First Sermon for the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul: How the Holy Apostles Have Taught Us to Live

“ He shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he hath raised himself above himself.’ — Jer. Lam. iii. 28.

Magnificent, dearest brethren, is the feast we solemnise to-day, a feast instituted to honour the most glorious death of two illustrious martyrs, the chief amongst the martyrs and the princes of the holy apostles. I am speaking of Saints Peter and Paul those two grand luminaries, placed by the Lord as two eyes, so to speak, in the forefront of HisChurch. They have been assigned to me as masters and mediators, to whose care I can securely commit myself ; for they “have made known to me the ways of life (Ps. Xv. II), and through them I shall be able to ascend to that other Mediator Who hath come to “ make peace through the Blood of His cross both as to the things on earth and the things that are in heaven ” (Col. i. 20). Absolutely pure in both His Natures is He “ Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth ” (x Peter ii. 22). How then shall I have the presumption to approach Him directly, I who am a sinner, who have multiplied my offences beyond the sands of the seashore? How shall utter filthiness draw nigh to infinity purite? I have good reason to be afraid lest I should “fall into the hands of the

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Living God ” (Heb. x. 31) if I ventured to approach and to attach myself to Him from Whom I am separated by as wide a difference as there is between good and evil. Therefore has God given me for my mediators these two saints who are but men like myself, who have been sinners also like me, and very great sinners, and who consequently have learned from themselves and from their own experience how they ought to compassionate others. For being themselves guilty of great crimes, they will readily pardon other great criminals ; and with what measure the Lord has meted to them, they will measure to us again (Matt. vii. 2). The Apostle Peter perpetrated a most grievous crime, a crime than which no greater perhaps has ever been committed. And nevertheless he obtained pardon without the least delay or difficulty, and so complete a pardon that he forfeited nothing of his singular prerogative as head of the Church. The Apostle Paul likewise, after rending the very vitals of the infant Church with unparalleled rage and cruelty, was called to the faith by the voice of the Son of God Himself, and was requited with so much good for all the evil he had done that he became “a vessel of election to carry His name before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel’’ (Acts ix. 15), a worthy vessel, full of heavenly meats of all kinds and containing medicine for the ailing as well as substantial nourishment for the strong (x Cor. iii. 2),

My brethren, the pastors and teachers appointed for men ought to have meekness, power and wisdom. They ought to be meek, that they may receive me with kindness and compassion; they ought to be powerful, to afford me a secure protection ; they ought to be wise, in order that they may bring me to the path and along the path that leads to the holy city. Now, where can you find greater meekness than that shown by Peter, who with infinite sweetness invited all sinners to come to him, as you may read in his Epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles? Where greater power than that of him to whom the very earth was obedient, giving up the dead at his command, to whose footsteps the sea afforded a firm pathway, who “ with the spirit of his mouth ” (2 Thess. ii. 8) struck down to earth the soaring Simon Magus,* who alone has been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, so that the sentence of God Himself follows and confirms the sentence pronounced by Peter? ‘‘ Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth,” said Christ to him, “ it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in heaven ” (Matt. xvi. 19). Where again will you find greater wisdom than his, to whom not flesh and blood but the Father in heaven communicated with so much generosity that wisdom which comes from heaven ? (ibid. 17). Most gladly too shall I follow Paul who, in the excess of his sweetness, wept over those that had sinned and had done no penance

SS. Peter and Paul. Cf. A Lapide, Comment. on Acts viii. 24. — (Translator.) A

(2 Cor. xii. 21), who was mightier than powers and principalities (Rom. viii. 38), who brought down wisdom in abundance and the most hidden sense of the Holy Scriptures, not from the first, not from the second, but from the third and highest heavens (2 Cor. xii. 2).

Such, dearest brethren, are our masters. They have been fully instructed in the ways of life by the Sovereign Master of all, and what they received from Him they have been communicating to us, even down to the present time. What therefore have the holy apostles taught us and what are they teaching us still? Not the art of fishing, not the art of tent-making (Acts xviii. 3), nor anything else of that kind ; not how to read Plato or how to use with skill the Aristotelian syllogisms, or how to be always learning and never arriving at the knowledge of truth. No, what Peter and Paul have taught me is how I ought to live. Brethren, does it seem to you an unimportant acquisition to have learned how to live ? Oh, be sure it is a great matter to know this, the most valuable knowledge that can be acquired. He does not truly live who is inflated with pride or soiled with luxury or corrupted with any other vicious habit ; for to be thus in thraldom to passion is not to live but to waste one’s life and to “ draw nigh even to the gates of death ” (Ps. cvi. 18). What constitutes a good life in my judgment is this: to suffer evil as thou oughtest and to do good, and so to persevere to the hour of death. We hear it commonly said that to eat well is to live well; but herein “iniquity hath lied to itself ” (Ps. xxvi. 12). For no man lives well but he that does well.

Now, as it seems to me, thou that livest in a com-

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„>f munity livest well if thou livest an orderly, sociable, and humble life ; an orderly life with regard to thyself, a sociable life with regard to thy brethren, an humble life with regard to God. Thou shalt live an orderly life if in thy whole conduct thou art solicitous to watch over thy ways both in the sight of God and in the sight of thy brother, preserving him from scandal and thyself from sin. Thou shalt live sociably if thou strivest to be amiable towards all and to love all, to show thyself kind and affable, to support not alone with patience but even with gladness the infirmities of thy brethren, whether of body or soul. Thou shalt live humbly if, having done all this, thou dost labour to extinguish the spirit of vainglory which such virtuous practices are calculated to engender, and art careful never to consent to its suggestions, no matter how strong thou mayest feel them to be. So much for well-doing.

But in the endurance of evil also thou must exercise a threefold care, corresponding to the threefold evil which thou art obliged to support. For there is the evil which thou sufferest from thyself, and the evil which thou sufferest from thy neighbour, and the evil which comes to thee from God. The first consists -in the sharpness of self-inflicted penance, the second of trials due to the malice of others, the third of the sufferings sent by Providence for thy correction. Now that which thou sufferest from thyself thou oughtest to offer as a “ voluntary sacrifice ” (Ps. liii. 8), the evil done thee by thy neighbour thou oughtest to endure with patience, whilst that which comes from God ought to be borne not only without discontent but even with thanksgiving. But such dispositions are not found with many of Adam’s children who “ have wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water” (Ps. cvi. 4). Wandered they have indeed, and still they wander out of “ the way of truth ” (Tobias i. 2), they who, withdrawing into the wilderness of pride, do not want to live a community life, because their singularity can admit of no fellowship. And they wander “ in a place without water,” because they are never bedewed with the rain of contrite tears, and they live in a land sterile and parched from perpetual drought. Consequently, “ they have found not the way of a city for their habitation’’ (ibid.), because they have “ grown old in a strange land ” and “ have been defiled with the dead ”’ and “counted with them that go down into hell” (Bar. iii. 11).

Not such shall be the solitude of him of whom the Prophet Jeremias says, “ It is good for a man when he hath borne the yoke from his youth. He shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he hath raised himself above himself ’’ (Jer. Lam. iii. 27, 28). Those other solitaries wandered from the way, but this one shall sit; “ they always err in heart’”’ (Ps. xciv. I¹), — whilst he, although he does not now sit, nevertheless shall then sit solitary when he has attained to the singular honour in store for him, the honour of that judicial office which “ the saints shall receive in their own land,” where “everlasting joy shall be unto them ’’ (Is. Ixi. 7), It is said also that “ he shall hold his peace,” that is, he shall judge with tranquillity, as the Lord God of Sabaoth judgeth all things with tranquillity (Wisdom xii. 18). Wherefore ? “ Because he hath raised himself above himself,” that is to say, although still a young man and exposed to the violence of the passions belonging to youth, he hath put on the sobriety characteristic of old age, laying aside what he was and assuming what he was not. “ He hath raised himself,’ says the Prophet, ‘‘ above himself.” Yes, because he has learned to look, not at himself, but at Him Who is higher than himself. For “he shall sit and hold his peace ” even in this present life, undisturbed by the tumult of diabolical suggestions, of carnal desires and of worldly distractions. Happy the soul that, although hearing, has not hearkened to the clamour of such tongues! But happier far is the soul —if indeed there beany such—to whom these tongues are altogether silent! My brethren, this is the wisdom which the Apostle spoke “ among the perfect,” “a wisdom hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew” (r Cor. ii. 6, 7). Here is how the holy apostles have taught me to live and to elevate myself above myself. All thanks to Thee, Lord Jesus, “because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones ° (Matt. xi. 25), to those, namely, that “‘ have left all things and have followed Thee ” (Matt. xix.

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Footnotes

1. The Saint is here alluding to a very ancient tradition concerning the fate of Simon Magus. After his encounter with the Apostles in Samaria (Acts viii.) the Magician, so it appears, proceeded to Rome, where his skill in the magical arts won him the interest and favour of Nero. One day,inthe Emperor’s presence, he was giving a new exhibition of superhuman power by lifting himself high into the air, when St. Peter, desiring to put an end to the scandal, made the sign of the cross, and at once the unfortunate Simon came violently to the ground, breaking both his legs in the fall. It was in revenge for this, according to St. Epiphanius, that Nero ordered the arrest of ↩