SERMO 154
OF THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE, (ROM 7:14 AND FOLLOWING):
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal," etc.
AGAINST THE PELAGIANS
Those who say that a man can be without sin in this life.
The Dress at the Table of Saint Martyr Cyprian
The law was given for what purpose.
Yesterday's reading from the Epistle of the holy Apostle Paul, which those present at the sermon heard, follows today’s lesson that has been recited. That difficult and perilous place still lingers, which we have undertaken to explain and untangle for you with the assistance of our Lord, as much as you help me with your devoted affection towards Him, and with the strength He deigns to grant. May your Charity grant me patience, so that if I have a difficult discourse due to the obscurity of the matters, I may at least have an easy voice. For if both are difficult, it wears us greatly, and would that this labor is not in vain. But so that our labor may be useful, let your listening be patient. Because the Apostle does not blame the Law, we satisfied those who listened yesterday, as I believe. For there he said: What then shall we say? Is the Law sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the Law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known covetousness, if the Law had not said, You shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the Law, sin lies dead; that is, it is hidden, it does not appear. I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived. I died, and the very commandment that was meant to bring life (for what is more pertinent to life than You shall not covet?), that proved to bring death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me; it terrified concupiscence, not extinguished it; terrified, but did not oppress; created fear of punishment, not love of justice. Thus, he says, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment become sinful beyond measure. For sin would not be reckoned as sin without the commandment. In another place, the same Apostle says openly: Where there is no Law, there is no transgression. What then? Why do we doubt that the Law was given for man to discover himself? For when God did not prohibit evil, man hid himself; he did not find his own weak powers, except when he received the Law of prohibition. Thus he found himself, found himself in evil. Where could he flee from himself? Wherever he flees, he follows himself. And what does the knowledge of himself found in evil profit him, if his conscience wounds him?
Whether the Apostle speaks of himself here.
Therefore, he speaks also in this reading, which was recited today, the one who finds himself. "We know," he says, "that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but what I hate, that I do." At this point, with great diligence, it is asked who is understood, whether it is the Apostle himself who is speaking, or he has transfigured someone else into himself, whom he addresses as himself, as he said in one place: "But these things I have transfigured in myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that you may learn from us." If therefore the Apostle speaks (which no one doubts), and when he says: "I do not do what I want, but what I hate, that I do," he does not say it of another, but of himself; what are we to understand, my brothers? Was it so that the apostle Paul, for example, did not want to commit adultery, and did commit adultery? Did he not want to be avaricious, and was avaricious? But who of us would dare to put himself into such blasphemy, to think this of the Apostle? Therefore perhaps it is another; perhaps it is you, or it is you, or he is, or I am. If therefore it is one of us, let us hear the thing as if it were about ourselves, and not correct ourselves in anger. But if it is he himself, perhaps it is, let us not thus understand what he said: "I do not do what I want, but what I hate, that I do," as if he wanted to be chaste and was an adulterer, or wanted to be merciful and was cruel, or wanted to be pious and was impious. Let us not take it in this way: "For I do not do what I want, but what I hate, that I do."
The Apostle himself is not without desire.
But why? I do not want to desire, yet I desire. What did the law say? You shall not covet. Man heard the law, recognized the vice: he declared war, he found captivity. But perhaps some man, not an Apostle. What then do we say, my brothers? Did the Apostle have no desire in his flesh, which he did not want to have, yet existing, titillating, suggesting, soliciting, burning, tempting, to which he did not consent? I say to your Charity, if we believe that the Apostle had no weakness of desire to which he resisted, we believe much about him; and we wish it were so. For we ought not to envy the Apostles, but to imitate them. But indeed, dearest, I hear the Apostle himself confessing that he had not yet reached so great a perfection of justice as we believe to be in the angels; whose equality with angels we hope for, if we attain what we desire. For what else does the Lord promise us in the resurrection, where he says: In the resurrection of the dead, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; for they cannot die anymore, but will be equal to the angels of God?
The Apostle speaks of his own imperfection.
Therefore, someone might say: And how do you know that the Apostle Paul did not yet have the justice and perfection of an angel? I do no injustice to the Apostle, I believe only the Apostle, I seek no other witness; I do not listen to the one who suspects, I do not care about the one who praises too much. Tell me, holy Apostle, about yourself, where no one doubts that you are speaking about yourself. For where you said: What I want to do, I do not; but what I hate, that I do, there are those who say that you transformed someone else unknown into yourself struggling, failing, conquered, captive. Tell me about yourself, where no one doubts that you are speaking about yourself. Brothers, says the Apostle, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. And what do you do? One thing, however: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what is ahead, with intention, he says, not with perfection; with intention I follow toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He had already said above: Not that I have already obtained it or am already perfect. Yet it is contradicted and said: The Apostle said these things because he had not yet attained immortality; not because he had not yet attained the perfection of righteousness. Therefore he was already as just as the angels, but not yet immortal like the angels. Indeed, they say, indeed this is precisely the case. Now you said: He was as just as the angels, but not yet immortal like the angels. Therefore he already held the perfection of righteousness, but by following the supreme prize, he was seeking immortality.
The Apostle confesses the weakness of his soul.
Tell us, holy Apostle, a more manifest place, not where you seek immortality, but where you confess infirmity. And here already whispers arise, objections are made. I seem to hear the thoughts of some, and here it is said to me: “It is true, I know what you are going to say: he confesses infirmity, but of the flesh, not of the mind; he confesses infirmity, but of the body, not of the soul; in the mind, however, is perfect justice, not in the body. For who does not know that the Apostle was indeed fragile in body, mortal in body, as he says: We have this treasure in earthen vessels? Therefore, what do you have to do with the earthen vessel? Speak of the treasure. If he had anything less, if there were something to be added to the gold of justice, let us find it. Let us hear him himself, lest we be thought injurious. And lest I be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, the Apostle says: lest I be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. Surely here you recognize the Apostle as having an abundance of revelations, and fearing the precipice of elation. Therefore, that you may know that even the Apostle himself, who wished to save others, was still being healed; that you may know that even he was still being healed; if you highly value his honor, hear what the doctor applied to his swelling; hear not me, hear him. Hear him confessing, that you may feel him teaching. Hear: And lest I be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. Behold, now I can say to the Apostle Paul: Lest you be exalted, holy Apostle? Lest you be exalted, is there still a need for caution? Lest you be exalted, is there still a need for fear? Lest you be exalted, is a remedy still to be sought for this infirmity?
The Apostle was given a poultice for swelling.
What do you say to me? And you, hear what I am; and do not be proud, but fear. Hear how a short lamb enters where a ram so endangers itself. Lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. What kind of swelling did he fear, who received such a biting remedy? Therefore, say now that there was as much righteousness in him as in the holy Angels. Or perhaps even the holy angel in heaven receives a thorn, a messenger of Satan, to buffet him so that he may not be exalted? May such a suspicion about the holy Angels be far from us. We are men, let us acknowledge the holy Apostles as men; chosen vessels, but still fragile; still wanderers in this flesh, not yet triumphant in the heavenly homeland. Therefore, because he prayed to the Lord three times that this thorn might be removed from him; and he was not heard according to his will, because he was heard for his healing; perhaps he does not speak improperly where he says: But we know that the Law is spiritual; I, however, am carnal.
Every saint in this life is both carnal and spiritual.
Therefore, the fleshly Apostle, who said to others: "You who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness," speaks to others as spiritual, and is himself fleshly? But what did he say even to those spiritual ones, because they were not yet in heavenly and angelic perfection, they were not yet in the security of that homeland, but were engaged in the concern of this pilgrimage? What did he say to them? Surely he called them spiritual: "You," he said, "who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted." Behold, he whom he already called spiritual, he feared for him the fragility of temptation, from which a spiritual one could be tempted, if not in mind, certainly in flesh. For he is spiritual because he lives according to the spirit; however, he is still in part mortal, fleshly: the same one is both spiritual and fleshly. Behold the spiritual: "With my mind I serve the law of God." Behold the fleshly: "But with the flesh the law of sin." Therefore, the same one is both spiritual and fleshly? Clearly the same, as long as he lives here, so it is.
Who is entirely carnal, who is partly or entirely spiritual.
Do not be surprised, whoever you are, if you yield and consent to carnal desires, either thinking them to be good to satisfy lust, or at least recognizing their evil but still yielding and following where they lead, and carrying out the evil suggestions they offer; you are entirely carnal. You, you, whoever you are in this state, are entirely carnal. However, if you indeed desire what the law forbids when it says: "You shall not covet," but still adhere to what the law also commands: "Do not follow your desires," you are spiritual in mind, but carnal in flesh. For there is a difference between not desiring at all and not following your desires. Not desiring at all is a sign of perfection; not following your desires signifies struggle, conflict, effort. Where the battle rages, why despair of victory? When will victory come? When death is swallowed up in victory. Then there will be the voice of the conqueror, not the sweat of the fighter. What will be the future voice of the conqueror when this corruptible body has put on incorruption, and this mortal body has put on immortality? See the victor, hear him rejoice, wait for him to triumph. Then the word written will be fulfilled: "Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" Where is it? It was here, and now it is not. Where, O death, is your victory? See the contention of death: "For I do not do what I want to." See the contention of death: "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal." If the Apostle speaks of himself; if I say it, I do not reaffirm it; if the Apostle says, "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal," meaning spiritually minded but physically carnal: when will he be wholly spiritual? When: "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." So now, when the contention of death rages, "I do not do what I want to": in part spiritual, in part carnal; spiritually better, carnally inferior. I still struggle, I have not yet won; it is a great thing for me not to be defeated. "For I do not do what I want to, but what I hate, I do." What are you doing? I desire. Even if I do not consent to desires, even if I do not follow my desires; yet I still desire: and indeed, even in this part, I am myself.
The same both carnal and spiritual.
For I am not in the mind, and another in the flesh. But what? Therefore, I myself: because I in the mind, I in the flesh. For not two contrary natures, but from both one man; because one God, by whom man was made. Therefore, I myself, I myself, serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh the law of sin. With my mind, I do not consent to the law of sin: but yet I would not want there to be any law of sin in my members. Because, therefore, I would not want it, and yet it is; not what I want do I do: because I desire, and do not want, not what I want do I do; but what I hate, that I do. What do I hate? Desiring. I hate desiring, and yet I do it with the flesh, not with the mind: What I hate, that I do.
Agreeing with the law.