Sermon 34

We are admonished to sing to the Lord a new song. A new person knows the new song. A song is a matter of joy, and if we consider it more diligently, it is a matter of love. Therefore, whoever knows how to love the new life, knows how to sing the new song. We must be reminded what the new life is for the sake of the new song. For all pertain to one kingdom, the new person, the new song, the New Testament. Therefore, the new person will sing the new song and will belong to the New Testament.

Let us love God because He first loved us.

There is no one who does not love, but the question is what they love. We are therefore not admonished not to love, but to choose what to love. But what do we choose, unless we are first chosen? For we do not love unless we are first loved? Listen to the apostle John. He is the Apostle who reclined on the Lord’s chest and drank heavenly secrets at that feast. From that drink and from that blessed intoxication, he belched: In the beginning was the Word. Lofty humility and sober intoxication. Therefore, that great belcher, that is, preacher, among other things which he drank from the Lord’s chest, also said this: We love because He first loved us. For he gave much to man, when he spoke about God, by saying: We love. Who? Whom? Men love God, mortals the immortal, sinners the just, the fragile the immovable, the creation the creator. We loved. And whence is this to us? Because He first loved us. Look for whence it is that man loves God, and you will find none at all, except that God first loved him. He gave Himself whom we loved, He gave from where we would love. For what did He give whereby we would love more plainly hear through the apostle Paul: Charity, he says, is spread abroad in our hearts. Whence? Perhaps from us? No. Then whence? Through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.

We cannot love God except through the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, having such great confidence, let us love God from God. Indeed, because the Holy Spirit is God, let us love God from God. For what more shall I say: let us love God from God? Certainly, because I have said: The love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us; thus it follows, since the Holy Spirit is God, and we cannot love God except through the Holy Spirit, let us love God from God. Hence it follows. Hear more plainly from John himself: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. It is not enough to say: Love is from God. Which of us would dare to say what has been said: God is love? He said it who knew what he had. What then does human imagination and flighty thought fashion for itself as God, and crafts an idol in its heart, composing what it can imagine, not what it deserved to find? "Is God such? No, but such." Why do you arrange the features? Why do you assemble the limbs? Why do you shape a pleasing stature? Why do you imagine the beauty of the body? God is love. What color is in love? What features? What form? We see none of these. And yet we love.

Through earthly love, divine charity is more easily understood.

I dare to say to your Charity. Let us consider in the lower things what we may find in the higher. That same lowest and earthly love, that same sordid and disgraceful love, which pursues the beauties of the body, reminds us of something from which we may rise to higher and purer things. A lascivious and shameless person loves a very beautiful woman. The beauty of her body indeed moves him, but inwardly he seeks the reciprocity of love. For if he hears that she hates him, does not all that heat and impulse around her beautiful limbs grow cold, and does he not in some way recoil from what he intended, turn away, take offense, and even begin to hate what he loved? Has the form changed? Are not all those things there that enticed? They are there. And yet he burned for what he saw, and from his heart demanded what he did not see. But if he discovers that he is loved in return, how much more vehemently does he burn! She sees him, he sees her, no one sees the love. And yet the one who is not seen is loved.

Rise from that muddy greed, so that you may remain in the most enlightened love. You do not see God. Love, and you have Him. Many things are loved in damnable desires, and are not possessed! They are sought in a foul manner, yet are not immediately possessed. Is it the same to love gold as to have gold? Many love it and do not have it. Is it the same to have vast and splendid estates as to love them? Many love them and do not have them. Is it the same to love honor as to have honor? Many burn with the desire to have it without having any honor. They seek to have it, and often they die before they find what they were seeking. God offers Himself to us in succinctness. He cries out to us: "Love me, and you will have me, for you cannot love me unless you have me."

You are the praise of God if you live well.

O brothers, o sons, o Catholic offspring, o holy and celestial seeds, o regenerated in Christ and born from above, listen to me, rather through me: Sing to the Lord a new song. "Look," you say, "I sing." You sing, indeed you sing, I hear. But let life not contradict the testimony of the tongue. Sing with voices, sing with hearts, sing with mouths, sing with lifestyles: Sing to the Lord a new song. Are you asking what you should sing about him whom you love? Without a doubt, you want to sing about him whom you love. You seek his praises to sing. You have heard: Sing to the Lord a new song. Are you seeking praises? His praise is in the congregation of the saints. The praise of singing is the singer himself. Do you want to speak praises to God? Be yourselves what you say. You are his praise if you live well. For his praise is not in the synagogues of the Jews, not in the madness of the pagans, not in the errors of the heretics, not in the applause of the theaters. Are you looking for where it is? Pay attention, be yourselves: His praise is in the congregation of the saints. Are you looking for what to rejoice in when you sing? Let Israel rejoice in him who made him, and he found nothing to rejoice in except God.

God must be loved with all the heart and soul.

Well, my brothers, question yourselves, examine your inner cells. See and consider what you have of charity, and increase what you find. Pay attention to such a treasure, so that you may be rich inwardly. Certainly, other things that have great value are called dear, not without reason. Look at the custom of your speech: "This is dearer than that." What does "dearer" mean, except that it is more valuable? If it is called dearer, whatever is more valuable, what is dearer than charity itself, my brothers? What do we think its price is? From where is its price found? The price of wheat, your coin; the price of land, your silver; the price of a pearl, your gold; the price of charity, you. Do you therefore seek a place from which to obtain land, a gem, a beast; land where you may buy it, and you seek yourself. But if you wish to have charity, seek yourself, and find yourself. For why do you fear to give yourself, lest you consume yourself? Rather, if you do not give yourself, you lose yourself. Charity itself speaks through Wisdom and tells you something, from which you should not fear what is said: "Give yourself." For if someone wanted to sell you land, he would say to you: "Give me your gold"; and if someone wanted something else: "Give me your coin, give me your silver." Listen to what charity says to you from the mouth of Wisdom: "Give me, son, your heart." Give me, he says. What? Son, your heart. It was ill when it was with you, when it was yours. For you were drawn through trifles and wanton and pernicious loves. Take it away from there. Where do you draw it? Where do you place it? Give me, he says, your heart. Let it be mine, and it does not perish for you. For see, if He wanted you to leave anything in you from which you could love even yourself, He who says to you: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." What remains of your heart, with which you may love yourself? What of your soul? What of your mind? He says all. He who made you demands all of you. But do not be sad, as if nothing remains in you from which to rejoice. Let Israel rejoice, not in himself, but in Him who made him.

You did not love yourself when you did not love God.

You will respond and say: "If nothing remains for me whereby I may love myself, because I am commanded to love Him who made me with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, how am I commanded by the second precept to love my neighbor as myself?" This is rather why you should with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind love your neighbor. How? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. God with all of me, neighbor as myself. Where from me, where from you. Do you want to hear from where you should love yourself? From this you love yourself, because you love God with all of you. Do you think it profits God that you love God? And because you love God, does anything accrue to God? And if you do not love, will you have less? When you love, you profit; you will be there where you do not perish. But you will respond and say: "When did I not love myself?" Surely you did not love yourself when you did not love God who made you. But when you hated yourself, you thought you loved yourself. For he who loves iniquity hates his own soul.

Prayer after the sermon.

Turning to the Lord God the Father Almighty with a pure heart, let us give him, as much as our smallness permits, the greatest and most abundant thanks; praying with all our soul for his singular gentleness, that he may deign to hear our prayers in his good pleasure; also that he may expel the enemy from our deeds and thoughts by his power, multiply faith for us, guide our mind, grant spiritual thoughts, and lead us to his blessedness; through Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with him in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.