Sermons to the People 22.1–22.10

We have heard, and trembled at, what was prophesied in the words of the Psalm. For it says: "As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God." I do not doubt, my brothers, that the hearts of all of you were shaken, and that no one's conscience stood unafraid at these words. For "who will boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is clean from sin?" And so, when Scripture says, "As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God," who would not tremble, who would not leap up in fright? What, then, shall we do, or what hope do we have? For these things are not sung in vain; or does the Prophet, when he says this, wish it on people, and not rather foresee what is to come? In the words, indeed, the form of one wishing appears, but the foreknowledge of one announcing is understood. For just as certain things in the Scripture of the Prophets are narrated as if done in the past when future things are foretold, so certain things are said as if in the wish of one wishing; but those who rightly understand what they hear recognize the vision of one announcing beforehand. These Psalms were spoken and written long before the birth of the Lord's incarnation. Not before Christ as God, but before Christ born of the virgin Mary. For certainly father Abraham lived long before King David, in whose time these Psalms were sung. But the Lord said, "Before Abraham, I am." For he is the Word of God, through whom all things were made: but he himself, filling the Prophets, foretold through them that he would come in the flesh. And the passion belongs to his incarnation. For he could not suffer the things written in the Gospel except in the mortal and passible flesh which he bore. And there we certainly read how, when the Lord was crucified, those who crucified him divided his garments among themselves, and when they found among them a tunic woven from the top, they would not tear it, but cast lots for it, so that whoever it came to, it would come to him whole: by which was signified love, which cannot be divided. So, while these things are now narrated in the Gospel as done, many years before, in the Psalm, when they were foretold as future, they were sung as done and past. "They pierced," it says, "my hands and my feet, and they numbered all my bones. And they looked and stared at me: they divided my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing." All are told as if past, and they are foretold as future. Just as, then, in words of past time future events are signified, so in the form of one wishing the mind of one announcing beforehand must be understood. So too of Judas, the Lord's betrayer, the prophet as if wishes him what he foretells will come. And of the Jews themselves he says, "Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block." Which is without doubt explained as foretold of them; as the apostle Peter recalls the things foretold of Judas under the same form.

And it is not without reason that things which are future are spoken of as done. For to God they are so certain that they are already held as done; and the Prophet seems to say as a wish what he foresees is certain to come: showing nothing else, as it seems to me, than that the known sentence of God, which he has established fixed and immovable, ought not to displease us. And so in the Acts of the Apostles, when a certain prophet named Agabus foretold that the apostle Paul would suffer many things from the Jews in Jerusalem and would even come to chains, and when, hearing this, the brothers wanted to call him back and keep him from going there, he said: "What are you doing, troubling my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And so, when the brothers saw the man's immovable steadfastness to endure everything, they said, "The will of the Lord be done." Did they, then, because they said, "The will of God be done," wish the Apostle to suffer such things, and not rather most devoutly submit their minds to the lofty divine decree? So too the Prophet, when he says, "As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God," sees most certainly that this threatens sinners, and what God has decreed pleases him, so that he himself may not displease God.

What, then, shall we do, brothers, but change our life while there is time, and correct our deeds, if any are bad? So that what without any doubt will come upon sinners may not find us for it to come upon: not because we shall not exist, but so that it may not find us such as those upon whom it has been foretold it will come. That is why the judge threatens that he will come, so that when he comes he may not find any to punish. That is why the Prophets sing this, so that we may be corrected. If he wanted to condemn, he would keep silent. No one who wants to strike says, "Look out." Everything, brothers, that we have heard through the Scriptures is the voice of God saying, "Look out." And everything we suffer, the tribulations in this life, is the scourge of God, who wants to correct, so as not to condemn at the end. However hard, however troublesome, however horrible to tell are the very grievous things each one suffers in this life, in comparison with the eternal fire they are not small but nothing. So whether we ourselves are scourged, or are warned by the Lord when others are scourged: all these things, brothers, which are inflicted in this life by the Lord are warnings and goads to our correction. But the eternal fire will come, of which it will be said to those who are to be set on the left, "Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." Then some will do penance. For it is written in a certain book of Wisdom: "They will say within themselves, repenting and groaning in anguish of spirit: What did pride profit us? And what did the boasting of riches bring us? All those things have passed away like a shadow." For there will be repentance there, but fruitless: there will be repentance there, but having pain, not having medicine. Now repentance is fruitful, when correction is free. Repent at the voice of Scripture. For at the voice of the judge when he is present, you will repent in vain. Then he will already be pronouncing sentence: and there will be nothing for you to find fault with when he pronounces sentence. For he did not keep silent before the sentence. For he put you off only so that you might correct yourself: since he allowed the thief hanging on the cross to change. For then the thief hanging with the Lord believed in Christ, when the disciples wavered about him. The Jews despised him when he raised the dead; the thief did not despise him hanging with him on the cross. So there is nothing that can be said to the Lord at the end: "You did not allow me to live well"; or, "You did not give me a delay for correction"; or, "You did not show me what to seek, what to avoid." See that he does not keep silent, see that he delays, see that he coaxes, exhorts, threatens. He has set his word on high; it is read to the whole human race throughout the whole world. There is no one now who can say, "I did not know, I did not hear." What was said in the Psalm is fulfilled: "Nor is there anyone who can hide from his heat." Now, then, his heat is in his word: be changed now by his heat, and you will not melt like wax before his fire.

For that, my brothers, will come one day which the ungodly now laugh at, which the mockers now despise, which they think is sung falsely; one day it will come. If so many of the things foretold had not come, let us despair that this too will come one day: but if we already see displayed all the things foretold about the Church, and they strike even the eyes of the blind, why do we doubt that those things too will come? When it was said that the Church of Christ would be throughout the whole world, it was said by a few and laughed at by many. Now what was foretold so long before has been fulfilled: the Church has been spread throughout the whole world. Thousands of years ago it was promised to Abraham, "In your seed all nations shall be blessed." Christ came from the seed of Abraham; all nations have already been blessed in Christ. Schisms and heresies to come were foretold: we see them. Persecutions were foretold: they have taken place at the hands of kings who worshipped idols. For those very idols, against the name of Christ, the earth was filled with martyrs. The seed of blood was sown; the harvest of the Church sprang up. Nor did the Church pray in vain for her enemies: even those who persecuted believed. It was also foretold that the idols themselves would be overthrown through the name of Christ: for we find this too in the Scriptures. A few years ago Christians read these things and did not see them; they were still awaiting them as future, and so they departed: they did not see them, but believing that they would come, they departed with faith to the Lord: in our times even these things are seen. All the things that were foretold about the Church we see fulfilled: is the day of judgment alone not to come? Is it alone foretold, and will it not come? Are we so hard and stony of heart that we read the Scriptures and see that absolutely everything written has happened to the letter, and despair of what remains? For how much is it that remains, compared with what we see already shown us? Has God shown so many things, and will he cheat us of the rest? The judgment will come to repay according to deserts, good to the good, bad to the bad. Let us be good, and await the judge without anxiety.

My brothers, listen to me above all now as I speak. I do not want to reckon the past with you: from today change yourself; let tomorrow find you another man. But we, in our perversity, want God to be merciful in such a way that he is not just. Others, on the other hand, as if trusting in their own righteousness, want him just in such a way that they would not have him merciful. God shows himself both, offers both; neither does his mercy prejudice his justice, nor does his justice take away his mercy. He is merciful and just. How do we prove him merciful? He now spares sinners, gives pardon to those who confess. How do we prove that he is just? Because the day of judgment is coming, which he now puts off, does not take away; and when it comes, he will repay according to deserts. Or do you want the same to be repaid to those who have turned away as to those who have turned back? Brothers, does it seem just to you that Judas should be put where Peter has been put? And he too would have been put there if he had corrected himself. But despairing of pardon, he rather tied a rope around his neck than implored the King's clemency. So, brothers, as I had begun to say, there is nothing for which we can find fault with God. There will be nothing for us to say against him when he comes to judge. Let each one think of his own sins, and amend them now, while there is time. Let the grief be fruitful; let the regret not be barren. As if God said this: "See, I have announced the sentence, but have not yet pronounced it; I have foretold it, not fixed it. Why do you fear? Because I said it? If you are changed, it is changed." For it is written that God repents. Does God repent as a man does? For it was said, "If you repent of your sins, I too will repent of all the evils I was going to do to you." Does God repent as one who errs? But repentance in God means a change of sentence. It is not unjust, but just. Why just? The defendant has been changed; the judge has changed the sentence. Do not be frightened. The sentence has been changed, not justice. Justice remains whole: because he who is just ought to spare one who has been changed. As he does not spare the obstinate, so he spares the changed. He who is the giver of the Law is himself the king of pardon. He sent the Law, he came with pardon. The Law had made you guilty; he who gave the Law released you. Or rather, he did not acquit you: for to acquit is to judge innocent; rather he forgives the sins of the one converted. For all are guilty who are entangled in their sins. Let no one wish to be acquitted: let us all beg for pardon. Pardon is given to one who has changed: and we shall be secure when we hear, "As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God."

Certainly, brothers, let sinners perish now, and sinners do not perish. If they begin to live justly, the sinners will certainly perish, but the human beings will not perish. Man, sinner: these are two names: "man" is one name, and "sinner" is another name. In these two names we understand that God made one of them, man made the other. For God made man; man made himself a sinner. Why, then, do you tremble when God says to you, "Let sinners perish before my face"? God says this to you: "Let what you made perish in you, and I preserve what I made." And now the fire burns in the heat of the word; the thing is in the fervor of the Holy Spirit, as I said a while ago, for it is written in another Psalm, "Nor is there anyone who can hide from his heat." And that the Holy Spirit is heat, the Apostle says: "Fervent in spirit." So instead of the face of God, set the Scripture of God before yourself for the time being: melt before it; repent when you hear these things about your sins. And when you repent, so that you torment yourself under the heat of the word, when even tears flow, are you not found like melting wax, running as it were into tears? So do now what you fear for the future, and you will have nothing to fear for the future: only do not vanish like smoke.

For you have both set down there: perhaps not without reason, because there is also a difference among sinners. In this one saying the Psalmist put both: "As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; and as wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God." Who are those who vanish like smoke? Who are they, if not the proud, who do not confess their sins but defend them? Why are they compared to smoke? Because smoke rises, lifts itself up as if to heaven: but the higher it becomes, the more easily it vanishes and disperses. Consider again what I have said. Smoke is denser near the fire and near the earth; it has not yet vanished so, has not yet been so scattered to the winds: but the more it has lifted itself up, the more it is thinned, vanishes, and disperses. So since the proud man raises himself against God as smoke against the sky, it remains that he should vanish so, and perish as if scattered to the winds of his vanity by his exaltation; just as smoke disperses when lifted up, swollen with a puffed-up, not solid, greatness. For such is smoke: you see a great mass; you have something as it were to see, and you have nothing to hold. Detest such a punishment above all, then, brothers, and do not defend your sins: and if you still commit them, do not defend them. Submit yourselves to God, and beat your breasts in such a way that even those that remain may not be done. Try not to commit them, and, if possible, commit none: but if it is not possible for you to commit none, let that devout confession at least remain. For there will be regard for his mercy, so that, while you try to destroy them all and destroy as many as he helps you to, he will readily forgive the rest that remain to you, found on the road and caught in the attempt: only be eager to make progress, not to fall away. If the last day does not find you a victor, let it at least find you fighting, not captured and handed over.

But the mercy of God is most abundant, and his kindness generous, who redeemed us with the blood of his Son when, because of our sins, we were nothing. For he did something great when he created man in his own image and likeness. But because we chose to become nothing by sinning, and drew from our parents the inheritance of mortality, and became a mass of sin, a mass of wrath; yet it pleased him in his mercy to redeem us at so great a price; he gave for us the blood of his only Son, born innocently, living innocently, dying innocently. He who redeemed us at so great a price does not want those he bought to perish. He did not buy those he would lose: but he bought those he would give life to. If our sins overcome us, God does not despise his price. He gave a great price. Yet let us not flatter ourselves so much about his mercy if we have not struggled against our sins; nor, if we have committed some especially capital sins, let us hope that his mercy will be such that iniquity is joined to it. For will he set those who have done nothing to live as corrected people, but have remained in obstinacy and hardness of heart, and have even accused God in defending their sins, where he has set the holy martyrs, where he has set the holy apostles, prophets, patriarchs, and his faithful who have deserved well of him, serving him, walking in chastity, modesty, humility, giving alms, forgiving what they have suffered from anyone? For such is the way of the righteous, such is the way of the saints, who hold God as Father, who hold the Church as mother, offending neither that parent nor this one, but living in love of both parents, and hastening to the eternal inheritance: with neither father nor mother offended, the inheritance is given to each one.

For two parents begot us to death, two parents begot us to life. The parents who begot us to death are Adam and Eve; the parents who begot us to life are Christ and the Church. My father who begot me to death was Adam to me, and my mother was Eve to me. We were born according to this offspring of the flesh, by the gift of God indeed, for this gift too is not another's but God's: and yet, brothers, how were we born? Certainly to die. Predecessors begot successors for themselves: did they beget for themselves those with whom they might live here for ever? No, as people who were going to depart, they begot for themselves those who would succeed them. But God the Father and mother Church do not beget for this: they beget for eternal life, because they too are eternal. And we have the inheritance promised by Christ, eternal life. Insofar as the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, he was nourished, grew, suffered, died, and was raised, and received the inheritance, the kingdom of heaven. In that very man he received resurrection and eternal life, in that very man he received it: in the Word he did not receive it, because the Word remains unchangeably from eternity to eternity. So since that flesh which rose again and, made alive, ascended into heaven received resurrection and eternal life, this has been promised to us. We await that very inheritance, eternal life. For the whole body has not yet received it; for the head is in heaven, the members are still on earth: nor will the head alone receive the inheritance and the body be left behind: the whole Christ will receive the inheritance; the whole according to the man, that is, head and body. We are, then, members of Christ; let us hope for the inheritance: for when all these things have passed away, we shall receive this good which will not pass away, and escape this evil which will not pass away; for both are eternal. For he did not promise his own something eternal and threaten the ungodly with something temporal. As he promised the saints life, blessedness, the kingdom, an everlasting inheritance without end, so he threatened the ungodly with eternal fire. If we do not yet love what he promised, let us at least fear what he threatened.