Tractates 12–13

On the saying of the Lord Jesus: "Now is the judgment of this world." After that voice of God the Father in which he had said that the Son, already glorified, was to be glorified again, where the Saviour told the crowds standing round (as we discussed recently) that the testimony of this voice had been given not for the sake of his honour but to instruct our faith, what the same Lord immediately added is shown by the text of this Gospel reading which has just been gone through. "Now," he says, "is the judgment of this world." I think we must consider, dearest brothers, what kind of judgment he said was then imminent. If he had wished it to be understood of the future judgment, by which this world will be judged by fire, he would not have said "now is," but "then will be"; but since he was speaking of a present judgment, we should look at what that present judgment of the world was. Will Christ be thought to have judged the world at his first coming, when it is known that he rather saved it, as he himself testified, saying: "For God did not send his Son to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him"? And in the Gospel of blessed Luke we read that when a certain village of Samaria would not receive the Saviour, the apostles James and John, taking it ill, said to him: "Lord, do you want us to say that fire should come down from heaven upon them and consume them, as Elijah did?" But he was indignant and forbade it. O merciful anger!

What, then, does he mean by "Now is the judgment of this world"? Judgment, brothers, can be understood in two ways. For the sentence of one who decides is called judgment, and the punishment of one who suffers is called a penalty; one judgment belongs to the one acting, the other to the one undergoing. The judge makes a judgment, the accused undergoes it; and it is a judgment of both. When Scripture says that the world either makes or undergoes judgment, it does not indicate the natures of the irrational elements, but signifies the inhabitants of the world; just as when "the house of Israel" is spoken of, not walls or roofs but Israelite men are meant. So Christ, the ruler of all, after the unheard-of childbirth of the holy Virgin, after the cradle adored by the generous worship of the magi, after the manifold teaching of heavenly speech, after the remedies of various cures effected by the command of a mighty word, after this present testimony of the Father, being now near to his passion, says thus: "Now is the judgment of this world": as if he said, "Now, now is the judgment of this world: whether it chooses to believe in him who, after a voluntary passion, rises by his own power, so as to be saved by faith; or judges, with the Jews, that he must be denied, the Judge who will deny those who deny him, saying to them: I do not know you; depart from me into the eternal fire, you workers of iniquity." Or rather (and we approve this as the more useful sense, on the authority of the connected words), "Now is the judgment of this world": that is, the hour has drawn near for the world, which is to be judged, to judge the Creator and Judge of the world. For likewise in the Gospel of Luke he speaks to the chief priests and elders and captains, the magistrates of the temple, who had come to arrest him: "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, when I was with you daily in the temple and you did not stretch out your hands against me? But this," he says, "is your hour, and the power of darkness." The power of darkness is that of this world, or of worldly men, who, set in the darkness of faithlessness, will not look at the light of truth; and since God has allowed men free choice to do whatever they will, they exercise a sacrilegious power against Christ. Hence, when Pilate said, "I have power to crucify you, and I have power to release you," the Lord answered thus: "You would have no power unless it had been given you from above."

Finally, to show that this judgment of the world of which he had spoken was his passion, the Lord joined it thus, saying: "Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be sent down," or "will be cast out," as we read in the Greek copies. For the passion of Christ was to be the overthrow of the devil. Hence the holy prophet David speaks to his person: "That you may be justified in your words and conquer when you are judged." Although this verse can be understood in another sense too, it fits this one well enough; for the Lord Jesus in his passion is judged and conquers, dies and triumphs. Note why the devil is called the prince of this world. The devil is called prince of this world by usurpation, not by nature. For by seducing the human race to abandon God and worship Satan himself through images made with hands, he held the princedom by violence and exercised a tyranny, so far that the world did not recognize its true Prince when he came, blinded by the very tricks of the devil. For "Christ was in this world," as the evangelist testifies, "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." The Lord, then, suffered himself to be judged by the judgment of this world in order to cast down, or cast out, this enemy of the human race, since both are known to be one; and perceive in what way they are one. The devil did not live in flat and low places, so that, driven from there, he might be thought able to pass to another place without falling; but when he is driven out of the heavenly height, he is of course cast headlong downward. Significantly the Greek has ἐκβληθήσεται ἔξω, that is, "will be thrown out," or "will be driven out"; so that he might be known to be driven also out of the souls of believers, which are now heavenly, as from the heavens; so that, he being driven out, Christ the Lord might reign in us.

Therefore he added: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself." And that by being lifted up from the earth he undoubtedly meant the gibbet of the cross, the words of the evangelist interposed declare thus: "He said this signifying by what death he was going to die." "When I am lifted up from the earth," he says, "I will draw all things to myself": namely, that, raised on the cross, he would call the whole world to his faith. But in saying "I will draw all things to myself," and not "all men," I think he signified that Christ promised to call back to his blessing and to consecrate to his name all the kinds of creatures that were either sacrificed or dedicated to idols. For it is necessary, according to the sentence of the apostle Paul, that every tongue confess him and the whole world become subject to God: to this God, namely, "who ascended above the heaven of heavens to the east," as the Psalmist says; to this God who, "when he ascended on high, led captivity captive."

We must plainly beware, dearest brothers, lest by our own vice we make void the victory of Christ, by which he triumphed over the devil, redeeming us from his captivity by his precious blood and taking from him the princedom over the human race; subjecting ourselves again through the enticements of the flesh to his tyranny and his cruel reign, to the insult of the Redeemer; so that he might rightly complain, rebuking and reproaching: "What profit is there in my blood?" "My blood was shed for you in vain if you so conduct yourselves and so live that the devil, the author of evil desires, rules again in you, a proud robber taunting the victor that he has snatched back the spoils from him." For he said: "I will pursue and overtake, I will divide the spoils, I will fill my soul; I will kill with my sword, my hand shall rule." For this reason the most blessed apostle Paul exhorts us, saying: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal flesh, and do not present your members as weapons of iniquity to sin, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead." And again elsewhere: "For this Christ both lived and died and rose again, that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead"; that, namely, "those who live may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again." Taught by such instruments, then, brothers, let us bind our whole life to the service of Christ, whose kingdom remains with the Father and with the Holy Spirit for all ages. Amen.

Against … Through all the books of the divine oracles the Son of God is proclaimed not only God but also man and son of man. In the Old Testament he is foretold and promised; in the New he is shown and believed; since the old Law, as the Apostle says, was a shadow of the good things to come: of those good things, namely, which are known to be fulfilled in Christ, by which he, the man of the human race, born today through the most blessed Virgin, restored the image that had been corrupted by the poisonous bite of the serpent, so that he who had been its maker from the beginning of the world might be its restorer at the consummation of the age. Who is able to marvel worthily at this kindness? Who stands forth as a fit preacher of so great a goodness? Who is able to declare that the immense and inestimable God willed for the sake of our life to become what man is, and that the founder of all the heavenly powers came down to the lowliness of this earthly flesh? Yet he was so made man for us that he did not cease to be what God is. For although "the Word was made flesh," as the evangelist testifies, yet because he remains what he was before he was man, it is added at once, "and dwelt among us"; by which saying both the dweller and the dwelling are shown together. So he began to be what he was not before in such a way that he did not cease to be what he was.

This omnipotence of the Son of God and of man is attested also by his virgin mother, who, conceiving by the Holy Spirit, so brought forth the God and man whom she had carried in her chaste womb that in the incorrupt mother of so great a name a more glorious integrity remained after the divine birth. We have rightly said "divine birth," because he who was born in the flesh through the Virgin is God, as the archangel Gabriel says to her: "The holy one who will be born of you will be called the Son of God." For from the moment he took the flesh of our frailty, the same is the Son of man who is also the Son of God; because none other was born of Mary than he who, gliding in through his mother's ears, filled the Virgin's womb, forming his own man, that is, by the Holy Spirit, since "Wisdom has built herself a house": the dwelling of our body, now his own, with which he was clothed; and he comes forth without any harm to his mother's integrity. For the most blessed Mary, giving birth to the incorruptible one, is both mother and virgin. Let this be my brief statement to show the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God.

Now I come to explain a part of that Gospel reading which had long ago been passed over because other matters pressed. For, as you remember, we discussed the whole text of the reading about the Lord reclining at supper in Bethany, explaining the reclining, the meaning of the place and time, Martha's service, her sister's devotion, the power of the ointment, and the meaning of the hair with which Mary wiped Christ's feet anointed with precious myrrh; and how Judas, the adversary of a devout and due service, while he wishes to appear the patron of the poor, is convicted as guilty of theft. But we omitted, or rather reserved, what the Lord Jesus said meanwhile. "Let her alone," he says, or "Let her alone" in the plural: for both are found in both the Greek and the Latin copies; but the plural seems to fit the sense better, because of what follows in the plural: "for the poor you always have with you." We must ask, then, beloved, why the Lord answered in the plural to the words of Judas alone: "Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial; for the poor you always have with you, but me you do not always have." Truly wonderful and exceedingly provident patience of Christ! He speaks to all the disciples in common, so as to soften the insult of Judas who opposed him; nor does he inveigh sharply against him as a cheat, but, passing over the crime of one whom the evangelist too knew to be a thief, he instructs them all together with a gentle warning, teaching meanwhile that what Mary had done had necessarily been performed toward him for the mystery of his burial; while there could be abundant opportunity for those who wished to give to the poor at any time, because they are always with us; but that he himself would not long be ministered to by anyone in the flesh, since, rising after his imminent passion, he would at once lead the body he had assumed to heaven. And Christ empties Judas's words with the gentleness mentioned and a general warning for this reason: lest he should either give Judas himself an occasion to excuse his rage, or give any of the apostles a scruple, if one perhaps suspected Judas's suggestion to be devout, or at any rate lest he should leave a stumbling block for anyone who would read it later. For Judas, though out of zeal for fraud and hatred of the Saviour, had nevertheless, under the pretext of piety, brought out those very words of deceit: "Why," he says, "was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" Exceedingly irreligious and rather tactless as a manager, while he tries to cover the feeling of a greedy cheat, his own crime that is, under the appearance of religion, he revealed it. Irreligious plainly, and tactless, because what had been done for the honour of Christ he not only counted superfluous but also reproved with most wicked words. A cheat as well, because, holding the purse, he carried off what was sent for the use of the needy, as the evangelist complains. Greedy too, since he was not satisfied with daily stealing the stipends of the poor, but burned to turn even the price of Christ's burial into his own gain; yet he turned it not into the momentary gain of his greed but into the perpetual loss of his salvation. For not long after he lost, together with his life, everything that either the impious thief had gathered from his frauds or the sacrilegious betrayer of Christ had received as the wages of iniquity. For, strangled by the consciousness of these crimes, he brought on himself the death he deserved with a noose he had prepared, to be swept off at once to the punishments of hell. That the ointment served the Lord's burial the same Saviour declared more openly in the Gospel of Matthew: "In pouring this ointment on my body," he says, "she has done it to bury me."

Although, then, the Lord Jesus was the judge of consciences, he did not wish to rebuke Judas too sharply about his hidden things, lest, since he seemed to have spoken with plausible reason, he might be thought to have been unjustly reproved, and from this to have conceived a just cause of anger, so as to hand over to his enemies to be killed one whom he had made hostile without any fault of his. Christ, then, wished to say nothing harsh in keeping with the deserts of that wicked mind, lest Judas should seem to have betrayed him in anger. For the Lord, the truly just judge, wills that each be the cause of his own deserts; he wills that the just man suffer for righteousness alone; he wills that the wicked, if he persists in malice, be judged guilty of death by his own choice. For God formed man, as Scripture testifies, and made him in the image of his likeness, "and left him in the hand of his own counsel. He set before him fire and water, saying: To whichever you will, stretch out your hand." God set before man, it says, water and fire, that is, refreshment and punishment, remission and torment, life and death. Who, I ask, would not flee torment, punishment and death, and choose refreshment, remission and life? But he flees death who walks on the paths of the life-giving commandments; he receives the gift of life who avoids deadly acts by the labour of spiritual pursuits. And therefore it is said: "Behold, water and fire: to whichever you will, stretch out your hand," that is, your work. For works are shown in the hand, because we can neither be subjected to torments without crime nor earn the reward without a contest, as the Apostle says: "Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath?" and again: "For no one is crowned who strives in the contest unless he has striven lawfully." Our contest is against the vices of the flesh, against the desire for money, against anger of the mind; these are the devil's weapons, which must be resisted with the helmet of faith, the breastplate of continence, and the shield of mercy, with which we can, as the Apostle says, "extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one."

For "as water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving resists sin": that is, as the water of saving baptism extinguishes the flame of Gehenna through grace, so by the river of almsgiving all that fire of sins heaped up after receiving the faith is extinguished; provided that after conversion it does not blaze up again with renewed crimes. For he who, being penitent, seeks a remedy for sins in almsgiving must no longer do things to be repented of, lest what is extinguished on one side be kindled on another. We have spoken of a "river" of almsgiving so that you might sense the generosity of giving; but rare is the man who sprinkles even a dew of alms that will profit his own refreshment. A Christian comes out of church and passes by the begging poor man with deaf ears. Is it thus that God will hear us when we pray? Is it thus that we shall deserve to be protected by divine help amid the dangers of the threatening barbarians? For it is written that fasting with almsgiving is good. Both ought to be done to soften the Lord's indignation. But perhaps you cannot fast; and you cannot because you will not; then at least give food to the hungry. You who cannot fast three hours beyond your custom will surely be able to understand what he suffers who fasts unwillingly through poverty, whom your cruelty makes fast, you who, fattened on lavish dishes, do not think of consoling the hunger of the needy man even with a little food. You plead a bad harvest, you allege necessities, you complain of the straits of the times: you beg more shamefully than that needy man; rather, you show yourself ungrateful to God while you complain falsely. But suppose it is so: if there has been a bad harvest, do you alone feel it, I ask, and does that poor man not feel it? What of the fact that you strive every day to gain new silver? That you build houses of marble? That you buy silk garments? That you purchase necklaces precious with gold and gems? I am ashamed to say it, it grieves me to recall, how great a number of the peasants on the estates of those who live in the pomp I have described have either died of hunger or been kept alive by the alms of the church. O dreadful wickedness! Men have died in whom lies the whole wealth of the owner; so blinded are they by excessive greed that they do not even look to the advantages of the present time.

Beginning, then, with our own, dearest ones, let us do good to the needy and wretched; let us supply food, drink and clothing to those in want, because the Lord is the just rewarder of such works; who, when he comes in his majesty, will bestow the kingdom of heaven on those who fed the poor, set on the right for their merit; but, on the contrary, will decree that the inhuman and impious be burned in eternal fires, saying that he himself was either cherished by kindness or neglected by cruelty in the poor. So great is our Saviour's affection for his poor. Let us strive, then, to love Christ in the poor too, who loved us in all things, and who, like a good shepherd, laid down his life for his sheep. But if I begin to explain by what duties you may prove your love toward the Lord, I do not know whether you will love me as I speak, I do not know whether you will gladly hear me; unless perhaps you are so devout that, as you delighted a little while ago in the divine benefits, so you also desire to obey his precepts and embrace learning what duties of love must be practised toward God. The Lord himself says what kind of love each believer ought to have for him: "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me." For he loves God perfectly who both has his precepts in his heart and keeps them in his work. For he who, with a perfunctory confession, repeats the divine commandments only with his mouth, and neither retains them in his mind nor keeps them in deeds, can by no means say, "I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart, in the council of the just and in the congregation"; but he must needs hear, with the synagogue of the despising people, God rebuking him through the prophet: "This people loves me with its lips, but their heart is far from me." "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked." Or do you think that the lukewarm and negligent Christian loves God, who allows idols to be worshipped on his estates; who suffers a shrine of a demon and an altar of the devil to stand, to the insult of God; who does not cease to commit adulteries and acts of sexual immorality; who daily seizes others' property and daily covets it; eager to destroy his neighbour by whatever means, so that he may more freely satisfy his pleasure or his greed, though he can never fill it? For the constancy of sexual immorality does not restrain the luxury of the flesh but inflames it, as the prophet says: "All who commit fornication, their hearts are like a burning oven." The rapacity of the plunderer too does not suppress avarice but provokes it; for it is written: "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money." Nor does he love God who has no pity on the poor, in whom Christ declares that he is either cherished or neglected. "For what you did not do," he says, "for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." And the apostle John says in his letter: "He who sees his brother in need and shuts his heart against him, the love of God is not in him." He lies, then, who says he loves Christ, who does not love him in the needy, who denies by works the love he promises in words.

Let each one strive, then, to prove by deeds of mercy that he loves God, so that the love of God may wash him from every sin. Do you want to know how much alms lighten the burdens of sins? Hear the counsel that the prophet Daniel presses on a sinful rich man: "Now, O king," he says, "let my counsel please you: redeem your iniquities with alms, and your sins with mercies to the poor." But perhaps you think that what you deny the poor is saved for you or for your children. I do not want you to be so dangerously anxious; for you do not know what the following day may bring forth. Our God is able to give to them too, as to you; indeed, whatever you have given to the poor you have conferred both on yourself and on your children. Nothing can be lacking to those whom you have made Christ a partner with. He knows how to repay who declares that he receives in the poor. Give without anxiety; for he who promises the kingdom of heaven is a sufficient repayer. The divine Scripture says: "Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it will pray for you to God"; that is to say, sell your patrimony and buy a patron, by whose intervention, certain of obtaining pardon, you may be worthy to look freely on the Judge who will come. And in the Gospel: "If you wish to be perfect," he says, "sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." If we are commanded to give away everything, let us note what guilt awaits those men and women who wear silk and purple and golden garments if they do not cover the naked with any clothing at all. Some women load their own limbs or their daughters' with gold and pearls, and with dry hands pass by the crowds of the poor who beg. For brute animals too, horses and mules, they make delicate ornaments of silver and gold, and to a man made in the image of God they do not give even the cheapest clothing or food. And do they think they will find any rest on the day of judgment unless at least from now on they take up works of kindness? I beg you, let us be merciful to the poor, so that we too, according to the Lord's word, may obtain mercy. Both the rich and those of middling means must vie in giving alms according to their strength: "For we brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out." "Naked I came out of my mother's womb," says holy Job, "naked I shall return to the earth." Each one carries with him, from the means he has received, only what he has spent on works of religion, what he has done for the love of God in obedience to his precepts; for it will be said on the day of judgment, "Behold the man and his works"; it will not be said, "Behold the man and his power, his riches, and his heirs." He who entrusted the precepts requires the works; he is the repayer of mercy who taught kindness, who laid down that love for him should be proved in keeping his precepts. For he counts as given to himself whatever has been given to the needy. Hence we read elsewhere: "He who has pity on the poor lends to God." And he truly lends; for he will receive great things for small, and heavenly for earthly, from the everlasting Son of God himself, whose kingdom remains with the Father and with the Holy Spirit for all ages.