Sermons to the People 214.1–214.12

According to the measure of our age and of our beginnings, according to our apprenticeship in the office we have undertaken, and with the affection of love toward you, we who already stand ministering at the altar to which you are about to come ought not to cheat you of the ministry of the word either. The Apostle says: “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” This is what the Creed builds up in you, which you must both believe and confess so that you may be saved. And indeed the things which you are about to receive briefly, to be committed to memory and spoken with the mouth, are not new or unheard of to you. For you are accustomed to hear them set out in many ways in the holy Scriptures and in the sermons of the Church. But they are to be handed over to you gathered briefly, brought into a fixed order and compressed, so that your faith may be built up, your confession prepared, and your memory not burdened. These are the things which you are to hold faithfully and give back from memory. [After this preface the whole Creed is to be pronounced, without any discussion inserted: I believe in God the Father almighty, and the rest that follows in it. You know that this Creed is not usually written down. When it has been said, the following discussion is to be added.]

What you have briefly heard you must not only believe but also commit to memory in just so many words and speak with your mouth. But since it must be fortified against those who think differently and have been taken captive by the devil, who lie in wait for faith while they oppose salvation, remember to believe that God is almighty in such a way that there is no nature at all which he did not found. And therefore he punishes sin, which he did not make, because by it the nature which he made is defiled. All creatures visible and invisible, then: whatever with a rational mind can share in unchangeable truth, such as angel and man; whatever lives and perceives, though lacking understanding, as do all the animals on land, in the waters, in the air, walking, creeping, swimming, flying; whatever without understanding, without any sense, is said in some way to live, as do the things that are fixed in the earth by roots and burst forth and rise into the air by sprouting; whatever occupies space by bulk alone, like stone, and whatever elements of the mass of the world itself are seen or even touched: all these the almighty made, joining the lowest and the highest by the middle, and arranging all that he created in fitting places and times. And he made them not from some matter that he did not make. For he did not shape things belonging to another, but he himself established what he was to shape. For whoever says that he could not make something out of nothing, how does he believe that the almighty made it? Without doubt he denies that he is almighty who says that God could not have made the world if he had nothing from which to make it. For what almightiness is there where there is such need that, like a craftsman, he could not achieve the effect of his work unless matter which he did not establish helped him? From these opinions and errors, then, let whoever believes in God almighty cleanse his mind. For that which is called the formless matter of things, capable of forms and subject to the Creator's work, can be turned into all things that the Founder has been pleased to make. God did not find it as something coeternal with himself, from which to fabricate the world; but he himself established it out of absolutely nothing, together with the things that he made from it. Nor did it exist before the very things that are seen to be made from it; and so the almighty first made all things out of nothing, making together with them that from which he made them. So the matter of heaven and earth, as these were created in the beginning, was created together with them; nor was there anything from which the things God made in the beginning came to be; and yet the things the almighty made were made, and having made them he arranged, filled, and adorned them. For if what he made in the beginning he made out of nothing, then from the things he made he is able to make whatever he wills, because he is almighty.

Nor should the wicked believe that God is not almighty because they do many things against his will. For even when they do what he does not will, he does with them what he wills. In no way, then, do they either change or overcome the will of the almighty: whether a man is justly condemned or mercifully set free, the will of the almighty is fulfilled. What the almighty does not will, then, that alone he cannot do. So he uses the wicked, not according to their perverse will but according to his own right will. For just as the wicked make bad use of their nature, which is good, that is, of his good work, so he, being good, makes good use even of their evil works, so that the will of the almighty may not be overcome in any part. For if he did not have something good and just that he could make of the wicked, he would in no way let them be born or live. He did not make them wicked, for he made them men; he created not the sins, which are against nature, but the natures themselves. Yet in his foreknowledge he could not be ignorant that they would be wicked; but just as he knew what evils they would do, so he also knew what good he himself would do from them. Who could explain in words, who could match with praises, how great a good the passion of the Savior, whose blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins, has conferred on us? And yet this great good was accomplished through the malice of the devil, the malice of the Jews, the malice of Judas the traitor. Nor is the good justly ascribed to them, which God, not they, conferred on men through them; but punishment is justly repaid to them, because they willed to harm. And just as we have been able to find something that makes it clear to us how God made good use even of the evil works of the Jews and of Judas the traitor for our redemption and salvation, so in the whole creation, in hidden and secret recesses which we cannot penetrate with the eye of body or mind, he knows how to make good use of evil things, so that in all things that are born and governed in the world the will of the almighty may be fulfilled.

But since I said that the only thing the almighty cannot do is what he does not will, lest anyone think that I spoke rashly in saying there is something the almighty cannot do, the blessed Apostle said this: “If we do not believe, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself.” But because he does not will it, he cannot; for he cannot even will it. For justice cannot will to do what is unjust, nor wisdom will what is foolish, nor truth will what is false. Hence we are reminded that God almighty cannot do many things, not only what the Apostle says, “He cannot deny himself.” See, I say it, and by his truth I dare to say what I do not dare to deny: God almighty cannot die, cannot be changed, cannot be deceived, cannot become wretched, cannot be overcome. Far be it that the almighty should be able to do these and such things. And so truth not only shows that he is almighty because he cannot do these things, but also compels us to say that one who could do them would not be almighty. For God is willingly whatever he is: eternal, then, and unchangeable, and truthful, and blessed, and unconquerable he is willingly. If, then, he could be what he does not will, he would not be almighty; but he is almighty; therefore whatever he wills he can do. And so what he does not will, he cannot be; and he is called almighty precisely because he can do whatever he wills. Of him the psalm also says: “In heaven and on earth he has done all things whatsoever he willed.”

God almighty, then, who has done all things whatsoever he willed, begot the only Word through whom all things were made; but this not from nothing, but from himself: therefore he did not make him, but begot him. For “in the beginning he made heaven and earth”; but he did not make the Word in the beginning; because “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He is God from God. But the Father is God, yet not from God. He is the only Son of God; for no other son is of the substance of the Father, coeternal and equal to the Father. The Word is God: not like a word whose sound can be both thought in the heart and uttered with the mouth; but, as it has been said, and could not be said more briefly or better: “The Word was God.” He remains unchangeably with the Father, and is himself also unchangeable with the Father: of him the Apostle says, “Who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God.” For to be equal to the Father is his by nature, not by robbery. So we believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God the Father, our Lord.

But since he who in the form of God did not think it robbery to be equal with God, through whom we were created, in order to seek and save what had perished, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man, so we believe in him as born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. For both his births are wonderful, the divine and the human. That one is from the Father without a mother, this one from a mother without a father; that one without any time, this one in the acceptable time; that one eternal, this one opportune; that one without a body in the bosom of the Father, this one with a body, by which the mother's virginity was not violated; that one without any sex, this one without any man's embrace. And we say that he was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary because, when the holy virgin had said to the angel, “How shall this be?” he answered: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Then he added: “Therefore the holy one that will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” He did not say, “What will be born of you will be called the son of the Holy Spirit.” For the whole man, that is, a rational soul and a body, was taken up by the Word, so that the one Christ, the one God, the Son of God, might be not only the Word but the Word and man; and this whole is the Son of God the Father because of the Word, and the son of man because of the man. By what he is as the Word, he is equal to the Father; by what he is as man, the Father is greater. And together with the man he is the Son of God, but because of the Word, by whom the man was taken up; and together with the Word he is the son of man, but because of the man, who was taken up by the Word. Because of his holy conception in the virgin's womb, brought about not by the burning of fleshly lust but by the fervor of the love of faith, he is said to be born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary: so that the one of these belongs not to one who begets but to one who sanctifies, and the other to one who conceives and gives birth. “Therefore,” he says, “the holy one that will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” Because holy, therefore of the Holy Spirit; because to be born of you, therefore of the Virgin Mary; because the Son of God, therefore “the Word became flesh.”

And it was necessary that in the man he had taken up not only should the invisible be seen and the one coeternal with the Father be born in time, but also that the untouchable should be held, the unconquerable be hung on wood, the inviolable be pierced with nails, and the immortal life die on the cross and be buried in a tomb: all this is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it follows that we should both believe with the heart unto righteousness and confess with the mouth unto salvation that this same only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, was not only born a man of a human being, but also suffered human things even to death and burial. For since the whole only Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is Word and man, or, to put it more precisely, Word, soul, and flesh, it is referred to the whole that he was sorrowful even to death in the soul alone, because the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, was sorrowful; it is referred to the whole that he was crucified in the man alone, because the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, was crucified; it is referred to the whole that he was buried in the flesh alone. For from the moment we began to say that we believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, whatever else we say of him from there on, nothing is understood but Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord. And do not be surprised: for we say that the only Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, was buried, though only his flesh was buried, just as, for example, we say that the apostle Peter lies today in the tomb, while we say with complete truth that he rejoices in rest with Christ. For we speak of the same apostle: there are not two apostles Peter, but one. We say, then, of the very same one that he lies in the tomb in the body alone and rejoices with Christ in the spirit alone. And “under Pontius Pilate” is added, whether so that the truth of the time may be gathered from it, or so that Christ's humility may be more commended, in that he suffered so much under a human judge, he who is to come as judge of the living and the dead with such great power.

On the third day he rose in true flesh, but flesh that would never die again. This his disciples proved with eyes and hands; nor would such great goodness deceive their faith, nor would truth mislead them. But for brevity's sake it is quickly added that he ascended into heaven. For he was with his disciples forty days, lest so great a miracle of his resurrection be thought an illusion if he were quickly withdrawn from their eyes. There he now sits at the right hand of the Father: which we ought wisely to look at with the eyes of faith, lest we think him fixed immovably on some seat, so that he is not free to stand or walk. For holy Stephen said that he saw him standing; yet he did not therefore see falsely, nor did he upset the words of this Creed. Far be it to think this, far be it to say it. But his dwelling in lofty and ineffable blessedness is signified in such a way that he is said to sit there. Hence too dwellings are called seats; as when we ask where someone is, and the answer is, In his seat. And of the servants of God especially it is very often said, He sat for so many years in this or that monastery; that is, he rested, stayed, dwelt. Nor is holy Scripture unaware of this manner of speaking. For Shimei, ordered by King Solomon to live in the city of Jerusalem, with the threat that if he ever dared to go out of it he would pay the due penalty, is said to have sat there three years (ekathisen), which is understood to mean that he dwelt there. And the right hand of the Father is not so called according to the position of a human body, as if he were on the left of the Son, if according to such bodily positions and arrangement of members the Son is placed at his right. But “at the right hand of God” means the height of honor and unspeakable happiness. As we read it said of wisdom: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.” For if earthly comfort lies beneath, then eternal happiness embraces from above.

From the sublime dwelling of the heavens, then, where his body, now immortal, also is, our Lord Jesus Christ will come to judge the living and the dead, according to the most evident testimony of the angels, which is written in the Acts of the Apostles. For as the disciples watched the Lord ascending into heaven and followed him with upturned gaze, they heard the angels say: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven.” Human presumption, which held many and various views, has been checked. Christ will judge in that form in which he was judged. For so the apostles saw him ascending into heaven when they heard that he would come in the same way. That form will be visible to the living and the dead, to the good and the evil: whether we understand the good to be called by the name of the living and the evil by that of the dead; or whether we take the living to be those whom his coming will find not yet having ended this life, and the dead those whom his presence will raise, as he himself says in the Gospel: “The hour will come when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice; and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” Both those who believed in him and those who despised him will see him in the form of a man. But the form of God, in which he is equal to the Father, the ungodly will not see. For “the ungodly will be taken away,” as the prophet says, “so that he may not see the glory of the Lord.” And, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Let this be enough said about Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord.

For we believe in the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, yet not a son; abiding on the Son, yet not the Son's father; receiving from the Son, yet not the Son's son; but the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; the Holy Spirit, and himself God. For he would not have such a temple if he were not God; hence the Apostle says: “Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” Not a temple of a creature, but of the Creator. For far be it from us to be the temple of a creature, when the Apostle says: “For God's temple is holy, which you are.” In this Trinity nothing is greater or less than another, there is no separation of works, no unlikeness of substance. There is one Father, God; one Son, God; one Holy Spirit, God. Yet the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three gods but one God; in such a way that the Father is not the same as the Son, nor the Son the same as the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit either the Father or the Son; but the Father is the Father of the Son, and the Son the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Father and the Son; and each one is God, and the Trinity itself is one God. Let this faith steep your hearts and direct your confession. Believe this by hearing, so that you may understand; so that by making progress you may be able to understand what you believe.

Honor, love, and proclaim also the holy Church, your mother, as the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy city of God. It is she who, in this faith which you have heard, bears fruit and grows throughout the whole world: the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth; who, in the communion of the sacraments, tolerates the wicked who are to be separated at the end, from whom she meanwhile departs by unlikeness of morals. For the sake of her grain, now groaning among the chaff, whose mass, due for the granaries, will be made manifest at the final winnowing, she has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven; so that in her, through the blood of Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins may take place. In this Church the soul which had been dead in sins will come to life again, so as to be made alive together with Christ, by whose grace we have been saved.

Nor should we doubt that this mortal flesh will rise at the end of the world. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. It is sown in corruption, it will rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it will rise in glory; it is sown a natural body, it will rise a spiritual body.” This is the Christian, this the Catholic, this the apostolic faith. Believe Christ when he says, “Not a hair of your head will perish”; and, unbelief driven away, consider rather how much you are worth. For what of ours can be despised by our Redeemer, when our hair cannot be despised? Or how shall we doubt that he will give eternal life to our soul and our flesh, who for us both took the soul and flesh in which to die, and laid them down when he died, and took them back so that death might not be feared? All the things handed over in the Creed, my brothers, I have set out to Your Love according to our small capacity. It is called symbolum because in it the agreed faith of our fellowship is contained, and by its confession, as by a sign given, the faithful Christian is recognized. Amen.