart. But perhaps they will return evil for good to us. Has it only now begun that evil is returned for good to the servants of God? It is an ancient thing, examples are present; and this will neither cease nor stop until the end; and now we are in the very end of the age.

Augustine trusts in the prayers of the Saints for him.

Therefore, my brothers, I beseech your Charity to have a firm and prepared heart in God. And let us all pray to God, that as the Lord wills, He may guide us and keep our ways, both bodily and spiritual; for nothing will happen to us nor to you, which He does not will. And do not think that the prayers of the saints for all of us before God can be in vain; by whose prayers even our prayers and yours will not be in vain before God. I will give you an example from Holy Scripture. Tabitha, a widow who dressed other widows, it happened that she died, and she was sent to Peter the apostle, who came. The tunics she made for the poor were shown to him. The Lord was moved with mercy: He heard Peter, and restored the good worker widow to the light. Therefore, just as she was restored by the prayers of the widows, so also by the prayers of blessed Cyprian and all the saints, the Lord is able to deliver us from all evil.