Sermons to the People 231.1–232.8

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is read in these days, according to custom, from all the books of the holy Gospel. In this reading we notice how the Lord Jesus rebuked his disciples, his first members, who clung to his side: because they did not believe him to be alive whom they grieved to have been killed. Fathers of the faith, not yet faithful; teachers, so that the whole world might believe what they were to preach and for which they were to die, yet not yet believing. They did not believe that he had risen whom they had seen raise the dead. Rightly, then, were they rebuked: they were shown to themselves, so that they might come to know what they were by themselves and what they would be through him. So too Peter was shown to himself when, with the Lord's passion imminent, he was presumptuous, and when the passion itself came, he wavered. He saw himself in himself, grieved over himself in himself, wept over himself in himself: he turned to him who had made him. See, these still did not believe when they already saw. How great is his condescension, who has given us to believe what we do not see! We believe their words; they did not believe their own eyes.

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the new life of those who believe in Jesus; and this is the sacrament of his passion and resurrection, which you ought thoroughly to know and to practice. For not without reason did Life come to death. Not without reason did the fountain of life, from which one drinks in order to live, drink this cup which was not owed to him. For death was not owed to Christ. Let us seek the origin of death, whence it came. The father of death is sin. For if no one had ever sinned, no one would die. The first man received the law of God, that is, God's command, with a condition: that if he kept it he would live, if he broke it he would die. Not believing that he would die, he did what would make him die; and he found that what the lawgiver had said was true. Hence death, hence mortality, hence toil, hence misery, hence also after the first death the second death, that is, after temporal death eternal death. Every man is born bound to this handing down of death, to the laws of hell, except that man who became man so that man might not perish. For he did not come bound by the laws of death: hence it is said in the psalm, “Free among the dead.” Him a virgin conceived without lust, a virgin bore and remained a virgin. He lived without fault and did not die because of fault: sharing the punishment with us, not sharing the fault. The punishment of fault is death: the Lord Jesus Christ came to die, he did not come to sin: by sharing the punishment with us without the fault, he cancelled both fault and punishment. What punishment did he cancel? That which was owed to us after this life. So he was crucified to show on the cross the setting of our old man, and he rose to show in his life the newness of our life. For so the apostolic teaching teaches: “He was handed over,” it says, “for our sins, and rose for our justification.” As a sign of this, circumcision had been given to the fathers, so that every male should be circumcised on the eighth day. Circumcision was done with stone knives, because the rock was Christ. In that circumcision was signified the stripping off of the fleshly life on the eighth day through Christ's resurrection. For the seventh day of the week is completed on the sabbath. On the sabbath, the seventh day of the week, the Lord lay in the tomb; he rose on the eighth. His resurrection renews us. So by rising on the eighth day he circumcises us. In that hope we live. [3] Let us hear the Apostle saying, “If you have risen with Christ.” How do we rise, who have not yet died? What, then, did the Apostle mean by “If you have risen with Christ”? Would Christ have risen unless he had first died? Was the Apostle speaking to the living, not yet dying and already rising? What does he mean? See what he says: “If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your mind on the things that are above, not on those on earth. For you have died.” The Apostle says it, not I; but he speaks the truth, and therefore I say it too. Why do I say it too? “I believed, therefore I have spoken.” If we live well, we have died and risen. But whoever has not yet died and not yet risen still lives badly; and if he lives badly, he does not live: let him die, lest he die. What is “let him die, lest he die”? Let him be changed, lest he be condemned. “If you have risen with Christ,” I repeat the Apostle's words, “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your mind on the things that are above, not on those on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” These are the Apostle's words. To one who has not yet died, I say: let him die; to one who still lives badly, I say: let him be changed. For if he was living badly and now no longer lives badly, he has died; if he lives well, he has risen.

But what is it to live well? To set your mind on the things above, not on those on earth. How long are you earth, and going into the earth? How long do you lick the earth? By loving the earth you surely lick the earth, and you become his enemy of whom the psalm says, “And his enemies will lick the earth.” What were you? Sons of men. What are you? Sons of God. “Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek a lie?” What lie do you seek? I will tell you now. You want to be happy; I know it. Give me a man who is a robber, a criminal, a fornicator, a sorcerer, a sacrilegious man, stained with all vices, buried under all disgraces or crimes, who does not want to live happily. I know you all want to live happily; but what makes a man live happily, that you do not want to seek. You seek gold, because you think you will be happy from gold; but gold does not make you happy. Why do you seek a lie? Why do you want to be exalted in this world? Because you think you will be happy through the honor of men and the pomp of the world; but the pomp of the world does not make you happy. Why do you seek a lie? And whatever else you seek here, when you seek in a worldly way, when you seek by loving the earth, when you seek by licking the earth, you seek it so that you may be happy; but no earthly thing makes you happy. Why do you not stop seeking a lie? How, then, will you be happy? “Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart?” Do you not want to be heavy of heart, you who load your heart with earth? How long were men heavy of heart? Before Christ came, before Christ rose, men were heavy of heart. “How long heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek a lie?” Wanting to be happy, you seek the things by which you are wretched. What you seek deceives you: what you seek is a lie.

Do you want to be happy? I will show you, if you wish, how you may be happy. Follow on there: “How long heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek a lie? Know.” What? “That the Lord has magnified his Holy One.” Christ came to our miseries; he hungered, thirsted, was wearied, slept; he did wonderful things, suffered evil things, was crowned with thorns, smeared with spittle, struck with slaps, fixed to the wood, wounded with a lance, placed in the tomb; but on the third day he rose, his toil ended and death dead. See, keep your eye there, on his resurrection; for he so magnified his Holy One that he raised him from the dead and gave him the honor of sitting in heaven at his right hand. He shows you what you ought to set your mind on, if you want to be happy: for you cannot be so here. In this life you cannot be happy: no one can. You seek a good thing, but this earth is not the region of the thing you seek. What do you seek? A happy life. But it is not here. If you were seeking gold in a place where it is not, would not someone who knew that it is not there say to you: Why are you digging? Why are you disturbing the earth? You are making a pit to go down into, not one where you may find something. What will you answer the one who warns you? I am seeking gold. And he: I do not tell you that what you seek is nothing, but that it is not where you are seeking it. So you too, when you say, I want to be happy: you seek a good thing, but it is not here. If Christ had it here, you too will have it. See what he found in the region of your death: coming from another region, what did he find here but what abounds here? He ate with you what abounds in the storeroom of your misery. He drank vinegar here; he had gall here. See what he found in your storeroom. But he invited you to his great table, the table of heaven, the table of the angels, where he himself is the bread. So, coming down and finding these evils in your storeroom, he did not disdain such a table of yours, and he promised you his own. And what does he say to us? Believe, believe that you will come to the good things of my table, since I did not disdain the evil things of your table. He took your evil, and will he not give his good? Surely he will give it. He has promised us his life; but what he has done is more incredible. He has paid us his death in advance: as if he were saying, I invite you to my life, where no one dies, where there is truly a happy life, where food does not spoil, where it refreshes and does not run out. See where I invite you: to the region of the angels, to the friendship of the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the everlasting supper, to my brotherhood; finally to myself, to my life I invite you. Do you not want to believe that I will give you my life? Hold my death as a pledge. Now, therefore, while we live in this corruptible flesh, let us die with Christ by change of morals, let us live with Christ by love of righteousness: we shall not receive the happy life until we come to him who came to us, and begin to be with him who died for us.

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ has been read today too, but from another book of the Gospel, the one according to Luke. For first it was read according to Matthew, yesterday according to Mark, today according to Luke: such is the order of the evangelists. For just as his passion was written by all the evangelists, so these seven or eight days give room for the Lord's resurrection to be read according to all the evangelists. But the passion, since it is read on one day, is usually read only according to Matthew. I had once wanted the passion also to be read each year according to all the evangelists: it was done; people did not hear what they were used to, and they were upset. But whoever loves the Scriptures of God and does not want to remain always unlearned knows all of them and inquires into all of them diligently. But as God has apportioned to each the measure of faith, so each makes progress.

Now let us attend to what we heard today when it was read: for what I commended to Your Love yesterday we heard more explicitly today, the unbelief of the disciples; so that we may understand how great a benefit has been granted us by his kindness, that we believe what we have not seen. He called them, taught them, lived with them on earth, did such great wonders before their eyes, even to raising the dead. He raised the dead, and it was not believed that he could raise his own flesh. The women came to the tomb; they did not find the body in the tomb; they heard from angels that the Lord had risen; the women told the men. And what is written? What did you hear? “These words seemed to them like nonsense.” Great unhappiness of the human condition! When Eve spoke what the serpent had said, she was heard at once. A lying woman was believed, so that we died; women telling the truth were not believed, so that we might live. If women were not to be believed, why did Adam believe Eve? If women were to be believed, why did the disciples not believe the holy women? And so in this event the kindly dispensation of our Lord is to be considered. For this is what the Lord Jesus Christ brought about: that the female sex should first announce that he had risen. Because man fell through the female sex, man was restored through the female sex; because a virgin had borne Christ, a woman announced that he had risen. Through a woman death, through a woman life. But the disciples did not believe what the women had said: they thought they were raving, when in fact they were announcing the truth.

See, two others were walking on the road and talking together about the things that had happened in Jerusalem, about the iniquity of the Jews, about the death of Christ: they were walking along talking, grieving for him as dead, not knowing that he had risen. He appeared to them too, became a third traveler, and joined in friendly conversation with them. Their eyes were held, so that they did not recognize him. For it was fitting that their heart be better instructed: recognition was deferred. He asks them what they were saying among themselves, so that they might confess what he himself knew. And, as you heard, they began to wonder, because they were asked about a clear and so plain a matter as if by one who did not know. “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem,” they say, “and do you not know what has happened there?” And he said: “What things?” [And they:] “About Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word.” Is this it, O disciples? Was Christ a prophet, he who is the Lord of the prophets? You put the name of herald on your Judge. They had come down to the words of outsiders. What do I mean by the words of outsiders? Recall when Jesus himself said to his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” they answered with the opinions of outsiders: “Some say that you are Elijah, others John the Baptist, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” These words were the outsiders', not the disciples'. See, the disciples have now come to those very words. “Now, then, who do you say that I am?” You have answered me with the opinions of outsiders; I want to hear your faith. Then Peter said, one for all, because unity is in all: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Not just any one of the prophets, but the Son of the living God; the fulfiller of the prophets, the creator of the angels too. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He heard what it befitted him to hear for this word, and for such a word: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound also in heaven.” Faith merited to hear this, not the man. For what was the man himself, but what the psalm says, “Every man is a liar”?

Then, right after these words, he announced to them his passion and death. Peter was terrified and said: “Far be it from you, Lord; this shall not happen.” Then the Lord: “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter, Satan? Where are those words, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona”? Is Satan blessed? Blessed from what is God's; Satan from what is man's. In fact, the Lord himself explained why he called him Satan: “For you do not savor the things of God, but the things of men.” Whence, then, was he blessed? Because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but the Father who is in heaven. Whence, afterwards, Satan? You do not savor the things that are God's; when you savored them, you were blessed; but you savor the things that are men's. See how the soul of the disciples alternated, as if between rising and setting: now it stood, now it lay; now it was enlightened, now darkened; because it was enlightened from God, darkened from its own. Whence was it enlightened? “Approach him and be enlightened.” Whence was it darkened? “Whoever speaks a lie speaks from his own.” He had said “Son of the living God,” and he was afraid that he might die, though he was the Son of God and had come for this, to die. Had he not come to die, whence would we live?

Whence life for us, whence death for him? Look at him: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Look for death there. Where? Whence? How? The Word was, the Word with God, God the Word. If you find flesh and blood there, you find death. Whence, then, death for that Word? And whence life for us men placed on earth, mortal, corruptible, sinners? He had nothing from which to have death; we had nothing from which to have life: he took death from what is ours, to give us life from what is his. How did he take death from ours? “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He took from us here what he might offer for us. And whence life for us? “And the life was the light of men.” He is life to us, we death to him. But what kind of death? By condescension, not by condition; because he deigned, because he willed, because he had mercy: he died by power. “I have power,” he says, “to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.” This Peter did not know when he was terrified at hearing of the Lord's death. But see, the Lord had already said that he would die and rise on the third day. What he had foretold was done, and those who had heard it did not believe. “See, it is now the third day since these things happened; and we were hoping that he was the one to redeem Israel.” You were hoping; do you now despair? Have you fallen from hope? He who walks with you lifts you up. They were disciples, they had heard him, they had lived with him, they knew him as teacher, they had been taught by him, and they could not imitate and have the faith of the thief hanging on the cross!

But perhaps some of you do not know what I have said about the thief, since you have not heard the passion read according to all the evangelists. For it is this evangelist Luke who has told what I am saying. That two thieves were crucified with Christ, Matthew too said; but that one of those thieves insulted the Lord and the other believed in Christ, Matthew did not say; Luke did. Let us recall the faith of the thief, which Christ did not find in his disciples after the resurrection. Christ hung on the cross; the thief hung too: he in the middle, they at the sides. One insults, the other believes, the one in the middle judges. For the one who insulted said this: “If you are the Son of God, free yourself.” And the other to him: “Do you not fear God? If we suffer deservedly for our deeds, what has he done?” And turning to him: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.” Great faith! What could be added to this faith I do not know. Those who saw Christ raising the dead wavered; he believed who saw him hanging with him on the wood. When they wavered, then he believed. What fruit Christ gathered from the dry wood! Let us hear what the Lord said to him: “Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” You put yourself off; I acknowledge you. When would the thief have hoped to go from robbery to the judge, from the judge to the cross, from the cross to paradise? In fact, considering his own deserts, he did not say, Remember me, so as to free me today; but, when you come into your kingdom, then remember me; so that if torments are owed me, they may last at least until you come into your kingdom. And he: Not so; you have broken into the kingdom of heaven, you have done violence, you have believed, you have seized it. “Today you will be with me in paradise.” I do not put you off: to such great faith I pay today what I owe. The thief says, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He believed not only that he would rise, but also that he would reign. To one hanging, crucified, bloody, nailed fast: “When you come,” he says, “into your kingdom.” And they: “We were hoping.” Where the thief found hope, the disciple lost it.

And then, dearly beloved, hear the great mystery which we have come to know. He walked with them, he was received as a guest, he broke bread, and he was recognized. And let us not say that we have not known Christ: we have known him, if we believe. That is too little to say: we have known him if we believe; we have him if we believe. They had Christ at their table; we have him within, in the soul. It is more to have Christ in the heart than in the house. For our heart is more inward to us than our house is. Now where ought the faithful to recognize him? He who is one of the faithful recognizes him; but he who is a catechumen does not know. But let no one shut the door against him, so that he may come to know.

Yesterday I warned, and I warn Your Love again, that the resurrection of Christ is in us if we live well: if our old evil life dies and the new life advances every day. There are many penitents here: when the hand is laid on them, the line is very long. “Pray, penitents”; and the penitents go to pray. I examine the penitents, and I find them living badly. How can one repent of what one is doing? If he repents, let it not be done. But if it is done, the name is false and the crime remains. Some have asked for the place of penance for themselves; some, excommunicated by us, have been reduced to the place of penance: and those who asked for it themselves want to keep doing what they used to do; and those who, excommunicated by us, have been reduced to the place of penance do not want to rise from it, as if the place of the penitents were a place of choice. What ought to be a place of humility becomes a place of iniquity. I am speaking to you who are called penitents and are not: I am speaking to you. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you; but I groan and lament. And what shall I do, having become a cheap song? Change, change, I beg you. The end of life is uncertain. Every man walks about with his fall. Why do you put off living well, since you think life will be long? You think of a long life, and you do not fear sudden death? But suppose it is long: and I look for one penitent, and I do not find one. How much better a long good life than a long bad one? No one will put up with a long bad dinner; everyone wants to have a long bad life. Surely, if what we live is long, let that long thing be good. For what bad thing, tell me, do you want in all your acts, thoughts, and desires? You do not want bad land; you certainly do not want a bad crop, but a good one; a good tree, a good horse, a good slave, a good friend, a good son, a good wife. And why do I mention these great things, when you do not want even your clothing bad, but good; finally, even your shoe you want only good? Or show me something of yours that you want to be bad, and that you do not want to be good. I suppose you do not want a bad farm but a good one: is it only a bad soul you want? How have you offended yourself? What evil have you yourself deserved from yourself? Among your goods you want nothing bad except yourself alone. Suppose I am saying what I usually say, and you are doing what you usually do. Before God I shake out my garments. I fear it may be imputed to me if I do not speak. I fulfill my office; I seek your fruit: I want to have joy from your good works, not money. For he who lives well does not make me rich. And yet let him live well, and he does. My riches are nothing but your hope in Christ. My joy, my solace, and my respite from my dangers in these temptations is nothing but your good life. I beg you, brothers: if you have forgotten yourselves, have pity on me.