Sermons to the People 266.1–268.4

Among the other divine utterances which we heard when the Psalm was sung, it seems good, with the Lord’s help, to discuss and treat this sentence above all, in which it is said: “The righteous man will correct me in mercy and reprove me; but the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head.” For some have believed that the oil of the sinner is the oil of a man, because “every man is a liar.” But the oil of Christ, since he had no sin at all, even if it is administered by a sinner, is not the oil of a sinner. Since three things present themselves for consideration, by whom it is given, to whom it is given, through whom it is given, let us not fear the oil of the sinner, because the minister in the middle does not intercept the benefit of the giver.

For indeed we are now celebrating the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit: for on the day of Pentecost, which has now begun, there were in one place a hundred and twenty souls, among whom were the apostles and the mother of the Lord and others of both sexes, praying and waiting for Christ’s promise, that is, the coming of the Holy Spirit. The hope of those waiting was not empty, because the promise of the one promising was not deceitful: what was awaited came, and it found clean vessels by which to be received. There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, which also sat upon each of them; and they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them to speak. Each man spoke in all tongues, because the Church to come was foretold in all tongues. One man was a sign of unity: all tongues in one man, all nations in unity. Those who were full spoke; and those who were empty marveled; and, what is more blameworthy, they marveled and slandered. For they said: “These men are drunk and full of new wine.” What a foolish and slanderous rebuke! A drunken man does not learn another’s language; he loses his own. Yet the truth was speaking through the ignorant and slandering. For they were already full of new wine, because they had become new wineskins. But the old wineskins marveled at the new wineskins, and by slandering were neither renewed nor filled. But when at last the slander was checked, as soon as they gave ear to the apostles discoursing, giving an account, and preaching the grace of Christ, they were cut to the heart by hearing, changed by being cut to the heart, believed once changed; and believing, they deserved to receive what they had marveled at in others.

Then the Holy Spirit began to be given through the ministry of the apostles. They laid on hands, and he came. But this was not men’s doing: let the minister not claim for himself more than belongs to a minister. The giver is one, the minister another. For the Spirit testified to this, lest men claim for themselves what was God’s. For this is where Simon wanted to puff himself up, who, thinking this was to be attributed to men, promised money to the apostles, so that the Holy Spirit might come at the laying on of his hands too. He did not know grace. For if he had acknowledged grace, he would have had it gratis. Because he wanted to buy the Spirit, he did not deserve to be redeemed by the Spirit. What are you, man, that you want to puff yourself up? It is enough for you to be filled, not puffed up. He who is filled is rich; he who is puffed up is empty. “But it was given,” they say, “through men.” Was what was given men’s for that reason? “But it could not be given,” they say, “except through holy men.” Had it come to them themselves through men? The apostles laid on hands and the Holy Spirit came: when he came to them, who laid hands on them?

Accept and hold the divine examples: but they are the utterances of men, the authority of Scripture, the faithfulness of words, the truth of examples. We read the whole; let us believe the whole. Through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given to many; but those through whom he was given had received him. When had they received him? When a hundred and twenty men were in one upper room: each of them was praying, no one was laying on hands; he came upon them as they prayed, filled them as they prayed, made the filled ones ministers, and through them gave what was his. Hear further. Philip the evangelist, who preached the Gospel in Samaria, was one of the seven deacons: for in the need of the ministry seven deacons had been added to the twelve apostles; of whom one, as I said, was Philip, who because of his ready eloquence in preaching deserved to be called evangelist in a special sense. Though all did this, he, as I said, preached the Gospel in Samaria: many in Samaria believed; believing, they were baptized. When the apostles heard, they sent Peter and John to them, to lay hands on the baptized and, by laying hands on them, to obtain the Holy Spirit by invoking him. Simon, marveling at so great a grace of the apostles, wanted to give money, as if what was invoked were set out for sale; but he was repulsed and found unworthy of so great a grace. So those people received the Holy Spirit through the hands of the apostles. Then, because that Simon had thought the gift of God was men’s, lest this suspicion be confirmed among the weak, afterward a certain eunuch of Queen Candace was coming from Jerusalem, where he had gone to pray, and sitting in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Holy Spirit told Philip to approach the chariot. He who had baptized in Samaria and had laid hands on no one, and had sent word to the apostles so that those he had baptized might deserve to receive the Holy Spirit by their coming and the laying on of hands, approaches the chariot and asks the eunuch whether he understood what he was reading. He answers that he could understand if he had an expositor; he asks Philip to get up into the chariot; he gets up, sits with him, finds him reading in the prophet Isaiah what had been foretold about Christ: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,” and the rest that belongs to the context of the same reading. Then, when he asked whether the Prophet was speaking about himself or about another, the door of opportunity being opened, he preached Christ, the door of salvation. While this was going on along the road, they came to water, and the eunuch said to Philip: “See, water: who prevents me from being baptized?” Philip said: “If you believe, it can be done.” And he: “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” They went down into the water; Philip baptized him. After they came up from the water, the Holy Spirit came upon the eunuch. See, Philip was there, who had baptized in Samaria and had brought the apostles to those baptized; he baptized and did not lay on hands: but so that the Spirit might show that Simon had not suspected the truth, that the Spirit of God was the gift of men, he came freely upon the man and made him free. He came as God and filled; as the Lord came, and redeemed.

Perhaps one of the contentious may say that the Philip who had baptized in Samaria was not the deacon but the apostle, since a Philip is also named among the apostles, and the one properly called evangelist was one of the seven deacons. But let them suppose what they like; I quickly solve the question. Whether he was an apostle or a deacon, which the reading does not say, let it be uncertain. Yet this is written: that as soon as he came up from the water, the Holy Spirit came upon the eunuch. No one there mentions a laying on of hands. Perhaps this too is too little: for he says, “Someone certainly laid a hand on him, but Scripture kept silent about it.” [6] So what do you say? “I say this,” he says: “that upon those first hundred and twenty, indeed, because the Holy Spirit was then coming for the first time, he came without the laying on of hands; but from then on he came upon no one unless a hand had been laid on him.” You have forgotten Cornelius the centurion: read carefully and understand wisely. Cornelius the centurion, as one reads in the same book of the Acts of the Apostles, where the coming of the Holy Spirit is also proclaimed. An angel was sent to the centurion Cornelius; he announced to him that his alms had been accepted and his prayers heard; accordingly he should send to Peter, who was staying at Joppa in the house of Simon the tanner, and summon him. Now at that time a great question was in play between Jews and Gentiles, that is, between those who had believed from the Jews and those from the Gentiles: whether the Gospel was to be ministered to the uncircumcised. There was great hesitation about it when Cornelius sends. Meanwhile Peter is admonished; the business of the kingdom of heaven is carried on both here and there by him who is everywhere. For while these things are being done at Cornelius’s house, meanwhile Peter too at Joppa was hungry; he went up to pray while a meal was being prepared for him; the mind of the one praying was carried out of itself, but from the lowest to the highest, not to go astray, but to see. A dish came to him let down from heaven, as it were a heavenly course for a hungry man. And this dish was bound with four cords, holding all kinds of animals, clean and unclean; and the hungry man was struck by a voice from above: “Peter, rise; kill and eat.” He looked, saw unclean animals in the dish, which he was not accustomed to touch, and answered the voice: “Far be it from me, Lord: nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” And the voice to him: “What God has cleansed, do not call unclean.” It was not carnal food that was offered to Peter; Cornelius cleansed was being announced. This happened three times, and the vessel was taken back into heaven. An evident mystery. The dish is the world. The four cords holding the dish are the four quarters of the world, which Scripture mentions, saying: “From the East and the West, and from the North and the Sea.” The animals are all the nations. The dish let down three times is the commendation of the Trinity. Peter is the Church; Peter hungry is the Church longing for the faith of the Gentiles. The heavenly voice is the holy Gospel. “Kill and eat”: kill what they are, make them what you are. While Peter was hesitating about the command, it was suddenly announced that some soldiers sent by Cornelius wanted to see him. And the Holy Spirit to Peter: “Go with them; I have sent them.” Peter goes, no longer hesitant but certain about the vision; and, as one reads, it is announced to Cornelius, he meets him humbly, prostrates himself humbly, is raised more humbly. They come to the house; many others are found gathered. The reason for sending for him is told to Peter, and thanks are given that Peter has come. So, opening his mouth, he began to preach to the uncircumcised Gentiles, over whom that great question was in play, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were some with Peter who had believed from the Jews, who might be troubled if the uncircumcised were baptized: there plainly Peter says, “You know, brothers, how abominable it is for a Jew to approach or join himself to a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should call no man common or unclean.” That hungry man had looked at the dish.

Where are those who said (for I have told the whole story because of what I want to say), where are those who said that the Holy Spirit is given by the power of a man? While Peter was preaching the Gospel, Cornelius and all who were with him, the nation, that is, Gentiles, believed; and suddenly, before they were baptized, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. What does human presumption answer here? Not only before hands were laid on, but before baptism itself, the Holy Spirit came: by power, not by necessity. He came before the washing of baptism to take away the controversy over circumcision. For it could have been said to Peter by those who slandered or did not understand: “You did wrong to give the Holy Spirit.” See, it has been fulfilled, see, it has been shown, what the Lord said: “The Spirit breathes where he wills.” See, it has been fulfilled, see, it is shown how truly the Lord said, “The Spirit breathes where he wills.” And yet the proud heretic does not yet breathe out the spirit of arrogance. He still says: “It is mine; do not receive from him, but from me.” You answer: “I seek what is God’s.” He: “Have you not read, But the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head?” So the oil is yours? If it is yours, I do not want it; if it is yours, it is evil. But if it is God’s, even through you, an evil man, it is good. Mud does not defile the sun’s ray, and do you defile God’s oil? But you have it to your own harm, because you, an evil man, have what is good; what is God’s, you, an evil man, received; because, separated, you did not gather but scattered. “Those who eat unworthily eat and drink judgment to themselves”: because they eat unworthily, do they not eat? Christ gave the morsel to Judas, who was unworthy, and he received it for judgment. Did he receive it from an evil man? Did he receive an evil thing? But he is guilty because, evil, he received a good thing from a good one. So the oil of salvation is not the oil of the sinner. If it is received well, it is good; even if it is received badly, it is good. Woe to men who receive the good badly!

See, however, the sense of Scripture, in case it admonishes us of something that lies open to a better understanding. “The righteous man will correct me,” it says, “in mercy”: even if he strikes, the one who rebukes loves, cherishes; the flatterer deceives. The one shows mercy, the other cheats. Hard is the rod of the one who strikes, soft is the oil of the one who flatters. For all flatterers anoint the head; they do not heal the inner parts. Love the one who rebukes, beware of the flatterer. For if you love the truthful rebuker and beware of the lying flatterer, you can say what was sung: “The righteous man will correct me in mercy and reprove me; but the oil of the sinner,” that is, the soothing of the flatterer, “shall not anoint my head.” A fat head is a big head; a big head is a proud head. A sound heart is better than a big head; but the rod of the rebuker makes a sound heart, the oil of the sinner, that is, the flatterer’s assent, makes a big head. If you have made your head big, beware of the weight of the head, lest you be brought to a fall. This, as far as I judge, we have said sufficiently for the time on this one sentence of the Psalm, with the Lord’s help, as he builds up your hearts in secret.

The solemnity of today’s day brings to remembrance the great Lord God and the great grace which has been poured out upon us. For a solemnity is celebrated so that what was done once may not be wiped from memory. For “solemnity” took its name from what is customary in the year: as a river is called perennial because it does not dry up in summer but flows through the whole year; so “perennial,” that is, “through the year”; so too “solemn,” what is customarily celebrated in the year. Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. For the Lord sent from heaven the Holy Spirit whom he promised on earth. And because he had promised that he would send him from heaven in this way, saying, “He cannot come unless I go away; but when I have gone away, I will send him to you,” he suffered, died, rose, ascended: it remained for him to fulfill what he promised. Awaiting this, his disciples, “a hundred and twenty souls,” as it is written, the number of the apostles multiplied by ten (for he chose twelve, and sent the Spirit on a hundred and twenty): awaiting, then, this promise, they were in one house, they were praying; for they already desired by faith itself what they desired by prayer itself, by spiritual desire itself; they were new wineskins; new wine was awaited from heaven, and it came. For that great cluster had already been trodden and glorified. For we read in the Gospel: “For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Now you have heard what followed: a great miracle. All who were there had learned one language. The Holy Spirit came; they were filled; they began to speak in various tongues of all nations, which they did not know and had not learned; but he who had come taught them; he entered, they were filled, he poured out. And then this was the sign: whoever received the Holy Spirit, suddenly filled with the Spirit, spoke in the tongues of all; not only those hundred and twenty. The Scriptures themselves teach us: afterward people believed, were baptized, received the Holy Spirit, spoke in the tongues of all nations. Those present were astonished, some marveling, others mocking, so that they said: “These men are drunk; they are full of new wine.” They laughed, and said something true. For the wineskins had been filled with new wine. You heard when the Gospel was read: “No one puts new wine into old wineskins”; the carnal does not grasp spiritual things. Carnality is oldness; grace is newness. The more a man has been renewed for the better, the more he grasps what tastes of the truth. The new wine was boiling, and as the new wine boiled the tongues of the nations flowed forth.

Is the Holy Spirit not given now, brothers? Whoever thinks so is not worthy to receive him. He is given now too. Why, then, does no one speak in the tongues of all nations, as he spoke who was then filled with the Holy Spirit? Why? Because what that signified has been fulfilled. What is that? When we celebrated the fortieth day, remember that we commended to you that the Lord Jesus Christ commended his Church and ascended. The disciples were asking, “When will be the end of the world?” And he: “It is not yours to know the times or moments which the Father has set in his own power.” What he fulfilled today was still being promised: “You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The Church was then in one house; it received the Holy Spirit: it was in a few men, it was in the tongues of the whole world. See what it was pointing to then. For that the small Church spoke in the tongues of all nations, what is it but that this great Church, from the rising of the sun to its setting, speaks in the tongues of all nations? Now is being fulfilled what was then promised. We have heard, we see. “Hear, daughter, and see”: it was said to the queen herself, “Hear, daughter, and see”; hear the promise, see the fulfillment. Your God has not deceived you, your bridegroom has not deceived you, he who endowed you with his own blood has not deceived you; he who made you beautiful from foul, a virgin from unclean, has not deceived you. You were promised to yourself: but promised in a few, fulfilled in many.

Let no one, then, say: “I have received the Holy Spirit; why do I not speak in the tongues of all nations?” If you want to have the Holy Spirit, pay attention, my brothers: our spirit, by which every man lives, is called the soul; our spirit, by which each individual man lives, is called the soul: and you see what the soul does in the body. It quickens all the members: it sees through the eyes, hears through the ears, smells through the nostrils, speaks through the tongue, works through the hands, walks through the feet; it is present to all the members at once so that they live; it gives life to all, functions to each. The eye does not hear, the ear does not see, the tongue does not see, nor does the ear or eye speak; but still each lives: the ear lives, the tongue lives; the functions are different, the life common. So is the Church of God: in some saints it works miracles, in other saints it speaks the truth, in other saints it guards virginity, in other saints it guards conjugal chastity, in some this, in others that: each works what is his own, but all alike live. And what the soul is to the body of a man, this the Holy Spirit is to the body of Christ, which is the Church: the Holy Spirit does in the whole Church what the soul does in all the members of one body. But see what you should beware of, see what you should observe, see what you should fear. It happens that in a human body, or rather from a body, some member is cut off, a hand, a finger, a foot; does the soul follow the part cut off? When it was in the body, it lived; cut off, it loses life. So too a Christian man is Catholic while he lives in the body; cut off, he has become a heretic; the spirit does not follow the amputated member. If, then, you want to live from the Holy Spirit, hold charity, love truth, desire unity, so that you may reach eternity. Amen.

Because of the coming of the Holy Spirit today’s day is solemn for us, the fiftieth from the Lord’s resurrection, seven weeks multiplied. But counting seven weeks you will find forty-nine: one is added, so that unity may be commended to us. What did the coming of the Holy Spirit itself do? How did he teach his presence? How did he show it? All spoke in the tongues of all nations. And there were in one place a hundred and twenty: the apostles’ number twelve, consecrated by a mystery, was multiplied by ten. What then, did each of those on whom the Holy Spirit came speak in a single one of the tongues of all nations, this one in one tongue and that one in another, and as it were divide the tongues of all nations among themselves? Not so: but each man, one man, spoke in the tongues of all nations. One man spoke in the tongues of all nations: the unity of the Church in the tongues of all nations. See, here too the unity of the Catholic Church spread through the whole world is commended.

Whoever, then, has the Holy Spirit is in the Church, which speaks in the tongues of all. Whoever is outside this Church does not have the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit deigned to show himself in the tongues of all nations precisely so that a man might understand that he has the Holy Spirit who is held in the unity of the Church, which speaks in all tongues. “One body,” says the apostle Paul: “one body and one spirit.” Look at our members. The body is made up of many members, and one spirit quickens all the members. See, by the human spirit by which I myself am a man, I hold all the members together: I command the members to move, I direct the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the tongue to speak, the hands to work, the feet to walk. The functions of the members are distributed, but one spirit holds all together. Many things are commanded, many are done: one commands, one is served. What our spirit, that is, our soul, is to our members, the Holy Spirit is to the members of Christ, to the body of Christ, which is the Church. That is why the Apostle, when he had named one body, lest we understand a dead body, says: “One body.” But I ask you: does this body live? It lives. From what? From the one spirit. “And one spirit.” Pay attention, then, brothers, to what happens in our body, and grieve for those who are cut off from the Church. In our members, as long as we live, when we are healthy, all the members fulfill their functions. If one member hurts somewhere, all the members suffer with it. Yet because it is in the body, it can hurt; it cannot expire. For what is to expire, except to lose the spirit? But if a member is cut off from the body, does the spirit follow it? And yet the member is recognized for what it is: it is a finger, it is a hand, it is an arm, it is an ear; apart from the body it has form, but it does not have life. So too a man separated from the Church. You look for the sacrament in him: you find it. You look for baptism: you find it. You look for the creed: you find it. It is form: unless you are quickened within by the spirit, in vain do you glory in the form outside.

Dearly beloved, God greatly commends unity. Let this very thing move you: that at the beginning of creatures, when God established all things, he made the stars in heaven, and on earth plants and trees; he said, “Let the earth bring forth,” and trees were brought forth and all green things; he said, “Let the waters bring forth swimming and flying things,” and it was so; “Let the earth bring forth the living soul of all cattle and beasts,” and it was so. Did God make the other birds from one bird? All fish from one fish? All horses from one horse? All beasts from one beast? Did not the earth produce many at once and fill many places with manifold offspring? He came to making man, and one was made; from one, the human race. Nor did he wish to make two separately, male and female; but one, and from the one, one woman. Why so? Why does the human race begin from one, except that unity is commended to the human race? And the Lord Christ is from one woman: the unity is a virgin; she keeps virginity, she preserves incorruption.

The Lord himself commends the unity of the Church to the apostles: he shows himself, they think they are seeing a spirit; they are terrified, they are strengthened, it is said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts rise up in your heart? See my hands: handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have.” See, while they were still troubled for joy, he takes food, not from want but from power; he takes it before them: he commends against the ungodly the truth of the body, he commends the unity of the Church. For what does he say? “Are not these the things I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me? Then he opened their understanding,” the Gospel says, “so that they might understand the Scriptures. And he 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.” See our head; see the head: where are the members? See the bridegroom: where is the bride? Read the marriage contract: hear the bridegroom. Are you looking for the bride? Hear it from him: no one takes his own from him, no one substitutes another’s: hear it from him. Where do you look for Christ? In the tales of men, or in the truth of the Gospels? He suffered, he rose on the third day, he showed himself to his disciples. Now we have him: where do we look for her? Let us ask him: “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” See, it has now been done; now it is seen. Tell us, O Lord; you tell us, Lord, lest we go astray: “And that repentance and the forgiveness of sins be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” It began from Jerusalem and reached us. And it is there as it is here. For it did not leave there in order to come to us: it grew, it did not migrate. This he commended immediately after his resurrection. He spent forty days with them: about to ascend into heaven, he commended the Church again. The bridegroom, about to depart, commended his bride to his friends: not that she should love any of them, but him as bridegroom, them as friends of the bridegroom, none of them as bridegroom. This is what the friends of the bridegroom are jealous for, and they do not allow her to be corrupted by wanton love. They hate it when they are loved so. Attend to a jealous friend of the bridegroom: when he saw the bride as it were committing sexual immorality through the friends of the bridegroom, he says: “I hear that there are schisms among you, and in part I believe it.” “It has been reported to me about you, brothers, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you, and each of you says, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” O friend! He thrusts from himself the love of another’s bride. He does not want to be loved in place of the bridegroom, so that he may reign with the bridegroom. So the Church was commended; and when he ascended into heaven, he said this to those who were asking about the end of the world, “Tell us when these things will be, and when is the time of your coming?” And he: “It is not yours to know the times which the Father has set in his own power.” Hear what you should know from the teacher, disciple: “But you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.” And it happened: on the fortieth day he ascended into heaven, and see, today, the Holy Spirit coming, all who were present are filled, they speak in the tongues of all nations. Again that same unity is commended through the tongues of all nations. It is commended by the Lord rising, commended by Christ ascending, confirmed by the Holy Spirit coming today.