On the Collections, Fourth Sermon

Dearly beloved, God’s mercy and justice has in loving-kindness made known to us, through the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, the manner in which he will repay, as it was ordained from the foundation of the world. He did this so that, accepting the meaning of the facts, we might take what we believe will happen as if it had already come to pass. For our Redeemer and Savior knew what great errors the devil’s deceit had spread throughout the world, and by how many superstitions he had brought the greater part of mankind under his control. So that the creature formed in God’s image might no longer be driven, through ignorance of the truth, over the cliff of everlasting death, he set down in the pages of the Gospel the nature of his judgment, so that it might rescue every person from the snares of the crafty enemy. For now all would know what rewards the good may hope for and what punishments the wicked must fear. For the instigator and author of sin, who first fell through pride and then injured us through envy, put all his strength into lying, because “he did not stand in the truth.” From this poisoned source of his cunning he produced every kind of deceit, in order to cut off people’s devout hopes from that happiness which he had lost by his own pride, and to drag them into partnership in his condemnation, since he himself could not attain to reconciliation. So whoever among men has wronged God by his wicked deeds has been led astray by the devil’s guile and corrupted by his villainy. For he easily drives into every evil deed those whom he has deceived in the matter of religion. But knowing that God is denied not only by words but also by deeds, he has robbed many of their love whom he could not rob of their faith. By choking the ground of their hearts with the weeds of greed, he has stripped them of the fruit of good works, when he could not strip them of the confession of their lips. [a]

So, dearly beloved, because of these crafty schemes of our ancient enemy, the unspeakable goodness of Christ has wished us to know what will be decreed about all mankind on the day of repayment. While in this life healing remedies are rightly offered, while restoration is not refused to the contrite, and those who have long been barren can at last bear fruit, he wished that the verdict justice has settled might be forestalled, and that the picture of God coming to judge the world might never leave the mind’s eye. For the Lord will come in his glorious majesty, as he himself foretold, and with him will be a countless host of legions of angels, radiant in their splendor. Before the throne of his power all the nations of the world will be gathered, and all the people who have been born, in every age and on all the face of the earth, will stand in the Judge’s sight. Then the righteous will be separated from the unrighteous, the innocent from the guilty. When the children of devotion, their works of mercy reviewed, have received the kingdom prepared for them, the unrighteous will be rebuked for their utter barrenness. And those on the left, having nothing in common with those on the right, will by the condemnation of the almighty Judge be cast into the fire prepared for the torment of the devil and his angels, to share the punishment of the one whose will they chose to do. Who then would not tremble at this doom of eternal torment? Who would not dread evils that will never end? But since this severity is announced only so that we may seek mercy, we too in this present life must show such open-handed mercy that, returning to works of devotion after dangerous neglect, we may be set free from this doom. For this is the purpose of the Judge’s might and of the Savior’s kindness: that the unrighteous may forsake his ways and the sinner give up his wicked habits. Let those who wish Christ to spare them have mercy on the poor. Let those who desire to reach the company of the blessed give freely to feed the wretched. Let no one count his fellow man worthless, nor despise in anyone that nature which the Creator of the world made his own. For who that labors can deny that Christ claims that labor as done to himself? Your fellow slave is helped by it, but it is the Lord who will repay. Feeding the needy is the purchase price of the heavenly kingdom, and the one who freely gives away things temporal is made heir of things eternal. But how has so small an outlay earned so high a value, except that our works are weighed in the balance of love? When a man loves what God loves, he is rightly raised into the kingdom of the one whose quality of love has in part become his own. [c]

So, dearly beloved, the day instituted by the apostles invites us to this devout duty of good works. On it the fathers wisely and profitably ordained the first collection of our holy offerings, so that, because at this season the pagans once used to serve demons in their superstition, we might celebrate the most holy offering of our alms in protest against the unholy sacrifices of the wicked. And because this has done great good to the growth of the church, it has been decided to make it permanent. We urge you, therefore, holy brothers and sisters, throughout the churches of your several regions, to contribute from your goods next Wednesday, according to your means and willingness, for charitable purposes, so that you may win that blessedness in which he will rejoice without end who “considers the needy and poor.” And if we are to “consider” him, dearly beloved, we must use loving care and watchfulness to find the one whom modesty hides and shame holds back. For there are those who blush to ask openly for what they need, and prefer to suffer want in silence rather than be shamed by a public appeal. These are the ones we ought to “consider” and relieve in their hidden distress, so that they may rejoice all the more because their modesty, as well as their poverty, has been respected. And rightly do we recognize in the needy and poor the person of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, “who, though he was rich,” as the blessed apostle says, “became poor, that he might enrich us by his poverty.” And so that his presence might never seem lacking to us, he so brought about the mystic union of his humility and his glory that, while we adore him as King and Lord in the majesty of the Father, we might also feed him in his poor. For this we will be set free in an evil day from everlasting damnation, and for our considerate care of the poor we will be joined with the whole company of heaven. [e]

But so that your devotion, dearly beloved, may please God in all things, we urge you also to show due zeal in reporting to your presbyters any Manichaeans, wherever they are hiding. For it is nothing but devotion to uncover the hiding places of the wicked and, in them, to overthrow the devil whom they serve. Against them, dearly beloved, the whole world and the whole church everywhere ought indeed to put on the armor of faith. But your devotion ought to lead the way in this work, for in your forefathers you learned the gospel of the cross of Christ from the very lips of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul. People must not be allowed to stay hidden who do not believe that the law given through Moses, in which God is shown to be the Creator of the universe, ought to be received; who speak against the prophets and the Holy Spirit; who in their damnable profanity dare to reject the psalms of David, which are sung throughout the universal church with all reverence; who deny the birth of the Lord Christ according to the flesh; who say that his passion and resurrection were a pretense, not real; and who strip the baptism of regeneration of all its power as a means of grace. Nothing with them is holy, nothing whole, nothing true. They are to be shunned, so that they may harm no one. They are to be given up, so that they may not settle in any part of our city. Before the Lord’s judgment seat, dearly beloved, the gain from what we command and what we ask will be yours. For it is only right that the triumph of this deed too should be joined to the offering of our alms, with the Lord Jesus Christ helping us in all things, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. [h]