Sermon 65A

Righteous love carries upwards to the divine, impure love plunges down to the depths.

Encouraging us to love Him, the Lord began with the remembrance of those persons whom we justly love. "He who loves father or mother more than me," He said, "is not worthy of me." Therefore, if he who places his father before Christ is not worthy of Christ, how is he worthy of any trace of Christ who places gold before Christ? For there are things that are wrongly loved in the world, and when they are wrongly loved in the world, they make the lover unclean. Great is the defilement of the soul from illicit love and a burden pressing down one who wishes to fly. For as much as just and holy love lifts the soul upwards, so much does unjust and impure love sink it downwards. Every person is carried to where his own weight of love should bear him. For he is not carried to where he should not be, but to where he should be. He who loves well will be borne to where he loves, and where will he be except where the good he loves is? With what reward does the Lord Christ exhort us to love Him, except that His request to the Father be fulfilled: "I desire that where I am, they also may be with me"? Do you wish to be where Christ is? Love Christ and you will be drawn by this weight to the place of Christ. That which draws or carries you upwards does not allow you to sink down. Seek no other mechanisms for going upwards; by loving you strive, by loving you are drawn, by loving you reach your goal. You strive indeed when you struggle with unclean love; you are drawn when you overcome; you reach your goal when you are crowned. "Who will give me wings," said a certain lover, "like a dove, and I will fly and rest?" He was still seeking wings, he did not yet have them, and therefore he groaned; he was not yet rejoicing, he was still struggling, he was not yet being drawn upwards.

That many loves may be overcome, one good one is necessary.

Therefore, murmurs of wicked loves surround. They entice and hold back the one desiring to fly from all sides, from all sides visible things seem to compel themselves to be loved. But let them not compel, let them be understood, and they will be overcome. The world is beautiful, it seduces with the variety of its manifold species. It cannot be counted how many illicit loves it suggests daily. With how simple a love is the manifold conquered! To conquer many loves, one love is necessary; one good against all evils. For unity conquers variety and charity conquers cupidity. He used to say: Who will grant me wings, wanting to have the means to fly to rest, because in these goods which are called good in this world one does not find rest who loves something else. A lover of the homeland has a bitter exile even in a delightful place among many things that persuade themselves to be loved. It is a great punishment not to have what you love. But you do not have what you love; you have what you may love, but you do not have what you have already begun to love. What is present that can be loved if what is loved is absent? It is a torment of the heart to love and not have. For example: someone loves their country, they have money. For the love of their country, they do not love money. If they loved money while in exile, which would be abundant for the traveler, perhaps that very money would detain them, impede their return. Say whatever you want, it impedes the return. But that one thing alone, if present, suffices, the rest are reckoned superfluous which do not help in reaching what is loved. However, if it were said to them: Money helps you to be able to return to your country, they would take it, they would use it, they would desire it, but not for itself. A ship helps you, they would desire it, but not for the ship. Sailors help, the captain helps, the one who loads provisions helps: these are taken, desired, but not for themselves. The rest are taken, one thing is loved. The rest are taken for this purpose: to reach that which is loved.

All created goods can by no means be compared with the Creator.

Do we think we can say: One thing I have asked from the Lord? Now let us say it, let us say it if we can, let us say it as we can, as much as we can. See how happy is the heart already using that voice inwardly where He alone hears to whom it is said, for many say outwardly what they do not have inwardly because they glory in appearance and not in heart. Let each one see, therefore, how happy is the heart that says inwardly where it knows what it says: One thing I have asked from the Lord, this I will seek. What is that thing? It speaks of one thing either as a object or a request. What is it? That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the delight of the Lord. This is one thing, but how good it is! Weigh this against many things. If you understand anything now, if you now seek anything from it, if you know how to yearn for it with holy desire, weigh this against many things, bear the scales of justice, place on one side gold, silver, precious stones, honors, dignities, powers, nobility, the praises of men (when will I count them all?) place the whole world; see if there is any contemplation, see if you can place these two things even for examination, the whole world with the Creator of the world.

Beautiful and good are the creatures, but the Creator is much better.

What does gold say to me? Love me. But what does God say to me? Use it, and use it in such a way that it does not hold onto me and separate from you. Whatever else says to me: Love me, it is a creature. I love the Creator. It is good which He made, but how much better is He who made it! I do not yet see the beauty of the Creator, but I see the extreme beauty of the creatures. What I do not see, I believe; by believing, I love; and by loving, I see. Let the allurements of mortal things be silent, let the voice of gold and silver be silent, let the splendors of gems be silent, finally let the enticements of this light be silent, let everything be silent. I have a clearer voice to follow, which moves me more, which excites me more, which inflames me more warmly. I do not hear the noise of earthly things. What shall I say? Let gold be silent, let silver be silent, let the rest of this world be silent.

Parents are to be loved, but by no means to be placed before Christ.

The father says: Love me. The mother says: Love me. To these voices I will say: Be silent. Is it not just what they demand? Shall I not return what I have received? The father says: I begot. The mother says: I bore. The father says: I taught. The mother says: I nourished. Perhaps their voices are just, saying: You wish to be carried on his wings, debtor, do not fly; return what we have given. Let us respond to the father and mother justly saying: Love us; let us respond: I love you in Christ, not for Christ I love. Be with me in him, not I with you without him. But they say - we do not want Christ. But I desire Christ more than you. Shall I regard the parent and lose the Creator? I answer the father: You begot me driven by pleasure, he created with goodness both me and you. Is he despised because we are who he loved before we existed? Let us also say to the mother: Could you conceive, but could you also form? Could you become heavy with my flesh in your womb, but also breathe a soul into the flesh? When you carried me enclosed, did you know whether I was a female or a male? Just as you were ignorant of your burden, was God of his work? Do you dare to say: Let us not go to him, who does not hear me saying: Let us go together. I hear more, and I fear and love more. And you have not done more than he who created me in you except because he was created for me. For he through whom all things were created, was created among all things for us. Do I despise Christ by loving the mother, who as God wished to have a mother for my sake? Perhaps he wished to have a mother for that reason to have someone through whom to teach me to despise father and mother for the kingdom of heaven.

The teaching and example of Christ about loving parents and relatives.

Speaking to His disciples, He says: Do not call anyone on earth your father, for One is your Father, God. Then teaching and guiding in prayer, He instructed us to say: Our Father who art in heaven. The father whom I had on earth I have placed in the tomb. I always have a Father in heaven. He said, Do not call anyone on earth your father, for One is your Father, God. It might seem harsh to impose a command without giving an example. A certain thing was said about the kingdom of heaven when His disciples were with Him, and His mother stood outside, she was announced as standing outside. I say, the mother, with her brothers, that is, with her relatives, was announced as standing outside. Which mother? The mother who conceived in faith, the mother who bore Him remaining a virgin, the faithful and holy mother was announced as standing outside. If He had left aside what He was saying and had gone to her, He would have exhibited human, not divine, affection in His heart. Do not listen to your mother calling you away from the kingdom of heaven; He despised even the good Mary for the sake of the word of the kingdom of heaven. Saint Mary, wishing to see Christ, is neglected, hindering those who hear their mother from seeing Christ? Let us recall what He replied when His mother and His brothers, that is, His relatives, were announced as standing outside. What did He respond? Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? And He, stretching out His hand towards His disciples, said: These are my brothers. Whoever does the will of my Father who sent me, he is my brother and sister and mother. He rejected the synagogue from which He was born, He found those He regenerated. If they are mother, brother, sister, who do the will of Him who sent Him, there is Mary, His mother.

Fleshly kinship and spiritual proximity; the Church is the mother and bride of Christ.

Whoever does the will of Him who sent me, he is my brother and sister and mother. You have that which allows you to be a brother of Christ, love the paternal inheritance with Him. You have that which allows you to be a sister of Christ, love the same inheritance with Him. You have that which allows you to be the mother of Christ, if you conceive in your heart what she conceived in her womb. In these names of relationships, human affection is confined. In carnal propagation, anyone cannot be a brother and mother of one person. Who does not know that it cannot be? But charity is not confined. Certainly, the Church is the spouse of Christ, the Church is the bride of Christ. We know by which sacrament the first prophecy of the first man was spoken: "They will be two in one flesh." We know how the Apostle explains this saying: "But I speak in Christ and in the Church." Therefore, if without a doubt, the Church is the spouse of Christ, yet in another way, in another sound understanding, the Church can be the mother of Christ. For if it could be said of any one individual: "Whoever does the will of Him who sent me, is brother, sister, mother," how much more can this be said of the whole Church, which daily conceives the members of Christ in catechumens and gives birth to the members of Christ from unbelievers? But you, says the Apostle, are the body and members of Christ. I ask you, O members of Christ: Who gave birth to you? You answer: Mother Church. How is Mother Church not the mother of Christ who gives birth to the members of Christ? This is the house in which He chose to dwell, who sought only one thing. How does he not honor the spouse, wishing to dwell with the spouse of Christ? How does he not honor the mother, wishing to dwell with the mother of Christ? How does he not honor the father, wishing to have the Father of Christ? Let parents not be angry. Much indeed is afforded to them to whom only God is preferred. Or if they do not want even God to be preferred to them, what do they want, what do they urge? Let us hear them. I think they do not dare to say to us: Prefer us to God. They do not say it. No one says this, not even the insane. Not even he who says in his heart: There is no God says this to his son. Therefore, no father or mother will dare to say this to be preferred to God. I do not say to be preferred, but neither to be compared. What then do they say? God has told you. What has God told me? Honor your father and your mother. I acknowledge, God has told me. Do not be angry when I prefer Him, who said this, to you. I love, I truly love, I love you too entirely. But He who taught me to love you is better than you. Only do not draw me against Him and love Him with me, who taught me to love you but not more than Him.

Parents should be loved, but Christ more.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. But he added: More than me. Love, he says, your parents, but not more than me. His bride cries out to you: Order love in me. Love in order, that you may be ordered. Distribute to things their proper weights and measures. Love father and mother, but you have something to love more than father and mother. If you love them more, you will be condemned, and if you do not love them, you will be condemned. Let us give honor to our parents, but let us prefer our Creator whom we love more, both by fearing and loving and obeying and honoring and believing and desiring. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Let parents therefore step aside a little, not rejected but honored in order.

In no way do parents love the children whom they prohibit from following Christ.

A man has a wife; a man has children. They cry out: Love us. Respond: I love. Say to the wife: If I did not love you, I would not have married you. Say to the children: If I did not love you, I would not have begotten you, I would not have raised you. But what is it that you want? You want to call back the martyr who is advancing towards Christ, not to abandon you, and you envy the crown of the one whom you love? Return the favor. He loves you, so love him as well. Why does he love and you hate? Behold, he denies Christ and is condemned. See what you have done. Would you wish for him whom you love to be condemned by an earthly judge? If you would will it, surely you do not love. But because you love him, you do not wish him to be condemned by an earthly judge. If he denies Christ, he is not condemned on earth, but he is condemned by Him who made heaven and earth. Why do you not fear his condemnation by a greater judge, the one whom you love? An earthly judge rages unto death. This one rages unto death; thereafter and beyond death. Why then do you act in a way that brings harm to the one you love? From whom do you call back the one you love? So that he may have hell and not have the crown. Is this love? But why do you not want him to suffer these things for Christ, you do not believe. For if you believed, you would not recall him from suffering, but you would want to suffer with him.

If separation is to be feared from a wife, much more so from the Creator.

About the children, it is easy. More compelling is the wife: She says, "Do not leave me. You will depart and I will remain a widow. God has joined us, let no man separate us." Respond to such words. Do not let them break you, do not let them corrupt you. They are unjust, they must be examined. Not because she said to you from the Gospel, "What God has joined, let no man separate," should you fear these things, so that you are separated from God while you wish to be joined to your wife. If separation is to be feared from the wife, how much more from the Creator? God has joined, let no man separate. But neither will you be separated from your wife when you precede to the crown for the name of Christ. The widow whom you desert has you as an advocate for herself, because you have not deserted her whom you left for such reasons. But if apart from the passion for Christ, you had died as human things are, would separation be said? The husband dies first and separation should not happen? Evil woman, this is not to provide for you, but to envy your husband. But you will remain a widow? Happier if you remain a widow. But you are anxious lest she be enticed by a second marriage? Indeed, second marriages are lawful, but perhaps you will also be safe from this. You are ashamed to marry, wife of a martyr.

With what measure Christ should be loved beyond one's own blood relations.

Therefore, let no one love father, mother, children, or wife more than Christ. Those very things that are rightly loved, that are piously loved, in which there is sin if they are not loved, let no one love more than Christ, let no one love like Christ. If he loves thus, it is said according to the manner of love, not according to the measure. What does it mean to love according to the manner of love, not according to the measure? This means not carnally, but spiritually. But you should not love thus, that is, as much and equally. For not only is it a sin to love anyone more than Christ, but it is a sin not to love Christ more than anyone. He says, I do not love more. Behold, you do not sin. But let me hear something else. How much do you love? You answer: I love as much as my parents, as much as my spouse, as much as my children, as much as Christ. You still sin. You would have sinned by preferring, now you sin by comparing. Does it seem right to you that Christ should be loved by you as much as your father, mother, wife? Is it right for you to equate the creature with the Creator? Is it right? Where is what is proclaimed: Order love in me? Your father did not die for you, nor your mother, nor your children. If danger threatens you, they want you to live, but more for you to outlive them. If it happens that it is said to a father: Either you will die, or your son, do you think there is anyone who would say: I rather than my son? Do we think such a father, such an old man who would not rather choose a quickly ended life than one expended for his son? There are few days left to an old man, a decrepit man, a tired man, a bent man, and he does not easily want to spend those few days for the many days of his son. Already by the weight of old age he is close to the grave, he chooses to be deprived of the light than to die. What kind of light will there be after the burial of his son? How unpleasant, how sorrowful, how bitter! Yet the light is loved, the son is buried.

Render yourself to God for all His benefits.

Christ loved you before you existed; He created you; before the foundation of the world, He predestined you; already created, He nourished you through father and mother. For it was not the parents who provided you from their own. He loved you, created you, nourished you, delivered Himself for you, endured reproaches for you, received wounds for you, redeemed you with His blood. Do you not tremble and say: What shall I render to the Lord for all He has rendered to me? What will you render to the Lord for all He has rendered to you? Hear Him saying: He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. Hear Him speaking, fear Him terrifying, love Him promising. What have you rendered to the Lord for all He has rendered to you? Behold, now you have rendered. What have you rendered? Did you make safe as yourself? Did you bring into eternal life as yourself? Did you create as yourself? Did you make Him Lord as He made you man? What have you rendered except that it may return to you? If you think truly, you did not bestow upon Him, but you benefited yourself. Nor did you receive even this from yourself. For what do you have that you did not receive? Why do you not find what to render to the Lord? Render yourself there, return what He made to Him. Return yourself, not yours. His creature, not your iniquity.

One thing asked for: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life.

Thus imbued, thus instructed, thus educated from the law of God, seek one thing from the Lord, seek this. Nothing will be lacking, He will not deprive the good from those who walk in innocence. However, one is not innocent who is guilty in oneself. Why do you expect another to pity you, who perhaps have not yet learned it? Have mercy on your soul, pleasing to God. You wish that God would please you, but you do not wish to please God. In such a way, God cannot be pleasing to you. For then He would please you if He would support your iniquities! You thought wickedly, he says, that I would be like you. Have mercy on your soul, pleasing to God. It is not good that when you are turned away from the right, God should please you. Correct yourself. Do not wish to bend God to your will. Please God and God will please you. Be upright, lest you seek not only yourself but also God perverse. For you sit idly and shape God according to your desires. If God, he says, would do this! Oh, if He would do that! He will do nothing but good. But evildoers dislike God. How good is God to the upright in heart. Therefore let us seek one thing from the Lord, brothers. When I say to you, I say to myself. Let us all seek this one thing. Let us all hear this from the one. Let us seek one thing from the Lord, let us seek to dwell in the house of the Lord for all the days of our lives. All those days are one eternal day. When you hear: for all the days of my life, do not fear that these days will end. These days truly do not end because we do not desire a human day. Neither does one day stand with us, nor does one day last with us, all flee. Before it comes, it departs. Therefore, of this day of which we speak, how much has already passed. Nor do we hold the hour in which we are. It flees, and another comes, but even it does not stand but flees. What do you love? Comprehend what you love, hold what you love, have what you love. It neither stands nor permits standing. All flesh is grass, and all human glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withers, the flower falls. All these things flee. Do you wish to stand? But the word of the Lord remains forever. Therefore in His Word that remains forever, stand and listen to Him, and with Him you will remain forever.