Sermon 298

SERMO 298

TREATISE ON THE FEAST OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL

The birthdays of Peter and Paul are to be celebrated with greater frequency.

We indeed ought to celebrate the day of such great martyrs, that is, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, with greater attendance. For if we very often celebrate the birthdays of lambs, how much more should we celebrate those of rams? For about the faithful, whom the Apostles gained through their preaching, it is written: Bring to the Lord the sons of rams. Through the straits of sufferings, through the way full of thorns, through the tribulations of persecutions, so that the faithful may pass after them, they had the Apostles as leaders. Blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, and blessed Paul, the last of the Apostles, who duly worshipped Him who said: I am the first, and I am the last, met on one day of passion: the first and the last. Peter was the ordainer of Saint Stephen. When Stephen the martyr was ordained as a deacon, among other Apostles, the Apostle Peter ordained him. Peter, his ordainer; Paul, his persecutor. But let us not seek the former things of Paul; let us rejoice in the latter things of the last one. For if we seek the former things, even those of Peter himself will not please us enough. We have said that Paul was the persecutor of Stephen. Let us look at Peter, the denier of the Lord. Peter washed his denial of the Lord with tears; Paul expiated the persecution of Stephen with blindness. Peter wept before the lash; Paul also endured the lash. Both good, both holy, both most devoted: their letters are read daily to the peoples. And to which peoples? and to how many peoples? Consider the Psalm: Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. And we give proof: for those words have come to us too, and have awakened us from sleep, and turned us from the madness of unbelief to the health of faith.

First and foremost, Peter and Paul, the wound of love.

I say these things, beloved, rejoicing indeed on this day because of such a great feast, but somewhat saddened, because I do not see as great a crowd gathered as ought to have been gathered on the birthday of the Apostles' passion. If it were hidden from us, it would not be attributed to us; but since it is not hidden from anyone, what is this great laziness? Do you not love Peter and Paul? I speak to those in you who are not here. For I give thanks to you, for at least you have come. And is it possible for the spirit of any Christian not to love Peter and Paul? If he is still cold, let him read and love; if he still does not love, let him take the arrow of the word into his heart. For it is said about the apostles themselves: "Your arrows are sharp, powerful." By these arrows, what follows happened: "The peoples will fall under you." Such wounds are good. The wound of love is healing. The bride of Christ sings in the Song of Songs: "I am wounded by love." When is this wound healed? When our desire is satisfied with good things. It is called a wound as long as we desire and have not yet attained. For thus is love, thus there is also pain. When we have arrived, when we have attained, then the pain passes, the love does not diminish.

Paul's joy with his suffering approaching. Through distress one passes to a place of broadness.

You have heard the words in the letter of Paul, which he wrote to his disciple the blessed Timothy: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering. He saw the imminent suffering: he saw it, but did not fear it. Why did he not fear? Because he had already said: I desire to depart and be with Christ. For I, he says, am already being poured out like a drink offering. No one says with such exultation that he is about to dine, and have a great feast, with as much exultation as he says he is about to suffer. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering. What does it mean to be poured out like a drink offering? I will be a sacrifice. A sacrifice for whom? For God: because precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. I, he says, am being poured out like a drink offering. I am secure: I have a priest above who will offer me to God. I have the same priest, who was previously a victim for me. I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. He called it departure from the body.

There is indeed a certain sweet bond of the body, and man is bound and does not wish to be freed. Yet he who said, "Desiring to be dissolved, and to be with Christ," rejoiced that these bonds would someday be loosed; the bonds of carnal members would be loosed, and the garments and ornaments of eternal virtues would be taken up. Securely he lay down the flesh, to receive a crown. Happy exchange, holy migration, how blessed the abode! Faith sees it, not yet the eye; for "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him." Where are these saints, we suppose? There where it is good. Why seek more? You do not know the place, but consider the merit. Wherever they are, they are with God. The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and torment does not touch them, but they passed through torments to a place without torment: they reached a place of breadth through narrow ways. Therefore, let him who desires such a homeland not fear the laborious path. "The time," he says, "of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of justice." Rightly do you hasten, rightly do you rejoice to be made a sacrifice: for there truly remains a crown of justice for you. The bitterness of suffering is still imminent, but thought of the suffering passes over it, and considers what lies beyond; not the way by which one goes, but the goal to which one goes. And since with great love the goal is considered to which one goes, with great strength is trodden the path by which one goes.

The crown would not be given as due, unless grace had first been given as undeserved.

But when he had said: "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," he added: "Which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day." A righteous judge will give, he has not yet given. For if, O Paul, formerly Saul, when you persecuted the saints of Christ, when you kept the garments of those who stoned Stephen, the Lord had exercised righteous judgment upon you, where would you be? What place for your great crime would be found in the depths of hell? But then He did not give to you, so that now He may give. For we read your words about your former deeds in your epistle, and by you we know. You said: "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle." You are not worthy, and He made you one. Therefore He did not give you what you deserved, because He granted honor to you who deserved punishment. "I am not," he says, "worthy to be called an apostle." Why? "Because I persecuted the Church of God." If you persecuted the Church of God, then how are you an Apostle? "But by the grace of God I am what I am." Before, grace; now, a debt; before, grace was given, now, a debt is repaid. "By the grace of God I am what I am." I am nothing. Whatever I am, I am by the grace of God. Whatever I am, but now an Apostle; for what I was, I was: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than all of them." What is this, Apostle Paul? It seems you have lifted yourself up, as if something from pride is said: "I labored more abundantly than all of them." Recognize this. I recognize it, he says: "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." He had not forgotten, but as the last to rejoice in the end, the last to be saved: "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

Victory is given to the one who struggles through Christ. The merits of men are gifts of God.

Then it was not rewarded, now what? I have finished the race, I have kept the faith: for the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. You fought the good fight. But who made you win? I read to you yourself, and you say: I give thanks to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What good would it have been to fight, if you could not win? Therefore, although you fought indeed, Christ gave victory. Follow another: I have finished the race. And who did this in you? Didn't you say: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy? Say what follows: I have kept the faith. And how did you get this? Hear your words: I obtained mercy to be faithful. Therefore, you kept the faith through the mercy of God, not through your own strength. For the rest, therefore, the crown of righteousness is laid up for you, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to you on that day. He will reward according to merits, therefore he is a righteous judge. But even here, let not your neck be raised, for your merits are his gifts. What I said to him, I learned from him, and you all surely learned with me in this same school. We preside above in position because of the announcement, but in one school we have a common Master in heaven.