Sermons to the People 81.1–81.9

The divine readings we heard just now when they were recited admonish us to take up the strength of the virtues against the stumbling blocks which have been foretold as coming, and to fortify the Christian heart—and this from the mercy of the Lord. For “what is man,” it says, “unless you are mindful of him?” “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks,” the Lord says, the Truth says: he frightens and warns; he does not want us to be careless; for he certainly did not make us to despair. Against this “woe,” that is, against this evil that is to be feared, dreaded, and guarded against, Scripture consoles, exhorts, and instructs us in the place where it says: “Great peace have those who love your law, and there is no stumbling block for them.” It showed an enemy to be guarded against, but did not fail to show a fortified wall. Hearing, “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks,” you were thinking where you might go outside the world, so as not to suffer stumbling blocks. To avoid stumbling blocks, then, where will you go outside the world, unless you flee to him who made the world? And how shall we be able to take refuge with him who made the world, unless we hear his law, which is preached everywhere? It is not enough to hear, unless we love. For divine Scripture, making you secure against stumbling blocks, does not say, “Great peace have those who hear your law.” For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God. But because the doers of the law will be justified, and faith works through love, it says: “Great peace have those who love your law, and there is no stumbling block for them.” With this sentence agrees also what we sang, listening and responding: “But the meek will inherit the earth, and will delight in the abundance of peace.” Because: “Great peace have those who love your law.” For the meek are those who love the law of God. “For blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law, that you may make him gentle in the evil days, until a pit is dug for the sinner.” How different the voices of Scripture seem, and yet they so flow together and converge into one meaning that, whatever you have been able to hear from that most abundant fountain, you too may rest in it, a friend in harmony with truth, full of peace, fervent with charity, fortified against stumbling blocks.

The task set before us, then, is to see, or seek, or learn how we ought to be meek; and from what I have just recalled from the Scriptures we are prompted to find what we are seeking. Let your Charity attend a little; it is a great matter, that we be meek: a necessary matter in adversity. For it is not the adversities of this world that are called stumbling blocks: notice what stumbling blocks are. Someone, for example, placed in some necessity, is hard pressed by pressure. That he is hard pressed by pressure is not a stumbling block. The martyrs too were pressed by pressure, but not crushed. Beware of the stumbling block, not so much of the pressure. Pressure presses you; a stumbling block crushes you. What, then, is the difference between pressure and a stumbling block? Under pressure you were preparing to keep patience, to hold constancy, not to abandon faith, not to consent to sin. If you keep this, or will have kept it, the pressure will not be a ruin to you; but that pressure will serve the purpose it serves in the oil press: not that the olive be crushed, but that the oil may flow. Indeed, if under that pressure you sing praises to God, how useful the press from which this liquid flows from you! The apostles sat under pressure, in chains, and under that pressure they sang a hymn to God. What was pressed? What flowed out? Job sat under great pressure on the dunghill, needy, helpless, without property, without children; full, but of worms, as far as concerns the outer man. But because inwardly he was full of God, he praised God, and that pressure was no stumbling block to him. Where, then, was the stumbling block? When his wife came to him and said, “Say something against God, and die.” For when everything had been taken away by the devil, an Eve was kept for the man being tested, not for his consolation but for his temptation. See where the stumbling block is. She heaped up his miseries, and her own miseries with his, and began to urge him to blasphemy. But he was meek, because God had taught him out of his law and made him gentle in the evil days; he had great peace in his heart as one who loved the law of God, and there was no stumbling block for him. She was a stumbling block, but not to him. Finally, see the meek man, see one instructed in the law of God—the eternal law of God, I mean. For that law given to the Jews on tablets did not yet exist in Job’s times; but the eternal law still remained in the hearts of the godly, from which was copied the law that was given to the people. Since, then, he had been made gentle in the evil days by the law of God, and had great peace as one who loved the law of God, see how meek he is, what he answers. Learn here what I proposed: who the meek are. “You have spoken,” he says, “like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things?”

We have heard by example who the meek are: let us define them in words, if we can. The meek are those to whom, in all their good deeds, in all they do well, nothing is pleasing but God; and in all the evils they suffer, God is not displeasing. Come, brothers, attend to this rule, to this standard; let us stretch ourselves toward it; let us seek growth, so as to fill it out. For what use is it that we plant and water, unless God gives the growth? “Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth.” Hear, you who want to be meek, who want to be made gentle in the evil days, who love the law of God, so that there may be no stumbling block in you, and you may have great peace, so that you may possess the earth and delight in the abundance of peace: hear, you who want to be meek. Whatever good you do, do not be pleased with yourself. “For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” So whatever good you do, let nothing please you but God; whatever evil you suffer, let God not displease you. What more? Do this, and you will live. The evil days will not swallow you up; you will escape what was said: “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks.” For to what world is there woe because of stumbling blocks, if not to that of which it is said, “And the world did not know him”? Not to that world of which it is said, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” There is a bad world and a good world: the bad world, all the bad in the world; and the good world, all the good in the world. As we often look at a field: “This field is full.” Of what produce? “Of wheat.” And we also say, and say truly, “This field is full of chaff.” A tree: “It is full of fruit.” Another says, “It is full of leaves.” And he who says, “It is full of fruit,” speaks truly; and he who says, “It is full of leaves,” speaks truly. Neither did the abundance of leaves take away room from the fruit, nor did the abundance of fruit drive out the crowd of leaves. It is full of both; but the wind seeks the one, the farmer gathers the other. So, then, when you hear, “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks,” do not be frightened: love the law of God, and there will be no stumbling block for you.

But a wife comes along, urging some evil. You love her, as a wife ought to be loved: she is your member. But if your eye causes you to stumble, if your hand causes you to stumble, if your foot causes you to stumble—you have just heard the Gospel—cut it off, throw it from you. Whoever is dear to you, whoever is held in high regard by you, let him be great to you so long, let him be your beloved member so long, as he has not begun to cause you to stumble, that is, to urge some evil on you. Hear that this is a stumbling block. We set up the example of Job and his wife; but there “stumbling block” was not named. Hear the Gospel: when the Lord was foretelling his passion, Peter began to urge him not to suffer. “Get back, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me.” The Lord, who gave you an example of living, has plainly taught you both what a stumbling block is and how a stumbling block is to be avoided. To him he had said a little before, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona”: he had shown that he was his member. But when he began to be a stumbling block, he cut off the member; and he restored the member and put it back. So he will be a stumbling block to you who begins to urge you toward some evil. And let your Charity attend: this often happens not from ill will but from perverse good will. For your friend who loves you and is loved by you in turn—your father, your brother, your son, your wife—sees you in evil and wants to make you do evil. What does “sees you in evil” mean? He sees you in some pressure. You are perhaps suffering this pressure for the sake of righteousness: you are suffering pressure because you will not bear false witness. I speak by way of example; examples abound, because “woe to the world because of stumbling blocks.” See, for example, some powerful man asks of you the service of false testimony, for the sake of his plunder, his robbery. You refuse: you deny the false, lest you deny the true. Not to dwell long on it: he is angry, he is powerful, he presses you. A friend comes along who does not want you to be under pressure, does not want you to be in evil: “I beg you, do what you are told; what is the great matter?” Perhaps, as Satan said to the Lord: “It is written of you that he has commanded his angels concerning you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Perhaps this friend of yours too, because he sees you are a Christian, wants to persuade you from the law of what he thinks you ought to do. “Do what he says.” “What?” “What he wants.” “But it is a lie, it is false.” “Have you not read, Every man is a liar?” Now he is a stumbling block. He is a friend: what are you going to do? He is an eye, he is a hand: cut it off and throw it from you. What is “cut it off and throw it from you”? Do not consent. This is what “cut it off and throw it from you” signifies: do not consent. For the members in our body make a unity by consent, live by consent, are joined to one another by consent. Where there is dissent, there is disease or a wound. So he is your member: you love him. But he causes you to stumble: cut him off and throw him from you. Do not consent; turn him away from your ears; perhaps, corrected, he will come back.

How will you do what I say—cut off and throw away, and perhaps thereby correct? How will you do it? Answer. He wanted to persuade you to a lie from the law. For he says, “Say it.” And perhaps he did not dare to say, “Tell a lie,” but rather, “Say what he wants.” You say, “But it is a lie.” And he, to excuse it: “Every man is a liar.” And you, brother, answer him: “The mouth that lies kills the soul.” Pay attention: what you have heard is no light thing: “The mouth that lies kills the soul.” What does this powerful enemy who presses me do to me, since you pity me, and my condition moves you to pity, and you do not want me to be in evil, though you want me to be evil? What does this powerful man do to me? What does he press? The flesh. “He presses the body,” you say; I say, “He destroys it.” How much more gently he deals with me than I would deal with myself if I lied! He kills my flesh; I would kill my soul. The angry powerful man kills the body; the mouth that lies kills the soul. He kills the body, which was going to die even if it were not killed; but the soul that iniquity does not kill, truth receives forever. Keep, then, what you can keep; let that perish which will perish someday anyway. You have answered; and yet you have not resolved “Every man is a liar.” Answer him on this too, lest he think he has said something to persuade you to lie by bringing testimony from the law, pressing you from the law against the law. For in the law it is written, “You shall not bear false witness”; and in the law it is written, “Every man is a liar.” Look back to what I reminded you of a little while ago, when I defined the meek man in such words as I could. The meek man is he to whom, in all he does well, nothing is pleasing but God; in all the evils he suffers, God is not displeasing. Answer him, then, who says, “Lie, because it is written, Every man is a liar”: I do not lie, because it is written, “The mouth that lies kills the soul.” I do not lie, because it is written, “You will destroy all who speak a lie.” I do not lie, because it is written, “You shall not bear false witness.” Let him whom I displease by the truth press my flesh with afflictions: I hear my Lord: “Do not fear those who kill the body.”

How, then, is every man a liar? Or perhaps you are not a man? Answer quickly, and truly: “Then let me not be a man, so that I may not be a liar.” For see: “God looked down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there was anyone who understands and seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Why? Because they wanted to be sons of men. But to take them away from these iniquities, to redeem them, to cure them, to heal them, to change the sons of men, he gave them power to become sons of God. What wonder, then? You were men, if you were sons of men: you were all men; you were liars; for every man is a liar. The grace of God comes to you; he gave you power to become sons of God. Hear the voice of my Father saying, “I said, You are gods, and all sons of the Most High.” Since men are sons of men, if they are not sons of the Most High, they are liars, because every man is a liar. If you are sons of God, if redeemed by the grace of the Saviour, if bought with precious blood, if reborn of water and the Spirit, if predestined to the inheritance of heaven, you are certainly sons of God. So you are now gods. What has a lie to do with you? For Adam was a mere man; Christ is man and God, God the creator of every creature. Adam was a man; Christ is a man, the mediator with God, the only Son of the Father, God and man. See, you, man, are far from God, and God is far above man: God made man placed himself in between. Recognize Christ, and through the man ascend to God.

Now, then, corrected, and meek, if we have achieved anything, let us hold to an unswerving confession. Let us love the law of God, so that we may escape what was said, “Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks.” Let us say something about the stumbling blocks with which the world is full, and how stumbling blocks multiply and pressures abound. The world is being laid waste; the winepress is being trodden. Come, Christians, heavenly seed, pilgrims on earth, who seek a city in heaven, who desire to be joined to the holy angels: understand that you came here on condition that you depart. You are passing through the world, striving toward him who created the world. Let the lovers of the world not trouble you, who want to remain in the world and, willing or not, are forced to move on: let them not deceive you, let them not lead you astray. These pressures are not stumbling blocks. Be righteous, and they will be exercises. Tribulation comes: it will be what you choose, either exercise or condemnation. As it finds you, so it will be. Tribulation is fire: does it find you gold? It takes away the dross. Does it find you chaff? It turns you to ash. So the pressures that abound are not stumbling blocks. But what are stumbling blocks? Those sayings, those words by which we are told: “See what Christian times are doing.” See, these are stumbling blocks. For this is said to you so that, if you love the world, you may blaspheme Christ. And your friend, your counselor, says this to you: so he is your eye. Your servant, your fellow worker, says this to you: so he is your hand. Perhaps one who supports you, who lifts you up from earthly lowliness, says this to you: so he is your foot. Throw it away, cut it off, throw it from you; do not consent. Answer such people as that man answered who was being urged to bear false witness. You too answer: say to the man who tells you, “See, in Christian times there are such pressures; the world is being laid waste”: answer him, “Christ foretold this to me before it happened.”

For why are you troubled? Your heart is troubled by the pressures of the world, like that boat in which Christ was sleeping. See the reason, man of courage, why your heart is troubled: see the reason. The boat in which Christ sleeps is the heart in which faith sleeps. For what new thing are you told, Christian? What new thing are you told? “In Christian times the world is laid waste, the world is failing.” Did your Lord not tell you, “The world will be laid waste”? Did your Lord not tell you, “The world will fail”? Why did you believe when it was promised, and are troubled when it is fulfilled? The storm rages against your heart, then: beware of shipwreck; wake Christ. “That Christ may dwell,” says the Apostle, “through faith in your hearts.” Through faith Christ dwells in you. Faith present, Christ is present; faith awake, Christ is awake; faith forgotten, Christ is asleep. Rouse him, stir him, say: “Lord, we are perishing!” See what the pagans say to us; see what, more grievously, bad Christians say to us. “Arise, Lord, we are perishing.” Let your faith wake up, and Christ begins to speak to you: Why are you troubled? I foretold all these things to you. I foretold them so that when evils came you would hope for good things, so that you would not fail amid the evils. Do you wonder that the world is failing? Wonder that the world has grown old. It is like a man: he is born, he grows, he grows old. There are many complaints in old age: cough, phlegm, bleary eyes, anxiety, weariness are there. So a man grows old and is full of complaints; the world has grown old and is full of pressures. Has God given you little, in that in the old age of the world he sent you Christ, to restore you then, when all things are failing? Do you not know that he signified this in the seed of Abraham? “The seed of Abraham,” says the Apostle, “which is Christ. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.” That is why a son was born to Abraham when he was old: because Christ was to come in the old age of the world itself. He came when all things were growing old, and he made you new. A made thing, a created thing, a thing destined to perish, was already declining toward its setting. It was bound to abound in labors: he came both to console you amid labors and to promise you everlasting rest. Do not choose to cling to the old world and refuse to grow young in Christ, who says to you: The world is perishing, the world is growing old, the world is failing, it labors with the breathlessness of old age. Do not fear: “Your youth will be renewed like the eagle’s.”

“See,” they say, “in Christian times Rome is perishing.” Perhaps Rome is not perishing; perhaps it has been scourged, not destroyed; perhaps chastised, not wiped out. Perhaps Rome does not perish, if the Romans do not perish. And they will not perish if they praise God; they will perish if they blaspheme. For what is Rome but the Romans? It is not a question of stones and timber, of lofty apartment blocks and very broad walls. That was made in such a way that it would someday fall. When man built, he set stone upon stone; and when man destroyed, he knocked stone from stone. Man made it; man destroyed it. Is wrong done to Rome because it is said, “It is falling”? Not to Rome, but perhaps to its builder. Do we do wrong to its founder because we say, “Rome is falling, which Romulus founded”? The world which God founded is going to burn. But neither does what man made fall unless God wills it, nor does what God made fall unless God wills it. For if a work of man does not fall without the will of God, how can a work of God fall through the will of man? Yet God made even the world for you as something that will fall; and so he made you as one who will die. Man himself, the ornament of the city, man himself, the inhabitant, ruler, and governor of the city, comes so as to go, is born so as to die, enters so as to pass on. Heaven and earth will pass away: what wonder, then, if at some time there is an end to a city? And perhaps the end of the city is not now; yet someday there will be an end to the city. But why is Rome perishing amid the sacrifices of the Christians? Why did her mother Troy burn amid the sacrifices of the pagans? The gods in whom the Romans put their hope—the very Roman gods in whom the pagan Romans put their hope—migrated from burning Troy to found Rome. The Roman gods themselves were first Trojan gods. Troy burned; Aeneas carried off the fugitive gods; or rather, fleeing himself, he carried off senseless gods. For they could be carried by one fleeing; they could not flee themselves. And coming with these gods into Italy, he founded Rome with false gods. It would take long to go through the rest; yet let me briefly recall what their own writings contain. Their author, known to all, speaks thus: “The city of Rome, as I have learned, was founded and at first held by Trojans, who, fugitives under the leadership of Aeneas, were wandering with no fixed abode.” So they had gods with them; they founded Rome in Latium; they set up there for worship the gods who had been worshipped in Troy. Their poet brings in Juno, angry with Aeneas and the fleeing Trojans, and she says: “A people hateful to me sails the Tyrrhenian sea, carrying Ilium and its conquered household gods into Italy”—that is, carrying conquered gods with them into Italy. When conquered gods were being carried into Italy, was that a divine protection or an omen? Love, then, the law of God, and let there be no stumbling block for you. We ask you, we beseech you, we exhort you: be meek, have compassion on those who suffer, support the weak; and on this occasion of so many refugees, needy and suffering, let your hospitality abound, let your good works abound. Let Christians do what Christ commands, and the pagans will blaspheme only to their own harm.