Third Sermon for the Feast of the Annunciation

“ The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Carist.”’—John i. 17.

How rich Thou art in Thy mercy, O Lord our God! How magnificent in Thy justice! How prodigal of Thy grace! Verily, “ there is none like unto Thee”’ (Ps. lxxxv. 8), most munificent Benefactor, most equitable Recompenser, most loving-kind Deliverer. By Thy grace Thou hast regard to the humble (Ps. cxii. 6, Luke i. 48) ; by Thy justice Thou judgest the innocent ; by Thy mercy Thou savest even the sinful. Such thoughts, dearest brethren, are the mystical meats set before us on the table of our wealthy Host by the testimonies of the Sacred Scriptures (Prov. xxiii. 1), and to-day in greater abundance than usual, as you shall find if you “ consider diligently.” We owe this unwonted profusion to the circumstance that in the present year the most solemn feast of the Lord’s Annunciation falls within the holy season of Lent.* To-day, then, we have heard recited for us the story of the woman taken in adultery and absolved from her sin through the mercy of the Redeemer. To-day we have seen Him, the same indulgent Redeemer, delivering the innocent Susanna from death, and filling the most

FOR THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION 1i6r blessed Virgin with singular gifts of His gratuitous grace. Here in truth is a rich banquet, where we have served up to us at the same time mercy, grace, and justice. Is not mercy rightly regarded as the food of men? Yea, it is a most wholesome food and very efficacious as a remedy. Is not justice, again, the bread of the heart? Undoubtedly, and a kind of bread that wonderfully “ strengtheneth the heart of man ” (Ps. ciii. 15), because it is so solid and nourishing. Hence it is said, “ Blessed are they that hunger after justice, for they shall have their fill ” (Matt. v. 6). And with regard to the grace of God, may not this also be described as the food of the soul ? Oh, certainly, and a most agreeable food it is, “ having in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste” (Wisdom xvi. 20): what is more, it unites in itself the properties of the preceding two, for not alone is it pleasant, but it is also nourishing and medicinal.

Let us, therefore, approach this table and let us taste somewhat of each of these dishes. ‘“‘ Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a one ” (John viii. 5), so said sinners of a sinner, the proud Pharisees of the adulterous woman. But, O Pharisees, you were answered “ according to the hardness of your heart” (Matt. xix. 8). “ Jesus bowing Himself down wrote with His finger on the earth”’ (John viii. 6). “ Lord, bow down Thy heavens and descend ” (Ps. cxliii. 5). “ Bowing Himself down,” and inclining towards mercy —for in the Heart of Jesus is no Judaical stiffness— He “ wrote with His finger—not this time on a stone, but—on the earth.” And that not once only, but a second time : He wrote twice according to the number of inscribed tables given to Moses. Perhaps we may

II I be allowed to suppose that by the first and second writings He impressed on the earth truth and grace, respectively, according to the testimony of the Apostle John, “ The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”? (John i. 17). And consider further whether He may not be supposed to have read from the first table of truth His refutation of the Pharisees: “ He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her ” (John vii. 7). A “ short word ” (Rom. ix. 28) indeed, but “ living and effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword ” (Heb. iv. 12). For the blush of confusion that mantled their faces and their stealthy withdrawal showed with what power this word of the Lord had pierced the stony hearts of the accusers, with what force their flinty foreheads had been broken by this little stone (1 Kings xvii. 49). The adulterous woman deserved stoning, indeed, but let him be forward to punish her who is not conscious of deserving the like punishment himself : let him presume to wreak vengeance on the guilty, whose conscience acquits him of similar guilt. But as for him who cannot pretend to such innocence, his zeal ought to begin with himself as with the object most within reach. Let him first pronounce and execute sentence upon the domestic criminal. So far the table of truth.

But truth is not sufficient. It has confounded the accusers, yet without absolving the accused. Therefore, let the Lord Jesus write again, let Him write the table of grace ; let Him read it for us also, and let us, dearest brethren, be attentive. ‘‘ Woman, hath no man condemned thee ? Who said : Noman, Lord. And Jesus said : Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more ” (John viii. 10, 11). O voice of mercy! © O words that give to our hearing the joy of salvation ! (Ps. 1. 10, 14). Lord Jesus, ‘‘ cause me to hear Thy mercy in the morning, for in Thee have I hoped” (Ps. cxlii. 8). For it is hope alone that can move Thee to compassion ; it is only into the vessel of faithful confidence that Thou pourest the oil of Thy mercy. There is indeed a perfidious confidence which merits nothing but maledictions : it is that which we possess when we sin in hope. Although properly speaking it should not becalled confidence at all, but rather insensibility or pernicious dissimulation. For how can he have any real confidence who attends not to the danger that surrounds him? Or how can he who feels no fear and recognises no object of fear possess that which is the remedy for fear? Confidence is a source of consolation. But they need no consolation ‘‘ who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things” (Prov. ii. 14). Consequently, my brethren, let us, like holy Job, ask the Lord to make known to us “ how many are our iniquities and sins,” and to reveal to us “ our crimes and offences ” (Job xiii. 23). “ Let us examine our ways and our works ”’ (Jer. xviii. 11, Lam. iii. 40), and ponder in diligent consideration all the perils that encompass us. Let each one of us cry out in the midst of his fears, “ I shall go to the gates of hell ” (Is. xxxviii. 10) ; so that henceforward the mercy of God shall be our only comfort. For this is true and perfect hope, when a man despairs of himself and leans with his whole weight upon God. This, I say, is true confidence, to which mercy is never denied, since, as the Psalmist testifies, “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy” (Ps. cxlvi. I). And surely we have good cause for fear when we consider ourselves, and equally good reason for confidence when we turn our gaze towards God. For He is “ sweet and mild and plenteous in mercy” (Ps. Ixxxv. 5), “ ready to repent of the evil ” (Joel ii. 13), and “ bountiful to forgive ” (Is. lv. 7). Let us at least credit His enemies who could find in Him nothing else that might be made a ground of accusation except His readiness to condone. “ He will compassionate this sinner,” they said among themselves, ‘‘ and when she is denounced to Him He will not suffer her to be slain. He will, therefore, stand convicted of openly contravening the law. by pardoning one whom the law condemns.” But, O Pharisees, all your malicious devising has but redounded to your own disadvantage. By fleeing from judgment you show that you despair of your cause ; whilst the guilty woman, having none to accuse her, can now receive pardon without injury to the law.

But let us consider now, most dearly beloved, in what manner the Pharisees stole away from the scene of judgment. ‘‘ They went out one by one, beginning with the eldest ”? (John viii. 9). Do you not see how the two elders go to hide themselves in the orchard of Joakim? They seek his wife, the virtuous Susanna. Let us follow them, for their minds are full of evil purpose against her. ‘“‘ Consent to us” (Dan. xiii. 20) say these elders, these Pharisees, these wolves, who only just now have been prevented from devouring another poor sheep, albeit a wanderer from the fold. “Consent to us and do as we desire.” “ O ye that are grown old in evil days ” (ibid. 52), do you now persuade one to commit the same crime of which you awhile since accused another? But this is all your - justice ; you do in secret the very things which you publicly denounce in your neighbour. Therefore it was that you “ went out one by one ”’ when He Who knows all secrets struck home to your consciences so powerfully with the words, ‘‘ He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” With good reason, then, did Truth say to His disciples, ‘‘ Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. v. 20). “ But if thou wilt not consent to us,” say these elders, “‘ we will bear witness against thee ” (Dan. xiii. 21). O seed of Chanaan and not of Juda! Moses certainly has not commanded you this in the law. Perhaps you pretend that he requires you not only to stone the adulterous but also to accuse the virtuous ? to bear false witness against the innocent as well as to hurl stones at the guilty ? But so far is this from being the case that he does not allow the false accuser any more than the adulterer to go unpunished (Deut. xix. 16-19). The truth is that “ you who make your boast of the law, by transgression of the law dishonour God ”’ (Rom. ii. 23).

“ Susanna sighed and said; I am straitened on every side ” (Dan. xiii. 22). Yes, because whichever way she turned she saw death confronting her: here, bodily death ; there, the death of the soul. ‘If I do this thing,” she went on, “it is death to me, and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands” (ibid.). So it is, O Pharisees. Neither the virtuous nor the vicious ean escape your hands, neither the sinner nor the saint is secure from your accusations, You dissemble the sins you have yourselves committed when you find sins with others; but if you chance to meet someone who has not been guilty of any sin, you impute to him your own. But what course does Susanna take, “ straitened on every side,” as she is, and forced to choose between death and death, that is, between corporal and spiritual death ? ‘‘ It is better for me,” she says, “ to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord ” (ibid.). For she knew that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Heb. x. 31). Men indeed can “ kill the body, but after that have nothing more that they can do”: not them, consequently, ought we to fear but rather “ Him Who after He hath killed, hath power to cast both body and soul into hell ”?” (Luke xii. 4, 5; Matt. x. 28). What keeps the servants of Joakim from coming ? Let them rush in by the postern, for there is an uproar in the orchard, the yelping of two old wolves and between them the bleating of a poor frightened littlesheep. But the Lord, Who has so mercifully snatched from their very jaws one little deserving to be rescued, will not now suffer them to devour the innocent. With reason, therefore, when about to be put to death, “ her heart had confidence in the Lord ” (Dan. xiii. 35) Whom hitherto she had so much feared as to despise in comparison all human fear, Whose law she had preferred to both life and reputation. “ For never had there been any such word said of Susanna,” whose “ parents were just ’’ and whose “ husband was the most honourable of all the Jews ” (ibid. xxvii. 3, 4). And with good reason also was she, who hungered so eagerly after justice that, for its sake, she had been willing to endure corporal death and the disgrace of her house, and to witness the inconsolable sorrow of her friends : with good reason, I say, was she allowed to behold her unjust persecutors condemned to receive well-merited chastisement by the sentence of a righteous judge.

And for ourselves, dearest brethren, if we desire to hear from the Lord the consoling sentence, ‘‘ Neither will I condemn thee,” if we wish now to sin no more against Him, if we “ would live godly in Christ Jesus ” (2 Tim. iii. 12) : we also must “‘ suffer persecution ” (ibid.) and that without “ rendering evil for evil or railing for railing’ (T Peter iii. 9). For he who is not patient shall lose justice, that is to say, shall lose life, that is to say, shall lose his soul (Luke xxi. 19). “ Revenge to Me, and I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. xii. 19). So in truth it is. He will undoubtedly repay thy persecutors, provided only that thou leavest revenge to Him, provided thou usurpest not His right of judgment, provided thou requitest not with evil them that render evil to thee (Ps. vii. 5). He “ executeth judgment” indeed, yet only “ for them that suffer wrong ” (Ps. cxlv. 7) ; “ He shall reprove with equity—but only—for the meek of the earth”’ (Is. xi. 4). But I fear you are growing impatient that the sweetmeats are so long delayed. You should not, however, be surprised at this, because they are truly sweetmeats. No matter how full you may be already, you will find them no burden. Yea, even though eructating from satiety, you will nevertheless find a relish in these.

“ The angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth ”? (Luke i. 26). Art thou surprised, my brother, to see so small a town so highly honoured as to receive an envoy, and so noble an envoy, from so great a King ? But know that in that little town is concealed an immense treasure-—concealed, I say, but only concealed from men, not also from God. What is Mary but the treasury of God? Yes, and wherever she is, there is His heart also (Matt. vi. 21). His eyes are always upon her, and He never ceases to “regard the humility of His handmaid” (Luke i. 48). It will be allowed, I suppose, that the Only-Begotten of God the Father knows heaven. And if He knows heaven, He must likewise know Nazareth. How can He help knowing His native place? How can He help knowing His inheritance ? For He has inherited Nazareth from His Mother, as heaven from His Father: hence He testifies of Himself that He is both the Son and the Lord of David (Matt. xxii. 44, 45). “The heaven of heaven to the Lord,” sings the Psalmist, “ but the earth He hath given to thechildren of men ” (Ps. cxiii. 16). The Lord Jesus, consequently, has a just title to the possession of both heaven and earth: of heaven, because He is Lord, and of earth, because He is the Son of man. And hear how, as the Son of man, He even claims the earth for His own, and yet shares it with us as the Bridegroom of our souls : ‘‘ The flowers,” He says, ‘‘ have appeared in our land”’ (Cant. ii. 12). There is a particular appropriateness in the fact that His native town was called Nazareth, which signifies “ a flower.” For the Flower from the “ root of Jesse ” (Is. xi. 1) loves the flower-bearing land: He Who calls Himself “ the Flower of the field and the Lily of the valleys” (Cant. ii. 1) is delighted to “ feed among the lilies ” (ibid. 16). Flowers are valued for three things, viz., beauty of colour, sweetness of fragrance, and the prospect of fruit : these may becalled their threefold grace. Such a flower shalt . thou, my brother, be esteemed by God, and He will be well pleased in thee (Matt. iii. 17), if He discovers in thee the beauty of a virtuous life, and the sweet fragrance of a good reputation, and the hope and desire of a future reward. For eternal life is the fruit of the Spirit.

“Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God” (Luke i. 30). How much grace? Full grace and singular grace. But is it singular I ought to say and not rather general? To be exact, it is both singular and general, because it is full, and the more singular in proportion as it is also general. For she has been endowed with general grace in a singular degree and manner. Her grace, I say, is all the more singular for that it is at the same time general, because by her alone amongst all has grace been found. It is singular, because thou alone, O Mary, hast found grace in its fulness ; and it is general, because of this “ fulness we have all received” (John i. 10). “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb ” (Luke i. 42). Yes, it is no doubt in a singular manner the fruit of thy womb, but through thee it has come into the hearts of us all. It was thus of old, it was thus, I say, in the case of Gedeon : the whole of the dew was in the fleece and the whole of it on the floor, yet it was not all in any one part of the floor as it was all in the fleece (Judges vi. 37-40). So in thee alone has the wealthy, yea, boundlessly rich Lord of heaven “emptied Himself’”’ (Phil. ii. 7), in thee alone has the Most High humbled Himself, in thee alone has the Immense circumscribed Himself, becoming “a little less than the angels ” (Heb. ii. 9), in thee alone, finally, has the Son of God, Himself true God, made Himself also the Son of Man. But to what end? To the end that we might be enriched by His poverty, exalted by His lowliness, magnified by His littleness, and that ‘‘ gained to the Lord’’ by His incarnation, we might be made “ one spirit with Him ” (xr Cor. VLEZ):

But what shall I say, brethren ? Into what manner of vessel in particular does God pour His grace? If, as already remarked, confidence has capacity to receive mercy, and patience is receptive of justice : what kind of vessel can we pronounce to be a proper receptacle for grace ? Grace is the purest of balsams and requires a vessel of the utmost solidity. Now what is purer, what more solid than humility of heart? Rightly, therefore, does God give His grace to the humble (James iv. 6), rightly “ hath He regarded the humility of His handmaid.’’ By what right, do you ask? Because the humble soul is occupied by no human merit, so that the fulness of divine grace can freely flow into her. But to this humility we have to mount by certain steps. For at first, whilst a man still takes delight in sin and has not yet broken off the miserable habit by the purpose to amend, his heart is rendered by its own vices altogether incapable of receiving grace ; afterwards, also, when he has resolved to reform his conduct, to renounce for ever his old habits, the sins of his past, although they appear to be in a manner pruned as the effect of this resolution, impede, nevertheless, the inflow of grace, so long as they are allowed to abide in the soul. They abide until they are washed out by confession, until by subsequent “ fruits worthy of penance ”’ (Matt. iii. 8) they are fully atoned for. But woe to thee if to thy former sins and vices there succeeds the more pernicious vice of ingratitude! For what is so evidently opposed to grace ? The fervour of our conversion is lost little by little in course of time, our charity is gradually cooled whilst iniquity abounds (Matt. xxiv. 12), so that having begun in the spirit we are consummated in the flesh (Gal. iii. 3). Hence it is that through our lukewarmness and ingratitude we do not any longer “ know the things that are given us from God ” (x Cor. ii. 12). We forsake the fear of the Lord, we give up our pious solicitude, we acquire habits of loquacity, curiosity, jesting, yea, even of detraction and murmuring, wasting our time in frivolity, shirking labour and departing from discipline when we can do so without being observed, as if, forsooth, we thus avoided all harm to our souls. What wonder is it, then, that grace cannot flow into us with such and so many obstacles in the way? But even if one “ be thankful,” as the Apostle says, so that “ the word of Christ ” and “ the word of His grace may dwell in him ”’ (Col. iii. 15, 16; Acts xx. 32), if one be devout and watchful and fervent in spirit : let him still beware of putting his trust in his own merits, of relying upon his own good work. Otherwise, divine grace will not enter his soul. For such a soul is already full and has no room for the gifts of God.

Consider now that Pharisee who prayed in the temple. He was not an extortioner, he was not unjust, neither was he an adulterer. Perhaps you suppose him to have been without the fruits of penance? Far from it. He fasted twice in the week and gave tithes of all he possessed. You are now perhaps thinking that he was ungrateful? But hear what he said: *‘ O

God, I give Thee thanks, etc.” (Luke xviii. II, 12). No, the obstacle to grace in him was that his heart was not void of self-conceit, it was not emptied out, it was not humble but rather proud and elated. For instead of trying to discover what was yet wanting to him (Matt. xix. 20), he exaggerated his merits : but what appeared to him to be the fulness of merit was in reality the inflation of pride. Therefore, he who imagined himself to be full “ went down into his house ” empty. The Publican, on the contrary, did in truth empty himself ; and because he took care to bring his vessel empty, he returned with a bountiful largess of grace. Therefore, dearest brethren, if we too wish to find grace, let us not only abstain from sin in future, but also do worthy penance for the sins of our past, and let us furthermore be careful to prove ourselves devoted to God and sincerely humble. For it is upon souls with such dispositions that the Lord delights to look with that loving regard whereof the Wise Man says, ‘“‘ The grace of God and His mercy are with His saints, and He hath respect to His chosen ” (Wisdom iv. 15). And possibly it is because of the four evils mentioned He calls back the soul whom He looks upon four distinct times, saying, “ Return, return, O Sulamitess: return, return, that we may behold thee ” (Cant. vi. 12), that is lest she should remain either in a sinful habit, or in a sinful conscience, or in tepidity and the torpor of ingratitude, or in the blindness of self-esteem. From which fourfold danger may He in His mercy recall and deliver us also, ‘‘ Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption ” (x Cor. i. 30), Jesus Christ our Lord, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth one God for everlasting ages of ages. Amen.