Isaac of Stella, Sermons

the spirit approaches the illumination of its own darkness; which, however, is impossible to do unless there intervenes One Who may lead the one away and lead the other near, according to what the Psalmist cries in prayer to the Father: Send forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have led me and brought me to Thy holy mountain, and into Thy tabernacles (Ps. 42). There may Christ, the light and the truth, lead us, Who lives and reigns, God. Amen.

SERMON XXIX. ON THE SAME FEAST, III.

God the Son of God, beloved, the light and the truth, Jesus Christ, sent forth by the Father, stepped in as mediator between the rebels that lust against one another, the flesh and the spirit; and, dissolving the old enmities, at last restored peace in Himself. And this not with such ease as the Almighty could have done it, but with such charity and patience as befitted the Most Kind, and with such teaching as our dullness needed. For, as we have often said already, God took up man not only to redeem him but to instruct him. Taking up, then, the whole man, that is, flesh from the flesh of Adam, on whose account He often calls Himself the Son of man, and a rational spirit, He sanctified him all at once and once for all; but over a long time, and through almost all the ages, by bearing him He taught how he was to be borne. And so, while, by the working and leading of the Son of God Himself, that is, the Word of the Father, the son of man, that is, the flesh, or our outer man, draws near to the waning of its concupiscences, the spirit, by His leading, approaches the longed-for light. Did He not in Himself weary, wear down and dry up vigorously the Son of man, that is, the flesh taken from man, with fasts and the squalor of the desert, hunger and thirst, labour and fatigue, vigils and disciplines; and afterwards expose it cruelly to bonds and scourges, spittings and blows, thorns and nails, and the hands of the ungodly, as it is written: The earth is given into the hands of the ungodly? (Job 9.) That the Son of man, then, may go up to Jerusalem, the Son of God leading Him, He draws near to Jericho, and at His command to be brought the blind man returns to the light (Luke 18); because, for the flesh to advance to peace with its spirit, it must by the grace of God wane from its carnality, and for the rational spirit to return to the light of understanding, it must, as carnality wanes, by the leading of the same grace, approach the Word of God without sloth, as it is written: Come to Him, and be enlightened (Ps. 33). Both of these, beloved, as they are impossible for us, so are easy for the Son of God to do. For what are we but darkness and vanity, and He the light and the truth? Unless, then, the Son of God is in us and works in us, we neither wane from evil nor advance to good, neither fall away from vanity nor rise to truth. Yet just as in Him the Son of God by nature took up flesh and soul, by grace blinding the one to concupiscence and enlightening the other to wisdom, and, though by nature one with the Father, having taken our twofoldness He became in a manner threefold in substances, twin in natures, remaining one in person: so, brother,

since you are one in person, twin in nature, by the receiving of grace you too have become, in your own manner, threefold, according to what is said: He gave them power to become sons of God (John 1).

As He, then, the son of man, is Son of God, so you too, a son of God, are a son of man. Therefore, as in Him the Son of God bore and ruled, led down and led on the son of man, so in us let our son of God bear, rule, lead and lead on our son of man, partly to waning, partly to increase: to the waning of carnal and earthly things, to the increase of spiritual and heavenly things. And as He, as if commending His charity to us, very often names Himself by what by grace He was made for us, that is, the son of man, so let us too, ever attending with thanksgiving to what we have been made by Him, that is, sons of God, a new creature, namely, in Christ Jesus, according as of His own will He begot us by the word of truth, name ourselves with reverence sons of God, disdaining to be, or to be called, what we were born according to the flesh, that is, sons of men. For the Holy Spirit, rebuking such through the Prophet, says: Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? (Ps. 4). And elsewhere He reproaches through the prophet: You are your mother's daughter, and you are the sister of your sisters (Ezek. 16). I confess that I am now a stranger here and a pilgrim, that is, in the whole of this world, as one who in no way sprang from it; and that I am not a son of man but a son of God, lying hid in the form and likeness of a man: no longer the son of my father and my mother, or the brother of my brothers, though they say, affirm and swear falsely that I am theirs; should they bring witnesses, should they even point out marks on my skin and flesh, I, knowing in myself whence I am, deny it insistently, flatly disown it, alleging that I am not the one they suppose, that they are deceived by a likeness; and stretching out my hands towards you I say: These are my brethren; we are all orphans together and fatherless; we have no father on earth; for our Father is heavenly, and our mother a Virgin. There we are natives, but here strangers and pilgrims, as all our fathers were. We are by no means earthly from the earth, but heavenly from heaven, clothed however in an earthly sack, on account of which we are also thought earthly, until we can say to our Father: Thou hast cut my sack, and hast girded me with gladness (Ps. 29). What I am, I see; in what rags I am wrapped, I discern. Why? Only because before me the blind man was given light; before me a sign of present grace was made, which strengthens me for faith in future glory. For it is written: The Lord will give grace and glory (Ps. 83). The one is a sign, the other a merit. To whom He gave this grace, to him without doubt He will give glory. Whom He enlightened for faith, He will raise up for sight. Through what I see, I believe what I do not yet understand. While I consider from what kind of man what kind I have been made, I hope for what He promises I shall be.

And so, attending not to the merits of men but to the gifts of God, I infer from what has been received what is promised, from great things greater, from wonderful things more wonderful; as the blessed Psalmist, consoling himself, says: Turn, my soul, into your rest

for the Lord has dealt well with you (Ps. 114). And elsewhere: I will cry to God most high, to God Who has dealt well with me (Ps. 56). Not in my fasts and the traditions of men, or in pharisaic dress, nor in any justice of works, or works of justice, that I do, do I set for myself a sure sign of justice; but in the justice of faith, which freely goes before and enlightens those whom it saves. For many sinners deeper than I are freely taken up by grace; and just men loftier than I are justly cast off by justice. The justice of works is always empty, and the work of justice often deceptive; the justice which is from the faith of Christ Jesus has deceived no one. This I set as a seal upon my heart, this upon my arm; this I understand to have been made with me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be confounded. And so He Who is my enlightenment is also my salvation; Him I will follow to Him, praising and glorifying God in Him. Though a thousand kinds of temptations or disturbances rebuke me that I may keep silent, I will cry out strongly, and by crying I will overcome the clamour of those who cry against me, until I make Jesus Himself, as He passes by, stand fast, and halt Him as He goes past. For just as (to follow the course of the preceding sermon) diverse things from diverse sources accompanied the Son of God, the same Son of man, the Lord Jesus, on the way of His pilgrimage, that is, some from the flesh, some from the spirit, some from the Word; some from the humanity, some from the divinity, some from weakness, some from power: so certainly in us also it is easy to discern, and impossible not to feel. This we feel more surely in the book of experience than we learn from the voice of the preacher.

Yet it is worth the trouble, brethren, with reasonable discernment and watchfulness of sense, to judge whence all things arise for us within us, what are the origins of thoughts and affections, of desires and wills, and the roots too of suggestions and delights. As, then, works of power and signs of miracles accompanied Him, as if testifying that it was Jesus Who was passing by, and stirring up many to believe in Him, of which it is written: Thy testimonies have become exceedingly credible (Ps. 92); and He Himself says: The works that I do bear witness of Me (John 5); and, on the opposite side, the passions of weakness, which rebuked, so as to frighten men away from faith in Him, so that they should not believe Him God Whom they saw suffer human things: both of which He embraced briefly when He answered those sent by John: Report to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, etc. (Matt. 11). And then: Blessed is he who shall not have been scandalized in Me (ibid.). For the scourges and the spittle, the cross and the tomb gave rise to scandal. So in me too, beloved, some things testifying to salvation, some drawing back, some acclaiming, some crying against, I drag along with me on every way of my life, and nowhere do I go without these companions. I am visited at daybreak and suddenly put to the test; I am taken up and at once deserted; I am raised up and at once cast down, like one who walks through mountains and finds no level road. Sometimes, rejoicing and praising, flooded with exceeding light and touched with exceeding sweetness,

I exult with a certain unspeakable hope of unlooked-for salvation: all things acclaim, all things bear good witness, so that there is no room for doubt, as if I had already laid hold of it; sometimes, fearful and lamenting, wrapped in darkness and full of bitterness, I waste away in such confusion of weariness and acedia that all things rebuke me away from better hope and force me to be silent. Woe to the wretched man who can neither hold fast to God as he vowed, nor stand firm in himself as he purposed! I confess that I am never constant with myself; I am ground continually between hope and fear; I carry in me the roots and seeds of both; each sprouts upward and spreads its branches in my inward parts. From the grace of God in me I have reason always to hope; from myself, in me, I certainly have reason always to fear. Now I hold all that I hope for, now I lose all that I had held, and again after darkness I hope for light. I go up even to the heavens, and go down even to the depths; my soul wastes away in such changes. I am troubled and reel like a drunken man, and all my wisdom is swallowed up (Ps. 106). Yet, as the sacred Psalm has next, and this blind man of the Gospel teaches, it remains for me only to overcome by persistence and to cry much the more to the Lord Jesus when I am in tribulation, until He bring me out of these distresses, and turn this storm into a breeze, and make its waves, which He brought upon me, be still, and lead me, glad because they are stilled, into the haven of my will and desire (ibid.): I who today, lying hidden in the farthest corner of the earth, with the sea poured round about, desire, He being my witness, Him alone, with the Father and the Holy Spirit one true and good God, and Lord of the universe: to Whom be honour and glory, praise and power, beauty and dominion, for all ages of ages. Amen.

SERMON XXX. ON THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, I.

Jesus was led into the desert by the spirit, etc. (Matt. 4). My Lord Christ Jesus does all things either led, or sent, or called, or commanded: but of Himself nothing. Sent, He came into the world; led, He goes into the desert; called, He rose from the dead, as it is written: Arise, my glory, arise, psaltery and harp (Ps. 107). But to His passion He hastens of His own accord and willing, as the prophet had foretold: He was offered because He willed it (Isa. 53); made, however, in this very thing obedient to the Father unto death. For the teacher and pattern of obedience willed neither to do nor to suffer anything outside that which alone is in truth the way to life. He was led, then, by the spirit into the desert, or, as another says, He was driven by the spirit into the desert (Luke 4). As many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. But He, as He is more especially and more worthily Son, so is He more distinctively and more excellently than the rest driven or led into the desert. Full, it says, of the Holy Spirit He returned from the Jordan (Luke 3); and by the same Spirit He was at once driven into the desert. To the rest the spirit is given by measure, and according to that same measure they are driven to all things; He received the fullness, in Whom it pleased the fullness of the Godhead to dwell

bodily: therefore He is driven the more powerfully and the more fully to fulfil all the commands of the Father. Having returned, it says, from the Jordan, He was driven into the desert. Before this I do not remember having heard a word about the return of the Lord Jesus. Jordan, as they say, is interpreted "their descent". He, then, comes from the Jordan and returns from there, Who came down into the world; and turning back from here He leaves the world again and goes to the Father. Therefore let him who desires to go up and to return to the place from which he did not come down but fell, come to the Jordan, come to the descent, come to humility: which is the only place from which to ascend. For everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. Rise, says the Psalmist, after you have sat (Ps. 126). There he will find the Holy Spirit, Who will rest upon the humble and meek man and him who trembles at the words of the Lord, Who resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, by which they may despise the world, flee the age, conquer the devil, shun the crowds, where evil conversations corrupt good morals; may seek the desert and secret places where they may be free for God: where like the young of the swallow they may cry to Him, and like the dove meditate upon Him; where He Himself, answering, will speak to their heart, according to the prophet who says: I will lead her into the wilderness, and there I will speak to her heart (Hos. 2). So our Lord Jesus Christ, meek and humble of heart, after He had come down to such a point of humility and meekness as to submit Himself to be baptized at the hands of an inferior, at once merited to ascend to the rank of headship, the Father's voice bearing witness: This is My beloved Son, in Whom, for His humility and obedience, I am well pleased: wherefore I rightly promote Him and prefer Him to the rest; from now on, then, hear Him. The Holy Spirit too came down visibly upon the humble and meek One, as into His own and familiar temple; full of Whom, having returned from the Jordan, He is led into the desert.

So, beginning from the Jordan to return to the place from which He had come forth, He takes up the dignity of headship and the authority of preaching and first makes His way alone into the desert, so that He Who was to preach to others might first prove Himself, might Himself fulfil what He was to teach others; that the flesh, the world and the devil, against which He was to exhort His own to fight, He might first Himself subdue. For it is foolish for one untried and unskilled in Christian warfare to thrust others into battles where he has neither gone before nor dares to follow; for one who has not stood in the battle line, or has fled first, to exhort to the conflict; to aspire to teach what he has not first done himself, nay, what he has not yet begun to do; to take up the teacher's rank and not know the teacher's office; in short, to bind heavy and unbearable burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others, while he will not touch them with a finger. But our teacher and leader Jesus Christ teaches what He does, as it is written: What He began to do and to teach (Acts 1). He preaches what He is, saying: Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11). He musters the battle line where He Himself has first conquered. Take courage, He says: I have overcome the world (John 16). For in this first encounter, alone with

fighting alone in the wilderness, He secretly overcame the common and particular enemy of the human race, and by overcoming him weakened him, and made him weaker and easily overcome by His own, and unnerved: and in the second encounter, in the public arena of this world, with angels and men looking on, He humbled him, laid him low and wounded him, as it is written: Thou hast humbled the proud as one wounded (Ps. 88:11); and once he was laid low He bound him, and took his arms and plundered his goods. For binding the strong man, the stronger entered into the world through His own, into hell through Himself, and plundered his goods, and by right transferred them to His own service (Luke 11:21–22). Here He wisely rejected him as he flattered, and as it were piously took thought for His reputation, and supported His good name, and pitied His poverty; afterwards, when he raged, He patiently endured him and bravely conquered him. Here, then, is the wisdom of the saints, there their patience and strength; for Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, came to teach and to give both, tempted in both, found proven in both. So the deceiver first assails wisdom, transforming himself into an angel of light and a spirit of counsel.

Command, he says, that these stones become bread, lest you waste away with hunger, fasting in the wilderness; and you who by virtue have trampled on superfluity and delicacies, may at least belatedly relieve extreme necessity with bread alone. But since at the first bite, where he had believed he would find the tenderness of flesh, he struck his tooth on the solidity of bone, the serpent draws back his sting and rears himself from the heel of the foot to the higher parts, which he believes softer and finds harder. And so, taking Him up, he set Him on a height, but in order to cast Him down into the depth. As if he said: You are indeed lofty and high, who have trampled on the concupiscence of the flesh by the virtue of abstinence. You please God, and are near Him, who have gone beyond the flesh: from now on you ought not to be unknown and of no account. Therefore show yourself to men. Let them see you flying, who are light now that the weight of the flesh is worn away; who, conquering the flesh you are as born of the flesh, are now spirit as born of the spirit; and born of God, you are the Son of God. Cast yourself down, then, so that the angels may serve you, since you have acquired by the merit of virtue what they have by the gift of grace. Hence they also ought to serve you, and to bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. This is that basilisk, the king of serpents, which kills by its look alone; what the asp does not kill with its breath, it poisons by its mere gaze: and so, after the temptation of the concupiscence of the flesh, that is, of the asp, the king of serpents puts forth the temptation of the concupiscence of the eyes. Yet our champion and defender, just as afterwards He bravely trampled on the fury of the lion, so now too wisely turns aside the serpent's venom, walking upon the asp and the basilisk with the steps of sobriety and humility. The great dragon too, of worldly ambition and of the pride of life, which is not of the Father but of the world, He tramples down, when out of love of poverty He blows away all the kingdoms of the world and their glory offered to Him. See who conquers, how, and whom. Wisdom conquers cunning, abstinence gluttony, by humility He conquers vainglory, by poverty worldly ambition.