SERMO 311
On the Birthday of Cyprian the Martyr
The solemnities of the martyrs are to be celebrated by the imitation of their virtues. The errors of the flattering world and the terrors of the raging world are overcome by wisdom and patience.
This day of festivity has been made for us by the passion of the most blessed martyr Cyprian: the celebration of his victory has gathered us in this place most devoutly. But the celebration of the solemnity of martyrs should be an imitation of their virtues. It is easy to honor the martyr: it is great to imitate the faith and patience of the martyr. Let us act in such a way that we desire this: let us celebrate in such a way that we love that instead. What do we praise in the faith of the martyr? Because he fought for the truth until death and therefore he conquered. He despised the flattering world, he did not yield to its savagery: therefore, he approached God as a victor. Errors and terrors abound in this world: the most blessed Martyr overcame errors with wisdom, terrors with patience. It is great what he did: following the lamb, he conquered the lion. When the persecutor raged, the lion roared: but because the lamb was looked up to, the lion was trampled down: he who destroyed death by death, hung on the wood, shed his blood, redeemed the world.
The apostles, confessing what they themselves had seen of the Lord, died.
The first blessed Apostles, leaders of the holy flock, saw the Lord Jesus himself hanging, grieved when he was dying, were astonished when he rose again, loved him when he was powerful, and they themselves shed their blood for what they saw. Consider, brothers, what it was like for men to be sent throughout the world, to preach that a man who died rose again and ascended into heaven; and for this preaching to endure everything that an enraged world could inflict—losses, exiles, chains, torments, flames, beasts, crosses, deaths. This for something unknown? For my brothers, was Peter dying for his own glory, or was he preaching himself? One man died, so that another might be honored; one was killed, so that another might be worshiped. Would he have done this, if not for the burning love of charity, from the conscience of truth? They saw what they said: for would they die for a matter they had not seen? They ought to deny what they had seen. They did not deny it: they preached a dead man, whom they knew to be alive. They knew for which life they despised their own life: they knew for which happiness they endured transient unhappiness, for which rewards they scorned these losses. Their faith could not be weighed with the whole world. They had heard: What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his soul? The allure of the age did not delay those hastening, those passing away to another life, no matter how brightly shining a happiness must be left behind, not to be transferred to another life, but sometimes even here abandoned by the living.
Martyrs teach by example the contempt of the world.
Therefore, despise the world, Christians; despise the world, despise it. The martyrs despised it, the Apostles despised it, blessed Cyprian despised it, whose memory we celebrate today. You wish to be rich, you wish to be honored, you wish to be healthy: he despised all of this, in whose memory you have gathered. Why, I ask, do you so greatly love what he despised, whom you honor so greatly? If indeed he had not despised these things, you certainly would not honor him so. Why then do I find you a lover of these things, whose despiser you revere? Certainly, if he loved these things, you would not venerate him. And do not you love them: for he did not enter and shut the door against you. Despise them as well; and enter after him. The way to enter is open: Christ is the door. The door remains open for you, since his side was pierced by a lance. Recall what flowed from there; and choose through which you may enter. From the side of the Lord hanging and dying on the wood, after it was pierced by a lance, water and blood flowed forth. In one is your cleansing, in the other is your redemption.
The love of earthly things is the snare of the soul.
Love, and do not love: love for one thing, and do not love for another. For there is something to be loved for progress, and there is something to be loved for hindrance. Do not love hindrance, if you do not want to find torment. What you love on earth is a hindrance: it is the birdlime of spiritual wings, that is, of virtues, by which one flies to God. Do you not want to be caught, and yet you love the birdlime? Do you think you are not caught because you are sweetly caught? The more it delights, the more it strangles strongly. I say these things: and you praise, and shout, and love. It is not I who answer you, but wisdom: I want morals, not voices. Praise wisdom by living; not by sounding, but by resonating.
Profane songs and dances were banished from the church, where Cyprian is buried.
The Lord says in the Gospel: We sang to you, and you did not dance. When would I say this, if I had not read it? Vanity mocks me, but authority helps me. If I had not specified who said this, who among you could bear me saying: We sang to you, and you did not dance? Is it in this place, even if a Psalm should be sung, that someone should dance? At some time not very many years ago, even this place was invaded by the impudence of dancers. This most holy place, where the body of such a holy Martyr lies, as many who are of age remember; this most holy place, I say, was invaded by the pestilence and impudence of dancers. Throughout the night, wicked things used to be sung here, and people danced to the singing. When the Lord willed, through our holy brother, your bishop, since holy vigils began to be celebrated here, that plague resisted somewhat, but later yielded to diligence, blushed at wisdom.
Our song must harmonize with our conduct, as if with a dance.
Therefore, since these things do not happen here now, thanks to God’s mercy, because we do not perform plays for demons, where these things used to happen for the pleasure of those who are worshipped, and in their impurity they used to corrupt their worshipers, but here sacredness and the solemnity of martyrs are celebrated; there is no dancing here, and where there is no dancing, yet it is read from the Gospel: "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance." Those who did not dance are reproved, chastised, accused. Let that wantonness be far from returning; rather hear what wisdom wishes to be understood. He who instructs sings; he who acts dances. What is it to dance but to move the limbs in harmony with the song? What is our song? I will not propose it as my own; let it not be mine. I am better a minister than a performer. I declare our song: "Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever, just as God remains forever."
Dancers harmonious to the spiritual song with the change of life.
What kind of song, my brothers? You have heard the one singing, let us listen to those dancing: make your conduct consistent with the dancers' movements of limbs. Do this inwardly: let your actions be in harmony. Let desire be uprooted, let love be planted. From that tree, whatever comes forth is good. Desire can generate nothing good: love nothing evil. It is spoken and it is praised; and no one is changed. Far be it, it is not true what I said. The fishermen were changed, afterward even many senators were changed: Cyprian was changed, whose memory we celebrate today. He himself writes, he himself testifies, how once his life was, how nefarious, how impious, how to be condemned, and detested. He heard the one singing: he showed himself, not by body, but by mind dancing. He adapted himself to a good song, he adapted himself to a new song: he adapted, he loved, he persevered, he fought, he overcame.
Bad times do not make men bad, only bad people do.
And you say: The times are troublesome, the times are grievous, the times are miserable. Live well, and you will change the times by living well: you change the times, and you will have no reason to murmur. What indeed are the times, my brothers? Spaces and stretches of centuries. The sun rises, and after twelve hours it sets on the other part of the world; it rises again in the morning of another day and sets again; count how many times: these are the times. Whom did the rising of the sun harm? Whom did the setting of the sun harm? Therefore, the time harmed no one. Those who are harmed are people; by whom are they harmed? By people. O great pain! People are harmed, people are robbed, people are oppressed. By whom? Not by lions, not by serpents, not by scorpions; but by people. Those who are harmed grieve. If they could, would they not do what they reproach? We then find a person who murmured, when he could do what he murmured about. I praise, I praise, if he did not do what he accused.
From gold, a good man brings forth many good things, a bad man many bad things.
But those, dearest ones, who seem powerful in the world, how are they praised when they do less than they can? Scripture praised this one: He who could transgress and did not transgress; who did not go after gold. Gold ought to follow after you, not you after gold. For gold is good. For God did not create anything evil. Do not be evil; and gold is good. Behold, I place gold between a good man and a bad man. The bad one takes it; the needy are oppressed; judges are corrupted, laws are perverted, human affairs are disturbed. Why this? Because the bad man took the gold. The good one takes it; the poor are fed, the naked are clothed, the oppressed are freed, captives are redeemed. How many good things come from the gold that the good man has? how many bad things from the gold that the bad man has? Why then do you sometimes say angrily: Oh, if only there were no such thing as gold? Do not love gold. If you are bad, you go after gold: if you are good, it goes after you. What does it mean, it goes after you? You lead, you are not led: because you possess it, you are not possessed by it.
The good among the wicked are not lacking in the Church. The White Mass. Cyprian the chosen grain.
Therefore, let us return to the words of the Holy Scripture. "Who did not go after gold. Who had the power to transgress, and did not transgress." Who is this, and we shall praise him? Who is this, or who is this? How many hear: and who is this? And yet it must not be that I despair there being someone here, indeed not just anyone, but some. It must not be that I despair of the threshing floor of so great a householder. He who sees the floor from afar thinks it is only chaff: he who knows how to inspect finds the grains. Where chaff offends you, there a mass of grains lies hidden. Where what is crushed by threshing offends you, there is what is purified by the threshing floor: it is there, be certain; it is there. Finally, he who sowed, who harvested, who gathered to the floor is certain: he knows there is that from which the granary will be filled, when it has been winnowed. There was a slight, any kind of winnowing at the time of persecution: what grains proceeded from there? Hence flourished the Massa Candida of Utica: hence this most blessed Cyprian, so great and chosen a grain. How many rich then despised what they had? How many poor then fell in temptation? Behold, in that temptation, as if in winnowing, it did not harm the rich to have gold; what did it profit the poor not to have gold? They overcame, they failed.
The things of which there is a good and bad use. Some good things are proper to the good, others are common to both good and bad.
Good morals are made only by good loves. Let gold be removed from human affairs: rather, let gold be present, to test human affairs. Let the human tongue be cut off because of blasphemers of God: and whence will there be praisers of God? What harm has the tongue done to you? Let there be one who sings well, and the instrument is good. Give a good mind to the tongue: good things are said, discord is harmonized, mourners are comforted, the wanton are reprimanded, the irate are restrained; God is praised, Christ is commended, the mind is inflamed with love; but divine, not human; spiritual, not carnal. The tongue does these good things. Why? Because the mind that uses the tongue is good. Give an evil person to the tongue: there will be blasphemers, litigators, slanderers, informers. All evils come from the tongue, because the one who uses the tongue is evil.
Let not things be removed from human affairs.