Sermons to the People 88.3–88.18

These things, then, the Lord did to invite people to faith. This faith now burns in the Church spread through the whole world. And now he works greater healings, for whose sake he did not disdain then to display those lesser ones. For as the soul is better than the body, so the health of the soul is better than the health of the body. Now blind flesh does not open its eyes by a miracle of the Lord; but a blind heart opens its eyes at the word of the Lord. Now a mortal corpse does not rise; a soul rises that lay dead in a living corpse. Now the deaf ears of the body are not opened; but how many have the ears of the heart closed, which yet open as the word of God penetrates, so that those who did not believe believe, and those who lived badly live well, and those who did not obey obey? And we say, “That man has believed”; and we marvel when we hear of those whom we once knew to be hard. Why, then, do you marvel now at one who believes, is innocent, serves God, unless because you see seeing one whom you knew blind, see living one whom you knew dead, see hearing one whom you knew deaf? For see the dead in another sense, of whom the Lord spoke to someone who delayed following the Lord because he wanted to bury his father: “Let the dead,” he said, “bury their own dead.” Certainly those dead buriers were not dead in body; for if they were, they could not bury dead bodies. Yet he calls them dead: where, if not inwardly, in the soul? For as often, visibly, in a house that is sound and intact the master of the house lies dead, so in a sound body many have a dead soul within; and these the Apostle rouses thus: “Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.” He who rouses the dead is the one who enlightens the blinded. For it is by his voice that the cry goes out through the Apostle to the dead, “Rise, you who sleep.” The blind man will be enlightened with light when he has risen. And how many deaf people did the Lord see before his eyes when he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”? For who stood before him without bodily ears? What other ears, then, was he looking for, but those of the inner man?

Likewise, what kind of eyes was he looking for when he spoke to those who certainly saw, but saw through the eyes of the flesh? For when Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” he understood rightly that the Father, if shown, could be enough; but how could the Father be enough for one for whom the one equal to the Father was not enough? And why was he not enough? Because he was not seen. Why was he not seen? Because the eye by which he could be seen was not yet healthy. For what was seen with these eyes in the Lord’s flesh was seen not only by the disciples who honored him, but also by the Jews who crucified him. He, then, who wished to be seen otherwise was looking for other eyes. And so he answered the one who said, “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us”: “Have I been with you so long, and you have not known me? Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father too.” And to heal meanwhile the eyes of faith, Philip is first admonished concerning faith, so that he may be able to come to sight. And lest Philip think that God was to be conceived as he saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the body, he immediately added: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” He had said just before, “He who has seen me has seen the Father too.” But Philip did not yet have a healthy eye with which to see the Father, and therefore not one with which to see the Son himself, equal to the Father. So he took up the gaze of his mind, still wounded and unable to look at so great a light, to heal and strengthen it with the medicines and poultices of faith, and said: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” Let him, then, who cannot yet see what the Lord will show not first seek to see what he is to believe; but let him first believe, so that the eye by which he may see may be healed. For only the form of a servant was shown to servile eyes; because if he who did not think it robbery to be equal to God could already be seen as equal to God by those whom he wished to heal, he would have no need to empty himself and take the form of a servant. But because there was nothing by which God could be seen, but there was something by which man could be seen, he who was God became man, so that what was seen might heal that by which he was not seen. For he himself says in another place: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Philip could certainly have answered and said: “Lord, see, I see you: is the Father such as this which I see, since you said, He who has seen me has seen the Father?” Before Philip could answer this, or perhaps before he could think it, when the Lord had said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father too,” he at once added, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” For with that eye he could not yet see either the Father or the Son equal to the Father; but so that the eye might be healed for seeing, it had to be anointed for believing. So before you see what you cannot see, believe what you do not yet see. Walk by faith, so that you may come to sight. Sight will not gladden in the homeland one whom faith does not console on the way. For so the Apostle says: “While we are in the body, we are away from the Lord.” And at once he adds why we are still away, though we have already believed: “For we walk by faith,” he says, “not by sight.”

Our whole work in this life, then, brothers, is to heal the eye of the heart by which God may be seen. To this end the most holy mysteries are celebrated; to this end the word of God is preached; to this end are the Church’s moral exhortations, that is, those concerned with correcting morals, amending fleshly desires, and renouncing this world not by voice only but by a changed life; to this end the divine and holy Scriptures do whatever they do: that the inner eye may be cleansed of what hinders us from the sight of God. For the eye was made for seeing this temporal light—heavenly indeed, yet bodily and visible not only to humans but even to the lowliest animals (for it was made to see this light); yet if something is thrown in or falls in by which it is troubled, it is shut off from this light; and though the light surrounds it with its presence, it turns itself away and is absent; and not only is it made absent from the present light by its disturbance, but even the light for which it was made becomes painful to it. So also the eye of the heart, troubled and wounded, turns away from the light of righteousness, and neither dares nor is able to contemplate it.

What troubles the eye of the heart? Desire, avarice, iniquity, worldly concupiscence trouble, close, and blind the eye of the heart. And yet how a doctor is sought when the eye of the flesh is troubled! How there is no delay in having it opened and cleaned, so that the eye by which this light is seen may be healed! People run; no one rests, no one delays, if even a bit of straw falls into the eye. Certainly God made the sun, which we want to see with healthy eyes. Much brighter is he who made it; nor is the light that concerns the eye of the mind of this kind. That light is eternal wisdom. But God made you, O man, in his image. Would he give you the means to see the sun that he made, and not give you the means to see him who made you, since he made you in his image? He gave this too; he gave you both. But you love these outer eyes very much, and you very much neglect that inner one: you carry it worn and wounded. It is a punishment to you if your Maker wants to show himself; it is a punishment to your eye, before it is cured and healed. For Adam too sinned in paradise and hid himself from the face of God. While he had a heart healthy with a pure conscience, he rejoiced at the presence of God; after that eye was wounded by sin, he began to dread the divine light; he fled into darkness and the thickets of the trees, fleeing truth, seeking shadows. So, brothers, since we too were born from there, and, as the Apostle says, “in Adam all die”—for we were all once those two human beings—if we would not obey the physician so as not to fall sick, let us obey him so as to be freed from sickness. The physician gave us precepts when we were healthy; the physician gave precepts so that we would not need a physician. “It is not the healthy who need a physician,” he says, “but the sick.” When healthy we despised the precepts, and we have felt by experience into what great ruin we came by despising that precept. Now we have begun to be sick; we suffer; we are on the bed of weakness; but let us not despair. For since we could not come to the physician, he deigned to come to us himself. Despised by man when healthy, he did not despise him when wounded. He did not cease to give other precepts to the sick man, who would not keep the first ones so as not to fall sick; as if he said: “Surely you have felt by experience that I spoke the truth when I said, Do not touch this. Be healed, then, at last, and come back to life. See, I bear your weakness: drink the bitter cup. For you yourself have made those precepts of mine, which were so sweet when given to you in health, so laborious. They were despised; you began to suffer: you cannot be healed unless you drink the bitter cup, the cup of temptations, in which this life abounds, the cup of tribulations, straits, and sufferings. Drink,” he says, “drink, that you may live.” And lest the sick man answer him, “I cannot, I cannot bear it, I will not drink,” the healthy physician drank first, so that the sick man would not hesitate to drink. For what is bitter in such a cup that he did not drink? If insult: he heard it first, when he was casting out demons: “He has a demon,” and “he casts out demons by Beelzebub.” Hence, to console the sick, he says, “If they called the householder Beelzebub, how much more his household?” If pains are bitter: he was bound and scourged and crucified. If death is bitter: he even died. If weakness shudders at the kind of death: nothing at that time was more shameful than death on a cross. Not in vain did the Apostle, commending his obedience, add, saying: “Made obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

But because he was going to honor his faithful at the end of this age, he first honored the cross in this age, so that the princes of the earth, believing in him, have forbidden any criminal to be crucified; and the cross which the Jewish persecutors procured for the Lord with great mockery, his servants, even kings, now bear with great confidence on their foreheads. What kind of death the Lord deigned to undergo for us is not now so apparent—as the Apostle says, “Made a curse for us.” And when the blindness of the Jews mocked him as he hung, he who would not have been on the cross if he had not willed it could certainly have come down from the cross; but it was a greater thing to rise from the tomb than to come down from the cross. So the Lord, doing divine things and suffering human things, admonishes us by bodily miracles and bodily patience to believe, and to be healed so as to behold those invisible things which the eye of the flesh does not know. Doing this, then, he cured these blind men of whom the Gospel has now been read. And see, in the healing, what he admonished the inner sick man.

Pay attention to the outcome of the deed itself and the order of events. Those two blind men sitting by the road cried out, as the Lord passed by, that he have mercy on them. But they were checked by the crowd that was with the Lord, so that they would not cry out. Do not think this was recorded without a mystery. But they overcame the crowd that checked them by most persevering crying, so that their voice reached the ears of the Lord—as if he had not already anticipated their thoughts. So the two blind men cried out to be heard by the Lord, and could not be suppressed by the crowds. The Lord was passing by, and they were crying out. The Lord stood still, and they were healed. For the Lord Jesus stood still, and called them, and said: “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said: “That our eyes may be opened.” For their faith the Lord did it: he restored their eyes. If we have now understood the inner sick man, the inner deaf man, the inner dead man, let us look there also for the inner blind man. The eyes of the heart are closed: Jesus passes by, so that we may cry out. What is “Jesus passes by”? Jesus does temporal things. What is “Jesus passes by”? Jesus does transitory things. Notice and see how many of his deeds have passed. He was born of the Virgin Mary: is he always being born? As an infant he was nursed: is he always nursing? He ran through the ages of life to young manhood: is he always growing bodily? Infancy was succeeded by boyhood, boyhood by adolescence, adolescence by young manhood, each passing and giving way. Even the miracles he did have passed: they are read and believed. For because they were written so that they could be read, they passed while they were being done. Finally, not to dwell on many things, he was crucified: does he always hang on the cross? He was buried, he rose, he ascended into heaven: he no longer dies, and death will no longer have dominion over him; and his divinity remains forever, and the immortality of his body will now never fail. But yet all those things that were done by him in time have passed; they are written to be read and preached to be believed. In all those things, then, Jesus passed by.

What are the two blind men by the road but two peoples, whom Jesus came to heal? Let us show these two peoples in the holy Scriptures. It is written in the Gospel: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, that there may be one flock and one shepherd.” Who, then, are the two peoples? One of the Jews, and the other of the Gentiles. “I was sent,” he says, “only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” To whom did he say this? To the disciples, when that Canaanite woman was crying out, who confessed herself a dog so as to be granted crumbs from her masters’ table. And because she was granted them, the two peoples to whom he had come were now shown: the Jewish people, of whom he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and the people of the Gentiles, whose type this woman displayed, whom he had at first rejected, saying, “It is not good to throw the children’s bread to the dogs,” and to whom, when she said, “Yes, Lord, for the dogs too eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table,” he had answered, “O woman, great is your faith; be it done to you as you wish.” From there too was that centurion, of whom the same Lord says, “Amen I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel,” because he had said, “I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” So the Lord, before his passion and glorification, was already marking out two peoples: one to which he had come because of the promises to the fathers, and the other which he did not reject because of his mercy, so that what had been promised to Abraham might be fulfilled: “In your seed all nations will be blessed.” That is why the Apostle too, after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, when he was despised by the Jews, went to the Gentiles. Yet he did not keep silent toward the churches that had believed from among the Jews: “I was unknown by face,” he says, “to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith he once ravaged; and they glorified God in me.” So too Christ is called the cornerstone, who made both one. For a corner joins two walls coming from different directions. What is so different as circumcision and uncircumcision, having one wall from Judea, the other wall from the Gentiles? But they are joined by the cornerstone. “For the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” There is no corner in a building except when two walls coming from different directions meet in one and are joined in a certain unity. These two walls, then, were figuratively the two blind men crying out to the Lord.

Pay attention now, dearly beloved. The Lord was passing by; the blind men were crying out. What is “he was passing by”? He was doing transitory works, as we have already said. By these transitory works our faith is built up. For we believe in the Son of God not only because he is the Word of God, through whom all things were made: for if, always remaining in the form of God, equal to God, he had not emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, the blind men would not have perceived him so as to be able to cry out. But when he worked transitory things, that is, humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even death on a cross, the two blind men cried out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” For this very thing, that the Lord and creator of David willed also to be the son of David, he did in time; he did it in passing.

But what is crying out to Christ, brothers, except corresponding to the grace of Christ by good works? I say this, brothers, lest perhaps we be noisy in voice and mute in conduct. Who is it who cries out to Christ, so that inner blindness may be driven away as Christ passes by, that is, as he dispenses to us the temporal sacraments by which we are admonished to lay hold of eternal things? Who is it who cries out to Christ? He who despises the world cries out to Christ. He who spurns the pleasures of the age cries out to Christ. He who says not with the tongue but with his life, “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world,” cries out to Christ. He who scatters and gives to the poor, so that his righteousness remains for ever and ever, cries out to Christ. For let him who hears, and hears not as a deaf man, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor; make yourselves purses that do not grow old, a treasure in heaven that does not fail”—let the blind man, as if hearing the sound of the footsteps of Christ passing by, cry out at this, that is, do these things. Let his voice be in his deeds. Let him begin to despise the world, to distribute his goods to the needy, to count as nothing what people love; let him despise injuries, not seek to be avenged, offer his cheek to the one who strikes him, pray for his enemies; if anyone takes away his goods, let him not demand them back; if he has taken anything from anyone, let him restore it fourfold. When he begins to do these things, all his relatives, in-laws, and friends are stirred up. Those who love the world contradict him: “Why are you mad? You go too far: are others not Christians? This is foolishness, this is madness.” And the crowd cries out other such things, so that the blind may not cry out. The crowd rebuked those who cried out, but did not overcome their cries. Let those who want to be healed understand what they should do. Now too Jesus passes by: let those who are by the road cry out. For these are those who honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from God. These are the ones by the road, to whom, blinded in heart, the Lord gives his commands. For when the transitory things that the Lord did are recited, Jesus is always shown to us passing by. For until the end of the age there is no lack of blind men sitting by the road. They need, then, to cry out, those sitting by the road. The crowd that was with the Lord suppressed the cry of those seeking health. Brothers, do you see what I am saying? For I do not know how to say it; but still less do I know how to keep silent. I say this, and I say it openly. For I fear Jesus passing by and Jesus remaining; and therefore I cannot keep silent. Good Christians, truly zealous, wanting to do God’s commands that are written in the Gospel, are hindered by bad and lukewarm Christians. The very crowd that is with the Lord hinders those who cry out; that is, it hinders those who do good, lest by persevering they be healed. Let them cry out, let them not grow faint, nor be led as if by the authority of crowds; nor let them imitate those who became Christians before them, who live badly and envy good works. Let them not say, “As so many live, let us live.” Why not rather as the Gospel says? Why do you want to live according to the rebuke of the crowd that hinders, and not according to the footsteps of the Lord passing by? They will mock, they will blame, they will call you back: you, cry out until you reach the ears of Jesus. For those who persevere in doing such things as Christ commanded, and do not heed the hindering crowds, and do not think much of seeming to follow Christ, that is, of being called Christians, but love the light that Christ is going to restore more than they fear the din of those who hinder—they will in no way be separated, and Jesus will stand still and heal them.

For how are our eyes healed? As by faith we perceive Christ passing by in the temporal dispensation, so let us understand Christ standing still in unchangeable eternity. For the eye is healed there, when the divinity of Christ is understood. Let your Charity grasp this; pay attention to the great sacrament I am going to speak of. All the things done in time by our Lord Jesus Christ plant faith in us. We believe in the Son of God, not only in the Word through whom all things were made, but in that very Word made flesh to dwell among us, born of the Virgin Mary, and the other things that the faith contains, which were shown to us so that Christ might pass by, and so that the blind, hearing the footsteps of the one passing by, might cry out by their works, recalling in their life the profession of their faith. Now, so that those who cry out may be healed, Jesus stands still. For he already sees Jesus standing still who says: “Even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him so now.” For he saw the divinity of Christ, as far as is possible in this life. There is the divinity of Christ; there is the humanity of Christ. The divinity stands still; the humanity passes by. What is “the divinity stands still”? It does not change, is not shaken, does not withdraw. For he did not come to us in such a way as to depart from the Father, nor did he ascend in such a way as to move from place to place. The flesh that was assumed changed place; but God, in assuming flesh, since he is not in a place, does not change place. Let us be touched by Christ standing still, and let our eyes be healed. But whose eyes? Those of the ones who cry out when he passes by, that is, of those who do good through that faith which was dispensed in time to instruct us little ones.

When our eyes have been healed, brothers, what more precious can we have? Those who see this light that was made, which shines from heaven or is given by a lamp, rejoice. And how miserable those seem who cannot see it! But why do I speak, why do I say these things, except to exhort all of you to cry out when Jesus passes by? I commend to your Holiness a light to be loved, which perhaps you do not see. Believe while you do not yet see; and cry out, so that you may see. How great is thought the unhappiness of people who do not see this bodily light! Someone is blinded: at once it is said, “He had God angry with him; he committed some evil.” This is what Tobit’s wife said to her husband. He cried out over the kid, lest it come from theft; he did not want to hear the sound of theft in his house. She, defending what she had done, struck her husband with reproach; and when he said, “Give it back, if it is from theft,” she answered mockingly, “Where are your righteous deeds?” How blind she was, who defended the theft; and what light he saw, who commanded the theft to be returned! She was outside, in the light of the sun; he was inside, in the light of righteousness. Which of them was in the better light?

To love this light, brothers, I exhort your Love: cry out by works when the Lord passes by; let the voice of faith sound, so that Jesus standing still, that is, the unchangeably abiding Wisdom of God and the majesty of the Word of God, through whom all things were made, may open your eyes. That same Tobit, admonishing his son, admonished him to cry out, that is, he admonished him to good works. He told him to give to the poor, commanded him to give alms to the needy, and taught him, saying: “Son, alms do not let one go into darkness.” The blind man gave counsel for receiving and obtaining light. “Alms,” he says, “do not let one go into darkness.” Suppose his son had answered in surprise: “What then, father? Did you not give alms, that you now speak to me blind? Are you not now in darkness, you who say to me, Alms do not let one go into darkness?” But he knew of what light he was teaching his son; he knew what he saw in the inner man. The son held out his hand to his father so that he might walk on earth; and the father to the son, so that he might dwell in heaven.

Briefly, to conclude this sermon, brothers, with what touches and pains us most: see that there are crowds that rebuke the blind who cry out. All of you in this crowd who want to be healed, let them not deter you; for many are Christians in name and ungodly in works; let them not deter you from good works. Cry out amid the crowds that check you, call you back, mock you, and live badly. For bad Christians suppress good Christians not only by their voices but also by bad works. A good Christian does not want to go to the shows. By the very fact that he reins in his desire not to go to the theater, he cries out after Christ, he cries out to be healed. Others run there; but perhaps they are pagans, perhaps Jews? On the contrary, so few would be in the theaters that they would leave for shame if Christians did not go to the theaters. So Christians run there too, bearing the holy name to their own punishment. Cry out, then, by not going, pressing down temporal desire in your heart; and hold yourself to a strong and persevering cry at the ears of the Saviour, so that Jesus may stand still and heal you. Cry out amid the very crowds; do not despair of the Lord’s ears. For those blind men did not cry out from the side where there was no crowd, so as to be heard where there was no hindrance from those forbidding them. They cried out amid the very crowds; and yet the Lord heard. So you too, even among sinners and the luxurious, among lovers of worldly vanities, cry out there, so that the Lord may heal you. Do not cry out to the Lord from another side; do not go to the heretics and cry out to the Lord there. Notice, brothers, that it was in the very crowd that forbade crying out that those who cried out were healed.

For let your Holiness notice this too, what it is to persevere in crying out. I will say what many have experienced with me in the name of Christ; for the Church does not cease to give birth to such people. When a Christian begins to live well, to be fervent in good works, and to despise the world, in the very newness of his works he suffers cold Christians as critics and opponents. But if he perseveres, and overcomes them by enduring, and does not fail in good works, the very same people who before forbade him will now defer to him. For they rebuke, disturb, and forbid him as long as they presume he can be made to yield to them. But if they are overcome by the perseverance of those who make progress, they turn around and begin to say: “A great man, a holy man; happy he to whom God has granted this.” They honor, congratulate, bless, and praise him, like that crowd which was with the Lord. It forbade the blind men to cry out; but after they had so cried out as to deserve to be heard and to obtain the Lord’s mercy, that same crowd says in turn, “Jesus is calling you.” Those who a little before rebuked them to keep them silent now become encouragers. He alone is not called by the Lord who does not labor in this age. But who in this life does not labor in his sins and iniquities? If all labor, it has been said to all, “Come to me, all you who labor.” If it has been said to all, why do you blame your inviter for your own fault? Come. His house will not become too narrow for you: the kingdom of God is possessed equally by all and wholly by each; it is not diminished as the number of possessors grows, because it is not divided. What is held in concord by many is whole for each. Yet this we have learned, brothers, in the mystery of this reading, which in other places of the holy books is shown most plainly: that within the Church there are both good and bad, what we often call wheat and chaff. Let no one leave the threshing floor before the time; let him bear with the chaff in the threshing, bear with it on the threshing floor. For what he bears there he will not have in the barn. The winnower will come, who will separate the bad from the good. There will also be a bodily separation, which a spiritual separation now precedes. Always be separated from the bad in heart; for the time being, be joined with them in body, with caution. Yet do not be negligent in correcting your own, those who in any way belong to your care, by admonishing, teaching, exhorting, frightening. Act by whatever means you can. And when you find in the Scriptures and in the examples of the saints, whether of those who lived before the Lord’s coming or after it, that the bad do not stain the good in unity, do not become lazy about correcting the bad. In two ways the bad man does not stain you: if you do not consent, and if you rebuke him; that is, not sharing, not consenting. For one shares when the partnership of will or approval is added to his deed. Admonishing us of this, the Apostle says: “Do not take part in the unfruitful works of darkness.” And since not consenting would be too little if neglect of discipline followed, he says: “But rather even rebuke them.” See how he has embraced both: “Do not take part; but rather even rebuke.” What is “Do not take part”? Do not consent, do not praise, do not approve. What is “But rather even rebuke”? Reprove, rebuke, restrain.