I Rom. viii. 32. 3 In proditione.
2 Gal. ii. 20. 4 Sievientent.
only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
9. " In this is love — in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into this world, that we may live through Him. — In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us: " ^ we did not love Him first: for to this end loved He us, that we may love Him: "And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins: " ///^/(?/r;;/,'' i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered. " Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another.* Peter," saith He, " lovest thou me?" And he said, " I love." "Feed my sheep."
10. " No man hath seen God at any time: '' '' He is a thing invisible; not with the eye but with the heart must He be sought. But just as if we wished to see the sun, we should purge the eye of the body; wishing to see God, let us purge the eye by which God can be seen. Where is this eye? Hear the Gospel: " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."^ But let no man imagine God to himself according tcK the lust of his eyes. For so he makes unto himself either a huge form, or a certain incalculable magnitude which, like the light which he sees with the bodily eyes, he makes extend through all directions; field after field of space he gives it all the bigness he can; or, he represents to himself like as it were an old man of venerable form. None of these things do thou imagine. There is something thou mayest imagine, if thou wouldest see God; "God is love." What sort of face hath love? what form hath it? what stature? what feet? what hands hath it? no man can say. And yet it hath feet, for these carry men to church: it hath hands; for these reach forth to the Door: it hath eyes; for thereby we consider the HOxMILY VII.]
THE EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN, needy: "Blessed is the man,"' it is said, " who considereth the needy and the poor." ' It hath ears, of which the Lord saith, " He that hath ears to hear let him hear." ^ These are not members distinct by place, but with the understanding he that hath charity sees the v/hole at once. Inhabit, and thou shalt be inhabited; dwell, and thou shalt be dwelt in. For how say you, my brethren? who loves what he does not see? Now why, when charity is praised, do ye lift up your hands, make acclaim, praise? What have I shown you? What I produced, was it a gleam of colors? What I propounded, was it gold and silver? Have I dug out jewels from hid treasures? What of this sort have I shown to your eyes? Is my face changed while I speak? I am in the flesh; I am in the same form in which I came forth to you; ye are in the same form in which ye came hither: charity is praised, and ye shout applause. Certainly ye see nothing. But as it pleases you when ye praise, so let it please you that ye may keep it in your heart. For mark well what I say, brethren; I exhort you all, as God enables me, unto a great treasure. If there were shown you a beautiful little vase, embossed,^ inlaid with gold, curiously wrought, and it charmed your eyes, and drew towards it the eager desire of your heart, and you were pleased with the hand of the artificer, and the weight of the silver, and the splendor of the metal; would not each one of you say, " O, if I had that vase! " And to no purpose ye would say it, for it would not rest with you to have it. Or if one should wish to have it, he might think of stealing it from another's house. Charity is praised to you; if it please you, have it, possess it: no need that ye should rob any man, no need tiiat ye should think of buying it; it is to be had freely, without cost. Take it, clasp it; there is nothing sweeter. If such it be when it is but spoken of, what must it be when one has it? II. If any of you perchance wish to keep charity, brethren, above all things do not imagine it to be an abject aixl sluggish thing; nor that cliarity is to be preserved by a sort of gentleness, nay not gentleness, but tameness and listlessness.* Not so is it preserved. Do not imagine that thou then lovest thy servant when thou dost not beat him, or that thou then lovest thy son when thou givest him not discipline, or that tliou then lovest thy neighbor when thou dost not rebuke him: tliis is not ciiarity, but mere feebleness. Let charity l)e fervent to correct, to amend: but if there be good manners, I Ps. xli. I. = Luke viii. 8. i Anaglyphum.
4 Ep. cliii. 17, c. lilt.; Petil. ii. 67: Serin, clxxi. 5.
let them delight thee; if bad, let them be amended, let them be corrected. Love not in the man his error, but the man: for the man God made, the error the man himself made. Love that which God made, love not that which the man himself made. When thou lovest that, thou takest away this: when thou esteemest that, thou amendest this. But even if thou be severe s at any time, let it be because of love, for correction. For this cause was charity betokened by the Dove which descended upon the Lord.* That likeness of a dove, the likeness in which came the Holy Ghost, by whom charity should be shed forth into us: wherefore was this? The dove hath no gall: yet with beak and wings she fights for her young; hers is a fierceness without bitterness. And so does also a father; when he chastises his son, for discipline he chastises him. As I said, the kidnapper, in order that he may sell, inveigles the child with bitter endearments; a father, that he may correct, does without gall chastise. Such be ye to all men. See here, brethren, a great lesson, a great rule: each one of you has children, or wishes to have; or if 'he has altogether determined to have no children after the flesh, at least spiritually he desires to have children: — what father does not correct his son? what son does not his father discipline? And yet he seems to be fierce' with him. It is the fierceness of love, the fierceness of charity: a sort of fierceness without gall after the manner of the dove, not of the raven. Whence it came into my mind, my brethren, to tell you, that those violaters of charity are they that have made the schism: as they hate charity itself, so they hate also the dove. But the dove convicts them: it comes forth from heaven, the heavens open, and it abideth on the head of the Lord. Wherefore tliis? That John may hear, "This is He that baptizeth."^ Away, ye robbers; away, ye invaders of the possession of Christ! On your own possessions, where ye will needs be lords, ye have dared to fix the titles of the great Owner. He recognizes His own titles;. He vindicates to Himself His own possession. He does not cancel the titles, but enters in and takes possession. So in one that comes to the Catholic Church, his baptism is not cancelled, that the title of the commander'' be not cancelled: but what is done in tiie Catholic Church? The title is acknowledged; tiie Owner enters in under His own titles, where tlie robber was entering in under titles not his own.
5 Strvis. 6 Horn, in Ev. vi. p. 8a; Matt. iii. 16.
5o6 [Homily VIII.
HOMILY VIII.
I John IV. 12-16.
" If we love one another, God abideth ' in us, and His love will be perfected in us. In this know we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and are witnesses that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him."
I. Love is a sweet word, but sweeter the deed. To be always speaking of it, is not in our power: for we have many things to do, and divers businesses draw us different ways, so that our tongue has not leisure to be always speaking of love: as indeed our tongue could have nothing better to do. But though we may not always be speaking of it, we may always keep it. Just as it is with the Alleluia which we sing at this present time,' are we always doing this? Not one hour, I do not say for the whole space of it, do we sing Alleluia, but barely during a few moments of one hour, and then give ourselves to something else. Now Alleluia, as ye already know, means. Praise ye the Lord. He that praises God with his tongue, cannot be always doing this: he that by his life and conduct praises God, can be doing it always. Works of mercy, affections of charity, sanctity of piety, incorruptness of chastity, modesty of sobriety, these things are always to be practiced: whether we are in public, or at home; whether before men, or in our chamber; whether speaking, or holding our peace; whether occupied upon something, or free from occupation: these are always to be kept, because all these virtues wliich I have named are within. But who is sufficient to name them all? There is as it were the army of an emperor seated within in thy mind. For as an emperor by his army does what he will, so the Lord Jesus Christ, once beginning to dwell in our inner man, {i.e. in the mind I In Ausrustin's time and later, it was the usatre of the Latin Churches (derived, as St. Gregory relates, lib. i.x. F.p. 12, from the Church of Jerusalem) to sing the " Alleluia " on ("aster Sunday, and during the whole Qumquagesima, or seven weeks from Easter to Whit-sunday. But it was not everywhere restricted to that time: Aug. Epist. {arijannar.)^,^,^^. Ut Alleluia, per solos dies quinquaginta cantetur in Ecclesia, non usquequaque obserziatur: nan^ et aliis diebus Z'arie cantatur alibi atqiie alibi: ipsis autein diebus icbiqiie. Comp. ibid. 28. Enarr. in Psa. cvi. sec. i, where this usage is said to rest upon an ancient tradition: in Psa. cxlviii. sec. i, and x.xi. sec. 24, that it is observed throughout the whole world: Serm. ccx. 8;cclii. 9. S. Hieronym. Frrrf. in Psa. 1. and c. Vigilant, i (exorijis est szibito I'igilantiiis qui dicat nunquam nisi in Pnscha Alleluia cantanduin: /.<?., Vig. wished it to be sung only on Easter day).
through faith), uses these virtues as His ministers. And by these virtues which cannot be seen with eyes, and yet when they are named are praised — and they would not be praised except they were loved, not loved except they were seen; and if not loved except seen, they are seen with another eye, that is, with the inward beholding of the heart — by these invisible virtues, the members are visibly put in motion: the feet to walk, but whither? whither they are moved by the good will which as a soldier serves the good emperor: the hands to work; but what? that which is bidden by charity which is inspired within by the Holy Ghost. The members then are seen when they are put in motion; He that orders them within is not seen: and who He is that orders them within is known almost alone to Him that orders, and to him who within is ordered.
2. For, brethren, ye heard just now when the Gospel was read, at least if ye had for it the ear not only of the body but also of the heart. What said it? " Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them."* Did He mean to say this, that whatever good things we/do, we should hide them from the eyes of men,^ and fear to be seen? If thou fearest spectators thou wilt not have imitators: thou oughtest therefore to be seen. But thou must not do it to the end thou mayest be seen. Not there should be the end of thy joy, not there the goal of thy rejoicing, that thou shouldest account thyself to have gotten the whole fruit of thy good work, when thou art seen and praised. This is nothing. Despise thyself when thou art praised, let Him be praised in thee who worketh by thee. Therefore do not for thine own praise work the good thou doest: but to the praise of Him from whom thou hast the power to do good. From thy- 2 Matt. vi. I.
3 De Serm. Doni. in Monte, ii. i, ff., Serm. cxlix. 10-13; De Civ. Dei, v. 14; Enarr. in Ps. Ixv. sec 2.
Homily VIII.]
self thou hast the ill doing, from God thou hast the well doing. On the other hand, see perverse men, how preposterous they are. What they do well, they will needs ascribe to themselves; if they do ill, they will needs accuse God. Reverse this distorted and preposterous proceeding, which puts the thing, as one may say, head downwards, which makes that undermost which is uppermost,' and that upwards which is downwards. Dost thou want to make God undermost and thyself uppermost? Thou goest headlong, not elevatest thyself; for He is always above. What then? thou well, and God ill? nay rather, say this, if thou wouldest speak more truly, I ill, He well; and what I do well from Him is the well-doing: for from myself whatever I do is ill. This confession strengthens the heart, and makes a firm foundation of love. For if we ought to hide our good works lest they be seen of men, what becomes of that sentence of the Lord in the sermon which He delivered on the mount? Where He said this, there He also said a little before, "Let your good works shine before men." ^ And He did not stop there, did not there make an end, but added, "And glorify your Father which is in Heaven." And what saith the apostle? "And I was unknown by face unto the Churches of Judea which were in Christ: but they heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And in me they glorified God,"^ See how he also, in regard that he became so widely known, did not set the good in his own praise, but in the praise of God. And as for him, in his own person, that he was one who laid waste the Church, a persecutor, envious, malignant, it is himself that confesses tliis, not we that reproach him therewith. Paul loves to have his sins spoken of by us, that He may be glorified who healed such a disease. For it was the hand of the Physician that cut and healed the greatness of the sore. That voice from heaven prostrated the persecutor, and raised up the preacher; killed Saul, and quickened Paul.'* For Saul was the persecutor of a holy man; thence had this man his name, when he persecuted the Christians: ^ afterward of Saul he became Paul. What does the name /^tz/^///i' mean? Little. Therefore when he was Saul, he was proud, lifted up; when he was Paul, he was lowly, little. Thus we say, T will see thee '' paulo post," i.e.
' Quod S'isum /acicnsjusuiit: (juoJ deorsuni /ai ii'ns sursuiii. Jn.<sui>t Tis faccrc Dcu>ii,et ti- s:isu>it ^ I nfru, x.%,J usiitii me hoiioriis, siisuiH me Calais. Several Mss. have.t«>-i.v;// lieorsuiit lax stisniii jiisiiiii. — Hi:n'. Laud. 116 and 136, and also Bodl. 813, as first written, have siisu)ii,jusu>ii.
4 Serm. clxviii. 6. Si Sam. xix.
after a little while.* Hear that he was made little: " For I am the least of the apostles; ^ and. To me the least of all saints," he saith in another place. So was he among the apostles as the hem of the garment: but the Church of the Gentiles touched it, as did the woman which had the flux, and was made whole.* 3. Then, brethren, this I would say, this I do say, this if I might I would not leave unsaid: Let there be in you now these works, now those, according to the time, according to the hours, according to the days. Are you always to be speaking? always to keep silence? always to be refreshing the body? always to be fasting? always to be giving bread to the needy? always to be clothing the naked? always to be visiting the sick? always to be bringing into agreement them that disagree? always to be burying the dead? No: but now this, now that. These things are taken in hand, and they stop: but that which as emperor commands all the forces within neither hath beginning nor ought to stop. Let charity within have no intermission: let the offices of charity be exhibited according to the time. Let "brotherly love " then, as it is written, let "brotherly love continue.'' ' 4. But perchance it will have struck some of you all along, while we have been expounding to you this epistle of blessed John, why it is only " brotlierly " love that he so emphatically commends. " He that loveth his brother," saith he: and, " a commandment is given us that we love one another." ''' Again and again it is of brotherly love that he speaks: but the love of God, i.e. the love with which we ought to love God, he has not so constantly named; howbeit, he has not altogether left it unspoken. But concerning love of an enemy, almost throughout the epistle, he has said nothing. Although he vehemently preaches up and commends charity to us, he does not tell us to love our enemies, but tells us to love our brethren. But just now, when the Gospel was read, we heard, " For if ye love them that love you, what reward shall ye have? Do not even the publicans this? ''" How is it then that John 6 So Serin, ci. i; clxviii. 7; cclxxix. 5; cccxv. 7; /.//•. </<■.?/. et I. itt. vii. sec. 12. But Confess, viii. 4, sec. q, it is remarked, without reference to the etyniolojiv. that the chan).;c of name from Saul to Paul was desi).;ned to commemorate the conversion of Ser>;ius I'aulus, Acts xiii. 7, 12; Ori^jen l^ftrf. in J'lp. ad Hoiit. "Some have thought that the Apostle took the name of I'aulus, the Proconsul, whom at Cyprus he had subjected to ihe faith of Christ: that.iskiiiKS are wont toassume a title from the nations they have conrpiereil, as I'arthicus and ( lothicus from I'arthiaus aixl (!oths, so the.Apostle took th<- appillalion I'aulus from the I'aulus whom he had suhjunated. Which we do not think is alt<i)s'etlur to be set aside." St. I<-rome I'cniii:. in K/". nd J'/ti/eiii. ".As Scipio took the name Africamis as conqueror of Africa, so the Apostle took the name I'atilus by way of trophy, <5Lc."
7 I Cor. XV. 9; Eph. ill. 8. ** Matt. ix. 20-22.
5o8 [Homily VIII.
the apostle, as the thing of great concern to us in order to a certain perfection, commends brotherly love; whereas the Lord saith it is not enough that we love our brethren, but that we ought to extend that love so that we may reach even to enemies? He that reaches even unto enemies does not overleap the brethren. It must needs, like fire, tirst seize upon what is nearest, and so extend to what is further off. A brother is nearer to thee than any chance person. Again, that person has more hold upon thee whom thou knowest not, who yet is not against thee, than an enemy who is also against thee. Extend thy love to them that are nearest, yet do not call this an extending: for it is almost loving thyself, to love them that are close to thee. Extend it to the unknown, who have done thee no ill. Pass even them: reach on to love thine enemies. This at least the Lord commands. Why has the apostle here said nothing about loving an enemy.
5. All love/ whether that which is called carnal, which is wont to be called not " dilectio" but " amor: " (for the word " dilectio " is wont to be used of better objects, and to be understood of becter objects:) yet all love, dear brethren, hath in it a wishing well to those who are loved. For we ought not so to love, nor are we able so to love, (whether " dilige?-c ''or " amare: '' for this latter word the Lord used when He said, '''' Pctra, amas ine?'' "Peter, lovest thou me?") we ought not so to love ^ men, as we hear gluttons say, I love thrushes. Thou askest why he loves them? That he may kill, that he may consume. He says he loves, and to this end loves he them, that they may cease to be; to this end loves he them, that he may make away with them. And whatever we love in the way of food, to this end love we it, that it may be consumed and we recruited. Are men to be so loved as to be consumed? But there is a certain friendliness of well wishing, by which we desire at some time or other to do good to those whom we love. How if there be no good that we can do? The benevolence, the wishing well, of itself sufficeth him that loves. For we ought not to wish men to be wretched, that we may be enabled to practise works of mercy. Thou givest bread to the hungry: but better it were that none hungered, and thou hadst none to give to. Thou clothest the naked: oh that all were clothed, and this need existed not! Thou buriest the dead: oh that it were come at last, that life where none shall die! Thou reconcilest the quarrelling: oh that it were I Dilectio.
- Amare.
here at last, that eternal peace of Jerusalem, where none shall disagree! For all these are offices done to necessities. Take away the wretched; there will be an end to works of mercy. The works of mercy will be at an end: shall the ardor of charity be quenched? With a truer touch of love thou lovest the happy man, to whom there is no good office thou canst do; purer will that love be, and far more unalloyed. For if thou have done a kindness to the wretched, perchance thou desirest to lift up thyself over against him, and wishest him to be subject to thee, who hast done the kindness to him. He was in need, thou didst bestow; thou seemest to thyself greater because thou didst bestow, than he upon whom it was bestowed. Wish him thine equal, that ye both may be under the One Lord, on whom nothing can be bestowed.
6. For in this the proud soul has passed bounds, and, in a manner, become avaricious. For, "The root of all evils is avarice; '' 3 and again it is said, " The beginning of all sin is pride. ""^ And we ask, it may be, how these two sentences agree: " The root of all evils is avarice;" and, "The beginning of all sin is pride." If pride is the beginning of all sin, then is pride the root of all evils. Now certainly, "the root of all evils is avarice." We find that in pride there is also avarice, (or grasping;) for man has passed bounds: and what is it to be avaricious? to go beyond that which sufficeth. Adam fell by pride: "the beginning of all sin is pride," saith it: did he fall by grasping? What more grasping, than he whom God could not suffice? In fact, my brethren, we read how man was made after the image and likeness of God: and what said God of him? "And let him have power over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over all cattle which move upon the earth." ^ gaid He, Have power over men? " Have power," saith He: He hath given him natural power: "have power '' over what? "over the fishes of the sea, the fowl of the heaven, and all moving things which move upon the earth." Why is this power over these things a natural power? Because man hath the power from this; that he was made after the image of God. And in what was he made after God's image? In the intellect, in the mind, in the inner man; in that he understands truth, distinguishes between right and wrong, knows by whom he was made, is able to understand his Creator, to praise his Creator: he hath this intelligence, who hath prudence. Therefore 3 I Tim vi. 10.
4 Ecclus. X. 15.
5 Gen. i. 26.
Homily VIII.]
when many by evil lusts wore out in themselves the image of God, and by perversity of their manners extinguished the ver}' flame, so to say, of intelligence, the Scripture cried aloud to them, " Become not ye as the horse and mule which have no understanding."' That is to say, I have set thee above the horse and mule; thee, I made after mine image, I have given thee power over these. Why? Because they have not the rational mind: but thou by the rational mind art capable of truth, understandest what is above thee: be subject to Him that is above thee, and beneath thee shall those things be over which thou was set. But because by sin man deserted Him whom he ought to be under, he is made subject to the things which he ought to be above.
7. Mark what I say: God, man, beasts: to wit, above thee, God; beneath tb.ee, the beasts. Acknowledge Him that is above thee, that those that are beneath thee may acknowledge thee.^ Thus, because Daniel acknowledged God above him, the lions acknowledged him above them. But if thou acknowledge not Him that is above thee, thou despisest thy superior, thou becomest subject to thine inferior. Accordingly, how was the pride of the Egyptians quelled? By the means of frogs and flies.^ God might have sent lions: but a great man may be scared by a lion. The prouder they were, the more by the means of things contemptible and feeble was their wicked neck broken. But Daniel, lions acknowledge, because he was subject to God. What? the martyrs who were cast to the wild beasts to fight with them, and were torn by the teeth of savage creatures, were they not under God? or were those three men servants of God, and the Maccabees not servants of God? The fire acknowledged as God's servants the three men, whom it burned not, neither hurt their garments;"* and did it not acknowledge the Maccabees? 5 It acknowledged the Maccabees; it did, my brethren, acknowledge them also. But there was need of a scourge, by the Lord's permission: He hath said in Scri[)ture, " He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.'"" For think ye, my brethren, the iron would have pierced into the vitals' of the Lord unless He had permitted it, or that He would have hung fastened to the tree, unless it had been His will? Did not His own creature acknowledge Him? Or did He set an ensample of patience to His faitliful ones? Ye see then, God delivered some visibly, some He delivered not visibly: yet ' Ps. xxxii. Q. * Lan. iii. 50, - Dan. vi. 22. 5 2 Mace. vii.
3 Kx. viii. ^Hcb. xii. 6.
7 Viscera.
all He spiritually delivered, spiritually deserted none. Visibly He seemed to have deserted some, some He seemed to have rescued. Therefore rescued He some, that thou mayest not think that He «liad not power to rescue. He has given proof that He has the power, to the end that where he doth it not, thou mayest understand a more secret will, not surmise difficulty of doing. But what, brethren? When we shall have come out of all these snares of mortality, when the times of temptation shall have passed away, when the river of this world shall have fleeted by, and we shall have received again that " first robe," ^ that immortality which by sinning we have lost, "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption," that is, this flesh shall have put on incorruption, " and this mortal shall have put on immortality;"' the now perfected sons of God, in whom is no more need to be tempted, neitlier to be scourged, shall all creatures acknowledge: subjected to us shall all things be, if we here be subjected to God.