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| On Lent, II.
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Sermon
XL.
On Lent, II.
I. Progress and improvement always
possible.
Although, dearly-beloved, as the Easter festival
approaches, the very recurrence of the season points out to us the
Lenten fast, yet our words also must add their exhortations which, the
Lord helping us, may be not useless to the
active nor irksome to the devout. For since the idea of these
days demands the increase of all our religious performances, there is
no one, I am sure, that does not feel glad at being incited to good
works. For though our nature which, so long as we are mortal,
will be changeable, is advancing to the highest pursuits of virtue, yet
always has the possibility of falling back, so has it always the
possibility of advancing. And this is the true justness of the
perfect that they should never assume themselves to be perfect, lest
flagging in the purpose of their yet unfinished journey, they should
fall into the danger of failure, through giving up the desire for
progress.
And, therefore, because none of us, dearly beloved, is
so perfect and holy as not to be able to be more perfect and more holy,
let us all together, without difference of rank, without distinction of
desert, with pious eagerness pursue our race from what we have attained
to what we yet aspire to, and make some needful additions to our
regular devotions. For he that is not more attentive than usual
to religion in these days, is shown at other times to be not attentive
enough.
II. Satan seeks to supply his numerous
losses by fresh gains.
Hence the reading of the Apostle’s
proclamation has sounded opportunely in our ears, saying, “Behold
now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation915
.” For what is more accepted than
this time, what more suitable to salvation than these days, in which
war is proclaimed against vices and progress is made in all
virtues? Thou hadst indeed always to keep watch, O Christian
soul, against the enemy of thy salvation, lest any spot should be
exposed to the tempter’s snares: but now greater wariness
and keener prudence must be employed by thee when that same foe of
thine rages with fiercer hatred. For now in all the world the
power of his ancient sway is taken from him, and the countless vessels
of captivity are rescued from his grasp. The people of all
nations and of all tongues are breaking away from their cruel
plunderer, and now no race of men is found that does not struggle
against the tyrant’s laws, while through all the borders of the
earth many thousands of thousands are being prepared to be reborn in
Christ916
| 916 Viz. by baptism at the
Easter festival. | : and as the birth of a new creature
draws near, spiritual wickedness is being driven out by those who were
possessed by it. The blasphemous fury of the despoiled foe frets,
therefore, and seeks new gains because it has lost its ancient
right. Unwearied and ever wakeful, he snatches at any sheep he
finds straying carelessly from the sacred folds, intent on leading them
over the steeps of treasure and down the slopes of luxury into the
abodes of death. And so he inflames their wrath, feeds their
hatreds, whets their desires, mocks at their continence, arouses their
gluttony.
III.
The twofold nature of Christ shown at the Temptation.
For whom would he not dare to try, who did not
keep from his treacherous attempts even on our Lord Jesus Christ? For, as the story of the Gospel
has disclosed917
| 917 Ut evangelica
patefecit historia, cf. Serm. XXXIX. 3, n. 8. | , when our Saviour,
Who was true God, that He might show Himself
true Man also, and banish all wicked and erroneous opinions, after the
fast of 40 days and nights, had experienced the hunger of human
weakness, the devil, rejoicing at having found in Him a sign of
possible and mortal nature, in order to test the power which he feared,
said, “If Thou art the Son of God,
command that these stones become bread918
.” Doubtless the Almighty
could do this, and it was easy that at the Creator’s command a
creature of any kind should change into the form that it was
commanded: just as when He willed it, in the marriage feast, He
changed the water into wine: but here it better agreed with His
purposes of salvation that His haughty foe’s cunning should be
vanquished by the Lord, not in the power of
His Godhead, but by the mystery of His humiliation. At length,
when the devil had been put to flight and the tempter baffled in all
his arts, angels came to the Lord and
ministered to Him, that He being true Man and true God, His Manhood might be unsullied by those crafty
questions, and His Godhead displayed by those holy ministrations.
And so let the sons and disciples of the devil be confounded, who,
being filled with the poison of vipers, deceive the simple, denying in
Christ the presence of both true natures, whilst they rob either His
Godhead of Manhood, or His Manhood of Godhead, although both falsehoods
are destroyed by a twofold and simultaneous proof: for by His
bodily hunger His perfect Manhood was shown, and by the attendant
angels His perfect Godhead.
IV. The Fast should not end with
abstinence from food, but lead to good deeds.
Therefore, dearly-beloved, seeing that, as we are
taught by our Redeemer’s precept, “man lives not in bread
alone, but in every word of God919
,” and it is right that
Christian people, whatever the amount of their abstinence, should
rather desire to satisfy themselves with the “Word of
God” than with bodily food, let us with
ready devotion and eager faith enter upon the celebration of the solemn
fast, not with barren abstinence from food, which is often imposed on
us by weakliness of body, or the disease of avarice, but in bountiful
benevolence: that in truth we may be of those of whom the very
Truth speaks, “blessed are they which hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled920
.” Let works of piety, therefore,
be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which
feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the
poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the
clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful
raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their
illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their
hardships, by the orphans in their destitution, and by solitary widows
in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that
cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one’s
income is small, whose heart is big: and the measure of
one’s mercy and goodness does not depend on the size of
one’s means. Wealth of goodwill is never rightly lacking,
even in a slender purse. Doubtless the expenditure of the rich is
greater, and that of the poor smaller, but there is no difference in
the fruit of their works, where the purpose of the workers is the
same.
V. And still further it should lead to
personal amendment and domestic harmony.
But, beloved, in this opportunity for the
virtues’ exercise there are also other notable crowns, to be won
by no dispersing abroad of granaries, by no disbursement of money, if
wantonness is repelled, if drunkenness is abandoned, and the lusts of
the flesh tamed by the laws of chastity: if hatreds pass into
affection, if enmities be turned into peace, if meekness extinguishes
wrath, if gentleness forgives wrongs, if in fine the conduct of master
and of slaves is so well ordered that the rule of the one is milder,
and the discipline of the other is more complete. It is by such
observances then, dearly-beloved, that God’s mercy will be gained, the charge of sin wiped
out, and the adorable Easter festival devoutly kept. And this the
pious Emperors of the Roman world have long guarded with holy
observance; for in honour of the Lord’s
Passion and Resurrection they bend their lofty power, and relaxing the
severity of their decrees set free many of their prisoners: so
that on the days when the world is saved by the Divine mercy, their
clemency, which is modelled on the Heavenly goodness, may be zealously
followed by us. Let Christian peoples then imitate their princes,
and be
incited to
forbearance in their homes by these royal examples. For it is not
right that private laws should be severer than public. Let faults
be forgiven, let bonds be loosed, offences wiped out, designs of
vengeance fall through, that the holy festival through the Divine and
human grace may find all happy, all innocent: through our
Lord Jesus Christ Who with the Father and the
Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth God for
endless ages of ages. Amen. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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