Sermons to the People 215.1–215.9

The Creed of the most holy mystery, which you received together and today have each given back, is the words in which the faith of mother Church is made firm, established on the stable foundation, which is Christ the Lord. For “no one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus.” You have received, then, and given back what you must always keep in mind and heart, what you should say on your beds, think of in the streets, and not forget at meals; in which, even while you sleep in body, you should be awake in heart. For in renouncing the devil, withdrawing mind and soul from his pomps and angels, you must forget the past, and, despising the oldness of your former life, renew life itself with holy morals along with the new man; and, as the Apostle says, forgetting what lies behind and reaching out to what lies ahead, press on to the prize of the upward call of God; and believe what you do not yet see, so that you may deservedly come to what you have believed. “For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

This, then, is the faith and the rule of salvation: to believe in God the Father almighty, creator of all things, king of the ages, immortal and invisible. For he is God almighty, who at the beginning of the world made all things out of nothing, who is before the ages, who made and rules the ages. For he is not increased by time, nor extended in space, nor enclosed or bounded by any matter; but he remains with himself and in himself full and perfect eternity, which human thought cannot grasp nor tongue tell. For if the gift which he promises his saints “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man,” how can mind conceive, or heart think, or tongue tell him who promises it?

We believe also in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God from true God, God the Son of God the Father; but not two gods. For he and the Father are one; and through Moses he instructs the people, saying: “Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life: the Lord your God is one God.” But if you want to think how the eternal Son was born of the eternal Father without time, the prophet Isaiah rebukes you, saying: “Who shall declare his generation?” So you will be able neither to think of nor to tell the birth of God from God: you are only permitted to believe it, so that you may be saved; as the Apostle says: “For whoever comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he will reward those who seek him.” But if you desire to know his birth according to the flesh, which he deigned to take for our salvation, hear, and believe that he was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. And yet who shall declare even this birth of his? For who can worthily weigh that God willed to be born for men's sake; that a virgin conceived without a man's seed, gave birth without corruption, and after giving birth remained intact? For our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to enter the virgin's womb; spotless, he filled a woman's members; he made his mother fruitful without corruption; he came forth formed by himself, and kept his mother's womb intact; so that he might suffuse her of whom he deigned to be born both with the honor of a mother and with the holiness of a virgin. Who can think this? Who can tell it? Who then shall declare even this birth of his? For whose mind is equal to thinking of it, whose tongue to uttering it: not only that in the beginning was the Word, having no beginning of birth, but also that the Word became flesh, choosing a virgin whom he would make his mother, making a mother whom he would keep a virgin; the Son of God with no mother conceiving him, the son of man with no man sowing seed; bringing fruitfulness to a woman by coming, not taking away her integrity by being born? What is this? Who can say it? Who can keep silent? And, wonderful to say, what we cannot express we are not allowed to keep silent about; we proclaim aloud what we do not grasp even by thinking. For we cannot speak of so great a gift of God, since we are too small to tell its greatness; and yet we are compelled to praise, lest by keeping silent we remain ungrateful. But thanks be to God, because what cannot be fittingly said can be faithfully believed.

We believe, then, in Jesus Christ our Lord, born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. For blessed Mary herself conceived by believing him whom she bore by believing. For when a son had been promised her, and she had asked how it would come about, since she did not know a man (for surely the only way of conceiving and bearing known to her was the one which she herself had not experienced but had learned from other women, as nature makes it common, that a human being is born of a man and a woman), she received the answer from the angel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one that will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” When the angel had said this, she, full of faith, and conceiving Christ in her mind before her womb, said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” Let it be done, she says: a conception without a man's seed in a virgin; let him be born of the Holy Spirit and an untouched woman, in whom the untouched Church may be reborn of the Holy Spirit. Let the holy one who will be born of a human mother without a human father be called the Son of God; for it was fitting that he who was born of God the Father without any mother should wonderfully become son of man; born in that flesh, so that as a little one he might come out through a closed womb, the flesh in which, raised from the dead, as a grown man he would come in through closed doors. These things are wonderful because they are divine; ineffable, because also unsearchable: the mouth of man is not enough to explain them, because the heart of man is not enough to investigate them. Mary believed, and what she believed was done in her. Let us too believe, so that what was done may also profit us. However wonderful, then, this birth too may be, yet consider, O man, what your God, the Creator, took on for you, his creature: that God abiding in God, the eternal living with the eternal, the Son equal to the Father, did not disdain to put on the form of a slave for guilty and sinful slaves. Nor was this shown in return for human merits. For we deserved punishment rather, for our iniquities; but “if he had marked iniquities, who would have stood?” For the ungodly, then, and for sinful slaves the Lord became man; he deigned to be born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

Perhaps this may seem little: that God for men, the righteous for sinners, the innocent for the guilty, the king for captives, the Lord for slaves, came clothed with the flesh of humanity, was seen on earth, and lived among men; and that besides he was crucified, died, and was buried. You do not believe it? Perhaps you say: When did this happen? Hear at what time: under Pontius Pilate. The name of the judge has been put there for you as a sign, so that you might not doubt even about the time. Believe, then, that the Son of God was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried. “No one has greater love than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Do you think: no one? Absolutely no one. It is true; Christ said it. Let us ask the Apostle; let him too answer us. “Christ,” he says, “died for the ungodly.” And again he says: “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.” See, then, in Christ we find greater love, because he gave his life not for friends but for his enemies. How great, then, is God's love toward men, and what affection, to love even sinners so much as to die for love of them! For “he commends his love toward us” (these are the Apostle's words) “in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Believe this, then, you too, and do not be ashamed to confess it for your salvation. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” In short, so that you would not doubt and not be ashamed, when you first believed you received the sign of Christ on your forehead, as on the dwelling of shame. Remember your forehead, so as not to fear another's tongue. “For whoever,” says the Lord himself, “is ashamed of me before men, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him before the angels of God.” Do not, then, be ashamed of the disgrace of the cross, which God himself did not hesitate to undergo for you; and say with the Apostle: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And the same apostle answers you: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He who was then crucified by one people is now fixed in the hearts of all peoples. [6] But you, whoever you are who want to glory in power rather than in humility, receive consolation, have exultation. For he who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried, “on the third day rose from the dead.” Perhaps here too you doubt; perhaps you tremble. When you were told, Believe that he was born, believe that he suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried, you believed more easily, as of a man: now, because it is said, “On the third day he rose from the dead,” do you doubt, O man? To bring forward one example out of many: look to God, think of the Almighty, and do not doubt. For if he could make you out of nothing when you did not exist, why could he not raise from the dead his own man, whom he had already made? Believe, then, brothers: where faith is concerned there is no need for a long sermon. This faith alone is what distinguishes and separates Christians from all men. For that he died and was buried the pagans now believe and the Jews then saw; but that on the third day he rose from the dead neither pagan nor Jew admits. So the resurrection of the dead distinguishes the life of our faith from the faithless dead. For the apostle Paul too, writing to Timothy, says: “Remember that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.” Let us believe, then, brothers, and what we believe has been done in Christ, let us hope will come about in us. For God, who promises, does not deceive.

After he rose from the dead, then, he ascended into heaven; he sits at the right hand of God the Father. Perhaps you still do not believe. Hear the Apostle: “He who descended,” he says, “is the same who also ascended above all the heavens, to fill all things.” Beware lest you feel as avenger him whom you will not believe as risen. For “whoever does not believe has already been judged.” For he who now sits at the right hand of the Father as our advocate will come from there to judge the living and the dead. Let us believe, then, so that whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

Let us believe also in the Holy Spirit. For he is God, since it is written: “God is Spirit.” Through him we receive the forgiveness of sins; through him we believe in the resurrection of the flesh; through him we hope for eternal life. But see that you do not fall into error by counting, and think that I have spoken of three gods because I have named the one God a third time. There is one substance of deity in the Trinity, one power, one might, one majesty, one name of divinity; as Christ himself said to his disciples when he had risen from the dead: “Go, baptize the nations,” not in many names, but “in the one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Believing, then, in the divine Trinity and threefold unity, beware, most beloved, lest anyone lead you astray from the faith and unity of the Catholic Church. “For whoever preaches a gospel to you other than what you have received, let him be anathema.” Listen to the Apostle, not to me, who says: “But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you a gospel other than what you have received, let him be anathema.”

You see certainly, dearly beloved, even in the very words of the holy Creed, how at the conclusion of all the rules that belong to the sacrament of faith there was added, as it were, a kind of supplement, so that it is said: “Through the holy Church.” Flee, then, as far as you can, the diverse and various deceivers, whose sects and names it would take long to tell now because of their great number. “For we have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” One thing I commend to your prayers: that you turn your mind and hearing wholly away from anyone who is not Catholic, so that you may be able to lay hold of the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life through the one true and holy Catholic Church; in which it is learned that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever.