SERMO 156
ON THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE (ROMANS 8:12-17):
"Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh,"
"That we may live according to the flesh," etc.
AGAINST THE PELAGIANS
He was in the Basilica of Gratian,
THE BIRTHDAY OF THE MARTYRS OF BOLITANA
In the Scriptures some things are hidden, some things are open.
The depth of the Word of God exercises study, it does not deny understanding. For if all things were closed, there would be nothing from which obscure things could be revealed. Again, if all things were covered, there would be nothing from which the soul could receive nourishment and gain the strength with which it could knock on closed doors. In the previous apostolic readings, which we have explained to your Love, as much as the Lord has deigned to help, we have endured much labor and anxiety. We sympathized with you, and were anxious both for us and for you. However, as I believe, the Lord has helped both us and you; and those things which seemed extremely difficult, He deigned to untangle through us, such that no question remained which would disturb a pious mind. For an impious mind even hates understanding itself; and a person sometimes, with an overly perverse mind, fears to understand, lest he be compelled to do what he has understood. About such people the Psalm says: They did not want to understand, in order to act well. But you, beloved, because it is good to think well of you, demand understanding, and God demands fruit. For understanding, as it is written, is good for all those who do it. Nevertheless, what remains and was read today, although it does not have as much difficulty as the earlier readings, which we have already, with the help of the Lord, passed through as we could, still requires your attention; as it is like a conclusion, because of what was said in the earlier readings, where there was labor, lest the Apostle be constituted guilty of all sins in a certain way by saying: For I do not do what I want. Then, lest the law appear either sufficient for a person having free will, even if no further divine help is extended, or certainly be believed to have been given in vain, the reason why the law was given is also stated, because it too was given for help, but not like grace.
The law was given. The necessity of medicinal grace.
For it is given, as we have already explained and you should hold, and we ought to commend to you more earnestly and diligently; it is given that man might find himself, not that disease might be cured, but that, through the increase of disease by transgression, a physician should be sought. And who is this physician, unless He who said: The physician is not needed for those who are well, but for those who are sick? Therefore, he who does not confess the Creator, arrogantly denies the Author. However, he who denies his own sickness judges the Savior as unnecessary. Therefore, let us both praise the Creator in our nature; and for the vice which we have inflicted upon ourselves, let us seek the Savior. And how do we seek the Savior? That He might give the law? It is not enough: For if a law had been given that could impart life, righteousness would certainly be by the law. If, therefore, no law has been given that can impart life, why was it given? It follows and shows why it was given; because even thus it was given as an aid, lest you consider yourself healthy. If therefore a law had been given that could impart life, righteousness would certainly be by the law. And as if we asked: Why then was it given? But Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. When you hear a promiser, expect a doer. Human nature was capable through free will of wounding itself: but already wounded and afflicted, it is not capable through free will of healing itself. For if you would wish to live intemperately to become sick, you do not require a physician for that; your own lapse suffices you. But when, acting intemperately, you begin to be sick, you cannot free yourself from sickness in the same way you could plunge yourself into sickness through intemperance. Yet the physician also prescribes temperance for the healthy. A good physician does this, he does not wish to be necessary for the sick. So the Lord God deigned to prescribe temperance to man created without vice; if he had kept it, he would not afterwards crave the physician for his illness. But because he did not keep it, he became weak, he fell; the infirm created the infirm, that is: the infirm begot the infirm. Yet God works what is good in all those born infirm, by forming the body, enlivening the body, providing sustenance, giving His rain and His sun upon the good and the bad; there is no cause for the good or the bad to accuse Him. Moreover, He did not wish to leave the human race condemned by His just judgment to everlasting destruction: but He also sent a physician, He sent a Savior; He sent one who would heal freely; it is little that He should heal freely, who would also reward those healed. Nothing can be added to this benevolence. Who is he that says: I will heal you, and give you a reward? He has done excellently. For He knew that He came as a rich man to the poor: and He heals the sick, and to the healed He gives, and He gives nothing less than Himself. The Savior is the aid of the sick, and the Savior Himself is the reward of the healed.
Read so as to use the law legitimately. The law is a tutor.
Therefore, brothers, what you were reminded of today, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For this we have been helped, for this we have received the Spirit of God, for this also in our labors we daily ask for assistance. The law which threatens for not fulfilling what it commands makes him be under it; these are under the law, not under grace. The law is good if anyone uses it lawfully. What is then: To use the law lawfully? To recognize one's disease through the law, and to seek divine assistance for healing. Because, as I said, and it must often be said: If the law could give life, righteousness would certainly be by the law, nor would a savior be sought, nor would Christ come, nor would he seek the lost sheep with his blood. For thus the same Apostle says in another place: For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died in vain. What then is the use of the law, and what assistance? Because Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Therefore, the law, he says, was our tutor in Christ Jesus. From this analogy, pay attention to the matter I am discussing. The tutor does not lead the child to himself, but to the teacher; but when the well-instructed child has grown, he will no longer be under the tutor.
The usefulness of the law.
Discussing these matters, the Apostle speaks elsewhere too: for he recommends this very persistently; but I wish it were not to the deaf. He persistently recommends this, commending faith to the Gentiles; because by faith they obtain help, so that they may fulfill the law, not through the law, but obtaining the strength to fulfill it through faith; for this reason the Apostle says and recommends these things persistently, on account of the Jews, who gloried in the law and thought that their free will sufficed for the law; and because of this, thinking that their free will sufficed for the law, ignorant of God's righteousness, that is, the righteousness given by God through faith, and wishing to establish their own, as if fulfilled by their own strength, not obtained by the cry of faith, they were not subject to the righteousness of God, as he says. For Christ is the end of the law, he says, for righteousness to everyone who believes. Therefore, when discussing this, he opposed himself: What then is the law? As if: What is the utility of the law? He answered: It was added because of transgressions. This is what he says elsewhere: The law entered so that the offense might abound. And what did he add there? But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Because in lighter illness the help of medicine was despised: the disease grew, and the physician was sought. What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions; hence the neck of the proud, attributing much to themselves, and arrogating much to their own will, as if they thought free will could suffice for righteousness: when it was in perfect liberty, that is, in paradise, it showed its strength, it showed how much it could do, but for falling, not for rising. Therefore, the law was added because of transgressions, until the seed to whom the promise was made should come, arranged through angels in the hand of a mediator.
The necessity of a mediator. What praiseworthy faith might be.
However, a mediator is not of one; but God is one. What does it mean: A mediator is not of one? Because indeed a mediator is between two. If God is one, and a mediator is not of one, we seek a mediator between what and God? Because a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Between what and what he is a mediator, we find the Apostle himself saying: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. If you were not lying down, you would not need a mediator: but because you are lying down, and cannot rise, in some way God stretched out His arm to you as a mediator. And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Therefore, let no one say: Because we are not under the law, but under grace; therefore let us sin, therefore let us do what we will. He who says this loves sickness, not health. Grace is a medicine. He who wishes to always be sick is ungrateful for the medicine. Therefore, brothers, having received help, with divine assistance extended to us from above, by the arm of the Lord, and the very arm of the Lord extending help to us by the Holy Spirit, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Because faith cannot work well, except through love. For indeed it is the faith of the faithful, lest it be the faith of demons; because even demons believe and tremble. Therefore, that praiseworthy faith is the true faith of grace, which works through love. But in order that we may have love, and from it we may be able to have good works, can we give it to ourselves, seeing that it is written: The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us? Love is so much a gift of God, that it is called God, with the Apostle John saying: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
To live according to the flesh is evil. Let the soul live according to God, the flesh according to the soul.
Therefore, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Not because the flesh is evil: for it is also a creature of God, and created by Him who also created the soul; neither that, nor that part of God, but both that and that creature of God. Therefore, the flesh is not evil: but to live according to the flesh is evil. God is supremely good, because He supremely is who said: I am who am. Therefore, God is supremely good: the soul is a great good, but not the highest good. But when you hear, God is supremely good, do not think it said only of God the Father, but of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For this Trinity is one, and one God, and supremely good. Thus clearly there is one God, so that when you are asked about the very Trinity, you answer thus: lest perhaps when you hear, There is one God, you think it is the Father Himself, the Son Himself, the Holy Spirit Himself. It is not so: but He who is the Father in that Trinity, is not the Son; He who is the Son in that Trinity, is not the Father; He who is the Holy Spirit in that Trinity, is neither the Son nor the Father; but the Spirit of the Father, and the same Spirit of the Son. For He is the one Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, consubstantial, equal. This whole Trinity, one God supremely good. The soul, however, as I said, created by the highest good, yet not the highest good, but a great good. Likewise, the flesh is neither the highest good, nor a great good; but still a small good. Therefore, the soul is a great good, but not the highest good; living between the highest good and the small good, that is, between God and the flesh, inferior to God, superior to the flesh; why does it not live according to the highest good, but lives according to the small good? This is said more plainly: Why does it not live according to God, but lives according to the flesh? For it is a debtor not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. The flesh ought to live according to it, not it according to the flesh. Let it live according to it, which lives from it. Certainly, let each live according to that from which it lives. From what does your flesh live? From your soul. From what does your soul live? From your God. Let each of these live according to its life. For the flesh is not its own life; but the soul is the life of the flesh. The soul is not its own life: but God is the life of the soul. Therefore, the soul ought to live according to God; for it is not a debtor to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: therefore, it ought to live according to God; if it lives according to itself, it fails; does it live according to the flesh and advance? Then the flesh correctly lives according to the soul, if the soul lives according to God. For if the soul, I do not say according to the flesh, but according to itself, as I said, wants to live; I will tell you what it is to live according to itself: it is good for you to know this, and very healthy.
Epicureans living according to the flesh, and Stoics according to the soul.
There were philosophers of this age; some believed that there was no happiness unless one lived according to the flesh and placed the good of man in bodily pleasure. These philosophers were called Epicureans, named after a certain Epicurus, their founder and teacher, and others like him. However, there were others, proud as if distancing themselves from the flesh, who placed all their hope of happiness in their soul and placed the highest good in their virtue. The affection of piety recognized the voice of the Psalm in you: you know, you recognize, you have learned how they were mocked in the holy Psalm: "Those who trust in their own strength." Such were the philosophers called Stoics. Those lived according to the flesh, these lived according to the soul, and neither the former nor the latter lived according to God. Therefore, when the Apostle Paul came to the city of the Athenians, where these schools of philosophers flourished with zeal and disputation, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles; where I rejoice that you anticipate our discourse by recognition and reflection, as it is written there: "They conversed with him, certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers"; they conversed with him, those living according to the flesh, they conversed with him, those living according to the soul, he conversed with them, living according to God. The Epicurean said: "To enjoy the flesh is good for me." The Stoic said: "To enjoy my mind is good for me." The Apostle said: "But for me, to adhere to God is good." The Epicurean said: "Blessed is he whose joy comes from the pleasure of his flesh." The Stoic said: "Rather, blessed is he whose joy comes from the virtue of his soul." The Apostle said: "Blessed is he whose hope is in the name of the Lord." The Epicurean errs: for it is false that a man is blessed whose joy comes from the pleasure of his flesh. The Stoic is also deceived: for it is false, and entirely mendacious, that a man is blessed whose joy comes from the virtue of his soul. Blessed, therefore, is he whose hope is in the name of the Lord. And because they are vain and lie: "And he did not look," he said, "on vanities and false insanities."
The soul according to itself living is carnal.
Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, like the Epicureans. But even if the soul wishes to live according to itself, it will be fleshly; it savors of the flesh, it does not rise from the flesh. For it is not possible to rise from there if one does not grasp the outstretched arm of the one lying down. For if you live according to the flesh. Where it is said: What can man do to me? there it is said: What can flesh do to me? For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Not this death, when one exits the body; for you will die this death even if you live according to the spirit: but that death, about which the Lord says terrifyingly in the Gospel: Fear him who has the power to destroy both soul and body in the Gehenna of fire. Therefore, if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
Our work in this life is the mortification of the flesh.
But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. This is our work in this life, to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit; to afflict, lessen, restrain, and kill daily. For how many things no longer delight those making progress, which previously delighted them? Therefore, when it delighted and was not agreed to, it was being put to death: because now it does not delight, it has been put to death. Trample on the dead, move on to the living: trample on the one lying, struggle with the one resisting. For one delight has died, but another lives: and you put that one to death by not consenting to it; when it begins to no longer delight at all, you have put it to death. This is our action, this is our battle. In this struggle when we fight, we have God as our spectator; in this struggle when we labor, we ask for God's help. For if He does not help us, I do not say we can win, but we cannot even fight.