SERMON XXIX.
OF THE COMPLAINT OF THE CHURCH AGAINST HER PERSECUTORS; THAT IS TO SAY, AGAINST THOSE WHO SOW DIVISION AMONGST BRETHREN.
Y mother's children [sons] were angry with me (i. 6). Annas and Caiaphas, and Judas Iscariot, were sons of the Synagogue; and these fought most cruelly and bitterly against the Church at her very beginning, though she was equally a daughter of the Synagogue, inasmuch as they hung upon the Cross Jesus, who united her members into one body. At that time, and by means of them, God fulfilled what He had predicted long before by His Prophet, saying: / will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered (Zech. xiii. 7). And perhaps in these words from the canticle of Hezekiah: My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, He cut me off (Is. xxxviii. 12, Douay). It is, then, of these and others from that race who are known to have opposed themselves to the Christian name that we must consider it to have been said by
THE COMPLAINT OF THE CHURCH AGAINST HER PERSECUTORS
the Bride: The sons of my mother were angry with me. And it is with great propriety that she calls them ' sons of my mother,' not ' of my father/ inasmuch as they had not God for their father, but were of their father the devil, and were murderers, as he was a murderer from the beginning (John viii. 44). Wherefore she does not say 'my brethren,' or 4 the sons of my father,' but 1 the sons of my mother were angry with me.' Otherwise, if she did not distinguish thus, it would seem that even the Apostle Paul was included in those of whom she complains, since he too at one time persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor. xv. 9); but he obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly and in unbelief (1 Tim. i. 13), and made proof that he had God for his Father, and thus by father, as by mother, had to the Church the relation of a brother.
2. But remark that she names none in her accusation except the sons of her mother, and accuses them alone, as if they only were in fault. Yet how many things has she endured from strangers? According to the Psalmist, Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; and The plowers plowed upon my back (Ps. cxxix. 1-3). Why, then, do you accuse in particular the children of your mother, since you are well aware that you have been very often persecuted by many others also? Now, it is said, When thou sit test at meat with a ruler \ consider diligently what is before thee (Prov. xxiii. 1). Brethren, we are sitting at the table of Solomon, and who is a greater ruler, or richer, than he? I do not speak of earthly riches, though Solomon abounded even in these; but look upon the board which is before us, and see how it is loaded with heavenly dainties. Now, these that are set before us are spiritual and divine. And he continues: Consider diligently what is before thee, knowing that it belurves thee to prepare the like} On that account I consider as diligently as I am able that which is provided for me in these words of the Bride; and it is doubtless for my instruction that she speaks only of the persecution which she endured from those of her own house, and passes over in silence so many and severe sufferings which she has endured in every part of the world, from every nation which is under heaven, as is well known, from infidels, heretics, and schismatics. I know too well the prudence of the Bride to suppose that it is by chance or by forgetfulness that these are passed over without mention. But without doubt she laments more particularly that which she feels more keenly, and thinks it needful for us to avoid with special care. What, then, is that? Evidently it is domestic and intestine discord. That is plainly referred to in the Gospel by the mouth of the Saviour Himself, when He says: A man's enemies shall be they of his own household (Matt. x. 36). And by the Psalmist: Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who did also eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me (Ps. xli. 9). And again, It was not an enemy that reproached me: then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance: we took sweet counsel together (Ps. lv. 12-14). That is to say, What you who are my companion at table and chamber make me suffer I feel more keenly, and endure with greater reluctance. You know whose complaint this is, and of whom it is made.
3. Recognise, then, that the Bride complains of 1 the sons of my mother ' with the same wounded feelings, and in the same spirit, when she says that they * were angry with me.' So she speaks in another place: My loiters and my friends stand aloof from my sore: and my kinsmen stand afar off (Ps. xxxviii. n). Keep far away from you always, I entreat, this evil which is so greatly to be hated and detested; you, who have experienced, and experience daily, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Ps. exxxiii. 1); and if in unity, then assuredly not in a habit of scandal. For otherwise, instead of being good and pleasant, it is of all things the worst and most deplorable. Woe to that man who is the cause that the sweet bond of unity is broken! Whosoever it is shall assuredly bear the penalty. May it be mine rather to die than to hear any one among you crying out with good reason: The sons of my mother were angry with me. Are not you all sons of one community, and, as it were, of one mother, and, therefore, brethren one of the other? What is there coming from without, which should be able to trouble or distress you if all is well with you within, if you rejoice in brotherly love? Who is he that will harm you, it is said, if ye be followers of that which is good ( 1 Pet. iii. 13)? Wherefore do ye covet earnestly the best gifts (1 Cor. xii. 31), and you shall prove yourselves to be followers of the good. Now, the best gift of all is charity; there is assuredly no other to be compared with that, which the heavenly Bridegroom of a new Bride took occasion so often to inculcate, once saying, indeed: By this shall all men knoiu that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another; and again, A new commandment J give you, that ye love one another; and, This is My commandment, that ye love one another (John xiii. 34, 35; xv. 12); also praying that they might be one, as He and the Father are One (xvii. 11). See also if St. Paul himself, who invites you to seek the best gifts, does not place charity above all the others; both when he says that it is greater than faith and than hope, and far above knowledge; as also when, after having enumerated many and wonderful gifts of grace, he leads us at length to a more excellent way, and explains that this is no other than the gift of charity. Lastly, what can we regard as comparable to a virtue which is preferred to martyrdom itself, and to faith, which removes mountains (1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii. 2, 3)? This, then, is what I say to you: Let peace be yours and come from you; then no danger which may seem to threaten you from without will appal you, for it will have no power to injure you. And, on the contrary, nothing that seems to allure you from outside will have any attraction for you if (which may God forbid!) the seeds of discord have begun their growth within you.
4. Therefore, dear brethren, let there be peace among you; do not harm or give pain to each other by word, by action, or even by any sign, for fear lest any one among you, being embittered and preoccupied by his own weakness of spirit, and by the persecution he endures, should be driven to appeal to God to come to his aid against those who injure or distress him, and it should come to pass that he break forth into that grave complaint: The children of my mother were angry with me. For in thus sinning against your brother, you sin against Christ, who has said: T/iat which you have done to the least of My brethren, you have done to Me (Matt. xxv. 40, 45). Nor is it enough merely to abstain from graver offences — for example, from open insult or abuse; but also from secret and envenomed whispers against any. No, I repeat, it is not sufficient to guard our lips against these and other faults of a similar kind; even slight injuries to others ought to be avoided, if, indeed, we can call any fault slight which is done with the intent of injuring a brother, since, according to the word of our Saviour, if any is angry with his brother without a cause, for this alone he shall be in danger of the judgment (Matt. v. 22). And rightly so, for that which you think a little thing, and for that reason do it with too little hesitation, the person against whom it is done views in quite a different light — as a man who looks upon the surface of things, and judges of them according to their appearance, is prepared to think a mote to be a beam, and a single spark a blazing fire. For that charity, which believes all things, is not in the hearts of all. But the spirit of man, and the thoughts of his heart, are disposed rather to suspect evil than to believe good; especially when the Rule of silence neither permits you, whose conduct is in question, to excuse yourself, nor him who suspects you, to declare the wound which his sense of right feels, that it may be cured. Thus he burns inly, even unto death, and groans within himself, being wholly occupied with anger and irritation, and unable to occupy his mind with any other subject than the injury he has sustained. He cannot pray, he cannot read, nor meditate upon any holy or spiritual subject; and while this soul, for which Christ died, is thus going on the way which leads to death, being cut off from the influence of the life-giving Spirit, and deprived of His benefits, what is the condition, I ask you, of your mind? What pleasure can you take in prayer, or work, or any occupation that you may have in the meantime, you against whom Christ cries out in anxiety for your brother whose heart you have made sad? The Son of My mother, He says, is fighting against Me, and he who partakes at My table of its sweet sustenance has filled Me with bitterness.
5. If you say that [your brother] ought not to trouble himself so deeply for so slight a cause, I reply that the slighter the cause of offence is, the easier it is for you to abstain from giving it. However, I know not how you can call any cause whatsoever slight (as I have said) that is more than the occasion of anger, since even this, as you have learned from the lips of the Judge Himself, renders the offender liable to the judgment. Do you call that a light thing at which Christ is offended, and for which you are to be brought to judgment, since // is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God t (Heb. x. 31). When, then, you have received an injury, as maybe the case sometimes (for it is a difficult thing to prevent this from happening in communities such as this), do not, after the manner of those in the world, hasten to strike back your brother again with a hostile response. Do not ever venture to retort, under the pretext of reply, with cutting and ironical words, and thus pierce deeply a soul for which Christ deigned to be crucified; do not make surly answer, nor grumble under your breath, nor take a sneering air, nor laugh mockingly, nor knit your brows, as if in wrath or threatening. Let your anger die away where it is born — do not permit it even to show itself, for it brings death with it, and it may slay some soul — that you may be able to say with the Psalmist: / was troubled, and I spoke not (Ps. lxxvi. 5, Douay).
6. I have understood that there are some who interpret these words in a more mysterious manner, and regard them as having been spoken of the devil and his angels, who were also sons of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our mother, from which they have fallen, and who do not cease to make war upon their sister — that is, the Church. Again, if anyone should take these words in a good signification, and as referring to spiritually-minded men who are in the Church, and who strike with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, against carnal brethren wounding them for their salvation, and bringing them by this warfare to a love for spiritual things, against this explanation I should not contend. Would that the Just One would reprove me in mercy, would correct me, striking that He may cure, slaying that He may give life, so that I, too, may dare to say: / live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (Gal. ii. 20). Agree, it is said, with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the officer (Matt. v. 25). A good adversary with whom, if I shall live in peace, there shall be no ground for the judge to speak against me, or deliver me to the torturer. For my part, I do not regret it if it has ever been my lot to make any among you sorry after this fashion, for you have been made sorry unto salvation. I do not know that I have ever done that without great sorrow to myself, according to that which is said: A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorroiv (John xvi. 21). But God forbid that I should keep in memory that sorrow now that I have fruit of my pain, inasmuch as I see Christ formed in you who are my offspring. I know not how it is, but I have even more tender sentiments towards those who have been, after and by means of my loving corrections, enabled to rise above some weakness or failing than towards those who have been strong from the beginning, and have had no need of such means of remedy.
7. It is, then, in this sense that the Church, or the soul that loves God, is enabled to say that 'the sun hath altered her colour* — namely, in sending forth and arming certain men of the children of her mother to carry on against her a war for her salvation; to make her a captive to the faith and love of Him, after having pierced her with many of those arrows of which it is written: The arrows of the Mighty are sharp (Ps. cxx. 4); and again: Thine arro7vs stick fast in me (Ps. xxxviii. 2). That is why the Psalmist goes on to say: There is no soundness in my flesh. But as for the soul, it is thus rendered more healthy and more strong, and says: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. xxvi. 41); and with the Apostle: When I am weak, then am I strong (2 Cor. xii. 10). Do you see how the weakness of the flesh strengthens the spirit, and increases its powers, while, on the contrary, the strength of the flesh is a cause of weakness to the spirit? What wonder is it that you should be made stronger by the weakness of your enemy? Unless, perhaps, you should, with excessive foolishness, regard that which is for ever lusting against the spirit (Gal. v. 17) as your friend. See, then, if the prayer was not wise and well founded which was made by that holy man who asked of God: Pierce Thou my flesh with Thy fear (Ps. cxix. 120, Douay). That fear is the best of all arrows which pierces and slays the desires of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved alive. And does it not seem to you that he who keeps under his body and brings it into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27) is himself aiding the Hand of Him who is carrying on the combat with it?
8. There is yet one other arrow: it is the Word of God, which is living, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. iv. 12), of which the Saviour says: / came not to send peace, but a stvord (Matt. x. 34). There is still another, a chosen arrow: it is the love of Christ, which not only pierced the soul of Mary, but transfixed it from side to side, so that it left no part of that virgin heart empty of this love, but she loved with all her heart, all her soul, and all her strength, and was full of grace. Or perhaps it may be thus, that it transpierced her, in order to penetrate even to us, and that we might all receive of that fulness; that she might be the mother of charity, of which God, who is Love, is the Father; that she might bring forth and might set her tabernacle in the Sun, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says: / will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation to the ends of the earth (Is. xlix. 6). For this was fullfiled by means of Mary, who brought forth and rendered visible in the flesh Him who was invisible, and whom she had conceived, but not of the flesh, nor with the flesh. As for her, she received through all her being a wound of Love, deep, sweet, and wide. How happy should I consider myself if I could only feel myself touched with the point of the weapon which gave that wound, and if my soul, being touched with that light wound of love, might be able to say: / am wounded with love (ii. 5). Oh that I might be not only in that manner wounded, but also stricken to the entire extermination of that colour and warmth of the flesh, which war against the soul!
9. If the daughters of this world remark disdainfully upon such a soul as this, calling it pallid and bloodless, does it not seem to you that it might fitly reply: Look not upon nu because I am blacky because the sun hath looked upon me? And if it bears in mind that it has reached its present state through the exhortations or chidings of some servants of God, who were jealous over it with a godly jealousy, may it not therefore go on to say, and truly: My mother s children were angry with me f The sense, then, of these words, according to what has been said, will be, that the Church, or any pious soul, speaks them, not by way of grief or complaint, but in a feeling of joy, of thankfulness, and even of a sacred pride; that for the Name of Christ, and for His Love, she has been deemed worthy to be swarthy and dusk, and to be reproached with it for His sake; and this honour the Church attributes, not to her own merit, but to the grace and mercy which have prevented and followed her to bring this about For who can believe without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? (Rom. x. 14, 15). She mentions that her mothers children have been angry with her, not in a spirit of anger, but rather of gratitude. On that account she adds: They made me the keeper of the vineyards. For this saying, if examined as to its spiritual sense, does not, in my opinion, appear to breathe any feeling of complaint or bitterness, but rather of satisfaction. But before we take in hand to explain that passage (which is a sacred one), let us endeavour, by our accustomed prayers, to call to our aid that Holy Spirit, who searches the deep things of God, or certainly the Only Begotten Son, who is in the Bosom of the Father, Jesus Christ Our Lord, the Bridegroom of the Church, who is above all, God blessed
THAT THE FAITHFUL PEOPLE, OR THE SOULS OF THE ELECT, ARE SIGNIFIED BY THE VINEYARDS, OF WHICH THE CHURCH IS CALLED THE GUARDIAN: AND THAT THE PRUDENCE OF THE FLESH IS DEATH.
*~T^HEY made me the keeper of the vineyards. Who did this?
Are they your adversaries, of whom you spoke last? Listen and understand, if she does not confess that she has been entrusted with this charge by those very persons at whose hands she suffered. Nor is this strange, if the purpose of correction was the motive of the attack. For who does not know that opposition is frequently offered to many persons with a friendly intention, and with excellent results? How many do we know of daily who are led on to a higher standard and to a far stricter mode of living by the pious rebukes of their superiors? Let us therefore show, if we are