SERMON 113/A
The custom of Hippo Diarrhytus
In the Basilica of Saint Martyr Quadratus,
The Lord's Day, the seventh day before the Kalends of October.
ABOUT THE GOSPEL WHERE IT SPEAKS OF THE RICH MAN AND THE BEGGAR LAZARUS
The Jews do not yet believe in the prophetic oracles concerning Christ and His Church.
The faith of the Christians, which is mocked by the impious and the unbelievers, is this: because we say there is another life after this life, and that there is a resurrection of the dead, and that after the passage of the ages there is a judgment at the end. Although this was not believed among human affairs, it was preached and announced by the Prophets, the servants of God, and by the law given through Moses, and it still seemed incredible to people, the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ came to persuade people of this. He, being the Son of God, born of the Father invisibly and ineffably, co-eternal with the Father, and equal to the Father, and with the Father one God, being the Word of the Father, through whom all things were made, and the counsel of the Father, by which all things are governed, so humbled His great and incomprehensible majesty and power, which could not be known by humans, by coming to earth, taking on flesh, and appearing to the eyes of humans. Therefore, when God, that is, divinity itself, was not seen in Christ, His flesh was despised; but He demonstrated His inner divinity by miracles; and although He appeared in such a way that He could be despised by human eyes, He did so much that through His works He appeared as the Son of God. Therefore, when He performed great works, gave useful precepts, corrected vices, chastised, taught virtues, worked bodily healings to heal the minds of unbelievers, the angry people killed Him in the place where He was born and raised and did all these great things. But He, who had come to be born, had certainly also come to die; nor did He wish His death in the flesh, which He had taken on to demonstrate the example of resurrection, to be in vain, but rather allowed it to happen at the hands of the impious, so that, although they did not want to do what He commanded, He would suffer what He willed. It came to pass; Christ was killed, buried, and rose again, as we know, as the Gospel testifies, as is now proclaimed throughout the world; and even now you see that the Jews do not want to believe in Christ, even after He rose from the dead, and glorified in the sight of His disciples ascended into heaven, while the proclamations of the Prophets are now being fulfilled throughout the whole world. Indeed, all the Prophets who foretold that Christ would be born, die, rise again, and ascend into heaven, also foretold that His Church would be among all nations. However, if the Jews did not see Christ rising and going to heaven, they could at least see the Church spread throughout the whole world, which, when fulfilled, would fulfill the words of the Prophets.
The unbelief of the Jews is refuted by the example of the rich man who feasted sumptuously.
It happens in them what we have just heard from the Gospel; for they do not hear Christ, who rose from the dead, because they did not hear Christ placed on the earth. For Abraham said this to that rich man who was tormented in hell and wanted someone to be sent to the living, to announce to his brothers what happens in hell, and to live well before they come to those places of torment, doing penance for their sins, so that they might deserve to go rather to the bosom of Abraham, and not to those torments where that rich man arrived. Therefore, when that rich man, belatedly merciful, who had despised the poor man lying before his door, and hence, perhaps, because he was proud over him, his very tongue was burning, and there he desired a drop of water. Therefore, when he did not do what he should have done among the living to avoid coming there, belatedly he began to be merciful even for others. But what did Abraham say? If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. It is entirely true, brothers, because the Jews today are not persuaded to believe in Him who rose from the dead, because they did not hear Moses and the Prophets: for if they were willing to hear them, they would find that it was foretold there what is now fulfilled, and they still do not want to believe. Therefore, what we said about the Jews, let us act upon ourselves, lest, when we attend to others, we also fall into the same impiety. Beloved, the Gospel is not read to the Jews, Moses and the Prophets are read, whom they do not want to hear; but if they were willing to hear, they would believe in Christ, because Moses and the Prophets predicted the coming of Christ. Therefore, let us not be such as they, when the Gospel is read to us, as they are when the Prophets are read to them; for among them, as I said, the Gospel is not recited, but among us, it is recited.
The rich man feasting is a salutary example for us.
Behold, you have just heard from the Gospel about two lives, one present, the other future: we have the present, we believe in the future; we are in the present, we have not yet reached the future. While we are in the present, let us acquire the merit for the future; for we are not yet dead. Is the Gospel recited among the dead? If it were indeed recited there, it would be useless for the rich man to hear it, because repentance can no longer be fruitful there. It is read to us here, and here it is heard by us, where we can be corrected while we live, so that we do not come to those torments. Do we believe what is read, or do we not believe? Far be it from us to think this of your Charity, for you do believe; for you are Christians, and you would in no way be Christians if you did not believe in the Gospel of God; therefore, because you are Christians, it is clear that you believe in the Gospel. We have heard it, it has just been recited: There was a rich man, surely proud, surely exalting himself in wealth, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted luxuriously every day. But a certain poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, lay at his gate, whose sores even the dogs licked; and he longed to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and could not. Behold the crime of the rich man, for he longed to be filled with the crumbs, and could not, to whom humanity should have been shared. Therefore, if that rich man had had compassion on the poor man lying at his gate, and had wished to be merciful with his wealth, he would have come to the place where that poor man went. For Lazarus was not led to rest by his poverty, but by his humility; nor was that rich man drawn away from that great rest by wealth, but by pride and unbelief. For to let you know, brothers, that this rich man was unbelieving even while he was alive, let us prove from his words, which he spoke while in hell. Pay attention. He wished for someone to go from the dead to tell his brothers what happens in hell; and when this was not granted to him, Abraham said: They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them; no, father Abraham, he said, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will be persuaded, showing that he himself, when he was alive, did not believe Moses and the Prophets, but wished for someone to rise from the dead for him. Consider such people now, and see where they will be; by the example of this rich man we are warned, if you have faith. How many are there who say now: Let it be well for us while we live; let us eat and drink, and enjoy these pleasures. What is it that we are told will come afterward? Who has returned from there? Who has risen from there? These things are said; this is what that rich man said, and what he did not believe while alive, he found out when dead. It would have been better for him to be corrected fruitfully while alive, than to be tortured fruitlessly when dead.
Having been sufficiently warned about the future, we have no excuse.
Now let us therefore change these very words, if perhaps there is anyone among us who is accustomed to saying these things. For God does not show now what He commands us to believe; therefore He did not show it so that it might be a reward of faith. For if He shows you, what merit do you have because you believe? It is no longer believing, but seeing; rather, God does not show it to you so that you may believe. He commands you to believe, He keeps for you that you may see. But if you do not believe when He commands faith, He does not keep His appearance for you; but that thing is kept for you, from which the rich man was tormented in hell. And when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes, who is now announced to have come, so that He may also be hoped to come, He will come with the rewards for the faithful and the unbelievers: He will give rewards to the faithful, and will send the unbelievers into eternal fire. And He said this in the Gospel about how He will judge at the end: He will place some on the right hand, others on the left, and will separate all nations, just as a shepherd separates sheep from goats; the just will be on the right, the wicked on the left; He will say to the just: Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world; but to the wicked and the unbelievers: Go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. What more could the judge have benefited you than to have told you his definitive sentence, so that you might not fall into it? Brothers, everyone who threatens does not want to strike; for if he were suddenly to strike, he would strike. He who says: Watch out, does not wish to find whom to strike. Men bring about wounds for themselves, men acquire punishments for themselves, who for so long, when God says: Watch out, do not wish to believe. And indeed, what is the punishment for one who errs here? Perhaps some affliction, and some scourge either probationary or corrective. For either someone is corrected because of his sins, so he does not fall into greater uncorrected punishments; or the faith of each one is tested, by what endurance or what patience he remains under the scourge of the Father, not murmuring against the chastising Father, and rejoicing at the flattering one, but rejoicing at the flatterer in such a way that he also gives thanks to the chastiser: for He scourges every son whom He receives. How much the martyrs suffered, how much they tolerated! What chains, what squalor, what prisons, what torments, what flames, what beasts, what kinds of deaths! They trampled all these things underfoot. For they saw something in spirit, so that what they saw with the body they did not care about; the eye of faith was in them, the eye was directed toward the future, they disdained present things. But whose eye is extinguished from the future, is terrified at present things, and does not reach the future.
Our faith must be confirmed by what has already been fulfilled and by the promises from God.
Therefore, faith is built in us. Now, whoever does not want to believe that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, that He suffered, that He was crucified, let them believe the Jews because He existed and was killed, let them believe the Gospel because He was born of a Virgin and resurrected; for there is reason to believe. And the hostile Jews do not dare to say: Christ was not among our people; or: This man whom Christians worship did not exist. They say He was, and our ancestors killed Him, and He died as a man. If we find that those things that followed His death were spoken by the Prophets, because the whole world would run in His name, because all nations and all regions of the peoples would worship Him, because all kings would be subjected to His yoke, and we see fulfilled after the death of Christ what was once predicted before the birth of Christ, how do we deceive ourselves, if we do not want to believe the rest, when we see many things fulfilled in us? For we ourselves, brothers, are not only we who are here Christians, we are the whole world now. A few years ago, we were not; and it is astonishing how it happened, that what did not exist for so many ages now exists. We read that in the Prophets; lest we think it happened by chance, we find it was predicted. Therefore, our faith is strengthened, built up, and fortified from this. There is no one who can say: It happened suddenly. How? Behold, this which never was on earth. Sometimes in the Scriptures God was held as a debtor in these matters, but at His own time He was to pay the debt. But from where did God owe? or had He taken a loan from anyone, He who freely gives all things, who made those to whom He would give? For even the men themselves, to whom some things would be granted, did not exist. Can anyone say: My merits earned these goods from God? Suppose He granted these goods due to your merits. That you exist, to whom He granted? Before you were, what did He give you? That you exist freely; you did not earn it before you existed. Believe Him, because He also deigned to grant you the rest freely. Therefore, we have the grace of God, and the whole world in some way held God as a debtor; rather it did not, because it did not know the promissory note He made. By promising, He made Himself a debtor, not by taking a loan. For a debtor is mentioned in two ways: Repay what you received, or what you promised. Because what God promised, He cannot be told: Repay - for He received nothing from man, who gave everything to man - it remains that He is a debtor only because He deigned to promise.
The promises of God in the people of the Jews from Abraham, whose faith is commended.
This promise was in the Scriptures: these Scriptures were in one Judean nation, which He chose to be born from the flesh of His servant, His faithful one, who believed in Him. And how was that nation born? From the old Abraham, and from the sterile Sarah: so that she might conceive, so that Isaac himself might be born, from whom the Jewish nation came, a miracle occurred. The old man hoped for nothing from his own members, dared to hope for nothing from the sterility of his wife; what he did not count on at all, God offered to him, and he believed God offering, who did not dare to ask from God. And when he had believed and a son was born to him, from whom he believed an innumerable offspring would be born, God asked him to sacrifice that very son to Himself. However, Abraham was of such great faith that he did not hesitate to sacrifice the only one, of whom he had received the promise. Did he hesitate and say to God: Lord, you have granted me a son in old age as a great favor; for great wishes, for great joy, a son was born to me unexpectedly; do you demand that I kill this one? was it not better that you did not give, than to take away what was given? He did not say these things, but believed that it was useful, whatever he saw God wish. This is faith, brothers. Surely that poor man was taken up into the bosom of Abraham, and that rich man to the torments of hell. So that you may know that riches are not at fault, Abraham was rich, in whose bosom Lazarus rested. He was rich on earth, as we have the Scriptures teaching; he had much gold, silver, livestock, family; he was rich, but he was not proud. So that you may know that in the rich man only pride was tortured, only vices were tortured. They alone deserved punishment, not the substance of God; for the substance of God is good, to whomever it may have been given; but a reward is acquired by one using it well, punishment is repaid to one using it badly. But take heed, how Abraham had riches. Did he keep them for his sons? If he offered even his son at God's command, how did he despise riches?
The faithfulness of God in fulfilling promises, and the madness of idolaters.
Therefore this Scripture, where God had made Himself a debtor by promising, was hidden among the Jews. Our Lord Jesus Christ came, born according to this Scripture, because He was rendered according to it; suffered according to this Scripture, because He was foretold to suffer in it; rising according to this Scripture, because He was foretold to rise in it; ascending into heaven according to this Scripture, because He was foretold to ascend in it. After He ascended, unknown by the Jews, He began to send His Apostles to the Gentiles, and in a way to awaken those who were asleep, and say: Arise, receive the debt which was promised to you long ago. Who is it that arouses his creditor, and offers him that which he owes? For it was not the Gentiles, since they had God as their debtor, who arose; they were called, they began to pay attention to the Scripture, and there to find that what they were receiving had already long ago been promised to them. They received Christ promised and given; they received the grace of God, the Holy Spirit promised and given; they received the Church itself spread among all nations, promised and given. The idols which the Gentiles worshiped, God had promised to overthrow; it is read in the Scriptures, there you find it. You see how God did this in our times, which He had promised so many thousands of years ago. For men had turned away from Him by whom they were made, to that which they had made themselves; and since he who makes is always better than what he makes, therefore God is better, not only than the man whom He made, but than all angels, powers, dominions, thrones, and authorities, because He created all these; so that whatever man makes is inferior to the man himself. Men had been led into such madness that they worshiped an idol; they ought to be condemned if they worshiped the craftsman who made the idol. It is clear, brothers, that the craftsman is better than the idol he made; and, although men would be detestable if they worshiped the craftsman, they worship the idol itself, which was made by the craftsman. Men would be detestable for worshiping the craftsman; but they would be better than those who worship the idol. If therefore the better are condemned, how do I bewail the worse? If indeed, I said that the worshiper of the craftsman should be condemned, he who leaves the craftsman and worships the idol, surely having forsaken the better, and turned himself to the inferior, how is he to be condemned? But whom did he desert first, the better? God, by whom he himself was made. Is he seeking the image of God? He has it in himself; for the craftsman could not make the image of God, but God could make an image of Himself. However, He did not make something else for you, but made you yourself in His own image. But by worshiping the image of man, which the craftsman made, you destroy the image of God, which God impressed upon you. Therefore, when He calls you to return, He wishes to restore to you that image which you yourself, by earthly desire, in a manner rubbed away and obliterated.
God seeks His image in the soul, as Caesar in a coin.
Hence, brothers, it is because God seeks His image from us; He reminded the Jews of this when they presented a coin to Him. For first they wanted to test Him by saying: Lord, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar? So that, if He said: It is lawful, they would malign Him because He wanted Israel, whom He wished to be free, to be under tribute, subject to the king in giving tribute. But if He said: It is not lawful to give tribute, they would malign Him because He commanded against Caesar and was advocating not to give the tribute that was owed, since they were subject to Caesar. He saw their temptation, truth as falsehood, and briefly overturned the lie from the mouths of liars. He did not pronounce judgment from His own mouth, but made them pronounce judgment on themselves, because it is written: By your own mouth, you shall be justified, and by your own mouth, you shall be condemned. He said: Why do you test me, hypocrites? Show me the coin. They showed Him. Whose image and inscription is this, He asked? They replied: Caesar’s. And He said: Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. Just as Caesar seeks his image on your coin, so God seeks His image in your soul. Render unto Caesar, He said, what are Caesar’s. What does Caesar seek from you? His image. What does God seek from you? His image. But Caesar's image is on the coin; God's image is in you. If ever you lose the coin, you lament because you have lost Caesar’s image; when you worship an idol, you do not lament because you are dishonoring God’s image in yourself.
How many promises of God have already been fulfilled.
Therefore, brothers, hold fast to the promise of the Lord our God and already count from that number of His promises how many He has fulfilled. Christ was not yet born, He was promised in the Scriptures; He fulfilled it, He was born. He had not yet suffered, He had not yet risen; He fulfilled this too; He suffered, was crucified, and rose again. His passion is our reward; His blood is our redemption. He ascended into heaven, as He had promised; He fulfilled this too. He sent the Gospel to all lands; He therefore wanted there to be four Gospels, so that the whole world might be signified by the number four, from the East and the West, from the North and the South. For this reason, He wanted to have twelve disciples, to be somewhat distributed by fours; because the world was called in the Trinity, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He fulfilled this; He sent the Gospel, as He foretold: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace, who bring good news of good things!" as He foretold: "There are no words or languages where their voices are not heard; their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." As He said, so He sent; the Gospel is written in all lands. Likewise, the Church suffered persecution at first; He fulfilled it, because He had also promised martyrs. Recite the sure evidence: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." He also fulfilled the promise of the martyrs, because He had promised them as well. What was yet to be fulfilled afterwards? "All the kings of the earth shall worship before Him." Kings also believed, who at first had made martyrs by persecuting them; we see, therefore, that kings now believe. He also fulfilled what He had promised, that idols would be shattered by the command of kings, by whose command Christians were first killed. He also removed idols, as He had promised: "And there will be a regard for the idols of the nations." Therefore, with so many promises fulfilled, brothers, why do we not believe Him? Is God a less capable debtor? If He had not yet fulfilled anything for us, we would still hold a reliable debtor, who made heaven and earth; for He would not be poor, lacking the means to repay; nor does He deceive, being the truth Himself. Or is God such a powerful being that He can be succeeded, lacking time to repay?
The faith of Abraham is an example to us.
It is right, brothers, to believe in God before He gives anything, because He cannot lie, He cannot deceive: He is God. Thus our fathers believed in Him. Abraham believed in Him thus. Behold truly praiseworthy and proclaimed faith. He had received nothing from Him and believed the one promising; we do not yet believe, who have already received so much. Could Abraham say to Him: I will believe because you promised and returned that to me? From the first command he believed, he had received nothing else like it. Go forth from your land, it was said to him, and from your kin, and go to the land that I will give to you. And he believed immediately, and He did not give him the land itself, but reserved it for his seed. And He promised his seed, what? In your seed all nations will be blessed. His seed is Christ: because from Abraham Isaac, from Isaac Jacob, from Jacob the twelve, from the twelve the people of the Jews, from the people of the Jews the virgin Mary, from the virgin Mary our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ became the seed of Abraham; and what was promised to Abraham we find fulfilled in us. In your seed, He says, all nations will be blessed. He believed this before he had seen anything; he believed, and he did not see what was promised. But we see what was promised to him; and whatever was promised to him was in the future. For what has God not yet returned? He warned of labors to come in this world, and that His saints and faithful ones would be in labors and would bear fruit with endurance; He foretold this, and we see it; we are crushed by these labors. What labors were not yet foretold? Don't think, brothers, that what you see human affairs being crushed now is not written in the Scripture of God. Everything is written, and endurance is commanded to Christians, and greater good is to come, because the evils that were foretold have come. For if what was said did not come, it would also take away from us faith in the good things; but the evils came first so that we may believe in the good things to come.