Sermon 331
SERMO 331
On the Birthday of the Martyrs
To love and to lose one's soul is understood in two ways.
That evangelical trumpet, when the Lord says: "Who loves his soul will lose it; and he who loses it for my sake will find it," the martyrs are kindled for battle; and they conquered because they did not presume of themselves, but of the Lord. "Who loves his soul will lose it." This can be understood in two ways, that which is said: "Who loves his soul will lose it." If you love it, you lose it. And another way: Do not love, lest you lose it. The former way has this sense: If you love, lose it. If you love it, therefore, if you love, lose it. Here, sow it, and in heaven, you will reap it. The farmer, if he does not lose wheat in the seed, does not love it in the harvest. Another way has it thus: Do not love it, lest you lose it. They seem to love their souls, who fear to die. The martyrs, if they had thus loved their souls, would undoubtedly have lost them. For what would it profit to hold onto life in this world and lose it in the future? What would it profit to hold onto life on earth and lose it in heaven? And what is it to hold onto it? How long to hold onto it? What you hold, perishes from you: if you lose it, you find it in yourself. Behold, the martyrs have held their souls. And how would they have been martyrs if they had always held them? But behold, if they had held them, would they have lived until today? If by denying Christ they had held onto their souls in this life, would they not have long since passed from this life, and certainly lost their souls?
But because they did not deny Christ; they passed from this world to the Father. They sought Christ, by confessing; they held onto Him by dying. Thus they lost their lives with great gain; losing straw: earning the crown: earning the crown, I say, and holding eternal life.
A martyr is made not by the punishment, but by the cause. Those who die for Christ have not acted for Christ, but for themselves.
Finally, it happens, or rather it has happened in them, what the Lord subsequently added: And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. He who loses, he says, for my sake. The whole cause lies there. He who loses, not in any way, not for any cause, but for my sake. For the martyrs had already said in prophecy: For your sake, we are put to death all day long. Therefore, it is not the punishment that makes the martyr, but the cause.
When the Lord suffered, He distinguished three crosses for a cause. He was crucified among two thieves: the criminals were fastened here and there, He in the middle. And as if that wood were a tribunal, He condemned the one who insulted, and crowned the one who confessed. What will He do when He will judge, if He could do this when judged? Already, therefore, He was discerning the crosses. For, if we consider the punishment, Christ was similar to the thieves. But if someone asks why Christ was crucified; He responds to us, Because of you. Therefore let them and the martyrs say: And we died for you. He for us, we however for Him. But He for us, to confer a benefit on us: we however for Him, not to impart a benefit to Him. Therefore, in both respects it was managed for us: what pours out from Him, comes to us; and what is done for Him, returns to us. For He is indeed the one of whom the soul that rejoices in the Lord says: I said to the Lord, You are my God; because you do not need my goods. For what goods do I have, except those given by you? And how does He need any good, from whom every good is given?
The gifts of God are common to the good and the bad. What is specific is reserved for the good.
He gave us nature, that we might be: He gave us a soul, that we might live: He gave us a mind, that we might understand: He gave us nourishment, that we might sustain mortal life: He gave light from heaven, springs from the earth. But all these are common gifts to the good and the wicked. If He gave these also to the wicked, does He then reserve nothing special for the good? Indeed He does reserve something special. And what is that which He reserves for the good? That which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man. For if it entered into the heart of man, it was below the heart of man: therefore it ascended into the heart, because it is above the heart into which it ascends. That which He reserves for the good, the heart ascends there. Not what ascends into your heart, but where your heart ascends, this God reserves for you. Do not listen with deaf ears, Lift up your heart. Therefore that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man; the eye has not seen, for it is not color; the ear has not heard, for it is not sound; nor has it ascended into the heart, for it is not an earthly thought. Thus understand: That which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him.
God Himself will be the reward of the good.
Perhaps you ask me what this means. Ask Him who began to dwell in you. Yet I also say what I feel about it. For you are asking what God keeps for the good, if He bestows so many things on both the good and the bad. And when I would say: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived," there are those who say, "Do you wonder what this is?" Behold what God keeps only for the good, whom He Himself has made good: behold what it is. Briefly, our reward is defined by the prophet: "I will be their God, and they will be My people." I will be their God: He Himself promised Himself as a reward to us. Seek anything else if you find something better. If I were to say, "He promised gold," you would rejoice; He promised Himself, and you are sad? If a rich man does not have God, what does he have? Seek nothing from God except God. Love freely, desire only Him from Him. Do not fear poverty: He gives Himself to us, and He is enough for us. Let Him give Himself to us, and He will be enough for us. Listen to the Apostle Philip in the Gospel: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
Greedy martyrs of gold.
Why then do you marvel, brothers, if the lovers of God, the martyrs, endured so much to gain God? See how much the lovers of gold endure. They commit themselves to navigation in the harshness of winter: so fervent are they in avarice, that they fear no cold; they are tossed by winds, suspended and plunged by waves; they are driven up to death by ineffable dangers. Let them too say to gold: For your sake we are mortified all day long. Let the martyrs say to Christ: For your sake we are mortified all day long. The voice indeed is similar: but the cause is very dissimilar. Behold, both have said it, these to Christ, those to gold: For your sake we are mortified all day long. Let Christ respond to His martyrs, If you die for me, you will find both yourselves and me. But let gold respond to the greedy, If you are shipwrecked for me, you will lose both yourselves and me. Therefore loving and imitating; not loving in vain, but loving and imitating, let us celebrate the days of the martyrs, and let our fervors be mitigated by the coolness of joys. For we shall reign with them without end, if we love them faithfully and not in vain.