Isaac of Stella, Sermons

SERMONS OF BLESSED FATHER ISAAC, ABBOT OF STELLA, OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER.

SERMON I. ON THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS.

Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up onto the mountain (Matt. 5). Would that it might befall us too, brethren, at some time to see the crowds and, having dismissed them, to set ascents in our heart! It is difficult to see the crowd while in the crowd: and to be troubled in the crowd is inevitable; nor can one who is troubled ever see clearly with his eyes, or discern, or judge. Therefore the crowd must be dismissed, so that the crowd itself may be seen, and judgement passed upon the crowd itself. For whoever looks at it well despises it fully, flees it gladly, leaves it freely. One who has never seen the light has never recognized the darkness either. So the Almighty, after He had said that light should shine out of darkness, then divided between the light and the darkness; then He distinguished, then He judged, then He called the light day and the darkness night. And He saw, it says (Gen. 1), as though He had not seen before. So indeed, so he has not seen the crowd who

has by no means raised himself above the crowd. He has not felt the commotion of the crowd, he has not heard the tumult of the crowd, who has not tasted the silence of solitude. My Lord Jesus, and perhaps He alone, could see the crowd while in the crowd without being troubled by the crowd; yet, seeing it, He dismissed it and withdrew into the mountain, where the crowd could not follow Him. Woe is me, brethren! How many today resolve to flee the crowds, and yet settle where they are found by crowds just the same, and are pressed upon all the more, so that the last tumult of the crowd becomes worse than the first. Therefore, brother, flee far off, and do not run back to the crowd; but remain in solitude, follow Jesus, go up into the mountain, say to the crowd: Where I am going, you cannot come. Although, dearly beloved, the history holds good on its own terms of some earthly mountain and a certain outward crowd, I nevertheless attend to the mystery, above all to that which most instructs our conduct, which builds upon the foundation. And although a material crowd is with difficulty

or can never be without a crowd, yet to me a certain inner crowd is more strongly suspect; and it is indeed the more effective at troubling, the more inward it is. And on account of this, brother, go forth on high, follow Jesus. For this reason He came down into you, that after Him and through Him you may ascend above yourself, even to Him within you. O great mystery! Having left the crowds, He goes up into the mountain. The disciples follow, all of them and they alone. Were they all stronger in body than all those of the crowd? Or, as I rather think, more fervent in spirit, so that wherever the impulse was, there they would go? But what is it that, though the disciples were again so ready, so devoted, so brave, so on fire, He leaves almost all of them and goes up with a few onto a high mountain, which Scripture testifies to be lofty? (Matt. 17.) Nay, what do we think, brethren, of this, that at times, leaving even these very ones and the others, nay all men whatever, He goes up alone onto the mountain to pray? (Matt. 14.) What do these mountains mean? On the first He goes up to teach, on the second to show His glory, on the third to pray to the Father. Is not this the mountain of the house of the Lord prepared on the top of the mountains? (Isa. 2.) So perhaps He comes leaping on the mountains and skipping over the hills (Song 2). First, skipping over all the crowds, He leaps with the disciples onto the mountain; second, skipping over these too, as lesser, with regard to the three; third, where no one can follow Him, skipping over the whole of creation, alone to the Alone, equal to the Equal, the Son to the Father. On the first the Son alone is heard; on the second the Son is seen, the Father heard; on the third no one has seen or heard the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father. Or are these perhaps the unspeakable things which it is not lawful for man to utter? What if the three mountains can be taken as three heavens? On the first the spiritual life of men is formed, on the second the angelic is shown, on the third the divine lies hidden. On the first present righteousness is signified, on the second future glory is shown; on the third, as in the heaven of heaven, whither He ascended above the setting, Whose name is the Lord, towards the East, the glorious Trinity, known to Itself alone and to the Man taken up into God, dwells in light inaccessible. In that peace which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4), where nevertheless that Man prays to the Father for us, as the blessed Apostle says, He Who stands before the face of the Father (Heb. 9) and intercedes for us (Rom. 8). See in how deep a hiding-place He prays, Who taught us to pray to the Father in secret. Make, therefore, brother, a hiding-place for yourself within yourself, where you may flee from yourself, if you wish to pray to the Father in secret. Let us hear, then, now at once, concerning the first hiding-place, the first secret place, the first chamber, the first heaven or mountain, what the Lord God speaks in it. Blessed, He says, are the poor in spirit (Matt. 5). The crowd has been left behind: nothing of weakness, nothing of vice, nothing of the malice of the day. He weaves His whole discourse of the virtue of life, of the beatitude of glory, of the kingdom of heaven. Blessed, He says, are the poor in spirit. Wisdom always acts and speaks wisely. Wishing to draw the young maidens after Him, He opened to them seven caskets of ointments, so that, delighted by the fragrance, they may run

after Him, as it is written: Draw me after Thee: we will run to the fragrance of Thy ointments (Song 1).

And when He had sat down, He opened His mouth. May it be granted me to sit with Jesus, and on the mountain; to sit at His feet and receive of His teaching. In the crowd He stands and walks; He acts, is wearied, is pressed upon, so that it is as if neither He nor His disciples were allowed to eat the bread of life and understanding and to drink the water of wisdom, which is drunk in leisure: and those who are lessened in activity draw it. For the well is deep. He opened His mouth. The mouth from which the bride asks a kiss (Song 1). The mouth of precious furnishing, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hidden. The mouth through which day utters the word to day. Many have searched into wisdom, many into beatitude; but because they did not hear this holy mouth, nor see the day, they ran into the palpable darkness of errors, whence night showed to night a knowledge falsely so called. Opening His mouth, then, to the heart of Jerusalem, speaking to her in solitude, that is, on the mountain, He says: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Beatitude itself speaks of beatitude; He Who was made poor, of poverty; the King, of the kingdom; the Meek One, of meekness; the Paraclete, of consolation; the true Bread, of being filled; Mercy itself, of mercy; the Cleanness of hearts, of cleanness of heart; the true Son, and Son by nature, of peacemaking and sonship. The true Word of the Father speaks what He is; the divine Wisdom teaches what He is, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Most wisely He puts that in the first place, sets that first before all, which everyone seeks, which everyone longs for, which everyone desires, and from which nevertheless almost everyone strays. For who does not wish to be blessed? Why does all mankind go to law, fight, trade, pay court, harass and is harassed? Is it not in order to wring from somewhere, by whatever means, what seems good to him, and that by which he seems to himself in some measure blessed? For each believes himself the more blessed, the more he achieves what he prefers. So every man with one accord seeks beatitude, but they judge of it differently: one has held that it lies in the pleasure of the body and in temporal sweetness, another in virtue of mind, another in the knowledge of truth as well. Hence the Teacher of all, debtor by charity alone to the wise and the unwise, first corrects those who stray, second directs those on the road, third admits those who knock at the door, as He says: Knock, and it shall be opened to you (Luke 11). The Prophet cries out for those gone astray: Lead me, Lord, in Thy way (Ps. 85). He cries out for the wayfarers: And I will walk in Thy truth (ibid.). He cries out for those who knock: Let my heart rejoice, that it may fear Thy name (ibid.). He cries out for those gone astray: Lead me in Thy justice (Ps. 5). He cries out for the wayfarers: Direct my way in Thy sight (ibid.). He cries out for those who knock: Let all rejoice who hope in Thee: they shall exult for ever, etc. (ibid.)

Thus the Way, the Truth and the Life, correcting, directing, admitting, begins in this way: Blessed are the poor in spirit. The false wisdom and true folly of this world, understanding neither what it says nor about what it makes assertions,