Sermon 55
SERMO 55
ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL MT 5, 22:
"WHOEVER SAYS TO HIS BROTHER, 'FOOL,' SHALL BE IN DANGER OF HELL FIRE" AND SO ON
Useful fear.
The chapter of the Holy Gospel, which we just heard being read, greatly terrified us, if we have faith: but it did not terrify those who do not have faith. And because it does not terrify them, they want to be perversely secure, not knowing how to distribute and distinguish the times of fear and security. Therefore, let the one who now leads a life with an end in which he might have security without end in that life be afraid. Therefore, we were afraid. For who would not fear the Truth speaking and saying: Whoever says to his brother, Fool, shall be guilty of hellfire? But no man can tame the tongue. And man tames the wild beast, but he does not tame the tongue: he tames the lion, and he does not restrain his speech: he tames it, and he does not tame himself: he tames what he feared; and to tame himself, he does not fear what he ought to fear. But what happens? A true sentence, and this too proceeded from the oracle of truth: But no man can tame the tongue.
The necessity of divine help to tame the tongue.
What then shall we do, my brothers? I see that I am indeed speaking to a multitude: but because we are all one in Christ, let us take counsel as if in secret. No stranger hears us, we are one, because we are in one. What shall we do? Whoever says to his brother, "Fool," shall be liable to the hell of fire: But no human being can tame the tongue. Will therefore all go into the hell of fire? Far be it. Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations. Your wrath is just: you send no one into hell unjustly. Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from you, if not to you? Therefore let us understand, dearest ones, that if no human can tame the tongue, we must flee to God, who may tame our tongue. For if you wish to tame it, you cannot, because you are human? No human can tame the tongue. Consider the analogy from the very animals we tame. The horse does not tame itself; the camel does not tame itself; the elephant does not tame itself; the asp does not tame itself; the lion does not tame itself: so too man does not tame himself. But to tame the horse, the ox, the camel, the elephant, the lion, the asp, man is sought. Therefore let God be sought, that man may be tamed.
God, tamer of the tongue.
Therefore: Lord, you have been a refuge for us. We turn to you, and it will be well for us from you. For it is bad for us from us. Because we abandoned you, you abandoned us to ourselves. Let us be found in you, for we were lost in ourselves. Lord, you have been a refuge for us. What then, my brethren, should we doubt, since the Lord will make us gentle, if we offer ourselves to be tamed by him? You tamed the lion, which you did not create; will he not tame you, who created you? From where could you have gained the power to tame such enormous beasts? Is it that you are equal to them in bodily strength? By what power, therefore, could you tame such great beasts? Those animals which are called beasts are not endured unless tamed by humans, and under human control. They are not accustomed to being tame unless through human hands, under human reins, and human power. Do you think they could be born tame? Certainly consider enormous wild beasts. The lion roars, who would not fear? And yet, from what do you consider yourself stronger? Not by bodily strength, but by the inner reason of the mind. You are stronger than the lion because you are made in the image of God. The image of God tames the wild beast; and will not God tame his own image?
The scourge of God must be endured by the one who tames.
In Him is our hope, let us submit to Him, and pray for mercy. Let us place our hope in Him, and until we are tamed and fully subdued, that is, perfected, let us endure the one who tames us. Oftentimes, indeed, our tamer also brings out the whip. For if you bring out a rod or a whip to tame your animals, does God not bring out such things to tame His animals, which we are, whom He will make His children from being His livestock? You tame your horse; what will you give your horse when it begins to carry you meekly, to bear your discipline, to obey your command, to be your beast of burden, that is, the support of your weakness? What do you give it in return, whom you do not even bury when it has died, but throw out to be torn apart by birds? God reserves an inheritance for you when He has tamed you, which is God Himself: and though you die temporarily, He will resurrect you. He will restore to you your flesh down to the number of your hairs: and will set you with the Angels forever, where you will no longer need to be tamed, but merely to be possessed by the most pious one. For then God will be all in all: nor will there be any unhappiness to afflict us, but only happiness to nourish us. Indeed, our shepherd Himself, our God: He is our drink, our God; our honor, our God; our wealth, our God. Whatever varied things you search for here, He alone will be everything to you.
Into what hope are we being tamed here?
To this hope man is tamed, and the tamer is considered unbearable? To this hope man is tamed, and against this useful tamer, if perchance he brings forth a scourge, there is murmuring? You have heard the Apostle exhorting: "If you separate yourselves from discipline, then you are illegitimate and not sons." The illegitimate are adulterers. For who is the son whom his father does not discipline? And, he says, of our flesh, we had fathers as correctors and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For what could your father have afforded you, because he corrected you, because he beat you, because he brought forth a scourge and struck you? Could he provide that you live forever? What he could not provide for himself, how would he provide for you? For the sake of his small amount of money, which he gathered from usury and toil, he taught you with scourges, lest his labor be lost by you living badly. And he beat his son, fearing his labors would perish: because he left you what he could not keep here, nor take away. For he did not leave you anything here that could be his own: he yielded it, so that you might access it thus. But your God, your Redeemer, your tamer, your chastiser, your Father, instructs you. Why? That you may receive an inheritance, where you will not bury the Father, but will have the inheritance as the Father himself. To this hope you are instructed, and you murmur? And if any sadness befalls, perhaps you blaspheme? Where will you go from His spirit? Behold, he lets you go and does not scourge: He deserts the blasphemer, will you not feel him judging? Is it not better that He scourges and receives you, than He spares you and deserts you?
Our refuge, God.
Let us therefore say to the Lord our God: Lord, you have been a refuge for us, from generation to generation. In the first generation and the next generation, you have been a refuge for us. You are a refuge that we might be born, who were not: you are a refuge that we might be reborn, who were evil: you are a refuge that you might feed your deserters: you are a refuge that you might raise and guide your children: you have been a refuge for us. We will not depart from you, when you have delivered us from all our evils, and have filled us with your goods. You give good things, you soothe, lest we grow weary on the way: you rebuke, you scourge, you strike, you guide, lest we stray from the way. Whether, therefore, you soothe, lest we grow weary on the way; or you chastise, lest we stray from the way; Lord, you have been a refuge for us.