Sermons to the People 213.1–213.9

The Creed is the rule of faith briefly summed up, so as to instruct the mind without burdening the memory; it is said in few words, from which much may be gained. “I believe in God the Father almighty.” See how quickly it is said, and how much it is worth. He is God, and he is Father: God in power, Father in goodness. How happy we are, who have found that our Lord is our Father! Let us believe in him, then, and promise ourselves everything from his mercy, because he is almighty: that is why we believe in God the Father almighty. Let no one say: He cannot forgive me my sins. How can the almighty not be able? But you say: I have sinned much. And I say: But he is almighty. And you say: I have committed such sins that I cannot be freed and cleansed of them. I answer: But he is almighty. See what you sing to him in the psalm: “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” he says, “and do not forget all his benefits: who is merciful to all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” For this his almightiness is necessary to us. For the whole creation it was necessary so that it might be created. He is almighty to make greater things and lesser things; almighty to make heavenly and earthly things; almighty to make immortal and mortal things; almighty to make spiritual and bodily things; almighty to make visible and invisible things: great in great things, and not small in the least. Finally, he is almighty to do all things that he wills to do. For I will tell you how many things he cannot do. He cannot die, he cannot sin, he cannot lie, he cannot be deceived. So many things he cannot do: if he could, he would not be almighty. Believe in him, then, and confess him. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” So when you have believed, you must confess, when you give back the Creed. Receive now what you are to hold, and afterwards give back, and never forget.

After this, what? “And in Jesus Christ.” I believe, you say, in God the Father almighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. If only Son, then equal to the Father. If only Son, then of the same substance as the Father. If only Son, then of the same almightiness as the Father. If only Son, then coeternal with the Father. This he is in himself, with himself, and with the Father. For us, what? To us, what? “Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” See by what way he came, who he is, and to whom. Through the Virgin Mary, in whom the Holy Spirit worked, not a human husband; who made the chaste woman fruitful and kept her untouched. So, then, the Lord Christ was clothed with flesh; so he who made man was made man, assuming what he was not, not losing what he was. For “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word was not turned into flesh; but the Word, remaining, having taken flesh, always invisible, became visible when he willed, and dwelt among us. What is “among us”? Among men. He became one in the number of men, one and only: the only Son of the Father. For us, what? For us too the only Savior: for no one but he is our Savior. And for us the only Redeemer: for no one but he is our Redeemer: not with gold, not with silver, but with his blood.

Let us look, then, at the very transactions by which we were bought. For when it had been said in the Creed, “Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” now, what for us? “Suffered,” it goes on, “under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.” The only Son of God, our Lord, was crucified; the only Son of God, our Lord, was buried. The man was crucified, the man was buried: God was not changed, God was not killed, and yet he was killed according to the man. “For if they had known,” says the Apostle, “they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.” He both showed him to be the Lord of glory and confessed that he was crucified. For if someone tears even your tunic without harming your flesh, he does you an injury; and you do not cry out about your garment so as to say, You have torn my tunic, but, You have torn me, you have made shreds of me. You say this while unharmed, and you speak the truth, and the one who wronged you took nothing from your flesh. So too the Lord Christ was crucified. He is Lord, he is the only Son of the Father; he is our Savior, he is the Lord of glory: yet he was crucified, but in the flesh, and buried in the flesh alone. For where he was buried, and when he was buried, not even the soul was there. He lay in the tomb in the flesh alone; and yet you confess Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary: he who is Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord. Crucified under Pontius Pilate: he who is Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord. And buried: he who is Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord. The flesh alone lies there, and you say, “Our Lord”? I say it, I say it plainly: because I look at the garment and I worship the one who is clothed in it. That flesh was his garment: for, “being in the form of God, he did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,” not losing the form of God, “made in the likeness of men and found in appearance as a man.”

Let us not despise the flesh alone: when it lay there, then it bought us. Why did it buy us? Because it did not lie there always: “For on the third day he rose from the dead.” This follows in the Creed. When we have confessed his passion, we confess also his resurrection. In his passion what did he do? He taught what we are to endure. In his resurrection what did he do? He showed what we are to hope for. Here the work, there the wage: the work in the passion, the wage in the resurrection. And since he rose from the dead, he did not remain here. But what follows? “He ascended into heaven.” And where is he now? “He sits at the right hand of the Father.” Understand the right hand: do not look for a left hand there. The right hand of God means eternal happiness. The right hand of God means ineffable, inestimable, incomprehensible blessedness and prosperity. This is the right hand of God. There he sits. What does “there he sits” mean? There he dwells. For we speak of someone's seat where he dwells. When holy Stephen saw him, was the one who said, “He sits at the right hand of the Father,” lying? For how does Stephen say: “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”? Because Stephen saw him standing, was the one who said, “He sits at the right hand of the Father,” lying? “Sits,” then, is said: he remains, he dwells. How? As you dwell. In what posture? Who will say? Let us say what he has taught; let us say what we know.

What next? “From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.” Let us confess the Savior, so that we may not fear the judge. For whoever now believes in him, and does his commands, and loves him, will not fear when he comes to judge the living and the dead: not only will he not fear, he will long for him to come. For what is happier for us than when the one we desire comes, when the one we love comes? But are we to fear because he will be our judge? He who is now our advocate will then himself be our judge. Hear John: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins,” he said, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. I have written these things to you so that you may not sin; and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins.” If you had a case to plead before some judge, and engaged an advocate, and you were taken on by the advocate and he pleaded your case as best he could; and if he had not finished it, and you heard that he himself was coming as judge, how you would rejoice that he could be your judge who a little before was your advocate! And now he himself prays for us, he himself intercedes for us. When we have an advocate, should we fear the judge? Rather, because we have sent our advocate ahead, let us look forward securely to the judge who is coming.

In the Creed we have gone through what concerns Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord; there follows, “And in the Holy Spirit,” so that the Trinity may be complete: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And many things have been said of the Son, because the Son took on a man; the Son, the Word, became flesh, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit; but the whole Trinity made the Son's flesh. For the works of the Trinity are inseparable. So receive the Holy Spirit in such a way that you do not believe him to be less than the Son, or less than the Father. For the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the whole Trinity, are one God. There is nothing different there, nothing varied, nothing deficient, nothing contrary to another; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always equal, invisible, and unchangeable. May the Trinity free us from the multitude of our sins. [7] What follows now concerns us: “The holy Church.” We are the holy Church; but I did not say “We” as if meaning only those of us here, who have just heard me. As many of us as are here, by God's favor faithful Christians in this church, that is, in this city; as many as are in this region, as many as are in this province, as many as are across the sea, as many as are in the whole world: for “from the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is praised.” So it is with the Catholic Church, our true mother, the true wife of that bridegroom. Let us honor her, because she is the lady of so great a Lord. And what shall I say? Great and singular is the bridegroom's condescension: he found a harlot, he made her a virgin. That she was a harlot she must not deny, lest she forget the mercy of her deliverer. How was she not a harlot, when she committed sexual immorality after idols and demons? There was sexual immorality of the heart in all: in a few in the flesh, in all in the heart. And he came and made her a virgin; he made the Church a virgin. She is a virgin in faith. In the flesh she has a few consecrated virgins; in faith she ought to have all as virgins, both women and men. For there ought to be chastity and purity and holiness. Do you want to know how she is a virgin? Hear the apostle Paul, hear the friend of the bridegroom, jealous for the bridegroom, not for himself. “I have betrothed you,” he says, “to one husband.” He was saying it to the Church: and to what church? To wherever that letter could reach. “I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear,” he said, “lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning.” Did that serpent lie with Eve bodily? And yet he extinguished the virginity of her heart. “This I fear,” he says, “lest your minds be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ.” The Church is a virgin, then: she is a virgin; let her be a virgin. Let her beware of the seducer, lest she find a corrupter. The Church is a virgin. Perhaps you will say to me: If she is a virgin, how does she bear children? Or if she does not bear children, why did we give in our names, so as to be born from her womb? I answer: She is both a virgin and she gives birth. She imitates Mary, who bore the Lord. Did not holy Mary both give birth as a virgin and remain a virgin? So too the Church both gives birth and is a virgin. And if you consider it, she gives birth to Christ: because those who are baptized are his members. “You are,” says the Apostle, “the body of Christ, and members.” If, then, she gives birth to the members of Christ, she is most like Mary.

“The forgiveness of sins.” If this were not in the Church, there would be no hope; if the forgiveness of sins were not in the Church, there would be no hope of a future life and of eternal liberation. We give thanks to God, who gave this gift to his Church. See, you are about to come to the holy font; you will be washed in baptism; you will be renewed by the saving bath of regeneration; you will be without any sin as you come up from that bath. All the past things that pursued you will be blotted out there. Your sins were like the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites; pursuing, but only as far as the Red Sea. What does “as far as the Red Sea” mean? As far as the font consecrated by the cross and blood of Christ. For what is red is ruddy. Do you not see how this part of Christ is red? Ask the eyes of faith. If you see the cross, notice also the blood. If you see what hangs there, notice what he poured out. Christ's side was pierced with a lance, and our price flowed out. That is why baptism, that is, the water in which you are dipped, is signed with the sign of Christ, and you pass through it as through the Red Sea. Your sins are your enemies. They follow, but only as far as the sea. When you have entered, you will escape; they will be blotted out: as, when the Israelites escaped over dry land, the water covered the Egyptians. And what does Scripture say? “Not one of them remained.” You have sinned much, you have sinned little; you have sinned greatly, you have sinned slightly: not even the least of them remained. But since we are going to live in this world, where no one lives without sin, the forgiveness of sins is not only in the washing of holy baptism, but also in the Lord's Prayer said daily, which you will receive after eight days. In it you will find, as it were, your daily baptism, so that you give thanks to God, who gave this gift to his Church, which we confess in the Creed: so that when we have said “The holy Church,” we add “The forgiveness of sins.”

After these, “The resurrection of the flesh.” This is now the end. But the resurrection of the flesh will be an end without end. And afterwards there will be no death of the flesh, no distresses of the flesh, no hunger and thirst of the flesh, no afflictions of the flesh, no old age and weariness of the flesh. Do not, then, shudder at the resurrection of the flesh. Look at its goods; forget its evils. Whatever complaints of the flesh there are now will not be there then. We shall be eternal, equal to the angels of God. We shall have one city with the holy angels; we shall be possessed by the Lord, we shall be his inheritance, and he himself will be our inheritance: for we ourselves say now, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance.” And of us it was said to his Son: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.” We shall possess and be possessed; we shall hold and be held. What shall I say? We are tilled, and we worship. But we worship him as God; we are tilled as a field. That you may know that we are tilled, hear the Lord: “I am the true vine, you are the branches, my Father is the farmer.” If he is called a farmer, he tills a field. What field? He tills us. And a farmer of this visible earth can plow, can dig, can plant, can water if he finds water: can he give the growth, bring the shoot up out of the earth, fix the root, raise it into the air, add strength to the branches, load them with fruit, adorn them with leaves? Can the farmer do that? Yet our farmer, God the Father, can do all these things in us. Why? Because we believe in God the Father almighty. Hold fast, then, to what we have both set before you and explained as God has deigned to grant.