Sermon 350
SERMO 350
ABOUT CHARITY
Charity as a new commandment making a new man.
The multiple abundance of the Divine Scriptures and the very broad doctrine, my brothers, is comprehended without any error, and preserved without any labor, by him whose heart is full of love, as the Apostle says: "The fullness of the law is love;" and in another place: "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." What, indeed, is the aim of our charge, but the fulfillment of the commandment? And what is the fulfillment of the commandment, but the fullness of the law? Therefore, what he said there: "The fullness of the law is love," he also said here: "The aim of our charge is love." Nor can it be doubted in any way that the temple of God is man, in whom love dwells. And John also says: "God is love." Hence, these Apostles, commending to us the excellence of love, could speak nothing else but what they had consumed. For the Lord himself, feeding them with the word of truth, the word of love, which is himself the living bread that came down from heaven, said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." And again: "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." For He who came to destroy the old corruption of the flesh by the derision of the cross, and to dissolve the old bond of our death by the newness of His death, made a new man by giving a new commandment. For it was an old matter that man should die. So that this would not always prevail in man, it was made a new matter that God should die. But because he died in the flesh, not in the divinity, by the eternal life of the divinity, he did not permit the eternal destruction of the flesh. Therefore, as the Apostle says: "He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." He who brought the newness of life against the old death, himself opposed the new commandment against the old sin. Therefore, if you wish to extinguish the old sin, extinguish covetousness by the new commandment, and embrace love. For just as the root of all evils is covetousness, so the root of all good things is love.
The entire doctrine of the Scriptures is possessed by love.
Charity, by which we love God and our neighbor, securely encompasses the entirety and breadth of the divine words. For one heavenly Teacher instructs us and says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind: and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Therefore, if there is not time to scrutinize all the holy pages, unravel all the coverings of the words, and penetrate all the secrets of the Scriptures; hold onto charity, where everything depends: thus you will hold what you have learned there; you will also hold what you have not yet learned. For if you know charity, you know something from which that also depends which perhaps you do not know: and in what you understand in the Scriptures, charity is evident; in what you do not understand, charity is concealed. Therefore, he holds both what is evident and what is concealed in the divine words, who holds charity in his conduct.
Praise of charity.
Wherefore, brethren, pursue love, the sweet and healthful bond of minds, without which the rich man is poor, and with which the poor man is rich. This endures adversities, moderates prosperity; in harsh sufferings it is strong, in good works cheerful; in temptation most secure, in hospitality most generous; most joyful among genuine brothers, most patient among false ones. It is pleasing in Abel through sacrifice, secure in Noah through the flood, most faithful in Abraham's wanderings, most gentle in Moses amidst injuries, most meek in David's tribulations. It awaits with innocent patience the gentle fires in the three youths, and strongly endures the fierce fires in the Maccabees. It is chaste in Susanna towards her husband, in Anna after her husband, in Mary besides her husband. It is free in Paul to rebuke, humble in Peter to obey: humane in Christians to confess, divine in Christ to forgive. But what greater or more abundant thing can I say about love than the praises that the Lord thunders forth through the mouth of the Apostle, showing and saying: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." How great is this! The soul of letters, the strength of prophecy, the salvation of sacraments, the foundation of knowledge, the fruit of faith, the wealth of the poor, the life of the dying. What is so magnanimous as to die for the ungodly? What so kind as to love enemies? It alone is not oppressed by another's happiness, for it is not jealous. It alone is not exalted by its own happiness, for it is not arrogant. It alone is not pricked by an evil conscience, for it does not act improperly. It is secure amidst insults, beneficent amid hatred; calm amid wrath, innocent amid plots; groaning amid iniquities, breathing out in truth. What is stronger than it, not to return but to disregard injuries? What more faithful, not to vanity but to eternity? For this reason it endures all things in the present life, because it believes all things about the future life; and it endures all things sent here, because it hopes for all things promised there: rightly, it never ends. Therefore, pursue love, and thinking sacredly of it, bring forth the fruits of righteousness. And whatever more abundant thing you may find in its praises than I could say, let it appear in your manners. For it is fitting that a speech of an elder be not only grave but also brief.