Homilies on the Statues, Homily 7

1. Yesterday I spoke to you, my beloved, at length and on many subjects. If you cannot remember everything from that variety, I especially want to remind you of this observation: God has planted the emotion of grief in our nature for no other reason than sin, and He has made this clear through actual experience. When we grieve and suffer over the loss of wealth, or because of sickness, death, and the other evils that happen to us, our sorrow brings us no comfort and only makes these calamities worse. But if we feel pain and sorrow over our sins, we lighten the weight of sin; we make what is great small; and very often we wipe it out entirely. I repeat, you should always remember this, so that you mourn only for sin and nothing else. Remember also that sin, though it brought death and sadness into our lives, is itself destroyed by both of them, as I recently showed. So let us fear nothing as much as sin and transgression. Let us not fear punishment, and then we will escape punishment, just as the Three Children were not afraid of the furnace and so escaped from it. This is how God’s servants should be. For if those brought up under the Old dispensation, when death had not yet been slain, nor his “bronze gates broken down,” nor his “iron bars shattered,” faced their end so nobly, what defense or excuse will we have if, after receiving such great grace, we do not even reach their level of virtue, now that death is only a name with no reality behind it? For death is nothing more than sleep, a journey, a migration, rest, a peaceful harbor, an escape from trouble, and freedom from the cares of this present life! 2. But let us leave the subject of consolation here. This is the fifth day we have spent speaking words of comfort to you, my beloved, and we might now seem tiresome. What we have already said is enough for those who pay attention; but those who are fainthearted will gain nothing even if we add to it. It is now time to turn our teaching to explaining the Scriptures. For just as someone might have condemned us for cruelty and a lack of humanity if we had said nothing about the present calamity, so we might rightly be condemned for faintheartedness if we always spoke about it. So, entrusting your hearts to God, who can speak into your minds and drive out all grief from within, let us now return to our usual way of teaching, especially since every explanation of Scripture brings comfort and relief. Thus, although we may seem to be leaving the subject of consolation, we will come upon it again by explaining Scripture. I will show you from Scripture’s own testimony that all Scripture offers consolation to those who pay attention to it. I will not go searching through the scriptural narratives for particular arguments that bring comfort. Instead, to prove my point more clearly, we will take up the book read to us today. If you like, we will bring forward its introduction and opening, which may seem especially devoid of consolation and entirely unrelated to comfort, and I will make my claim clear. 3. What, then, is this introduction? “In the beginning God made heaven and earth, and the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the face of the abyss.” Do these words seem to some of you incapable of offering consolation in distress? Isn’t this a historical narrative and a lesson about creation? Would you like me to show you the consolation hidden in this saying? Then wake up and pay close attention to what I am about to say. For when you hear that God made heaven, earth, the sea, the air, the waters, the multitude of stars, the two great lights, the plants, the four-footed animals, the swimming and flying animals, and absolutely everything you see, for you and for your safety and honor, don’t you immediately take comfort? Don’t you receive this as the strongest proof of God’s love when you consider that He produced a world like this, so beautiful, so vast and wonderful, for such a tiny being as yourself! So when you hear, “In the beginning God made heaven and earth,” do not rush past the statement. Travel in your mind across the breadth of the earth, and consider how He has spread such a lavish and exquisite table for us and provided us with such abundant gladness. And the most wonderful thing is that He did not give us a world like this as payment for services or as a reward for good works. At the very moment He formed us, He honored our race with this kingdom. For He said, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness.” What does “in our image and in our likeness” mean? It means the image of rule: just as no one in heaven is above God, let no one on earth be above man. This, then, is the first way He honored man: by making him in His own image. Second, He provided us with this dominion as an outright gift of His own love for man, rather than as payment for services. Third, He gave it to us as something belonging to our nature. For some forms of rule are natural, while others are established by choice: the lion’s rule over four-footed animals and the eagle’s rule over birds are natural; an emperor’s rule over us is established by choice, for he does not rule his fellow servants by any natural authority. That is why he often loses his sovereignty. Things that are not inherent in nature can easily change and pass from one to another. But this is not so with the lion: he rules four-footed animals by nature, as the eagle rules birds. Sovereignty therefore remains the enduring possession of his race, and no lion has ever been seen deprived of it. God gave us this kind of sovereignty from the beginning and set us over everything. And He honored our nature not only in this way, but also through the excellence of the place where He put us, choosing Paradise as our splendid home and giving us reason and an immortal soul. 4. But I do not want to dwell on these things. For I maintain that God’s care was so abundant that we can recognize His goodness and His love for man not only in the way He has honored us, but also in the way He has punished us. I especially urge you to consider this carefully: God is equally good when He punishes and disciplines us as when He treats us with honor and kindness. And whether we have to contend and struggle with pagans or with heretics over God’s loving care and goodness, we will show His goodness both in the instances when He bestows honor and in those when He inflicts punishment. For if He were good only when honoring us, and not when punishing us, He would be only half good. But that is not the case. God forbid! This may indeed happen among human beings when they punish in anger and passion. But God is free from passion, and whether He shows kindness or punishes, He is equally good. The threat of hell reveals His goodness no less than the promise of the kingdom. How? Here is my answer. If He had not threatened hell, if He had not prepared punishment, few would have reached the kingdom. The promise of good things does not draw the multitude toward virtue as powerfully as the threat of evil things compels them through fear and rouses them to care for their souls. So although hell is the opposite of the kingdom of heaven, both aim at the same end: human salvation. The one draws people toward itself; the other drives them toward its opposite, correcting the careless through fear. 5. I am dwelling on this subject for a reason. Many people, when famines, droughts, and wars occur, or an emperor’s anger overtakes them, or other unexpected events of this kind happen, mislead simpler people by saying that these things are unworthy of God’s Providence. I am therefore compelled to dwell on this part of my discussion so that words do not deceive us, and so that we clearly understand that whether He brings famine, war, or any calamity at all upon us, He does it out of His exceedingly great care and kindness. Even fathers who especially love their children will deny them food, beat them, punish them with disgrace, and correct them in countless other ways when they misbehave. Yet they are still fathers when they act this way, just as when they honor their children; indeed, they act most fully as fathers when they do this. But if men, who are often carried beyond proper limits by the force of anger, are still understood to punish those they love out of kind care and concern, rather than cruelty and inhumanity, we have far more reason to think this of God, whose exceedingly abundant goodness surpasses every degree of fatherly affection. And so that you do not suppose my words are mere conjecture, let us, I ask you, turn our discussion to Scripture itself. When man had been deceived and misled by the wicked demon, let us observe how God treated him after he committed so great a sin. Did He destroy him completely? Justice certainly demanded that someone who had shown no goodness, but had become insolent from the very beginning after enjoying so much favor, should be put to death and utterly destroyed. Yet God did not do this. Nor did He look with disgust and aversion on someone who had been so ungrateful to his Benefactor. Instead, He comes to him as a physician comes to a sick man. 6. Beloved, do not pass over what I have just said without thinking! Consider what it meant that He did not send an angel, an archangel, or any other of man’s fellow servants, but that the Lord Himself came down to the one who had strayed from the right path, raised him up when he had been cast down, and approached him, One to one, as a friend comes to a friend who has suffered misfortune and is plunged into great distress! The very words He spoke clearly show that He acted out of His great kindness and reveal His inexpressible affection. And why do I say all His words? His first utterance immediately expresses His tenderness. For He did not say what someone treated with such contempt would probably say: “You wicked, utterly wicked man! You enjoyed such great favor from Me and were honored with such sovereignty, exalted above every creature on earth through no merit of your own. You received pledges of My care in actual deeds and a true demonstration of My Providence. Did you then consider a wicked and destructive demon, the enemy of your salvation, more worthy of belief than your Lord and Benefactor? What proof of concern for you did he give that compares with what I have done? Didn’t I make heaven, earth, the sea, the sun, the moon, and all the stars for you? None of the angels needed this work of creation. I made so great and excellent a world for you and for your enjoyment. Yet did you consider mere words, a false pledge, and a deceitful promise more worthy of belief than kindness and providence demonstrated through deeds, so that you handed yourself over to him and trampled My laws underfoot!” Someone treated with contempt would probably say these things and more like them. But God acted in exactly the opposite way. His first word immediately lifted man out of his dejection and gave the frightened, trembling man confidence by taking the initiative in calling him—or rather, not merely by calling him first, but by addressing him with his own familiar name and saying, “Adam, where are you?” In this way He showed His tenderness and His great concern for him. You must all know that this is a sign of close friendship. This is also what people do when they call out to the dead, repeating their names over and over. On the other hand, those who hate someone and feel hostility toward them cannot bear even to mention the name of the person who has hurt them. Saul, for example, although David had done him no harm and he himself had greatly wronged David, loathed and hated him so much that he could not bear to mention David’s name. When everyone was seated together and he saw that David was absent, what did he say? He did not say, “Where is David?” but, “Where is the son of Jesse?” calling him by his father’s name. Again, the Jews did the same with Christ. Because they loathed and hated Him, they did not say, “Where is Christ?” but, “Where is that man?” 7. But God wished to show, even through this, that sin had not quenched His tenderness, nor disobedience taken away His favor toward man, and that He still exercised His Providence and care for the fallen one. So He said, “Adam, where are you?” He was not ignorant of Adam’s location. Rather, the mouths of those who have sinned are closed: sin turns the tongue back, and conscience seizes it, so that such people remain speechless, held in silence as though by a chain. God therefore wished to invite him to speak freely, give him confidence, and lead him to offer a defense for his offenses so that he might obtain some forgiveness. He Himself called first, relieving much of Adam’s distress with his familiar name, dispelling his fear, and opening his closed mouth through this greeting. This, too, was why He said, “Adam, where are you?” “I left you,” He says, “in one condition, and I find you in another. I left you confident and glorious, and now I find you disgraced and silent!” Observe God’s care here. He did not call Eve; He did not call the serpent. Instead, He brings the one who had sinned least of all before the tribunal first, so that by beginning with the one who could find some excuse, He might pass a more merciful sentence even on her who had sinned most. Judges consider it beneath them to question their fellow servants, who share their own nature. Instead, they put one of their attendants forward as an intermediary and instruct him to convey their questions to the accused. Through him they say and hear whatever they wish when examining offenders. But God needed no intermediary in dealing with man. He Himself, in His own person, both judges and consoles him at once. And the wonderful thing is not only this, but also that He corrects the crimes that have been committed. For when judges find thieves and grave robbers, they generally consider how to make them pay the penalty for their offenses, rather than how to make them better. God, by contrast, when He finds a sinner, considers how to reform him, make him better, and make him invincible in the future, rather than how to make him pay the penalty. Thus God is at once a Judge, a Physician, and a Teacher. As a Judge He examines; as a Physician He heals; and as a Teacher He instructs those who have sinned, guiding them into all spiritual wisdom. 8. But if one brief, simple statement shows God’s care so clearly, what if we were to read through this entire judgment and explain its full record? Do you see how all Scripture brings consolation and comfort? We will discuss these records at a suitable time. Before that, however, we need to explain when this Book was given. These things were not written in the beginning, or immediately when Adam was made, but many generations later. It would be worthwhile to ask why this delay occurred, why they were eventually given only to the Jews and not to everyone, why they were written in Hebrew, and why in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Apostle does not mention the place merely in passing. He shows that this circumstance, too, gives us much to reflect on when he says to us, “For these are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to slavery.” 9. There are other things besides these that it would be useful for us to investigate. But I see that time does not allow us to launch our discussion onto so wide a sea. So, wisely reserving these matters for a suitable time, let us address you again about abstaining from oaths, and urge you, my beloved, to be very diligent about this. Isn’t it absurd that a servant does not even dare call his master by name or mention him casually and without ceremony, yet freely tosses around the name of the Lord of Angels everywhere with great irreverence! If you need to take up the book of the Gospel, you receive it with hands you have first washed, with fear and trembling, and with great reverence and devotion. Yet do you casually toss around on your tongue the Lord of the Gospel? Do you want to learn how the Powers above pronounce that Name—with what awe, what terror, what wonder? “I saw the Lord,” says the prophet, “sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; around Him stood the Seraphim; and one cried to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; the whole earth is full of His glory!” Do you see the dread and awe with which they pronounce that Name as they glorify and praise Him? Yet in your prayers and supplications you call on Him with great indifference, when you should be full of awe, watchful and sober! But in oaths, where it is entirely inappropriate to introduce this wonderful Name, you string together all kinds of curses! What pardon or excuse will we have, however much we plead this “custom”? A certain pagan orator, it is said, had a foolish habit of constantly moving his right shoulder as he walked along. He overcame the habit by fastening sharp knives on either side above his shoulders, so that fear of being cut restrained his shoulder’s movement at the wrong time—fear of the wound held it back! Do the same with your tongue: instead of a knife, suspend over it the fear of God’s punishment, and you will certainly overcome the habit! For it seems impossible, utterly impossible, that those who are concerned and earnest about this, and truly make it their business, should ever be defeated. 10. You applaud what is being said now, but when you have reformed, you will applaud even more—not only us, but yourselves as well. You will take greater pleasure in hearing what is said, and you will call on God with a pure conscience. He is so careful to spare you that He says, “Do not swear by your head either.” Yet you show Him such contempt that you swear even by His glory. “But what am I to do,” someone says, “with people who force me?” What could possibly force you? Let everyone understand that you will choose to suffer anything rather than break God’s law, and they will stop trying to force you. For proof that a man’s credibility comes from the testimony of his life, his upright conduct, and his good reputation, rather than from an oath, many have often sworn until they split their throats and still convinced no one. Others, however, have been considered more worthy of belief through a simple expression of agreement than those who swore any number of oaths. Knowing all this, and keeping before our eyes the punishment awaiting those who swear as well as those who swear falsely, let us abstain from this evil custom. Then, moving on from here to correct our remaining faults, we may enjoy the blessedness of the life to come. May God grant that we may all be found worthy to obtain it through the grace and love for man of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom and with Whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory and power and honor, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.