Sermon 353
SERMO 353
ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE INFANTS: WHICH HE EXHORTS WITH THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE PETER: "LAYING ASIDE, THEREFORE, ALL MALICE", AND SO ON.
Moral exhortations.
The speech of the anxious pastor may indeed summon the ears and minds of all those whom our care encompasses: however, it is now specifically directed to you, whose recent infancy is distinguished by the cradles of the sacraments of spiritual generation. For to you especially through the apostle Peter, the divine word thus tenderly speaks: "Therefore, laying aside all malice and all deceit, and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure, rational, innocent milk, that you may grow thereby unto salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Therefore, since you have tasted, we are witnesses: we have ministered this sweetness to you with the duty of a nurse. Hence, acting like innocent infants, lay aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. You ought to hold this innocence in such a way that you do not lose it as you grow. What is malice, except the love of harming? What is deceit, except to act one way and pretend another? What is hypocrisy, except seduction under false praise? What is envy, except hatred of another's happiness? What is evil speaking, except more biting than truthful reproach? Malice delights in another's harm: envy is tormented by another's good: deceit doubles the heart: hypocrisy doubles the tongue: evil speaking wounds the reputation. But this innocence of your holiness, since it is the daughter of charity, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth. Simple as a dove, and thus wise as a serpent, not with the intention of harming, but of avoiding harm.
I exhort you to this. For of such is the kingdom of heaven, namely, of the humble, that is, of those who are spiritually little. Do not despise, do not shun. This littleness belongs to the great. But pride is the deceptive greatness of the weak; which, when it has possessed the mind, by lifting up casts down, by inflating empties, by distending dissipates. He who is humble cannot be harmful, he who is proud cannot be innocent. I speak of that humility which does not wish to excel in perishable things, but sincerely thinks of something eternal, which it may attain not by its own strength but by being helped. This cannot want anyone's harm, by which its own good is not increased. Moreover, pride immediately begets envy. For who is envious, who does not wish ill to him whose good torments him? And thus envy consequently begets malice: whence comes both deceit and flattery and detraction, and every evil work which you would not wish to suffer from another. Therefore, having preserved pious humility, which in the holy Scriptures is proved to be holy infancy, you will be secure concerning the immortality of the blessed: For of such is the kingdom of heaven.
How those who have become the temple of God must walk on the journey.
Moreover, he who is not arrogant towards men should not be obstinate against God: because if one should not do to another what he does not wish to suffer from another, and no man wishes to suffer disobedience from one who is subject to his authority; how much more should it be avoided that anyone should act towards God in a way that he would not want a man to act towards himself?
Therefore, they deceive their own souls who think it is sufficient if they do to no man what they do not want done to themselves, and so corrupt themselves with a luxurious life as to try to do to God what they do not want done to them by any man. For they do not want their house to be destroyed by anyone, who in their miserable blindness destroy the house of God in themselves, deaf to the Apostle crying out: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are." Let no one deceive himself. What then, do they think they preserve their innocence with respect to other men, when they harm themselves in such a way as to be without God as their inhabitant, and punished as transgressors? Hence it also happens that fallen and dispersed through harmful pleasures, they not only cease to be temples of God, but even become ruins in which evil demons dwell, to whom they begin to supplicate and worship: and as it was said, "the last state is worse than the first." Wherefore, you who have been reborn by an immortal seed, as above concerning malicious desires to harm, by which what they hate is done to men, therefore later because of base and illicit carnal delights and nefarious sacrileges, by which it seems men do not harm men, by not doing to them what they do not want, but disobeying God to whom all things are subject, they do to the Lord of lords what they do not want done to them by their servants, the same Apostle Peter addresses you, saying: "Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same thought."
For he who has died in the flesh has ceased from sin, so that he may live the rest of his time in the flesh no longer by human desires, but by the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desires of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Indeed, the past time is sufficient for having served the works of sins as if under the dominion of the Egyptians. Now the Red Sea, that is, Baptism consecrated by the blood of Christ, has cast down the true Pharaoh, has destroyed the Egyptians: do not fear anything from past sins as if from enemies pursuing from behind. Henceforth, aim to traverse the desert of this life, and reach the promised land, the heavenly Jerusalem, the land of the living: lest, by the contempt of the word of God as if by the loathing of manna, your hearts, as if your inner mouths, be foolish; lest craving for Egyptian meats you murmur against heavenly foods; lest you commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication; and lest you test Christ, as some of them tested Him. If for you thirsting with faith there comes some bitterness of resistance, like those waters which Israel could not drink, follow the patience of the Lord, as if by casting the wood of the cross, and let them be sweetened. If serpentine temptation has bitten; by contemplating the exaltation of that serpent, as if of death vanquished and triumphed over in the flesh of the Lord, let it be healed by the same remedy of the cross. If the adversary Amalekite tries to close and obstruct the way, let him be overcome by the most persistent extension of the arms in the sign of the same cross. Be true and genuine Christians: do not imitate Christians in name, but empty in deed. I say it again, and it must often be said: The past time is sufficient for having carried out the desires of the Gentiles. Detest and shun dogs turned to their own vomit: detest and shun the purified and vacant house, where seven other more wicked spirits are brought, so that the last state of the man is worse than the first. Hold your cleanser as your inhabitant. In calling upon you, we urge that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. For the past time is sufficient for having carried out the desires of the Gentiles. Hear also Apostle Paul: I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.