Sermons to the People 129.1–130.5

Let your Charity attend to the Gospel reading that has just sounded in our ears, while we say the few things the Lord grants. The Lord Jesus was speaking to the Jews and saying to them: “Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life; they bear witness of me.” Then a little later: “I have come,” he says, “in my Father’s name, and you have not received me: if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” Then a little later: “How can you believe me, expecting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory that is from God alone?” At the end he says: “I do not accuse you before the Father: there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you hope. For if you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me too: for he wrote of me. But since you do not believe his words, how can you believe me?” On these things, set before us by God from the mouth of the reader but by the ministry of the Savior, hear a few words, not to be counted but to be weighed.

For all these things are easy to understand of the Jews. But we must take care lest, while we attend too much to them, we take our eyes off ourselves. For the Lord was speaking to his disciples; and certainly what he was saying to them, he was also saying to us who came after. For it does not belong to them alone, when he says, “Look, I am with you until the end of the age,” but to all the Christians who were to come afterwards and who will come forth until the end of the age. So speaking to them he says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” Then they thought the Lord had said this because they had not brought bread: they did not understand that “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” meant, “Beware of the teaching of the Pharisees.” What was the teaching of the Pharisees but what you have just heard? Seeking glory from one another, expecting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory that is from God alone. Of these the apostle Paul says: “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” “They have,” he says, “a zeal for God: I know it, I am aware of it, I was among them, I was such a one.” “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”? What is this, apostle, “not according to knowledge”? Explain to us what knowledge you commend, which you grieve is not in them and want to be in us. He went on and added, and opened what he had set down closed. What is “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”? “For not knowing the righteousness of God, and wanting to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” So not knowing God’s righteousness and wanting to establish one’s own, that is, expecting glory from one another and not seeking the glory that is from God alone: this is the leaven of the Pharisees. The Lord bids us beware of it. If he bids his servants, and it is the Lord who bids, let us beware; lest we hear, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?”

Let us leave the Jews for a little, then, to whom the Lord was then speaking. They are outside; they do not want to hear us. They hate the Gospel itself; they procured false witnesses against the Lord so as to condemn him when he was alive; they bought other witnesses with money against him when he was dead. When we say to them, “Believe in Jesus,” they answer us, “Are we to believe in a dead man?” But when we add, “But he rose again,” they answer, “Far from it; his disciples stole him from the tomb.” The Jews, buyers, love falsehood, and despise the truth of the Lord, the Redeemer. What you say, Jew, your fathers bought with money; and what they bought has remained in you. Pay attention rather to him who bought you, not to him who bought a lie for you.

But let us leave these, as we said: let us attend to these brothers of ours with whom we are dealing. For Christ is head and body. The head is in heaven, the body is on earth: the head is the Lord, the body is his Church. But you remember the saying, “The two shall be in one flesh. This is a great mystery,” says the apostle, “but I speak of Christ and the Church.” If, then, they are two in one flesh, they are two in one voice. Our head, the Lord Christ, spoke to the Jews the things we heard when the Gospel was read: the head to his enemies. Let the body too, that is, the Church, speak to its enemies. You know to whom it speaks. What has it to say? I have not said it of my own, so that the voice may be one: because one flesh, one voice. Let us say this, then, to them: I speak with the voice of the Church. O brothers, scattered sons, straying sheep, branches cut off, why do you slander me? Why do you not recognize me? “Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life; they bear witness of me.” What our head says to the Jews, the body says to you: “You will seek me, and you will not find me.” Why? Because you do not search the Scriptures, which bear witness of me.

Witness for the head: “The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.” Witness for the body, to Abraham, which the apostle mentioned: “The promises were made to Abraham.” “As I live, says the Lord; by myself I swear, because you have obeyed my voice, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your seed like the stars of heaven and like the sand of the sea; and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” You have witness for the head; you have it for the body. Hear another, brief one, embracing head and body almost in a single sentence. The psalm was speaking of Christ’s resurrection: “Be exalted above the heavens, O God.” At once, for the body: “And your glory over all the earth.” Hear a witness for the head: “They dug my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones: but they considered and looked upon me; they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Hear at once, for the body, a few words later: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight: for the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he will rule over the nations.” Hear for the head: “And he, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber.” And in the same psalm hear for the body: “Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

This to the Jews, and to these of ours. Why? Because both the Jews and these of ours accept these Scriptures of the Old Testament. But let us see whether these accept Christ himself, whom the Jews do not accept. Let him speak himself; let him who is the head speak both for himself and for his body, which is the Church, since in us too the head speaks for the body. Hear for the head: he rose from the dead, he found his disciples hesitating, doubting, not believing for joy; he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “For thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day.” You have it for the head; let him speak for the body too: “And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Let the Church, then, say to its enemies; let it say. It plainly says it; it is not silent: but let them hear. Brothers, you have heard the witnesses; now recognize me. “Search the Scriptures, in which you hope to have eternal life; they bear witness of me.” What I have said is not of my own, but of my Lord’s; and yet you still turn away, you still shuffle. “How can you believe me, expecting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory that is from God alone?” Because, not knowing the righteousness of God, you have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, not knowing the righteousness of God, and wanting to establish your own, you have not submitted to the righteousness of God. What else is it not to know God’s righteousness and to want to establish one’s own, but to say: “I sanctify, I justify; what I have given, that is holy”? Leave to God what is God’s; recognize, man, what is man’s. You do not know God’s righteousness, and you want to establish your own. You want to justify me: it is enough for you to be justified with me.

It was said of Antichrist, and everyone understands it so, when the Lord says, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you have not received me: if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” But let us hear John too: “You have heard that Antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have arisen.” What do we dread in Antichrist, but that he will honor his own name and despise the Lord’s name? What else does he do who says, “I justify”? He is answered: “I came to Christ, not with my feet, but I came with my heart: where I heard the Gospel, there I believed, there I was baptized: because I believed in Christ, I believed in God.” And he says: “You are not clean.” Why? “Because I was not there.” Tell me why I am not cleansed, a man baptized in Jerusalem, a man baptized, for example, among the Ephesians, the Epistle sent to whom you read, and whose peace you spurn? See, the apostle wrote to the Ephesians: the Church was founded, it remains to this day; and it remains more abundantly, more numerously; it holds what it received from the apostle: “If anyone preaches to you other than what you have received, let him be anathema.” What then? What do you say to me? I am not clean? Baptized there, I am not clean? “No, you are not.” Why? “Because I was not there.” But he who is everywhere was there. He was there who is everywhere, in whose name I believed. You, coming from I know not where, or rather not coming, but wanting me to come to you, sitting here, say to me: “You were not rightly baptized, because I was not there.” See who was there. What was said to John? “He on whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, he is the one who baptizes.” You have him himself seeking you; or rather, because you begrudged me him, as one baptized by him, you have lost him yourself.

Understand, then, my brothers, our voice and theirs, and see which you choose. We say this: whether we are holy, God knows; whether we are wicked, he knows this even better: do not put your hope in us, whatever we are. If we are good, do what is written: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” But if we are bad, even so you are not deserted, even so you are not left without counsel: hear him who says, “What they say, do; but what they do, do not do.” But they say the opposite: “Unless we are good, you have perished.” See, here is the other who will come in his own name. So will my life hang on you, and will my salvation be tied to you? Have I so forgotten my foundation? Was not the rock Christ? Is not the one who builds on the rock not overthrown by wind, rain, and rivers? Come with me, then, if you will, upon the rock, and do not try to be the rock for me.

Let the Church, then, say that last word too: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me too; for he wrote of me”: for I am the body of him of whom he wrote. Moses wrote of the Church too. For I have quoted Moses’ words: “In your seed all nations will be blessed.” Moses wrote this in the first book. If you believed Moses, you would believe Christ too. Because you despise Moses’ words, you must despise Christ’s words. “They have Moses there,” he says, “and the prophets; let them hear them.” “No, father Abraham; but if someone comes from the dead, they will hear him.” And he: “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not believe even if someone rises from the dead.” This was said of the Jews: was it not then said of heretics? He had risen from the dead who said, “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day.” “This I believe.” “I believe,” he says. You believe? Why do you not believe what follows? Since you believe, “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day” (this was said of the head), believe also what follows about the Church: “That repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.” Why do you believe about the head and not believe about the body? What has the Church done to you, that you want in a way to behead it? You want to take the head away from the Church, to believe in the head and leave the body, as if it were a lifeless body. In vain you fawn on the head like a devoted servant. He who wants to behead tries to kill both head and body. They blush to deny Christ, and they do not blush to deny the words of Christ. Neither we nor you have seen Christ with our eyes. The Jews saw him, and killed him. We have not seen, and we believe: his words are with us. Compare yourselves with the Jews: they despised him hanging on the tree; you despise him sitting in heaven. At their prompting the title of Christ was set up; at your standing up, the baptism of Christ is blotted out. But what remains, brothers, but that we pray even for the proud, pray even for the arrogant who exalt themselves so? Let us say to God for them: “Let them know that your name is the Lord: and not men, but you alone are most high over all the earth.” Turning to the Lord, and so on.

A great miracle was done, beloved: five thousand men were filled from five loaves and two fish, and the leftover fragments filled twelve baskets. A great miracle; but we shall not wonder much at its being done if we attend to the one who did it. He multiplied the five loaves in the hands of those who broke them, he who multiplies the seeds sprouting in the earth, so that a few grains are sown and barns are filled. But because he does that every year, no one wonders. It is not the cheapness of the deed that takes away wonder, but its constancy. But the Lord, when he did these things, spoke to those who understand not only by words but also by the miracles themselves. The five loaves signified the five books of the Law of Moses. The old Law is barley compared with the wheat of the Gospel. Great mysteries about Christ are contained in those books. Hence he says himself, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me too; for he wrote of me.” But as in barley the kernel lies hidden under the chaff, so Christ lies hidden in the veil of the mysteries of the Law. As those mysteries are unfolded and spread out, so those loaves grew when they were broken. And in explaining this to you, I have broken bread for you. The five thousand men signify the people placed under the five books of the Law. The twelve baskets are the twelve apostles, who were themselves filled with the fragments of the Law. The two fish are either the two commandments of love of God and neighbor, or the two peoples, from the circumcision and the uncircumcision, or those two sacred persons, the king and the priest. When these things are explained, they are broken; when they are understood, they are eaten.

Let us turn to him who did these things. He is the bread that came down from heaven: but bread that restores and does not run out; bread that can be taken but cannot be consumed. The manna too signified this bread. Hence it was said: “He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels.” Who is the bread of heaven but Christ? But so that man might eat the bread of angels, the Lord of angels became man. For if he had not become this, we would not have his flesh; if we did not have his flesh, we would not eat the bread of the altar. Let us hasten to the inheritance, since we have received a great pledge of it. My brothers, let us long for the life of Christ, since we hold the death of Christ as a pledge. How will he not give us his good things, who suffered our evils? In these lands, in this evil age, what abounds but being born, toiling, and dying? Examine human affairs; prove me wrong if I lie: look at all men, whether they are in this world for anything but to be born, to toil, and to die. These are the wares of our country; these abound here. To such wares that Merchant came down. And since every merchant gives and receives (he gives what he has and receives what he does not have; when he buys something, he gives money and receives what he buys), Christ too in this trade gave and received. But what did he receive? What abounds here: being born, toiling, and dying. And what did he give? Being born again, rising again, and reigning forever. O good Merchant, buy us. But why do I say “buy us,” when we ought to give thanks because you have bought us? You pay out our price to us: we drink your blood; so you pay out our price to us. And we read the Gospel, our title deed. We are your servants, we are your creatures: you made us, you redeemed us. Anyone can buy his slave; he cannot create him: but the Lord both created and redeemed his servants: he created them so that they might exist; he redeemed them so that they might not be captives forever. For we fell into the hands of the prince of this world, who seduced Adam and made him a slave, and began to possess us as slaves born in his house. But the Redeemer came, and the deceiver was conquered. And what did our Redeemer do to our captor? For our price he set his cross as a mousetrap: he put his blood there as bait. The devil could shed that blood; he did not deserve to drink it. And because he shed the blood of one who was no debtor, he was ordered to give back the debtors; he shed the blood of the innocent, and was ordered to withdraw from the guilty. For Christ shed his blood for this, to blot out our sins. So that by which the devil held us has been blotted out by the blood of the Redeemer. For he held us only by the chains of our sins. These were the captives’ fetters. Christ came, he bound the strong man with the bonds of his passion; he entered his house, that is, the hearts of those in whom the devil dwelt, and seized his vessels. We are the vessels. The devil had filled them with his bitterness. This bitterness he also gave our Redeemer to drink, in the gall. So he had filled us as his vessels: but our Lord, seizing his vessels and making them his own, poured out the bitterness and filled them with sweetness.

Let us love him, then, because he is sweet. “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” He is to be feared, but more to be loved. He is man and God: the one Christ is man and God, as one man is soul and body; but God and man are not two persons. In Christ there are indeed two substances, God and man, but one person, so that the Trinity may remain, and a quaternity may not arise by the addition of the man. How then can it be that God should not have mercy on us, for whose sake God became man? What he has done is great: what he has done is more wonderful than what he has promised; and from what he has done we ought to believe what he has promised. For what he has done we would hardly believe unless we also saw it. Where do we see it? In the believing peoples, in the multitude brought to him. For what was promised to Abraham has been fulfilled: and from what we see we believe what we do not see. Abraham was one man, and it was said to him, “In your seed all nations will be blessed.” If he had looked at himself, when would he have believed? He was one man, and already old, and he had a barren wife, so advanced in age that she could not have conceived even had she not been barren. There was nothing at all from which to hope. But he looked to the one who promised, and believed what he did not see. See, what he believed, we see. So from what we see we ought to believe what we do not see. He begot Isaac: we did not see it. And Isaac begot Jacob: we did not see this either. And Jacob begot twelve sons: we did not see them either. And his twelve sons begot the people of Israel: that great people we do see. Now I have begun to speak of what we see. From the people of Israel the virgin Mary was born, and she bore Christ; and see, in Christ all nations are blessed. What is truer? What more certain? What plainer? Long with me for the world to come, you who have been gathered from the Gentiles. In this world God has fulfilled his promise about the seed of Abraham. How then will he not give us his eternal promises, whom he has made to be the seed of Abraham? For the apostle says this: “But if you are Christ’s” (these are the apostle’s words), “then you are Abraham’s seed.”

We have begun to be something great; let no one despise himself: we were nothing, but we are something. We have said to the Lord, “Remember that we are dust”; but he made man from dust, gave life to dust, and in Christ our Lord has now brought this very dust to the kingdom of heaven. For he took flesh from here, he took earth from here, and he who made earth and heaven raised earth into heaven. If, then, two new things not yet done were set before us, and we were asked which is more wonderful: that he who is God should become man, or that he who is man should become a man of God, which is more wonderful, which more difficult? What has Christ promised us? What we do not yet see: that we should be his men, and reign with him, and not die forever. This is believed as if it were difficult: that a man who was born should come to that life where he never dies. This is what we believe with a heart shaken clean, shaken clean, I say, of the dust of the world, lest that dust close the eyes of our faith. This is what we are commanded to believe: that when we have died, even with our dead bodies we shall be in life, where we never die. This is wonderful: but what Christ did is more wonderful. For which is more incredible: that man should live forever, or that God should once die? Is it more credible that men should receive life from God? That God should receive death from men is, I think, more incredible. And that has already been done: let us believe also what is to come. If what is more incredible has been done, will he not give us what is more credible? For God is able to make men angels, he who made men out of earthly and repulsive seeds. What shall we be? Angels. What were we? I am ashamed to recall it: I am forced to consider it, and I blush to say it. What were we? From what did God make men? What were we before we existed at all? We were nothing. When we were in our mothers’ wombs, what were we? It is enough that you recall it. Lift your minds from what you were made from, and think what you are. You live: but grass and trees live too. You feel: cattle feel too. You are men: you have passed the cattle, you are higher than the cattle, because you understand how much he has bestowed on us. You live, you feel, you understand, you are men. But what can be compared with this benefit? You are Christians. For if we had not received this, what would it profit us to be men? We are Christians, then; we belong to Christ. Let the world rage: it does not break us, because we belong to Christ. Let the world flatter: it does not seduce us; we belong to Christ.

We have found a great patron, brothers. You know how people boast of their patrons. When a stranger threatens, a great man’s client answers: “As long as my lord so-and-so is safe, you can do nothing to me.” How much more boldly and surely do we say, “As long as our head is safe, you can do nothing to us”? For our patron is our head. Whoever boasts of some human patron is his client: we are members of our patron. Let him keep us in himself, and let no one tear us away from him. For whatever toils we suffer in this world, all that passes is nothing. Good things will come that will not pass: they are reached through toils. But when they have been reached, no one tears us away from them. The gates of Jerusalem are shut; they even receive bars, so that it may be said to that city: “Praise the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Sion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates, he has blessed your sons within you. He has made your borders peace.” With the gates shut and the bars put in, no friend goes out, no enemy comes in. There we have true and sure security, if here we have not let go of the truth.