Sermon 392

SERMO 392

TO THE MARRIED

Of the human race inclined to temporal goods.

We have heard the Apostle saying to us: "We act as ambassadors for Christ, exhorting you to be reconciled to God." He would not exhort us to be reconciled unless we had been enemies. Therefore, the whole world was an enemy to the Savior, a friend to the captor: that is, an enemy to God, a friend to the devil. And the whole human race, like that woman, was bent towards the earth. Once a certain person understood these enemies, he calls out against them and says to God: "They have curved my soul." The devil and his angels have bent the souls of men towards the earth, that is, so that they inclined towards temporal and earthly things and did not seek the heavenly. For surely the Lord speaks of this woman, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years; and now it was time for her to be released from her bond and to be released on the Sabbath day. But they accused the one who straightened her up, who else but the bent? Since even those things which God had commanded, not understanding them, they looked at with an earthly heart. For they celebrated the mystery of the Sabbath carnally, not seeing it spiritually.

It is not permitted to keep concubines, nor to marry women who have been separated or divorced by a husband.

Listen, beloved, members of Christ and sons of the Catholic mother. What I say to those preparing for baptism, let the faithful hear; what I say to the faithful, let those preparing for baptism hear; what I say to both the preparing and the faithful, let the penitents hear; what I say to the faithful, the preparing, and the penitents, let the catechumens hear, let all hear: let all fear, let no one disdain. Let your listening be a consolation to me, lest my sorrow be a testimony against you. To those preparing for baptism, I say: Fornication is not permitted to you. Let either wives or no wives suffice for you: you are not permitted to have concubines. Let God hear, if you are deaf; let His angels hear, if you disdain. You are not permitted to have concubines. And if you do not have wives, you are not permitted to have concubines, whom you would later dismiss to take wives; how much more will your condemnation be if you wish to have both concubines and wives? You are not permitted to have wives whose first husbands are alive; nor you, women, to have men whose first wives are alive. These marriages are adulterous, not by the law of the courts, but by the law of heaven. Nor is it permitted for you to take a woman who has left her husband through divorce while her husband is still alive. Only for the cause of fornication is it allowed to dismiss an adulterous wife: but while she lives, it is not allowed to take another. And you, women, it is not permitted to take as husbands those men whose wives have left them through divorce; it is not permitted: they are adulteries, not marriages. Augustine may be disdained, but let Christ be feared. Do not imitate the crowd of the wicked, of the unbelievers, my sons: do not follow the wide paths, whose end leads to destruction. Whoever has been baptized, let him either vow continence to God, or remain with his wife, or if he does not have one, let him take a wife.

If anyone has fallen from the resolve of continence, public penance is to be done by him.

Listen to me, faithful ones, that is, those who are baptized. Why do you die again, having been reborn? When, being baptized, you go through tortuous, slippery, and unclean ways, do you not know that you perish? You perish, my children, believe it. Do you not wish to believe? What can I do for you? Those who are faithful, and hear me, if perhaps you have committed such things, do not add to them; and pray so that God may forgive you. If you could not maintain, or did not wish to maintain, marital chastity or continence, and deviated from the purpose of either marital bond or devoted continence, let there be in you the pain and humility of penitence. I say more plainly: let no one say, "I did not understand." If, after your wives, you have defiled yourselves with illicit intercourse, if you have slept with someone other than your wives; do penance, as it is done in the Church, so that the Church may pray for you. Let no one say to himself, "I do it secretly, I do it before God: God knows who will forgive me, because I do it in my heart." Therefore, is it said in vain: "What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven"? Therefore, were the keys given to the Church of God in vain? Do we nullify the Gospel, nullify the words of Christ? Do we promise you what he denies? Do we not deceive you? Job says: "If I have been ashamed to confess my sins in the presence of the people." Such a just man, the gold of divine treasure, tested by such a furnace, says these things; and the son of pestilence resists me, and is ashamed to bend the knee under the blessing of God, with a proud neck, a crooked mind? Perhaps, indeed what is not doubted, for this reason God willed that Emperor Theodosius do public penance in the presence of the people, especially because his sin could not be hidden; and does a senator feel ashamed, what the emperor did not feel ashamed? Does he feel ashamed, not a senator, but only a curial, what the emperor did not feel ashamed? Does a plebeian or merchant feel ashamed, what the emperor did not feel ashamed? What pride is this? Would it not alone suffice for hell, even if there were no adultery?

The adultery of men is not to be tolerated, just as that of women.

Finally, my brethren, listen to me, men, listen to me, women. Why are you angry with me? Would that you do what is written: "Be angry, and do not sin." I should fear that it happens to me what happened to the apostle Paul, which you have heard being read just now, if you were attentive: "So, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" And if it is so, let it be. If it is necessary that I am your enemy, I would rather be your enemy for your sake, than justice. I commend you to be guarded even by your wives. They are my daughters, just as you are my sons. Let them hear me: let them be zealous for their husbands; let them not reserve for themselves vain glory, in which wives are accustomed to be praised by their unchaste husbands because they bear with patience the unchastity of their husbands. I do not want Christian women to have such patience: let them be entirely zealous for their husbands; not for their own flesh, but for the souls of their husbands. Entirely, I advise, I urge, I command: the bishop commands, Christ in me commands. He knows in whose sight my heart burns. I, I say, command. Do not allow your husbands to commit fornication. Appeal against them to the Church. I do not say, to public judges, not to the proconsul, not to the vicariate, not to the count, not to the emperor; but to Christ. In all other matters, be the servants of your husbands, submissive in obedience. There should be no forwardness in you, no pride, no stiff neck, no disobedience at all: completely serve as servants. But when it comes to this matter, where the blessed Apostle has made you equal, saying: "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband"; he added: "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does." Why do you exalt yourself? Listen to what follows: "Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." When it comes to this, cry out for your right. If your husband sells your gold for his necessity: bear it, woman; bear it, servant; do not quarrel, do not object. The contempt of your gold is the love of your husband. If he sells your estate for his necessity, which is also yours (for it cannot be his, which is not yours, if there is charity in you, which should be in a wife), bear it patiently; and if he hesitates, you offer it: despise everything for the love of your husband. But desire chastity, quarrel for chastity. Let your estate perish patiently, do not let his soul perish while you are patient.

A man ought to lead a woman to good; but she should follow.

I do not tell men to be jealous of their wives in this matter. I know that they do it, I am aware. Who would tolerate an adulterous wife? And it is demanded of a woman that she tolerate an adulterous husband! Oh justice! Why, I ask you? Why? Because I am a man. Are you a man? Prove it in your strength, that you are a man. Are you a man? Conquer lust. How is it that the wife is stronger than the man? You are the head of the woman, man, it is true. If you are the head, lead, the wife should follow. But where the household is right, the husband is the head of the woman. If you are the head, lead: let her follow her head. But see where you go. Do not go where you do not want her to follow: do not go where you fear the follower to go, lest you both together fall into the pit of adultery: lest, when you do it, you teach what you do. It pains your soul if you both together fall into the pit of adultery: let it pain you if you alone fall. You are jealous, you do not want her to fall: fear, do not fall yourself. And you, most chaste women, do not imitate your unchaste husbands. Let it be far from you. Either let them live with you, or let them perish alone. A woman does not owe chastity to an unchaste husband, but she owes it to God, she owes it to Christ. Let her do it for Christ, not for him who does not deserve it; but let her do it for Christ. Let her pay attention to her value, read her agreements. Finally, let whoever perhaps feels indignant because I argue such things think what they will: for I know that those who are wise love me for this; because it is written not without reason: Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you: rebuke a fool, and he will increase his hatred for you. It did not say: He will begin; but, he will increase: because he already hated. Therefore, I know that the wise love me in this. Let those who know that I know their sins refrain from communion; lest they be thrown out of the enclosure. As for those whose sins I do not know, I address them before God. Let them also do penance, and thereafter abstain from the uncleanness of their fornications.

Let the penitents change their life; let the catechumens choose those whom they will imitate in the Church.

To the penitent I say: what is it that you do? Know that you do nothing. What does it profit you to humble yourselves, if you do not change? To the catechumens I say: burn with the will to receive grace. But choose for yourselves in the Church of God those whom you may imitate. If you do not find them: woe to me, my God! What is it that I say: If you do not find them? Therefore, in the community of the faithful, is there no one whom you may find? For so many years, have we baptized so many people in vain, if there are not those who keep what they have received, who guard what they have heard. Far be it from me to believe this. It would be better if I were not your bishop if this were so. But I hope there are, I believe there are. This, however, is the miserable condition of my situation, for I am often compelled to know the adulterers, but I cannot know the chaste. What brings me joy is hidden, what torments me is public. Therefore, desire the grace of God, choose those whom you may imitate, with whom you may live, and with whom you may have sweet conversations of charity. Do not admit evil whispers. Evil conversations corrupt good morals. Live like wheat among the tares: bear the tribulations of this world, like grains on the threshing floor. The winnower will come: let no one be a separator at this time.