On Lent, Eleventh Sermon

Dearly beloved, on every day and in every season some marks of God’s goodness are set, and no part of the year is without its sacred mysteries, so that, while proofs of our salvation meet us on every side, we may accept all the more eagerly the never-ceasing calls of God’s mercy. But all that is given for the restoring of human souls, in the various works and gifts of grace, is set before us more clearly and more fully now, when it is not separate parts of the faith that are celebrated, but the whole of it together. For as the feast of Easter draws near, the greatest and most binding of fasts is kept, and its observance is laid on all the faithful without exception. For no one is so holy that he ought not to be holier, nor so devout that he could not be more devout. For who, set in the uncertainty of this life, can be found either free from temptation or free from fault? Who would not wish to have his virtue increased or his vice removed? For hardship harms us and prosperity spoils us, and it is equally dangerous not to have what we want at all and to have it in the fullest measure. There is a trap in abundant riches, and a trap in the straits of poverty. The one lifts us up in pride; the other stirs us to complaint. Health tests us and sickness tests us, since the one breeds carelessness and the other sadness. There is a snare in security and a snare in fear. And it makes no difference whether a mind given over to earthly thoughts is taken up with pleasures or with cares, for it is equally unhealthy to languish in empty delights or to labor under racking anxiety. [a]

And so that assurance of the Truth is perfectly fulfilled, by which we learn that “narrow and steep is the way that leads to life.” While the broad way that leads to death is crowded with a great company, the footsteps are few of those who tread the path of safety. And why is the left-hand road more thronged than the right, except that the crowd is inclined to worldly joys and the goods of the flesh? And although what it desires is short-lived and uncertain, people still endure toil more willingly for the lust of pleasure than for the love of virtue. So, while those who crave visible things are beyond counting, those who prefer the eternal to the temporal are hardly to be found. And therefore, since the blessed apostle Paul says, “The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal,” the path of virtue lies hidden and out of sight to a certain extent, since “by hope we were saved,” and true faith loves above all else what it reaches without any part being played by the flesh. So it is a great work and toil to keep our wayward heart from all sin, and, with countless allurements of pleasure ready to snare it on every side, not to let the mind’s strength give way to any attack. Who “touches pitch and is not defiled by it”? Who is not weakened by the flesh? Who is not begrimed by the dust? Who, finally, is so pure as not to be stained by the things without which one cannot live? For the divine teaching commands, by the apostle’s mouth, that “those who have wives” should “be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as though they did not use it, for the form of this world is passing away.” Blessed, therefore, is the mind that spends the time of its pilgrimage in chaste sobriety and does not linger among the things through which it has to walk, so that, as a stranger rather than the owner of its earthly dwelling, it may not lack human affections and yet may rest on God’s promises. [b]

And, dearly beloved, no season calls for this strength and bestows it more than the present one, when, by keeping a special strictness, a habit is formed that must be kept up. For you know well that this is the time when the devil rages throughout the world and the Christian army has to fight him. Any who have grown lukewarm and lazy, or who are absorbed in worldly cares, must now be equipped with spiritual armor and have their zeal for the battle kindled by the heavenly trumpet. For he through whose envy death came into the world is now consumed with the fiercest jealousy and tortured with the greatest vexation. For he sees whole tribes of the human race brought in anew to adoption as God’s sons, and the offspring of the new birth multiplied through the virgin fruitfulness of the church. He sees himself robbed of all his tyrant’s power and driven from the hearts of those he once possessed, while thousands of both sexes, old, young and middle-aged, are snatched away from him. And no one is shut out by sin, whether his own or original sin, for here justification is not paid out for merits but simply given as a free gift. He sees, too, those who had lapsed and been deceived by his treacherous snares washed in the tears of penitence, and, as the apostle’s key unlocks the gates of mercy, admitted to the benefit of reconciliation. He feels, moreover, that the day of the Lord’s passion is at hand, and that he is crushed by the power of that cross which, in Christ, who was free from all debt of sin, was the world’s ransom and not the penalty of sin. [f]

And so, that the malice of the fretting enemy may achieve nothing by its rage, a keener devotion must be roused to carry out God’s commands. Then we may enter the season in which all the mysteries of God’s mercy meet together, prepared in both mind and body, calling on God’s guidance and help, so that we may be strong to fulfill all things through him without whom we can do nothing. For the command is laid on us so that we may seek the help of him who lays it on us. Nor must anyone excuse himself because of his weakness, since he who has granted the will also gives the power, as the blessed apostle James says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” Which of the faithful does not know what virtues he ought to cultivate and what vices he ought to fight? Who is so partial or so unskilled a judge of his own conscience as not to know what ought to be removed and what ought to be developed? Surely no one is so lacking in reason as not to understand the character of his way of life, or not to know the secrets of his heart. Let him not, then, be pleased with himself in everything, nor judge himself by the delights of the flesh, but let him place his every habit on the scales of God’s commands. There, since some things are ordered to be done and others forbidden, he can examine himself on a true balance by weighing the actions of his life against this standard. For the mercy of God, like a skilled craftsman, has set up the brightest of mirrors in his commandments, in which a person may see the face of his mind and recognize how far it is like or unlike the image of God. And it has done so for this particular purpose: that at least during the days of our redemption and restoration we may throw off our fleshly cares and restless occupations for a while, and turn from earthly matters to heavenly ones. [j]

But because, as it is written, “in many things we all stumble,” let the feeling of mercy be roused first, and the wrongs others have done us be forgotten, so that we may not break, through any love of revenge, that most holy agreement to which we bind ourselves in the Lord’s Prayer. When we say, “Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors,” let us not be hard in forgiving. For we must be possessed either by the desire for revenge or by the leniency of gentleness; and for a human being, who is always exposed to the dangers of temptation, it is more to be desired that his own faults should not need punishment than that he should have the faults of others punished. And what better suits the Christian faith than that there should be forgiveness of sins not only in the church but also in everyone’s home? Let threats be laid aside; let bonds be loosed, for whoever will not loose them will bind himself with them far more disastrously. For whatever one person resolves against another, he decrees against himself by his own terms. But “blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.” And he is just and kind in his judgments, allowing some to be under the power of others for this purpose: that under fair rule both the benefit of discipline and the kindness of mercy may be preserved, and that no one should dare to refuse to another’s failings the pardon he wishes to receive for his own. [l]

Further, since the Lord says that “the peacemakers are blessed, because they will be called sons of God,” let all quarrels and hostilities be laid aside, and let no one who has neglected to restore peace with his brothers think he will have a share in the paschal feast. For with the Father on high, whoever does not live in love with the brothers will not be counted among his sons. Further, in the giving of alms and the care of the poor, let our Christian seasons of fasting grow fat and abound, and let each person give to the weak and destitute the delicacies he denies himself. Let pains be taken that all may bless God with one mouth, and let whoever gives some part of his means understand that he is a minister of God’s mercy. For God has placed the cause of the poor in the hand of the generous, so that the sins which are washed away either by the waters of baptism or by the tears of repentance may also be blotted out by almsgiving. For the Scripture says, “As water puts out fire, so almsgiving puts out sin.” Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. [n]