Sermons

Contents

Reading pages: 1–4 · 5–8 · 9–12 · 13–16 · 17–20 · 21–24 · 25–28 · 29–33 · 34–38 · 39–42 · 43–47 · 48–52 · 53–55 · 57–60 · 61–63 · 64–67 · 68–71 · 72–76 · 77–80 · 81–85 · 86–89 · 90–93 · 94–97 · 98–101 · 102–104 · 106–109 · 111–114 · 115–119 · 120–122 · 123–125 · 126–131 · 132–138 · 139–143 · 144–147 · 148–153 · 154–159 · 160–163 · 164–168 · 169–173 · 174–176

1. 1Chrysologus begins a series on the prodigal son (Luke 15), describing the younger son's greed, departure, squandering, and servitude among the pigs, and urges his hearers to stay in their father's house.
2. 2Chrysologus treats the prodigal's coming to himself, his resolve to return and confess, and applies it to his hearers: fasting frees the mind, and the devil makes sinners feed the pigs of vice.
3. 3Chrysologus expounds the father's running to meet the returning prodigal, his kiss, and the gifts of robe, ring, shoes, and calf as images of God's mercy that leaves no room for despair.
4. 4Chrysologus describes the elder brother's envy at the prodigal's return, traces envy from the devil's fall and Cain to the Jews' killing of Christ, and urges his hearers to rejoice with the father.
5. 5Chrysologus interprets the parable allegorically: the father is God made man, the younger son the Gentiles squandering nature's gifts in idolatry and philosophy, the elder son the Jews refusing in envy to enter the Church.
6. 6A sermon on Psalm 100 celebrating the Gentiles' return: Christ the good shepherd gathers the nations, entrusts his sheep to Peter, frees humanity from its cruel masters, and invites all to enter God's presence with joy.
7. 7Chrysologus warns against hypocrisy, which turns fasting into vanity, urges hidden fasting joined to almsgiving, and calls his hearers to store treasure in heaven by giving to the poor.
8. 8At the start of Lent Chrysologus compares the fast to a sea voyage and insists that fasting without almsgiving and mercy is barren, since mercy pleads for sinners at God's judgment.
9. 9On Matt 6:1–4, Chrysologus explains that Christ forbids not public good works but righteousness done for display, and urges secret almsgiving as a loan to God in the poor.
10. 10Expounding Psalm 29, Chrysologus interprets ‘the young of rams’ as candidates for baptism and urges masters, parents, spouses, and friends to bring slaves, children, wives, and the unwilling to baptism during Lent.
11. 11Chrysologus teaches that evil comes from the devil, not from nature or creation, and expounds Christ's Lenten fast and first temptation as a victory that disarms the tempter for Christians.
12. 12Chrysologus calls Christians at the start of Lent to the spiritual warfare of fasting, lists biblical examples of fasting against gluttony and drunkenness, and shows how Christ's fast unmasked the devil.
13. 13Chrysologus presents Lent as the Christian soldier's combat, explains each temptation of Christ as the devil's attempt to test whether he was God, and warns that the devil turns from gluttony to strife and greed in Lent.
14. 14On Psalm 41, Chrysologus teaches that to ‘understand the poor’ is to see Christ hungering in them, so that almsgiving becomes the giver's advocate on the day of judgment.
15. 15Chrysologus presents the centurion of Matt 8:5–13 as a teacher of prayer and faith whose humility and trust in Christ's word model the Gentile believer.
16. 16On the two Gerasene demoniacs (Matt 8:28–34), Chrysologus describes the demons' hatred of humanity, their recognition of Christ as judge, and their powerlessness except where Christ permits or human vice allows.
17. 17On the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5, Chrysologus portrays Christ as the judge who frees the possessed man, exposes the devil's flattery, and shows that demons can do nothing without God's permission.
18. 18Chrysologus explains Christ's healing of Peter's mother-in-law literally and figuratively: Christ enters our flesh, takes the hand that brought death through Eve, raises the synagogue to serve, and in the world's evening frees the Gentiles from demons.
19. 19On Matt 8:18–22, Chrysologus explains why Christ rebuffed the presumptuous scribe, interprets the foxes as Herod and the birds as demons, and argues that Christ forbade the disciple not filial duty but unbelieving funeral rites.
20. 20On the stilling of the storm (Matt 8:23–27), Chrysologus reads the boat as the Church tossed by persecution and now calmed under Christian rulers, and calls his hearers, beset by barbarian invasions, to repent and cry to Christ.
21. 21This passage holds two sermons: on the storm in Mark 4, Chrysologus reads Christ's sleep in the boat as a test of the Church amid heresy and invasion and urges watchful prayer; Sermon 22 (Luke 12:32–37) urges giving up earthly wealth for the kingdom and keeping watch for the Lord.
22. 23On Luke 12:32–33, Chrysologus praises the ‘little flock’ that conquered the nations by suffering like the Lamb, defends the Son's equality with the Father against those who misuse his humility, and urges almsgiving as transferring wealth to heaven.
23. 24On Luke 12:35–38, Chrysologus praises vigilance, explains the girded loins as chastity and the lamps as good works, marvels that Christ will serve his servants in heaven against the heretics who belittle him, and reads the watches as Christ's birth, resurrection, and return.
24. 25On Luke 12:32–33, Chrysologus assures the ‘little flock’ of the promised kingdom and urges almsgiving as purses that never wear out, with God as a debtor who repays a hundredfold.
25. 26On the steward of Luke 12:41–48, Chrysologus warns clergy above all against pride and drunkenness, then applies stewardship to kings, generals, soldiers, judges, householders, slaves, the rich, and the poor.
26. 27On Luke 17:1–2, Chrysologus distinguishes three kinds of scandal (from the devil's deceit, from human cunning, and from our own senses), illustrates each from Scripture, and warns that whoever causes the little ones to stumble deserves the millstone.
27. 28Chrysologus explains why Christ chose poor fishermen as apostles yet also called the rich tax collector Matthew: not for his money but to heal the wound of avarice, so that Matthew became poor on earth and rich in heaven.
28. 29On Matthew's call (Mark 2:14), Chrysologus describes gold as a weight that bends the soul, illustrates its destructive power from Joseph's brothers, the golden calf, and Judas, and explains Christ's eating with sinners as the physician's visit to the sick.
29. 30Chrysologus contrasts Matthew the tax collector with the paralytic, reading them as figures of the Gentiles and the Jews, and answers the Pharisees' objection: Christ dines with sinners as physician, and all must confess themselves sinners to share his table.
30. 31On the question about fasting (Matt 9:14–17), Chrysologus describes the hostility of Christ's opponents, explains that the disciples could not fast while the bridegroom was betrothing the Church, and reads the patch and wineskins as the incompatibility of the old observance with the Gospel.
31. 32On the healing of the withered hand (Mark 3:1–7), Chrysologus sees the man's hand as humanity's ancient sickness from Adam's reaching for the forbidden tree, healed by Christ's cross, and rebukes the Pharisees' sabbath scruples and his hearers' avarice.
32. 33On Jairus's plea and the woman with the flow of blood (Mark 5:22–29), Chrysologus describes parental love, reads the hand laid on as God's creating and recreating hand, and praises the woman's ‘theft’ of healing by faith, lamenting that communicants who receive Christ's body are not healed for lack of faith.
33. 34Chrysologus presents the woman healed by touching Christ's fringe as the model of silent confession that obtains pardon without public shame, contrasts her faith with those who receive Christ's body unworthily, and explains Jairus's daughter's ‘sleep’ as death before God's power.
34. 35Chrysologus praises the woman who touched Christ's fringe as wiser than the teachers of the law and more believing than Thomas, explains that God is not defiled by touching our wounds, and interprets her as the Church wounded by Adam's sin.
35. 36Completing the account of Jairus's daughter and the woman with the hemorrhage (Mark 5:30–43), Chrysologus explains why Christ asked who touched him and allegorizes the woman as the Gentile Church healed by faith and the dying girl as the Synagogue that must be raised by faith.
36. 37On the sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29–31), Chrysologus reads Jonah's flight, the storm, his voluntary casting overboard, and the whale's three days as figures of Christ's incarnation, voluntary passion, descent to hell, and resurrection, which the unbelieving were bribed to deny.
37. 38On Matt 5:38–41, Chrysologus explains that turning the other cheek trains Christian beginners for greater sufferings, contrasts the law of retaliation with Christ's command, and compares the patient Christian to a physician bearing the blows of a delirious patient.
38. 39On the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5–10), Chrysologus describes God's eagerness to be prevailed upon, urges persistent and watchful prayer and hospitality, rebukes those who sleep through morning prayer, and closes by welcoming a visiting bishop whom he credits with supplying his sermon.
39. 40After the Lenten work of preparing candidates for baptism, Chrysologus preaches on the good shepherd (John 10:11), explaining that Christ's voluntary death conquered the devil and death, so that his persecuted sheep, the martyrs, will follow him to resurrection and glory.
40. 41Chrysologus describes human frailty as a fever that drives to excess, prescribes fasting as the first medicine, and insists that fasting needs the ointment of mercy and almsgiving, by which God sells his kingdom for a crust of bread.
41. 42Chrysologus compares fasting without mercy to a field without seed and a palace without a king, surveys how God's mercy alone has sustained a sinful world, and urges hospitality and almsgiving so that Christ the judge becomes a debtor.
42. 43In a famous plain-spoken sermon, Chrysologus teaches that prayer, fasting, and mercy are three in one, each giving life to the others, illustrates their power from Moses, Elijah, and John, rebukes neglect of morning prayer in church, and insists that fasting bears fruit only when watered by mercy.
43. 44On Psalm 1:1, Chrysologus calls the psalm the key to the Psalter and explains the counsel of the ungodly (turning from God from the beginning), the way of sinners (the present life, which all enter but the blessed do not linger on), and the chair of pestilence (pagan philosophy, Pharisaic tradition, and heresy).
44. 45On Psalm 6, Chrysologus explains that God's ‘anger’ is not passion but punishment, presents David as frail humanity pleading for mercy and longing for Christ's coming, and urges his hearers, amid famine, plague, and invasion, to repent with tears.
45. 46On Psalm 95, Chrysologus calls for joy in the Lord rather than the world, interprets ‘coming before his face with confession’ as confessing sins while there is still time for pardon, explains tears of joy, and warns Christians not to harden their hearts as Israel did in the desert.
46. 47On the parables of the pearl and the net (Matt 13:45–50), Chrysologus describes the virtuous merchant who buys eternal life, and reads the net as the Church gathering good and bad until the near judgment, urging the faithful not to be disturbed by the disorders of the last times.
47. 48On the rejection at Nazareth (Matt 13:54–58), Chrysologus explains the Jews' naming of Christ's earthly family as envy that hides his divinity, interprets ‘carpenter's son’ as the Son of the Creator, defends Mary's perpetual virginity by identifying the ‘brothers’ as cousins, and denounces envy.
48. 49On Mark's account of the rejection at Nazareth (Mark 6:1–4), Chrysologus explains that Christ's human ‘country’ serves our return to paradise, denounces the hearers' envious curiosity, shows how even hostile words like ‘the carpenter's son’ unwittingly confess his divine Father, and again defends Mary's perpetual virginity.
49. 50On the healing of the paralytic (Matt 9:1–8), Chrysologus explains why Christ accepted human necessities, reads the boat as the Church, notes that the man was healed through others' faith as a physician treats unwilling patients, and argues from Christ's forgiving sins and reading thoughts that he is God.
50. 51Returning to preaching after a hot summer, Chrysologus expounds the healing of the possessed boy (Mark 9:17–24), explaining Christ's rebuke of the ‘unbelieving generation’ as aimed at those who blamed his name for the disciples' failure, and suggesting that the father had dedicated his child to demons.
51. 52Continuing the healing of the possessed boy (Mark 9), Chrysologus explains that the ‘deaf and mute spirit’ is a demon blocking the boy's senses, not a bodily condition, that blaming the moon was the devil's deception, and that the boy figures the Gentiles freed by Christ, as in the baptismal rites of exorcism and the opening of the ears.
52. 53A short sermon on peace (Matt 5:9) praising peace and concord among brothers as God's will and the bishop's glory, and urging the congregation to shun hatred, quarrels, and slander.
53. 54On Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10), Chrysologus contrasts him with the rich man of the previous Sunday, reads his climbing and descending the sycamore spiritually, defends Christ's going in to a sinner, insists that alms from fraud are worthless without restitution, and reports that Zacchaeus later became a bishop.
54. 55This passage holds two sermons: on Luke 11:11–13, Chrysologus teaches God's fatherly love from the love of parents and animals, and reads the stone, serpent, and scorpion as what Christ became for unbelieving Jews; Sermon 56 begins the handing over of the Creed to candidates for baptism, urging them to learn it by heart, not in writing.
55. 57In a sermon handing over the Creed to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus begins from Isaiah's unclean lips cleansed by the coal and then explains each article: the one God and Father, the eternal Son, Christ's names, the virgin birth, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, judgment, the Spirit, the Church, forgiveness, resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life, urging that the Creed be kept in memory, not on paper.
56. 58In another sermon handing over the Creed, Chrysologus urges candidates to receive the faith by faith and to write it on their hearts, not on paper, and briefly explains each article, stressing the Son's coeternity, the virgin birth, the reality of Christ's death and resurrection, the Spirit's consubstantiality, and the resurrection of the flesh.
57. 59Handing over the Creed, Chrysologus calls the candidates to purity like Israel before Sinai, explains each article (one God and eternal Son, the anointed Savior, the virgin birth, the cross and the three days, the Son's equality at the Father's right hand, judgment, the Spirit, the Church, forgiveness, bodily resurrection), and bids them keep the Creed in memory.
58. 60Handing over the Creed at the end of Lent, Chrysologus encourages late candidates by the examples of the Canaanite woman, the eunuch, Cornelius, and the thief, contrasts Moses' song with the grace he brings, refutes heretics who make the Son later than the Father, and explains each article of the Creed, ending with the charge to keep it in memory.
59. 61Handing over the Creed to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus explains each article briefly and forbids them to write it down.
60. 62Chrysologus, speaking as a nurse to infants, explains the Creed as a contract of faith with God and comments on each article, warning against inquiring how the Son is begotten.
61. 63Chrysologus begins expounding the raising of Lazarus (John 11), showing why Christ delayed four days and how he leads Martha from half-belief to faith.
62. 64Chrysologus explains why Martha, standing for Eve, meets Christ first, and why Christ wept at Lazarus's tomb: not from grief but from joy at the coming resurrection of all.
63. 65On the raising of Lazarus, Chrysologus explains Christ's groaning and his thanksgiving to the Father, and imagines Tartarus protesting to heaven until the Son pleads for the dead and Lazarus is released.
64. 66Chrysologus contrasts the rich man's inhumanity with Abraham's hospitality, explains the reversal of their fates, and shows from the plot to kill the raised Lazarus that unbelief, not lack of evidence, keeps people from believing.
65. 67Handing the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus explains each petition and distinguishes Christ's sonship by nature from theirs by grace.
66. 68Chrysologus explains the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism through Habakkuk's trembling at God's report; the passage also contains Sermon 69, which surveys God's condescension from Noah to the cross and begins explaining the Prayer again.
67. 70Chrysologus explains the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism, stressing the boldness of calling God Father and reading the bread as Christ received at the altar.
68. 71Chrysologus tells the candidates that the threefold confession of the Trinity has made them God's sons, explains each petition, and urges patient hope, since they have received the promise and not yet the reality.
69. 72Chrysologus speaks of the awe of calling God Father, addresses the candidates as children still in the womb of the virgin church, and briefly explains each petition of the Lord's Prayer.
70. 73At the paschal feast Chrysologus compares those the church bore in baptism earlier, now taken from milk, to weaned children, recalling the feasts for Isaac and Samuel, and reads Jacob's taking of the blessing as a figure of the church.
71. 74In his first sermon after the Easter vigil Chrysologus reads Matthew's account of the empty tomb: the women undo Eve's fall, the earthquake marks the defeat of death, and the angel seated on the stone teaches the resurrection.
72. 75Back from a journey, Chrysologus explains the evening that dawns at the resurrection, the two Marys as a figure of the church from Jews and Gentiles, and why the angel rolled back the stone and sat on it.
73. 76Chrysologus reads the two Marys as the church, argues from Christ's wounds that we will rise in our own flesh, reconciles Christ's greeting to the women with “Do not touch me,” and denounces the bribing of the guards.
74. 77Explaining his silence during the passion, Chrysologus reads the resurrection account as the reversal of the fall: the evening turns to light, the sabbath yields to the Lord's day, and the woman who brought death now brings the news of life.
75. 78Chrysologus reads the appearance at the Sea of Tiberias as Christ restoring a shaken world and calming his fearful disciples, and explains Peter's girding himself and plunging into the sea.
76. 79On Luke's account of the empty tomb, Chrysologus explains why the women, who brought death, are the first to bring news of the resurrection, why the apostles were kept for greater sufferings, and why their slowness to believe was prudence.
77. 80Chrysologus explains why the women, not the apostles, first meet the risen Christ, contrasts the women's holy fear with the bribery of the guards, and reads the Great Commission as Christ's giving to his humanity what his divinity always had.
78. 81Chrysologus explains Christ's “Peace to you” as calming the war of faith and doubt in the disciples' hearts, and his showing of his wounds as proof that he rose in a real body.
79. 82On Mark's resurrection account Chrysologus explains the women's spices and fear, the sun rising early, the young man in white as a picture of the risen body, and Christ's appearing “in another form.”
80. 83Chrysologus explains that the eleven “reclining” when Christ appeared were not feasting but prostrate in grief, and expounds the commission to preach, the faith required for baptism, and the signs that follow believers.
81. 84Chrysologus explains Christ's entry through shut doors, his repeated gift of peace, the apostles' power to forgive sins, and Thomas's demand to touch the wounds, which ends in the confession “My Lord and my God.”
82. 85Defending a feast in the middle of the fifty days of Easter, Chrysologus reads the temple Christ entered at the middle of the feast as the believer’s heart and rebukes the Jews’ wonder that Christ knew letters without study.
83. 86Returning after losing his voice, Chrysologus compares his silence to Zacharias's, describes the corruption of Judea under Herod that Zacharias withstood, and reads the hour of incense as the setting of the law and the dawn of the gospel.
84. 87Chrysologus explains that God sent the conception of John by a barren old woman ahead of the virgin birth to accustom faithless eyes to the light, and reflects on nature's long sorrow in childbearing, healed by Christ's birth.
85. 88Chrysologus argues that Zacharias prayed not for a son but for the salvation of all, and that the angel's promise of John answered that prayer; he then turns Baruch 3:36–38 against the heretics as a witness to Christ's deity.
86. 89Answering those disturbed by John the Baptist's death at Herod's hands, Chrysologus begins from John's birth, praising the righteousness and marriage of Zacharias and Elizabeth and the mystical barrenness that waited for John.
87. 90Chrysologus explains Zacharias's doubt as awe at learning that his prayer for the world's redemption would be answered in a son who would baptize the Lord, and draws the lesson that nothing is impossible for God.
88. 91Chrysologus praises the righteousness and marriage of Zacharias and Elizabeth as a gift of grace, explains John's delayed and singular birth, and exults in the unborn John's leap at Christ's coming as Christmas approaches.
89. 92Chrysologus explains the priestly courses, the married priesthood allowed under the law, Elizabeth's hiding herself for five months out of shame at a late pregnancy, and the honour that children bring to marriage, as a step toward the virgin birth.
90. 93On the sinful woman who anointed Christ's feet in the Pharisee's house, Chrysologus describes her tears as a banquet of repentance, a new baptism and a sacrament of Christ's humanity.
91. 94Chrysologus answers the Pharisee's thought that a prophet would not let a sinner touch him, expounds the parable of the two debtors, and teaches that love blots out past sins but gives no licence for future ones.
92. 95Reading the anointing in the Pharisee's house allegorically, Chrysologus takes the house as the synagogue where Christ gave the sacrament of his body and blood and was betrayed, and the sinful woman as the church of the Gentiles, whose sins will be fully forgiven at Christ's return.
93. 96Chrysologus explains why Christ teaches in parables and reads the parable of the weeds: God sowed only good, and the devil has always sown evil over it, from Cain and the flood to idolatry and heresy.
94. 97Continuing the parable of the weeds, Chrysologus explains the servants' anxiety and the master's patience, which leaves time for repentance until the judgment, citing Matthew, Paul and the martyr Euphemia.
95. 98Chrysologus explains why the kingdom of heaven is compared to a tiny mustard seed: Christ, sown in the Virgin and crushed in his passion, grew on the cross into a great tree, the church, whose branches are the gifts of the Spirit.
96. 99Chrysologus explains the parable of the leaven as a pair with the mustard seed: man and woman, Adam and Eve, are restored through Christ and Mary; the woman is the church, the leaven heavenly teaching, and the three measures the Law, Prophets and Gospels.
97. 100Chrysologus explains Mark's statement that Christ “wanted no one to know and could not be hidden”: Christ came first for Israel, but its unbelief and the Gentiles' faith, shown in the Syrophoenician woman, compelled him to give to the Gentiles what Israel refused.
98. 101Chrysologus urges Christians not to fear those who kill the body, contrasts the philosophers' consolations with the Christian hope, and answers the question why God allowed death: as heaven and earth will be dissolved and renewed, so man returns to dust to learn his origin and rise again in gratitude.
99. 102Chrysologus reads the centurion's servant as the precious body needing eternal life, and the centurion's humility (“I am not worthy that you should come under my roof”) as a figure of the Christian people, contrasting Gentile faith with Jewish unbelief.
100. 103From the raising of the widow's son Chrysologus argues for the resurrection of all bodies, likening the trumpet of God's voice to the word that created the world and renews nature, and before Christmas urges generous offerings for the poor and captives.
101. 104Chrysologus condemns the rich fool who hoarded his harvest and urges the rich to store their goods with the poor; the passage also contains Sermon 105, on the bent woman healed on the sabbath, read as the church freed from the devil's burden by the laying on of hands.
102. 106Chrysologus applies the parable of the barren fig tree to the unfruitful man and to the synagogue, which received Christ's visits through the law, the prophets and his presence, and is given one more year, the time of the gospel, before judgment.
103. 107A short sermon in praise of Bishop Peter of Ravenna, whose name, asceticism and teaching are compared to those of the apostle Peter.
104. 108Expounding Rom 12:1, Chrysologus explains why Paul appeals “by the mercy of God,” imagines Christ pleading from the cross, and describes the Christian as both priest and living victim who offers the virtues to God.
105. 109On Rom 12:1 Chrysologus explains that body and soul together are to be offered as a reasonable sacrifice, contrasting unreasoning worship from Cain to Arius and Photinus; the passage also contains Sermon 110, on justification by faith and Christ's death for the ungodly (Rom 4:23–5:8).
106. 111Expounding Rom 5:12–14, Chrysologus laments that through Adam sin and death passed to all, explains sin as an accident hostile to nature rather than a nature, and answers the objection that it is unjust to suffer for another's sin by pointing to Christ's righteousness given for others.
107. 112Expounding Rom 5:17–21, Chrysologus contrasts Adam and Christ and explains that the law, like a surgeon's knife, exposed and enlarged the wound of sin to send the sick to the physician; the passage also contains Sermon 113, on Rom 6:1–14, rejecting the idea of remaining in sin so that grace may abound.
108. 114Expounding Rom 6:15–22, Chrysologus rejects the idea that being under grace licenses sin, compares the law to a doctor who waits on the patient's will, and describes Christian service to righteousness as the servitude that sets free.
109. 115Expounding Rom 7:1–6, Chrysologus reads Paul's comparison of the wife freed by her husband's death as the synagogue, unfaithful to the law, being released to belong to Christ, and explains how the law stirred up the passions it forbade.
110. 116Expounding Rom 7:7–25, Chrysologus explains that the law is holy but made sin known and so stirred it up, as gold occasions greed and wine drunkenness, until man cried out for deliverance and found it in Christ, who killed death.
111. 117Expounding 1 Cor 15:45–50, Chrysologus contrasts the first Adam, formed from mud, with Christ, the last Adam born of the Virgin without pain or loss of virginity, and urges the reborn to bear the image of the heavenly man in conduct.
112. 118On 1 Cor 15, Chrysologus urges Christians to keep the resurrection always in mind, personifies death and her companions despair, unbelief and corruption, rejects the philosophers' praise of death, and points to the seed that dies and rises as a proof of the resurrection.
113. 119On 1 Cor 9:24–25, the preacher compares the Christian life to a race in which Jews, philosophers and heretics run in vain and only the catholic people win the crown, and urges the self-discipline of athletes in the struggle against the vices.
114. 120On Rom 12:1–21, Chrysologus warns against conforming to the world, whose vices Paul lists in Rom 1, and describes the new man re-formed in Christ as a body whose members are the virtues, greater than heaven, sun and moon.
115. 121On the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–22), Chrysologus contrasts their funerals, shows that Abraham, though rich, was saved because he used his wealth for guests and the poor, and describes how God set the sore-covered Lazarus at the rich man's gate to soften his iron heart.
116. 122Continuing Luke 16:23–24, Chrysologus explains that the rich man's plea to Abraham is too late, that his wish to have Lazarus sent comes from old envy, and that his burning tongue is punished for refusing a crumb and a drop to the poor.
117. 123Concluding Luke 16:25–31, Chrysologus explains Abraham's answer, describes the underworld before Christ broke its gates and freed the saints, and urges giving to the poor, since those who reject Moses and Christ will not believe even one risen from the dead.
118. 124Taking up the rich man and Lazarus once more, Chrysologus sets the two men side by side as contestants in an arena, explains that God placed each before the other so that the rich man might be cured by mercy, and urges his hearers to exchange earth for heaven.
119. 125Interpreting the unjust steward (Luke 16:1–8), Chrysologus reads the rich man as Christ and the steward as humankind summoned to account, and urges his hearers to use the time before death for repentance and mercy, as the steward used his last hours.
120. 126Explaining why the master praised the unjust steward (Luke 16:1–8), Chrysologus reads the steward as the gentile people turned Christian, who, by the numbers fifty (mercy, jubilee) and eighty (law and grace), leads the Jewish debtor to repentance rather than fraud.
121. 127On the beheading of John the Baptist (Matt 14:3–11), Chrysologus praises John, denounces Herod and the dance of Herodias's daughter, and warns his hearers to celebrate their own feasts and birthdays with moderation and gifts to the poor.
122. 128Praising Apollinaris, first bishop of Ravenna, Chrysologus argues that a confessor who suffered repeatedly without being killed is no less a martyr, and that the infant Church's tears kept him alive among his flock.
123. 129On the feast of the martyr Cyprian, Chrysologus explains that a martyr's “birthday” is his birth into heaven and urges his hearers to imitate the martyr rather than merely feast, setting their hearts on heavenly treasure.
124. 130At the consecration of a bishop, Chrysologus pictures mother Church adorned like a bride as a new son is born to her, describes the duties of a good bishop, and greets the empress mother present at the rite.
125. 131Showing that God, though invisible, often appeared in human form, Chrysologus expounds John 8:51–59, explaining that “he will not see death forever” promises resurrection, that Christ is greater than Abraham, and that the Father's “let us make man” is spoken to the Son.
126. 132Arguing that God hides meaning in Scripture as nature hides gold, Chrysologus expounds Christ's promise to those who agree in prayer (Matt 18:19–20) to defend common worship against those who prefer solitary prayer, and to warn that life is found only in the unity of the Church, Christ's body.
127. 133On the feast of St Andrew, Chrysologus calls his martyrdom his true birthday and compares him with his brother Peter: both left all for Christ, both failed at the passion and were pardoned, and both died on a cross or tree.
128. 134On St Felicity, mother of seven martyred sons, Chrysologus praises her as a mother who bore her sons a second time in martyrdom, likening the seven to the seven-branched lampstand.
129. 135On the feast of St Lawrence, Chrysologus tells how the Roman deacon showed the persecutor the poor as the Church's treasure and lay calmly on the gridiron, and teaches that the martyrs' endurance was God's gift.
130. 136Welcoming the visiting bishop Adelphus, who had asked to hear him preach, Chrysologus praises his humility in coming to a poor man's table, compares himself to the widow of Zarephath feeding Elijah, and invites the congregation to receive Adelphus's teaching.
131. 137Expounding Luke 3:2–14, Chrysologus explains why the word came “upon” John, contrasts John's baptism of repentance with Christ's regenerating baptism, applies the viper image to the synagogue, and presses John's commands to share clothing and food and to deal honestly as tax collectors and soldiers.
132. 138Preaching, apparently as a visitor, at the bidding of the presiding bishop, the speaker offers the congregation the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding and reconciles heaven and earth.
133. 139Expounding Luke 17:3–4 and Matt 18:21–22, Chrysologus warns against the prying eye that sees others' faults, urges rebuking a brother as judge but forgiving him as a brother, and explains the mystery of the number seven, from the sabbath to the jubilee, as pointing to the final remission.
134. 140Expounding the Annunciation (Luke 1:26–29), Chrysologus explains the angel's greeting, Mary's troubled reflection, and her faith; the passage also contains Sermon 141, which warns against prying into the manner of the Virgin's conception and calls for faith that God can do what he wills.
135. 142Expounding the angel's words to Mary (Luke 1:30–38), Chrysologus contrasts Eve and Mary, explains Mary's name as “lady,” defends the virginal conception and birth, distinguishes Mary's question from Zechariah's doubt, and holds up her consent as the faith by which she conceived the Word.
136. 143Reluctant to explain the mystery of the Virgin's childbirth, Chrysologus expounds the angel's greeting (Luke 1:26–29), reads the rain on the fleece as the Godhead hidden in flesh, and answers those who think the incarnation an insult to God: the Creator restores his own work, and was born to heal a wounded human nature.
137. 144Continuing the Annunciation (Luke 1:30–33), Chrysologus insists that Christ's conception and body were real, explains the name Jesus as Savior, answers heretics who use “the Lord God will give him” to make the Son lesser, and urges his hearers to seek the everlasting offices of Christ's kingdom.
138. 145Expounding Joseph's decision to put Mary away quietly and the angel's message (Matt 1:18–21), Chrysologus shows that Joseph's justice was joined to kindness, urges his hearers to leave unclear cases to God, and defends the title Theotokos against those who say Christ was born of Mary only as man.
139. 146On Matt 1:18, Chrysologus explains that Christ's generation “was” eternally with the Father, that Mary is both betrothed and mother, that Joseph prefigures Christ like the patriarch Joseph, that the name Mary recalls the gathered waters and Miriam, and that a betrothed woman was chosen to hide the birth from Herod.
140. 147Chrysologus explains the incarnation as God's answer to a world paralyzed by fear: through Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Moses God drew humanity from fear to love, and since love longs to see what it loves, God made himself visible by taking a human nature, his own image.
141. 148Continuing on the Nativity, Chrysologus argues that God's taking flesh honors rather than injures him, since the world was made for man and man made in God's image; he contrasts the devil's approach to the virgin Eve with the good angel's to Mary, and describes Christ's birth as restoring fallen nature.
142. 149On the Nativity, the preacher rejoices that Christ, the King of peace, has brought peace to the Church after a dispute stirred by the devil, likens the restored concord to the figure of Concord in paintings of brother emperors, and returns the peace offered the day before by “our common father.”
143. 150On Christ's flight into Egypt (Matt 2:13–15), Chrysologus asks why the Gospel records a flight that seems shameful, and answers that Christ yielded to the time, not to Herod, in order to fulfil prophecy, defeat the devil openly at the cross, and teach that in persecution it is better to flee than to deny.
144. 151Continuing on the flight into Egypt, Chrysologus lists all that Christ came to do, which would have been lost had he died as an infant, and teaches that Christ's flight sanctions Christians who flee persecution when not yet arrested, while Egypt's welcome prefigures the faith of the gentiles.
145. 152On the slaughter of the Innocents (Matt 2:16), Chrysologus denounces Herod's tyranny and explains that Christ did not abandon the infants but sent them ahead as soldiers crowned before they could fight, their mothers sharing the martyrdom by their tears; martyrdom is therefore God's gift, not human merit.
146. 153On the Holy Innocents, Chrysologus calls them martyrs of grace who conquered before they could know it, and explains that Christ fled so that the Church, not the synagogue, might have them as martyrs.
147. 154On the feast of St Stephen, Chrysologus shows from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Peter that saints' names announce their merits, and explains that Stephen, whose name means “crown,” was the first to win the martyr's crown.
148. 155Preaching on 1 January, Chrysologus condemns the New Year masquerades in which people dressed as the pagan gods and as animals, argues that such mockery exposes the gods' shame, and urges Christians to keep away and pull others back from what is sacrilege, not a joke.
149. 156On the Epiphany (Matt 2:1–2), Chrysologus warns against reading the story as approval of astrology: the star was God's servant, not a god or a fate, the magi came by God's revelation, and their question shames Jerusalem for not seeking the King born among them.
150. 157Explaining the feast of Epiphany as the threefold manifestation of Christ's Godhead, Chrysologus treats the magi, whose star was Christ's servant and whose gifts came from ancient tradition, the changing of water into wine at Cana, and the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent at Christ's baptism.
151. 158Chrysologus explains that Christ came as an infant so as to be loved, not feared, yet Herod, the priests and the scribes were troubled even at a child; expounding Matt 2:3–12, he exposes Herod's secret plot, plays on “report” and the baptismal “renounce,” and interprets the magi's gifts.
152. 159Comparing the shepherds and the magi, who came from near and far to the one manger, the preacher reads the ox and ass of Isa 1:3 as Jews and gentiles who both recognized Christ, and urges hearers to offer the gifts of faith and return to paradise by another way.
153. 160On the Epiphany, Chrysologus describes the magi abandoning astrology to worship the infant God with gifts, Christ's baptism with the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent, and the miracle at Cana as a figure of his blood, three testimonies to his Godhead.
154. 161Expounding the parable of the unprofitable servants (Luke 17:7–10), Chrysologus shows from a slave's toil how much more man owes God, and how the apostles were kept humble; the passage also contains Sermon 162, on the man who asked Christ to divide an inheritance (Luke 12:13–15), which warns against avarice and points to the shared inheritance with Christ.
155. 163Expounding Luke 12:22–31, Chrysologus urges trust in God as king, master and father who provides for his own, explains the examples of the ravens and the lilies, and teaches that those who seek God's kingdom will not lack food and clothing.
156. 164Expounding Luke 12:49–56, Chrysologus explains Christ's fire as a farmer's burning that clears the ground for the Gospel among the gentiles, his baptism as his passion, and the division of the household as the split between Church and Synagogue; the end of the sermon is lost.
157. 165Consecrating Projectus as bishop of Forum Cornelii (Imola), Chrysologus explains his affection for that church through its namesake, Cornelius, the bishop who had raised and ordained him, and plays on the name Projectus.
158. 166On the eve of Lent, Chrysologus explains the mystery of the number forty, from the flood, the manna, the spies, Moses, Elijah and Ezekiel to Christ's fast, and urges an even, moderate fast without novel excesses, with almsgiving for those who cannot fast.
159. 167In Lent Chrysologus presents John the Baptist as the teacher of repentance (Matt 3:1–4): the nearness of the kingdom in an aging world calls for swift repentance as medicine for sin, and John's camel's hair, locusts and honey are read as figures of penitence and mercy.
160. 168Expounding the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1–7) against the Pharisees' murmuring, Chrysologus explains the hundred by the ancient finger-counting that moved from the left hand to the right, and reads the lost sheep as Adam's whole race, sought by Christ in the incarnation and carried on the cross to heaven.
161. 169On the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8–10), Chrysologus reads the woman as the Church, who after Pentecost lit her lamp and swept the house of the Synagogue to find the lost coin, Christ, hidden in the ten commandments, beginning with “the Lord your God is one God.”
162. 170Expounding Mark 6:6–9, Chrysologus describes the many forms in which Christ comes in search of humanity (fire, pillar, eagle, hen, shepherd), interprets the twelve apostles as a chariot of the Trinity and their sending two by two as a figure of the call of Jews and gentiles, and urges trust in God's provision instead of riches.
163. 171Expounding Mark 7:1–23, Chrysologus explains that the disciples were not careless but the Pharisees sought ritual washings in place of the one baptism, and that true defilement comes from the vices within the heart, which only Christ can drive out.
164. 172Expounding Luke 11:52 and 12:1, Chrysologus describes envy as a self-torturing vice that shut the lawyers out of the knowledge they withheld, traces its work from the devil and Cain to Herod and the killing of Christ, and contrasts the swelling leaven of hypocrisy with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
165. 173After urging his flock to attend wherever he preaches, Chrysologus expounds Mark 6:14–28: Herod's fear that John had risen confesses his own crime, Herodias's plot and her daughter's dance led to John's beheading, and John's death crushed the serpent's offspring.
166. 174On John the Baptist's beheading (Mark 6:21–28), Chrysologus describes Herod's birthday supper and the dance of Herodias's daughter as the serpent's work, shows that John's voice and life could not be killed, contrasts him with the patriarch Joseph, and warns men of the dangers of women.
167. 175At the consecration of Marcellinus as bishop of Vicohabentia, the first bishop consecrated by Ravenna as a metropolitan see, Chrysologus compares the hard-won birth of this “firstborn” to Mary's journey and childbirth, complains of a bishop who resists the decree of Peter and the Christian emperor, and defends the virginal birth by Joseph's example.
168. 176Explaining why Christ healed the blind man of Bethsaida in two stages (Mark 8:22–26), Chrysologus draws lessons on serving the poor with one's own hand and on the resurrection, and reads the blind man as the Jewish people led out of the Synagogue to see first the passing shadow of the law and then the eternal light of grace, as Paul did.