Sermons to the People 354.1–354.9

The Lord reminded us of this when the Gospel was read, that whoever believes in him believes in him who sent him. That the Saviour of the world was sent to us, the truest faith holds: since Christ himself preaches Christ, that is, the body of Christ spread throughout the whole world. For he was in heaven, and he said to the persecutor raging on earth, “Why do you persecute me?” By this the Lord expressed that he is here too, in us. So he grows as a whole: because as he is here in us, so we too are there in him. This is what the bond of love does. He who is our head is the Saviour of his body. So Christ preaches Christ, the body preaches its head, and the head protects its body. And so the world hates us, as we have heard from the Lord himself. For he did not say this only to the few apostles, that the world would hate them, and that they ought to rejoice when men disparaged them and said all evil against them, because for this their reward would be greater in heaven; the Lord did not say it to them alone when he said it, but he said it to his whole body, he said it to all his members. Whoever wants to be in his body and to be his member, let him not wonder that the world hates him.

Many receive the sacrament of his body: but not all who receive the sacrament will have with him the place promised to his members. Almost all, indeed, call the sacrament his body, because all feed together in his pastures: but he is to come who will divide, and put some on the right and others on the left. And both parts will say, “Lord, Lord, when did we see you and serve you?” or, “Lord, when did we see you and not serve you?” Both parts will say it; yet to one he will say, “Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom”; to the other, “Go into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” So, dearly beloved, all of us who are members of Christ with a good conscience ought not to count as our enemies only those who are openly outside. For much worse are those who seem to be inside and are thieves. For they love the world, and so they are evil. And indeed they judge us by what they themselves love, and they envy us in the seeming prosperities of this world over which we groan. They think us happy where we are in danger. But our inner happiness they do not know, because they have not tasted it. That whatever the world smiles on us with in time is more a danger to us than an ornament, they do not know, because they do not know how to distinguish these joys.

So we exhort your Charity, especially because we see that you have gathered in greater numbers, you who have a higher resolve, that is, who hold a more excellent place in the very body of Christ by his gift, not by your merits, having a conscience which has been given by God. Even this comes under suspicion from the wicked and from those who envy us. Yet it is bitten so that it may be tested. For if in the very profession of continence we seek the praise of men, we give way under the reproaches of men. Though you are a chaste servant of God, look, the world perhaps suspects you of being unchaste, and bites, and reproaches, and gladly lingers on disparaging you; for to a malevolent soul what it suspects most wickedly tastes, as it were, sweet; but if you wanted to take up continence for the sake of human praise, you have given way under human reproaches and lost everything you had resolved. But if you know how to say with the apostle, “Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience,” the reproaches not only do not lessen your reward but even make it greater. Yet pray for him, that he may not die by your reward. For we are tested by this too, dearly beloved: if we had no enemies, there would be none for us to pray for, by the command of our Lord, who says, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who hate you.” How shall we test, how shall we question our heart whether we can do this, if we experience no enemy, no critic, no detractor, no reviler? You see, then, that the wicked too are necessary for the good. We are in a sense in the goldsmith's furnace, that is, in this world. If you are not gold, you burn up with the rest. If you are gold, the wicked man is your chaff. If you too are chaff, you will become smoke together.

But first know this, dearly beloved: in the body of Christ the more excellent members are not the only ones. For married life is praiseworthy, and has its place in the body of Christ: just as in our body too not only those parts have a place which are placed more excellently, as the senses in the face occupy the upper part of the body; but unless the feet carried them, whatever is lofty would lie on the ground. Hence the apostle says: “And those parts of ours that are less honourable are more necessary. God has tempered the body, so that there may be no divisions in the body.” We know, indeed, that the members of Christ who lead married life, if they are members of Christ, that is, if they are faithful, if they either hope for or await the world to come, if they know why they bear the sign of Christ, as we know that they pay you honour; we know that they judge you to be better than they are. But as much as they honour you, so much ought you to show them honour in return. For if there is holiness in you, fear lest you lose it. How? Through pride. The holiness of the chaste perishes in one way if he becomes an adulterer; in another way it perishes if he becomes proud. And I dare to say: married people, if they keep humility, are better than proud celibates. Let your Charity consider what I say: look at the devil: is adultery or fornication to be charged against him in God's judgment? He does none of these, who has no flesh. Pride and envy alone send him into the eternal fire. [5] So in a servant of God into whom pride has crept, envy is at once there too. The proud man cannot but be envious. Envy is the daughter of pride: but this mother does not know how to be barren; wherever she is, she at once gives birth. So that it may not be in you, consider this: in the time of persecution not only Agnes, a virgin, was crowned, but also Crispina, a married woman; and perhaps—which is not doubted—some of the continent failed then, and many of the married fought and conquered. So not in vain does the apostle say to all the members of Christ: “Each regarding the other as superior to himself, and outdoing one another in showing honour.” For if you think on these things, you will not be great in your own eyes. For you ought to think more of what you lack than of what you have. What you have, beware lest you lose it; what you do not yet have, pray that you may have it. You must think in how many things you are less, not in how many you are greater. For if you think how far you have gone ahead of another, fear swelling. But if you think how much you still lack, you groan; and when you groan, you are healed, you will be humble, you will walk more safely, you will not be thrown headlong, you will not be puffed up.

And at least let all be able to think about the one love. For it alone both conquers all things, and without it all things are worth nothing, and wherever it is it draws all things to itself. It is love that is not jealous. Do you ask the cause? Notice what follows: “It is not puffed up.” Among vices pride comes first, as I had begun to say, then envy. For envy did not give birth to pride, but pride gave birth to envy. For nothing envies but love of excelling. Love of excelling is called pride. Since, then, in order pride is first and envy follows, the apostle in the praises of love did not want to say first, “It is not puffed up,” and afterwards, “It is not jealous”; but he said first, “It is not jealous,” afterwards, “It is not puffed up.” Why this? Because when he had said, “It is not jealous,” as if you were going to ask the cause why it is not jealous, he added, “It is not puffed up.” So if it is not jealous because it is not puffed up, if it were puffed up it would be jealous. Let this grow in you, and the soul is made solid, because it is not puffed up. “Knowledge,” says the apostle, “puffs up.” What then? Ought you to flee knowledge, and will you choose to know nothing rather than be puffed up? Why do we speak to you, if ignorance is better than knowledge? Why do we discuss with you? Why do we draw these distinctions? Why do we remind you of what you know and bring in what you do not know, if knowledge is to be avoided lest it puff up? So love knowledge, but put love first. Knowledge, if it is alone, puffs up. But because love builds up, it does not allow knowledge to be puffed up. So knowledge puffs up where love does not build up: where love goes before and builds up, it is made solid. There is no puffing up where the rock is the foundation.

How much does inflation, that is, self-exaltation, tempt, that because of this vice even that great apostle said that a thorn of the flesh, an angel of Satan, had been set on him to buffet him! When someone is buffeted, his head is struck so that it may not be lifted up: for there too there was fear of inflation, that is, of exaltation, from knowledge. For he says: “Lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations.” So exaltation was to be feared where there was revelation of great things: “Lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations, there was given me a thorn of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. For this I asked the Lord three times to take it away from me; and he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness.” The sick man asks that what the doctor applies for health be taken away when the sick man wants it. The doctor says: “No; it bites, but it heals.” You say: “Take away what bites.” The doctor says: “I do not take it away, because it heals.” Why did you come to the doctor? To be healed, or not to suffer discomfort? So the Lord did not hear Paul according to his will, because he heard him for his health. For it is no great thing to be heard by God according to one's will; it is no great thing. Do not think this great, when someone prays, as something great if he is heard. Ask what he prays for; ask in what he is heard. For do not count it great to be heard according to one's will; count it great to be heard for one's good. Even the demons were heard according to their will, and were allowed to go into the pigs they had asked for. Even their prince, the devil, was heard according to his will: when he asked for Job to be tempted, he was not refused, so that the one might be proved and the other confounded. Even the Israelites were heard according to their will; and while the food was still in their mouths, you know what followed for them. So do not count it great to be heard according to your will. Sometimes God in anger gives what you ask, and God in favour refuses what you ask. But when you ask of him the things that God praises, that God commands, that God promises in the world to come, ask confidently, and apply yourselves as much as you can to prayers, that you may receive. For those are granted by God when he is favourable; those are bestowed not by his anger but by his mercy. But when you ask for temporal things, ask with measure, ask with fear: entrust it to him, so that if they profit, he may give; if he knows they harm, he may not give. What harms and what profits the doctor knows, not the sick man.

There are, then, humble continent people, and there are proud ones. Let the proud not promise themselves the kingdom of God. The place to which continence leads is more excellent: but whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Why do you seek a higher place by craving height, when you can grasp it by holding on to humility? If you lift yourself up, God casts you down; if you cast yourself down, God lifts you up. It is the Lord's sentence: nothing can be added to it or taken from it. But continent people are often so proud that they are ungrateful not only to anyone at all but even to their parents, and are lifted up against their parents. Why? Because those begot, and these despised marriage. How would those who had despised marriage exist to be ungrateful, unless the others had begotten them? “But a son is better than his married father, because he himself did not take a wife; and a daughter is better than her married mother, because she herself did not seek a husband.” If prouder, in no way better; if better, without doubt humbler. If you want to find yourself better, question your soul, whether you see puffing up there. Where there is puffing up, there is emptiness. Where the devil finds emptiness, he strives to make a nest.

Finally, my brothers, I dare to say that it is profitable for proud continent people to fall, so that they may be humbled in that very thing in which they exalt themselves. For what does it profit one in whom there is continence if pride dominates? He has despised that from which man was born, and he craves that from which the devil fell. You have despised marriage: you did well; you chose something better: but do not be proud. From marriage man was born; from pride the angels fell. If I consider your goods one by one, you, man, are better than your father, since you despised marriage; and you, woman, better than your mother, since you despised marriage. For virginal holiness is better than conjugal chastity. If these two are compared together, the one is better than the other: who doubts it? But adding two others, pride and humility, I ask you about these two, and answer me about them: which is better, pride or humility? You answer, humility. Join it to virginal holiness. But let pride not only not be in your virginity, but not remain even in your mother. For if you hold on to pride and your mother to humility, the mother will be better than the daughter. Again I will compare you. Before, when I attended to things singly, I had found you better: now that I attend to them two by two, I do not hesitate to prefer a humble married woman to a proud virgin. And how do I prefer her? See how I prefer her whom I was just comparing. Conjugal chastity is good, virginal integrity better. I was comparing two goods, not an evil and a good; I was distinguishing good and better. But when I set down those two, pride and humility, can we say, “Pride is good, but humility is better”? But what do we say? Pride is evil, humility good; and pride a great evil, humility a great good. If, then, of these two one is evil and the other good, the evil is joined to your greater good, and the whole becomes evil; the good is joined to your mother's lesser good, and it becomes a great good. The mother will have a lower place in the kingdom of heaven, because she was married, than the daughter, because she is a virgin. For the virgin daughter a greater place, the married mother a lesser place, yet both there: as a bright star and a dim star are both in the sky. But if your mother is humble and you proud, she will have some place or other, but you no place. And who finds another place, not having had a place there, except with him who fell from there and threw down the one who was standing? The devil fell from where he threw down the man who was standing. He threw down the one standing: but Christ, coming down, raised up the one lying. Yet see how your Lord raised you up. He raised you by humility: “becoming obedient to death, he humbled himself.” Your prince humble, and you proud? The head humble, and a member proud? Far from it. Whoever loves pride does not want to belong to the body of the humble head. But if he does not belong to it, let him see where he will be. I do not want to say it, lest I seem to have frightened too much. Or rather, would that I have frightened, and achieved something. Would that whoever, man or woman, was so may no longer be so. Would that I have poured these words in and not poured them out. Everything is to be hoped for from God's mercy: because he who frightens saddens; he who saddens consoles; but only if the one saddened is corrected.