Sermon 43
SERMO 43
ABOUT WHAT IS WRITTEN IN ISAIAH:
"UNLESS YOU BELIEVE, YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND"
AND CONCERNING THE WORDS OF THE BLESSED APOSTLE PETER:
"We have heard the voice brought from heaven" etc.
We have the more certain prophetic word.
The beginning of a good life is correct faith.
The beginning of a good life, which also has eternal life owed to it, is right faith. Now faith is to believe what you do not yet see, the reward of which faith is to see what you believe. Therefore, in the time of faith, as in the time of sowing, let us not fail, and let us not fail until the end, but let us persevere, until we reap what we have sown. For when humankind had turned away from God and lay in its sins, just as we needed the Creator to exist, so we needed the Savior to come back to life. A just God condemned man, a merciful God frees man. The God of Israel himself will give strength and power to his people. Blessed be God. But believers receive, the scornful do not receive.
Nor should we glory in that faith itself, as if we could do anything on our own. For faith is not nothing, but something great; if you have it, you have surely received it. For what do you have that you did not receive? See, beloved, from what source you should give thanks to the Lord God, lest you remain ungrateful for any of his gifts, and on account of this ingratitude, lose what you have received. The praise of faith can in no way be explained by me, but can be conceived by the faithful. Furthermore, if it is rightly considered in any part as it deserves, who can worthily think how many of God's gifts it surpasses? And if we ought to recognize the lesser gifts of God in us, how much more ought we to recognize that which surpasses them?
Man was created in the image of God.
From God we must be what we are. Since we are not nothing, from whom do we have this if not from God? But there are also trees and stones; from whom, if not from God? So what more do we have? Trees and stones do not live; but we live. Yet that life itself is common to us with trees and shrubs. For vines are also said to live. For if they did not live, it would not have been written, "He slew their vines with hail." It lives when it is green; it withers when it dies. But this life does not have perception. What do we have more? We perceive. A fivefold sense of the body is known. We see, we hear, we smell, we taste, by touch we even discern through our entire body soft and hard, rough and smooth, hot and cold. So there is a fivefold sense in us. But animals also have this. So we have something more. And yet, brothers, when we consider those things we have enumerated in us, how great a thanksgiving, how great a praise do we owe to the Creator? But what more do we have? Mind, reason, counsel, which animals do not have, birds do not have, fishes do not have. In this, we are made in the image of God. Finally, where Scripture narrates that we were made, it adds that we might not only be put before animals but also be set over them, that is, that they may be subject to us: "Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all cattle and the reptiles that creep on the earth." From where does he have dominion? Because of the image of God. Hence it is said to some by way of rebuke, "Do not be like the horse and mule, who do not have understanding." But understanding is one thing, reason is another. For we have reason even before we understand, but we cannot understand unless we have reason. Therefore, a rational animal is capable, indeed to better and more quickly say, a rational animal, to whom reason is intrinsically given, has reason even before it understands. For it wants to understand because reason precedes.
Faith seeking understanding.
Therefore, we ought to cultivate and, in a certain way, reshape and reform above all in ourselves that by which we surpass the beasts. But who can do this unless it is the artist who formed us? We could deform the image of God in us, but we cannot reform it. Therefore, to briefly recount everything, we have existence with woods and stones, life with trees, sensation with animals, and understanding with angels. We discern colors with our eyes, sounds with our ears, odors with our noses, tastes with our palate, heat with our touch, and morals with our intellect. Every person wants to be understood; there is no one who does not want to understand; not everyone wants to believe. A man says to me: "I will understand so that I may believe." I reply: "Believe so that you may understand." Therefore, since such a controversy is born between us that he says to me: "I will understand so that I may believe," and I respond: "Rather believe so that you may understand," with this controversy, let us come to a judge, and neither of us should presume to pass judgment on his own behalf. What judge are we to find? After evaluating all men, I do not know whether we could find a better judge than a man through whom God speaks. Therefore, let us not go in this matter and in this controversy to secular writings, let not a poet judge between us, but a Prophet.
We have a more certain prophetic word.
The blessed apostle Peter, with two other disciples of Christ the Lord, James and John, being with the Lord Himself on the mount, heard a voice brought from heaven: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. Recalling this, the said Apostle in his epistle wrote: We heard this voice brought from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And when he had said: We heard this voice brought from heaven, he added and said: And we have the more sure prophetic word. That voice sounded from heaven, and the prophetic word is more certain. Attend, beloved, may the Lord aid both my will and your expectation that I may speak what I desire, as I desire. For who among us would not marvel that the voice brought from heaven is said by the Apostle to be surpassed by the more certain prophetic word? He indeed said more certain, more certain, but not better, not truer. For as true was the voice from heaven as the prophetic word, as good, as useful. What then is more certain, except that in which the hearer is more firmly established? Why is this? Because there are unbelieving people who so disparage Christ as to say He performed what He did by magical arts. They could even thus refer that voice brought from heaven—through human conjectures and illicit curiosities—to magical arts. But the Prophets were beforehand, not before that voice, but before Christ's flesh. Christ was not yet man when He sent the Prophets. Whoever says He was great, if thus He performed wonders to be worshiped even after death by magical arts, was He a magician before He was born? Hence why the apostle Peter said: We have the more certain prophetic word. The voice from heaven, for the faithful to be admonished; the prophetic word, for the unbelievers to be convinced. We understand, as it seems to me, beloved, why the apostle Peter said: We have the more certain prophetic word, after the voice brought from heaven.
The fisherman should come before the emperor.
And what a remarkable condescension of Christ! This Peter who speaks in such a manner was a fisherman, and nowadays an orator boasts greatly if he is able to be understood by that fisherman. For this reason, the apostle Paul, speaking to the first Christians, says: "Consider your calling, brothers, for not many are wise according to the flesh, not many are powerful, not many are noble. But God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and those things that are not, to reduce to nothing those things that are." For if Christ had first chosen an orator, the orator would say, "I was chosen because of the merit of my eloquence." If He had chosen a senator, the senator would say, "I was chosen because of the merit of my dignity." Finally, if He had first chosen an emperor, the emperor would say, "I was chosen because of the merit of my power." Let these rest and be deferred for a little, let them rest, not be omitted, not be despised, but deferred for a short while, where they can glory in themselves. "Give me," He says, "that fisherman, give me the simple, give me the unlearned, the one with whom a senator does not deign to speak, not even when he buys fish. He says, "give him to me. If I fill him, it will be evident that it is I who do it. Even though I will also make a senator, an orator, and an emperor, whenever I make a senator, but I will more surely make a fisherman. A senator can glory in himself, an orator can, an emperor can. Only a fisherman cannot, unless in Christ. Let him come to teach a wholesome humility. Let the fisherman come first. Through him, the emperor is better brought to faith."
Unless you believe, you will not understand.
Remember therefore the holy, just, good fisherman, full of Christ, at whose mass through the world this people, to be caught with others, also belonged. Therefore, remember him having said: We have a more certain prophetic word. Give me therefore a judge Prophet for that controversy. What was being conducted between us? You were saying: "I will understand so that I may believe." I was saying: "Believe so that you may understand." A controversy was born, let us come to the judge, let the Prophet judge, indeed truly let God judge through the Prophet. Let us both be silent. What we both said, has been heard. "You say, I will understand so that I may believe." "I say, believe so that you may understand." The Prophet answers: Unless you have believed, you will not understand.
But do you think, beloved, that even he who says, "I will understand so that I may believe" says nothing? For what are we doing now, if not to ensure that they believe, not those who do not believe, but those who still believe too little? For if they had not believed at all, they would not be here. Faith has brought them to listen. Faith has made them present to the word of God, but that very faith which has sprouted needs to be watered, nourished, and strengthened. This is what we are doing. "I," he says, "planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Therefore, neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth." By speaking, urging, teaching, persuading, we can plant and water, but not give growth. However, he knew with whom he was speaking, who was praying for a helper for his faith which was sprouting and still tender and still weak and largely faltering, yet not without faith, but with some faith, to whom he said: "I believe, Lord."
I believe, Lord; help my unbelief.
When the Gospel was read, you heard: “If you can believe,” said the Lord Jesus to the boy's father, “if you can believe, everything is possible for the one who believes.” And he, looking at himself and placed before himself, not having rash confidence but first examining his conscience, saw in himself some faith, and saw also hesitation. He saw both. He confessed to having one, and asked for help with the other. “I believe,” he said, “Lord.” What followed, if not: “Help my faith”? He did not say, “I believe, Lord.” I see something here where I do not lie. I believe, I speak the truth. But I also see here something I do not know, which displeases me. I want to stand firm, but I still waver. I speak standing, I did not fall, because I believe. But yet I still waver: Help my unbelief. Therefore, beloved, even the one I set against myself, and for whose controversy a prophet judge between us, says something himself when he says, “I understand so that I may believe.” For surely now what I speak, I speak so that those who do not yet believe may believe. And yet, unless they understand what I speak, they cannot believe. Therefore, in some part, it is true what he says: “I understand so that I may believe,” and I who say, as the prophet says: “Rather, believe so that you may understand,” we speak the truth, let us agree. Therefore, understand so that you may believe, believe so that you may understand. Briefly, I say how we can accept both without controversy. Understand, so that you may believe, my word; believe, so that you may understand, God's word.