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| Upon the Collections, IV.
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Sermon
IX.
Upon the Collections669
| 669 The Ballerinii in an
excellent note have shown that the series of six Sermons de
Collectis were delivered in connexion with the annual Collections
then in vogue at Rome for the sick and poor of the seven city
regions. These collections seem to have been continued for
several consecutive days (cf. Serm. VI. primus collectarum dies,
and Serm. X. chap. 4), and probably began on the 6th of July (the
octave of SS. Peter and Paul), the day on which in pagan times the
Ludi Apollinares had also begun: this date being
designedly chosen, as Leo himself says (Serm. VIII.), ad destruendas
antiqui hostis insidias in die quo impii sub idolorum suorum nomine
diabolo serviebant: cf. what he says also in the first and
third chapter of this Sermon (IX.). | , IV.
I. The devil’s wickedness in
leading men astray is now counteracted by the work of redemption in
restoring them to the truth.
God’s mercy and
justice, dearly-beloved, has in loving-kindness disclosed to us through
our Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching, the
manner of His retributions, as they have been ordained from the
foundation of the world, that accepting the significance of facts we
might take what we believe will happen, to have, as it were, already
come to pass. For our Redeemer and Saviour knew what great errors
the devil’s deceit had dispersed throughout the world and by how
many superstitions he had subjected the chief part of mankind to
himself. But that the creature formed in God’s image might not any longer through ignorance
of the Truth be driven on to the precipice of perpetual death, He
inserted in the Gospel-pages the nature of His judgment that it might
recover every man from the snares of the crafty foe; for now all would
know what rewards the good might hope for and what punishments the evil
must fear. For the instigator and author of sin in order first to
fall through pride and then to injure us through envy, because
“he stood not in the Truth670
” put all
his strength in lying and produced every kind of deceit from this
poisoned source of his cunning, that he might cut off man’s
devout hopes from that happiness which he had lost by his own
uplifting, and drag them into partnership with his condemnation, to
whose reconciliation he himself could not attain. Whoever
therefore among men has wronged God by his
wickednesses, has been led astray by his guile, and depraved by his
villainy. For he easily drives into all evil doings those whom he
has deceived in the matter of religion. But knowing that
God is denied not only by words but also by
deeds, many whom he could not rob of their faith, he has robbed of
their love, and by choking the ground of their heart with the weeds of
avarice, has spoiled them of the fruit of good works, when he could not
spoil them of the confession of their lips.
II. God’s
just judgment against sin is denounced that we may avoid it by deeds of
mercy and love.
On account therefore, dearly-beloved, of these
crafty designs of our ancient foe, the unspeakable goodness of Christ
has wished us to know, what was to be decreed about all mankind in the
day of retribution, that, while in this life healing remedies are
legitimately offered, while restoration is not denied to the contrite,
and those who have been long barren can at length be fruitful, the
verdict on which justice has determined may be fore-stalled and the
picture of God’s coming to judge the
world never depart from the mind’s eye. For the
Lord will come in His glorious Majesty, as He
Himself has foretold, and there will be with Him an innumerable host of
angel-legions radiant in their splendour. Before the throne of
His power will all the nations of the world be gathered; and all the
men that in all ages and on all the face of the earth have been born,
shall stand in the Judge’s sight. Then shall be separated
the just from the unjust, the guiltless from the
guilty; and when the sons of piety, their
works of mercy reviewed, have received the Kingdom prepared for them,
the unjust shall be upbraided for their utter barrenness, and those on
the left having naught in common with those on the right, shall by the
condemnation of the Almighty Judge be cast into the fire prepared for
the torture of the devil and his angels, with him to share the
punishment, whose will they choose to do. Who then would not
tremble at this doom of eternal torment? Who would not dread
evils which are never to be ended? But since this severity is
only denounced in order that we may seek for mercy, we too in this
present life must show such open-handed mercy that after perilous
neglect returning to works of piety it may be possible for us to be set
free from this doom. For this is the purpose of the Judge’s
might and of the Saviour’s graciousness, that the unrighteous may
forsake his ways and the sinner give up his wicked habits. Let
those who wish Christ to spare them, have mercy on the poor; let them
give freely to feed the wretched, who desire to attain to the society
of the blessed. Let no man consider his fellow vile, nor despise
in any one that nature which the Creator of the world made His
own. For who that labours can deny that Christ claims that labour
as done unto Himself? Your fellow-slave is helped thereby, but it
is the Lord who will repay. The feeding
of the needy is the purchase money of the heavenly kingdom and the free
dispenser of things temporal is made the heir of things eternal.
But how has such small expenditure deserved to be valued so highly
except because our works are weighed in the balance of love, and when a
man loves what God loves, he is deservedly
raised into His kingdom, whose attribute of love has in part become
his?
III. We minister to Christ Himself in the
person of his poor.
To this pious duty of good works, therefore dearly
beloved, the day of Apostolic institution671
| 671 Dies
apostolicæ institutionis: this was, as note 6 explains,
the octave of SS. Peter and Paul, but how far Leo actually attributes
its institution to the Apostles themselves, is a little doubtful.
In the next clause here he speaks of the Collection as a patribus
ordinata (so too in Serm. VII. dies saluberime a sanctis
patribus institutus, and Serm. XI. chap. 2: cf. Serm. X.
chap. 1, auctoritatem patrum); whereas in Sermon VIII. the day
is said to be apostolicis traditionibus institutis, and in Serm.
XI. chap. 1, apostolicis didicimus institutis, and
strongest of all the opening words of Serm. X. chap. 1,
apostolicæ traditionis instituta servantes ut diem quem illi ab
impiorum consuetudine purgatum misericordiæ operibus consecrarunt
celebremus. Patres however often includes
apostoli, e.g. Serm. LXXIII. chap. 1, gratias
agamus.…sanctorum patrum necessariæ tarditati, where
patrum = apostoli aliique discipuli. The fact is,
as Bright points out upon a similar matter (the origin of Lent), Leo
“would be prone to make that claim for any institute of his own
church (see Bingham xxi. 1, 8.)” (n. 103.). On Serm. LXXIX.
1 the Ball. appropriately quote a dictum of S. Augustine’s that
what the universal Church had always held is correctly credited with
the authority of the Apostles. |
invites us, on which the first collection of our holy offerings has
been prudently and profitably ordained by the Fathers; in order that,
because at this season formerly the Gentiles used superstitiously to
serve demons, we might celebrate the most holy offering of our alms in
protest against the unholy victims of the wicked. And because
this has been most profitable to the growth of the Church, it has been
resolved to make it perpetual. We exhort you, therefore, holy
brethren throughout the churches of your several regions672
| 672 Regionum,
viz. the seven regions into which Rome was then divided: see n.
6, above. | on Wednesday next673
| 673 The Ball.
wish to alter this to Thursday (against mss.)
to suit their calculations, by which as the detection of
Manichæism at Rome, mentioned in chap. iv., occurred after the 6th
of July, 443, this sermon must have been delivered in 444. |
to contribute of your goods, according to your means and willingness,
to purposes of charity, that ye may be able to win that blessedness in
which he shall rejoice without end, who “considereth the needy
and poor674
.” And
if we are to “consider” him, dearly beloved, we must use
loving care and watchfulness, in order that we may find him whom
modesty conceals and shamefastness keeps back. For there are
those who blush openly to ask for what they want and prefer to suffer
privation without speaking rather than to be put to shame by a public
appeal. These are they whom we ought to “consider”
and relieve from their hidden straits in order that they may the more
rejoice from the very fact that their modesty as well as poverty has
been consulted. And rightly in the needy and poor do we recognize
the person of Jesus Christ our Lord Himself,
“Who though He was rich,” as says the blessed Apostle,
“became poor, that He might enrich us by His poverty675
.” And that His presence might
never seem to be wanting to us, He so effected the mystic union of His
humility and His glory that while we adore Him as King and Lord in the Majesty of the Father, we might also feed Him
in His poor, for which we shall be set free in an evil day from
perpetual damnation, and for our considerate care of the poor shall be
joined with the whole company of heaven.
IV. To complete their acceptance by
God, they must not neglect to lay all
information against the Manichees who are in the city.
But in order that your devotion, dearly beloved,
may in all things be pleasing to God, we
exhort you also to show due zeal in informing your presbyters of
Manichees where
ever
they be hidden676
| 676 Cf. Lett. VII. and
VIII. | . For it is
naught but piety to disclose the hiding-places of the wicked, and in
them to overthrow the devil whom they serve. For against them,
dearly beloved, it becomes indeed the whole world and the whole Church
everywhere to put on the armour of Faith: but your devotion ought
to be foremost in this work, who in your progenitors learnt the Gospel
of the Cross of Christ from the very mouth of the most blessed Apostles
Peter and Paul. Men must not be allowed to lie hid who do not
believe that the law given through Moses, in which God is shown to be the Creator of the Universe, ought to
be received: who speak against the Prophets and the Holy Ghost,
dare in their damnable profanity to reject the Psalms of David which
are sung through the universal Church with all reverence, deny the
birth of the Lord Christ, according to the
flesh, say that His Passion and Resurrection was fictitious, not true,
and deprive the baptism of regeneration of all its power as a means of
grace. Nothing with them is holy, nothing entire, nothing
true. They are to be shunned, lest they harm any one: they
are to be given up, lest they should settle in any part of our
city. Yours, dearly beloved, will be the gain before the
Lord’s judgment-seat of what we bid, of
what we ask. For it is but right that the triumph of this deed
also should be joined to the oblation of our alms, the Lord Jesus Christ in all things aiding us, Who lives and
reigns for ever and ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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