Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Saints

then Justice and Peace kissed, who until now seemed to be at no small variance. For the former justice, whatever justice there was from the law, had not a kiss but rather a sting, urging by fear rather than drawing by love. Nor did it have reconciliation, as that justice now has which is known to be from faith. Otherwise what was the reason that neither Abraham, nor Moses, nor the other just men of that time could at their death lay hold of that peace of eternal blessedness, or enter the kingdom of peace, except that Justice and Peace had not yet kissed each other? From this indeed, dearly beloved, justice is to be pursued by us with a more fervent zeal; since Justice and Peace have kissed and have entered into an indissoluble covenant of friendship, so that whoever brings with him the testimony of justice is now received by Peace with a cheerful face and with glad embraces, sleeping now and resting in the selfsame.

SERMON II. On the Sevenfold Spirit in Christ.

1. It is possible, brethren, on today's solemnity of the Lord's Annunciation, to contemplate, as it were a most pleasant plain, the simple history of our restoration. A new embassy is laid upon the angel Gabriel, and the Virgin, having professed a new virtue, is honoured with the homage of a new salutation. The ancient curse of women is shut out; a new mother receives a new blessing. She who knows no concupiscence is filled through grace, so that she who disdains to admit a man should, by the Spirit of the Most High coming upon her, bear a son. The antidote of salvation enters to us by the same gate by which the venom of the serpent, entering in, had seized the whole human race. It is easy to gather innumerable flowers of this kind from these meadows; but in their midst I behold an abyss of fearful depth. Plainly an unsearchable abyss is the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation; an impenetrable abyss. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). For who may search it out, who may reach it, who may grasp it? The well is deep, and I have nothing to draw with. Yet a rising vapour is sometimes wont to moisten linen cloths laid over wells. Therefore, though, conscious of my own weakness, I fear to break in, yet I often spread out my hands to Thee, Lord, as it were over the mouth of this well, because my soul is as earth without water unto Thee. And now, if there is anything that my slender thought has drunk in as the mist rises from below, I shall take care to share that little with you, brethren, without envy, as though wringing out the linen cloth and pouring back some scant drops of the heavenly dew.

2. I ask, then, for what reason the Son rather than the Father or the Holy Spirit became incarnate, since of the whole Trinity not only is the glory equal, but the substance is one and the same. But who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor? The mystery is most high, nor ought we rashly to rush into a judgement on such matters. Yet it seems that an incarnation neither of the Father nor of the Spirit would have escaped confusion through a plurality of sons, since one would be called Son of God and another son of man. That too seems

fitting, that He should in particular become their son who was a son, so that there should be no ambiguity in the name. Lastly, this is the singular glory of our Virgin and the excellent prerogative of Mary, that she was found worthy to have one and the same Son in common with God the Father; and this, it is clear, would surely have been lost if the Son had not become incarnate. Nor could any other occasion be given to us of hoping for a like salvation and inheritance. For He who was the only-begotten, having been made the first-born among many brethren, would without doubt take into the inheritance those whom He had called into adoption. For if brethren, then co-heirs too. This Christ Jesus, then, the faithful Mediator, as in one Person He joined the substance of God and of man by an ineffable mystery, so also in the reconciliation itself, using the highest counsel, He did not forsake the middle way of equity, giving to each what was due: honour to God, compassion to man. For this is the best form of settlement between an offended Lord and a guilty servant: that neither should the servant be crushed by a harsher sentence out of zeal for honouring the Lord, nor again, while too much indulgence is shown to the one, should the other be cheated of the honour due to him.

3. Hear, then, and observe carefully the angels' distribution at the birth of this Mediator. Glory, they say, to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14). It was for the sake of keeping this very distribution that Christ, the faithful reconciler, lacked neither the spirit of fear, by which He might always show reverence to the Father, always defer to Him, always seek His glory, nor the spirit of piety, by which He might mercifully suffer with men. Hence He needed also the spirit of knowledge, through which the distribution of fear and of piety alike might be made without confusion. And note that in that first sin of our parents there were indeed three authors, but three things were plainly lacking to the three. I mean Eve, the devil and Adam. Eve did not have knowledge, she who, as the Apostle says, was seduced into transgression (1 Tim. 2:14). This indeed was not lacking to the serpent, who is described as more cunning than the other animals; but the evil one did not have piety, he who was a murderer from the beginning. Adam, again, perhaps seems pious, in not grieving the woman; but he abandoned the fear of the Lord, obeying her voice rather than the divine voice. Would that the fear of the Lord had prevailed more in him! As is pointedly read of Christ: For there filled Him, not the spirit of piety, but that of fear (Isa. 11:3). For in all things and through all things the fear of the Lord is to be preferred to piety towards our neighbours, and it alone is what ought to claim the whole man for itself. In these three, then, fear, piety and knowledge, our Mediator reconciled men to God; but in counsel and fortitude He set them free from the hand of the adversary. For by counsel He deprived the enemy of his former right, power having been given him to lay hands on the innocent; by fortitude He prevailed, so that he could not by violence hold back the redeemed,

when He returned victorious from the underworld, and the life of all rose with Him,

4. Thereafter He feeds us with the bread of life and understanding, and gives us to drink the water of saving wisdom. For the understanding of spiritual and invisible things is the true bread of the soul, strengthening our heart and making it firm for every good work in all spiritual exercise. But the carnal man, who does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, but they seem foolishness to him, let him groan and mourn, saying: My heart is withered, because I forgot to eat my bread (Ps. 101:5). For behold, it is pure and perfect truth that it profits a man nothing if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul. But when could the covetous man grasp this? Whoever tries to persuade him of it labours without cause. Why is this? Surely because it seems foolishness to him. What is truer than that the yoke of Christ is sweet? Set it before a worldly man, and see whether he will not reckon it a stone rather than bread. And certainly by an understanding of this kind of the inward truth the soul lives, and this is its spiritual food. For man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3). Yet until the truth tastes sweet to you, it does not pass into the inner parts without difficulty. But when you have begun to delight in it, it is no longer food but drink, and it enters the soul without difficulty, so that, namely, the spiritual food of understanding may be digested by the drink of wisdom, lest, while the limbs of the inner man itself, that is, its affections, suffer from dryness, it should be a burden rather than a benefit.

5. Of all things, then, that were necessary for the peoples who were to be saved, nothing at all was lacking to the Saviour. For He it is of whom Isaiah sang beforehand: There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him (Isa. 11:1–3). Mark carefully that he said this flower would rise up from the root, not from the rod. For if the new flesh of Christ had been created out of nothing in the Virgin (as some have supposed), the flower could perhaps have been said to rise up not from the root but from the rod. But now He who came forth from the root is without doubt proved to have had a matter common with us from its origin. For the fact that the Spirit rested upon Him declares that there was nothing of contradiction in Him. For in us, because the spirit is not wholly the superior, it does not rest, since the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. From this conflict may He set us free in whom there was nothing like it, the new man and true man, who took the true origin of our flesh but did not take the old leaven of concupiscence.

SERMON III. On the woman taken in adultery (John 8:3–11); on Susanna (Dan. 13); on the Blessed Mary (Luke 1:26–38).

1. How rich Thou art in mercy, how magnificent

in justice, how bountiful in grace, O Lord our God! There is none like Thee, most lavish giver, most equitable rewarder, most loving deliverer! Freely Thou regardest the humble, justly Thou judgest the innocent, mercifully Thou savest even sinners. These, dearly beloved, are the things which on the table of this rich householder, by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures. today indeed, if we pay careful attention, are set before us more abundantly than usual. This abundance is furnished to us, of course, by the things that have come together: namely the holy season of Lent and the most holy day of the Lord's Annunciation. For today, in our hearing, the Redeemer's indulgence absolved the woman taken in adultery; today it set free the innocent blood of Susanna; today also it filled the blessed Virgin with the singular gift of a free blessing. A great banquet, where mercy, justice and grace are set before us together! Is not mercy the food of men? Wholly wholesome, and effective for healing. Is not justice also the bread of the heart? And indeed it strengthens the heart excellently, being solid food for nourishment. Lastly, blessed are they who hunger for it, for they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6). Is not the grace of its God the food of the soul? Most sweet indeed, and having in itself every pleasantness and delight of savour; nay rather, claiming all these things together for itself, it not only delights but also refreshes and heals.

2. Let us approach this table, my brethren, and taste at least a little of each dish. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such a one, say the sinners about the sinful woman, the Pharisees about the adulteress. But he spoke to the hardness of your stony heart. But Jesus bowed Himself down. Lord, bow Thy heavens and come down (Ps. 143:5). Bowing Himself down and bent towards mercy (for His was not a Jewish heart), He wrote with His finger, no longer on stone, but on the earth. And not once only: here too there is a double writing, as with Moses two tables. And perhaps, writing and writing again, He seems to have impressed truth and grace on the earth, according to what the apostle John says: The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Consider, lastly, whether He can be seen to have read from the table of truth the words with which He confuted the Pharisees: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. A word abridged indeed, but living and effective, and more piercing than a two-edged sword. For how deeply those stony hearts were pierced through at this word, how violently those stony brows were crushed by this one little stone, their very blush of confusion and their stealthy departure proved. The adulteress indeed deserved to be stoned; but let him be eager to punish who does not himself deserve to be punished. Let him presume to exact vengeance from the sinful woman who does not deserve to receive the same. Otherwise let him, being nearer to himself, begin with himself: let him first pass sentence on himself and carry out the punishment. This is Truth.

3. But this is still too little: even if this Truth has confuted the accusers, yet it has not yet absolved the accused woman.

Let Him write again, let Him write grace, let Him read it, and let us hear. Has no one condemned you, woman? No one, Lord. Neither will I condemn you; go, and sin no more. O voice of mercy, O hearing of saving joy! Cause me to hear Thy mercy in the morning, for in Thee have I hoped, O Lord (Ps. 142:8). Hope alone, surely, finds a place for compassion with Thee; nor dost Thou put the oil of mercy except in the vessel of confidence. But there is a faithless confidence, capable only of a curse, namely when we sin in hope. Though that should not even be called confidence, but a kind of insensibility and a ruinous pretence. For what confidence has he who does not heed the danger? Or what remedy for fear is there where neither fear is felt nor the very matter of fear? Confidence is a consolation; and he does not need consolation who rejoices when he has done evil and exults the more in the worst things. Let us therefore ask, brethren, that it be answered us how many are our iniquities and sins; let us desire our crimes and offences to be shown to us. Let us search our ways and our pursuits, and weigh all our dangers with watchful attention. Let each say in his dread: I shall go to the gates of hell, so that we may now breathe again only in the mercy of God alone. This is the true confidence of a man who fails of himself and leans upon his Lord. This, I say, is truly confidence, to which mercy is not denied, as the prophet testifies that the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, and in those who hope in His mercy (Ps. 146:11). And no small ground is at hand for us: in ourselves indeed a cause of fear, but in Him a cause of confidence. He is sweet and mild, of abundant mercy; ready to relent at evil, great in forgiving. Let us believe even His enemies, who found nothing else in Him from which they might take occasion to build a calumny. "He will have compassion on the sinful woman," they say, "and will by no means allow her to be put to death when she is brought before Him. He will therefore be held a manifest adversary of the law, when He absolves her whom the law condemns." On your own head, O Pharisees, the whole contrivance of your malice is turned back. You distrust your case, you who flee from judgement. For she is absolved without injury to the law who is not left to an accuser [alias, who is left without an accuser].

4. But let us consider, brethren, whither the Pharisees go off from here. Do you see two old men (for they began to go out from the eldest) how they hide themselves in Joachim's orchard? They are seeking Susanna his wife: let us follow them, for they are full of wicked thoughts against her. Consent to us, say the old men, say the Pharisees, say the wolves, who a little before had been cheated of devouring another little sheep, straying though she was. Consent to us, and lie with us. You who have grown old in evil days, a moment ago you were accusing adultery, now you urge adultery. But this is the whole of your justice: the very things you reprove openly you do in secret. Hence it was that you went out one after another, when He who knows all hidden things had struck your consciences so powerfully, saying: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Rightly therefore does Truth say to the disciples: Unless your justice abounds

more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20). "Otherwise," they say, "we will bear witness against you." Seed of Canaan and not of Judah, not even this did Moses command in the law. Did he who decreed that the adulteress be stoned command that the chaste woman be accused? Did he who ordered the adulteress to be crushed with stones also order that witness be borne against the innocent? Nay rather, as with the adulteress, so too he commanded that the false witness should not go unpunished (Deut. 19:16–21; Prov. 19:9). But you who glory in the law dishonour God by transgressing the law.

5. Susanna sighed and said: I am hemmed in on every side. For death is on every side: on this side bodily, on that spiritual. If I do this, she says, it is death to me; but if I do not do it, I shall not escape your hands. Your hands, O Pharisees, neither the adulteress escapes nor the chaste woman; your accusations neither the saint nor the sinner evades. You hide your own sins when you have found another's; or else, if someone perhaps has none of his own, you thrust your crime upon him. What, though, does Susanna do, hemmed in on every side between death and death, that is, of the soul and of the body? It is better for me, she says, to fall into the hands of men without the deed than to forsake the law of my God. Surely she knew how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. For men, when they have killed the body, have nothing further they can do to the soul; but He is to be feared who has power to cast both body and soul into hell (Matt. 10:28). Why does Joachim's household delay? Let them rush in by the back gate, for a cry is heard in the orchard; the cry of grievous wolves, and of a little sheep bleating among them. But He does not allow the innocent one to be devoured by them who so graciously snatched from their very jaws even one who did not deserve to be snatched away. Rightly, therefore, when she was being led to death, her heart had confidence in the Lord, whom she had feared so greatly that she had set aside all human fear and had put His law before her life and her good name alike. For never had such a word been spoken of Susanna. Moreover her parents were just, and her husband the most honoured of all the Jews. Rightly, then, did she obtain from the just Judge just vengeance on the unjust, she who hungered for justice so vehemently that for its sake she despised the death of the body, the disgrace of her family, the inconsolable grief of her friends.

6. And we too, brethren, if we have heard from Christ: Neither will I condemn you, if we no longer wish to sin against Him, if we wish to live piously in Christ, must needs endure persecution, so as not to render evil for evil or curse for curse. Otherwise he who has not kept patience will lose justice; that is, he will lose life; that is, he will lose his soul. Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay, says the Lord (Rom. 12:19). So it is entirely. He will repay, but only if you reserve vengeance for Him, if you do not take judgement from Him, if you do not return evil to those who repay you with it. He will do judgement, but for the one who suffers injury; He will judge in equity,

but for the meek of the earth. By now, unless I am mistaken, it vexes you that the delicacies are slow in coming. Do not wonder: they are delicacies. They will not burden you however full you are, nor can they be loathed even by those who are belching.

7. The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth. Do you wonder that Nazareth, a little city, should be made illustrious by the messenger of so great a King, and so great a messenger? But a great treasure lies hidden in this little city; hidden, I say, but hidden from men, not from God. Is not Mary the treasure of God? Wherever she is, there is His heart too. His eyes are upon her; everywhere He regards the lowliness of His handmaid. Does the Only-begotten of God the Father know heaven? If He knows heaven, He knows Nazareth too. Why should He not know His own homeland? Why should He not know His own inheritance? Heaven He claims for Himself from His Father, Nazareth from His mother, even as He testifies that He is both Son of David and his Lord (Matt. 22:42–45). The heaven of heaven is the Lord's, but the earth He has given to the children of men (Ps. 113:16). Both, then, must needs pass to Him as His possession, since He is not only Lord but also Son of man. Hear also how He claims the earth for Himself as Son of man, and yet shares it as Bridegroom. The flowers, He says, have appeared in our land (Song 2:12). Nor is it out of keeping with this that Nazareth is interpreted "flower". The flower from the root of Jesse loves a flower-bearing homeland, and gladly does the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys feed among the lilies. For three things commend flowers: beauty, fragrance, and the hope of fruit; a threefold grace. And God reckons you too a flower, and He is well pleased in you, if you lack neither the comeliness of an honourable way of life, nor the fragrance of a good name, nor the intention of the reward to come. For the fruit of the spirit is life eternal.

8. Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with the Lord. How much grace? Full grace, singular grace. Singular, or general? Both without doubt, because full; and singular in this very respect, that it is general: for you received singularly that grace which is general. Singular, I say, in that it is general: for you alone above all found grace. Singular, because you alone have found this fullness; general, because all receive of that very fullness. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Singularly indeed is it the fruit of your womb; but through your mediation it has come to the minds of all. So indeed, so of old the dew was wholly on the fleece and wholly on the threshing-floor; but in no part of the floor was it wholly, as it was on the fleece (Judg. 6:37–40). In you alone was that rich, that most rich King emptied; the exalted one humbled; the immeasurable made small and made lower than the angels: in a word, true God and Son of God made flesh. But to what fruit? Surely that we might all be enriched by His poverty, raised up by His humility, made great by His lessening, and, cleaving to God through His incarnation, might begin to be one spirit with Him.

9. But what are we saying, brethren? Into what vessel above all will grace be poured? If, as we recalled above, confidence is capable of mercy, patience

of justice, what fit receptacle of grace shall we then be able to present? A balm both most pure requires a most solid vessel too. And what is so pure, or what so solid, as humility of heart? Rightly, therefore, He gives grace to the humble; rightly God regarded the lowliness of His handmaid. By what merit, you ask? By this surely, that no human merit should occupy the humble soul, so that the fullness of divine grace might flow in freely. But to this humility we shall have to ascend by certain steps. For first the heart of a man who still delights in sinning, and has not changed his wretched habit for a better purpose, is hindered by its own vices from being capable of grace. Secondly also, when he now purposes to amend his ways and not to repeat his former wickedness for the future, yet his past sins themselves, though they may seem in some manner already cut off, do not admit grace while they remain in him. And they remain until they are washed away by confession, until they are removed by worthy fruits of penance following upon them. But woe to you, if perhaps a more ruinous ingratitude has succeeded to vices and sins! For what is so plainly opposed to grace? With the passing of time we grow lukewarm from the fervour of our way of life; little by little charity grows cold, iniquity abounds, so that we who had begun in the spirit are being made perfect in the flesh. For hence it is that we know less the things that have been given us by God, being alike undevout and ungrateful. We abandon the fear of the Lord, we neglect religious solitude, wordy, curious, jocular, even detractors and murmurers, idling over trifles, shunning labour and discipline whenever it may be done without censure, as though it were at once also without harm. Why then do we wonder that grace, repelled by so many obstacles, is lacking to us? But now if anyone, according to the Apostle, is grateful, so that the word of Christ, the word of grace, dwells in him (Col. 3:16, 15); if anyone is devout, if anyone is solicitous,

ON THE NATIVITY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST. SERMON On the lamp burning threefold and shining threefold.

1. Far from these gatherings, brethren, be that rebuke of the prophet who condemned the Jewish assemblies and said: Your assemblies are wicked (Isa. 1:13). These assemblies, surely, are not wicked but plainly holy, religious, full of grace, worthy of blessing. For you come together to hear God; you come together to praise, to pray, to adore Him. Each gathering is sacred, pleasing to God, familiar to the angels. Stand therefore in reverence, brethren, stand in solicitude and devotion of mind, and most of all in the place of prayer, and in this school of Christ, this spiritual lecture hall. Do not consider, dearly beloved, the things that are seen and are temporal, but rather those that are not seen, the eternal: judge according to faith, not according to appearance. For each place is to be feared with awe; nor is the number of men present to be believed greater than that of the angels. In both places, without doubt, the gate of heaven stands open; that ladder is set up,

if anyone is fervent in spirit: let him beware of trusting in his own merits, of leaning on his own works; otherwise grace does not enter even a soul of this kind. Surely it is full, and grace no longer finds room for itself in it.

10. Have you considered that Pharisee at prayer? He was not an extortioner, not unjust, not an adulterer. Was he without fruits of penance? He fasted twice in the week, he gave tithes of all that he possessed. "But he was ungrateful," perhaps you suspect. Hear what he says: O God, I give Thee thanks. But he was not empty, he was not emptied out, he was not humble, but puffed up. For he was not concerned to know what he lacked, but he magnified his own merit; and that was no solid fullness, but a swelling. He went back empty, then, who feigned fullness. For that publican who emptied himself, because he took care to present an empty vessel, carried back a larger grace (Luke 18:10, 14). We therefore, brethren, if we desire to find grace, let us for the future so abstain from vices that we also do worthy penance for our past sins. Let us be no less solicitous to show ourselves devout towards God and truly humble. For souls of this kind He regards graciously with that loving regard of which the Wise Man says: For the grace and mercy of God are upon His saints, and His regard upon His elect (Wis. 4:15). And perhaps it is for this reason that He calls back four times the soul whom He regards, saying: Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon you (Song 6:12): so that, namely, she may not persist in the habit of sinning, nor in the consciousness of sins, nor yet in the lukewarmness and torpor of ingratitude, or in the blindness of pride. From this fourfold danger may He deign to call us back and rescue us, who was made for us by God the Father wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for infinite ages of ages. Amen.

the angels ascend and descend upon the Son of man. For this Son of man is a giant: heaven is His throne, the earth the footstool of His feet. His magnificence is lifted up above the heavens; yet He remains with us until the consummation of the world. And so the holy angels ascend and descend to God, because head and body are one Christ.

2. Yet not where the head is, but wherever the body is, there will the eagles also be gathered together, though the head cannot be separated from the body. Indeed He Himself says: Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20). But perhaps someone may say: "Where is Christ now? Show us Christ, and it is enough for us." Why do you cast your curious eyes about? Did you come together to see, and not rather to hear? The Lord God has opened my ear, says the prophet (Isa. 50:5). He has opened my ear, that I may hear what He says; not my eye:

that I might see His face, He has enlightened. Or at any rate He has opened His ear to me; He has not revealed His face. He stands behind the wall, He hears and is heard: but He does not yet appear. He hears those who pray, He instructs those who hear. Do you seek proof of Him who speaks in me, Christ? (2 Cor. 13:3) I, He says, who speak justice (Isa. 63:1). Why should He not speak with the mouth which He Himself fashioned? Why should the craftsman not use his own instrument as he pleases? Not only their ears, but my lips also open, O Lord: for I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. For Thou doest all things well; and Thou makest the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

3. Hear then, brethren, what He says of John, whose solemn nativity is celebrated today. He, He says, was a burning and a shining lamp (John 5:35). A great testimony, my brethren: for great is he to whom it is borne, but greater too is He who bears it. He, He says, was a burning and a shining lamp. For merely to shine is vain, merely to burn is too little: to burn and to shine is perfect. Hear what Scripture says: The wise man abides like the sun, but the fool changes like the moon (Sir. 27:12). For the moon gives light without heat; now it is seen full, now slender, now not at all. Borrowed light, indeed, never abides in the same state, but grows, fails, thins, is brought to nothing, and wholly disappears. So those who have placed their consciences on the lips of others are now great, now small, now nothing, according as it has pleased the tongues of flatterers either to blame or to praise. But the brightness of the sun is fiery, and when it burns more fiercely it shows itself brighter to the eyes as well. So the wise man's inward burning shines outwardly: and if both are not granted him, he takes care always rather to burn, that his Father who sees in secret may reward him. Woe to us, brethren, if we have only shone. For we shine indeed, and are magnified by men; but to me it is a very small thing to be judged by man's day. For He who judges me is the Lord, who requires fervour from all, but brightness not so. I came, He says, to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I will but that it be kindled? (Luke 12:49) This indeed is the common commandment, this is what is required of all; and if it should happen to be lacking, no excuse is admitted.

4. But to the apostles and apostolic men in particular it is said: Let your light shine before men (Matt. 5:16): plainly as to men kindled, and vehemently kindled, for whom there is no fear from any gust or from the driving of the winds. It was said to John also; but they hear it in the ear, John is instructed in the spirit like an angel. Truly he is the nearer to God, as the voice is neighbour to the Word, to which nothing need be made known through any other voice between that might sound outwardly. For it was not preaching but inspiration that taught John, whom the Spirit filled in his mother's womb. Truly burning and vehemently kindled, whom the heavenly flame so forestalled that he already perceived the coming of Christ when he could not yet perceive even himself. Truly that new fire, which had lately fallen from heaven,

through the mouth of Gabriel had entered the ear of the Virgin, entered again through the mouth of the virgin and mother into the ear of the little one: so that from that hour the holy spirit should fill his vessel of election, and prepare a lamp for Christ the Lord. He was therefore even then a burning lamp, but meanwhile still under the bushel, until he should be set upon the lampstand and give light to all who were in the house of the Lord. For at that time he could as yet illuminate only his own bushel; meanwhile he shone for his mother alone, revealing to her the great mystery of godliness by the very movement of a new exultation. Whence is this to me, she says, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For who showed you the mother of the Lord, holy woman? Whence did you know me? As soon as, she says, the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy (Luke 1:43, 44).

5. Even then, therefore, he illuminated the bushel under which he lay hidden: but He from whom it was not hidden [knew that] the burning lamp under the bushel would shortly illumine the whole world with new splendours. He was, He says, a burning and shining lamp. He does not say: Shining and burning; because John's brightness came forth from fervour, not his fervour from brightness. For there are those who do not shine because they are fervent, but rather are fervent so that they may shine: but these are plainly fervent not with the spirit of charity but with the zeal of vanity. Do you wish to know how John burned and shone? I think that each may be found threefold in him, namely both the burning and the brightness. For he was burning in himself with the vehement austerity of his way of life; towards Christ, with a certain intimate and full fervour of devotion; towards neighbours who sinned, with the constancy of free rebuke. He shone no less, to put it in few words, by example, by finger, by word: showing both himself for imitation, and the greater light that lay hidden, for the remission of sins, and illuminating our very darkness too, as it is written: For Thou lightest my lamp, O Lord; my God, lighten my darkness (Ps. 17:29); that is, for correction.

6. Consider, then, a man promised by an angelic oracle, conceived by a miracle, sanctified in the womb, and marvel at [alias imitate] the new fervour of penitence in a new man. Having food and clothing, says the Apostle, let us be content with these (1 Tim. 6:8). That is apostolic perfection; but John despised even these. Then hear the Lord in the Gospel: John the Baptist came, He says, neither eating nor drinking (Matt. 11:18); plainly not clothing himself either. For as the locust is not food, except perhaps of some irrational animals, so neither is camel's hair a human garment. Why have you laid aside your hair, camel? Would that you had rather laid aside your hump. Why do you, irrational beasts and creeping things of the desert, seek out delicate foods? John, a holy man, sent from God, nay an angel of God, as the Father says: Behold, I send My angel before Thee (Luke 7:27); this John, then, than whom none is greater among those born of women, so chastises, so wastes, so afflicts that most innocent body: and you hasten to be clothed in fine linen and purple, and to feast splendidly? Alas! is this the whole honour of the present day? is this the whole reverence paid to the Baptist? is this the joy of his nativity

once prophesied? For whose memory do you keep, O too delicate worshippers? whose birthday do you celebrate? Is it not his who in the desert was rough in his garment, worn out with fasting? What did you go out into the desert to see, sons of Babylon? a reed shaken by the wind? What then? a man clothed in soft garments? nourished on soft things? In these, indeed, this whole celebration of yours is taken up: in chasing the breeze of popular favour, in the glory of garments, and in the pleasure of foods. But what has this to do with John? For John did not do so, nor could he ever be delighted by such things.

7. Many, says the angel, shall rejoice at his nativity (Luke 1:14). And that is true: many rejoice at his nativity; even to the pagans themselves, as we have heard, it is glad and solemn. They celebrate what they do not know, but Christians ought not to have done so. But now they too rejoice in this nativity of blessed John the Baptist; but would that it were in the nativity, not in vanity. For what is whatever is under the sun but vanity of vanities? or what more has a man of all his labour with which he labours under the sun? Brethren, under the sun is whatever is seen with the eyes, whatever seems to lie beneath this bodily light. And what is that, but a vapour appearing for a little while? (Jas. 4:15) What is that, but grass, and the flower of grass? All flesh is grass, says the Lord, and all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord abides for ever (Isa. 40:6, 8). In this word let us labour, brethren, in which we may both live and rejoice for ever. Let us work not for the food which perishes, but for that which endures to life eternal. What is that? Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Let us sow in this word, dearest ones, let us sow in the spirit; since those who sow in the flesh have only corruption to reap. Let us rejoice inwardly, and not under the sun, but, according to the Apostle, as sorrowful, because of humility and gravity: yet always rejoicing (2 Cor. 6:10), because of inward consolation. Let us rejoice, most beloved, in the nativity of blessed John, and let us rejoice about the nativity itself.

8. For abundant to us in remembering him is the cause of gladness, manifold the matter of joys. He was a burning and shining lamp, and the Jews were willing to exult in his light; but he rather rejoiced in the fervour of devotion, he rejoiced at the voice of the bridegroom as the friend of the bridegroom. We must rejoice in both: in the one, rejoicing with him; in the other, for ourselves. For he burned for himself, but shone for us. Let us rejoice in his fervour, unto imitation: let us rejoice also in his light, yet not remaining there, but so that in his light we may see light, the true light indeed, which he himself is not, but to which he himself bears witness. John came, says the Lord, neither eating nor drinking (Matt. 11:18). That is to me an incitement to fervour, and matter for humility. For who is there among us, brethren, who, looking upon John's penitence, would presume, I do not say to magnify his own, but even to reckon it of any moment at all? Who would dare to murmur, in

his labours, and to say: It is enough that I suffer, not to say too much? For what homicides, what sacrileges, or what outrages was John punishing so in himself? Let us be kindled to penitence, brethren; let us question our consciences, and rouse ourselves to exact vengeance of ourselves, that we may escape the dreadful judgement of the living God. And whatever is lacking in fervour, let the humility of pure confession supply. For God is faithful, and if we confess our iniquities, if we lay bare our miseries, if we do not excuse our infirmities, He will forgive us our sins.

9. From this, indeed, consider also John's fervour towards the offences of his neighbours. This [Hic] is indeed the fitting order and one agreeable to reason, that you remember you must begin with yourself. From my hidden faults, he says, cleanse me, and from those of others spare Thy servant (Ps. 18:13, 14). Brood of vipers, says John, who showed you how to flee from the wrath to come? From how great a fervour of mind do you think these sparks proceed, nay these desolating coals? So, sparing not even the Pharisees: Do not say, he says, We have Abraham as our father: for God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham (Luke 3:7, 8). But this would seem the less, if he so much as feared the face of a mighty man, and did not with full freedom of spirit rebuke the sinning king, cruel and proud; if he, who came forth from the desert with a certain sacred vehemence for this very purpose, were moved either by his blandishments or by the very terror of death. Herod, it says, feared John, and when he had heard him did many things, and heard him gladly. And he, sparing nothing on that account: It is not lawful, he says, for you to have her. Bound too, and thrust into prison, he none the less stood firm in the truth, and fell happily for the truth (Mark 6:17–28). Let this zeal burn in us also, dearest ones; let love of justice burn, and hatred of iniquity. Let no one, brethren, stroke vices; let no one dissemble sins. Let no one say: Am I my brother's keeper? Let no one, as far as in him lies, bear it calmly when he sees order perishing and discipline diminished. For to keep silent when you could reprove is to consent: and we know that a like punishment awaits those who do and those who consent.

10. But now what shall we say of John's humble and wholly most fervent devotion towards the Lord? From it he leapt in the womb (Luke 1:44); from it he was afraid in the Jordan when about to baptize Him (Matt. 3:14); from it he denied that he was worthy not only [to be] the Christ, as he was thought to be, but even to loose the very strap of His sandal (Mark 1:7); from it he rejoiced, the friend of the bridegroom, at the voice of the bridegroom (Luke 1:44); from it he confessed that he had received grace for grace, but cried aloud that He had the Spirit not by measure, but a fullness of which all should receive (John 1:16). Will you not be subject to God, my soul? (Ps. 61:1). Otherwise I shall not be a burning lamp, unless I love the Lord my God with my whole heart, my whole mind, and with all my strength. For charity alone kindles unto salvation; it alone the Spirit pours in and inflames, whom we are forbidden to quench (1 Thess. 5:19). You have how John burned: and in this very

how he shone has been shown, if you paid attention. For you could not have known his burning had he not shone.

11. He shone, then, as I recalled above, by example, by finger, by word: by his deed declaring himself, by his pointing finger Christ, by his speech ourselves to ourselves. You, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, says his father; for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people. To give, he says, not salvation: for he was not the light; but knowledge of salvation, as he bears witness to the light. Knowledge, he says, of salvation, unto the remission of sins (Luke 1:76, 77). Can a wise man make light of the knowledge of salvation? Let us suppose, however, that John had not yet come, had not yet made known to us anything of Christ. Where shall we seek salvation? I have sinned a great sin, which cannot be blotted out by the blood of calves or of goats, because the Most High does not delight in holocausts. My memory is stained with the dregs of these lees: there is no razor that can scrape this parchment, for the whole of it has soaked up the whole of the dregs. If I forget my sin, I am foolish and ungrateful; if it remains in my memory, it will accuse me for ever. What then shall I do? I will go to John, and hear the voice of gladness, the voice of mercy, the speech of grace, the word of remission and of peace. Behold, he says, the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29); and elsewhere: He who has the bride, he says, is the bridegroom (John 3:29). He shows, therefore, that God has come, that the Bridegroom has, that the Lamb has. Because He is God, it is certain that He can forgive sins; but whether He wills to is still in question. He wills it surely, because He is the Bridegroom, because He is lovable. And John is the friend of the Bridegroom, because the Bridegroom knows how to have none but friends. And though He wills to have a glorious bride not having spot,

ON THE VIGIL OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL. SERMON. On the threefold help which we receive from the saints.

1. On the Vigils of the saints the spiritual man, who desires to celebrate their solemnities in spirit and in truth, must keep watch. For the vigils of the carnal are one thing, those of the spiritual another. The former prepare finer attire and more sumptuous feasts; and perhaps on the very vigils they work the works of darkness, they rejoice when they have done evil and exult in the worst of things. You have not so learned Christ, you who have followed Christ, who have left all things, who ought to attend with a watchful eye to the name of vigils. For vigils are set before us for this, that we may awake, if we are slumbering in some sin or negligence, and come before the face of the saints in confession. Not so the sons of this world, not so, who are mighty to drink wine, and strong men to mingle drunkenness; who have fallen asleep in their outrages and crimes. Let this not escape you, that those who are drunk are drunk at night, and those who sleep sleep at night: and in vain does the name of the holy Vigils sound for them, since they are more eager to sleep than to keep watch. But you are not sons of night, nor of darkness, but of light and

or wrinkle, or any such thing, yet He does not seek such a one (for where would He find her?), but rather He Himself makes her such, He Himself presents her such to Himself. Hear, then, what He says through the prophet. It is commonly said: If a woman has slept with another man, will she return to her former husband? But you have committed fornication with many lovers. Yet return to Me, and I will receive you (Jer. 3:1). Behold what He asks, behold what He wills.

12. But perhaps you fear that purging of offences which He came to make, lest with burning and cutting He crush the bones and the marrow of the bones, lest He inflict a pain heavier than death. Hear: He is a Lamb; He came in meekness, with wool and milk, justifying the ungodly by a word alone. For what, as the comic poet has it, is easier to say? (Terence, Phormio II, I, 70.) Only, he says, say the word, and my servant shall be healed (Matt. 8:8). Why then should we hesitate any longer, brethren, and not approach [alias ascend] with all confidence to the throne of glory? Let us give thanks to John, and through his mediation pass over to Christ, because, as he himself says: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). How decrease? In brightness, that is, not in fervour. He drew in his rays, he gathered himself together [alias recollected himself], lest he become like him who pours out his whole spirit. He must increase, he says, who cannot be exhausted, of whose fullness all receive; but I must decrease, to whom the spirit has been given by measure, and I must take pains rather that I may always be able to burn than to shine. I went before the sun like the morning star; I must be hidden, now that the sun has risen. I have only a little oil with which to be anointed; I wish to keep it more safely in a vessel than in a lamp.

of day (1 Thess. 5:5–8), so that the birthdays of the saints may not overtake you and find you unprepared.

2. There are, then, three things which we ought watchfully to consider in the festivals of the saints: the help of the saint, his example, our own confusion. His help, because he who was powerful on earth is more powerful in heaven before the face of the Lord his God. For if, while he lived here, he had pity on sinners and prayed for them, now he prays the Father for us so much the more as he more truly knows our miseries, because that blessed homeland has not changed his charity but increased it. For it is not that, because he is wholly impassible, he has therefore become incapable of compassion: rather, he has now put on the bowels of mercy, since he stands [alias is] before the fount of mercy. There is also another cause which urges the saints more to be solicitous for us: because, according to the word of the Apostle, God provides for us, that they should not be made perfect without us (Heb. 11:40), as holy David says: The just wait for me, until Thou reward me (Ps. 141:8). We ought also to attend to his example, because as long as he was seen on earth, and with men

conversed, he did not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, but kept the royal road until he came to Him who says, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). Look at the humility of his works, the authority of his words, and then you will see how he shone among men by word as much as by example; what footprints he has left us, that we may walk in them and not go astray in them. Truly, according to the prophet, The path of the just is straight, straight is the track of the just to walk in (Isa. 26:7).

3. But let us also look with a more careful gaze at our own confusion: for that man was passible like us, formed of the same clay as we are. What is it then, that we believe it not only difficult but even impossible for us to do the works which he did, to follow his footsteps? Let us be confounded, brethren, and tremble at this word, if perhaps this confusion may bring us glory, if perhaps this fear may beget grace for us. They were men who went before us, who went forward so marvellously along the ways of life that we can scarcely believe they were men. Thus, then, in the festivals of the saints we ought both to rejoice and to be confounded: to rejoice, because we have sent patrons on before us; to be confounded, because we cannot imitate them. So our joy in this valley of tears must always be seasoned with the bread of tears, so that mourning always takes hold not only of the last parts of joy but of the first as well: for though the matter of joys is great, yet

ON THE FEAST OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL. SERMON I. On the threefold guard which the apostles keep over us, and on the three degrees of our way of life.

1. A glorious solemnity has dawned for us, which the illustrious martyrs, leaders of martyrs, princes of the apostles, consecrated by a most glorious death. These are Peter and Paul, the two great lights, whom God set in the body of His Church as a twin light of the eyes. These have been given me as masters and as mediators, to whom I may safely commit myself: because they have both made known to me the ways of life, and through their mediation I shall be able to ascend to that Mediator who came to make peace through His blood both for the things in heaven and for the things on earth. For He is most pure in either nature, He who did no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth. How then shall I dare to approach Him, I who am a sinner sinning beyond measure, who have sinned above the number of the sand of the sea, when He could not be purer, nor I more impure? It is to be feared that I may fall into the hands of the living God, if I presume to draw near to Him or cleave to Him, from whom so great a difference divides me, as great as the distance between good and evil. Therefore God has given me these men, who were both men and sinners, and very great sinners, so that in themselves and from themselves they might learn how they ought to have mercy on others. For those guilty of great crimes will readily grant pardon for great crimes, and with the measure with which it was measured to them they will measure back to us. Peter the apostle sinned a sin

greatest is that of sorrows. I remembered God, cries the just man, and was delighted: but at once he adds, My spirit failed, I was troubled, and I did not speak (Ps. 76:4, 5).

4. But if we ought to think on these things on the Vigils of each single saint, what shall we do on the solemnity of saints who are the highest Apostles? I speak of Peter and Paul. The festival of one would suffice to pour exultation into the whole earth: but that of both has been joined to heap up our joys, so that as they loved one another in their life, so in death they are not separated. What was more powerful than they while they were on earth, to one of whom are handed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to the other the teaching of the Gentiles: the one slew Ananias and Sapphira by the words of his mouth, the other grants whatever he grants in the person of Christ, and when he is weak, then he is stronger and powerful? How much more powerful are they in heaven, who were so powerful on earth! And who have left us greater examples than those who in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, and in all those things which Paul enumerates (2 Cor. 11:23–33; Heb. 11:36–38), were continually afflicted, and at last by a happy martyrdom ascended to the heavenly kingdoms? Truly they are to us a blush of confusion, on whom we scarcely dare to look, not to say imitate them. Let us pray them, then, that they themselves may make their Friend, our Judge, propitious to us, who is God blessed for ever. Amen.

great, and perhaps there is none greater: and yet he obtained pardon as very swiftly as very easily, and so that he lost nothing of the singularity of his primacy. And Paul too, who raged so singularly and so incomparably against the very vitals of the Church at its birth, is brought to faith by the voice of the Son of God Himself, and for such great evils was filled with such great goods that he became a Vessel of election to carry His name before the gentiles, and kings, and the sons of Israel (Acts 9:15): a worthy vessel, and filled with heavenly dishes, from which the healthy may take food and the sick medicine.

2. It was fitting that such shepherds and teachers should be appointed for the human race as were sweet, and powerful, and no less wise. Sweet, to receive me gently and mercifully; powerful, to protect me strongly; wise, to lead me to the way, and along the way, which leads to the city. What is sweeter than Peter, who so sweetly calls all sinners to himself, as both the Acts of the apostles and the series of his Epistles attest? What more powerful than he, whom the earth obeyed when it gave back the dead, and the sea offered itself to be trodden under his feet (Matt. 14:27); who struck down Simon Magus in the air by the breath of his mouth, who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven so singularly that the sentence of Peter goes before the sentence of heaven? In short, whatever you bind, He says, upon earth, shall be bound in heaven also; and whatever you loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:19). And what is wiser than he,

to whom not flesh and blood, but the Father who is in heaven, revealed with great largesse that wisdom which is from heaven? Most gladly do I follow Paul, who out of exceeding sweetness mourns for those who have sinned and have not done penance (2 Cor. 12:22): who is stronger than every principality and power (Rom. 8:38): who carried away abundantly the wisdom and marrow of the sacred meanings not from the first or the second, but from the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:21).

3. These are our masters, who learned the ways of life more fully from the Master of all, and teach us to this very day. What then have the holy apostles taught us, or what do they teach? Not the fisherman's art, not tent-making, or anything of that kind: not to read Plato, not to turn over the subtleties of Aristotle, not to be always learning and never to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. They taught me to live. Do you think it a small thing to know how to live? It is something great, nay the greatest. He does not live who is puffed up with pride, who is befouled with lust, who is infected with the other plagues; for this is not to live, but to confound life, and to draw near even to the gates of death. But a good life, I think, is both to suffer evils and to do good, and so to persevere until death. It is commonly said that he who feeds himself well lives well. But iniquity has lied to itself; for no one lives well but he who does good.

4. But I think that you who are in a community live well if you live in an orderly way, sociably and humbly: in an orderly way towards yourself, sociably towards your neighbour, humbly towards God. In an orderly way, so that in all your conduct you are careful to watch your ways, both in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of your neighbour, guarding yourself from sin and him from scandal. Sociably, so that you strive to be loved and to love; to show yourself gentle and affable; to bear the infirmities of your brethren, of character as much as of body, not only patiently but gladly. Humbly, so that when you have done all these things you strive to blow away the spirit of vanity which is wont to be born of such things, and, however much you feel it, to deny it all consent. So too in suffering evil, since it is threefold, you must apply a threefold foresight. For there is what you suffer from yourself, what from your neighbour, what from God. The first is the austerity of penitence; the second, the harassment of another's malice; the third, the scourge of divine correction. In what you suffer from yourself, you must sacrifice willingly; in what from your neighbour, bear patiently; in what from God, endure without murmuring and with thanksgiving. Not so many of the sons of Adam, who wandered in the wilderness, in a waterless place (Ps. 106:4). They have wandered indeed, and wander from the way of truth, who, withdrawing into the wilderness of pride, will not have a common life, whose singularity cannot be made one with others. And in a waterless place too; for, pricked by no shower of tears, they dwell in a sterile and parched land in perpetual drought. Therefore they did not find the way to a city of habitation; for, grown old in a strange land,