Sermon 67

SERMO 67

On the Words of the Gospel, Matthew 11:25
"I CONFESS TO YOU, FATHER, LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH,"
Because you have hidden these things from the wise, and so on.

"Confession" is twofold: that of the sinner and that of the praiser.

When the Holy Gospel was read, we heard that the Lord Jesus exulted in the Spirit, and said: "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones." So far for now the words of the Lord; if we consider them worthily, diligently, and, most importantly, piously, we find first that not always when we read the word "confession" in the Scriptures are we to understand the voice of a sinner. Above all, it must be said, and your Charity must be admonished from this: because soon as this word sounded in the mouth of the Reader, the sound of your breast-beating followed as well, hearing namely what the Lord said: "I give you praise, Father." In the very act that the word sounded: "I give you praise," you beat your breasts. But what is it to beat the breast except to accuse what lies hidden in the breast, and to punish the hidden sin with a manifest blow? Why did you do this, except because you heard: "I give you praise, Father?" You heard: "I give you praise;" you did not pay attention to who was confessing. Now then, note: If Christ said, "I give you praise," from whom all sin is far removed; it is not only the voice of a sinner, but also sometimes of a praiser. Therefore, we confess either praising God or accusing ourselves. Both confessions are pious, whether when you reproach yourself, who are not without sin; or when you praise Him, who cannot have sin.

The confession of the sinner is itself the praise of God.

However, if we think well, your reproach is his praise. For why do you now confess in the accusation of your sin? In the accusation of yourself, why do you confess, unless it is because you have been made alive from the dead? For the Scripture indeed says: "From the dead, as if he does not exist, confession perishes." If confession perishes from the dead, he who confesses lives: and if he confesses sin, surely he has come back to life from death. If the confessor of sin has revived from death, who raised him up? No dead person is the raiser of himself. He who could raise himself was the one who was not dead in the flesh. Indeed, he raised what had been dead. He raised himself, who lived in himself, but was dead in his flesh that had to be raised. For the Father alone did not raise the Son, of whom it was said by the Apostle: "Therefore God exalted him"; but also the Lord himself, that is, his body; whence he says: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But the sinner is dead, especially the one whom the weight of custom burdens, as Lazarus was buried. For it was a small thing that he was dead; he was even buried. Therefore, whoever is burdened by the weight of sinful habit, of an evil life, namely the desires of earthly things, so that in him it has already been done, as it is miserably said in a certain psalm: "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God"; such a person becomes as it is said: "From the dead, as if he does not exist, confession perishes." Who will raise him, unless the one who cried out after removing the stone, saying: "Lazarus, come forth"? What does it mean to come forth, if not to bring out what was hidden? He who confesses comes forth. He could not come forth unless he lived: he could not live unless he had been raised. Therefore, in the confession of himself, the accusation is the praise of God.

The Church benefits sinners by absolving them.

Therefore, someone will say, "What benefit is the Church, if now a confessor, having been raised by the voice of the Lord, goes forth? What benefit is the Church to the confessor, to whom the Lord says: 'Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven'?" Consider Lazarus himself: he goes forth with bindings. He was already living by confessing; but he was not yet walking freely, being entangled by bindings. What then does the Church, to whom it was said: 'Whatever you loose will be loosed,' do, except what the Lord immediately says to the disciples: 'Loose him, and let him go'?"

To praise God: to accuse ourselves.

Therefore, whether we accuse ourselves or praise God, we praise God twice. If we accuse ourselves piously, we certainly praise God. When we praise God, we proclaim Him as the one who is without sin: when, however, we accuse ourselves, we give glory to Him by whom we have been resurrected. If you do this, the enemy finds no occasion to circumvent you before the judge. For when you yourself have been the accuser, and the Lord the liberator; what will he be, except a slanderer? Rightly did he provide protection for himself against enemies, not visible ones, flesh and blood, to be pitied rather than feared; but against those enemies against whom the Apostle urges us to arm ourselves: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood," that is, against men whom you see rage against you. They are vessels, another uses them: they are instruments, another plays them. The devil entered, it is said, into the heart of Judas to betray the Lord. Someone says: What then did I do? Hear the Apostle: "Do not give the devil a foothold." You gave place to him by your evil will: he entered, possessed, and used it. If you had not given place, he would not have possessed.

Our enemies are invisible.

Therefore, admonishing us, he says: We do not have a struggle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Anyone might think it is against the kings of the earth, against the powers of the age. Why? Are they not flesh and blood? It has been said once, not against flesh and blood. Turn away from all men. Who then remain as enemies? Against principalities and powers of spiritual wickedness, the rulers of the world. As if he gave more to the devil and his angels. He gave more and called them the rulers of the world. But lest you understand wrongly, he explains what the world is, whose rulers they are. Rulers of the world, of this darkness. What is the world of this darkness? The world is full of his ruler, his lovers, and infidels. The Apostle calls these darknesses. Of these rulers, the devil and his angels. These darknesses are not natural, they are not unchangeable: they are changed, and become light; they believe and are illuminated by believing. When this has been done in them, they will hear: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. For when in darkness, not in the Lord: and again when in light, not in yourself, but in the Lord. For what do you have that you did not receive? Because therefore there are invisible enemies, they are to be fought invisibly. For you conquer a visible enemy by striking: you conquer an invisible one by believing. A visible enemy is a man; striking is also visible: an invisible enemy is the devil; believing is also invisible. Therefore, it is an invisible fight against invisible enemies.

Whence protection against enemies.

How does a certain person say he is safe from these enemies? For I had begun to say this, and I needed to deal with these enemies with some delay. Now therefore, with the enemies known, let us see the protection. Praising I will call upon the Lord, and from my enemies I will be saved. You have what to do. Praising, call: but praising, call upon the Lord. For if you praise yourself, you will not be saved from your enemies. Praising, call upon the Lord, and you will be saved from your enemies. For what does the Lord Himself say? The sacrifice of praise will glorify me; and there is the way where I will show him my salvation. Where is the way? In the sacrifice of praise. Do not place your foot outside this way. Be in the way: do not depart from the way; not even a nail from the praise of the Lord, let alone a foot. For if you wish to deviate from this way, and to praise yourself instead of the Lord, you will not be saved from those enemies: because it is said of them: They have laid snares for me along the path. Therefore, whatever good you think you have from yourself, you have deviated from the praise of God. Do you wonder, then, if the enemy deceives you, when you are your own deceiver? Listen to the Apostle: For if anyone considers himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Grace shines forth most greatly in Christ and in the thief.

Therefore, observe the Lord confessing: I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. I confess to You, I praise You. I praise You, I do not accuse myself. However, as it pertains to the admission of that man who is Christ, it is all grace, unique grace, perfect grace. What did that man who is Christ deserve, if you remove the grace, and such great grace, by which it was necessary for there to be one Christ, and the one we know? Remove that grace, what is Christ, but a man? What else but you? He took up a soul, he took up a body, he took up the full man: he fits it unto himself, the Lord makes one person with the servant. How great is that grace? Christ in heaven, Christ on earth: at the same time Christ both in heaven and on earth: not two Christs, but the same Christ both in heaven and on earth. Christ with the Father, Christ in the womb of the virgin: Christ on the cross, Christ in the underworld helping certain ones: and on that very day Christ in paradise with the confessing thief. And what did the thief deserve there, except that he held onto that path, where He showed his salvation? May your foot not stray from that. For in that which he accused himself, he praised God, and made his life blessed. He indeed presumed from the Lord, and said to Him: Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. For he considered his crimes, and held it as a great thing, if he might even be spared at the end. But the Lord immediately, when he said: Remember me; but when? When you come into your kingdom: Amen, He said, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. Mercy offered what misery delayed.

Faith denied to the proud.

Listen then to the Lord confessing: "I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth." What do I confess? In what do I praise you? For this confession, as I said, contains praise. "Because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones." What is this, brothers? Understand it from the contrary meaning. "You have hidden these things," he says, "from the wise and prudent": and he did not say: "You have revealed them to the foolish and imprudent": but he says: "You have indeed hidden them from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones." He opposed to the wise and prudent, who are to be mocked, the arrogant falsely grand, but truly puffed up, not fools, not imprudent, but little ones. Who are the little ones? The humble. Therefore: "You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent." By the name of the wise and prudent, he himself explained that the proud are understood, when he said: "You have revealed them to little ones." Therefore, "You have hidden them not from the little ones." What is it, not from the little ones? Not from the humble. What is it, not from the humble, but from the proud? O way of the Lord! Either it was not, or it lay hidden, that it might be revealed to us. Why did the Lord rejoice? Because it was revealed to the little ones. We must be little ones; for if we wish to be great, as if wise and prudent, it is not revealed to us. Who are the great? The wise and prudent. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." You have the remedy from the contrary. If by professing yourself to be wise you have become foolish, then profess yourself to be foolish, and you will be wise. But profess: profess and say it inwardly; because it is as you say. If you profess, do not say it before men and not say it before God. Surely, what pertains to yourself, what pertains to your own, you are in darkness. For what else is it to be foolish, but to be in darkness in the heart? Indeed, concerning those, he says: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Before they said this, what again? "Their foolish heart was darkened." Say that you are not your own light. At most, you are an eye; you are not the light. What good is an open and healthy eye, if the light is missing? Therefore say, the light is not from yourself; and cry out what is written: "You will light my lamp, O Lord: with your light, O Lord, you will enlighten my darkness." For mine is nothing but darkness: but you, the light driving away darkness, enlightening me: not being light from myself to myself; but a light not participating, except in you.

John is not the light, but the lamp.

Thus John, the friend of the bridegroom, was thought to be Christ, was thought to be the light. He was not the light; but that he might bear witness about the light. But what was the light? It was the true light. What is true? That which enlightens every man. If the true light enlightens every man; therefore also John rightly spoke, rightly confessed: But we have received from his fullness. See if he said anything else, than: You will light my lamp, O Lord. Finally, already illuminated, he bore witness. For the blind, a lamp bore witness during the day. See that the lamp is: You, he said, sent to John, and wanted to rejoice for an hour in his light: he was a burning and shining lamp. He was a lamp, that is, an illuminated thing, lit to shine. That which can be lit, can also be extinguished. But so that it may not be extinguished, let it not endure the wind of pride. Therefore: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, those thinking themselves light, and they were darkness; and because they were darkness, and thought themselves light, they could not be illuminated. But those who were darkness, and confessed themselves to be darkness, were little ones, not great; they were humble, not proud. Rightly therefore they said: You will light my lamp, O Lord. They acknowledged themselves, praised the Lord, did not depart from the way of salvation. Praising the Lord they called upon, and were saved from their enemies.

Precatio.

Turned towards the Lord God the Father almighty, let us give Him the greatest and abundant thanks with a pure heart, as much as our smallness can bear; praying with all our soul for His singular meekness, that He may deign to hear our prayers in His good pleasure, expel the enemy from our deeds and thoughts by His power, multiply our faith, guide our mind, grant us spiritual thoughts, and lead us to His blessedness, through Jesus Christ His Son, Amen.