After the heavenly miracle of the Virgin birth shone throughout the whole world, the joyful festivities marking the Lord’s birth were completed, and the venerable feast of Epiphany also has been celebrated, the Lord foretells the sequence of the events surrounding his Passion to his disciples when he speaks as follows: Behold, we are now going up to Jerusalem, he says, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests, and they will condemn him to death, and they will hand him over to the gentiles, and they will mock him and spit at him, and...

Recently when we heard the many bitter² indignities comprising the Lord’s Passion, we suddenly came to wonder why God, who has created by his command and has marked off by his decree everything that heaven has, that the earth bears, that the sea contains, and that Tartarus used to summon, has arranged the world in such beauty, yet in order to absolve the sentence of death shed that stream of sacred blood.³

Why did the Origin of the universe, the Author of nature, will to be born, except that he willed to die? Why did God assume flesh with all...

Today’s feast, brothers, does not connect the old with the new, nor does it keep the flesh of the lamb for tomorrow,² but while it makes the past a partner with the present in solemn devotion, and joins our Passover³ with the Passover that returns, it weans the infants newly regenerated, because as the Apostle says, “The old has passed away, [and] see all things have been made new.”⁴ The year of the Lord progresses through seasons, it does not grow old, since it repeats its cycle for as long as it takes to lead us to the day of...

As long a time as I was absent from you, that long has preaching been absent from my life; but pray, brothers, that just as God has brought me back to you, so he may deign to bring back and restore to me the means to preach.²

2. You heard the evangelist say: On the evening of the Sabbath, he says, which was beginning to dawn on the first day of the week (Mt 28.1). What does human intelligence comprehend here? What does worldly wisdom understand here? On the evening which was beginning to dawn. Evening ends, it does not...

In the previous sermon we said that Mary and the other Mary prefigured the Church coming from two peoples.¹ We desire to confirm this today from what follows, provided that you give us a favorable hearing. The angel, it says, said in response: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are seeking Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen; come and see the place where the Lord had been laid” (Mt 28.5–6). The angel first mentions the name, tells of the cross, speaks of the Passion, acknowledges the death, but next professes the...

It is an unmistakable indication of complete and perfect devotion that at the time of the Passion all creation suffers together with its Creator. When the earth trembled, what flesh did not tremble, what mind did not become paralyzed, what innate talent has not been found wanting, when the sun set ahead of time, and when light dissipated? And so, brothers, our body also slumped over at that time, our capacity to understand died with him, our speech has been buried with its Creator, so as to be raised up to give him all the glory. This was the reason...

After that tempest of the Lord’s Passion, which had never before been experienced on earth, which filled the heavens with dread, which was unheard of at any time, and unbearable to the underworld, the Lord came to the sea and found his disciples adrift in the darkness of night. For after the sun fled, what relief from the night could come from the light of the moon or from the stars? For a somber and disorienting gloom was all there was which kept in darkness not only bodily vision, but even the mind’s own capacity to see, and it kept...

Since we have already quickly made our way through the readings from Matthew and Mark on the Lord’s Resurrection, let us now investigate what the most blessed Luke has proclaimed about it.¹ On the first day of the week, he says, women came to the tomb bringing the spices that they had prepared (Lk 24.1). We have often said that the events surrounding the Lord’s Resurrection form the pattern for our resurrection.² This is why the Evangelists relate the sequence of Christ’s deeds in language that is more mystical than it is new. On the first day of the week,...

While rebellious judea strives to vanquish its Creator and raise unholy hands for the murder of its Author, it has removed peace from the earth, it has dissolved the harmony of the universe, and it has so ruptured what joined the elements together, that it was drawing the whole world back to its ancient chaos. And so it puts day to flight with night, it attacks light with darkness, it removes heaven from the universe, it makes the earth quake, it mingles the dead with the living, it jumbles together those who dwell in the lower and the upper worlds,...

Since saint matthew has already pointed out in the interest of our salvation what he knew about the Lord’s Resurrection, today let us also hear what blessed Mark has to say.² And when the Sabbath had passed, he says, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices in order to come and anoint him (Mk 16.1). In this text the women hasten with feminine devotion; they bring to the tomb not faith in One who is alive, but ointments for one who is dead; and they prepare for the duties of mourning for one who is buried...

In the forty days, during which it is related and believed that the Lord appeared in a different fashion to his disciples after his Resurrection, our words are focused quite fittingly on the readings themselves, on these very mysteries, and are based upon them, so that by the variety of evidence about the Resurrection our words may convert your grief at the Lord’s Passion into perfect joy, dearly beloved; and so that he who in the past rose in our body through his own power, may now also rise in our hearts through faith.²

2. And when it was evening...

Although some things seem hidden by the depth of their mystery, nevertheless, no solemnity which the Church observes is fruitless. Commemorating a divine feast does not depend on the disposition of our wills, but it must be celebrated in view of its own merits. A true Christian spirit has never entertained the idea of putting up for discussion feasts which have solid grounding in the tradition of the Fathers and in the very seasons themselves, but desires to treat them with due reverence and speak of them with nothing but respect.²

2. In the middle of the festival, it says,...

It is fitting that we have made our way to gather at the midpoint of our great solemnity, since Jesus, our God and our Lord, the Consecrator of all feasts, proceeded, at the halfway-point of a festival, to go up to Jerusalem.² For just as an avid traveler aiming for his destination is ever so happy to call to mind how much of his journey he has already completed, and he is thereby made stronger to complete what remains and has all his strength renewed, so now with solemn joy and devotion we observe this day which tempers and moderates...

The present feast, brothers, has received its name from the number, than which there is no other number more sacred in God’s sight or more holy in the eyes of the Church, as the Holy Spirit has shown by his arrival. When the days of Pentecost were completed, it says (Acts 2.1). Seven weeks, you understand, provide an image of the sevenfold Spirit; the lamp with seven lights² in the tabernacle of old prefigures the illumination of the holy Church.³ Seven days bring the world to completion by the action of God,⁴ and by means of weeks and ten-day periods⁵...

Worldly speech, since it issues forth from human intelligence, serves and complies with what is instinctively human; but divine speech is in the power of the One who gives it, not the one who utters it. You have heard how Zechariah, that shining light of the high priesthood, while he was praying, became mute.² The father of the voice was silent, of the one who said, “I am the voice of one who is crying out in the desert.”³ The begetter of the cry became mute, and the one who had gone in to offer responses, when he went out...

If the light has been kept dim by excessive pain and a long illness, unless it is allowed back in gradually, the light becomes an enemy, when of course sunlight was created for the benefit of the eyes and to be pleasing to the eyes, and it is by means of them, as we are well aware, that sunlight is either transmitted or denied to the rest of the body. So too when minds have been kept in the dark through suffering a lengthy bout of unbelief, if faith suddenly shines with all its brillance, the darkness of unbelief grows...

All things that have been created by God are good for us, very good indeed, as Scripture says: “And God saw all the things that he made, and they were very good.”² Therefore, all things that have been created by God are good, very good indeed. But between the vices and the virtues there are intermediate goods such that while the knowledgeable take from them material for teaching, the ignorant find there a cause for error. For the wise certainly come to know the Creator from contemplating creation; the foolish, while they think that mere creatures are the creators, cannot...

That we are lifted up when the saints fall down, and that we are made firm when the saints tremble, the hesitation of the priest Zechariah has shown us today. When he does not trust in the promises of God but debates about them,² and does not accept the divine works on faith, but investigates them with human reasoning, he pays for the sin of disbelief by being condemned to a long period of silence. He had heard from the angel: Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son (Lk 1.13). He then said...

Those who know how to dig gold out of the earth, when they discover a rich vein, devote to it whatever skill and effort they have. And because we have seen that a heavenly treasure lies buried in holy Zechariah, let us direct toward him my entire homily and your entire attention, so that what is acquired by our common effort may be our common gain.²

2. In the days when Herod was king of Judea, it says, there was a certain priest named Zechariah of the class of Abijah (Lk 1.5). Of this we have spoken already.³ And his...

Gradually do the words of the Gospel elevate us to what is more lofty and raise us to the heights. And it is no wonder, brothers, if the celestial chariot carried Elijah up to heaven,² when daily³ the fourfold transport⁴ of the Gospels takes the human race aboard and conveys it to the kingdom of heaven.⁵ See how it has now brought us along, brothers, from a barren woman’s delivery to the Virgin’s delivery, and from the birth of John it has made us very close at hand to the birth of our Savior.⁶ But for the moment let us...

Since in the last sermon we made our way through the first sections of today’s reading, and we were equally amazed with what fervor, with what faith, with what daring, and with what great yet unusual homage the sinful woman touched the feet of the Savior himself, now let us listen to what the Pharisee said silently and what response Christ made, who hears even matters kept in silence.

2. The Pharisee, it says, said to himself: “If this man were a prophet, he would certainly know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him” (Lk...

Since the haste of our previous sermon² was unable to penetrate the whole mystery of the last parable in deference to the fatigue we all felt,³ let us now explain what remains as far as the Lord reveals it.⁴ He proposed to them, it says, a parable in these words: “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. But when people were sleeping, an enemy came, and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat, and went off” (Mt 13.24–25).

But when people were sleeping: the one who plots ambush lurks by...

It is fitting that the sequence of the reading has reached the point today where the woman in the Gospel, the holy Mother, our Mother,³ received yeast from the Lord, so as to lift and raise this temple⁴ up for us today into so great a mass of holiness. Thus the Lord began: To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened (Lk 13.20–21).

The good Lord, Christ, the Lover of his own, tells a number of parables...

The authority of today’s reading makes it very clear that today we speak against the Pharisees not with enthusiasm, but with grief, and not out of the prejudice that stems from hatred, but because we are spurred on by the truth. And it happened, it says, that when the Lord had entered the house of a certain leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they themselves were watching him closely (Lk 14.1), in a spirit of treachery, not with a kind disposition.

When he had entered the house, it says. In the house there was a...

Today when blessed mark commends the prudence of the Syrophoenician woman, when he tells of her faith, and when he extols the ardor of her belief, he creates no small question for those who listen attentively when he says: And Jesus set off from there and went away to the regions of Tyre and Sidon; he entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but he was unable to stay unnoticed (Mk 7.24). He wanted, but was unable. To want and to be unable is not characteristic of divine majesty, but it is characteristic of human weakness. For...

The fact that, while dwelling in our body, Christ did not raise all the dead nor heal all the sick, let us attribute to a lack not of power but of time. If at that time he had shone upon the whole world with the full brightness of his power, he would have both done away with the time for faith and kept no glory in reserve for his second coming. But now he has regulated the signs of his miraculous powers in such a way as to provide evidence of his divinity, to bestow the fullest possible grounds for...

Today by telling us about the widowed mother’s only son, fully bound with the burial wrappings and placed on the doleful bier, with multitudes in attendance while already on his way to the prison of the grave, and by announcing that he was restored to life by Christ,² the blessed evangelist has made all our hearts tremble, he has excited our minds, and has astonished us by what we have heard. Granted that the gentiles marvel at this, the Jews are astonished, and the world becomes frightened. But why do we marvel, since we believe that all the dead from...

As often as this rich man comes into our midst, against whom through so many ages, throughout all the world, and all the time the voice of God cries out in accusation, on all these occasions the deceptive allurement of riches is put to flight, the raging fire of greed is extinguished, and the rabid fury of avarice is alleviated. For today the Lord Jesus has begun in this fashion: The field of a certain rich man yielded a fruitful harvest, and thinking within himself he said: “What shall I do, since I have no place to store my harvest?”...

Today the cure worked by Christ has given a marvelous display of divine power, has laid bare how cunning the devil is in his trickery, and has freed a woman who was afflicted by a long-lasting and mysterious malady, as the evangelist says: Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, and there was a woman present who had a spirit that kept her infirm for eighteen years, and she was stooped, and was in no way able to look up. When Jesus had seen her, he called her and said to her: “Woman, you are freed from your...

Just as a skillful teacher strikes at the intellects of students who are inexperienced in listening and slow to understand by employing various teaching techniques, and arouses and enkindles their talents, so does the Lord with a variety of parables and diverse metaphors call together and invite the sluggish and slow minds of the peoples to listen to the Gospel. For indeed the Lord begins today as follows: A certain person had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came to look for fruit on it, and did not find any. So he said to his vinedresser: “Look,...

To lead the first and the last, both the Jews and the Greeks, to salvation, the blessed Apostle always holds up high the one and only standard of faith; whoever does not deserve to have and to hold it will not be able to possess the glory of being triumphant in heaven. This standard alone, brothers, is what precedes into battle the ranks of those who fight against faithlessness, it points out who the King is, it unites allies, and it terrifies the unholy enemy by the mere sight of it. And so he begins today: The fact that it...

When the blessed apostle asks about what is well known, and inquires about what is evident, he is of course rebuking and scolding those who corrupt the words of God by the interpretation they give, and they think up a justification for their offenses from the very place where they ought to have received instruction in the virtues. And so he began today as follows: What shall we say? Shall we continue in sin in order that grace abound? (Rom 6.1) He had said earlier, brothers: “Where sin has abounded, grace has abounded all the more.”² And the reason that...

Since the whole hope of the Christian faith has its foundation in the resurrection of the dead, and so that no one may dare to have doubts about it, today we have had a very lengthy reading proclaimed to you from blessed Paul as he affirms this with his authority, with facts, and with examples; our sermon is unable to find anything which it might be able to add to what he has said. But because you, my dear ones,² always demand the ministry of our office, with the ardor of the resurrection itself we are eager to repeat these...

You have heard today, brothers, the end-result of poverty, and you have learned what is the outcome of wealth from the Lord’s words. There was a certain rich man, and he was dressed in purple and linen, and he used to feast sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who used to lie at his entryway, desiring to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs used to come and lick his sores. It happened, he said, that the poor man died and was carried by the angels...

It is a characteristic of a shameless debtor either to postpone what is due or to deny what he has promised; an honorable one, by contrast, makes good on both pledges without delay and readily.² We have promised to address everything that remains about that rich man who, while clearly treating Lazarus brutally and harshly, is even more brutal and cruel to himself. Up to this point both the holy evangelist and our sermon, as far as it was possible, indicated what the rich man said to Abraham.³ This is what was said: And lifting up his eyes, while he...

Each time the rich man in his purple is set before us by God, and each time the poor man, wounds and all, is presented to us, on every such occasion the arena of mercy is opened before us, and the racecourse of pity is revealed to us,² so that from a heavenly perspective we may be able to notice in how short a time the poor man attained such a glorious palm of victory and the rich man came to such a devastating end.

2. There was a rich man, it says, and he was dressed in purple and...

Salt² indeed is a healthy seasoning for all food, if it is used in limited amounts; otherwise, used immoderately, both the salt itself is ruined, and it destroys what it seasons. For an excessive amount makes bitter what a moderate amount could have made tasty. So too the reasoning faculty that is in us, if it should have moderation, provides flavor, gives birth to understanding, produces prudence, enlarges the heart, increases ability, gives mature expression to what must be said, puts eloquently what must be heard, becomes delightful to itself, and becomes perfectly delightful for those who partake of it....

How beneficial and advantageous it is to untie the knots of debts and unlock the shackles of bonds, the example of this present steward teaches and informs us; while reducing the amount owed by a merciful arrangement, he not only avoided the very tight straits of an audit, but he also gained the praise of the auditor which would last for ages. And, brothers, since my promise concerning this present reading has put me in your debt,² show forbearance by listening very devotedly, so that a harsh audit may not burden you and me together,³ when a proper understanding of...

Today while the virtue of John and the ferocity of Herod are related to us, our innards were shaken, our hearts trembled,³ our sight grew dim, our mind became dull, our hearing deserted us. For is there anything within human sensation that remains undisturbed when a large amount of vice destroys a large amount of virtue?

2. Herod, it says, apprehended John, and had him bound, and put in prison (Mt 14.3). John was the school of the virtues,⁴ the instructor of life, the model of sanctity, the pattern of morality, the mirror of virginity, the epitome of purity, the...

Blessed apollinaris,³ the first in the priesthood, alone adorned this church with the exceptional honor of having one of her own martyred. It is fitting that his name was Apollinaris, since according to the injunction of his God he lost⁴ his life in order to acquire it for life everlasting.⁵ Blessed is he who so finished the race and so kept the faith⁶ that he truly was found to occupy the first place among the believers. Let no one suppose that he is anything less than a martyr on account of his title as Confessor, since it is well known...

Just as a lengthy anticipation of some great thing that was promised enkindles the spirit and wearies the mind, the awaited fulfillment of the promise stirs up all the senses and everything inside a person. This is why today, as Isaiah has said, Holy Mother Church² has appeared festive, full of joy, and all decked out; she has clothed herself with the cloak of her delight, and as a bride³ she has put on her garland, and has arrayed and adorned herself with a variety of attire.⁴ As the heavens shine with starlight, and as the earth blooms with its...

Let no one be surprised if the holy Church, the virgin and mother,² propagates numerous offspring with heavenly fruitfulness, generates her shepherds on her own, and gives birth on her own to her rulers, since a bee,³ which does not know intercourse, is unacquainted with lewdness and free from immorality, provides a pattern of purity, an example of chastity, and a sign of virginity. The bee conceives solely through her mouth from the dew that comes from the heavens, gives birth through her mouth, molds chaste offspring with her mouth, forms her leaders with her mouth, and generates and produces...

We have frequently said that God is not seen with bodily eyes, that divinity is not contained in a carnal mind, that human reasoning does not grasp the Creator of the universe, but faith alone hears God,² a complete act of trust is needed to perceive him, and human observation, to the extent that it can, recognizes not how great he is, but that he is. And so Moses, who is raised from being a servant to the dignity of being a friend, from a man to a god, seeks the face of God, but does not find it; he...

The holy spirit of Bishop² Adelphius and his reputation for great kindness have this noteworthy quality, that although rich, he enters the dwelling of the poor, and seats himself at the poor person’s table, and makes himself at home with the humble, while his wealth, power, and prominent position resulted in making him unique. For among the greatest of his virtues this will of his must be mentioned, which spurned the haughtiness that comes from having others pay him homage, despised the reverence due to his august house, trampled underfoot as well his lofty rank of authority, and scorned taking...

After the fertility of the Jewish soil was depleted by being tilled continually by the plowshare of the Law,² blessed John flees to a desert in a gentile region, setting the brambles of sin ablaze with the fire of his spirit,³ cutting down trees that bore no fruit with the ax of vengeance,⁴ leveling the rough hills of pride, raising up valleys of humility by making the ground level,⁵ with expert cultivation adjusting the whole surface of the land to the way the nutrients flow, to correspond with the course of the Jordan, and in so doing he prepares fallow...

Just as gold lies concealed in the earth, so does the divine meaning lie hidden in human language.² And therefore as often as the Lord’s words are revealed to us, the mind should be alert, the spirit attentive, so that the intellect may be able to enter the inner sanctum of heavenly knowledge. Let us hear why the Lord has begun speaking in this vein today.

2. Take notice of yourselves (Lk 17.3), he says. What is the meaning of this new kind of talk? Where is this unusual admonition heading? Take notice of yourselves, he says. That one takes...

By examining thoroughly and over a long period of time the mystery of the Virgin’s giving birth² and Christ’s being born, we have at last become worthy to reach the sacred cradle of his birth; thus is it indicated to us today by the words of the Gospel. It happened, it says, in those days that an edict went forth from Caesar Augustus that the whole world was to be enrolled. This first census took place (Lk 2.1–2). When Christ was born there was a census of the whole world, since a census was owed to Caesar, but a...