Sermon on Ascension Day 1497 (broken off by a riot)

“O Lord my God, in you have I hoped: save me.” I thought this morning that I would ascend into heaven with Christ, but my hope has failed me. You perhaps thought that I was afraid; but do you not know that faith fears nothing? And I say to you with the prophet: “I believed, therefore I have spoken”; I believe and have believed, and therefore I have spoken steadfastly. Whoever has faith is in a place where no man in the world can climb; in which, when the time comes, “the righteous will stand with great steadfastness against those who have afflicted them”, that is, the righteous will stand with great constancy against those who have afflicted them, where the swords, arrows and guns of the enemies cannot reach: those who have faith are too high! You, who are displeased by good living, would like to strike me; but certainly you will never be able to strike my soul without my will. If you strike the body, you will do good to the soul. If you knew how much good you do me by persecuting me, and how much you would do me by killing me, you would not do what you are doing, so that I should not obtain so great a good. You thought that I would not come into the pulpit this morning. You see that I have come. You will perhaps say: “Many thanks, friar, to your escort.” And I tell you that I did not call this company, and that in any case I wanted to come and will always come, when the Lord God inspires me to; nor will any man in the world, of whatever rank he may be, be able in that case to make me stop.

Only let God inspire me, for I have resolved to lay down my own life for my little sheep; and God grant that I may have this grace. Yet I commend the little sheep to the Lord Jesus, that he not let them lack good shepherds, since it is not a hard thing to find many better than I, and above all it is very easy for God, “who is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham”, that is, he is able from the stones to raise up children of Abraham. Wishing, then, to speak this morning to your charity, my children, the character of the time has made me take this seventh psalm, “O Lord my God, in you have I hoped.” Lord, I shall speak first to you, thanking you before everything that you have given me your faith, and also by natural reason have made me certain of your being, which is the cause of all being, and of your infinite perfection, in comparison with which every creature is nothing. I thank you also, Lord, for the supernatural light of faith that you have given me, by which I know that you are God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that you, Jesus Christ, are true God and true Man, incarnate and crucified for our salvation. You are my lord and governor, and my God, and highest good, to whom I speak, saying: “O Lord my God, in you have I hoped.” Lord, my God, you know that I have hoped in you, and not in riches, nor in friends, nor in citizens, nor in the people, nor in arms, nor in horses; but in you alone and in your great goodness, in which I will always hope.

And because you never abandon whoever hopes in you, “save me from all who persecute me”, save me from those who persecute me. I say, Lord, save me, not this body, for you know that it is I, the spirit, who speak, and not the body: save me, then, and with the body do what you will; and free me from the hands of the adversaries of the truth, that is, grant that my soul may be free to speak the truth confidently, so that neither by promise, nor by flattery, nor by threats, nor by persecutions it may become a slave of falsehood and of sin. But grant that it may neither love nor fear any earthly thing, “lest at any time he seize my soul like a lion”, so that the devil, head of all the wicked, who goes about seeking to catch my soul by sin, may not take it; who goes roaring like a lion and stirring up all his members against me. Help me, then, Lord, so that he may not catch me, “while there is none to redeem, nor any to save”, that is, because you alone are Redeemer, and there is no other who can redeem and save me but you. My Lord. “O Lord my God, if I have done this.” My Lord, they say that I am a seducer and deceive the people; but you know that I have not committed this sin; you are the one who called me to the city of Florence, saying to me: “Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you.” And by your inspiration, and not by my own will, I came to the city of Florence; and I am content that the glorious Virgin Mary deign to be witness of this, with all the blessed spirits and all the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and that the whole heavenly court be witness against my soul if I do not speak the truth: namely, that what I have preached of the scourges of Italy, of the renovation of the Church, and of the promises made to the city of Florence, and of the other things that I have foretold in your name, I did not pronounce out of my own head, but by your illumination and by your command; not the illumination of dreams, but open and clear, while awake, with every certainty fitting for so great a thing.

And likewise I have not preached about the government, the new regime of Florence, of my own will, whether good or bad; but only to obey you, saying what you have made me say; and so also no conventicle or assembly of any kind has been held in our San Marco. Nor have I ever done anything contrary to the common good of the city; but I have always sought the general good of the city and of each individual. “If there is iniquity in my hands.” Lord, they say that I have amassed money, and that I have many thousands of ducats, and that in San Marco there is feasting, and that I keep a party in the city. That this is not true I call to witness the Virgin Mary and all the blessed, against my soul, if I have ever amassed money, and if in San Marco we do not live poorly and religiously, and if I have ever kept a party in the city, and if I have not loved every man, hating only vices and sins and reproving them. “If I have repaid those who repaid me with evil.” Lord, you are witness, and I call all the court of heaven with you, that when many calumnies have been raised against me and many persecutions made, not only have I not returned evil for evil, nor sought nor thought to return it, but I have always returned good for evil, praying to you for my enemies, as your holy law wills and commands. Surely, Lord, if I have done the evils and sins of which I am slandered, “may I deservedly fall empty before my enemies”: I am deservedly worthy to fall before the face of my enemies, and to be taken and destroyed by them, and emptied and deprived of every temporal and spiritual good.

But, my Lord, you know that what they say is not true; and if it is true, I am content to receive this punishment from you. “Let the enemy pursue my soul”, that is, let the devil pursue my soul with temptation and with tribulation; “and seize it”, that is, take it and draw it to his every will; “and trample my life into the ground”, so that I become wholly earthly and lose your graces and every good spirit of yours, and let him have power to kill me and trample me into hell; “and bring my glory down to the dust”, that is, let the glory which they say I seek from men be brought down to dust, and let him put out my eyes, so that, blinded, I may lose the glory I awaited from you. My Lord, I have spoken thus because, if what my adversaries say were true, all these evils would deservedly come upon me; but because I am certain that it is not true, I speak with such confidence. And today I testify to heaven and earth that whoever contradicts these things contradicts you and not me, and persecutes you and not me, and they are seeking their own ruin, of which I am excused for having foretold it to them so many times. And for this I ask you no other reward than yourself; but I do pray you to help the work and to defend the innocent. “Arise, O Lord, in your wrath”: I do not seek vengeance, nor do I even think of it; but you see, Lord, what a multitude of devils have come out of hell and are stirring up the wicked to extinguish your light.

And therefore rise up, Lord, in wrath against them; “and be exalted in the borders of my enemies”: exalt your glory in the borders of my enemies, that is, of the demons and of all hell, whose borders are the wicked of this world, in whom I desire that you be exalted, showing your mercy to those who will be converted to penance, and your justice to those who will remain obstinate. “And arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which you have commanded”: and rise up, Lord, in the precept you have commanded, that is, rise up in the hearts of men by grace, and make them keep the commandment of your charity and union of minds, which you left as a testament, saying to the disciples: “This is my commandment, that you love one another,” and in this way. But because I hear it said in my ear, “The Lord judges the peoples”, that is, the Lord at present has another business, for he judges and discerns the peoples, to send first the great scourge on whoever will not amend, and to console his elect in tribulations, I pray you, Lord, do not judge me according to my sins, but “judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to my innocence upon me”, that is, judge me according to the righteousness of the faith you have given me, and according to the innocence by which I desire to harm no one, which is upon me because I do not have it of myself, nor by my merits, but only from you, by your mercy and goodness, so that I may be saved when you execute your judgments on earth… O ungrateful ones, listen a little to my words.

You are not fighting against the friars, but against Christ, who is God, a just and strong judge. I am not opposed to you because I wish you ill, but I am bound to lay down my life for the honour of Christ and the salvation of souls. And if I let the spiritual good, or the common good of a city, go to ruin, I would incur too grave a sin; and not only I, but every faithful Christian is bound to help it and lay down his life for it when need be. I exhort you to unite and make peace together. But you say: “Friar, you are the cause of our war”; and I answer you that your evil life is the cause of the war. Christ did not come to bring peace between the good and the wicked, but war, and to divide the father from the son and the mother from the daughter, father-in-law from daughter-in-law, and brother from brother, and one kinsman from another. But he did come to bring peace among the good, and to make them of one heart and one soul. Live well, and let peace be made; otherwise you are the cause of the war, and not I; for since the good wish and are bound to live well, and you wish, though you are not free, to live badly, there cannot be peace between you. You seek to hinder the preaching so that you may live as you please. Do not do it, for it will turn out badly for you. You say: “Friar, you ought not to have preached this morning.” Oh! why? “Because you could be a cause of scandal.” And I answer you that my preaching has never yet caused scandal, and I trust in Christ that it will not do so now.

Believe me: if I saw that it was better not to preach, I would not preach; but I know that it would have been worse not to have preached this morning, and I must do so. “Oh! you have an order from the Signoria not to preach.” And I tell you, first, that this is not true; and granted that it were true, it would be a great question whether I was bound to obey it. And about this, that is, when the tyrant orders the preacher not to preach, the sacred theologians dispute whether he is bound to obey him. But, so as not to enter into such a dispute now, I tell you that when I fear scandal, then I will not preach. I hear a noise being made. The wicked do not want their share. You, wait there. Have a little patience, for if you knew what I know, you would weep. Do not be afraid, you others, for God is for us; and there are many thousands of angels here.