Sermon 359A

SERMON 359/A

SERMON HELD THEN AT TUNIS ABOUT PATIENCE
AND FROM THE READING OF THE GOSPEL ABOUT THE STEWARD

Hope like an anchor in the solid.

As long as we are in this world, if we take care to have our heart above, it will not harm us that we walk below. For we walk below in this flesh. However, if we fix our hope above, we have placed an anchor in solid ground: that we might withstand the waves of this world, not by ourselves but by him in whom the anchor is fixed, our hope, because he who made us hope will not deceive us, to return the thing for hope. For hope, as the Apostle says, which is seen, is not hope. For who hopes for what they see? But if, he says, we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

It is one thing to desire, another to see.

Concerning this patience that the Lord grants, I wish to speak to your Charity. For the Lord Jesus Christ also says in the Gospel in a certain place: In your patience, you shall possess your souls. It is also said in another place: Woe to those who have lost patience. Whether it is called patience, endurance, or forbearance, it signifies the same thing with various expressions. Let us not fixate on the diversity of sounds but inscribe the unity of the thing itself in our hearts, and let us internally possess what we call outwards. He who knows that he lives a pilgrim life in this world, wherever on earth he has been placed according to the body, who knows he has an eternal homeland in heaven, who trusts that there is there a region of blessed life, which it is allowed to desire here, but not to possess, glowing with such a good, holy, and chaste desire, lives patiently here. Patience does not seem necessary in prosperous things, but in adverse things. No one patiently endures what delights. But whatever we endure, whatever we patiently bear, is hard and bitter, and accordingly, patience is not necessary for happiness, but for unhappiness. Nevertheless, as I began to say, whoever burns with the desire for eternal life, in whatever land he may be, even in prosperity, must live patiently because he endures his very pilgrimage with difficulty until he reaches the longed-for homeland. One is the love of desire, another of vision. For both who desires loves; and who sees loves; and who desires loves so that he may reach it; and who sees loves so that he may remain. But if the desire of the saints burns so from faith, what will it be in manifestation? If we love so, when we believe what we have not yet seen, how will we love when we shall see?

Faith and hope.

Therefore, the Apostle says these three things which he especially commends to be built up in the inner man: faith, hope, charity, and when he praised the three, he finally said: But the greatest of these is charity. Follow charity. What then is faith? What is hope? What is charity? And why is charity greater? Faith is, as defined in a certain place of the Scriptures, the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things which are not seen. He who hopes, has not yet what he hopes for, but by believing he is similar to one possessing. For faith, he says, is the substance of things hoped for, it is not yet the very thing we will hold, but faith itself is in place of that very thing. For he who holds faith does not hold nothing, nor is he empty who is full of faith. Therefore, the reward of faith is great because it sees not and believes. For if it saw, what reward would there be? Therefore, the Lord, when he had risen from the dead and had shown himself to his disciples, not only to be seen by eyes but also to be handled by hands, when he had convinced human senses that it was he who had risen who a little before had hung on the wood, intending to be with them for some days as long as he seemed to suffice for confirming the gospel and for building up the faith of the resurrection, ascended to heaven, so that he might not be seen, but be held by believing. For if he were always here and conspicuous to these eyes, there would be no praise for faith. Now indeed it is said to man: Believe. And he wants to see. He is answered: So that you may one day see, in the meantime believe. Faith is the merit: vision is the reward. If you wish to see before you believe, you demand the reward before the work. What you wish to have has a price. You wish to see God. The faith of such a great good is the price. You wish to arrive, and you do not wish to walk? Vision is possession, faith is the way. He who refuses the toil of the journey, how does he seek the joy of possession?

On charity.

But faith does not fail, because hope is present. Remove hope, and faith fails. For how can one who does not hope he can arrive move his feet in walking? But if you remove the love of both, that is, of faith and of hope, what good is it that he believes, what good is it that he hopes, if he does not love? Indeed, he cannot even hope for what he does not love. For love kindles hope, hope shines with love. But when we reach the things we hoped for in faith, not having seen them, what faith will be praised there? Indeed, faith is the conviction of things not seen. When we see, it will no longer be called faith. For you will see, not believe. Likewise, hope itself. When the thing exists, you no longer hope. For what a person sees, why does he still hope for it? Behold, when we arrive, faith ends, hope ends. What about love? Faith turns into vision, hope turns into reality. Then there will be vision and reality, not faith and hope. What about love? Can it end? For if it was already inflamed for what was not seen, surely when it sees, it will be even more inflamed. Therefore, it is well said: But the greatest of these is love, because vision follows faith, reality follows hope, but no reality follows love; it grows, it increases, it is perfected by that very contemplation.

Everyone wishes to be set free.

Hence, desiring the face of God, sighing toward the homeland of eternal happiness, no matter how much worldly felicity surrounds us, no matter how much abundance and affluence we are filled with, situated in that desire, we will consider the earthly pilgrimage miserable, and in that very misery we beseech God, always saying: Lord, deliver me. The poor man says: Deliver me; and you think he says it to be freed from poverty. The rich man says: Deliver me; perhaps he is sick. No, he is healthy, and he is rich, and he cries out: Deliver me. Why, except for what the very prayer says: Deliver us from evil? In whatever goods they may be involved, it is necessary for a Christian to cry out: Deliver us from evil. If he cries out: Deliver us from evil, there is something from which he is to be delivered; if there is something from which he is to be delivered, he is in evil; if he is in evil, no matter how many goods he has to delight in, he has what to endure until he enjoys God. Therefore, endurance is necessary in this world for the poor, the rich, the healthy, the sick, the captives, the free, those on a pilgrimage, and those established in their homeland; endurance is necessary because all are on a pilgrimage in the world. And until they are freed from this pilgrimage and adhere to that truth and immutable substance, for which they have sighed while on pilgrimage, they are involved in temptations and cry out to God with a true heart: Deliver us from evil.

Who is truly happy. Job.

However, wretched men see those who are called blessed in this world, and they want to be like them, thinking that when they become like them, they will no longer be in hardship. This is a perverse mindset, and not Christian, full of greed, not faith: they believe there is nothing after this life. I do not say: He is happy in this life who abounds in all things. Far be it from me to say such, but if he thinks there is nothing after this life, he is never happy. For reason and truth compel us to acknowledge that no one can be happy here, happy according to wisdom's judgment, not as greed judges. And behold, when I have proposed, every man has judged that it is possible to be happy. And I begin to seek whether such a one can be found on this earth. Surely I do not say: He is happy who is healthy, who is rich, who is honored, who lives safely with all his own? I do not say this, but: He is happy who needs nothing. It is answered immediately: Then the rich man is happy because he needs nothing. If he needs nothing, he does not desire anything, if he desires, he is in need. You observe his wealth, I question his greed. How does he not need, to whom what he has is too little, and he desires to have more? Do you see that all he has amassed to possess is fuel for a fire where he grows, not where he is satisfied? Therefore, if he desires more ardently the more he has, I do not say to you: He is in need, but he is poorer than a beggar. For a beggar's desire is satisfied with a few coins, but an avaricious man's desire is not satisfied by the whole world. Here again, you may respond: what if he seeks nothing beyond what he has? I commend if I find it, rejoice greatly, he has set a limit to an infinite thing, he could say to greed: Thus far. Great strength, great domination of the mind is to impose a limit, to break the greedy desire, to restrain greed, to set bounds to burning lust. Great virtue, I confess, great virtue. Nevertheless, according to what I have defined, I do not yet call him happy. For what did I say? Who is happy? He who needs nothing. Behold, this one needs nothing: and abounds in all things, and seeks nothing more. I still ask: Does he not wish to have more? It is answered: He does not wish to have more. Does he fear to lose what he has? It is answered: He fears. How then does he not need, and if he now does not need in wealth, he needs in security. And who can make him secure in this world that what he possesses cannot perish, from whom can he receive security about things that totter and fall? Many rich men slept, rose poor. No one, therefore, gives him this security. And he knows it too, and therefore he fears. Therefore, his mind must be increased, he must gain greater strength, so that just as he imposed limits to greed, so he may not fear to lose what he has, and may strengthen his heart so that he can say, having lost all things: Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return to the earth. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so has it been done, blessed be the name of the Lord. Great is this athlete of God, for he struggled with a great adversary. Let us, therefore, make the man so magnanimous that he is neither inflated by what he possesses nor broken by the loss of it but is as one who has as if he had not, uses this world as if not using it, has great wealth, which is the will of his Lord, like he whom we have mentioned: As it pleased the Lord, he says, so has it been done, blessed be the name of the Lord; to be rich: the will of my God; to be poor: the will of my God. See how he fulfilled what all sing but few do: I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth . What is: at all times? Both when it is well and when it is ill: this is at all times, this is always. He is truly rich who is rich within, not within walls, but within thoughts, in conscience not in chest. Such riches neither shipwreck can take away; for he can come out of the waves both naked and full. Do we think we have found a happy man? If he is happy who needs nothing, whoever such a one may be on earth, why not happy? I think because we have also found such a one in need; if he still needs, he is not yet happy. Behold he desires nothing, behold he loses securely, is not inflated by prosperity, not weakened by adversity. How is he not yet happy? If I find one in need, I do not dare to pronounce him happy. And whence, says someone, are you to find even this one in need? I find clearly. If he believes in God, he still needs, he is still a beggar of God. For it can be that such a man does not say in prayer: Deliver us from evil, but says: I need. What does he need? Eternal life. He does not yet have it. He is amid temptations. Behold, Job himself, provoked to love God for nothing, for to this end the devil provoked him, having lost all his possessions, the consolation of his children lost, the only remaining wife being a temptress not a comforter, and struck grievously from head to foot so that even the patrimony of the poor man was taken from him. The poor man's patrimony is health, which when a rich man does not have, whatever he has is bitter to him. Perhaps you find a poor man who does not need the patrimony of the rich; you do not find a rich man who does not need the patrimony of the poor. Job, struck grievously from head to foot, lost the patrimony of the poor, which is health. Nevertheless, he was not led to attribute folly to God and to displease Him in his troubles: God always pleased him. A new Eve suggested blasphemy at the instigation of the serpent with whom he invisibly wrestled: Say something against God and die. And he: You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and shall we not receive evil? She was an Eve, but he was not an Adam. He was defeated in paradise, this one conquered on a dunghill. Yet, amid all his sufferings, he says at one point: Is not human life on earth a temptation? Therefore, established in this human life, undoubtedly he was established in temptation. He wanted to be freed from this temptation. Even he needed the life where there is no temptation. If he needed, he was not yet happy. Therefore, whatever kind of man you may establish, describe, depict here, you wish for what you do not find. No one can be happy on this earth.

Patience and death.

What had I proposed? To speak about patience. If it has not slipped from your memory, this is what I proposed. Now therefore, how great a good patience is... in this earthly happiness we endure because of it. Whoever does not have it, fails. Whoever fails on the journey will not reach the desired homeland. You see how true it is that in our patience we possess our souls.

Therefore, while we live here, however great our happiness may be, let us live patiently. We all, or nearly all, fear death. Illness can be, or it can not be. The loss of loved ones is feared: they can be lost, or they might not be lost. Whatever evil you fear on this earth can both happen and not happen. Death cannot not happen. It can be delayed, it cannot be removed, and yet everyone labors for its delay, watches, protects themselves, locks doors, sails, plows. On land, at home, wherever they labor, they labor not so they will not die, but so they die a little later. Consider, dear ones, how much labor is expended by all men so they die later. If we expend so much labor so we die later, what should be expended so we never die? This also is counted among things to be borne, to be endured, and to be had patiently: this very fear of death with which every soul struggles. Indeed, see what the Apostle says: We groan, burdened in this land under this weight of corruptible flesh in which we do not wish, he says, to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Indeed, we are burdened, he says, by the weight of the corruptible body, and under this body we groan, and we do not wish to be unclothed. What does it mean, we do not wish to be unclothed? We do not wish to place this very corpse under which we groan. We do not wish to place it. O burden, unhappily sweet! We groan, he says, burdened. Therefore, place it willingly, if you groan under the burden. In which we do not wish, he says, to be unclothed. But what? To be clothed upon. So that you may carry two burdens? No, he says. But why? So that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. For we want to reach eternal life. We want to reach where no one dies, but through death we do not want, if it can be done, that while we live we might be taken there, and our body be transformed while we live into that spiritual form into which it is to be transformed when we rise again. Who would not wish this? Does not every man wish it? But to one who wishes it, it is said: Depart. Remember what you have sung in the Psalm: I am an alien in the land. If you are an alien, you remain in a foreign place. If you remain in a foreign place, when the landlord commands, you depart. And it is necessary that the landlord commands that you depart at some time, nor does he establish the day of your stay. For he did not make a bond with you. When you remain for free, your departure is by his command. And these things are endured and for this reason patience is necessary.

Of the steward's cunning and of the future time.

The servant saw this because his master was about to order him to leave his position, and he thought about the future and said to himself: My master is going to eject me from my position. What shall I do? I cannot dig, I am ashamed to beg. Here labor calls, there shame, but to the struggling man a plan was not lacking. I have found, he said, what I shall do. He met the debtors of his master, he brought out the promissory notes: You, how much do you owe? And he said: A hundred measures of oil. Sit down quickly, make it fifty. Take your bill. And to another: You, how much do you owe? A hundred measures of wheat. Sit down, make it quickly eighty. Take your note. He said this: When my master has ejected me from my position, they will welcome me, and neither will necessity force me to dig nor to beg.

The Lord Jesus Christ, why did He propose this parable? For the fraudulent servant was not pleasing to Him; he committed fraud against his master; he did not do it with his own resources. Moreover, he also embezzled, causing a loss to his master to prepare a place of rest and security for himself after his actions. Why did the Lord propose this? Not because the servant committed fraud, but because he foresaw the future, so that a Christian who lacks counsel may feel ashamed if the ingenuity of the fraudster is praised. For thus He added: Behold, the children of this age are more prudent than the children of light. They commit fraud to provide for themselves in the future. For in what life did that steward look after himself? From which he was about to migrate by obedience. He looked after himself in a life that was ending, will you not look after yourself for an eternal one? Therefore love not fraud; but, He says, make friends for yourselves with the wealth of iniquity.

On almsgiving. What should be done is considered.

Mammon is referred to as wealth in Hebrew, from which and in Punic mamon means profit. So what do we do? What did the Lord command? Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of unrighteousness so that they, when you start to fail, may receive you into eternal dwellings. It is easy indeed to understand that alms should be given and that it should be given to the needy because in them Christ receives. He himself said this: When you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. Also in another place he said: Whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of my disciples only in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. We understand that alms are to be given and that we should not be too selective about whom we give to because we cannot judge hearts. When you give to all, then you may reach the few who are worthy. You are hospitable, you prepare your home for strangers: let the unworthy also be admitted, so that the worthy are not excluded. For you cannot be a judge and examiner of the heart. And yet, even if you could: He is bad, he is not good, I add: He is still your enemy. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If you must do good to an enemy, how much more to a stranger because even if he is bad, he is not yet an enemy. We understand these things because those who do them make friends for themselves who will receive them into eternal dwellings when they are excluded from this activity. For we are all stewards, and something has been entrusted to us in this life to be done so that we may give an account of it to the great master. And to whom more is entrusted, a greater account is required from him. The first reading that was recited terrified everyone and especially those who are in charge of the people, whether they be wealthy, or kings, or princes, or judges, or bishops, or leaders of churches. Each one will give an account of his own actions to the master of the household. This action is temporal; the actor's reward is eternal. But if we have conducted this action so that we give a good account of it, we are secure because after smaller things, greater things are entrusted to us. Be, he said, over five cities, the master said to his servant who gave a good account of the money he had been entrusted to dispense. He calls us to greater things if we do well. But because it is difficult not to sin much in a great action, therefore almsgiving should not cease so that when we are to give an account, we may not see so much an unyielding judge as a merciful father. For if he begins to examine everything, he will find many things to condemn. We ought to help the needy on this earth so that what is written may be fulfilled in us: Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy from God. And in another place: Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy.

God sees what you have inside your heart more than in your hand.

Therefore, make friends for yourselves. Whoever has something should do it. No one should say: I am poor. No one should say: Let the rich do it. Those who have more, let them do more with more. Do not even the poor have something with which they can do it? Zacchaeus was rich, Peter was poor. He bought the kingdom of heaven with half of his riches, and that man bought it with just one net and one small boat. It is not because that man bought it that this one could not buy what he could. The kingdom of God is not for sale in such a way that when one person buys it, another cannot have something to buy. Behold, the fathers bought it and kept it for us to buy. Did they buy something different, and we buy something else? It is the same thing. It is always bought and offered for sale until the end of the age. Do not be afraid of being excluded by the increase. It is not as if you should say: He will buy it; for he has as much as I do not have. The one who offers it for sale answers you: Bring what you have; it is up to you to buy it as well. I said that it was up to Peter because of the one small boat that he had. It was up to that widow who put two small coins into the treasury. She put in two coins and bought everything. She offered a lot, for she left nothing for herself. And as I said a little earlier, what is cheaper than a cup of cold water? The kingdom of heaven is worth even as much. Whoever does not have a boat and nets, whoever does not have the wealth of Zacchaeus, whoever does not have the two coins that the widow had, has at least a cup of cold water. I think He added 'cold' so that the wood would not trouble you. But perhaps at that moment, you cannot find even a cup of cold water to give to the thirsty. You do not find it and sympathize with the thirsty. God sees what you have inside; He does not see the power in your hand, but He sees the will in your heart. You have also bought it; be confident. This possession is called peace: peace on earth, goodwill to men.

Unjust riches.

But let us return, brothers, to what we had passed over. What does the mammon of iniquity mean? What did the Lord intend to admonish us? Should we commit fraud in order to have something to give as alms? Many do this, but they do not do well. They take much and give a little from it, and they think they are absolving their sins as if with a corrupt judge. The one to whom you give rejoices, but the one from whom you take laments. God has ears in the midst. There is no partiality with Him. He hears more against you from the one who groans than in favor of you from the one giving thanks. Therefore, let no one persuade himself, because the Lord named the mammon of iniquity, that frauds, plunderings, despoilments, and anything else displeasing should be pursued for the sake of giving alms. What then does He say: Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of iniquity? I understand nothing else, brothers, except that mammon is gold, that is, wealth. Let us now speak Latin which you understand. There are true riches and false riches. Iniquity calls false riches, calls them riches, for true riches are with God. True riches are what the angels have who lack nothing. However, the riches which we seem to have we seek as remedies for our infirmities. If we were healthy, that is, in that immortality which we will have later, we would not seek those riches. Iniquity calls these riches riches. Therefore He said: Make friends by means of the riches of iniquity, not with the riches which you collect by iniquity, but with the riches which iniquity calls riches since they are not true riches.

True riches.

Hear how these riches, which are not true riches, are called from iniquity. The Psalm says in a certain place - There a man groans and wants to be freed from certain strange children and says to the Lord: Deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaks vanity and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. They speak only of frauds and prepare themselves for frauds, of whom it is said: Their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Is he not going to call or name anyone a defrauder? But what is he going to say? Their sons are like established young plants, their daughters adorned as the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses are full, bursting from grain into grain. Their cattle are fat, their sheep fertile, multiplying in their exits. There is no breach of wall nor outcry in their streets. How great a temporal happiness he has described! So where is the iniquity? Where is the vanity? Listen to what follows: Those people are called blessed who have these things. Behold whence the iniquity, because they called the people blessed who have this abundance. They saw no other blessedness, sought no other that is true. They consumed all their desire in earthly happiness. They did not want to lift their heart upwards. But what does he who groans and wishes to be freed from such people say? When he had spoken of the wicked strange children: Those people are called blessed who have these things, as if it were said to him: but whom do you call blessed? Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. Behold true riches. But those are riches of iniquity. Whoever has those riches of iniquity, let him make friends from them before he departs from this life. For if he makes friends from them, he uses them well. Are not those also riches? For he has other true riches: He regards his God as riches. From earth he tramples on the earth. Finally you love those. The Lord says to a certain rich man who loved his possessions greatly: Do you love what you possess? Migrate to where I tell you. I do not want you to lose them. But what? Make for yourselves treasures in heaven where a thief does not approach nor moth corrupts. By loving your riches, you will lose them. Migrate to where you will not lose them. Place them there where you may come.

Friends and wealth.

Therefore, He says, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings. This sentence is explained thus. Consider unrighteous mammon as money obtained from fraud. Your father acquired it through usury. He made you rich. Do not take pleasure in your father's usury. Do not be an heir to iniquity: be an heir to the wealth of iniquity. Do not imitate your father by practicing usury as well. But now there is a lot of money in the house! Make friends from the unrighteous mammon, not by committing fraud now and giving from it, but from what has already been collected from the fraud. If your father learned to seize, you should learn to distribute.

But why about one hundred and fifty, and why about one hundred and eighty? With one hundred and fifty, he wished to signify half. For Zacchaeus did this. "I give half of my goods to the poor." With one hundred and eighty, he did not wish to signify two tenths. For to give from one hundred and twenty so that eighty remain, this is to give two tenths. Therefore, they were giving one tenth. But the Lord said in the Gospel: "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, if the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes was to give one tenth, how will your righteousness abound unless you give two tenths yourself? To give something more is to abound.

Therefore, you make friends, extend hope, cultivate desire, endure present circumstances with patience, whether favorable or adverse, because even this happiness is endured by one who seeks happiness from above. It is endured, for as long as we are exiled, whatever holds us away from our God is considered evil. And the heart that fights against happiness to avoid corruption is greater in struggle than the heart that fights against unhappiness to avoid breaking. Through this patience, therefore, when this age ends or our life ends—whichever ends soon—we will be secure about the eternal dwellings, because we have made friends from the mammon of unrighteousness.