Sermon 346C

Sermon 346/C

OF THE TRIBULATIONS AND OPPRESSIONS OF THE WORLD

Past times were not better, but actually somewhat worse.

Whenever we suffer anything from pressure or tribulation, they are admonishments and at the same time corrections for us. For even our Holy Scriptures do not promise us peace, security, and quiet, but tribulations, pressures, and scandals; the Gospel does not remain silent about these; but he who perseveres to the end, this one will be saved. For what good has this life ever had since the first man, from whom it deserved death, from whom it received a curse, from which curse Christ the Lord freed us? Therefore, let us not murmur, brothers, as some of them murmured, as the Apostle said, and perished from serpents. What unusual suffering does mankind endure now, brothers, that the fathers did not suffer? Or when we suffer such things, what do we know that they had suffered as well? And we find people murmuring about their times, and that the times of our parents were good. What if they could be brought back to the times of their parents and murmur there? For you think past times were good because they are not yours now, therefore they seem good. If you are now freed from the curse, if you now believe in the Son of God, if you are now either imbued or instructed with the Holy Scriptures, I wonder if you consider the times of Adam to be good. And your parents bore Adam himself. Certainly, it is that Adam to whom it was said: In the sweat of your face, you shall eat your bread, and you will work the ground from which you were taken; it will bear thorns and thistles for you. This is what he deserved, this he received, this he obtained from the just judgment of God. Therefore, do you think past times were better than yours? From that Adam to today’s Adam, labor and sweat, thorns and thistles. Did we forget the flood? Did the laborious times of famine and wars pass, which were written about so we might not murmur against God about the present time? Did we forget that time among our ancestors, far removed from your times, when a dead donkey’s head was sold for so much gold, when dove's dung was bought for not a small amount of silver, when women agreed to eat their children; and when one was killed and consumed, and the other did not want to kill her own, such a case came to the judge, to the king, where he found himself guilty rather than a judge? And who is able to recount either the wars or the famines of that time? What were those times like! Do we not all shudder when we hear or read them? Let us rather have something from which we can rejoice, than murmur about our times.

One blessed day is eternity.

When, then, was it good for the human race? When was there no fear, when no pain, when certain happiness, when no true unhappiness? If you do not have, you burn to acquire; do you have? you tremble lest you lose; and what is more wretched, both in that burning and in this trembling, you think yourself sane. Is a wife to be taken? if bad, she will be your punishment; if good, alas lest she happen to die. Unborn children torment with pains, born children with fears; how joyful is the one born who is immediately feared lest he be mourned when carried! Where will there be a secure life? Is not all this land like a great ship, bearing the fluctuating, the endangered, subject to so many storms and tempests? They fear shipwreck, they sigh for the port, those who already understand themselves to be sojourning. So those good days, uncertain days, fleeting days, days ended before they come, days which come only to not be. Who then is the one who wants life, and loves to see good days? But here, neither life nor days are good: for good days, that is eternity itself. Days which are without end are called days. "I will dwell," he says, "in age, in the length of days." Again it is said, "For better is one day in your house than thousands": the better is one without end. Therefore we should desire such a thing. Such a thing is promised to us, with familiar names, unusual things. Who is the man who wants life? Every day life is said and life: but what is it compared to that life? And loves to see good days? Every day good days are said: but if they are examined, they are not found. I considered today a good day. If you found your friend, you would consider him good, if he wanted to stay with you: does not man always complain about his friend, if he sees him and passes by? Such, therefore, is that good day which sees you and passes by. I considered it good. Where is it? Lead it to me. I considered it a good day. Rejoice in the day that is passed. Who then is the man who wants life, and loves to see good days? We all answer: I: but after this life, after these days. Therefore, if we are deferred, what is said to us so that we may do and reach what we are deferred to? What then shall I do in this life of whatever kind, so that I may come to life and good days? What follows in that psalm: "Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit; turn from evil, and do good." Do therefore what is commanded, and you will receive what is promised. If you think it laborious, and are discouraged by the toil of work, be uplifted by the splendor of the reward.