Sermon 344

SERMO 344

On the Love of God and the Love of the World

The battle between the love of God and the love of the world.

Two loves struggle with each other in every temptation in this life: the love of the world and the love of God; and whichever of these two prevails, it draws the lover towards it as if by a weight. For we come to God not by wings or feet, but by our inclinations. And likewise, we cling to the earth not by physical knots and chains, but by contrary inclinations. Christ came to change love, and to make the lover of earthly matters into a lover of heavenly life; made man for us, He who made us men; and taking on humanity, God, so that He might make men gods. This contest is set before us, this struggle with the flesh, this struggle with the devil, this struggle with the world. But let us be confident, for He who proclaimed this struggle does not watch without His aid, nor does He encourage us to rely on our own strength. For he who relies on his own strength, indeed because he is a man, relies on the strength of man; and cursed is everyone who places his hope in man. The martyrs, burning with the flame of this pious and holy love, burned the grass of the flesh with the strength of their spirit; but they themselves reached Him intact in spirit, by whom they were kindled. However, the due honor will be rendered to the despised flesh in the resurrection of the dead. For this reason, it was sown in dishonor, so that it might rise in glory.

God must be loved above parents.

With this love enkindled, or rather so that they may be enkindled, He says: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. The love of parents, wife, children, was not taken away, but it was ordered; He did not say: Whoever loves; but: Whoever loves more than me. This is what the Church speaks of in the Song of Songs: He has ordered love in me. Love your father, but not more than the Lord; love your begetter, but not more than the Creator. The father begot, but he himself did not form; for who, or what kind of person he would be when he was sowing, he did not know. The father nourished, but not from his own did the father provide bread for the hungry. Lastly, whatever the father reserves for you on earth, he will depart so that you may succeed, he will make a place for your life with his death. But the father God keeps what He reserves for you with Himself; so that you may possess the inheritance with Him the Father, and not wait for him to leave as a successor, but cleave always to the one who will remain, always remaining in Him. Therefore, love the father, but not more than your God. Love your mother, but not more than the Church, which has begotten you to eternal life. Finally, from the same love of parents, you should consider how much you ought to love God and the Church. For if those who begot the mortal ought to be loved so much, with how much greater love ought those to be loved who begot one who is to come to eternity, who will remain in eternity? Love your wife, love your children according to God, so that you may take care to instruct them to worship God with you; to whom when you are joined, you will fear no separation. Therefore, you should not love them more than God, whom you love wrongly if you neglect to lead them to God with you. The hour of martyrdom may perhaps come. You want to confess Christ. Having confessed, you may perhaps receive the penalty of the times, receive temporal death. Father, or wife, or child flatter you so that you may not die, and by flattering, they cause you to die. If they do not succeed, then this will come to your mind: Whoever loves father, or mother, or wife, or children more than me, is not worthy of me.

Human affection must be overcome by the example of Christ. Death and life.

But the carnal affection is swayed by the blandishments of its own, and human softness falters in a certain way. Restrain the flowing folds of your garment, gird yourself with virtue. Does the love of the flesh torment you? Take up your cross, and follow the Lord. And your Savior himself, although God in the flesh, although God with the flesh, nevertheless demonstrated human affection, where he said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He knew that this cup could not pass away, for he had come to drink it. It was to be drunk by will, not by necessity. He was omnipotent: if he wished, of course it would pass away, for God with the Father, and he and God the Father are one God. But from the form of a servant, from what he received from you for you, he emitted the voice of man, the voice of flesh. He deigned to transfigure you in himself, so that you might speak of infirmity from him, so that you might grasp strength in him. He showed the will by which you could be tempted; and immediately taught which will you should prefer. Father, he said, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. This is human will; I bear man, I speak from the form of a servant. Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass. It is the voice of the flesh, not of the spirit; the voice of weakness, not of divinity. If it is possible, let this cup pass. This is the will, of which it is also said to Peter: When you grow old, another will gird you, and take you and bring you where you do not want to go. Therefore, how did the martyrs conquer? Because they preferred the will of the spirit to the will of the flesh. They loved this life, and yet they considered it lightly. Hence they considered how much more the eternal life should be loved, if this perishable life is loved so much. The one who is about to die does not want to die; and yet there will necessarily be dying, although perpetually unwilling to die. You achieve nothing by not wanting to die, you effect nothing, you extort nothing; you have no power to remove the necessity of death. What you fear will come, despite your unwillingness; what you defer will be present despite your refusal. For you strive to defer death; do you seek to remove it? If then, among lovers of this life, there is so much effort to defer death, how much should we labor to remove it? Surely you do not want to die. Change your love, and death will be shown to you, not that which will come unwillingly, but that which, if you will, will not be.

Double death, the first and the second.

Observe, therefore, if any measure of love has awakened in your heart, if any spark has gleamed from the ashes of the flesh, if it has attained some strength in your heart, which is not only not extinguished by the wind of temptation, but is also kindled more fiercely; if you do not burn like straw, which is extinguished by a single light breath; but you burn like oak, you burn like charcoal, to be stirred up rather by the wind; see the two deaths, one temporal, and the first; the other eternal, and the second. The first death is prepared for all: the second for the wicked alone, the impious, the unbelievers, the blasphemous, and whatever else opposes sound doctrine. Pay attention, set before you these two deaths. If possible, you do not wish to endure either. I know, you love to live, you do not wish to die; and you would like to pass from this life to another life in such a way that you would not rise from the dead, but be transformed for the better while still living. You would like this, human affection has this; the soul itself has this desire in its will and longing. Because in loving life, it hates death; and since it does not hate its own flesh, it does not want what it hates to happen to it. For no one ever hated his own flesh. The Apostle shows this affection where he says: We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. In which he says, We do not wish to be unclothed, but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. You do not want to be stripped; but you must be stripped. However, you should act so that stripped by death of the carnal tunic, you may be found clothed with the armor of faith. For he immediately adds: If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For the first death will strip you of the flesh, temporarily set aside, and taken up in its due time. This whether you like it or not. Not because you will rise if you wish; nor if you do not wish, you will not rise; nor if you do not believe in the resurrection, for that reason you will not rise. It is necessary rather to act so that you, who will rise whether you wish or not, rise in such a way as to have what you desire. For the Lord Jesus himself said: The time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and will come out, whether they are good or bad; all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and will come out, and will be sent forth from hidden places. No creature will hold the dead under the voice of the living Creator. All, he says, who are in the graves, will hear his voice, and will come out. When he says: All, he made, as it were, confusion and mingling. But listen to the distinction, listen also to the separation: those who have done good, he says, to the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. This judgment, to which the wicked will rise to undergo, is called the second death. Why then, Christian, do you fear this first death? It will come to you even if you invite it, and even if you refuse it, it will be present. Perhaps you ransom yourself from barbarians, so that you may not be killed; you ransom yourself at great cost, you do not at all spare your possessions, and you despoil your children; and ransomed today, you will die tomorrow. You must be redeemed from the devil who drags you with him to the second death, where the wicked placed on the left will hear: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. From this second death you must be redeemed. You might answer: How? Do not seek goats and bulls; do not finally inspect your chest and say in your heart: That I might ransom myself from the barbarians, I had money; that you might redeem yourself from the second death, have righteousness. The barbarian himself might take your money beforehand, and afterward lead you captive, so that there would be nothing from which you might redeem yourself, with him possessing all your things who has also held you; you do not involuntarily lose righteousness; it remains in the secret treasury of the heart; hold onto it, possess it, from it you will be redeemed from the second death. Which if you refuse, it will not exist, because that by which you might redeem yourself from this death, if you will, will exist. Will procures righteousness from the Lord, and drinks it as from its own fountain. To which fountain no one is forbidden to approach if he approaches worthily. Finally consider your help. Your money redeemed you from the barbarians, your wealth redeemed you from the first death; the blood of your Lord redeemed you from the second death. He had the blood wherewith he might redeem us; and to this end he received blood, that there might be what he might pour out for our redemption. The blood of your Lord, if you will, has been given for you; if you are unwilling, it has not been given for you. Perhaps you say: My God had blood with which to redeem me; but now that he has suffered, he has given it all; what remains for him to give for me? This is great, because he gave it once, and he gave it for all. The blood of Christ is salvation to the willing, punishment to the unwilling. Why then do you hesitate, who do not wish to die, to be rather delivered from the second death? By which you are delivered, if you are willing to take up your cross, and follow the Lord; because he took up his cross, and sought the servant.

Eternal life is to be loved as much as temporal life is loved.

Absolutely, my brothers, do not those who love the temporal life so much strongly urge you to love eternal life? What efforts do men make to live for a few days? Who can enumerate the efforts and labors of all who wish to live, shortly about to die? How much do they do for those few days? What do we do so much for eternal life? What should I say, for redeeming a few days, and those on earth? I indeed call them few days, if he is freed in old age; I call them few days, if freed, the old man becomes a child. I do not say because redeemed today, he may die tomorrow. Behold, for the uncertain, for those few uncertain days, how much do they do? What do they invent? If they come into the hands of a physician through bodily illness, and all health is despaired of by those who announce and examine; if some physician is promised, who is also able to free the desperate one, how much is promised! How much indeed is given for the uncertain! So that they might live a little, this is forsaken from where they would live. If he falls into the hands of an enemy or a robber, to avoid being killed, to be redeemed, even if a father is taken, the sons run, and spend what he would leave for them, to redeem whom they can deliver. What ambitions? What prayers? What endeavors? Who can explain this? And yet, I wish to say something more serious, and unless it happens, more incredible. For what do I say, because men give money to live, because they leave nothing to themselves? So that for a few days, uncertain and short, they might live with fear, live with labor, how much do they spend? How much do they give? Woe to the human race! I said that they spend to live from what they could live by: hear what is worse, what is graver, what is more wicked, what is, as I said, incredible, unless it happens. So that they might live a little, they even give that by which they could always live. Hear what I said, and understand. For it is still closed, and yet it moves many, to whom the Lord has already opened it when it was closed. Leave those who give and lose what they could live by, so that they might be granted a little life. Consider those who lose that by which they could always live, so that they might be granted a little life. What is this? It is called faith, it is called piety; this is all like money, by which eternal life is acquired. An enemy will come threatening from the side, and will not say to you: Give me your money, that you may live; but he will say to you: Deny Christ, that you may live. If you do this, so that you may be allowed to live a little, you will lose that by which you could always live. Is this to love life, who feared death? Good man, why did you fear death, unless by loving life? Christ is life. Why do you seek the small, to lose the secure? Perhaps you did not lose your faith, but you did not have what you would lose? Therefore, hold on to that by which you may always live. Consider your neighbor, how much he does to live a little. Consider also him who denied Christ, how much evil he did for a few days of life. And do you not want to despise those few days of life, so that you may die on no day, and live on the eternal day, be protected by your Redeemer, be equaled with angels in the eternal kingdom? What did you love? What did you lose? To follow the Lord, did you not carry your cross?

We are commanded to lose the soul so that the soul may be found.

See how prudent He wants you to be, who said to you: Take up your cross and follow me. He who finds his soul, He says, will lose it; and he who loses it for my sake, will find it. He who finds it will lose it; he who loses it will find it. To lose it, first you must find it; and when you have lost it, finally you must again find it. There are two findings: in between is a perdition through which one passes. No one can lose his soul for Christ unless he has first found it; and no one can find his soul in Christ unless he has first lost it. Find it, to lose it; lose it, to find it. How will you first be able to find it, to have it to lose? When you think that you are mortal in part, when you think of Him who made you, and by breathing into you created your soul, and you see that you owe it to Him who gave it: to be returned to Him who lent it; to be kept by Him who established it; you have found your soul, finding it in faith. For you have believed this, and you have found your soul. For you were lost before you believed. You have found your soul: for you were dead in unbelief, revived in faith. You are such that it could be said of you: He was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found. Therefore, you have found your soul in the faith of truth, if you have revived from the death of unbelief. This is, you have found your soul. Lose it, and let your soul be your seed. For the farmer also finds wheat by threshing and winnowing, and again loses it by sowing. What was lost in the sowing is found in the area. Lost in sowing is what is found in reaping. Therefore, he who finds his soul will lose it. He who works to gather, why is he lazy to sow?

The soul for whose sake we are ordered to be destroyed.

But see where you may find and why you may lose. For how would you find it, unless the light was kindled for you by Him unto whom it is said: "You will light my lamp, O Lord"? Therefore, you have already found it, with Him kindling the lamp for you. See why you may lose it. For it is not to be lost casually, that which has been found so diligently. He does not say: "Whoever loses it will find it," but: "Whoever loses it for my sake." Perhaps you might see the body of a shipwrecked merchant on the shore, you shed tears out of pity, and you say: "Woe to this man! For gold, he lost his soul." You lament well, you pity well. Render tears to him whom you cannot provide aid. For he might have been able to lose his soul for gold, but he could not find it for gold. He was adequate to the loss of his soul, less adequate to its gain. For it is not to be pondered what he lost, but why he lost it. If for avarice, see where the flesh lies, where is what was dear? And yet avarice commanded, and for gold, the soul was lost, and for Christ, the soul is not lost, nor should it be lost. Fool, do not doubt: hear the counsel of the Creator. He who made you takes care that you might be wise, He who made you before you were could be wise. Hear, do not doubt to lose your soul for Christ. You entrust to the faithful Creator what you are said to lose. Indeed, you will lose, but He receives it, who loses nothing. If you love your life, lose it to find it; for when you find it, there will be nothing to lose, no reason to lose it. For that life which is found, is found that it cannot at all perish. Because Christ also, who gave you an example by being born, dying, and rising again, rising from the dead now does not die, and death no longer has dominion over him.