Sermon 350A

SERMON 350/A Let the earth now ring with joy, enlightened with these brilliant lamps, adorned with the glowing brightness of the rising King. And let the realms of Hell tremble, amazed at the heavenly Majesty. Rejoice, O Mother Church, clothed in the brightness of such a light. Let this temple resound with loud praises of the people. Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, who have gathered here in the resplendent clarity of this holy light, join with me, I implore you, in invoking the Lord’s mercy. That He who has deigned to call me amongst the number of the Levites, without any merit of mine, will pour upon me the brightness of His light. That I may perfect the praise of this candle which we have offered in its solemn oblation. For this is indeed that night in which, once you led forth our forefathers, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, you made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea. This is the night which banished the darkness of sins by the light of the fiery pillar. This is the night in which all over the world today, those who believe in Christ, freed from the vices of the world, and the darkness of sin, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

It begins: On Charity and on Loving God Alone

All Scripture echoes love. Love renews people.

We are not unaware that the hearts of your charity are well-fed daily by the exhortations of divine readings and the nourishment of the word of God; yet, because of the desire by which we are kindled towards each other, it is necessary to speak something to your charity. What else but about charity itself? For it is this: if anyone wishes to speak about it, he does not choose a reading to be recited so that there is an occasion for speaking about charity; for every page, whatever is opened, sounds this out. The Lord Himself is a witness to this matter, and we are reminded from the Gospel that when He was asked, which were the greatest commandments in the law, He replied: 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. And so you would not seek anything else in the holy pages, He added and said: On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. If all the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments, how much more the Gospel? For charity renews man: for as greed makes man old, so charity makes him new. Hence, groaning in the conflict of greed, he says: I have grown old among all my enemies. But that charity pertains to the new man, the Lord Himself signifies in this way: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Therefore, if the Law and the Prophets depend on charity, since in the Law and the Prophets the old covenant seems to be commended, how much more the Gospel, which is most manifestly called the new covenant, pertains only to charity, when the Lord Himself did not give His commandment except that you love one another? And He called this commandment new, and it came for our renewal, and made us new men, and promised a new and eternal inheritance.

The Old Testament and charity.

For if you happen to think how the Old Testament is called the Law, and yet depends on charity, since charity renews a person and pertains to the new person, this is the reason. The Old Testament is presented because the promise is earthly, and the Lord promises an earthly kingdom to those worshipping Him there. But there also existed then lovers of God, who would love Him freely and purify their hearts with chaste longing for Him; who, having removed the coverings of the old promises, attained to the prefiguration of the future New Testament, and comprehended that all those things in the Old Testament, which are either commandments or promises according to the old person, are figures of the New Testament, which the Lord was going to fulfill in the latest times, as the Apostle openly says: “But these things happened to them as a figure; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come.” Thus the New Testament was secretly foretold, and it was foretold by those old figures. However, when the time of the New Testament came, the New Testament began to be openly preached, and those figures to be explained and expounded, as it would be understood there how the new was promised where the old was promised. Therefore, Moses was the proclaimer of the Old Testament; but he who was the proclaimer of the old, was the understander of the new: to the carnal people he proclaimed the old, himself spiritually understood the new. The Apostles, however, were proclaimers and ministers of the New Testament, not because something was not there then, which was later to be revealed through the Apostles. Therefore, charity there, charity here: but there charity more hidden, more apparent fear; here, however, more manifest charity, less fear. For as charity increases, so much does fear decrease. Since as charity grows, the soul becomes secure; where there is full security, there is no fear, as the Apostle John even says: “Perfect love casts out fear.”

From Psalm 36. The wicked and the good with different fates in the world. The hidden root of love is Christ in the heart.

Therefore, speaking about this love with your holiness, because, as I said, whatever page of the Lord was read, it would remind us of nothing else but this very love, we also took occasion from the present psalm. See if the divine words do anything else but make us love: see if they do anything else but ignite us, make us burn, make us desire, make us sigh, make us long, until we arrive. For men laboring on earth and set amid great temptations, often with a mortal heart and weak thought considering how here the wicked seem frequently to prevail according to time and to be proud in fleeting happiness - this thought is accustomed to tempt the servants of God, as if they worship God in vain, if they see that they lack what they see the impious to abound in - so then to men thus set, the Holy Spirit foreseeing this temptation of ours and changing our love, lest impious and wicked men seem to us worthier of imitation the more we see them happy according to the world, with love of such things as those with which they swell in abundance, says: Do not emulate the evildoers - this is the beginning of the psalm - nor be jealous of those who work iniquity; for like the grass they shall soon wither, and like the green herbs they shall soon fall. Does not the grass bloom at some time? But it blooms for a little while, soon will come the withering of its bloom; and to make it bloom, cold air helps. As if the warm air will be the coming of the year of the Lord Jesus Christ; as if this time is cold air: but let us be careful lest in the cold air of this year our love grows cold. Our honor has not appeared yet: it is cold on the surface, let there be heat in the root. For thus the trees in summer flourish, and are beautiful, and fruitful, which during winter seemed dry. Is all that you see in branches in summer this in winter? It was, but it was hidden in the root. Therefore our honor, which is promised to us, is not yet: let our summer come: it is not yet, it is hidden. Better we say, it does not appear, than, it is not yet; for the Apostle speaks openly: For you are dead. As if speaking to trees during winter. But that you may know that the surface seemed dead, the inward parts lived indeed, he immediately added, and said: And your life is hidden with Christ in God. We seem to dwell on this earth: consider where we have fixed our root. The root of our love is with Christ, in God: there is the wealth of our honor; but it does not appear now yet.

Lovers of the world and lovers of God, how do they consider life?

But what follows he says? When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. So now is the time for sighing, then for rejoicing: now for longing, then for embracing: what we now long for is not present; but let us not falter in longing, let long longing train us, because he who promised does not deceive us. We do not say, brothers, let no one grow cold: let no one even grow lukewarm. And if the lovers of the world mock those serving God: “Behold what we have and what we enjoy: where is your happiness?” You do not have what you see, but you have what you believe: but those do not believe to whom it is not shown; rejoice, because you have believed: you will rejoice more when you see. And if you sigh because you cannot show it now, the sigh of your pain will profit for salvation, but also for eternal glory. There is nothing that they show us as great: their present happiness is apparent, ours is future; but we truly say, because neither is theirs present nor will it be future: because they love a false present, they will not come to a true future. But if they neglect the false present, and discover what to do with what they have, and they know what they acquire from it: let them hear the advice of the blessed Apostle, which he ordered to be commanded to the rich by Timothy. For he says: Command the rich of this world not to be proud, nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They should be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. If therefore, brothers, the Apostle turned those who seemed to themselves happy in present things away from earthly attention, and directed them to heaven: he did not want them to rejoice in present things, but to hope for future things; if the Apostle says this to those having such things, how much more should he stretch his whole heart to what is future, who has decided to have nothing on this earth? But nothing excessive, nothing heavy, nothing that binds, nothing that hinders. For it is more truly fulfilled even at this time in the servants of God, as having nothing, yet possessing everything. What you call yours is not yours, and everything will be yours: if you cling to a part, you lose the whole; for as much as would suffice you from riches, so much suffices from poverty.