Homilies of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection)

You know well how great the joy is, and how great the throng, when the birthday of the emperor of this world is to be celebrated: how his generals and princes, and all who serve in the army as well, carefully dressed in silk garments and girded with elaborate belts costly with gleaming gold, strive to walk in the king's sight more splendidly than usual. For they believe the emperor's joy is greater if he sees greater adornment in his retinue, and that he will be as glad of them as they have been devoted to him at the festival; so that, since the emperor as a man does not see hearts, he may judge their affection toward him at least by looking at their dress. So it happens that whoever loves the king more faithfully adorns himself more splendidly. Then, because they know that on his birthday he will be generous and will give a great many gifts both to his servants and to those in his household who are thought lowly and of no account, they first hurry to fill his treasuries with a great variety of riches, so that however far his favor wishes to go, a plentiful supply for giving may not be lacking, and the will to give may fail before the means of bestowing. They do this so anxiously because they hope for a greater reward for this care. If, then, brothers, the people of this world, for the glory of present honor, receive the birthday of their earthly king with such a display, with how much care ought we to receive the birthday of our eternal King Jesus Christ, who in return for our devotion will grant us not temporal glory but eternal, and will give not the administration of an earthly office, which ends with a successor, but the dignity of the heavenly kingdom, which has no successor? What our reward will be, the prophet says: “For eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” With what garments, then, must we be adorned? When I said “we,” I meant our souls; for Christ our King requires not so much bright clothing as the devotion of souls; he does not look at the ornaments of bodies but considers the hearts of the deserving; he does not admire the elaborate work of a fragile belt girding the loins, but far more the strong belt of chastity binding lust to modesty. Let us strive, then, to be found before him approved in faith, adorned with mercy, careful in conduct; and let whoever loves Christ more faithfully array himself more splendidly by keeping his commandments, so that he may see that we truly believe in him when we shine like this at his feast, and may be the gladder the purer he sees us to be. And so for many days beforehand let us make our hearts chaste, cleanse our conscience, purify our spirit, and receive his coming bright and without stain, unblemished, so that the birthday of him whose birth came about through an unblemished virgin may be kept by unblemished servants. For whoever is filthy and polluted on that day cares nothing for Christ's birthday or for his own vow. Though he be present in body at the Lord's festival, in mind he is separated far from the Saviour. The unclean and the holy, the greedy and the merciful, the corrupt and the virgin cannot have fellowship, except that by thrusting himself in the unworthy man incurs the more offense, since he does not know himself at all. For while he wishes to be dutiful, he becomes insulting, like the man in the Gospel who, invited into the company of the saints, dared to come to the wedding without a wedding garment; and while one shone with righteousness, another gleamed with faith, another was radiant with chastity, he alone, polluted with a foul conscience, was squalid and ugly amid all their splendor; and the more brightly the holiness of the blessed guests reclining together shone, the more plainly the wickedness of his sins appeared. He might perhaps have given less offense if he had not put himself into the company of the righteous. Therefore he was bound hand and foot and cast out into the outer darkness, not only because he was a sinner, but because, though a sinner, he claimed for himself the merit of holiness. Therefore, brothers, as we are about to receive the Lord's birthday, let us cleanse ourselves of all the dregs of sins; let us fill his treasuries with gifts of every kind, so that on the holy day there may be something from which strangers may receive, widows be refreshed, and the poor be clothed. For what will it be like if in one and the same house, among the servants of one master, one exults in pure silk and another wastes away in rags; one is hot with food, another endures hunger and cold; one belches yesterday's surfeit of indigestion, and the other cannot relieve yesterday's hunger from fasting? Or what will be the effect of our prayer? We ask to be freed from the enemy, we who are not free-handed toward our brothers. Let us be imitators of our Lord. For if he willed the poor to be our partners in heavenly grace, why should they not be our partners in earthly goods? Those who are brothers in the sacraments are not strangers in nourishment; rather, we plead our own cause more rightly before God through them when we feed at our own expense those who give him thanks. Whatever blessing the poor man gives the Lord profits the one by whose doing he blesses the Lord. And as it is written of the one, “Woe to that man through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed,” so it is written of the other: “Peace to this man through whom the name of the Lord the Saviour is blessed.” And how great is the merit of the giver, that one person does the work at home and through many the Lord is entreated in the church; and what he perhaps would not dare to ask of the Godhead, through the prayers of many interceding he receives, even what he did not hope for. Recalling this for our help, the blessed apostle says: “so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf.” And again: “that our offering may be acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit.”

Perhaps, brothers, you are puzzled why the Lord, announcing his coming, showed that he would come in the night-time, when surely his coming ought to be received by all in the great brightness of day, with great splendor and fear. For we have often heard it proclaimed in the sacred Scriptures that before the Lord Christ comes the Antichrist will reign, who will pour the darkness of his depravity over the human race so that almost no one looks back to the light of truth; and, covering the minds of men with his own gloom, he will bring a kind of blindness on their spiritual eyes. Nor is it surprising if the devil sends forth the darkness of iniquity, since he himself is the night of all sins. To drive away his dismal gloom, then, Christ will come like a flash of lightning. And as night is overthrown when day dawns, so when the Saviour flashes forth the Antichrist is put to flight; and he will no longer be able to spread the darkness of his iniquity when the light of truth has shone out. When he says, “On that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and one will be left,” the merit of the resurrection is already shown here: the grace of rising will accord with the quality of one's life, and so great is the difference of resurrection between individuals that even of two sleeping side by side and resting in one place the taking up cannot be equal. For though they are held in the same shared bed, yet according to their merits one of them will be caught up to heaven, the other left on earth. Our common bed is the vast ground of this earth, in which our bodies, laid down, rest in a most secure place. In this bed he sleeps more softly who has conducted himself more hardly in life. We may also call our very limbs our own beds, in which our souls dwell as on a most pleasant couch; and I think the holy prophet meant this when he says: “You have turned over his whole bed in his sickness.” Blessed is he whose bed the Lord turns over in his very sickness, so that one who a little before was wrathful, an adulterer, wanton, and full of the sicknesses of every crime becomes chaste, humble, and modest, the Lord turning his body from its accustomed evil. Of this bed the Lord spoke spiritually to the paralytic: “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” For the wonder in him was not so much that the paralytic carried the wooden frame of a broken bed as that he himself carried the limbs of his loosened body, broken by weakness, as the necessary bed of his soul, and in the presence of the Jews went away on his own feet, he who had been brought by the hands of others. In this plainly, as I said, that prophetic saying was fulfilled: “You have turned over his bed in his sickness”; by a reversal he carried the bed in which a little before he had been carried, and his soul, which earlier was borne by the vessel of the body, afterward more usefully carried its body about. The words “There will be two in one bed; one will be taken and one will be left” can also be understood of the Christian people and the people of the Jews, who are held as in one bed, that is, by one set of commandments, and who boast of a like form of resurrection. Then the blessed people of the Christians will be taken up into glory, but the assembly of the Jews will be left on earth.

Last Sunday, discussing a chapter of the Gospel, we touched on part of it; it remains to run through what follows. We explained what the Lord meant when he said, “On that night there will be two in one bed,” and so on. Now let us look at what remains. For the divine sentence says: “There will be two women grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.” First, then, we must consider what the work of grinding consists of; next, who the two are who are said to grind; third, what the mill is and what the grinding produces. No one doubts that grinding happens only with two stones prepared and fitted to each other, so that the bulk of one is set upon the other. The stone laid down first is sluggish and slow and, so to speak, almost idle, and unless it were furnished with the partnership of the upper stone it would perhaps seem unnecessary; so while the other works, this one too is found useful. The other, the upper stone, is whirled round with all the speed of its work, so that, deceiving the eyes by its very swiftness, it is believed to stand still and is thought motionless while it runs; and the more violently it is driven, the more perfectly the work is finished. So the first stone stands, lies, and does almost nothing; but the other takes in all that is put in and embraces all that comes, and through certain little hollows each obtains what it is to work on. The miller's task seems to be this: with watchful care to break the hardness of the grains and bring out from their inmost, hidden parts the fine flour and the marrow, and, shaking off the light refuse, to bring into the open all that is pure, from which, making the cleanest bread, he may win his master's favor. These two millstones I take to be the two Testaments, that is, the law of Moses and the Gospel of the Lord, which are so arranged and prepared that each Testament fits the other, as the Saviour says: “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.” And as with millstones, one was laid first on the ground and the other placed on top: that is, the law was first established for men, then the perfect Gospel. This law, like the stone of the lower millstone, was so slow, sluggish, and wholly idle that whatever it had received for working it lost entirely, as the prophet says of the Jews: “All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, not even one.” So unless the Gospel had been laid on top, the law would still lie, slow and heavy, in the land of Judea, covered within the narrow bounds of one province. Unless the Gospel, I say, had been given, the law would not have been necessary at all. Without the Gospel the law did what one stone can do: it could break, not benefit, as the blessed apostle says, “For the law brings about wrath”; but it does not bestow grace. While the law still stood, the Gospel was given, which, laid upon the Old Testament, adorns both, and with its speed goes round the whole world: it visits the underworld, penetrates the heavens, and lights up the earth. This Gospel, like the upper millstone, takes in all believers, receives all who come, and through the little hollows, as it were, of its commandments passes them to the inner parts, so that there, the roughness of paganism softened on either side by the saving commandments of the two Testaments, it may bring out all that is pure. I think the prophet Ezekiel touched on this likeness of the Testaments when he says that a wheel was joined in the midst of a wheel. By the working of these millstones, that is, of the New and Old Testaments, holy Church with watchful care does this: shaking off the roughness of sins, she draws out from hidden thoughts the marrow of a clean heart and, cleansed by the heavenly commandments, brings forth spiritual food from within. Of this food the apostle Paul says: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.” And again: “But solid food is for the perfect,” who by practice have their senses trained. And, purifying our spirit of all that is merely human, she strives to offer it to God like fine flour, as holy David says: “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.” The Gospel is whirled round with such speed that only the wise understand its course; understanding it, blessed Paul says: “That the word of God may run and be glorified among you.” But to the eyes of the foolish the Gospel seems to stand still while they look; they think it stands still, I say, when they neglect its commandments, when they do not believe that what is written will come to pass. The synagogue also grinds, but grinds uselessly, since it tries to work with one stone; and so it does not so much grind as scatter and break. That is why its work displeases, and it is said to the Jews through the prophet: “Even if you bring fine flour, it is an abomination”; and the Lord himself, rejecting its work of grinding, says: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” So the synagogue toils at grinding, sustaining error. Because Moses had received two stone tablets of the covenant, it supposes it works with the two necessary instruments, not knowing that the pairing of the tablets prefigured the coming of the two Testaments that cohere with each other. And therefore holy Church, which grinds out for the Lord the food of holiness, will be taken up into eternal glory, but the synagogue will be left at the blood-stained millstones, ever to suffer the round of its own unbelief. [Here it ends.]

Even if I were silent, brothers, the season reminds us that the birthday of the Lord Christ is near. For the very ending of the days anticipates my preaching. By its very narrowness the world says that something is at hand by which it will be renewed for the better, and with eager expectation it longs for the brightness of a more splendid sun to light up its darkness. For while it has had to close its course with the shortness of its hours, it shows by a kind of hope that its year is being reformed. This expectation of creation, then, persuades us too to wait, so that Christ, the new sun, rising may illumine the darkness of our sins, and the sun of righteousness may scatter the long gloom of our offenses in us by the vigor of his birth, and may not allow the course of our life to be shut in by darkness, but widened by the grace of his power. So since we know of the Lord's birthday even from the world's telling, let us also do what the world is accustomed to do: just as on that day the world extends the spaces of its light, so let us extend our righteousness; as the brightness of that day is common to poor and rich, so let our generosity be common to strangers and the needy; as the world then cuts back the gloom of its nights, so let us cut off the darkness of our avarice; and as in winter, when the frost is thawed by the sun's warmth, seeds are nourished in the fields, so in our breasts, their hardness thawed, let the seed of righteousness, warmed by the Saviour's ray, grow. Therefore, brothers, as we are about to receive the Lord's birthday, let us adorn ourselves in pure and shining garments. I speak of the garments of the soul, not of the flesh. The clothing of the flesh is a cheap wrap; the garment of the soul is a precious body. The one is woven by human hands; the other was made by the hands of God; and so it calls for greater care to keep God's work without stain than to keep men's works unsoiled. A worldly garment, if it gets dirty, a fuller can wash for hire; but the garment of the soul, once stained, is hardly washed except by one's own constant works. The craftsman's hand does it no good, nor the fuller's work: water can wash the polluted limbs of the conscience but cannot cleanse them. These are the precious garments of the soul that the evangelist Mark praises in the Saviour, saying: “And his garments became shining, exceedingly white like snow, such as no fuller on earth can make.” Christ's garment is praised, then, because it shone not by its weave but by grace; the clothing is praised, not because it was woven of fine threads, but because it was conceived in bodily integrity; the garment is praised, not because women's hands wove it, but because Mary's virginity brought it forth. And so the grace of its whiteness is extolled in it, because no craftsman's care had made it spotless. “Such as no fuller,” he says, “on earth can make.” Plainly no fuller can make Christ's garment; for a fuller can provide brightness, cleanness, and purity, but cannot provide virginity, righteousness, and goodness. The one belongs to the art of a craft, the other to the nature of virtue. These garments of the virtues the holy evangelist praises in Christ the Lord, and blessed David also proclaimed them with like meaning, saying: “Myrrh and stacte and cassia from your precious garments.” By these fragrant spices are signified the garments of the holy virtues. Therefore, brothers, as we are about to receive the Lord's birthday, let us cleanse our conscience of all dregs. Let us adorn ourselves not with silk clothes but with precious works. Shining clothes can cover the limbs but cannot cleanse the conscience; rather, it is the more shameful to walk with shining limbs and polluted senses. Let us first adorn the disposition of the inner man, so that the clothing of the outer man may also be an adornment. Let us wash away spiritual stains, so that the fleshly garments on us may shine. It profits nothing to shine in clothes and be filthy with crimes. For where the conscience is dark, the whole body is darkened. But we have the means to wash away the stains of conscience, for it is written: “Give alms, and all things will be clean for you.” Good is the commandment of almsgiving, by which we work with our hands so that we may be cleansed in heart. [Here it ends.]

Last Sunday, brothers, we reminded your charity of the coming of this day, on which we said we receive the Lord's birthday today with the world itself as witness. For the world bears witness, since when Christ is born it too is reborn. It is reborn when it is drawn out from the deep darkness of the nights by a kind of birth of light. It is reborn, I say, when its waning ends and its brightness is restored. And so at the rising of Christ we ought rather to speak of the rising of the world. For on this day he rises to save all things. On this day light rises for the world, resurrection for the dead, life for mortals; and therefore today is not so much the birthday of the Saviour as of salvation. So Christ, the salvation of all, is born, whom the prophets testify to be king of the nations; he is born of a virgin, as Isaiah declares, saying: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us.” The manner of his birth, then, proves the Lord's truth. A virgin conceived without knowing union with a man; the womb is filled though touched by no embrace; a chaste womb received the Holy Spirit, whom pure members kept and an innocent body carried. See the miracle of the Lord's mother. She is a virgin when she conceives, a virgin when she gives birth, a virgin after the birth. Glorious virginity and splendid fruitfulness! The Power of the world is born, and there is no groaning of one in labor; the womb is emptied, the infant is received, and virginity is not violated. For it was fitting that when God was born the merit of chastity should increase, and that integrity should not be violated by the coming of him who had come to heal what was corrupt, nor bodily purity injured by him through whom the virginity of baptism is given to the impure. The child, once born, is laid in a manger, and this is God's first cradle; nor does the ruler of heaven disdain these narrow quarters, whose dwelling was a virgin's womb. Mary was plainly a fit dwelling for Christ, not for the condition of her body but for her original grace. So Mary, delivered of her happy burden, knows with joy that she is a mother, though she does not know herself as a wife; she is glorious in her offspring who knows nothing of a husband; she marvels that she has borne an infant, while she testifies that she received the Holy Spirit; nor is she afraid because she gave birth unwed, since she has the testimony of her virginity and her offspring. The offspring points to the Lord as Father; the virginity removes the suspicion of those who are astonished. On the one side the Godhead bears witness to virginity; on the other, the secret of nature. The Godhead, I say, bears witness to the virginal birth. For in order that Christ may be conceived, according to the announcement of the Gospel she is filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and overshadowed by the power of God the Father, as was said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and therefore the holy one who will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” In the Saviour's birth, then, that divine sentence was fulfilled which says: “On the testimony of two or three witnesses every word shall stand.” For behold, the Word of God is born with the testimony of the Trinity. For surely in the womb of holy Mary, when the Holy Spirit comes upon her, when the Most High overshadows her, when Christ is begotten, the confession of faith is contained. It was fitting that the Mother who was to bring forth salvation for the peoples should first confirm in her womb the mystery of the Trinity; and so we would understand that the sacrament of faith was confirmed before the Saviour's birth. For Mary carried the priest with the mystery as in the sanctuary of her womb; for whatever was to profit the world came wholly from her womb: God, priest, and victim; God of the resurrection, priest of the offering. All this we recognize in Christ. He is God, in that he returns to the Father; high priest, in that he offered himself; victim, in that he was slain for us. So I would say that Mary's womb was not a womb but a temple: plainly a temple, in which dwells whatever is holy in heaven; except that it is to be reckoned above the heavens, where, as in a more secret tabernacle, the mystery is arranged by the Godhead of how heaven is to be ascended by many. Mary's womb is plainly to be reckoned above the heavens, because it sent the Son of God back to heaven more glorious than he had come down from heaven. From there he came down to suffer; from here he returned to reign; from there he came down humbled into man; from here he ascends glorified to the Father. The temple of the body is plainly better than that of heaven. For Christ dwells in both: there he is terrible, here approachable; there invisible, here visible and tangible; there he punishes sins, here he forgives them; there he uses a judge's power, here he exhorts his brothers with love. And so it is good for us to worship him when he invites, so that we need not fear him when he judges. [Here it ends.]

Celebrating, brothers, with due honor the most solemn birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us exult and rejoice in the Lord that at last there has come from heaven to earth as a man he who is the Son of the eternal God, to redeem us from slavery to the devil; that the dweller in heaven has come down from heaven to lead the inhabitants of earth into heaven. For today from a virgin who knew no dealings with any man there came forth a man who is at once God and man. Today one and the same was born God without carnal conception and made man without any begetter. God begot him from eternity, and in time a chaste virgin received him by the working power of almighty God. He was born from eternity without any beginning of his being; he arose in time from an unblemished virgin. In the first birth he was born God; in the second he was brought forth man. In the first, as God, he made man; in the second he freed man from the chains of sin by which he was held. Exult, then, and rejoice, Sion, since you are freed from all fear of your forefather's ancient transgression. For the Lord has arisen in the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, who mercifully absolved our guilt, the guilt by the devil's frauds of which wretched mortality had so long been ensnared, and in his love shook from our necks the yoke of ancient slavery. God, the Son of God, was born of a woman, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and laid in a manger. [Migne's note: a leaf is missing here; then follows:] To him, then, at once God and man, let us draw near with humble heart, sincere mind, and chaste service. And although we are harried by the clashing arms of foreigners, stirred up by the discord of quarreling kings, we ought not on that account to fail to celebrate the most sacred mysteries of this day with joy; rather, let us honor them with fitting joy, praying God that in his love he may deign to free us from these dangers and guard us. [Migne's note: ten lines are missing here, faded in the manuscript.] Let us, then, offer ourselves to him, so that, freed by his love from the evils that press upon us, etc. [Migne's note: the rest is missing.]

The holy and venerable sacrament of the Lord's birth, which we venerate every year as it returns with ever most devout celebration, excels by such condescension of its mystery that it confounds both the boldness of the pagans and the shamelessness of all heretics. For that God whom we, taught by faith, believe unfailingly with the simplicity of little children could be born of a woman, the pagans on the contrary (to set the heretics aside for now), dulled by carnal arguments, still refuse to believe could be born of a virgin, and they mock the priest of Christ who teaches this. And however much they themselves think and marvel that God does wonders daily in other things and has so often worked them elsewhere, yet in the most holy and wonderful birth of his Son, our Redeemer, alone they contend that he neither could nor should have done so. But what is this foolish doctrine, I would rather say madness, of the wise of this world: to believe that God once did wonders and does them even now, yet that in the most sacred birth of his Son our Lord from a virgin he could in no way accomplish this? For the one and the same God who once by divine art created from nothing heaven and the heavens of heavens and each thing in them; who likewise by the almighty power of his Word formed from nothing the earth, the waters and the seas, and what they contain: he it is who gave a virgin childbirth and offspring. If you believe that God could make heaven, sun, and stars from nothing; if you [admit] that he could make the earth, the seas, the living creatures, and the whole adornment of this visible world, and finally could fashion man from clay, why do you contend that he could not give it to an untouched virgin by the working power of God himself? For which will be the greater power of almighty God: to have created from nothing all that he sees in the heavens and in the world, or to create a man in the womb of an inviolate virgin without any preceding carnal embrace? If you marvel at the Creator's omnipotence in the things that are seen, why will you deny it in the childbirth of an inviolate virgin? What will that foolish madness be [Migne's note: two lines are missing here, wholly faded] … did all things whatsoever he willed in heaven and on earth, since his almighty power willed and was able to do them. But that a virgin could give birth by the working power of God, and truly did give birth … [Migne's note: a leaf is missing here, and only the mutilated conclusion remains.] And so, brothers, celebrating the most holy feast of so great a mystery, let us always worship our God, who did such great things for the unworthy … [Migne's note: ten more lines are missing here, wholly erased.] To him, then, let us hasten with constant prayers, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. [Here it ends.]

The most holy and venerable sacrament of the Lord's birth, which the whole Church venerates today with exulting hearts, we too ought to celebrate with like joy. For today that eternal Son of God, pitying human nature, came down from the royal seats to restore us. Today that new Adam by his wonderful birth fashioned our nature anew, and what had been defiled and corrupted by the wretched fall of the old Adam he brought back to life by his precious birth and his tearful death. Today the Lord of heaven and earth deigned to visit our weaknesses. On this day Bethlehem, that city of the most high God, which is called the city of bread, brought forth for us that heavenly bread, and the drink by which those who are filled and made drunk will always taste eternal joys. The underworld grieves that he has been born God and man who, shutting its gates, has sent the inhabitants of the earth across to heaven. The heavens rejoice that by his coming an entrance has at last been opened to mortals in the whole world, by which they may climb to the heights of heaven. The heavenly dwellers too exult that today all men have been given the hope of dwelling in those eternal seats which God has prepared for those who love him; and they rejoice that men will one day be partakers of that blessedness and sharers of those joys. And the most blessed Virgin herself, the mother, rejoices that she has given birth to that child whom, by the illumining power of the Holy Spirit from on high, without any carnal embrace, she conceived in her womb, God and man together. Let us also rejoice, then, brothers, on this most sacred day on which there is born to us the Lord, who is Christ Jesus, in the city of David, and let us be glad at the celebration of so great a birth. For him whom we now venerate as newborn we believe to be not man only but also God: man in the tenderness of his limbs, but God, proceeding from God, from the conception in his inviolate mother. And that he truly was God and man, as you have heard from the various readings of the Gospel, both the star itself, which announced his rising to the Magi, and the angels speaking with the shepherds show. We must, then, wholly believe that he was God and man together. [Here it ends.]

Let us too, brothers, celebrate with fitting joy this most holy day of the Lord's birth, which the whole Church celebrates with us in exultation. Today that eternal Son of God came down from heaven to earth for us, to call to heaven the whole world, which he had created from the beginning. Today at the end of the ages he was born a man who before all ages proceeded from the Father as only-begotten: a new man in time, but God from eternity; a new Christ, but Lord of all the ages. Today the most blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to a man whom she did not receive from a man, and who remained an inviolate virgin before the birth. Blind and foolish paganism laughs at the depth of so great a mystery; and that impious blasphemy also mocks it which in recent days presumed to assail and to corrupt the Virgin's childbearing and blasphemed that Christ our Lord could not have been brought forth from a virgin. This blasphemy the holy Church of Milan shuddered at; our synodal assembly condemned it with one voice; the pious imperial power itself denounced it. For while he dared to make honorable marriage equal to virginity, he blasphemes that Christ could not have been begotten of a virgin; though he does not dare deny that virgins remain such when human offspring are born of a woman. But what is this shameless and reckless deceit, to say that Christ our Lord could not have been begotten of a virgin, when they believe that he could create a man without a woman? If he could bring a woman into the light without any embrace of the female and male sexes, why is it said that he could not beget a new man without any carnal embrace? If you believe that in the forming of the first Adam the omnipotence of God alone sufficed, why, brother, will you deny the divine power in the coming of the second Adam, through whom eternal salvation came down to us, through whom we have all been restored? But if it is not against nature that a virgin can conceive, since God could do whatever he willed in heaven and on earth, why do you assert that it is against nature that a virgin, by the working power of almighty God, with her virginity unharmed … for God did whatever he willed in heaven and on earth. He willed to form man from clay, and he did so. Heaven, earth [the edition notes: ten lines are missing here, because the writing has perished] he willed, and they were made. He willed the people of Israel to cross through the waves of the sea dry-shod, and it was done. At Gideon's prayers he commanded the sun to stand still in its course, and it stood. Finally he willed that an untouched virgin, her virginity remaining, should bear a child, and she bore him. What then in this heavenly childbirth [the edition notes: a leaf is missing; afterward it concludes thus:] Therefore, brothers, holding to the many admonitions of your priest with unshakable faith and customary devotion, and walking along the ways of the religious journey and the paths of truth which the whole Church holds, trample more and more on the byways and devilish fictions of the heretics. For the faithful soul, which believes that God could do whatever he willed, ought not [the edition notes: two lines are missing] … whom he will consume with eternal fires. [Here it ends.]

Today, dearest brothers, Christ is born and we are reborn. Today the Saviour of the world received through a mother a time of birth, he whose birth from the Father has no time. Today through a man the Son of God entered the world, by whose hand the world was made before man. Today the dweller of heaven came to earth to call the inhabitants of earth to heaven. “God is wonderful,” it says, “in his saints.” If God is wonderful in his saints, how is he not wonderful in himself? If he is wonderful in John, whom he ordered to be born of a very aged father and a barren mother, how much more wonderful is he in himself, who, to put on the flesh of our condition, gave a virgin a new conception and a new childbirth? The holy prophet Habakkuk says: “Lord, I have heard your report and was afraid; I considered your works and was terrified.” Who would not be terrified and fear the depth of so great a mystery, since one and the same was born God without conception and made man without a creator? We read of two generations in Christ, dearest brothers, but in each is the power of an incomprehensible Godhead. There God begot him from himself; here a virgin conceived him by God's working. There without beginning, here without precedent. There born to establish life, here made to take away death. There born to the Father, here brought forth for men. By the first birth he made man; by this generation he set man free. Both his generations, brothers, are embraced by this one sentence: that they cannot be told. The one is before man, this one above man; the one unthinkable, this one wonderful. When we are taught two births of Christ, it is not asserted that the Son of God was born twice, but that there is a twofold substance in the one Son of God. There what he was was born; here what he was not he became. Of these the blessed evangelist John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And again: “And the Word became flesh.” So God, who was with God, came forth …, and the flesh of God, which was not in God, proceeded from a woman. So the Word became flesh, not so that God was emptied into man, but so that man might be glorified into God. And so God was not born twice; but from two births, that is, of God and of man, the only-begotten of the Father willed himself to be one God and man. “Who, then, will tell his generation?” Brothers, if the generation of Christ cannot be told, it can be believed. If the tongue fails, faith advances. For it is a great advance of faith when it conceives of its God as much as speech cannot bring forth. Beware, beloved, lest unbelief ever stir you about these things; for if man cannot explain what he perceives, God without doubt can accomplish what he willed. And it is most absurd, brothers, that we should weigh the ineffable God with the most feeble speech of our frailty. It is madness to try to shut up the works of an immeasurable majesty within the scanty words of our corruptible mouth. For how can man, a made thing, comprehend God the unbegotten, a mortal the eternal? If you strive to investigate how God passed into man or man into God, investigate first, if you can, how the world was made from nothing; whence the sky shone out; by what principle the liquid of the waters and the solidity of the earth subsist; how man came from the earth, woman from the male, and again the male through the woman; what that is, finally, which begets light and darkness, which makes life and death. If, then, O man, you cannot comprehend yourself and the things made for your sake, how or whence they were made, with what presumption or what folly do you scrutinize your own Creator and the Creator of all? We confess, then, God born of God the Father, and the same made man of a virgin. But these things, dearest ones, are blind to reason and plain to faith. For we shall be able to probe in some small part the immensities of his boundless majesty if we observe that how great and of what kind God is cannot be known by us, as the Lord said to Moses: “But you cannot see my face,” that is, you cannot look on my Godhead as it is with fleshly eyes. For blessed David, attending to the power of his omnipotence, cried out, saying: “Your works are wonderful, Lord, and my soul knows it very well.” For the prophet's soul knew very well that the works of God exceed all the thinking of the human mind; and for this reason the most wise patriarch, shut in by the narrow bounds of mortal sense, marveled at what he could not investigate. Who among men, then, would dare to scrutinize or inquire into such things as the prophet marvels at? “Your works,” he says, “are wonderful, and my soul knows it very well.” For this very fact, that God is incomprehensible, his soul knew; his flesh could not perceive it. Whoever, then, would rather examine the works of God than believe them follows not the sense of the soul but error. And so, brothers, let us not scrutinize how God was born of God, but believe it; nor let us dispute the Virgin's childbirth, but marvel at it, so that, confessing the only-begotten of God as God and man, we may hold unblemished the truth of the heavenly faith.

Most rightly, brothers, the whole world everywhere rouses itself to every joy at the festival of the present day, because today there has arisen the judge and redeemer promised to the whole world from the ages. And we all in common, who have received the saving faith of the coming judgment and the promised resurrection, must have fear of the judge but joy over the redeemer. For every faithful soul is corrected by fear and rejoices in correction. And in this, dearest ones, how great is the dispensation of the almighty Father toward the human race, how great his kindness, that the one he was preparing as judge for unbelievers he sent ahead as redeemer for those who would believe, so that mercy, running ahead, might forestall the severity of the judge who is coming. Today, then, Christ is born, but in his birth the life of us all has its birthday; for we who lost the privileges of our first birth return to life by a holier birth when Christ visits us. Today Mary gave birth, but she brought forth her own Maker. Today she brought into the world a man whom she did not receive from a man. What sort of miracle is this, brothers? Flesh is born of flesh, yet not begotten through flesh, and by a secret and incomprehensible conception divine offspring proceeds from a mortal woman. Nor is it any wonder if the birth was divine where the conception was not human, or if childbirth did not violate the mother whom intercourse had not defiled. Isaiah, who long ago knew the future, opening to peoples and nations the sign of a new salvation, said: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us.” And so that we may notice that the New and Old Testaments have one accord and one counsel, the most blessed Luke, the excellent narrator of the Lord's birth, also says: “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, and he said to her: Behold, you will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Jesus.” Jesus, dearest ones, in the Latin tongue means Saviour. See how the divine testimonies are confirmed by sentences agreeing with one another, and though the times of the preachers differ, the account does not. For the Virgin's childbirth which the one foretold, the other attests. Who, then, would hesitate about the divinity of Christ, who about the redemption, when Isaiah professes him God and Gabriel announces him Saviour? Who would doubt that the womb of an untouched mother flowered, when evangelist, angel, and prophet declare it almost with one mouth and the same spirit? Where there are witnesses so many and so great, truth does not blush, but the unbelieving hearer is refuted. But now let us see what indignities Christ bore for us in being born, and with what powers in turn those indignities are adorned. First of all, he allows himself to be conceived by the female sex, who at the beginning of the world with his almighty hand made the woman from the male. But this lowliness of birth is exalted by the integrity of his virgin mother. And although Christ, once born, is fed like an infant on a woman's milk, yet as Lord of all things he is nourished at virgin breasts; and as soon as his mother's womb poured him out into these storms of the world and the bilge of this tossing world, he is wrapped in the meanest cloths. He is clothed in cloths for us, he who in creating all things flooded the earth with light, adorned the sky with stars, and clothed the sun in fiery brightness. He is wrapped in cloths, but these cloths are presented with gifts by the Magi as a new star shines, and are honored by exulting angels. And that we may know that all these things are done or said as a mystery, he who is wrapped in cloths, proclaimed from the beginning from the bosom of the Father, came from heaven as the bridegroom from the eternal chamber of a saving marriage, as the venerable David says: “He, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber.” Then, as we read, he is laid in a manger, because, as the evangelist says, “there was no place for them in the inn.” Let none of this disturb anyone, brothers, for all this lowliness in the Saviour is the sacrament of our most precious salvation. See with what wisdom Christ is said to be placed in a manger, who by a twofold grace was to be both the food and the shepherd of the human race. He is fittingly laid in a manger, so that by the bleating of the heavenly Lamb he may invite the flocks of spiritual sheep to the pastures of everlasting life. “There was no place,” it says, “for them in the inn.” Was the space of that lodging so narrow that it could not hold the limbs of a little child born that very hour? But it is told in mystical language that he found no place in the inn because Christ, entering the world, did not find faith in which he could rest, as he himself says in the Gospel: “But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” From this we learn that the only Son of God rests not in spacious houses and gilded ceilings but in the faith of believers. This Christ Jesus, then, sucking at the breast, wailing like newborn infants, wrapped in mean cloths, lying in a manger, the ministries of angels attend, and the whole multitude of the host marvels, praising together with harmonious voice and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” Glory indeed to God, who gave despairing mortals the gift of eternal salvation; and peace to men of good will, whom Christ by his own contest and his own battle called back from the devil's captivity into his own kingdom. And how fittingly the Gospel's words ring out when it is said, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men,” and so on: that the same Son of God is both glorious among the angels in heaven and grants peace on earth to men of good will. Therefore, beloved, let us rejoice with fitting joy over so great a salvation, and, joining ourselves to the voices of the angels, let us always praise with due honor the mysteries and powers of Christ.

At the Lord's coming, dearest brothers, all fear of our forefather's transgression was dissolved, the fear which mortality incurred long ago when ensnared by the devil's frauds. For the judge of heaven and earth is present with us, who, cancelling the bond of our offenses, has in mercy absolved our guilt. That Lord is present who, loosing the yoke of ancient captivity from our necks, gladdens the grief of the world with eternal freedom. That gentle King is present who, walking through the spaces of the whole world with the steps of heavenly righteousness, has crushed the proud tyranny of the raging enemy. For today, as Mary gave birth, the Son of God was born to us, so that, brought forth by a conception akin to our flesh, he might bestow on the man he had created both a father's love and a brother's affection. And he was born of an untouched woman, so that a human childbirth might likewise bear witness that he was man, and eternal virginity prove that he was God. For as only flesh could be born of flesh, so the flesh of God could come forth from a woman's womb only without a begetter. For this reason the angel said to most blessed Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and the holy one who will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” “The Holy Spirit,” he says, “will come upon you.” That is why, brother, the angel's word set the power of the Holy Spirit before you, so that you would not, dulled by the guesses of carnal disputation, fabricate the heavenly mystery for yourself with earthly argument. Or do you not think that he could form a new child in a virgin's womb, who, when he first made man, sought neither a father's seed nor a mother's womb? Tell me, then, whoever you are who judge and scrutinize the heavenly dispensation, which seems to you the greater power: to have given childbirth to a virgin, or to have created a complete man from the earth? For “the first man,” as the Apostle says, “was from the earth, earthy; the second man from heaven, heavenly.” If you contend that it is against nature that in the mystery of our redemption a girl is said to have conceived without a man, of what nature, I ask, is it that in the parent of our race flesh was formed without flesh? What reason is this, or rather what blind contentiousness, that God is not believed able to make a man from a woman, when he is believed to have made one from dust? If you perceive, O man, that in such a matter it is the will of the Almighty, why do you question his work? For, as we read, “the Lord did whatever he willed in heaven and on earth.” And if you search carefully, you will find that besides this lawful practice of human conception the Trinity worked three most wonderful kinds of birth: the first, that Adam was shaped from clay; the second, that woman was formed from the male; the third, which is heavenly, that Christ came forth from a virgin. Which of these is not new? Which is not wonderful? Which of these could human inquiry grasp unless we follow faith? That the Son of God deigned to visit his world by this mystical conception, the need of our salvation demanded, so that a heavenly generation might at last repair what earthly birth had lost. But perhaps you doubt that he is God who is proclaimed born of a woman, while he is wrapped in mean cloths, while he is content to lie in a manger, while he cries with tearful wailing, while he is suckled at his mother's breast? On the contrary, brother, notice through these very things that as man he bore weak things for the weak, and as God he exercised heavenly power. For he who is wrapped in shabby cloths is honored with royal gifts by the Chaldeans. He who lies lowly in a manger flashes from heaven with the light of a new star. He who utters the wails of infancy is praised by the voices of the angelic host. He who is nourished by a woman's milk satisfied many thousands of men with a very little bread. What shall I add? That he is God and the true Son of God, Lazarus rising from the dead proves, the blind man restored to light announces, the wave trodden by his venerable feet attests, and, what surpasses all these, the Father's voice resounding from heaven confirms. Therefore, beloved, let us honor this great sacrament of the Lord's birth with worthy words. Let us love chastity above all things, because Christ, to show that it pleased him, chose the purity of a virgin's womb. Let us pursue mercy, because it is of mercy that we are saved. Let us hold carefully to righteousness, because the only-begotten of God deigned to become man for this, that by preaching the truth he might condemn iniquity and cleanse the whole face of the world.

The sacrament of today's mystery, dearest brothers, as you have always believed and believe, is the restoration of human salvation, the birth of the virtues, the ruin of the vices. For today Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom is the fullness of the Godhead, taking on the weaknesses of our flesh, was born a new man. Today there shone forth that second Adam, not a dweller but the Lord of paradise, whom the beauty of the forbidden tree would not deceive, nor the serpent beguile, nor the woman seduce. Today light has risen in the darkness. Today the world, without knowing it, received what heaven and the heavens of heavens rejoiced to have. For he did not emerge suddenly for us from a woman as someone temporal, or as one who had not existed before; but he who was always God with the Father and always reigned willed to appear to mortals through a virgin by a new mystery: a new man indeed, but the everlasting Lord; a new Christ, but King of all the ages. He it is who at the end of the ages was born of Mary, who before all ages proceeded as only-begotten from the Father. He it is who was foretold by the patriarchs, proclaimed by the prophets, announced by the angels, approved by the apostles. Of one and the same you read: “In the beginning was the Word,” and, “The Word became flesh.” Rejoice now, then, and exult, paganism, turned at last to your God. You have received the gift which Abraham rejoiced to have seen in the spirit; you have deserved through Christ what the chosen nation of the Hebrews once could not deserve. For Israel, fearing and trembling, marveled, as we read, that Moses, the leader of the people, hidden in a cloud on the summit of the highest mountain, spoke alone with the Lord. But for you Christ was so born, and gave himself to us with such condescension, that he spoke to all and was seen by all. Whoever of the people then approached that mountain, Sinai, was punished with instant death; but whoever does not approach this mountain, which today is born to the world, will die. Then one people was being taught the faith; now all nations are called to life. Our venerable fathers saw countless great wonders. Heaven rained down angels' food for them; the hardest rock supplied them sweet drinks; the Jordan turned its perpetual flow back to its source; the strongest walls of the enemy fell at the blast of trumpets; the sun too, lingering in the sky, gave the triumphant people a longer day. But it was given to no earlier ages to see this: that the only-begotten of the Most High, whom the powers of the archangels receive with trembling, should show himself a man to men and transform into God the flesh he took from man. Embrace, then, the condescension of the eternal majesty, and do not scrutinize the secret will of your God; for Christ was born for all, but he gives salvation to the faithful. If, because of the frailty of your senses, it seems less worthy to you to believe that the Son of God was born of a woman, consider that a virgin gave birth. If perhaps the cloths in which he was wrapped seem mean to you, marvel at the angels praising and at the multitude of the heavenly host. If you despise the manger in which the infant lay, lift your eyes a little and behold the new star in the sky proclaiming the Lord's birth to the world. If you believe the lowly things, believe the wonderful ones. If you dispute about the things of his humility, venerate the things that are lofty and heavenly. For from the same narrators and the same authors you have learned the lowly and the glorious things about the Lord the Saviour; the holy Gospels have handed on to you everything that belonged to the mystery of your salvation. You have in them grounds to believe that the Lord Jesus was born a man and to be unable to doubt that he is God.

That the divine dispositions are unsearchable to human senses the very depth of God's works testifies. But the mysteries of Christ are the more to be venerated by us the more they exceed by their greatness the capacity of the mortal mind. And so, brothers, when it is announced to us that the everlasting only-begotten of God the Father, to whom all things are subject and through whom all things were created, willed at the end of the ages to be born of a woman and to undergo the infancy of our flesh, we ought not to examine the grace of such condescension but believe it; not to scrutinize it but marvel at it. For what is more just, or what so fitting, as that in divine things we should follow God's omnipotence rather than our wisdom? Today, then, as we learned when the Gospel reading was read through, Christ was born for us according to the flesh, beginning to be what he was not, but not ceasing to be what he was. For the birth of a man could not diminish or divide the unity of the undivided majesty. That God proceeded from God the Father is the secret of an ineffable and abiding power; that he was born a man of a woman is the grace of our salvation. There is the glory of his nature; here the mystery of his will. Who, then, brothers, could gauge this depth of the heavenly counsel: that the Lord of immortality and of incorruptible substance, in order to be able to undergo death for mortals by the condition of the flesh, willed to come forth from a woman's womb under human law, conceived by no law of bodily generation, and this in such a way that the blessed mother, who had conceived untouched, brought him forth inviolate? Moreover, he is wrapped in cloths and laid in a manger. This lowliness of the infant is a precious sacrament of God. For in the cloths he shows that he has taken on our weaknesses and our sins. And in letting his limbs be placed in a manger, where animals feed, he shows that his body is to be eaten by mortals for eternal refreshment. What shall I say of the angelic multitude coming down to earth and attending the wailing child with glorious praise? For all creation is astonished at so great a miracle, that one and the same both reigns as God in heaven and is nourished as man on earth. Announcing the newness of this mystery, blessed David invites the whole human race to the harmony of a spiritual song, saying: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” What is so new, dearest ones, as that almighty God of immeasurable majesty, coeternal with the Father and Lord of an everlasting kingdom, bent himself down to bodily weaknesses and human lowliness? What is so new as that virginity should remain unharmed while a woman conceives and gives birth? And truly such an entrance befitted the Saviour of the world, that he who was coming to cleanse the sins of the human race should be born more cleanly than all others. The prophet also fittingly added: “Sing to the Lord, all the earth.” For to whom else ought all the earth to sing than to him who brought to the whole world forgiveness of offenses and the hope of everlasting salvation? Let us magnify, then, brothers, our Lord and God; let us sing psalms and songs to him; for it is fitting that he should be honored above all by the praises of those whom he saved by the suffering of his own body and the shedding of his blood.

At the Lord's coming, dearest brothers, whose due honor we pay at the present festival, a multitude of heavenly mysteries is revealed by grace. For today, that is, at the end of the ages, he was brought forth whose eternity no times of the ages contain. Today the Lord of heaven and earth put on the form of a slave for the freedom of slaves. Today a virgin, the new glory of the female sex, gave birth; and, what all creation marvels at with us, a man was born who was not begotten through a man. But though it may seem new, it is not incredible that Christ was conceived in Mary's womb without a begetter, who proceeded from God the Father without conception. For as God he is the only-begotten of the Father alone; as man he is the son of his mother alone; and so him who is God from the Father and man from his mother, that is, God and man, we confess as one Lord. All this was done so that God through the flesh of man might undertake the mystery of the saving passion, and man through the power of God might recover the dignity of his eternity. So Christ is born of Mary, so that the female sex might give a man and virginal integrity might show forth God. Christ is born of a woman, so that, as Adam could not guard against the devil deceiving him through Eve, so the devil might not detect that God, coming through Mary, was present. A woman, then, brings forth the salvation of the world, so that she who had been the kindling of iniquity might become the servant of righteousness, and life might have its entrance to us through her through whom death opened its way into this world. And to show that the Creator of the human race cares for both sexes and wills to save both, a man is born and comes forth from a woman, so that we might notice that with God there is no difference between man and woman in receiving salvation. Why should we not believe with full devotion that the saving child could be born of a virgin, when we believe that a complete man was formed from dust? Let us exult, then, brothers, and rejoice as we celebrate the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in his birth we all feel ourselves born to life. For he who is the author of life became man, not to live for himself, but by his death to redeem the life of the dead. With such chains had the enemy bound the human race, and with such a weight of monstrous sins had he pressed us down, that there was no return for us to salvation unless he were born who by his own power could return to life after death.

Although I do not doubt, dearest brothers, that you, taught by fatherly care through the instruction of the divine word, wholly turn away from and abhor all the follies of the coming Kalends, yet as an argument for more perfect amendment I have not been reluctant to bring to your ears the customary sermon, as the most blessed Paul says: “Brothers, to write the same things to you is not irksome to me, but for you it is necessary.” I think it necessary, beloved, and not superfluous, if, in place of the holy admonition given long ago, the addresses of the fathers who went before us are repeated to you. And indeed, what tedium, what burden is there in often saying and frequently hearing things useful and pleasing to God for the advancement of salvation? And so, dearest ones, walking with your accustomed faith and devotion along the ways of the religious journey and the paths of truth, trample more and more on the byways of error and the devil's fictions. For the faithful soul, which desires the fellowship of angels, must not take pleasure in the games of demons. Nor can there be among God's servants any fellowship of light and darkness, truth and falsehood, shamefulness and decency, as the teacher of the churches instructs us, saying: “What agreement has Christ with Belial? What accord has the temple of God with idols?” Whoever of the believers, then, either is the temple of God or desires to be, let him carefully beware lest, by pursuing dead and empty things, he cease to be the temple of God and become a dwelling of darkness, a tomb of the demon. The most glorious prophet David says: “Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not looked to vanities and false madness.” So he who hopes in God and directs the gaze of his eyes with all his heart toward God's glory must not turn back eyes once consecrated toward the thickest vanities; for, as the Lord says: “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” For anyone ploughing, if he looks back, will make a crooked or broken furrow or will wound the feet of his ploughing oxen. So too he who, furrowing through worldly vices with a straight path and a spiritual ploughshare, advances to the kingdom of God, if he turns his gaze to impious and empty things, will both wound his yoke-mates, that is, body and soul, and fall into a dangerous straying from the best road. “And has not looked,” he says, “to vanities and false madness.” How does blessed David speak of “false” madness, when those who throw the fear of God behind them and look back to the vanities of demons are truly mad? But the faithful man expressed the nature of impious falsehood properly; for all things are mad which, through the devil's deceiving lie, do not have the power of God in them. And the sickness of those is graver and incurable who, deceived by the frenzy of superstitions and the sweetness of games, are mad under the appearance of sanity. Are not all the things done on those days by the ministers of demons false and mad, when a man, the vigor of his strength softened, breaks himself wholly into a woman, and does it with such effort and art as if he were sorry to be what a man is? Is not everything there false and mad, when men formed by God transform themselves into cattle, or wild beasts, or monsters? Does it not exceed all madness when they disfigure the beauty of the human face, shaped specially by the hands of God into all loveliness, with the squalor of filth and an adulterous foulness? How is it not plain to the wise that there is nothing sane there, where they both do and say all impious and indecent things, not hearing blessed David crying out daily in the church and saying: “Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek falsehood?” Heavy indeed is the heart of those, and pressed down with all impiety, who, mocking the divine admonitions with sacrilegious jests, both love empty things and pursue false ones; and after all this, to fill up the offense, they call these very days the new year. Though in their own sense they do not inaptly call it a new year, since through these abominable holidays false shamefulness and perversity are renewed in place of decency. They call it a new year, as if either the sky or the earth then showed something new. They call the Kalends of January the new year, though they grow filthy with ever-old error and horror. The most foolish also say they gather auspices, and, judging the state of their life by empty signs, they search out through the uncertain signs of birds and beasts the future of the coming year; though surely knowledge of the future belongs to God alone, and the authority of the law forbids this, saying: “Do not take auspices; do not attend to omens.” But wretched and pitiable men, carried away by the errors of the pagans and blinded by an improvident heart, go out of their houses with impiety and return with sacrilege. Or how can one think he can even be called a Christian who has seen himself a partner with unbelievers in such an observance? I have learned by clear report that you, dearest ones, have long neither observed nor sought out such things. And indeed they are not to be inquired into at all by us who believe in almighty God, who by the power of his own judgment dispenses prosperity or adversity to all mortals according to the quality of their merits or the testing of their faith; especially since the Apostle reproves and rebukes such men, saying: “You observe days and months and seasons and years; I fear that I may have labored among you in vain.” See, dearest ones, in what they lost the apostolic labor spent on them. But you, as you have done until now out of the fear of God, abhor empty things, flee false things, turn away from impious things, so that you may always come to the house of God with a confident heart, and Paul, the teacher of the nations and judge of his own teaching, may find its fruit in your faith.

Let us exult in the Lord, dearest brothers, that new feasts always follow our feasts and joys are heaped on joys. For see, we have scarcely celebrated with joy the most solemn day of our most holy restoration, when at once we rejoice in our Redeemer's glorious manifestation among the nations. On this most festive day we celebrate the feast of that day on which he himself, born an infant in a stable, willed to manifest himself to the world. So that the nations might not be ignorant of the coming in the flesh of him who had come down from heaven to free the whole human race from the slavery of sin, he gave a star in the sky as a sign, which unbelieving Judea too could from then on have known, but which the Gentile world alone, which came to his cradle, recognized. So the Gentile world alone came to Bethlehem then in the three Magi, while Judea remained in the darkness of the setting sun; and in the persons of those three men the Gentile world paid its gifts to so great a King. For they offered, as you have heard, gold, frankincense, and myrrh: in the gold, to show the beginnings of our redemption, which already appeared in him; in the frankincense, to signify the worship of the true religion that was one day to come and the superstition of idols that was to cease; in the myrrh, to foretell his resurrection and ours from the dead that was one day to come. [The edition notes: ten lines are missing here; then follows:] So, brothers, let us who have come from the nations to the adorable light of faith exult and rejoice in this great feast of the manifestation of our Lord. Yet we must exult no less because on this most sacred celebration of this day, as we are taught by the tradition of the fathers, Christ our Lord himself, invited to an earthly wedding, came, not to take pleasure in that banquet nor to get drunk on wine, but to show that he is the author of marriage and, sanctifying it, to make his divine power known when he himself gave the wedding party the wine that had run out for them. He gave wine indeed, and supplied drink: wine and drink that could make those guests drunk, for he himself changed into wine the jars filled with water. Wine indeed which the steward of the feast, when he tasted it, judged better than what had been served already. And no wonder; for the wine they had drunk before had been drawn from vineyards into wine by human hands; but this, from the water with which a hired servant had earlier filled those jars, had been turned by the working of divine power, changing the whole nature of the water, into precious wine that made those wedding guests drunk. Seeing so great a miracle, then, his disciples believed in him, as the divine word has it: no longer that he was the son of a man, but the Son of God, as was proved by so great a miracle. Let us too, brothers, believe this with our whole heart: that he, though a sharer in our nature, is coequal with the Father's divine substance. Why, then, of those at the wedding who saw so great a miracle did his disciples alone believe in him? The others attended to the wine and did not notice his miracles. They knew the wine had run out, but did not know that water had been changed into wine. For it is clear, as we have said elsewhere, that from those vessels the one group drew a harmful drunkenness, the other everlasting righteousness: with the one, what they drank passed away because it was earthly; with the other, what they had taken remained because it was heavenly. [Here it ends.]

The ineffable coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into this world, brothers, first began to be known to the Gentiles when the Magi came from the East, following the guidance of a new star, to worship him. For when he had come, clothed in human flesh, to free the whole world from the deadly captivity of the devil … [the text is defective here] … And today's feast declares to us the beginnings of this our calling to the heavenly kingdom, on which he willed to manifest himself to the Magi in a star. For in those men who came from Chaldea to worship the newborn King in a stable the whole Gentile world is included, just as in the gifts they then offered the newborn King are contained those precious gifts which the Saviour himself, reigning in heaven with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, has obtained from the Gentiles. The Magi, then, were the firstfruits of the Gentiles in the Christian faith. The faith of the Gentiles in Christ took its beginning from them. *For although Christ our Lord willed his Church, and its most glorious leaders, to be Jews, yet the Church, though born from them, grew to full strength among the Gentiles; so that, while the Jews still persist in their mournful blindness, it has been so manifested among the Gentiles that it seems to have grown up from them alone; and even now the Hebrews are certainly not unlike their forebears.* For when the Magi inquired, and Herod himself sought out whether and where he whom they were then seeking as the newborn Redeemer of the ages was to be born, from the sacred volumes of the Scriptures which they themselves read they not only said that he would be born in Bethlehem [the edition notes: something is missing here which joined and connected the speech]. *The prophecies of their prophets showed this, and they asserted that the time of the same birth had already come; yet they do not seek the newborn King. Pitiable indeed is the blindness of the Jews! They were not ignorant that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. They hold the oracles by which it is shown that Christ is already born. They hear and see the Chaldeans inquiring about the place of his birth, and yet they do not seek Christ.* And so that prophetic sentence was then truly fulfilled: “Those to whom nothing was announced about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” Nothing had been announced to the Chaldean, and he saw the star, and believed, and understood that Christ was signified in the star. It had been told to the Hebrew that the Redeemer of the world would come. He held the oracles of the prophets about him. He knew that Christ was born in Bethlehem. And although this had been foretold to him about him, he neither understood nor was willing to see him born, so that he might one day crucify him. Leaving these, then, in their blindness, rejoice and be glad on this holy day, Gentile world, turned to God your Creator; and do not cease to venerate the beginnings of your faith in those three Magi who came from the East to Bethlehem to worship Christ. And with exulting hearts conceive the hope of one day obtaining those eternal seats, provided that to the faith you hold you add the works that Christ commanded. And although even now the Jews think our Redeemer, wailing in his cradle and lying in a manger, worthy of contempt, let us believe that this Christ is to be worshipped by all. [Here it ends.]

The venerable sacrament of our redemption, brothers, by which the immortal God took pity on the human condition, shines with such majesty that no human mind can understand it. For who could explain why the only-begotten Son of God, who has one and the same Godhead and omnipotence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and for whom to will and to be able are one and the same, nevertheless deigned to so honor our nature that, taking what he did not have and not laying aside what was in him, he joined the divine nature to the human so inseparably that he was at once God and man? But if in investigating these things all human understanding is confounded and the whole philosophy of the pagans vanishes, yet in the mystery of today's feast, by which the incomprehensible God willed to manifest his rising to the nations by the sign of a glowing star [the edition notes: two lines are missing here]. For today Christ our Lord willed to show his glory to all. And although, born according to the flesh among the Hebrews and from the Hebrews, he seems to have loved them before others, yet since at his rising he made a new star glow in the heavens, the Gentile world too has cause to rejoice. For that star seems to me to have been given above all to the Gentiles, so that the nations too might recognize that the Redeemer was born, him whom Balaam, once a priest of the Gentiles, had prophesied would one day come into the world from the seed of Jacob. And indeed the Jews had their sacred volumes, in which were contained both the praises of the patriarchs of that nation and the prophecies of their prophets, testifying that Christ the Lord, the Redeemer of the world, would one day come. They knew from them that he would be born of a virgin, of the line of David according to the flesh; they read in them the place of his birth marked out beforehand, for Bethlehem, that city of David, was declared to be adorned by the birth of so great a divinity; and the wonders that were to precede his birth were announced. Only the pitiable Gentile world had remained until then in the darkness of the setting sun. So he who had come to restore all in mercy, lest it too should always remain in its lamentable blindness, gave it a sign, which the Jew too could see, in the star that announced the rising of so great a King and showed that the author of present redemption had come. The Magi in Chaldea see it flashing with brighter, gladder rays. They recognize that it signifies the birth of a new King. They follow the guidance of that light, and truly find the newborn one whom they come from so far to worship. They offer him their gifts: gold, as we have read, frankincense, and myrrh, precious gifts by which both the divinity of the newborn King and the humanity united to it are declared. Then they returned to their own country by another way. They came as Gentiles to worship; they went away from him as Christians. Before the worship they served idols; once they had seen the Saviour of the world, they detested idols. They returned to their own country. Let us too, then, brothers, imitate the Magi. They see a child in a stable and venerate him as God. We too see him with the eyes of faith reigning in heaven; let us venerate him, then, and cling to him always. For as he freed those three men from the blindness of idols, so he has freed us too, and from eternal death. [Here it ends.]

Gathering, brothers, for the venerable feasts of the Lord and the most sacred mysteries of our Saviour, we ought to be glad over his manifestation just as we rejoiced over his birth. The only-begotten Son of God, coeternal with God the Father, when he had been born in time of an inviolate virgin, willed on this day, as the tradition of the fathers teaches us, to manifest himself to the nations. While he wailed in the cradle, while he was praised by angels and the shepherds visited him, a new star from heaven made him known to all the nations. For to the Jews, in whose land and from the royal seed of David he had been born according to the flesh, that multitude of the angelic host had already made him manifest enough at the outset of his birth, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.” But to the Gentiles, to whom it had been promised by Balaam's prophecy that the Redeemer of the world would one day come from the seed of Jacob, since they were ignorant of the wonders then happening in Judea, he gave a new star as a sign by which they might understand that what that soothsayer had prophesied had been fulfilled: that the star had risen from Jacob and a man had come from Israel. And indeed, since he had come from heaven to redeem not the Jewish people only but all the nations, which he had created from the beginning of the world together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he willed to give a sign in a star which both Judea could see and the whole world could recognize. The Jew saw it but did not know it; the nations marveled at it, but only three men of the Chaldeans understood what it signified. By that visible sign he called all to himself and promised the gifts of his grace to all. It announced that the Author of the world had come to break the yoke of the ancient slavery; it promised, in short, eternal life to all. Yet that star shone only for the eyes of the Magi; those who had the Saviour born among their own chose to ignore him, and the Gentile world ran to venerate him. So the Magi come from Chaldea; they follow the course of the star that goes before; they enter the royal city of the Hebrews, where mad Herod reigned; they ask for the newborn King of the Jews. Herod trembles and dreads the coming of the new king. Why do you fear, impious and unhappy man? He who is to give heavenly kingdoms has not come to seize yours. The Hebrews search the Scriptures and then learn that the Lord was to be born in Bethlehem, and they say that he is already born at that time. Then that prophetic sentence was fulfilled: “Those to whom nothing was announced about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” Nothing had been announced to the Chaldean about Christ; he had heard nothing; and seeing the star, he understood in the star that Christ was present. The Magi see the Redeemer of the world in a stable; they behold a child at his mother's breast, sucking; they worship him and offer him gifts. Wonderful faith: to worship as God a child lying in the lap of his nursing mother, surrounded by no royal majesty, and to present gifts to him as to a king and as to God! Then, as the reading testifies, they returned to their own country by another way; and those who had come as unbelievers to worship at Christ's cradle, enlightened by the rays of that eternal Sun whom they had worshipped, laid aside their superstition and returned to their own country by another way. So, brothers, since we too have come from the nations to the knowledge of the true light, let us imitate the Magi. Having seen the Lord, they worshipped him as God; let us also do so, and, rejecting the false idols of the nations, let us venerate him alone and serve him. It is no longer a star that has led us to know him, but the preaching of the true faith, which by the grace of God has shone like a star in our hearts. Let us, then, exhort our brothers to lay aside that sacrilegious worship of idols and come to the new light of faith, which has shone for them too. The Magi offered their gifts to the newborn Lord; let us also present ours to him. Let us feed widows, sustain strangers, show mercy to all, so that the most loving Lord himself may deign to free us from the present distress of the advancing foreigners. For he is able to do it; let us entreat him with our whole heart that he may deign to grant it to us in his mercy. [Here it ends.]

The joys of the Lord's birthday, brothers, still leap in our hearts, and our continued gladness sighs for the heavenly festival. For although the day of our prayers has passed, the holiness of those prayers stays with us; and as the Saviour's nativity grows day by day from his birth, so our devotion of faith in him grows too, and it gives evidence both of his age and of our salvation. For the Lord grows in age for himself, and advances in holiness for us. Not that Christ's holiness advances, for it is everlasting and perfect; but it is said to advance when it makes faith increase in us. For Christ after his birth, though small in body, is yet God in majesty. The joys of the Lord's festival still stir our inmost being. They stir it as they urge us to burst out in speech for very joy, so that we too may say what the angels said at Christ's birth: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” See what the angels said. They did not say “peace to men” or “to any men whatsoever,” but “to men of good will,” so that we might understand that the peace of Christ belongs not to persons but to conduct. For it is not birth that earns it but will; not human wickedness but Christian goodness. It is not handed to all but offered to the approved; it is not given to be scattered abroad but set before us to be chosen. Christ's peace, then, belongs to the one who believes Christ to be the author of peace; Christ's peace belongs to the one who has no war of sins; Christ's peace belongs to those whose will is not polluted by the bloody rites of idols. For it is fitting that the Saviour whom an immaculate virginity bore should be possessed by an uncorrupted will, and that as Mary carried him unblemished, so our soul should keep him unpolluted. For Mary bore a kind of figure of our souls. For Christ, just as he sought virginity in his mother, so he requires integrity in our disposition. The soul that is a virgin from sins both conceives and brings forth the Saviour when it preaches him, and keeps him when it follows his commandments. Faith holds what is conceived, confession brings forth the birth, care guards the newborn. Let us rejoice, then, at this festival of him whose birth the brightness of the angels announces, the simplicity of the shepherds seeks out, and the devotion of the Magi venerates. For the grace of the angels honors God in Christ, the innocence of the shepherds the Lamb, the veneration of the Magi the priest. The veneration of the Magi plainly proves Christ a priest; for the whole mystery is confirmed by their gifts. They offered to the Saviour, as far as was in them, what they thought most beautiful: gold, frankincense, and myrrh; gold as for reigning, frankincense as for propitiating, myrrh as for rising again. By the gold his power is shown, by the myrrh incorruptibility is signified, by the frankincense his high priesthood is shown. For it was not done idly that the Magi came to the Lord with their gifts. Finding by the curiosity of their superstition that Christ would reign over all, they brought him the emblems of all the elements: gold, by which earthly things are conquered; frankincense, by which heavenly beings are thought to be appeased; myrrh, with which the dead are embalmed; showing surely that from Christ's birth there is no need of these things, since through Christ there would be victory on earth, propitiation in heaven, and rest in the underworld. So the Magi found by their curiosity that from the birth of Christ they must no longer be curious; and their magic art profited them in this, that they learned it would profit them no further. Then, no longer living in the same worship, they set out on another road both of returning and of living. For before they saw Christ the star led the Magi to his service as superstitious men; after they saw the Lord and believed, faith called them back to their homeland as devout men. So, brothers, let us too who have come from the nations imitate those Magi up to the knowledge of Christ. Let it be enough to have strayed no further. After receiving Christ we must beware lest the credulity of paganism lead us back by the same way by which we came. For there are many Christians who after receiving the faith are entangled in their former vanities, and when they have celebrated with us the joys of the Lord's birthday, they arrange with the pagans the drunken banquets of the Kalends; when they have received with us the blessing of the Godhead, they observe with them every superstition. It is plainly to be lamented that the Magi despised auguries and Christians observe auspices; that those laid aside the skill of their art, and these will not cast off luxury of conduct. [Here it ends.]

Recently, dearest brothers, we celebrated the sacrament of this same redemption of ours, in which God put on man with his weaknesses. Today we honor that in which he declared himself in man by mighty works: for on this day, whether because a star in the sky gave notice of his rising, or because at Cana of Galilee at a wedding feast he turned water into wine, or because in the waves of the Jordan he consecrated the waters by his baptism for the restoring of the human race, in any of these the mysteries and joys of our salvation are contained. For he was born of the Virgin for us, which the star showed. For us the washing of baptism has been granted, which he consecrated in the bed of the Jordan. He also showed beforehand by the miracle of his work that we are to be changed for the better, when he turned water into wine. So, brothers, let us celebrate Christ's baptism in keeping our purity, because this regeneration of Christ is the confirmation of our faith. He commended to us the baptism of his gift by the example of a second birth, and what he willed us to do he first did himself. We read that the Jews had various baptisms under the law, but none of them could provide a general remedy against the evil of transgression. And so, for the absolution of the whole world, they needed the water of regeneration to be sanctified from heaven. And because the human race throughout the whole world needed the sacrament of baptism, he gave a blessing to all waters when he went down into the bed of the Jordan with unique and singular love. Then the wave did not so much wash Christ the Lord as was washed. For you, then, Christ came by being born; for you he served by living; for you he fought by dying. Understand that he whom you see dead for you was baptized for you. He was wholly such even before baptism, and therefore his forerunner and baptizer addresses him thus when he came to him to be baptized: “Lord, I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” What could be clearer about the purity of Christ not yet baptized? What stronger? “I ought to be baptized by you”: that is, you who are the fountain of innocence, who, needing nothing, know how to give and do not know how to receive. “I ought,” he says, “to be baptized by you,” because you show with you and possess in yourself the gifts of purity and the sacraments of baptism; and what I shall give by grace through your bestowing, you hold by nature. At his touch the limbs are dipped and the streams are enriched. The happy wave marvels that its Lord is going down into it, conceiving in one moment eternal remedies and bringing forth God by the new fruitfulness of regeneration, giving back what it had received and receiving what it did not have. Amid all this it would be a wonder that the Lord submitted himself to the blessing of a servant, had he not submitted himself to the cross and to death. And he taught beforehand by the worth of his own price that man is precious to him, so that from this too we may understand how grave our God reckons the case of human crimes, for which he sent to earth not an angel, not an archangel, but God. And the Magi themselves, who came by the sign of the star to the venerable cradle of the heavenly child, what else did they express in those gifts but our faith? In that three gifts are offered, the Trinity is understood; in that there are three of them and each offers one, unity in the Trinity is declared. By the gold the King is shown; in the frankincense God is recognized; by the myrrh, which is fit for embalming bodies, the burial of the man who was to be crucified is proclaimed. Accordingly, dearest ones, let us too imitate the person of the Magi by spiritual services; let us seek Christ until we are found worthy to find him. Let the light of faith lead us like the star of heaven. Let it show him to us no longer wailing in a manger but ruling in the highest citadel of heaven; to be worshipped not in his mother's lap but on the Father's throne; no longer to be judged in his humility but coming in majesty to judgment. So, as by a perfect confession of the three gifts, let one Godhead be believed by us, distinct without confusion or separation, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. [The edition notes: a great deal is missing, for a leaf is lost. Maximus continues:]

So the worship of God is to be ordered in the hearts of the faithful in such a way that neither separation is admitted in the unity nor mixture in the Trinity. [Here it ends.]

On this celebration, beloved, as we are taught by the account of the fathers' tradition, we are to rejoice with a manifold festival. For they say that today Christ our Lord was worshipped by the nations under the leading of a star, or that, invited to a wedding, he turned water into wine, or that, receiving baptism from John, he consecrated the streams of the Jordan and at the same time purified his Baptist. Which of these was done on this day above all, he who did it knows; but we ought to believe without doubting that whatever it is, it was done for us. For in that the Chaldeans, stirred by the rays of a brighter star, worshipped him, the hope of worshipping the true God was given to the nations. In that waters were changed into wine in a new order, the sacrament of a new cup was foretasted for us. And in that the Lamb of God was baptized, the saving gift of regenerating baptism was dedicated for us. So, brothers, in honor of our Saviour, whose birth we recently kept with due exultation, we must also celebrate with all devotion this birthday of his mighty works. And how rightly these three mysteries are proclaimed to us as done on one day, we who confess the secret of the ineffable Trinity under the one name of God! By these miracles, then, Christ the Lord, our Redeemer, willed to reveal himself to the eyes of mortals, so that his invisible divinity, which lay hidden in the man, should not lie hidden in his work; so that, while the tempter did not detect the Word of the almighty Father in the flesh, all everywhere who believed the Word and the flesh in the Son of God might be saved. The devil saw an infant wrapped in cloths, but did not know that he was the one who, removing the darkness at the beginning, clothed the world with light. He saw him sucking a mortal mother's breasts, but did not know that he was the one who made the hungry Hebrew people grow fat on angels' bread as on heavenly milk. He saw a little one resting in a narrow cradle, but could not see that he was the one whom the world does not contain. How the enemy wavered, then, distracted by uncertainties and stupefied at this humility of Christ, when he saw the newborn infant honored with royal gifts as the king of a new empire by the Chaldeans, the chief ministers of his own tyranny! Or how could he not be stupefied when, disturbed, he saw a child whom he did not know worshipped by his own Magi? With what sickness was he tormented when he both looked down on his cradle on earth and marveled at his star in heaven? But the only-begotten of the Most High entered the world so humbly as to give undoubted signs of his divinity: he was born of a woman, but born of a virgin; he lay in a manger, but shone in a star; so that both an earthly mother and a heavenly sign might show him to be man and God. With what rays, with how much light do we believe that star of the Lord then shone among the ancient stars? How far it surpassed them in splendor, which so far went before them in its office, and which, like an eye of the whole world, renewed the old face of a darkened world! See, brothers, one star drew the Chaldeans to seek the King of kings; but not even the pillar of fire could once turn the Jewish people to obedience to their God. Nor let this great unbelief of the Jews disturb anyone, that neither the gleam of a new star nor a virgin giving birth compelled them to accept faith in Christ, who did not believe their God even then, when, with God himself accompanying them through the parched deserts, heaven fed them and the rock gave them drink. But now let us come to that chief miracle of Christ, by which, as proof of his deity, he turned water into wine. The Lord, then, as we read, being invited, went to the wedding; but that the son of a virgin should deign to do this is for our instruction, so that, taught by this example, we may not deny that he is the author of lawful marriage. So the Son of God goes to the wedding, so that the marriages he had established long ago by his power he might then sanctify by the blessing of his presence. He goes to a wedding of the old institution, to make for himself a new bride of perpetual virginity from the converted way of life of the nations. He goes to a wedding, he whom no wedding produced. He goes to a wedding, certainly not to enjoy the feasting, but to become known more wonderfully. He goes to a wedding, not to take cups but to give them; for when the wedding party had run out of wine, most blessed Mary said to him: “They have no wine.” And Jesus answered her as if indignant: “What have I to do with you, woman?” Who would doubt that these are the words of one indignant? But this was, I think, because his mother so rashly prompted him about the lack of fleshly drink, when he had come to offer to the nations of the whole world the new cup of eternal salvation. For when he says, “My hour has not yet come,” he was promising that most glorious hour of his passion, or that wine of our redemption which would profit the life of all. For what Mary asked for was of temporal grace; what Christ was preparing was of everlasting joy. Yet the most kind Lord was not unwilling to provide small things while great things were coming; so the venerable Mary, truly as the mother of the Lord, foreknowing in the spirit what was to come and foreseeing the Lord's will, carefully admonished the servants, saying: “Whatever he tells you, do it.” For the holy mother knew that that rebuke of the Lord, her son, held out not the offense of one who was angry but carried a mystery of compassion. Then the Lord, relieving the shame of his rebuked mother and now opening his majesty, said to the waiting servants: “Fill the jars with water.” Without delay the obedient servant gave his service; and behold, suddenly those waters began wonderfully to take on strength, draw color, give off fragrance, acquire taste, and change their whole nature at once. This change of the waters from their own into another creature testified to the power of the Creator who was present. For no one could turn waters to other uses but he who made them from nothing. So the servant was astonished and amazed, he who had put in water and drew out wine, and rejoiced greatly that he had carried on his shoulders the streams through which God's glory was revealed. For no one said anything at the time; nothing was added to the jars but water; no art was hired; and so great a miracle, amid the awed silence of those standing round, was accomplished by the will alone of the silent Lord. Nor should we doubt, dearest ones, that he turned the waters into wine who from the beginning thickened them into snow, hardened them into ice, turned them into blood for the Egyptians, and commanded them to flow from a dry rock for the thirsting Hebrews, nourishing a countless multitude of peoples with the dripping of a new spring in place of a mother's breasts. What would you be astonished at first, what marvel at: wine from water, or water from rock? But let no unbelief disturb you, whoever hesitates among these things, for it is not doubtful that the elements of creatures hang on the nod of the Creator. Or why should we not believe that by the Lord's power wine could be made from water, when for us, by God's working, water rises into wine from the lap of the earth, nourished by the rains, through the ministry of the vines? “This,” it says, “Jesus did as the beginning of signs in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” The disciples believed, surely, not what they saw being done, but what fleshly sight cannot see. They believed not that Christ Jesus was the son of a virgin, which was known, but that he was the only-begotten of the Most High, which was proved by his work. So let us too, brothers, believe with our whole heart that he whom we confess as son of man is the Son of God. Let us believe that he is both a sharer of our nature and coequal with the Father's substance, since he attended the wedding as man and changed water into wine as God; so that by the merit of this faith our Lord may graciously deign to give us also to drink that sober wine of his grace.

Your holiness remembers, brothers, our earlier sermon, in which we described how the blessed apostles, at the sight of one miracle, that is, water turned into wine by the Saviour, at once believed in him. For so the evangelist says of the Lord: “And he manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” This deed was written not only to show the glory of the faith of those in whose time it was done, but also for us, who by the same example of devotion are provoked to the glory of believing. For what Christ worked he worked not only for those he then had present, but also for us who were to follow afterward, so that, though our forebears went before us in time, they should not go before us in the glory of the signs. For the same power that was displayed in wonders to those present to the events has been kept for us in the treasury of the letters, so that the page might give us what the event gave them; indeed, whatever is set before us is done in us; whatever is commended to us, so that by the mirror of the Scriptures the power of the Lord which they saw with fleshly eyes we might see with spiritual light. “And they believed in him, and he manifested his glory to his disciples.” How well the devotion of the servants follows the power of the Lord, and what the master teaches by works the disciples write down in their hearts! See, the power of the worker is manifested to them, and the manifest faith of the believers is proclaimed. The apostles' faith is plainly to be proclaimed, which, at the sight of one sign, believed in the Saviour's omnipotence. While the apostles marvel at water turned into wine, they themselves likewise were turned from all the dregs of sins, and, made like the miracle, were carried over from the cheap superstition of the Gentiles to the precious devotion of believers; and as water turned into wine is seasoned with taste, redness, and color, so what was insipid in them received the taste of knowledge, what was pale took on the color of grace, and what was cold grew warm with the fire of immortality. The apostles' faith, then, is to be magnified, which was described in the Gospel's words so that it might be both their praise and our example. But what is worse, their praise endures and the examples do not move us. For the later we are in time, the lower we are in merit. They believed the Lord at once at the sight of one sign; we, having received so many wonders of his benefits, still doubt. We doubt, I say, because we love present things while we do not believe future ones; we love riches in the world while we hesitate to receive them from Christ. We are carried away immoderately by anger while we do not fear the judgment of retribution. But he who knows that it is written, “With the judgment you judge, you will be judged,” is without doubt gentle, moderate, and mild, and compels more by kindness than by severity; a friend of indulgence, familiar with pardon, so that, as he often grants it, he may always receive it from the Lord. For it belongs to a wise ruler so to conduct earthly offices as to acquire the honor of heavenly dignity. And though weakness of body sometimes blunts the vigor of our speaking, yet we are made stronger by the zeal of your devotion. For the more eagerly you listen, the more gladly we preach, and strength for speaking is added to us when you lend your hearing to understand. Who would not try to sow the seed of the heavenly word where the fruitful earth of a pure heart receives it? Who, I say, would not wish to place the Saviour's word where worldly care does not choke it but the strength of spiritual disciplines nourishes it? So, brothers, since at holy Epiphany we exulted seeing the Saviour's miracles, we ought to do what the disciples of that time did then. As for my saying that we have now seen what was done long ago, we plainly see it, and see it daily. For such are Christ's miracles that they do not pass away into nothing but grow strong by grace; they are not buried in oblivion but renewed by mighty works. For with the power of God nothing is abolished, nothing past, but by his greatness all things are present to him; all time is today to him. Hence the holy prophet says: “A thousand years in your eyes are like one day.” If all the time of the world is one day to the Lord, then on the same day on which the Saviour worked wonders for the fathers he worked them for us too. We too, then, like our forebears, have seen the Lord's wonders, and have received them with the same amazement as they. We too, like them, have tasted from those very jars; for they drank a cup of wine from them, and we have taken the cup of salvation. So, having seen the Lord's sign, we ought to do what our forebears did. For if the same grace of the Godhead has shone in us, the same devotion of faith ought to be in us. For the evangelist says of the Lord, when this miracle was done: “And he manifested his glory, and the disciples believed in him.” We ought, then, to believe as the apostles then believed. But someone else says: “We too are Christians, and we believe in God the Saviour.” But one must believe by deed, not word; not with the tongue but with the heart; lest it be said to us too: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

You have heard, brothers, the reading of the Gospel reciting the saving sacraments of the present day. You have heard how Christ the Lord, who came into this world secretly, deigned little by little to open his majesty to mortals; though, dearest ones, the heavenly light could not lie hidden among the shadows of the world. Indeed, while the earth did not yet recognize his visitation, heaven spoke its joys and the gladness of the whole world in a silent star, to the astonishment of the Chaldeans. And while unbelieving Judea could not yet see who and how great he was, the Gentile world, roused by heavenly signs, already perceived his glory. For a new star revealed that a new man had come, and truly new: for, being the Son of God, he put on flesh without carnal generation, and as man had a time of birth, he who as God had no beginning of birth. It was new indeed that a tiny manger in a very small hut should suffice for the only-begotten of the Most High, whom heaven does not contain. It was new that he who reigned in heaven with God the Father, content with an earthly mother, should utter the wails of infancy in swaddling cloths. Let us rejoice, then, brothers, and exult with all joy, because Christ was born of a woman for us, for us he lay in a manger, for us he wailed in the cradle, for us he smiled in the star. For whatever the Saviour did among men as a man was all to our profit. So the Gospel's word says: “Behold, Magi came from the East to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” How long, most hard Jew, will you persist with dull ear, shut eyes, and unbelieving heart? See, after those proclamations of the patriarchs, after the prophecies of the prophets, Christ is proclaimed even by the nations. If you refuse to believe your fathers, who from the beginning of the world sang the coming of the eternal King with countless sacred voices, believe at least these at last, who testify that he is not still to be born after some time, but is already born among you and for you. What is this great aversion of deadly obstinacy in your breast, that you alone do not hear what all are saying, you alone shun what the whole world believes, you alone scorn to see what shines from heaven? Among you a virgin conceived, and a foreigner recognizes your virgin's childbirth; angelic voices cannot persuade you of your salvation, and one star led the Chaldeans to your Christ. “Where is he,” say the Magi, “who has been born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” In them was fulfilled what was foretold in the prophetic word; for see, the Chaldean, to whom nothing had been announced about Christ and who had heard nothing, both saw Christ's star and understood in the star that he was present. So the Magi worship the Lord and offer gifts, that what David, that chief of the prophets, said might be fulfilled: “Bring to the Lord, families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor.” By saying “to the Lord” and “to the Lord” he declares in mystical speech that he is Lord as God and Lord also as man; for as God he is the Creator of the world, as man he is the Redeemer of the world. How, then, is Christ not Lord of all by the privilege of both substances, who has subjected all things to himself by either creation or redemption? “Bring,” he says, “to the Lord glory and honor.” It belongs to honor, then, dearest ones, that the Gentiles offer gifts; to glory, that they worship. The Chaldeans offer gifts and worship: the one is presented as to a king, the other shown as to God. And these, having worshipped Christ and offered their gifts, returned, as we have read, to their own country by another way. Most rightly they return by another way, lest bloody Herod, who was preparing death for the infant, should reach Christ by the Magi's route; for those who had come to worship the Lord could not be the Lord's betrayers. How well, brothers, they are said to have returned by another way! For those who had come into Judea under the leading of a star return to their homeland enlightened by the rays of the eternal Sun. And so let us celebrate this day with all reverence, surpassing the Magi's service by our devotion: for if they found Christ lying in a cradle, we have him reigning in heaven.

Although, dearest brothers, Christ, the Lord of our salvation, the coeternal Son of the almighty Father, covered with the veil of flesh, deigned to visit mortals as a lowly one, yet he gave so many and such great signs of his majesty that the human mind could perceive both that a new man was born and that God had come from heaven. For while our Lord himself, by the law of human birth a little one and an infant in Judea, wailed in the cradle and lay hidden in swaddling cloths, yet a wonderful star from on high made his magnificence known to the whole world. Who would doubt that that star flashed with gladder light and more brilliant rays, which brought before human eyes the light of heaven and earth? And it was necessary that this star should differ from the other stars by a brighter orb, since it announced Christ, whose birth differed from that of all mortals; and the sky then glittered with a new star, but the world shone yet more with a new light. Who could search out the glory of these miracles: that for the remedy of our salvation, at one and the same moment, the creature shone in heaven and the Creator gleamed on earth? Nor is it any wonder, dearest ones, that heavenly testimony attends the Lord of the heavens; or why should it seem incredible to us if an obedient work bears witness to its Maker? The earth marveled to see a new star in heaven; but heaven marveled to see a new Sun on earth. How deep are the thoughts of the Lord, and how unsearchable his ways! Lest the unbelief of men should attack the Virgin's childbirth, he gave from on high a most brilliant sign, which neither the Gentile world could refute nor Judea conceal. So, as we have read, the Chaldeans come from the East; they follow the star going before them, not recognized by magic art but wonderful in its newness. The Magi seek the newborn King chiefly among Israel because Balaam, that soothsayer and once a priest of the Gentiles, whose ass is said to have spoken, had prophesied that a star would rise from Jacob and a man come from Israel; for among other things he says, as we read: “A star will rise from Jacob, and a man will spring up from Israel.” Let no one marvel now that the Chaldeans recognized the Lord's birth; for if a Gentile could foretell it by God's revelation, a Gentile could recognize it. For this was, as far as one may judge, the decision of the heavenly dispensation: that among the most sacred voices of the prophets the coming of him who was to come for the redemption of believers and unbelievers alike should be foretold even by an unbelieving man. And for this reason the priest of idols prophesies, so that, if perhaps the Gentile world refused to believe the Jews preaching the coming of Christ, it might at least follow the testimony of its own authorities. Nor let us doubt that the almighty and most kind God could give that foreigner Balaam words of foreknowledge, who could loosen the tongue of his ass into human words. So the soothsayer's ass, his mount, spoke, an animal bent down and by nature looking at the ground, to signify by a plain sign that the whole Gentile world, devoted to altars and always pressed to the earth by the weight of its unbelief, despising the worship of almighty God, was silent and dumb; but when the star from Jacob and the man from Israel came, lifting its eyes to heaven, it would speak the glory of the eternal God in daily confessions. So, brothers, the enlightened Gentile world comes from the East, but Judea, blinded by the unbelief of its most hard heart, remains in the setting of the sun. How does the whole obstinacy of the Jews not truly waste away in the setting and in darkness, who, rejecting the presence of the unwearied Sun, have lost the perpetual day? And well, dearest ones, did the three Magi come together by one road to worship; for in the one Christ Jesus, who is the way of all believers, the Trinity was to be worshipped by them undivided. They also bring gifts, which were proved to be not so much gifts as mysteries. They offer him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In the gold, brothers, is shown the precious redemption of our captivity; in the frankincense is revealed both that the superstition of demons will cease and that the worship of the true religion will come; in the myrrh, by which lifeless bodies are usually preserved, the restoration of our flesh and the resurrection of the dead are prefigured. That such sacred offerings should be brought to Christ was chosen not by the Magi's own judgment but by the inspiration of the Almighty. For as far as the glory of Christ is concerned, these gifts, looked at carnally, seem in every way unworthy of his majesty. For what use is gold to the immortal Lord, gold which is a use and a love only to mortals? What use is frankincense to almighty God, by whose fragrance even images are honored by the pagans? Or what use to him is myrrh, the embalming of rotting bodies, whose flesh no corruption of death was to master? All these things, beloved, would seem superfluous and empty with the Son of God, unless the sacraments of our life are believed to be foreshadowed in them. Therefore, brothers, let us hope in the Lord, and let our heart be strengthened, so that the star of faith may shine in us too and lead us by a straight way without error to Christ; and let us also offer the small gifts of our actions and devotion, which Christ may receive, no longer lying on earth in a cradle, but seated at the Father's right hand, may embrace in heaven.

Isaiah, the chief of the prophets, says, dearest brothers: “Be enlightened, be enlightened, Jerusalem; for your light is here, and the majesty of the Lord has risen upon you.” It is plain that Jerusalem is the city of the faithful. Hence we, brothers, who have begun to enter the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, enlightened by the saving sacraments, must exult with new joy in the sight of our God, because today a new star revealed a new man to the world. On this very day Christ Jesus, coming from the Father, God and man born of a woman, dedicated the faith of the nations in the persons of the Chaldeans who worshipped him. Though he veiled his divinity under the covering of our body, yet heaven declared him God and earth recognized it. He came lowly but wonderful, so that the truth of the flesh he had taken and the nature of the ineffable Godhead might shine in him alike. And although an earthly cradle received him at his birth, a heavenly sign testified that he was not earthly. For he lay in a cradle, but shone in heaven; he wailed among the Jews, and reigned among the Gentiles; in Bethlehem he was suckled by his mother, and in Chaldea he was worshipped by the Magi. For the most blessed evangelist Matthew says: “Behold, Magi came from the East, saying: Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?” How well they are said to hasten from the East, who come to worship the everlasting Dayspring, of whom it is said: “And the Dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness.” Then the Chaldeans add: “We have seen his star and have come to worship him.” “His star,” they say, “we have seen.” Well said, “his”: for all the stars, created by him, are his; yet this one was properly Christ's, since it announced his coming in a special way. The other stars were made to mark the seasons and courses of this world; but this one was commanded to come forth to show that the Lord of the world himself and the time of the heavenly kingdom were present. So the Magi say: “We have seen his star and have come to worship him.” See, those who do not have Christ wish to have him and strive to find him. The Jew flees his God; the pagan seeks him. What the neighbor does not recognize, the stranger understands: the Gentile sees the star and comes; the Jew sees Christ and envies him, as we have read: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” Truly most hard Judea, blinded by its unbelief, did not see what the star radiated, nor could it hear what the angels proclaimed. So, when the Magi inquired and said, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?”, “Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” The king is troubled, fearing, I believe, for his kingdom, not knowing that Christ came not to invade his kingdom but to save it, and that he who is the life of all would bring death to no one. And as the Magi traveled, the star, as we have read, which they had seen in the East went before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. Did it not seem to say and cry out: This is the child whom I testified from heaven was born; this is that great King who comes to join the kingdom of the earth to the heavenly empire? Truly this star was the servant of the Lord's birth, which served the Chaldeans with such attendance that in seeking Christ it not only advised them from heaven but also led them on earth. So the Magi, having worshipped the Lord and offered their gifts, passing Herod by, returned to their own country by another way. Nor could they return by way of Herod, that is, by the road of death, who, having worshipped the Son of God, were carrying back to their homeland the gifts of heavenly life. Herod, then, mocked and scorned by the Magi, as the evangelist says, “was exceedingly angry, and sent and killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem from two years old and under.” The age of those killed is written, so that the cruelty of the killer may be known: the perverse anger and reckless indignation of the raging man! He is angry with the Chaldeans, and he kills the innocent; and while he rushes to the death of the spotless infant, he destroys crowds of sucklings; so that the manifold guilt of the slaughtered multitude might entangle the most wicked king who sought blood not owed him; nor could his raging madness notice that he who came to give life to the dead could not be forced into death against his will. All this, dearest ones, the devil did through Herod, so that through the ministry of his will he might either destroy Christ or sadden Christ's most joyful entrance by the murder of the little ones. But let there be no sadness among the faithful over the death of the innocents; for Christ, the most just rewarder, made those who suffered for him sharers in his passion, and patiently allowed those to be killed for whom he was gladly preparing eternal life. Therefore, beloved, we who come from the nations, on whom the saving light shone from heaven in the Lord's star, among whom the Virgin's childbirth is believed, for whom Christ is God even in the cradle, bringing the gifts of our devotion and faith, let us turn away from Herod's unbelief, and with body and spirit sanctified, loving mercy, let us always honor the most sacred coming of the Lord; so that, as we rejoice over his enlightenment, we may be glad over our reward, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is saving and fitting for us, brothers, gathering for the Lord's feasts and the mysteries of our Saviour, at whose birth we have rejoiced, to be glad also over his manifestation; for as the Son of God is glorious in being born, so he is wonderful in appearing. It is wonderful that Christ came forth from a virgin; no less magnificent that he was shown from heaven. It is very wonderful that the earth received a new man; no less astonishing that a new star from heaven made this new man known. In Judea Christ wailed in a manger before the shepherds, and in Chaldea he flashed among the stars before the eyes of the Magi. Among the Jews he was shabby in swaddling cloths; among the nations he shone in glory. And indeed it was necessary that heavenly testimony should go before the Lord of the heavens, and that a sign of light should reveal the author of light. This is a great and awesome mystery, brothers, when one and the same is proclaimed God from the Father and man from a mother; one and the same the son of a woman and the son of majesty; one and the same a sharer with men and Lord of the angels. Who could reckon of how great a sacrament and how great a glory it is that he sucks at the breast who feeds all things, and that he who supplies from heaven the substance of life to all living creatures is nourished with earthly milk for the salvation of earthly beings? Let no one, then, doubt or hesitate that Christ, while living on earth, shone in heaven; for he so came to earth as not to leave heaven. And that is why angels praise this virgin-born child, shepherds marvel, heaven testifies, and Magi venerate, because his mystical birth has gladdened both earth and heaven with everlasting joy. This King of heavenly beings and ruler of men, then, coming under the mystery of the flesh, envious Herod dreads and unbelieving Judea disowns. Herod dreads the infant of royal dignity because he does not know the goodness of the newborn; Judea disowns the Christ whom it proclaims, because, fearing for its impieties, it shuns the equity of the just judge; and blinded by the darkness of its crimes, it alone cannot see what shines for all from heaven; and though the teaching of all the patriarchs and the prophetic words of holy men did not bend Jewish hearts to the knowledge of the Son of God, the ray of one star roused the faith of the nations. What great reversal, brothers, what change is this? Among the Jews the prophet speaks and is not heard; among the Gentiles the star is silent and persuades. Truly, as it is written: “Those to whom nothing was announced about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” For see, the Chaldeans, to whom nothing had ever been preached about such mysteries, understood the birth of Christ; and seeking Christ himself carefully, under the guidance of the star shown in heaven, they were found worthy to find him. Nor were these things understood or seen by just any mean, obscure, and outcast men, but by Chaldeans, that is, by those among whom the error of superstitions reigned. In them Christ, entering the world, found the firstfruits of saving faith; and there arose between Jews and Gentiles a kind of contest of unbelief and faith. For when Christ was born Chaldea exulted, and all Jerusalem with its leaders was tormented. The Jew persecuted, the magus worshipped; Herod sharpened his sword, the Chaldean prepared gifts. But what wonder if that Jewish crowd did not accept Christ's infancy, when it stubbornly abused and despised him even as he raised the dead? What wonder if the Jews scorned Christ lying in a cradle, whom, when he gave new eyes to the blind or restored lost ones and cured various sicknesses with a saving word, they accused with the slanders of a lying tongue, ungrateful for all the benefits of the redeeming Lord? What wonder if at his birth they ignored the signs of a shining star, who rejoiced at his passion even while the sun mourned? What wonder if, when the Chaldeans came, these refused to believe, whom the gathering of angels could not lead to the faith of truth? Let us, then, brothers, rejoice and exult in the Lord, celebrating with all joy the festival of an everlasting mystery; we who do not deny the Lord's birth with carnal guesses but confess it with simple faith; who learned of the Saviour's coming not from the Magi's announcement but by the Father's testimony from above; who seek Christ the Lord no longer wailing among the cradles but venerate him reigning in heaven, Jesus Christ the Lord.

The festival of the present day multiplies for us, brothers, many and various sacraments of saving mysteries. For, as faithful antiquity has handed down to its posterity, today the Saviour of the human race, shown by heavenly signs, was worshipped by the Chaldeans. Today Christ, by the ministry of blessed John, consecrated the streams of the Jordan with the blessing of his own baptism. Today also, invited to a wedding, showing the power of his divinity, he turned water into wine; water, I say, he turned into wine: that is, the water he sanctified in baptism he ennobled at the wedding. We recount, brothers, these three mysteries of one day, but they are what the condescension of the Trinity accomplished through one Lord. For unity can never be absent from itself in the working of mighty deeds, nor can what is undivided in deity ever be separated from one another. Indeed, when the Saviour was baptized, the Father showed in a voice, and the Spirit in a dove, that they were not absent from the only-begotten. Let us not marvel, then, brothers, we who have the Trinity in our faith, if three mysteries have hallowed one day for us. Today, then, as we have said, the magus found through a star what the Jew would not believe through the prophets. Today the Gentile world, taught from heaven, seeks the Redeemer of the world as a king, presents him gifts as a mighty one, worships him as God. And how rightly, dearest ones, a new star shone on earth in testimony of a new birth, whose ray the unbelieving nation of the Jews could neither hide nor conceal its truth! Nor could any obscurity of malicious interpretation have place through them any longer, when heaven itself shone with starry light before the eyes of all with what was to be believed. And how wonderful this is: that a tiny ray of a star moved the astonished hearts of foreigners, when not even the fiery pillar itself, gleaming from heaven, could convert that Jewish people for whom the sea was divided and manna supplied from the clouds. But now let us hasten to Christ's baptism. “Jesus came,” it says, “to the Jordan to be baptized by John; and John said to him: I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” I ought indeed to be baptized by you, because I have corruption from our forefather's transgression, and you have communion in the Father's majesty. I was poured out into this world from a fleshly parent; but you came here as the only-begotten from the unbegotten Father. The natural union of a man and a woman produced me; but you were given by a virginity venerable to us, as the power of the Most High overshadowed her. I am an earthly creature, you the Lamb of God; I am mortal by the law of sin, but you, coming against sins, do not know how to be subject to sin. And after all, I was made to be redeemed by you, but you were born to redeem. Jesus deigned to answer him: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” That is: all you mention is true; but this is the reason for my coming: since I was made under the law, the lawful order must be fulfilled. For I came not to live for myself, who have eternal life with the Father, but to take away the condition of your death. And this is most just: since I have taken on the whole man, I should pass through all the sacraments of man. And indeed, brothers, how should Christ not come to baptism for our sake, for whose sake he did not even avoid the indignity of bodily circumcision? So John too, recognizing the saving mystery, does not sanctify the Son of God as a baptizer but obeys heavenly commands as a devoted minister; for the servant could not but obey his master, the herald the judge, the soldier his king, the forerunner his Maker. And so that the prophet might recognize more fully and perfectly that all this was done by the Godhead, the Holy Spirit allowed himself to be seen in the form of a dove, and the Father to be heard in a voice of speech; for he says: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” See and attend, brothers, how much grace mortality obtains from the divine condescension: for, in order that the most sacred mysteries of our redemption might be confirmed and the eternal Trinity revealed to us more plainly, the Son is baptized in the Jordan, the Spirit sanctifies the sacrament, the Father discloses the truth. It remains now to make clear to your charity the third cause of this devotion. Today also, as the fathers relate, the Lord Jesus made wine from water at Cana of Galilee. You must not hesitate at all, brothers, about the Creator in wonders of this kind; for he who at the beginning of the world gave the waters their being also made what he willed from the waters at the end of the world; it surely belongs to greater majesty to create what did not exist than to change what has been created. And what wonder if at its Lord's command water passed into wine, by whose nod the healthful nourishment of the rains and the grape itself, the mother of wine, are nourished? What wonder if the Lord of all turned water into wine for man's sake, who, to make man, transformed earth into flesh? What wonder if at his command water passed into a better taste, by whose working, when it was bitter at Marah, it was sweetened for the people who were to drink by a healing wood; by whose command also, lest the thirsting in the desert should lack it, it leapt forth roused from the rock? And there the water came out of a rock, where there was still the figure of a spiritual drink; but here wine is made by Christ, where there is now the true salvation of those who drink. What, then, brothers, is more joyful than this day, what more sacred than this feast, on which a brighter star flashed to the nations the Virgin's childbirth, which lay hidden in a cradle; on which the wave of the Jordan received the only-begotten of God for its own sanctification, man saw the Holy Spirit, the world heard the Father; on which also Christ showed by that sober cup of wonderful wine that he had visited the mortal race drunk with sins? And so, dearest ones, laying aside the pleasure of slippery flesh, let us rejoice spiritually in spiritual gifts, so that the light of the heavenly star may shine on the darkness of our heart, the blessing of the Father's voice may enlighten it, and the saving wine may gladden us as Christ pledges us.

We heard recently from the Gospel, brothers, that our Lord Jesus Christ came to the sacred streams of the Jordan for the sake of baptism and willed to be consecrated in that river by heavenly mysteries; and we should not wonder why he did so. For he willed to be the first to carry out what he commanded others to do, so that, like a good teacher, he might not so much commend his teaching by words as practice it himself in deeds. That all these things were done on this day is plain, and we can gather it from reason itself. For reason requires that after the day of the Lord's birth, though years intervened, this festival should follow at the same season; and I think it too should be called a birthday. For then he was born for men; today he was reborn in sacraments. Then he was brought forth through the Virgin; today he was regenerated through a mystery. For the Lord in his infinite wisdom so arranged it that men's festivals should not be far apart from each other, and that at one and the same season he whom men congratulated as born on earth might be rejoiced over as sanctified in heaven; so that those who, at the angels' announcement, already possessed the Virgin's childbirth might, with the heavens testifying, hold him as the Son of God, and be certain that he whom the Virgin had borne was the true Son of God; for the Godhead itself recognized him as God. New births deserve new honors. There, when he is born as man, his mother Mary warms him in her bosom; here, when he is begotten by a mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice. For he says: “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.” So the mother at the birth caresses him in her soft lap; the Father at the baptism speaks of him in loving testimony. The mother presents him to the Magi to be worshipped; the Father shows him to the nations to be adored. Today, then, the Lord came to baptism and willed his body to be washed with water. Perhaps someone will say: If he is holy, why did he will to be baptized? Hear, then: Christ is baptized not to be sanctified by the waters but to sanctify the waters himself, and by his own purification to purify the streams he touches. For the consecration of Christ is the greater consecration of the element. For when our Saviour is washed, then already all water is cleansed for our baptism and the font is purified, so that the grace of the washing may be ministered to the peoples who were to follow afterward. He goes before, then, through baptism, so that the Christian peoples may follow after him with confidence. So too the pillar of fire went before through the Red Sea, so that the sons of Israel might follow without fear the road it showed; and it first went through the waters, to prepare a path of travel for those coming after it. This, as the Apostle says, was a mystery of baptism. And it was plainly a kind of baptism where the cloud covered the people and the wave carried them. All this was done by Christ the Lord, the same who does it now: as he then went before the sons of Israel through the Red Sea in the pillar of fire, so now he goes before the Christian peoples through baptism in the pillar of his body. He himself, I say, is that pillar which then gave light to the eyes of those who followed and now supplies light to the eyes of believers; then he made firm a path in the streams of the waves, now he strengthens the footsteps of our faith in the washing of baptism. Whoever walks fearlessly by this faith will not fear the Egyptian persecutor, and will come to the heavenly realms of the kingdom, if he confirms the faith he holds by good works. [Here it ends.]

Some days ago, brothers, we set out that our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized not for his own sake but for ours, since he himself committed no sins. Yet he came to the streams of the Jordan, and mingled with that crowd of sinners who had come to John's baptism, both to sanctify the waters of the Jordan and to invite us to the washing of baptism, and you especially, catechumens, who cannot attain the joys of paradise without baptism. And that most blessed Baptist of Christ, John, also believed this. For when he saw Christ coming to him, behold, turning to that crowd of sinners who had come to him to be baptized, he said: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” Behold, that is, him who never committed sin. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold, he takes away the sins of the world. Run to him, then. Receive baptism from him. For he is able to cleanse your sins. I too long to be baptized by him. And John truly wished this, which is why he said to Christ: “I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” That is: you who are God, do you come down to your creature? You who are King and Lord of lords, do you come to your servant? You who are holy, do you come down to a sinner to be baptized by him? And he would have refused the ministry of so great an office to Christ had Christ not commanded him to perform it. “Let it be so now,” says the divine word which was read before, “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “I ought to be baptized by you.” So Jesus is baptized by John, not for himself but for us. God is baptized by a creature, the Lord by a servant, so that he might fulfill all righteousness. If, then, he who committed no sin was baptized, why should not we who are sinners be baptized? If Christ, who was chastity, sobriety, and innocence itself, willed to be dipped in the baptism of his servant, why shall not we too, on whom the burden of sins lies heavy, be cleansed for salvation? Let us do, then, what the venerable Baptist of Christ himself wished to have done for him and did not obtain. He longed for Christ's baptism, he wished to be baptized by him, and yet he was not granted to obtain it. To us baptism is freely offered; let us, then, be baptized. For our Saviour himself willed to be baptized in order to fulfill all the commandments of the law which he himself had given, as he also said elsewhere: “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.” [Here it ends.]

The almighty power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is plainly gathered from the reading we have just heard. For although his omnipotence, by which in the beginning of things, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he created heaven and earth from nothing, seemed to lie hidden in the man he had taken for our redemption, it was plainly made known to his disciples. For when he had come to a wedding of the old institution at Cana of Galilee, and the guests suddenly ran out of wine, he who had not disdained to be present at that wedding willed also to approve that wedding by a miracle, and turned water into wine. [The edition notes: two leaves are missing in the original; then it concludes thus:] … so that, freed from all the defilement of this world, we may come to the heavenly kingdom, with the help of him who reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

I believe, brothers, that you understood my preaching on the holy day of Epiphany, and you catechumens especially. I said then that some assert that our Lord Jesus Christ was worshipped on it by the Magi coming from the East under the leading of a star; others say that he then changed water into wine; and still others maintain that on that day he was baptized in the Jordan by John; but that in all of them the Son of God is believed, and in all of them is our true festival. And though some believe that one or another of these things was done, I believe that they all happened on that day, and that one is contained in the other. For Christ our Lord, when he had come into this world to restore human nature, certainly called first to life the Jews, of whose seed he was born according to the flesh. Yet, as we have often told your holiness, he did not abandon the people of the nations in their blind unbelief. For he who willed to free all from eternal death, and from the death that was due, by his wonderful incarnation, also called all to the venerable light of his faith. So the angels make known the newborn Redeemer to the shepherds, but a new star invites the nations to venerate his sacred cradle. The shepherds come to Bethlehem, and the Magi run to his cradle with gifts. The shepherds venerate him; the Magi also worship him. At his birth mad Herod trembles and the proud synagogue is afraid; but the Gentile world exults and rejoices that its Saviour has come at last. And indeed, the Jews being left in their unbelief, the Church grew from the nations. On this day the Church of the nations was born, because through that most brilliant star the Gentile world was called in those three Magi to the knowledge of the true light. And it grew, because on this day too the sacrament of the saving washing was instituted by Christ the Lord. For today, as the venerable tradition of the ancients teaches us, our Saviour came to the streams of the Jordan. Today he who was without sin came to the Jordan among crowds of sinners to be baptized. Today, finally, our Redeemer willed to be baptized in the Jordan and in turn to sanctify his Baptist. So Christ is baptized in the Jordan, and by his baptism on this day he sanctified the waters of the Jordan. But why do I say of the Jordan? By his baptism he sanctified the whole substance of waters everywhere. See, then, how on this most holy day the Church was gathered from the nations in the calling of the Magi, and how it was also spiritually reborn in Christ's baptism and is reborn daily. For the Church passes daily to the life of regeneration whenever it receives catechumens to baptism. For before the washing the catechumen is weak; but having received baptism he both gains knowledge of the Trinity and becomes steadfast and faithful, and is no longer pale and without taste, like the water which Christ the Lord, invited to the wedding, changed into wine today; for having received baptism he comes out one of the faithful and is changed into wine. For by wine the grace of the Holy Spirit is signified, as our Saviour himself declared when he said that new wine must be put into new wineskins. See, then, how on this most sacred day the Gentile world was converted to faith through the flashing of the new star; our Redeemer instituted for all the saving washing of regeneration; and why on this same day he turned the substance of water into wine. Such grace did Christ our Lord confer on his baptism that not only did he sanctify his Baptist, but the river Jordan itself was turned back. [Here it ends.]

Although, dearest brothers, the tradition of the ancients about the feast of this day varies, yet the faith of holy devotion is one. And although some think that today our Lord Jesus Christ was worshipped by the Magi coming from the East under the leading of a star, others assert that he changed water into wine, and others maintain that he was baptized by John, in all of them the Son of God is believed, and in all of them is our festival. For in that the Magi, Gentiles, are allowed both to worship the Lord and to offer gifts, the calling of the nations is prefigured; and in that Christ is baptized in the streams of the Jordan, the waters are consecrated for our baptism. So, dearest ones, we must now set before your holiness something about this baptism, as the Lord grants, so that you may recognize both the humility of our Saviour and the glory of the mysteries. John was preaching in the desert a baptism of repentance to a sinful people, not to blot out crimes committed but to correct those who strayed; for the remission of sins was reserved for the grace of Christ. So a very great multitude of various people flowed together to John out of desire for the washing; and their deeds were so wicked, their life so ruined, that the venerable Baptist compared them to the offspring of vipers. Among such men that Lord of the heavenly powers, he who looks on the earth and makes it tremble, Christ Jesus, did not disdain, humble and quiet, to hurry to the baptism of his little servant. But what wonder at the Saviour's gentleness, if he bowed himself to the hands of his prophet, who allowed himself to be crucified by his enemies? As he hurried to the river, John burst out to the crowds standing round with this cry: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” That is to say: Stop now, stop seeking my baptism, by which repentance is undertaken; behold the Baptist through whom crimes are forgiven. Cease any longer to want to be baptized by your fellow servant; the Lord of all of us is present, who baptizes to life. Follow him, believe him, ask him with your whole mind as suppliants for the washing of salvation, by whom I myself, your Baptist, long to be baptized. Jesus did not refuse the testimony of this voice; but, wishing to fulfill all things in order, he nonetheless asks to be baptized by John. Then the devout Baptist, trembling at the power of the one he was to baptize, said: “I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” That is: since I am the creature, you the Creator; I the servant, you the Lord; I the figure, you the truth. But Jesus said: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” That is: why do you recall these things now? The purpose of the humility I have taken on must be fulfilled. Then he who had feared to presume swiftly obeyed the command of the one who ordered him. So Jesus is baptized, not for himself but for us; he is baptized, not to be purified by the waters but to sanctify the waters himself; the new man is baptized to establish the sacrament of a new baptism. “The heavens were opened,” it says. I think it was so that there might be wonder in heaven at what was being done on earth, as it says: “into which angels long to look.” For how could the powers of the heavens, the dominions, the cherubim and seraphim not marvel when they saw the Lord of Sabaoth baptized by a man in a river? And so that John's attestation might be confirmed also by heavenly testimony, he saw the Holy Spirit in bodily form, like a dove, descending and remaining on Jesus. He hears also the Father saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Notice, dearest brothers, how great a grace was opened to us in the baptism of our Lord Jesus, by how subtle a sacrament the Trinity revealed itself to man today. For the Father is heard in the voice, the Son is manifested in the man, the Holy Spirit is recognized in the dove. And by what a wonderful mystery our Lord Jesus Christ, whether by the touch of his body or by the passing of his glory, in a moment sanctifies, gives life to, and enlightens all creation: for he consecrates the waters when he is baptized; he sanctifies the earth when he is buried; he raises the dead when he rises; he glorifies the heavenly places when he ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father.

Although, brothers, the tradition of the ancient Fathers about the venerable feast of the present day is varied and diverse, yet the faith of sincere devotion is one in all. For although some believe that on this day our Lord Jesus Christ was worshipped by the Magi coming from the East, others assert that on this day he was baptized by John, and still others reckon that today he turned water into wine, yet each believes him the same Son of God; and so in all of them our festival is true. For when the Magi are allowed to worship God and offer him their gifts, the calling of all the nations, which was to come from that time, is signified beforehand. When water is changed into noble wine, the sanctification and change of our souls through the most holy washing of baptism is shown. And when Christ is baptized in the Jordan by John, the whole substance of waters is consecrated for our baptism. Christ is baptized by John on this day, and through his baptism the humility of our Saviour and the glory of the mysteries were then most plainly manifested. John was preaching in the desert a baptism of repentance to the sinner, not to blot out sins already committed (for the remission of sins was reserved for the grace of Christ) but to lead those who strayed back to the way of salvation. A countless crowd of sinners flowed to him out of desire for the washing; and among men of this kind, whose deeds were then so wicked and whose life was so ruined that the divine Baptist compared them to the offspring of vipers, Christ the Lord did not disdain to mingle, and did not blush to bow himself to the hands of his little servant. As he hurried to the river, John, full of wonder, burst out to the crowds standing round with this cry: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” That is to say: Stop now seeking my baptism, by which repentance began. Behold, that is the Baptist by whom crimes are forgiven. Cease any longer to desire the washing of your fellow servant for repentance. Behold, he is the one who baptizes to life: follow life, then, cling to him. Believe what he says, do whatever he commands, and ask him, finally, as suppliants for the saving washing; for I, your Baptist, also long to be baptized by him. But Jesus did not refuse such testimony of the voice; yet, wishing all things to be fulfilled in order, he asks to be baptized by his John. For Jesus said to him: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” That is: why do you recall these things now? The purpose of the humility I have taken on must be fulfilled. And then he who had feared to presume swiftly obeyed the command of the one who ordered him. So Jesus is baptized by John, not for himself but for us. He is baptized, not to be purified by the waters but to sanctify the waters himself. And then the heavens were opened to him; for each of the powers of the heavens marveled at the Lord of Sabaoth in the river. Then John saw the Holy Spirit in bodily form, like a dove, descending and remaining on him; he heard also the Father saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” See now, then, brothers, how great a grace was opened to us in our Lord's baptism, by how subtle a sacrament the whole Trinity manifested itself to man. For the Father is heard in the voice; the Son is manifested in the man; the Holy Spirit is recognized in the dove. And by what a wonderful mystery the same Lord, both by the touch of his body and by the passing of his glory, in a moment sanctifies all creation and enlightens it with life-giving light: for in his baptism he consecrated all streams. [Here it ends.]

The eternal author of our redemption, the almighty Lord, the only-begotten of the living God, who always remains inseparable from the Father, so deigned to take on a complete man for us, and so emptied himself of what he was as God, that he passed through all the sacraments of the law's ordinances. For as soon as he came forth from the holy womb of his blessed Mother he was dedicated with the seal of circumcision, whether to show the undoubted reality of his flesh or so that the Jewish people, nursed on circumcision, might not shun him as a foreigner. Then, because the precepts of the law handed down through Moses could not be passed over, the offering of purification is made for him; and for him, brothers, the offering of purification is made who came to purify the filth of all men. But when John, sent before his face, was correcting by his preaching the peoples who ran to him and consecrating them with the baptism of repentance, he hurried to him among the mixed and lowly crowds, like one of the people, and in his great kindness submitted himself with such condescension as to bow that most sacred head, dreadful to the powers and venerable to the angels, to the hands of his little servant to receive baptism. Seeing him coming to his baptism, and recognizing in him the signs of the Lord's glory, John said to him: “I ought to be baptized by you”: that is, the earthly by the heavenly, the mortal by the eternal, the frail by the mighty. “And do you come to me?” The judge to the forerunner, the Creator to the creature, the king to the servant? And will you humble yourself to me, I who am not worthy to carry your sandals? You come to baptism among sinners, in whose mouth no deceit was found, and through whom the sins of the whole world are taken away; and you subject yourself so much to your creatures that you seem to forget that you are God. I see a man, but I recognize my Lord; I see a human body in you, but I understand a heavenly sacrament; nor does this appearance of the flesh you have taken lead me away from the faith of truth: you are the Lord, you are the very one who sent me for this. How could I now fail to know you standing present before me, whom long ago I recognized while you were still placed in the virgin's womb, within your mother's body, when I was not yet born myself? Christ said to him: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “Let it be so now,” says the Lord; that is: what you recall is true, and I do not deny it; but I have come to fulfill the ministry of servitude, so as to call back to my freedom those whom sin has subjected to servitude. Do not wonder, John, if I bow to your hands; for I who was content to be born, content to be circumcised, content even to be wrapped in swaddling cloths, how should I not gladly be content to enter this Jordan? Do not think this baptism an injury to me or unworthy of me; other injuries await me, other insults, which I have resolved to suffer for human salvation. After this blessed John devoutly received the one whom in fear he had tried to prevent. That chief of the prophets was not unaware that the Lord was to be baptized by him; but he would not fulfill his ministry without a confession; and so faith confessed the Lord, and obedience fulfilled the service. When the Lord had been baptized, the Holy Spirit was present, and the voice of the Father's majesty was heard from heaven, saying: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is plain, brothers, that this was done to profit our faith, so that the presence of the Holy Spirit, the authority of the Father's voice before the whole human race, the testimony of John, the truth of the Son, and the sacrament of baptism might be confirmed, through which we magnify and glorify God the Father almighty, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since it is the custom of some, dearest ones, to anticipate the coming days of Lent with a more devout fast, the present reading of the Gospel has necessarily been read, in which our Lord, the rewarder of spiritual virtues, gave us a holy and perfect rule of fasting, saying: “When you fast, do not be gloomy like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces so as to appear to men to be fasting.” For whoever seeks human glory by making a show of his fast fasts not to God but to men. They disfigure their faces who, with feigned sorrow, present a falsely religious face to the eyes of the people; for the master of heavenly discipline does not want what is commanded to be done for religion to be done irreligiously; nor does he allow the labor of those who call on him, for whom he prepares an eternal reward, to perish through the vice of fruitless boasting. “Do not be,” he says, “gloomy like the hypocrites.” For if you are truly sad and gloomy because you fast, you will keep no favor with God, being ungrateful; for although you do a good work, you do it unwillingly, with the depravity of a degenerate mind. But if you feign sadness to give an image of holiness, as a show-off you lose all the fruit of the divine promise for your service. If you offer your duty to God, why, as a seeker of vain glory, do you show it off to men who live under the same condition as you? Following this thought, the apostle Paul said: “Do not become desirous of empty glory.” For whatever does not stand firm with any weight and strength is empty and vain. Empty is what, failing with the passing world, does not pass over to eternal life; for whatever is labored for fleshly honor slips away with the corruptible flesh, as the prophet says: “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man like the flower of grass; the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of God remains for ever.” Nor can we, beloved, for one and the same work both seek the praise of a flattering world and gain the reward of heavenly life. “But when you fast,” he says, “anoint your head and wash your face.” Every devout person truly anoints his head whose religious fast grows rich with the abundance of holy almsgiving; and if we think of something higher, you will anoint your head, which is Christ, if, joining better things to good works, you gladden him with simple devotion. You will without doubt also wash your face and wipe it clean with all the serenity of gladness if, more joyful in divine worship, it is soiled by no affectation. Unwashed is the face of those who buy worldly praise with a false sorrow of the eyes, whom the Apostle marks with his sentence, saying: “They think that godliness is a means of gain.” And though this is so, the Lord does not reject those who mourn either their sins or the world, he who said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” He is not blamed who, having long ago slipped from the path of salvation with a wandering heart and slippery steps, tries to restore himself to God by the sorrowful satisfaction of repentance, as we read in the fiftieth psalm: “A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.” God certainly does not despise holy sorrow; but he does not want a contrived sadness, feigned with guile, to be carried about in his service. Of such Christ says to his disciples: “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.” How much hope, then, is there for their faith, or what expectation of future reward, who use up the whole reward of their works in the present world through the ambition of passing favor? And so, brothers, keep in all things a measure that is blameless and pleasing to God: let your fasting be pure, your mercy simple, and all your devotion sincere, so that the full reward of our God may follow your holy life, perfected by the Gospel's teaching.

[We have heard of] our Lord and Redeemer resisting the temptations of the devil, contending in words but fighting in spirit; for he carries on the contest by speech but achieves the victory by majesty. Nor let us think that such a conflict took place without a great mystery, in which either the devil, inflamed, bursts out into words, or the Lord of all things nonetheless deigns to answer his tempter with words. In all these things is the plan of our salvation. The Saviour hungers for us, speaks for us; we conquer in him, because we are his reason for fighting. For who would doubt that the only-begotten of the Father, whom no creature could oppose, entered the contest for those whose flesh he had put on? The form of a human body, then, persuaded the most cunning enemy to come out to battle, and the true Son of God confounded him by the answer of a true man. That is why the tempter, wandering and uncertain, probes with soft and hesitant temptations; for though he saw the appearance of a fleshly man in Christ, yet, stirred by the presence of his divinity, he suspected him to be more than a man. A woman's childbearing encouraged him to venture the encounter, but the virginity of the mother terrified him; for though Mary, a daughter of Eve, had borne Christ, she had not conceived him of Adam. So when the enemy saw the Son of God brought forth through such great miracles, he turned it over in himself, I think, and said in wonder: Who is this who has entered this world without my knowing? I know that he was born of a woman, but I do not know whence he was conceived. See, the mother stands here, but I cannot trace the father. I see the birth, but I do not recognize the one born; and what adds to my astonishment, by an unaccustomed law of childbearing, even after bearing a son the mother exults as a virgin. See, the little one lies in a cradle, he bathes his face in tears, and shows by his wails that he is like mortals; and though he lacks nothing of infancy, yet there is no corruption in him as in an infant. Wrapped in cloths he is shabby, but heaven smiles on him with the ray of a gladder star, and angels ministering to him in his honor run between the stars and the earth and announce with exultation a newness I do not understand. What miracle is this? I see what I cannot grasp; I hear what I cannot bear: born a man, he is honored as God. Never in all the ages has it happened to me that anyone was born a man and had nothing of human vice. What is this generation so new and so powerful? Born among sinners and the ungodly, coming forth from a mortal mother, he appears to me cleaner than all who are born and purer than heaven itself. No root of avarice springs up in him, no envy beats in his heart, his tongue knows no lie, his eyes admit no lust, he is softened by no pleasure of the ears; certainly the self-indulgence through which I subjected the human race to myself cannot pierce his breast: there is no boasting in him, no malice. In short? I find nothing in him that delights me; he frustrates all my efforts. What shall I do? Where shall I turn? I feel him to be stronger; I think he wants to reign in my kingdom; perhaps this is God, whom no offense can stain. But if he were God, how would he endure the indignities of being born of a woman? How would he be content with a cradle and swaddling cloths? Who could believe in the wails of infancy in God? To whom, hearing it, is it not ridiculous that God should be nourished on a woman's milk? After all this, see, he is hungry, though surely no reason persuades that God should be hungry. The devil, of course, did not know that Christ's undergoing the nourishment of infancy and his hunger as a man were not a matter of bodily frailty but a sacrament of heavenly grace. For the Son of God, who has timeless eternity with the everlasting Father, who reigns with his begetter, by nature impassible, in incorrupt dominion, carried out a saving mystery in our flesh; and for this reason he underwent the common suffering of mortals, so that he might triumph over the enemy of the human race in a man's contest. Hence that presumptuous one, blinded by his rage, said to the Lord: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves.” This was his most foolish and empty trick: he wants to tempt with bread the one who is bread, thinking that he who was enduring a voluntary hunger was suffering from lack of food. The Lord answered him: “It is written: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” That is to say: In vain, devil, do you try again to trip by food; let it be enough for you that Adam was deceived through you in paradise when you persuaded him to forbidden food. Neither does hunger conquer me, nor do I yield to your persuasions; for the will of God is my food, the word of God my perfect refreshment. Struck back by this sentence, the devil said again, I suppose: What is this? I see him hungry, and I do not find him needing to eat; he suffers all things as a man and conquers all as God. That Adam, though surely made by God's hands, once yielded to my snares; this one, born of a woman, is neither bent by his own needs nor acquiesces in my counsels; him I overcame by a serpent's mouth; this one despises me even when I speak myself. Again, as the Lord stood on the pinnacle of the temple, he said: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” How troubled he is when he says this, thinking to persuade a leap to one from whom he could obtain nothing about loaves! Christ answers him: “It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” That is: what you urge, devil, is the presumption of temptation, not the counsel of soundness; the vanity of boasting, not an example of virtue; for every miracle is empty which does not work benefit for human salvation. Defeated by this answer of the Lord, he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their honors, saying: “All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.” Again he is answered: “It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” That is: to whoever worships you, demon, not kingdoms but hell is due. For to worship the true God and serve him is the prerogative of reigning; but you, who promise the honors of the world for the transgression you seek, know that you cannot give a kingdom. See, the tempter gains nothing by his threefold questioning; he came uncertain and returns more uncertain; he attacked in order to test, and departed rejected. Now, then, dearest brothers, since in recounting the victories of the fasting Lord we have recognized the triumph of our salvation, let us sanctify our fasts with religious service. What else is it to sanctify a fast than, for the sake of the fast, to will holy things, do just things, and avoid wicked ones? He sanctifies the fast whose heart is not turned from the right path by flattery of the powerful, by favor of friends and relatives, or by the small and great gifts of clients. He sanctifies his fast whose heart does not grow cheap toward justice. He sanctifies the fast who quenches the flames of raging anger with the placability of a gentle mind. He sanctifies the fast who turns wanton eyes from shameful sights with the reins of chastity. He sanctifies the fast who scatters the darts of insults, beaten back by the shield of patience. He sanctifies the fast who calms the uproar of quarrelers by the sweetness of peaceable speech and the art of a more prudent tongue. He sanctifies the fast who, like a ploughman of his own breast, cuts out with the furrowing ploughshare of the Gospel the thorns of vain thoughts that spring up in him. He sanctifies the fast who consoles the want of the needy with the humanity of a merciful hand according to the amount of his means. Above all he sanctifies the fast who, intent on the precepts of the divine law, spits out the devil's temptations from his heart. And so, dearest brothers, if we wish to offer fasts pleasing to God, let us be strong in heart, just in judgments, faithful in friendship, patient under injuries, moderate in disputes; let us shun foul talk, be steadfast against wickedness, sober at banquets, simple in love, wary among the deceitful, sharing the grief of the sorrowful, resisting the obstinate, sparing of suspicions, silent among slanderers, equals among the humble. If we wish to sanctify our fasts with virtues of this kind, by the Lord's gift we shall come to the feast of the Easter grace and to the joys of the heavenly promises with undoubting confidence and a gladder conscience.

Some days ago, in preaching the devotion of holy Lent, we brought forward examples from the sacred writings by which we showed that this number forty was not established by men but consecrated by God; not found by earthly thinking but commanded by heavenly majesty. And so whoever breaks the established number by eating on one day is accused not as the violator of one day but convicted as the transgressor of the whole of Lent. Hence it is good for a man to fast the said number without trouble and so gain alike the holiness of the whole of Lent. These are not so much the precepts of priests as of God. And so whoever despises them despises not the priest but Christ, who speaks in his priest. Let us see, then, at what season the Lord has enjoined this observance on us, whether he has not willed all the elements to make progress, as it were, through this devotion. For see, when Lent is proclaimed, the earth bound by winter frost is loosened, and the streams of the waters, the ice melted, recover their courses; so also at this same season the sins contracted by our bodies through crimes are loosened, and the course of our life, the devil's stiffness melted, recovers its former channel more purely. When Lent is proclaimed, I say, the earth lays aside the harshness of winter; I, when Lent is proclaimed, leave behind the harshness of offenses. That earth is split by ploughs to be fit for worldly crops; my earth is ploughed by fasts to be suitable for heavenly seeds. For as he reaps a richer return who works the field more often by turning it, so he receives greater grace who works the field of his body more often by fasting. For see, in the time of abstinence the blade of the crops grows green again toward harvest, the shoot of the tree strives toward a bush, the branch of the vine swells into a bud; and all things raise themselves from lower to higher. So at this very same season men's hope, that was half-dead, revives for the future; lost faith is restored toward glory; temporal life advances toward the eternal; and the whole human race, raising itself to heavenly things, rises from the lowest to the higher. Now the farmer, carrying his iron, prunes the shoots of the vines; so now the bishop, handling the Gospel, cuts away the filth of the peoples; and in this very forty-day course all creatures do this, so that, having laid aside what is superfluous, they may come forth adorned and trim at Easter. Now all things are in labor, so that then they may be found in fruit. For then, against the look of nature, the thorn brings forth the rose, the stalk is fragrant with the lily, dry twigs put forth sweetness; and all things are adorned with flowers, so that creation itself may be thought to celebrate the festival of the great day with its brightness. Let us too, then, in this same time of fasts bring forth roses from our thorns: that is, righteousness from sins, mercy from severity, generosity from avarice. For these are the thorns of our body which choke the soul, of which Scripture says: “Thorns and thistles the earth shall bring forth for you.” My earth brings forth thorns for me if it pricks me with the trouble of bodily lust. It produces thistles for me when it torments me with desire for worldly riches. For the root of his avarice is a thorn to a Christian; the ambition for honor is a thorn to a good man; for they seem pleasing in appearance to those who have them, but they wound. We cannot be free of these except by watching and fasting, since rather through abstinence the very thorns will be turned into a rose. For by fasting lust produces chastity, pride humility, and excess frugality. These are the flowers of our life, which are fragrant to Christ, which breathe a good odor to God. Hence the Apostle says: “For we are the good odor of Christ to God.” The Lord has granted us this Lent, then, so that in the space of this season, after the manner of all creation, we may now conceive the buds of the virtues, so that on the day of Easter we may bring forth the fruit of righteousness. The Lord himself practiced this number forty, not to gain progress himself, but to show us the progress of salvation. For there was in him no thorn of sin to be turned into a flower; for he himself was a flower born not of a thorn but of a rod, as the prophet says: “A rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will rise up from his root.” For the rod was Mary, shining, slender, and a virgin, who budded Christ like a flower by the integrity of her body. The Lord kept these forty continuous days of fasting without being hungry; but the evangelist says that he was hungry afterward. How, then, can it be that he who for so many days felt neither hunger nor thirst was hungry afterward? He was plainly hungry, and we cannot deny that he was hungry; but he hungered not for the food of men but for salvation; nor did he long for banquets of worldly dishes, but desired the holiness of heavenly souls. For Christ's food is the redemption of the peoples; Christ's food is the accomplishment of the Father's will, as he himself says: “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me.” Let us too, then, hunger for food, not that which is prepared with earthly dishes, but that which is gathered by reading the divine Scriptures. For the one nourishes the body for a time, the other refreshes the soul for ever. [Here it ends.]

We have often set out the reason for holy Lent, whose beginning we celebrate today, and have often taught why we fast for so many days. We said that the Lord Jesus Christ consecrated this same number of fasting, and, taking no food for continuous days and nights, made one body of fasting: that is, though the order of the day was interrupted by the coming of the night, the order of the fast was not interrupted. So with him there were many courses of time, but one day of abstinence, showing us that we must fast this number whole: so that, since we cannot embrace the whole of Lent in one solid fast, we may at least celebrate it with daily fasts without interruption; so that if anyone neglects to abstain on one day, he has violated the whole of Lent, and for the sake of a little time's food has lost the fruit of great labor. But someone will say: We have sometimes received the reason for Lent, and we have often heard that it was consecrated by the Lord; but we long to hear why this same Lent has forty-two days. We read in the Old Testament that when holy Moses delivered the sons of Israel from the yoke of Egyptian captivity to lead them into the land of promise, he came to that land by stations of forty-two days, and that he obtained the promises in as many periods of time as we rejoice to enjoy the promises made to us by the Saviour. By the same number, I say, by which Moses came through the stations to rest, we too hasten through fasts to heaven. For our fasts are a kind of stations, through which, making the journey spiritually, we walk by the virtues of the soul and by daily progress come nearer to the land promised us, so that he arrives sooner who has fasted more devoutly. The swift feet of the soul are faith and fasting, which quickly climb from low places to the heights, quickly step from earthly things to heavenly. Of these feet the Apostle says: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good things!” These feet the Lord commanded to be washed, as the Apostle says of the widow: “If she has washed the feet of the saints.” For the feet of those who preach peace are worthy of honor, which, spiritual and shining with doctrine, walk upon the hearts of men. In the number of forty-two days also the people of Israel came to the streams of the Jordan; and in the same cycle of days the Christian people comes to the streams of baptism. And as the prophet says, “The Jordan was turned back”; there, as the Israelite entered the water of the river, the wave fled away; here, as the Christian goes down into the font, the sins of his crimes flee away. And wonderful: there the river, turned back, returns to its source; here man, called back for the future, is restored to the infancy of his origin. There the wave seeks out the spring from which it had come; here innocence recognizes its man from whom it had departed. There the bed is emptied of waves; here hearts are emptied of crimes; so that there the muddy water does not wet the servants of God, and here a foul conscience does not pollute the servants of God. For the Jordan is a kind of font of washing, through which whoever passes, leaving his filth behind, enters the paradise of promise. In this number of forty and two, then, the people of Israel, leaving Egypt, crossed the streams of the Red Sea; and we too, in this same number, leaving the Egypt of the world, pass over the pools of burning Gehenna. For them the water is made solid; for us the fire grows cool; and against the custom of nature the sea is dried up by heat, and Gehenna is softened by the font of baptism. In this mystical number, I say, the sons of Israel came to Marah, and when they could not draw the water for its bitterness (for the spring had water but had no sweetness; it was delightful to look at but not pure to taste), a wood was thrown into it by Moses, and they drank its sweetness pleasantly; the sacrament of the wood took away the harshness which the harmful water carried. This, I think, was done as a figure. For I think the bitter water at Marah is the law of the Old Testament, which law, before it was tempered by the Lord's cross, was harsh. For it commanded an eye to be given for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and, being severe, offered no refreshment of mercy. But when it was tempered by the wood of the Gospel's passion, at once changing its bitterness for sweetness, it made itself sweet for all to drink, as the prophet says: “How sweet are your words to my throat, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth!” For sweet are the words that command: “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other also; if anyone takes your tunic, let him have your cloak too.” This, then, is the bitterness that has been changed into sweetness, that is, the severity of the law tempered by the grace of the Gospel. For the letter of the law without the mystery of the cross is bitter, of which the Apostle says: “The letter kills.” But when the sacraments of the passion are joined to it, all its bitterness is spiritually seasoned; and of it the Apostle says: “But the Spirit gives life.”

I believe you have understood, brothers, why I compared these fasts of ours to those stations in which the people of Israel, placed as if on campaign, overcame King Pharaoh by daily labor and defended themselves from their enemies by halting at their stations as in a kind of camp; so that whoever of that company did not complete the stages of the daily station was either seized by Pharaoh or overcome by the wilderness. So we too must complete with all labor the forty-day journey set before us and fortify ourselves by the devotion of fasts as in a kind of camp. For our fasts are a camp for us, which defend us from the devil's attack. Indeed, they are called stations because, standing and staying in them, we drive back the enemies who lie in wait. Fasts are plainly a camp for Christians; if anyone strays from them, he is invaded by the spiritual Pharaoh or devoured by the wilderness of sins. And he suffers the wilderness of sins who is deserted by the fellowship of the saints. Fasting is a kind of wall for the Christian, impregnable to the devil, impassable to the enemy. For what Christian ever fasted and was captured? Who remained sober and was conquered? The devil attacks the drunkard; the enemy assails the self-indulgent. But where he sees fasting, he is laid low by hunger, by weakness: laid low, I say, by weakness, because Christian weakness is strength. Hence the Apostle says: “When I am weak, then I am stronger.” But someone asks how weakness is strong. Weakness is strong when the flesh wastes away by fasts and the soul grows rich in purity. For as much as the juice of food is taken from the one, so much is the strength of righteousness increased in the other. Then a man is weak indeed for worldly things, but strong for divine works. For then he thinks more of God, then he fears the judgment, then he conquers the enemy. For the Saviour says of the devil: “This kind is not driven out except by fasting and prayer.” He says, surely, that one possessed by the devil can be cleansed only by fasts. See, then, what the power of fasting is, how great a grace it gives its own man, since it gives such healing to another; how it sanctifies its own man, since it so purifies a stranger. It is a wonderful thing: one fasts, and the benefit of the faster profits another. So, brothers, let us by no means lay down the weapons of abstinence, and let us keep the fasts of the forty days without interruption. For this is the perfect number for conquering; for the Lord overcame the devil after he had fasted forty days, not that he could not have conquered him even before the fasts, but to show us that we can be victors over the devil when we have been victors over fleshly desires by fasting for forty days; but that he who violated this consecrated number by intemperance of the belly could easily be overcome by the enemy, as one weak and wretched. For how can he conquer the devil's wickedness in another who does not conquer the intemperance of the belly in himself? Be first, O man, victor over yourself, so that you can be victor over another. For there are your own enemies within you, who attack you daily. See, avarice surrounds you with ambition for riches; self-indulgence captures you with the sweetness of banquets; heresy perverts you with the perversity of knowledge. Conquer, then, your own enemies, so that you can conquer those of others. For it is no light sin, brothers, for the faithful not to fast the Lent enjoined by the Lord and to dissolve the consecrated fasts by the greed of the belly. It is written: “He who says he abides in Christ ought himself to walk as he walked.” If, then, you wish to be a Christian, you must do what Christ did. He who had no sin fasted Lent; you who sin will not fast Lent. He, I say, had no sin, but fasted for our sins. What sort of Christian are you, then, in your own conscience, when you dine while Christ is hungry for you? When you refresh yourself while the Saviour fasts for you? It is no light sin, then, as I said, to violate an enjoined fast. To prove this briefly by examples, we read in the books of Kings that when Saul, king of Israel, was waging war against the Philistines, he enjoined a fast on his whole army, and, while all abstained, began to fight against the enemy. A good king indeed, who conquered his enemies not so much by arms as by devotion, and fought more with religion than with weapons. So when Saul had enjoined abstinence for the day on all his men, and his son Jonathan, unaware of the command, advancing as victor through the midst of the enemy's lines, dipped the tip of his staff in a honeycomb and tasted it, such indignation was suddenly roused that the victory was delayed and the Godhead offended. Indeed, neither was an end put to the war nor was a prophetic answer given to the king. From this we understand that Saul was overcoming his enemies not so much by the valor of his soldiers as by their abstinence. In short, by the fault of one, cowardice is brought on all, and by the offense of one, weakness is produced in all. For strength fails in the army where fasting fails in its observance. When Saul recognized this as a sin from the very offense of the Godhead, he at once said that Jonathan must not be spared, but that the sin committed must be expiated by the shedding of his blood. See how great was King Saul's observance of religion, who wished to appease the offended God even by the killing of his son, and how great is the guilt of a broken fast, which is punished only by the shedding of blood. If Jonathan, because in ignorance he broke the fast enjoined by his father, is condemned to death, what does he deserve who knowingly breaks the fast enjoined by Christ? So, brothers, let us keep the established fast by observance, so that we may conquer our enemies both spiritual and fleshly. For we have, as you know, fleshly enemies. Let us fast, then, so that both our army and our Saul may overcome and prevail over them. For the pleasure of the world, or its vices, is a kind of honeycomb, which, as it is written, for a time indeed fattens the throat, but in the end is more bitter than gall. Let us pray, then, that, as we fast, the Lord may grant us that honeycomb of spiritual things which grows sweet on the palate of the soul in eternal blessedness, with the help of him who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Your minds still retain, brothers, that last Sunday we preached that those forty-two stations, through which the people of Israel, going out of Egypt, entered the land of promise by daily progress and, as by certain steps of salvation, climbed after the yoke of slavery to a kingdom, held a figure of this Lent of ours. In those stations, I say, there was a figure of our fasts, not only in the size of the number but also in the practice of the virtues; for the sons of Israel did not so much walk with bodily steps on the desert road as advance in the way of the Lord by religious acts. They plainly walked in the way of the Lord, which gave them drink in the waves and fed them from heaven. For manna did not fail the hungry in the wilderness, and the land did not flee from those in danger at sea. There the sea is spread out into a path; here heaven is opened for food. For the sake of the servants of God the Jordan holds back its streams; Marah changes its water. There the wave that was following turns back and goes before; here the spring that dripped bitterness is tempered for the better and grows sweet; and in a wonderful way the river lost its course and the spring its taste. But since we said that the sons of Israel, coming to Marah, suffered from the bitterness of the water, and could drink it only when wood had been thrown in, and that in it there was also a figure of the Old Testament, let us see where the people, setting out from there, arrived. It arrived at the place called Elim, in which there were twelve very pure springs and a multitude of seventy flourishing palms. See the mystery of God: how, after the bitterness of the law, the streams of the Gospel's mercy overflow. There one spring is harsh to drink; here many, so that all are sweet to drink. There after weariness there is no refreshment; here after labor there is refreshment and victory. For springs are supplied to the thirsty, palms are offered to the victors. Palms, I say, are offered to the victors, because to have come after the hardness of the law to the grace of the Gospel is to have conquered. For it is a kind of reward of the victor to rinse his mouth in a living spring and to furnish his right hand with the palm of the triumphant. Through the spring the tongue of confession is purified; through the palm the right hand of the martyr is honored: the one, because it exalted the glory of Christ; the other, because it refused the altar of sacrilege. The palm of martyrdom is a kind of reward, which gives sweet fruit to the confessing tongue and provides a glorious ornament for the victorious right hand. The palm is plainly, for martyrs, sweet for food, shady for rest, honorable for triumph, always green, always clothed with leaves, always ready for victory; and so the palm does not wither, because the glory of the martyrs does not wither. Indeed, those very palms are offered by the peoples to the Lord as he sits on the ass and comes to the temple. For when the disciples spread their garments and paved the road for Christ with their cloaks, the people's devotion had no greater reward to offer him than palms, signifying by the garments spread on the road that his way in the world was unpolluted, and by the palms offered that he was the conqueror of the world. He himself, I say, is the conqueror, of whom Scripture says: “The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered”; he is plainly the conqueror, who destroyed the devil's death and lit up eternal life. Palms, then, are raised for Christ as he comes. It is written: “The righteous will flourish like a palm.” Rightly, then, the banners of righteousness are raised for the righteous one as he comes, and the trophies of triumph attend their author. But before the palms are raised, the Lord's road all the way to the temple is covered with the disciples' garments, and the Saviour's path is paved with the apostles' cloaks so that it may be unpolluted. This, I think, was done as a mystery. For the way of Christ that leads to the temple is his faith and teaching. This way, then, the disciples, putting off the clothing of their own bodies, paved with their martyrdom, so that we might walk without stumbling: so that among the crowds of various nations they might spread the garments of their limbs beneath the path of righteousness, cover over the muddy mire of the world, and show the Saviour's way unpolluted. After Marah, then, the people of Israel came to twelve springs. We read in the prophet: “Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel.” The Lord is Christ, who is learned only through the mouths of the apostles and the teaching of the disciples. The apostles must be called springs, because like very pure springs they overflow with the grace of preaching, and after the bitterness of the law, with the abundant wisdom of their veins, they drip the sweetness of the cups of the sacrament. Nor is it any wonder if the drink of the springs is sweet, in whose bosom the food of the palms is sweeter. The apostles, then, are the springs, which watered the face of the whole earth with the river of their teaching and gave the weary peoples of the nations the drink of the divine mystery to drink. And the seventy palms that grew beside the apostolic springs I would call those seventy disciples whom the Lord sent, in the second rank after the apostles, for the salvation of men; whom the evangelist Luke, describing them, says were sent two by two. Truly, like palms, returning with exultation after their cares for men, they boast before the Lord that even the demons were subject to them. Rightly, then, are they compared to palms who, with the reward of palms, stood forth as victors over the devil.

That wonderful conflict between the King of heaven and the tyrant of the heavenly kingdom, to which the reading of the holy Gospel just completed has testified in the ears of your charity, sounds out for us the triumphant mystery of the Lord's incarnation. For the almighty Lord, pitying human captivity with the affection of ineffable love, and wishing at the same time to remove the devil's power from his world, sent his only-begotten Son, not degenerate in divinity, not unlike in power, not discordant in will, who, taking our flesh and spurning the old condition of birth, was born as a new Son of a woman of incorrupt body by a new law, so that the devil, though he might presume to tempt this saving man taken into the fellowship of the Godhead, could not overcome him. So when that savage lion saw the Lamb of God hungry after a very long and continuous fast of forty days and nights, and did not believe that one who hungered was God, he attacked him with the art of a most cunning temptation, saying: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves.” The craftsman of such great guile was thinking, I suppose, and saying to himself: If this is the one at whose command manna flowed from heaven for the hungry peoples in the desert; if this is the one whom I know to have brought rivers out of the rock, he will be able now to transform stones into bread, if not at my request, at least for his own need, since he is hungry. If he does it, I shall prove him God; if he cannot, I shall catch him as a man. So the devil was waiting for bread, which he was trying not so much to gain for himself as to take away from the world. But the Lord of all things, who could both make bread from stone and did not wish the sacrament of human salvation to become clear to the one probing it, so tempered his answer in his holy mouth that neither did he, who was the truth, speak a lie, nor could the other, who was a liar from the beginning, recognize the truth which he was not going to believe. So the Lord said: “It is written: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” The tempter received an answer from the law which he could not contradict; he did not receive the bread, which he asked for not from a habit of eating but in a fraud of deceiving. For in what would the Son of God need human bread, to whom all substance belonged in his divinity? Or for what reason should Christ make earthly bread from any stone, since he himself, as we read, was both the spiritual bread and the stone? Mocked and derided, then, the tempter attacked with another engine of temptation. For when, by his own secret and hidden counsel, the Lord stood on the pinnacle of the temple, the devil said to him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” O how foolish and how perverse this persuasion, that he should say to the Son of God, “Throw yourself down!” Would he not have said more rightly, “If you are the Son of God, ascend into heaven”? If the Lord did that, it would truly prove him the Son of God. But the enemy of heaven will not urge a heavenly ascent even in tempting; he calls downward and to the depths, because he wishes all to fall who knows himself to have fallen before all; nor does the blind one understand that he is trying to urge a fall on one who not only cannot fall but has come to repair the ruins of the fallen. For the Lord, as we have read, “lifts up those who are cast down; the Lord frees the fettered.” So he who had come not to be deceived but to save the deceived empties the probing art with such measure of a most cautious answer that the dark enemy not only cannot see the mystery set forth for us, but, driven round more and more by the Lord's answers, is confounded in a darker uncertainty. For the unconquered warrior of the spiritual battle said to him: “It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” How simple the prudence in this answer, and how circumspect the simplicity, by which the truth is not kept silent, and the reprobate cannot prove what is true! Truly, as it is written: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it.” The devil hears that God is not to be tempted; yet he does not recognize that the one he tempts is God and man; for he sees Christ both answering what belongs to a man and able to do what belongs to God. But even this is not enough for his wickedness; he weaves the snares of a third temptation: “He took him,” it says, “to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their honors, saying: All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.” Notice carefully, brothers, that everything the enemy urges is falling; for truly everyone who worships the devil falls down, and he truly falls who pursues the powers and honors of the world through sacrilegious arts at the enemy's promise. But our Lord and Saviour confounded him with his usual answer, saying: “Get behind me, Satan; for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” The testimonies of the holy Scriptures are pressed on him, not that the unconvertible might be taught, but that the shameless might be refuted. He who would give the kingdoms of the world is commanded to go behind, so that he might lie subject against his will to the command of the Son of God, to whom he would not yield willingly, and might prove that he by whom he wickedly demanded to be worshipped is rightly to be worshipped by all. In short, dearest ones: while the tempter speaks abominations and presumes what is not permitted, he fell silent as one conquered by a man and went away as one commanded by God. And he had to depart from tempting him, in whom, though he moved with all his weight and strained with all his strength, he could not find even a trace of his own will, stupefied and amazed that after so many ages he had found a man without human lusts, and one born in the flesh with nothing at all of fleshly corruption. So when the devil had gone back, angels, as we have read, came and ministered to him. The service of the angels teaches us how great the glory of this triumph is. Nor is it any wonder that the angels hastened to serve him whose victory they marveled at. And so, brothers, if we do not wish to be overcome by the devil, let us cling to him who triumphed over the devil; and to cling to Christ is to believe that he has both the nature of his Father's Godhead and the reality of his mother's body. Anyone, with the Lord's help, will be able to conquer the devil who, longing for God's saving precepts, strives to bend the pride of a swollen mind, hateful to all; to restrain avarice, the root of all evils; to curb self-indulgence, the enemy of good virtues; to calm envy, the foe of holy love; to avoid the useless and often dangerous conversations of slanderers; not to love the ruinous profits of usury; not to burden justice, the guardian of peace, with bribes; to abhor the harmful schemes of factions; to turn away from the inglorious and sometimes bloody canvassing for undue office; to restrain the curses of an insulting tongue, which kindle discord; also to drive from the Christian mouth the lies that stain life, wound the soul, and break up friendships; and out of love for the true God to flee from all the superstitions of demons and the sacrileges of idols, by which above all the kindness of the Almighty is offended. If, then, we fast from these and from all crimes and vices of this kind, the days of this holy Lent will be duly celebrated, and we shall keep the feasts of all our solemnities with exultation, with the confidence of a gladder conscience and in peaceful times, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The contest with the tempter carried out by our Lord Jesus Christ, of which we have read, profits our security and salvation, dearest brothers; for those whom our forefather's transgression once cast down into death in paradise through the serpent's persuasion, the Lord's triumph has now raised to life. So he conquered for us who deigned to hunger for us. The devil sets about tempting Christ, and anxiously probes whether perhaps he may discover him to be the Son of God, in whom he sees no trace of his own corruption. He marvels and is disturbed that a man of this kind has come into this world, who was indeed born of a woman but not begotten by a man. He suspects him to be the Son of God, whom he sees to have completed a continuous fast of forty days; but again he doubts that the divine nature is in him, whom he sees hungry like a weak man among other men. He is astonished and wonders what this newness is: to have no human sin and yet to bear the needs of a sinful man. But Christ our Lord and Redeemer, in order to call back lost and weak man to God, took on himself hunger, weariness, sorrow, and all the weaknesses of the human body. Amid these things, then, the devil, doubtful and uncertain, engages the hungry Lord with this speech: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves.” Foolish and bold, to think that the Son of God, from the need to eat, would do the devil's will! As if it were impossible for him to change stones into bread who once brought forth abundant streams of water from a dry rock for the thirsty peoples in the desert; or as if he could not provide food for himself, hungry after a forty days' fast, at whose command heavenly food flowed from the clouds to feed the countless army of the Hebrews. But the truly almighty only-begotten, who hungered rather for our salvation, confounded his tempter with this answer: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” By this answer, dearest ones, so that the spy who had come uncertain should be made more uncertain, the Lord of inestimable prudence neither denied that he was hungry nor professed that he needed to eat. “Man does not live,” he says, “by bread alone, but by every word of God.” That is: though I hunger, devil, yet I do not need bread; but the word of God works the substance of everlasting salvation for all the faithful. But the enemy, incapable of being taught, said again to the Lord as he stood on the pinnacle of the temple: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written that he has commanded his angels concerning you, that they should bear you up in their hands, lest you ever strike your foot against a stone.” “Throw yourself down,” he says. It is the devil's custom, dearest brothers, to urge a headlong fall; but he could not obey him who did not know how to fall. Nor does the deceiver obtain anything from the Lord, because his words are not of religion but of fraud. The Redeemer of the human race struck him again with the weapon of a heavenly sentence, saying: “It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” In this answer, so that the author of falsehood might hear nothing of the manifest truth, the Lord, governing words and meanings from on high, neither revealed that he could nor lied that he could not, but said: “It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” That is: he tempts God who, through the vice of boasting, wishes to make a show of superfluous and useless power. For what benefit has it, what advantage does it bring, if I go down headlong from here to the level ground? Or why do you urge this with the temptations of your flattery, when it is your work to cast down to the lowest one who falls from on high? After this, as the reading just completed testifies: “He took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, saying: All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me”: so that the deceiver, deceiving, offers what he does not have, and, truly blind, promises the kingdoms of the earth to the Lord of the heavens. “All these,” he says, “I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.” He truly falls down and falls who acquires the dignities of the world not by God's gift but at the devil's nod. But the Lord answered him: “Get behind me, Satan; for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” In tempting, he came so far as to demand to be worshipped by the Son of God, who is to be worshipped, thinking that Christ, who could not be deceived by the trick of praise, might betray himself to the spy in indignation at the insult offered. But the mightiest champion, who for our life and liberty was waging a new war against his tyrant, is neither broken by soft flattery nor moved by the harshest insults, but so answered all the enemy's temptations that he could not detect the sacrament of the heavenly mystery in the one and same God and man. And so, brothers, following the example of the Lord's contest and victory, and guarding against the devil's snares, let us celebrate the fast of these forty days acceptable to our God. For then we shall be able to overcome the adversary's tricks, if with continued prayers and chaste fasts we restrain the vices of the body and cleanse our heart of all vanity and ambition, as the Saviour himself says: “This kind is not driven out except by fasting and prayer.” He fasts well who sustains his hunger by the fullness of the poor man he has fed; he fasts well who, restraining himself by remembering the divine fast, holds himself back from all the pleasure of enticements; he fasts well who chastises his flesh, sprouting the buds of vices, by meditating on the holy virtues and by the love of sobriety; he fasts well who forgives his brothers' injuries with the gentleness of a peaceable breast; he offers a fast most pleasing to God who guards his mind from evil thoughts, his eyes from lust, his tongue and hands from strife. And after all, brother, you will be blessed, and you will rightly hunger for bread and thirst for drink, if with the disposition of a Christian mind you begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness, as the Lord himself said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore, dearest ones, if we wish to overcome the devil with Christ, if we desire on passing from the world to reign with God, if we long to celebrate the most sacred day of the Lord's resurrection with glad minds, let us abstain from food and drink as far as our strength allows, but fast from vices with all our strength.

Notice, dearest brothers, how many lessons of spiritual life grow up for us, how magnificent are the examples by which we are called to the purpose of holiness, in that blessed Moses and the Son of God are related to have fasted forty days each. Observe this well: as far as the servant is distant from the master, so far must their fasts be distant. For Moses is the publisher of the old law, Christ the founder of the New Testament. Moses fasts to train one people's discipline in the precepts of the law; Christ fasts to redeem all nations. Moses fasts to receive the commandments of the present life; Christ fasts to establish the sacraments of eternal salvation. Moses fasts to see God; Jesus fasts to show, by triumphing over the devil, that he is one with God. Moses after his fast broke the tablets written by the finger of God when the people transgressed; Christ by his fast preserved the Gospel to remain through the ages. And what does it mean that, though each fasted forty days, it is not said of each that he hungered after the fast? Moses did not hunger, so that the Godhead might be proved to have worked in a frail man; the Son of God hungered, to reveal by the assumption of our flesh that he had taken on frail man. That Moses did not hunger is an example of heavenly power; that Christ hungered is the sacrament of our redemption. The Lord carried out a mystery of this kind in his flesh, so that, as he is believed to be God by divine powers, so he might be recognized as man by human weaknesses. Hence it is that Christ hungers as man and feeds the hungry as God; hence that he is wearied by a journey and gives the lame the power to walk; hence that he lets his eyes run with tears and wonderfully restores sight to the blind; hence that he is sorrowful as death approaches and raises dead Lazarus from the tomb. All these things, brothers, our Creator and Redeemer does as God and man; not because such was the necessity of his birth, but because he willed such a mystery to reign in heaven and on earth. And how wonderful it is in Christ that he answered all the tempter's questions in such a way as neither to betray the truth of his kingdom to the tyrant nor to let the spy recognize the mystery of the flesh he had taken! In short, he turned his speech with such subtlety that that enemy, the craftsman of all guile, deceived by the error of his own rage, while he tempted Christ as a man, did not see God in the man. But we, brothers, for whom the unconquered champion dedicated this venerable Lent, rejecting fleshly desires, let us so chastise our limbs with fasts as to fatten our souls with virtues. Let ruinous self-indulgence fast in us, let all iniquity fast, let hateful contention fast. Let us abstain from feasts; let us abstain more from vices. Let us so restrain ourselves, so be sober from wine, that no drunkenness of pleasures may master us. For what profits it to keep the seasons of fasting by observing forty days and not to keep the law of fasting? What profits it you to be free of banquets and fill the day with lawsuits? What profits it not to eat your own bread and to plunder the living of the wretched? A Christian's fast ought to be the refreshment of the needy; a Christian's fast ought to nourish peace, not quarrels. What sort of thing is it that you do not eat meat, and a curse fouler than any food comes out of your mouth? What sort of thing is it that the belly is sanctified by fasting and the tongue polluted by lies? You will rightly frequent the church, brother, if that greedy usury does not entangle and wrap your steps in deadly snares. You will rightly pray to your Lord if the envy of your heart does not stand against your prayers. You will rightly beat your breast with your hands if you have shaken out of it all the fury of malicious will. You will rightly give a penny to a poor man if you have not taken it from another poor man. This, then, dearest ones, is a religious hunger, this is the food of faithful souls: that chastity sanctify our fast, patience adorn it, kindness cherish it, mercy gladden it, humility commend it. With these virtues let us follow Christ's Lent as far as we can, so that by a kind of twofold fast of body and soul we may always commend ourselves to divine grace.

As we are about to run through the course of the twenty-first psalm, which has been read, we must first attend carefully to what its title contains, so that, knowing its origin, we may more easily reach its meaning, and, the head made plain, the limbs may be more rightly distributed. For it is inscribed thus: “To the end, for the morning help, a psalm of David himself.” Unless I am mistaken, the morning reception always comes before the rising of the sun, and before the clear splendor of its rays lights up the world, the morning sets a limit to the darkness of the nights; and as the blindness of the gloom is gradually dissolved, a kind of face and light is poured on all things; and when the world has lain in confusion as under one substance of darkness, at the coming of morning it is marked out in the varied diversity of forms: that is, when all things were blind, the eyes of all are restored. For night in a way takes away the eyes of the world, and dawn restores them; and so we enjoy the morning reception first, so that afterward we may more gloriously possess the splendor of the sun. But since, as the Apostle says, “the law is spiritual,” and “spiritual things are to be compared with spiritual,” I think the sun of righteousness is meant here, that is, Christ the Lord, who poured the light of his heavenly teaching on us when we were sunk in the darkness of ignorance and the blindness of sins; who put into us the eyes of the heart, which we did not have; and who sent his apostles like rays to free us from the foulest night of wrongdoing, and, little by little, as the darkness of sins was dissolved in us, to accustom us to the morning reception, so that, made perfect, we might more easily bear the heat of the sun: that is, they would first instruct us with simpler precepts, so as to make us more capable of the heavenly secrets. In the morning of this sun of righteousness, then, the whole gloom of sins is destroyed, as the prophet himself says in the person of the Lord: “In the mornings I destroyed all the sinners of the earth.” That is: when the sun of righteousness rises in us, who are the dwelling of the Lord, every wicked thought is overthrown.

This whole psalm is composed in the person of the Lord the Saviour, since many things about him are set down in the New Testament. So it says: “God, my God, look upon me,” and the rest. Here he pleads the cause of the man he had taken on, so that he seems in a way to ask, saying: God of all, who are my God, why have you forsaken me? For I am conscious of nothing against myself. For according to the prophet he knew no sin, nor was there deceit in his mouth. He says this to show that he was forsaken for our sake, whose sins he bore, and that seeing it we too might learn to die for him, the holy and just one, since he died for sinners. Indeed, he used this cry in his passion, as we read in the Gospel: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He used this cry, I say, so that the outcome of the event might prove what prophecy had announced. And since what follows is almost plain, let us look at that verse in which he says: “But I am a worm and not a man.” Why the Lord of all creation willed to be compared to a little worm we can first ascribe to humility, which is the greatest virtue of the saints, as holy Moses professes himself an irrational beast before God, and David often calls himself a flea. But I think it should rather be taken thus: since a worm is produced with no admixture of another body from outside but from earth alone and pure, he is compared to the Lord, since the Saviour himself is begotten of Mary alone and pure. I have also read in the books of Moses that worms were produced from the manna: a plainly fitting and just comparison, since the worm is born of manna and the Lord Christ is brought forth from the Virgin. Indeed I would rather call Mary herself manna, because she is fine, bright, sweet, and a virgin; who, as if coming from heaven, poured down on all the peoples of the churches a food sweeter than honey; and whoever neglects to eat and consume it cannot have life in himself, as the Lord himself says: “Unless one eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he will not have life in himself.” Rather, the food itself will be turned into judgment, as the Apostle says: “Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats judgment on himself.” This was subtly prophesied to the sons of Israel in the Testament. For when they handled the manna against the divine commands it became worms: that is, avengers and judges of their obstinacy. This likeness points to Christ the Lord: whoever neglects to take him as sweet food and pleasant drink will suffer him as judge, as he himself says: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” And as for his saying, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots,” we find this done in the Gospel: the four soldiers who crucified the Saviour divided his garments among themselves into four parts; but his tunic, which was not sewn but woven from the top, they took by lot. Let us see, then, what these garments are, who the soldiers, and what the tunic. I think the garments are the prophecies, or the readings of the heavenly Scriptures, by which the sacrament of Christ the Lord was announced: these prophecies, which sing one thing and announce one thing throughout, the adversaries of the Saviour, that is, the perverse heretics, who daily lay impious hands on him like soldiers … divide among themselves at their own will, and distribute the garments of one body among various members, despoiling the Lord, and clothe their false doctrines with them. But his tunic, which was not sewn, we can take to be his heavenly wisdom, because it was woven from the top. For our wisdom, that is, human wisdom, is sewn together: it is sewn on when we give our children to grammarians for study, … to philosophers; we educate them so that a wisdom that was not in them may be acquired. But the Lord's wisdom was not sewn on, not sought; for he did not learn from teachers, as the Jews themselves say: “How does this man know letters, when he has not learned?” And he himself says: “My teaching is not of this world, but of him who sent me.” This is what it means, “woven from the top”: the tunic … with which, or with all which garments, the Catholic Church is always clothed, as the prophet says: “The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing.” …

Perhaps it seems strange to you, brothers, why the Lord is accused before the governor Pilate by the chief priests and is silent, and does not refute their wickedness by his answer, since an accusation brought is usually refuted only by a defense that follows. It may well seem strange, I say, brothers, that the Saviour is charged and is silent; for silence is sometimes taken for consent; for one seems to confirm what is alleged when he will not answer what is asked. Does the Lord, then, confirm the accusation against him by being silent? Plainly he does not confirm it by silence, but despises it by not refuting it; for he does well to be silent who needs no defense. Let him strive to be defended who fears to be overcome; let him hasten to speak who fears to be conquered. Christ conquers even when he is condemned; when he is judged he wins, as the prophet says: “That you may be justified in your words, and conquer when you are judged.” So there was no need for him to speak before the judgment, for whom the judgment itself was full victory. For Christ conquers when he is judged, because in this way he is proved innocent; hence Pilate says: “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.” Better, then, is the cause which is proved without being defended; fuller is the justice which is not built up by words but supported by truth. It must be silent … where equity itself is present; let it be silent in the case, because … bad causes too are commonly won … I do not want justice to be defended as iniquity is usually excused. That Christ conquers is not a matter of speech but of power; for the Saviour, who is wisdom, knows how to conquer by keeping silent, how to prevail by not answering; and he prefers to prove his cause rather than plead it. For what could compel him to speak, when silence was quite enough to conquer? But perhaps fear might have forced him, lest he lose his safety; except that this was the whole cause of his victory; for he lost his own safety to gain the safety of all; he preferred to be overcome in himself so as to be victor in all. But why should I speak of Christ? The woman Susanna was silent before her enemies, and conquered. For she did not defend herself before Daniel the judge with reasoned words, nor protect herself with the speech of an advocate; but in the holy woman, while her tongue was silent, her chastity spoke for her. For Susanna's chastity stood by her at the judgment, which had defended her in the garden too; there it took care of her modesty, here of her safety; there so that her purity should not be stained, here so that her innocence should not be condemned. So Susanna's chastity both convicted the elders, the unchaste men, in the garden, and prevailed over the false accusers at the judgment; and, twice victorious, it made those guilty of false witness whom it had made guilty of adultery. And what judge, after all, does chastity deserve? Daniel, a young boy, not yet of the age of puberty. Purity, then, obtains much from God; it earns so virginal a judge; for chastity is sure of victory when virginity is to judge. The case of purity ought to be heard by none but a pure man; for chastity deserves such an arbiter, before whom modesty is in no danger. So when Daniel learned of Susanna's case, as the ignorant people wished to condemn her on false accusations, he said: “I am clean of the blood of this woman.” By this word he called back the error of the sinning people. Daniel uses this word about Susanna which Pilate used about the Lord; for Pilate says: “I am clean of the blood of this just man.” By the same sentence, then, purity is freed by which justice is acquitted. But Daniel did better than Pilate; for the one does not condemn chaste blood but frees it; the other both confesses just blood and hands it over. For what did it profit to bear witness to innocence and then hand it over to wickedness like a guilty man, except that it is a graver sin to pronounce one and the same man just and to hand him over as a criminal? For he is a witness to his own iniquity who acquits with his mouth and condemns with his heart. Though Pilate washed his hands, he did not wash away his deeds; and though he thought he had wiped the blood of the just man from his limbs, his mind is still held stained with that blood. For he killed Christ who handed him over to be killed; for a steadfast and good judge ought to have yielded neither to envy nor to fear, so as not to sentence innocent blood. Daniel, then, did better than Pilate: the one called back the error of the sinning people; the other confirmed the sacrilege of the raging synagogue.

Some days ago we set out that holy Susanna's trial was very like the Saviour's, and that the chastity of the woman we mentioned suffered under the same charges as Christ's integrity. For purity in Susanna suffered persecution in a like manner. For while she convicts the elders of adultery, she herself is held as an adulteress; while he convicts the Pharisees of sacrilege, he himself is accused as sacrilegious. That sacrilege in the Pharisees can be called a greater adultery; for it is graver to be an adulterer of religion than of the body, and more to injure the integrity of the Godhead than to violate the integrity of a human being. So Susanna is condemned, and the Lord is condemned: she, because she guarded the chastity of her body; he, because he defended the chastity of religion. The case for judgment was alike in both, except that Susanna had a better judge than the Lord. For a governor judges him, a prophet her; a man hears him who was terrified by the riots of the Pharisees; a boy hears her who was filled with the Holy Spirit. The one pronounces steadfastly what he perceives, yet does not defend; for Susanna's judge frees her whom he acquits; the Lord's examiner condemns and hands over him whom he acquits. So the trial of Susanna and of the Lord was alike in almost everything. Indeed, even the accusation in them was not unlike. The elders inform against Susanna; Judas accuses the Lord: her own teachers charge her, his own disciple charges him. False presbyters, I say, accuse Susanna; a false bishop betrays the Saviour. For Judas too was a bishop, as the prophet says of him: “Let his days be few, and let another take his bishopric.” Nor, brother, does the place seem unlike in the two cases. Susanna is surrounded by her accusers in a garden; the Lord is surrounded by his betrayers in the paradise of a little garden: she suffers plotters there; he bears a betrayer here. But let us see the outcome of each trial. Susanna's accusers are struck as false witnesses by the prophet's sentence, and are punished as guilty of the same crime by which they sought to condemn innocent blood; but I do not find that the Lord's betrayer was condemned by a judge; for Pilate does not condemn him, nor do the people; but, what is graver, he condemns himself and is judged while justice is idle. For he whom another judges can be excusable in some way; but he is guilty without excuse who is condemned by the judgment of his own conscience. He whom another judges can sometime hope for pardon from his judge; he who judges himself, from whom will he ask pardon? For Judas, bringing back the price of the Lord's blood, says to the Jews: “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” It is great testimony, then, to the Lord's innocence, when his accuser both confesses his crime and is guilty in respect of the fee; for while the wretch pours back the price of the sale he thinks he can dissolve the contract of his crime; but not even so is he absolved; for since the author of the sale is guilty, it is plain that these men entered into a wicked contract with a sacrilegious man. So Judas the traitor is condemned by his own sentence. Perhaps you wonder that the people did not judge him, nor the governor sentence him. This is usually the judgment of the sacrilegious man: that he himself punishes his impiety as he remembers it, and avenges his crime as he recognizes it; for he passes beyond everyone's sentences who is condemned by his own conscience, by his own sentence. This, I say, is usually the judgment of the sacrilegious man, that, conscious of the deed, he condemns himself, as the apostle Paul says of the heretic: “Avoid a heretical man after a first and second correction, knowing that such a man is perverted, and sins, being condemned by his own judgment.” For the heretic condemns himself when he casts himself out of the Church and goes out of the assembly of the saints with no one compelling him; for he shows what he deserves from all, who by his own judgment is separated from all. The heretic, I say, condemns himself: for while all criminals are cast out of Christian fellowship by the bishop's sentence, the heretic, anticipating all, is cast out by the sentence of his own will. So the heretic is condemned with the same penalty as Judas: that he is both the culprit of his own crime and the judge of its punishment. With the same penalty, I say, the heretic is condemned as Judas, and not undeservedly, because the Lord whom the one sold the other blasphemes; whom the one handed over to persecutors, the other persecutes daily. For the heretic persecutes the Lord when he takes away his divinity and asserts that he is a creature.

Your charity remembers that last Sunday we preached that Judas Iscariot, condemned by his own sentence, brought back to the Pharisees the fee for the Lord's blood, and, driven by remorse, pouring back the price of the sale, hanged himself with a noose, so that he who had fined himself of money might fine himself of life as well. For understanding how great a crime he had committed, it was not enough for him to be without the fee of sacrilege unless he were also without life; for he judged himself worthy of death because he had betrayed Christ, the life of all. Judas, then, the severest judge of himself, confesses in avenging him whom he had denied in betraying him. So he returns the money to the Pharisees; but the Pharisees do not gladly accept it either; for they say it is forbidden them to keep it in their treasury. See, then, how great is the force of the Lord's money: Judas casts it away from himself; the Pharisees do not lock it in their coffers; for iniquity dreads to possess the price of just blood. Yet the Pharisees take counsel to buy with it a potter's field in which the bodies of strangers might be laid. I think this was done by providence, so that the price of the Saviour should not supply expense to sinners but provide rest for strangers; should not serve the sacrilegious for sport but the dead for burial; so that from then on Christ by the passion of his blood might both redeem the living and receive the dead by his precious passion. With the price of the Lord's blood, then, the potter's field is bought. We read in the Scriptures that the salvation of the whole human race was redeemed by the Saviour's blood, as the apostle Peter says: “For you were not redeemed with corruptible things, gold or silver, but with the precious blood of the undefiled and spotless lamb, Jesus Christ.” If, then, the price of our life is the Lord's blood, see that what was redeemed is not so much the earthly frailty of a field as the everlasting safety of the whole world; for the evangelist says: “For Christ did not come to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” See, I say, whether that money did not buy not so much a small portion of a field as the plentiful possession of the whole world, as the prophet David says: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession.” This field, then, is this whole world, in which we, scattered and sown, sprout the fruit of good works for the Lord. But perhaps you ask me: if the field is the world, who is the potter who can have dominion over the world? Unless I am mistaken, he is the potter who made the vessels of our body from clay, of whom Scripture says: “And God made man from the clay of the earth.” He is the potter who animated the muddy clay of our flesh with the breath of his spirit and baked the fluid and earthy material with fiery heat. He, I say, is the potter who formed us for life by his hands and re-formed us for glory by his Christ, as the Apostle says: “We are transformed into the same image from glory to glory”; so that we who fell from the first making by our own vices may be restored in a second birth by this potter's mercy: that is, we who fell into death through Adam's transgression may rise again through the Saviour's grace. He is plainly the potter of whom the blessed Apostle says: “Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus?” And again: “Has not the potter power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” For from the same clay of our body God reserves some for punishment, others for glory, according to the merits of each. This potter's field, then, was bought for strangers with the blood of Christ; for strangers, I say, who were without home, without country, and were tossed about as exiles over the whole world, rest is provided by Christ's blood, so that those who have no possession in the world may have burial in Christ. And whom do we say these strangers are but the most devoted Christians, who, renouncing the world and possessing nothing in it, rest in the blood of Christ? For the Christian who does not possess the world possesses the whole Saviour. Burial with Christ is promised to strangers so that whoever keeps himself from fleshly vices as a stranger and alien may deserve Christ's rest. For what is the burial of Christ but the rest of the Christian? We, then, are strangers in this world and live in this light like guests, as the Apostle says: “For while we are in this body we are away from the Lord.” We are strangers, I say, and a burial has been bought for us with the price of the Saviour's blood. For we have been buried with him, as the Apostle says, through baptism into death. Christ's baptism, then, is our burial, in which we die to sins, are buried to crimes, and, the conscience of the old man dissolved, are restored to a second birth in a revived infancy. Baptism, I say, is the Saviour's burial for us: because there we first lose what we lived before, and there we receive anew that we may live. Great, then, is the grace of this burial, in which both a useful death is brought upon us and a more useful life is granted; great, I say, is the grace of this burial, which both purifies the sinner and gives life to the dying.

The world's tales relate that Ulysses, tossed about for ten years in wanderings on the sea and unable to reach his homeland, was carried by the course of his ship to a certain place where the cruel variety of the Sirens' sweet song resounded, and so soothed those who came near with its alluring melody that they did not so much enjoy a spectacle of pleasure as incur the shipwreck of their safety. Such was the charm of the song for them that whoever heard the sound of the voice, as if caught by a kind of enticement, no longer made for the port he wished but went on to the destruction he did not wish. So when Ulysses came upon this sweet shipwreck and wished to avoid the danger of that sweetness, he is said to have put wax in his companions' ears and bound himself to the mast of the ship, so that they would be free of the ruinous enticement of hearing and he would take the ship's course out of danger. If, then, the tale tells of that Ulysses that binding to the mast freed him from danger, how much more must we proclaim what truly happened: that today the tree of the cross has snatched the whole human race from the danger of death? For from the time that Christ the Lord was bound on the cross, we pass the enticing dangers of the world as if with stopped ears; for we are neither held by the ruinous hearing of the world nor turn the course of the better life aside onto the rocks of pleasure. For the tree of the cross not only brings back to the homeland the man bound to it, but also guards with the shadow of its power the companions placed around it. That the cross makes us return to our homeland after many wanderings the Lord declares, saying to the thief placed on the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” That thief, having long wandered and been shipwrecked, could not have returned otherwise to the homeland of paradise, from which the first man had gone out, had he not been bound to the tree. For the cross in the Church is like the mast in a ship, which alone is kept safe amid the alluring and ruinous shipwrecks of the whole world. In this ship, then, whoever either binds himself to the mast of the cross or stops his ears with the divine Scriptures will not fear the sweet storm of self-indulgence. For the soft lust of pleasure is a kind of sweet figure of the Sirens, which with harmful blandishments makes womanish the steadfastness of the captured mind. So Christ the Lord hung on the cross to free the whole human race from the world's shipwreck. But to leave aside the tale of Ulysses, which is fiction, not fact, let us see whether we can find in the divine Scriptures any like example which the Lord, who was afterward to fulfill it himself, promised beforehand through his prophets. We read in the Old Testament that when holy Moses had led the sons of Israel out of captivity in Egypt, and that people was suffering in the desert from a severe attack of serpents, and no defense of arms could withstand it, then holy Moses, filled with the divine Spirit, set up a bronze serpent fixed to a wood in the midst of the crowds of the dying, and commanded the people to place their hope of healing in that sign; and from this came so great a remedy against the bite of the asps that whoever, wounded, either looked at that cross of the serpent or hoped in it, at once received the remedy of health. The Lord too recalls this deed in the Gospel, saying: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Hence, if a serpent fixed to a wood brought health to the sons of Israel, how much more does the Lord crucified on the gibbet give salvation to the peoples? If the figure profited so much, how much do we believe the reality profits? The serpent, then, is crucified first: rightly indeed, so that, since the devil first sinned before God, he should first be struck by the sentence of the cross. He is crucified on wood: reasonably done, so that, since man was deceived in paradise through the tree of desire, he might now be saved through the tree of wood, and the same material that had been the cause of death might now be the remedy of health. Then, after the serpent, man himself is crucified in the Saviour, so that after the author the crime too might be punished; for by the first cross vengeance was taken on the serpent, by the second on the serpent's venom: that is, first the author himself is punished, then his malice is condemned. For the poison which he had poured into man by his persuasion is now cast out, now cured; for when man is given over to suffering, he is not handed over to death, but the crime of death in him is corrected; for this the Lord does through the man he took on, so that while the innocent suffers, the disobedience of that devilish transgression might be corrected in him, and from then on he might become free of guilt and be free of death. Having, then, the Lord Jesus, who freed us by his passion, let us always look to him and hope in his sign for a remedy for our wounds: that is, if perhaps the poison of avarice spreads in us, let us look on him, and he heals; if lust stings us like a scorpion, let us ask him, and he cures; if the bites of earthly thoughts tear us, let us pray to him, and we live. For these are the spiritual serpents of our souls, to trample which the Lord was crucified, of whom he himself says: “You will walk upon serpents and scorpions, and nothing will harm you.”

We said yesterday that the Lord's cross brought salvation to the human race; and it is true. For his passion is our redemption, his death is our life. He bore all these evils so that we might experience all good things; he preferred cruelty to be exercised on himself so as to bestow mercy on us; he willed to be good toward us in such a way that he was first harsh to himself; for, taking away the injuries of the human race through the cross, he used them all up in his passion, so that there would no longer be anything to harm man. Great, then, is the sacrament of the cross; and if we understand, by this sign even the world itself is saved. For when the sea is cut by sailors, first the mast is raised by them and the sail spread, so that, the Lord's cross being formed, the walls of the waters may be broken; and, secure in this sign of the Lord, they seek the harbor of safety and escape the danger of death; for the sail hung on the mast is a kind of figure of the sacrament, as if Christ were lifted up on the cross; and so, confidence coming from the mystery, men disregard the storms of the winds and undertake their vows of travel. And as the Church cannot stand without the cross, so a ship without a mast is weak; for at once the devil disturbs it and the wind dashes it; but where the sign of the cross is raised, at once both the devil's iniquity is driven back and the storm of the winds is lulled. And the good farmer, when he prepares to turn the soil of the earth and seek the food of life, tries to do it only by the sign of the cross; for when he fits the share-beam under the plough, fixes the mould-boards, and inserts the handle, he imitates the figure of the cross; for the very joining is a kind of likeness of the Lord's passion. Heaven itself also is arranged in the figure of this sign. For since it is divided into four parts, that is, east and west, south and north, it is held together as by the four arms of a cross. The very bearing of a man, when he raises his hands, depicts a cross; and so we are taught to pray with raised hands, so that even by the gesture of our limbs we may confess the Lord's passion. For then our prayer is heard more quickly, when the body too imitates the Christ whom the mind speaks. By this example holy Moses, when he waged war against Amalek, overcame him not with arms, not with iron, but with his hands raised to God; for so you have it written: “When Moses raised his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered his hands, Amalek grew strong.” By this sign of the Lord, then, the sea is cut, the earth is tilled, heaven is ruled, men are preserved. By this sign of the Lord, I say, the underworld too is unlocked; for from the time that the man the Lord Jesus, who carried the cross itself, was buried in the earth, the earth, as if ploughed up and broken open by him, brought forth all the dead it held.

Since yesterday we mentioned the thief, let us see who this thief is, who, when the Lord was placed on the cross, not only obtains pardon for his sins but is also presented with the delight of paradise: so that he who had been condemned to punishment for his crimes was carried over to glory for his faith, and the cross he bore was for him not so much the condemnation of a penalty as the occasion of salvation. For placed on the cross, he believed in Christ our Lord crucified; and so he who shares in the passion is granted a share in paradise. For the blessed thief, while he suffers the penalty, obtains the heavenly kingdom. See, he is called guilty, as one for whom it was profitable to be condemned for a time. For he would not have come to glory had he not been sentenced to punishment. Let us see, I say, why one guilty of such great crimes so quickly earned paradise from the Saviour, when others, by the tears of a long time and frequent fasts, scarcely obtain pardon for their offenses. The cause, brothers, is great and manifold. First, that this thief was changed so suddenly by the devotion of faith that he despised the present punishment and prayed for pardon in the future, and believed it more useful to ask concerning the eternal judgment than to plead concerning a temporal penalty; for remembering his crimes and repenting of them, he began to long more for what he hoped for than to feel what he suffered. For one who had once believed in Christ could have pleaded rather about the present penalty, had he not thought more about the future. Then this is of greater merit for his grace: that he believed in Christ placed on the cross, and the passion, which made a stumbling block for others, profited him toward faith; for the passion of the cross was a stumbling block to many, as the Apostle says: “But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness.” Rightly, then, he earns paradise who did not think Christ's cross a stumbling block but power; for the same Apostle says: “But to those who are called, Jews, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Rightly too the Lord gives him paradise, because the one whom Judas Iscariot had sold in the paradise of the little garden this man confesses on the gibbet of the cross. A wonderful thing: the thief confesses him whom the disciple denied; a wonderful thing, I say: the thief honors the sufferer whom Judas betrayed with a kiss; by the one the endearments of peace are sold, by the other the wounds of the cross are proclaimed. For he says: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.” This is the full devotion of faith: that when the blood is seen flowing from the Lord's wounds, then pardon is asked of his power; when his humility is seen, then his divinity is held the more; when he is thought given over to death, then the honor of a king is paid him. For this faithful thief did not believe that he would die whom he announces will reign; he does not think him to be subject to the underworld whom he confesses will rule in heaven; he does not reckon him to be held in hell by whom he asks to be freed himself. Though he sees his gaping wounds and looks on his flowing blood, yet he believes him God, whom he does not know as guilty; he confesses him just, whom he does not remember as a sinner. For he says to the other thief who reviled him: “We indeed receive justly what our deeds deserve; but this man has done nothing wrong.” For he understood that he received these blows for the sins of others, bore these wounds for the crimes of others; and he knew that those wounds in Christ's body were not Christ's wounds but the thief's; and so he began to love the more after he recognized his own wounds in his body. For the prophet says: “For he bears our weaknesses and grieves for us; and we thought him to be in pain; by his bruise we are healed.” So, placed on the cross and seeing his bruise, the thief loves God the more. A wonderful thing: the thief loves Christ more on the cross than Judas loved him at the supper: the one trips up his Master through food; the other honors the Lord through pain, as the prophet says: “He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.” So this thief knew that the Lord's whole passion was done by his own will, and that it was in his power either to give up his life to death or to return again to life, as the Lord himself says: “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.” … He believed him so free from the laws of the underworld that he even asked to be freed from them himself.

Your charity remembers, brothers, that I gave the reason why a thief hardened in such great crimes, and condemned by the confession of his wickedness, could earn paradise on the very gibbet of his punishment, and was saved with such speed that grace forestalled his sins before punishment did, and he began to glory in his evils before he began to be punished; for he does not suffer punishment while he is earning paradise. To Peter Christ says: “You cannot follow me now; you will follow afterward.” And to this man he says: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” The one, as a disciple, is put off; the other is invited as a companion; the one is still kept back for the reward, the other is already chosen for fellowship. “You cannot,” he says, “follow me now.” It is impossible for Peter to follow the Lord; it is easy for the thief to be with the Lord. “Today you will be with me in paradise.” He is not put off to another time, not kept back for another day; in the very hour in which paradise receives the Lord, it receives the thief too: one … is for the salvation of all, and the door of immortality is opened to two alike. But faith gave the thief all this. For it is faith that covers sins, that conquers crimes, that makes the guilty innocent; for though the guilt of offenders is heavy, the grace of faith is greater: it is more to have believed in Christ than to have sinned in the world; it is of greater merit to have hoped for pardon from the Lord than to have contracted guilt from the world. For as unbelief makes one a criminal, so faith has made him innocent. Indeed, Judas, after he lost faith, lost the innocence of his apostleship; for he was made guilty of all crimes after he denied God, the author of all virtues. As, then, it was enough for the one, for crimes, to have denied Christ, so it was enough for the other, for innocence, to have believed in the Lord. Faith, then, makes thieves innocent, and unbelief makes apostles criminals. Great, then, and perfect was the faith in that thief; this is admirable faith, which believes Christ crucified to be glorified rather than punished; for in this is the whole form of salvation: to recognize the Saviour as the Lord of majesty at the very moment he is seen tortured in the patience of humility. Hence the Apostle says: “If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty.” This, I say, is perfect faith: to believe that Christ on the cross is not guilty. That is why that thief was justified: because, when the Saviour was set on the gibbet and the Jews were insulting him or saying criminal things, “Save yourself, if you can,” he, certain of his divinity and secure of his will, rather asks to be saved himself. Great, I say, was the faith in that thief, to be compared with the holy apostles; except that it perhaps even went before them; for he went before in devotion who went before in reward; for the thief came to paradise before the apostles. Indeed, Peter follows the Lord, and this man accompanies him. But the Lord gives the service of reward according to faith and merit. For all the disciples, as we read, were afraid at the Saviour's passion; almost all deserted him when he was handed over; it happened as it is written: “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” Indeed, Peter, though warned, could not keep faith; he fell as often as he had been warned not to fall; and had the Lord not set a limit of three denials for him, perhaps, asked more often, he would have denied more often. For the Saviour's passion struck such fear into the disciples that a maidservant destroyed what Christ had foretold to the apostle, and the doorkeeper prevailed more toward unbelief than the apostle toward caution. Not a good doorkeeper, who shuts Peter into the priest's house in order to shut him out of faith in the Saviour. Eve led Adam in to evil; the maidservant brought Peter in to evil: the one shut him out of paradise, the other shut him out of Christ; the one deceived her husband by her persuasion, the other ensnared the apostle by her questioning; the one drove Adam to transgress, the other Peter to deny; and the same sex, performing the office of doorkeeper in both, either shuts out from life or shuts in to death.

We said, brothers, that, after the likeness of Eve, a woman doorkeeper also deceived Peter; and as a woman ensnared Adam, so a woman ensnared the apostle. The sex is used to deceiving: the devil recognizes in the doorkeeper the vessel of his fraud, because he is accustomed to attack faithful men only through a woman. There he put Adam to flight through Eve; here he conquers Peter through the doorkeeper; for, as we read, the devil was in the paradise of delights; nor, as we understand, was he absent in the Jews' praetorium. There Satan the serpent pressed on; here Judas the snake was urging. There is the same likeness of deception, then, in Peter as there was in Adam, since there is also the same likeness of the commandment. For each received a commandment from the Lord: Adam not to touch, the apostle not to deny; the one not to presume upon the tree of knowledge, the other not to pass by the cross of wisdom; but each transgressed the precept and sinned in like manner: the one tastes what is not lawful, the other speaks what is not fitting. And yet Peter's denial is more easily dealt with than Adam's transgression; for the apostle is helped more quickly than the first-formed man. For God seeks out the one wandering at evening; the Lord seeks out the other denying at cockcrow. Adam, guilty of the deed, blushed at being naked; Peter, conscious of what he said, groaned when rebuked; the one, as if caught, hurries to hiding; the other, as if corrected, bursts into tears. To Adam, as to one hiding and concealing himself from the Godhead, it is said: “Adam, where are you?” Not that Adam could hide from the Lord's sight, but because no place is safe or sure for a sinful conscience while it fears to be caught. The Lord looked at Peter, and opening his eyes corrected his error. Rightly he corrects with his eyes, because it is written: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears toward their prayers.” So Peter burst into tears, praying nothing with his voice. For I find that he wept; I do not find what he said; I read of his tears, I do not read of his satisfaction. Peter plainly did well to weep and be silent, because what is usually wept over is not usually excused, and what cannot be defended can be washed away; for a tear washes away an offense which shame forbids confessing with the voice. Tears, then, care for modesty and salvation alike; they do not blush in asking, and they obtain in pleading. Tears, I say, are in a way silent prayers: they do not ask for pardon, and they deserve it; they do not plead their case, and they obtain mercy; except that prayers of tears are more useful than prayers of words, because words in praying may deceive, but a tear does not deceive at all; for words sometimes do not bring out the whole matter, but a tear always shows the whole feeling. And so Peter no longer uses the speech by which he had deceived, by which he had sinned, by which he had lost faith, lest he not be believed in confessing by the means he had used in denying; and for this reason he prefers to weep his case rather than state it, and to confess with tears what he had denied with his voice. I find also another reason why Peter was silent: lest the request for pardon, made so quickly, should offend by impudence more than obtain; for he usually earns indulgence more quickly who entreats more modestly. In every fault, then, one must first weep, and then pray. We know now by this example how to cure our sins. See, his denial did the apostle no harm, and his amendment profited him greatly. Let us imitate him, then, speaking elsewhere: for when he was asked three times by the Lord, “Simon, do you love me?”, he answered three times, “Lord, you know that I love you”; the Lord said, “Feed my sheep.” And this three times; this was said in compensation for the earlier error; for he who had denied the Lord three times confesses three times; and as often as he had contracted guilt by sinning, so often does he gain grace by loving. See, then, how much weeping profited Peter: before he wept, he fell; after he wept, he was chosen; and he who before his tears proved a transgressor was after his tears taken up as a shepherd, and received others to rule who before had not ruled himself.

We said last Sunday that holy Peter profited by his errors in the Saviour's passion, and that after he denied the Lord God he became better. For he became more faithful after he wept for having lost his faith; and so he found greater grace than he lost; for as a good shepherd he received the flock to guard, so that he who had before been weak for himself might become a support for all, and he who had wavered under the temptation of questioning might ground the others in the stability of faith. Indeed, for the solidity of his devotion he is called the rock of the churches, as the Lord says: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” He is called a rock because he was the first to lay the foundations of faith among the nations, and, like an immovable stone, holds together the framework and mass of the whole Christian work. Peter is called a rock for his devotion, and the Lord is named rock for his power, as the Apostle says: “For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.” Rightly does he earn a share in the name who earns a share in the work; for in the same house Peter lays the foundation, Peter plants; the Lord gives the increase, the Lord supplies the watering. For Peter profits by his temptations, rejoices in his weeping, grows by his dangers. So on the sea, while the rash traveler steps out on the waves, he wavers in his step but grows strong in his affection; he is in danger in his body but does not slip in devotion; he sinks with his feet but is upheld by Christ's right hand; faith upholds him whom the wave was sinking; and him whom the storm of the waves disturbed, love for the Saviour made firm. For Peter walked on the sea more by love than by his feet; for he did not see where to set the footprint of his feet, but he saw where to fix the footprint of his love. Placed on the sea, he looks to the Lord, and led by love for him goes down into the sea; he does not think of the slipping waters or the running streams; and while he looks at Christ he does not look at the element. He believes by faith that he will find a solid footing even amid the waves: though the sea is tossed by the waves and the deep by the winds, Peter's path, which leads to the Lord, is not disturbed. So Peter walks on the waters, and the soft wave does not give way under his feet. We read in the Old Testament that the sons of Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry roads, and that, for the safety of those walking, so that the wave should not slip away, it was changed into a kind of solidity. How much better this is, where, as Peter walks, the wave is neither changed nor slips away, the water neither solidifies nor flees! Better, I say, where the same wave both tosses and upholds, where the same flood both sinks and serves. There, so that the people of Israel might be carried through the sea, nature had lost its course; here Peter is carried on the waters, and the streams do not lose their course. So the apostle, a rash traveler, takes the road of a new journey: now he climbs the mass of a curved flood, now he goes down the wave of a sinking hollow; and amid the sea's waves he lacks neither the ascent nor the descent of the road. But when, disturbed by the winds and driven by the storms, he begins to fear what he had believed, at once the flood is drawn from under him and the wave withdrawn; soon, as faith grows faint, the path gives way; then crying out, he begs the Lord Jesus to save him; and the Saviour, taking him by the hand, frees him and rebukes him, saying: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” That is: why are you of such little faith that, having begun to walk on the sea by believing, you did not cross it by persevering? For it is written: “He who perseveres to the end will be saved.” But while you hesitate and doubt, you have lost the road on which you had set out. Why, I say, are you of such little faith that you did not arrive by the same faith by which you had begun to come? Understand, then, that on the sea faith carried you, unbelief sank you. So, brothers, holy Peter, while he is tossed, while he sinks, while he is in danger, so comes to the Lord; he shows us that one hastens to Christ only through dangers; for there are many devilish waves in this world, many shipwrecks of temptations, from which we can be freed only if the Saviour stretches out his hand to those who cry out. Let us, then, not cease to cry to the Lord; he will not deny his accustomed help.

Though the benefits of our God are great and wonderful, they are proved to be neither new nor sudden, but from the beginning of the world were both foretold by oracles and prefigured by mysteries. For the answers of the Old Testament sang of the Lord's sacred passion from the very beginnings of the world as it took shape; and so we assert that Christ the Lord was proclaimed and announced to his own plainly from their own books and volumes. He relies without doubt on strong privileges who maintains his case from his adversaries' documents; it is a splendid victory to entangle the opposing party in its own papers as in its own snares, to refute it by the voices of its own witnesses, and to defeat the rival with his own weapons, so that your opponent's arguments are proved to fight for your advantage. So in the person of our Lord: when Eve, the mother of all the living, is produced from the rib of Adam, the first man, the Church, to be restored as the parent of all the faithful, is shown to come from his sacred side and saving wound. In his type the just Abel is killed, and the innocent one is slaughtered by a brother's impiety, as by the impiety of the Jews. The same Lord, in the last age of the aging world, is offered in the figure of blessed Abraham, the long-lived father; at that time, when the devoted father rose to a new sacrifice against the throat of his only son, a ram suddenly appeared to his eyes, as the divine word says: “And Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns among the briars.” “Among the briars,” it says. Let us ask what this novelty is. Among the briars: that is, amid the multitude of sinners standing round; caught by its horns: that is, hanging on the horns of the cross, fixed with nails; as we read in another place: “Horns are in his hands.” This is because the arms of the gibbet received his venerable hands. And he was set among thorns when the author of innocence and righteousness was mocked with a crown of thorns. But we must look more deeply at what it means that Isaac is brought by his father to the altar and suddenly a ram is put in his place, the offering not changed but doubled. Here the twofold substance of the Redeemer, to be adored, is shown. For the Son of God is offered, and the firstborn of the virgin is sacrificed. The marks of the Lord's passion were also prefigured in what we read: that blessed Elisha, laid in his tomb, when a corpse was thrown in by brigands, raised the dead man's body inside his tomb by the touch of his sacred body. Who is prefigured here but our Jesus Christ, who gives resurrection from death and, buried, works life? In the robber recognize the guilty world; in the prophet's powers recognize Christ the Lord. Further, the passion and resurrection of Christ are most famously foreshown through the holy Scriptures in the labors and hardships of the prophet Jonah. This Jonah, as we think is not unknown to your faith, is written to have borne the type of the Lord; for the Lord himself says: “For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” This Jonah, I say, is sent at the Lord's command to preach to the Ninevites the offense of heaven; but, foreknowing that the sad prophecy would be made void by the people's conversion, he boards as a fugitive a ship that was making for Tarshish; but when a storm arose and the sailors were troubled, he was given to the waves by lot and received, plunged down, into the jaws of a sea monster; but on the third day the fish belched him out unharmed and poured him back onto the land. See the Lord, even in the Old Testament, wonderfully appearing in the form of a servant. See how in past ages he showed that he would come in the humility of a servant's form. Jonah is sent to the great city of the Ninevites to preach the Lord's wrath, to say: “Forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown”; and Christ is sent to the city of the world to announce the day of salvation and the appointed time of judgment. Jonah seeks a ship, Christ the Church. Jonah is tossed by the waves, Christ is tried by the whirlwinds of the world. Unless Jonah is sunk, the ship's danger is not calmed; so too the Church is not freed unless it is saved by Christ's death. The sailors, about to cast Jonah out, yet fear and say: “Lord, do not lay innocent blood upon us.” Does not the sailors' protest seem to you the confession of Pilate, who hands Christ over yet washes his hands and says: “I am clean of the blood of this just man”? How fittingly the faith of the Gentiles proclaims a Gentile character! Jonah says in his prayer: “Take, then, Lord, my life, for death is better for me than life.” Let our Lord Jesus Christ say this more truly: death is better for me than life; that is, living I could not save one nation of the Jews; let me die, and the whole world will be saved by one death. The sea monster received Jonah plunged into the sea, but did not happen to devour him; and him whom the malice of men destroyed, a hungry beast guarded; with full bowels it suffers hunger, and marvels that it is allowed nothing against the prey it has swallowed. Who is this who can be taken within greedy jaws and cannot be consumed? He is food, and there is no corruption; he is handed to the depth of destruction, and is preserved by the very service of death. Who is this who enters vast hollows of dangers safely; and, shut in under immense depth, deadly as it is, is fed by life-giving air; and, sent down into a nature foreign to him, into the exile of life, journeys with life; and, outliving death, announces the coming salvation of the world? Who but our Lord Jesus Christ, whom cruel death, the inexplicable beast, snatched as its food, and, captive, trembled at its prey. It trembled, I say; for though it knew him crucified, yet it could not hold as condemned one whom it did not remember as guilty; for punishment does not make guilt, the cause does. It devoured man, as its accustomed food, lost at the beginning of the world; but, choking, it recognized the great dignity of this food; and so the divine word records: “And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.” He commanded the beast, then; he commanded death, always hungry; he commanded the abysses and the underworld to restore the Saviour to the world. “It vomited” we should take to mean that life, victorious over death, came back from death's inmost bowels, and that the destruction of the underworld, ulcerated, gave it back from its inmost parts. So we see in the prophet's afflictions both death and resurrection most plainly prefigured. Therefore what you see fulfilled in the servant, do not hesitate to believe in the Lord. Since this is so, consider, O man, how much you are worth, and weigh how much you owe: consider how much you are worth, so that at last you cease to be cheap to yourself, so that for this reason at least you may scorn to lie under shameful vices, measuring your nobility by the dignity of your Creator and Restorer. The soul has reasons to be ashamed of itself, why, with conquered heart, it is subjected to unworthy masters, it to which eternal glory is promised; since by a twofold privilege, you who were long honored by sharing the divine image are made precious also by the nobility of the exchange. That you may be strong against your enemy, ask your state: that the Lord has given you free power to defeat the prince of the world in your members and to overcome the spiritual forces of wickedness; and so do not think it impossible to obtain to be carried over into angelic blessedness, when in this world you have conquered angelic powers. Let not life make you degenerate and despised, whom either creation is proved to have brought forth illustrious, or grace; but let the faithful confidently lift up the course of Christ to the heights; for those who see themselves redeemed at a heavenly price should not doubt that they are prepared for heavenly things.

It still clings to our minds, brothers, that a very few days ago we preached that Mary Magdalene was rebuked not lightly for seeking the Lord in the tomb after his resurrection and, not remembering his words in which he had said he would rise from the underworld on the third day, supposing that he was held by the laws of the underworld. She is reproved, not lightly, for not remembering the promise of the resurrection and for searching for a sign of death. For a humble and ignorant faith seeks what it does not know and forgets what it is taught; it is quick to service but not perfect in believing; anxious about the injury to the Lord's flesh, but uncertain of the glory of the resurrection; it weeps indeed out of love for Christ, but grieves in despair at not finding the body; it thinks him perished whom it was already established was reigning; it searches for him in the tomb whom it ought rather to call on from heaven. So holy Mary is rebuked as too slow to believe, and when, though late, she had recognized the Lord, the Saviour said to her: “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” “Do not touch me” is a word of rebuke; that is: do not touch me with your hands, since you do not retain my resurrection in your mind but forget it. *That is: do not touch me with your hands, since you do not touch me with perfect faith. You cannot hold me with bodily embraces*; since she who lost the hearing is forbidden the touch. “Do not touch me,” he says, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Let us see how Christ had not yet ascended to the Father, when he himself says: “For the Father is in me, and I in the Father”: from whom by the undivided substance of the Godhead he was never separated; for while one abides in one, he signifies that the Father and the Son are always together. Or does the Son say that he ascends where he dwells before he ascends? For the same Lord said: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” If, then, when he descended the Saviour is in heaven, much more is he in heaven before he ascends. But see whether this saying does not perhaps belong to the rebuke of Mary, to whom, a little before, as she sought the Lord among the tombs, it was said: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Now is added: “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father”; that is: why do you wish to touch me, you who, while you seek me among the tombs, do not yet believe that I have ascended to the Father; who, searching for me in the underworld, do not trust that I have returned to heaven; who, seeking me among the dead, do not hope that I live with God my Father? “I have not yet ascended,” he says, “to the Father”: that is, for you I have not yet ascended to the Father, since in your faith I am still held in the tomb. As far as you are concerned, I still linger among low things, still cling to earthly things, because your faith has not yet lifted me up to heaven. Why, then, do you hurry to touch me as the Son of God, when you do not follow me returning to the Father with the devotion of your mind? Whoever, then, wishes to touch the Lord the Saviour must first place him by his faith at the right hand of the Godhead and set him by the belief of his heart in the heavenly places, rather than seek him among the dead. And the Lord has ascended to the Father for him who believes that he is always in the Father. He ascended to the Father for the blessed apostles, to whom he said: “He who sees me sees the Father also.” He ascended for John the evangelist, who sought him with the Father and found him; and so he says: “And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He ascended also for blessed Paul, who, not content to know what he knew, taught us too how we should seek the Saviour in the heavenly places: “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” And to remove us entirely from this low and earthly searching of Mary, he adds, saying: “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.” So we must no longer seek the Saviour on the earth, nor in the earth, nor according to the flesh, if we wish to find and touch him, but according to the glory of the divine majesty; so that we may say with the apostle Paul: “But now we do not know Christ according to the flesh.” So blessed Stephen too did not seek Christ on the earth by his faith, but recognized him standing at the right hand of God: he found him where he sought him with the devotion of his mind. And Stephen not only sees Christ in heaven but also touches him by his martyrdom; for he touches the Lord when, praying for his enemies, or holding him by his faith, he says: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Understand, then, how great is the glory of devotion. Mary, placed beside the Lord, does not deserve to touch him; Stephen, placed on earth, touches Christ in heaven; she, among angels, does not see the Saviour present; Stephen sees the Lord, though absent, within the heavens.

Not without reason, brothers, is this psalm read today, in which the prophet commands us to exult and rejoice; for holy David invites all creatures to the festival of this day; for on this day, through the resurrection of Christ, the underworld is opened; through the Church's neophytes the earth is renewed; through the Holy Spirit heaven is unlocked; for the opened underworld gives back the dead, the renewed earth sprouts those who rise, and heaven, unlocked, receives those who ascend. Indeed, the thief ascends into paradise; the bodies of the saints enter the holy city; the dead return to the living; and by a kind of advance in Christ's resurrection all the elements raise themselves to higher things. The underworld gives back to those above those it holds; the earth sends to heaven those it buried; heaven presents to the Lord those it receives; and by one and the same working the Saviour's passion lifts up from the depths, raises from earthly things, and places on high. For the resurrection of Christ is life to the dead, pardon to sinners, glory to the saints. Holy David, then, invites all creation to the festival of Christ's resurrection; for he says we must exult and rejoice on this day which the Lord has made. But someone says: if we are to give thanks on a day, surely those are to give thanks whom the day itself embraces; but heaven and the underworld are placed outside the day of this world; how, then, can those elements be called to the festival of this day, by whose circuit they are not held? But this day which the Lord has made penetrates all things, contains everything, embraces heaven and earth and the underworld. For the light, Christ, is not blocked by walls, not divided by elements, not darkened by shadows. The light of Christ, I say, is a day without night, a day without end; everywhere it shines, everywhere it radiates, everywhere it does not fail. That this day is Christ the Apostle says: “The night has passed, the day has drawn near.” “The night has passed,” he says; it does not follow; so that you may understand that, when Christ's light comes, both the devil's darkness is put to flight and the obscurities of sins do not follow, and by unbroken splendor the past darkness is driven away and stealthy offenses are prevented. For that this day, Christ, lights up heaven, earth, and the underworld, Scripture testifies. That he shines on the earth, John says: “He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world.” That he shines in the underworld, the prophet says: “Those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, a light has risen for them.” That this day remains in heaven, David relates, saying: “I will establish his seed for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” And what is the day of heaven but Christ? Of whom it is said through the prophet: “Day to day utters the Word.” For the Son is the day, to whom the Father, the day, utters the secret of his divinity. He, I say, is the day who says through Solomon: “I made an unfailing day to rise in heaven.” As, then, no night at all follows the day of heaven, so the darkness of sins does not follow the righteousness of Christ; for the day of heaven always shines, gleams, and glows, and cannot be shut in by any obscurity; so the light of Christ always flashes, radiates, and sparkles, and cannot be overcome by any gloom of offenses. Hence the evangelist John says: “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” In the resurrection of Christ, then, all the elements glory; for I think that even the sun itself is brighter on this day than usual; for the sun must rejoice in the resurrection of him in whose passion it grieved; and him whose death it attended with a mournful gloom, it must receive in his life with the splendor of a brighter light; and like a good servant, as it was then darkened for the rites of burial, so now it must flash in service of the resurrection. For in Christ's passion it wrapped itself in the night of darkness and groaned at the crime of the Jews with the world as witness: for it is a kind of judgment of grief in the sun to have refused the office of light to so great a crime, and as a kind of vengeance to have poured darkness on the eyes of the Jews; so that blindness took hold of the eyes of those whose minds blindness had invaded, and the light of the world did not shine for those by whom the light of salvation had been extinguished. So a kind of condemnation is brought on the Pharisees, that they suffer already among the living the darkness promised to sinners on the day of judgment. Among those above, then, while he was crucified, darkness lingers: what wonder if there is darkness among those above, when the light goes down to the underworld? So, brothers, we must all exult on this holy day: let no one withdraw from the common joy through consciousness of sins; let no one be called back from the public prayers by the burden of offenses. For though a sinner, one must not despair of indulgence on this day; for it is no small privilege; for if the thief earned paradise, why should a Christian not earn pardon? And if the Lord had mercy on him when he was crucified, much more will he have mercy on this one when he rises; and if the humility of the passion gave so much to one confessing, how much will the glory of the resurrection give to one who entreats? For, as you yourselves know, a glad victory is usually more generous in giving than a captivity that has been sentenced.

God has granted us, brothers, a great and wonderful gift, this saving day of Easter, on which the Lord, rising, gave resurrection to all; and climbing from the depths to the heights, lifted us too in his body from lower to higher things. For according to the Apostle all we Christians are the body of Christ and its members; so when Christ rose, all his inward parts necessarily rose with him. For while he passes from the underworld to those above, he has made us pass from death to life. For in Hebrew Pascha means passage or departure, because through this mystery one passes from worse to better things. It is a good passage to pass from sins to righteousness, from vices to virtues, from old age to infancy: infancy, I mean, not of age but of simplicity; for merits too have their ages. For before, we were set in decline by the old age of sins; at Christ's rising we were renewed in the innocence of little children. Christian simplicity has its infancy too: for as an infant does not know how to be angry, does not know how to cheat, does not dare to strike back, so the infancy of Christianity is not angry with those who hurt it, does not resist those who rob it, does not fight back against those who beat it. Indeed, as the Lord commanded, it even prays for its enemies, leaves its cloak too to those who take its tunic, and offers the other cheek to those who strike it; except that in this the infancy of Christ is better than that of nature: the one does not know how to sin, the other scorns to; the one is harmless through weakness, the other innocent through virtue. And so it is the more to be counted for praise, not so much to be unable to do evil as to be unwilling. So, as we have said, there are certain ages of merits; for both an old age of conduct is found in boys and the innocence of infants is found in old men. Indeed, that there is a certain old age of honor in the young the prophet says: “For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor reckoned by the number of years; but understanding is a man's gray hair.” And to the apostles, already older and advanced in years, the Lord says: “Unless you are converted and become like this child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” So he calls them back to the source of their origin and compels them to return backward to infancy, so that those who had grown old in their frail bodies might be reborn in the conduct of innocence, as the Saviour says: “Unless one is reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he will not enter the kingdom of God.” So it is said to the apostles: “Unless you are converted and become like this child.” He does not say “like these children,” but “like this child”: he chooses one, sets forth one. Let us see, then, who this great one is who is set before the disciples to imitate. I do not think he is one of the people, one from the public, one of the multitude of others, especially as he gave through the apostles an example of holiness to the whole world; I do not think, I say, that he is from the public, but from heaven. For he is the child from heaven of whom the prophet Isaiah says: “A child is born to us, a son is given to us.” He is plainly the child who, as an innocent, when he was cursed did not curse in return, when he was struck did not strike back; rather, in his very passion he prayed for his enemies, saying: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” So the Lord heaped up the simplicity which nature gives to infants with the goodness of mercy. This, then, is the child who is set before the little ones to imitate and follow; for he himself says: “Take up your cross and follow me.”

Your holiness remembers, brothers, that I preached very recently that man is re-formed into a younger age through righteousness, and, though worn with old age, is reborn into a boy in the conduct of innocence; so that by the intervention of the mystery we see infants again from old men. For it is a kind of renewal to cease being what you were and to take up what you had not been before; it is a renewal, I say, which is why they are also called neophytes, because by a kind of newness they have cast off the stains of oldness and taken up the grace of simplicity, as the Apostle says: “Putting off the old man with his deeds, put on the new, which is created according to God.” Hence holy David also says: “Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's,” understanding that through the grace of baptism what was declining in our life can revive, and what had collapsed in us through the oldness of offenses can be renewed by a kind of youth. And so that you may understand that the prophet is speaking of the grace of baptism, he compared this renewal to the eagle, a bird said to live a long time by constant change of its covering, and, when its old feathers are worn out, to grow young again by a new succession of feathers: so that, laying aside the cast-off skin of age, it clothes itself in a revived birth of garments. From this we understand that it is not the eagle's limbs that feel old age but its feathers. So it clothes itself anew, and with its feathers sprouting the old mother is renewed into a chick. For she is to be compared to chicks when, with her feathers gleaming, she must again practice a clumsy flight and, like a young bird, hold back lazily within the nest the long-practiced oarage of her wings; though she knows how to fly from habit, yet she lacks confidence from the thinness of her feathers. Of the grace of baptism, then, the holy psalmist prophesied this. For our neophytes, newly baptized, like eagles laying aside the cast-off skins of oldness, have put on the new garments of holiness, and, as their old stains wear out like light feathers, they are adorned with the revived grace of immortality: so that in these old men the declining sins have grown old, but life has not grown old; as the eagle into a chick, so they have been called back into infancy. They have knowledge of the world from their way of life, but they have the security of righteousness from their restoration. Let us look still more carefully at what holy David says; for he does not say, “will be renewed like the eagles',” but “like the eagle's, your youth.” He asserts, then, that the youth of one eagle is to be renewed in us; and I would rightly call that one and only eagle Christ the Lord, whose youth was renewed when he rose from the dead: for laying aside the cast-off skin of mortal corruption he flowered again with a revived taking up of the flesh, as he himself says through the prophet: “And my flesh has flowered again, and from my will I will confess him.” “My flesh,” he says, “has flowered again.” See what word he used; he does not say “flowered” but “flowered again”: for nothing flowers again unless it flowered before. The Lord's flesh flowered when it first came forth from the inviolate womb of the Virgin Mary, as Isaiah says: “A rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will rise from his root.” It flowered again when, the flower of his body having been cut down by the Jews, it sprouted again from the tomb with the glory of the resurrection, and like a flower breathed on all men alike the fragrance and the brightness of immortality: carrying round the sweetness of good works as fragrance, and showing as brightness the incorruption of everlasting divinity.

Not unfittingly, brothers, as you remember, our preaching some days ago went forward, in which we described how the Lord's flesh sprouted from the tomb, revived as in the brightness of a flower; and the evangelist testified that the tomb was set in a garden; hence we did not speak unsuitably. For it was fitting that the more precious flower should be born in a garden, and that the seed of good fruit, entrusted to the soil, should within a domestic enclosure, yet green, sprout the salvation of all. For the resurrection of Christ is the redemption of all peoples. So in a garden the Saviour takes up his revived body, and among flowering trees and gleaming lilies he flowers again in his flesh that had died, and so sprouts from the tomb that he finds everything sprouting and shining. For after what is in a way the cold burial of winter's stiffness, all the elements hastened to sprout, so that, when the Lord rose, they too might rise. For certainly from the resurrection of Christ the air is healthier, the sun brighter, the earth more fruitful; from it the shoot grows into a bush, the blade grows into a crop, the vine puts forth its branch. If, then, when Christ's flesh flowers again all things are clothed with flowers, then necessarily when he bears fruit everything bears fruit too, as the same Lord says: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The Lord flowered again, then, when he rose from the tomb; he bears fruit when he ascends to heaven. He is a flower when he is born from the lower parts of the earth; he is fruit when he is stored in the highest seat. He is a grain, as he himself says, when he suffers the cross alone; he is fruit when he is surrounded by the faith of many apostles. For having spent forty days with his disciples after the resurrection, he taught them with all the ripeness of wisdom and turned them to good fruit with all the fruitfulness of instruction. Then he ascended to heaven, bringing, that is, the fruit of the flesh before the Father, leaving the seeds of righteousness in the disciples. So the Lord ascended to the Father. Your holiness remembers that I compared the Saviour to that eagle of the psalter whose renewed youth we read of; for the likeness is not small: for as the eagle leaves low things, seeks high ones, and climbs to the neighborhood of the heavens, so the Saviour left the low places of the underworld, sought the heights of paradise, and penetrated the summits of the heavens; and as the eagle, leaving earthly filth behind and flying aloft, enjoys the healthfulness of purer air, so the Lord, leaving the dregs of earthly sins, flying among his saints, rejoices in the simplicity of a purer life. In everything, then, the comparison with the eagle suits the Saviour. But what shall we do with the fact that the eagle often snatches prey, often takes what belongs to another? Yet even in this the Saviour is not unlike: for he took prey, as it were, when he carried to heaven the man he had taken on, snatched from the jaws of the underworld; so that, having rescued from captivity the slave of another's dominion, that is, of the devil's power, he led him captive to the heights, as is written in the prophet: “Ascending on high he led captivity captive; he gave good things to men.” This sentence is surely to be understood thus: that the Lord, by rescuing the captivity of the man whom the devil had taken captive for himself, took it captive for himself, and carried that very captivity, as he says, captured, to the heights of heaven. Both captivities are called by one word, but they are not equal: for the devil's captivity subjects to slavery, but Christ's captivity restores to freedom. “He ascended,” it says, “on high; he led captivity captive.” How well the prophet describes the Lord's triumph! The procession of captives, they say, used to go before the chariots of triumphing kings: see, the glorious captivity does not go before the Lord as he goes to heaven but accompanies him; it is not led before the vehicle but itself carries the Saviour up. For by a certain mystery, while the Son of God carried the son of man to heaven, the captivity itself is carried and carries. And when he says, “He gave gifts to men,” this is the mark of a victor; for after a triumph the victor always bestows gifts, and, sitting in his own kingdom, rewards the joys of his servants. So Christ the Lord, after the triumph over the devil, sitting at the Father's right hand, bestowed gifts on his disciples on this day, not talents of gold nor pieces of silver, but the heavenly gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that among other graces the apostles also spoke in various tongues: that is, so that a man of the Hebrew nation might thunder Christ's glory with the eloquence of Roman fluency, and foreign ears, which could not grasp the redemption of the human race when the Jewish tongue preached it, might recognize it in their own speech. Every tongue is loosened in the preaching of Christ, so that every speech may confess his majesty, as holy David says: “There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard.” And do not marvel that we said the Son sits at the Father's right hand; for he sits at the right hand, not because he is greater than the Father, but lest he be believed less, as the heretics are accustomed to blaspheme; for as the Godhead knows no grade of honor, so holy Scripture knows how to meet blasphemies.

Your holiness ought to know, brothers, why we keep this holy day of Pentecost, or why for the number of these fifty days we have a continuous and unbroken festival, so that during all this time we neither proclaim fasts to be kept nor fall on our knees to entreat God, but, as we usually do on Sunday, we celebrate the Lord's resurrection standing and on holiday. Sunday is venerable and solemn to us because on it the Saviour, like the rising sun, scattering the darkness of the underworld, shone out with the light of the resurrection; and for that reason the people of the world call this day the day of the sun, because Christ, the sun of righteousness, having risen, illuminates it. Like Sunday, then, the whole course of the fifty days is celebrated, and all these days are reckoned as Sundays. For the resurrection belongs to Sunday; for rising on Sunday the Saviour returned to men; and after the resurrection he stayed with men through the whole fifty days. It was necessary, then, that the festival of those days should be equal whose holiness was equal. For the Lord so arranged it that, as we grieve at his passion in the fasts of Lent, so we should rejoice at his resurrection in the holidays of the fifty days. We do not fast, then, during the fifty days, because in these days the Lord stays with us; we do not fast, I say, while the Lord is present, because he himself says: “Can the sons of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?” For why should the body abstain from food when the soul is fattened by the presence of the Lord? He cannot be fasting who is refreshed by the grace of the Saviour. For the company of Christ is in a way the food of the Christian. So we are refreshed in the fifty days while the Lord lives with us. But when after these days he ascended to heaven, we fast again, as the same Saviour says: “But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” For when Christ ascended to heaven he is taken from our sight; we suffer hunger, not of the body but of love; and we labor not so much with fasting from food as with longing. For our eyes bear a kind of longing while they do not see him whom they seek, as the prophet says: “My eyes have failed while I hope in my God.” The prophet's eyes failed because he did not yet see him whom he hoped to see; so the apostles' eyes failed when they could not watch the Lord going to heaven, as Luke says: “And as they watched he was lifted up, and a cloud received him from their eyes.” For the blessed apostles stood, their whole bodies straining, and followed with their eyes the Lord ascending to heaven, since they could not with the steps of their feet; and though human sight failed to escort the Saviour, the devotion of faith did not fail; for they escort Christ as far as the cloud, but as far as the heavens they accompany Christ by the devotion of faith. Hence the Apostle, knowing that our faith is in heaven with the Lord, says: “But our citizenship is in heaven.” So a cloud received the Saviour from the apostles' eyes. Let us see, then, what this cloud is, how bright, how splendid, that it deserves to receive Christ, the light of the world. For it could not be dark and gloomy or shadowy, because it is written: “And the darkness has not overcome it.” For darkness could not carry the light; for that cloud which received the ascending Christ is the one which also bore witness to Christ on the mountain, of which the evangelist says: “A voice was heard in the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son; hear him.” So it was not a cloud that received Christ, but God the Father received the Son, and, meeting him in love, embraced him as he ascended in a softer bosom. For the Father is said to receive the Son in the shade of a cloud to show that with a kind of refreshment he soothes the wounds of his passion. For after the cross, after the injuries, after the underworld, there is no greater refreshment for Christ than to be overshadowed by the power of the Godhead, as is said to Mary at his birth: “And the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” So the Father Most High, who overshadowed Mary in power when Christ was born, received him in a cloud as he ascended; for God always protects with the shade of a cloud those whom he leads to rest after injuries, as he protected the sons of Israel, freed from Egypt, with the pillar of cloud, and, to bring them after much labor into the land of promise, soothed them with the shade of refreshment, as the prophet says: “He spread out a cloud to protect them.” He spread out a cloud lest they be parched by the dryness of the desert and the heat of the sun. Let us rejoice, then, on this holy day, as we rejoiced at Easter; for on both days there is a like and the same solemnity; for at Easter all nations are usually baptized, but at Pentecost the apostles were baptized, as the Lord said to his disciples when about to ascend to heaven: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, whom you will receive not many days from now.” And so Luke says: “When the days of Pentecost were fulfilled, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind coming, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”

I believe you know, brothers, the reason why we celebrate this venerable day of Pentecost with no less joy than we kept holy Easter, and why we run through the observance of this feast with the same devotion with which we fulfilled the services of that festival. For then, as we have done now, we fasted on Saturday, celebrated vigils, and persisted in prayers through the night; hence a like observance must be followed by a like joy. The joy is plainly very similar: for then we received the Saviour rising from the underworld; now we await the Holy Spirit from heaven; then, anxious and careful, we proclaimed his coming; now, trembling and fasting, we long for the coming of the Paraclete; for in all things God has provided for human salvation: then the Saviour opened the underworld for us to rise; now the Paraclete has unlocked heaven for us to reign; and as by certain steps of progress, then we learned to come back from death to life; now we practice ascending from earth to heaven. All this Christ the Lord works in us, who before returning to heaven promised his disciples, saying: “When I have ascended, I will ask my Father, and he will send you another Paraclete, to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth.” Hence we must believe that Christ has reached the Father when we see that the Paraclete has come down to the apostles. We must believe, I say, as David says of the Saviour, that he sits at God's right hand, because we see the Holy Spirit, as the Lord promised, exulting in the disciples. For the prophet of the psalms says: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand.” According to our custom a seat beside one is offered to him who, arriving after completing some work, earns for honor's sake to sit down. So too the man Jesus Christ, overcoming the devil by his passion and unlocking the underworld by his resurrection, arriving at heaven as a victor with his work completed, hears from God the Father: “Sit at my right hand.” Nor is it any wonder that a seat on one throne is offered to the Son by the Father, who is of one substance and nature with the Father. Why the Son is believed to be at the right hand may perhaps disturb someone. Though there is no grade of dignity where the fullness of the Godhead is, yet the Son sits at the right hand, not so that he is preferred to the Father, but lest he be believed inferior. And the Son is at the right hand because, according to the evangelist, the sheep will be placed at the right hand and the goats at the left. The first lamb, then, must take the side of the sheep, and the spotless leader must go ahead to secure a place for the spotless flock that will follow, as John says in the Apocalypse: “These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, who have not defiled themselves with women.” So the prophet David relates: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand”: that is, the Lord the Father offers the Lord God Christ the Son the lofty seat beside him on his throne, and for honor's sake sets him at his right hand on an eternal seat. But we read in the Acts of the Apostles that blessed Stephen said, as he was being stoned by the Jews: “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Let us see, then, why the same Lord is prophesied by David as sitting but proclaimed by Stephen as standing. First of all, how can God, who is incorporeal and invisible (for he is spirit, as the Lord says: “But God is spirit”), sit or stand? And then on what seat would God sit, who is infinite and immeasurable and rather contains all creation within himself? I think these things were said of the Lord by the holy men not because they are contrary to each other, but so that now his omnipotence, now his mercy, might be described. For he is said to sit by the power of a king, and suggested to stand by the goodness of an intercessor; for the blessed apostle says: “For we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.” Christ, then, is judge when he sits, advocate when he rises; plainly judge to the Jews, advocate to Christians: here, standing before the Father, he pleads the causes of Christians, though they sin; there he sits with the Father condemning the sins of the persecuting Pharisees; on those he takes vehement vengeance in indignation, on these he intervenes and gently has mercy; here he stands to receive the spirit of the martyr Stephen; there he sits to condemn the crime of Judas the traitor.

The festival of our prayers, dearest ones, must now be known to your holiness. For from the celebration itself we learn what we keep and why. For when the past feast turns again in its footsteps, we become more learned as we celebrate it more often. Today, then, we keep Pentecost, that is, the fiftieth day from the Lord's resurrection; not that on this day, as many think, the Saviour ascended to heaven. For after the resurrection he stayed with the apostles and on the fortieth day returned to the right hand of God the Father, as the evangelist Luke says: “To whom he also showed himself alive after his passion, appearing to them for forty days.” For a course of forty days, then, the Saviour showed his company to his disciples, so that we might rejoice in the grace of his resurrection for as many days as we had wept over the injuries of his passion, and be refreshed by his presence for as long a space of days as we fast in his absence. So it is not today that Christ ascended to heaven, but Christ's Spirit came down from heaven, as the Lord himself promised, saying: “When I have ascended to the Father, I will send you the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, and he will teach you all things.” A great grace indeed, a double joy: that we do not lose Christ as he departs, and we possess the Spirit as he comes. For him we hold by the merit of faith, this one by the approach of sanctification. “When I have gone,” he says, “to the Father, I will send you the Paraclete.” For we believe that the Son has reached the Father when we see that the Paraclete has come down to the apostles. For we believe that he reigns in heaven whom we see giving holy gifts on earth, as is written through the prophet: “Ascending on high he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men.” The victor surely rewards, the victor bestows gifts; hence the Saviour too, the victor over the devil, after his triumph enriched with a blessing the disciples whom he had freed from captivity. He freed us when by himself he closed the underworld for us to rise; he enriched us when through the Paraclete he unlocked heaven for us to reign. And as by certain steps of progress, then we learned to come back from death to life; now we are taught to ascend from earth to heaven, as it is written: “He will teach you all things.” What does the Holy Spirit teach? Surely he knows how to teach what is holy. What does the Paraclete teach us? Surely what the Saviour says: “I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now; when that Spirit of truth comes, he will teach you all things.” The Paraclete is a good teacher, then, because he teaches what Christ kept back to be taught. For the Holy Spirit teaches what the Lord says he had to be taught. He is plainly a good teacher who carries out the Saviour's precepts. It must be, then, that he is of one substance and nature with Christ, since we see that he is of one teaching with Christ. And so, dearest ones, let us cleanse ourselves of all defilement of the flesh, so that we may be found worthy to receive the Holy Spirit. If we leave this world, we shall receive, like the apostles, the same Paraclete, that is, the Spirit of truth whom the Father will send you; for there is no respect of persons with God the Father; but the promises already made to the apostles profit us if we perform the works, desires, and acts that the apostles did. And if, by fulfilling the law of the Lord, which is spotless and converts souls, we carry out his commandments, we commit ourselves, with the grace of Christ, as heirs of the Lord and co-heirs of Christ, to the everlasting inheritance and the company of the angels; which may he deign to grant, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles which has been read to us today, dearest brothers, while it has very much to admire on its surface, contains no less dignity in its mystery: “Behold,” says blessed Stephen, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the power of God.” Consider more attentively, dearest brothers, why the blessed martyr, when he had seen our Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father, testified that he saw the Son of Man and not rather the Son of God, since he would surely seem to pay the Lord more honor if he had said that he saw the Son of God rather than of man. But a sure reason required that it be shown so in heaven and proclaimed so in the world; for the whole stumbling block of the Jews was this: why our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the flesh is the Son of Man, should also be called the Son of God. That is why divine Scripture beautifully recorded that the Son of Man stood at the right hand of God the Father: so that, to confound the unbelief of the Jews, he might be shown to the martyr in heaven, since he was denied by the unbelievers in the world, and heavenly truth might give testimony to him whom earthly impiety had refused faith. Hence, though according to the psalm which was read, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” yet if there can be any difference among martyrs, he seems to be the chief who is the first. For though holy Stephen was ordained a deacon by the apostles, he went before the apostles themselves by a blessed and triumphant death; and so he who was lower in order became first in suffering, and he who was a disciple in rank began to be a master in martyrdom, fulfilling what the blessed prophet said in the psalm: “What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me?” For the martyr Stephen wished to be the first to render to the Lord what he had received from the Lord with the whole human race; for the death which the Saviour deigned to suffer for all, he first rendered to the Saviour. After this sacred Scripture added: “Kneeling down, he cried out, saying: Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” See, dearest brothers, the disposition of the blessed man; see his great and admirable love. He was placed in persecution, and he was praying for his persecutors; and in that downpour of stones, when another might have forgotten even his dearest, he commended his enemies to the Lord. For what did he say while he was being stoned? “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” So he grieved more then for their sins than for his wounds, more for their impiety than for his death; and rightly more. For in their iniquity there was much to be lamented, but in his death there was nothing that ought to have been grieved; eternal death followed their impiety, but everlasting life followed his death. Let us imitate, then, in some measure, dearest brothers, the faith of so great a master, the love of so illustrious a martyr; let us love our brothers in the Church with the same spirit with which he then loved his enemies. But what is worse, sometimes we not only do not love our enemies, we do not even keep full faith with our friends. But someone says: I cannot love my enemy, whom I suffer daily as a most cruel foe. O whoever you are, you attend to what a man has done to you, and do not consider what you have done to God; for since you have committed far graver sins against God, why do you not forgive a man a little, so that God may deign to forgive you much? Recall what the Truth himself has promised you in the Gospel, and what sort of bond he has, as it were, made with you, or what pact he has entered into: “For if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive your debts.” You see, brothers, that, with God's grace, how we are to be judged by the Lord has been placed in our power. “If you forgive,” he says, “you will be forgiven.” I have often said, brothers, and must say often, let no one deceive himself, let no one lead himself astray: whoever holds even one man in hatred in this world loses all that he has offered to God in good works, for the apostle Paul does not lie when he says: “If I give all my goods to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Blessed John also confirms this, saying: “Everyone who does not love his brother remains in death.” And again: “He who hates his brother is a murderer.” In this passage every man must be understood as a brother; we are all brothers in Christ. So let no one without love presume on his virginity, no one on his almsgiving, no one trust in his prayers; for as long as he holds enmity in his heart, he will not be able to appease the Lord either by these or by any other good works. But if he wishes to have God propitious to him, let him not disdain to hear good counsel; let him hear not me but his Lord himself: “If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” But we, with fights within and turning over tricks in our hearts, presume to approach the altar as if we had a good conscience, not fearing what is written: “Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself.” But someone says: it is a great labor to love enemies, to pray for persecutors. We do not deny it, brothers; it is no small labor in this world, but the reward will be great in the future; for by the love of one man, an enemy, you will become a friend of God; indeed not only a friend but also a son, as the Lord himself says: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” If some rich man in this world wished to make you his adopted son, how you would serve him! What indignities even from his servants, what hardest and sometimes even most shameful services you would endure, to come to his perishable and fragile inheritance! What another would endure, then, for earthly wealth, you endure for eternal life. For we are convicted by most certain reasoning that we can bear injuries for God's sake, but will not. Indeed, if some powerful person does us an injury, if he even curses us to our face, we dare not answer anything harsh, not to say repay in kind; why? Lest we suffer from that powerful person even greater things than we have suffered. What fear of a man wrings from us, the love of Christ ought to have demanded. If, then, a powerful person rages against us, we are silent and dare say nothing; but if an equal, or perhaps an inferior, does us even a slight insult, we rise up like a wild beast without any patience and without any regard for God, and either avenge our injury on the spot or certainly prepare our mind to pay back a greater one. What is this, that when a powerful person did us injury we took it patiently, and when an inferior, we are inflamed with excessive rage? We feared a man there, and here we will not fear God. Therefore, brothers, as far as we can, with God's help, let us prepare our heart for patience, and let us try to act like physicians toward all evil men, hating not the men themselves but their malice; let us pray for the good, that they may always climb to better things; for the wicked, that they may quickly take refuge in amendment of life through the laments of repentance; which may he deign to grant to us as we pray, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The ending of the present life, dearest brothers, and the passion they underwent for the name of Christ, have hallowed for us the feasts of various martyrs. For we have learned from the manifold account of the ancients that some martyrs were struck down by the sword, others burned by fire, many torn by the teeth of beasts, and countless others, afflicted with various tortures, despising the death of their body, bore witness to the Christian faith. But blessed John the Baptist, in whose feast we now rejoice, was born today from a barren womb and brought heavenly joys into the world. Those confessed the Son of God, already reigning in undoubted glory; but this man, by the illumination of the prophetic Spirit, both foresaw the Lord who was to be born and showed him when born by the privilege of a singular grace. So special an election shone forth in him that he earned the right to announce the Lord before he received the beginning of birth or a tongue with which to speak. Indeed Elizabeth, that old woman and new mother, who before giving birth was rejoicing in the office of her future son, said to blessed Mary as she came to her, at the very moment of greeting: “Behold, as soon as the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy.” What miracle is this, brothers, what newness of such great joys, that Elizabeth testified she had in her womb an infant who, not yet aware of himself, already sensed the Lord's coming? Truly this is the most blessed of all little ones, who, still shut within his mother's womb, revealed with prophetic joy that the Saviour of the world was present, since he could not then do so by speech. No one is unaware, dearest ones, that every little one coming from the mother's womb cries with sad wails at the very beginning of the light; only the Lord's Baptist, beyond the law of those who are born, anticipated his birth with the exultation of joy. And how fitting it was, brothers, that he should be born of a barren mother who revealed the fruitfulness of a virgin, so that, wonderfully born, he might show forth a wonderful birth. And how astonishing and magnificent this too, that the priest Zechariah, father of the future prophet, because he did not believe the angel speaking of this very thing, lost the use of speech until, the promise fulfilled, the newborn herald of the new man loosed the bonds of his father's tongue. For the mouth which the angel had closed the son promised by the angel opened. For when the relatives and neighbors were uncertain about naming the child, the mute father, suddenly recovering his former power of speech, disclosed the proper true name that he had learned at the angel's dictation; so that, having silently awaited his birth by heavenly command, he spoke the name of the one born, and the anxious old man recognized that he was given back to himself through the one whom he had not believed would be born of him. Nor could he doubt any longer that he had been promised and born from heaven, on whose account he proved he had both lost and recovered speech. What, brothers, is more glorious than this religion? What more remarkable than this faith? In which the barren conceives, the mute speaks, and in the secret of a mother's womb little ones prelude the future joys of the whole world; for mortal nature could not keep its order under the old law when a new mystery was being prepared for the salvation of all through the new grace of the Godhead. This, then, is John, of whom Isaiah prophesied, saying: “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.” “The voice,” it says, “of one crying.” How well he is called a voice, who with glad full mouth cried out that the only-begotten of God was coming from heaven in human flesh! Rightly is he called a voice, at whose thundering proclamation mortality, long deaf, began to hear the sacrament of human redemption. For as the venerable Baptist opened the tongue of his mute father, so too he renewed for the ears of men the hearing of saving grace. He cries in the desert, where no insolent crowd would drown out his preaching nor unbelieving hearer laugh, but only those could hear who sought the preacher of the word of salvation with care for divine worship alone, and would perceive that he spoke truly of Christ, who, for the assertion of justice, to rebuke Herod's unlawful marriage, did not fear to offend the king, did not shun the squalor of prison, did not flee being killed by the tyrant's sword. Let us hear a little more, brothers, what the Saviour's messenger preached for the advancement of us all: “Prepare,” he says, “the way for the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.” Truly worthy was blessed John, whose birth was prophetic, who by God's gift was born of parents whose posterity was despaired of. For with such authority and weight of teaching he burst out in the voice of holy preaching, both to announce the Lord's imminent coming and to direct the crookedness of evil livers into straight paths. For what is “Prepare the way for the Lord” but to prepare, with a breast cleansed of vices, the dwelling of a simple heart for the Judge coming from heaven? What is “Make straight the paths of God” but to build for yourself such ways of your actions as the Lord, coming to you graciously, may delight to walk? He prepares the way for his Lord who, spitting out the pleasures of wanton flesh and with the whole spirit of his mind lifted up to God, girds himself with the vigor of chastity. He prepares the best way for the Lord who calms his thoughts, seething with the waves of avarice, with the tranquility of a serene conscience. He prepares the way for the Lord who, trampling on the vanities of idols and the fictions of all superstitions, seeks the one worship of the living God and the faith of truth. But whoever languishes in the voluptuous enticements of this world, is mad with the desires of burning avarice, blazes into hatred of his brothers with the savage jaws of envy, and to the insult of almighty God walks as a wandering traveler on the winding paths of demons, does not prepare a way for the Lord, but, wretched man, opens a deadly entrance into himself for his enemy. These morals and a life of this kind open wide roads and very broad ways for barbarian nations to the ruin of the common safety. These morals hand over God's people to hostile nations under the yoke of miserable captivity. These morals scatter armed peoples and pull down fortified cities. In short, dearest ones: whatever power, whatever strength we see in our enemies is nourished by the corruption of our life and by our unbelief; and that is why we obtain nothing by the prayer we pour out to God, because, clinging ceaselessly to impious and depraved desires, we do not prepare the way for our Lord according to the prophetic warnings. Therefore, returning to the precepts of most blessed John, let us prepare the way for the Lord and make straight the paths of our God; so that the Lord, seeing in us meanwhile the roads of good will, the most kind shepherd, may seek out his little sheep, already wearied by many dangers; so that, as today we rejoice in the birth of the Lord's Baptist, we may rejoice in our reconciliation with our God, to whom be honor and glory.

The remembrance of all the prophets, dearest brothers, is venerable. But blessed John the Baptist, whose own birthday is honored today, so far surpassed the glory of them all that he revealed by the testimony of present truth that the Lord Jesus, our Saviour, was not only to come but had already come and was dwelling with men; for when he saw him hastening to his baptism among the mixed crowds, he said, pointing him out as with his finger: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” How innocent is his life, or can we match by our devotion the merits of him who both first recognized and alone pointed out the coming of the heavenly Lamb! How wonderful to all is his proclamation, from whose mouth the world first heard its absolution! This, dearest ones, is the one of whom it was foretold by prophetic announcement: “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.” For he was to cry out, as he did cry out, so that, as the herald of salvation shouted, heavenly preaching might open the long-stopped ears of mortals. Who, then, would not receive such a prophet with full admiration, whom he recognizes to have obtained so much from God that his merits were praised before his birth was formed? This one, then, was promised by an angel through the care of almighty God to the most righteous priest Zechariah, when he was far advanced in age and had despaired of the succession of the offspring he prayed for because of his very aged wife's barrenness. And fittingly a new son is given to very aged parents, who was to show the only-begotten of God to an aging and declining world, for the hope of a future youth. And how much astonishment there is in this: that Zechariah himself, believing somewhat slowly that the forerunner of the saving Word would be conceived in an aged womb, was struck dumb by the silence of sudden speechlessness, and would not have recovered his former use of speech had not the name by which the boy was to be called loosed the bonds of his closed mouth! And so it came about that the merit of the newborn son freed the priestly mouth which the trepidation of doubt had bound, and the father's restored tongue bore witness to the infant's glory. What shall I say of the strength of his self-restraint, of his love of justice, to whom, as we read, his food was not to be imitated and truth was dearer than light itself? For living in the desert, having a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt about his loins, he ate locusts and wild honey; so that, being about to rebuke men's evils, he might have no pleasure at all either in clothing or in food. Indeed, such zeal for the divine law possessed his mind that he both rebuked the depravity of a faithless generation with prophetic vigor and, by the authority of the Holy Spirit burning in him, fearlessly rebuked an erring king; and that most blessed man preferred to fall under the sword of a raging man in proclaiming justice rather than keep silent about the truth, he who had come to manifest its author. Amen.

The festival of the present day, dearest brothers, has been hallowed by the very birth of the venerable John the Baptist, who was sent into this world by heavenly dispensation not only that he himself might be exalted with prophetic glory, but also that through him the proclamations of all the prophets might be confirmed. Not undeservedly do we now venerate him with special honor, who by a special grace prophesied the Redeemer of the world last of all so that he might show him first. For he alone of the prophets was found worthy to see with his own eyes and announce as present our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the others foreknew would come after long ages; for, as the most holy Gospel relates, when the Lord came to his baptism he burst out in these words: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” For this reason the Saviour himself said of him to the crowds: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A prophet? I tell you, and more than a prophet.” He is truly more than a prophet, since all the others were heralds of a Christ still to come, but this most approved man came as the witness of a present Lord. He is more than a prophet, to whose hands, as was granted to none of the prophets, the Son of God bowed himself to be baptized. He is more than a prophet, whose privilege of merits was so great that at one and the same moment he dipped the judge of heaven and earth, submerged in the waters, in the Jordan, saw the Holy Spirit coming in a dove, and heard from heaven the voice of the Father bearing witness. This is he whom Isaiah, foreknowing by God's inspiration, announces, saying: “The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.” How fittingly, dearest brothers, was blessed John proclaimed a voice, who was sent both as herald and as witness of the heavenly Word! This is he whose birth, name, and merit were foretold by the angel Gabriel. This is he too who by the judgment of the heavenly sentence is set above all mortals, as the Lord says: “There has not risen among those born of women anyone greater than John the Baptist.” How beautifully it is said that among those born of women none is greater than John; for he was in every way greater who was born of a virgin. This is he too who preferred to be struck down by a king rather than not rebuke the king when he sinned. Having considered these things, notice, beloved, how much reverence, how much devotion we ought to pay him, who, to be honored, was prophesied by the Holy Spirit, promised by an angel, praised by the Lord, and consecrated by the perpetual glory of a holy death. For it was fitting that a wonderful life should follow his mystical birth, and that a death devoted to God should close his holy and perfect life. For this reason, brothers, the Church of Christ throughout the whole world today celebrates with most joyful festival the beginnings of his birth, who, as a most faithful witness, revealed to an astonished world that eternal joys were present for mortals.

In honoring with annual feasts the most glorious leaders of the Christian faith, dearest brothers, we venerate with due religion our Lord and God himself, who is the author of this faith. For “apostles” in the Latin tongue are called “sent ones”; it is plain, then, that those who honor the ones sent honor the one who sends them, since the dignity paid to the ministers is without doubt shown to him whose ministers they are, as the Saviour himself says to his disciples: “He who hears you hears me, and he who receives you receives me.” Truly blessed are the merits of the apostles, in whom Christ declares that he himself is received and heard. Blessed too are those whose devotion, paid to the apostles, returns to Christ. Holding, then, brothers, the faith of so great a promise, let us exult with faithful joys over the sufferings our fathers underwent for confessing Christ; for he who rejoices over the death of the martyrs does not doubt that the martyrs reign with Christ after death. Let us honor with most devoted zeal the most reverend fathers of all the churches, Peter, I mean, and Paul, for whom, by the grace of Christ, their death today became a birthday, for whom the end of life gave the beginning of living; for whom, as the apostle Paul says, “to live was Christ, and to die gain.” To live was surely Christ for them, for whom there was no life without Christ. To live was Christ for them, because all that they lived profited Christ's churches. And to die was gain for them, who by such a death bought themselves eternal life. To die was gain for them, whose corruption was followed by incorruption, and the losses of the present time by perpetual gains. But now, dearest ones, I think it necessary to speak of their own special virtues, as far as the dryness of my tongue and the slenderness of my talent allow, or rather as the merciful God grants. This, then, is that Peter who, by confessing that Christ the Lord is the Son of the living God, laid for us the strongest and unconquered foundations of believing. For when the Lord asked who men said he was, he answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”: that is, you, Lord, were made Christ from the flesh of a virgin, who are the everlasting Son of the living God; you, Lord, were born a man from men, who in unthinkable majesty are God with God; you are the Christ, who, coming to the passion for our redemption, remain impassible with the Father. Who, then, could ever have raised the gaze of human sense to so great a secret of incomprehensible Deity, had not the truth of this saving faith shone forth from Peter's mouth? Who could equal, even with great eloquence, the glory of his merits, from whom the faith of the adorable divinity both began for us and endures? What is more glorious than so great a man, who brought forth the faith of the inscrutable secret by speaking, taught it by living, confirmed it by suffering? And to show how great the magnitude of this confession was, the Saviour said to him: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven; and to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Who, then, could have perceived that Christ, through the flesh and born in the flesh, is the Son of the almighty Father, had not the Father himself graciously revealed it to us from heaven through Peter? This confession gave him to receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven before he entered the gates of heaven. But lest any earthly thought, brothers, disturb you about the keys of the kingdom entrusted to Peter, after the manner of our keys: the key of heaven is Peter's tongue, because by assessing the merits of each, the apostle closes or opens the kingdom of heaven to each. So this key is not fitted by the hand of a mortal craftsman, but is the power of judging given by Christ. Indeed he says to them: “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; and whose you retain, they are retained.” This is Peter, whom the seas, subjected to his feet, proved to be most confident in Christ; for he asked as a faithful man, and earned as a beloved one, that new steps on the waves be given him by his Lord; and he seemed to tremble only so that human frailty might recognize how great the distance is between the Lord and the servant, since flesh weighed down by sins sinks, but the foot of the spotless one does not know how to sink. Likewise, so that Peter, walking on the waters with fearless foot and reaching Christ, should not perhaps be made equal to the powers of his Lord. But why do we say he trembled so greatly, since his small trembling profits him toward a greater faith? For as Peter believed that at his Lord's command he could be upheld by the waves, so too, while sinking, he believed that he would be saved by the power of the same Lord. Truly wonderful is the faith of blessed Peter even when he trembles, for not even the fear of pressing danger could disturb it; for by crying out as he sinks, “Lord, save me,” he distrusted himself, not doubted the Lord. Let no one, then, count this fear of most glorious Peter as a fault: for this fear, though it disturbed his first faith, yet adorned in him the confidence of a restored belief. This is Peter, to whom Christ the Lord gladly granted a share in his own name. For as, according to the apostle Paul's teaching, the rock was Christ, so through Christ Peter was made a rock, as the Lord says to him: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” For as in the desert water flowed from the rock for the Lord's thirsting people, so for the whole world, wearied by the dryness of unbelief, a fountain of saving confession sprang from Peter's mouth. This is Peter, to whom Christ, about to ascend to the Father, entrusted his sheep and lambs to be fed, so that those whom he had redeemed by the mercy of his love, this man might keep by the strength of his faith. And rightly the Son of God, the judge of hidden things, entrusted the sheep to be fed and guarded to him whom he knew lacked neither zeal nor faith in nourishing the Lord's flock. This is Peter who, when he was led to the cross as a disciple of the Crucified, asking to be crucified with his body reversed, did not fear the passion, but declined equality with the Lord's cross, to show all that he kept even amid torments the virtue of admirable humility and the discipline of the new mystery. How untroubled, dearest ones, did Peter go to the cross, who, driving away the fear of death, sought a manner of dying in so bitter a passion! And what shall I say of most glorious Paul, in whom the Lord chose the faith of his name while he was persecuting that very faith? While, like a fierce persecutor, he was laying waste the Christian Church, Christ found in that still hostile breast a heart friendly to himself; and while he was seizing Christians for temporal punishments, he himself was seized for perpetual grace, and suddenly became a shepherd from a wolf, a guardian from a robber, a defender from an enemy … neither Paul, with the purpose of a malicious mind, persecuting the Lord's [Church], nor was it hidden from Christ whom he was choosing in Paul. This is Paul who, called out by Christ's voice from heaven, his eyes in which Jewish unbelief had been dulled, did not lose the keenness of sight but changed it; he lost his eyes and received them back; so that at one and the same time the punishment of blindness went forth against the persecutor and the grace of the calling God enlightened the chosen one; for the Lord said to him from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” That is: why do you persecute me, Saul? What iniquity of mine has stirred your hatred against me? Is it because I gave light to the blind, because I healed the sick, because I drove out demons, because I fed hungry crowds with five loaves? Or because I raised the dead from their tombs? Or perhaps rather because I promised the heavenly kingdom to my faithful? But if you doubt that I can give what I promise, look, if you can, at the place from which I call you and how. But why do you persecute me, Saul? Or what will you gain by persecuting me? Will your persecution have any effect against one reigning in heaven? Can you harm me at all, whom you cannot see? For I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute, who have exchanged earth for heaven, the cross for a kingdom, death for everlasting life. Of all this your sight, taken from you now and soon given back, will persuade you that you must not doubt. And most blessed Paul, restrained by sudden blindness, yet understanding the majesty of the one speaking from heaven, at once became faithful, ceased from persecution, and acquired new eyes for beholding Christ. This is Paul who, in reward for his virtues beyond human merit, was caught up to the third heaven and learned heavenly secrets, so that the future teacher of the churches might learn among the angels what he would preach among men. Or who would not believe him, without punishment, who speaks of the Lord's sacraments not only what he has heard but testifies to what he has seen? By how great a grace of our God this was done, brothers, that he who was called to the apostolate from heaven had his apostolate consecrated in heaven! And after all, this is Paul, who most humbly submitted to be cut by the sword of the faithless, for Christ's honor, the neck which he had proudly raised against Christ's name; nor was he reluctant to die for him whom he had often proved to live and reign after death. And so it came about that Rome received most glorious Paul, who among various nations had fought countless battles for the faith of Christ in great struggle, to a triumph as the conqueror of the world. These, then, are the most blessed Peter and Paul, who, preaching with one spirit the sacrament of the heavenly kingdom, under the suffering of one day consecrated their teaching with their holy blood and a most courageous death; who also, made as it were the leaders of all the churches, by heavenly dispensation came to Rome and laid up their most sacred bodies in the citadel of that city which had obtained the leadership of the whole world; so that Christ, showing the power of his might, placed the leaders of his kingdom where the world had the head of its empire.

With the joy of the apostolic birthday of Peter and Paul, dearest brothers, whose most blessed sufferings we rejoice in today, the Church of Christ exults more gladly throughout the whole world; which, though it is sure that it is adorned by the martyrdom of all its saints, yet sees that the very fathers of the faith and teachers of the martyrs triumphed over this world. For what is more remarkable than Peter, who, placed in the flesh, went beyond the measure of the flesh and confessed Christ Jesus to be the true Son of the living God; and what still lay hidden in the breast of all mortals Peter's tongue first confessed in new speech? What, my brothers, is more magnificent than Peter, to whom, by the merit of so great a confession, while he was still in a corruptible body and had not yet himself ascended into heaven, it was granted to close and open the heavenly kingdom? What is loftier than his faith, who, when the Lord walked on the waters, forgetting the human condition, both asked and earned that a way be given him on the waves; and so great was the confidence of his mind that he believed he could do by faith what he knew was impossible for man by nature? That he afterward began to sink was necessary, it seems to me, lest the frailty of the flesh, made equal to Christ by the height of so great a miracle, should perhaps grow proud to its own ruin. It was certainly of bodily weakness that he feared a little later; yet who would doubt that it was of inimitable faith that the trembling wave of the sea, unshaken by human steps, upheld him as he came down from the boat? But now let us come to most blessed Paul, whose fullness of faith is no less, so that the Saviour, foreknowing all, chose him as in a way his own special leader to enlighten the hearts of the nations. For he was so outstanding in learning, so powerful in strength of mind, so holy in innocence and integrity, that at one and the same time the priests and leaders of the Jews, out of zeal for the old law, sent him with authority to persecute the Christians, and Christ called him from heaven for the comfort of the Church and the support of all believers; whose eyes were blinded by the Lord so that, having received the grace of truth, they might shine with heavenly keenness and a clearer light; and so that the future leader of the Christian name might notice that Christ, whom he was persecuting, had the power to blind and to enlighten. To pass over the other things that make him wonderful to the whole world, who could estimate the glory of that one thing, which suffices for all his praises: that while he lived among men, by a special grace of the Godhead, paradise was open to him and heaven passable? What, then, brothers, is more perfect than this teacher, who learned in heaven what he would teach on earth? What more truthful than this witness, who, his eyes raised above the heavens, was granted to see and approve what he would afterward promise to those who would believe? These, then, are the astonishing merits of the apostles Peter and Paul; advancing through these miracles, they consecrated their apostolate to our Lord and God by the shedding of their devoted blood.

The inseparable faith and twin passion of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, brothers, we must celebrate with all devotion, because a praiseworthy life brought them to a most glorious end, and a wonderful death passed them on to perpetual life. And though faith stands out in Peter and teaching excels in Paul, yet Paul's teaching is the fullness of faith, and Peter's belief is the foundation of teaching; and so great a condescension of heavenly election visited them that the one became a teacher from a fisherman, the other a defender from a persecutor. But in this the majesty of almighty God must be extolled, who by wonderful inspiration gave the grace of teaching to the unlearned, and made the enemy love what he had hated and assert the faith he was attacking. He did not take away the one's fishing but changed it; he blinded the other's eyes so that, receiving a purer light, he might see beyond human sight with the keenness of a most clear mind. How great, then, was Peter's merit with his God, that after the oars of a small boat the helm of the whole Church was handed to him? Or how greatly do we believe Paul pleased Christ in the ministry of his apostolate, when he could please him so much as a persecutor? For he pleased him because he was striving not with the zeal of a wicked breast but with the unwary devotion of simple ignorance. Indeed, as soon as the Spirit of truth was poured into his senses, he showed at once that he had not raged out of hatred for Christ but had erred innocently out of love for his fathers' law. What, then, shall I say of him above all, when he himself is his own most faithful witness? Not wishing to boast his own praises, and eager to proclaim Christ's majesty, he modestly confesses what was done in him. For he says, as if of someone else: “I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows, caught up thus. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows, that he was caught up into paradise and heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak.” What is more magnificent than this apostle, who, placed in the midst of mortals, was given to go above the heavens and allowed to return to earth? What is more blessed than this man, who among the secrets of paradise was found worthy to learn what neither a man's tongue could speak nor anyone deserve to hear? And since the things he taught are of such sublimity that the human mind cannot grasp them, how great do we think the glory of what he says he was not allowed to disclose? What shall I say of Peter, whose righteousness was so approved by God, and to whom such power of judging was given, that the heavenly judgment was placed in his decision? Consider, then, and judge how great the honor is with which the apostle Peter is to be revered by us, whose sentence pronounced on earth the equity of the everlasting Judge does not reject. And so attend carefully to the magnitude of his glory, to whom, while the keys of the eternal kingdom are entrusted, it was granted to close and open heaven. The venerable passion of these men, dearest ones, is celebrated today throughout the whole world; today Rome honors their martyrdom with most joyful throngs; and she who once impiously persecuted their blood now, devoted, glories in their special patronage.

The passion of the most blessed apostles, brothers, whose birthday we solemnly celebrate today, must be honored by all believers, since the Saviour of the world gave them to the human race as fathers and judges for the fullness of their righteousness and piety. How great their integrity and piety were may be seen above all from this: that he chose them for the amendment of a corrupt world and the ministry of his will, he whose choice did not deceive him. For he called Peter, poor in wealth, a fisherman by work, who, set apart from the common way of life and the society of cities, led a harmless life among the waves and sought his living from simplicity; yet I would call him poor in such a way that he did not lack sufficient means; for the rich wave of the abundant sea fed him, well deserving of God. So he was chosen for the preaching of the saving word, so that, his role changed by the mystery of a heavenly sacrament, he who was fed by catching fish might be fed by the salvation of men. Christ also called most glorious Paul from heaven to the faith of his name; who, in seeming to persecute the Church, did not rage with the impiety of an irreligious mind, but under the cloud of ignorance, not perceiving the new grace, erred out of love for the ancient devotion. That is why the gloom of the old shadow was wiped from his eyes, so that he might both acquire for himself and reveal to all that true light which flashed from heaven. He was blinded and enlightened by no other dispensation than that, his fleshly eyes being closed, spiritual sight might be formed in him for beholding the glory of God. The most faithful Peter too received these eyes, who, enlightened by the ray of the Holy Spirit, saw that Christ our Lord, placed in the flesh and hiding his divinity under the form of the man he had taken, was the Son of the living God; for when the Lord asked who men thought he was, he said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Who would not marvel that a fisherman uttered the fullness of an answer which, in the compass of a very short confession, disclosed both what the Lord had from the Father and what he had taken from his human birth? For “Christ” and “Son of the living God” contains the undivided sacrament of both natures, truly to be received by all; and a wonderful fisherman, who, while searching the depths of the sea, reached the highest secret of eternal majesty! These, then, are the pillars of the churches, Peter and Paul, whom a most holy life brought to a venerable death, and a glorious end made everlasting; whom we honor not only as martyrs but also venerate as teachers and fathers of martyrs, who founded the Church of God both by the doctrine of heavenly preaching and by the shedding of their holy blood.

Though all the most blessed apostles have equal grace of holiness with the Lord, yet somehow Peter and Paul seem to excel the others by a special power of faith; and we can prove this from the Lord's own judgment. For to Peter, as a good steward, he gave the keys of the heavenly kingdom; to Paul, as a fit teacher, he entrusted the teaching office of the Church's instruction; that is, so that those whom the one has instructed for salvation the other may receive into rest; so that for those whose hearts Paul opened by the teaching of words, Peter may open the kingdom of heaven to their souls. For Paul too in a way received from Christ the key of knowledge. For that must be called a key by which the hard hearts of sinners are unlocked to faith, the secrets of minds are laid open, and whatever is held shut within is brought out into the open by rational disclosure. A key, I say, which both opens the conscience to the confession of sin and shuts in grace for the eternity of the saving mystery. Both, then, received keys from the Lord: this one of knowledge, that one of power; that one dispenses the riches of immortality, this one bestows the treasures of knowledge; for there are treasures of knowledge, as it is written: “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” So blessed Peter and Paul stand out among all the apostles and excel by a special prerogative. But which of them is to be set above the other is uncertain. For I think they are equal in merits, because they are equal in passion; and that those lived with like devotion of faith whom we see to have come to the glory of martyrdom together; for let us not think it happened without cause that on one day, in one place, they endured the sentence of one tyrant. They suffered on one day, so that they might come to Christ together; in one place, lest Rome lack either; under one persecutor, so that equal cruelty might bind both. The day, then, I think, was appointed for their merit, the place for their glory, the persecutor for their virtue. And in what place, after all, did they suffer martyrdom? In the city of Rome, which holds the leadership and head of the nations; that is, so that where the head of superstition was, there the head of holiness might rest, and where the leaders of the pagans dwelt, there the leaders of the churches might die. Of what merit the most blessed Peter and Paul are we can understand from this: that, while the Lord enlightened the region of the East by his own passion, he deigned to enlighten the region of the West, lest it have anything less, by the blood of the apostles in his place; and though his passion is enough for our salvation, yet their martyrdom has been added as an example. On this day, then, the blessed apostles shed their blood. But let us see the reason why they suffered these things: namely, that among other wonders they also cast down that magician Simon from the void of the air in a headlong fall by their prayers. When this Simon said he was Christ, and asserted that, as a son to his father, he could ascend by flying, and, lifted up suddenly by magic arts, had begun to fly, then Peter, on bended knees, prayed to the Lord and by holy prayer conquered the magic levitation; for prayer ascended to the Lord before the flight did, and a just petition arrived before an unjust presumption; Peter, placed on earth, obtained what he asked before Simon reached in the heavens the place he was making for. Then Peter brought him down from the high air as if bound, and dashing him headlong on a stone broke his legs; and this to the disgrace of his deed, so that he who a little before had tried to fly suddenly could not walk, and he who had taken wings lost his feet. But lest it perhaps seem strange that this magician flew so long through the air in the apostle's presence, Peter's patience did it; for he let him ascend higher so that he might fall farther; he willed him to be raised on high in the sight of all, so that the eyes of all might see him fall from on high. This, then, is the exaltation of iniquity, to carry itself on high and lift itself aloft; but holy prayer humbles all pride and casts down all vanity.

Let us exult in the Lord, brothers, because today is the birthday of the most blessed Peter and Paul, and let us rejoice with spiritual gladness at the great solemnity of this day. For today that most blessed Peter, to whom for the merit of his faith the Lord gave that power of binding and loosing on earth, entered the serene heavens by the gibbet of the cross. Today Paul, that vessel of election and teacher of the nations, giving his most glorious head, obtained an immortal crown. The merits of the most illustrious apostles must have been equal, whose glorious confession for Christ in the unity of the true faith was equal. For if Peter is said to have been chosen to preach the grace of Christ to the Jews, Paul seems to have been ordained above the other apostles to teach the nations. Peter preaches the Gospel in Judea, where the seeds of faith had already been planted by our Lord himself. Paul sets before the nations as venerable the glory of the despised cross, which to them seemed a disgrace. Peter brought back the Jews, who had strayed from the womb, to the path of true salvation. Paul enlightens with heavenly wisdom the nations who did not know God. Peter softens the hardest neck of his brothers; Paul scatters the blind ignorance of the nations. So the most blessed apostles run throughout the whole world; to nations, kings, and the sons of Israel they preach the faith they received from Christ the Lord and confirm it by miracles. They were truly the salt of the earth, by which the souls of all believers are seasoned and kept inviolate from eternal corruption. Through the whole earth the spiritual stewards of eternal salvation pay out the price and pour out treasures of holiness, entirely equal in the merits of their works. For though Peter lived with Christ on earth, yet the same Christ called Paul from heaven while he was a raging persecutor of those who believed in him. The one received the Gospel from Christ while he was on earth; but while he sat blessed at the Father's right hand in heaven, Paul obtained from him the grace of preaching. Indeed, caught up even to heaven, he not only learned the Gospel which he had not heard, but also heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to speak. Peter, doubting, trod the unstable waves of the sea lest he should sink. But Paul was a night and a day in the deep of the sea, and the sea's waves did not shrink from the weight tossed on them, but, as if not daring to violate a sacred deposit, gave him back alive; because the wave, serving him, guarded him unharmed and kept him still safe for the peoples. The most blessed Peter and Paul, then, were equal in merits and equal in virtues. What wonder, then, if on one day, in the same place, they endured the impious death sentence of one tyrant too? For they suffered on one and the same day, so that both might come to Christ together; in one place, lest Rome, the spectator of the triumph, lack either; under one and the same persecutor, so that like cruelty might bind both; so that those whose preaching of the faith had always been one and the same might also have the same cause and occasion of death, and those who had received the same faith from Christ might earn for the same faith the palm of martyrdom. [The edition notes: ten lines are missing, the writing erased, and only the conclusion remains.] If, then, we honor the martyrs, we also venerate Christ in the martyrs; but if we despise the saints, we mock Christ, who is in the saints, as divine Truth itself says: “He who rejects you rejects me.” [Here it ends.]

It is holy, brothers, and pleasing to God that the birthday of blessed Lawrence should be venerated with special devotion, by whose radiant flames the victorious Church of Christ shines throughout the world even to this day; who, while he performed the office of deacon in the see of the most glorious patriarch, joined himself to the fellowship of the apostles by the purity of an innocent life and the triumph of a most courageous death. Nor do we undeservedly proclaim him almost equal to the apostles, to whom chastity of mind gave the Levitical ministry and fullness of faith brought the dignity of martyrdom. The venerable Xystus, bishop of the city of Rome, when he was overcoming the impiety of a raging world through torments and was already near to the heavenly kingdom, seeing him most sorrowful at his father's death, is said to have addressed him thus in the spirit of foreknowledge: “Do not be sad, son; after three days you will follow me.” From this it appears, dearest ones, that blessed Lawrence was not sad at the victory of the high priest, but grieved because he was not himself conquering the world together with his priest. “Do not be sad, son,” he says; “after three days you will follow me”: that is, do not be sad as if left behind in the world; for neither your faith nor your life will cheat you of such a death; let no anxiety about my passing, in which I rejoice, disturb you; for soon you too will have joy from your own passion. Truly singular is the glory of blessed Lawrence, who obtained so much grace from his God that a martyr prophesied his martyrdom to him, and that, for the privilege of his merits, victory gladdened him before battle could frighten him. So when he learned from the mouth of the priest and martyr that he too was certainly to be taken, he gathered crowds of the poor and divided the Church's wealth with religious generosity. How deep the counsel of the spiritual man, and how heavenly: both to provide for the needy and, the multitude consuming what he had given, that nothing might be found for the persecutor to seize; following, of course, that saying: “He has scattered, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains for ever.” It was of mercy that he gave food to the poor; but of righteousness that, as a most prudent man, he took care that the sacrilegious man should not seize the substance of the saints with greedy hands. “His righteousness,” it says, “remains for ever.” How will this righteousness not remain for ever, which he both fulfilled by a holy work and consecrated by a most glorious martyrdom? Inflamed by this vexation, the pagans' fury at once prepared a red-hot gridiron, on which to tear apart Lawrence limb by limb as he was burned, to avenge the flames of its indignation with impious fires. The most courageous martyr burns indeed in all his inward parts and is scorched; but, pondering with faithful mind the kingdom of heaven and God's promises, he exults in the cool refreshment of a victorious conscience, nor is he bent by the penal fire, in whose breast the unconquerable flame of the Holy Spirit was burning. Could he yield to the momentary burning of the body, whose faith was quenching the eternal heat of Gehenna? So, the ministers of the flames overcome, the whole fire of worldly madness grew cold; and the devil's intent came only to this: that the faithful man ascended gloriously to his God, and the cruelty of the persecutors, confounded with its fires, grew numb.

As we have learned from the account of our fathers, which is not uncertain, dearest brothers, when the venerable Xystus held the priesthood of the apostolic see and the Roman Church flourished under the most holy ministry of the archdeacon Lawrence, the flame of a most cruel persecution blazed up against the name and faith of Christ through the burning envy of the devil; and so that the insatiable rage of the savage beast might tear the Lord's flock more destructively, the enemy, an artist in harm, first contrives to snatch away the watchful guard of the shepherd. And so pagan fury attacks Xystus before all, the high priest of the Lord, so that the bloody persecutor might invade the members of the Church, cut off from so strong a head, as if the protection of heavenly defense had been removed. But that great Xystus, who had been a shepherd on earth to the sheep entrusted to him by God, was a patron from heaven. So pagan hands seek out holy Lawrence for punishment, as one already deprived of the comfort of his bishop; whom Xystus had armed with a wonderful prophecy against all the evils of the raging world. For when Lawrence, as a most devoted son, was weeping inconsolably over his father's passion, Xystus, taught by the foreknowledge of the Holy Spirit, recognizing what was to come, said to him: “Lay aside all sadness, son, about my death; for my absence will not grieve you long: after three days you will follow me.” Having received this answer, his devout mind, accepting it as undoubted truth from an excellent bishop and martyr of Christ, cared for nothing more than that the persecutor's avarice, which grieved the Church by the death of the saints, should not have joy from the Church's plunder. The most prudent man found how he could torment his torturer more sharply. So he gathered crowds of the poor and distributed by devout giving all the Church's wealth and all the vessels of the sacred ministry, lest a sacrilegious gaze defile them; so that the future martyr might be enriched in the heavenly reward both by the price of his blood and by the prize of such great generosity, not doubting that he would keep both his faith for his Christ in himself and the Church's riches in the poor. For this reason the man, innocent in simplicity and most strong in virtue, is at once dragged to the tribunal of the ungodly, bringing to the judge nothing but the constancy of a living mind and the purity of an unharmed conscience, offering his soul devoted to God and handing his most chaste body to the persecutor for punishment, keeping that saying of the Gospel: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” So a savage torment is devised against Lawrence, so that he who was not moved by fear of death might be broken by the bitterness of punishment; but the greatness of the pains could not conquer him whom the multitude of his virtues strengthened. A gridiron heated by fire is prepared, to weary the triumphant martyr's spirit and burn up his body. But the crowd of persecutors, ignorant of the truth and blinded by devilish darkness, did not see that that burning of the limbs was the eternal purging of the faithful soul, and that the body, which the present life was leaving to the corrupting flames, was passing through condemned death to incorruption of life. Truly incomparable is the sacrament of this saving faith, by which blessedness is sought through torments and refreshment is prepared by flames, as the patriarch David says in the words of the martyrs: “We passed through fire and water, and you brought us into refreshment.” Blessed Lawrence passed through fire and water when on the one side the deadly flame of the world was roasting him and on the other the life-giving water of heavenly irrigation was flooding him. He passed through fire and water when the mercy of the divine spring was tempering the force of the raging fire. Lawrence burned, then, but that fire was conquering of which the Saviour says: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were burning!” O new and wonderful thing! In one and the same man the body was burned by flames and the mind, set on fire, glowed with the heat of a burning faith; as the men of the Gospel said to one another: “Was not our heart burning within us on the road?” Where the heart burns, then, the limbs do not feel the flame; where Christ's fire works, the devil's fire must be conquered; and where God's Spirit glows, the flame of mortals becomes cold. And this is why, dearest ones, the whole world everywhere today celebrates with harmonious devotion the triumph of blessed Lawrence, why Rome more gladly admires his inseparable faith, who, kindled by the rays of the eternal sun, patiently endured the fire of the world and confidently escaped it.

The annual and ever new festival of most blessed Lawrence, dearest brothers, continually kindles the Church of God to the joys of spiritual gladness, admonishing all believers that, as he by the ardor of perfect devotion did not yield to the raging fires, so the fire of various tribulations and the flame of worldly evils should not move us from the fellowship of Christ, as that teacher of heavenly mysteries and example of all virtue, most glorious Paul, says: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?” And truly he can be bent by no dangers of present persecutions who has once conceived with stable faith and unshaken mind the promises of almighty God and the eternal rewards of our most generous Redeemer. For a weak spirit and a lame faith cannot climb that steep and lofty road of immortal goods. That is why neither the torments of the pains pressing on him nor the flame of the most savage persecutor could overcome the most courageous martyr; because his mind, kindled by the rays of truth, burned far more ardently; and so that bodily fire, tended by the hands of mortals, could not drive out from his untiring breast the heat poured in from God. Of this most valiant soldier of Christ we must believe that saying was spoken which was foretold many thousands of years before through the prophet: “And if you pass through fire, the flame will not burn you.” For see, blessed Lawrence passed through the fire, by which he did not shudder, scorched, but shone, enlightened; he passed through a momentary and earthly fire, but escaped the flame of Gehenna that burns for ever. What is more blessed than this man, who by the grace of merciful God burned so as not to burn, was burned so as not to be consumed? Had he been handed over to no fires and punishments, he would indeed have had the security of freedom, but there would have been no glory of a fighter; for Christ trains us in his Church by examples and teachings to this end: not that we should suffer no evil in the world, but that we should conquer the world by manifold suffering. That most illustrious patriarch of the prophets, David, hemmed in by various tribulations, once sang, saying: “My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire will blaze out.” It is plain that this sentence suits the venerable Lawrence too, whose heart grew hot with such great faith and magnanimity of Christ that, despising the tortures of his own body and triumphing over the fires of his maddest torturer, he gladly mocked him: truly in his meditation an unconquerable fire blazed out, which, kindled by hatred of unbelief and love of truth, either did not feel or overcame the flame applied to him from outside. Therefore, dearest ones, let us exult and rejoice in the Lord, not doubting both that the martyr's persecutor, for the fires he kindled, endures the burnings prepared for the ungodly, and that the most blessed martyr himself, for the flame he endured, shines before almighty God with the illumination of incorruptible light.

Honoring the memories of the holy Fathers in religious assemblies, dearest brothers, we marvel both at their own merits and at the divine gifts in them; who are venerable to us because, despising the light of the present life and scorning the torture of their bodies, they conquered the raging world for the love of God; as this most blessed Father of ours, rising with a more fervent spirit to assert the indisputable Godhead, wrestled against the Arian impieties, and pacified with the tranquility of serene faith the churches of God, disturbed by the storms and whirlwinds of quarreling heretics, and sought for himself eternal rewards by manifold suffering, following the unshaken footsteps of him to whom the Lord said: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Truly and deservedly is he to be honored by all posterity who, following the solidity of the firmest rock, confounded the enemies of Christ by the authority of the heavenly Spirit and triumphed by the strength of untiring patience. Nor, as was said, did the gates of hell prevail against him, who, confessing the King of glory, opened for himself the entrance of the eternal gate; or how should that life-giving gate not be open to him who, taught by the fullness of the Gospel reading, asserted the inscrutable sacrament of the one majesty in the Father and his Son, teaching and showing what in one and the same Son of God was the nature of the flesh he took and what the privilege of his natural deity? He knew well that the Saviour had said: “I and the Father are one,” and: “He who sees me sees the Father also.” This confession made him both honorable on earth and glorious in heaven. But I think it necessary now that, on the occasion of this blessed Father of ours, whom the faith he kept unswervingly raised to such glory in the catholic churches, we too, by the Lord's gracious gift, should be steeped in the saving testimonies of the Lord's teaching. The Lord says, then: “I and the Father are one.” He who says “we are” is not solitary; he who says “we are one” surely cannot be divided from him with whom he is one. Why do you now try, heretic, to build up a difference between the Father and his Son, when the Son, teaching us the truth of his substance, said: “I and the Father are one”? He who says both “one” and “we are” neither divides himself by separation nor confuses himself by union. He who is one with the Father neither differs from the Father in eternity nor disagrees in power; and though he is one with the Father, he is yet declared born of the Father, lest, as the impious Arius blasphemes, the Son be believed either some creature or unequal to the Father. You hear, then, O man, that God was born of God; but in so great a depth you have what you may believe by faith, not what you may scrutinize by arguments. You hear that the Son was born of the Father; but lest you search for any sex in the Godhead, the Son himself is also called the Word and the light. He is also called the power of God and the wisdom of God, so that you may notice that the Father did not beget bodily, as through the features of bodily organs, but that by the ineffable secret of majesty power came forth from power and light flowed from light. Again, lest you think the Word itself not the substance of truth but the uttered speech of God speaking, he is called the Son, so that you might learn that in him there is the harmony and the affection of the one who is Father. Again, because he is called light, lest perhaps you think that, like a ray of the sun or the glow of a lamp, he shines with another's brightness, the blessed evangelist John, to whom it was granted both to see and to reveal God's secret, says of him: “He was the true light.” He says “true light,” so that you may know that he is not the glow of some created and failing light, but that what is light is truth from the true light. And he is so truly light that he not only needs no enlightening but has the power to enlighten; for, as we read, he enlightens every man coming into this world. So Christ says, as was said: “He who sees me sees the Father also.” “He who sees me,” he says, “sees the Father also.” How are they not both two and one, when one is seen in the other, and to have seen one is to know both? And truly, brothers, as to see the Son is to see the Father, so when the Father is understood the Son too is understood; for whoever believes and confesses the Father eternal must believe the Son coeternal. But now let us see what this sight in the Son is, by which the Father too is said to be seen. He without doubt sees the Father in the Son who believes that the Son was ineffably born of the Father according to the unthinkable nature of the Godhead, and that he who was born cannot be other than he who begot him. He sees the Father in Christ who believes that Christ's works are not of a foreign ability but of the Father's power. He sees the Father in the Son who notices that, under the fellowship of the Father's name, not by the industry of ingenious art but by the power of a simple command, he turned water into wine and changed the natures of creatures, and by the abundance of his blessing multiplied the eaten bread under the fruitful bites of the hungry; for by multiplying food in the mouths of those who ate and re-forming loaves from crumbs, he made it almost no wonder that manna flowed from heaven. Who would not notice in Christ the work of equality with the Father, when he sees him with the authority of a master terrify demons, put sicknesses to flight, give eyes to a man not yet formed in the man? The sick woman, touching the fringe of his garment by a hidden approach, stole health as it were by theft; but as true God, from whom no secret of human hearts could be hidden, he at once disclosed the healing that had gone out from him and published the believing woman's merit to the surrounding crowds. He sees the Father's majesty in the Son who beholds Christ raising the dead from their beds or from their tombs, not by the grace of one who asks but by the command of one who orders, with the assent of the Father's will. If it is a divine work to have created man and given him life, how is it not a divine work to have restored health to the dead? “He who sees me,” he says, “sees the Father also.” How, brothers, could there be one undivided sight in the Father and his Son unless there were one undivided substance? Christ, then, God by nature and man by nature, is true in both and perfect in both; for he truly took humanity from his mother and has deity by nature from the Father. Whoever sees the Son so sees the Father also: for when we confess the same Christ to be God and Lord, we necessarily ascribe the sufferings to the man and the wonders to God, so that the only-begotten of God may be understood to be neither unequal to the Father's majesty nor unlike his mother's flesh. By this faith, dearest ones, the Arian unbelief was refuted by our fathers; for Arius, contradicting the Gospel of blessed John, denying that the Word of God is God and with God, blinded by the darkness of his unbelief, could see neither the Father nor the Son; and while he contended that the Maker of all is a thing made, and tried to ascribe temporal things to the timeless God, confounded by the madness of his presumption, he lost the saving sacrament of both natures in Christ. But this venerable father, who had read that the Lord said, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me,” knowing that in this teaching there is a distinction of persons, not a difference of nature, held and taught the inseparable unity of the Father and his Son, who are not one person but one thing, asserting alike in Christ the Lord both passible flesh and impassible deity.

To add anything to the praises of this holy and most blessed Father of ours, whose feast we celebrate today, is to take something away; for the grace of his virtues is not to be set out in words but proved by works. For since Scripture says, “A wise son is the glory of his father,” how great is the glory of this man, who rejoices in the wisdom and devotion of so many sons? For in Christ Jesus he begot us through the Gospel. Whatever virtue and grace there can be in this holy people, the purity of all the streams flowed from him as from a most clear spring. For because he was strong in the vigor of chastity, because he gloried in the hardships of abstinence, because he was endowed with the charms of gentleness, he roused the affection of all the citizens toward God; because he shone in the administration of a bishop, he left many disciples as successors of his priesthood. Well and fittingly on this day, which the passing of this blessed Father of ours to paradise makes a day of exultation for us, we have sung the verse of the present psalm: “The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.” For he is worthily turned into the remembrance of men who has passed to the joy of the angels. The divine word says: “Do not praise a man in his lifetime,” as if it said: praise after life, magnify after completion. For a double reason it is more useful to give praise to a man's memory rather than to his life: so that you may extol the merits of holiness above all at that time when flattery does not move the one praising nor pride tempt the one praised. Praise, then, after the danger; proclaim one who is safe; praise not the good fortune of one sailing but when he has reached harbor; praise the general's courage, but when he has been led to triumph. For who, while living, can be praised safely and without fear, who remembers that he has something in the past to grieve over and sees that something remains in the future to fear? Who, placed in this little body, should claim anything for himself by way of merits, whom the hostility of demons besets again like a multitude of robbers, by whom invisible tripping-snares lay nooses for souls along all the roads, to be dreaded by the conduct of countless people? For we sail through this great and wide sea, in which are creeping things without number, animals small and great, that is, various kinds of enemies, who wrestle with us in a contest matched to the measure of our strength. In the sea of this world, then, we must greatly fear lest a storm snatch away our ship, or a wave swallow it, or a cruel pirate carry it off as eternal plunder. Against these manifold evils of the world, then, let us resist with chastened and chaste actions. But let us, secure, magnify the merits of the blessed Father, now placed in safety, who, holding manfully the helm of faith, has now set down the anchor of hope in a calm haven and has brought his ship, full of heavenly riches and eternal merchandise, to the shore he longed for; who held the shield of the fear of God untiringly against all adversaries until he came to victory. For what was the whole course of his life but one conflict with a watchful enemy? How many blind, straying from the way of truth and already hanging from a summit over the abyss, did he give back their lost sight and restore that gaze by which Christ is seen? Into the deaf ears of how many, condemned by the blocking of unbelief, did he pour precious hearing to receive the voice of the heavenly commandments, so that by obedience they might answer God who calls in mercy? How many, wounded within, did he cure of their sickness by the art of an angelic mouth and of prayers? How many, slackened by the stain of sin through long neglect and steeped as with the contagion of leprosy, did he cleanse, God working in him, by expiating them with chastisements and exhortations? How many souls living in the body, already dead and overwhelmed and buried under the weight of offenses, did he raise for God by calling them to amendment as to the light; and, an admirable imitator of his Lord, he put to death with a life-giving death the sin that is contrary to God in souls already dead. Then on the other side he closed with a healthy watchfulness what he had opened, lest another's property appear desirable to them, lest an outward fault pass a stain to the inner man, lest darkness enter the heart by the ways of light, lest in each that prophetic threat be fulfilled: “Death,” it says, “has entered through your windows.” For the services of the ears and eyes are shown to be the windows of souls; for when we give our hearing to those who speak evil and wicked things, who slander damnably, and who urge what is contrary to God, death enters through our windows, the horror of deadly night bursts in through those by which the sun of righteousness ought to have entered: when these windows of sin are opened, the door of salvation and life and the gates of paradise are shut. These windows this blessed man barred with many bolts of the fear of God. From the hearts of how many whom shameful iniquity and impiety possessed did he put vice to flight, cast down anger, and quench envy; and, as from an ancient house when the barbarous guests had been driven out, calling faith, chastity, justice, and mercy back there, he brought in peaceful inhabitants, through whom Christ, the head of these goods, might enter the dwelling of the mind; and, applying the remedies of repentance, he raised the man four days dead and stinking by the sound of his rebukes, and, having received their amendment, he restored to life by a temporary resurrection those snatched from the very jaws of death. Doing these and many more such things, which my poor speech cannot set forth and unfold as is fitting, your affection will tell you better; for with the urgency of the highest eagerness he was the cultivator and guardian of souls, cutting back desires, restraining anger, rooting out malice. This man was all the more necessary in these times, in which so great an iniquity grows strong daily with ever greater forces as justice fails. And indeed, though set in this pilgrimage in body alone, in thought and longing he lived in that eternal homeland; and like a good reckoner, stretching out his hand for the hundredfold, he always passed from the left to the right and laid up his labors in heaven; for though his works are seen here, the merits of his works have passed there. Let us follow his footsteps as far as we can, by which, hurrying through that very narrow way to the broad spaces of heaven, he showed us how to follow him.

For the Lord placed him here in our land so that by his example we might be formed to do good, and, looking at him as at a mirror, might compose the faces of our souls, and, like good sons, cultivate the likeness of our father in ourselves. As some great householder, wishing to paint his house most splendidly, seeks out forms and images to set before the eyes of a careful painter for the merit of his art, so that the painter may eagerly seize the other's work and with a skilled hand transfer the dignity of living persons onto the face of the walls; so that true householder, God, to paint his house, that is, to adorn our souls in his Church, seems to have brought forth and shown to the inner eyes of our soul, as models of living as of painting, the deeds and merits of this man. According to these, then, let each of us lay on the faces of our souls the virtues of this man like precious colors. Let one take from him the grace of compunction, another the cleanness of chastity, one the strength of abstinence, another of modesty, one a faith burning in the things of God, another the gentleness of patience. And in this way, having in this man's life an example of right living, let us adorn our house with various virtues, that is, paint the whole Church of God; so that this patron of ours, seeing us thinking either of the fear of the eternal judgment or of future blessedness, may take up that Gospel word of Christ: “Father, I ask that where I am, they too may be with me”; so that, when one day we depart from this world, he may receive us as his own into his seat and his bosom like Abraham, and on that day, like a glad shepherd, recognize his sheep unharmed, with the help of him who lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

We celebrate today, as all know, the feast of holy Cyprian, and we keep the birthday of his martyrdom, as they say, with the vintage at hand; so our prayers and the world's agree. The world rejoices in the abundance of the vintage; we rejoice in the passion of the saints; and that passion is to be compared to the vintage; for as wine is poured out by the pressing of the grapes, so in the martyrdom of the saints blood is poured out in place of wine; except that the grape gives temporal fruits, the passion everlasting ones. Rightly, then, martyrdom is compared to the vintage, for it too has its drunkenness and its cup, of which the prophet David says: “Your cup, which makes drunk, how splendid it is!” And the Lord himself, set at the issue of his passion, says: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” And again the prophet: “I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Rightly, I say, is the cup compared to martyrdom; for as, when the cup is drunk, all the harmful moisture is cooked away by the warmth of the wine, so, when the cup of martyrdom is drained, all the dregs of the sinner are tempered by the glory of the passion. Martyrdom, then, is a kind of saving wine, which gives the heart gladness, the warmth of faith, and purity of soul. That spiritual grape is plainly wine which hung on the wood for the salvation of all. For as a cluster that is to give wine first hangs on a vine by a certain art of nature, so Christ, who was to give the spiritual wine of martyrdom, was fitted to the cross by a certain providence of the Godhead. He is plainly the cluster which those two spies, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, carried on a pole on their own shoulders to the sons of Israel; that deed already prefigured the coming of the Lord the Saviour. For the cluster hung on the pole shows Christ hung on the cross; and the two carrying the grape on the pole showed two peoples, the Christian and the Jewish; and as is the custom of those who carry, one goes in front and the other follows; so the Jewish people is signified as the first, the Christian as the second. And as the one in front does not see what he carries, and, always having it behind him, despises it as it were by turning his back, while the one who follows always sees it with his eyes, always guards it with his gaze, always enjoys its bodily nearness; so it is with the Jewish and the Christian people. For the Jew is first; he carries Christ in the law and does not know it, and, putting him behind him, despises him as by turning his back; hence the prophet says: “Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; and bend their back always.” But the Christian people, following, always looks at Christ with its eyes, always guards him with its gaze, and embraces him by the nearness of its steps; and the farther that people leaves him behind on a crooked road, the faster this one hastens on a straight course to reach him.

And so, brothers, let us follow the footsteps of this most blessed martyr Cyprian, who followed Christ by a straight path and came to the palm of martyrdom as the grapes were ripening. Indeed the time of the vintage was pressing. For because he suffered at this season of the vintage, we have gathered sweet and various fruits from his passion as from a vintage. For he has fattened us and refreshes us with the new wine of his martyrdom. For it is new wine which refreshes and makes the Christian drunk; but that drunkenness makes him more sober. For he who is made drunk with heavenly grace is sobered of the burden of sins. Filled with this new wine, the holy apostles, as Scripture says, spoke the great works of God in foreign tongues. In this deed they seemed at once drunk and sober. They were thought drunk because another speech than nature's sounded in them; they were sober because, according to custom, they praised the Lord with devotion of mind. It did not happen through any pride or weakness that the holy men spoke in a foreign tongue; but it was done by the providence of the Godhead, so that, since one language is not enough to magnify God, the devotion of the mind might be released through many tongues. We have been gladdened, then, because we have received the fruit of refreshment from the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth. And the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, as the prophet says, is Israel; which house we are; for according to faith we are Israelites. Hence the Apostle says: “For those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” Since, then, we are Israel, we are the Lord's vineyard. Let us take care that the grape growing from the branch of our work is not one of gall instead of sweetness, and that it be not said to us what was said to the Jews through the prophet: “I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” How hard a condition, that a property which ought to have brought its owner fruits of sweetness pricked him with the harshness of thorns! That is, when the Jews ought to have received the Saviour with the whole devotion of faith, they crowned him with thorns. That crown was as great an insult of injuries for the Jews as it was a crown of virtues in the Lord. So the Jews pierce the Lord when they crown him; they pierce him when they crucify him. Hence holy Scripture says: “They will look on him whom they pierced.” So, brothers, see that it is not said to you too: “I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” That is, lest we place with wicked thoughts the thorns which the Jews placed on the Lord with bloody hands, and pierce him, not by the harshness of our senses but by the depravity of our works. Of these the Saviour makes mention in the Gospel, saying that the seed sown fell among thorns, and they grew up and choked what had sprung up. What the thorns are he himself goes on to say: they are the cares of the world, which, when they grow in a man's heart, choke the Saviour's commandments in him. For who that was anxious about the world could ever be rightly anxious about Christ? Who, while he provided for the gains of his house, could provide for the benefit of the Church? Hence the Apostle says: “He who is without a wife is anxious about the things of God, how to please God; but he who is with a wife is anxious about the things of the world, how to please his wife.” So, brothers, see that your vineyard does not produce thorns instead of grapes, does not bring vinegar instead of wine. For whoever gathers the vintage and does not share it with the poor gathers vinegar, not wine. Whoever stores up harvests and does not supply the needy has not laid up fruits of nourishment but has gathered the thistles of avarice. For that is why Scripture says of our land: “Thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you.” So, brothers, if you wish your crop not to produce thorns and thistles for you, but to bring forth the most abundant fruits you desire, refresh the hunger of the needy too with all the effort of your mind from the fruits of your crop; and so that your vintage may bring you not vinegar but most beautiful wine, quench the burning thirst of the poor with the liquor of wine, so that you may not suffer the torment of hunger and thirst with the wicked rich man of the Gospel in torments, but may be found worthy to rejoice in perpetual happiness with Lazarus the beggar and blessed Tobit, the giver of alms; by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

In the martyrdom of most blessed Cyprian the whole Church of Christ exults with us, which he both instructed in all joy by the teaching of heavenly speech and adorned with the gift of his triumphant blood; for there was in him, as we know for certain, both the fullness of spiritual wisdom against the errors of the devil and the untiring constancy of a Christian breast against the persecutions of the world. Who would not attend such a man with all the praises he can, whose eloquence, inspired by God, both taught the churches and refuted the world? Truly he is wonderful and to be celebrated everywhere by the zeal of all, whom holiness consecrated a priest, learning a teacher, and faith a martyr. “Precious,” says David, “in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” See, dearest ones, into how great a prophetic praise the venerable Cyprian entered, whose not only death but also life proved precious in the Lord's sight; for in dying he gave his own blood to Christ; in living he no less gained countless martyrs for heaven by his most powerful exhortation. What is more illustrious than this priest, who shone among the crowds of men with the glory of a heavenly way of life, and among the hosts of angels became conspicuous both by his own death and by that of others? Most rightly he sang to the Lord his God with the patriarch David, saying: “My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God.” His heart exulted in the living God when, despising the vanity of a dying and mortal world, he gave himself wholly to divine service; and his flesh too exulted in God, which departed from this world not by the corruption of a wretched sickness but consecrated by holy punishments for religion. This is that householder of the Gospel who brings out of his treasure things new and old; who, preaching one and the same mystery of the Old and New Testaments, enriched the churches of Christ with most abundant discourse. His treasure today is incorruptible and unfailing, who, lending his master's money to the bankers, daily gains a holy interest of heavenly riches in the hearts of the faithful. What, then, brothers, is more beautiful than so great a man, whose rule and measure of speech is this: amid the various cases and diverse movements of men, now with a father's affection, now with a teacher's authority, to console the humble, check the proud, reprove the negligent, rebuke the unbelieving? And finally the most faithful man adorned his priesthood and his life with such beauty that he confirmed his teaching by the works that followed, holding that saying of the Lord: “Whoever teaches and does, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” How great and how outstanding he is in the kingdom of heaven, whom prophetic speech, a wonderful life, and a death devoted to God raise to all glory! Not undeservedly, brothers, is the memory of his name celebrated with such honor through the widest spaces of the world; for throughout the whole world both his passion and his teaching have profited the strengthening of our faith.

Though we ought to celebrate most devoutly the birthday of all the holy martyrs, brothers, yet above all we must keep with full veneration the feast of those who shed their own blood in our own dwellings. For though all the saints are everywhere and benefit all, yet those intercede for us who also endured punishments for us. For when a martyr suffers, he suffers not for himself alone but also for his fellow citizens; he suffers for himself for a reward, for his fellow citizens as an example; for himself for rest, for his fellow citizens for salvation; for by their example we have learned to believe in Christ, we have learned to seek eternal life through insults, we have learned not to fear death. See, then, what we owe to the martyrs: one was tortured that another might be saved; one endured the executioner that another might recognize Christ; one was sentenced to death that others might gain eternal life; and finally a saint was killed that a sinner might escape. The blessed martyrs, then, neither lived for themselves nor died for themselves; for they left us an example of conduct by living well and of suffering by enduring bravely. For that is why the Lord willed martyrs to suffer in various places throughout the whole world: so that, as fit witnesses, they might press on us by a present example of faith the testimony of their confession; so that human frailty, which scarcely believes the Lord's preaching by hearing from afar, might at least believe through the present testimony of the eyes in the martyrdom of the blessed. All the martyrs, then, are to be honored most devoutly, but those are specially to be venerated by us whose relics we possess. For as the others help us by prayers, these help us also by their passion; and with these we have familiarity; for they are always with us, they dwell with us: that is, they guard us while we live in the body and receive us when we depart from the body; here, lest the stain of sins seize us; there, lest the horror of hell invade us. For that is why our forefathers provided that we should join our bodies to the bones of the saints, so that, as hell fears them, punishment may not touch us; as Christ enlightens them, the gloom of darkness may flee from us. Resting with the holy martyrs, then, may we escape the darkness of hell, by their own merits, yet as companions of their holiness. For the Lord says to Peter: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” If, then, the gate of hell does not prevail against Peter, apostle and martyr, whoever is joined to a martyr is not held by hell. For the gate of hell does not possess the martyrs, since the kingdom of paradise receives them. For we see them already reigning everywhere here; for we see men possessed by most unclean demons freed by them, so that by heavenly medicine the captive soul is snatched from the devil's snares, and the devil himself, bound with fiery chains, is led out of his captivity a captive, so that he who a little before had taken prey is himself subjected to punishment. That these and greater wonders are done through the saints is known to all. And so, brothers, let us venerate in this world those whom we can have as defenders in the world to come; and as we are joined to their bones like those of our parents, so let us be joined to them by imitation of faith; for we shall be separated from them in nothing if we are joined to them as much by religion as by body.

The examples of the holy martyrs ought to be enough for the progress of our salvation, who, to obtain the heavenly crown, subjected themselves to all the Lord's commandments, and so bound themselves to all the Saviour's laws that, because of their former life, they deserved to come to this glory of martyrdom. For they did not fulfill the Lord's precept only at the time they endured the punishment of confession; but they must first have lived according to Christ's Gospel in order to share Christ's sufferings. For their beginnings must have been good whose end followed best; and they were martyrs not only when they suffered but were also Christ's martyrs while they lived. For in Latin “martyr” means witness; and as often as we fulfill Christ's commandment by good actions, so often do we bear witness to Christ. Hence too the Lord's cross is called not only that which at the time of the passion is built by fixing to wood, but also that which is fitted together through the whole course of life by the virtues of all the disciplines; of which the Saviour seems to me to say: “Whoever wishes to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” Were all the martyrs who followed the Lord crucified? Were all the virgins who, according to the Apocalypse, follow the Lamb of God crucified in order to follow? Had the apostle Paul been crucified when he says: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”? He says this so that you may understand that the cross is not a gibbet of wood but a purpose of life and virtue. The whole life of a Christian, then, if he lives according to the Gospel, is a cross and a martyrdom. But this is what is hard to find in us, that all our actions are directed according to the Gospel; and so, as often as we wallow in pleasures, we lose the Saviour's cross. For Christ is chastity, peace, truth, gentleness. How, then, can a corrupt man bear witness to chastity? Or how can one whose mind is always in strife preach peace? By what means too will the inconstant man keep truth or gentleness? How, I say, can we come to the glory of martyrdom, when the Lord says: “Do not possess gold”? He says this to those who have it; so if he forbids those who have gold to possess it, what punishment condemns the greed of those who do not have it? And if those who keep their own property are commanded to give it up, how severely are those struck who plunder others'? For there are many, brothers, who, born in a humble place and having received no riches from their parents, are tossed by such greed of avarice that they think they were born for nothing unless they possess gold by some means or other; for, thinking, as the prophet says, that the life of men is arranged for gain, they do not hesitate to acquire from anywhere, even from evil; and so such men, while they seek the gain of gold, find the loss of salvation. Let us ask, brothers, how many there are who are not steeped in this. Very few wise men defend themselves from this plague. If you think of the merchant, he is first in guilt through avarice. If you look only at military service, greed is the whole cause of service. If you examine individual offices, you will find men drawn to their duty not by honor but called to it by plunder as to a business. Almost all, then, are eager for gains and business; and when they rise at first dawn, they think of nothing but how to get something from somewhere. But if either honor has restrained them or a judge's authority has checked them when they plunder others' property, they complain that they have suffered a loss. “We serve for nothing,” they say, “we labor for nothing; today I could bring nothing home; the iniquity of the judge did not let me do wrong.” Avarice, then, drives almost all men and lets none of them be at rest. Those who have nothing are tormented by greed; those who possess riches are tortured by anxiety; nor is it well even with those who brood over hidden gold; indeed it is worse for them. For they are always anxious, sad, worried lest a slave take it, lest a thief dig it out; and so, thrusting it into darkness, they hide it so that it escapes everyone's knowledge, never bringing any of it out for use, lest opening the hiding place give occasion to betray it. They keep it and do not use it; they keep it, I say; so I would call them guardians, not owners, who carefully watch over another's property rather than spend their own fittingly. What, then, brothers, do you think having gold is riches? I would say it is greater riches not to have gold; for the mind that despises gold is more precious than the one that seeks it; it is plainly greater riches not to have gold but to stand above those who have it. For he who abounds in his own goods does not seek the treasures of the world; for one's own goods are honor, sobriety, mercy, chastity; and all these goods are more precious than gold; so that you may know that metals are cheaper than these: talents of gold can be bought, vessels of silver can be purchased; but honor is not bought but acquired, because it consists not in price but in virtue. You, then, who possess gold, if you please, let us compare our goods. When you set out abroad, your treasures necessarily remain at home, and while they are far from you, you are always fearful, always uncertain whether, when you return home, you will have what you had. So while you always fear their loss, in your own conscience you are naked and poor. But wherever I go, my riches follow me, nor can my goods be separated from me, since they are kept not in an earthly cave but in the treasury of the breast. When you depart from the world, you have lost your riches by leaving them; but when it falls to me to depart from this world, I carry my riches with me to paradise; after death, like that rich man clothed in purple, fire and darkness will pursue your riches; my riches, like Lazarus, Abraham's bosom and blessedness will receive.

When among our fathers, as the book of Judges relates, certain Israelite tribes were fighting one another in civil war, and because of the like appearance of one people there could be no distinction between the combatants, the tribe whose cause for fighting was more just, since it rightly presumed victory through God's help, set itself a sign in a certain word, so that the secret of a hidden word might distinguish those whom one look of arms confused. Following this example, as I think, the blessed apostles handed down the mystery of the creed to the Church of God, which they were arming against the warfare of the devil's fury; so that, since under the one name of Christ there would be diversity among believers, the seal of the creed might separate the faithful from the unbelieving, and he might appear alien to the faith and an enemy of the Church who either, though baptized, did not know it, or, as a heretic, had corrupted it. “Do you believe,” it says, “in God the Father almighty?” God the Father almighty is without doubt to be believed, whose power is so felt that his greatness and nature are not known: for that he is and that he is able we attain not by discussing but by believing. Whom we ought to believe the authority of our Redeemer teaches us, saying: “He who believes in me and in him who sent me has eternal life”; and elsewhere: “Believe in God, and believe in me.” What we see with the eyes of faith, brothers, is more than fleshly sense can see. “Do you believe,” it says, “in God the Father almighty?” In “God” is shown unbegotten nature, in “Father” the reality of the only-begotten, in “almighty” the fullness of power. For he is almighty through his unbegotten deity and Father through his omnipotence; nor must it be inquired how he is Father, because how he is God or almighty cannot be comprehended. “And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.” That he who was Son became Christ is the dispensation of human redemption; that he is Lord is of the property of his nature; he is announced and believed to be only, or only-begotten, because he alone was so begotten and has no partner in his birth. You hear “Son,” not so that you may think him produced by some sex, but so that you may believe that by incomprehensible majesty God came forth from God, as he himself says: “I came forth from the Father and have come into this world.” “Who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary.” You hear “Holy Spirit,” so that you may recognize that birth as both wonderful and blameless. For what the Spirit does is heavenly; what the Holy one works is inviolate. For when the need of our redemption required the only-begotten of God to become man, he brought this privilege of his own divinity into his birth: that he should be born of a virgin. For he who was coming to call back the nature of men, grown old in sins, willed to have a new law of being born. The only-begotten of God, then, became the son of man, so that he who was the Creator of the world might become its Redeemer too. “Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried.” Let us have no shame at the cross of Christ, since we have victory from his passion: for as the everlasting Son of God was born not for himself but for us, so the spotless Lamb of God suffered not for himself but for us. Who would not notice that it is a wonderful mystery, where the one who is God is proclaimed a man, and the same one is announced as Lord who is declared crucified? Nor did his being killed happen to him as something unthought or unforeseen, who by the counsel of his divinity took on man for this very reason, that he might be killed for man. He chose the punishment of the cross so that a worse penalty might bring forth a loftier victory; and so that he who suffered for the good of all might die lifted on high as in the sight of the world, so that at the same time those who saw him crucified might see the wonders of the Crucified. For the sudden darkness of the sun, the trembling of the earth, the splitting of rocks, the resurrection of the dead show the glory of the sufferer quite fully. And of what weight of testimony is this: that even the thief crucified with him begged his companion in punishment to remember him in the heavenly kingdom? That is why, dearest ones, we do not groan with sighs over the mockeries and reproaches that Christ endured, his cross and his death, but celebrate them with continual praises. He was buried, because it followed that one who had died should receive burial. The Lord was buried so that the earth too might receive the blessing of his body for the consolation of the buried. He was buried so that he who was seen truly dead might be believed truly to have returned from the dead. “On the third day,” it says, “he rose from the dead.” If you have believed of Christ what is shameful, believe what is glorious; if you have believed what belongs to death, believe what belongs to life. For as in the passion there is the mystery of love, so in the resurrection there is the working of power, as he himself says: “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.” How, then, should life after death not be at his disposal, for whom to die was not a condition but a power? Nor is it anything great if we say: Christ could rise again, since it was impossible that the author of life should not return to life; or how could he be held by the laws of the underworld who died for this very reason, that death might lose its power? Let us, then, be no longer ashamed of his sufferings, nor fear at all because of his death, who had both the power to rise again and the nature to live. And what madness is it not to believe that he rose, at whose command the buried came out of the tomb? “He ascended into heaven.” Such glory befitted, brothers, the man who was born of a virgin; nor was it impossible for him to ascend to heaven to whom it was possible to triumph over the underworld. And it was necessary that he who had come from the kingdom to death should return after death to the kingdom. In this, dearest ones, there was a saving communion between heaven and earth, incomprehensible to human minds: and as the earth rejoiced that it had received the Son of God, so heaven rejoiced that it had received the son of man, as was sung by the prophet: “Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult.” For as it is plain that the earth exults over God, so there is no doubt that heaven rejoices over man. “He sits at the right hand of the Father.” That Christ sits is the gift of a victor; that he sits at the right hand of the Father is the privilege of the Godhead and the fellowship of undivided love. And he is fittingly announced to sit at the Father's right hand, in whom the devil, who is wholly left-handed, found nothing of his will. “From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.” It is necessary, brothers, that he who created the human race should examine it, and he who redeemed it should judge it; and it is just that the almighty Lord should distinguish by a judge's examination his mortals whom he formed by the power of his divinity and saved by the Father's love. For what can be more equitable with God than that those whose life in the world was different should have their merits distinguished after this world? The living and the dead are said to be judged so that God's care may be believed to extend to all men. “And in the Holy Spirit.” This, dearest ones, is the unerring rule of truth: that those whose name is one should not have a different confession, and those who are one in heaven with themselves should not be separated by us on earth. For as nothing among creatures can be equal to the Godhead, so the nature of the Godhead excludes all division and inequality. For according to the truth of the Gospel, as the Son came forth from the Father, so the Spirit too proceeds from the Father; and as the only-begotten is the Son of God, so the Holy Spirit is God's; and as the Father has mercy on whom he wills, and the Son reveals the Father to whom he wills, so the Spirit too is read to breathe as he wills and to divide the gifts of heavenly graces as he wills. How, then, is the Spirit not to be believed one with the Father and the Son, to whom equally belongs the power to do what he wills? “The holy Church.” The Church is truly to be confessed holy, through which sanctification has been given to mortals, and, as the number of believers grows, a holier world exults in the praises of God in the tongues of almost all. The Church is holy, which, cleansed of the contagion of sins by the sacrament of baptism, sends the inhabitants of the earth across to heaven. “The forgiveness of sins.” The forgiveness of sins is above all to be believed, brothers, because this is the one remedy which frees the human race from the sentence of perpetual death. That is why the only-begotten of the Most High deigned to take flesh and embraced the cross: so that by indulgence he might make you innocent, who could not erase your crimes and sins. That is why the spotless Lamb was slain, so that by his blood the stain of the human race might be wiped away. See, brothers, the depth of the mystery, see the height of the sacrament: where death has given back life, and the filth of sinners has been washed away by the blood of the innocent. But this forgiveness does not feed you for sin; it warns you to fear sinning now, you who understand that you could not have been saved without pardon. For God's goodness does not arm us for guilt by the gift of his indulgence, but washes us for glory. “The resurrection of the flesh.” This is the end of our religion, this the sum of believing. And indeed, who that believes God could doubt the resurrection, when it is plain that this was the only cause of Christ's being born? For what other reason or what benefit was there that the Everlasting should deign to take flesh, except to give flesh perpetuity? What glory was it that the Son of God did not flee the cross, sought death, endured burial, unless he were to bring life to mortals by granting resurrection? That this can happen the Godhead makes believable, for whom all that he wills is possible. Indeed, so that we may take undoubted examples of rising again, this world itself, losing and recovering the appearance of its beauty, both dies and rises again. We certainly receive a proof of the future resurrection when grain entrusted to the furrows comes back into its stalk, and woods stripped by frost revive with renewed leaves; and all that the earth produces is given back multiplied either by seed or by root. What hardness of heart is it, then, not to believe that man is re-formed, when the things that were made are restored? This, dearest ones, is the creed, whose truth makes every believer a Christian; this is the creed which both sanctifies the living and brings the dead back to life.

I believe, dearly beloved brothers, that yesterday you received joy enough, and from the discourses of my lord and brother the bishop who is present here, who treated divine things with such eloquence that his preaching was full of the grace of the priesthood, the eloquence of an orator, and the instruction of a teacher. And no wonder if he who holds the first rank of honour in the pontificate should also have the first rank of eloquence in preaching, so that he commends in the speech of an eloquent sermon the mighty works of God which he draws forth from the secret place of his holy breast. And so I know that my littleness will please your ears less than usual. For who is content to drink from a brook when he can draw from the springs? For the earth does not take in a thin dew of water at all once a generous shower of rain has soaked it. So too your love, flooded with the eloquence of the holy priest, will not put up with the cheap distaste of my sermon. For however learned, however fluent an orator may be, he will seem tongue-tied if he begins to speak in the presence of a better. Yet this embarrassment has its consolation. For there is nothing shameful in the least priest falling short in comparison with the highest priest, especially since the distinguished company of the blessed can help me. For if David proclaims that one holy man can become holy by the company of another, saying, "With the holy you will be holy": who then would not think that I, however unskilled, however much a sinner, can become a preacher by the power of the Lord through the company of such great teachers? Therefore, since our most blessed brother has followed the praises of the holy apostles with great eloquence, we too ought to preach the burial of the Lord himself, so that, since we seem to be members of one body attended with like services, the whole body may also be adorned with like preaching. Let us see, then, what is done with the Lord's body after it is taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, a just man, as the evangelist says, received it and buried it in his own new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. Blessed, then, is the body of the Lord Christ, which when it is born is brought forth from the womb of a virgin, and when it departs is entrusted to the tomb of a just man. Blessed indeed is the body which virginity bore and justice guarded. Joseph's tomb kept it uncorrupted, just as Mary's womb preserved it unblemished. For in the one it was not defiled by the pollution of a man, in the other it was not harmed by the corruption of death; a new womb conceived it. The Lord's womb, then, is a virgin, and his burial place is a virgin; indeed I would call the burial place itself a womb, for the likeness is not small. For just as the Lord came forth alive from his mother's womb, so too he rose alive from Joseph's tomb; and just as then he was born from the womb in order to preach, so now he is reborn from the sepulchre in order to proclaim the gospel. Except that this birth is more glorious than that one. For that one brought forth a mortal body, this one an immortal; after that birth there is a descent to the underworld, after this one a return to heaven. This birth is plainly holier than that one. For that one held the Lord of the whole world shut in the womb for nine months, while this one kept him in the lap of the tomb for only three days; that one brought forth the hope of all more slowly, this one raised up the salvation of all more quickly.

What comparison is there between a womb and a tomb, when the one brought forth a son from her inmost being, while the other only provided a place of burial? But I say that Joseph's devotion was no less than Mary's. For she conceived the Lord in her womb, he in his heart; she offered the Saviour the hidden place of her members, he did not refuse him the hidden place of his own tomb; she wrapped the Lord in swaddling cloths when he was born, he in linen cloths when he departed; she anointed the blessed body with oil, he honoured it with spices. Their services, then, agree, and their devotion agrees; hence their merit must agree too, except that an angel admonished Mary to her service, whereas justice alone persuaded Joseph. Joseph laid the Lord in his own tomb. We read in the prophet: "Their throat is an open sepulchre." If, then, the throat of men is an open sepulchre, consider whether, according to this likeness, Joseph did not so much lay the Lord in an earthly grave as place him in the tomb of his own breast, and receive him to be kept not so much in a frail memorial of the elements as in the holy memory of the virtues. This memory of the virtues is faithful: holding Christ within itself, it does not allow him to be harmed by the corruption of heretics. Of this memory the Lord says in the holy mysteries: "As often as you do this, you will do it in memory of me, until I come." For as often as we speak of Christ, so often we commend him by the memory of a holy mouth. "Their throat," then, "is an open sepulchre." The prophet speaks rightly indeed; for the open sepulchre of Christ is the blessed throat of the evangelists, through which they laid him up in the everlasting treasury of letters. It is called an open sepulchre because whoever wishes to come to the mystery of Christ does not enter into it except through the hidden place of the gospel Scripture. For the Lord is to be entrusted to the sacred letters as to a new vessel. Whoever, then, desires to see him finds there both the mystery of his passion and recognizes the glory of his resurrection. The throat of the saints, then, is open; hence the Apostle says to the Corinthians: "Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians," inviting them always to enter the open door of his preaching into the hidden mysteries of Christ. In this memory of the breast, then, the Lord is placed by Joseph, so that he may rest in the seat of justice and the Son of Man may have somewhere to lay his head. Let us see, then, why the Saviour is laid in another's tomb and has no tomb of his own. He is laid in another's tomb because he was dying for the salvation of others; for this death was not inflicted on him but borne for us; this death did not befall him, but it profits us. Why, then, should he have a tomb of his own who did not have his own death in himself? Why a grave on earth for him whose seat remained in heaven? Why a tomb for him who for the space of only three days did not so much lie dead in the sepulchre as rest like one sleeping on a couch? For the very shortness of the time declares that it was sleep rather than death. A sepulchre is the necessary dwelling of death; but a dwelling of death was not necessary for Christ, who is life, nor did he who lives for ever need the house of the dead. Rightly, then, did we lay up this life in our sepulchre, so that, as he gives life to our death, we might rise from the dead. Hence that Mary Magdalene too, who was seeking the Lord among the other dead in the tomb, is rebuked and told: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" That is: why do you seek among those below one who, it is plain, has already returned to those above? Not yet understanding or recognizing him, she answered him: "Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." For she supposed, as Scripture says, that he was the gardener. The holy and simple woman, then, was seeking Christ from Christ, and in the devotion of her mind she prophesies without knowing it; for she says to the Lord about himself: "If you have taken him away, tell me." She asks rightly, "If you have taken him away"; for he himself took away his body, he who raised it; he himself took the body, who gathered it up by his breath as it lay sleeping; he himself took the body, who bears it by the power of his divinity and carries it to heaven. And so the woman wisely asks and inquires, "If you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him"; that is, whether in taking it from the sepulchre you have carried it over to paradise; for she had heard him saying to the robber, "Today you will be with me in paradise"; or else whether you have placed it from the lower regions at the Father's right hand, as the Apostle says: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God." Blessed, then, is he who so seeks the Lord Christ as to believe him both established in paradise and placed in the heavenly places. For whoever seeks him either in the lower regions or in tombs is told: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

If you have listened carefully to the gospel reading, you can understand what reverence is owed to the ministers and priests of God, and how the clergy themselves ought to anticipate one another with zeal in humility. When the disciples asked which of them would be greater in the kingdom of heaven, the Lord set a little child before them all and said: "Whoever humbles himself like this child, he will be greater in the kingdom of heaven"; from which we understand that the kingdom is reached by humility and heaven is entered by simplicity. Whoever, then, desires to hold the heights of the Godhead should pursue the depths of humility; whoever wishes to go before his brother in reigning should first go before him in serving, as the Apostle says, "Outdo one another in showing honour"; let him conquer him with kind services so that he may be able to conquer him in holiness. For if your brother has not hurt you, he deserves your service, so that you may love him; but if perhaps he has hurt you, he deserves your kindness all the more, so that you may conquer him. For this is the sum of our Christianity: that we repay those who love us with love in return and those who hurt us with patience. Whoever, then, is more patient under injury will be set up as more powerful in the kingdom; for one does not come to the empire of heaven by pride, riches, or a prefecture, but by humility, poverty, and gentleness. For narrow and confined is the way that leads to the kingdom. Whoever, then, is puffed up with honours and swollen with treasures of gold will not be able, like a loaded and encumbered beast, to pass along the narrow road of the kingdom; and as soon as he thinks he has arrived, the small gate will not admit his baggage, he will be thrown back from the threshold and forced to go back. For the gate of heaven is as narrow for a rich man as the eye of a needle is small for a camel; hence the Lord says: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." For just as a small hole does not let the camel, a crooked and misshapen animal, pass through, so the narrow gate of heaven does not let in the greedy and lying rich man. For that is why we are born naked into the world, why we also come naked to the font, and why we hasten naked and unencumbered to the gate of heaven. And how unfitting and absurd it is that one whom his mother bore naked and the Church received naked should wish to enter heaven rich! That is why the Saviour says to that rich young man in the Gospel: "If you wish to be perfect, sell all that you have and give to the poor." So fitting for heaven is naked virtue that a man, however just, however holy, cannot be perfect while he possesses gold or riches. For the Lord wished that young man to return to paradise such as Adam had been when he was cast down from the height of paradise. For Adam dwelt in paradise naked; then after his sin, perceiving his nakedness, he covered his shame with a leaf. Before he sinned, he was clothed with the colour of honour; and so it was not nature that established shameful nakedness, but the guilt of sin that discovered it. For are the holy angels, set in their most splendid state, covered with tunics and cloaks? Yet though in them the substance of their birth is naked, they appear clothed because they are holy. So Adam too, keeping the dignity of angelic honour, was indeed naked of worldly clothing, but he was clothed in the splendour of immortality. His eyes looked on nothing depraved; his heart thought nothing shameful; among honourable minds nakedness itself was clothed. For just as among wicked men the shameful thought of lust is not kept off by clothes, so among holy men honourable simplicity is not drawn to lust by nakedness; but as to the vicious all things are naked for corruption, so to the devout all things are covered for chastity. And what does the gospel reading say? "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a donkey's millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Here he calls little ones not children in age but those who are little in malice, as the Apostle says: "In malice be children, so that in understanding you may be mature." Who are these but worthy clergy, devout monks, or lay people? Whoever, then, is irreverent or insulting toward them will be punished with this brutish penalty: with a shapeless stone tied to his neck he will be thrown headlong into the sea. But let us see why this penalty is decreed for those who cause Christians to stumble, or what the sentence itself means; for I think it contains some mystery. As though any stone, not large or enormous, would not suffice for drowning a man in the sea, but the stone of a donkey's mill is to be tied to his neck, so that a thing necessary for use should perish with the man who perishes! But I think this rather is the point: in the Scriptures the Gentile people is named under the figure of the donkey, which with eyes shut is dragged round the mill of ignorance in the circle of its error, and without any straight course, its footsteps often returning on themselves, labours unwillingly for another's use. Does not the Gentile people seem to you to turn the donkey's millstone, as long as it is occupied in the toil of its ignorance? It is indeed bound by the bonds of nature to grind the word of God and seek the Lord of heaven, but, overcast by the blindness of a veiled mind, it cannot raise the face of its soul to God or lift the eyes of its heart to heaven. But since the donkey's mill is known to be a stone, let us see whether the pagans' mill is of that kind. Plainly it is; for the pagans' mill is a stone Jupiter and a stone Hercules, around which they go with blind eyes in constant wandering. Blind, I say, I would call the eyes of those who think they see what they do not see; for looking at a stone, they are confident that they see a god. And yet whoever turns a mill has some time an end of finishing the work and hope of leaving off the toil; but the one to whose neck the true donkey's millstone is hung carries a stone, he who ought to have carried the yoke of Christ. The donkey, then, to the mill, the blind man to the stone, the Gentile to the rock, who worships what he neither sees nor knows. For God does not dwell in things made with hands, nor is he known in metal or stone. This Gentile people, then, when it brings persecution on a Christian, is punished with this penalty: to be drowned with its sacrilegious millstone in the waves of the world that is to be judged.

Perhaps, brothers, it troubles you that we constantly hear of the tumult of wars and the incursions of raiders, and perhaps it troubles your love still more why these things happen in our times. But this is the reason: the nearer we are to the destruction of the world, the nearer we are to the kingdom of the Saviour. For the Lord himself says that in the last days nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; and elsewhere: "When you see wars and earthquakes and famines, know that the kingdom of God is near." This nearness of wars, then, shows rather that Christ is near to us. And so I ought not to fear the coming enemy, because by these signs I understand rather that the Saviour is coming; for though the one strikes temporal fear, the other brings everlasting salvation. And the same Lord is able both to drive the terror of the enemy from us and to grant us his presence. By these tumults of wars, then, a certain destruction of the world is signified; for this unrest precedes the coming judgment of God. And it is a kind of judgment of God's disturbance to see what you should fear. For while we are careful about the things we see, we are made more careful about the things we hope for. The wise man is taught by these earthly doings how he ought to escape the judgment of the world to come; for when he sees, in this common disturbance, the leading men preparing defences on the walls, he is reminded how he should prepare a defence for souls in the future overthrow of the world. We see the gates of the city being armed; we ought first to arm in ourselves the gates of justice, of which the holy prophet said: "Open to me the gates of justice." For the gate of the city can be fortified only if the gates of justice are first fortified in us. Indeed, it profits nothing to fortify the walls with ramparts and provoke God with sins. For the one is built of iron, stones and stakes, the other is armed with mercy, innocence and chastity; the one is guarded by a multitude of weapons, the other is defended by frequency of prayers. And for the full protection of cities the standards of princes usually go before the gates: let the sign of the Saviour go before the gates of our souls. Therefore, brothers, because of the coming judgment let us fortify ourselves with heavenly arms; let us gird ourselves with the breastplate of faith, be protected with the helmet of salvation, and be defended with the word of God, the spiritual sword. For whoever is equipped with these arms neither fears the present disturbance nor dreads the coming judgment. Indeed, holy David, protected by this devotion, killed even unarmed that most mighty armed Goliath, and laid low by the power of faith alone a warlike man fenced about on every side with defences. For holy David was not covered with a helmet, not girded with a sword, did not use a spear; yet he killed him not with an iron weapon but with a spiritual sword. For though he seemed unarmed to the eyes of men, he was armed enough by the grace of the Godhead. And yet that spiritual sword was not a sword; for Goliath did not fall slain by a sword but by a stone. We read in the Scriptures that Christ is figuratively designated by the word "stone," as the prophet says: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner." So when Goliath is struck with a stone, he is laid low by the power of Christ. And in what part of the body is he laid low? In the forehead, of course. The Gentile is a sacrilegious man: he is struck by Christ where Christ was lacking, and the destruction of death is brought on him where the sign of salvation is not found. For though Goliath was fortified on every side by the protection of his armour, his forehead lay open to death because it did not bear the seal of the Saviour. And so he is struck where he is found bare of the grace of God. That these things were done in figure there is no one who does not know. For David too had first girded himself with the garments of armour; but since he was heavy and hindered in them, so that he could hardly walk, he threw them off without hesitation, signifying that such armour is vain and luxurious works, in which whoever chooses to entangle himself will, being weighed down, not have a free course for walking to heaven. At the same time he taught us that victory is not to be hoped for in arms alone, but to be prayed for in the name of the Saviour.

Your love remembers that last Sunday we preached that by good deeds and constant prayers we should unbar for ourselves the gates of justice, and by frequent almsgiving fortify ourselves as with a rampart of mercy. For it is a kind of impregnable wall against the adversary to resist with almsgiving and to fight with fasting. For though the enemy's arms are strong, these arms of the Saviour are stronger; whoever is clothed with them, though he may seem unarmed to the eyes of men, is armed enough, because the supreme Godhead guards him. It is good, then, in tribulation to pray, to fast, to sing psalms, to show mercy. For with these weapons, as we set forth the example of David against Goliath, Christians are accustomed to conquer their adversaries, and with these arms to guard the walls of the city. For the holy prophet says: "Unless the Lord guards the city, those who guard it keep watch in vain." In vain, then, does that man keep watch who thinks he arms the city while he himself does not have the arms of faith. In vain indeed does he labour who reckons that he can provide protection for another while he himself is destitute of the grace of God. The Lord says in the Gospel: "Physician, heal yourself." By this example it must be said: first, man, look after your own salvation, so that you may be able to provide for the salvation of many. Otherwise, when I see you weak and infirm and destitute of divine help, I not only have no confidence in the defence of the city that is prepared by you, but I fear that your despair may throw the city into confusion. The city, then, is fortified when God himself rather guards it; and God guards it, as it is written, when those who live in it are all moderate, serious, Christian and catholic. For God must preserve a city in which he finds something of his commandments to preserve. But where there is luxury, faithlessness and blasphemy, the Lord does not preserve that city, lest not so much the city as the sins in it be preserved. Whoever, then, provides a fortification for the city in the name of the Lord truly prepares security for the citizens. But whoever tries to build a fortification for the city without the grace of God seems, like a fox, to be preparing a hiding place in a den for himself. For is not that man like a fox in its den, who is always digging the earth and never looks at heaven? For the Lord says, as we heard in the reading lately: "Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky nests where they may rest; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Let us attend carefully to what meaning this saying has. For the Lord did not speak specially of the animal itself, but of those men who, always crafty and cunning, are always eager to imitate foxes in their ways: while they fraudulently plunder other people's goods, they dig the den of their own perdition; and therefore the head of Christ, which is God, cannot find a dwelling in those who live in holes. And there is no doubt why heretics in particular are compared to foxes. For like foxes they are deceitful, troublesome and timid: where they sense quiet, there they exercise the frenzy of their fickleness; where they find watchfulness, they flee away from there in deceitful fraud. For as that animal is always false, always unreliable, and can never change the cunning of its ways, so every heretic is always false, always unreliable; and when he seems to speak with you simply, he changes his words but not his ways: he promises modesty in speech and brings out frenzy from the heart. The fox deceives with its tail, the heretic gets round you with his tongue; the fox feigns gentleness to the animals in order to catch them, the heretic promises moderation to men in order to harm them; the one plays first in order to kill, the other first flatters in order to rob. It is natural to the fox always to lie in wait for the hen and her chicks, so that if one of them wanders too far from its mother it may be caught as prey; so too the heretic always lies in wait for mother Church and her children, so that if perhaps he finds someone rather careless he may ensnare him with his frenzy. That the Church is rightly compared to a hen we read in the Gospel, where the Lord says to Jerusalem: "Jerusalem, how often I wished to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings!" The hen is rightly compared to the Church. For just as the Church not only nourishes her own children but also receives strangers who come, so the hen not only nourishes those she has herself hatched but also rears strangers set under her. Therefore, brothers, let us arm ourselves during this week with fasts, prayers and vigils, so that by the intervention of God's mercy we may both drive back the ferocity of the barbarians and blunt the snares of the heretics.

I have often urged you, brothers, while it is allowed, while there is time, to look to your salvation in every way and in this short life to provide eternal life for yourselves. For every wise man understands that this life of men was not given for rest but for labour, that is, so that one may labour here and rest hereafter. Here there is no rest; for this life is filled with such great evils that in comparison with it death is thought to be a remedy, not a punishment. That is why God made it short, so that its troubles, which could not be ended by prosperity, might be ended by the shortness of time. Hence holy Job says: "The life of man upon earth is a piraterium"; that is, either because in this life men experience all evils, for piraterium can be called in Latin 'trial'; or certainly 'piraterium' because in this life the devil rages around men like a pirate, for a piraterium is the dwelling of pirates. So long, then, are we in the pirates' den as long as, set in this flesh, we lie open to the temptations of spiritual robbers. Although even in this very life fleshly pirates, the barbarians, are not lacking to us; yet I fear them less, for even if they take away our inheritance, they cannot take away justice; if they take gold, they certainly cannot take Christ; if they plunder silver, they cannot plunder the Saviour. Who, then, does not hasten to have Christ for himself, whom no robber can plunder from him, no enemy take away, no captivity separate? For whoever has Christ does not fear a human enemy. For what will the enemy do to a wise man? Drive off his flocks? A plague of disease has also been known to do that. Plunder his herds? He has already learned to bear that loss from cattle thieves. Kill the man himself? Perhaps he does not bring troubles on him but removes them; for he inflicts on him what a fever would bring with greater distress, especially since the Lord says: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." Those spiritual pirates, then, are more to be feared, who are accustomed to despoil not only the bodies of men but also their souls; who strive to take away not so much the gold of the world as the gold of faith; who plunder not so much the substance of the world as the wisdom of Christ. For these spiritual enemies themselves send these fleshly ones against us, so that, set in tribulation, we may be tested as to how confident we are in God, whether we ask for a remedy from him alone. For there are some who, set in tribulation, say that enemies who conquer by evil arts must be overcome by the same arts; despairing of God, they demand victory from demons. Wretched men, they do not know what they are doing, what they are saying. For while they fear for their property, they have forgotten religion and faith; perhaps they do not lose their property, but, what is more, they have lost their souls. Holy Job says: "If we receive good things from the hand of the Lord, why shall we not bear evil things?" That is, if we rejoice when good things come, why should we not be strengthened when adversities befall? To bear adversity is for the wise man an exercise of virtue, for the foolish an occasion of transgression. I have often said that in this short life you should provide eternal life for yourselves, and I grieve that you despise doing it. For when we say that you must fast, hardly anyone fasts except a few; when we say that alms must be given, greater avarice constrains you. As for praying and giving thanks to God, I think that many of you do not know what it is: rising at first dawn, they think of nothing but their lunch; when they have lunched, they give themselves to sleep, never giving thanks to the Godhead, which has given them both lunch for refreshment and sleep for rest. Surely, you Christian, if you are of any use, you ought to remember whose bread you eat and say praise to him. Tell me: if you give anyone something of yours, do you not expect him to thank you and bless the one from whom kindness was bestowed on him? And if perhaps he does not thank you, how he is marked by you as ungrateful! So, then, God who feeds us expects of us too that we give thanks for the food he has supplied and, filled with his gifts, speak his praises. For this is the return for divine benefits: that when we have been refreshed, we confess that we have received good things. But if, receiving divine gifts, we remain silent and forgetful, we shall be cheated of their supply as ungrateful and unworthy; so that we seek, when evils come upon us, the God whom we did not acknowledge through his benefits, and are spurred by adversity to ask, because we did not give thanks in prosperity for our enjoyment; just as now it happens that we who were lazy in peace in giving praise are now trembling in tribulation, bewailing our dangers.

I believe I said quite enough last Sunday to rebuke those who, enjoying God's gifts, give no thanks to the Creator, and, using heavenly benefits, make no return to their author, as men ungrateful and unworthy of benefits: ungrateful, I say, who neither fear God as servants fear a master nor honour him as sons honour a parent. God says through the prophet: "If I am Lord, where is my fear? If I am father, where is my love?" That is: if you are a servant, render the Lord the service of fear; if a son, show the head of the household affection. But you, when you do not give thanks, neither love God nor fear him; so you are either a stubborn servant or a proud son. The Christian, then, who is of any use ought always to speak praises to his Father and Lord and to manage all things for his glory, as the blessed Apostle says: "Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do all things for the glory of God." See what kind of banquet the Apostle wished a Christian man's to be: that faith in Christ rather than the fat of the lunch should be eaten, that the frequent calling on the Lord's name should refresh a man more than a manifold and abundant supply of dishes, and that religion should feed the hungry man better than fattening food. "Do all things," he says, "for the glory of God." All our acts, then, are to be carried out with Christ as companion or witness; for this reason, that we may do good things with him as author and avoid evil things because of his companionship. For one who knows that he has Christ as a sharer is ashamed to do evil. And Christ is our helper in good things and our preserver from evil things. So when we rise at dawn, before we go out of the bedroom, we ought to give thanks to the Saviour and, before all the acts of the world, perform acts of piety to him who guarded us as we rested and slept in our beds. For who but God guards a sleeping man? He is so loosened in sleep and forgetful of his human strength that he becomes a stranger to himself, so that he does not know what he is or where he is, and certainly cannot help himself. God, then, is necessarily present with those who sleep, since those who sleep cannot help themselves; and he himself guards the human race from the snares of the night, because at that time no one else keeps watch. I owe thanks, then, to him who keeps watch so that I may sleep securely. For God himself, when we are going to bed, receives us quietly as in a kind of lap, keeps us in a hidden treasury of peace, and defends us until the light by a kind of protection of darkness; so that the malice of hostile men, which cannot be dispelled by kindness, is repelled by the darkness, and the darkness grants peace to the weary which human kindness did not grant; for while a man does not know where to pursue his adversary, he grants unwillingly the peace which, when willing, he would not grant. We ought, then, on rising to give thanks to God and to do every work of the day in the sign of the Saviour. When you were still a pagan, did you not use to search out signs and gather with great inquiry which signs were favourable for which things? Now I do not want you to go wrong in number: know that in the one sign of Christ is the safe prosperity of all things. Whoever begins to sow in this sign will obtain the fruit of eternal life; whoever undertakes a journey in this sign will reach as far as heaven. In this name, then, all our acts are to be directed, and to him the movement of our whole life is to be referred; for, as the Apostle says, "In him we live and move and have our being." And when evening closes the day, we ought to speak praise to him with the psalter and sing his glory in measured sweetness, so that, the contest of our works being finished, we may gain rest like victors, and the forgetfulness of sleep may be a kind of palm for our labour. That we should do this, brothers, we are not only taught by reason but also reminded by examples. Do we not see even the tiniest birds, when dawn brings on the brightening day, sound out with varied sweetness in the little chambers of their nests, and do this zealously before they go out, so that they may charm their Creator with sweetness because they cannot with speech; and as each of them, since it cannot by confession, shows its service in melodies, so that the one that has sung more sweetly seems to itself to give thanks more devoutly; and that they do the same when the course of the day is done? What, then, does this song arranged at fixed times and this constant attention mean, if not a kind of unrestrained confession of thanks? For the innocent bird, because it cannot by speech, flatters its shepherd with sweetness; for the birds too have their shepherd, as the Lord says: "Look at the birds of the sky, for they neither sow nor reap, and your Father who is in heaven feeds them." And with what food are the birds fed? The cheapest and earthly, of course. The birds, then, give thanks for cheap food; you are fed with the most costly dishes, and you are ungrateful. Who, then, having the understanding of a man, would not be ashamed to close the day without the celebration of the psalms, when the birds themselves leap with the sweetness of a psalter to give thanks; and not to sound out with the sweetness of verses the glory of him whose praise the birds proclaim in measured song? Imitate, then, brother, the tiniest birds by giving thanks to the Creator morning and evening; and if you are more devout, imitate the nightingale, which, since the day alone is not enough for it to sing praises, runs through the spaces of the night with wakeful song. You too, then, outdoing the day with your praises, add the running courses of the night to your work, and console the sleepless industry of the labour you have undertaken with the psalter. And since I have mentioned those birds that keep watch at night, I do not want you to be an imitator of the owl, which, though it keeps watch through the night, is sluggish or blind through the day; which with its great eyes loves the gloom of darkness and shudders at the brightness of the sun; for in a marvellous way it is lit by darkness and blinded by light. That animal is a figure of heretics and pagans, who embrace the darkness of the devil, shudder at the light of the Saviour, and with the great eyes of their disputations see vain things and do not look at eternal ones. Of them the Lord says: "They have eyes and will not see; they walk in darkness." For they are sharp for superstitious things and dull for divine; and while they think they fly higher with their words, like owls they are confused by the brightness of the true light.

We read in the prophets that when overthrow from God hung over the city of Nineveh, and the time for destroying it according to God's sentence was coming on, those who lived in it had no other defence than to throw away their drunken feasts and undertake continuous fasts, and, setting aside the ambition for riches, to clothe themselves with the humility of poverty; so that they might receive a remedy from the very place from which ruin was coming on them; that is, that by abstaining they might soften the wrath of the Godhead which they had provoked by luxury, and humility might mitigate the offence which pride had brought on them. For in that tribulation the king himself is said to have laid aside the imperial purple, put away royal ambition, girded his limbs with sackcloth, and rolled himself in sackcloth day and night. A wise king, then, who knew how he ought to overcome his adversities: he overcame enemies by courage, but he conquered God by humility. A wise king indeed, who understood which arms to use according to the nature of the time: when men lay snares for him, he takes up the arms of war; when God is angry with him, he seizes the arms of justice. A wise king, I say, who for the safety of his citizens confesses himself a sinner rather than a king; for he forgets that he is a king when he fears God the king of all, and he does not remember his own power when he acknowledges the power of the Godhead. He forgets, then, that he is a king when he throws off the purple and lays down the diadem, and is clothed with haircloth and sackcloth, persists in fasts, and lingers in prayers. A marvellous thing: while he does not remember that he is king of men, he begins to be king of justice. The devout prince, then, did not lose his rule but changed it. For before he held the principate of military discipline; now he holds the principate of heavenly disciplines. He did not lose his rule, I say, because whether by iron or by justice he is the first to keep watch for the safety of the citizens. Indeed he is the first to keep watch; for, so that the whole city might fast, the king first proclaimed hunger on himself, and for the sake of all began to be hungry before the soldier; for it was necessary that he who had been more powerful than the rest should become more devout than all. By his example, then, he prepares an army for religion, fortified not with arms but with devotion alone: he orders every sex and every age to abstain from the day's meals. Numbers are added to the devout army when even infancy is compelled to serve in such devotion. For in such a cause it is believed to be piety to deny even little children the substance of food; for the satisfaction of the sinners was not enough to appease God unless the innocence of the little ones also wept for the sins of their elders, and youth washed away its own faults with the tears of others. That all these things, brothers, were done for our admonition there is no one who does not know, so that whenever we are pressed by tribulations we may run to these defences: for instance, the adversary threatens, the enemy is at hand; let us fast and conquer. Some men, whenever they suffer a very hard necessity, are accustomed to send ambassadors to neighbouring nations to ask for help. Let us, what is better, send an embassy to God through fasts; let us implore help from him, let us betake ourselves to him with heart and prayers. For those people did not ask for help by begging elsewhere, but exacted it from their own bowels by fasting. Why, then, should one ask from another who can find within himself what he seeks? For the nearer we are to God, the farther our adversaries will be driven from us. We must, then, become near to God; since the prophet says: "Behold, those who withdraw themselves far from you shall perish." But if those who are far from God shall perish, surely those who are near will be saved; and we cannot be near God otherwise than by drawing near to him with fasts, prayers and alms. For God himself is merciful, fasting and holy; and so whoever wishes to be near God must imitate being what God is. The whole city of the Ninevites, then, fasted in tribulation. Well did he say 'whole'; for we read that not only old men, young men and infants, but even the cattle fasted. A marvellous thing: one whom the condition of sin does not bind fasts for the sin of the city. Hence we too, dearest brothers, enduring the straits of the times, ought all to fast alike and implore the mercy of God by the abstinence of all. For what kind of Christian would this be, not to do for his own salvation what the cattle did for the salvation of men? Except that he is more stupid than a beast who does not fast when a fast has been proclaimed for him by the priest; for is he not a beast who does not understand what threatens him, what lies on him? And a beast, seeing a pit, turns aside and avoids precipices. But you do not wish to avoid by fasting the danger that you see? For it is a kind of despair to eat when you ought to abstain, to rejoice when you ought to lament. Of this despair, which may God turn away from us, the Apostle says: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die." Let us fast, then, brothers, without ceasing, so that we may be able to overcome our enemies by prayers and abstinence, with the help of our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Last Sunday we said that the Ninevites, set in tribulation, won the mercy of the Godhead by abstinence and freed their city from danger by fasting; and that they were so wise as not to defend themselves with the help of others but to save themselves by their own devotion. For they did not at once despair of their safety because they had heard from the prophet that they were to be overthrown together with the walls of the city. But the nearer the destruction was announced to be, the more they armed themselves with acts of religion; nor did they abandon their city to be overthrown, but rather remained in it: wisely, so that the city which was troubled by the sins of the citizens might be saved by the prayers of the citizens, and devout religion might bring salvation to the city on which bad conduct had brought ruin. For it was just that it should have as its own defenders the same people whom it had suffered as sinners. For destruction is brought on a city only because of the sins of its citizens. Stop sinning, then, and the city will not perish. Why do you flee your homeland? If you wish to be safe, flee rather from your sins. If you stop sinning, the enemy is conquered. Divine Scripture says to Abraham that a homeland can be saved through ten just men. If, then, it is the just who save the homeland, surely it is the unjust who abandon it; and if the former obtain grace by their presence, the latter must deserve desolation by their flight. Plainly unjust and impious is the son who deserts his mother in danger. For one's homeland is in a way a sweet mother, who bore you, who nourished you, who made you rich so that you are able to flee. For if you did not have an abundant supply of means, you would not have the resource of flight; and so, led by avarice, while you fear to lose your riches, you do not hesitate to be impious toward your mother. From this we understand that you look after your money more than your salvation. Tell me, good citizen, why are you planning to flee? Why are you abandoning your homeland? Perhaps you fear captivity, and do you not understand that this is the first captivity, not to see one's homeland, and, what is heavier than every evil, to endure the exile of a sojourn among enemies? It is usual for one who has committed some crime to be condemned to this kind of punishment: to be driven from his homeland and banished to unknown regions. So you are providing for yourself by your own will the evil that one condemned for punishment usually receives. But suppose you are of strong mind and can bear the hardship of living abroad with equanimity: tell me, with what freedom will you live among strangers? When you begin to speak, will it not be thrown at you: 'Where is this man exiled from, where has this fugitive come from? For he is trying to oppress our city as he oppressed his own homeland.' You will be so perplexed, so troubled, that, fearing for your liberty, you will be afraid that you will find no one there to vouch for your free birth. Believe me: in another's homeland you will hear as much as you have often said to others in your own homeland. And I do not wish to say that, however rich you are in your homeland, however much you enjoy plenty, as soon as you go out of your house you are a beggar and a poor man. God, then, says to Abraham that a city can be saved through ten just men. You think badly of yourself, then, Christian people, if you do not believe that in so great a congregation of ours there are ten just men to save the city. For when you desert your homeland, you declare that there are not in it worthy men by whose merits it may be freed. But I fear that, all the just in it being left behind, you alone, who desert it, may be found unjust. But I do not want you to be troubled about the number of ten just men. For we read that in the destruction of the Sodomites Lot alone by his merits freed a city, so that the grace of one availed more to save than the sins of many to overthrow. For to him as he went out of Sodom little Segor was granted for the sake of hospitality. But if a city is given to a just guest, how much more is a homeland granted to a just owner!

I remember having often said that we ought not to fear these tumults of war at all, nor dread any multitude of enemies however great; since, as the Lord says, "Greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world." That is, Christ is more powerful to protect his servants than the devil to stir up enemies. For though the devil gathers crowds to himself and cruelly arms them with madness, yet they are easily destroyed, because the Saviour surrounds his people with better help; for the prophet says: "The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him and will rescue them." But if the angel of the Lord rescues those who fear him from dangers, he who fears the Saviour cannot fear the barbarian, nor can he who keeps Christ's commandments dread the assault of the enemy. For Christ's commandments are arms for Christians, and the fear of God drives out of us the terror of the enemy. And these are our arms with which the Saviour has equipped us: prayer, mercy and fasting. For fasting protects better than a wall; mercy frees more easily than plunder; prayer wounds at a greater distance than an arrow. For an arrow strikes only an adversary seen close at hand, but prayer wounds even an enemy set far off. So the holy prophet Elisha, when the king of Syria wished to capture him and bring him under his power and had surrounded him with many columns of armed men, was not terrified, not troubled, but said to the servant who brought the news: "Do not fear, for there are more with us than with them." O the faith of the holy prophet! He does not fear the adversaries whom he sees, because he knows that the angels whom he believes in are with him; he does not dread earthly snares, because he knows that heavenly help is present to him. "For there are more with us than with them." A marvellous thing! Holiness earns more defenders from heaven than wickedness has brought attackers on earth. "There are more with us than with them." See the merit of blessedness. The prophet makes a report even about the number while the servant is still uncertain of his safety. How much more spiritual eyes see than fleshly ones! The one sees the number of armed men, and the other does not see the sign of his defence. How great is the divine mercy! A benefit is brought to men and is not seen; those in danger obtain help and do not know it. For this is the kindness of the Saviour: to intervene for salvation without revealing himself to sight, to be felt in benefits and not seen by the eyes. Hence he errs who thinks, when he has done something successfully, that he has conquered by his own strength. For he ought to know that adversaries are conquered by merits rather than by valour, and overcome not so much by valour as by holiness; just as holy Elisha did not overcome his enemies by arms but conquered them by prayer. For when he told his servant, to drive away his fear, that more defenders were present, and the fear could not be taken from him, then he prayed to the Lord, saying: "Lord, open his eyes that he may see. And his eyes were opened, and he saw, and behold, the whole mountain was full of horsemen," and so on. The prophet's prayer, then, opened the servant's eyes. No wonder if prayer opened his eyes to see an army, since it opened heaven for an army to come. No wonder, I say, if he gained new eyes, who earned new help. Or why should he not bring forth sight in the eye, who drew up the battle lines of angels? Why, I say, should he not by his prayer uncover the condition of the pupils, who by his merits pierced the darkness of the clouds? By this deed, then, holy Elisha necessarily gave security to his fearful servant, to whom he had already restored clear sight, and removed the fear of the heart from him from whom he had removed blindness of vision; and rewarding him with a double benefit, he released his fear and released his sight. He began to fear less after he earned to see more; for he earned both peace and sight together. On the mountains, then, the armed men are seen. It is clear that those truly came down from heaven whose coming is found first to be on the mountains. For the very nearness of the places shows that, coming down from heaven, they trod only the ridges of hills near to them. Then Elisha prayed and struck the whole enemy army with blindness. No wonder if he brought blindness on the adversaries, who bestowed clear sight on his servant; and if he took sight from enemies, who gave vision to his minister. Where are those who say that arms can do more than the prayers of holy men? See, one prayer of Elisha wounded a whole army, and by the merits of one prophet the whole number of the enemy was taken captive. What troops of kings, what crowd of soldiers achieved such a victory as to lay low the enemy in such a way that none of them died? This is true, this is bloodless victory, where the adversary is so conquered that none of the conquerors is hurt.

Perhaps it seems wonderful that, describing the grace of holy Elisha some days ago, we said that help came down from heaven for his defence, and that armed horsemen or chariots were present to him from God, and that even a chariot of fire stood about him. It is indeed a great thing, but in a holy man it is not to be wondered at. For what wonder if he earns help from heaven whose mind is always in heaven? As the apostle Paul says: "But our citizenship is in heaven." If, then, our citizenship is in heaven, the citizenship of heavenly beings can also be with us; that is, we who live the life of angels rightly earn their companionship. Truly there is among those who live holily a certain kinship, union and fellowship with one another: it makes no difference whether they dwell in heaven or on earth, whether their condition is angelic or human, provided that in them there is the same life and holiness. Conduct joins those whom the element separates, and though they are divided by different bodies, they are joined by the same actions. And so it comes about that the saints, holding together in a kind of fellowship, do not depart from one another; and now angels come to earth, now men are carried over to heavenly places; and by a better progress, those whose life is common begin to have even the elements of their living in common. But someone says: 'We have often heard that angels came down to men; we wish also to hear how men have passed over to heavenly places.' The matter is plain and ready to hand. Was not Elijah, Elisha's master, caught up to heaven with angels leading him, and, set on a chariot of fire, did he not ascend as a victor in a kind of triumph? For he had been a victor not over barbarian nations but over worldly pleasures; for depraved morals are heavier enemies than hostile foes, and we understand that at this time the malice of enemies can be overcome more easily than that of morals. Angels, then, carry Elijah to heaven; angels guard Elisha on earth. What wonder if the angels who had carried the master protect the disciple, and offer to the son too a kind of new service which they had shown to the father? For he is the heir of his holiness. Rightly, then, is Elisha called Elijah's spiritual son, because, ascending to heaven, he left him a double spirit of his grace. For when Elisha was given the opportunity to ask what he wished before Elijah was taken from him, he asked that a double portion of Elijah's spirit might be in him. Then Elijah said: "You have asked a hard thing, but it shall be done for you." O precious inheritance, in which more is left to the heir than is possessed, and the one who receives obtains more than the one who bestows possessed! A precious inheritance indeed, which, while it passes from father to son, is doubled by a certain course of merits. Elijah, then, though he himself had a single spirit of holiness, left Elisha a double one. In a marvellous way, then, Elijah left more grace on earth than he carried with him to heaven, and though he himself is carried up whole in body to the heights, yet in his son he remains in greater holiness. And what shall we say of Elisha's merits? This is his first praise, that he wished to surpass his father in grace, when he asks for more to be given him than he knows the possessor has. He is greedy in asking, but fit in deserving. For while he demanded more from his father than he had, by his merits he made him give more than he could. For when this Elisha, after his master's ascension, had come to Jericho and was asked by the citizens to stay in that city, they said to him: "The situation of the town is good, but the waters are bad and barren." Then he ordered an earthen vessel to be given him, and having put salt in it he came to the outflow of the waters and threw it into the waters, saying: "Thus says the Lord: I have healed these waters; from them there shall be neither death nor barrenness. And the waters were healed to this day." See, then, how great are the merits of Elisha, whose first hospitality in a city is a great fruitfulness of children. For when he turns away the barrenness of the waters, he bestows a succession of heirs. For by this deed Elisha did not heal one man or provide medicine for one man's house, but restored the people of the whole city. For if he had done this later, with barrenness intervening and all growing old, the city would have remained without an inhabitant. Elisha, then, in curing the waters, cured the people too; in blessing the spring of waters, he granted a kind of spring of souls. For as by his sanctification healthy water came forth from the hidden veins of the earth, so healthy offspring came forth from the hidden inward parts of the womb. For Elisha did not bless only those streams which were already held in the lap of the springs, but also those which, mingled in the moist soil of the earth, were gradually to flow out in the future. Hence Scripture says that Elisha blessed the water at its outflow, so that sanctification might receive the dripping water before the bosom of the spring enclosed it. Therefore, since the holy apostle Paul says, "These things happened to them in figure," let us see what truth this figure has; that is, let us inquire what this city is that was labouring under barrenness, or what the earthen vessel means, and what the sprinkled salt brings by way of sweetness. We read in the same Apostle a saying about the Church: "Rejoice, barren one who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labour." The Church, then, is that barren city which before the coming of Christ, suffering barrenness through the fault of the waters, that is, through the sacrilege of the Gentile peoples, could not bring forth children to God. But when Christ came, taking a human body like an earthen vessel, he healed the faults of the waters, that is, cut away the sacrileges of the peoples; at once the Church, which was barren, began to be fruitful. Hence the Apostle too says: "Rejoice, barren one." For the Church, which was barren, has from then brought forth more children than the synagogue, which was fruitful, received. And what the sprinkled salts are, and what medicine they brought, we shall easily recognize. The Lord says to the apostles: "You are the salt of the earth." If, then, the apostles are compared to salt, the figure is rightly fulfilled: as then the salt poured from the vessel seasoned the waters, so now the apostles sent by the Saviour season all peoples, so that, the barrenness of vices removed, they begin to bring forth the offspring of virtues.

Many and manifest, dearest brothers, are the examples of divine severity and kindness, by which we can clearly see that our God, with an ineffable and just governance, rebukes the stubbornness of the proud and is present to the griefs of those who entreat him. For as the Creator of his creatures, as Lord he chastises the sins of his own, as a father he consoles the sadness of his children. For we are his creatures by right of nature; we are his servants because he redeemed us at the price of his blood; we are sons because he bestowed on us the sacraments of a heavenly birth. So we are a creature, to revere; servants, to fear; sons, to love. Accordingly, as almighty Lord he brought the wrath of lamentable desolation on this church, and as most merciful father he grants the accomplishment of the longed-for restoration. To show that in the times to come he will restore the face of this city like a body restored after death, he first restored his church, which is certainly the head of the city, with a construction that lives again. He, then, who assisted in the restoration of the fallen head will grant, if we so deserve, that the fallen members of that head rise again. Or why should one doubt that God can rebuild the earthly dwellings of those to whom, if they believe rightly and live rightly, he promises to give most blessed and unimaginable mansions in heaven? Let us not doubt, then, that God will restore to us what is ours if we restore in ourselves what is God's. For once, when the Lord deigned to call back to himself his wandering people, he said to them through his prophet: "Return to me, and I will return to you." That is: recall your faith toward me, and I will restore my grace to you. Render what you owe, and demand what I promise. Hear what I command, and I will do what you ask. Take away the causes of offence, and I will remove the punishment. And yet, dearest ones, in these tribulations of ours, which by God's governance we have borne as far as was possible, some were very unskilled interpreters, saying: 'This city has perished, the church has fallen, there is no longer any reason to live.' On the contrary, there is reason to live more justly and holily; because almighty God, who dispenses all these things with great kindness, handed over to the hands of enemies not the city which is in you but the dwellings of the city; nor did he order his Church, which is truly the Church, to be consumed by fire, but for our correction he permitted the buildings of the Church to be burned. For no wise or faithful man is ignorant that the city is in the people and the Church in the congregation. Therefore, dearest ones, not beams and timbers but you present a living Church to our God; you make up the whole city. And so even in the offence of his household God was so gracious as to temper all things that our iniquity should not be great and that he should grant his entreating servants time for a saving way of life. For by the benefit of his kindness, after that great and so mournful destruction, see, his high priest stands here unharmed, the clergy entire, and the people themselves, though still living under daily fear and in sorrow, nevertheless continue in freedom. It is not, then, the Church that has now been restored, which by God's protection did not perish; but these walls and roofs you, who are the Church of God, have received back as yours. For you are, as the Apostle says, "the temple of the living God." Hence notice, brothers, that when just punishment was to be demanded of us for our sins, by the goodness of the kind judge it was not we ourselves but what seemed to be ours that either the robber plundered or that perished consumed by fire and sword. So sometimes, to frighten us, when God is indignant and heaven thunders with dreadful voices, sacred buildings and private houses, flocks of cattle and various four-footed beasts, fruitful and barren trees, rocks and the heights of mountains are mercifully for us struck by lightning. And so that our minds may be turned to God and our life saved, those things which either lack sense or do not know that they live are struck by lightning for us. How gentle this punishment, and how it comes down from fatherly kindness! We sin, and heaven rages against the cattle; we deserve the flame, and a tree is burned up; we commit sins worthy of punishment, and rocks undergo vengeance for us. Sometimes indeed some, concerning whom God so decides, are tested as men in the shadow of it: first of all, so that sinners may not have continued security of going unpunished; then so that the punishment of a few may correct the multitude of sinners. Who would not marvel at that great dispensation of heavenly wrath and grace? For when the walls were broken through, the unarmed people fled the armed and raging enemy as the swiftest horsemen flee the slow wagons of the panic-stricken, weighed down with their own load. And indeed some of the clergy or people lacked either the possibility or the will to escape. The account of their life and death must be left to the divine judgment. Let us console ourselves, then, brothers, and not sigh so much that the houses have fallen, since we see that the restoration of houses is reserved in their owners. There has been fulfilled even in us, it seems, that command of the Lord concerning his servant Job, when, the devil acting against him, he set a limit to the persecution. For he said to him, as we read: "All that he has I give into your hands; but do not touch him himself." And again: "See, I hand him over to you; only keep away from his soul." Having received this command, the enemy at once destroyed all his substance and covered his body with sores, and held back only from injury to his soul. See, most beloved, how much the Lord, sparing our frailty, tempered his punishment toward us, so that, though cities were devastated, fields laid waste and substance diminished, neither our souls nor our bodies were harmed. And the body of that great Job shuddered, corrupted by the putrefaction of worms, because that brave man was being tested for glory, while we as weak ones were being kept for grace. And so let us not doubt that God can restore what was lost to us and our descendants, since we see that for most faithful Job, once the devil was conquered, his wealth was doubled, his children renewed, and the most cruel wound of his body cured with wonderful health. And so this most blessed man, high priest of the most high God, Eusebius, can most fittingly and necessarily sing to God with us and for us that saying of David: "O God, I have declared my life to you; you have set my tears in your sight." That is: I have confessed my sins to you, Lord, and you have not denied your mercy. I have experienced the censure of one who judges; I acknowledge the grace of one who spares. I have wept for my griefs and the sadness of your people in exile, but I rejoice that my tears have not been despised by you. For you have turned, Lord, as the prophet says, my mourning into joy for me. You drove me out when offended and brought me back when appeased. Or rather, to speak more truly, you drove me out when appeased, lest by rashly remaining in the place I should incur the misery of captivity. What I deserved, I obtained. I render, then, due thanks to your eternal glory, because you have deigned to restore through me your servant this holy house of yours, which barbarian fury levelled to the ground because of our deserts; and gathering the scattered congregation of your people, you have now restored it to my eyes; and in your name we dedicate new things from old, and under a kind of figure of resurrection the summit of this temple has been raised up as a watchtower to its old height. So that people of Israel once, when Jerusalem had been burned and the temple overthrown, was led captive into the region of Babylon, and after a fixed time, recalled to its homeland, built its land and its city and the temple. Preserve, then, Lord, what you have wrought in us. Be gracious, Lord; spare, Lord; save your people and bless your inheritance; lest, if you overlook it any longer, our God, the nations should laugh at the loss of your flock and say, as they have said, "Where is their God?" But as the punishment of one indignant toward us was not lacking, so may the kindness of one appeased toward us continue; by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

We read in the book entitled the Acts of the Apostles that under those men the devotion of the people was so great, and the first fruits of the Christian people were so noble, that after receiving the faith no one held on to his own house and no one claimed anything as his own, but by the right of brotherhood all things were common to them; that is, so that those who were held in the same fellowship of religion might enjoy the same fellowship of life too; so that those who had one faith might also have one substance, and those who had Christ in common might also have their means in common. For these devout men thought it wrong not to take as a sharer in their substance one who was a sharer in grace; and so with the love of brotherhood they used all things in common, except that the brotherhood of Christ was greater than that of blood. For brotherhood of blood reflects only a likeness of body, but brotherhood of Christ shows unanimity of heart, as it is written: "The heart and soul of those who believed was one." He, then, is truly a brother who is a sibling not so much in body as in unanimity; he, I say, is a true brother whose same spirit and will is in his brother. Better, then, as I said, is the brotherhood of Christ than that of blood. Brotherhood of blood is sometimes hostile to itself, but the brotherhood of Christ is peaceful without ceasing; the one divides common things among its members with rivalry, the other shares even its own things with rejoicing; the one often despises a brother in partnership, the other often takes in a stranger. So great, then, as I said, was the devotion of the Christian people at that time that no one called his house his own, no one claimed anything as his own; as holy Luke says: "And no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common"; for there was not, I say, anyone needy among them. Blessed, then, the people which, while it had many rich in Christ, had no one in want in the world; and which, while it thought of eternal riches, drove temporal poverty away from its brothers. For, as Scripture says, they sold their estates and houses and brought the prices of what was sold to the feet of the apostles, to be distributed as each had need. See the faith of these holy men: how for Christ's sake they stripped themselves of their whole inheritance and kept nothing back for themselves; for they did not fear that they themselves would be hungry, while they feared that another would be in need. Such, then, was the devotion among the people under the apostles; what do we find like it now? And certainly the same Christ is in us, but the same mind is not in us; the same faith is in the people, but the same generosity is not in the people; one so little thinks of another's need that it is as the Apostle says: "One is hungry, while another is drunk." For many Christians not only do not distribute their own goods but even plunder those of others; not only, I say, do they not bring their money together to the feet of the apostles, but they even drag their brothers who have taken refuge away from the feet of the priests. Now is the time that the blessed Apostle describes, saying: "In the last days the iniquity of many will abound, and love will grow cold." For now the iniquity of avarice abounds, which before ceased through the goodness of generosity; and the love of brotherhood grows cold, which before was fervent with the love of Christ. For under the apostles the love of brotherhood was so great that in their assembly need did not arise; but now the unlikeness of Christianity is so great that in our congregation you can hardly find a rich man; and I say that you can hardly find a rich man not so much in means as in works; for the Apostle says: "Let them be rich in good works." For he wished that man to be understood as rich in the Church who is rich in Christ; for there too, the statement that under the apostles no one was needy certainly shows that they were endowed with such grace of faith that all abounded in the generosity of heavenly riches. Rarely, then, at this time do we find a rich man among the Christian people; though many are rich in gold in their houses, yet in the Church they are beggars in justice; for when they do not do for the poor in proportion to what they are able, neither is what they offer pleasing nor what they keep back satisfying. The Lord says to Cain when he offered gifts: "If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, you have sinned." So you too, Christian, do not divide rightly, who out of so much gold of yours keep back a greater part for mammon than you give to the Lord. For so Ananias in the Acts of the Apostles, while he thinks he offers rightly and does not divide rightly, lost the money he offered and lost what he kept at home; he lost, I say, both his money and his salvation together. For when he took away a part of what he had promised, he was condemned at once for sacrilege and for fraud: for sacrilege, because he deceived God in his promise; for fraud, because he thought a certain portion should be taken from the entire gift; for the apostle Peter says: "You have not lied to men but to God." If, then, brothers, Ananias is condemned because he did not give all that he himself had promised of his own, what do we think of one who will not give back what another promised? See, then, you too, brothers, what you promised to God when you first received his grace. See, our city is full of strangers and refugees: do what you promised, lest it be said to you too what was said to Ananias: "You have not lied to men but to God."

Your love remembers, brothers, that some days ago, when we were preaching the unanimity and generosity of the people that existed under the most blessed apostles, we came as far as the avarice of Ananias, who at that time, in the most pure life of the whole race, was found alone like a diseased sheep. For he was so infected with the plague of avarice that holy Peter wished not so much to correct him as to condemn him. For he had read: "Cast the plague-bearer out of the council, and all strife will go out with him." He alone, then, was a plague in the holy assembly, who, when all were seeking the gain of life through contempt of money, himself traded only for the gain of money rather than of salvation, and while he hoped for a saving of price, he found the loss of his soul. Ananias, then, was found to be avaricious by the apostles; now our lowliness is excused: for it is less to be wondered at that this vice abounds under us, since it began to sprout under the apostles; and if their authority could not amend these things in Ananias, what will be imputed to us if we cannot correct the same in many brothers? For if Peter could have corrected the avarice in Ananias, he would not have punished him; but in punishing him he corrects others; for he wished the punishment to reach one, but the fear to reach many. In Ananias, then, an example has been set before all the avaricious, so that whoever is guilty of the same crime will be struck on the day of judgment by the sentence of the same penalty. Avarice, then, is a great evil; indeed it is the origin of all evils, as the Apostle says: "For the root of all evils is covetousness; some who longed for it have wandered from the faith." You see, then, that whoever longs for money loses faith; whoever gathers gold squanders grace. For avarice is blindness; it brings in error in religion. Avarice, I say, is blind, but, keen-eyed with various tricks of fraud, it does not see the things of the Godhead but thinks of the things of greed; always, however rich it is, it thinks how to acquire from any source, even from evil. It thinks the whole of life is business; suppressing everything for profit, it imposes interest on its empty loan; it blushes at the name of usury and does not blush at the profit of usury. The avaricious man, then, always uses what belongs to another and feeds himself on another's loss; another's need is his prey; another's weeping is his joy, as we have always seen happen. How many lament what they have lost, over which many rejoice as things they have seized? See, an old father weeps for his son taken captive, and you already boast over him as your little slave. An innocent peasant groans for his lost bullock, and you plan to till your farm with it, and you think you can reap fruits from another's groans. See, a devout widow grieves for her house stripped of all its furniture, and you boast that your house is adorned with the same furniture. Tell me, Christian, are you not pricked, are you not constrained, when you see in your house the tears of others? Scripture says to the children of Israel: "Do not touch what has been taken by a beast; for whatever a bloody wild beast has touched is polluted and defiled." And by this he is worse than a beast whoever takes what a beast has left. Tell me, then, Christian, why did you make free with the plunder left behind by the robbers? Why did you bring into your house what is torn and defiled, as you yourself think? Why did you, a crueller beast, devour what the hostile beast left over? Many say that wolves are accustomed to follow the tracks of lions and not to stray far from their hunting, namely so that they may sate their own fury with another's prey, and what remains after the lions' fill may be consumed by the wolves' rapacity. So too these wolves of avarice have followed the tracks of the robbers, so that what was left over by the rapacity of the one might fall to the savagery of the other. But perhaps you say you bought it and so you escape the charge of avarice. That is not how buying and selling usually stand. It is good to buy, but in peace, what is sold by its owner's will, not in plundering. Consider the origin of the contract, the seller, the size of the price, and you understand that you are a buyer of plunder rather than of a sale. For where does a barbarian get necklaces of gold and jewels? Where does a man dressed in skins get silk garments? Where, I ask, do you get the Roman slaves you take? We know that they belong to our fellow provincials or citizens. He acts, then, as a Christian and a citizen who buys in order to give back.

Divine Scripture says: "As water quenches fire, so almsgiving quenches sin." A great saying indeed, and one to be sought by all, which promises a kind of life-restoring benefit to men already almost dead and dried up by the fire of their sins: that through almsgiving, as sap into things half-dead, refreshment may be poured into what is drying up; that is, that wretched men who had withered in sins may come back to life by almsgiving; that mercy may be a spring of salvation to those for whom avarice had been the fire of death; that they may put out by giving the flames they had kindled for themselves by sinning; and that by a more profitable trade one who once gave money to commit adultery may now spend money so as to stop being an adulterer, and in a way buy innocence for himself who once had bought sin for himself. For the Lord says to his disciples: "Give alms, and behold, all things are clean for you." However polluted, then, however hemmed in by many crimes, if you give alms you have begun to be innocent; for almsgiving wipes away what avarice was polluting, and the stain you had contracted by plundering others' goods you purify by giving away your own. See, then, what the grace of mercy is, which, one and alone, is the redemption of all sins. Let us look at the interpretation of the divine saying itself, so that we may understand to what almsgiving is compared; for it says: "As water quenches fire, so almsgiving quenches sin." Water, then, is compared to mercy; but I find water from the spring of mercy; I must seek the spring of mercy. I find it plainly, the spring of which the prophet says: "For with you is the spring of life, and in your light we shall see light." He, I say, is the spring who in the Gospel, as we heard read lately, asks the Samaritan woman for water, but forgives sins; he rejects the water of the well, but grants the spring of everlasting life; for he says: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst." The Saviour, then, asks the woman for water and pretends to thirst, so that he may bestow eternal grace on those who thirst. For the spring could not thirst, nor could he in whom is living water draw a wave of earthly dregs. Was Christ thirsty, then? He was indeed thirsty: he thirsted not for drink but for the salvation of men; not for the water of the world but for the redemption of the human race. In a marvellous way, then, the spring of mercy sitting on the well brings forth streams in that very place, and purifies with the wave of a living current the woman who was now committing fornication with a sixth man, not a husband but an adulterer; and by a new kind of marvel the woman who had come to the well of Samaria a harlot goes back chaste from the spring of Christ, and she who had come to seek water carried back purity. At once too, as the Lord pointed them out, recognizing her sins, she confesses Christ and announces the Saviour; and leaving her water vessel, she does not carry a jar to the city but carries back grace; she seems to return empty of a burden, but she returns full of holiness. Full, I say, she returns; because she who had come as a sinner returns as a preacher; and she who had lost the vessel of the jar was bringing back the fullness of Christ, bringing no loss on her fellow citizens; for though she did not bring water to the citizens, she brought in the spring of salvation. Sanctified, then, through faith in Christ, the woman returned home. Of her, then, I think the prophet spoke: "Such is the wicked way of an adulterous woman, who when she has washed herself says she has done nothing wrong." Plainly it was said of her who, after she had been washed in the spring of the Saviour, does not remember the vices of her sins but takes up the virtue of preaching; and wiping away her stains with living water, she is not held back from proclaiming the gospel by consciousness of sin, but driven on by the warmth of faith. For she says she has done nothing wrong, as she becomes the messenger of truth; and she denies her immodesty by forgetting it, as she preaches chastity by her devotion. For this is the power of Christ the Lord: that however much a sinner, whoever has washed himself in his water, restored again as a virgin, does not remember what he did before, and by a life-restoring birth shows the innocence of infancy and does not acknowledge the crimes of youth; and he is a virgin by faith in Christ who had been an adulterer by the corruption of sin.

Your love remembers that some days ago, when we were giving you a sermon on almsgiving, we wished first of all to seek the origin of mercies; and having found the spring of these virtues, we showed that the water of Christ washed away the Samaritan woman's filth better than the water of Samaria cleansed it, and that mercy wiped away sins more cleanly than the well. Mercy plainly wipes away stains more cleanly than the well, because the well's water washes only the skin of the body, but the goodness of mercy purifies the inward parts of the soul. We showed also that that harlot of the prophet fits this woman of the Gospel, who after she washed herself with living water, taken over by forgetfulness of wickedness, rejoices in the brightness of purity. For the prophet would not speak such a sentence about a harlot of this world, whose pollution is not only not washed away by water but who even pollutes what she touches, as the Apostle says: "Whoever joins himself to a harlot is one body." But if by her touch she makes one body and pours her shame into the members of the one who clings to her, how can she purify when she pollutes? Let us inquire more carefully, then, who this harlot is, who this Samaritan woman, whose filth of adultery the spring of Christ wiped away. I think this woman is the Church gathered from the Gentiles, which, when five thousand years had passed and in the six thousandth year she lay subject to the fornications of idols, cleansed all her shame at the spring of Christ when he came, wiped away by faith in the Saviour the stains she had contracted by adulterous sacrileges, and, leaving, like an empty jar, her former ancestral course, announced the coming of the Lord to the whole world. She, I say, is that harlot who, after she is washed, says she has done nothing wrong; for after the Church was cleansed by the brightness of baptism, she does not remember the devilish impiety but rejoices in the religion of truth, and made a virgin from a harlot she does not recall her former things but glories in her integrity. The prophet, then, says: "As water quenches fire, so almsgiving quenches sin." We often see this happen, that poured water puts out the burning of flames; but on the contrary we sometimes see huge balls of fire consume streams of water and, as if receiving food from the water, grow stronger with renewed heat, so that the water seems not to have put out the burning but to have increased it. What is that water which consumes flames and is not itself consumed? It is, I think, that which, flowing from the spring of Christ in the font, is not consumed by sinners but consumes the fires of Gehenna. While it is poured in through baptism, it both lives in men and puts out the heat of Tartarus; it lives plainly in men, as the Lord says: "But the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up," and so on. In a marvellous way, then, the water of Christ by one and the same working both gives life and quenches: it gives life to souls and puts out sins; the former it restores by the refreshment of its washing, the latter it consumes with the wave of its flood. And, which belongs to the greater grace of baptism, the mystery is celebrated among those above and Gehenna is quenched among those below: here waters flow, and there the fire cools; here a man is plunged in the font, and there he is freed from Tartarus. Nor is it any wonder if in the sacrament of baptism hell is opened, since then heaven too is unbarred; for these elements are opened so that freedom and grace may meet at the washing of Christ. For freedom is given to those who are to rise, grace to those who are to reign. The former are rescued from punishment, the latter are taken up into glory; the former, who were slaves of sin, become free for justice; the latter, who were held in the straits of the world, receive the delights of paradise. In the baptism of Christ, then, the heavens are opened, and Tartarus is opened too: there so that the Holy Spirit may come, here so that the mercy of the Saviour may draw near; life is brought down from heaven, death is destroyed from Tartarus. So, then, almsgiving quenches sins as the water of baptism quenches the fire of Gehenna: almsgiving, then, is in a way another washing of souls, so that if anyone by human frailty has perhaps sinned after baptism, there remains for him to be cleansed again by almsgiving, as the Lord says: "Give alms, and behold, all things are clean for you"; except that, saving the faith, I would say that almsgiving is more indulgent than the washing. For the washing is given once and promises pardon once; but as often as you give alms, so often do you earn pardon. These, then, are the two springs of mercies, which both give life and forgive sins: whoever keeps both will be enriched with the honour of the heavenly kingdom; and whoever, having stained the living spring, betakes himself to the streams of mercy, will himself obtain mercy.

Your holiness has noticed, brothers, in the gospel reading, how the Lord, among the other virtues to be practised, also prescribed to his disciples the laws of hospitality; for he says: "Into whatever city you enter, ask who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave," and so on. A holy and divine saying indeed, which first gave the disciples the option of choosing and then cut off fickleness altogether. For by setting a measure he provided that a holy man should be neither hasty in judging nor light in changing his host. For just as he allowed you the choice, so he also wished you to keep constancy. For how blameworthy it is that a man who announces the Gospel and teaches that one must not wander should himself begin to wander about among various people, desert the house to which he had spoken peace, and grieve the host on whom he had brought a blessing! For great is the grace of hospitality, and not to be lightly violated: it is open to all, ready for all; it receives the saints gladly and bears sinners patiently. But let us go over that holy and divine saying again; for if it pleases in the letter, perhaps it will please more in the mystery. He says, then, that when we enter a city we should ask who in it is either a worthy host or a suitable house, and stay there until the day of departure comes. This saying gives us a higher understanding; for he does not seem to me to have given orders, or to have us inquire so carefully, about a host or house of this world, but rather about the one who can keep us as guests unoffended and unharmed until the day of our departure. For we quickly hurt, quickly offend a host of this world; sometimes we displease him even after three days. A faithful house, then, and a worthy host are what we are ordered to seek. What house is more faithful than the Church? What host more worthy than the Saviour? He receives strangers as sons; she cherishes those received as infants. He is eager, as we have experienced, to wash the feet of his guests; she hastens to prepare the table; for those whom the Saviour refreshes with living water, the Church restores with heavenly food. This host, then, the evangelist ordered to be sought, and commanded us to live with him until the day of our departure, lest by some fickleness we perhaps go off elsewhere in the meantime; that is, that we who have once believed in Christ should not run back to idols like transgressors; for it is written: "No one can serve two masters"; for while he is eager to please one, he finds the other angry. We ought not, then, to desert Christ our host, just as the apostle Peter too, with those like him, did not leave the Lord when others deserted him; but let us say what he said to the Saviour: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we believe." Behold a doer of the heavenly commands, who, because he did not change Christ's lodging, earned to have fellowship with Christ in the heavenly kingdom.

You yourselves see, brothers, that my lowliness does not cease to labour with every care for you and to turn you with all haste to good fruit; but the more I labour with you, the more I am put to shame in you. For when I see that after so many admonitions of mine you make no progress, my labour is no longer a matter of rejoicing but of blushing. For the Apostle says: "Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not get the milk of the flock?" See, I feed the flock of Christ, and I cannot extract the fruit of the flock; I feed the Lord's flock, and receive from it no nourishment of devoutness. For no sweetness of it gladdens me, but whatever flows from it is harsh and bitter; for the shepherd of the Christian flock is refreshed with milk when he rejoices in the whiteness of its good works. For who among you, brothers, would not take it hard (I do not, however, speak of all, for there are among you some whom you ought to have as an example for the practice of religion), who, I say, would not be grieved that you are so forgetful of your salvation as to sin even with heaven as witness? For some days ago, when I had struck at many of you about the greed of your avarice, that very day toward evening there arose such a shouting of the people that its irreligion reached to heaven. When I asked what this clamour meant, they told me that your shouting was helping the moon in its labour and assisting its eclipse with their cries. I laughed indeed, and marvelled at the vanity, that as though you were devout Christians you were bringing help to God. For you were shouting lest, if you were silent, he should lose an element: as though, weak and feeble, unless he were helped by your voices, he could not defend the lights he created. You do well, then, to offer comfort to the Godhead, so that with your help he can rule heaven! But if you wish to do this more fully, you ought to keep watch all night every night: for how often, do you think, has the moon suffered violence while you were asleep, and yet it has not fallen from heaven? Or does it always suffer eclipse toward evening, and not sometimes labour toward dawn as well? But with you it usually labours only at the evening hours, when the belly is stretched with an abundant supper, when the head is shaken with larger cups. Then, then, the moon labours with you, when the wine is labouring too; then, I say, the globe of the moon is disturbed by spells among you, when your eyes too are disturbed by cups. How, then, being drunk, can you see what is happening in heaven around the moon, when you do not see what is happening on earth around yourself? This is plainly what Solomon says: "The fool changes like the moon." For you change like the moon when, foolish and senseless at its movement, you who had been a Christian begin to be sacrilegious. For sacrilege is committed against the Creator when weakness is ascribed to the creature. You change, then, like the moon, so that you who a little before shone with devotion afterward fail through the weakness of unbelief; you change like the moon when your brain is emptied of wisdom as the moon of light, and the foulest darkness of mind invades you. And would, fool, that you changed like the moon! For it quickly returns to its fullness; you do not turn to wisdom even late; it swiftly gathers the light it had lost, you do not even slowly recover the faith you denied. Your change, then, is heavier than the moon's: the moon suffers a failure of light, you of salvation. How well it is written of the wise man: "And he will remain with the sun"; for the wise man remains with the sun when with constancy of faith he remains with the Saviour. But someone will say: 'Does the moon not labour, then?' It does labour, plainly, we cannot deny it; but it labours with the other creatures, as the Apostle says: "For every creature groans and is in labour until now"; and below: "Because the creature itself also will be set free from the slavery of corruption," and so on. It will be set free, he says, from slavery. You see, then, that the moon does not labour under spells but labours in services; it does not labour in dangers but labours in duties; it does not labour so as to perish but labours so as to serve. "For the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly," and so on. The moon, then, is changed from its state not willingly; you change from your sense willingly; it is brought to its waning by its condition, you are dragged to your harm by your will. I do not wish you, then, brother, to be like the moon when it wanes, but be as when it is full and complete; for it is written of the just man: "Like the moon for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven."

Some days ago, brothers, we spoke against those who thought that the moon could be brought down from heaven by the spells of magicians, and we beat back the vanity of those who suffer a failure of mind no less than the moon suffers a failure of light. We also urged them to give up the error of the Gentiles and return to wisdom as quickly as the moon returns to its fullness; and as swiftly as it gathers the light it had lost, so quickly might they recover the faith they denied; and, laying aside the cloud of folly, might begin to judge the light no longer with the eye of the body but of the mind; and understand that its rising and waning stand by design rather than by weakness; for it would never give so great a change to all things unless this design had been conferred on it by the Creator. See, the element of the sea is drawn back when the moon wanes and heaped up when it waxes, so that at its movement the waves either return within themselves or the streams cannot contain them; so that as often as the moon changes in light, so often the seas change in their waves. Indeed, the very swimming creatures of the sea are said to be fuller in their flesh when the moon is full, and drained and diminished when it is diminished. Great, then, is the design of the moon, and great its excellence, which by its vigour so diminishes the elements as to fill them again, and so fills them that they are diminished once more; namely, so that by certain various turns the change may be pleasing, while the restoration is made complete. And how much increase it bestows on the lands is known to all: with how much dew it refreshes the woodlands which the heat of the sun had scorched in the daytime hours, and, wonderfully, provides moisture to things burning with heat in clear weather. For in a new way, when the moon shines, a clear sky makes the earth wet. Great, then, is the design of the moon, or rather a great mystery. It empties itself of light so as to refresh all things with moisture and rain. So too Christ the Lord emptied himself of his divinity so as to fill men with immortality. Hence the blessed Apostle says: "Who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." Christ, then, emptied himself so as to give life to men; he made himself empty so as to grant growth to the elements. But we read of the Saviour that he is rather the Sun of justice. How, then, do we compare him with the movements of the moon? These lights agree with each other without great difference. For the moon, by a kind of brotherhood of partnership, borrows its light from the sun, and, struck by the rays of its light, receives the splendour of its brightness. Hence if Christ the Lord is more rightly compared to the sun, we shall compare the moon to nothing but the Church. For she, like the moon, in order to shine among the nations, borrows light from the Sun of justice and from the rays of Christ; that is, struck by the preaching of the apostles, she acquires from him the splendour of immortality. For the Church shines not with her own light but with the Saviour's, and beams not with her own brightness but with the Father's, as the Apostle says: "Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me"; and again: "That he might be the firstborn among many brothers." The Church is plainly rightly compared to the moon, since she too sprinkles us with the dew of the washing and gives life to the earth of our body with the dew of baptism. The Church is rightly compared to the moon, because she too gains increase and suffers waning. For she is often diminished and frequently increased: diminished by persecutions, enlarged by preaching. She decreases when she is diminished in children; she increases when she is crowned with martyrs; and the very cause that brings her waning provides her increase. For often she receives as confessors the very ones she grieves over as persecutors. How often do you think she, like the moon, has laboured under the spells of magicians? How often have evil arts wished to bring her down from the kingdom of heaven? For first of all the magicians Jannes and Mambres, when they resisted Moses with signs and wonders, desired to overthrow the Church; but the spell of the sorcerers could not harm the sacred voices. For incantations avail nothing where the song of Christ is sung. Then when, before the proconsul Sergius Paulus, Simon the magician opposed the apostle Paul, he was certainly trying the vessel of the Church and desired to shake him with sorcerous arts; but he was refuted by him with such power that he blinded him not only by the weakness of his art but also by the loss of his eyes, and took from him at once both spell and sight. For he did not deserve to have the eyes of the body who did not have the eyes of the mind. And what shall we say of the apostle Peter? That again, when Simon was disturbing the foundations of the Church in the city of Rome, he laid him low by the solidity of his prayers. For when Simon had been raised up by magic arts so that he even flew through the spaces of the air, Peter cast him down by power, so that he fell the further the higher he had flown. For truly Peter, so solid a rock, crushed him by the collision of the stone, so that he who promised himself the heavenly kingdom perished by the hardness of an earthly death.

Not unfittingly a few days ago we explained that this priestly function holds a kind of place of business, and that this office of the clergy is no small trade. It is indeed no small trade, where gain is acquired not of money but of souls; it is a great business, where the redemption of a man consists not in counting out a price but in announcing a commandment. For the commandment of Christ is a kind of precious talent, by which salvation is bought and life redeemed; and it is a great redemption when a price is paid and no money is seen. The Saviour's commandment, then, is a great talent, which, like a loan, can profit among the capable and can be lost among the negligent; for by some it is returned with manifold grace, from others it is demanded back with the interest of punishments. For Christ must require the talent he entrusts, and repay grace to the one who pays, and subject the one who does not pay to penalties. He subjects him to penalties indeed in the manner of the world: so that the debtor who cannot satisfy by restoring the principal satisfies at least by punishment of the body. This talent, then, brothers, we by our preaching entrust to your breasts, so that we may mark out for the Lord some gain of your salvation. We shall give an account how either our preaching profits or your obedience bears fruit; for not without cause does the Gospel announce, the Apostle cry out, the priests speak: into whosever ears the holy voice comes, he will either be blessed for his devotion or guilty by its testimony. For we speak blessedness to believers, we testify judgment to the guilty. The administration of priests, then, is a trade; hence too the prophet says to the children of Israel: "Your innkeepers mix water with wine." For holy Isaiah is not speaking of those innkeepers who, serving public needs, mix the pure kind of wine with a fraudulent flood of water (for it could not concern the blessed man, as it would a judge of the world, why, the vessels of the taverns being corrupted, the people should use a less intoxicating drink), but he speaks certainly of those innkeepers who are in charge of churches, not taverns; who offer to thirsty peoples not the cup of lust but of virtue, who serve not the cup of drunkenness but the cup of the Saviour. These innkeepers, then, the prophet rebukes and reproaches, and complains that they mix a kind of water with the wine; he reproves this in them, that though they were presidents of divine functions, they became followers of human affairs, as the prophet himself says: "You follow, each one, his own house." For whatever priest, abandoning the office of the pontificate, delights in the pleasures of the world mixes water with wine, that is, mingles cheap and cold things with things holy and fervent. But we can also understand it thus: that the priests of the Jews mixed water with wine when they did not receive the Lord Saviour as God but judged him as a man, and wished to bring something muddy and filthy into his sincere and pure divinity, saying to him: "Because, though you are a man, you make yourself God"; and again: "We were not born of prostitution." For while they excuse themselves of the adultery of prostitution, they try to adulterate him in the divinity of his birth. But let us see still more carefully what it means when it says, "They mix water with wine." We read that wine abounds especially in the Church, as was said in the Gospel: new wine is to be stored in new wineskins; that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit is to be conferred on new men, the newly baptized. If, then, the precious and spiritual grace of wine abounds in the Church, cheap and stinking water must be referred only to the synagogue; for stinking is the water of the synagogue, which by its baptism does not wash away sins but acquires them, which does not purify a man by its washing but pollutes him. Accordingly, as the Church is honoured with wineskins of wine, so the synagogue is cast out with a skin of water. For that Hagar, who bore the type of the synagogue, of whom it is said to Abraham, "Cast out the slave woman and her son": surely, when she was cast out, she was driven from the tents not with a skin of wine but with a skin of water. Certainly Abraham's house was rich, wealthy, abundant; and yet she received not wine, not oil, not bread, which are the firmest foods of life; and the synagogue did not receive the foods of right life, because it does not know the life which is Christ; it is dragged along sick with water alone and sustained in its weakness; for it was fitting that she who did not deserve the nourishment of the living should at least receive the comfort of the dying. The priests of the Jews, then, are rebuked because they wished to mix the water of the synagogue, already cast off and rejected, with the precious wine of the Church; for water is not usually mixed in the Church but changed, as the Lord, invited to the wedding, did not mix the jars full of water with wine but changed them into wine; for lest anything of Jewish cheapness should remain in the holy feast, he preferred to change the nature rather than adulterate the substance.

It was well arranged, in a way, by God's providence, that Christ the Lord should be born in the very midst of the festivals of the Gentiles, and that the splendour of the true light should shine out among the very dark superstitions of errors; so that men, seeing that the justice of the pure Godhead had flashed forth amid their various superstitions, might forget their past sacrileges and not practise them in future. For what wise man who celebrates the mystery of the Lord's Nativity does not condemn the drunkenness of the Saturnalia and avoid the licentiousness of the Kalends; and, desiring to have a share with Christ, refuse to be a sharer with the world? For this is the principle of divine worship: that one who has fellowship with the vanity of the Gentiles cannot have union with the truth of the saints. The blessed Apostle says: "What portion has justice with iniquity, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" That is, that Christians should at once practise the luxury of iniquity and have the God of justice appeased. For there are many who, drawing the custom from the old superstition of vanity, keep the day of the Kalends as a supreme festival, and wish to have such rejoicings that it is rather sadness for them. For they are so licentious, so sated with wine and feasting, that one who has been chaste and temperate the whole year is drunk and polluted on that day; and he thinks that unless he does so he has lost his holiday, because he does not understand that through such a holiday he has lost his salvation. And what of this, that rising early each one goes out in public with a little gift, that is, with strenae, and, about to greet his friends, greets them with a present before a kiss? He offers his lips to lips and puts his hand into a hand, not to return the affection of love but to pay the service of avarice; and in one and the same act he embraces his friend and is cheated. Judge for yourselves what kind of kiss that is which is for sale; for the more dearly it is bought, the more cheaply it is valued. How many, before the gold, are judged by their superiors unworthy of a kiss? After the gold has gleamed in the right hand, it is the bribe, not grace, that makes them worthy. And in this very iniquity, how unjust it is that the inferior is expected to give to the superior, and the man who perhaps borrows what he gives is compelled to give to the rich! They even call this munificence strenae, though it is rather a strain: the wretch is compelled, I say, to give what he does not have and to offer a gift for which he leaves his children in debt. But the rich too are generous with this munificence; yet neither do they seem free from sin. For the rich man gives only to someone who is already wealthy; and while he scorns to give a beggar a denarius, on the Kalends he hurries loaded with gold to his friend's house, he who came to church empty and void on the Lord's Nativity. You see, then, that with many present flattery counts for more than future reward. A man is happier to have the kiss of a superior than the glory of the Saviour. That kiss is not to be called a kiss, because it is for sale. For Judas Iscariot too kissed the Lord with such a kiss, but by it he was trying to betray him. And what of this, that on that day, with such an empty beginning, as though beginning to live, they gather omens and inquire into everything, and from it measure out for themselves either the prosperity or the sadness of the whole year? These things, being foolish and ridiculous, are either useless or harmful to those very people. For they do not have prosperity, since they are deceived by auguries; they always have sadness, since by remembering everything they are anxious lest it happen. And they add this to their evils, that, returning home as if from taking the auspices, they carry little branches in their hands, namely as an omen, so that they may return to their lodging loaded; not understanding, wretches, that they do return loaded, not with a burden of gifts but with a heap of sins.

We ought always to remember and have before our eyes, dearly beloved brothers, that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth in order to bestow eternal life on us. Though he was the Son of God, he chose to become the son of man, so that he might make us, who were men, sons of God. For he did not work the mystery of such great dignity for the sake of this present life, which is short, fleeting and mortal, but for the sake of that which is perpetual and everlasting. For God was not going to grant us long duration of this life, which is full of hardships, toils and want, lest he should grant not so much length of life as perpetuity of toils. For the only remedy in it seems to be that it is short. Hence the Apostle too says: "If in this life only we hope in Christ, we are more to be pitied than all men." We must not, then, hope in Christ only in this life, in which the bad have more power than the good, in which the worse are the happier, and those who live more criminally prosper more. For what good does this life possess? Honours, riches, health; which, though fleeting, do not come by merit but befall by chance. For how many do we see whom not honesty but power has made honoured? How many who have obtained riches not left by their parents but seized by bloodshed? How many strong in soundness of limb who are not governed by God's mercy but by the blood of cattle? These things, then, since they are temporal and nothing, are bestowed here and there on anyone without merit and without judgment, because they are not given as reward but for testing. We, then, to whom eternal life is promised, ought always to possess and seek eternal goods, that is, faith, justice and love. For these goods have their adversaries; and though these gifts cannot be conferred by men, yet they are often taken away by depraved men. And so we ought to be careful and provident about the good of faith, and always armed with devotion of mind to guard it, and not quickly believe deceitful flatteries. For the enemy is wont to creep in under pretext of peace, that is, the heretic slips in under the name of Christian, who to deceive simple men carries Christ on his lips and bears the devil in his heart, and confesses him with the tongue but blasphemes him in the mind. From him, then, we must turn away altogether and not be joined with him in any fellowship. For how is one who is the Lord's enemy a friend of his servants? Nor should we wonder that heretics of this kind have begun to wander about in our region. For the wolf that lies in wait always follows the flock of sheep; the devil the deceiver always attacks the Christian assembly. And indeed this happens usefully, so that by more careful watchfulness neither does the sheep desert the flock nor the Christian abandon the Church. Hence the Apostle too says: "There must be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you"; as if he said: there must be a fight for the Christian, so that the approved may have sure victory. Now, to set aside their blasphemies for the moment, let us go over what their rules of living are. Their leaders, whom they call presbyters, are said to have this instruction: if any lay person confesses a crime he has committed, he is not to say to him, 'Do penance, lament your deeds, weep for your sins,' but to say, 'For the crime give me so much, and you are forgiven.' A vain and foolish presbyter indeed, who thinks that when he receives the spoil Christ forgives the sin. Does he not know that the Saviour is accustomed to forgive sins and to seek for sin precious tears, not many coins? Hence he himself says: "Freely you have received, freely give." Indeed Peter, when he had sinned by denying the Lord three times, did not earn pardon by gifts but obtained it by tears. For the evangelist says of him: "He wept most bitterly." You see, I say, that with Christ the amount lies in tears, not in gifts. For as heavily as he wept for his fault, so quickly did he obtain pardon. The presbyter, then, receives gifts and by a kind of bargain promises forgiveness from the Saviour. A foolish agreement, by which he who has paid more to the priest is said to have sinned less against the Lord! With teachers of this kind the rich are always innocent and the poor always guilty. How can a poor man make satisfaction for his sin who has nothing to offer for it?

The other day we reproved clergy who engage in trade, and in a way we rebuked them with a just sentence; but if we consider rightly, our office is truly a business, and the function of the priestly ministry is a kind of function of spiritual commerce. For we spend earthly things so as to obtain heavenly ones; we pay out worldly money so as to acquire eternal riches; we feed others with our own hunger so that our food may not perish but grow. For what is the meaning of the refreshing of the poor through us, the clothing of the naked, the visiting of prisoners, except that the expense paid out on them is not spent but increased, and that a kind of trading of silver is preserved with a certain interest of gain? For a hungry poor man is a kind of treasury for a rich man. For he does not eat up the alms given to him, but guards it. Though the flesh be dissolved and the man reduced to dust, yet the holy work lives and remains in him, and he who is a useless worker for his own food will be for you a fit witness on the day of judgment; so that he will quickly be believed about your works, though he would not be believed about his own deeds. See, then, whether almsgiving is not a business. What you give to a friend perishes for you; only what you give to a beggar does not perish for you. For on the day of judgment the poor profit you; friends and children profit nothing. The former will plead your cause; the latter will not be able to defend even their own. For the office of Christianity is a kind of commerce, and the function of priests a precious business. For we have received the Lord's money, that is, the sayings of the Saviour, to be paid out to the peoples; of which sayings the Lord in the Gospel says to that close-fisted and unskilled trader of the priesthood: "Wicked servant, you ought to have given my money to the bankers' table, and coming I would have demanded it with interest." For he is rebuked because he kept back by silence the commandments of the Godhead entrusted to him, which he ought to have multiplied by preaching. He will be rebuked, I say, because he did not sow by paying out what he could reap by gathering in; as the Apostle says: "What a man sows, that he will also reap." For the Lord says: "Coming, I would have demanded it with interest." Understand, then, that there is business there where interest is demanded as if for the principal: but not that interest by which the minds of the avaricious are fed with a profitable return of money, in which the creditor is repaid the debt and yet the debt is not cancelled; but that interest is demanded where not an account of coins but a manner of life is reckoned, where the question is not the capital of a loan but inquiry is made into the capital of salvation. For we are debtors and are held bound to a debt, not by a written bond of letters but by a bond of sins. Hence the Apostle too says of the Lord: "Blotting out the bond that was against us," and so on. We are ordered, then, to pay the interest of this debt; for the Lord mentions this debtor in the Gospel, saying that he must be handed to the officer, sent to prison, and not released until he pays the last farthing. Of these sayings, then, we too, brothers, owe the interest; for since usura, 'interest', is named from utendo, 'using', we shall give an account of how we use these sayings. For not in vain does the Gospel preach, not for nothing does the Apostle cry out, not without cause do the priests speak: into whosever ears the holy voice comes, they will either be blessed for their devotion or guilty by its testimony.

The most glorious of the prophets, and also king of the Lord's people, blessed David, who by a general exhortation urges all men to run together to hear the teachings of a purer life, says: "Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Truly a most skilled teacher, the venerable patriarch, who, in order to instil the fear of God into human minds by the precepts of prophetic authority, first offers the endearments of fatherly affection. For he calls the subjects of his rule children, so that he may recall them from sins not so much by the terror of royal power as, by the affection of one who loves, instil in the minds of all a ready will to live well. For often those whom the harshness of severer rebuke does not correct are amended by the fullness of a gentler word. "I will teach you," he says, "the fear of the Lord." The holy man teaches us a devout fear, so that we may put second the love of earthly judgment. He teaches the fear of the Lord, which is always salutary, because the fear of man often feeds offence against God. Let us now see what steps of divine fear the excellent teacher sets, what rule of his holier discipline he establishes. "Keep your tongue from evil, and let your lips not speak deceit." The perfect master of the devout life curbs before all things from fault the tongue, which from the beginning of the world sinned first in the serpent in God's paradise. For it was the ministry of an evil tongue that persuaded Adam, to the ruin of his race, to pluck the fruit of the forbidden tree. For envy would not have driven him into the eternal fall if Eve had been willing by more prudent counsel to restrain her tongue from evil. The evil tongue, then, is the devil's minister and the handmaid of all wickedness. The evil tongue, like a most sharp sword, wounds not only the body but the innocent soul. The evil and rash tongue strikes a brother's heart with insults and joins ruinous strife between hearts at peace with each other. The evil tongue puts on the image of truth and discolours truth with lies. The evil tongue, entrusted with friends' secrets, betrays them to hostile ears. The evil tongue strives to defile with hidden detraction those it fears to address in open speech. The tongue weaves snares for the simple by deceit, seeks the blood of good men, inflames the minds of the powerful and troubles the hearts of the humble; and as though it were not enough for it to confound human affairs, it strikes at heaven itself with blasphemies and most unworthy insults, as the prophetic word testifies of the impious, saying: "They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has passed over the earth." And after all, most beloved, though for all these things sin has a remedy, through an evil and unrestrained tongue a sin is committed which is not forgiven a man even in this present world, as the Lord says: "But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this world or in the world to come." And what more, brothers? Whatever iniquity the devil entices into the human breast is accomplished with the evil tongue serving. But the Lord is called on for its destruction and judgment, as the prophet cries: "May the Lord scatter all deceitful lips and the boastful tongue." And elsewhere: "You will destroy those who speak lies." Because these evils must be guarded against and fled, blessed David warns each of us beforehand, saying: "Restrain your tongue from evil, and let your lips not speak deceit." And a little after he adds: "Seek peace, and pursue it." For when your tongue is amended and wiped clean of all the filth of evil speaking, you will both find and follow true and eternal peace, that is, Christ the Lord. Let no one deceive himself: unless one restrains his wandering and wanton tongue with the reins of the heart's discipline, he will be able to find neither the peace of men nor that of Christ. Therefore the venerable prophet, knowing on what slippery ground man's tongue is set, and how much danger to our soul and life the incontinence of the tongue can bring, prayed to his God, saying: "Set a guard, Lord, on my mouth"; and elsewhere: "Lord, you will open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise." The most faithful man wishes his mouth to be guarded and his lips to be opened by the Lord, lest that master of lies and craftsman of all deceit, the devil, should ever insert into him the falsehoods of his impiety. Truly he will be able to restrain his tongue from all malice who desires both to speak and to be silent under God's governance. Therefore, brothers, seeing how severe a sentence awaits deceitful lips and how great a grace follows a simple tongue, let us too pray with the prophet to the Lord and almighty God that he may guard our mouth and himself always deign to open our lips to words that will please him.

Among the other means by which blessed David heals the infirmities of our souls, he teaches us, like a most skilled master, to keep a form of praying under a kind of rule of three, saying: "Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge." Attend more carefully, then, brothers, to what virtues above all the prophet king prays to be given him. "Teach me," he says, "goodness and discipline and knowledge." He knows rightly how to live who knows rightly how to pray. For he did not ask for treasures of worldly riches, nor neighbouring kingdoms, nor longer times of living; but he asked to be taught goodness and discipline together. For goodness makes discipline lovable, and discipline makes goodness blameless. Nor, I think, is anyone unaware that goodness without discipline is the mother of faults, and discipline without goodness is a kind of sad bitterness of living. He also implores that knowledge be given him as well, so that he may know how to distinguish knowingly and wisely what are the limits of goodness and what measure discipline ought to have, lest perhaps goodness be stained unawares by the fault of too much leniency, or discipline, too hard, blush at its own severity. Do you wish, brother, to be good to one who sins? You do kindly indeed; but to be truly good, apply to him the rigour of discipline, so that your goodness may profit him for salvation; for if you do not frighten him with any censure of a restraining rebuke, this goodness of yours will be ruinous to him, because you let the sinner perish whom you could have saved by correction. Again, if with too great a rigour of discipline you offer no medicine of healing goodness, while the sinner flees your terror, you will not cure the sickness of the sinner. And what principle of living will there be, what justice, if either too slack a mildness provides connivance to the sinner, or immoderate severity does not call back the offender from his fall? But so that we may learn more fully and perfectly that the teaching of this goodness and discipline was present in our forefathers, let us go over at least a few of the many examples of the venerable Fathers. Most blessed Peter without doubt fulfilled the work of goodness and discipline, when both, like a truly good physician, he cured the sick brought to him, and, as founder of heavenly discipline, punished liars with just vengeance. That lame man, Aeneas, proved the grace of his goodness, who, lame from infancy, sitting and begging at the gate of the temple, received in the name of Jesus Christ, at the command of the healing apostle, the health he had long lacked. Ananias and Sapphira also proved the severity of his discipline, who, selling a field which no one compelled them to sell, while they lied to the apostle about the amount of the price, bought death for themselves by their falsehood. By this deed most glorious Peter taught that goodness and discipline were in him, since he both gives a remedy to the sick and takes fitting vengeance on liars. That he did this rightly and holily the assent of heavenly judgment shows. And who could doubt the perfection of his knowledge, who knew Christ the Lord to be the Son of the living God by the Father's revelation to him from heaven? And because goodness was not lacking to him for discipline and knowledge, the Lord entrusted his little sheep to him to be fed. Most glorious Paul held to goodness and discipline, who, as his writings testify, held out both the rod of correction and the spirit of gentleness; for which reason goodness made him lovable to all and discipline made him fearsome. For, to teach the churches the goodness and discipline of Christ in the very beginnings of the faith, he both ordered the sinner to be removed from the communion of the saints and the same man to be received back when he repented. And what shall we say of his knowledge, since all know that he learned in the heavens what he was to teach on earth, when he recalled that he had been taught such things as it was not lawful for him to speak to mortals? That witness of the Lord, John the Baptist, likewise had goodness and discipline, who with the affection of prophetic kindness washed with the baptism of repentance men who repented of their sins; and, as a truly unchangeable guardian of the commandments of the law, both accused King Herod about his unlawful wife and gave to all who ran to him the precepts of a purer life. And who can be ignorant of the fullness of his knowledge, who was the first to reveal to men that Christ had come from heaven for the salvation of men? You see, then, brothers, by what a short way of prayer and with what fewness of words the venerable prophet sought perfection of living. For in the briefest speech he enclosed whatever spiritual things the multitude of virtues holds. If, then, that foremost of the prophets prayed so earnestly to be taught these ways of a holier life by the Lord, what ought we to do? Rather, I say, we ought to pray, saying: "Teach us goodness and discipline and knowledge, Lord," so that in us goodness may conquer evil vices and the discipline of the will may chastise them. For if, knowing that the almighty Lord the Father and his Son are of one substance, you believe that the Holy Spirit also reigns in equal eternity, no vain persuasion of the pagans nor faithless impiety of the Arians will ever disturb you. If you fill your heart and mind with knowledge of the judgment to come, you will have discipline in your conduct; again, if you keep the measures and rules of that discipline, you will hold to fitting goodness in all things; because goodness is the tempering of discipline, and discipline the seasoning of goodness. Beware, then, brother, of wishing so to seem good that you cast away discipline, or of so pursuing discipline that you remove goodness. To these blessed David therefore prays that knowledge be joined, so that by the right judgment of our mind we may know how in us goodness should be stricter and discipline gentler.

Today's reading has shown that Christ in human acts performed divine mysteries and in visible things carried out invisible affairs. "He got into a boat," it says, "and crossed over, and came to his own city." Is not he the one who, putting the waves of the sea to flight, laid bare its depths, so that the people of Israel passed with dry foot between the astonished waves as through hollows of mountains? Is not this he who bowed down the sea's whirlpools under Peter's feet, so that the liquid road gave the solid service of a path to human steps? And why is it that he so refuses the service of the sea for himself as to cross a very small lake at a boatman's fare? "He got into a boat," it says, "and crossed over." And what wonder, brothers? Christ came to take on our infirmities and to confer his powers on us; to seek human things and to give divine; to receive insults and to return honours; to bear weariness and to bring back health; because a physician who does not bear infirmities does not know how to cure infirmities, and one who has not been sick with the sick cannot confer health on the sick. Christ, then, if he had remained in his powers, would have nothing in common with men; and unless he had fulfilled the order of the flesh, his taking of flesh would have been idle. He bore these necessities, then, so that he might be proved a true man by human necessities. "He got into a boat," it says: Christ got into the ship of his Church, always to calm the waves of the world, so that he may bring those who believe in him to the heavenly homeland by a tranquil voyage and make citizens of his city those whom he made sharers of his humanity. Christ, then, does not need the ship, but the ship needs Christ, because without heavenly steering the ship of the Church cannot reach the heavenly harbour across the sea of the world amid such great peril. This we have said, brothers, as far as concerns the spiritual understanding; but now let us follow the order of the history itself. "He got into a boat, and crossed over, and came to his own city." The Creator of things, the Lord of the world, after he had confined himself for our sake in our flesh, began to have a human homeland, he the parent of all parents, so that love might invite, charity draw, affection win, kindness persuade those whom his lordship had put to flight, fear had scattered, and the force of power had made exiles. "He came to his own city, and behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed; and Jesus, seeing their faith," it says, "said to the paralytic: Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven you." The paralytic hears of pardon and is silent and answers no thanks, because he was striving more for the cure of his body than of his soul; and he so wept for the temporal punishments of his paralysed body that he did not weep for the eternal punishments of the paralysis of his soul, judging the present life more pleasing to him than the future. Rightly Christ regards the faith of those who brought him and also the senselessness of the man lying there, so that by the support of another's faith the paralytic's soul was cured before his body. "Seeing their faith," it says. You perceive in this place, brothers, that God does not look for the wishes of the foolish, does not regard the faith of the ignorant, does not examine the foolish desires of the sick, but comes to aid at another's faith, which he conferred by grace alone, since he did not deny whatever is of the divine will. And indeed, brothers, when does a physician either seek or regard the wishes of the sick, since the sick man always desires and asks for contrary things? Hence it is that he now applies iron, now fire, now bitter draughts, and administers them to the unwilling, so that when well they may feel the cure which when ill they could not feel. And if a man disregards insults, scorns curses, and of his own accord gives life and health to those wounded by disease, how much more does Christ the physician, by divine goodness, draw to salvation, even unwilling and resisting, those wounded by the diseases of sins and labouring with the frenzy of crimes? O if we were willing, brothers, if we were willing to see through all the paralysis of our mind, we would see our soul lying destitute of virtues on the beds of vices; it would be clear to us how Christ daily regards our harmful wishes too, and drags and drives us, unwilling, to saving remedies. "Son," he says, "your sins are forgiven you." Saying this, he wished himself to be understood, he who was still hidden from human eyes by the man; for by mighty works and signs he was compared to the prophets, who through him had themselves done mighty works; but to give pardon for sins, because it is not in man's power and is the singular mark of the Godhead, impressed him on human hearts as God. The envy of the Pharisees proves this: for when he had said, "Your sins are forgiven you," the Pharisees answered: "This man blasphemes; for who can forgive sins but God alone?" Pharisee, who in knowing do not know, in confessing deny, in testifying attack: if he is God who forgives sins, why is Christ not God to you, who by the gift of his one act of forgiveness is proved to have taken away the sins of the whole world? "Behold," it says, "the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world." And so that you may grasp greater signs of his divinity, hear that he has penetrated the secret of your breast; see that he has reached the hiding places of your thoughts; understand that he lays bare the silent counsels of your heart. "And when Jesus saw their thoughts," it says, "he said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic: Rise, take up your bed, and go into your house; and he rose and went away into his house." The searcher of souls forestalls the malicious counsels of minds and shows the power of his Godhead by the testimony of a deed, as he puts together the limbs of a disordered body, tightens the sinews, joins the bones, fills the flesh, strengthens the joints, and raises to running the steps already buried in a living corpse. "Take up your bed"; that is, carry what carried you, reverse all the roles, so that what is the evidence of infirmity may be the proof of health, so that the bed of your pain may be the sign of a complete cure, so that the greatness of the weight may assert the greatness of the strength recovered. "Go," he says, "into your house": lest, cured by Christian faith, you should linger any longer in the ways of Jewish unbelief.

The Lord says in the holy Gospel, as the reading just completed testifies: "What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky rested in its branches."

Perhaps it troubles your minds why the kingdom of God, so glorious and so magnificent, is compared to a small grain of mustard seed, and why so great a consolation of our hope is said to be like a very cheap thing; especially since elsewhere the same Lord says to his disciples: "If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, say to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and it will be done." If, then, faith is wonderful, which can move the foundations of mountains from their very seats, the grain of mustard seed must also be great, to whose likeness we are urged to have faith. Great, I would say, not in appearance but in power; and in the quality of faith it is to be compared not to the bean but to be equalled with the vigour of sharpness. For if we attend carefully, we find that this comparison was rightly made by the Lord. For just as a grain of mustard seed at first sight is small in appearance, cheap, despised, giving no flavour, spreading no smell, showing no sweetness; but when it begins to be crushed, at once its sharpness gives off its smell, it breathes out the food of a fiery flavour, and it is kindled with such a heat of warmth that it is a wonder that so great a fire was enclosed in such trifling grains; and men take the food of this seed, especially in winter, with great pleasure, so as to drive off cold, expel humours, and warm the inward parts; and they often apply a remedy from it to the head too, so that whatever is weak or sick may be cured by the fire of mustard. So too Christian faith at first sight seems small, cheap and slight, not showing its power, not displaying pride, not offering favour. But when it begins to be crushed by various temptations, at once it shows its vigour, reveals its sharpness, breathes the warmth of belief in the Lord, and is tossed with such a burning of divine fire that it both burns itself and compels one who shares in it to burn; as in the holy Gospel Ammaon and Cleophas said when the Lord spoke with them after his passion: "Was not our heart burning within us on the way, while the Lord Jesus opened the Scriptures?" The grain of mustard, then, warms the inward parts of the limbs, but the vigour of faith burns up the sins of hearts; the former removes the harsh chill of cold, the latter drives out the devilish cold of sins. Mustard boils down the bad humours of bodies, faith consumes the floods of lusts. And by the former a remedy is provided for the head, while by faith our spiritual head, who is Christ the Lord, is often refreshed. And according to the comparison with mustard we enjoy the holy fragrance of faith, as the blessed Apostle says: "For we are the good fragrance of Christ to God."

We can therefore compare the holy martyr Lawrence to a grain of mustard seed. Crushed by various sufferings, he earned that the grace of his martyrdom should spread its fragrance through the whole world; he who before, while living in the body, was lowly, unknown and cheap, after he was harassed, torn and burned, poured the fragrance of his nobility into all the churches throughout the whole world. Rightly, then, is the comparison joined to him. For the grain of mustard seed, when it is crushed, is kindled; Lawrence, when he suffers, is set aflame; the one pours out the heat of its crushing, the other breathes out fire through many torments. Mustard, I say, is cooked down in a hot vessel by steam; Lawrence is roasted on a gridiron by the fire of flames. The blessed martyr burned outwardly with the fires of the raging tyrant, but a greater flame of the love of Christ roasted him inwardly. And though the wicked king laid wood beneath and set greater fires under him, yet holy Lawrence does not feel these flames because of the warmth of faith, and while he thinks on Christ's commandments, all that he suffers is cold to him. For he could not feel the torments of the fires in his inward parts who possessed the refreshments of paradise in his senses. Though his burned flesh may lie before the feet of the tyrant, a lifeless body, yet he suffers no loss on earth whose mind dwells in heaven. He is stretched, then, over the glowing heaps of flames and turned again and again onto his sides; but the more punishments he suffers, the more he fears Christ the Lord; and by a new kind of marvel, one man tortures him and the torments of the raging man profit another: more cruel punishments made Lawrence more devout.

Last Sunday, discussing the Lord's parable in which he says, "What is the kingdom of heaven like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed," and so on, we touched on many things by which we proved that the kingdom of God is not without reason compared to a grain of mustard seed, and that the difference lies only in the estimation of words, not in the comparison of powers. For Christian faith is the kingdom of God; it has the same vigour that the nature of mustard brings out. For just as, when we take the juice of mustard, we are moved to tears, our face is saddened, our brow contracts and is stirred, and we receive the very health of our body with a kind of weeping of harshness; for on the one side the bitterness irritates us and the sharpness penetrates, on the other the heat of its fiery flavour kindles us, and, disturbed in the whole body, we are made the more healthy the more we weep; so too when we receive the commandments of Christian faith, we are saddened in mind, afflicted in body, moved to tears, and we obtain our very salvation with a kind of weeping and grief. On one side fasts irritate us, on another the consciousness of sins wears us down, on another the loss of our inheritance troubles us; and saddened in our whole condition we obtain salvation the more if we weep the more, according to what the Lord says: "You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice." And just as, when the head perhaps must be cured with mustard, we are ordered to shave off the hair and remove all hindrances from the skin, so that the remedy may reach the bare body more perfectly; so too, when the soul must be cured through faith, we are commanded to take away from ourselves the substance of the world and lay aside the hindrances of gold and silver, so that the spiritual remedy may come more fittingly to the bare and lone soul. For whoever is wrapped up in the things of the world and the riches of the age will not be helped by the remedy of faith. What the juice of mustard does in the body, then, let Christian faith do in the soul. But since in the same saying of the Lord it is written that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds rested in its branches, let us inquire more carefully who it is to whom all these things fit. We said above that the nature of mustard can fit the holy martyrs, who were crushed by various sufferings. But since Scripture says, "and it grew and became a tree, and the birds rested in its branches," I think this is more rightly compared to Christ the Lord himself, who in being born as man was humbled like a grain, and in ascending to heaven was exalted like a tree. Christ is plainly a grain when he suffers, a tree when he rises. He is a grain, I say, when he endures hunger; a tree when with five loaves he fills five thousand men. There he suffers barrenness by human condition, here he bestows fullness by his own divinity. I would call the Lord a grain when he is beaten, despised, reproached; a tree when he gives light to the blind, raises the dead, forgives sins. That he is a grain he himself says in the Gospel: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone." The Jews, then, not at all bearing the sharpness and bitterness of this grain, that is, of the Lord Saviour, like mustard, scorned to receive the juice of heavenly discipline, saying to the blind man who had been given light: "You are his disciple; but we are disciples of Moses." They were themselves wholly ignorant of the commandments of Moses, who commanded them to eat this bitterness: when he was arranging for them the sacraments of the Passover to be celebrated, he said: "You shall eat it with bitterness; for it is the Lord's Passover." For he did not command (as they think) that the very sharp juices of cheap herbs be eaten with the roast flesh of the lamb, but he commanded that the profitably bitter words of Christ's commandments be devoured together with the very sacrament of the Lord's passion. For do not the Lord's words seem bitter when he says, "If you wish to be perfect, leave all that you have, and come, follow me"? And when he says that one is not to have two tunics, nor a bag, nor shoes, this bitterness of words is medicine for souls. And as to what the Gospel says, "which a man took and put in his garden": who do we think is this man who took the grain and sowed it, like a grain of mustard seed, in his little garden? I think it is he of whom the evangelist reports: "But behold Joseph, a councillor from Arimathea, came to Pilate, asking that he might bury the body of the Lord when it was taken down"; which he took and committed to burial in a tomb that had been prepared in a garden. And so Scripture says: "which a man took and put in his garden." Joseph's garden, then, was full of various flowers, but he had not yet planted such a shoot in it. The special garden of his soul was indeed fragrant with the varied sweetness of the virtues, but he had not yet placed Christ with spices in the secret of his heart. So, while he buries the Saviour in the tomb of his little garden, he rather placed him in the inmost parts of his soul. And if you seek the branches of this tree, you will find that Peter is a branch, Paul is a branch, all the apostles and martyrs are branches; whoever is willing to hold firmly to them will not be drowned by the waves of the world; rather, sheltering under their shade he will not suffer the burning of Gehenna, safe from the squall of the devil's storm and from the fire of the burning judgment.

You yourselves know, brothers, that from the day I began to be with you I have not ceased to admonish you with all the Lord's commandments, and, partly by exhorting, partly by rebuking, to press on you the precepts of the Godhead; so that to many I have been more a father, but to some I have proved a hard master. For whoever gladly embraced my sermon rejoiced in me as a father; but he felt me a hard master who grieved that his conscience was struck by my preaching; provided that, whether by kindness or by censure, Christ is proclaimed to you; although censure itself is kindness, which is applied to more negligent sons so that they may learn by fear what they had neglected through love. For it is not that a father does not love all his sons equally, but that it is the indulgence of a father to show a father's affection according to the difference of characters, so as to stir up a gentle son with exhortation and to address a stubborn one with severity; yet he is secure about the correction of both, since he strikes the one with love and chastises the other with severity; as the Apostle says: "All discipline for the present seems to be not of joy but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of justice to those trained by it." Since, then, I believe you have profited from so many discourses of mine, I wish to discuss with you some things from the divine letters, so that I may understand that you grasp what I say with lively faith. The Lord says in the holy Gospel: "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in flour, until the whole was leavened." There is no doubt that the force and power of leaven are known to all. For though it is small in size, simple in appearance, common in nature, it bears such strength within that when it is hidden in, its juice makes the whole mass to be what it is itself; and it always so spreads through the whole heap by the vigour of its sprinkling that it makes all that great quantity of flour leaven, and so the thing by its own strength acquires for itself a mass of its own vigour. Women do this so that they may carefully provide their husbands with healthier bread and useful food. But since the law is spiritual and the Gospel stands spiritually by the method of parables, let us see what the leaven is, who the woman, what the flour. We read in the Gospel: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." If, then, the Lord is wheat, the Lord is also leaven, because leaven is usually made only from wheat; rightly, then, is Christ compared to leaven, who, though he was a man in appearance, small in humility, cast down in weakness, was so strong within in the power of wisdom that the world itself could hardly grasp his teaching; who, when he began to spread himself through the whole world by the vigour of his divinity, at once drew the whole human race by his power into his own substance, so as to pour the yoke of his Holy Spirit into all, that is, to make all Christians to be what Christ is. For the fact that the Lord Jesus was a man and alone in the world, like leaven hidden in the mass, enabled all men to be what he himself is. Whoever, then, clings to that leaven of Christ becomes himself leaven too, as useful to himself as fit for all, both certain of his own salvation and secure about the winning of others. As leaven, then, when it is to be sprinkled into a heap of flour, is broken, crumbled, scattered, and is itself wholly dissolved, so that it may bind that scattered multitude of flour into one vigour and bring into a solid body what was languishing like dust in its smallness, and by its union make a useful mass of what by its own dissolution seemed useless: so too the Lord Jesus Christ, since he was the leaven of the whole world, was broken by various sufferings, torn and dissolved, and his juice, which is his precious blood, was poured out for our salvation, so that by mixing himself in he might make solid the whole human race, which before lay dissolved in different directions. For so we, who seemed to be flour from the Gentiles, have clung to him as to a kind of leaven. We, I say, who lay scattered and wholly diminished through the whole world, have been brought into his body by the vigour of Christ's passion; as the blessed Apostle says: "For we are the body of Christ and its members." We, then, who from the nations were being tossed about like dust, are gathered into the mass of his solidity by the sprinkling of the Lord's blood. And the woman who is said to hide the leaven in the flour, who is she but holy Church, which daily strives to hide the teaching of Christ in our hearts? She, I say, is the woman who in another place is also said to grind, as the Lord says: "Two women will be grinding; one will be taken and one left." For holy Church grinds through the law, through the apostles, through the prophets, when she makes catechumens, and breaks up and crushes the roughness of paganism, so that, having ground them like flour, she may make them fit to cling to the Lord's blood. For one might call the whole passion of the Lord the leaven of faith. For the leaven of our salvation is the creed itself, which is handed over, without which leaven or creed no one can earn the substance of eternal life. And since the Gospel describes two women grinding, and we have said that the one Church grinds profitably, whom must we take the other to be but the synagogue? For she too grinds through Moses and the prophets, but she grinds unprofitably, as the Apostle says of the Jews: "They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." Unprofitably, I say, does the synagogue grind, because she does not temper her mass with the teaching of Christ. And so the Lord commands that the leaven of the synagogue is to be avoided, saying: "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." For it is tempered with the bloodshed and cruelties of the Jews, who said of the Lord: "His blood be on us and on our children." Hence the Gospel says: "Two women will be grinding; one will be taken and one left." For holy Church will be taken into eternal rest, who ground the food of holiness for the Lord; the faithless synagogue will be left at the mills, to suffer for ever the circuit of her faithlessness.

I ought, brothers, after these many days, to preach something more abundant and, returning from so great a swarm of priests, to refresh you with a sweet sermon. I said rightly 'a swarm of priests'; for as bees make sweet honey from the little flowers of the divine Scriptures and compose by the art of their mouth whatever belongs to the healing of souls, priests are rightly compared to bees; because, like bees, they show chastity of body, offer the food of heavenly life, and wield the sting of the law; for they are pure for sanctification, sweet for refreshment, severe for punishment. They are plainly to be compared to bees, who are contained by grace as in a kind of hive of mother Church, in which, building the cells of various merits with most sweet preaching, they produce many swarms of Christians from the one swarm of the Saviour. Though I have never ceased, brothers, to rebuke you with fatherly kindness, I wonder that you have profited nothing by my admonitions, and I grieve that my frequent preaching does not correct you with any progress in salvation, but binds you with a kind of penalty of testimony. For the preaching of a priest is correction for those of the people who are to be saved, and testimony against those who are to be judged; for we testify to them before the judgment what awaits them in the judgment itself, so that then, every excuse removed, they may be both guilty of their sins and liable for contempt. Hence sometimes, sparing you, I would wish to be silent; but I prefer that you render account for your stubbornness rather than that I undergo judgment for negligence. For I have learned, brothers, that during my absence you came to church so rarely, came forward so very few, as though when I set out you all came with me, and as though, as I am drawn away by necessities, the same necessity drew you with me. We are alike absent from the house of God; but there is this difference, that necessity makes me absent, your will makes you absent. Do you not know that even if I am missing from the church, Christ, who is everywhere, is not missing from his Church? You come to church, brother: do you not find there the Bishop of bishops, the Saviour? For a Christian who goes to church only when the bishop is present seems to have gone not so much for God's sake as for a man's, and not to have fulfilled the duty of a God-fearing Christian but to have paid the respects of a friend. Why do I rebuke you, when you can refute me with one word? For I am refuted when I see that in this respect the clergy are more negligent than you. For how can I correct sons when I cannot amend brothers? Or with what confidence shall I be angry with lay people, when I am reduced to silence by shame before my colleagues? But I do not speak, brothers, about everyone. There are certainly some devout, and there are others negligent: I name no one; let each one's conscience address him.

Perhaps my preaching last Sunday was rather bitter, brothers, because I addressed many of you rather sharply with teaching and truth, and pursued things that brought some people not flatteries but sadness. But that is nothing to me; for I rejoice, knowing that the disciple's sadness is the master's joy. For the hearer makes progress when the preacher announces harsher things; for salvation is born in him when the sadness of amendment is pressed on him. For the blessed Apostle says: "For the sadness that is according to God works repentance unto a stable salvation." Rightly, then, I rejoice, because I work salvation when I reprove. Though my son may grieve at the harshness of my sermon, I understand that he makes progress through grief. The holy Apostle says: "For what son is there whom his father does not beat?" For a father does not always kiss his son, but sometimes chastises him. So when one who is loved is chastised, then kindness is exercised toward him; for love too has its blows, which are sweeter when they are inflicted more bitterly; for devout chastisement is sweeter than flattering leniency; hence the prophet says: "Sweeter are the wounds of a friend than the willing kisses of an enemy." Therefore, brothers, since I believe that after so many useful words of my rebuke you have profited by the kindness of your understanding, let us gather something from the sacred letters. For as a spring that does not drip with its usual moisture is stirred with sticks and so is found more abundant, and first muddy water comes from it so that purer water may follow; so too your holiness had indeed been irritated by the harshness of my sermon, but has become more devout through the sweetness of kindness. Perhaps your minds kept something turbid, but now all that is pure flows from your conduct. Let us see, then, what it means that the Lord said to his disciples: "But who do you say that I am?" The Lord does not ask as though ignorant what the people and disciples thought of him, but, knowing the minds of all, he wished to make manifest the faith of each, so that they might tell with the mouth what they believed in the heart about the Lord. For some believed the Lord to be Elijah, others Jeremiah, others John the Baptist. Peter alone confesses him to be the Christ, the Son of God. There are certain degrees of faith, and whoever believes more devoutly confesses more religiously. For this devotion it is said to Peter: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church." Though he was called Simon, then, for this devotion he was named Peter. We read the Apostle saying of the Lord himself: "They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." Rightly, then, because Christ is the rock, Simon was named Peter; so that he who had fellowship of faith with the Lord might also have with the Lord unity of the Lord's name; so that as a Christian is named from Christ, so the apostle Peter might be called from Christ the Rock. But neither can we condemn the opinion of the people who thought the Lord one of the prophets. For some perhaps thought the Saviour was Elijah because Elijah ascended to heaven as the Saviour did. But Christ is not like Elijah; for the one is caught up to heaven, the other returns; the one is carried up like a weak man in a fiery chariot, the other is borne like God by his own power; the one is led like a man, the other ascends like the Saviour; the one follows angels who lead him, the other goes before angels who accompany him. Accordingly, those same angels, returning to earth, said to the apostles on behalf of the Lord Saviour: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven."

Some, brothers, who are either held by the belt of military service or are placed in public office, when they sin gravely, usually excuse themselves from the penalty of their sin with this plea, that they are in service; and lest they should ever do good, they complain that they are taken up with evil doings; as though men's service, not their will, were at fault; so they ascribe to their offices what they themselves do. For it is not an offence to serve, but to serve for the sake of plunder is a sin. Nor is it criminal to administer the commonwealth, but to administer the commonwealth so as rather to increase one's private property seems damnable. For that is why certain pay has been appointed for those who serve, lest while they seek their means of living, plunder should run riot. And what of this, that when they are rebuked by their elders for some error, and some of them are charged with why he was drunk, why he seized others' property, why he committed murder in a riot, at once he answers: 'What could I do, a man of the world and a soldier? Have I professed as a monk or a cleric?' As though everyone who is not a cleric or a monk may be permitted what is not permitted! A rule of living is prescribed to all offices; every sex, age and rank is called to do good. Let no one, then, excuse himself by his public duties, let no one complain of the occupation of military service. With every Christian the first service ought to be that of honesty. To prove what we say by the authority of the Gospel, let us look at the reading that was gone through a little while ago. For the Gospel says: "Tax collectors also came to John to be baptized by him, and they said to him, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said: Exact nothing more than what is appointed for you." An honest question indeed of the tax collectors, and a just answer of the holy prophet. For they ask anxiously, lest either in ignorance they should fall into sin by exacting more, or by slackness they should defraud the public service. And he commands with moderation, so that iniquity may have no place and the appointed tax may have its effect. For he did not say, 'Exact nothing,' but 'Exact nothing more.' From which we understand that with God it is not so much exaction as unjust exaction that is condemned. For the Lord himself says: "Render to God the things that are God's, and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." What Caesar commands, then, is to be borne; what the emperor imposes is to be tolerated. But it becomes intolerable when the plundering of the exaction heaps it up. And what of this, that those same men who manage such levies double their sins upon sins, that is, that they call their frauds and plunderings their 'commission', since the very plunder is brought in as a commission? And they add this to their crimes, that they persecute rather those whom they see defenceless, and think they have not cheated the public levies unless they have cheated the houses of orphans: so that the children of one who perhaps two days before was a friend, colleague or brother are held, once death has intervened, as unknown, cheap and wretched. And if there is a widow, she is either so harassed with injuries that she marries again, or, if she wishes to remain in her resolve of chastity, she remains in possession of her means only by giving gifts. When, then, they have filled their purses with these frauds, you will see them hurrying to church glad and well dressed and giving thanks to God, as though this money were bestowed on them by him; sinning in this too, that they wish God to be a sharer in their plunderings. And the holy Gospel says: "Soldiers also asked him, And what shall we do? John said to them: Do not extort from anyone, nor make false accusations, but be content with your pay." Here every man who serves ought to recognize himself. For Scripture does not speak only of those in service who are held in armed service, but whoever uses the belt of his service is enrolled as a soldier of his rank. And so this sentence can be said, for example, to soldiers, guardsmen and all governors, and to anyone who receives pay publicly decreed for him: if he seeks more, he is condemned by John's sentence as a false accuser and extortioner. And this evil has so grown up that now, as if by custom, laws are sold, rights corrupted, the very sentence is for sale, and no case can now be without its 'tail'. But this divine sentence which speaks to soldiers can also be turned against the clergy; because even if they do not seem to serve the world, yet we serve the Lord and God, as the Apostle says: "No one serving God entangles himself in worldly affairs." We do not seem, I say, to serve, in our loose and flowing tunics; but we have the belt of our service, by which the inward parts of chastity are bound; of which belt the Lord says to his apostles: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning in your hands." We are soldiers of Christ, then, and we receive pay and a gift from him, as the blessed Apostle says: "Who has given us the pledge of the Spirit"; that is, who has enriched us with the reward of the Holy Spirit. If any Christian, then, is perhaps not content with this donative and seeks more, by that very fact he begins to lack what he earned. This happens especially to the Arian heretics: for while they seek I know not what more, finding the spirit of error, they have lost the grace of the Holy Spirit. And the catholic cleric too is held by this sentence. For if he is not content with the pay he receives from the altar at the Lord's command, but carries on trade, sells intercessions, and gladly embraces the gifts of widows, he may seem a merchant rather than a cleric. Nor can we say, 'No one charges us as robbers, no one accuses us of violence'; as though flatteries did not sometimes draw greater plunder from widows than tortures; and it makes no difference to God whether one seizes another's goods by force or by deceit, so long as by whatever means he holds what belongs to another.

If your love has carefully noticed the gospel chapter that was read, that very chapter could have pierced your minds: why the Lord, as Scripture reports, when he was asked by one man that he might follow him wherever he went, for the sake of devout service, said rather to another, "Follow me"; and, the first being spurned and slighted, chose instead another who was silent and not expecting it. And since voluntary service is usually more acceptable than forced, and service pleases more not when it is exacted by command but when it is offered freely, why then is the one rejected, why is he even refused as unworthy? For the Lord says to him: "Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." First, then, we must consider that the Lord is not a respecter of persons. For he is a fair and just judge; but he repays the affection of love according to the quality of these men, and chooses not him who is ready in words and lazy in devotion, but him who is silent in tongue and devout in mind, of whom the prophet says: "By keeping silent you will seem wise." But of him who speaks forwardly Scripture reports: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does my will." From this, then, we learn that one must cry to the Lord not so much with the mouth as with the heart. Our Saviour, then, who sees through the thoughts and minds of men, hearing indeed the service of the voice but recognizing the cunning of the mind, compares him to such an animal as shows one thing by its voice and does another by its ways. For the fox sounds like a dog in its bark, but practises the plunder of fraud by guile. He takes up, then, the silent man who was not expecting it. His tongue was silent indeed, but he spoke in spirit. For we understand how devout he was who, as he himself declared, left his father dead so as to find the Lord of life. For he says: "Allow me first to go and bury my father." He had left dead, then, the man whom he asks to bury on his return. For grief had not held him back, death had not delayed him, because he was hastening to life. He had not yet closed his dying father's eyes, had not yet laid out his stiffening limbs: as soon as he learned that the Lord had come, forgetting the affection of filial piety, he believed with a greater piety that he should love Christ more than his parent. For perhaps he had read the prophetic reading that says: "Forget your people and your father's house." Therefore he forgot his father while he remembered the Saviour. He had also heard the Lord's Gospel: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." So, if Tobit is justified because he left his lunch for the sake of a burial, this man is approved when for Christ's sake he left his father's burial. For the one did not fear that, with the work intervening, he would miss the dishes of an earthly lunch; this one feared that, with delay intervening, he would lose the refreshment of the heavenly bread. Hence, though for Christ's sake we owe burial to all, this man for love of Christ abandoned his father's burial. Let us first discuss, then, the first man's proposal and the response of the Lord Saviour. He says to him: "I will follow you wherever you go." A ready answer indeed, but a proud one. For the Lord was going to his passion, about to descend to the underworld, about to ascend to heaven: can human frailty accompany him in all these? This is rather a foolish presumption than a devout confession. Indeed the apostle Peter too, when he thought he would follow the Saviour in all things, is told by the Lord: "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now." And when he insisted, saying that not even death would separate him from him, he hears, as one condemned for boasting, that he would deny the Lord three times. So he who promised that not even death would tear him from the confession of Christ is separated from his fellowship by the questioning of a little maidservant; and had the Lord not said, as if setting a kind of limit, that he would deny him three times, perhaps, questioned more often, he would have denied him often. What, then, is answered to that forward man? "Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky nests, and the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." See to what he is subtly compared. For this kind of animal is deceitful and always bent on plunder, practising robbery by fraud, so that it allows nothing to be safe, nothing at rest, nothing secure, and seeks prey even among the dwellings of men. I think this comparison was written not only because of that man but also because of many Christians who confess the Lord with the mouth but live in their ways with the deceit of foxes. For every Christian who wishes to hide his sins is spiritually a fox. For as the fox because of its frauds lingers in hiding places, so the silent sinner, because of the consciousness of his sins, lurks in dens. And as the fox does not dare to show the deceit of its ways among crowds of men, so this man blushes to confess the wickedness of his conduct in the midst of the church. I would plainly call a fox every Christian who lies in wait for his neighbour, who daily strives to gnaw at another's boundaries, invade his crops, devour his animals, and, what is common in this time, to seize not chickens in the manner of foxes but pigs in the manner of wolves; who, though he could live by his own labour, catches another's prey with the fury of wild beasts. I think all heretics too are to be compared to foxes, who, since they cannot live in the Lord's house, prepare for themselves certain conventicles like dark dens, in which, lurking stubbornly, they lie in wait for the Church, so that if any innocent soul perhaps comes out, they may swallow it like a chick of the mother hen. They lie in wait, I say, as foxes for the Church, that is, for that hen of the Gospel of whom the Lord says: "How often I wished to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings!"

Let us avoid, then, brothers, let us avoid the pestilent tricks of lurking foxes, let us avoid the deadly snares of most wicked animals; lest, as once the foxes which that mighty Samson sent into the field of the Philistines armed with torches burned with flames everything their tracks touched, so the foxes of perverse doctrines should either seize the fruits of our crops by the deceit of snares or consume them by the burning of flames. Let us be, then, as we read, both simple as doves and wise as serpents, so that the wisdom of serpents may guard the simplicity of doves, and so that we may not know how to do evil and yet be able to avoid it; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory, and so on.

I believe, brothers, that you listened carefully to the gospel reading which was read just now, where the Lord Jesus Christ, entering the synagogue on the sabbath, cured with spiritual medicine a man who had a withered hand: not applying the juices of herbs, not binding on the remedies of ointments, but commanding by a word and ordering in anger, he poured health back into the body. In anger, I say, as the evangelist says, he restored strength to the right hand. From this we understand what health the Lord's kindness brings, when his indignation is such a medicine; or how he profits when appeased, who shows such mercy when angry. By a word, then, he orders the sap of the veins to pour into the withered right hand. No wonder if he restored a withered right hand who created the whole body from dry dust, and restored by the command of a word what in the beginning he established by the work of making; as though the thing formed, recognizing its maker, obeys him also in a small portion, to whom it owed itself wholly in the mass. But let us see what the withered hand in the synagogue is, which does nothing for its body, when it dried up in its works, and let us inquire when it first began to be withered. For it is not the cause of one man alone that is handled by the Saviour, nor the weakness of one man alone that is attended to, but the infirmity of the whole human race is saved. There is no doubt that the right hand, the more distinguished part of the whole body, performs this office: to supply daily food to its body and, by a kind of providence, to feed and nourish the other members for the enjoyment of life. This right hand in the Jewish people, then, I would say is the scribes or teachers, who, set by the Lord as the more distinguished part in the body of the Pharisees, neglected to fatten their other members with the oracles of the prophets; that is, they would not offer Christ to their body, according to the oracles of the prophets, as the food of eternal life; and so their teaching withered like a weak hand, because it did not seek the spring of everlasting wisdom. Accordingly it came about that, as with a shrunken right hand, it could not hold the key of knowledge, as the Lord says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, who hide the key of knowledge," and so on. This key is Christ the Lord, by whom the secrets of our hearts are unlocked to belief. This key is lost by the Pharisees and found by the apostles, as the Lord says to Peter: "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." So the right hand of the synagogue withered, leaving Christ; in the rulers of the Jews the right hand of the synagogue grew worse. For whoever deserts the spring of Christ is weakened at once, or rather is found weaker than all the members. But I find that this hand was once better than the other members. For holy Moses, leader of the Jewish people, was like the more illustrious right hand of his body, when he was found worthy to receive from the Godhead the law to be held out. Holy Moses, I say, was the right hand, who fed the children of Israel with heavenly manna as with a provident hand. This plainly is the right hand which overcame the magicians Jannes and Mambres with the brightness of snowy splendour. For so you have it written: when Moses brought his hand out of his bosom, it shone with the light of brilliant whiteness; and so the darkness of the magicians was destroyed, because the right hand gleamed shining by the merits of Moses. But let us see when this hand first began to be withered or dead. I affirm that it first withered in Adam, when against the Lord's prohibition he plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, and then lost the sap of immortality. And it was then dried up in a way when by his sin it caused man, made in the image of God, to be dissolved into dust. And would that only the hand were held liable for sin! What is heavier, the whole body was condemned to death when the right hand sinned first. Nor should you wonder if the member of the right hand did not remain whole in Adam: for the vigour of eternity withered in it. For as the right hand of Moses, who kept the Lord's commandments, shone with snowy brightness, so the right hand of Adam, who transgressed God's precepts, shrank with deadly pallor. This hand of Adam, then, the Saviour cures in the synagogue; that is, he hastens to heal the weakness of the whole human race; hence the remedy is common to all. For he says also to him: "Stretch out your hand," to the one who shrank it by sacrificing to idols; "stretch out your hand," to the one whose right hand dried up by taking interest. He says to him: "Stretch out your hand," who is eager by it to seize the property of orphans and widows. But you too who think you have a healthy hand, beware lest it be shrunk by avarice. Rather, stretch it out often to the poor in mercy, more often to the stranger in hospitality. Stretch it out always to the Lord for your sins; be merciful, be generous; observe what the prophet says: "Let not your hand be stretched out to receive and drawn back from giving." For so your hand will be able to be healthy, if it is kept back from evil deeds and stretched out in good works.

The Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel: "Truly I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." I fear that this saying may perhaps fit you who either have or seek the riches of this world. For as the very crookedness of body of the camel, a twisted and misshapen animal, does not let it pass through the very narrow hole of a needle, so the very deformity of their life does not at all allow rich men, loaded with avarice and defiled by greed, to enter by the narrow way of the kingdom. For the same Lord says: "Narrow and confined is the way that leads to life." In the camel, then, the shape of the limbs causes the difficulty of entry; but in the rich man the greatness of his sins makes the obstacle. For to think or do something shameful is a kind of hump of the soul, and a kind of twisted deformity of mind is always to be intent on unclean things and to be called away from the holy threshold of the Church by worldly cares. Hence the prophet seems to me, speaking spiritually of this deformity of body, rather to have indicated foulness of conduct when he says: "Let not the hunchback boast like the upright." As if he said: let not the sinner, twisted by the depravity of his vices, boast as the just man boasts, made straight by the simplicity of a good conscience. For though, sinner, you rejoice in the tallness of your body, though you are glad of the evenness of your shoulders, your soul is misshapen by the depravity of your ways. Rightly, then, is the rich man compared to a camel. For the bulk of its body calls the one back from passing through the needle; anxiety for his inheritance holds the other back from entering the Church. And as the small hole does not admit the one loaded with the mass of its limbs, so the holy entrance does not receive the other weighed down with a heap of sins. Each has his own burden: the one is loaded with flesh, the other with sins; and as the one is unfit for the very narrow hole of a needle, so the other is unsuited to the most blessed kingdom of God; except that nature made the camel ill-formed in body, but will makes the rich man crooked. I say these things, brothers, about those who, so as not to keep the most festive day of holy Epiphany in church, were held back by the fetters of their inheritances and bound by a kind of earthly chain, so that they could not come to the house of the Lord. Not that anything detains them, but that they are so entangled in their own affairs that they have now lost the free choice of living in their own power; and while they show anxiety for their inheritance, they do not seek the medicine of souls at all. Why do you, rich man, put forward to me the difficulty of the times? Why do you bring in a sudden necessity? If you have a heart, understand that greater than every necessity is the necessity of salvation; and it is a more useful cause to care first for life than to repair the losses of your property, lest while we seek the increase of our inheritance we suffer loss of soul. But perhaps you fear the judge whom you left in his chamber. Believe me, you ought rather to fear God the judge, who will judge that very judge of yours. You fear him, then, who will soon receive a successor; you do not fear the Lord, whom no one ever succeeds! Consider, then, the threatening day of judgment and the unquenchable flames of Gehenna, the horrid gnashing of teeth, the outermost torment of darkness. And then, if you can, leave the Church and entangle yourself in worldly cares. For I fear that while you seek the riches of the world you may rather find riches of sins, and having found the treasures of the world, may lose the heavenly treasures.

I think it can be enough for your correction, beloved brothers, that last Sunday, as I was setting out, I bestowed on you no spiritual gifts of the sacred letters, but only rebuked you and reproved you for sin and dismissed you without any consolation of preaching. For I wished you to understand this very thing, how gravely you had sinned, that you did not deserve to hear the divine words. For this is the severe and abundant punishment of priests: not to entrust the mysteries of the heavenly letters to the unworthy, nor, as the Lord says, to give what is holy to dogs or cast pearls to be trampled under the feet of swine. For whoever tries to put the heavenly pearl around a most foul sinner loses its grace. For a gem, as you yourselves know, suits only gold; a pearl is fitted only to precious necklaces. Be, then, the finest gold, be a precious necklace, so that the spiritual pearl may be set in you. For the pearl is Christ the Lord, whom that rich merchant in the Gospel, having sold all his goods, hastened to buy, and preferred to lose all the gems of the world he had, provided he could buy the one pearl of Christ. Hence I too, brothers, because of the greatness of the sin you had committed, would not open to you the words of the Gospel's refreshment, but rather inflicted on you the injury of a spirited indignation, and first amended you with spiritual blows, and so enriched you with the gifts of the pearl. I preferred, I say, to rebuke your sin sharply by accusing it rather than to nourish it by gently overlooking it. For whoever does not reprove a brother who sins in a way encourages him. And I do not want you to think that I do not do it out of love when I strike you more often. For the son who deserves chastisement is more loved, as holy Scripture says: "For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." Tell me whether this sin was not to be grieved over: that you were then so forgetful of your salvation as not to render honour to the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul, though you know that they are the teachers of the Gentiles, the authors of the martyrs, the chiefs of the priests, and would not celebrate their most festive birthday with us and be present at that heavenly banquet in which, for the great joy of the martyrs, the Lord himself served us the substance of life? Do you want to know how great the goods are of which you were cheated? Ask the brothers who were present with me then how refreshed they went away from the Lord's table, and what spiritual riches they carried home with them. One thing I know: if on that day some man of rank or wealth had invited you to lunch on his son's birthday as far as the tenth milestone, you would without doubt have gone, for the sake of the carefully prepared dishes and the unequal measures. Therefore, brothers, whenever we celebrate the memory of the martyrs, we ought to put aside all the business of the world and run together without any hesitation to render honour to those who brought forth salvation for you by the shedding of their blood, who were offered to the Lord as a consecrated victim for our propitiation; especially since almighty God says to his saints: "Whoever honours you honours me, and whoever despises you despises me." Whoever, then, honours the martyrs honours Christ too; and whoever despises the saints despises the Lord too.