Sermon 346A
SERMON 346/A
On the Word of God, Leader of the Pilgrimage of Christians
And that it is necessary for times to be rough so that earthly happiness is not loved.
By the Word of God, we are taught that the path of life is to be chosen by us.
Brothers, we are Christians, and we all wish to travel, and even if we do not wish, we travel. No one is allowed to stay here: all those coming into this life are compelled to pass through the vicissitudes of time. Let no place be given to sloth: walk, lest you be dragged. A certain man meets us at the crossroads while we are journeying: not a man, but God become man for the sake of men; and He said to us: Do not go to the left; indeed, that path seems easy, smooth, and delightful, well-trodden by many, and broad; but the end of this road leads to destruction. But there is another path, which has many toils, difficulties, distress, and hardships; where not only are pleasures not found, but even fitting humanity is scarcely exhibited; through which you will walk with difficulty, but once the difficulty is quickly finished, you will come to a great height of joys, so that you may escape those snares which no one evades.
The things which the Word of God has spoken have always been faithfully accomplished.
Let us recall past times and the Holy Scriptures. Is not the man himself the Word of God? Was not that very Word made flesh later on, and dwelt among us? Before it was made flesh, and dwelt among us, did not the same Word speak through the prophets? Indeed, God spoke by His Word to Abraham, that his offspring would be strangers in a foreign land, even while he who was addressed was old, and Sarah, elderly and barren: it was believed, and it came to be. That very lineage, that is, the people born from him according to the flesh, would serve in Egypt for four hundred years: it happened. That they would be delivered from that captivity: they were delivered. That they would receive the promised land: they received it. Things both far away and near were spoken, and accomplished, and now are being carried out. The Word of the Lord spoke through the prophets, warning that nation of sinning, to be handed over into the hands of their enemies, for having offended their God: everything came to pass. They would go into Babylonian captivity; and this also came to pass. The coming King Christ would emerge from there: Christ came, Christ was born, for He Himself, the Word, had declared Himself to come. It was said that the Jews would crucify Him: they crucified Him. It was foretold that He would rise again and be glorified: it happened, He rose, He ascended to heaven. It was prophesied that the whole world would believe in His name; it was prophesied that kings would persecute His Church: these things happened. It was foretold that kings would believe in Him: we now hold the faith of kings, and do we doubt the faith of Christ? The circumcisions of heresies were prophesied: do we not see these too, and groan amidst them clamoring all around? It was foretold that the idols themselves would be destroyed through the Church and the name of Christ: and we see this being fulfilled. Scandals in the Church itself were foretold, as were the tares and the chaff: all these things we see with our eyes, and with whatever strength granted by the Lord, we bear them. In what has He deceived you, who said to you: "Go this way"? Speak confidently, if you are faithful, taking so many experiences of Him who speaks to you: I prove Him in these matters, because He has deigned to be proven by the thing itself; if He tells me the truth altogether, He does not deceive me; all these things He says, you hold all His truths, He has lied in nothing; I know Him to be such. He is the Word of God; He has spoken through the mouths of His servants, and He has not deceived: can He deceive by what He says through His own mouth? But he to whom He is not yet known, who doubts concerning Christ, let him also say: I will go this way, lest perchance He speaks the truth, to whom the whole world has already believed.
Our ways must be corrected now so that we may be found prepared on the last day.
My brothers, many non-believers, neither listening to the voice of the holy fathers, will be found as that multitude was found in the days of Noah: only those who were in the ark escaped. For if they had thought and changed their ways from impiety and turned to our Lord, they would satisfy him for their sins and, groaning towards his mercy, would undoubtedly not perish. For God was not merciless to Nineveh, which was deserving to be saved in three days. What is as short as three days? And yet, even in that great shortness of time, they did not despair of God's mercy to bend His clemency. Therefore, if such a great city had three days to bend God to mercy, how much time could have existed over one hundred years, and two hundred, and three hundred, in which the ark was being built? From the time when Christ began to cut uncorrupted wood from the forest of the people, that is, the Church, if those men had changed their ways and manners, if they had offered a sacrifice of a contrite heart to propitiate God, without any doubt they would have escaped unharmed. Therefore, let men fear, lest they be found thus on that last day. But we, brothers, let us act so as to change our ways from impiety and correct our manners while we have time, so that that day may find us prepared; for he never lies who says that it will come. Beware lest you doubt, for it is true. For in the days of Noah it was thus: They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, they bought, they sold, until Noah entered the ark, the flood came, and destroyed all who placed their hope in this world and wished to live securely, but not in a region of security, and only those who were in the ark escaped.
How difficult it is to enter the eternal kingdom.
But many say to themselves: We are commanded to wait for that day and not be found like those who were found outside the ark, who perished in that flood. Certainly, the trumpet of the Gospel terrifies us, the word of God terrifies us: what shall we do? Therefore, should a wife not be taken? The young man says this, the youth says this. Should one not eat, should one not drink? Should one always fast? Many say these things; and those who perhaps wanted to buy something would say to themselves: Now nothing should be bought, lest we be found among those who perished in the flood? So what shall we do, brothers? If it is so, then we must lament, just as the Apostles lamented over the human race when they heard the Lord saying: If you wish to be perfect, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. He to whom it was said was saddened, he departed; and although he called him good master, from whom he sought counsel for eternal life, he was seen as a good master as long as he spoke justly when questioned. The Lord said, and the rich man was saddened. But as he departed sorrowfully, the Lord said: How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven! As if the kingdom of heaven were closed against the rich. What will happen? It is closed. But he said: Knock, and it shall be opened to you. And would that as few went into the fire, as few are the rich! Now indeed, even from the number of the rich many will go into the kingdom of heaven, and from the number of the poor many will go into eternal fire, not because he is rich in wealth, but because he burns with greed.
Let not the rich despair of the kingdom of heaven: the camel is a figure of Christ.
The disciples were saddened. The Lord said: What is difficult for men is easy for God. You are disturbed by the difficulty that he mentioned the camel: if he wills, that enormous beast, which is called a camel, can pass through the eye of a needle. What is this? Let us see if it becomes clear. For neither without reason did John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord himself, wear a garment made of camel's hair, who, bearing witness to the judge coming after him, wore it as if a cloak made from that. Let us recognize by the mention of the camel a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ: let us recognize the great, yet with a humble neck, whom no one can burden with persuasions unless he laid himself down on the earth. Thus Christ also humbled himself unto death, so that he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Therefore, let us also see the eye of the needle, through which such a great one passed: indeed, in the puncture of the needle which he endured willingly in his passion, and in the narrowness of the hole. Therefore, the camel has now passed through the eye of the needle: let the rich not despair, they can securely enter the kingdom of heaven.
Both rich and poor men are placed before the judge.
But let us recognize the kind of rich people. Behold, someone unknown, clothed in rags, exulted and laughed when it was said that a rich man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven; and he said: I will enter; these rags will grant it to me. Those who harm us and oppress us will not enter: clearly such people will not enter. But, poor man, see whether you will enter. What if you are poor and greedy? What if you are oppressed by poverty and burn with avarice? Therefore, if you are such a person, poor man, not because you refused wealth, but because you could not obtain it. God does not look at your wealth, but He considers your will. Therefore, if you are of a bad life, with bad morals, blasphemous, adulterous, drunk, proud, depart from the number of God's poor; you will not be among those of whom it is said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Behold, I find a rich person—by comparison to whom you boasted and dared to look at the kingdom of heaven—I find a poor one in spirit, that is, humble, pious, innocent, not blaspheming, following the will of God; and if he has lost some of his worldly possessions, he immediately says: The Lord gave, the Lord took away; as the Lord pleased, so it was done: blessed be the name of the Lord forever. Behold the rich person meek, humble, not resisting, not murmuring, following the will of God, and rejoicing in that land of the living: For the meek shall inherit the earth. But you perhaps are poor and proud. I praise the humble rich man: do I not praise the humble poor man? The poor man does not have anything to be puffed up about, but the rich man has something to struggle with. This one will indeed enter, this rich man, and the kingdom of heaven will be closed against you; because it is closed against the wicked, against the proud, against the blasphemous, against the adulterous, against the drunkard, against the avaricious. He has held onto a faithful debtor, who believed in the promise. The humble, humane, faithful rich man responded, saying: God knows that I do not think arrogantly; and if I sometimes cry out and say something harsh, God knows my conscience, that I say these things out of necessity for governance: never will I use this to elevate myself above others. Inside, God sees the works that follow. For the rich who are in good works easily give, and share with those who do not have. That is where humility appears, if you are rich and humble. You proclaim yourself good and pious: let what you have be shared with him who does not have; so that you may treasure for yourself a good foundation for the future, that you may obtain true and blessed life. If they are like this, let them be secure: when that last day comes, they will be found in the ark, they will be in the fabric, they will not be part of the flood; let them not be afraid because they are rich. And if he is young and cannot control himself, he is allowed to take a wife. But because the Time is short, let those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who buy as though they had nothing, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who use the world as though they did not use it: for the form of this world is passing away.
The judge is coming: let us correct ourselves.
My brothers, someone murmurs against God and says: Evil times, harsh times, troublesome times; and yet gifts are consumed, and the time is called harsh. How much crueler are you, who are not corrected by harsh time! Such insanity of parades still thrives, such superfluous things are coveted; and greed has no end. How many diseases arise from the midst! how much luxury has overflowed because of theatres, and organs, and flutes, and pantomimes! You want to use badly what you desire; therefore you will not receive it. Hear the voice of the apostle: You covet, and do not have, you kill and are jealous, and cannot achieve; you quarrel, ask, and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that you may consume it in your desires. Let us heal, brothers, let us correct ourselves. The Judge is coming, and though He comes, He is still mocked: He is coming, and will not have leisure to be mocked. Dearest brothers, let us correct ourselves, for better times are coming, but not for those living wickedly. Already the world inclines, and has declined into old age. Are we to come into youth? What do we hope for here? Let us now seek something else. Do not hope for times, except as are read in the Gospel: they are not evil because Christ has come; but because they were evil and harsh, He came who might console.
Christ the healer is here to heal us, but it is necessary that we suffer in this life.
Listen, my brothers: indeed there were meant to be troublesome and hard times. What would we do if such a great comforter were not present? The human race was gravely ill, from Adam even to the end. From the time we were born here, from the time we were sent out of paradise, indeed illness is present: but in the end it would be greater, and perhaps close to healing, and for some close to death. Therefore, as the human race was ailing, the great physician taking the sick person in a certain great bed, that is, in the whole world - but just as a very skilled physician observes the times of the sick person, and sees, and foresees what is to come, and sends first his servants in the milder times of the illness; so too our physician first sent prophets to look after us. They spoke, they preached; through them he healed some, and cured. They foretold a certain increase into extreme illness, and a great shaking of this sick person, who would need the physician himself to be present, and to come to him. Thus it happened because he said: I will restore the believer, I will save; I will smite, I will heal. He came, he was made man, a partaker of our mortality, that we might be able to become partakers of his immortality. The sick person is still shaken: and while he gasps in fevers, and burns much, he says to himself: Since this physician came, I suffer bitterer fevers, I am shaken more gravely, I endure immense heat. Where did he come to me from? I think he did not enter my house properly. Thus say all who are still sick with vanity. Why are they sick with vanity? Because they do not want to receive the potion of sobriety from him. Seeing God that the wretched were being tossed by their concerns, and occupied with various occupations of this world, which strangle their souls, he came as a physician. And they do not fear to say: Since Christ came, we endure these times; since there are Christians, the world has failed in all things. O foolish sick person! it is not because the physician came that your illness became graver: a good, pious, just, merciful physician foresaw it; for he did not make it. Indeed he came, to console you, so that you might truly be well. For what does he take from you, except the superfluous? For you were longing for harmful things, and were held by them: they were not useful to your fever, those things you were longing for. Is the physician harsh, because he takes from the sick person's hand the harmful fruits? What did he take from you, except the false security you were about to capture? Free the destruction of your vitals: and this, that you groan and murmur, pertains to his medicine. Not willing to be cured, so that you are not tormented unwillingly. It is necessary that times be troublesome. Why? So that earthly happiness is not loved. For it is necessary, and medicinal, that this life be disturbed, and another life be loved. Behold, if with so much laziness they still delight in earthly things and the amphitheater, what if their works were not struck? Behold so many bitternesses are mixed, and still the world is sweet!