Sermon 319A
SERMO 319/A Sermon 319/A De festo Innocentum On the Feast of the Innocents 1. Nati infantes, occisi parentes. Felix partus, sed vilis exitus. Gaudet mater, sed mox cadit in lacrimas. Nova nativitas, nova clades. Quid est, rex crudelis? Quid est, superbia saeva? Parvulos exstinguere non potest Christum excludere. 2. Quid vos, infantes innocentes? Mundum non noveratis, sed relicto mundo in caelo vivitis. Non potuistis loqui, sed audivistis vocem angeli. In terris non mansistis, sed caelestem patriam invenistis. Gaudete, quia pro Christo passos estis, Angelorum vicini effecti estis. 3. O beati, qui in christi lavacro nascuntur, ab hoc saeculo cito recedunt, in paradiso sine mora collocantur. Pueri, quorum animae improvisae munditia poco ab hoc mundo elongantur, nulla macula peccati sunt infectae. Haec de innocentibus, candidis, sanctis dicuntur. 4. Accepistis autem in domibus vestris sanctos. Sequimini eorum exempla. Vita eorum vobis sit recta via. Ambulate in via sancta, ut perveniatis ad vitam aeternam. Praesta, Iesu Domine, ut innocentes simus in te, sicut Innocentes pro te mortui sunt. Amen.
On Stephen the Martyr
Those who advance in Christ are our joy and crown.
Certainly, our concern is your edification, and our joy is your salvation: both temporal and eternal salvation. For we have the promise, as the Apostle said, of the present and future life. But God grants present salvation both to men and to beasts, to the good and to the bad; this temporal salvation the martyrs despised for the sake of eternal salvation. Doubtless, you rejoice in ours; and we rejoice in Christ for your salvation. But strive that we may also rejoice with you on that day; for what the Apostle said regarding his dispensation so great and expansive, that we scarcely follow his footsteps, this is what he was saying to us, whom he was edifying, and he said: You are my joy and my crown. Therefore, whoever progresses in Christ from our labors is our joy and crown: because it is ours to faithfully distribute, not our own money but the Lord's; it is yours to receive with great care and diligence. For I can be a giver, not a collector; and a giver not as of my own property, but of God's; from which I also live: because we all belong to one great household, we all have one master of the house. He has a plentiful storehouse, from which both we and you can live. Let us only ask Him to take away distaste; first He grants hunger, and then He extends bread. From what I live, I speak; from what I am fed, this I minister. For with you I am poor; the riches are common, our Lord. The blessed and eternal life of us all is our glory. Therefore: Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.