Sermon 346

SERMO 346

ON OUR PILGRIMAGE IN THIS LIFE, THROUGH FAITH

This life is more truly death than life. True life is only eternal.

Remember with us, beloved brothers, that the Apostle said: As long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who said: I am the way, and the truth and the life, wished us to walk both through Him and to Him. For by what do we walk, if not by the way? And to what do we walk, if not to truth and to life, namely eternal life, which alone is to be called life? For this mortal life, in which we are now, is proven to be death in comparison to that life; which is varied by such great mutability, and is stabilized by no firmness, and is terminated by a very short course. And therefore the Lord, to that rich man who said to Him: Good Master, what shall I do to obtain eternal life? answered: If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. He was, of course, in some life; for He was not speaking to a dead person or a non-living man. But because he inquired about obtaining eternal life, the Lord did not say: If you wish to enter into eternal life; but: If you wish, He said, to enter into life, keep the commandments: obviously wanting this to be understood, that what is not eternal life is not even to be called life; because true is none other than eternal. Hence also the Apostle, when advising the rich to give alms, said: Let the rich be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold on the true life. What did he call true life, if not eternal life, which alone is to be called life, because it alone is blessed? For surely those rich people, to whom he said it must be commanded that they may lay hold on the true life, had this life in the abundance of riches: which, however, if the Apostle judged to be true life, he would not say: Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold on the true life: advising nothing else, except that the wealth of the rich is not true life; life, which is called true and blessed by fools. But how can it be blessed, which is not true? Therefore, blessed life is not, unless it is true life; nor is it true life, unless it is eternal life, which the rich are understood not yet to hold, through whatever delights; and therefore they are advised to seize it by alms so that in the end they may hear: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me food. For since the kingdom itself is eternal life, shortly after the same Lord shows consequentially saying: And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Pilgrimage through faith in this life.

Until we attain this life, we wander from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. For He said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. The way for us is in faith, but in sight, there will be truth and life. Now we see through a mirror in an enigma, and this is faith: but then face to face, and that will be sight. He also says: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith in the inner man; this is the way, where we know in part. But shortly after he says: To know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God; that will be sight, when in this fullness, when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be done away with. He also says: For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God: this is faith. Then he adds: When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory: that will be sight. John also says: Dearly beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: this is faith. Then he adds: We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: that will be sight. Therefore, the Lord Himself who said: I am the way and the truth and the life, when speaking to the Jews, among whom were those who already believed in Him, directing His words to them: If you continue, He said, in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. They had already believed: for the Evangelist thus said: But Jesus said to those Jews who had believed Him: If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Thus, they had already believed, and had begun to walk as if on the way in Christ. Therefore, He urges them to continue to reach the end. To what end, but to that which He said: The truth shall set you free? What is that liberation, but from all the changeableness of vanity, from all corruption of mortality? Therefore, it is the true life, eternal life, which we have not yet grasped, as long as we wander from the Lord: but we shall grasp it because we walk in the Lord by faith, if we continue steadfastly in His word. For according to that He said: I am the way, according to this He said: If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. And according to that He said: And the truth and the life, according to this He said: And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Therefore, in this pilgrimage and in this way, that is, in faith, what do I exhort you, brothers, except with the words of the Apostle saying: Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God? For those who seek that light of the most pure and unchangeable truth to be ministered to them before they believe, when they cannot behold it unless through faith with a purified heart: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: they are like men who are blind, who desire to see the bodily light of this sun first to be healed from blindness; when they cannot see it unless they are healed beforehand.