Sermons to the People 252.1–252.12

In many and various ways our Lord Jesus Christ has shown in the holy Scriptures both the height of his divinity and the mercy of his humanity, as he is accustomed, in mysteries and sacraments; so that those who ask may receive, those who seek may find, and to those who knock it may be opened. For what was read today from the holy Gospel also seeks one who understands it, and gives spiritual joy once it is understood. Let Your Holiness attend to what it means that holy Scripture testifies that the Lord showed himself to his disciples in the way the evangelist tells. For the disciples went fishing and caught nothing all night. But the Lord appeared to them in the morning on the shore and asked whether they had anything to eat; they said they had nothing. He said to them: “Let down the nets on the right side, and you will find.” He who had come as if to buy gave so much for nothing, and gave it from the sea as from his own creature. A great miracle indeed. They let down at once, and caught so much that they could not draw out the nets for the multitude of fish. But if you consider who did this great miracle, it is not to be wondered at; for he had already done many greater. For he who had raised the dead before the resurrection did nothing great after the resurrection in making fish be caught. So we must question the miracle itself about what it speaks to us inwardly. For not without cause did he not say just anyhow, “Let down the nets,” but “Let down on the right side.” Then it fell to the evangelist to tell also the number of fish. It fell to him also to say: “And although they were so many,” that is, so large, “the nets were not torn.” At this point he made us remember that once the nets were let down at the Lord’s command, when he chose his disciples, before he himself suffered. Peter, John, and James were there. They let down the nets, they caught innumerable fish, and when one boat was filled they asked to be helped by a neighboring boat; and the two boats were filled with fish (this was before the resurrection), indeed so many that the nets were breaking. Why is no number told there? Why were the nets breaking there, and not broken here? Why was it not said there that the nets should be let down on the right side, while here he said, “Let down the nets on the right side”? Certainly not without cause. For the Lord did not do these things as if in vain and to no purpose. Christ is the Word of God, who speaks to men not only by sounds but also by deeds.

This, then, has been set before us to treat with Your Love: what this difference means. For those nets which were let down earlier both caught an innumerable number of fish and loaded two ships, and the nets were breaking; and the nets were not let down on the right side, but neither was it said on the left. The mystery of that catch is now being fulfilled in this time. But that other mystery he performed not without cause after the resurrection, no longer to die but to live forever, not only in the divinity, in which he never died, but also in the body, in which he deigned to die for us. Not in vain, then, was that before the passion and this after the resurrection. There, neither on the right nor on the left, but only “Let down the nets”; here, “Let down on the right.” There, no number, but only an abundant multitude, so that it almost sank two ships; for this too was said there. But here there is both a number and size of fish. Then there the nets were breaking; here it fell to the evangelist to say: “And although they were so large, the nets were not torn.” Do we not see, brothers, that the word of God is the nets, and this world the sea, and that all who believe are enclosed within those nets? If perhaps anyone doubts that this is the meaning, let him note that the Lord himself said in a parable what he showed in the miracle. For he says: “The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, which gathers fish of every kind. When it was full, they hauled it out and drew it to the shore; and sitting by the shore they chose the good into vessels but threw the bad out. So it will be at the end of the world: the angels will come out and separate the bad from among the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is plain, then, that the nets let down into the sea are a sign of faith. Is not this world the sea, where men devour one another like fish? Are they small storms and waves of temptation that trouble this sea? Are they small dangers for those who sail, that is, who seek the heavenly homeland on the wood of the cross? The likeness, then, is most evident.

Let us look at this much, brothers (since the Lord’s resurrection signifies the new life we shall have when this world has passed away): how the word of God was first let down into this sea, that is, into this world. Into this world, turbulent with waves, dangerous with storms, troubled by shipwrecks, the word of God was let down, and it caught many, so that two boats were filled. What are the two boats? Two peoples. For these two peoples, as for two walls, the Lord became the cornerstone, to join them in himself as they came from different directions. For the people of the Jews came from a far different way of life; and the people of the Gentiles came from idols. The people of the Jews came from the circumcision; the people of the Gentiles came from the uncircumcision. They came from different directions, but they are joined in the cornerstone. For walls never make a corner unless they come from different directions. So in Christ the two peoples were brought into accord, called from the Jews who were near and from the Gentiles who were far. For because the Jews were near (for they already worshiped one God), when they believed in Christ, see what they did. Whatever they had they sold, and laid the prices of their estates at the apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as each had need. They were freed from the burdens of worldly business and followed Christ with light shoulders; they put their necks under the gentle yoke, and embracing the cornerstone from close by, they were at peace. But the people of the Gentiles too came from far off, and it too reached that stone, and came together in peace. Those two ships signify these two peoples. But they were filled with so great a multitude of fish that they almost sank. For we read that even among those who had believed from the Jews there arose carnal men who caused pressure on the Church and forbade the apostles to speak the Gospel to the Gentiles, saying, “Christ was sent only to the circumcised”; so that if the Gentiles wanted to receive the Gospel, they should be circumcised. Hence the apostle Paul, sent to the Gentiles, had become hateful, for preaching the truth, to those who had believed from Judea. For the Apostle wanted the people of the Gentiles, though coming from a different direction, still to touch the corner, where there was firm peace. Those carnal men, then, who demanded circumcision, did not belong to the number of the spiritual, nor did they yet see that, the carnal sacraments being over, he had come by whose present light the shadows were put to flight. Yet because they stirred up dissensions, they were, as it were, sinking the ship by their multitude.

Let us look also at the ship of the Gentiles. Let us see whether so great a multitude has not been gathered into the Church that grains of wheat hardly appear there among so great a number of chaff. How many robbers, how many drunkards, how many slanderers, how many spectators of the theaters! Do not the same people fill the churches who also fill the theaters? And often they seek in the churches, with riots, the same sort of things they are used to in the theaters. And often, if something is said or commanded spiritually, they resist, they struggle against it, following the flesh, fighting against the Holy Spirit. Hence Stephen too accused the Jews. In this city, my brothers, have we not experienced, as Your Holiness remembers with us, at what danger to ourselves God drove drunken revelries out of this basilica? Was not the ship almost sinking with us through the riot of the carnal? Where did this come from, if not from that innumerable number of fish? Then this too is said there: that the nets were breaking. When the nets were broken, heresies and schisms came about. The nets indeed enclose all; but impatient fish, unwilling to come to the Lord’s food, dash themselves against them where they can, break them, and go out. And those nets are spread out over the whole; but those who break them break them in places. The Donatists broke them in Africa, the Arians broke them in Egypt, the Photinians broke them in Pannonia, the Cataphrygians broke them in Phrygia, the Manichees broke them in Persia. In how many places has that dragnet been broken? And yet those it encloses it brings to the shore. It brings them indeed; but does it bring those who broke the nets? All who go out are bad. None go out except the bad; but both good and bad remain. For otherwise how is the dragnet brought to the shore with fish both good and bad, of which the Lord spoke in the parable?

For the threshing floor too, when it is being threshed, has this likeness. There is chaff, there is wheat; but those who look at the threshing floor can hardly see anything but chaff. Care is needed for the wheat to be found in the chaff. And the winds blow over the threshing floor from every side. And when it is being threshed, before it is heaped up so that it can be winnowed, does it not suffer the winds? The wind blows from this side, for example, and lifts chaff; again it blows from there and carries it to the other side. From whatever side it lifts chaff, it throws it into the hedge, into the thorns, anywhere. It cannot lift the wheat from there: the wind lifts only chaff. But still, when the winds blowing from every side have carried off chaff, will the wheat remain alone on the threshing floor? Nothing goes from there except chaff; but both chaff and wheat remain. When does all the chaff go? When the Lord comes with the winnowing fork in his hand and cleanses his threshing floor: he will store the wheat in the barn, but burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Let Your Holiness attend more closely to what I say. For sometimes the winds that lift chaff from the threshing floor blow again from the hedge where the chaff had stuck and call it back to the threshing floor. As, for example, some man or other placed in the Catholic Church suffered some temptation of trouble. He saw that he could be helped in a carnal way in his business by the Donatists; he was told: “You will not be helped unless you join our communion here.” The wind blew; it threw him into the thorns. If he happens again to have worldly business which cannot be settled except in the Catholic Church, not looking to where he is but to where he may settle his business more conveniently, as if the wind were blowing from the other side of the hedge, he is called back to the Lord’s threshing floor.

These, then, brothers, who seek carnal things in the Church and do not set before themselves what God promises (for here there are temptations, dangers, difficulties; but after temporal labors he promises everlasting rest and the company of the holy angels), not setting these before themselves but desiring carnal things in the Church, whether they are on the threshing floor or outside, are chaff. We do not much rejoice over them, nor do we stroke them with empty flattery. It is good for them that they become wheat. For this is the difference between that real chaff and these carnal men: that real chaff does not have free will, but God has given man free will. And if a man wills, yesterday he was chaff, today he becomes wheat; if he turns away from the word of God, today he becomes chaff. And nothing is to be asked except what kind of men the final winnowing finds.

Look now, brothers, at that blessed, mystical, great Church too, which the hundred and fifty-three fish signify. For what this one is like we have heard, we know, and we see; but what that one will be like is held out to us in prophecy, though it has not yet come into experience. Yet we may rejoice about the future one, though we do not yet see it present. Then the nets were let down neither on the right nor on the left; for they were going to catch both good and bad. For if it were said “on the right,” the bad would not be understood there; if it were said “on the left,” the good would not be understood there. But when they were to hold good and bad, the nets were let down anywhere, and they caught, as we have discussed, the unrighteous and the righteous. But now, with the Church to come in that holy Jerusalem, where the hearts of all mortals will lie open, there is no fear that anyone who is bad will enter that Church. For he will not hide the cunning of a most wicked heart under the skin of mortality. For the Lord has now come; and so after the resurrection, no longer to die, he commands these nets to be let down on the right. And what the Apostle says comes to pass: “Until the Lord comes and lights up the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then each will have praise from God,” when consciences, which are now read, will be made public. Then, therefore, only the good will be there; the bad will be driven out. For the nets were let down on the right; they will not be able to hold the unrighteous.

Why, then, a hundred and fifty-three? Will the saints be so many? For if one counted not only all the faithful who departed the body in a good life, but the martyrs alone; if one day of the martyrs’ passion were counted, thousands of crowned men would be found. So what the hundred and fifty-three fish mean must without doubt be inquired into. What does fifty mean? For in this number, that is, in fifty, there is a mystery: because fifty multiplied three times makes a hundred and fifty. For the number three seems to have been added to remind us by what multiplication the hundred and fifty-three were made, as if it were said: “Divide a hundred and fifty into three.” For if it were said “a hundred and fifty-two,” we would be reminded by the number left over to divide it into seventy-fives, since seventy-five taken twice makes a hundred and fifty: for the added number two would indicate division by two. If it were said “a hundred and fifty-six,” we ought to divide it into twenty-fives, so as to make six parts of them. But now, because it was said “a hundred and fifty-three,” we ought to divide that whole number, that is, a hundred and fifty, into three parts. The third part of this number, then, is fifty. So our whole consideration must be fixed on the number fifty.

Are these perhaps the very fifty days which we are now celebrating? For not without reason, my brothers, does the Church keep the custom of ancient tradition that Alleluia is said through these fifty days. For Alleluia is the praise of God. So to us who labor is signified the activity of our rest. For when after this labor we come to that rest, the only business will be the praise of God; our activity there is Alleluia. What is Alleluia? “Praise God.” Who could praise God without failing, except the angels? They do not hunger, they do not thirst, they do not fall sick, they do not die. For we too have said Alleluia, and it was sung here this morning, and when we had just come in, a little while ago, we said Alleluia. A certain fragrance of the divine praise and of that rest reaches us, but for the greater part mortality weighs us down. For we grow tired with saying it and want to refresh our members; and if Alleluia is said for long, the praise of God becomes a burden to us because of the weight of our body. For the fullness without ceasing in Alleluia will be after this world and after labor. What then, brothers? Let us say it as much as we can, that we may deserve to say it always. There our food will be Alleluia, our drink Alleluia, the activity of rest Alleluia; the whole joy will be Alleluia, that is, the praise of God. For who praises anything without failing, except one who enjoys it without weariness? How great, then, will be the strength in the mind, how great the immortality and firmness in the body, so that neither the mind’s attention fails in the contemplation of God nor the members give way in the continual praise of God!

Why, then, are fifty days celebrated in this mystery? The Lord spent forty days with the disciples after the resurrection, as the Acts of the Apostles testify; after forty days he ascended into heaven, and on the tenth day after he ascended he sent the Holy Spirit. Filled with him, the apostles and all who had gathered together spoke in tongues and did those great works which we embrace as we read and believe, speaking the word of God with great confidence. He spent forty days on earth with the disciples; and before the passion he fasted forty days. You do not find anyone who fasted forty days except the Lord, Moses, and Elijah: the Lord as the Gospel, Moses as the Law, Elijah as Prophecy; for the Gospel has testimony from the Law and the Prophets. That is why on the mountain too, when our Lord Jesus wished to show his glory, he stood between Moses and Elijah. He himself shone in the middle in honor; the Law and the Prophets bore witness from the sides. The number forty, then, signifies this time in which we labor in the world, because wisdom is dispensed to us here in time. For the vision of immortal wisdom is one thing, without time; another is its dispensing in time. For there were patriarchs, and they passed on from here: their dispensation was temporal. I do not say they live temporally; for they live always and live with God. But the temporal dispensation of the word was made through them. For they do not speak here now; but what they spoke has been written and is read in time. The prophets came in their own time and went away. The Lord came in his own time; for he never withdrew from the presence of his majesty, never withdraws, being everywhere in divinity; but as it is said in the Gospel: “He was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him: he came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” How was he here, and how did he come, except that he was here in majesty, he came in humanity? For by coming in the flesh he ministered wisdom to us in time: in time through the Law, in time through the Prophets, in time through the Scriptures of the Gospel. For when times have passed, we shall see wisdom itself as it is, which pays out the number ten. For the number seven indicates the creature, because God worked six days and rested from his works on the seventh. But the number three suggests the Founder: Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Perfect wisdom is to subject the creature devoutly to the creator; to distinguish the founder from what is founded, the craftsman from his works. Whoever mixes the works with the craftsman understands neither the art nor the craftsman; but whoever distinguishes them is filled with wisdom. This, then, is the ten, the fullness of wisdom. But when it is distributed in time, because the mark of temporal things is in the number four, ten taken four times makes the number forty. The year too varies in four ways: spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and in time a certain fourfold alternation is especially apparent. Scripture also mentions four winds. For the Gospel, which is dispensed in time, went out through four quarters; and it is the Catholic Church, which holds the four parts of the world. So in this way ten makes the number forty.

That is why those men fasted forty days, signifying that in this time abstinence from the love of temporal things is necessary. For this is what those continual fasts of so many days, forty days, signify. Hence too that people Israel was led through the desert forty years before it entered the land of promise to reign. So we too in this life, where there is the greatest anxiety, where there is fear, where there are dangers of temptations, are led as it were through the desert in a temporal dispensation. But when we have completed the number forty well, that is, have lived well in this temporal dispensation, walking according to God’s commandments, we shall receive the wage, that denarius of the faithful. For the Lord too, when he hired laborers for the vineyard, gave them a denarius as their wage. To all a denarius: those he had hired in the morning, at midday, and at the end of the day, he gave all a denarius. For if someone has been one of the faithful from early life, he will receive the denarius: no longer through the distribution of times, but in eternal contemplation, the wisdom that distinguishes the Creator from the creature, so that he may enjoy the Creator and praise the Creator for the creature. But some young man believed, and in his earlier time was not one of the faithful: he will receive the denarius. But an old man believed, hired for the vineyard already at the setting of the day, as at the eleventh hour: he too will receive the denarius. So to that forty, well completed, add the wage of the denarius, and the number fifty results, which signifies the Church to come, where God will always be praised. But since all have been called in the name of the Trinity, to live well in the number forty and receive the denarius, multiply that fifty by three, and a hundred and fifty result. Add the very mystery of the Trinity, and a hundred and fifty-three result, the number of fish found on the right; in which number, however, there are innumerable thousands of saints. Hence no bad ones will be thrown out, because they will not be there; nor will the nets, which are the bonds of unity and peace, be broken by any schism.

I think the great mystery has been explained enough. But you know that it is our business to work well in the time of forty, so that we may praise the Lord in the fiftieth. That is why we celebrate those forty days before we keep vigil in labor, fasting, and abstinence: for they signify the presence of this time. But after the Lord’s resurrection, because these days signify everlasting gladness (they are not yet this, but they signify it; the thing is in mystery, brothers, not yet in effect; for when Easter is celebrated the Lord is not crucified; but as by a yearly celebration we signify past things, so also future things which do not yet exist): in this time, then, fasts are relaxed, for the number of these days signifies the rest to come. But see, brothers, that by much drunkenness, as if permitted a great outpouring, wishing to celebrate these days carnally, you do not lose the right to celebrate forever with the angels what they signify. For perhaps if I rebuke some drunkard, he will say: “You preached to us that these days signify everlasting gladness; you suggested to us that this time foretells angelic and heavenly joy: so ought I not to treat myself well?” Well, if only it were well and not badly! For it signifies joy to you if you are a temple of God. But if you fill the temple of God with the filth of wine-drinking, the Apostle sounds out to you: “If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him.” Let this be written in the hearts of Your Holiness: a man who understands less and lives better is better than one who understands much and does not live well. The fullness and perfect happiness, indeed, is that one should both understand quickly and live well; but if perhaps one cannot do both, it is better to live well than to understand quickly. For whoever lives well deserves to understand more; whoever lives badly will lose even what he understands. So it was said: “To him who has it will be given; but from him who does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away.”