Sermons to the People 42.1–44.7

I, brothers, have little strength, but the word of God has great strength. May it prevail in your hearts. So what we say gently you will hear strongly, if you obey. The Lord has thundered through the prophet Isaiah as through his cloud: if you have any sense, you have taken fright. For he spoke plainly, and these words need no expositor but a doer. “What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?” he says. “For who has required these things from your hands?” God seeks us, not our things. But the sacrifice of a Christian is alms to the poor. For by this God becomes propitious to our sins. And unless God becomes propitious to our sins, who remains but a guilty man? From the sins and faults without which this life is not lived, people are cleansed by alms; and these are of two kinds, giving and forgiving: giving the good you have, forgiving the evil you suffer. Hear how briefly the Lord, the good Master, who shortened his word on earth so that it might be fruitful and not burdensome, has embraced these two kinds of alms: “Forgive,” he says, “and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” pertains to pardoning; “give, and it will be given to you” pertains to giving out. From the alms by which you pardon a man you lose nothing. See, at once he asks pardon; you have pardoned; you have lost nothing. You have gone home richer in charity. The other kind of alms, in which we are commanded to give to the needy, seems heavy, because whatever anyone gives, he will not have the very thing he gives.

Indeed here too the apostle makes us secure, when he says, “According to what each one has; not that others should have relief and you distress.” Let each one, then, measure his means; let him not take care to store up treasure on earth. Let him give: what he gives does not perish. I do not say, “This does not perish,” but I say, “This alone does not perish.” The other things that you do not give and have in abundance, you either lose while you live or leave behind when you die. Next, my brothers, consider what a great promise exhorts us: “Forgive,” he says, “and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” When he says, “Give, and it will be given to you,” consider to whom he says it. God says it to man, the immortal to a mortal, so great a householder to a beggar. For he is not going to take back what we gave. We have found someone to lend to. Let us lend at interest, but to God, not to man. We give to him who has everything in abundance; we give to him who gave us what to give. And for small, frivolous, mortal, perishable, earthly things, he gives eternal, incorruptible things that last without end. Why should I say much? He promises himself, the one who promises. If you love him, buy him from him. And so that you may know that you are giving to him, hear him saying, “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; sick, and you visited me; in prison, and you came to me.” And they will say, “When did we see you in these needs and minister to you?” And he will say, “When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me.” He gives from heaven, he receives on earth. He gives, and he receives. You are making, as it were, a transfer loan: you give here, you receive there; here you give things that will perish, there you receive things that will last without end.

And whenever you say to God, “Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man” (for this is what we sang just now; and I know with what groaning you say, “Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man”; for who in this world does not have to put up with some evil man?), when, then, you say this to God, “Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man,” just as you say it with your whole heart, so first look at yourself with attentive eyes. “Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man.” Suppose God answered you, “From whom?” You will say, “From Gaius, from Lucius, from so-and-so whom I have to put up with.” And he answers you, “Do you say nothing to me about yourself? If I am to deliver you from the evil man, you must first be delivered from yourself.” You suffer an evil man: do not be an evil you have to suffer in yourself. Let us see what another evil man can find in you to do to you. What can an evil man do to you? Do not you be evil. Let avarice not rule you, let your lust not trample you, let your anger not grind you. These are your inner enemies. Do nothing to yourself. Let us see what an evil neighbor does to you, an evil patron, an evil powerful man: let us see what he does to you. Let him find you just, let him find you faithful, let him find you a Christian: what will he do to you? What the Jews did to Stephen. By doing evil, they sent him to good. So when you ask God to deliver you from the evil man, look to yourself; do not spare yourself; let him deliver you from yourself. How does he deliver you from yourself? By forgiving sins, granting merits, giving you strength to fight against your desires, inspiring virtue, giving your mind a heavenly delight by which every earthly delight may be overcome. When God grants you these things, he delivers you from yourself, and amid the passing evils of this world you wait without fear for the Lord who is to come with the goods that cannot pass away. Let this be enough for you. You surely see that somehow I come to it weak and by speaking become strong, so great is my desire and my eagerness for your progress! For a laborer in the field who hopes for fruit feels his toil less. May you be my fruit, so that I may be with you, and we may all be God’s fruit.

The beginning of a good life, to which eternal life is also due, is right faith. Faith is believing what you do not yet see; and the reward of this faith is seeing what you believe. In the time of faith, then, as in the time of sowing, let us not lose heart, and let us not lose heart to the end; but let us persevere until we reap what we have sown. For since the human race had turned away from God and lay in its sins, just as we needed a Creator in order to exist, so we needed a Savior in order to live again. A just God condemned man; a merciful God frees man. “The God of Israel himself will give strength and fortitude to his people: blessed be God.” But believers receive it; those who despise it do not.

Yet we must not glory in faith itself as though we could do something of ourselves. For faith is not nothing, but something great; and if you have it, you have certainly received it. “For what do you have that you have not received?” See, dearly beloved, for what you should give thanks to the Lord God, lest you remain ungrateful for any gift of his, and through being ungrateful lose what you have received. The praise of faith can in no way be unfolded by me, but it can be pondered by the faithful. And if it is pondered even in part as it deserves, who could worthily ponder how far it is to be preferred to many gifts of God himself? And if we ought to acknowledge the lesser gifts of God in us, how much more ought we to acknowledge the gift that surpasses them?

From God we have it that we are what we are. For that we are not nothing, from whom do we have it, if not from God? But trees too exist, and stones exist: from whom, if not from God? What more, then, do we have? Trees and stones do not live; but we live. But even living we have in common with trees and shrubs. For vines are said to live as well; for if they did not live, it would not be written, “He killed their vines with hail.” A vine lives when it is green; it dries up when it dies. But that life has no sensation. What more do we have? We perceive by the senses. The sense of the body is known to be fivefold: we see, we hear, we smell, we taste, and by touch throughout our whole body we distinguish soft and hard, rough and smooth, hot and cold. There is, then, a fivefold sense in us; but the beasts have this too. So we have something more. And yet, my brothers, if we consider in ourselves even these things that we have listed, how much thanksgiving, how much praise do we owe the Creator for them? But still, what more do we have? Mind, reason, counsel, which the beasts do not have, the birds do not have, the fish do not have: in this we were made in the image of God. Indeed, where Scripture tells how we were made, it adds something that not only sets us before the cattle but sets us over them, that is, makes them subject to us: “Let us make man,” he says, “in our image and likeness, and let him have power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all the cattle and the serpents that creep on the earth.” Why should he have power? Because of the image of God. Hence some are told in rebuke, “Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.” But understanding is one thing and reason another. For we have reason even before we understand; but we cannot understand unless we have reason. Man, then, is an animal capable of reason; or, to put it better and more briefly, a rational animal, in whose nature reason is present, and who has reason even before he understands. Indeed, he wants to understand precisely because reason comes first.

This, then, by which we surpass the beasts, we ought above all to cultivate in ourselves, and in a way to carve again and re-form. But who can do it, except the craftsman who formed it? We were able to deform the image of God in us; we are not able to re-form it. We have, then, to sum it all up briefly: existence with trees and stones; life with trees; sensation with beasts; understanding with angels. We distinguish colors with the eyes, sounds with the ears, smells with the nostrils, flavors with taste, heat with touch, ways of life with understanding. Understand. Every man wants to understand; there is no one who does not want to; but not all want to believe. A man says to me, “Let me understand, so that I may believe”; I answer, “Believe, so that you may understand.” Since such a controversy has in a way arisen between us, so that he says to me, “Let me understand, so that I may believe,” and I answer him, “No, believe, so that you may understand,” let us come with this controversy to a judge, and let neither of us presume a verdict in his own favor. What judge shall we find? Having considered all men, I do not know whether we can find a better judge than a man through whom God speaks. Let us not go, then, in this matter and this controversy to secular literature; let not a poet judge between us, but a prophet.

The blessed apostle Peter, with two other disciples of Christ the Lord, James and John, was on the mountain with the Lord himself, and heard a voice borne from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.” Commending this, the same apostle said in his letter: “This voice we heard borne from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.” And when he had said, “This voice we heard borne from heaven,” he added, “And we have the more certain prophetic word.” That voice sounded from heaven, and the prophetic word is more certain. Pay attention, dearly beloved; may the Lord help my will and your expectation, so that I may say what I want as I want. For which of us would not wonder that the apostle called the prophetic word more certain than a voice borne from heaven? He said “more certain”: more certain, not better, not truer. For that word from heaven is as true as the prophetic word, as good, as useful. What, then, does “more certain” mean, if not that by which the hearer is more firmly convinced? Why is this? Because there are unbelieving men who disparage Christ so as to say that he did by magic arts what he did. Unbelievers could therefore attribute even that voice borne from heaven to magic arts, by human conjectures and unlawful curiosity. But the prophets came before: I do not say before that voice, but before Christ’s flesh. Christ was not yet man when he sent the prophets. Whoever says he was a magician: if he brought it about by magic arts that he should be worshiped even when dead, was he a magician before he was born? See why the apostle Peter says, “We have the more certain prophetic word.” The voice from heaven is that by which believers are admonished; the prophetic word, that by which unbelievers are convinced. We have understood, as it seems to me, dearly beloved, why the apostle Peter said, “We have the more certain prophetic word,” after the voice borne from heaven.

And how great was Christ’s own condescension! This Peter who speaks so was a fisherman; and now an orator wins great praise if he can be understood by that fisherman. That is why the apostle Paul, speaking to the first Christians, says: “Consider your calling, brothers: not many were wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong; and God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God chose the low and contemptible things of the world, and things that are not as though they were, so that the things that are might be brought to nothing.” For if Christ had first chosen an orator, the orator would say, “I was chosen for the merit of my eloquence.” If he had chosen a senator, the senator would say, “I was chosen for the merit of my rank.” Finally, if he had first chosen an emperor, the emperor would say, “I was chosen for the merit of my power.” Let these be quiet and wait a little, be quiet a little: let them not be left out, not despised, but put off a little, those who can glory of themselves in themselves. “Give me,” he says, “that fisherman; give me an uneducated man; give me an unskilled man; give me one with whom a senator does not deign to speak even when he buys fish from him. Give me him,” he says: “if I fill him, it will be plain that I am the one who does it. I shall make a senator too, and an orator, and an emperor; at some time I shall make a senator too, but more surely the fisherman.” A senator can glory of himself, an orator can, an emperor can; a fisherman cannot, except in Christ. Let the fisherman come to teach wholesome humility; let the fisherman come first; through him the emperor is better brought in.

Remember, then, the holy, just, good fisherman, full of Christ, to whose nets, cast throughout the world, this people too belonged, to be caught with the rest; remember, then, that he said, “We have the more certain prophetic word.” Give me, then, a prophet as judge for that controversy. What was at issue between us? You were saying, “Let me understand, so that I may believe”; I was saying, “So that you may understand, believe.” The controversy has arisen; let us come to the judge; let the prophet judge, or rather let God judge through the prophet. Let us both be silent. What we both said has been heard. “Let me understand,” you say, “so that I may believe.” “Believe,” I say, “so that you may understand.” Let the prophet answer: “Unless you believe, you will not understand.”

But do you think, dearly beloved, that the one who says, “Let me understand, so that I may believe,” says nothing true either? For what are we doing now, if not trying to bring to belief, not those who do not believe, but those who still believe too little? For if they did not believe at all, they would not be here. Faith brought them to listen; faith made them present to the word of God; but that faith which has sprouted must be watered, nourished, strengthened. This is what we are doing. “I planted,” he says, “Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth.” By speaking, exhorting, teaching, persuading we can plant and water, but we cannot give the growth. The man with whom he was speaking knew this: for his faith, which was sprouting and still tender, still weak, and largely wavering (yet not no faith, but some faith), he prayed for a helper, saying to him, “I believe, Lord.”

Just now, when the Gospel was read, you heard: “If you can believe,” the Lord Jesus said to the boy’s father, “if you can believe, all things are possible to one who believes.” And he, looking at himself, placed as it were before himself, not with rash confidence but first examining his conscience, saw that there was some faith in him, and saw wavering too; he saw both. He confessed that he had the one, and asked for help with the other. “I believe,” he said, “Lord.” What followed? Was it, “Help my faith”? He did not say this. “I believe, Lord; I see something here in which I do not lie; I believe; I speak the truth. But I also see here something or other that displeases me. I want to stand, but I still totter. I speak standing; I have not fallen, because I believe; but still I totter: help my unbelief.” So, dearly beloved, the one whom I set up as my opponent, and for whose controversy with me I asked for the prophet as judge, also says something when he says, “Let me understand, so that I may believe.” For certainly what I am now saying, I say so that those who do not yet believe may believe; and yet unless they understand what I say, they cannot believe. So what he says is in part true, “Let me understand, so that I may believe”; and I, who say with the prophet, “No, believe, so that you may understand”: we both speak the truth; let us agree. So understand, so that you may believe; believe, so that you may understand. I will say briefly how we may accept both without controversy: understand my word, so that you may believe; believe God’s word, so that you may understand.

Of our Lord and Savior, dearly beloved brothers, it was prophesied long ago: “He will grow up like a shoot, and like a root in thirsty ground.” Why like a root? This is why: “He has no form nor honor.” He suffered, he was humiliated, he was spat upon; he had no form; he appeared as a man, though he was God. But it is as with a root, which is not beautiful but holds within it the power of its beauty. Pay attention, my brothers; see the mercy of God. You look at a beautiful tree, pleasant, green with leaves, rich in fruit, and you praise it. It delights you to pluck some of its fruit, to sit in its shade and rest from the heat; you praise all that beauty. If the root were shown you, there is no beauty in it. Do not despise what is lowly: from it has come what you admire. “Like a root in thirsty ground.” Look now at the splendor of the tree.

The Church has grown; the nations have believed; the princes of the earth have been conquered under the name of Christ, so that they might be conquerors throughout the world. Their neck has been placed under the yoke of Christ. Before, they persecuted Christians for the sake of idols; now they persecute idols for the sake of Christ. All flee for help to the Church, in every distress, in every tribulation of theirs. That mustard seed has grown; it has become greater than all the herbs; the birds of the sky, the proud of the world, come and rest under its branches. Where does this great beauty come from? It has risen from some root or other, and this beauty is in great glory. Let us look for the root. He was spat upon, humiliated, scourged, crucified, wounded, despised. See, here there is no form; but in the Church the glory of the root is powerful. So the prophet describes the bridegroom himself, despised, dishonored, lowly. But now you are able to see the tree that has risen from that root and filled the whole world: “a root in thirsty ground.”

“He has no form nor honor; and we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness.” “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” How little comeliness he had, that it was said, “Do we not say truly that you have a demon?” In his name demons fled, and it is thrown at him that he had a demon. But why this? “We saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness.” What is his form within, where he was not seen? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What is his form? “Who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God.”

And where was he seen to have no form nor comeliness? “And he had no form; but his face was cast down, and his bearing unsightly before all men. A man under the blow.” A man under the blow; before the blow, God; after the blow, man and God. “A man under the blow, and one who knows how to bear infirmities.” Whose infirmities? Those of the very men by whom he suffered. The physician bore the infirmities of the delirious; and while he himself was being crucified, he prayed and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Pay attention: let us love the bridegroom. The more unsightly he is presented to us, the dearer and the sweeter he has become to the bride. “For which reason he also turned himself away.” He turned himself away, so that those who were crucifying him might not understand him. “His face was dishonored, and was not highly esteemed.”

“He bears our infirmities and is in sorrows for us; and we thought him to be in sorrows, and under the blow, and in punishment. But he was wounded for our sins, and weakened for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord handed him over for our sins.” Is this the Gospel, or prophecy? What do the Jews say against these things? Is it not amazing that they hear these things, possess these things, read these things, and do not find anyone of whom they could be said except that one man who is preached in the Gospel throughout the world, and still are not Christians, but are so blind against the most evident words of the prophets? Do not wonder at the blindness of the Jews about Christ. See, what is said of the bridegroom passes over, and what is said of the bride begins; and just as you wondered at the blindness of the Jews about the bridegroom, so you will wonder at the blindness of the heretics about the bride.

“The Lord handed him over for our sins; and he, because he was ill-treated, did not open his mouth. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter; and like a lamb before its shearer he was without voice; so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.” And so that you may not despise him: “Who will tell of his generation?” What generation? “Before the morning star I begot you.” See one generation: “before the morning star,” before all things that were made, before all the angels, before all creation. Why? Because all things were made through him. But perhaps it is his second generation that is told. Who tells of it? He is conceived by faith; no man approaches; a virgin’s womb swells; he comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber. Wonderful is this generation. The human one is wonderful, because it is without a father; that other is wonderful, because it is without a mother. “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, like a lamb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. Who will tell of his generation? For his life will be taken away from the earth.” It proclaims his resurrection. You see that the Lord spoke truly (as if the Truth could speak otherwise than truly) when he said, “The things that are written in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms about me”: that the Christ had to suffer and rise again, you have heard. And “rise again” you have just heard: “For his life will be taken away from the earth.” “And that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem”: you will hear that too from this prophet. Not that we ought to put the prophet before the Lord: the herald went before; the judge followed. The herald spoke not his own words but the judge’s, and the judge, following, confirmed his own words in the herald. “For his life will be taken away from the earth. Because of the iniquities of my people he was led to death.” You heard him just now saying to them, “What have I done to you? If you have found sin in me, prove it.” And they: “Crucify, crucify!” They thought him a man, yet an innocent one. So: “Because of the iniquities of my people he was led to death.”

“I will give, then, the wicked for his burial.” What does this mean, “I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death”? The wicked because of the burial, the rich because of the death. That rich man from Arimathea, Joseph, while the Lord was hanging on the cross, went in to Pilate and asked for his body: he obtained it, so as to bury it. The rich were given for his death: he buried the poor one, in whom he sought riches. So: “the rich for his death.” What the prophet said second happened first; what he said first happened afterward. “The wicked for his burial.” Where do we show it? The Jews went in to Pilate and said to him, “Lord, we have heard that that deceiver (ho planos), that is, that impostor, told his disciples that he would rise after being killed. Order the tomb to be guarded, lest his disciples come by night and take him away, and the error become greater than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have soldiers; go, guard it as you wish.” They took soldiers and stationed them there. These are the wicked; they were given because of his burial, to guard it. But how do we prove that they were wicked? The soldiers were sent innocent: the judge gave them orders; they came to the tomb; they guarded it. Hear that they were wicked: read the Gospel. After the Lord rose and they saw the angel, they were terrified and dismayed. When it was said to others, “Do not be afraid,” these were struck with fear, because they were not lifted up by faith. And yet, though they knew these things, they went to the Jews and told them all of it. The Jews said, “We will give you money.” So they were wicked: they hid the truth and sold a lie. And how did they sell a lie? No wonder: they sold a lie, the blind to the blind. “Say” (they were told) “that while we were asleep his disciples came and stole him away.” O vanity selling vanity to vanity! The vain will hear it and believe it. Even today this is held among the Jews; such is the report itself, how vain, how false, how empty. They will not hear the testimony of martyrs, so as to live; and they hear the testimony of sleepers, so as to perish. If the guards were asleep, how could they know who took him from the tomb? Or why were you awake, you wicked man? O wicked man, of whom the prophet said not without reason, “I will give the wicked for his burial.” O wicked, O most wicked men: either you were awake, and you ought to have guarded him; or you were asleep, and you do not know what happened. For what the Holy Spirit had foretold long before through the psalmist was fulfilled: “They devised a plan which they could not carry out.” Let us, then, dearest brothers, for whose salvation all these things were both foretold and fulfilled, give thanks to the divine mercy, and labor with all our strength as far as we can, so that God’s benefits may bring us not judgment but progress; so that when the dreadful day of judgment and the time of rendering account comes, whatever our Lord and Savior conferred on us when he was judged, he may find whole when he comes to judge. And indeed, when he comes, he will render what he promised, but he will require what he redeemed; and what he conferred in his first coming he will exact in his second. Although we ought to trust much in God’s mercy, we must not on that account be careless about fearing his justice. For he who redeemed you with mercy will judge you with justice. That he spares us when we sin for so long is not negligence but patience. He has not lost his power; he has kept us back for repentance. Let us fear, then, the justice of him whose mercy we desire. For he spares now, but he is not silent; and even if he is silent, he will not always be silent. Let us listen to him, then, while he is not silent in his commandment, if we want him to spare us when he is not silent in judgment. For now mercy is extended to us in advance; then justice will be required of us, and he will render to each according to his works; and what the apostle said will come to pass: “Judgment without mercy for one who has not shown mercy.”