Isaac of Stella, Sermons

SERMON XVI. ON SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY I

The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a householder, etc. (Matt. 20). Truly, most beloved, the wisdom of God is manifold, though it is yet most simple, and though it is uniformly one, it is yet found manifoldly manifold. Many, says the prophet, shall pass through, and knowledge shall be manifold (Dan. 12). It is indeed she who is rightly called the fountain of gardens, and the well of living waters (Song 4): a fountain, for her inexhaustible perpetuity; a well, for her incomprehensible depth. And this of living waters, that is, of senses ever springing forth. Hence the same parable, or even a Scripture that seems plain, is rightly expounded and discussed by different people in different ways, and yet is exhausted to the bottom by none, as though the earlier interpreter had so said all that can be said of it that the later could find nothing to say beyond it. For whatever can in any way be said wisely and truly about any matter, the whole of it is in the eternal Wisdom and Truth, together and always, in every way, from eternity. Therefore when the Spirit speaks through anyone, the Spirit Who searches the deep things of God not by investigating but by containing them, of Whom it is said: He that contains all things has knowledge of the voice (Wis. 1), He perceives, understands and intends at once all the things that can in any measure be said truly and profitably by that utterance, while the one through whom He speaks is sometimes empty of understanding itself, sometimes content with one sense, now and then enlightened with several together, but never filled with all. Hence it is often possible in fact that those who disagree about the same Scripture, or who understand it differently, can agree excellently, or be in accord, with the Holy Spirit, so long as it is established that they do not depart from the faith of truth, and the building up of charity, and the overthrow of cupidity, over which every eye of holy Scripture keeps watch. For any one person too understands the same thing in one way and another, at one time and another, and yet not by one spirit and another, so long as in both cases, as has been said, he accords with truth and charity. For truth is not to be asserted against charity, nor charity held against truth. We have touched on these things briefly, as in a little preface, for this reason: lest, when you notice us venturing on some things otherwise than you have heard elsewhere or read in others, anyone should suspect that we are either wholly ignorant of the old things, or despise them once known, or take empty delight in new things of our own. The attentive hearer will everywhere have rather to heed the reason for what is said from the cause for saying it. For we have not so much undertaken to expound the readings of the holy Gospel as, taking occasion from them, to say something for the building up of the brethren and of ourselves, suited to time, place and persons, since you do not allow me to keep silence with you. Yet the Apostle exhorts that we receive no grace of God in vain (II Cor. 6), and David indeed that we receive not the soul itself in vain, saying: Who has not received his soul in vain (Ps. 23), that is, the rational understanding. In the Gospel too every talent is demanded back doubled (Matt. 25).

The son of the promise too both tended his father's wells and dug new ones for himself.

Saving, then, with due veneration, the opinion which faithfully and fittingly takes this vineyard as the universal Church, where the vine is understood aptly as Christ, the branches as Christians, the Father as the husbandman and householder, the day as the whole of time, or the life of man, the hours as the ages of the world or of the individual man, the market-place as the covetous and curious trafficking of the world itself: I understand my soul, and not only that but my body too, and both together, that is, the whole of me, as a kind of vineyard which I must not neglect, but must dig and work, so that it may not be trodden down by foreign shoots and strange roots, or overshadowed by its own native suckers; which I must prune, lest it run wild; cleanse, that it may bear more fruit; fence altogether, lest it lie open to plunder by those who pass by the way, and above all because of the boar from the wood and the solitary wild beast, lest he lay it waste; and, to put it in few words, must cultivate with the utmost diligence, lest the noble offspring of a chosen vine degenerate and be turned into a strange vine, which gladdens neither God nor men, or perhaps saddens both; which I must guard with the utmost vigilance, lest a thing laboured over so much and long awaited be either worn away by secret stealth at the hands of those who devour the poor in hiding, or perish suddenly by unforeseen devastation. Hence it was said to the first man of paradise, as of a vineyard of his own: That he should work it, and keep it (Gen. 2). Yet just as time itself is interchanged by light and darkness, that is, by day and night, so the temporal life of man itself is sometimes in darkness even with the sun at noon, sometimes in light at midnight: and just as God commanded the light to shine not out of day but out of darkness, so the son of this world is born in darkness, who is called a son of night and of darkness: and he too is born only out of darkness who is called by the Apostle a son of light and of day: You are all, he says, sons of light and of day, and not of night nor of darkness (I Thess. 5). And again: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph. 5). The son of light is called light, and the son of darkness darkness; for everywhere, as the father, so the son. Unbelief then is night, and faith day; sin night, virtue day. Ignorance darkness, wisdom light; hatred darkness, charity light. The devil darkness, God light; Adam darkness, Christ light. Finally a bad conscience, and the delight of sin, is night and deep darkness; a good conscience, and the love of virtue, serene light. The carnal sense or life is darkness; but the spiritual sense and life is day.

There is then, in what we have said, a night in which, as the Saviour says, no one can work (John 9). For whoever works evil, by night indeed, does not so much act as suffer; for every evil action is a kind of suffering of a good nature. For whoever abuses the good that he naturally is, or has, while he corrupts himself is himself corrupted, and while he works corruption, he suffers it. They are, then, sufferings of night

and of darkness, not workings; but of day and light, workings only. Hence the passions of the holy martyrs for Christ are usually called rather their deeds and victories, and their deaths their birthdays. For nothing is more full of work than that work which works incorruption and impassibility. Nothing is more full of work than the constancy of a brave soul, treading down at one blow flesh, world and devil, whether raging or flattering. It is plain, then, how subtle and always truthful is that assertion of the Truth, that no one can work by night, and that one can by day alone. I must work, He says, while it is day: the night comes, in which no one will be able to work (ibid.). This, however, is fittingly understood of that night after which also no one will be able to work, but only to suffer always for ever. For among those below there is always night alone, and always suffering; among those above, in eternal day, there is eternal and sole giving of praise and thanks. Hence the blessed Prophet sings: Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house, O Lord; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever (Ps. 83). The first night, then, is one out of which day can shine and work follow, although work cannot be done in it. But the second night is perpetual darkness, so that no one can work in it, because it is darkness; no one after it, because it is perpetual. For there is no work, nor reason, nor counsel among those below: whither the sons of this light, and of that darkness, hasten. Therefore, most beloved, while we have time, that is, day (not man's day, as the prophet says: I have not desired the day of man, Thou knowest (Jer. 17), which both he and blessed Job, as you know, cursed with much execration), let us do good to all, yet beginning with ourselves. For he who is evil to himself, to whom is he good? Have pity, it says, on your own soul, pleasing God (Sir. 30). He who neglects his own vineyard, how will he tend another's? By night we could not: behold, the light came freely into the world, and came before the world. In night we were born, in night blinded: but by spittle from above, and clay from beneath: spittle from the head, clay from under the foot. Anointed, the eyes of the man born blind were opened. A general night went before, in which all sinned, but when the true sun dawned it departed, and the darkness vanished, so that those who before could not work now have no excuse at all if they refuse to work in the day. For if, says the Day itself, I had not come and spoken to them, that is, had not shone on them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin (John 15). Whoever does not use the grace he has received is idle in the day, and is rightly rebuked for idleness. Thou hast appointed darkness, says the Prophet, and it is night, in which no one can work: in it all the beasts of the forest shall pass through, against which the vineyard is to be fenced and guarded. The young lions roaring, to seize their prey (Ps. 103): because of them man could not go out to work. But behold, the sun has risen, and shining over the earth makes day, so that man, who has ceased to be a beast of burden, may go out to his work in the morning, that is, anticipated by prevenient grace; and may toil at his labour until evening. For at whatever hour he has begun to labour,

work is required of him until evening; nor is the wage paid before evening. For perseverance in good work comes last, and receives first.

It is then, to put it briefly, since the hour has passed, thus: turning away from God, whether of the rational sense from truth or of the life from charity, is night, in which no one is able to work; but conversion to God through searching and imitation is day, in which man goes out to his work, that is, to knowing and loving God, and to delighting in the knowledge and love of Him. For it is for these things that man was made to the image and likeness of God, and through these things he is remade and reformed to the same, through the sense to the image, through the life to the likeness. Yet, made to the image and likeness, he is remade to the likeness and image, because he is to be reformed by conformity of life to a sharing of nature. That he should know the true God is eternal life, but that he should love Him with his whole heart is the eternal way. Charity then is the way, truth the life; charity the likeness, truth the image; charity the merit, truth the reward; by charity one goes, in truth one stands. Hence Lucifer, who rose in the morning (Isa. 14) but did not continue until evening, did not stand in the truth (John 8); because he swerved from charity. But since charity never falls away, when charity has reached truth it does not end; but in the truth of charity, and in the charity of truth, one lives always, as one lives happily.

So, most beloved, as a man goes out from the night of sin and of carnal living to this his work, at the first illumination of grace, as at the first morning of his conversion to God, his own conscience meets him; and he sees how he lived while he lived badly; what he was in darkness, he discerns in the light. So conscience, the first sent into the vineyard, while accusing itself, diligently goes over everything and brings all back to memory; doubtless bending itself down in humility, it digs deep; and cutting out the roots of all injustice, it begins to cultivate itself as far as justice. For the just man is first of all the accuser of himself (Prov. 18). Yet just as, turning to God, he accuses himself gravely of the past, so it is necessary that he judge all things finely and examine them strictly according to the quality, quantity and cause of the deed, so that reason, brought in, may follow upon the accusing conscience, which labours in the vineyard by the accusation itself, judging finely, and grief and contrition of heart may follow upon reason, tormenting it. So in a kind of inner chapter of ours let conscience accuse, reason judge, grief torment, so that while we accuse, judge, and condemn ourselves, we may be absolved by the Lord, and not be condemned with this world. Contrition of heart is followed then by confession of the mouth, and that, at the last, by amendment of deed: which, though it works last, is yet rewarded first; without which confession of the mouth is mere breath, contrition of heart mere vapour, the judgement of reason turns to condemnation and the accusation of conscience to witness [against us]. For he is a mocker, not a penitent, who weeps over what he has done, and does what he must weep over. Wherefore