Sermon 396
SERMO 396
On the Assumption of the Bishop
He who lives well does not live a short life.
You indeed, brothers, seek a comforter: but we too need to be consoled; and our consolation is no human being, but He who makes man; for He who made us remakes, and He who created re-creates. We can only be sorrowful through weakness; but through hope, we ought to be consoled. We wish all good people to live longer with us, and in this very harsh life, we do not want to be deserted by our companions; but those who have gone ahead of us, who have lived well, encourage us by their example, so that whether we live long here or leave soon, we may live in such a way that we come to them. Because living long here is nothing else than enduring troubles for a long time. But living with God and with God is to live without any trouble, and without any fear that happiness may perish, which has no end. Nor should we consider that your bishop, our brother, has gone from here quickly and lived little. For rightly there, one does not live little, where, even when much is said, it is not ended. For here, even what is much, when it has ended, will be considered as nothing. Nor did he live little here if we think of his deeds, not count his years. How many others, perhaps, have not completed in many years what he fulfilled in a few years? Therefore, it was nothing else to want to hold him here but to envy his happiness.
The memory of the bishop in the heart of the faithful.
For in this we have sorrow for the man as human beings. What then shall we do, so that we may not be human? Therefore, as human beings, we are sadly grieved by the departure of a man: but as we have heard the divine reading, that he who is perfected in a short time filled long times? Therefore, let us count time there, as a day is counted. Whatever he did among you by exhorting, speaking, setting himself up as an example to be imitated, to praise and worship God, hold onto; and with the most adorned memory of him, you will be honored. For it is not a great thing for him to be buried in marble tombs; but to be placed in your hearts. Let him live buried in living tombs. For his burial is your memory. He lives with God, to be happy; let him live with you, that you may be happy. We might be able to exhort you to faithful prudence with many words, were we not also scarcely permitted to speak because of human grief. Therefore, because God has granted us to be present at his death for a time; because He has granted us to lead his funeral: the leading which belongs to charity adds nothing to his happiness: He has also granted to us to see your holiness, and to speak to you, that we might with our small measure, offer you some consolation: whatever our grief does not allow us to say, supply by thinking; and although our soul in the remembrance of such a man has human sorrow, it does not have unfaithful despair.