Sermon 65

SERMO 65

ABOUT THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL MT 10:28:
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body," and so forth.

Fear should be driven out by fear.

The divine words, which have been read to us, admonish us to fear by not fearing, and not fear by fearing. You have noticed, when the holy Gospel was read, that before our Lord and God died for us, He wanted us to be firm: but admonishing that we should not fear, and admonishing that we should fear. For He says: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Behold where He warned that we should not fear. See where He warned that we should fear. But fear Him, He says, who has the power to kill both body and soul in hell. Therefore, let us fear, so that we may not fear. Fear seems to pertain to cowardice: fear seems to be for the weak, not the strong. But see what Scripture says: Fear of the Lord is the hope of strength. Let us fear, so that we may not fear: that is, let us prudently fear, so that we may not fear in vain. The holy martyrs, on whose feast this passage from the Gospel is read, by fearing did not fear: because by fearing God, they scorned men.

A human need fear nothing from another human.

For what is there to be feared by man from other men? And what is it that one might use to frighten another, a man to a man? He threatens, and he says: I kill you: and he does not fear, lest while he threatens, he might die first. I kill, he says. Who says this? To whom does he say it? I hear two: one threatening, the other fearing; of whom one is powerful, the other weak, but both mortal. Why then does power, puffed up with pride, stretch itself out in honor, equal in the weakness of the flesh? Let him who does not fear death threaten death with confidence. But if he fears what he threatens, let him reflect on himself, and compare himself to the one to whom he threatens. Let him find in the one he threatens an equal condition; and let him ask for mercy from the Lord together with him. For he is a man, and he threatens a man, a creature to a creature: but one is puffed up under the Creator, the other fleeing to the Creator.

The persecutor should not terrify the martyr of God.

Let the strongest martyr, standing as a man before a man, say: I do not fear, because I fear. What you threaten, if He does not wish it, you do not do: but what He threatens, to do it is prevented by no one. Moreover, what you threaten, and even if you are allowed, what do you do? You rage up to the flesh, the soul is safe. You do not kill what you do not see: the visible terrifies the visible. We both have an invisible Creator, whom we ought to fear together; who created man himself from the visible and the invisible: He made the visible from the earth, He animated the invisible with His breath. Therefore, the invisible substance, that is, the soul which raised the lifeless earth from the earth, does not fear when you strike the earth. You can strike the dwelling, but can you strike the inhabitant? The link having been struck flees, and will be crowned in secret. So what do you threaten, who can do nothing to the soul? By the merit of him to whom you can do nothing, he will rise up to whom you can do something. For by the merit of the soul both flesh will rise: and will be restored to the inhabitant, now no longer to perish, but to remain. Behold, I speak the words of the martyr, behold, nor even for my own flesh do I fear the threat. My flesh is subject to power: but even the hairs of the head are numbered by the Creator. Why should I fear to lose the flesh, who do not even lose a hair? How does He not attend to my flesh, to whom my trivial things are so well known? This body which can be struck and killed, for a time will be ashes, for eternity will be immortal. But to whom is this? To whom will the body be restored to eternal life even if killed, destroyed, dissipated? To whom will it be restored? To him who did not fear to lay down his soul, since he does not fear that his flesh be killed.

The soul in its own manner is immortal.

Indeed, brothers, the soul is said to be immortal, and it is immortal in its own manner: because, there is a certain life that can vivify the flesh with its presence. For the flesh lives through the soul. This life cannot die: and therefore, the soul is immortal. Why then did I say: In its own manner? Hear why. Because there is a certain true immortality, the immortality which is complete immutability: about which the Apostle speaks when talking about God: Who alone has immortality, and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no one among men has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Therefore, if God alone has immortality, certainly the soul is mortal. See why I said the soul is immortal according to its manner. For it can also die. Let your Charity understand, and no question will remain. I dare to say, the soul can die, can be killed. Certainly it is immortal. See, I dare to say, it is both immortal and can be killed: and therefore I said because there is a certain immortality, that is, complete immutability, which God alone has, about whom it is said: Who alone has immortality. For if the soul cannot be killed, how did the Lord Himself say when He warned us: Fear Him who has the power to kill both body and soul in hell?

How can the soul die?

I have still confirmed, I have not solved the question. I have proven that the soul can be killed. The Gospel cannot be contradicted except by an impious soul. Behold, it occurs to me now, and it comes to mind what I will say. Life cannot be contradicted except by a dead soul. The Gospel is life, impiety and infidelity are the death of the soul. Behold, it can die, and it is immortal. How then is it immortal? Because there is always some life in it that is never extinguished. How does it die? Not that there is no life, but by losing life. Indeed, the soul is both the life of something and it also has its own life. Consider the order of creatures. The life of the body is the soul: the life of the soul is God. Just as the life, that is, the soul, is present in the body so that the body does not die: so the life of the soul, that is, God, must be present so that the soul does not die. How does the body die? By the soul departing. The body dies, I say, when the soul departs: and a little earlier the desirable body now lies down despicable. The limbs, eyes, ears are present: but these are the windows of the house, the inhabitant has departed. He who mourns the dead calls in vain to the windows of the habitation: there is no one inside to hear. How much the affection of the mourner says, how much he enumerates, how much he recalls; and through what, so to speak, madness of grief he speaks as if to one who can feel, when he speaks to one who is absent? He enumerates manners, he enumerates signs of benevolence toward himself. You are the one who gave me that; you provided this and that: you are the one who loved me so and so. If you attend, if you understand, if you suppress the madness of grief, the one who loved you has departed: in vain does the house suffer you as a knocker, in which you cannot find a dweller.

Death, both of the body and of the soul, is known by which signs.

Let us return to the issue I mentioned a little while ago. The body is dead. Why? Because its life, that is, the soul, has departed. The body lives, yet it is wicked, unbelieving, hardened to belief, inflexible to correct its morals: with the body living, the soul, through which the body lives, is dead. For the soul is such a significant thing that it is capable of providing life to the body even when dead. Yes, I say, the soul is such a significant, excellent creature that it is capable of giving life to the flesh even when dead. For the soul of the wicked man, the soul of the unbeliever, the soul of the perverse, the hardened, is dead: and yet through this dead soul, the body lives. For that reason, it is there: it moves the hands to work, the feet to walk, directs the sight to see, inclines the ears to hear; it discerns tastes, shuns pains, seeks pleasures. All these are signs of a living body, but because of the presence of the soul. I ask the body whether it lives. It responds to me: You see it walking, you see it working, you hear it speaking, you observe it desiring and avoiding, and you do not understand that the body lives? Through these actions of the soul established within, I understand that the body lives. And I ask the soul itself whether it lives. It also has its deeds by which it shows its life. The feet walk, I understand the body lives, but through the presence of the soul. I inquire whether the soul lives. These feet walk. Behold, from one motion. I ask about the life of the body and soul. The feet walk, I understand the body lives. But where do they walk? To adultery, he says. Therefore the soul is dead. For the most truthful Scripture says: The widow who lives in pleasure is dead. While there is a great difference between pleasures and adultery, how can the soul, which is said to be dead in pleasures, live in adultery? It is dead. But even acting in this way, it is not truly dead. I hear it speaking; the body lives. For the tongue would not move in the mouth, nor produce articulate sounds unless there was an inhabitant within; and like a musician using this instrument, using its own tongue. Certainly, I understand. In this manner, the body speaks, the body lives. But I ask whether the soul also lives. Behold, the body speaks, it lives. What does it say? Just as I said about the feet, They walk, behold the body lives; and I asked, Where do they walk? to understand whether the soul also lives: so also when I hear it speaking, I understand that the body lives; I ask what it speaks to know if the soul lives. It speaks falsehood. If it speaks falsehood, then it is dead. How do we prove this? Let us ask the truth itself which says: A lying mouth kills the soul. I inquire, Why is the soul dead? What I said a little while ago, I ask, Why is the body dead? Because its life, the soul, has left. Why is the soul dead? Because its life, God, has abandoned it.

The death of the soul is to be feared more than that of the body.

Briefly then, having understood these things, know and hold firmly that the body is dead without the soul, and the soul is dead without God. Every person without God has a dead soul. You mourn the dead; mourn more for the sinner, mourn for the impious, mourn for the unbeliever. It is written: The mourning for the dead lasts seven days, but for the fool and the impious, all the days of their life. Do you not indeed have the bowels of Christian compassion, that you mourn a body from which the soul has departed, and do not mourn a soul from which God has departed? Holding to this, a martyr should respond to the intimidator: Why do you compel me to deny Christ? So you compel me to deny the truth? If I refuse, what do you do? You strike my body so that my soul departs from it: but that very soul has its own body. It is not imprudent, it is not foolish. You wish to strike my body: you wish that, while I fear lest you strike my body and my soul departs from it, I should strike my own soul, and my God departs from it? Therefore, do not fear, martyr, the sword of the assailant: fear your tongue, lest you strike yourself, and kill not the flesh, but the soul. Fear for your soul, lest it dies in the fire of Gehenna.

The eternal death of the body and soul, what it might be.

Hence, therefore, the Lord: "Who has the power to kill both body and soul in the Gehenna of fire." How? When the wicked is sent to Gehenna, will the body burn there, will the soul burn there? The death of the body, eternal punishment: the death of the soul, the absence of God. Do you want to know what the death of the soul is? Understand the prophet saying: "Let the wicked be taken away, so that he may not see the glory of the Lord." Therefore, let the soul fear its own death and not fear the death of its body. Because if it fears its own death and lives in its God, by not offending and rejecting Him, it will merit to receive its body at the end; not to eternal punishment, like the wicked; but to eternal life, like the just. Fearing that death and loving that life, the martyrs, awaiting the promises of God, scorned the threats of persecutors, deserved to be crowned with God, and left us those solemn celebrations to be celebrated.