Isaac of Stella, Sermons

obtain nothing at all, after the manner of those who today are called vagabonds, and are best recognized by this habit, will go away blaspheming, and so, guilty of an eternal offence, will pay just penalties for ever. But if anyone more subtle, and more importunate and anxious than the rest (for such a one overcomes all), can attach himself through the lattice or some little chink, he will be able to have a foretaste of the crumbs that fall under his masters' table, and also to lick and lap up some, with which his soul may be filled as with marrow and fatness. Yet though such a one is rightly held among us to be rare, or perhaps unique, in greatness and dignity, there he is compared not to a man, not even to a dog or a puppy, but to a little whelp. For he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Hence David, not only a member of that household but the bridegroom's friend of the bridal chamber, with fear calls himself not only a dog but also a flea (1 Kgs. 24:15 and 26:20). But neither is such a one compared to a whelp only for his importunity or his humility; but also for his want of reason, his faintheartedness and his changeableness. For whoever has been able to enter into true wisdom, dignity and greatness, however wise or strong he may be among mortals, acknowledges himself brute and dumb, and irrational, and base, and very small. He truly knows how weak our strengths are who has been able to creep up above himself to divine things, and who yet, still carrying a palate made tasteless by earthly folly, cannot fully taste what is sweet there, just as, because of the bleariness of his eyes, he cannot look upon what is bright: and what he has heard or perceived, when restored to himself, he will in no way be able to utter. For such things are unspeakable, and it is not lawful for a man to speak them. Restored to himself, he who, caught up to such things, is meanwhile more than man, is still a man. Hence that great father of faith and pattern of obedience, Abraham, after the vision of heavenly beings calls himself dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27). Hence Moses after the vision of the bush acknowledges himself to be without eloquence and of a more hindered tongue (Exod. 3; 4:10). Daniel too falls sick and languishes a long time (Dan. 10). Ezekiel falls on his face, and needs one to raise him that he may stand upon his feet (Ezek. 2:1–2); John, apostle and evangelist, is afraid, and that great theologian falls as though dead at the feet of Jesus, Whom he loves very greatly (Rev. 1:17); Peter and James, and the same John, at the voice from the cloud fall to the ground, and, like men drunk or out of their minds, do not know what they are saying (Matt. 17:6). We, therefore, who are still far from this subtlety and importunity, this most wise want of reason, this strongest languor and sublime falling, let us await the common alms with peace and patience and in our common way of life: crying to the Lord and to His saints that they may one day bring us in, and meanwhile not send us away fasting from the grace of the Lord Jesus.

SERMON XXXVIII. ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT I

Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was dumb

(Luke 11:14). It was easy, beloved, for the demon to be cast out by the Lord Jesus Christ, without Whose permission and leave it could not enter into anyone. For there is nothing in all the multiplicity of nature which the Father does not rule through Him, as He created it. When, then, why and how He willed, He permitted it to enter: when and how He willed, He cast it out. He, then, Who was there in bodily presence casting out a demon, before and after, and today too, wherever it happens, casts out demons by divine power through whom He wills, angels or men, and these either good or evil, in what way He wills, whether by prayer, or by adjuration, or by incantation, or by herbs and stones, or by other and yet other means. His indeed is all power in heaven and on earth, which according to the divinity He always had from the Father, and according to the humanity received at a certain time: All power, He says, is given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). And that this might be truly believed everywhere and always, He taught it plainly in a certain place and once. He had given His disciples power over all demons, and yet a certain man brought them his son, possessed by a demon, whom they could not cure while Jesus was absent. How, then, did they have power over all demons if they did not have it over that one; or if they had it, why did they not cast it out? His bodily absence here, and the disciples' powerlessness, figured precisely what we said before: that without the presence of His divine power and the grace of His co-operation nothing could anywhere be cast out. Hence, when they asked why they could not cast it out, He answered: Because of your unbelief (Matt. 17:19). For this they either did not yet know, or did not believe as they ought. Hence it is also that elsewhere He calls them back to themselves, as though they were arrogating something to themselves, saying: Do not glory in this, that the spirits are subject to you, etc. I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven (Luke 10:20, 18). We have set this first, then, so that no one may dare to arrogate anything to himself, or foolishly to glory in what he has received. For it is God Who works all things in all, mercifully casting out evils and bringing in goods, justly at times taking away goods and bringing in evils. Jesus, then, was casting out a demon, and to this day is casting it out. Let each one, beloved, ask the kind Jesus for himself, and do so assiduously, that He may cast out his demon from him entirely, or meanwhile hold it in check. For though all demons are hostile to us, and rejoice at our harm when they have either done it or learned that it was done, and often thrust many works upon many people as wandering and incidental, in order to deceive them: yet that each one has a familiar demon, who is exceedingly busy about him, who watches him everywhere in all things, and whom a monk must by no means be ignorant of, Scripture does not keep silent. For I think that I know and recognize my own very well. Nothing is better known to me, because nothing is more harmful to me. Nothing is more familiar, because nothing is more frequent. What temptation, and of what kind, presses me more often and more sharply, I am well aware. In which part also I labour more easily, I know.

Hence I too must cry out, a man who sees his own weakness and recognizes his enemy: Lord Jesus, Thou who alone art mighty, deliver the needy from the hand of those stronger than he, the needy and the poor from those who plunder him (Ps. 34:10). Deliver the poor, and free the needy from the hand of the sinner. Deliver me from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of him who acts against the law, and of the unjust.

For when, dearly beloved, I sing these things and things like them in the psalms, I direct the psalm secretly against that one: And it, he says, was dumb. Mine is most talkative to me: it weaves very long and most lying tales of the glory, the beauty and the delights of this world; it whispers a thousand suspicions about this one and that one; it promises wonders, it threatens wonders; it lies a thousand times, that I can do many things I cannot, that I cannot do many things I can; it says that wonderful things, good and bad, are said of me; now about my learning, now about my religious life, now about my conduct, now about my family, now about my favour, now about my eloquence, now about my elegance, it holds long speeches with me. Why say more? It so often draws my ears off to itself and takes them up that I have no leisure either to read or to listen to one reading. Hence, while speaking to me, it makes me wholly dumb, renders me stupid and deaf. And perhaps for this reason the evil spirit is called dumb, which never ceases to speak evil: because those whom it invades it makes dumb as to the praise of God and the proper offices of the rational tongue: If anyone speaks, says the apostle Peter, let it be as the words of God (1 Pet. 4:11). This, then, I recognize as the office of the rational tongue. For to speak vain words, or words of falsehood, words of contention or of perdition, words of detraction or of boasting, of greed and of lust, or indeed any buffoonery whatever that is not to the point: in all these the tongue, though outwardly shouting and chattering in the ears of men, or inwardly in familiar converse with its demon, is nevertheless dumb to God, as it is written: Because I kept silent, my bones grew old, while I cried out all the day (Ps. 31:3). In three ways, therefore, the tongue speaks the words of God: when it praises God, and accuses itself before Him, and edifies its neighbour. But whoever is silent in these is dumb, however much he may shout. O Lord Jesus, cast out my demon, and open my lips to the humble confession of my sins, so that my mouth may worthily declare Thy praise; otherwise praise will not be comely in the mouth of a sinner: Confession, it says, and beauty Thou hast put on (Ps. 103:1). For confession makes beautiful, and beauty praises. But if I, a sinner, that is, one who conceals his sins, shamelessly presume to praise, God says to me at once: Why do you, that is, such a one as you, declare My justices, who keep silent about your injustices, and take My covenant in your mouth (Ps. 49:16), a mouth not cleansed by confession?

But is it not with the mouth that confession is made unto salvation? (Rom. 10:10) Confession therefore cleanses the mouth, and contrition the heart. But you have hated discipline, and have cast My words behind you (Ps. 49:17). In the words of God the confession of sins comes first; without it neither is the praise that ought to follow comely, nor is the edification of one's neighbour fitting. For whoever desires to praise God in due order,

first gives Him thanks for the opening of his mouth to praise. For confession opens the mouth, just as obstinacy shuts it. And whoever desires to teach his neighbour, does he not first instruct him in penance and confession? For so Wisdom and the herald of Wisdom began their preaching, saying: Do penance, for the kingdom of God will draw near. And all the people, it says, went out to John, and were baptized by him, confessing their sins (Matt. 3:2, 5–6). Such too, we find, was the counsel of the apostle Peter: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized (Acts 2:38). And the edict of James is: Confess your sins to one another (Jas. 5:16).

This, then, which we have described, is the order of the words of God. But if, hiding your sins like gold, so that by festering they breed wounds in you, and transgressing the order of the words of God, you burst forth into His praises, you hear what was said: Why do you declare My justices, and take My pure covenant in your impure mouth? (Ps. 49:16) And if you set about teaching your neighbour, the Apostle rebukes you, saying: You who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one must confess, do you not confess? You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal confession? (Rom. 2:21) Therefore, brother, either keep silent from all good things, as Jesus commanded the demons to keep silent from His praise and from proclaiming Him; or confess all your evils, so that you may be worthily admitted to praise and to preaching. Your mouth has abounded in malice; let it abound in justice. Now the beginning of the sinner's justice is the confession of sin, as it is written: The just man is first of all his own accuser (Prov. 18:17); secondly he is one who praises God, thirdly a teacher of his neighbour. The first part of justice, then, is confession. And your tongue framed deceits (Ps. 49:19). Let him therefore confess them without deceit, if he wishes to come out of sin, as it is written: Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile (Ps. 31:2). If you impute it to yourself, God does not impute it to you. If you accuse and uncover, He Himself forgives and covers. Blessed indeed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Ps. 31:1). Sitting, you spoke against your brother (Ps. 49:20). Sit before your Father, confess against yourself. Against the son of your mother, the Church, you laid a stumbling-block (ibid.): against the son of your fleshly mother, that is, against yourself, lay a stumbling-block, shame and judgement, because you did these things to your brother. Otherwise He who now keeps silent and listens, waiting for you to speak first and be justified, and to come before His face in confession, will rebuke you at the last and will say: You thought unjustly that I would be like you (ibid.); you kept silent, I kept silent. But shall I keep silent for ever? By no means will I be like you, neither if you keep silent nor if you speak. For if you keep silent, I will not keep silent; if you speak, I will not speak; if you cover, I will lay bare; if you lay bare, I will cover; if you accuse, I will excuse; if you excuse, I will accuse. I will not, then, be like you, because if you acquit, I will condemn; if you condemn, I will acquit.

This, dearly beloved, is in the humility of confession