Sermon 41

SERMO 41

To God, which is written in Ecclesiasticus:
"Hold faith with your neighbor in his poverty."
"That you may also enjoy His blessings"

Faith to a poor friend must not be broken.

When the divine Scriptures were read, from whose meanings we cannot now speak of all, I noticed one little sentence, very short in the number of words but very ample in the weight of its sense. I chose from there, with the Lord's help, to serve this great expectation of your Love, as much as our strength can, and to minister to you from the Lord’s cellar from which I also live with you. This is the sentence about which I speak: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty, so that you may also enjoy his goods. Let us take this first as it simply sounds, so that all may understand it, even those who do not delve into the more secret things of the divine Scriptures. Keep faith, he says, with your neighbor in his poverty, so that you may also enjoy his goods. "It is true," says he who has simply heard it, "that when a friend is poor, faith should not be broken with him; one should remain with him, and the friendship should not be changed by the change of his wealth, but faith should be kept, strengthened by will. For my friend, if he was a friend when he was wealthy, is he not a friend when he is poor? He was not a friend to me, but his gold was. But if my friend was the man himself, he remains the same whether the gold remains or is lost. Why then should he now not be a friend, who, even if he lost his treasure, did not lose his spirit? If I were to buy a horse, after stripping it of ornaments and saddle, I would perhaps not despise it when naked. And my friend pleased me when clothed, does he displease when stripped? Well then does the divine Scripture instruct, healthily and very suitably to human morals: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty.

That you may also enjoy his goods. What then? Shall we proceed to the second part of this sentence and have such a thought about a friend that we say: "We must stay with him and keep faith with him in his poverty, so that we may also enjoy his goods"? For he who is now poor will become rich, and he will not admit you to his riches, whose poverty you previously scorned out of pride. Therefore, keep faith with him even when he is poor, so that you may also enjoy his goods when wealth comes to him, and rejoice with him in them. Keep faith with him. He is poor, but he has a great possession: faith. If you were preparing to possess land with him and wished to own land if he had land for you both to possess together, how much more firmly will you possess faith with him? For such, indeed, is your friend, that an unscrupulous person might take away his possessions. But can they take away his faith? What then does it mean: that you may also enjoy his goods? Certainly because from poverty he might become rich, and you will enjoy his riches who did not scorn his poverty.

The interpretation of the text of Sirach 22:28 rejected by Augustine.

The former part of this sentence, according to that popular understanding, pleases me. But the latter part, I confess to you, offends me. For if you stay with a friend in his poverty so that when he becomes rich you might enjoy his riches, you still do not love the friend, but something else in the friend. Faith and hope are two good friends, and greater than these is charity. In divine matters, the Apostle says, three remain: faith, hope, charity. But the greatest of these is charity. Pursue charity. Therefore, I ask a friend about a friend: “Tell me, please, do you have faith with this one in his poverty?” Clearly, he says, for I have heard this in the holy Scripture, and I commended it to my heart and stored it in my memory. I gladly recall it, and more gladly do it. For I have heard the sacred word: Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty. And I: “Why do you do this? Is it for the reason that follows: so that you may enjoy his goods as well? What then do you expect?” “So that when,” he says, “he becomes rich and goods come, he may admit me to his goods, because I did not despise his evils.” “Therefore, allow me to ask a little more. What if this man, with whom you hold faith in poverty, never becomes rich? What if he remains poor until death? Does faith perish because hope is deceived? Because you do not endure possessing gold with a rich man, will you regret having held faith in poverty?” If he is wise humanly, or rather if he is truly wise, he will be disturbed by this question and say to me: “You speak truth. It is good to keep faith with a neighbor. But if faith is kept with a poor neighbor with the hope of reaching his riches, to have communion in them with him, without a doubt when this poor man dies, not having received the riches that were hoped for, we will regret all that good, and what we have mixed well, we will pour badly.” You see, therefore, that this sentence is to be scrutinized more deeply, not as it can be commonly understood, but as it is established by divine authority, to suggest something great, to instruct, to command us, where our hope is not deceived so that we do not regret having held faith. For you cannot thus arrive at the sentence.

On the Poor Man and the Rich Man in Luke 16.

Therefore, observe that poor Lazarus lying before the rich man's door. This poor man was wretchedly infirm, nor did he even hold the health of his body, which is the patrimony of the poor. He was also ulcerous, and the dogs licked his sores. Now there was a rich man in that house. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day, and he did not wish to have faith together with the poor man. Deservedly, the Lord Jesus, lover and giver of faith, paid more attention to the faith itself in the poor man than to the gold and luxuries in the rich man. He paid more attention to the possession of the poor man than to the arrogance of the rich man. For this reason, He named the poor man; however, He judged that the name of the rich man should be silent. There was, He said, a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain poor man named Lazarus. Does it not seem to you as if He recited from a book, where He found the name of the poor man written, but did not find the name of the rich man? For indeed that book was of the living and the just, not of the proud and the unrighteous. That rich man was named by men, but the poor man remained unspoken. Conversely, the Lord named the poor man and was silent regarding the rich man. Therefore, the rich man did not want to have faith together with the poor man. Both died. It happened that the poor man died and was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried - for perhaps he was not even buried - and when he was in torment in Hades, as we read, he lifted up his eyes from afar and saw the poor man in the bosom of Abraham, whom he had despised at his door. He could not have a common rest with the one with whom he did not wish to have common faith. Father Abraham, he said, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in anguish in this flame. The response was: Remember, son, that you received your good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus in like manner bad things. Now, therefore, he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that no one can cross over from here to you, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. He saw mercy denied to himself because he had denied it. He saw how true it was: Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. And he who did not wish to pity the poor man during his time, belatedly pitied his brothers. Therefore, he said, send Lazarus. I have five brothers there. Let him warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. And to this, the response was: If they do not want to come to this place of torment, they have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them. He who used to mock the Prophets, surely together with his brothers - for I believe, indeed I do not doubt, that talking with his brothers about the Prophets warning about good things, forbidding bad things, frightening about future torments, and promising future rewards, he mocked all these things, saying with his brothers: "What life after death? What memory of decay? What sense does the ash have? All are brought there, and buried. Who has been heard to return from there?" - recalling these words of his, therefore he wished Lazarus to return to his brothers so that they would not say: "Who has returned from there?" And to this, there was a very fitting and appropriate response. For he seemed to be a Jew, and therefore he said: Father Abraham. Therefore, very excellently and appropriately, it was said: If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead. It was fulfilled among the Jews, for they did not listen to Moses and the Prophets, nor did they believe in Christ risen. Did He not predict this to them beforehand: If you believed Moses, you would believe Me?

That rich man deserved damnation.

So the rich man remained without help, his temporal delights having ended, in eternal punishments. He did not do what was right, he heard what was deserving: "Remember, son, that you received your good things in your life." Therefore, this life, which you see, is not yours. You received your good things. Therefore, those things which you desire from afar, sighing, are not yours. Where are the words of the rich and those flattering the rich when they see someone flourishing with temporal delights, abundant on earth, seizing the earth to possess and expanding, drawing to himself the lead with which he is submerged? For indeed, a great weight led that rich man to hell, and a heavy burden pressed him down to the depths. For he had not heard: "Come to me, all you who labor." My yoke is easy, my burden is light. The burden of Christ is feathers. With these feathers, that poor man flew into the bosom of Abraham. Therefore, the rich man did not want to hear these things. For he listened to the tongues of flatterers. With these tongues, he became deaf to the Prophets, tongues of those giving false praise and saying: "You are the only ones; you live alone.” Hence, "You received your good things in your life." For you considered these to be your good things. You did not believe in others, you did not hope for others. You received those in your life. For you thought only that was your life. When you hoped for nothing after death, you feared no sorrow. Therefore, you received your good things in your life, but Lazarus evil things. He did not say: his, but evils, which men think, which men fear, which men avoid as great things. Lazarus received these evils. He did not then receive his good things. Yet he did not lose them. But just as it is not said: his, so it is not said: in his life. For the other life was that of his, which he hoped for in the bosom of Abraham. For here he was dead, here he did not live. He was dead with that death mentioned by the Apostle: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. The poor man bore temporal evils. But God deferred his good things, not took them away. Therefore, why do you, rich man in hell, desire late what you did not hope for to enjoy with delights? Aren't you the one who despised the one lying at your gate? Aren't you the one who ridiculed Moses and the Prophets in the contempt of the poor man? Therefore, you did not wish to possess faith with your neighbor in his poverty, now you do not enjoy his good things. For you mocked when you heard: "Possess faith with your neighbor in his poverty, so that you may also enjoy his good things." Now you see his good things from afar, and do not possess them with him. For those good things were coming, coming invisibly. When they were not seen, they had to be believed, lest when they are seen, it should remain for you to mourn and not to be able to hold them.

Do not despise the poor.

Therefore, Brothers, as it seems to me, this sentiment is clear. For it must be understood in a Christian manner by Christians. We should not possess faith with our poor neighbor in such a way that we hope for temporal riches to come to him and preserve our faith so we may possess these with him. Not so at all, not so. But how, unless according to the command of our Lord: Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that they may receive you into the eternal dwellings? For here there are poor who do not have dwellings where they might receive you themselves. Make them friends by means of unrighteous wealth, that is, from gains that iniquity calls gains. For there are gains that justice calls gains: these are in the treasures of God. Do not despise the poor, who have nowhere to return, who have nowhere to enter. They have dwellings, and they have eternal ones. They have places where you will vainly wish to be received, as that rich man did, if you do not now receive them into yours, because he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward; he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. For he possesses faith with his neighbor in his poverty, therefore he will enjoy his goods.

For the name of your neighbor, accept the name of Christ.

Your Lord also speaks to you, the very Lord who, though He was rich, became poor. He will explain this truth to you better and more solidly. For perhaps sometimes your mind hesitates and doubts whether that poor man whom you received into your home is truthful, or rather a deceitful pretender, a hypocrite. The mind wavers in showing mercy because you cannot see the heart. Therefore, if you cannot see it, act with both the good and the bad, so that you may reach the good. The one who feared that his seeds might fall on the path, among thorns, or upon stones, and was lazy in sowing in winter, went hungry in summer. Nevertheless, your Lord, whom you certainly do not doubt if you are a Christian, says to you: “I became poor for your sake when I was rich.” For when He was in the form of God – what is richer than that form? – He did not consider being equal to God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant – what is richer than the form of God? What is poorer than the form of a servant? – made in the likeness of men, found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Add this too. He thirsted on the cross, received drink not from one who felt pity but from one who mocked Him, and drank vinegar at His death, the fountain of life. Do not spurn this, do not despise it, do not say: “So my God was made man? So my God was killed, crucified?” Yes, certainly, indeed, He was crucified. His poverty is commended to you. It was far from you. He approached you in poverty. Hold faith with the neighbor in His poverty. Certainly, here this truth never wavers, never clouds. For the name of the neighbor, take the name of Christ and humbly receive it. The humble indeed fits the humble; the humble takes on greatness. Humbly accept and understand the neighbor – For the Lord is near to the brokenhearted – so that you may say in your prayer: As our neighbor, as our brother, so we were pleased. Therefore, when the Prophet added one word, naming the neighbor – for prophetic speech had to be somewhat clothed with the veil of mystery, so that it might be sought more desirably, found more sweetly – where he named the neighbor, you name Christ, because he too prophetically named Christ, and see that clear truth running like a stream from the fountain of truth quenching your thirst. Hold faith with Christ in His poverty, so that you may also enjoy His goods. What does it mean to hold faith with Christ? In that He was made man for your sake, in that He was born of a Virgin, in that He endured insults, was scourged, was hung on a tree, was wounded by a spear, was buried, do not spurn these things, do not let them seem unbelievable to you, and thus you hold faith with your neighbor. For this is indeed His poverty. But what does it mean: That you may also enjoy His goods? Hear why He willed this, hear why He came to you in poverty, hear the voice of the poor Lord your God for your sake enriching you, see how you may enjoy His goods if you keep faith with Him in His poverty: Father, He said, I want that where I am, they also may be with me.