Sermon 62
SERMO 62
On the Words of the Gospel of Matthew 8:8
"I AM NOT WORTHY THAT YOU SHOULD ENTER UNDER MY ROOF," AND SO FORTH
NOT ALSO FROM THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE, 1 COR 8, 10:
"For if anyone sees him who has knowledge,"
"Reclining at a pagan feast," and so forth.
The humility of the Centurion.
We heard, when the Gospel was being read, that our faith is commended in humility. For when the Lord Jesus promised that He would go to the house of the centurion to heal his servant, the centurion replied: I am not worthy that You should come under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. By declaring himself unworthy, he showed himself worthy; not into whose walls, but into whose heart Christ would enter. Nor would he have said this with such faith and humility, unless he carried Him in his heart whom he feared to have enter his house. For it was not a great happiness if the Lord Jesus entered his walls, but was not in his heart. For the Master of humility both by word and example, dined in the house of a certain proud Pharisee named Simon. And when He reclined in his house, He was not in his heart where the Son of Man could lay His head.
The proud one was rejected from the discipleship of Christ.
For thus he called back from following him a certain proud man who, as can be understood from the Lord's words, wished to follow him of his own accord. "I will follow you, Lord," he said, "wherever you go." And the Lord, seeing the invisible things in his heart, said: "The foxes have their dens, and the birds of the sky have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." This is to say, "There dwell in you traps like foxes, there dwells pride like the birds of the sky; but the Son of Man, simple against traps, humble against pride, has nowhere to lay his head." And the very laying down of the head, not the rising, is a teacher of humility. Therefore he recalls this one wishing to go, and draws another who is refusing. For in the same place he says to a certain man: "Follow me." And he replied: "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and bury my father." Indeed, he excused himself piously: and for this reason, he was more worthy for his excuse to be removed and his calling to be confirmed. What he wished to do was pious: but the teacher taught what he should prioritize. For the master wanted him to be a preacher of the living word, to bring life to others. There were others through whom that necessity could be fulfilled. "Let," he said, "the dead bury their dead." When the unbelievers bury a corpse, the dead bury the dead. That man's body lost its soul; the souls of those others lose God. For just as the life of a body is the soul, so the life of the soul is God. Just as the body expires when it loses the soul, so the soul expires when it loses God. God lost is the death of the soul; the soul gone is the death of the body. The death of the body is necessary; the death of the soul is voluntary.
The faith of the centurion in humility.
The Lord was therefore reclining in the house of a certain proud Pharisee. He was in his house, as I said; and he was not in his heart. But He did not enter the house of this Centurion, and He possessed his heart. Zacchaeus, however, received the Lord both in his house and in his heart. Nonetheless, this one's faith is praised in humility. For he said: I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. And the Lord said: Truly, I tell you, I have not found such faith in Israel: according to the flesh. For this one was already an Israelite according to the spirit. The Lord had come to carnal Israel, that is, to the Jews, to seek first the lost sheep in that people, and from that people he had also taken his body: There I did not find such great faith, he says. We can measure the faith of men, as men: He who sees the interior, he whom no one deceives, bore witness to the heart of man, hearing the words of humility, proclaiming the sentence of healing.
In the centurion, the gentiles are represented.
But from where did he presume this? He says, "I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." I have authority over those placed under me, while I myself am placed under a certain authority above me. Therefore, he says, if I, a man under authority, have the power to command; what can you do, to whom all authorities are subject? However, this man was from the Gentiles: for he was a centurion. The Jewish nation already had a soldier of the Roman empire. There he performed the duties of a soldier as far as a centurion could do; both under authority and having authority; obedient as a subordinate, ruling over subordinates. But the Lord (as your dear Charity should especially note), although he was among the Jewish people, was already proclaiming the Church that would be throughout the whole world, into which he was about to send the Apostles: he himself, unseen and believed by the Gentiles, seen and killed by the Jews. For just as the Lord did not physically enter this man's house, yet healed his faith and the house itself while absent in body but present in majesty; in the same way, the Lord was bodily among the Jewish people alone; among other nations, he was neither born of the Virgin, nor suffered, nor walked with feet, nor endured human things, nor performed divine miracles. None of these things among the other nations: and yet it was fulfilled concerning him what had been said: "A people whom I did not know served me." How, if they did not know him? "By the hearing of the ear they obeyed me." The Jewish nation knew, and crucified; the world heard, and believed.
"A woman touching the hem of Christ."
This absence of his body and presence of his power in all nations, and in that woman who touched the hem of his garment, he signified when he asked, saying: Who touched me? As if absent, he asks: as if present, he heals. The disciples say to him, The crowds press upon you, and you say: Who touched me? As if he walked in such a way that he was touched by no body's touch at all, he said: Who touched me? And they: The crowds press upon you. And as if the Lord said, I seek the one touching, not the one pressing. Thus also now is his body, that is, his Church. The faith of few touches her, the crowd of many presses upon her. For you have heard that the Church is the body of Christ, as his children; and if you wish, you are they yourselves. The Apostle says this in many places: For his body, he says, which is the Church. And again: You are the body of Christ and members of it. Therefore if we are his body, what the body of his then suffered among the crowd, this his Church suffers. It is pressed by crowds, it is touched by few. The flesh presses upon her, faith touches her. Lift up therefore your eyes, I beseech you, who have the means to see. For you have what to see. Lift up the eyes of faith, touch the hem of the garment, it will suffice for salvation.
It is now fulfilled what was foretold in the Gospel.
See what you heard from the Gospel: what was to be then, is now present. Therefore, He says, I tell you: on account of the praised Centurion's faith, as one alien in the flesh, but domestic in heart. Therefore, He says, many will come from the east and the west. Not all, but many; nevertheless, they will come from the east and the west: the whole world is marked by these two directions. Many will come from the east and the west, and will sit with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. The children of the kingdom, namely the Jews. Why the children of the kingdom? Because they received the Law, to whom the Prophets were sent, among whom was the temple and the priesthood, who celebrated the figures of all things to come. For the things whose figures they celebrated, they did not recognize the presence. Therefore, He says, the children of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We see the Jews rejected, we see Christians called from the east and the west to a certain heavenly banquet, to sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; where the bread is righteousness, where the drink is wisdom.
They are censured for dining with pagans in the idol's temple.
Therefore, pay attention, brothers: for you are this – you are from this people, already foretold, now presented. You are indeed from those who were called from the east and the west to recline in the kingdom of heaven, not in the temple of idols. Therefore, be the body of Christ, not a burden on the body of Christ. You have the fringe of the garment, which you may touch, so that you may be healed from the flux of blood, that is, from the flow of carnal pleasures. You have, I say, the fringe of the garment, which you may touch. Think of the garment as the Apostles, clinging to the sides of Christ by the texture of unity. Among these Apostles was, as it were, the fringe, the least and last Paul: as he himself said, "I am the least of the Apostles." The fringe is the latest and least on the garment. The fringe is looked upon with contempt but touched with salvation. Even to this hour, we hunger and thirst, and we are naked, and we are buffeted. What is so marginal, what is so contemptible? Touch, if you suffer the flow of blood: power will come out from Him whose garment it is, and will heal you. The fringe now proposed to be touched was when it was read from the same Apostle: "For if anyone sees him who has knowledge, reclining in an idol's temple; will not his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? And through your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" How do you think men can be deceived by idols, which they think are honored by Christians? "God knows my heart," he says. But your brother does not know your heart. If you are weak, beware of greater sickness; if you are strong, take care of your brother's weakness. Those who see this are emboldened to other things, so that they do not only desire to eat there, but also to sacrifice. Behold, the weak brother perishes through your knowledge. Listen, brother: if you despise the weak, do you also despise the brother? Wake up. What if you sin against Christ Himself? For take heed that you cannot in any way despise Him. "But thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." Now let those who despise these things go and recline in an idol's temple: will they not be oppressive, not touching? And when they have reclined in the idol's temple, let them come and fill the church, not to receive salvation, but to impose a burden.
Reclining in the idol out of fear of some greater thing.
But you say, "I fear lest I offend someone greater." Indeed, fear lest you offend someone greater; and you do not offend God. For he who fears lest he offend someone greater, see whether he is indeed greater than the one whom you fear to offend. Certainly, do not offend someone greater. This rule is proposed to you. Is it not manifest that he should not be offended who is the greatest among all? Now examine your superiors. First to you are your father and mother: if they educate you rightly, if they nurture you in Christ; they should be listened to in all things, obeyed in every command; they command nothing against the greater one, and they are to be served. Who, you ask, is greater than the one who begot me? He who created you yourself. For man generates, but God creates. From where man generates, he does not know: what he is going to generate, he does not know. He who saw you to make you, before there was one whom he made, is certainly greater than your father. The country is greater than your parents themselves; so that whatever the parents command against the country, they shall not be heard. And whatever the country commands against God, it shall not be heard. For if you wish to be healed, if after the flow of blood, if after twelve years in that disease, if after consuming all things on doctors, and not having received health at any time, you wish to become healthy, O woman, whom I address as a type of the Church, your father commands this, and your people command that. But your Lord says to you: "Forget your people and your father's house." To what good? To what fruit? With what reward? "For the king has desired your beauty." He desired what he made: for that he might make you beautiful, he loved you ugly. For the unfaithful and ugly, he shed his blood; he rendered you faithful and beautiful; he loved his gifts in you. For what did you confer upon your spouse? What dowry did you receive from your former father and former people? Were they not the luxuries and rags of sins? He cast away your rags, tore off your sackcloth: he had mercy to adorn; he adorned to love.
A stumbling block to the brother is a sin against Christ.
What more, brothers? You Christians have heard that by sinning against your brothers, and striking their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Do not disdain, if you do not want to be erased from the book of life. How long shall we strive to speak clearly and pleasantly to you, while our grief forces us to speak in any way, and does not allow us to remain silent? Whoever wishes to despise these matters, sins against Christ; let them see what they are doing. We wish to gather the rest of the pagans; you are stones in the way; those wishing to come stumble and turn back. For they say in their hearts: Why should we abandon the gods, whom even the Christians themselves worship with us? Far be it from me, they say, that I should worship the gods of the Gentiles. I know, I understand, I believe. What are you doing to the weak conscience, which you strike? What are you doing to the price, if you disdain what is bought? See at what great cost it was bought: The weak brother perishes in your knowledge: which you claim to have, to know that an idol is nothing, and you think of God in your mind, and so you sit down at the idol’s table. In this knowledge the weak perishes. And so that you do not disdain the weak, he added, for whom Christ died. Consider who you wish to disdain, his price, and weigh the whole world with the death of Christ. And lest you think that you only sin against the weak, and consider the sin to be light and of little account: You sin, he says, against Christ. For people are wont to say: I sin against a man, surely not against God? Deny that Christ is God. Do you dare to deny that Christ is God? Have you learned anything else, when you were sitting at the idol’s table? The Christian doctrine does not admit this teaching. I ask where you have learned that Christ is not God. Pagans are wont to say this. Do you see what evil tables do? Do you see that bad conversations corrupt good morals? There you cannot speak about the Gospel, and you listen to those speaking about idols. There you lose what Christ is God: and what you drink there, you vomit up in the Church. Perhaps here you dare to speak, perhaps among the crowds you dare to murmur: Was not Christ a man? Was he not crucified? You have learned this from the pagans, you have lost salvation, you have not touched the fringe. Touch and receive salvation. Just as we have taught you to touch it in what is written: Whoever sees his brother sitting at an idol’s table: touch it also concerning the divinity of Christ. He was speaking of the same fringe concerning the Jews: Whose fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is above all, God blessed forever. Behold the true God against whom you sin, while you recline at the tables of false gods.
A foolish excuse of those reclining in an idol.
He says, "There is no God;" because it is the genius of Carthage. As if Mars or Mercury were gods. But consider how they regard it, not what it is. For I also know with you that it is a stone. If a genius is some ornament; let the citizens of Carthage live well, and they themselves will be the genius of Carthage. But if a genius is a demon, you have heard it there too: The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: I do not want you to become partners with demons. We know that it is not God; would that they too knew this: but for the sake of those who do not know this, the weak, their conscience must not be struck. This the Apostle advises. For they too, in what they claim as a divine presence and regard as a deity, that statue, the altar testifies. What is the altar doing there, if that is not regarded as a deity? Let no one say to me, "It is not a deity, it is not God." I have already said: Would that they knew this as we all know. But what they hold, for what purpose they hold it, what they do there, that altar testifies. It convicts the minds of all worshippers, let it not convict those who recline.
To press and touch the body of Christ.
But let not Christians oppress, if pagans oppress. It is the body of Christ. Did we not say this, because the body of Christ was being oppressed, and not touched? He endured the oppressors, he sought those who touched. And would that, brothers, the body of Christ be oppressed by pagans, by whom it is accustomed to be oppressed; let not Christians oppress the body of Christ. Brothers, it is for us to speak to you, it is for us to speak to Christians. For what have I to do with judging those outside? the Apostle himself says. We address them differently, as the weak; we must be gentle with them, that they may hear the truth: in you the decay must be cut away. If you seek how the pagans may be overcome, how they may be enlightened, how they may be called to salvation: forsake their festivities, forsake their trifles; and if they do not consent to our truth, let them be ashamed of their fewness.
A prelate, whether good or bad, cannot harm the pious.
If he who is set over you is good, he is your nurturer; if he is bad, he is your tempter. Willingly receive nourishment, and be approved in temptation. Be gold. Regard this world as a goldsmith's furnace: in one narrow place, there are three things: gold, chaff, and fire. Fire is applied to those two, the chaff is burned, the gold is purified. Someone yielded to threats and was brought to an idol: woe to me, for I mourn the chaff, I see the ashes. Another did not yield to threats, did not yield to torturers; brought before the judge, he stood in his confession, he was not bowed to the idol: what does the flame do? Does it not purify the gold? Stand in the Lord, brothers: more powerful is he who called you. Do not fear the threats of the impious. Endure enemies; you have those for whom you pray; do not be terrified at all. This is health, draw from it at this feast: drink here, where you may be satisfied, not there, where you may go mad. Stand in the Lord. You are silver, you will be gold. This likeness is not from us, it is from divine Scripture. You have read, you have heard: Like gold in the furnace he has tested them; and like a holocaust offering he has accepted them. Behold what you will be to the treasures of God. Be rich in God: not making him rich, but becoming rich by him. Let him fill you, admit nothing else to your heart.
Observance of ordered powers.
Do we raise you in pride, or say to you that you should be contemptuous against the ordained powers? We do not say this. You are even sick here, touch even here the hem of the garment. The Apostle himself says: Every soul should be subject to higher powers: for there is no power except from God. The powers that exist are ordained by God. He who resists the power resists the ordinance of God. But what, if it commands that which you should not do? Here indeed you should despise the power, fearing the power. Observe the very degrees of human affairs. If the curator commands something, is it not to be done? Yet, if he commands against the proconsul, you do not despise the power, but you choose to serve the greater. Nor should the lesser be angry if the greater is preferred. Again, if the proconsul commands something, and the emperor commands something else, is there any doubt that, with the former despised, it is to be served? Therefore, if the emperor commands one thing and God another, what do you judge? Pay the tribute, be obedient to me. Rightly, but not in the idol. He forbids the idol. Who forbids? The greater power. Pardon: you threaten prison, he threatens hellfire. Here now your faith must be taken up as a shield, in which you can extinguish all the fiery darts of the enemy.
The deceit of the powerful is compared to a razor.
But a powerful one lies in wait against you, and a powerful one plots against you: he sharpens a razor to shave off hair, not to cut off the head. What I have said, you have recently heard in the Psalm: "You have wrought deceit as a sharp razor." Why has he compared the deceit of a powerful evil one to a razor? Because it only applies to our superfluities. Just as the hairs on our body seem superfluous and are shaved off without harm to the flesh, so whatever an angry powerful one can do to you, count among your superfluities. He takes away your poverty: does he take away your riches? Your poverty and your riches are in your heart. He could take away your superfluities, he could cause harm, permitted even to injure the body. Even this life, for those considering another life; this life, I say, is to be reckoned among the superfluities. For even the martyrs despised it. They did not lose life, but they gained life.
The security of the pious under the protection of God.
Be certain, brothers, that enemies are not admitted against the faithful, except as long as it benefits the testing and proving of the faithful. Be certain, brothers, let no one say otherwise. Cast all your care upon the Lord, entirely cast yourselves into Him. He does not withdraw so that you fall. He who created us and gave us assurance regarding even the hairs of our head. "Amen I say to you," He says, "the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Our hairs are numbered by God: how much more our character, of which even our hairs are known to Him? See that God does not despise our smallest things. For if He did despise them, He would not create them. For He certainly created our hairs too and keeps them numbered. But now when they are, you say, perhaps they will perish. And hear His voice from this: “Amen I say to you, not a hair of your head will perish.” Why do you fear man, O man placed in the bosom of God? Do not fall from His bosom; whatever you may suffer there, it will be for salvation, not for ruin. The martyrs endured the laceration of their limbs, and do Christians fear the injuries of the times of Christians? He who injures you now does so out of fear. He does not say openly, "Come to the idol"; he does not say openly, "Come to my altars, dine there." And if he says this, and you refuse, let him complain, let him put this in his petition, let him declare this in his complaint: "He refused to come to my altars, he refused to come to the temple which I revere." Let him say this. He does not dare say it but devises other deceitful schemes. Prepare your hair, he sharpens the razor: he will remove your excess, shave whatever you are to leave behind. Let him take whatever remains, if he can. What did the powerful wrongdoer take? What great thing did he take? What the thief, what the burglar; to rage greatly, what the robber. Even if he is allowed to put this body to death, what does he take except what the robber does? I honored him when I said: a robber. For any robber, of whatever kind, is a man. What fever, what scorpion, what bad fungus. All the power of those who rage is to do what a fungus does. People eat bad fungus and die. Behold in what frailty human life is: which you will someday leave behind, do not fight for it in such a way that you are left behind.
Eternal life is the reward of labor.
Our life is Christ: attend to Christ. He came to suffer, but also to be glorified; to be despised, but also to be exalted; to die, but also to rise again. The work terrifies you, but look at the reward. Why do you wish to reach that thing delicately, to which labor alone brings you? But you fear to lose your silver; because you have reached your silver with great labor. If you did not reach the silver, which you will sometime lose even when dying, without labor; do you wish to reach eternal life without labor? Let that be dearer to you, to which you will thus reach after all labors, so that you may never lose it. If that is dear to you, to which you thus reached after all labors, so that one day you will lose it; how much more ought we to desire that perpetual thing?
Idols, unless legitimate power is given, should not be broken.
Do not believe their words, nor be afraid. They call us enemies of their idols. Thus may God provide, and give everything into power, just as He gave what is broken. For we say this to your Charity, do not do these things when it is not in your power to do this. It is the behavior of depraved men, of the insane Circumcellions, to be savage where they have no power, and to hasten to die without cause. You have heard what we read to you, all of you who were recently present in the Mappalia. When the land has been given to you in power (first he says, in power, then he says what must be done), he says, you shall destroy their altars, smash their groves, and break all their sacred pillars. When you have received power, do this. Where power has not been given to us, we do not act; where it has been given, we do not neglect it. Many pagans have these abominations on their estates: do we approach and break them? First, we act by breaking the idols in their hearts. When they have also become Christians, they either invite us to such a good work, or they anticipate us. Now we must pray for them, not be angry with them. If great pain moves, it moves against Christians, it moves against our brothers, who wish to enter the church in such a way that they have the body here, but the heart elsewhere. Everything should be inside. If what man sees is inside, why is what God sees outside?
Unjust complaints of idolaters.
But know, dearest, that their murmurs align themselves with the heretics, with the Jews. The heretics, Jews, and Pagans have united against unity. Because it happened that in some places the Jews received discipline due to their wickedness; they accuse, suspect, or pretend that we always seek such things about them. Because it happened that somewhere heretics suffered punishments by laws for their impiety and fury of their violences; now they say we seek anything at all times for their inconvenience to their destruction. Again, because it pleased against the Pagans that laws be passed—indeed for the Pagans, if they are wise—as a severe teacher comes when foolish children are playing in the mud and dirtying their hands, and the teacher shakes off the mud from their hands, extends the book—in this way, God wanted to terrify foolish childish hearts through princes subjected to Him, that they could shake off the mud from their hands and do something useful. What is useful from the hands? Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy without shelter into your house. And yet the children escape the sight of the teacher and return to the mud secretly; and when they are found out, they hide their hands so they are not seen; because, therefore, God wanted it, they think we seek idols everywhere; which, when we find, we break them in all places. Why? Do not places where they are exist before us? Or do we truly not know where they are? And yet we do not do it: because God did not give it into our power. When does God give it into power? When it is a Christian whose matter it is. He now desired the matter to be done by whose it is. If he did not want to give the place itself to the Church and only ordered that there should not be idols in his matter; I believe it should be done with utmost devotion so that a Christian soul, who wants to give thanks to God on earth and does not want anything there to be an insult to God, would be helped by Christians. To this it is added that He gave the places themselves to the Church. And idols would exist in the matter of the Church? Brothers, see what displeases the Pagans. It is not enough for them that we do not remove those things from their villas, do not break them: and they want them to be kept in ours. We preach against idols, we remove them from hearts: we are persecutors of idols: we profess. Are we their preservers? I do not do it where I cannot; I do not do it where the lord of the matter complains: but where he wants it to be done and gives thanks; I will be guilty if I do not do it.