Those Too Humble to Preach and Those Too Hasty

Admonition 26. Those who could preach worthily but are afraid because of too much humility, and those whom imperfection or age forbids to preach and yet rashness drives on, are to be admonished differently. Those who could preach with profit but still shrink back through too much humility are to be admonished to gather, from considering a lesser matter, how much they are at fault in a greater one. For if they were to hide from their needy neighbors money they had themselves, they would without doubt show themselves to be furthering their distress. Let them see, then, how guilty those are who, by withholding the word of preaching from their sinning brothers, hide away the remedies of life from dying souls. That is why a certain wise man says well, “Wisdom that is hidden and treasure that is unseen: what profit is there in either?” If a famine were wasting the people, and they kept grain hidden, they would without doubt be the cause of death. Let them consider, then, what punishment must fall on those who, when souls are perishing from a famine of the word, do not supply the bread of grace they have themselves received. That is why it is well said through Solomon, “Whoever hides grain will be cursed among the people.” For to hide grain is to keep the words of sacred preaching to oneself. And everyone who does so is cursed among the people, because through the fault of his silence alone he is condemned in the punishment of the many he might have corrected. If people well acquainted with the art of medicine saw a sore that needed lancing and yet refused to lance it, then by their inaction alone they would surely be guilty of a brother’s death. Let them see, then, how great is the guilt of those who know the sores of souls and neglect to cure them by the lancing of words. That is why it is well said through the prophet, “Cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.” For to keep back the sword from blood is to hold back the word of preaching from slaying the life of the flesh. Of this sword it is said again, “And my sword will devour flesh.” [a]

Let these, then, when they keep the word of preaching to themselves, hear with terror the divine sentences against them, so that fear may drive fear out of their hearts. Let them hear how the man who would not put his talent to use lost it, with a sentence of condemnation added besides. Let them hear how Paul believed himself innocent of the blood of his neighbors in this, that he did not spare their vices, which needed to be struck, saying, “I call you to witness this day that I am innocent of the blood of all people; for I have not shrunk from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” Let them hear how John is admonished by the angel’s voice, when it says, “Let the one who hears say, Come.” This is surely so that the one into whose heart the inward voice has found its way may, by crying aloud, draw others to where he himself is being carried; otherwise, even though he has been called, he may find the doors shut if he comes empty to the one who calls him. Let them hear how Isaiah, because he had kept silent in the ministry of the word when he was enlightened by heavenly light, blamed himself with a loud cry of repentance, saying, “Woe is me, because I have kept silent!” Let them hear how, through Solomon, the knowledge of preaching is promised to be multiplied to the one who is not held back by the vice of sluggishness in what he has already attained. For he says, “The soul that blesses will be made fat, and the one who makes others drunk will himself be made drunk as well.” For the one who blesses outwardly by preaching receives the fatness of inward enlargement; and while he never stops making the minds of his hearers drunk with the wine of eloquence, he himself becomes more and more drunk with the drink of a multiplied gift. Let them hear how David offered this to God as a gift, that he did not hide the grace of preaching he had received, saying, “See, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, you know it. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart; I have declared your truth and your salvation.” Let them hear what the bridegroom says in his conversation with the bride: “You who dwell in the gardens, your friends are listening; let me hear your voice.” For the church dwells in the gardens in that she keeps the cultivated nurseries of the virtues green within. That her friends listen to her voice means that all the elect long for the word of her preaching; and the bridegroom too longs to hear that voice, because he yearns for her preaching through the souls of his elect. [c]

Let them hear how Moses, when he saw that God was angry with his people and commanded swords to be taken up to carry out vengeance, declared that those who would strike down the crimes of the offenders without delay were on God’s side, saying, “If anyone is the Lord’s, let him join himself to me. Let every man put his sword on his thigh; go in and out from gate to gate through the middle of the camp, and let every man kill his brother and friend and neighbor.” For to put the sword on the thigh is to set earnestness in preaching above the pleasures of the flesh, so that when anyone is eager to speak holy words, he must take care to subdue unlawful suggestions. To go from gate to gate is to run to and fro with rebuke from vice to vice, to every one by which death enters the soul. And to pass through the middle of the camp is to live with such impartiality within the church that the one who rebukes the sins of offenders turns aside to show favor to no one. So it is rightly added, “Let every man kill his brother and friend and neighbor.” He truly kills brother and friend and neighbor who, when he finds what deserves punishment, does not spare from the sword of his rebuke even those he loves because they are his kin. If, then, the one who is stirred by the zeal of divine love to strike down vices is said to be God’s, then surely the one who refuses to rebuke the life of those who live by the flesh, as far as he is able, denies that he is God’s.

But on the other hand, those whom imperfection or age bars from the office of preaching, and yet rashness drives to it, are to be admonished not to cut themselves off from the way of later growth by rashly claiming the burden of so great an office; not to lose, by seizing out of season what they are not equal to, even what they might at some time in due season have fulfilled; and not to be shown to have justly forfeited their knowledge because they tried to display it improperly. They are to be admonished to consider that young birds, if they try to fly before their wings are fully grown, plunge down low from the place from which they meant to rise high. They are to be admonished to consider that if a load of timbers is laid on new buildings not yet set firm, what is built is not a home but a ruin. They are to be admonished to consider that if women give birth to the child they have conceived before it is fully formed, they fill not houses but tombs. That is why the Truth himself, who could have strengthened whomever he wished all at once, gave his followers an example that they should not presume to preach while imperfect: after he had fully instructed his disciples about the power of preaching, he at once added, “But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” For we stay together in the city if we keep ourselves within the enclosures of our souls from wandering abroad in speech, so that when we are fully clothed with divine power, we may then go out, as it were, from ourselves, abroad, to teach others as well. That is why it is said through a certain wise man, “Young man, speak scarcely in your own cause; and if you have been asked twice, let your answer have a beginning.” [g]

That is why this same Redeemer of ours, though in heaven the Creator and even the teacher of angels in the showing of his power, would not become a teacher of men on earth before his thirtieth year. He did this to pour into the hasty the force of a most healthful fear, since even he, who could not slip, did not preach the grace of a perfect life until he was of perfect age. For it is written, “When he was twelve years old, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.” And a little later it is said of him, when his parents were searching for him, “They found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” So it must be weighed with careful attention that when Jesus at twelve years old is spoken of as sitting among the teachers, he is found not teaching but asking questions. By this example it is plainly shown that no one who is weak should venture to teach, if that boy was willing to be taught by asking questions, who by the power of his divinity supplied the word of knowledge to his very teachers. But when Paul says to his disciple, “Command and teach these things. Let no one despise your adolescence,” we must understand that in the language of Holy Scripture youth is sometimes called adolescence. This is all the sooner evident if we bring forward the words of Solomon, who says, “Rejoice, young man, in your adolescence.” For unless he meant the same thing by both words, he would not call the one he was admonishing in his adolescence a young man.