Sermon 96 of St. Peter Chrysoslogus, Bishop of Ravenna (+450)
If the words or deeds of Christ
would always be completely grasped by our bodily powers of perception, my mind
would grow weary, my ingenuity would be unchallenged and dormant, my heart
would pine away, and whatever human vigor or energy I have would be
extinguished.
The Gospel text states: 'He set a
parable before them.' A potential spark is cold in the flint, and lies hidden
in the steel, but it is brought into flame when the steel and flint are struck
together. In similar manner, when an obscure word is brought together with its
meaning, it begins to glow. Surely, if there were not mystical meanings, [1] no
distinction would remain between the infidel [2] and the faithful, between the
wicked man and the devout one. The devout man would be like a proud one, the
lazy man like a toiler, the watchful man like a sleeper. But, as things are,
when the soul asks, the mind knocks, the power of perception seeks, piety
hopes, faith demands, and studious attention deserves it, the one who labors in
perspiration does see fruit appear. The lazy man, by contrast, is seen to
suffer a penalty. The uprightness of a giver appears, too, because things
received as gifts give more pleasure than those already possessed, and those
newly discovered delight us more than those we have long understood. This is
why Christ veils His doctrine by parables, covers it with figures, hides it
under symbols, [3] make it obscure by mysteries.
'He set a parable before them.'
Before them, that is, not before His own, but before strangers who are His
enemies, not His friends; before those gazing intently to find a cause of
calumny, not before those listening to gain salvation. 'This is why I speak to
them in parables,' the Gospel relates, 'because seeing they do not see, and
hearing they do not hear, neither do they understand.' [4] Why? Because he who
misrepresents past benefits does not deserve to see present ones, and one who
hid the Law to keep it from becoming known is not worthy to recognize Grace.
'Woe to you lawyers!' another Gospel warns. 'Because you have taken away the
key of knowledge; you have not entered yourselves, and those who were entering
you have hindered.' [5]
'He set before them a parable,
saying, The kingdom is like to a man.' In what respect did Christ give offense when
He was made like unto man, [6] in order to help the perishing human race? Does
the Lord give scandal if, to free His slaves, He appears in the form of their
slavery? Then look! Does He give scandal when He compares His future majesty,
His second coming, and His kingdom to a man?
'The kingdom,' it says, 'is like
a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were asleep his enemy
came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.' You have heard how the
Sower of the world sowed the good principles of things and how no evil
proceeded from the Author of the original sowing. The evil is an addition sowed
by an Enemy. The evil was not brought forth by the parent of things. 'God saw
that all he had made was very good,' [7] Scripture relates. Good, and very
good. For, when God made the universe, He called it clean; and when the Enemy was
striving to undo it, he made it unclean. God placed man in Paradise that he
might have a life of delights. But that foe dragged man down into this life of
toil, and brought him to death. God implanted affection as something natural in
human flesh. But that foe through his envy changed that affection into
parricide. Cain [8] proves this, for he was the first to stain the earth with a
brother's blood. He was the genuine originator of murder to get rid of a
brother. That is how death which springs from strife always splits human love
and keeps it asunder.
To take up all the cases would be
tedious. Hence, we feel compelled to show at least by a few examples how the enemy
has always sowed evil plants among the good, vices among virtues, deathly
things among the life giving, in order to achieve our destruction.
Did not God people the whole
earth from one man? Did not this loving Sower start the human race from one
seed and multiply it until it became an extensive and promising harvest? But
soon the enemy reduced all the men to one again. By sowing evil on top of what
had been well sown, he got that promising harvest blotted out by the Deluge, rather
than merely watered. In similar manner, the Law was sown of divine and true
precepts. But he got it obscured by human and deceitful machinations.
Consequently, the priest became a persecutor, the teacher became a corrupter,
and the defender of the Law became an enemy.
Creatures were made in order to
bring about recognition of their Creator. But, to make God go unknown, the
Devil told the lie that these creatures were gods. In this way he turned the
wise men of this world into fools. He taught the contemplators of this world to
see nothing. He caused the professors of wisdom to have no knowledge. He sent
the investigators of all things away ignorant. On top of the growing crop of
the Gospel, sown with the seed from heaven, he sowed heretical cockle. Thus,
the Enemy caused a puzzling mixture, that he might make the sheaves of faith
bundles for hell, that no wheat might get stored in the barns of heaven. Why
should I say more? After he himself was changed from an angel into a devil, he
hastened to use ingenuity, tricks, devices, and deceit to keep any creature [9]
from remaining secure in its own state.
But now let us open up the words
of the present parable 'The kingdom of heaven is like to a man.' To what man? Assuredly,
to Christ. 'Who sowed good seed'-because the nature of the Creator can put no
evil in the very seed of things. 'In his field'-that is, in the world, as the
Lord Himself says: 'The field is the world.' [10]
'But while men were asleep' - that
is, the holy fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, who were resting
for a time in the deep sleep of death. For, the death of the saints is a sleep,
but that of the sinners is truly a death, in so far as in hell they live only
for punishment. As far as life is concerned, the sinners perish.
'His enemy came,' that is, the
Devil. 'And sowed weeds.' He sowed the weeds on top of the good seed; he did
not sow them above themselves. The good things of the Creator precede, the evil
things of the Devil follow afterwards, so that the evil which is from the Devil
may be an accident, not a nature.
'He sowed weeds among the wheat'
- because the Devil has become accustomed to sow of his own accord heresies among
the faithful, sin among the saints, quarrels among the peaceful, deceptions
among the simple, and wickedness among the innocent. He does this not to
acquire the weeds of cockle, but to destroy the wheat; not to capture the
guilty ones, but to steal away the innocent. An enemy seeks the leader rather
than a soldier. He does not besiege the dead but attacks the living. Thus, the
Devil is not seeking to capture sinners whom he already has under his dominion,
but is laboring thus to ensnare the just.
'He sowed weeds among the wheat,
and went away' - because with great might the Devil drives men towards destruction.
But, after he has prostrated someone, he abandons him. The Devil seeks not the
man, but his destruction. Brethren, he rejoices over our evils, he swells with
pride over our ruin, he grows strong from our wounds, he thirsts after our
blood, he is sated from our flesh, he lives by our death. The Devil does not
wish to possess a man, but to destroy him. Why? Because he does not wish, he
does not dare, he does not allow the man to arrive at the heaven from which the
Devil fell.
Our sermon is detaining us rather
long today. Therefore, let us postpone what remains, in order that this work,
our common task, may be lighter for us all, and also that we may give fuller
consideration to the matters yet to be said. May our God deign to give me the
grace of speaking and you the desire of hearing.
1. Mystica, meaning symbolical, typical. Cf. Sermon 2
nn. 7.9.
2. Reading infidelem fidelemque, with S. Pauli.
3. sacramentis. On this meaning. d. DeGhellinck, Pour
l,histoire du mot sacramentum 54. and Souler. Glossary.
4. Matt. 13.3.
5. Luke 11.52;
6. Phil. 2.7.
7. Gen. 1.31.
8. Gen. 4.8.
9. Reading creatura, with S. Pauli.
10. Matt. 13.38.
Source: Saint Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons (The
Fathers of the Church, A New Translation, Vol. 17), translated by George E.
Ganss, CUA Press, Washington, D.C., 1953, pp. 152-156.
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