Sermons to the People 45.1–46.3

Of all the readings that we heard recited, if your Charity noticed the first, from the prophet Isaiah (for we can neither remember nor speak of everything that was read), I think that its most recent words could have remained in your hearts, those with which the reader concluded: “But those who are devoted to me will possess the land and will dwell on my holy mountain.” Then the apostolic reading came up and began from this point: “Having, then, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God.” The divine mercy, which rules us, arranged it; it prepares food for us when we are hungry, not only for refreshing our bodies, for whose sake he makes his sun rise on the good and the bad and sends rain on the just and the unjust, but also for the hunger of our heart, which we suffer in this desert and would die of unless manna rained down. So, the Lord preparing his table for us, with no human effort arranging it, it came about, as he knows, that the readings followed one another in such a way that in Isaiah something was promised to us, and in the apostle it was said, “Having, then, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God,” as if the reading of the prophet and that of the apostle were one. For what does the apostle say? “Having, then, these promises, dearly beloved”: and there it is not said what promises, not because they are not there, but because the reader did not begin from there; and the hearer’s mind was, as it were, asking what promises the apostle meant when he said, “Having, then, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.” For a great task is laid on us, and no small labor, to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit; and no one takes up this labor unless he hears of the reward that is promised. Since no one takes up the labor of cleansing flesh and spirit unless he is invited by a reward, it somehow happened that the reader began with the imposing of the labor and did not begin with the promise of the reward. But God did not wish to cheat the attentive hearer. If perhaps someone hesitated to take up the labor of cleansing flesh and spirit because he had not heard of the reward, let him arm himself with the beginning of the apostolic reading; but if he is looking for the promises, let him attend to the end of the prophetic reading. For where the prophetic reading ended, there is the promise; where the apostle’s reading began, there is the imposing of the work.

Let us rouse ourselves, then, and cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, since we have these promises. What promises? “But those who are devoted to me,” says the Lord through Isaiah, “will possess the land and will dwell on my holy mountain.” Having these promises, then, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Someone says, “Am I to cleanse myself from defilement of flesh and spirit for this, that I may possess land and dwell on a mountain?” We must without doubt ask what possessing the land and dwelling on the mountain mean, lest people perhaps hope that they will receive broad estates, and so not end their desire but defer it; or rather increase it, despising small things because they think they will receive greater things of the same kind. For who would not despise one plot of land if he were promised that he would possess a hundred? Or who would not despise the delights of one lunch, perhaps a poorer and more frugal one, if he were told, “Unless you restrain yourself, you will not come to that most splendid and lavish dinner”? Those who restrain themselves from some present things in this way do not end their desires. For fear of losing what they desire more, they despise lesser things; yet it is the same desire. Is not the man avaricious who despises a hundred purses so as to gain a thousand? Do not think he has put an end to his avarice because you found him despising a hundred purses. He is thinking of a thousand; that is why he despised a hundred. There are people who often pay court to old men who have no children; they put up with a great deal in them, but they hope for greater things from them. Do we think them merciful, or greedy? That is why the sons of the poor are more approved when they serve their poor parents, because piety leads them, not reward. But when the sons of the rich serve their parents, their piety is not proved, and even if it exists, it is hidden: for even if it is seen by God, it cannot be seen by men. So much so that the parents themselves often think badly of their sons, supposing that their sons serve them for the sake of money. When it is sometimes to their sons’ advantage to be emancipated from their parents, when some advantage perhaps requires it, if a son is going to marry or to attain some office, so that they should give him their property, they say, “I will not give it; for then he will no longer serve me.” What a verdict he has passed on his son, that he serves him for money, without regard to his love as a son! If, then, you fear that your son will not serve you once he has received the money, it is not lovable piety but piety for sale. How much better is the son of a poor man, sometimes the son of a wretched and needy old man, who, expecting nothing from his father because he has nothing to leave him, feeds his father with the toil and hardship of his sweat! Sometimes the sons of the rich too, out of the fear of God, serve their parents, not because they expect anything from them, but because they are their parents, who begot them and brought them up, and because God commanded, “Honor your father and your mother”; but the affection is hidden where a reward is in view. Yet they are the more acceptable to God, because men cannot see their mind; God alone sees it, and they cannot be praised by men: like Job, who worshiped God. For the demons thought that he worshiped God for a reward. But where was it proved that he worshiped him for nothing? When he had lost everything and said, “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Why have I said these things, brothers? Because Scripture does not stop warning us every day to despise temporal things and love eternal ones: no page of the divine writings stops speaking to us, sometimes openly, sometimes obscurely in mystery. But let no one think himself cheated when a divine page speaks obscurely. Where the will of God comes forth to you, that is, where it is open, love it there, cherish it there, when it warns openly. And such as it is in the open, such it is in the obscure; such as it is in the sunlight, such it is in the shade. Follow it as such, if you read it as such. For it is obscure, as I said: “He will possess the land, and will dwell on my holy mountain.” For if we take it carnally, we shall not cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit; and God would have arranged in vain for the end of the prophetic reading to be joined to the beginning of the apostolic reading, if for the sake of possessing an earthly mountain we prepare ourselves for avarice, not for piety. But what are we to understand by “mountain”? It is obscure what he meant by “mountain.” But if God had abandoned us, he would nowhere say openly what the mountain is. Where he says it openly, there love the mountain. Where he openly commends the mountain to you and Scripture itself discloses what it means by “mountain,” there love it. And wherever you hear such a mountain promised, follow it: understand it in the obscure place to be the same as you loved in the open. Where do we think the mountain is spoken of, so that we may cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit? What mountain has been promised us? First let us know what land is promised us, the land for which the prophet David sighs in a certain place, saying, “You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living.” Without doubt, then, there is a land of the living, since this land is a land of the dying. And no one would call that land the land of the living unless he compared this land with it and found this to be a land of the dying. There is, then, a land of the living: though it is eternal and heavenly, it is called land because it is possessed, not because it is ploughed. For it has a possessor without labor; whereas this land works its possessor hard and wearies him with fear. What is said to you? “Get up, plough the land, so that you may have something to live on.” Willing or not, groaning and sighing, you get up and work, because the sentence of the condemned Adam follows you: “In the toil of your face you shall eat your bread.” But when all labor and groaning have passed, we shall be in the land of the living. Nothing is born and grows there: whatever is there is in the same way and is so always. Winter and summer, night and day do not alternate there. Here one sows, so as to reap there; if indeed one sows. For who is it who sows here so as to reap there? He who gives to the poor. Giving to the poor is sowing in the land. Sow here, and there you will find the harvest: it is not cut in summer so as to pass away, but it is both eaten and remains with joy. For there you will be filled with righteousness. That land has its bread. Who is this bread? He who came to us from there: “I am,” he says, “the living bread who came down from heaven.” What is this bread like? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

We have heard of the bread of that land; let us hear of the mountain too. “They will dwell,” it says, “on my holy mountain.” For I think we find in another holy Scripture that the mountain is Christ himself. He who is the bread is also the mountain: bread, because he feeds the Church; mountain, because the Church is his body. The Church itself is the mountain; and what is the Church itself? The body of Christ. Add the head to it, and it becomes one man: head and body, one man. Who is the head? He who was born of the Virgin Mary, who took on mortal flesh without sin, who was beaten by the Jews, scourged, despised, crucified; who was handed over for our offenses and rose for our justification. He is the head of the Church; he is the bread from that land. And what is his body? His wife, that is, the Church. “For the two shall be in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak of Christ and the Church.” So too the Lord in the Gospel, when he was speaking of husband and wife: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.” So he willed God the Christ and the Church to be one man. There is the head; here are the members. He did not will to rise with the members but before the members, so that the members might have something to hope for. But the head willed to die for this reason, that the head might rise first; that the head might go first into heaven, so that the other members might have hope in their head and expect to be fulfilled in themselves what was promised in the head. For what need was there for Christ to die, the Word of God, through whom all things were made, of whom it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made through him”? And yet he is crucified, and mocked, and pierced with a lance, and buried; and all things were made through him. But since he deigned to be the head of the Church, the Church would despair of her own rising if she saw that her head had not risen. So the head rose, and the head was seen to rise. He was seen first by women, and it was announced to men. Women first saw the risen Lord; the Gospel was announced by women to the apostles, who were to be its evangelists, and through women Christ was announced to them. For “evangelium” means “good news” in Latin. Those who know Greek know what “evangelium” is. “Evangelium,” then, is good news. What news can we call as good as that our Savior has risen? Or what greater thing were they to preach than what the women announced to them? But why did a woman announce the Gospel? Because through a woman death was to be repaired. For a woman announcing life consoled the woman who announced death, since she had died by offering death. Through a woman Adam was led astray so as to fall into death; through a woman Christ was announced, risen now and never to die. So we too shall rise, and we shall be the holy mountain of God. In this mountain dwells he who is devoted to God. “But those who are devoted to me will possess the land and will dwell on my holy mountain”; that is, they will not withdraw from the Church. Now let us labor in the Church; afterward we shall inherit the Church. For when our joy is eternal there, we shall be there only as possessors, and we shall not labor.

But let us find this mountain clearly elsewhere, for here it seems somewhat obscure. Someone may say, “Where is the Church a mountain? And when is Christ a mountain? And when is the body of Christ a mountain?” Daniel says it most clearly; no one has any doubt about it. Daniel saw a vision; surely it needs no expositor now? Let your Charity see. Perhaps some words there need explanation, and they will be laid open to you, explained in the name of Christ. See whether it can be said of anyone but Christ. “I saw,” said Daniel, “and behold, a stone cut from the mountain without hands.” He did not say, “That stone was without hands,” but that the stone was cut from the mountain without human work: no human hands came near to cut the stone from the mountain. Your Charity knows that stones are not cut from a mountain without human hands coming near. But that one was cut from the mountain without hands, and it came and broke all the kingdoms of the earth. I do not know whether anyone comes before your eyes but Christ, of whom it was said, “All the kings of the earth will worship him.” He broke all the kingdoms of the earth. A proud king wants to have no king before him; now all kings have Christ as their king. He broke all the kingdoms of the earth, then, so that he might reign. And what does the prophet say? “That stone grew and became a great mountain, so that it filled the whole face of the earth.” Now I think you recognize Christ. You have heard of the land: “Those who are devoted to me will possess the land.” You have heard of the mountain too: “And they will dwell on my holy mountain.” Having these promises, then, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. But perhaps you want to know what being cut without hands means. For this is set down there somewhat obscurely. To some, indeed, it has already occurred before I say it; but let them bear a little delay for the sake of others, who cannot think of it unless they hear something from us. What is “without hands”? Without the work of man. And let your Charity notice this too, brothers: the stone cut from the mountain has become a mountain. Cut from a mountain, it also became a mountain by growing. But what kind of mountain? Not like the one from which it was cut; for of the mountain from which it was cut it was not said, “It grew and filled the whole earth.” There are two mountains, then: the first mountain is the Synagogue, the second the Church; the first mountain the people of the Jews, the second the Christian people. But so that the Christian people might become a great mountain and fill the whole earth, the stone was cut from that mountain, because Christ came from the Jews. Why, then, without hands? Without human work. For Christ was born of a virgin, conceived without the embrace of a husband.

So we have this mountain plain to see. Let us not set before ourselves mountains such as Giddaba, or any others that are named to us. For sometimes people take things carnally. For example, they read, “He will hear him from his holy heaven,” and sometimes “from the mountain,” which speaks of Christ; and people run to a mountain to pray, as though God would hear them there. Thinking carnally, because they often see clouds clinging to the sides of mountains, they climb mountains so as to be near God. Do you want to reach God by your prayer? Humble yourself. Again, because we have said, “Do you want to reach God? Humble yourself,” do not take it carnally and go down into underground vaults to pray to God there. Seek neither underground vaults nor a mountain. Have humility in your heart, and God will give you height; he will come to you and be with you in your chamber. So, as we have Christ as the mountain, we have the Church; let us love the Church. This mountain has grown and filled the whole world. It is plain that those are not in this mountain who are in a part of it and do not hold the whole earth with us. Remember, brothers, that every page arms and equips us against the tongues of men that we suffer every day. If it had said, “That mountain grew and filled all Africa,” would they not say that it is the party of Donatus? It has silenced their tongues by growing. It has grown so much as to stop the mouths of the talkative. For where did it go by growing? Through the whole earth. For the mountain from which it was cut did not fill the whole earth by growing: for even if the Jews have filled the whole earth, it is because they were defeated and lost their land; they were scattered through the earth by the punishment of their deserts, not by the greatness of their growth. But the Lord Christ, the cornerstone, subdued the kingdoms of men, broke the kingdoms of demons, humbled all kings so that he might grow; he grew and filled the whole face of the earth. I dare to say, he is still growing; there are still places that he is filling.

You, then, love this mountain, and prepare yourself to dwell on this mountain forever; and cleanse yourself from all defilement of flesh and spirit, since you have these promises. What promises? If you want to possess the land and dwell on the holy mountain, cleanse yourself from all defilement of flesh and spirit. What are defilements of the flesh? Let your Charity pay attention; we must say this too. What are defilements of the flesh? Not when a man passing by chance touches something with his foot, or even with his face; or if a man happens to slip and fall so that he lands in mud or filth, his face is defiled. That defilement is easy to deal with; as people say, it is washed and it goes away. But the defilement of the flesh that must be avoided comes only from a defilement of the spirit, and so it defiles the flesh. What is defilement of the spirit? Lust. Defilement of the flesh? The commission of adultery. You have the two: lust has arisen, and already the spirit is defiled; adultery has not yet followed, and the flesh is not yet defiled. But what good is it that the flesh is clean, if the inhabitant of the flesh is unclean? The man who perhaps is clean in the flesh God holds to be an adulterer in the heart, as the Lord says: “Amen, I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This is defilement of the spirit. When, then, is sanctification perfect? When it is of both flesh and spirit. For there are people who restrain themselves from deeds and do not restrain themselves from evil thoughts: they cleanse the flesh and do not cleanse the spirit. Such people refrain only because they fear men. Lust burns; fear calls them back. What do you fear? To be found out and condemned; to be found out and exposed. So the flesh seems undefiled, but the sanctification is not perfect. For what does the apostle say? “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit”: so that as you restrain yourself from evil deeds, so you may restrain yourself from evil will and evil thoughts. Refrain from the evil deed, and you cleanse yourself from defilement of the flesh; abstain from evil will, and you cleanse yourself from defilement of the spirit.

And there follows: “perfecting sanctification in the fear of God.” Magnificently he added, “in the fear of God.” See, man does not perfect sanctification except in the fear of God. What is perfect sanctification? Sanctification both of body and of spirit. If it is of the body and not of the spirit, it is imperfect. For there cannot be sanctification of the spirit without that of the body. There can be sanctification of the body and not of the spirit; there cannot be sanctification of the spirit and not of the body. For whoever is clean in spirit cannot commit shameful deeds. Why? “For out of the heart come,” says the Lord, “adulteries, murders.” A man cannot carry out with his members what he has not first said to himself in his heart. He conceived the word in his heart, and it was put into action. That is why the Lord says in a certain place, “Cleanse what is within, and what is without will be clean.” He did not say, “Cleanse what is without.” If he had begun from the body, it would remain for him to warn us to cleanse the mind as well; but if he begins from the mind, there is no need for us to cleanse the body, because cleanness of body follows cleanness of mind. So the apostle Paul, because he began from the flesh, needed to speak of the spirit too, “perfecting sanctification”: “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit”; because the flesh can be undefiled, not committing adulteries, acts of sexual immorality, and such things, and yet there can be lusts, thoughts, and evil wills in the soul. And he added, “perfecting sanctification in the fear of God.” Who, then, achieves sanctification of the body and not of the soul? The one who fears men and not God. For whoever is in the fear of God perfects sanctification. You certainly did not want to commit adultery for fear that a man might know; by fear of men you kept your flesh from committing evil; that is why you did not want to do it where man sees. If you fear God as well, do not do it there either, where God sees, and you have perfected sanctification. Pay attention: “Oh, if only I could get to that woman!” someone says; “but I cannot: she is carefully guarded, she has a watchful husband, I have no go-between; if I dare, I will be caught.” He makes, as it were, a cleansing of the body; but within, because he wills it, he does not make a cleansing of the spirit. He was afraid to do it in the body lest a man see; and he is not afraid to do it within, where God sees. He avoids the eye of man and does not fear the eye of God. Who, then, perfects sanctification? The one who is in the fear of God: “perfecting sanctification in the fear of God.” Fear of men can perhaps keep the body from uncleanness; but only the fear of God can keep the soul. Has he sanctified his mind? He need not worry about his body. Let the one who is clothed be clean, and the garment itself will be clean. Let the inhabitant be good and sound, and he need not fear the collapse of his house.

What, then, is this flesh? We ought not to despise it. What is it? Grass, but it will be gold. Do not despise the grass: it will be changed into gold. For he who was able to change water into wine is able to change grass into gold and to make an angel out of flesh. If he made man out of filth, will he not make an angel out of man? Let your Charity consider from what man was made, and see whether we even want to think about it. Out of this filth he made man and set him over the other living creatures; will he not make an angel out of man? He certainly will. He made men his friends; will he not make them angels? “I will no longer call you servants, but friends.” To men still bearing flesh, still dying, still living in this need and frailty of life, he said, “I will no longer call you servants, but friends.” And what will he give his friends? What he showed in himself when he rose. They will be crowned and changed into heavenly glory, and they will be equal to the angels of God. There will be no corruption, no stirring of desire. It will not be said to us there, “Cleanse yourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.” We shall not labor, nor will a reward be promised us, because we shall already have received it. Nor will we be told to groan, because we shall already be praising. For as mortal flesh is changed into an angel’s body, so groaning will be changed into praises. Here there is repentance, distress, and groaning; there, praises, gladness, and joy. Afterward, then: now there is no gladness. But where is it? In hope. You do not yet hold it, but you rejoice in hoping; because he who promised cannot deceive; because he who promised both has and gives.

That all our hope is in Christ, and that he is all our true and saving glory, your Charity has not learned for the first time now. For you are in the flock of him who watches over and shepherds Israel. But since there are shepherds who like to enjoy the name of shepherds but do not want to fulfill a shepherd’s office, let us review what he says to them through the prophet, as we heard it read. You, listen with attention; let us listen with trembling. “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.” We heard this reading just now when it was read; from it we have decided to say something to your Holiness. He will help us to say what is true, if we do not say what is our own. For if we say what is our own, we shall be shepherds feeding ourselves, not the sheep; but if what we say is his, he will feed you through whomever he pleases. “Thus says the Lord God: O shepherds of Israel, who feed only themselves! Do not shepherds feed the sheep?” That is, shepherds do not feed themselves, but the sheep. This is the first reason why these shepherds are rebuked: that they feed themselves, not the sheep. Who are those who feed themselves? Those of whom the apostle says, “For all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.” For we, whom the Lord in his condescension, not for our merit, has set in this place, of which a dangerous account must be given, have two things: one, that we are Christians; the other, that we are set over you. That we are Christians is for our own sake; that we are set over you is for yours. In our being Christians our own benefit is considered; in our being set over you, only yours. There are many Christians who are not set over others and who reach God by a perhaps easier road, walking perhaps the more freely, the lighter the load they carry. But we, besides being Christians, for which we shall give God an account of our life, are also set over you, for which we shall give God an account of our stewardship. I set out this difficulty for this reason, that you may sympathize with us and pray for us. For the day will come when all things will be brought into judgment. And that day, even if it is far off for the world, is near for each person as the last day of his life. Yet God willed both to be hidden: both when the end of the world will come and when the end of this life will come for each person. Do you want not to fear the hidden day? When it comes, let it find you ready. Since, then, those set over others exist to take care of those subject to them, let them not look in their office to their own benefit at all, but to the benefit of those whom they serve. Whoever is set over others in such a way that he rejoices in being over them, seeks his own honor, and looks only to his own advantage, feeds himself and not the sheep. This word is directed to such men. Listen as God’s sheep, and see how God has made you secure: whatever those set over you may be, that is, whatever we may be, he who shepherds Israel has given you security. For God does not abandon his sheep; the bad shepherds will pay the penalties they owe, and the sheep will receive what was promised.

Let us see, then, what the divine word, which flatters no one, says to the shepherds who feed themselves and not the sheep. “See, you consume the milk and clothe yourselves with the wool, and you kill what is fat, and you do not feed my sheep. The weak you have not strengthened; what was sick you have not made strong; what was broken you have not bound up; what was straying you have not called back; what was lost you have not sought; and what was strong you have destroyed. And my sheep were scattered because there was no shepherd.” It is said to the shepherds who feed themselves, not the sheep, what they love and what they neglect. What, then, do they love? “You consume the milk and clothe yourselves with the wool.” That is why the apostle says, “Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who shepherds a flock and does not get some of the milk of the flock?” We find, then, that the milk of the flock is whatever God’s people give to those set over them for the support of their temporal living. For this is what the apostle was speaking about when he said what I have quoted.