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Post by Hildegard on May 12, 2019 0:36:57 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon on St. James, Apostle (Eph 2:1)
"[He] grows up into a holy temple in the Lord," (Eph 2:1) This is read in today's epistle. For a brief statement of these words, and for an introduction to our material, it must be known that there is clearly found in Holy Scripture this difference between the life of the good and just, and that of the wicked. For the life of the just -- of the good -- always grows and is augmented; the life of the wicked however shrinks and is diminished. The text indeed says, "But the path of the just, " that is, strictly the way of penitence, of the fear of God and devotion, "as a shining light, goes forwards and increases even to perfect day. The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall," (Prov 4:18-19). Note as if "the shining light goes forwards." From which it goes out, it continuously ascends, and brightens the more at the hour of prime than at dawn., and at terce than at prime, and so on. So it is in the life of the just; it continually grows. The reason for this difference between the good and the wicked is, because just persons are in the grace of God. Behold here the light. And whatever they do, they deliberate, whether they be thoughts of the heart, or sayings of the mouth, or works of the body. What is more, natural functions are meritorious for them. About thoughts and the rest there is no doubt, from the fact that they are in grace, but of natural functions, like eating, that they might serve God. Same for sleeping , even laughter, that afterwards they might weep. All is meritorious, so that one good person always ascends. He is better today than yesterday, and tomorrow than today, and so the Apostle assigns a reason when he says, "And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good," (Rom 8:28), even past sins, as the Gloss says. Reason: because when he thinks on sins committed, a just person becomes more humble, and so they sometimes are turned to merit. But sinners do not ascend, rather they descend from sin into sin. Gregory says "…a sin, which is not washed away through penitence, by its own weight soon drags (one) to another (sin)," (Morals on the Book of Job, Bk. XXV, ch. 9, n. 22). Behold the difference between the good and the wicked. And so wishing to show us the holy and perfect life of St. James, we have taken the theme of growth, how, living in this world, saying he "…grows up into a holy temple in the Lord," (Eph 2:1). The theme is clear.
And now I turn to the matter to be preached. I find that St. James grew in three stages:
First, he grew as an apostolic disciple (discipulum apostolicam).
Second he grew as an evangelical envoy (legatum evangelicalem),
Third, as a celestial dweller (habitatorem caelestialem).
Three strides which he made up to heaven are subtly touched upon in the theme, the first is touched in the first word, the second in the second, and the third in the third.
APOSTOLIC DISCIPLE
I say that St. James first grew in apostolic discipleship. With others he would have been very holy, and this is touched upon when he says, "He grows up into a holy temple in the Lord," (Eph 2:1). For it is a theological teaching that a person living a good life is the temple of God, because the Holy Spirit dwells in him, and there is no greater honor and more useful than to cling to the king and pope, Jesus. About this the Apostle says, "Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor 3:16).
Now hear how St. James ascended that he might be an apostolic disciple. It is said that he was the brother of John, and a son of Zebedee, who when once they were at the sea of Galilee, Christ passing that way called them, saying, "Young men, come follow me." And his words had such power that they were illuminated in their intellect and enflamed in their heart, and "they forthwith left their nets and father, and followed him," (Mt 4:22). See how he grew from fisherman into an apostle of Christ.
Morally. James, coming to Christ, left behind his nets and his father. Here he sets an example for us religious, especially those who ought to follow Christ, that we leave behind our nets, that is our retinues (retinentia), according to its etymology, just as business and worldly occupations which religious, clergy and laity hold on to so that they are not able to follow after Christ. For example about religious. For business is a greater trap which the devil has for entangling religious, that he involves them in dealings so that they dismiss preaching under some excuse, either securing peace, or arranging a wedding, there they place themselves or visit that they might have friendships, or favors of the masters (ambasiatas dominorum). Many begin their holy life and preaching with great fervor and good intention, but the devil in the aforesaid dealings entangles them etc, which although they be good, nevertheless they let go of the best, namely preaching, which is the special duty in the church of God, as the Decretals has "Cum ex iniuncto," etc., "extra de haeret." The Apostle warns of these things, who was preaching to the unbelievers that they might be baptized, who out of devotion wanted to be baptized by him. Already you see that it is good to baptize, nevertheless he said, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel"(1 Cor 1;17) as if saying "I give thanks to my God that I have killed no one." Again the Apostle said, "It is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables," (Acts 6:2). And you, religious, you involve yourselves in businesses etc and you leave behind your nets etc. and scripture agrees saying to religious, "My son, meddle not with many matters…" "and if you be rich, you shall not be free from sin," (Sir 11:10). Note lest your acts might be in many things. Many are three or four etc. Two are not many. A religious has to do two things, namely to celebrate and to preach. These to David shows in Ps 106, saying, "And let them sacrifice the sacrifice of praise," the mass, which includes the whole seven of the canonical hours, "and declare his works with joy," (Ps 106:22), preaching in exultation, which preaching indeed includes study. If the religious might say, therefore can I not have money, he responds: Because if you were rich, you should not be immune from sins. The same for clerics, because many are entangled in businesses, others involve themselves in businesses in the houses of their lords, others appoint themselves procurators, others are shield bearers and associate with soldiers etc., others merchants, others moneylenders. And so the Apostle speaks against such, "No man, being a soldier to God, entangles himself with secular businesses; that he may please him to whom he has engaged himself," (2 Tim 2:4).
A cleric exercise three affairs: namely to celebrate, to minister sacraments, and to preach, or to serve the commands of the bishop. Many lay people too are entangled, because many are merchants, who would be nothing if they did not have a place in all associations. The same too for lawyers, who make themselves a part in all litigations, when it is said of the merchant. O nothing happens without him. The same about such civil servant or lawyer, because although you might have secular businesses, nevertheless they are businesses which pertain to the home and for providing for the home, and you set aside superfluous business, etc. History tells about a great and clever merchant, entangled in many businesses, to whom God says, "By the multitude of thy merchandise, your inner parts were filled with iniquity, and you have sinned: and I cast you out from the mountain of God, and destroyed you, O covering cherub,"(Ez 28:16). There begins the construction "O Cherub," that is, the fullness of knowledge for doing business, etc. And so from the example of St. James nets are left behind, otherwise behold what Christ says, "And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly," (Lk 21:34).
Second, his father is to be left behind, namely he about whom Jesus Christ said to the Jews, "You are of your father the devil," (Jn 8:44). They say how he begat sons of a wicked wife, whom he had taken from the beginning, namely of disobedience. They say how he was created in great dignity. and he was holier at that time than Michael. But because he was disobedient, wishing equality with God, then he took that wife, and from that same aforesaid wife begat a thousand thousands of children, demons obeying him and consenting in sin. Finally from the same wife he generated Adam and Eve, and today daily he begets, when he tempts men that they act against the commandments of God. When you perceive such things, immediately go after Christ, and you shall be able to say with David,"My father and my mother have left me: but the Lord has taken me up," (Ps 26:10).
EVANGELICAL ENVOY
Second, I say that St. James grew as a disciple as an evangelical envoy, which is pointed out when it is said that he "grows up into a holy temple," (Eph 2:1), because although all those who are canonized are saints, the apostles are more excellent. "He has sanctified those called," (Soph 1:7), that is, the apostles, whom he has especially called. It is said when Christ was to ascend into heaven on the day of the Ascension, having called the apostles he made them evangelical envoys saying, "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature," (Mk 16:15). Now who was the first of the apostles who fulfilled this vocation, by going out into the world? Not Peter, nor Andrew, nor John etc. But James himself. St. James having received permission from those in Jerusalem, the Virgin Mary and the apostles, journeyed to Spain, preaching Christ, for Christ had said to them, "you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth," (Acts 1:8). And so it was St. James himself who came to bear witness to the ends of the earth. His evangelical mission, therefore, is clear. One might object "It is true that he first went to Spain, but he did little good, because he converted only nine disciples there." It is said that just as Christ converted twelve apostles, who were twelve grains of wheat for bearing fruit, because the whole world was converted, so St. James. For those nine disciples were nine fruitful grains who converted all of Spain. In this he fulfilled the word of Christ who said, "In this is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples," (Jn 15:8).
Second he returned to Jerusalem, there he found the other disciples and apostles gathered, and he began to dispute there against the Jews and the priest of Hermes. They rose up against him by saying, "We will dispute with him. He never studied or wished to preach. It is said how St. James was preaching about the Trinity, how he was one God in essence and triune in persons. etc. , proving this by reasons and authorities and miracles. But the Jews and teachers were spoke out against him, deriding him: "It seems, indeed, that you are a fisherman, and never knew the scriptures, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,' (Dt 6:4)." It is told how he replied to them, offering an analogy from the one sun, where there is the Father generating, namely the substance, and the Son namely the ray generated, and the Holy Spirit, namely the heat. Again in the aforesaid citation there are found three words, namely Lord, which is the name of power, which is attributed to the Father, God, the name of wisdom, which is appropriated to the Son, and Our, the name of goodness, which is attributed to the Holy Spirit.
Second he preached that Christ is God and man, and the Jews contra, because it is against the scripture, "O Israel, if you wilt hearken to me, there shall be no new god in you: neither shall you adore a strange god," (Ps 80:9-10). I reply that although Christ began to be man recently, he however did not begin to be God recently. It is said to be like the son of a king or emperor now ten years of age, when he becomes a soldier he nevertheless does not become anew the son of the king etc.
Third when he preached about the passion of Christ, then the Jews opposed: "Why this? Since Moses said, 'The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name,' (Ex 15:3). And besides, if he had been omnipotent, why is it necessary that he suffer and die? Could he not remit all by saying: 'Let us henceforth be friends.'?" I reply that mercy and justice are in God essentially, but in us, accidentally. And therefore just as God cannot dismiss his essence, so neither his mercy and justice. If he had forgiven all, where was his justice? If all were damned by the rigor of his justice, where would have been his mercy? So he wished to find a way, that he might show simultaneously both his infinite mercy and his justice. The mercy was shown because he, innocent and without fault, willed to suffer. Justice however, by paying a most sufficient price etc., "Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows," (Is 53:4).
Fourth when he was preaching about the sacrament of the altar, etc. And the Jews opposed: "You say that the gentiles might come to your sacrifice, and you make them adore bread and wine, when nevertheless scripture says, "You shall love the Lord thy God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength," (Dt 6:5). I reply that from the beginning of the world up to the end, God wished to be adored in a corporeal form, since God in his substance cannot be seen, as in the time of Moses in the ark [of the covenant], and in the cloud, etc., and now in this image. Bread gives life. And about the use of bread David said, "Exalt you the Lord our God," this is said to clergy, "and adore his footstool," (Ps 98:5), i.e. the consecrated host, this is said for all the people. So the Jews were not able to contradict him, moreover St. James triumphed over all, and the prophecy of Christ was fulfilled, "For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay," (Lk 21:15).
CELESTIAL DWELLER
Third I say that he grew as a celestial dweller, which is shown when it is said, "He grows up into a holy temple in the Lord," (Eph 2:1). "Who is like to you, O people, who are saved by the Lord?" (Dt 33:29). This is especially said of the apostles. Just as St. James was the first apostle to exercise the evangelical mission, so he was the first of the apostles who entered paradise. And here it can happen such a consequence, because just as he is called James the Greater, although the other was older by some days, so also he entered paradise first and can be said to be greater than the other apostles. It is called his martyrdom. The Jews seeing that they could not overcome him with arguments, resorted again to king Herod, who desiring to please the Jews, issued a sentence of beheading against St. James. It is told that as he was led to martyrdom, he cured a man suffering from dropsy.
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Post by Hildegard on May 19, 2019 1:47:13 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon on Perseverance (Mt 10:22) On perseverance in good works at all time and not only in Lent, according to the most blessed Vincent, which sermon he preached in St. Giles in Britain,
where there was an abbey of monks, and it was on the day of Saints Tiburtius and Valerian (Apr. 14), Thursday of the First Sunday after the Octave of Easter "He who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," (Mt. 10:22).
Because some simpletons err saying that are we bound to live a good life only in Lent, I wish now to declare how we must live well not only in Lent but at all times. But first the Virgin Mary is saluted. "He who shall persevere." etc. Authority: St. Gregory, an excellent doctor of the holy church wishing to declare the virtue and perfection of good works, briefly said so in his Easter homily, "The virtue of good works is perseverance." The reason is: Geometers say that the spherical figure is not perfect until the circle is completed to the point from which it began, or until the end is joined to the beginning. Give an example at hand in the manner from [compassu] So Christ is the beginning and the end of all things. Whence he says Rev 1, "I am Alpha and Omega," – The first letter of the Greek alphabet is alpha and the last , omega. In the alphabet of the Jews the first letter is aleph, the last thau.— He wishes to say ,"I am Alpha and Omega," that is I am the beginning and the end of all good. If therefore Christ is the beginning of a good life, therefore it should also end in him, because "All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made," Jn 1:3, otherwise it would be a minor thing to begin a good life unless it is continued. Therefore Gregory says "The virtue of a good life is perseverance." Therefore the theme says, "He who shall persevere," namely from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, from year to year, "unto the end," that is Christ, "he shall be saved," (Mt. 10:22). See the declared theme. Now, good people, out of love for you I have sought out in sacred scriptures how many ways, in general, in which we ought to persevere unto the end, and I have found in three: First, by doing good diligently, Second, by bearing evils patiently, Third, by praying to God reverently Therefore whoever shall persevere unto the end in these three, will be saved. The rest we shall see one at a time. DOING GOOD DILIGENTLY First I say that we ought to persevere in doing good diligently not only for Lent but at all times, each one in his own state of life: priests, religious, and laity. Do you priests know what you should do and observe? Diligently and perseveringly you should devoutly recite your office [officiare], maintain honorable associations, and celebrate with dignity. O what glory is prepared for such a priest. Religious should keep their rule, vows, obedience, poverty, chastity and the ceremonies of the cloister. O what glory is prepared for such a religious. The laity should keep the ten commandments and say your brief prayers [recitentur breviter]. For these a great glory is prepared, by persevering in good works up to the end. Dear people, you have heard well the reason. When a certain soul comes to the gate of heaven, God does not give him glory for a certain time, namely for one month, or year, or twenty etc., but he gives it without end. Do you want an authority? Mat 25: "The just, shall go into life everlasting." (v.46), that is, without termination and end. Therefore it makes good sense that the service should correspond to the salary, because according to the salary ought to be the service. Therefore from the fact that God gives glory, as long as he will be God, for ever and ever, you too ought to serve as long as you are a man. And this is the good proportion. You hear one beautiful authority of Christ about this matter, and about those who do the opposite, where there are two great secrets, Mat. 24, "And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold." (v, 12); "He who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," (Mt. 10:22). Here are two clauses. The first "because iniquity hath abounded" etc. This clause declares why many do not persevere in a good life. He replies, "And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.". For example. In religious who in the year of their novitiate are devout and ardent, keeping the rule and ceremonies completely, but after profession , or after a little while their devotion cools, their charity and love of God, when they witness the wickedness of others, who do not keep the rule, and who laugh at them. Therefore the good life slips, saying, "O I can do this just as well, the way the other does it, etc, or the others do it this way." Behold how by witnessing the evil and iniquity of others he pulls back. Therefore Christ says, "And because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold," (Mt 10:24), the many who were holding to a good life, which they let go because of seeing the evil of others. Likewise in new priests ardent in devotion, they say their office devoutly, they fast, nor do they wish to drink in taverns, or play dice, just as it is forbidden them Extra, de vita et hone. cleri. c. clerici. 2 Vivunt honeste, but because the wickedness of others abound and the sins of priests living a bad life and mocking the good, the charity of the good cools, saying when he sees other wicked ones, "O and why do I not keep a mistress like the others? or why do I not act this way etc." And so because of the abundance of wickedness of the evil ones the charity of the good cools. The same for the laity, men and women etc. Rightly it happens to such just as boiling [fervente] water in the winter, which if it is put into cold air, immediately cools and then freezes, but if it is put next to fire it does not freeze or get cold. So it is that good persons, devout and burning with charity and the love of God, when among evil people cool in their devotion, etc. Not so if they stand near the fire, namely Christ, and with good and perfect people. And check the authority which says this, Jeremiah 30: "For the multitude of your iniquity, and for your hardened sins I have done these things to you," (Jer 30:15), and it is spoken to Christianity [Christianitati]. There follows, "He who shall persevere," not caring about mockery or hurtful words, "he shall be saved," (Mt. 10:22). It is necessary that he persevere. Thus if someone serves Christ in a good life for a hundred years, and abandons the good life one hour before death, he is damned and loses the whole service of one hundred years. Now there is an argument to the contrary. If it is said, O it is amazing that for the lack of one hour, you would lose the service of a hundred years. For it is certain that it is not that way in the service of temporal lords, because they are paid of a time of service and subtract the time which they did not serve, otherwise it would be hardhearted [crudelis], because if they served one for one month, they were paid for one month, if for one year, they are paid for such, etc. Why therefore did Christ not do the same, since he is the epitome of mercy? Why does he impose damnation for the lack of one hour? It seems unfeeling, because he ought at least to compensate that man for that time in which he served. I reply that it is with good reason and justly that a man is damned and punished, if he does not persevere unto the end, even if for the whole lifetime he served Christ, and failed at the end. It is reasonable and just. To understand this better you should know, dear people, that there once was a rich merchant, who had more than a hundred thousand [francs], etc. He went to the market where he bought some extremely valuable pearls and precious jewels, and gold fabrics and things of that sort. And he spent the hundred thousand on these. Having purchased them, he tied them up in a bundle and hired a man to whom he said, "See, I have wrapped this bundle in which I have placed all my riches, and I want to go home. Will you deliver it to my house? The man replies, Indeed, how many day's [dietae, much larger than a league, a "day's journey"?] journey? The merchant says, "Ten." He tells the merchant: "You shall give me ten francs, one for every day." The merchant said, "OK [placet mihi]." This person placed the bundle of the merchant on his back and he staggered a lot. When he was in the tenth day near the home of the merchant, about a half a league away[ league, about 3 miles], the bundle was digging into his shoulder and his back hurt. He said to himself, "O, this package hurts me. I'll drop it here in a field." Then he went to the home of the merchant. And the merchant seeing him cried out, "Where is my bundle?" He replied, "I brought it near the village about a half a league, and I set it down in a field. Pay me my ten francs." "O you wretched traitor, you have lost all my goods which were in that bundle. What shall I do? And he took a sword and killed him. You say, "He should have paid?" Certainly not! Rather he deserved death, because he laid it down when he was near the home. So it is with us. Christ is the merchant, who comes from his home, paradise, to the market place of this world, to buy our precious souls. So he says to the world, "Give me the persons, and the rest take to thyself." (Gen 14:21). And he entrusts the bundle of a good life, filled with precious jewels, to him whom he inspires [tangit in corde] to live well. Whence to live and act well are works of God, and the defects are ours. Do you want an authority about this from the Old and New Testament? First from the Old: "For you have wrought all our works for us," (Isa 26:12). Second from the New, from the Apostle, Paul: "And there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who works all in all." (1 Cor 12: 6), we are only instruments. One grace is to fast, another to pray, another to confess. Therefore he said, there are "diversities of operations". And God wishes that we carry the bundle of the good life up to the gate of his house of his paradise, which gate is called the man's death, because no one enters paradise through another gate but only through death. David, "This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it," (Psalm 117:20). Note, "of the Lord" because the gate of death is of the Lord actively and passively. Actively because he so ordains that through death we enter it. Authority Heb 10: "And as it is appointed," supply, by God, "unto men once to die," (Heb 9:27). Also it is called the gate of the Lord passively because he had to die. Luke, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26). And he promised that whoever would carry the burden of a good life up to this gate of death, he would give him the salary, not ten francs, but the kingdom of paradise and eternal glory. Authority. Mat. 6: "But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven," (Mt 7:21). Out of love of this friend, a good person carries the burden of a good life, although sometimes it is accompanied [attendietur] with labor. Nevertheless as Gregory says, "The consideration of the reward diminishes the sting of the discipline. If therefore it is set down an hour before death, you cannot ask for your salary, but you would have merited punishment and damnation, just as the servant who curses [damnificant] his Lord, etc. Therefore Christ comforting us says Mat 11: "Come to me, all you who labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest for your souls." (v. 28-29). Heavier, certainly is the burden of a bad life than a good. It is clear therefore how we should persevere in good diligently, because as Christ said, Mat. 10 and 24, "He who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," (Mt. 10:22).
BEARING EVILS PATIENTLY Second, we should persevere bearing evils patiently. Gregory on the text of Luke ch. 8:15, "Bring forth fruit in patience," says, "There are no goods which we do, unless with a calm spirit we tolerate the evils of our neighbor." There are some who immediately become indignant. Therefore it is necessary to bear evils patiently, etc. And I'll tell you both the reason and authority. The reason is such. You know that this world is like a turbulent sea, because a wave of the sea does not rise high, nor low, one after the other. So in this world, there are some raised by prosperity, like lords, or great prelates, then cast down by adversity of an illness or of the loss of honor, or of friends. For as Boethius says in Book 2 of On the Consolation of Philosophy, prose four. No one is "… so entire happiness that he is not in some part offended with the condition of his estate?" Certainly never in this world can a man stand secure and quiet. He is like a sea which always is moving. Berceuse if a man is laughing now, soon he will be sad. If he is in prosperity, soon in adversity. O what kind of a storm of the sea? Therefore David in Psalm 92:4 "Wonderful are the surges of the sea," namely of this world. And again in Ps 103:25, "So is this," namely, the world, "great sea," etc. Just as no one can sail the sea for a long time without encountering a storm, so neither can we live a long time without troubles. But just as a good sailor does not give up because of the storm, but is on guard against dangers of reefs, crying out, Bring the ship about when the reef threatens. Another says, O hoist the sails etc. So we on this great voyage of life to the gate of paradise have a chance of storms [fortunas tempestatis]. First from the occasion of sins, the inclination of the flesh and of the world. O how is the storm of the soul, and of the flesh, and of the world. So, like sailors, bear evil patiently, not only in a good times when there are no temptations, but also when they come either from the flesh or from the world, or from the devil about faith, etc. And then it is necessary to abstain and keep yourself strongly by praying, doing penance, and turning to God, that he would grant you firmness in the faith, because God can help. And so, "He who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," (Mt. 10:22) You wish an authority for this? Paul, to the Hebrews "Persevere under discipline." (Heb 12:7) The tribulations of this world are called "discipline", by the Apostle. Reason, because for the example of discipline it had been done, which has six [acus] or punctures. And there are three of disciplines, and a each one has six punctures. The first discipline is true conversion, which has six: First is the painful contrition of the heart. Second, shame of confession. Third, the proposal of amendment. Fourth, which hurts a lot, is restitution. Fifth, the forgiveness of injuries. Sixth, the restoring of a person's good name. About which Augustine: "He should not be slow to offer healing medicine from the mouth itself whence the wound was inflicted." About this discipline, Ps 17:26, " And your discipline has corrected me unto the end," namely from sins, "and your discipline, the same shall teach me," namely, good works. A second discipline is tribulation naturally necessary, as are illnesses which naturally come, nor can we avoid them and it has six sharp points, namely pains of the head: First is of fever. Second hunger. Third of thirst. Fourth, heat. Fifth, cold. Sixth is final, death. About this discipline scripture says, "My son, reject not the correction of the Lord: and do not faint when you art chastised by him: For whom the Lord loves, he chastises," (Prov 3:11-12). Where note that human illness, pains and miseries are called the "correction of the Lord," because he himself gives them. Reason: for correcting. Therefore, "reject [them] not" through impatience or indignation. The third discipline is unjust and contrary persecution. Punctures are harms of the body inflicted by another, of goods, fame, friends etc. Of this discipline the apostle says, Heb 12: "Now all chastisement for the present indeed seems not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice," (Heb 12:11). So the Apostle says, where above, ""Persevere under discipline." (Heb 12:7). It follows, "God deals with you as with his sons;" (v. 7). Whence just as a father is known when several young men are doing something wrong, the father seeing his son among those in the street corrects only his son, giving him blows, not caring about the others. So it is a sign of sonship of God, when he corrects us with blows of troubles in the streets of this world. Otherwise with those whom he does not correct, it is a sign that they mean nothing to him, as Gregory says, "neither for grace nor for glory," etc. REVERENTLY PRAYING TO GOD Third we ought to persevere by praying to God reverently, and this morning and evening. How? So St. Thomas says in I, q. 23, a. 8, and I Sent. dist. 41, a. 4, that also for those predestined they should be praying and he gives an example of the prayer of St. Stephen for Paul. And for Isaac, who prayed for Jacob still existing in the womb of his mother. Reason of this perseverance in prayer is because it is said in James ch 1: "Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down," (James 1:17). Note, "best," namely corporal goods, which are good insofar as they are ordained to sustenance of the body; better, because they are advantageous for the remission of sins and obtaining grace; "best", because they lead to eternal glory through works of mercy and others. Note: "every perfect good," with respect to sanctifying grace and infused virtues, "from above coming down, " etc. through prayer, because prayer is like a channel or road though which the gifts of Divine mercy, both corporal and spiritual descend to us, however unworthy. Luke "Yet if he shall continue knocking," that is, praying, "I say to you, …he will…give him as much as he needs." (Lk 11:8). I give an example from a prince of thieves, who daily, morning and evening reverently recited the angelic salutation [Hail Mary]. And on the day which he omitted it, the devil was about to take him to hell because of the evil which he committed. Note how a hermit came to him and had him call everyone from his house, and the devil who was in the form of a man servant [coquinae] for six years, waiting for the time when he might skip saying the angelic salutation etc. See the book from the [Priory of] Scala Caeli [Cordoba]. You ought to persevere, therefore, in prayer, just as David who said in Ps 65, "Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me," (Ps 65:20). Gloss, Augustine "Your prayer has not been turned away from you, and neither shall divine mercy be turned away." Amen. |
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Post by Hildegard on May 25, 2019 18:30:24 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer – On Predestination (Jn 15:4 )
John 15:1-5 Douay transl. I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
"Abide in me, and I in you," (Jn 15:4). In this sermon I shall explain three doctrines or conclusions which basically and completely explain the matter of predestination. This teaching will be good for illuminating our intellects and enkindling our affections. But first, the "Hail Mary."
"Abide in me," etc. We have three conclusions in this sermon. A. First, that God before the creation of the world, eternally chose the good with certitude, [certitudinaliter] B. Second, that predestination or preknowledge does not take away free will, but it remains freely. [liberaliter] C. Third that whether we have been foreknown or predestined, we ought to live well and perseveringly. [perseveranter] A. ETERNALLY CERTAINLY CHOSEN The first conclusion, that God, before the creation of the world, eternally chose the good, with certitude. Because before he created anything, the heaven or angels, he knew how many prelates, how many religious there would be in the world, from whom so many were to be saved, and so for every status. I shall explain this through a parable about a king wishing to celebrate the wedding of his son. He did five things. First he wrote the invitations, who and how many there would be, and he decided their quality and quantity and condition. Second he chose and arranged the place or the hall where they would eat. Third he arranged for the food. Fourth the servants, distinguished and experienced, Fifth, he arranged a place where the invited could be made ready, where they are able to change their clothes, etc. And then, the execution of the banquet followed. Now you understand the whole plan of God before the creation of the world, and then God willed to hold the wedding banquet for his son assuming human nature in the oneness of person. Because just as a husband and wife are not two but one flesh, as is said in Matthew 19, so divinity and humanity in Christ are one person. This nature was married in the hall of the Virgin's womb. Of this wedding Matt 22 speaks, "The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, who made a marriage for his son," (Mt 22:2). And before he spent anything, that is "created," he chose saying, "So many prelates shall eat at the banquet," and so for the other states, and that eternal choice is called predestination, that is prior— before creation – destination. He also foreknew the damned, but it is not called election or predestination, because he did not choose someone for damnation, but he foreknew that such a person would be damned, etc. About this election scripture says, Eph 1: "He chose us [in him] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity. Who has predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ," (Eph 1:4-5). Second, he arranges the place. God seeing in the book of predestination so many noble ones invited, for this reason he created the empyreal heaven, not for himself, because he already was living in the palace of his eternity, Isa 57: "[Thus says the] High and the Eminent one who inhabits eternity: and his name is Holy... on high," (v. 15). Of this home, Bar 3: "O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is the place of his possession! It is great, and has no end; it is high and immense," (vv. 24-25). And like a palace of a king preparing for a wedding it is sublimely decorated. So also the empyreal heaven. About which see St. Thomas I, q. 66, a. 3, when Christ speaks on the day of judgment, Mt 25, "Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," (v. 34). Third he orders a variety of foods, namely the grades of glory and enjoyments, the orders and distinctions of the angels and saints. About which Christ in Jn 14, "In my Father's house there are many mansions," (v.2). And in Luke 22, he says, "You may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom," (v. 30). You realize that there is no [actual] drinking there etc., but metaphorically in experiencing glory. Fourth, he creates the angels as the servants and ministers of the banquet. If it is said, "The servants are more noble than the diners," the response is that we are parents of the bride, human nature. And so the king wishes that we be seated. If the king were to take as his wife, the daughter of a shepherd, the nobles and knights would respect her parents. So Christ took human nature, and wished that the angels would serve. Hebrews, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister to them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Heb 1:14). Note, "all," universally etc. Fifth, he makes the world, so that here we might prepare ourselves, and wash our hands of sins through penitence and change our clothes. If you are wearing the old shirt of pride, change it and put on the new shirt of humility. And so for the rest. Eccle 3: "He has made all things good in their time, and has delivered the world to their consideration [dispositioni],"(Eccles 3:11), other translation is "to their disputation [disputationi, Vulg.]," namely active and passive, so that they might dispose themselves and be disposed, by dignifying themselves for the banquet. See now what predestination is. And the first conclusion is clear, which also is written in Romans 8: "For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable [to the image of his Son,]... And whom he predestinated, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified." (vv. 29-30). But there might be an argument to the contrary. One might say, "From these aforesaid five causes, the fifth, that this world has been made for preparing oneself, is opposed to the first, because if we are predestined, whether we prepare ourselves or not, we shall be there, because the knowledge of God cannot fail. I reply that this argument embodies ignorance or inattention. As if the king had invited many nobles to his wedding etc. And they would say, "Why do I have to prepare?" Would that not be stupid? Rather, they ought to say, "Because the king invited me, I must prepare well, because if you come ill prepared, you would not enter, when your are at the gate, namely the gate of death. Ps. 117: "This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter into it," (v. 20). But, you say, "Divine predestination can never fail?" I reply that no change of creatures argues or places a change in God. Remember the story in Mt 25 of the ten virgins invited etc. Note it is said "ten," because of the observance of the ten commandments, and "virgins," because of the purity which they should have, who are to enter. Five were prudent, because they prepared themselves. And five were foolish, because they did not prepare themselves, arguing from the reason of infallibility, alleging the aforesaid reason and argument: Because we were invited, we shall be received there. And so he calls them foolish. Note, and they who were prepared entered with him to the wedding, and the gates were closed to the unprepared. Ovid the poet, "It is harmful to postpone, when you are prepared." Finally the remaining virgins arrive. From this God is not variable and changeable in his knowledge, but the banquet includes the disposition of those entering. It is clear the stupidity of many saying, "Why do I need to prepare?" I reply that if God by his very voice had said to you, "You shall be saved," and to another, "You shall be damned." It is understood conditionally. For even if it were possible that someone unprepared entered, he would be expelled, as Christ himself says in Matthew 22, "And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he said to him: 'Friend, how did you come in here,'" (Mt 22:11-12). Draw the conclusion. If those who are inside are unprepared, they will be expelled, how shall you enter unprepared? And so Matt 24: "be ready also, [because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come.]" (v. 44). If it is said, "O therefore God and his predestination is changed," it is not true, but predestination includes preparation. God is not changed, as Boethius says in III De consol., met. 9, but the creatures are changed. Note the example of a ship without a sailor on the sea and the rock etc. So this world is a river. Whence 2 Sam 14: Behold, "We all die, and like waters that return no more," (v. 14). And it seems to us that the rock, that is, God is moved or changed, it is not true. And so we prepare ourselves through a good life because otherwise it will go badly for us. Behold the word of God through the mouth of the prophet, Ezekiel 33: Thus says the Lord: "Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely live, and he, trusting in his justice, commits iniquity: all his justices shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity, which he has committed, in the same shall he die," (v. 13). Likewise for pre-knowledge it says there, "And if I shall say to the wicked: You shall surely die: and he does penance for his sin, and does judgment and justice. And if that wicked man restores the pledge, and renders what he had robbed, and walks in the commandments of life, and does no unjust thing: he shall surely live, and shall not die," (Ez 33:14-15). Just as, therefore, predestination includes disposition, so pre-knowledge indisposition. And so God says, Jeremiah 18, "I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it. If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them," (Jer 18:7-8). If you wish you can see the whole chapter Nabuchodonosor in Decretals 23, q. 4, where there is much about this. B. FREE WILL REMAINS The second conclusion, that divine and eternal predestination of the good and foreknowledge of the evil does not take away nor impede free will, moreover he remains in his liberty, otherwise he would be saved without merits, and he would be damned without demerits, because if someone did not have free will, he would not have sinned. This conclusion is stated in Ecclesiastes 5: "God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel," (Sir 15:14). The interlinear Gloss, In liberty of free will, there follows "He added his commandments and precepts. If you will keep the commandments ..., they shall preserve you. He has set water and fire before you: stretch forth your hand to which you will. Before man is life and death, good and evil, that which he shall choose shall be given him" (Sir 15:15-18), Note, "from the beginning," of the world and of the life of each. Note the difference between commandment and precept, because commandments are affirmative precepts, which lead to virtues. And precepts are negative, which restrain from sins and oblige always. Otherwise for commandments, because from some just circumstances they should not be observed, even without sin one can do the opposite. But of negative [precepts] no situation of the world can one do the opposite without sin, for example [puta], "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," (Ex 20:7). You are well able to swear an oath when necessary, but not in vain etc. Note "he has set water," the good and devout life, "and fire," namely eternal, life, namely eternal and death, namely of Gehenna. "Good," of glory, "and evil" of punishment, "that which he shall choose [shall be given him]," (Sir 15:18). Now someone might say, "I want the good of glory," etc. you have a "wish"[velleitatem], but not a "will" [voluntatem], as St. Thomas says III, q. 21, a. 4, and in II Sent, dist. 33, where he says a wish is of impossibles. Proof. Just as he who says that he wants to go to the right but turns left, therefore lies; so, many want to go to paradise in word, but in fact they take the way of hell, namely of pride and vanity. Because therefore you take this way, you do not will to go to paradise but you will to go that opposite way. The same for the greedy and lustful person. But God does not force someone to go to hell, rather he calls them back. Note the example of the spy in the tower, seeing two ways, the hard but safe way, and the delightful, straight, but dangerous way, full of robbers. And he cries out to the travelers saying that having abandoned the dangerous way they set out upon the other, and the travelers preferred not, rather they scoffed at [truffantur] the guide. The vision of that guide or spy does not force anyone to go via one way or the other, although he sees what they will be. This spy is God, high in the tower of eternity. Isaiah: God, "the High and the Eminent that inhabits eternity," (Isa 57:15), sees time past, present and future, because all things are present to him. There are two ways, the carnal and delightful life, and the spiritual, the difficult and hard penitential life. All want to go by the first way. "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in there," (Mt 7: 13). About the second he says in the same place, "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leads to life: and few there are that find it!" (Mt 7:14). And he cries out through preachers or prophets warning, Isa 30, "This is the way, walk ye in it: and go not aside neither to the right hand, nor to the left," (v. 21). Right, when the good way is abandoned out of love of creatures. Left, when out of their fear you say, "O you wish that I dismiss this young man or that I take him back? I shall dismiss my son that he take back. The knowledge of God does not take away free will, nor impedes it, rather it helps it by the precepts ordinations, preachings, warnings and inspirations, and he wills that we all be saved. Authority 1 Tim, 2: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who wills that all men be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: who gave himself a redemption for all," (vv. 3-6). Therefore he does not take away free will.
C. LIVE A GOOD LIFE PERSEVERINGLY
Third conclusion. However we all are, whether predestined or foreknown, we ought to try to live a good life perseveringly. It is a rule of theology, that when God ordains some end, he ordains also the means to that end, without which he cannot come to that end. Even if he does not say, he is understood to have said, as is clear, because if the king makes someone governor, he understands that he should act justly, even if it is not stated in the mandate etc. Note how those to be saved are written in the book of predestination: "John shall be saved by his innocence. Peter through repentance," etc., so that not only is the end or the term written, but also the way or means through which it is attained. The same for the foreknown etc. If the pope appoints a bishop, it is understood that he be a priest, even if he does not say it. Same in nature, about rain from clouds. Same for predestination. And so there is a triple fault in those who say, "Why do I need to do good?" The first is ignorance, because when it is written in the book of predestination that such a person is to be saved, it is stated also the way and the means by which, through his humility or mercy, etc. And so to regard the end without the means is ignorance, and such a one fails by saying, "Why must I work?" Rather certainly it is necessary to work. Otherwise you take away one part of the predestination, namely the way and means through which [the end is attained]. And so Gregory, 1 Dialog. And it is placed 23, q. 4, c. to be obtained. This perennial predestination to the eternal kingdom is so arranged by the omnipotent God that the chosen arrive there through effort, postulating that they merit to receive what the almighty God had disposed to give them before the ages. So you do not wish to go to hell. Remove the way and means, namely sin and you shall not go. "Woe to the wicked unto evil," (Isa 3:11). The second defect is stupidity, to say, "Why must I do good?" Note how God knows all future things. He knows if today you shall eat dinner, just as if you shall be saved. If you say "Why must I prepare food for lunch," etc., no one makes an argument about lunch. Yet he argues about the soul. Same if you are ill: "Why do I need to call a doctor?" Because God already knows if I will be cured, etc. If you wish to be healed, the way is through doctors. And so they ought not to be dismissed. Also, God knows if this year you shall have a crop [bladum], so why is it necessary to plow. Response: Because this is the means. Also God knows if the king will have a victory over his enemies why is it necessary to have armed men? Response: because that is the means to victory. The third defect is the greatest error. To deny the trinity is an error against only one article [of faith], and so for the others, but to say that the predestined ought not to do good is an error against all the articles, which it destroys. Why does God will to be incarnated? I respond: That men might ascend into heaven. And did God not know whether men are to be saved? Why did he need to be incarnated? And so for the others. Same what purpose faith, baptism etc. because before them God knew who would be saved. It is a great error to presume the end without the means. Now therefore the final conclusion is, as the theme says, "Abide in me," through a good life, "and I in you," (Jn 15:4) through grace. And so 2Pet 1, "Brethren, labor the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you shall not sin at any time. For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," (2 Pet 1:10-11). |
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Post by Hildegard on May 29, 2019 22:05:31 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon on the Ascension Acts 1:9-11 Douay translation
9 And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. 11 Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven. "While they looked on, he was raised up..," (Acts 1:9) This text is found in the Acts of the Apostles, ch 1 and it is offered in today's Epistle. Today is the solemnity of the wonderful Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, when, having completed the work of our redemption, he ascended from this world into heaven openly before the Virgin Mary and the apostles and disciples. Our sermon will be about this blessed Ascension. But first let us hail the Virgin Mary For the fundamental declaration of this text and the introduction of the material it must be known that our Lord Jesus Christ in the life which he had in this world, observed such an order and manner of living in his works that some works he chose to do secretly and hidden, others publicly and openly, and this for two reasons. First, for our instruction, that we might do our good works in secret so as to flee vainglory, like a man hides his treasure, so good works ought to be hidden. Authority: "Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven," (Mt 6:1). The second reason is that God the Father be praised and blessed by those [deeds] which he did publicly and openly. We are instructed that the good which we do publicly, like preaching or celebrating and others which cannot happen secretly, be for the praise and honor and glory of God. Therefore he himself said, "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven," (Mt 5:16). See why Christ in his life did some works secretly and hidden, and some publicly and openly. For example, the first work which Christ did in this world for our redemption was his blessed incarnation in the womb of the Virgin, like the seed which is formed within the apple [avellanam] which is hidden, because no human person but the Virgin Mary knew, according to the prophecy of David, "He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth,” so says the Psalmist in Ps 71:6: "Give to the king thy judgment, O God," (v. 2). The second work was his birth, and this was public and manifest, because Christ wished to be born in a village [vico], that all might see him. The angels sang in the air and the animals adored him in the manger, the star led the kings immediately, and night seemed as day, according to the prophecy, "The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen," (Isa 9:2). The third work was the work of his everyday life, some of his works were hidden and some manifest. He lived about thirty years at home with Joseph and the Virgin Mary his mother. He was not working miracles, nor was his divinity known, although all people knew him to be a chaste man, holy and good, but not all considered him to be the Lord, because his divinity was hidden, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, "Truly you are a hidden God, the God of Israel the savior," (Isa 45:15). But in his baptism he wished to be public and manifest, for the heaven was seen to be open and the Holy Spirit in the image of a dove descended on him, and a voice of the Father sounded saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased<" (Mt 3:17). Then John started to say "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world," (Jn 1:29). Then he immediately went into the desert and experienced a Lent, neither eating nor drinking anything in those forty days. And this work was a secret work giving to us the example of doing secretly penance, fasting, prayers, almsgivings and such. Finally he left the desert and began publicly to preach to the whole people. So he said before Annas, "I have spoken openly to the world: I have always taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither all the Jews resort; and in secret I have spoken nothing," (Jn 18:20). Another work was hidden, namely his transfiguration in which he revealed his divinity. This he wished to be secret, because none of the disciples were there but Peter, James and John whom he commanded, "Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead," (Mt 17:9). Another work he wished to be public, namely the working of miracles, curing the sick, raising the dead. Therefore he himself said, "The works themselves, which I do, give testimony of me," (Jn 5:36). Another hidden work was the Sacrament of the Altar. About which he said, "For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed," (Jn 6:56). But his sorrowful passion was a public work, according to the prophecy, speaking in the person of Christ, "O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow," (Lam 1:12). Another hidden work was his glorious Resurrection, because neither the Virgin Mary, nor others saw him rising. But immediately there followed a public and manifest work, namely his glorious Ascension, because the Virgin Mary and seventy disciples, the apostles and holy women, in all there were about 120, and all saw him ascend. Therefore he said, "I go to him that sent me, and none of you asks me: Where are you going? " (Jn 16:5) About which the Gloss of Bede says: "As if openly he said "I return by ascending to him who constituted me to be incarnated, and it shall be so clear the brightness of his Ascension, that none of you will find it necessary to ask where are you going, because to all witnessing I shall go to heaven. And this is our theme, "While they looked on," namely the Virgin Mary, the apostles and disciples, to the eyes of the public and openly, "he was raised up..," (Acts 1:9). See how the first work of our redemption was secret and hidden and the last, public and manifest. Of the middle works, some were hidden and some manifest. About this glorious Ascension I wish now to preach to you three points, in which the entire matter of this feast is found: First is the theological reason why this Ascension was expedient. Second the historical details, how it was fitting. Third is the ultimate utility, which resulted from this Ascension. THEOLOGICAL REASON
The first theological reason why the Ascension of Christ was expedient is founded in this rule of philosophy saying. "Everything ardently loved draws to itself the heart and thoughts of the one loving." Just as the vapors of the earth are drawn up by the heat of the sun, and similarly the flame in a lamp gradually draws to itself all the oil, so a person ardently loved draws the one loving to themselves for thinking about them in his heart, for speaking [with] the mouth, for seeing [with] the eye, because such is the nature of love. Although this be true, nevertheless I shall give you the authority of Christ saying, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," (Lk 12:34). Because the apostles and the other disciples most ardently loved the bodily presence of Christ – and no wonder, because he was overwhelmingly lovely because of the sweetness of his words and of gracious conversation and in other ways – therefore, as long as Christ was on earth, many were impeded from the delight in and reception of heavenly goods. They didn't bother to elevate their heart or desire to heaven. Christ said, "I shall make you raise your heart, and understanding, and your thoughts, on high, because I shall ascend to heaven." Therefore after the Ascension, their whole heart and desire and thoughts were raised on high. See now the reason why it was expedient, not only for the apostles and disciples, but also for us, that he ascended, because no one would have cared about heaven, but rather where [on earth] Christ would have been. He himself gives this reason saying to the apostles, who were weeping over his departure, "But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you," (Jn 16:7). About which the Gloss of Bede says: "It is expedient for you that the form of the servant be withdrawn from your sight, to the extent that the love of divinity might more acutely be imprinted on your hearts." It is clear the reason for this blessed Ascension. Morally [Moral sense of scripture] We have here a case of arguing from the minor premise, [per locum a minori]. If the Apostles are impeded from the reception of spiritual graces because of their love of Christ, what shall it be for us miserable ones, who do not so ardently love Christ like the apostles, but rather the transitory goods of this world, namely, riches, honors, offices, dignities, delights of the flesh, which do not permit us to elevate our understanding on high, but lower in earthly business? See how we are impeded from the reception of spiritual blessings and graces. For this reason the goods of this world ought to be loved with the salt of temperance [cum sale temperantiae], that is to say, the riches of this world should be loved in such a way so that because of them we don't lose the incorruptible riches of paradise, which never fail. The same for honors, so from love of them we don't lose the honors of paradise. O what an honor it is it to be in the company of the holy angels and archangels, and more, and to be with the patriarchs, etc. The same for offices and dignities. The same for the delights of this world, so from the delights of beasts we don't lose the delights and honors and delectations of angels and saints. If you have a good wife, or if a woman, have a good husband, you ought to love them moderately, lest from love of them the love of God in your heart might be diminished. Same for the love of children and so of all the rest. Authority: "Love not the world," supply 'too much,' "nor the things which are in the world… For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh," see here the sin of lust, "and the concupiscence of the eyes," see here the sin of avarice, "and the pride of life," see here the sin of pride from honors, offices, etc., (1 Jn 2:15-16). HISTORICAL DETAILSAs to the second point, namely the historical details, how was the Ascension fitting? We know the reason why he ascended, we shall now see how he ascended. After the resurrection he did not wish to ascend to heaven immediately, but he wished to remain in the world for forty days, that he might prove his resurrection through many arguments, and that he might instruct and teach the Apostles. And on the fortieth day after his resurrection he wished to ascend to heaven. For this reason today he appeared twice to the Apostles. Of the first apparition the gospel speaks. Of the second, today's epistle. Jesus, "appeared to the eleven [disciples] as they were at table," (Mk 16:14), greeting them in his usual way saying "Peace be to you." And he told them that today he wished to ascend to heaven, by which he completed the whole work of our redemption. Hearing this, the apostles began to weep. Christ said, "If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father," (Jn 14:28). "Lord, we rejoice at your honor, but we are saddened, because you leave us orphans. Because of our sadness we unable to eat. So out of love of them Christ ate, so that they might eat. "And eating together with them, he commanded them, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father," (Acts 1:4). They all got up from the table and in procession went out to the Mount of Olives according to what Jesus said. This is the reason why this procession is held in many places. When they had arrived on the Mount, Christ visibly appeared to them and saluted his mother and all the others saying that he wished to ascend to heaven to the Father. The Virgin Mary who sensed the presence of the saints who were to ascend with Christ said to her son with tears that if he pleased, she would ascend with him. Christ drying her tears said, "Blessed Mother, you shall remain in my place. You shall comfort my apostles. And because of the wisdom which I shall give you, you will destroy heresies which arise. Because of this it is said of the Virgin Mary, "Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, you alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world," (Antiphon, Little Office of the B.V.M.). And the apostles asked that they might ascend with him, lest he leave them orphans. He said, "Going therefore, teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you," (Mt 28:19-20). "I will not leave you orphans," (Jn 14:18), "Behold I am with you," namely in the Sacrament of the Altar, "all days, even to the consummation of the world," (Mt 28:20). Finally Mary Magdalen said to him, "O Lord, I was a great baroness, and now I am a pauper. Therefore, please, may I ascend with you." And Christ said, "You shall be the companion of my mother." When Jesus was raised off the ground, and began to ascend, the apostles "asked him, saying: Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). "Lord, will you come quickly to give the reign to Israel?" Christ responded, "It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father has put in his own power. But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem," (Acts 1:7-8). Note, "It is not for you to know" the definite day of judgment, but we can say definitely soon, very soon. When he was already ascending, they looked up at him and said, "Lord, give us a blessing." "And lifting up his hands, he blessed them," (Lk 24:50), just as the priest after mass gives a blessing to the people. Then "a cloud received him out of their sight," (Acts 1:9), not that he needed that to ascend, but to show that every creature is subject to him. David said of God the Father, "You have subjected all things under his feet," (Ps 8:8). When however Christ was in heaven – he ascended quickly – because the apostles no longer could see him, he sent two angels to the apostles still gazing up to heaven, who said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven," (Acts 1:11). Behold the historical details, how this blessed Ascension was fitting, and how he ascended and sits at the right hand of God, and that the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and elevated, and his train filled the temple," (Isa 6:1). Then the apostles and disciples, "adoring went back into Jerusalem with great joy. And they were always in the temple, praising and blessing God," (Lk 24:52-53). Morally. Here, when it is said "adoring, etc.," we have an example and a moral instruction about going to church and keeping the feast days with joy, closing our temporal businesses, as Christ rested on the day of resurrection. And they [the feasts] are kept perfectly, as it is hinted when it is said "they were always in the temple," that is perfectly. Indeed, your goods grow more from observing a feast well, than from your labors. Third, they are kept with a devout mind, when it is said "praising and blessing God," namely with silence hearing mass, Extravagantes, de immuni, eccles. libr. 6, decret.: "Let there be at church humble and devout entries, let quiet conversation [quieta conversatio] happen in them, pleasing to God, tranquil for onlookers, etc."This is said against those talking in church, etc.
ULTIMATE UTILITY
As to the third point, namely the ultimate utility resulting from this, from the Ascension, this utility or fruit he himself declared saying, "In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself," (Jn 14:2-3). See here the ultimate utility resulting.
Note the many mansions are the nine orders of angels, which John calls "streets [plateas]." "And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass," (Rev 21:21).
The first order or first street immediately upon entry [to the heavenly Jerusalem] is that of the holy angels, the second of the archangels, third of the principalities, fourth of the powers, fifth of the virtues, sixth of the dominations, seventh of the thrones, eighth of the Cherubim, and ninth of the Seraphim.
Christ has prepared these mansions. Therefore he said, "I go to prepare a place for you," (Jn 14:2). Note the great humility of Christ. Kings most often send out nuncios and shield bearers to prepare the place, but Christ the king of glory wished to go himself to prepare a place for us. There can here be an argument to the contrary. Since Christ said, "Come, you blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," (Mt 25:34), how can he then say, "I go to prepare a place for you"?
I respond that this can be understood in two ways, namely either through individual distinction or through real possession. As to the first, it has already been prepared from the creation of the world, according to the authority of Mt 25, "Come, ye blessed…" In the second way, namely through real possession he prepares today according to the real distribution of saints, who with Christ ascended into the orders of angels according to the merits of each, because no one entered heaven till today, i.e. before the Ascension of Christ.
· Practically speaking when he was in heaven with the holy fathers, so many thousands gathered in the first street [stage], that of the angels. There he gathered those who in this world served him in penance, each in his own chair. The name of each was already written there, and to each was given their crown on their head.
· In the order of archangels he gathered those who served him in spiritual works.
· In the third order, of the principalities, he gathered those who served him in works of mercy.
· In the fourth order, of powers, those who served him in great patience in adversities.
· In the fifth order, of virtues, those who served him in patience, not having ill will toward anyone. etc.
· In the sixth order, of dominations, he gathered the worldly leaders, rulers and judges, who with great justice ruled communities, etc.
· In the seventh order, of the thrones, those who for love of him embraced a life of poverty [vitam pauperem].
· In the eighth order, the Cherubim, the contemplatives, who had divine wisdom.
· In the ninth order, of the Seraphim, those burning with charity for love of God.
See how we understand, "I go to prepare a place for you, " with respect to real possession. Christ sits by himself over all orders of angels on the right, and is seen clearly by all. So the third point, and consequently the whole sermon is clear. Thanks be to God, etc. |
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 2, 2019 19:05:08 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O. P. – Sermon on Spiritual Aging -- Eph. 4:23
"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind," (Eph 4:23)
These words are read in the epistle of this Sunday. Let us salute the Virgin Mary.
In these words the Apostle Paul suggests that mortal sin makes the soul senile and old, when he says, "And be renewed," etc. Tacitly he presupposes this. I will base my sermon on this, and we have insights and advice [speculationes et moralitates]. We know that old age and aging are conditions and properties of corporeal, corruptible, and mortal creatures. It does not happen to spiritual creatures. It is many thousand of years since Michael [the archangel] was created, and he is just as young today as on the first day of his creation. It's the same for Gabriel, Raphael and the others. Old age and antiquity [senectus et antiquitus] do not have a place in them. See St. Thomas [Summa theologiae] I , q. 50, a. 5 [ult.] about the incorruptibility of angels. The same is true for souls. So the soul of a man a hundred years old, or even a thousand, is as young as the soul of a child one day old, because they are spiritual substances, and they do not grow old or age. Authority. "Your name is as oil poured out: therefore young maidens have loved you." (Song 1:2). Note "oil poured out," namely, Christian faith everywhere preached and spread. Here, the name of Christ is called "oil," elsewhere "ointment," because it is the medicine of the soul, for at the moment in which a child or adult is baptized, their soul is cured, and it is "poured out" in heaven, because by it the wound is cured, the case of bad angels, and [poured out] on earth, because the faith of Christ in every generation was preached by the holy apostles. Therefore the "young maidens," namely, spiritual creatures, on which old age does not settle, "loved you too much," (v. 2) that is very much. Senescence or aging only happens in corporeal creatures, but not in all, because the sun, moon, stars, planets and the heavens, although they are corporeal creatures, nevertheless they are not corruptible from the composition of contraries. But old age happens and comes upon corruptible, mortal creatures. A house is called old or new, a garden, a ship etc., and our bodies grow old, and also those of animals etc. It is therefore evident that senescence and aging are properties or conditions of corporeal animal creatures. Authority. "And that which decays and grows old, is near its end," (Heb 8:13). If therefore we wish to speak properly about old age, our souls are not old, but the Apostle presupposes and suggests that our souls grow old and age from mortal sin, because every defect which old age gives to the body naturally, the same defects sin gives to the soul spiritually, or morally. Therefore the theme says, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind," etc., (Eph 4:23). The theme is clear. I have sought out and found that there are six defects which old age brings naturally to the body. First is the whitening of the hair [dealbatio capillorum], Second, the dulling of the senses [obturatio sensuum], Third, the wrinkling of the skin [corruptio cutis], Fourth, the bowing of the head [incurvatio capitis], Fifth, weakness in the limbs [debilitatio in membris], Sixth, the approach of death [appropinquatio mortis]. Sin brings on these six defects to the soul spiritually or morally. Therefore the theme says: "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind," (Eph 4:23). WHITENING OF THE HAIR I say first that the first defect which old age gives to the body is the whitening of the hair. Although indeed in youth a man had black hair, commonly in old age, it naturally turns white. Reason. Because the moisture and coolness of the head and scalp rots the roots of the hairs, and so the hair turns white. Just like in autumn the leaves of the trees, once green, grow pale and fall, so it is with the hair. And although this is clear and certain nevertheless there is this scriptural authority: "The Ancient of days sat… and the hair of his head [was] like clean wool," (Dan 7:9). Now we shall see if mortal sin does this to the soul. The hairs of the soul are the various thoughts, innumerable, volatile, and voluble, like hair. How many indeed are the thoughts of a man waking, sleeping, here and there etc, on the earth and at sea, to the extent that what David said of his thoughts, "They are multiplied," namely, my thoughts, "above the hairs of my head," here and there, "and my heart has forsaken me," (Ps 39:13). For this reason Job said, "Various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things," (Job 20:2). I say that someone existing in grace has black hair, i.e. thoughts of humility, thinking of one's own failures, because to the extent that a person is better, holier, and of a more perfect life, to that extent does he think more of his faults, saying within himself, "O you wretch [miser], these graces which God placed in me are so corrupted, like wine in a bad barrel, because I have not kept these graces and virtues pure and holy, etc. This precious liquor of grace has turned bad from the defect of the container." Behold humility. In this way the Blessed Virgin Mary was very humbled by thinking of the graces received from God, and out of humility considered herself to be almost nothing. Therefore the holy fathers ordered for a time, that when something is said in the choir, that they make a "venia" [monastic gesture for pardon for a ritual mistake in choir], as if seeking pardon, because it is impossible that something of ours be done without some defect, either in the deed, or in thought. This is why scripture says of a devout person, "His locks [are] as branches of palm trees, black as a raven," (Song 5:11). "Locks," i. e. thoughts, "like branches," that is the leaves, "of the palm trees," which are straight, which signifies that all good things which they do they attribute to God, saying: "Lord, if I have done anything good, it is by you, because on my part my thoughts and works are as black as a crow from their defects." The old age of mortal sin turns black hair white. Certain ones, accustomed to sinning are quick to say, "So what if I have sinned? David also sinned. If I have fallen, a saint like him also fell. I fast and give alms, I do such and such, and that other fellow does not." See the white thoughts, sins, of those who out of presumption do not acknowledge their own defects. About this presumption, read Luke 23, about a certain man who was considered to be holy, who was saying, "O God, I give you thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week…" (Lk 18:11-12). This man had white hair. He acted stupidly, and praised himself before God, and all was grey [canus] in him, not acknowledging any defect. So it happens to you, when you go to confession. Some say: "Father, ask me, because I don't remember any sin." First of all, they are lying. But if the confessor would query, "What about your neighbor?" not only would they tell of mortal sins, but also venial. You all are grey, not recognizing your defects. It is a sign of an evil life to have such white thoughts, praising or commending oneself. Therefore the Apostle, "And be renewed," etc. DULLING OF THE SENSES The second defect is the stopping up [obturatio] of the senses, namely when the sight is clouded [ingrossatur, thickened], and one needs glasses. Also the hearing does not hear, nor does the smelling smell. Same of taste and touch. Natural reason. The heavy [grossi] humors indeed abound in old people and dull the senses. Authority. The soldier [Berzellai] said when he was invited by David, "I am this day eighty years old, are my senses quick to discern sweet and bitter? or can meat or drink delight thy servant? or can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?" (2 Kg 19:35). Now let us see if any sin induces this defect in the soul. I say that people who live in sin have the senses of the soul so obstructed, that they perceive nothing of the evils of the soul, but of the evils of the body they well are aware of. V.g. If a man walks on the road barefoot, he will immediately feel a thorn. But when you go to soothsayers for your health, as if they are able to give you health, and the devil pierces your soul with a lance, you do not feel it. So the evils of the body you perceive immediately, but not of the soul. If someone storms through the house in a rage you know it I at once, yet you put up with a notorious witch [divinum notorium] etc., and you do not recognize it. This sin suffices, that the anger of God would descend on you . Also if you should find a pebble between the teeth [lapillus inter dentes] in your table forks [scutellis], you would notice it immediately. But when you hold a big rock in your mouth, by swearing and blaspheming, or by defaming your neighbor, you don't notice it. See how sin makes you lose your senses. WRINKLING OF THE SKIN Third, I say that the third defect which old age brings is the breakdown or wrinkling of the skin. Youths have soft skin and smooth hands and faces. The old man however is wrinkled all over. Natural reason. Because the youth is fleshy and it fills out the skin, but in old people the flesh shrinks. Therefore the skin wrinkles. So Job, when it is told him that he was young, pointing out the opposite he said, "My wrinkles bear witness against me," (Job 16:19). If when a person stands in a good life in grace, the soul is young and fleshy. The smooth skin of the soul is external conduct, and just as the skin covers the flesh, blood and bones, so conduct. A good, holy and virtuous person is the same internally as he is outside of himself; how he is in the home, so he is in town; how in private, the same in public. So if someone says that he is humble, he is humble, if he shows himself to be poor on the outside, so he is in his heart. Same of chastity, abstinence, penance, patience and diligence, all is smooth skin. But sin makes the skin of conduct wrinkle. When indeed a man falls into sin, he is ashamed to make it public, and he shows himself to be other than what he is internally. On the outside he shows himself to be humble, he bows his head, but inwardly pride abounds, like Lucifer, the skin is wrinkled. He shows himself to be a lover of poverty, chastity, sincerity [claritatis], abstinence, patience, diligence, but within he is totally the opposite, all is wrinkled. Some show themselves to be friends on the outside, saying, "If you want anything, I am all yours." But behind his back if they are able they accuse and defame and when they cannot do anything, some go at night and cut his vines, etc. saying," He can't prove it, and we will deny it." Such people are bound to restore the damages, if they wish to be saved, otherwise neither confession, or anything else will benefit for salvation. The same for a notary changing someone's will, or clauses of the will out of ill will. Same for false witness in accusing a neighbor, all is wrinkled. Do you want to know what sin is? Christ said through the mouth of John, about someone smoothing or wrinkling, "I know your works, that you are neither cold, nor hot. I would you were cold, or hot. But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth," (Rev 3:15-16). Hot or cold is the one who reveals himself externally how he is internally. He is cold who, evil within, shows himself so externally. If inside he has ill will, hate and rancor, against another he shows it outside. He is hot who, good inside, shows himself so outside. If a friend on the inside, he also shows it outside. But lukewarm is the one who externally shows himself a friend, but inwardly he is an enemy; he greets you externally and defames you behind your back. If it is asked, "Is it not better to be lukewarm than cold?" I say, "No!," because a man can refrain from being cold, not from being lukewarm. If a religious, or clergyman or lay person is warm, no evil follows, because they are good. If cold, it is not credited to them, therefore no evil follows. But when he is lukewarm, then he causes harm, because they confide in him, and he deceives. A good woman should not confess to a bad religious, or clergyman, or lay man, but because she trusts the lukewarm, and she is defrauded. Behold why he says, "I would you were cold, …But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth."(v. 16), and this when Christ says in judgment, "Depart from me, you cursed," (Mt 25:41), because the lukewarm corrupt the whole world. Therefore "be renewed in the spirit of your mind," (Eph 4:23)
BOWING OF THE HEAD
I say fourth, that the fourth defect which old age brings on is the bowing of the head. A young man goes erect, an old man bowed over. Natural reason. Just as a fire emits flames upward, so the heart of a young man is so warm, that it makes him go about upright, but when the warmth of the heart diminishes from old age, the head bows over. Sin works this defect in the soul. Someone who is without sin has the "head" of the soul, namely, thoughts, erect, by thinking of God, paradise, heavenly things, and he ardently desires to be there, to the extent that if God would say to him, "You have to leave here for a year." He would say to him, "O Lord, must I be separated from you and journey for so long?" The heat of devotion raises his head, but mortal sin makes the head bow down to the earth, like beasts, which because they have no business in heaven, look at the ground. A sinner does not delight in looking to heaven, just as a thief neither [delights in] looking at a judge presiding from his chair above him. An example from the gospel about a certain publican. The "publican," however, "standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven;" (Lk 18:13), because sin draws thinking and desiring downward to earthly things, saying, "O if I can have this or that. " So they descend downward to hell.
Of this the miracle of the gospel tells of a certain young woman, beautiful, who used to go about upright, and suddenly was inflicted with a curvature, and could not elevate her head so as to look at others. All were amazed at her, not knowing why, but Christ knowing the cause said, "Woman, you are delivered from thy infirmity. And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God," (Lk 13:12-13), and Christ said, "And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond…?" (Lk 13:16).
Thus the woman stands for the human soul, rightly advancing, who lived well, joyfully looking forward to her inheritance spelled out by her father in his will. The clause of the will said: "Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom." (Lk 12:32). But when he sinned, he lost the warmth of devotion and became bent over, but when Christ touched the heart with his hands, giving contrition, it straightened. Therefore Christ, "look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand." (Lk 21:28). "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind," (Eph 4:23)
WEAKNESS OF THE LIMBS
I say that the fifth defect which old age brings is the weakness of the members. A young man is strong and robust; an old man feeble, so he is propped up with a cane. "From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein" (Isa 1:6) This sin works in the soul. When a soul is in grace it is strong, inasmuch as it cannot be pressured to sin by all the demons, but after sinning it is so weak that it immediately falls. Just as women, a virgin or otherwise, before she sins, is firm in resisting, but when shame is lost, when corruption happened, they are weak and afterward easily fall and are seduced. Therefore, women, turn yourselves away, lest you drop the reins of modesty. "Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore is she become unstable," (Lam 1:8). So when a person is in grace, he has knees, hands and all his members strong for praying, and is not too tired [attaediatur] to genuflect, to elevating the hands, nor for fasting, the hair shirt, or the discipline. But from the fact that he is in sin, he is immediately weakened [attaediatur]. "For she is become weak unto good that dwells in bitterness," (Mic 1:12). Bitterness stands for sin, which leads the soul to the bitterness of damnation. Therefore, "be renewed in the spirit of your mind," (Eph 4:23).
APPROACHING DEATH
Sixth, I say that for the sixth defect which old age produces is the approach of death. Although the young man dies as well like the old, nevertheless naturally the young man is more distant from death, because he ought to live twenty or even fifty more years. An old man however, is already at the gates of death. "And that which decays and grows old, is near its end," (Heb 8:13). Sin does this to the soul; it makes the soul to be near infernal death, nearer than shirt [camisa] is to the body, because immediately when it leaves the body, it doesn't delay for a year, or for a month to descend to hell, but in an instant. "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell," (Job 21:13). Therefore David in the person of a sinner said, "There is but one step (as I may say) between me and," eternal, "death." (1 Kg 20:3).
If, therefore, mortal sin works these six defects in the soul, which old age works in the body, therefore it can well be said, morally speaking, to be the old age of the soul. Therefore, "Be renewed." Man is renewed by contrition, confession, and taking on or accepting penance, and by making satisfaction, and forgiving injuries. And to the extent the injury is greater, to that extent the merit of remission is greater. "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind," (Eph 4:23)
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 8, 2019 22:11:30 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. Sermon on Pentecost 1
Acts 2:1-4 Douay translation.
1 And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:4) Today's entire solemnity is about the coming of the Holy Spirit, who visibly, in the form of fire, descended from heaven on the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ. Our sermon today shall be about this. And, God willing, we will have many teachings for the illumination of your understanding and for the instruction of life. Let us “Hail” the Virgin Mary etc. The common doctrine is clear from the text of the Gospels, because the apostles and disciples before the passion of Christ and the resurrection, did not have the fullness of the Holy Spirit although they had him for the plentitude of grace and for the perfection of the spirit, and yet in many ways they were defective. And although Christ could have given them the Holy Spirit perfectly for the fullness of grace, nevertheless he preferred not to give it to them before his passion and resurrection. The reason is that there would be preserved a conformity between the proper and natural body of Christ, and his appropriated and figurative body. The proper and natural body of Christ is that which he received in the womb of the Virgin, united to his divinity, about which scripture speaks. "Who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree," namely his proper and natural body, (1 Pet. 2:24). The appropriated and figurative body of Christ is the Church. because it was entirely in the apostles and disciples of Christ of whose body Christ himself is the head. Authority. "And he has made him head over all the Church, which is his body," (Eph. 1:22). Now it is certain that before the resurrection of Christ in his own natural body there were many defects – not moral but natural defects – therefore to preserve the proportion in the figurative and mystical body of Christ, before his resurrection, there were many moral defects. But after the resurrection of Christ, when his natural body was free of all defects of natural passions, it is fitting that his mystical body and figurative body would also have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And this reason John touches upon when he says, "For as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified," (Jn 7:39). But today, they receive the Holy Spirit for the plenitude of grace and spiritual perfections. About this our theme speaks: "Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." It does not say they accepted the Holy Spirit, because already they had accepted him through sanctifying [gratificantem] grace. But "they were filled" which is to say that they were filled again, just as John 3, "reborn" and also "filled" that is filled again. I find that after the resurrection of Christ, the apostles and disciples received the Holy Spirit in three fullnesses: - First with the fullness of intellectual knowledge. - Second with the fullness of spiritual power. - And third with the fullness of universal eloquence. But today's reception was greater, therefore the theme says: "All were filled." First of all, they were plain, simple and ignorant people. But after the resurrection, understanding filled them with intellectual knowledge so clearly that they would understand the scriptures, saying to them it is necessary, "that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures," (Lk 24:44f). Of this fullness we're able to say they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, intellectually. Secondly, they received it with the fullness of spiritual power. Because a presider or legate of the pope needs great power. So, the apostles who were sent by the "pope" Jesus." For Christ, therefore we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us," (2 Cor 5:20). It is necessary therefore for them to have spiritual power. See how he gave them this power after the resurrection, saying to them, "As the Father has sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained," (Jn 20:21-23). And why did he breathe on them? I say to show the authority of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit proceeds from him. Just as breath proceeds from the breather, so the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also from the Son. And of this fullness we can say speaks to the theme, namely, "They were filled with the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2:4), and spiritual power, because then the promise was fulfilled which Christ made before his passion saying, "Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven," (Mt 18:18). Third they received the Holy Spirit with the fullness of universal eloquence. And this grace they received today. About which the theme says "They all were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they began to speak with diverse tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak," (Acts 2:4). The theme is clear and we are now in the aforesaid material. Now I go to practical things which I shall declare through four necessary dispositions for receiving the Holy Spirit with a fullness of grace. First, is bodily abstinence, Second, is affective prayer, Third is fraternal concord, and Fourth is doctrinal listening. All these dispositions, each and every one, the apostles and disciples of Christ had, on account of which the theme says: "They were filled etc." ABSTINENCE
The first proper and necessary disposition for receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit is corporal abstinence from excessive food, drink, sleeping, speaking, laughing, delights in looking at women or men, and conversations with people. Such abstinence is the proper and necessary disposition for receiving the Holy Spirit. This I explain through this story. If branches are green or soaking wet, and are thrown into the fire they will not burn, at least until the wood becomes dried out. Drying of wood necessarily precedes burning. And so of you. Persons dissolute in food and drink etc., are like green wood. How dissolute and green you are! If therefore you wish that the fire of the Holy Spirit to be inflamed and burning in you it is necessary that you be dry, and don't eat so often and drink so often, or sleep so much and so with the rest. Abstain, keep yourself from worldly things, from corporeal pleasures and the like and then the fires of the Holy Spirit will burn in you. Authority: A great battlefield was shown to the prophet Ezekiel, covered with dry bones, of which bones the prophet, speaking from the word of God, says, "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." The Lord says this to these bones: "Behold, I will send spirit into you and you shall live," (Ez 37:5). Dry bones are those persons abstaining from delights and vices and business. Into these God sends the Holy Spirit. It is clear therefore that abstinence is a proper and necessary disposition for obtaining the grace of the Holy Spirit. I say that the apostles and disciples of Christ have it through this. For from the day of the ascension up to today they fasted and they abstained not only from food and drink but also from delights and business, knowing that abstinence was necessary. This we have from the three evangelists who say that the Pharisees came to Christ saying, "Master," and Christ, "What do you wish." "Tell us," he says, "why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" (Mk 2:18). And Christ responds "Can the children of the marriage fast as long as the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them. And then they shall fast, in those days," (Mk 2:19-20). From this text we have it that the apostles, from the ascension of Christ, because then he was taken away, then the bridegroom was taken from them, until today they fasted from food and drink and business, etc. Let this be the reason. If abstinence then is so necessary for having the Holy Spirit, and the apostles did this, what shall we say? They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, because today the fire of the Holy Spirit descended on them and set them afire. DEVOUT PRAYER
The second very necessary disposition is affective or devout prayer, because some people pray in a way which properly speaking is not called prayer. They make certain recitations, when they are all dressed up, and women when they are all decorated. Such things properly are not called prayers. But affective prayers is when a man, on bended knees, raising his hands to heaven, and with eyes and heart, just as one might plead before a pope or a king. Think that you were seeing Christ, in the cathedral of glory, and you were frightened, and then terror comes in your heart and you begin your prayer. This is the good and necessary disposition for receiving the Holy Spirit. This is explained by comparison to breathing. He who breathes a breath from a warm mouth etc. and afterwards there is sensed fresh air. Devout prayer is breath warmed through devotion and moistened, when God gives tears to your prayer. Thus, the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit is experienced, because from his power he refreshes the soul against the fevers of sin, avarice and lust, etc. Authority: "I opened my mouth and breathed the spirit [attraxi spiritum]," (Ps 118:131) namely, in fervent prayer." Now the apostles and disciples of Christ, knowing that this disposition was necessary, from the day of the ascension, prayed fervently each day and night until today. Authority: Acts 1: "All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus," (Acts 1:14). Now we find here a good and subtle question about predestination. Some would say, "Did not Christ promise and ordain and infallibly predestine the sending of the Holy Spirit to the apostles? Why is it necessary for them to seek and to pray that he send it?" This question many people ask, saying, "If God has predestined me to be saved, why is it necessary that I struggle and do penance, because whatever God has ordained, that will happen?” I respond and I say that God predestined, ordained and promised to send the Holy Spirit to his apostles and disciples. Nevertheless it was necessary that they pray and ask for the Spirit. Therefore can the promise fail? I say no. But although God has promised, nevertheless it requires a disposition. For example, if the pope promises some balsam oil or chrism which are precious liquids, and you come to receive the balsam with a dirty jug, filled with leftover waste, the pope wouldn't give it to you. Because with the promise it is expected that there should be due preparation of the containers. And so when the Jesus "pope" promised the apostles the Holy Spirit, he said I promise to fill your vessels of conscience, of memory, of intellects and wills with the balsam of the Holy Spirit. On this account the apostles should wash their consciences by abstaining, by praying etc. It is the same with predestination. All those predestined are written already in the white book in gold letters. Not only is it written there that Peter or John or Magdalen shall be saved, but even the work through which they shall be saved, namely, because he was baptized, or he was merciful and patient and chaste etc. So also with those predestined to be damned. All have been written in the black book. And not only is it written that such and such a person shall be damned, but also the works for which they are damned, because he was a sinner, proud, avaricious, lustful or vengeful, and finally, because he was impenitent. If therefore the foreknown and damned give up those works, the effect of their damnation shall not follow. Because it is so ordained that such an effect of damnation or of salvation follows from such works. This is the reason why the apostles were praying, although Christ's promise to them was certain. And so they said "Let us prepare because otherwise he will not send it to us." Gregory: “This predestination to the eternal kingdom is so disposed by the omnipotence of God that those chosen for this, by their labor, arrive, that by praying they might merit to receive what the omnipotent God, before the ages, has disposed to give to them.” CONCORDThe third necessary condition is fraternal concord; not to have any rancor, hatred, ill will or desire of revenge towards your neighbor. Because the Holy Spirit does not dwell in a town or a divided community. And there is a natural reason for this, because just as the human spirit requires the connection of the members for the life that it gives to the body, – because if the members are divided, the head is by itself and the feet and the hands, and the other parts, the spirit departs. It does not remain with the other divided member – so it is with the Holy Spirit. Think how the whole community is one body and it has many members, diverse members, like a human body. The eyes are the speculative part, the men of knowledge; the ears are the judges and the lords who have to hear justice; the noses are the devout filled with the odor of Christ and the saints; the mouth are the priests who prepare the sacrament of the Eucharist, by which all its members are fed and nourished, etc. The arms are the soldiers who defend the whole body, the workers are those who sustain the whole like the feet; the head is Christ, "Whereas in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ," (Rom 12:4). And as long as we are united and joined in good peace and concord, – when the nobles have love for the commoners, the commoners honor the nobles, the clergy get along with the laity and vice versa, a husband with his wife and vice versa, the father with his son, and the son with the father – as long as that happens, the Holy Spirit vivifies the body of the community. But if the members are divided through injuries and resentments, etc. the Holy Spirit immediately departs. Authority: "These are they, who separate themselves, sensual men, having not the Spirit," (Jude 1:19). It is clear therefore that fraternal concord is necessary. This the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ had. There had been discord and division between them, between the apostles; John and James on the one hand and the others, because their mother at one time had spoken to Christ about them. "Say that these my two sons may sit, the one at thy right hand and the other at thy left, in thy kingdom," (Mt 20:21). And the ten hearing this were indignant with the two brothers. Again, think how they sought pardon. And devoutly and reasonably, it is believed, that for the good and concord of them all, that James and John asked pardon of the others for their presumption and their preference which they had sought. Secondly there was the discord among the apostles between themselves over which one of them was greater in the kingdom of heaven. As is clear in Luke 22:24ff. Think how, in these days, reconciling, they asked pardon. Third between Thomas the apostle on the one hand and the others, because Thomas was stubborn and would not believe the other apostles telling him that Christ had risen. Think how he sought pardon of them for his stubbornness of heart, (Cf. Jn 20:24ff). And again between Magdalen and the other Marys, and the apostles, who when they told the apostles that Christ had risen, that they had seen him before the others, these words were judged to be hallucinations and they didn't believe them. Lk 24: "And these words seemed to them as idle tales, and they did not believe them," (Lk 24:11). And they asked pardon of the women. Think therefore, how the apostles and especially Thomas the Apostle asked pardon of the Virgin Mary, who, when she told them that her Son had risen from the dead and appeared to her, didn't believe her. And so at the ascension Christ scolded them. As is clear in the last chapter of Mark: "At length he appeared to the eleven as they were at table and he upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again," (Mk 16:14). So in these days he made peace with them: Text: "And when the days of Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together, i.e. reconciled, in the same place" (Acts 2:1). If therefore today you wish to receive the Holy Spirit, make peace, in the example of the apostles, because otherwise you are not able to receive it. Authority: "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man can see God, looking diligently lest any man be wanting to the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, do hinder," (Heb 12:14). Note: Peace of holiness is the peace which is good and true according to God, because other peace is evil, as the peace between sinners, thieves, and murderers etc. DOCTRINAL HEARINGThe fourth very necessary disposition for receiving the Holy Spirit is doctrinal hearing, to hear freely the word of God. I don't say the word of Ovid, Terence, Virgil and the others, because how can they or whoever does not have the Holy Spirit, give it to you? It is made clear by the image of flint which struck by steel shoots fire. Rightly it is so regarding preaching. The flint stone is Christ. Christ is also the rock, […and the rock was Christ, (1 Cor 10:4)]. The steel or brass is the tongue of the preacher. Authority "For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you," (Mt 10:20). Charcoal [materia nigra] is the people who are black from sin. They are ignited by the fire of the Holy Spirit, when in the first or second or third sermon the proud man, the vain, the pompous one, is humbled, and decides to live simply. Now the person is ignited with the fire of the Holy Spirit and so with the other sins. Authority: "While Peter was yet speaking these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word," (Acts 10:44). The apostles experienced that doctrinal hearing of the word of God, because every day since the day of the ascension they had a sermon. If it is asked "Who preached?" I say that the Virgin Mary, whom Christ left behind in his place as teacher and master. "For it is she that teaches the knowledge of God, and is the chooser of his works," (Wis 8:4). Before his ascension Christ promised the Holy Spirit to the apostles saying: "It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment," (Jn 16:7-8), but he did not tell them when, neither the day nor the hour. There was another promise on the day of the ascension, when he was on the Mount of Olives and about to ascend, he said, "For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence," (Acts 1:5). The apostles, not knowing the specific day of this promise, on the day of the ascension, and on Friday, the next day and on Saturday were waiting, believing that on these days he would send the Holy Spirit. But when these three days passed, seeing that Christ had not sent them the Holy Spirit, they began to be saddened and to say to one another, "O when shall he send it?" One of them responded, "Do not doubt, because tomorrow, which is Sunday he will send it. The reason which leads me to this conclusion is that on such a day God formed the light and divided light from darkness. So, it is reasonable that on such a day he would send us the light of the Holy Spirit. And Sunday came and he did not send the Spirit, and they wondered. Another said, on Monday he will send the Spirit, because on that day he made the firmament, and he divided the waters above the firmament from the waters below the firmament, and therefore he shall come on such a day, because we need the firmament of courage, to divide the waters of virtue from the waters of vice. And he did not come. Another said on Tuesday he will come, or the Spirit will be sent, because on that day God produced the plants for bearing fruit, therefore on such a day he would send the Spirit, so we can plant the catholic faith that it might be able to bear fruit. And he did not come to those awaiting. Another said on Wednesday the Spirit will be sent. The reason is because on such a day God formed the sun, the moon and the planets, so on such a day he would send the Spirit that he might create in us the sun of charity, the moon of hope, the stars of the virtues. And he did not come. Think how confused and saddened they were. Another said on Thursday the Spirit would come, because on that day he ascended from our sight. So, on such a day he will comfort us. And he did not come. Another said on Friday. Because on that day he had suffered, and we have the sorrows of his passion, and so on such a day we deserve that he would give the comforting Holy Spirit. And he did not come. Another said on Saturday he shall come, because on that day we were dispersed, so that no one stayed with another. Thus today, so that we might be united together. Seeing however that Saturday passed and he had not come, and now that their calculations of the days had failed and since they were afraid of the Jews, the text says, "The disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews," (Jn 20:19), think how with good reason they were sad and desolate. And so today, they were gathered together at the door of the room of the Virgin Mary, awaiting for her to come out as she usually did. The Virgin however had arisen in the middle of the night, according to scripture, "I rose at midnight to give praise to thee," (Ps 118:62), and she was praying her office. When finally the Virgin Mary came out of her room and saw all the apostles and disciples weeping she said to them, "What is this my sons? Why are you weeping? Because my Son now reigns in heaven." And they said to her, "Our Blessed Mother, your Son promised to send the Holy Spirit to us, saying, ‘I will not leave you orphans among the Jews’ but now ten days have passed since he ascended and he has not yet sent us the Holy Spirit.” The Virgin Mary replied, "Don't you doubt my children, because my Son does not have the limiting condition of ordinary men, who in poverty recognize their friends, and when they are prosperous and honored, they no longer care or even remember them. But I shall give you the reason why he has not yet sent the Spirit. Are you unaware that when God delivered the people of Israel from captivity in Egypt, he descended on the fiftieth day in the form of fire on Mount Sinai to give the law?” And the apostles said, "Blessed Virgin, we know this well." And the Virgin replied, "This was a figure, that my Son on the day of his resurrection delivered from the captivity of hell all those believing in him and obedient to him. Today is the fiftieth day from the resurrection of my Son. So he will send the Holy Spirit now. So turn yourselves, all, to devout prayer, because that which has been ordained by God, is accomplished by prayers and devout orations.” Then Peter the Apostle, praying with the other apostles gathered at one side of the room said, "Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels." David had recorded it in Ps 50: 12. Lazarus, with the other seventy-two disciples, on their knees on the other side were saying, "And who shall know your thought, unless you give wisdom, and send your Holy Spirit from above. And so the ways of them who are upon earth may be corrected, and men may learn the things that please you? For by wisdom they were healed, whosoever have pleased you, O Lord, from the beginning," (Wis 9: 17-19). Mary Magdalen and the other holy women, on bended knees praying were saying, "Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit," (Ps 50: 14). Finally the apostles said to the Virgin Mary, "Blessed Virgin, you too pray, because your Son hears you immediately." And it was then the third hour [about 9 am]. Then the Virgin, kneeling, prayed saying, "You shall send forth your spirit, and they shall be created: and you shall renew the face of the earth," (Ps 103: 30). Note: "and they shall be created," namely the virtues, infused graces, gifts and the perfections, and "you shall renew the face of the earth," namely through the preaching of your apostles and disciples. When the Virgin Mary completed her prayer, suddenly there was from the heaven a great sound, like thunder, not earthly thunder, but delightful, as if a voice responding to the Virgin Mary. This was heard only by those who were in Jerusalem. And suddenly, like a wind it descended from heaven, and that sound filled the whole house where the apostles were, and the whole house was filled with fire. People came running toward the sound and they beheld the bright fire through the windows, but that fire was not burning but lighting things up, and they saw white smoke like the smoke from incense, and that fire divided itself into tongues which sat on each of them, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2: 4). Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Joel: "Moreover upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour forth my spirit. And I will show wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass, that every one who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," (Joel 2:29-32). Note: "And I will show wonders in heaven," because at that time the sky above Jerusalem was seen to appear bloody, reminding that by the merit of the passion of Christ the Holy Spirit was sent to the apostles and disciples. And bright fire appeared on earth, which could be seen by all in the house where the apostles were. And the vapors of smoke like the smoke of incense, etc. |
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 8, 2019 22:16:09 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon on Pentecost (2) John 14:27-29 Douay transl.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. 28 You have heard that I said to you: I go away, and I come unto you. If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I.
" Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," (Jn 14:27).
If you wish to think and diligently ponder the whole life of Christ from its beginning, from his birth up to the passion, among other virtues, he especially preached and wished there to be peace among Christians. And it can be stated such, he, at his birth wanted the angels to sing a new song, as is the custom of dominions, namely "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.," (Lk 2:14). In which it is shown how pleasing peace is to him. If we look to his public life, when he was an adult and going about preaching and he entered the cities, towns, castles and homes, the his manner greeting and also his disciples, was to say "Peace be with you," as is stated by the evangelists. He does not just say "Good health!", or "Good day!", but "Peace!", in which is found all good. To the apostles and disciples and to others following him he said "Have peace among you," (Mk 9:49). Also, when he wished to send his disciples to preach he said to them: "And when you come into a house, salute it, saying: Peace be to this house," (Mt 10:12).On the night of the passion, about to leave his disciples, he wished them peace as his legacy. So the theme says: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," etc. If one of the apostles had said to him, "Lord, when some lord dies, he leaves something to his own," etc., "also when a father dies, he leaves an inheritance to his children. Therefore you, who now wish to die for our salvation, etc, leave something for us." He replies, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." Clearly, it is our sermon's theme. Now I intend to explain what peace this is, and in what does it consist. I have come to see that it is threefold. First is ethical peace: personal, in oneself. Second, economic, i.e. domestic peace. Third is political peace, universal. The words are from the philosophers, and about this the theme says "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," etc. PERSONAL PEACE First I say, is when a man has peace with himself, when the soul and body, spirit and flesh are in harmony. This is indeed difficult, to reconcile those two enemies, between which naturally there is war, for what one wants, displeases the other. Do you wish to understand how great this war is? Did you ever see someone tortured, stretched up by a rope, dragged down by a weight? Isn't that a great punishment or war? Each of us has such a war. The soul insofar as its nature is spiritual draws us upward. It wishes to contemplate, etc. But the weight of the flesh draws us down to worldly pleasures, delights and corruptions. About this war scripture says, "For the flesh lusts against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh," (Gal 5:17). We need to see how we can make peace in this war. I say that it can happen in two ways, either that the soul humiliates itself and yields to the flesh and to all its pleasures, or the opposite. The first way is bad and reprobated. It is against God and reason and nature. It is as if a noble and generous lady would be at war against her maid, a servant, vile and unclean, and to establish peace that the lady were to subject herself to the servant in all things. This is wicked. So Bernard says "It is not fitting that the lady be made a servant, nor that the servant be in charge." It's the same with a noble and generous soul of spiritual substance, if it would be subject to its fleshly servant. Such peace would not be good, because it is not fitting that the lady be made a servant. Therefore it is necessary that this peace happen the other way round, that the flesh, like a servant be humbled and subjected to the lady, the soul. This happens when a person by fasting, vigils and other hardships [asperitatibus] humbles the flesh, because the flesh like the slave resists the lady, but when it is wearied enough, as if exhausted [lassa], it is subjected to the soul. Penance was invented for this, to make personal peace within yourself. And this way of making peace is good and reasonable, and what God wishes. So the holy man Job said: "Your tabernacle is at peace," (Job 5:24). But many do the opposite. They do not know to keep up this war between the soul and flesh, and wishing to be at peace, yield to the flesh. Do you wish to know how it is sinful? There was a certain king having a daughter dear to him, to whom he wished to leave the whole of his kingdom. She was just like her father, like one egg to another. It happened that this king wished to go to the Holy Land, to visit the shrines. And he entrusted to a knight his daughter, along with her slave, who served her. He told the knight how very much he cared about his daughter, promising the knight that upon his return he would be greatly rewarded. After the king departed, this soldier fell in love with the slave, giving in to her in everything, and he despised the daughter of the king. He wished that the princess be subject to the slave. What does this knight deserve, when the king returns? This king is Jesus Christ, Son of the Virgin Mary, King of Kings. The beloved daughter is the soul which is made precisely like him, more so even than a portrait, because it is created in the image of God. God says when he wishes to create man: "Let us make man to our image and likeness," (Gen 1:26). This is not said nor understood with regards to the body, because God is incorporeal, but with regards to the soul, which by nature is spiritual, noble, generous and beautiful. If you could only see one soul in its beauty, in so far as it is the image of God, you would not wish to eat nor drink. The beauty of the sun or moon is nothing compared to it. And it is loved by Christ, for he wishes to give his heavenly kingdom to it. And it seems that he loved it more than himself. For which reason he wished to be born and live in this world for 33 years, and finally suffer and die, out of complete love of his daughter. And he can say, "Give me the persons [literally, animas, souls], and the rest take for yourself," (Gen 14:21). The king wished to go overseas to visit the holy places. This world is like the sea because of its waves and dangers, and little fish are eaten by big fish. And on the day of the ascension from this world he departed, and committed his daughter to a knight, because he committed your soul to you, and mine to me, and with a slave, namely the flesh, that it would serve the soul. And now we are committing adultery with the slave. We give in to the flesh, despising the soul, and we wish that the soul would serve it. Why are you all dressed up? Is it not because of love of the flesh. Why have you prepared gourmet food? Is it not out of love of the slave? And you don't care about the daughter of the king. She is dying of hunger, and is naked and dirty. We often wash and bathe the flesh. And there is no mention of the daughter of the king, nor do we care about her. Men strive for land, and travel the sea over for the slave. And for the soul, the daughter of the king, we cannot even rest on Sundays. You will be condemned just as the knight. Think what the king will do to you when he comes, soon in the general judgment, or what will you say in your particular judgment. See, then how it is a sin to wish to please the flesh more than the soul. Behold, I give you some advice. Every day you, like the slave, who twice a day is ordered to bring meals, namely lunch and dinner, should care about the daughter of the king. You should do the same for the soul, praying morning and evening, and before meals, signing yourself and saying the Our Father and Hail Mary, devoutly thinking about Christ in glory, who is adored by the angels and watches over you. And finally by thinking how you will see the Virgin Mary at the right hand of her Son, you say, "Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed, etc." In the evening, too, you should never forget that dinner or supper. On Sunday you prepare a larger dinner by hearing a full Mass, and that you go to confession which is like washing your hands. You should adore Christ, true God and man in the host. Once a year you should dress up in new clothes. This happens in confession where you take off your old clothes, and put on the new, at Easter, completing the great feast by receiving Holy Communion. And this way you are able to give a good account of his daughter at the judgment of Christ the King, who honors you in paradise. About those who do the opposite, caring more about the body than the soul, David says, "Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners. For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes. They are not in the labor of men," namely through penance, "neither shall they be scourged like other men," (Ps 72:3-5), but with demons. DOMESTIC PEACE
Second is domestic peace, at home, when husband and wife and family stand in good peace and concord without conflict. Such peace is called domestic, just as the first is called personal. For achieving this peace and keeping it, six rules [doctrinae] are necessary: two are for the husband toward the wife, and two for the wife toward the husband, and two of both the husband and wife toward the family at home. First, it must be known, the husband ought to preserve his love toward his wife. The husband ought to love his wife, not hate her for some fault, from which she is a fine woman. There are some wretches [miseri] who love their wives only as long as the wedding bread lasts. When they are satisfied by it they despise them, and that is how war breaks out at home. Blessed is the man who always keeps the same love which he showed his wife on the first day or week [of their marriage.] Second, the husband ought to provide for his wife. He should not desert her, but provide for her, but not with vanities, because if she be vain, the husband ought to say to her, "Woman, I am damned with you," etc., because vain wives not only doom themselves but also their husbands who give in to them. A husband should not leave his wife in order to become a hermit or a religious once the marriage has been consummated by sexual relations, unless with permission of his wife, and then there also ought to be permission of the bishop, and that the wife be such that there would not be a suspicion of sinning etc. Therefore scripture says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it: That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life: That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife, loves himself." See this beautiful text in Ephesians 5:25-28. The wife ought to have two [attitudes] toward her husband, namely reverence and diligence. First reverence, that she is willing that the husband be lord, otherwise if in opposition, a war shall break out in the home. For nature, scripture, and both divine and human law dictate that the man be the lord of the home. It is against nature, divine and human law, that the woman be the lord of the man. It is told of the beautiful and noble Virgin Mary, etc. with how much reverence and honor she spoke to her spouse, Joseph, a poor and elderly man. So scripture says, "Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord. Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church," (Eph 5:22-23). Note, "as to the Lord," not "opposed to the Lord," because it can be asked of the body of the wife that the woman ought not to consent [to sinning], moreover she should even permit herself to be killed, because she would be a martyr before she would consent. Also she ought to be diligent, that she conserve that what the husband has earned with great labors and dangers, lest the home be like a leaky sack. She should keep the home and herself clean, because then the husband would love such a wife, and so there is peace at home. Of this diligence Ecclesiastes 26: "The grace of a diligent woman shall delight her husband, and shall fat his bones." (Sir 26:16), that is she makes him fat all over. Third, the husband and wife ought to have two [requirements.] toward the family. First about the education of the children. There are many who say it is enough that he gives the children food and drink, but they do not care to educate them or to instruct them, etc. Children ought to be nourished. Because just as the tender tree is leaned, etc. so sons when they are poor. This especially belongs to the mother, because when the children ask for bread in the morning, a good mother should say, "Now, son say the Hail Mary, you know that she is our queen in heaven," and "Now, let us genuflect," etc. You say the Hail Mary and see that he signs himself with the sign of the cross, and the children ought to tell their parents that they didn't lie, didn't steal, weren't contentious, that they confessed when they are five or six years old, and that they receive Holy Communion when they are twelve years old. The parents ought to lead them to church to hear Mass etc. and so the scripture says, "And you, fathers, provoke not your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord." (Eph 6:4). Guilty is the gardener if the vines are twisted, because when still small they can be straightened. So you parents are like gardeners. You have planted vines in the vineyard of Christ, i.e. the church. With respect to servants and captive slaves [servos et captivos], they should induce them to be baptized or that they be obliged to attend Mass, to be given an opportunity of hearing Mass and receiving communion, then such a home is blessed. To do the opposite of the aforesaid is the greatest sin. See what scripture says, "But if any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," (1 Tim 5:8). Domestic peace consists in this, what a husband should have toward his wife, etc. A brief epilogue. Such a home has peace and the blessing of God, therefore scripture says, "O Israel," i.e. a man seeing God, " if you had walked in the way of God," namely in these ways which I have said, "you had surely dwelt in peace for ever." (Bar 3:13). UNIVERSAL PEACEThe first peace is personal. The second domestic. The third is universal, when a community, village or city lives in peace, then it is universal peace. And this is a peace that is first in the heart, second on the lips, third in deed. In the heart because it does not have envy, anger, nor ill will toward each other, It is more sympathetic to those who hold office or rule, who ought not to be envied, because they have to give a reason for all those entrusted to them, just as everyone is sorry for a ship in trouble at sea and doesn't envy it. So whoever has rule of people, is on a stormy sea in danger of sinking into hell, so much so that no prudent man ought to yearn to rule. Therefore he is rather to be sympathized with than to be envied. Second, this peace is on the lips, when we speak to, and greet each other. Because just as through the smoke of a chimney is revealed the fire in the house, so through greetings the fire of peace and love existing in the heart [is revealed], because the heart cannot be seen by anyone. No one should say "If he speaks to me, I'll speak to him," etc. It is told how the Virgin Mary was the first to speak to the ones crucified with her Son. Third it consists in deed. There should be no quarrels and lawsuits. There are some who even in paradise would start arguments [inveniret quaestiones], etc. Therefore the Apostle, Paul, says: "Already indeed there is plainly a fault among you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why do you not rather endure wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren," (1 Cor 6:7-8). For this reason the Apostle commands, "If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men." (Rom 12:18). |
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 15, 2019 21:19:44 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon for Trinity Sunday (1) John 3 Douay trans.
9 Nicodemus answered, and said to him: How can these things be done? 10 Jesus answered, and said to him: Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Amen, amen I say to thee, that we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony.
"How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9).
This question is in the gospel today, but the solution is in John cc. 11 and 14 When our master Jesus Christ taught his disciples and he spoke to them wonderfully [miranda] of the divine persons, and he said these words about the Father, "In my Father's house there are many mansions," (Jn 14:2). Hearing this Philip said to Christ, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." (v.8) Christ answered Philip: "He who sees me sees the Father also," (v.8). From which account it is clear that the master Jesus Christ corrected the questioning Philip saying, "Why do you ask, 'Show us the Father'?" (v.9) Philip, by speaking these words to Christ his master, raises the question: "Whether a disciple who hears the master speaking of things difficult to say and understand, can ask such a question of his teacher without being reprimanded, and when and why this might happen? It must be said that there are three conditions, which St. John sets forth. The first case or first condition is when the lesson of the master is beyond the capacity of the human intellect, that is when it exceeds human reason. This is the case in John chapter 3, where he says that Christ, our teacher, speaking to Nicodemus, among other things, says to him, "Amen, amen I say to you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," (Jn 3:3). See the teaching and discipline of Christ. This teaching exceeds the natural genius of man or of the intellect, because for a man already old to be born again, that he enter the womb of his mother, is beyond human understanding. Therefore Nicodemus was not able to understand this teaching, and posed a question about it and asked him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again?" (v.4). And then the teacher Jesus Christ explained to him that there were two births. One from the womb of your mother. The other in baptism and the Holy Spirit. In this second way, he who wishes to see the kingdom of God can be born again. The second case or condition is when the lesson of the master is contrary to general or usual experience, that is, when it exceeds all custom and vision. This case St. John states in chapter 6, where Christ teaching his disciples, among other things, said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh," (Jn 6:51-52). Behold, the teaching of Christ. This teaching exceeds all ordinary experience, that a man would give his flesh to others to eat and nourish them. This is never seen, or approved, or heard of. Therefore those unwilling to accept this teaching argued among themselves, and forming a question asked: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (v. 53). And then the master explained to them how he was the Son of God, true God and man, and how the bread would be converted into his flesh, and the wine into his blood, under the appearance of wine, and how this food indeed confers eternal life to those using it. A similar opinion in John, ch. 7, explains that when Jesus himself was teaching in the temple, the Jews knowing that he never had been a master nor had he studied, and he was teaching the wonders of sacred scripture, seeing this to be against the general custom of men and experience, they asked in amazement and said, "How does this man know scripture, having never learned?" (Jn 7:15). Jesus, however, solving this question for them, said, "My doctrine is not mine, but of him that sent me. If any man do the will of him; he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He who speaks of himself, seeks his own glory," (Jn 7:16-18). The third case is when the lesson of the teacher is contrary to the commandment or counsel of sacred scripture, and this is when it goes beyond divine revelation. This case St. John explains in ch. 7, where he says that our teacher Jesus Christ, speaking and teaching to the Jews, among other things, said to them that he, the Son of Man, was the true Messiah, and he had to be raised up and hung on a cross. See the teaching of Christ. This reading seemed to the Jews to contradict and exceed divine revelation and sacred scripture. Since indeed sacred scripture says the Christ or Messiah or the Son of Man would never die, and Christ said and taught that he would die on the cross, he seemed to teach contrary to sacred scripture. And so the Jews not daring to seize him asked the question: "We have heard out of the law, that the Christ abides for ever; and how do you say: The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" (Jn 12:34). And then Christ explained to them how he was able to die according to his humanity, but he would live in eternity according to his divinity. So, the third case. The answer is clear, to the question in which it is asked when might a disciple dare place a question to the teacher about the lesson without recrimination. It is clear then in three cases. First, if the master was saying something which exceeded the natural capacity of man and understanding. Second, if he was saying something contrary to ordinary natural experience. Third, if he was saying something which exceeded the revealed counsel contained in sacred scripture, especially if it imposes on the disciples something to believe in or hold to. In these situations a disciple justly and without recrimination can form and ask a question of the teacher, "How can this happen?" Truly St. John, the greatest in holy scripture, who is taught and tutored by Christ and his counsel and zeal for paradise, because through the mystery of the Trinity he and his teaching is approved. He, indeed, is such a great and admirable teacher, among other wondrous questions and teachings, states and says in 1 John, ch. 5, "And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one," (1 Jn 5:8). This teaching seems to meet the aforesaid conditions. First it exceeds the understanding, reason and genius of man. Which is clear because according to our reason it seems that whatever thing that are distinct, are distinct in their nature. For example, in all kinds of creatures, heaven and earth are distinct, because heaven has the nature and form which is incorruptible, and earth, corruptible, and so corruptible and incorruptible are distinct. So by nature two stars in the heavens are distinct, like the sun and moon, although they are incorruptible, nevertheless they are distinct in place and magnitude and brightness. Even angels, by nature and essence are distinct, like a rock and a tree, are distinct by nature, a goat and a lion. Two men are distinct by their souls, because one is the soul of Peter and another is the soul of Matthias, and another is the soul of George. Thus it is that wherever we find in created things the distinction of persons, we always find the distinction of essences and natures. Therefore, that we say that in the divinity there are three distinct persons, and not distinct by essence, or substance or by nature, exceeds reason. If indeed the sons of Israel were not able to look on the face of Moses because of the brightness of his visage as is found in Exodus 34, because he had seen the essence of God and of the Trinity of persons, how can we attend to and touch upon the entirely sublime Trinity? How indeed is someone able to understand that the unity is trinity, and trinity is unity, when all numbers are distinct by nature and species, that they not be two equals? Because threes exceed twos and fours, threes, etc. How therefore can we grasp that the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are three persons, and undivided in substance, nature and essence? Human reason cannot grasp it. Therefore it exceeds reason. Thus St. Bernard says in his sermon on the Holy and Inaccessible Trinity: "To inquire of the Trinity is perverse curiosity; to hold and believe as the church teaches, is faith and security. See it as it is. It is happiness." And because of this we read St. Augustine cautiously [reprehensum], who wished to explain this mystery to reason. We read about the time when he was composing the books On the Trinity. Check the story in our next sermon [Trinity Sermon ii, The boy at at the seashore.] Therefore it is clear that it exceeds human genius. Second it exceeds all experience and models. This is clear from the Apostle [St. Paul] to the Romans, ch. 1, and according to Dionysius, On the Heavenly Hierarchy. What we know of invisible and celestial realities, we perceive through the visible, only in visible and created things. Clearly it is the opposite with this mystery Although we prove or rather declare this mystery of the most blessed Trinity through examples and similarities, nevertheless they all fall short. It's clear when an example is brought forward. It is said that in the apple there are three, namely, smell, flavor and color, and nevertheless it is only one. So in the Blessed Trinity there are Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and nevertheless there is just one God. This example if looked at closely and well, is more against, than for. For of those three, none is first. Neither the color is the apple, nor the smell is the apple, nor the flavor is the apple. But in the Trinity, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. It is the same in other examples. All fall short of a perfect proof and explanation of this sublime mystery, which is that God is one and three. So we read about this in 4 Esdras, ch. 4, that when Esdras was marveling over some secrets of God and wished to understand, the angel said to him, "Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me a measure of wind, or call back for me the day that is past," (4 Ezra 4:5), as if to say "You cannot comprehend these earthly things, how can you now comprehend celestial?" It is clear then that it exceeds all experience. About this see St. Thomas I, q.32, a. 1, where he elegantly shows that it is impossible through natural reason to arrive at an understanding of the Trinity of divine persons. And that he who tries to prove the Trinity of divine persons by reason, in two ways derogates from faith. See the reference above [to St. Thomas]. Third it seems to exceed the divine mystery revealed in the law on God's part, which he gave to the people of God. So God says, Deut. 6: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one." (Ex 6:4) Therefore God, it seems, posits unity and not trinity. The same St. Paul who was "caught up to the third heaven" (2 Cor 12:2) and heard the hidden things of God, in 1 Cor 8, says the same, "For although there be that are called gods, either in heaven or on earth (for there be gods many, and lords many); Yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him," (1 Cor 8:5-6). It seems that Paul posits unity in divinity and not trinity. And because these two, namely Moses and Paul who while living, here saw the divine essence, that the argument should be conceded to them, and none other, as Augustine. They posit unity in divinity [divinis], it seems, and not trinity. Therefore to posit trinity seems against both the old and the new law, and consequently against the divine revealed mystery. The same is posited also in [Canon Law], the commandment to believe, expressly in: Extravagantes, De summs trinitate, et fide catholica, ch. 1. Therefore rightly and without repercussions, according to the aforesaid triple conditions etc. We who hear St. John's lesson, that "there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost," (1 Jn 5:7), can form and state the question presumed in the words of the theme: How can this happen that in the divinity we believe there to be unity in essence and trinity in persons? And this, it seems, is contrary to human reason and true understanding. If you believe, you shall see. If you believe as one here on the way [during your lifetime], you shall see there as a comprehender [in the vision of heaven]. If you believe on earth, you shall see in heaven. In which words St. John solves three questions, which we can ask of him. First, if it is subtly difficult [subtilitate difficilis] Second, if its infallibly true, [veritate infallibilis] Third if it is attainable by understanding [scibilitate attingibilis]. DIFFICULT BUT TRUE
He responds that such can happen certainly and conditionally: If you believe, you shall see. The first and second question, namely that this sacrament of the Trinity and the most sublime mystery is wonderfully subtly difficult and certainly infallibly true, St. John shows, in Apocalypse 5, where he says he saw "a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel, proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man was able, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, to open the book," (Rev 5:1-4). And behold, "a Lamb standing as it were slain, having [seven horns and] seven eyes" (v.6) in great power rose up and opened the seven seals of the book. And then four animals and twenty-four ancients who were present blessed God and gave him glory and honor. Though that book St. John understood the sacrament of the Trinity and the mystery of all the secrets contained and written, within and without, and of the invisible things which are in the heaven within, and of the visible things which are outside, marked with all properties and perfections in a more excellent manner. For the perfections which are in every visible and invisible thing, in a more excellent way are in the Holy Trinity. About this see St. Thomas I, q. 4, a.2. There he points out how all perfections of things are in God. The book was sealed with seven seals because this sacrament and mystery of the Trinity has been closed [clausum est] with seven secrets. Only Christ as the slain Lamb can open it. Because no one but Christ the Lamb who suffered on the cross according to his humanity, is most pefectly worthy to reveal it, because he has seven eyes of the knowledge of all perfections. Just as indeed by Christ opening the seven seals we are taught the secrets, so we declare and open them to you. 1. The first seal is the secret, namely that in this mystery of the Trinity there are three persons, not by nature distinct, but by relation, and one person is not the other. And nevertheless there is but one nature and substance and essence, so that there are three divine persons, but God is just one, and each is God. Which if true it is clear because so says St. John, 5, ch. 1 canonical [epistle], "And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one,"(1 Jn 5:7) and this the church confirms, Extra. de sum. tri et fi ca. c Firmiter credimus. This is especially wonderful. And how? Would it not be wonderful, referring to Peter, James and John if we would say that there are three human persons and nevertheless there are not three men, but just one man, that it might be said, Peter is a man, James is a man, John is a man, and that there be one man and not three men, and that in them there are not three souls, but just one soul. Truly it would be wonderful. So that in a proposition about the Holy Trinity there is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there are three divine persons, and nevertheless there are not three gods but just one God. Certainly it is wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. For these things can happen. Which is clear through an example from nature. From an external spring, from the flow there emerges one pond and there are three pools of water, and nevertheless there are not three waters, but one water in nature. Similarly from the Father comes the Son and from both the Holy Spirit, and there are three divine persons but only one God. And it is true to say that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. But nevertheless there are not three gods, but just one God. Behold the first seal opened by the Lamb, Christ. 2. The second seal is that one divine person, although it is not the other, nevertheless is in the other. Which is clear, for Christ said to Philip as is found in John 14, "Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" (Jn 14:11). And the church confirms this with the title and chapter cited above, Firmiter credimus. Would it not be wonderful that Peter is not Paul, and Paul is not John, and nevertheless Peter is in Paul, and Paul in John? It would be truly marvelous. So in the proposal. In the mystery of the Trinity the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Holy Spirit, and nevertheless the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit in the Father and the Son. Certainly it is wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. But if it is wonderful, nevertheless it is possible, nor is it doubtful, because it is possible that this happen. That however it is such, Christ who is the Lamb, shows, through this example. For in nature we posit that there be three men, many, loving each other mutually, namely Peter, Paul and John. The heart of Peter is not that of Paul, nor the heart of Paul that of John, but there are three hearts. But because they love each other mutually, the heart of one is in the heart of the other. And so what the one wants the other wants. For Augustine says that the spirit or heart is more where it loves, that where it lives. And Christ confirms this in Matthew ch. 6: "For where your treasure is, there is your heart also," (Mt 6:21). And nevertheless it is clear that the treasure is not the heart, nor the heart the treasure, and nevertheless the treasure is in the heart, and the heart in the treasure. And so it is written in 1 Jn 4: "And he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him," (v.16) And so it is clear that the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, and the Holy Spirit in the Father and the Son. About this St. Thomas I, q. 42, a.5 where he says in the body of the article, that in the Father and the Son "There are three points of consideration as regards the Father and the Son; the essence, the relation, and the origin; and according to each, the Son and the Father are in each other." and vice versa. And the same judgment holds for the Holy Spirit as for the Father and the Son. 3. The third seal and secret is that, of these three persons, one is ingenerable [ingenerabilis], namely the Father, the other begotten, the third breathed forth [spirata]. The first is from no one, the second is from the first, and the third is from the first and second. And that this be true is shown by Athanasius who says, " For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit." And later it is stated, " The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." Note the whole. And this the church confirms, in the title and chapter cited. This is wonderful. And would it not be wonderful, that some man would beget and not be begotten, and that he would beget and would generate without a woman? Certainly so, and that there would be a man whom a man had produced, and produced without a woman, and that he would be produced and not begotten? Truly it would be wonderful. So to our point. For God the Father was not generated, nor is from anyone. About this see St. Thomas I, q. 33. God the Son from God the Father has been generated, and generated without a mother, in speaking of his eternal generation, and the Holy Spirit from God the Father and God the Son is breathed forth [spiratus est] and proceeding, without a woman, and nevertheless was not generated. This is exceedingly wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. And if it is wonderful, nevertheless it is possible, not doubtful, because it can happen. That it has happened, Christ, who is the Lamb, shows through this example from nature. Adam proceeds from no man, because he was the first man. Eve from Adam alone, Abel from Adam and Eve together. These three have humanity, because each was human, and nevertheless no one from no one, namely Adam, and another from one, namely Eve, and another from two, namely Abel from Adam and Eve. Thus the proposition. Just as Adam had humanity and did not have it from someone else, so God the Father has divinity from no one. Just as Eve had humanity from one man, from Adam without a woman, so the Son of God had and has divinity from God the Father alone, without a wife. No wonder that just as the Son of God is generated from a mother with respect to humanity, without a man and father, so with respect to the divinity he is begotten from the Father without a mother. And just as a man, Abel, had humanity from two, from Adam and Eve, so the Holy Spirit had and has divinity from the Father and the Son equally. 4. The fourth seal is, that although God the Father generates and generated from eternity God the Son, nevertheless neither the Father is prior to the Son, nor the Son posterior to the Father, but they are coeternal. That this happens such, Athanasius shows saying, "And in this Trinity nothing is prior or posterior, nothing more or less. But all three persons are co-eternal to each other and co-equal," (Cf Athanasian Creed). And this also is confirmed by the title and chapter previously cited. This is exceedingly wonderful. Would it not be wonderful if Adam had not preceded Abel, and that the architect would not be prior than the house built by him? It would be wonderful. So in the proposition I say that God the Father begets the Son and that the Son would not be younger. Certainly it is wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. Although it is wonderful, nevertheless it is possible, nor should it be doubtful. Because this can happen. That it was so, Christ shows through an example, thus. From the sun a ray comes out, and from the ray proceeds splendor. Same for a candle if it is lit. So in the proposal, from God the Father, like from the sun, a ray comes out God, the Son, and from God the Father and the Son, God the Holy Spirit comes out, like splendor, because God the Father from eternity generated the Son, and God the Father and God the Son from eternity spirate the Holy Spirit. And consequently all three were eternal. About this see St. Thomas I, q.42, a.2 There he says in the beginning of the body of the article that it is necessary to say the Son is co-eternal to the Father, which he there elegantly proves. The same judgment is of the Holy Spirit, because from his principle, namely from the Father and Son he necessarily is co-eternal. 5. The fifth seal is the secret that everything which the Father has he gives to the Son and nevertheless he keeps it all for himself. And everything which the Father and the Son have they give to the Holy Sprit, and keep everything for themselves. That this be true the Master of the Sentences declares Bk I and Athanasius cited above. And it is exceedingly wonderful And how? Would it not be wonderful that I, having ten florins and give them all to the church, and keep the same, so that truly it would be given and truly kept? So in the proposal, because God the Father gives all his perfections to the Son and simultaneously keeps them all. And both give the same to the Holy Spirit and keep the same for themselves. Certainly it is wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. But although it is wonderful, nevertheless it is possible, nor doubtful, because these can happen. That however it is so, Christ explains through an example from nature. A master gives all his knowledge to the bachelor, and keeps it all to himself, because by giving it he is not deprived of it, and both give the whole to a student, and both keep everything for themselves. So in the proposition, God the Father wills and knows all, and gives all to the Son, and keeps it all for himself, and he is not deprived of those things, and the Father and Son communicate all to the Holy Spirit, and keep it for themselves. 6. The sixth seal is that all power [posse], all will [velle], and so with the other perfections which the Father has, the Son has, and also the Holy Spirit has, and nevertheless God the Father can generate the Son, because God the Son cannot do this nor the Holy Spirit. And also the Father and Son can spirate the Holy Spirit other than themselves in person and nevertheless the Holy Spirit cannot do this. That it happens so, the Master of the Sentences points out and confirms as previously [cited]. This is wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. But although it is wonderful, nevertheless it is possible, nor doubtable, because these things can happen. Which is clear. For an example is given, that the king of Castile has a noble city, and has the complete power of selling, or giving, or alienating it, and he gives it with all his power and dominion to the king of Aragon, and he transfers dominion, in this given case all the dominion and power [posse] which the king of Castile had in this city the king of Aragon has, and nevertheless the king of Castile has power, which he can give him, not only to the king of England, France etc. even also to the king of Aragon. And nevertheless this king of Aragon having been given what he can give to the kings of France and England, not however of Aragon, because it is his, therefore he cannot give it to himself. So in the proposition God the Father gives his whole power and will to the Son, and the Father and Son to the Holy Spirit, and whatever the Father can do and wills, the Son can do and wills, and whatever both will and can do, the Holy Spirit can do and wills. And nevertheless God the Father can generate God the Son, yet God the Son cannot generate God the Son, and God the Father and God the Son can and will to produce the Holy Spirit, and nevertheless the Holy Spirit neither wills nor can produce the Holy Spirit. Behold the sixth seal opened by Christ. About this see St. Thomas I, q 42, a. 6. There he concludes and proves, that the Son is equal to the Father in power and the Holy Spirit to both, by which nevertheless, notwithstanding it does not follow, that he says the same, the Father can generate, therefore the Son. The reason for which he assigns in the solution to the third argument above (I, q 42, a 6, ad 3m.). 7. The seventh seal is that the Father is omnipotent, and nevertheless does not have the power to be generated. The Son is omnipotent and nevertheless does not have the power to generate. And the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, and nevertheless does not have the power to generate or produce the Holy Spirit. And both [uterque] of them are omnipotent, and neither has the power to call back the previous day, nor to make a violated virgin to not have been violated, as Thomas says I, q. 25, a. 4 in the body of the article, and in the responses to the objections. That this truly happens, Athanasius points out, about the aforesaid generation and spiration. And the Master of the Sentences cited above. And the church confirms in the title and chapter previously cited. This is very wonderful. And how can this happen? Would it not be wonderful if it is said, Aristotle had all knowledge and nevertheless he did not know geometry or arithmetic. Certainly it would be wonderful. "How can these things be done? "(Jn 3:9). The seal was closed, but it is opened. But if it is wonderful, nevertheless it is doable, and not doubtable. Because these things can happen. That however it be so, is clear through an example. Suppose that there was a master in theology, very great and perfect. Can he teach theology to a rock? Certainly not. But this is not because of his defect, but of the rock. Is he able to teach it to a child lying in a crib? Certainly not. It is not from a defect on his part, but of the child. So it is in the proposal, God the Father etc. nor the Son, etc, can make it that call back yesterday, etc. [revocent diem praeteritum] etc. But this is not from the impotency of God, but of the thing itself, because such a thing not is doable. Nevertheless God is called omnipotent, as if able to do everything, because he can do all that is possible, etc. Behold the seventh seal opened, and consequently all seven.
CONDITIONALLY ATTAINABLE
The third solution, namely, of the third question is this, that this sacred mystery of the Trinity is knowable and graspable conditionally, "If you believe, you will see." Which St. Augustine shows saying, "That to faith which is in this life, succeeds bright vision in heaven, and to hope, comprehension or grasp, and to charity, fruition. If therefore you wish to see in heaven, we believe in this life, because if you believe, you shall see. But since faith deals with invisible [realities] – for according to Augustine, "Faith is to believe what you do not see," – how do we believe what we do not see? How can this happen? To this Augustine replies in his book On faith of invisible things, and he shows through two examples, that we believe and do not see.
The first is this. Do you say that this shoemaker is your father? And if it is asked of you, "Did you seen him beget you?" You will reply, "No." If therefore you believe your visible father, whom you see, you should believe your invisible Father, whom you do not see.
A second example from St. Augustine. You are sick. You consult a doctor for yourself, so you can get a certain medicine and you will be cured. Have you seen yourself cured? You reply, "No." Why do you say that the medicine helps? You say, "Because the doctor says so." And why do you believe the doctor? You reply: "Because he read it in the books of Avicenna or of such and such a doctor." And if it is asked, "Do you know that?" You reply, "No. But I hear and so I believe." Therefore you believe what you do not see. Believe therefore so that you might see: "For if you believe you shall see." What now you see by faith in this life, you shall then clearly see face to face in glory. To which, may he lead us, who lives in the perfect Trinity, etc.
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 15, 2019 21:22:35 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon on the Trinity (2)
John 3 Douay trans.
1 And there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night, and said to him: Rabbi, we know that thou art
come a teacher from God; for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless God be with him. 3 Jesus answered, and said to him: Amen,
amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
" No man can do these signs which you do," (Jn 3:2)
These words come originally from John 3 and are recited in today's gospel for this Sunday and the present feast. For just as the church celebrates the solemnity of saints, and lest any be omitted, all the saints are venerated together in one solemnity on the feast of All Saints to make up for any neglect, so the church celebrates today a special solemnity for each divine person. It is very fitting to celebrate the distinction of persons and the unity of essence. I now have to preach about a more sublime and complicated matter in all of theology, or in any school, about the eternal Trinity, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. So that our sermon be to the glory of God and the reverence and reformation of our souls, and the correction of sins, let us first salute the most holy Virgin Mary. The secret and mystery of the holy and eternal Trinity, how there is one God the creator of all things and that one God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is so sublime and transcending, that from the beginning of the world up to the end, nothing would have been known by the human intellect unless God had revealed it to us, because the human intellect cannot naturally comprehend such a sublime mystery. You already see how great is the height of heaven over our bodies, more incomparably higher is the Trinity over our souls. And just as a man created with his feet on the ground in no way can touch heaven with his finger, he can, however, do so spiritually. And this can happen in two ways, if heaven, for example, bowed down, or if man would be elevated on high by God and would touch heaven, otherwise it is impossible to touch heaven with your finger. So for the Holy Trinity about souls. The finger of the soul by which it touches [heaven] is the subtle intellect. Just as the body of a man with a finger cannot touch heaven naturally, so neither the finger of the soul can touch, understand or comprehend the mystery of the Trinity naturally, but indeed [bene] supernaturally, in two ways, either that heaven, that is the secret bends down, as happened in the blessed incarnation of the Son of God, and then it elevates men when that infinite height humbles itself descending from heaven to earth, assuming human nature, and reveals himself by his own mouth, preaching and declaring how one God is triune in persons. Consequently, we can touch with the finger of the intellect. Also because he raises men on high, like the apostles, martyrs, doctors, confessors through contemplation and perfection of life, who then touch with the finger of intellect the mystery of the Trinity. See how either through the humbling of heaven, or elevation of man we supernaturally touch that mystery. Authority: David in Ps. 143 says, "Lord, bow down your heavens and descend," the first way. "Touch the mountains and they shall smoke," (Ps 143:5), the second way. The secret mystery of the Trinity he calls "heavens" saying, "Lord, bow down your heavens," that is the secrets. One heaven is that one God is three persons. Another that only the Father begets the Son. Another that from the Father alone the Son proceeds through eternal generation. Another that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both equally. Also another secret is that in divinity there are four real relations, and five notions. About these he says, "Bow down the heavens." Behold the first way. The second, "Touch the mountains and they shall smoke." He calls highest "mountains" the apostles, martyrs and doctors and confessors, who had an intellect raised through high contemplation and spiritual life. Earthly valleys are the worldly people, therefore he says, "Touch the mountains and they shall smoke," not from the smoke of a lime kiln, but of the smoke of teaching and preaching and like the good smelling smoke of incense. By these two ways we know the secrets of the Trinity, otherwise no human intellect could have known or understood this mystery, because the Apostle says that God dwells in inaccessible light "Whom no man has seen," not with the eye of the body or of the intellect, "nor can see: to whom be honor and empire everlasting. Amen." (1 Tim 6:16). Question: Where does this defect come from, that we cannot see God? I say that it is not a defect of the object, but of the potency, because God of himself is visible, but the defect is on the part of our intellect, which is not proportionate to him. For the eye of the owl cannot see the sun, which of it self is well visible, but the eye of the owl is not proportioned. So the mystery of the Trinity of itself is most bright and visible, but the defect is on the part of our intellect. So the Philosopher [Aristotle] says, " Just as the eye of the owl is to the light of the sun, so is our intellect to the things most manifest in nature." Therefore I shall tell you a wonderful story from St. Augustine, the greatest and most subtle doctor, who wanted to write a book in which he would explain the secrets of the Trinity by using reasons, arguments and authorities from nature. When once he was walking along the seashore meditating on an explanation he was writing, as he was going along, he came upon a charming young boy, who was dipping water from the ocean with a silver spoon and was pouring it into a little hole which he had made with his hand. Thinking about the boy for a moment, St. Augustine asked him, "Son, what are you doing?" He replied that he wanted to put the whole vastness of the sea into this little hole. Augustine understood that the little hole represented his book, the silver spoon his bright and subtle intellect, the vast sea the infinite mystery of the Trinity. Then the boy disappeared. "O" said Augustine, "In vain I labor," and dismissing natural reasons and physics, by which the mystery of the Trinity cannot be understood, he proceeds another way, by returning to the revelations of Christ, who bowed down from the heavens and raised men, and to the authorities of the bible, and so he planned his book, saying with the Apostle, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!" (Rom 11:33). Note knowledge is called "depth [altitudo] of the riches," which man has of the Trinity. The riches of this world are not properly riches, because they perish, but knowledge of the secrets of the Trinity is the "depth of the riches," which makes souls rich in this world through faith, and in heaven through glory. The give to them whatever they wish and whatever they desire. "Of the wisdom," that is, that savor of knowledge, because the devout soul finds great savor in the contemplation of the Trinity and of knowledge, and this with respect to the blessed who already see clearly and can say: "As we have heard, so have we seen," etc., (Ps 47:9). A proper judgment is the conclusion of counsel, by which the one presiding, having heard his counselors, decides, and he says this ought to be done, this is counsel. The judgment therefore of the Trinity are true conclusions namely that one God is three persons, that the Father generates the Son, just as the sun generates rays, nor is a wife necessary in such a generation. And just as from the sun and rays heat proceeds, so from the Father and Son proceeds the Holy Spirit. Such judgments are "incomprehensible" by a created intellect on its own. And "unsearchable his ways," or of those. Ways are arguments, reasons and proofs, because just as by a way [viam] a man goes to his destination, so through arguments and reasons man comes to the conclusion. He wishes therefore to say that not only judgments are incomprehensible, but also arguments reasons or physical or natural proofs cannot be discovered or investigated for proving the mystery of the Trinity. But God for the consolation of the faithful gives us signs representing the most blessed mystery of the Trinity itself, and about these the theme speaks. "For no man can do these signs which you do," (Jn 3:2). And there are three signs. The first sign he gives in the rational soul, and this through creation. Second in material body and this through redemption. Third in the spiritual life through salvation. And because no one can make these signs, but God alone, therefore he says the theme, "No man can do these signs which you do," (Jn 3:2). THROUGH CREATION
I say first that God gives a sign of the Holy Trinity in the rational soul through creation. And see what kind. In one body there is only one rational soul, which governs the whole body and members, namely, the head, feet, hands and all. So in the whole world there is only One God who governs and rules the whole world and the head which is heaven, and arms, namely the sun and moon and stars by which he works deeds, and the stomach, namely the elements. Already you see how much is the height [altitudo] of heaven, which is the head, over the feet, the earth. And just as the rational soul has three in itself, [the intellect,] and the memory in which we understand the present, and the will by which we desire the future, like health [sanitatem]. When you are sick you desire health, and when poor, riches. Nevertheless the memory, and intellect and will is only one soul. So in the world there is only one God, and that God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. See how God gives the sign of the Trinity in the rational soul through creation, like a king using diverse metals to mint money, but only on the gold coins does he put his image. On the other coins he puts only his seal. So God from the beginning of the world makes many creatures, like coins of diverse metals, but only on the gold coin, namely on man does he impress his image, by speaking of corporeal creatures. The sun, moon and stars, are silver coins. They have only a sign of the Trinity, and not the image. The elements are coins of lead. They do not have a trace. Speaking of corporeal creatures, only man is made after the image of God, because just as gold among all the metals is the most noble, so man among all corporeal creatures is the more excellent. And just as he who makes coins imprints the image of the king on the florin, so God when he creates the soul imprints his image on it. God pointed this out from the beginning when he created all things saying, "Let there be light," and he says no more. Let there be luminaries, etc. But when he wished to form man, he did not say let there be man, but, as if he held a meeting [teneret consistorium], Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God said, "And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature," (Gen 1:26). It is clear how this sign is given in the soul by God through creation. About this sign David says, "The light of your countenance O Lord, is signed upon us: you have given gladness in my heart," (Ps 4:7). Note "the light of your countenance O Lord," that is, the image of the Trinity, "upon us," that is in the soul, which is above the body. Morally. [Moral sense] Here we are instructed if anyone of you has the image of God in the soul, how worthy and reverently must you preserve the image of Christ. A traitor and infidel is the one who slices with a knife or burns with fire, or throws into the garbage, the image of Christ or of the Virgin Mary. You all would say, "O traitor, wretch," etc. The rational soul is more properly the image of God than any painting. And some tear at it, like angry and vengeful murders. If it is said "O he killed my father." Response. If he is a traitor, therefore you are a traitor, and ought to be punished by God, in this world or the next. Therefore God says, "Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed," and he gives the reason, "for man was made to the image of God," (Gen 9:6). Note "his blood shall be shed," this is understood either by a judge through a just sentence [per iustitiam], or by himself through penance. Who therefore kills or consents in the death of his neighbor, is a murderer, if outside of or contrary to the judgment of a court, etc. By self-penance one sheds his own blood with a whip. Others do not cut the image of God, but cast it into the fire, like the greedy, because avarice is like a fire which burns in the heart of the greedy person to get more either by charging excessive interest or through robbery, etc. About this Christ says, "Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses," (Lk 12:15). Note "of all," universally. Others throw the image into the toilet, like the lustful. What is lust but stinking excrement? [stercus putridum] Howsoever lust happens, it is damnation, but the marriage act can happen without any sin, moreover also sometimes with merit, but sometimes with mortal, sometimes venial sin. This is said against those who say simple fornication is not a sin, and against notorious prostitutes. Therefore scripture says, "My son, keep thy soul in meekness, and give it honor according to its desert," because the image of God is worthy of honor, "Who will justify him that sins against his own soul? and who will honor him that dishonors his own soul?" (Sir 10:31). THROUGH REDEMPTION Second, God gives a sign of the Holy Trinity in the material body, and this through redemption. The sign which Christ receives on the day of redemption, which was on the day of Good Friday, is the cross. Just as the king of Aragon takes for his crest [red and orange] stripes, the king of France, the fleur de lis, the king of Castile, the lion and castle. So Christ the king of heaven and earth takes the sign of the cross, on which he was hung for our redemption, so no one believing him or obeying him would be suspended on the pitchfork of hell. About this the prophecy, "Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and will set up my standard to the people." (Isa 49:22), namely of the holy cross. Therefore in this physical sign, both visible and audible, God gives the sign of the Trinity, because when you sign yourself you say, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen," "In the name" Behold the unity of essence. He does not say "in the names." The holy doctors say that if when the priest baptizes he would say, "I baptize you in the names, etc.," he would not [validly] baptize. About this see St. Thomas III, q. 66, a. 5, ad 6m. And in 4 Dist. 3, a.2, q.1 ad 9m. Therefore Christ said to the apostles and disciples, "Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Mt 28:19). He does not say "in the names." When he says "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," clearly he says the Trinity of persons. Also with respect to sight and hearing in the manner of signifying, he points out this manner of signifying, when it is said, "In the name of the Father," the hands are held high. Reason because the father never was sent from another, but he himself existing on the throne of his eternity sent his only-begotten son into the virginal womb, just as the sun gives out its ray, and nevertheless does not return from it. Therefore when it is said, "and of the Son," you ought to hold your hands over the womb, when it is said "and of the Holy Spirit," the hand should be guided across from shoulder to shoulder, because the Holy Spirit was dispersed over the apostles and the disciples of Christ on the day of Pentecost. When you say "Amen," the hands are joined signifying the unity of essence. Some err much in their way of signing, when they say, "In the name of the Father," [longe faciunt dicentes] they make long saying that the Father is greater, this is heresy, because in this Trinity nothing is prior or posterior, nothing more or less. But all the three persons are co-eternal to each other and co-equal, as Athanasius says. Other put the Son on the right because the article of the creed says "He is sitting at the right hand of the Father." But this is wrong, because the Son and Holy Spirit are on the right hand of God, because to be on the right hand of God is nothing other than to be equal to God the Father. Others place the Holy Spirit on the right hand , saying that on the left is the devil who then is struck down. And this never is found in the book of any authority. Therefore the good way of signing is that about which you, etc.
And of this sign the Church says,
Signus salutis Sign of salvation
Salus in periculis Safety in dangers
Vitale lignum Living wood
Vitam ferens omnium Bearing the life of all.
(Hymn for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Salve crux sancta, Hymn of King Henry II)
Morally. Here it is clear that they err who do not sign themselves with the sign of Christ, but of the devil, as many clergy and laity do. What kind of injury would there be to a king if someone would remove from his palace his coat of arms, and place there the sign of his enemy? The standard [signum] of Christ is the cross, the sign of the devil is the circle or wheel. Authority: "The wicked walk round about," (Ps 11:3) David says. The palace of Christ is the body of a Christian, on which is placed the sign of the Cross of Christ the king, in baptism. But when you sign by making a circle, then you remove the sign of Christ from his palace, and you place there the sign of the devil. You ask, when you arise from your bed, how do you sign yourself? "In the name of the Father" etc., and then make a circle. Also when you go to eat breakfast. Sadly we include even some priests, who in the blessings of salt and water and bread make the sign of the devil, etc. What is worse even at Mass, and even when after Mass they give the blessing to the people which has great power from the presence of Christ. Some give the blessing with the sign of the devil by making a circle, saying, "In the unity of the Holy Spirit may the Father and Son and Holy Spirit bless you, Amen. Think how much the removal of his standard would have displeased the king, even more it displeases Christ. On this account David said in the Psalm, "O God, why have you cast us off unto the end: why is your wrath enkindled against the sheep of your pasture?" (Ps 73:1) Note "Why have you cast us off," etc. The Holy Trinity replies. "We do not see our signs." No longer is he a prophet, i.e. the priest prophesying, truly making the sign of Christ, therefore let this wicked vice be corrected.
THROUGH SALVATION
Third, I said that God gave the sign of the Trinity in the spiritual life, which was given through salvation, For the spiritual life, holy and good, is only one from its beginning up to the end, nevertheless it has three parts, so that a man is well ordered. First with respect to God. Second, with respect to his neighbor. And third, with respect to himself. And just as there is one God in the Trinity of persons, so there is one spiritual life with three aspects [ordinationibus]. Behold the sign of the Trinity.
Of this sign Bernard says, "Signs have been given and certain indications, and manifest indicators of salvation that it is indubitable that one be of the number of the elect, in whom those signs remain. You know when you shall be well ordered regards God, when you bear honor and reverence to God. Then indeed the vassal is well ordered regarding his lord when he speaks reverently of him, so we regarding God by not swearing, not denying him, or blaspheming. Therefore you should not wonder if you have a bad time etc. [malum tempus] But I wonder that you do not fall into the abyss because of blasphemies, which you have done. From this God the Father is sought out, saying, "The son honors the father, and the servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear, says the Lord," (Mal 1:6). Let there be an law against oaths. Everyone should cry out against those who swear, just as against a wolf. etc.
Second, good order regarding the neighbor is not to harm the neighbor neither in damaging him in his goods, nor in reputation, nor in his person, but to foster benevolent love regarding him. Therefore it will be necessary to avoid the game of dice, which game of dice very much harms the neighbor, in his goods and in body and also in the soul. Therefore the Son shall judge them, because injury is done to him, who comes to save souls. The Father "has given all judgment to the Son. That all men may honor the Son, as they honor the Father." (Jn 5:22).
The third good ordering, regarding oneself, consists in this, that after you have labored on Monday and Tuesday etc., you rest on Sunday, avoiding doing secular things. You should not walk through the market, unless absolutely necessity. You should not be doing business nor making deals etc. Note: Some miracle etc. Let there be a law that feasts be observed, and you shall prosper. Such a law befits the Holy Spirit, who requires rest in the soul in which it dwells. Therefore scripture says, "From henceforth now, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors," (Rev 14:13). Thanks be to God.
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 27, 2019 0:46:19 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon 1 for Corpus Christi
1 Cor 11:23-27 Douay translation.
23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. 24 And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me. 25 In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me. 26 For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come. 27 Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you," (1 Cor 11:23)
This word we have verbatim from 1 Cor 11 and it has just been recited in today's epistle. Since the whole feast today is about this holy and glorious sacrament of the altar, so also shall be our sermon. And we shall have many good ideas for the enlightenment of the mind and the consolation of the soul and some moral advice for the correction of life. But first the Virgin Mary is hailed. For the declaration of this passage and the introduction of the material to be preached it must be known that the entire belief of the heart which we have of this holy sacrament and the verbal expression which we make of the same ought all to be founded on holy scriptures. So that our heart ought not extend itself more for believing nor the mouth for speaking unless to the extent that we have it from holy scriptures. The reason is because of the height and transcendental sublimity of this sacrament, which exceeds all natural understanding and philosophical science and all the powers of nature. So whoever wishes to believe of this holy sacrament, or speak according to natural understanding, or philosophical knowledge, or the powers of nature would err and fail in many ways. Just as someone who would wish to count according to understanding how many palms or cubits [measures of length] there are from here to heaven, or how many steps from the east to the west, or how many grains of sand and drops of water there are, that person would err and fall short. And so scripture says, Eccl 3, "Seek not the things that are too high for you," i.e. for the natural intellect, "and search not into things above your ability," namely philosophical knowledge, "but the things that God has commanded thee," (Sir 3:22), which is his mouth having two lips, namely the two testaments. Above is the New Testament, below the Old Testament. Therefore the Lord says, "If you will separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth," (Jer 15:19). "Think on them always," (Jer 15:19). So now, dismissing natural and philosophical reasons, I shall accept proofs [auctoritates] only from sacred scripture, because I do not want to say anything but what the Lord says in sacred scripture. And then I shall be able to speak the theme: "For I have received of the Lord," not from a philosopher, nor from Virgil nor by natural genius, but by the Lord, namely from sacred scripture, "that which also I delivered unto you," (1 Cor 11:23). The theme is clear. Among other wonders and secrets of this sacrament there are five principal ones, which I shall now speak about to you according to sacred scriptures. First, is the substantial change [mutatio substantialis], Second, is the work of the priest [operatio sacerdotalis], Third, the sacramental indwelling [habitatio sacramentalis], Fourth, the sense perception [perceptio sensualis], Fifth, the usual reception. [receptio usualis]. In this are the heights and difficulties of this sacrament. If it is said, "Whence do you have this brother." The theme replies: "For I have received of the Lord," and now I shall give it to you.
SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE The first wonder and sublime secret of this holy sacrifice is the change of substance. There is a double change, one is accidental, the other substantial. Accidental change is when the accident or quality changes in a creature, the substance remaining the same, as is the change from whiteness into blackness, or from health to illness, or from hot into cold, or from smallness into largeness like a child changes, but the substance remains the same. Such changes are said to be "accidental." Substantial change is when not only the accidents but also the substance changes, as if mud is changed into gold, or lead into silver. Not only accidents are changed but also the substance. In this sacrament however only substantial change happens and not accidental, because the substance of bread and wine do not remain once the conversion is done, but their accidents remain. In this sacrament two rules of philosophy fail. First that which says that whenever substantial change happens accidental change also happens. Reason, because accidents don’t migrate, that is, pass from subject into subject, because if mud is changed into gold, even its quality is changed. But in this sacrament it is the opposite. Because the substance of bread by the power of words is changed into the body of Christ, however the accidents are not, because the same whiteness and quantity and roundness, smell and flavor remain as before. Now in this sacrament by governing yourselves by the rules of philosophy, it is necessary to err and fall short. When the change is accomplished, we adore, but we do not adore that which we see, neither the whiteness nor the roundness, but Christ true God and man contained within, as truly and really, as he was in the womb of the Virgin or as he is in heaven. On this see St. Thomas III, q. 75, a. 1. For just as soldiers adore the king behind the curtains, when he hears mass, although they do not see him, so we adore Christ under those accidents as if existing beneath the curtains. A second rule of philosophy fails also in this sacrament, which says that no substantial change is total, because there always remains prime matter, which the Philosopher calls "hyle". Because if mud is changed into gold, the prime matter which is the term from which [terminus a quo, the mud], is the same with that which is the term to which [terminus ad quem, the gold], because the matter of all generable and corruptible things is the same. In this holy sacrament these rules fail, because nothing remains of the matter, nor of the substantial form of bread, because it entirely is changed into the body of Christ. On this see St. Thomas III, q. 75, a. 5 & 6. So therefore it is necessary that man not rule himself here with philosophical rules which are lacking, but according to holy scriptures, in the Psalter, which says, "This is the change," namely the substantial, "of the right hand of the most High," (Ps 76:11) Natural changes are from the left, but this [is], "of the right of the most High." And it follows," You are the God that does wonders," (Ps 76:15), namely the aforesaid. It is the same for the change of wine in the chalice into the blood of Christ. Morally [using now the moral sense of scripture], you have here the teaching that you ought to adore Christ in the consecrated host without doubt and without condition. Some persons, presumptuous and shameless, fall into error saying when they adore, "I adore you, if you are Christ. [This deserves] Neither thanks nor gratitude [Nec grates, nec gratias] because even a stick or stone or dog can adore in this way, with conditions. So you should adore without condition. Reason, because condition includes doubt, and God wishes to be adored firmly with a whole heart, spirit, will and devotion. So David: "Bring up sacrifices, and come into his courts: adore the Lord in his holy court," (Ps 95:8-9). Note, "bring up sacrifices," here he speaks to the priests. "And come into his courts," here he speaks to the people. "Adore the Lord," namely both priests and people. "In his holy court," i.e. in the heart, without doubt and without condition. Should someone say, "If the priest did not say the words, or if he had not been ordained he did not consecrate, therefore," etc. I reply that the priest alone shall be damned, and it is not a danger to you. Thus you should adore without doubt, although you habitually have in your heart this, that if you would know the opposite that you would not adore, and this suffices. Nevertheless this ought not to be expressed in words, but you ought simply to adore. See the first wonderful secret, which is, "For I have received of the Lord," in scripture, and "…I delivered unto you," (1 Cor 11:23) PRIESTLY WORK The second wonder of this sacrament is the priestly operation [operatio sacerdotalis]. The priest living here on earth has the power to open the heavens and make the Son of the Virgin Mary descend onto the altar into his hands. A great wonder is attributed to Moses, who made manna come down from the air, as we read in Ex 16:13. And of Elijah who made fire come down from the sphere of fire to burn the two squads of fifty soldiers, as we read in 4 Kgs 1, (Cf vv. 9-12). This wonder is greater, because the priest makes Christ descend not from the air, nor from the sphere of fire, nor from the heaven of the moon, nor from the heaven of Mercury, nor from the heaven of Venus, nor from the heaven of the sun, nor from the heaven of Mars, nor from the heaven of Jupiter, nor from the heaven of Saturn, nor from the heaven of the stars or firmament, nor from the crystalline heaven, but from the empyreal heaven. Behold, the priestly operation. You know that when the Virgin Mary, greeted by the angel Gabriel, consenting, said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," etc., (Lk 1:38), at the last word, the heaven was open and the Son of God descended into her womb, and the angel and the Virgin adored him in the womb. Just as the voice [literally, the mouth] of the Virgin opened up heaven, so also does the voice of the priest, and more excellently. It shall not displease the Virgin Mary if I speak the truth, because the Virgin in opening heaven had to say eight words. [Ecce ancílla Domini : fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.] First, "Behold," second "the handmaid," etc. until she said the whole, and then the heaven was open and she conceived. The priest says only five words [Hoc est enim corpus meum], and when he says the last word, namely "meum" then heaven is opened and Christ is in the host. Also the Virgin Mary opened heaven only once, but the priest, every day, and at every mass. Also in the womb of the Virgin it was a baby that descended, not as large as an ant, and vulnerable and mortal. In the host he descends as large as he is in heaven, as he was on the cross, neither vulnerable nor mortal but glorious and invulnerable. Gregory: "Who of the faithful can have a doubt, in that hour of sacrifice, at the voice of the priest the heavens are opened, in that mystery of Jesus Christ the chorus of angels are present, the highest associate with the least, earthly things are joined to heavenly, and the same happens from visibles as well as invisibles," (Gregory the Great, Dialogues IV, c. 58), and it is found in [Gratian] De Consecratione, dist. II, canon. 73: "What be the blood," vers.: "Who of the faithful." Note how 'the heavens are opened' is understood like the telling of a secret. It is said. "He has opened his heart to me," not that it is wounded or divided, but because a secret is revealed. So Delilah says of Sampson to the Philistines, "Now he hath opened his heart to me," (Judges 16:18). So of the Son of God who is hidden in the empyreal heaven, when he descends into the consecrated host, that descent is said to be the opening of the heavens. "This is the bread that came down from heaven." If anyone eats of this bread, "he shall live for ever," (Jn 6:59). If someone says that Christ descends from heaven into the host, and so he departs from heaven, I reply that he does not leave heaven. For this note two comparisons [similitudines]. First, with a house having a hundred windows or even a thousand windows, in which the rays of the sun enter, and nevertheless they do not depart from the heaven. So Christ, the ray of God the Father, descends into each host, and nevertheless does not leave heaven. Second, with my voice, which is in each of your ears. You see already how many ears there are here. Now I believe that each of you has two, etc. and in each of them is my voice, and nevertheless it doesn’t depart from me. If a corruptible and transitory word can be in that way, how much more the eternal Word about which John wrote: "In the beginning was the Word," (Jn 1:1). Thus David says, "The Lord is in his holy temple," and at the same time, "the Lord's throne is in heaven," (Ps 10:5). If the pregnant Virgin was the temple of God, so also the consecrated host is pregnant. The temple of God can be said where there are angels, as Gregory says, because a king does not travel alone, if we would not have eyes half-blind nor ears plugged up we would see and perceive them singing. Just as some saints, like St. Thomas Aquinas of the Order of Preachers, who composed today's [Divine] Office, in which we sing: Panis angelicus fit panis hominum; Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum: O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum Pauper, servus et humilis The Bread of Angels becomes the bread of men; The Bread of heaven ends all prefigurations: What wonder! Consumes him, the Lord, a poor and humble servant. Morally [the moral sense of the passage], it is clear how pure the priest ought to be, who has a judge and is surrounded by angels, and his hand and fingers are filled with angels. If he is good, the angels say, "O blessed one, you have a greater grace than we," etc. If he be evil, lustful, have a mistress [concubinarius], a gambler [lusor], the angels say to Christ, "Lord do you want us to kill this traitor?" Christ responds, "I do not wish the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live," (Cf Ez 18:23). The next question which you already have strong in your hearts is this: If the priest be a man of evil life, lustful etc, does such a priest have that power of consecrating? For we all agree the good priest does. I respond that both the good and the bad priests, by saying the words, truly consecrate. For this, note the similarity between two pipes, gold and wood, through which water from the same spring flows into the garden to water the cabbages. Which cabbages will do better? Is it not just as beneficial from the one [pipe] as from the other, from which comes the same water? For the goodness of the cabbages is not from the virtue of the pipes, but from the virtue of the water. So it is in our situation: The spring from which the water of the whole world and knowledge flows is Christ. "The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom," (Sir 1:5). The pipes through which the water of consecration passes are the priests. The hosts are the vegetables or cabbages from the land, [made] of wheat, not from any other material. The gold pipe is the good and devout priest, the wooden is the priest of bad life, who has a mistress, simoniacal, raunchy [ribaldus], and yet each truly consecrates, not by the power of the priest, but of Christ. Christ then, in the end, becomes the lord of the garden, who after he has used the pipes, puts the gold pipe in a box in the treasury of heaven. "If any man minister to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister be," (Jn 12:26). A pipe of rotten wood is thrown into the fire to be burned in hell. So the Apostle [Paul]: "But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord," (1 Cor 11:28). Where the Gloss says quoting Ambrose: "He is so punished as if he had killed Christ with his own hands." See this priestly operation, and from where do you know this, brother? "For I have received of the Lord," etc., (1 Cor 11:23). SACRAMENTAL INDWELLING The third secret wonder of this sacrament is the sacramental indwelling. O wonderful it is that the whole Christ dwells in such a small quantity. You ask how is this possible? Again how is it possible that when the host is broken, the whole Christ is not broken, moreover the whole remains integral, even in each broken particle. Here all rules of philosophy fail. Nevertheless for your consolation I will show you a comparison to the eye, from your image howsoever large you may be, which is received whole in a mirror. If there were a hundred thousand or even more mirrors in front of you, your image would be in all of them. And if you break a mirror, nevertheless the image is not broken, but in each of its fragments it remains integral. Shall not God the Father be able to do the same with his image, who is Christ? Christ is the image of the invisible God. (Cf 2 Cor 4:4, and Col 1:15). The host is a mirror, someone said. Is it not like an image in a mirror, which is not corporeal, and of Christ in the host, which has a real body? I say that always, because the glorified body is more subtle than an image which is prevented from entering the mirror by a little handkerchief [panno]. Nothing can impede a glorified body; [it is] more subtle than light, than a voice, than even an image. Therefore, once the words are pronounced, immediately the whole body is in the host, like the image in the mirror. Therefore of this consecrated host it can be said "For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness," (Wis 7:26). " For she is the brightness of eternal light," with respect to the divinity which is there. For which it must be known that by the power of the word alone it is there, namely under the appearance of bread, the body of Christ, but from real concomitance the soul is also there, because the body of Christ is there as a living body, which is not without a soul, nor without blood. If in the triduum [triduo, thee day duration of Christ's entombment] the Apostles had consecrated, only the dead body of Christ would have been there, which was [its state] at that time. But now it is alive, together with the soul and blood and divinity. By the power of the words only the body is there, but concomitantly the soul is there with its excellences and the divinity with all its perfections. Just as if some lord had invited a certain great lord or prelate to dinner, and he had arrived with his shield-bearers, by virtue of the words of invitation., only the lord himself or the prelate was invited, but from concomitance or association the shield-bearers were also there. Thus the priest by consecrating with the power of the words, consecrates precisely only the body of Christ, but the soul, blood and divinity follow him. Therefore think what you eat, when you receive communion, because there is something greater there than all things corporeal, namely the body of Christ, something there more excellent than spiritual creatures, namely the soul of Christ, and divinity is also there, which is above everything which God made or will make or can make. And so the authority says, "For she is the brightness of eternal light," (Wis 7:26), namely with respect to divinity. Therefore the host is round, which signifies the eternity of God. And "the unspotted mirror," (Wis 7:26), with respect to the soul. Therefore the host ought to be most pure and white. "and the image of his goodness," (Wis 7:26). with respect to the body through which he accomplished his goodness in the work of redemption. Morally, we have here a teaching which if we wish to receive communion in a dignified way, we have three, namely, the brightness of eternal light through true belief without error and false opinion. Secondly, the mirror unspotted through chastity. Third that we have the image of his goodness through firm friendship, because just as Christ did not wish to take revenge on his enemies, neither, out of your love of him, should you. Therefore Christ, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God," (Mt 5:9). Note "peacemakers" from its etymology, i.e. making peace, and cursed is he who impedes peace about which it can be said, "Damned are the warmongers, because they shall be called children of the devil." SENSE PERCEPTION The fourth secret wonder is sense perception, because the bodily senses seem to be deceived about the Eucharist, because one thing is perceived, which is believed, because the eye does not see Christ, but whiteness, nor is Christ heard, nor smelled. Why this? Christ well could have made it that just as the image is seen in the mirror, also he would be seen in the host, just as by many saints he has been seen there. But he did not want this for two reasons. First out of necessity. Second out of usefulness. Of necessity, because it is necessary to receive communion, because just as all our evil comes to us from the eating of fruit, about which it is said of the Virgin Mary, "Blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus Christ." And it would be disgusting to visibly eat human flesh and drink blood. But just as a doctor covers up the pills offered or the host, lest it be distasteful to fastidious people, so Christ our physician, whose flesh is the pill of our salvation, because otherwise we cannot be saved, unless through communion, he hides [his flesh] lest it be seen, nor is the flavor of flesh perceived, etc. See the necessity. About which the prophet Isaiah said, "And they shall worship you," in the consecrated host, "and shall make supplication to you: only in you is God, and there is no God besides you. Verily you are a hidden God, the God of Israel the savior." (Isa 45:14). Note " only in you is God," just this saying is exclusive, it excludes other sacraments, in which God is not, unless figuratively. Only in this sacrament really and personally. About this see St. Thomas III, q. 75, a. 1. He does not say "similarly" but "verily". "For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed," (Jn 6:56), is so construed. That meat is truly my flesh and that drink truly is my blood. The second reason is from usefulness, for our merit. The article about this sacrament is of especially great merit, because of the difficulty of the senses, which judge the opposite from this which we believe. If indeed you believe that the host be white, you have no credit [grates] because your eyes can see it. But it is of merit to believe that Christ is there whom you do not see. Gregory. Faith is without merit where human reason provides experience. But it is of merit to believe because he says that really. He is not able to lie nor deceive. Therefore we offer him great honor by simply believing, saying: Lord although my intellect cannot grasp this mystery, nevertheless I believe from what you day. He says: "Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed," (Jn 20:29). Many saints have seen Christ in this sacrament. REGULAR RECEPTION The fifth secret wonder is regular reception., because he permits and wishes not only to be adored by us, but to be received according to the use and custom of the church. Priests, well prepared, should celebrate every day. Devout people, with good advice, every month. Others once a year, namely by mandate during Easter, otherwise they will never be received into heaven. The angels say: O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum Pauper, servus et humilis What wonder! a poor and humble servant consumes him, the Lord. O what a great wonder is this. Why it was instituted, what usefulness does it have? I say that he instituted this for two reasons. First, for his honor. Second for our progress. It is an honor to the victorious king to be received faithfully in the castle which he acquired by conquest [quae bellando acquisivit]. And on the contrary it is a disgrace when they are not permitted to enter it. About which John said, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not," (Jn 1:11). But indeed they let cattle, chickens, and hens enter. The second reason is for our furtherance. If a king or a Pope show great gratitude when well received, how much more will Christ the king and Pope do likewise, from whose worthy reception Christians inestimably grow? David: "He has made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord: he has given food to them that fear him " (Ps. 110:4-5). |
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 27, 2019 0:49:12 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon 2 on Corpus Christi -- 1 Cor 11:24
"Do this in commemoration of me," (1 Cor 11:24)
This passage is found in 1 Cor 11, and is read in the epistle of the present octave. Among all the sacraments of the church, the sacrament of the Eucharist more expressly and properly represents and demonstrates for us the love and charity of Jesus Christ for us, and the passion and death which Christ endured for us. I wish to preach about this. The matter will be devout, but first the Virgin Mary is hailed. The holy sacrifice of the altar has two conditions or properties. First that it is full truth [veritas plena]. Second that it is a true figure [figura vera]. About the first because Christ fully and really, true God and true man, in soul and glorified body, is in the consecrated host, just as he is in heaven, although by physical eyes he is not seen by us, nevertheless he is there truly according to the prophecy, "Verily you are a hidden God, the God of Israel the savior," (Isa 45:15). And he is speaking about Christ. In this respect we celebrated this feast yesterday. The second condition or property, that it is a true figure of the passion of Christ, which most appropriately is represented for us in this sacrifice. Because just as Christ was elevated and crucified between two thieves, so the consecrated host is elevated by two hands, the left and the right, which signify the thieves. And just as now the body of Christ was white, drained of blood, so the white host is elevated. Therefore, when it is seen, the Christian should think, "In such a way was my redeemer raised up on the cross." And just as Christ offered his blood to the Father as the price for all believing in and obedient to him, so the priest offers the chalice. See how it is a true figure. Therefore the Collect [Opening Prayer at the Mass] of this feast [reads]: "God, you gave us the Eucharist as the memorial of your suffering and death…etc." Therefore the theme speaks about this sacrament, "Do this in commemoration of me," (1 Cor 11:24). I find that by divine ordination, so that it be remembered by us, the sacred passion of Christ is represented to our five senses, namely to sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. The passion of Christ is represented to all parts of understanding, because the Philosopher says, that "Nothing is in the intellect, without first being in the sense." Whatever is in the heart naturally, has to enter through some part of the sense. Therefore in every part he leaves a sign of his passion saying : "Do this in commemoration of me." SIGHT First, the passion of Christ is represented to the sight, because the Lord wished that crosses be erected not only in churches or religious places, but in Christian lands also outdoors along the roads. Reason. That when you pass by on the road and you see the cross, you remember the passion of Christ, saying, "O Lord for love of me you were willing to suffer on the cross." Do not think that the crosses are in church or on the road so that you would adore the wood or stone, gold or silver, as the Jews thoughtlessly allege, but so that we may adore Christ crucified whom they commemorate. For us it is like this story. If a father or brother of someone was impaled on a pitchfork, and then buried. When the brother or son of the one hung up walked by that pitchfork and saw it, he would be completely upset and disturbed in himself, thinking that on this pitchfork my father or brother was impaled. So for us when we see the cross, we should immediately think, that on such a cross the Redeemer, my father and brother, was hung, and we should adore, saying, "We adore you, O Christ, etc." Isaiah the prophet, five hundred years before Christ, was saying, "All you inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when the sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall hear the sound of the trumpet," (Isa 18:3). Note "when the sign shall be lifted up," he does not say "which sign." Therefore when he says simply, "sign," par excellence, it is understood of the sign of the cross, just as when we refer to the "Philosopher" absolutely, we understand it to be Aristotle; when we say "Apostle," Paul is understood par excellence. The same in the matter of the sign of the cross. Note "the sound of the trumpet" because when a Christian sees the cross, immediately in his heart these three should sound, "Jesus of Nazareth, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner, etc." Behold the sign for the eyes for seeing, and for remembering the passion of Christ, Note that for 1,500 years before the passion of Jesus Christ the Jews already were adoring the cross, as is found in Numbers 21. Note the story of the serpents, from the fact that the Jews were murmuring against Moses and Aaron. And God sent serpents, etc. Moses prayed to God for the people "And the Lord said to him: Make brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live," said the king that, "Moses therefore made a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: which when they that were bitten looked upon it, they were healed." (Num 21:8-9). Behold the first sign. Therefore "Do this," namely, erecting a cross, "in commemoration of me," (1 Cor 11:24) HEARING Second, the passion of Christ is represented to hearing, that through the ears the memory of the passion enters the heart. Nothing indeed moves the heart of a creature to devotion and contrition of sins more than the memory of the passion of Christ, nor is there anything that so much inflames the heart for his love and delight. Note the likeness to this, about those two great friends, very much alike, and it happens that one of them steals something, for which he is arrested and was sentenced to be hung [ad suspendendum]. Knowing this, his friend, out of great love could not to bear that his friend was to be hung. On this account he went to the jail, and dressed up in the clothes of his arrested friend, and returned to his captive friend saying, "Go. I out of love of you will be hung, so that you can escape." And so it happened, the thief escaped, and that friend was hung. Now it is told how much he was bound to love that friend. Now to the extent that whenever it is remembered or spoken about him, immediately he wept out of love. So properly it is about our Lord Jesus Christ, Indeed he and mankind are two friends, very beloved, to the extent that the love of Christ for mankind exceeds all love. Whence the Apostle, "…for his exceeding charity wherewith he loved us," (Eph 2:4). "For his exceeding." Note the excess of love. Mankind, because of theft, namely that of Adam, had been sentenced to the hanging of hell. But what did the Son of God do? Surely Jesus Christ, as that faithful friend, came to the prisoner of this world, in the incarnation, and put on the clothing of the robber, humanity, "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man," (Phil 2:6-7), and gave his clothing to his friend. The clothing of Christ is sonship of God through eternal generation. This clothing of sonship he gave to his friend through rebirth in time, in baptism, "He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh," (Jn 1:12-14). And the Son of God was hung for his friend; nor was he known, "For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory," (1 Cor 2:8). See what a reason we have for loving Christ. Can we have a greater? Certainly not. Therefore when we hear them speak of him, and of his passion, immediately our heart ought to be moved and inflamed with his devotion, and love, for his service and avoidance of sins, by which he is offended. Of this the prophet David, "The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them in the depth of the sea. That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thy enemies; the tongue of thy dogs be red with the same," (Ps 67:23-24). Note the secret Basan, according to the Hebrew is the same as confusion. He is in Basan who is in the confusion of sins, because he keeps no order, neither of prayer, nor of confession etc., and like a beast goes about from sin to sin. Of such the Lord says "I will turn them from Basan, "although they be long accustomed to sin, I the Lord will convert them." And how? He responds, "I will turn them in the depth of the sea" of contrition. Because contrition is nothing but the bitter sorrow for sins. For example, When the religious who lives independently [ad libitum] not keeping the rule, etc. And God gives him the grace for contrition saying: "O wretch! What will become of me," etc. Then he is converted from Basan in the depth of the sea. Same for the priest and the laymen and women. And how does this conversion happen in the depth of the sea? The father says to the son, "That your foot may be dipped in the blood of your enemies," (v.24). The lowest part of the body is the foot, the highest is the head. So also in Christ there are two parts, that is two substances. And the superior part is the divinity, like the head. And the inferior part is the humanity, like the foot. But these two substances alone make up one person. He says therefore "from Basan, converted, in the depth of the sea," And how? That his "foot may be dipped," that is his body, which was dipped in blood, the head through the crown of thorns, the whole body through scourging, his arms and hand by his elevation. Same for the feet. "And the tongue of thy dogs," Christ is the shepherd, his flocks are Christians. "I am the good shepherd; and I know..," my sheep.(cf. Jn 10:14). A shepherd having sheep needs dogs, otherwise the wolves etc. These dogs are the preachers who bark at the wolves of hell. Therefore the preachers should speak often of Christ's passion. Therefore he says, "And the tongue of your dogs," i.e. of the preachers, preaching about the passion of Christ. So it is that the sinner is converted. Who would be so unfaithful and obstinate that when he hears that Christ so cruelly has suffered for me, that he does not avoid sins, lest he offend Christ? And so from the enemies, that is the demons, the sinner is liberated, not by the preachers, unless instrumentally, but by him, namely we are freed by making peace, by forgiving injuries, by him, Christ, because from his example who was considerate of and prayed for his executioners. Note here how there is a double remission, one necessary, the other voluntary. It is necessary to remit the hatred of heart and the desire for vengeance. Voluntary, that he seek justice, which justly he is able to accomplish. My heavenly father will hand you over to the torturers (cf Mt 18:34-35), because "If you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences." (Mt 6:14). SMELL Third, the passion of Christ is represented to smell, namely in incensing. Why do you believe that incense is used in church on great feasts, unless to remind us of the passion of Christ? Therefore when you smell that sweet scent of incense, you should think, what the scent and what sweet smelling sacrifice the soul of Christ offered in the passion, which with so great patience it sustained for God the Father and the holy angels in heaven and the holy fathers in limbo. I find five similarities between the body of Christ and a thurible [the ritual incense burning pot]. - First because the thurible is closed on the bottom but open on the top. So Christ was closed with respect to things earthly and mundane, because he wanted nothing, nor did he carry money. In Mark 11 it is said, "and having viewed all things round about, when now the eventide was come, he went out to Bethany with the twelve." (Mk 11:11), where the Gloss says that he looked about if perchance after he preached, he might be invited by someone to supper, otherwise at dinner time the Apostles would collect grain etc. Same in the late evening if he was not invited by someone to spend the night, he would go out to the desert to sleep, on the ground, because such was his heavenly desire. - The second is because when the thurible is brought out of the shop it is shiny, but later because of the fumes of its fire it becomes dull. So Christ when he emerges from the shop of the virginal womb – the silversmith who made him was the Holy Spirit – he was beautiful, beyond the children of men. David, "As a bridegroom coming out of his bride chamber," (Ps 18:6). But by the fire of the passion it became stained, when he was wounded with rods [scopis], he seemed a leper, beardless, so that when the Virgin Mary saw him, she didn't recognize him, according to the prophet Isaiah, "And we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised," (Isa 53:2-3). - Third is because the thurible is perforated; so the body of Christ was entirely perforated in the head by the crown of thorns, in the hands and feed by the nails, in the side by a lance, in the whole body by scourges. - The fourth is because the thurible is filled with burning charcoal, so the body of Christ [is filled] with the charcoal of that fire about which he said, "I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? " (Lk 12:49). Of which charcoal are charity, love, devotion, virtue, and the like. - Fifth because the incense put in it burns with the such sweetest white smoke, so the body of Christ when that most blessed and purest soul came out of it gave off the sweet odor of obedience to God the Father, to the angels from their reparation, to the holy fathers from their liberation, the human race from the redemption, to the dead by the resurrection of the dead. See why in the churches incense is used, so that even through our noses the memory of the passion of Christ might enter the heart. About this an authority. The text from Revelation 8, "And another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel," (Rev 8:3-4). Note "another angel." Christ was not an angel, but the creator and Lord of angels. But "angel" is the same as "who is sent." And because Christ, as man, was sent by God the Father, therefore he is called "Angel". Just as a friar minor who keeps the life and rule of St. Francis is called "another Francis," and a friar preacher, "another Dominic," so Christ, sent by the father is called "another angel," and he comes, namely into this world and stands before the altar, where he offers sacrifice for our redemption. There was a cross on the hill of Calvary positioned where he stood, because he was not moved unless the crucifiers said so. When they said to him "Drop [your] clothes," he said, "Gladly," and so for the rest. Having the thurible, namely his holy body golden from valor, i.e. by power, in his hand, because it was in his hand to die or not. "No man takes it away from me: but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again," (Jn 10:18). And he had been given much incense, which were the prayers of the saints, because they all desired his passion. The Angels, that their ruin be repaired. The holy fathers, that they be liberated. "And the smoke of the incense…ascended," (Rev 8:4). This the Apostle says more clearly, "Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness," (Eph 5:2). TOUCH Fourth, the passion of Christ is represented to [the sense of] touch through penitential affliction. The sense of touch gives us knowledge of hot and cold, of soft and hard, and of smooth and rough, which neither by sight, nor hearing nor smell can be known, but only by touch. - We then perceive the passion of Christ however by the sense of touch when we do penance, then we feel the hardness and harshness of the passion of Christ. When man suffers, he is contrite and weeps for sins, then he perceives the passion of Christ, who when he was in agony, i.e. anxiety, "his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground," (Lk 22:44). - Second when man after contrition goes to confession, where before the confessor, as if before a judge you accuse yourself saying, "Father, I have done this and this, etc." Then you touch Christ when before the judge he was accused saying: "This charmer did this and this etc. You sense how it is hard to be accused before a judge. -Third when the confessor according to the quality of the sinner gives you a penance, and you accept the penance, then you touch Christ who accepted his sentence, that he be crucified. He did not appeal. John even says, that he carried the cross himself. -Fourth, when you punish yourself with disciplines, then you touch Christ who was gravely beaten and, completely bloodied, was led to be crucified. -Fifth, when you fast, you touch Christ who in his passion fasted, and at the hour of dinner the table was set for him. The table was a stalk of reed, sponge meat, and a drink of vinegar with gall. -Sixth, when you persevere in a good life and penance, nor give up for any reason, then you touch Christ who chose not to come down from the cross when it was said to him, "If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross etc. He saved others; himself he cannot save." (Mt 27:42). Neither out of revenge nor because of derisions did he abandon his prayer. Moreover he continued and said 150 verses. Behold how the passion of Christ is felt by the sense of touch. Mark 6 says, "As many as touched him were made whole," (Mk 6:56). But some touch Christ in other ways, namely with the sword of the tongue by attacking, by cutting, swearing and denying, blaspheming. These are worse than the Jews who did not break a bone. Such touch is not penitential but criminal. Rulers, be warned, that this vice be corrected. Otherwise behold what God says to rulers, "They that rule over them treat them unjustly, says the Lord, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long," (Isa 52:5). Therefore don't be surprised if you have troubles. TASTE Fifth, the passion of Christ is represented to [the sense of] taste in communion. To this he orders this holy sacrament where those devoutly receiving communion sense the sweetness of its savor on the palate of the soul. Christ in his passion sensed two flavors, namely a sweet taste and other a bitter taste, in diverse respects. And who can know the bitterness of the passion of Christ? The holy doctors and spiritually St. Thomas says in III [q. 46, a. 6]. No pain of martyrs can be compared to his, neither of Lawrence, nor of Vincent etc. Therefore he said, "O all ye who pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow," (Lam 1:12). This sorrow was in the sensuality, in the lower part. But in the higher part, namely in the mind, he had the sweetness of glory, as much as he has now in heaven. So in communion man should perceive these tastes. First the bitterness of the passion. Think that this consecrated host be a silver platter where that lamb, son of that blessed sheep, of the virgin, cooked on the spit [veru] of the cross, between two fires, fear and pain. So the bitterness of the passion of Christ is perceived to the taste of the soul. "For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until he come," (1 Cor 11:26). The taste of sweetness is perceived in communion by thinking about the fruit and graces, which we have from communion. We grow in grace greater through communion, than from any other work, because from good works, although merits are multiplied, nevertheless not from any work whatsoever is grace augmented, just as neither does a child grow from any slice [bolo] of bread. But when man receives communion worthily he always grows in grace. Therefore David said, "O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet," namely to those receiving worthily, "Blessed is the man that hopes in him," (Ps 33:9). See why the theme says, "Do this in commemoration of me," (1 Cor 11:24). |
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 27, 2019 0:52:23 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. -- On the Nativity of St. John the Baptist Sermon Three
"The hand of the Lord was with him," (Lk 1:66) We have this text officially in the gospel of Luke chapter 1. The whole solemnity today is of this glorious and holy patriarch, prophet, martyr and friend of God, John the Baptist. Similarly our sermon shall be about the same. God willing we shall have many good instructions for the consolation of our souls and the correction of life.But first let the Virgin Mary be hailed.
This text, proposed as the theme and foundation for our whole sermon, says of St. John, that "The hand of the Lord was with him," (Lk 1:66) For a greater clarification of this passage, and as an introduction to the matter to be preached it must be known that in sacred scripture both in the old testament and also in the new is found that through the hand of God is understood the infinite power of God, through which all things are made. Just as we make things with our hands, and just as the hand of a man or woman has five fingers by which it functions, so the power of Christ has five attributes, like five fingers, by which God has made everything. The first is power, the second wisdom, the third mercy, the fourth grace and the fifth justice. The first attribute of the power of God is called power, which is like the thumb. By this God makes the works of creation, heaven with the stars, the elements with their properties and contents, the compounds [elementata], namely men, grain, trees, mountains and valleys etc. The second is wisdom, like the index finger. By his the universe is governed, the heavens, the sun and moon. The third attribute is mercy, like the middle finger which is longer than the others, just as the mercy of God over all his works. David says: "The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works," (Ps 144:9). By this is fabricated the works of our redemption, because it was the greatest mercy to wish to be humiliated, that those believing in him and obedient might be exalted. He even willed to be hung on the wood of a cross, lest his own be hung over the furnace of hell. The fourth is grace, like the doctor feeling the pulse, enlightening him to knowing sins, and being converted and confessing etc. By this is worked out the works of justification of sins, as are the seven ecclesiastical sacraments. The fifth is justice, like the little finger [auricularis, ear finger], because it now appears less than the others, for in this world the good are not rewarded, nor the wicked punished. By this is worked out the matter of retribution. Behold the five fingers of the power of God, by which God creates all things. Authority: "Who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord has made all these things? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man," (Job 12:9-10). It is therefore clear that the hand of God is called his infinite power, by which all beings corporeal and spiritual, corruptible and incorruptible have been made. Since therefore the divine power has made wonderful things, and great excellences in St. John the Baptist, so says the theme, "The hand of the Lord was with him." I have found that the hand of the power of God has worked in St. John the Baptist five wonders, exalted and singular: The first is a glorious annunciation. The second, a virtuous generation. The third, a gracious sanctification. The fourth, a joyful manifestation. The fifth, a miraculous naming. About these the theme speaks: "The hand of the Lord was with him," (Lk 1:66).
GLORIOUS ANNUNCIATION
I say, first that the hand of the power of God has worked in St. John the Baptist a glorious annunciation, because before he was begotten or conceived in the womb of his mother, he was marvelously announced. The angel Gabriel himself, who to announced to the Virgin Mary the miraculous incarnation of the son of God, announced also to Zachary his father the birth of St. John. In fact Zachary, the father of St. John and Elizabeth his mother, had been married for many years, and they never had a child. Since however they both were feeble and old, just as Master Nicholas of Lyra says, but they were praying to God that he might send a Messiah promised to them, a savior of the world, because they were aware that the time was completed, and the prophecies, and they prayed as if wishing to say, since I was not worthy to have a child, at least, Lord, send the Messiah. And he while so praying, behold the archangel Gabriel appeared to him, resplendent and shining, so much so that Zachary trembling was afraid, because the condition of the spirit whether good or bad is to be terrified and overwhelmed with fear when he appears. Reason: because from the weakness of the flesh we are not able to bear the sight of a spirit. And so St. Luke says of the Virgin Mary etc.,"[she] was troubled at his saying," (Lk 1:29). However a good angel immediately gives comfort. So immediately he said to him, " Fear not, Zachary, for your prayer is heard," (Lk 1:13), because the Messiah comes immediately and you shall see him. Also, I announce to you that "your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And tyou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity. For he shall be great before the Lord," (Lk 1:13-15).
First he shall be great in the harshness of his life, for he shall not drink wine, nor any other inebriating liquor, nor eat bread or meat, or fish, or fruit, but his food shall be wild honey and locusts. His clothing will not be of gold, or silk, or wool or linen, but of camel's hide; he will not sleep on a bed, but on the ground, he will not dwell in the cities, but in the desert. Second, "he shall be great before the Lord,” (Lk 1:15), in the holiness of his life, because before his birth he shall already have been sanctified. "He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb."(ibid.). Third he shall be great before the Lord God in great usefulness, because," he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God," (Lk 1:16), and to faith in the Messiah, and to repentance. Fourth he shall be great before God in dignity, because, "he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,"(Lk 1:17) because just as Elias is to come before the general judgment to preach against the Antichrist, so he shall come before the advent of the Saviour, announcing him to the world and pointing him out. About this news Zachary had a special joy.
But considering his old age, seeing his hands wrinkled, thinking of the old age of his wife, and his sterility, he doubted. Here he failed, and he said to the angel: "Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years," (Lk 1:18). The angel replied in the manner of a person indignant: "You doubt my words, I who cannot lie?" because a good angel cannot lie nor deceive, and he said: "In this you shall know the truth of what I am announcing to you. "you shalt be dumb, and shalt not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to pass, because you have not believed my words,"( v. 20). And the angel withdrew. And Zachary remained mute. Behold here his glorious annunciation, because,"the hand of the power of God…" etc.
Morally. Here when it says that Zachary doubted, in which he erred, just like many people who doubt the secrets of the faith and divine truths, whom God revealed not only through the prophets but also through angels and through himself incarnated. But many say with Zachary "How can I know this? Wishing to dispute how it can happen that Christ so great becomes such a little consecrated host. Also how the host is broken and Christ is not broken. Arguments are natural. How can we know this? It is a great sin, especially because about this you have already an example in nature, namely in a mirror etc. And so Ambrose says (De Fide 1): "Put arguments aside where faith is sought." If one should say, doesn't Augustine and Thomas and the other doctors seek arguments? I say that reasons and arguments are good for bolstering understanding, but not for strengthening belief, nor as the basis of belief. If it had been said to St. Augustine, "Why do you believe there are three persons in the Trinity, and one God? Certainly he would not respond with such an argument or reason, but he would have said because thus Christ, true God and true man, preached and taught, and the apostles also determined. Therefore whoever now seeks an argument and reasons for the basis of faith, such with Zachary will be rendered mute at the time of the antichrist, because they shall fall immediately to him, because they make infinite reasons and arguments. But obedient persons, and simple shall stand firmly and securely. Our new things [nova] are pleasing to us, because our faith is not founded in arguments, but in obedience. And so Paul says: "And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in showing of the Spirit and power; That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God," (1 Cor 2:4-5). Note "my preaching" etc., that is, I do not lay the foundations in logical or physical arguments, but in the power of God through faith and simple trust. And this is about the first wonder etc.
VIRTUOUS GENERATION
I say, second, that the hand of the power of God operated in the virtuous generation of St. John, because he was begotten by his parents virtuously and miraculously, because the power of his father for begetting was not sufficient, nor the power of his mother of conceiving, but the power of God supplemented, giving power to the father for begetting and to the mother for conceiving. Note, practically. This good man Zachary having completed his prayer returned home. He was indeed of the nobility of Jerusalem, and also Elizabeth his wife, and because of their old age they had already separated their beds. Each were sleeping by themselves alone in their own rooms. These holy old people observed this holy practice, because they cared not for carnal intercourse unless for the purpose of a child. And so when a woman was pregnant, they immediately separated their beds until the child was weaned. The same when they were old. This is found in the text of the bible, Genesis 18, the elderly Sara says and Abraham, an old man, when God promised them a son, "After I am grown old, and my lord is an old man, shall I give myself to pleasure?" (Gn 18:12). Zachary, therefore, coming from prayer, mute, entered his home and was not able to speak to his wife, nor to seek the debt by word, but by signs. And amazed Elizabeth was saying, "Hey, hey, hey sir, blessed God what do you have? What happened to you? Knowing nothing of the announcement of the angel, and she began to hug him. Think how the old Elizabeth wondered, but finally recognizing the will of her husband, she consented.
Note here that from the fact that they are married, one ought to consent to the other, whether they are young or old, nor ought one excuse the other because of some false devotion, otherwise she damns herself and the other. And so the Apostle writes: "Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband. The wife has not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also has not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer, " (1 Cor 7:3-5). Note here about the devout woman, when the husband would ask of her the debt, she would always find excuses. If on Sunday, "Hey, holy Mother of God, today, which is the day of the resurrection of the Lord, you wish to do that?" If Monday, she would say, "Hey, today a man ought to pray for the dead." If on Tuesday, "The church sets aside today for the angels." If Wednesday, "Today Christ was sold." If Thursday, "Hey, sir, because today Christ ascended into heaven." If Friday, "because today Christ suffered and died for us." If Saturday she would say, "Today is for the Virgin Mary, because on that day she alone kept faith." The husband seeing that she always was finding excuses, called his servant girl saying "This evening come to me, you will sleep with me." She replied, "Gladly my lord. When the wife sees this, then she wished to hop into bed, but the husband did not. No lady, pray for us sinners! And never, from then on, did he wish to know his wife. He hated her, and he fell in love with the slave girl. He sinned mortally and damned himself because of the fault of his wife.
And so St. Elizabeth, although she was devout, holy and elderly, consented to that which was required of her by her husband, and conceived by him, and after three months she began to enlarge, and she was saying "O, misery, what is this? Could it be dropsy? Finally she recognized that she was pregnant. St. Elizabeth was greatly ashamed of this, so much so that Luke says that she hid herself for five months. I think that she made for herself ample sized jumpers or dresses that she might hide her tumescence lest people might say, "See, although she is devout, she nevertheless has time for lust," etc. Behold here the virtuous generation of St. John, because "the hand of the Lord…etc."
Morally, here is a consequence. If Elizabeth was so ashamed of this that one might presume that she with her husband used matrimony, how much shame ought there be for women or men who care for others? Such are traitors. And if the woman were strong, she might be able to kick out [assignare campum, allot open ground to] her traitor husband. And so St. Paul: "Marriage honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers God will judge," (Heb 13:4).
GRACIOUS SANCTIFICATION
Third, I say that the hand of the power of God has worked on St. John through a gracious sanctification, because while yet existing in the womb of his mother, Lk 1, not only was he filled with the Holy Spirit, but also abundantly filled [repletus]. Now hear the manner how he was sanctified. Chrysostom says that St. John, in the womb of his mother for five months, and for some days in the sixth month remained in original sin; but in the sixth month he was sanctified. In the sixth month of his conception the angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary, who then conceived the son of God, and then the angel said to the Virgin how the sterile Elizabeth had conceived a son. And so because of this the Virgin Mary went to visit Elizabeth. And when she entered the house, it was said that it was Elizabeth who Mary venerated. Elizabeth rejoiced, and coming out to her saluted her. Then the Virgin Mary said to her, "O my blessed cousin, may it go well for you for you have conceived a son." These words were of such power, that just as the word of a priest in Baptism, by the power of Christ sanctifies the soul of the one baptized, so this word of the Virgin by virtue of the incarnate Son of God in her, existing in her, sanctified John the Baptist. The creature "is sanctified by the word of God," (1 Tim 4:5), says St. Thomas In 4 Sent., d. 6, in literalibus, that then the use of reason was accelerated in St. John, and he had the use of free will, and he rejoiced in the womb, like a soldier rejoices if the king would give him a thousand florins, or one castle as a special gift. So then St. John was completely happy and joyful. Bernard calls this joy a solemn dance [tripudium]. Then Elizabeth inspired by the Holy Spirit, recognizing that the Virgin Mary had conceived the son of God, with a loud voice said, "Blessed art you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:42-43). I beg you to contemplate this for a moment. St. Elizabeth was old, the Virgin Mary was then a 14 year old girl, and as they were embracing and kissing each other, the stomach of Elizabeth was above the stomach of the Virgin. And so John was higher than Christ. For this reason John withdrew himself in the womb of his mother giving honor to the son of God, just like a soldier honors his king wishing to sit on the same step. The soldier would immediately throw himself to the ground. Behold here the gracious sanctification.
Morally. St. John shows to us how much reverence we ought to give to the altar of Christ and to his ministers. The Virgin Mary was then the altar on which was the body of Christ, and when John approached to Christ through the embrace of his mother, St. John pulled himself back humbly bowing. Many err in this, by standing near the altar, even on a balcony above. I am amazed that they are not struck dead by the angels who are present there. As St. Gregory the Elder said, and is found in Numbers, ch. 1 that a man, unless of the tribe of Aaron, "if he approaches to my altar he shall die the death." Yet on that altar was not sacrificed the body of Christ, but animals. How much the more ought there be a greater reverence for the altar on which is offered the son of God? Think also what happens when immoral clerics uncleanly handle him. David so great and holy a king with great reverence approached the temple of the Lord, and he himself said: "But as for me in the multitude of your mercy, I will come into your house; I will worship towards your holy temple, in your fear," (Ps 5:8). It is said of these who less justly happen in the churches, etc.
JOYFUL MANIFESTATION
I say, fourth, that the hand of the power of God worked on St. John a joyful manifestation, because in the joyful birth he was manifested, because in birth he cannot be hidden. Secretly they can conceive, but not without clamor give birth. And because Zachary and Elizabeth were nobility, so they were known by all and people were saying "Did you hear the news? And what is it? That noble woman Elizabeth gave birth to a son. And the others replied. She didn’t seem to us that she was pregnant, and still she was so old." But others, on the contrary, said, "Certainly true, but she hid herself." Then their friends and relatives would come to her and congratulate her saying: "O, it surely seems good that God loves you, because in such old age he gave you an heir." See how the hand of the Lord was with him in the joyful manifestation.
Morally. It is shown to us here how we ought to rejoice over a person sterile in good works, and aged in sins, and living a bad life, when they bear the fruit of good works and of merit, as Elizabeth's friends congratulated her. Note that this name Elizabeth is composed of three names, El, that is, God, i that is my, and zabeth that is seventh. Thus Elizabeth, "seventh of my God." This is the interpretation of this name Elizabeth. Now we see what this seventh of my God is. I respond and say that this seventh of my God is the human creature. Everything which God made comes from seven in seven. Seven are the principal creatures which God made: namely, earth, water, air and fire, the fifth essence, that is the heavens, the sixth is the angelic nature, the seventh human nature. Behold the seventh of my God. But many creatures grow old and antique, sterile without the fruit of good works and virtues. O how many religious and priests and men and women are sterile in the world, because they never bore the fruit of a good work, but rather dumped sins and bad lives and want to return to God, by proposing to do those thing for which they are bound by their state. Then they conceive. They give birth when they do good works, when the religious keeps his rule, vows and observances. Then they give birth. The same for the others. hen all his friends and neighbors ought to rejoice and congratulate him, and thanking [regratiando] God to say, "O this blessed one, now in his old age gives himself to God." But today he does the entire opposite in the world. If there is some dissolute and ribald religious, no one say anything to him, moreover all commend and praise him. But if he wishes to keep his rule and live according as he vowed, immediately he is persecuted by others. The same for the cleric. The same for the lay person, man and vain woman, if he wishes to dismiss vanities and can say: "Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost," (Lk 15:6). Yet nevertheless that one is pursued by others, until they make him lose his soul with the rest.
MIRACULOUS NAMING
I say, fifth, that the hand of the Lord worked on St. John the Baptist a miraculous naming, for he was wonderfully named. After his birth, namely, on the eighth day according to the law of Moses, boys are circumcised. And just as now in Baptism we confer names, so then in circumcision it was imposed. When the rabbi had already grasped the skin etc. he asked of the mother what he was called. Those standing around spoke: "He is named after his father Zachary." But the mother, because of a revelation of the Holy Spirit, contradicted: "Not so; but he shall be called John," (Lk 1:60). The others were amazed at such a name. They said to her that no one in her family was called by this name. Then they turned to his father, and signaled to him what he wished to name him. The father was still mute. And here the Gloss says that he was even deaf, and so they asked him through a note what he is to be called. Requesting a writing tablet he wrote, "John is his name," which was to say "I do not impose this name, but the Lord does." Then the father suddenly recovered his speech saying "Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel etc." See how here this naming was miraculous.
Morally. Note this, and we shall begin with a question. Which name is better, Zachary or John? And it seems that John, because the mother said, "Not so; but he shall be called John." I respond "Zachary" according to the Hebrew meaning stands for "remembering God." That name "John" is better than Zachary in ten ways. For if some person is in sins and wishes to rid himself of sins, desiring to be saved by the grace of God, it is necessary that this person be first "Zachary," that is, "remembering God," whom he offended, and that he have contrition for his sins. Second that he have a resolve not to return to sins etc. I say that the penitential works are nine, nevertheless John is not in the ninth work, but Zachary. But in the tenth work, namely in sacramental communion, because then they have the gift of grace, or the one in whom is grace, and then it is John. Behold the reason why she said, "Not so; but he shall be called John," was to suggest that he would be perfect in penitence and in the grace of God. Therefore Isaiah 49:1, "The Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he has been mindful of my name." And this is said in the person of St. John, because he imposed on him the name according to the grace and perfection which God should give to him. Therefore, "The hand of the Lord was with him," (Lk 1:66)
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Post by Hildegard on Jun 29, 2019 0:15:24 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer O.P. -- Sermon on the Feast of SS. Peter & Paul ( Mt 16:17)
June 29th
"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona," (Mt 16:17)
The feast and solemnity today is of the two greater apostles, princes of the others, who were martyred for Christ on the same day and in the same city, Rome, under the same emperor, Nero. And so great is the dignity of each of them that the church celebrates the feast in honor of St. Peter today, and tomorrow in honor of St. Paul, because today is not sufficient to preach about both. But that the present sermon be with praise and reverence, etc., let the Virgin Mary be saluted. And the theme is taken up again. The text for the theme and the basis of our sermon requires some literal explanation. For which it must be known that Peter, before he was the disciple of Christ, the apostle and universal Pope, was called Simon, but after he was a disciple of Christ, and an apostle, Christ constituted him as Pope and his universal vicar and gave him the name Peter. Just as happens even now, when the Pope is elected, his name is changed, as if he is changed into another person, and new creature, so Christ did, Matt 3, and he imposed upon Simon the name Peter. Peter's father was called John and sometimes in a gross manner he is called Joanna, and sometimes diminutively Joannet, sometimes he is commonly called Jona. Just as we commonly make in our language about some proper name, so the Jews were calling the father of Peter. And so Christ also named him. Sometimes, commonly, he is called Joannes, as where, "Simon of John [Simon Joannis]," i.e. son of John, “do you love me?” (Jn 21:15,16,17). Sometimes in an expanded way, "Thou art Simon, the son of Jona," (Simon, filius Jona, Jn 1:42). Sometimes in a shortened way, as where, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona," son of Jona, that is Joannet (Mt 16:17). The theme is clear then, according to the literal exposition, and I am in the matter to be preached in the theme. Peter is called with two names and two names are used, namely Simon, and Bar-Jona, and each name has two interpretations, in which four virtues are shown in Peter, because of which he is blessed in heaven, namely Prompt obedience Harsh penitence Right intention And hard passion. PROMPT OBEDIENCE
As for the first virtue through which St. Peter is blessed, it is said to be prompt obedience, which is noted here when he is called Simon, which means "obedient." When a person hears and obeys words and commandments of God, and without any excuse fulfills the will of God, he is like a servant faithful to the will of his lord, he is obedient, and merits to be rewarded, that is to be released at the end of his service. So whoever promptly and obeys observes the words and commandments of God in this world, when he finishes his service, namely in death, justly shall have a reward and beatitude for his salary. So Luke 11: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it," (Lk 11:28) This obedience Peter had, as is clear from Mt 4 : "And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). And he said to them: Come after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men. And they immediately leaving their nets, followed him," (Mt 4:18-20). Practically. St. Peter before he was a disciple of Christ was a poor fisherman, because of the fact that he and his brother St. Andrew had only one boat and one net, and so they lived from their labors. So while they were fishing one day, adrift on the lake, the sea of Galilee, then Christ himself along the shore of the lake saw Peter and Andrew. He said to them, "O my good men, how are you doing?" They responded, "Lord, we want to catch some fish." Christ knowing that they would do better elsewhere than here, said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men," (Mt 4:19). "I shall teach you to catch kings, princes, dukes, counts, and generations of many peoples." In these words, "Come after me," etc., there are two [secrets]. The first is this. The Christian church is like a ship of three decks [cooperturarum]. The first deck, deep or lowest is of members of religious orders humbling themselves. And just as the lower deck is hidden, so the religious ought to be hidden in the cloister and the cell, not going about on the roads or doing secular business on the streets. The second deck signifies the state of the priests, who ought to minister the sacraments of the church, ordinarily in the middle deck is kept the good merchandise of great value. So in the hand of priests and in their power stand the treasures of paradise, namely the sacraments, because of which we have eternal life. The third deck, is the status of the laity, who go here and there through the world like merchants, and like those on the ship who go through the decks doing the works of a sailor. Of this Solomon says, "She is like the merchant's ship," of a peddler, "she brings her bread from afar," (Prov 31:14). The second secret is when he said, "I will make you to be fishers of men," (Mt 4:19), who are the preachers. Preaching is like a net, because just as with a net all is collected and it is drawn by one cord, so evangelical preaching uses several cords, namely, authorities, reasons, and parables, and all are collected. If preaching is well organized, and they draw one cord, namely the theme, which is the basis of a sermon, God sends those preachers. Jer 16: "Therefore behold the days come,...I will send many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall fish them," (vv. 14, 16). He sends many fisherman because the apostles, martyrs, confessors and us, to whom he says, "Let down your nets for a catch," (Lk 5:4). He does not say, "fold them," he says this against those who have great knowledge but keep it folded, and are unwilling to fling it out for preaching, for catching fish. See why he says, "Come after me," etc., as if to say, "Leave the little boat, with which you now catch fish, and put yourselves in the great ship of the church, with three decks. "Leave the nets and you shall have gospel teaching [doctrinam evangelicam]; leave that sea and I shall make you fishers of men, of kings, knights and of others." By divine power Peter understood all this, when Christ said in his own voice, "Come after me," etc. He knew him to be the true Messiah, etc. Therefore so that St. Peter would have evangelical teaching instead of nets, and so he could fish for men throughout the world on the ship of the church, he obeyed promptly. For the gospel says, "Leaving their nets," and boat, "Peter and Andrew unhesitatingly [incontinenti] followed him," (Mk 1:18). St. Peter, before Christ on his knees said in his heart, "Not with a net, nor a boat, you have placed in my heart the delight of fishing in the sea of this world with the incorruptible evangelical teaching of the church," and immediately he went off with Christ. See the prompt obedience of Peter. It is said here against the defect of this world. For all are called by Christ, namely Christians, Jews, Muslims, and we refuse to go. He calls us by enlightening our hearts, giving recognition of sins, and immediately we ought to follow him, but it happens to us as it did to Samuel, who was called by God and he went to Eli. Note the story 1 Kg 3:4-5. Not so Job did, he said, "You shall call me, and I will answer you," (Job 14:15). Against such Christ said, "I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded," (Prov 1:24). Morally. When he said, "I will make you to be fishers of men," (Mt 4:19). Note this religious and others show have the office of preaching, because all are fishermen, and the net is evangelical preaching. Therefore now cast out the net, and when someone hearing the preaching proposes to abandon sins, and vices, and has an intention of returning to God, then the preacher can say, "I have caught a fish." When a nobleman or knight [miles] because of preaching turns away from pomp, hatred or rancor against his enemy, we have caught a dolphin [delphinum]. O such fish and fishermen, how much they please God! Same of a noble lady, who abandons vanities, ornaments and the like and confesses, and proposes to live well, then he can say that we have caught a tuna [tonica]. When preaching converts a farmer or simple man, a flounder [fundulus] is caught. Same for a poor woman, an eel [sarpina?]. And on the day of judgment Christ will say to the preachers, "Come," now, "and dine," (Jn 21:12). And when they say What shall we lunch on? then he shall reply, "Bring here the fish which you have … caught," (Jn 21:10). O what will become of that preacher who says, "Lord I have only caught seaweed and flotsam, namely money, praise, gifts, acquaintances and fame [scil. pecunias, raupas, comeras, familiaritates et famam]. Therefore for love of God we labor to catch souls. For in the judgment every one comes with the souls which he converted saying, "See the two fish which I have landed." O how many fish and how many souls St. Peter brought with him, who in his first preaching converted three thousand souls and men, See Acts 2 and 4. HARSH PENANCE As for the second virtue for which St. Peter is blessed in paradise is harsh penance [aspera poenitentia], which is shown when he is called Simon, which is understood in a second sense as imposing sadness [ponens tristitiam], namely of penance, about which the Apostle says, "For the sorrow that is according to God works penance, steadfast unto salvation," (2 Cor 7:10). Note "that is according to God" i.e. when it displeases man about offenses made to God, such blessedness is merited, because he did true penance. Whence Mat 5:5, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted," namely in heavenly beatitude. Look now at the penance of St. Peter. How did he do penance? In eating, in drinking, in dressing. In eating you know that once when he was asked what was his lifestyle, he replied, "My daily diet is bread with olives and rarely with vegetables, only on great feast days." See his life, although he was Pope. But it is asked, How did it happen that so many capons, hens, pheasants, salted fish [salsianae] are now on the table of prelates? They call it bountiful [truffative], that those olives of St. Peter were pregnant and gave birth to the capons and the rest. The same was asked about clothing, and he replied, "My clothing is a tunic which you see, with a cape, both in the winter as well as the summer." See the first clothing of the first vicar of Christ. But it is asked, how did it evolve that now the prelate wears so many sumptuous clothes etc, so many linings. It is said that the cape of Peter gave birth to them, etc. So his life was such that from his eyes flowed a fountain of tears, remembering his denial, and because of this as long as he lived he cried, and he lived after the ascension of Christ for 37 years, as in the Liber de viris illustribus. St. Jerome says that he cried so much that he had a face scorched from the heat of the tears. Note, penance for denial. He sinned by mouth denying Christ, therefore he did penance by mouth, eating only bread and olives, as if he was saying because you have sinned, you shall then fast. Second he denied Christ, by warming his body, as John says (Cf Jn 18:18), so he did penance in his body, wearing only one tunic with a cape. Third just as his face was not ashamed to deny Christ, so he wept. These are the fruits of worthy penance. Luke 3, "Bring forth…fruits worthy of penance,"(Lk 3:8), for that through which one sins, by this is penance done. Morally. St. Peter for his triple denial of Christ, because out of fear he denied Christ, did penance nevertheless for all his 37 years. What shall it be for those deniers, who not only three times, but a thousand times a day deny Christ for the least thing, or for a minor incident, swearing great oaths, blaspheming Christ? O accursed denier, what shall happen to your soul? If St. Peter for a threefold denial did such etc. what should you do, who swear not out of fear of death, but out of a bad habit? Again, St. Peter said only "I do not know him." Think what will happen to your soul! For the love of God, steps should be taken so that these detestable oaths may cease. I will give you three remedies. First, you women who have little children should instruct them to not swear. Second, that every swearer should set for himself this rule, namely that he should fine himself a certain amount for every time he swears, and give it to the poor on Sundays and so he would be cured. The third manner of correcting [swearing] pertains to the civic leaders, who by statute give an order that whoever swears using God's name should be punished in a certain way, etc. and to spare no one in this matter, which touches on the honor of Christ. But because the civic leaders to not correct, God is saddened by saying. "They that rule over them treat them unjustly, says the Lord, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long. Therefore my people shall know my name in that day: for I myself who spoke, behold I am here," namely by punishing. (Isa 52:5-6). See the second virtue in this the meaning of the name "Simon," which is, imposing sadness. RIGHT INTENTION As for the third virtue by which St. Peter is called blessed, is right intention, namely in all things which he was doing by preaching, celebrating and exercising other works of virtue, always looking to the honor of God, which is noted in this that he is called Bar-Jona, which means "son of simplicity," and not "of duplicity." When indeed someone looks to the world, for honors, and not to God, it is duplicity. This happens to them like a rooster which with one eye looks to the sky, and with the other grain. St. Peter in all things had a right intention directed to God. Whence in the Psalm, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to your name give glory," (Ps 113:9). Behold, simplicity. And these merit beatitude. Whence in Mat 5, "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God," (v. 8), here through contemplation, and in the next age through eternal possession. St. Peter does indeed have this virtue, because although he was Pope, and the vicar of Christ, he had such holiness that he could heal all the sick, and when his shadow touched the sick, they would be cured. It is told how when they knew that he was about to pass through another village, they would place the sick so that his shadow would touch them and they would be healed. (Cf Acts 5:15). But even with all this he kept such a simplicity, that he had no hypocrisy or vain glory or presumption. He went about simply. He ruled and corrected himself. It is clear that he was the son of simplicity. And he was able to say, "I know my God that you prove hearts, and love simplicity, wherefore I also in the simplicity of my heart, have joyfully offered all these things," (1 Chr 29:9). "You prove the heart of a creature if he keeps a good and right intention, and if he is simple, you love him, and so in the simplicity of my heart I loved you and I have served you with a true heart." Morally. This must be known that God first looks to the intention in our works. For if one would do all kind of good in the world, and would not have a good intention, it would merit you nothing. In other words, for example, it is a great work of merit to enter religious life, just as St. Thomas says II-II, q. 89, a. 3, ad 3m, that the vow of religion if made with a right intention since it is perpetual, is greater than a vow to travel on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which is temporal, so Alexander III says and it is found in Extravagantes, De voto et voti red. c, scripturae. And later Thomas adds, that it can reasonably be said that one obtains the remission of all sins by the entry into religious life, which is more useful that a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, with respect to promotion in good. This is greater than absolution from penalty. This Thomas says in the same place and in beautiful words of this same matter. But this work, namely the entry into religion, is perverted and it is lost when the intention is perverse and temporary, as for example because you hope that your son will become abbot, or a master in theology, or a bishop, and so you induce him to enter religious life. Unless you hoped this, he never would have entered religion, because such an intention is not for God, but for the world. and merit is lost. Or if he enters so that he might live in peace, not for observing religion, this intention is perverse. For it is better for a religious to have been a thief, than to be a religious not observing what he ought. Also, to preach the word of God is worthy of great merit, because it is a great work, if the intention is right, but when someone preaches because of vainglory or for fame, or for money, having the intention for worldly things, all is lost and he is damned. St. Thomas asks in Quodlibet 5, q. 12, a 2. in body, "Whether through penance one can recover the halo [laureolam] which has been promised to one preaching worthily, if he has lost it through vainglory? And he says that it is not, because it was not gained according to the judgment of the Lord, "Amen I say to you, they have received their reward," (Mt 6:2). He can nevertheless acquire the grace of God if he amends, or through good preaching he can gain anew another halo, but the one lost he can never recover. The same in a just war, those who go forth do a great work if they have a right intention. Blessed are they who die for justice or the defense of the republic, they are glorious among the martyrs, although the church does not celebrate a feast day. But if they do it because of vanity, as many saying, "Out of love of my lord…" etc. O fool, in such a case it is necessary to set forth first love and divine respect and true justice, saying, "Let us do this out of love and zeal for justice." Therefore we shall either sing in the temples of our enemies through the victory which we have, or with God in Paradise, from the fact that we have defended justice. But when you have a foolish intention, you loose the entire good work. Similarly to forgive injuries, to spare the enemies, is a great work if it is done for God and the love of Christ, but when it happens not out of reverence for or love of God, but out of respect for persons, all merit is lost. Practically speaking, if the Pope or a king would ask you that you forgive, perhaps you would forgive, and yet for Christ you did not forgive. It is said how Christ in judgment showing his wounds will say, "Behold, what I have done for you. Let us see what you have done for me. If you have forgiven out of love of him, he shall give you Paradise. But if you have forgiven out of love of the Pope, or of the king, or of some others, he will say to you, "Go to them, so that they might give you paradise, you who had to satisfy them. If you forgave with a pure intention out of honor of Christ, then Christ receives you by hand saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant," (Mt 25:21). Be careful that in all things you direct the intention to God, "That in all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen," (1 Pet 4:11). HARD SUFFERING As to the fourth virtue, which is hard suffering [dura passio], when he is called Bar-Jona, which according to a second interpretation means "Son of a dove," Behold here his martyrdom. It is said when the priests of the old testament offered a dove to God, he first stripped its feathers [deplumabant]. Then broke its wings, then broke its neck and bent its head down, and such a sacrifice was very much acceptable to God, as is said in Leviticus, "It is a holocaust and oblation of most sweet savor to the Lord," (Lev 1:17). That St. Peter was the son of a dove is clear in his martyrdom because of the patience which he had, and through eternal beatitude, "If also you suffer any thing for justice' sake, blessed are you," (1 Pet 3:14). It is told how St. Peter, after he had preached through many cities and towns and converted many gentiles in Antioch and elsewhere, came to Rome, and he there preaching against the mandate of the emperor Nero, who had ordered him not to preach the faith of Christ, was arrested. Christians wishing to free him were saying to him, "O Father, we shall free you, flee from all this." Finally, yielding he fled from there, and when leaving the city, Christ appeared to him with his cross on his shoulders. When Peter saw him he said, "Lord, where are you going?" As if he were saying, "I am leaving the city and you are entering." Christ replied, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again." He was saying, "Once I was crucified in Jerusalem. Now I go again to be crucified." Christ was saying that after he had been crucified in Jerusalem in his own person, now again in place of Peter [in persona Petri] he had to be crucified in Rome. This Peter understood, and immediately he returned to the city, and Christ to heaven. And Peter told his Christian friends of the city how Christ had appeared etc. It is clear how he was acceptable and gracious to God. He was returned to the custody of the emperor. Officials came and he was sentenced to be crucified on the cross which he had adored, saying to the officials, "Please, I beg of you, that you do not crucify me head up, as Christ my master, but point my head down. The officials said," Greater torment will be yours. We will accommodate you in this. When he was on the cross he never ceased to preach to those standing around him. He shows us here the lesson that we should never cease preaching, not because of cold nor heat, nor fatigue, but work for the conversion of souls. And to him, here standing, Christ sent an angel with crowns of violets [violarum] and Christ appeared to him holding a book in his hands, which St. Peter read, and after which he said, "Lord Jesus Christ, I have given thanks to you, who have borne me to the hoped for end, Lord I commend to you these Christians, children generated in the womb of your spouse, namely in the church through baptism." And so he handed over his spirit to God, whom the angels of God bore to glory. Morally. This cross of Peter was not like the cross of Christ, but I find that you place your hope in the cross of St. Peter, which can save none, not even St. Peter, unless by the power of Christ. So, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," (Gal 6:14). which is stronger. Some in fact, although not in mind, hold hope in the sign of the devil which is a circle. For just as good religious in the beginning of the hours [of the divine office] call upon God with the sign of the cross saying, "O God, come to my assistance;" (Ps 69:2), they make a circle, because, "The wicked walk round about," (Ps 11:9). Tell the whole defective practice of those who do not sign themselves correctly at the entrance of the church, or at table, or a woman putting a child to bed. Same for the priests, although speaking well, they make a circle over the water, the bread, and what is worst over the Body of Christ. Show here how they sign themselves. Against this sign no danger can prevail. You should instruct your own. About this sign of the cross, read the prophecy in Cant 8, "Under the apple tree I raised thee up,… Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm," (Song 8:5,6). |
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Post by Hildegard on Jul 15, 2019 18:58:12 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – On the Conversion of St. Paul (Acts 9:15) Acts 9 (Douay transl.): 3 And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. 4 And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad. 6 And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? 7 And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do. Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed, hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man. 8 And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus. 9 And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor drink... 15 And the Lord said to him: Go thy way; for this man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.
"This man is to me a vessel of election," (Acts 9:15). These words are found in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9. Today, in church, is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. No saint other than St. Paul the Apostle has a feast of their conversion, not just for its own sake, because it was miraculous, but also for our sake, because he was a profitable [proficuosa] sinner, for in his conversion is shown how a sinner ought to be converted to Christ. But first we "Hail" the Virgin Mary. By way of a short introduction to the material it must be known that the principal foundation and principle of the salvation of a man is the eternal election of God. Before God created the heavens and earth, or anything, already in the secret consistory of the Trinity the choice of those to be saved had been made, in such a way: There are so many lords, emperors, kings, dukes, and counts, etc. in the world. From these, the Father says, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so many will be saved out of the love of justice, because they succeeded in the correction of their subjects. Also there were so many prelates, popes, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops and bishops, etc. in the world. From these so many shall be saved by virtue of their charity and diligence toward their flocks. Also there are so many religious, from which so many shall be saved by virtue of obedience, serving their order. Also so many clergy, by virtue of their devotion. Also so many rich people, by virtue of their mercy. So many poor people, by virtue of their patience. Also so many women, by virtue of their integrity and continence. This election is the first and fundamental principle of the salvation of men and women. Authority: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity. Who has predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ," our Lord (Eph. 1:4-5). And this choice is called predestination. And because St. Paul was chosen by God from all eternity, that he would be one of the greater saints in paradise, about him Christ spoke in the theme text, "Vessel of election;" he, Paul, is chosen – passively – for me. But although divine election has been made in eternity, it has its execution in time, I say to you the practical execution of the election of St. Paul, as is contained in today's epistle. Luke tells the story in today's epistle, Acts 9, how he was persecuting Christians, as a wolf hunts sheep, to the extent that many Christians fled from Jerusalem, and so he himself said, " I shall then pursue them." It is told how infected with rage he was going to Damascus etc. "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4). Note, he does not say "Why do you persecute my servants?" because so great is the love of Christ for his servants, that their persecution is considered his. Just as the good which comes to his servants out of love of him, he receives in his own person, and also evil. And so he says in the universal judgment, "For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat," (Mt 25:35). Then they shall say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; thirsty, and gave you a drink?" (v.37). To whom he will say, "Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me," (v.40). Here is made clear how a man ought to be careful lest he displease the servants of God, because he [Christ] receives it in his own person, just as a king takes it personally when a knight is offended, or one of his officials. And because of this there is great fear lest an official of the king be offended. Therefore Christ says, "Saul," for so he was called before his conversion, "Saul, why do you persecute me?" Behold, the love of Christ for us. And Paul, frightened and stunned said, "Who are you, Lord?" (Acts 9:5). Jesus replied, "I am Jesus whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goad," (v. 5). Note that Paul, before his conversion had four false beliefs or opinions and errors, First, that he did not believe him to be God, but simply man. Second, that he was not the Savior of the world, but an imposter. Third, that he had not risen from the dead. Fourth that he was not the judge of the good and wicked. But Christ, in response, dispelled all these errors when he said, "I am Jesus of Nazareth," etc., (Acts 22:8). And first, when he said," I am," which is the name of the Divinity, because God has existence of himself. Our existence is given to us by God. Already it ought not to be called existence. Just as no one ought to be called rich because of monies which he received on loan. Our total existence has been loaned to us by God. Therefore, properly speaking, no one has being but God alone. Therefore we read in Exodus 3 that when God wished to send Moses to free the people of Israel from Egypt, Moses said to him, "If they should say to me: What is the name [of God]? what shall I say to them? [The LORD] said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, has sent me to you," (vv. 13-14). See why he replied to Paul, "I am." And Augustine says in his Book on Seeing God, that Christ then showed Paul the divine essence. Against the second error he says, "Jesus," which is the same as "Savior," showing him clearly that no one can enter paradise, nor be saved unless believing and obeying him. Against the third error he says, "of Nazareth," that is, "blooming," because his body in his glorious resurrection blossomed with four flowers: 1) invulnerability, 2) lightness, 3) subtlety, 4) clarity. That is why he said, "of Nazareth." Against the fourth error he said, "It is hard for you to kick against the goad," (Acts 9:5). The goad is a harsh sentence, which he shall give as the universal judge of the good and the wicked, when he will say to the wicked, "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire," (Mt 25:41). Then Paul, "trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what will you have me to do," that I might be saved? (Acts 9:6). Now I see clearly my errors. "And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told you what you must do... And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing," (Acts 9:6,8). So great was the brightness which surrounded him, that he lost his sight, as if a man had looked at the sun for a long time, he would lose his sight. "But they, leading him by the hands," men who accompanied him, who stood amazed, "brought him to Damascus. And he was there three days, without sight, and he neither ate nor drank," (Acts 9:8-9). The scriptural doctors say that during these three days he learned and saw in the school of paradise whatever later he preached. In the mean time Christ appeared to a certain disciple of his living in Damascus, who was called Ananias, and said to him, "Ananias. And he said: Behold I am here, Lord. And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the street that is called Strait, and seek in the house of Judas, one named Saul of Tarsus," (Acts 9:10-11). And Ananias was afraid saying, "Lord, I have heard from many," (v. 13) of this man, how he persecuted your name, etc. And so Lord do not send me to that wolf," etc. Then "the Lord said to him: Go thy way; for this man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel," (v. 15). Because just as fruit is presented to lords in a gold or silver bowl, so this man shall bear my name, etc. The story of the epistle is completed by the concluding theme, "This man is to me a vessel of election." Behold, the eternal election. As for the second I say that in the conversion of St. Paul is shown the manner of the conversion of a sinner to God. And so the Church makes a feast only of this conversion of Paul. And there are seven ways by which a sinner is converted to God, like Paul, which are as follows: 1. Divine illumination 2. Personal humiliation 3. Fraternal correction 4. Judicial exposure 5. Doctrinal instruction 6. Example of virtue 7. Penitential affliction. DIVINE ILLUMINATION
The first mode is divine illumination, when the sinner is converted to God, like Paul, he is subtly enlightened by God, because the sinner while he remains in sins is blind. A blind man does not see the danger in which he is. Just as one who walks along the street, and first falls into the mud, then stumbles on rocks, then into vipers, he is judged blind, because he truly is blind. So for the sinner passing through the road of this world or of life, who first falls into the morass of putrid lust, then between the prickly thorns of avarice, and then between the rocks of anger and malice. And so holy scripture judges such to be blind: "And they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord," (Zeph 1:17). And so the divine light is necessary, illuminating the mind of the sinner. The sinner is illuminated by light when he says: "O wretched me [miser]! How many years have I been in the mire of lust, or in the thorns of avarice?" And so for the others. "O wretched me! What will become of me or of my soul?" When the divine light illuminates his conscience, he recognizes sins, because the natural light of the intellect does not suffice, nor even the light of acquired science, but the divine light is necessary. This is shown in the conversion of St. Paul where it says, "And as he went on his journey, ...suddenly a light from heaven shone round about him," (Acts 9:3). Note, "light from heaven;" not from the natural intellect or human genius. This manner of conversion is very sweet. When God suddenly enlightens a sinner in his home, his room, on his bed, or going on the street, that he might recognize his sins, saying: "O wretch, what will become of me." This light David sought saying in prayer, "Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death," (Ps 12:4). PERSONAL HUMILIATION
The second way is personal illumination or humbling. When pompous inflated persons who care only for worldly things are brought down or humiliated, and if this happens because, God says, "These need another remedy," and he makes them lose their temporal goods, and the love of lords in whom they trusted, and then they are converted to God, because others were not caring about them. And so David, "Fill their faces with shame; and they shall seek your name, O Lord," (Ps 82:17). Blessed is the adversity or trouble of poverty, of sickness or persecution of lords, which converts the sinner to God. This way is shown in Paul who went about filled with fury, [dirumque] power flushed his whole heart, and falling on the earth, from being a persecutor he was made a "vessel of election," saying," Lord, what will you have me do?" (Acts 9:6). Behold how out of adversity, he was converted.
FRATERNAL CORRECTION The third [way] is fraternal correction. Just as some are not converted by the first or second way, because God does not get them on the first day, but when someone, a friend, brother, companion, father or neighbor gently corrects his friend or son, saying, "This is for your own good. People are already talking about you. So for the love of God straighten up!". In this way many are converted to Christ. And so Christ says, "If your brother shall offend against you, go, and rebuke him between you and him alone. If he shall hear you, you shall gain your brother," (Mt 18:15). This way is shown in Paul, when Christ correcting him said to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4). JUDICIAL EXPOSURE
The fourth is judicial exposure, as when God by himself invisibly or through the mouth of some holy and devout person points out to him the rigor of justice in such a way. "Let us see if you wish to persevere in this wicked life, what shall you say in the judgment? What shall you respond to Christ when he says, "What have you done for me?" Showing his wounds [Christ] says: "See what I have done for you. Do you recognize these wounds? Let us see what you have done for me." What will you say who now stand and live in sins, and you have done nothing good? How shall you avoid the punishments of hell? Such judicial exposures make many convert, confess and do penance, so that they have something to show at the judgment. And so David: "The Lord shall be known when he executes judgments: the sinner has been caught in the works of his own hands. The wicked shall be turned into hell," namely through thinking [cogitationem], (Ps 9:17-18). This way is seen in Paul to whom Christ exposes himself in judicial form, just as he ought to stand on the day of judgment, when he says to him, "It is hard for you to kick against the goad," (Acts 9:5). And Paul immediately replied, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" (v. 6). DOCTRINAL INSTRUCTION Fifth is doctrinal instruction, as in preaching, to which many sinners come, entangled in great sins, and they return converted to God, because in preaching, when the preacher preaches sound doctrine, sinners come to recognize their evil life, and they say, "O wretched me! According to this [preaching] I am in an evil state!" And in this way more are converted than by the other aforesaid ways. And so the Apostle says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes," (Rom 1:16). Note, "I am not ashamed of the gospel," like those who care more about the poets, than the gospels. The teaching of the poets saves no one. And so the preachers of the evangelical doctrine have a special crown in paradise. This way of conversion was shown in Paul to whom Christ said, "Arise, and go into the city, and there it shall be told you what you must do," (Acts 9:7). If Paul had wanted to say, "Lord, you show me what I have to do. Why do you send me rather than another?" Christ would have said, "Go, because in you I instruct the Christian. How you have gone, so they can go. They have a lesson." Note the city to which Christ sent Paul, saying, "Arise, and go into the city." It is called Damascus which is interpreted to mean "bloody," and it signifies the Church, where the blood of Christ is consecrated [conficitur] and drunk. When therefore he says, "Go into the city," into the Church for hearing Mass and a sermon, there you are told what you ought to do. This is the principal manner for converting sinners. EXAMPLE OF VIRTUE The sixth way [of conversion] is the example of virtue. When one sees that someone lives a good and holy life, even if it is not told by preaching, but just by the example of such a one many are converted. There is a story about the conversion of a certain prince of thieves on a road lying in wait to steal. A certain holy abbot wishing to convert him to Christ came to him and immediately was captured, and stripped naked. The abbot however questioned him about how it was living in such a wilderness. The abbot said, "O, you live in great labor and danger. If you wish, come with me to the monastery, and I shall provide for you abundantly [opulenter]. Fearing capture he did not dare to go, but the abbot assured him, and he followed him. He gave him the best of cells, and a most devoted monk as a servant, that he might serve him, giving him whatever he wished to eat: chickens, partridges, and capons, and ministering to him. And after he had dined, his brother the servant ate bread and water in his presence. And when he laid down on his bed, the brother prayed on his knees with tears etc. After a number of days the robber captain said to the brother, "And what kind of life did you have in the world, because you do so much penance?” And the brother said: "Many [sins], lord." "Tell me, if you please." He said, "I laughed excessively, and I cheated," and so for other venial sins. And the captain said, "O wretched me! What shall be of me who have robbed and killed so many men, because you, for such little sins do such great penances? Henceforth I wish to live like you. Give me a bed no more, nor hens." And so he had been converted by the example of a good life. Possibly, if someone had preached to him for a hundred years, he would never have converted him. Yet , he was converted by the example of a good life. We read that in the time of St. Peter the Apostle, when he was preaching in Rome, some good woman already converted to Christ had perverse husbands to convert. Showing them this way he said, "Let wives be subject to their husbands: that if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word, by the conversation of the wives," (1Pet 3:1). This mode was shown in Paul, when leading him by the hand they led him into the city. Hands signify works, because they are done by hands. And so he said "leading him by the hands," in which is implied that by the example of deeds sinners are drawn to God. VOLUNTARY PENANCE The seventh manner is voluntary penance [afflictio penitentialis], by saying "Lord, although I am wicked and a sinner, I hope nevertheless that because of this penance you shall rescue me from sin and shall convert me to a good life. And so although a man perceives himself to be in sin, he should not abandon penitence, because it disposes to conversion, and ultimately to salvation. "Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," (Mt 4:17). This way is shown in the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, who for three days did not eat, or drink. What a penitential affliction! It was a sign that by penitence God leads the sinner to conversion and salvation. This is why the Church celebrates a feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, because not only was it miraculous, but it was also profitable for sinners. |
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Post by Hildegard on Jul 26, 2019 15:35:55 GMT
St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. – Sermon on St. Ann (Rom. 6:22)
"You have your fruit unto sanctification," (Rom. 6:22). This text is found originally in Romans 6, and is read in the epistle of the current solemnity. Today's feast and solemnity is of that blessed and holy mother of the Virgin Mary, Saint Ann. And just as the business of the mass is about her, so shall our sermon be. And, if it pleases God about her life we shall have many good teachings for the correction of sins and the instruction of our souls, and good information. But first let us "Hail" the Virgin Mary. I present the proposed text of St. Ann saying, "You, blessed Ann, have your fruit, the Virgin Mary, in your sanctification." For the declaration of which it must be known that the question is between several persons, why holy mother the Church and the Christian people have not made a feast for the father of the Virgin Mary, holy and just, called Joachim, just as for her mother St. Ann. I reply that although Joachim was holy and a blessed friend of God nevertheless St. Ann was of a greater sanctity. Reason, because she had a greater relationship [participationem] with the Virgin Mary, her daughter. For a father participates somewhat with his children, but a mother who bears them for nine months, and after giving birth, nurses, feeds, sleeps with them and kisses them. Because therefore St. Ann had a greater relationship with the Virgin Mary her daughter, the fount of all holiness, who was holy already existing in the womb of her mother, think therefore how much holiness remained in St. Ann who bore her and nourished her, by giving her what she had, the Virgin Mary gave holiness to her mother, and so she was holier, more perfect, and more spiritual than her husband Joachim. Note, the similarity to that of the rose, which is picked by one, and given to another, and that one carries it and holds it in a closed hand. In whom therefore does more of the fragrance of that rose or apple remain, in the one giving or the one receiving? Certainly it is in the one receiving. So the Rose of Paradise and the Apple of Virtues, the Virgin Mary, was given by Joachim to St. Ann through generation, and St. Ann received, bore and nurtured, and nursed her for three years, more of the odor of sanctity therefore remained in her. This is the reason why there is a feast of St. Ann, and not of Joachim. Thus the scripture text, the authority, which deals well with the proposition. "Rejoice, you just, in the Lord," you Christians, "and give praise to the remembrance of his holiness," of the holiness of St. Ann, (Ps 96:12). This reason the theme touches saying, "You have your fruit unto sanctification," (Rom. 6:22), greater than her father Joachim. The theme text is clear. I find that St. Ann bore her fruit, the Virgin Mary, mother of the Lord Jesus Christ : By desiring at length (desiderando longe) By hoping firmly (sperando certe) By conserving worthily. (conservando digne.) DESIRING AT LENGTH First, I say, that St. Ann bore her fruit, the Virgin Mary, by desiring for a long time. St. Jerome says, that St. Joachim a noble man from the town of Bethlehem, got married and for 20 years was without the fruit of marriage, not having offspring. Ann who was sterile and barren was the reason. She was so cold that her metabolism prevented conception. Because of this she was utterly depressed. Reason: marriage is ordered to the procreation of children; everything else was not worth a penny. Therefore seeing that by her natural power she was not able to have a child, she grasped at the four ways that she might have one by the power of God. First, through devout prayers, Second, through giving alms, Third, by many fasts, Fourth, by a vow and promise. DEVOUT PRAYERS For the first she went often to the temple to pray, that God might give them the fruit of marriage, because that is the end, -- so trees are planted in the garden, that they might bear fruit -- and they said, "Lord you have placed us in the garden of marriage, etc." And weeping they begged for a child. So on one occasion when St. Ann saw a sparrow's nest in the garden, in tears she said to God, "O Lord, you have given to this sparrow so many chicks, for which with great labor she provides. Lord give me a child." Behold he first manner of turning to God, by praying, because no one else can give a son or a daughter, for creation is required for that. For God forms the body in the womb of the mother, like you form a statue of earth or clay, and then he creates the soul out of nothing. Knowing this Job said, "Your hands have made me, and fashioned me" – neither father nor mother – "wholly round about, and do you thus cast me down headlong on a sudden? Remember, I beseech you, that you have made me as the clay, and you will bring me into dust again. Have you not milked me as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" (Job 10:8-10). Now you have to know that it is the sin of many who when the cannot have a child of their marriage turn to diviners and fortune tellers etc. And so repent and confess, and seek from God, because if the fruit of marriage be useful to your soul, infallibly he shall give it to you. The authority of Christ on this: "Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you," (Jn 16:23). Note: "In my name," which is Jesus, that is, savior. It is asked in the name of the savior when a man ask something useful for salvation, and not for damnation. GIVING ALMS
Second, Joachim and Ann begged God for a child through alms, because the angel said to Tobias, "Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of gold," (Tob 12:8). And because they were rich, not from usurious interest, but from their possessions. And Jerome says, that he divided his goods into three parts. The first he gave to God. The second to pilgrims, orphans and the poor. The third they kept for themselves and the family's house. Note how he divided his grain: The first part he sent to the temple, the second was set out for the poor, the third for themselves. The same for the wine, the oil and the rest. In this manner prayer is aided by alms, and vice versa. Therefore scripture says, "Give alms out of your substance, and turn not away your face from any poor person: for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from you," (Tob 4:7). Morally. We find this teaching, that if you are not able to give so much alms as you are bound, nor does the heart suffice, you should pay at least a tenth and first-fruits. There are some who say, "O shall I give my goods to wicked sensual (concubinariis) clergymen? Certainly not!" It is said that it is given to God, and not to them. If however God has bad clergy, he shall castigate them, and by this you ought not to hold back from them their right. For if a king has bad soldiers, you ought not for this reason withhold from him what is due, because someone else would receive the commission for him. So too for God, because, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof: the world, and all they that dwell therein," (Ps 23:1). And he grants it to us for an annual account, and in a sign of his dominion he keeps for himself a tenth, but he does not eat it, but gives it to his servants. And when it is paid well, he keeps and conserves it, otherwise all is lost. When you believe you have grain or wine does not God say, "Because you paid me badly, I shall devastate all. And so come storms, hail etc." Therefore Malachi said: "For you afflict me. And you have said: Wherein do we afflict you? in tithes and in first fruits. And you are cursed with want, and you afflict me, even the whole nation of you," (Mal 3:8-9). This is the remedy. "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord: if I open not unto you the flood-gates of heaven, and pour you out a blessing even to abundance. And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer," (Mal 3:10-11). Note, "Bring". He does not say that it will be dumped into the vineyards and fields, that the beasts, and the pigs, etc. can eat. Also if you cannot give as much alms as St. Ann, at least return your thefts, extorted interest, loot, damages and acres. And so James says, " I made good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, you did exact it of me, "(Gen 31:39). FASTING Third they petitioned with fasting, although they were noble and delicate, yet they kept all fasts and precepts and even more, saying, "That from our flesh may proceed the fruit of marriage, let us make the fruit of fastings. And each could say, "I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer shall be turned into my bosom," (Ps 34:13). Morally, you have here the teaching that you should keep the fasts of the church. To this especially are bound those who can have one good meal. Others, laborers, excuse themselves from the fast of the church, who nevertheless are not excused if they do not hear mass fasting. Also they do not drink in the taverns in the place where they have a home. So the Apostle, "What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in?" against those who drink in taverns, "Or despise ye the church of God," against those who do not come to mass fasting. (1Cor 11:22).
VOWS AND PROMISES Fourth they sought a child from God by promises, because together Joachim and Ann made a vow that if God would give them the fruit of marriage, they would serve God in the temple. Just as now if you would promise to become a religious or a nun. But many are damned by promises and vows, making vows and not caring to fulfill them. It is a grave sin to break vows in any way, greater than homicide, because it is unfaithfulness. Therefore the wise man said, " If you have vowed any thing to God, defer not to pay it: for an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases him: but whatsoever you have vowed, pay it. And it is much better not to vow, than after a vow not to perform the things promised," (Eccl 5:3-4). When they are young, they make a vow to [on pilgrimage] to St. James (Santiago de Compostella), and the years go by, year after year, and they don't bother to fulfill it, and when they are old they ask for a dispensation from the vow. When there a definite time is fixed, within which it ought to be fulfilled. If however there is not fixed a determined time, it must be understood that they are to fulfill it immediately. And because there are many who do not care about God, therefore they are damned. And so beware of vows. It is clear therefore how the fruit of St. Ann was a sanctification long desired. HOPING FIRMLY Second, I say that St. Ann bore her fruit, the Virgin Mary, by hoping firmly (sperando certe), when it was certified by the angel, whom God sent to her. For which note here the story how Joachim and Ann came from Nazareth to Jerusalem to the temple, to offer according to their custom. When Joachim who was a noble baron wished to make an offering, a priest looked at him saying, "And who are you?" He replied, "Father I am Joachim, your servant, who have come to offer sacrifice." And the priest said, "I will certainly not accept your offering, because you are cursed by God, because you do not have a child. It is a sign that there is some hidden sin in you." And Joachim said to him, "Father, I do not know of any great sin in me, although I am not able to be excused of sin, because I do not have a child, and this displeases me very much." And the priest said to him, "Get out of the temple." And Joachim replied, "Father, do not shame me so much." And the priest said, "Surely, until you get out I will make no offering or sacrifice." Then Joachim, with great shame, left the temple. If a priest wished to act in such a way now, namely expel one of the nobles from church, immediately his knight would say, "By my body this one will die, etc. I shall find him." But Joachim patently withdrew and he did not return home out of shame because of his neighbors, but he went to his shepherds in the forest, and there, weeping, prayed saying, "O Lord, what is my sin, because I am so accursed." His wife Ann, however, who had been in the temple, when she heard that the priest so contended with her husband, and spurned him, left the temple and went home lest she harm the priest. Here women have a model, how they should console their husbands who are upset by business, and when they come home, the wives ought to console them. But there are some who do not comfort them, rather sadden them even more. When however St. Ann went home and did not find her husband there, she put aside every creaturely desire from herself, and on bended knees prayed for her holy and just husband that God might keep him. Behold the holy wife. While Joachim so wept praying in the wilderness, the archangel Gabriel appeared to him, and Joachim was afraid, because this is the condition of the spirit, for flesh cannot stand the presence of a spirit. But the condition of a good spirit is to comfort immediately, saying to him, "Behold, your prayers are heard. Because of that patience which you had, God sent me to you, that I might announce to your that you, with your wife shall have a daughter, not a son, who shall be greater that all daughters, and shall be the mother of the Messiah king of heaven. And as a sign of this, go into Jerusalem, in the golden gate you will find Ann your wife, because I shall announce this to her also." And the angel withdrew, and appeared to Ann who was weeping at home, because she knew nothing about her husband. The angel spoke well saying that, "You shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy," (Jn 16:20). Morally. According to what I said in the first part, Joachim and Ann persisted for twenty years, praying, giving alms, fasting and vowing, and with all this they did not have a child. And because he kept his patience in this shaming inflicted on him by a priest, immediately he had the promise of a child. It follows from this that before God, patience is better than prayers, alms, fastings or promises. Now think about it, for if you will to have patience in injuries or events, this virtue counts more with God for getting that which you need in this world, and salvation in the other, than anything else. Therefore throw out rancor, hatred, and ill will. And so sacred scripture says: "For patience is necessary for you; that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise," (Heb 10:36). Behold how St. Ann had her "fruit unto sanctification" by hoping firmly. CONSERVING WORTHILY Third, I say, [St. Ann bore her fruit, the Virgin Mary] by conserving worthily (conservando digne), in three ways. First in the womb, in which the body is formed, and the spirit is created by God, on the same day and hour the Virgin Mary was sanctified. Nine months she was in the womb of her holy and blessed mother, and her mother, St. Ann took care that she did not ride about here and there, as men do, and took care to refrain from dancing, because by this many women lose the treasure committed to them. Second she cared after giving birth by nursing her. Thus did the holy women of old. But nowadays the wife immediately says to her husband, "Do you have a wet nurse?" And she does this so that she is able to show off her breasts etc. They prefer not to give milk to their child, and give to a bitch instead. They do evil, because just as the womb is the chamber of the child, so thus the breasts ought to be its pantry. But St. Ann herself wanted to nurse the Virgin Mary, because sons and daughters receive their good health balance (bonam complectionem) from the mother, but they lose it often from bad milk. Note here the example of that nobleman in Lombardy, because he had a wet nurse for his son, who having lost her milk, nursed the child with the milk from a pig, lest she lose her contract and salary. The son became and lived like a pig. See how the health balance is destroyed. The same for slaves who nurse the children of their mistresses. Third, she cared for her in the temple. After St. Ann had weaned the Virgin, she said to her husband, "Lord, do you not remember the vow?" He replied, "Indeed. And so we fulfill the vow." He did not say "Let us wait until she is ten years old or more." Or when they are beautiful then they say, "We shall substitute another one for her, humpbacked or one-eyed." And immediately Joachim and Ann presented their daughter to God in the temple, where she remained for ten continuous years in the service of God. And so we can say, St. Ann, "You have your fruit unto sanctification," by conserving worthily. Morally. Here you have an example of staying in the temple of God on Sundays and feasts hearing mass and a sermon. He who wishes to keep the feast well, ought to do five things: First, to cease from all temporal business, not to get a shave (facere barbi tonsura), nor do any other servile work. Reason, because on Sunday, Christ ceased from all business and labors by rising, and so he wished that Christians representing that resurrection and quiet ought to rest on Sundays. Same for the saints, because on that day they rested in eternal rest. Who however does not wish to rest, shall labor forever in hell. Second, that you hear mass fasting. The reason is stated why taverns ought not to be open before mass on a feast day. Third that you should be on time for mass. For you ought to be there at the beginning, for the "I confess," which is for your sake. Fourth, you ought to remain at mass until the final blessing is given by the priest. Fifth, that you ought not talk during mass, but today it is abused, because they no nothing else but talk of vain things at mass, etc. "Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath," (Ex 20:8). But for those who keep these five, it can be said: "You have your fruit," good works, "unto sanctification," (Rom. 6:22). |
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