Sermons to the People 144.1–146.2

When our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was saying many things about the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom he promised he would send and did send, he said among other things: “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” And when he had said this, he did not pass on to another subject, but deigned to make these very things somewhat plainer. “Of sin,” he said, “because they have not believed in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father; of judgment, because the prince of this world has already been judged.” So the desire arises in us to understand why he spoke of not believing in Christ as if it were the only sin of men, so that he said the Holy Spirit would convict the world of this alone; and, since it is plain that besides this unbelief men have many other sins, why the Holy Spirit should convict the world of this alone. Is it because all sins are held fast by unbelief and forgiven by faith, that God imputes this one above the rest, since through it the rest are not loosed, while proud man does not believe in a humble God? For so it is written: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” For the grace of God is the gift of God. And the greatest gift is the Holy Spirit himself; and therefore he is called grace. For since all had sinned and lacked the glory of God, because through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death, in whom all sinned: therefore it is grace, because it is given gratis. It is given gratis because it is not paid as a wage after an examination of merits, but given as a gift after the pardon of sins.

So unbelievers, that is, lovers of the world, are convicted of sin: for they are signified by the name “world.” For when it is said, “He will convict the world of sin,” it means of nothing else than that they have not believed in Christ. Indeed, if this sin is absent, no sins will remain, because all are loosed for the righteous man who lives by faith. But there is a great difference between believing that he is the Christ and believing in Christ. For even the demons believed that he was the Christ, and yet the demons did not believe in Christ. For he believes in Christ who both hopes in Christ and loves Christ. For if he has faith without hope and without love, he believes that he is the Christ; he does not believe in Christ. So he who believes in Christ, by believing in Christ, Christ comes into him, and he is in a way united to him, and made a member in his body. This cannot happen unless hope and love are added.

What does he also mean when he says, “Of righteousness, because I go to the Father”? First we must ask: if the world is convicted of sin, why of righteousness too? For what can rightly be convicted of righteousness? Is the world convicted of its own sin, but of Christ’s righteousness? I do not see what else can be understood, since he says, “Of sin, because they have not believed in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father.” They did not believe; he goes to the Father. So theirs is the sin, his the righteousness. But why did he choose to name righteousness only in this, that he goes to the Father? Is it not also righteousness that he came here from the Father? Or is it rather mercy that he came to us from the Father, and righteousness that he goes to the Father?

So, brothers, I think it expedient that in so great a depth of the Scriptures, in whose words perhaps something hidden lies that should fittingly be opened, we should, as it were, search together faithfully, so that we may deserve to find it for our salvation. Why, then, does he call it righteousness that he goes to the Father, and not also that he comes from the Father? Is it because his coming is mercy that his going is righteousness: so that we too may learn that righteousness cannot be fulfilled in us if we are slow to bestow mercy, “not seeking our own things but also those of others”? When the apostle had given this advice, he at once joined to it the example of the Lord himself: “Nothing,” he says, “through contention or vainglory; but in humility of mind each esteeming the other better than himself; each looking not to his own things but also to those of others.” Then he at once added: “Let each of you have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man: he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” This is the mercy by which he came from the Father. What, then, is the righteousness by which he goes to the Father? He goes on and says: “Therefore God also exalted him, and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” This is the righteousness by which he goes to the Father.

But if he alone goes to the Father, what does it profit us? Why is the world convicted by the Holy Spirit of this righteousness? And yet, unless he alone went to the Father, he would not say in another place: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” But the apostle Paul also says: “For our citizenship is in heaven.” But why this? Because he also says: “If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand; set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” How, then, does he go alone? Is it alone because Christ is one with all his members, as the head with its body? And what is his body, if not the Church? As the same teacher says: “But you are the body of Christ, and members in part.” Since, then, we fell, and he descended for our sake, what is “No one ascends but he who descended,” except that no one ascends unless made one with him and fitted as a member into the body of him who descended? So too he says to the disciples: “For without me you can do nothing.” For he is one with the Father in one way, and one with us in another. He is one with the Father because the substance of Father and Son is one: he is one with the Father because, “being in the form of God, he did not think it robbery to be equal with God.” But he became one with us because “he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant”: he became one with us according to the seed of Abraham, in which all nations will be blessed. When the apostle had mentioned this, he said: “He does not say, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.” And because we too belong to what Christ is, being incorporated together and cleaving to that head, Christ is one; and because he says to us too, “So you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise”: if the seed of Abraham is one, and that one seed of Abraham is understood to be none but Christ, and we too are this seed of Abraham, then this whole, that is, head and body, is one Christ.

And therefore we must not think ourselves separated from that righteousness which the Lord himself mentions, saying: “Of righteousness, because I go to the Father.” For we too have risen with Christ, and we are with Christ our head, for the present by faith and hope: but our hope will be fulfilled in the last resurrection of the dead. And when our hope is fulfilled, then our justification too will be fulfilled. The Lord, who is to fulfil it, showed what we ought to hope for in his flesh (that is, in our head), in which he rose and ascended to the Father. For so it is written: “He was handed over for our offenses, and rose for our justification.” So the world is convicted of sin in those who do not believe in Christ, and of righteousness in those who rise in the members of Christ. Hence it was said: “That we might be the righteousness of God in him.” For if not in him, in no way righteousness. But if in him, the whole Christ goes with us to the Father, and this perfect righteousness will be fulfilled in us. For this reason the world is also convicted of judgment, because the prince of this world has already been judged: that is, the devil, the prince of the wicked, who dwell in heart only in this world, which they love, and are therefore called the world; as our citizenship is in heaven, if we have risen with Christ. So just as Christ is one with us, that is, with his body, so the devil is one with all the ungodly, of whom he is the head, as with a body of his own. Therefore, as we are not separated from the righteousness of which the Lord said, “Because I go to the Father,” so the ungodly are not separated from that judgment of which he said, “Because the prince of this world has already been judged.”

When the holy Gospel was read, we heard something which ought truly to move every attentive soul to seek, not to give up. For whoever is not moved is not changed either. But there is a dangerous movement, of which it is written, “Do not let my feet be moved.” And there is another movement, that of one who seeks, knocks, asks. What was read, then, we all heard; but I think we did not all understand. It reminds us of what you should seek with me, ask with me, and knock for with me in order to receive it. For the grace of the Lord will be present, as we hope, so that, when I want to minister to you, I too may deserve to receive. What is it, I beseech you, that we have just heard the Lord said to his disciples: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name”? Is he not speaking to those disciples who, when he had sent them with power given to preach the Gospel and to do mighty works, returned rejoicing and said to him: “Lord, look, in your name even the demons are subject to us”? You recognize, you recall what I have mentioned from the Gospel, which is truthful in every place and every sentence, nowhere false, nowhere deceiving. How then is it true, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name,” and, “Lord, look, in your name even the demons are subject to us”? It certainly moves the mind to learn the secret of this question. So let us ask, let us seek, let us knock. Let this be in us faithful piety, not restlessness of the flesh but submission of the mind, so that he who sees us knocking may open to us.

Whatever the Lord gives me to minister to you, then, receive it attentively, that is, hungrily: when I have said it, you will no doubt taste with the sound palate of the heart what is set before you from the Lord’s storeroom. The Lord Jesus knew with what the human soul, that is, the rational mind made in God’s image, could be satisfied, namely that it is satisfied with himself. He knew this, and he knew that it still lacked that fullness. He knew that he appeared; he knew that he was hidden. He knew what was shown in him and what was hidden. He knew this. “How great,” says the psalm, “is the abundance of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you, but brought to completion for those who hope in you.” Your sweetness, both great and abundant, you have hidden for those who fear you. If you hide it for those who fear you, to whom do you open it? “You have brought it to completion for those who hope in you.” A twofold question has arisen, but each is solved by the other. If anyone asks the one: what is this, “You have hidden it for those who fear you, brought it to completion for those who hope in you”? Do some fear and others hope? Are not those who fear God the same as those who hope in God? Who hopes in him who does not fear him? Who fears him piously and does not hope in him? So let this be solved first. I want to say something about those who hope and those who fear.

The Law has fear, grace has hope. But what is the difference between the Law and grace, since there is one giver of both Law and grace? The Law terrifies one who presumes on himself; grace helps one who hopes in God. The Law, I say, terrifies: do not despise this because it is short; weigh it, and it is great. See what I have said; take what we serve you; test where we take it from. The Law terrifies one who presumes on himself; grace helps one who hopes in God. What does the Law say? Many things, and who can count them? I mention one small and modest commandment from it, which the apostle mentioned, a very small one: let us see who can bear it. “You shall not desire.” What is this, brothers? We have heard the Law; if there is no grace, you have heard your punishment. Why do you boast to me (whoever you are who hear this and presume on yourself), why do you boast to me of your innocence? Why do you flatter yourself about it? You can say, “I have not seized others’ property”: I hear it, I believe it, perhaps I even see it; you do not seize others’ property. “You shall not desire”: you have heard it. “I do not go near another man’s wife”: this too I hear, believe, see. “You shall not desire”: you have heard it. Why do you look around you outside, and not look inside? Look inside, and you will see another law in your members. Look inside: why do you pass yourself by? Go down into yourself. You will see another law in your members, fighting against the law of your mind and taking you captive in the law of sin which is in your members. Rightly is God’s sweetness hidden from you. The law set in your members takes you captive, fighting against the law of your mind. From that sweetness which is hidden from you the holy angels drink: you, a captive, cannot bear the sweetness and taste it. You did not know desire, except that the Law said, “You shall not desire.” You heard, you feared; you tried to fight, you could not conquer. “For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, worked death.” Surely you recognize them; they are the apostle’s words: “Sin, taking occasion through the commandment, worked in me every desire.” Why did you boast, proud man? See, the enemy has conquered you with your own weapons. You were surely seeking the commandment as a warning: see, through the commandment the enemy found an occasion to enter. “For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me,” he says, “and by it killed me.” What is it I said, the enemy has conquered you with your own weapons? Hear the same apostle going on and saying: “So the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” Now answer those who find fault with the Law: answer with the apostle’s authority: the commandment is holy, the law holy, the commandment just and good. “Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it: but sin, so that it might appear, worked death in me through what is good.” Why this, except that when you received the commandment you feared and did not love? You feared punishment; you did not love righteousness. He who fears punishment wishes, if it were possible, to do what he likes and have nothing to fear. God forbids adultery; you have desired another man’s wife; you do not go near her, you do not do it; the opportunity is given, you have time, the place is open, there is no witness; yet you do not do it. Why? Because you fear punishment. “But no one will know.” Not even God? Plainly so: because God knows what you would do, you do not do it. But you tremble at God threatening; you do not love God commanding. Why do you not do it? Because if you do it, you will be sent to hell. You fear fire. O, if you loved chastity, you would not do it even if you were to go wholly unpunished! If God said to you, “See, do it; I will not condemn you; I will not condemn you to hell, but I will deny you my face”: if it were because of this threat that you did not do it, you would be refraining from love of God, not from fear of judgment. But you would do it: perhaps you would do it, in that case. For it is not mine to judge. Grace, which makes saints, is helping you if you do not do it because you shudder at the defilement of adultery, because you love the one who commands, so that you may hold the one who promises to his word, not because you fear the one who condemns: then it is of grace; do not take this to yourself; do not attribute it to your own strength. You do it from delight: good; you do it from love: good; I nod, I agree. Love works from you when you act willingly. Now you taste the sweetness, if you hope in the Lord.

But where does this love of yours come from? If indeed you have it: for I fear that it is still out of fear that you refrain, and you seem great to yourself. If it is out of love that you refrain, you are truly great. Do you have love? “I have,” you say. From where? “From myself.” You are far from the sweetness if you have it from yourself. You will love yourself, because you will love the one you have it from. But I prove that you do not have it. For in that you think you have so great a thing from yourself, I do not believe you have it. For if you had it, you would know where you had it from. Do you have love from yourself, as if it were something light, something small? “If you spoke with the tongues of men and of angels, but did not have love, you would be sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. If you knew all mysteries and had all knowledge, all prophecy and all faith, so that you moved mountains, but did not have love,” these things could not profit you. “If you distributed all your goods to the poor, and handed over your body to be burned, but did not have love,” you would be nothing. How great is this love, without which all things profit nothing! Compare it, not with your faith, not with your knowledge, not with your tongue: compare love with lesser things, with the eye of your body, your hand, your foot, your belly, some lowest member: can these least things be compared with love in any respect? So you have your eye and your nose from God, and love from yourself? If you gave yourself love, which surpasses all things, you have made God cheap in your eyes. What more can God give you? Whatever he has given is less. Love surpasses all things, and you gave it to yourself! But if you have it, you did not give it to yourself. “For what do you have that you did not receive?” Who gave it to me, who gave it to you? God. Acknowledge the giver, lest you meet the condemner. Believe from the Scriptures that God has given you love, a great good, love surpassing all things. God has given it to you: for “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts” (from you, perhaps? far from it) “through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Come back with me to that captive; come back with me to my proposition. The Law terrifies one who presumes on himself; grace helps one who hopes in God. For see that captive. He sees another law in his members fighting against the law of his mind and leading him captive in the law of sin which is in his members. See, he is conquered; see, he is dragged off; see, he is taken captive; see, he is subdued. What did “You shall not desire” profit him? He heard “You shall not desire” so as to know the enemy, not to conquer him. For he did not know desire, that is, his enemy, except that the Law said, “You shall not desire.” Now you have seen the enemy: fight, free yourself, claim your freedom; let the pleasant suggestion be suppressed, let the unlawful delight be destroyed. Arm yourself, you have the law; go forward, conquer if you can. For what is it, that by some small measure of God’s grace you already delight in the law of God according to the inner man? But you see another law in your members fighting against the law of your mind: not fighting and achieving nothing, but leading you captive in the law of sin. See why that abundance of sweetness is hidden from you who fear: it is hidden from the one who fears; how is it brought to completion for the one who hopes? Cry out under the enemy, for you have an assailant; you also have a helper who watches you fighting and lifts you up when you struggle; but only if he finds you hoping: for he hates the proud. What, then, do you cry out under the enemy? “Wretched man that I am.” Now you see it, since you have cried it out. Let this be your cry when you struggle under the enemy: say it, say it from your inmost heart, say it with sound faith: “Wretched man that I am.” Wretched am I, and wretched because I am I. “Wretched man that I am,” both because I am I and because I am man. “For in vain is he troubled, although man walks in the image.” “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” You, perhaps? Where is your strength now, where is your presumption? Certainly you are silent now in some way: you are silent, but silent from exalting yourself, not from calling on God. Be silent and cry out. For God himself too is silent and cries out: he is silent from judgment, not silent from commandment: so you too, be silent from pride, but not from prayer; lest God say to you, “I have been silent; shall I always be silent?” So cry out, “Wretched man that I am.” Acknowledge yourself conquered, put your strength to shame, and say, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” What had I said? The Law terrifies one who presumes on himself. See, the man presumed on himself, tried to fight, could not conquer; he was conquered, thrown down, subdued, taken captive. He has learned to presume on God; and him whom the Law terrified as he presumed on himself, it remains for grace to help as he hopes in God. Trusting in this he says, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now see the sweetness, taste it, let it be savory to you: hear the psalm, “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” He has become sweet to you, because he has delivered you. You were bitter to yourself when you presumed on yourself. Drink the sweetness; receive the pledge of so great a storehouse.

The disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, then, were still under the Law, still to be cleansed, still to be nourished, still to be corrected, still to be directed. For they still desired, though the Law says, “You shall not desire.” By the leave of those holy rams, the leaders of the flock, I would say it; by their leave I would say it, because I say what is true: the Gospel says it. They were disputing which of them was the greatest; while the Lord was still present on earth they were tossed about by a dispute over primacy. Where did this come from, but from the old leaven? Where, but from the law in the members fighting against the law of the mind? They sought the highest place: indeed they desired; they were thinking who would be greatest: therefore their loftiness is put to shame by a child. Jesus calls to himself the age of humility, to tame swollen desire. Rightly, then, when they returned and said, “Lord, look, the demons are subject to us in your name” (they were rejoicing over nothing: how much was it, what was it, compared with what God was promising?), the Lord, the good teacher, calming fear and building firmness, said to them: “Do not rejoice in this, that the demons are subject to you.” Why this? Because “many will come in my name saying, Look, in your name we have cast out demons; and I will say to them, I do not know you.” “Do not rejoice in this, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” You cannot be there yet, and yet you are already written there: rejoice, then. And that saying too: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name.” For what you have asked, compared with what I want to give, is nothing. For what did you ask in my name? That the demons should be subject to you? “Do not rejoice in this”: that is, what you asked is nothing; for if it were something, he would bid them rejoice. So it was not altogether nothing; but it was small compared with the greatness of God’s rewards. For the apostle Paul was not truly nothing; and yet, compared with God, “neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters.” And we say this to you, and we say it to ourselves, to us and to you we say it, when we ask in Christ’s name for these temporal things. For certainly you have asked. For who does not ask? One asks for health, if he is sick; another asks for release, if he is in prison; another asks for a harbor, if he is tossed about in a ship; another asks for victory, if he is fighting an enemy; and he asks it all in the name of Christ, and what he asks is nothing. What, then, is to be asked? “Ask in my name.” And he did not say what; but from his words we understand what we ought to ask. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Ask, and you receive, in my name. But what? Not nothing: what then? “That your joy may be full”: that is, ask for this, for what will suffice you. For when you ask for nothing: “whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.” He lets down the pitcher of desire into the well, draws up something to drink, only to thirst again. “Ask that your joy may be full”: that is, so that you may be satisfied, not delighted for a time. Ask for what will suffice you: say the words of Philip, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” The Lord says to you, “Have I been with you so long, and you have not known me? Philip, whoever sees me sees the Father also.” So give thanks to Christ, made weak for you who are weak, and prepare your palates to be satisfied by the divinity of Christ. Turning to the Lord, and so on.

In today’s reading your Charity noticed that the Lord said to Peter by way of a question, “Do you love me?” He answered him, “You know, Lord, that I love you.” This a second time, this a third time; and at each of his answers the Lord said, “Feed my lambs.” Christ, who was feeding Peter too, was entrusting his lambs to Peter to feed. For what could Peter render to the Lord, especially as the Lord now bore an immortal body and was about to ascend into heaven? It is as if he said to him, “Do you love me? Show that you love me in this: feed my sheep.” So, brothers, hear with obedience that you are Christ’s sheep, since we too hear with fear, “Feed my sheep.” If we feed with fear and fear for the sheep, how ought the sheep themselves to fear for themselves? So let ours be the care, yours the obedience; ours the shepherd’s watchfulness, yours the humility of the flock. And yet we too, who seem to speak to you from a higher place, are in fear beneath your feet; for we know how dangerous an account is to be rendered for this seemingly lofty seat. Therefore, beloved, Catholic shoots, members of Christ, consider what a head you have. Children of God, consider what a Father you have found. Christians, consider what inheritance is promised you. Not such as children cannot possess on earth unless their parents have died. For no one on earth possesses his father’s inheritance except when the father is dead. We shall possess what our Father gives while he lives: for our Father cannot die. I add more, I say more, and I say what is true: the Father himself will be our inheritance.

Live accordingly, especially you, candidates of Christ, newly baptized, just reborn: as I advised you before, so I say now, and declare my anxiety, because the present Gospel reading has put a greater fear into me: watch yourselves; do not imitate bad Christians. Do not say: “I will do this, because many of the faithful do it.” This is not to prepare a defense for the soul, but to look for companions on the way to hell. Grow on this threshing floor of the Lord: on it you will find good people, who will please you too, if you too are good. For are you our private property? Heretics and schismatics have made private property for themselves out of the Lord’s stolen goods, and have chosen to feed flocks not of Christ but their own, against Christ. Plainly, on their very plunder they have put his mark of ownership, so that their booty might be protected, as it were, by the mark of a powerful man. What does Christ do when such people are converted, who received the mark of his baptism outside the Church? He throws out the robber, he does not remove his mark, and he possesses the house, because he finds his own mark there. What need is there for him to change his name? Do they not notice what the Lord said to Peter, “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep”? Did he say to him, “Feed your lambs,” or, “Feed your sheep”? But to those shut out, what did he say in the Song of Songs, to the Church? The bridegroom, speaking to the bride, says, “Unless you know yourself, fair among women, go out.” As if saying: I do not throw you out; go out yourself, unless you know yourself, fair among women; unless you know yourself in the mirror of divine Scripture; unless you look, O fair woman, into the mirror that does not deceive you with false sheen; unless you know that of you it was said, “Your glory is over all the earth”; that of you it was said, “I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession”; and countless other testimonies that commend the Catholic Church. So unless you know this, you have no share; you cannot make yourself an heir. So “go out in the footsteps of the flocks,” not in the fellowship of the flock, “and feed your kids,” not, as was said to Peter, “my sheep.” To Peter it is said, “my sheep”; to schismatics it is said, “your kids.” Here sheep, there kids; here “mine,” there “yours.” Recall the right hand and the left of our judge; recall where the goats will stand and where the sheep: and it will become plain to you where is the right and where the left, white and black, light and dark, beautiful and ugly, the one to receive the kingdom and the one to find everlasting punishment.