Homily 6 — First Timothy 2, verses 1 to 4

“I urge, then, that first of all petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people; for kings and for all who are in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and dignity. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” [a]

The priest is, in a sense, the common father of the whole world. So it is right that he should care for everyone, just as God does, whom he serves. That is why Paul says, “I urge, then, that first of all petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.”

Two benefits come from this. First, hatred toward those outside is done away with, for no one can hate the people he prays for. And they, in turn, are made better by the prayers offered for them and by losing their savage feelings toward us. For nothing draws people to be taught so well as loving and being loved. Think what it meant for those who persecuted the Christians, who flogged them, banished them and slaughtered them, to hear that the very people they treated so brutally were offering earnest prayers to God for them.

Notice how he wants a Christian to rise above all mistreatment. A father who is carrying his little child and is struck in the face by it does not lose any of his affection for it. In the same way, we should not let our goodwill toward those outside grow any less, even when they strike us.

What does “first of all” mean? It means in the daily service. The initiated know how this is done every day, both evening and morning: how we offer prayers for the whole world, for kings and for all who are in authority. But perhaps someone will say: “He did not mean for all people, but for all the faithful.” Then how can he speak of kings? Kings did not worship God in those days; there was a long line of ungodly rulers, one after another. And so that he would not seem to be flattering them, he says “for all people” first, and then “for kings.” If he had mentioned kings alone, he might have been suspected of flattery.

Then, too, some Christians might be slow to accept this and reject the instruction, if prayers had to be offered for a pagan king at the celebration of the holy mysteries. So he shows them what they gain by it, so that at least in this way he may win them over to the advice: “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life.” It is as if he said, “Their safety is our security.” So too in his letter to the Romans he urges them to obey their rulers, “not because of wrath, but for conscience’ sake” (Romans 13, verse 5).

For God has appointed government for the public good. So when rulers go to war for this purpose, and stand on guard for our safety, would it not be unreasonable for us not to offer prayers for their safety in wars and dangers? This is not flattery, then; it is what justice itself requires. For if they were not kept safe, and did not succeed in their wars, our affairs would inevitably be thrown into confusion and trouble. And if they were cut off, either we ourselves would be made to serve, or we would be scattered here and there as fugitives. For rulers are a kind of rampart thrown up in front of us, and those enclosed within it live in peace and safety.

He says, “petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings.” For we must thank God for the good that comes to others, for instance, that “he makes his sun shine on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust.” Notice how he wants to unite us and bind us together, not only by prayer but by thanksgiving too. For whoever is urged to thank God for his neighbor’s good is also bound to love him and to be well disposed toward him. And if we must give thanks for our neighbor’s good, much more for what happens to ourselves: for what we do not know, and even for what happens against our will and seems hard to us, since God arranges everything for our good. [d]

So let every prayer of ours be joined with thanksgiving. And if we are commanded to pray for our neighbors, and not only for the faithful but for unbelievers too, think how wrong it is to pray against your brothers and sisters. What? He has commanded you to pray for your enemies, and you pray against your brother? But your prayer is not against him; it is against yourself. For you provoke God when you utter those ungodly words: “Show him the same!” “Do the same to him!” “Strike him!”

“Pay him back!” Far be such words from a disciple of Christ, who ought to be gentle and mild. From the mouth that has been counted worthy of such holy mysteries let nothing bitter come out. Let the tongue that has touched the Lord’s body say nothing offensive; let it be kept pure; let no curses be born on it. For if “slanderers will not inherit the kingdom of God” (First Corinthians 6, verse 10), much less will those who curse. For the one who curses cannot help being insolent, and insolence and prayer are at odds with each other. Cursing and praying are far apart; accusing and praying are worlds apart. Do you try to win God’s favor with prayer, and then call down curses?

If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven (Matthew 6, verse 15). But instead of forgiving, you beg God not to forgive. What wickedness beyond all measure! If the one who does not forgive is not forgiven, how will the one who begs his Lord not to forgive ever be forgiven? The harm falls on you, not on him. For even if your prayers for yourself were just about to be heard, in such a case they would never be accepted, because they are offered from a polluted mouth. And surely the mouth that curses is polluted with everything offensive and unclean.

When you ought to be trembling over your own sins, and wrestling hard for their pardon, you come to stir God up against your brother. Are you not afraid? Do you not think about your own situation? Do you not see what you are doing? [e]

Copy, at least, the way children behave at school. When they see their own class inside giving account of their lessons, all of them beaten for their laziness, and each one strictly examined and punished with blows one by one, they are frightened to death. If one of their companions hits them, and hard, they have no time to be angry or to complain to their teacher, so completely is their soul gripped by fear. They look to one thing only: to go in and come out without a beating, and their thoughts are fixed on that moment. And when they come out, whether beaten or not, they are so delighted that the blows they got from their playmates never even enter their heads.

And you, when you stand there anxious over your own sins, how can you not shudder at bringing up other people’s faults? How can you beg God for pardon? For you make your own case worse by the very terms of your curses against someone else, and you forbid him to make allowance for your own faults. Might he not say: “If you want me to be so strict in punishing offenses against you, how can you expect me to pardon your offenses against me?”

Let us learn at last to be Christians! If we do not know how to pray, which is a very simple and easy thing, what else will we know? Let us learn to pray like Christians. Those are the prayers of pagans, the petitions of Jews. The prayers of Christians are the opposite: they ask for the forgiveness and forgetting of the wrongs done to us. “When we are reviled,” it says, “we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we plead” (First Corinthians 4, verses 12 and 13). Hear Stephen saying, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7, verse 60). Instead of praying against them, he prayed for them. You, instead of praying for them, call down curses on them. So you are as wicked as he was excellent.

Tell me, whom do we admire: those he prayed for, or him who prayed for them? Him, certainly! And if we admire him, how much more does God. Do you want your enemy struck? Pray for him. But do not pray with that intention, not in order to strike him. That will indeed be the result, but do not let it be your aim. That blessed martyr suffered everything unjustly, and still he prayed for them; we suffer many things from our enemies justly. And if he who suffered unjustly did not dare hold back from praying for his enemies, what punishment do we deserve, who suffer justly and still do not pray for them, and even pray against them?

You think you are dealing someone else a blow, but in truth you are thrusting the sword into yourself. By urging the Judge to anger against others, you do not let him be lenient toward your own offenses. For “with what measure you measure,” he says, “it will be measured to you again; and with what judgment you judge, you will be judged” (Matthew 7, verse 2). So let us be ready to forgive, so that God may be ready to forgive us.

I want you not only to hear these things but to keep them. For as it is, the memory holds on only to the words, and perhaps hardly to those. After we part, if someone who was not here were to ask you what our sermon had been about, some could not say. Others would know only the subject we spoke on, and would answer that there had been a sermon about forgiving wrongs and praying for our enemies, but they would leave out everything that was said, because they could not remember it. Others remember a little, but still something. So if you gain nothing from what you hear, I beg you not even to come to the sermon. For what use is it? The condemnation is greater and the punishment more severe if, after so many appeals, we go on in the same way. [f]

This is why God has given us a fixed form of prayer: so that we would ask for nothing merely human, nothing worldly. You who are faithful know what you are to pray for, and how everything in the Prayer is common. But someone says: “It does not command us there to pray for unbelievers.” You would not say this if you understood the force, the depth, the hidden treasure of that Prayer. Only unfold it, and you will find this also contained in it. For it is implied when someone says in prayer, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In heaven there is no unbeliever and no wrongdoer. So if the prayer were for the faithful alone, that expression would make no sense. If the faithful did God’s will and the unbelievers did not, his will would not be done on earth as it is in heaven. But it means this: “As there is no one wicked in heaven, so let there be no one wicked on earth. Draw all people to the fear of you; make all people angels, even those who hate us and are our enemies.”

Do you not see how God is blasphemed and mocked every day by believers and unbelievers alike, in word and in deed? What then? Has he put out the sun because of it? Or stopped the course of the moon? Has he crushed the heavens and torn up the earth by its roots? Has he dried up the sea? Has he shut up the springs of water, or thrown the air into confusion? No; on the contrary, he makes his sun rise and his rain fall, he gives the fruits of the earth in their seasons, and so he supplies food year after year to the blasphemers, to the unfeeling, to the defiled, to persecutors, not for a day or two, but for their whole life.

So imitate him. Rival him as far as human strength allows. You cannot make the sun rise? Then keep from speaking evil. You cannot send rain? Then stop slandering. You cannot give food? Then hold back from insults. Such gifts from you are enough. God’s goodness to his enemies is shown by his works. You, at least, show yours by words: pray for your enemies, and so you will be like your Father who is in heaven.

How many times have we spoken on this subject! And we will not stop speaking on it; only let something come of it. It is not that we are drowsy, or tired of speaking; only do not be annoyed, you who listen. Now a person seems annoyed when he will not do what he is told. For the one who puts it into practice loves to hear the same thing often and is not annoyed by it, since it is his own praise. Annoyance comes simply from not doing what is commanded. That is what makes the speaker a nuisance.

If a man practices almsgiving and hears someone else speak about almsgiving, he is not wearied but pleased, for he hears his own good deeds praised and proclaimed. So when we are displeased at hearing a sermon about forgiving wrongs, it is because we have no share in forbearance; we do not practice it. For if we had the reality, we would not be pained to hear it named. So if you do not want us to be tiresome or annoying, practice what we preach: show in your actions the subject of our sermons. For we will never stop speaking about these things until your conduct agrees with them.

And we do this above all out of our concern and affection for you. For the trumpeter must sound his trumpet even if no one goes out to war; he must do his part. We do it not because we want to bring heavier condemnation on you, but to keep it off ourselves. And besides this, our love for you compels us, for it would tear and torture our hearts if that should happen to you. May God prevent it!

It is not some costly process that we are recommending to you. It does not require the loss of your property, or a long and exhausting journey. It requires only the will. It is a word; it is a decision of the mind. Let us only set a guard on our tongues, a door and a bar on our lips, so that we say nothing offensive to God. To act this way is to our own advantage, not to the advantage of those we pray for. For let us always keep in mind that the one who blesses his enemy blesses himself, the one who curses his enemy curses himself, and the one who prays for his enemy prays not for him but for himself. If we act this way, we will be able to put this excellent virtue into practice, and so obtain the promised good things, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.