First Sermon for the Feast of St. Michael, Archangel: (september 29th.)

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE. ANGELIC MINISTRY AND THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST.

“ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation ?’’—Heb. i. 14. “The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many.” —

Matt, xx. 28.

To-day, dearest brethren, we celebrate a feast in honour of the holy angels, and you think you have a right to demand a sermon from me on so important a solemnity. But wretched little worm that I am, how shall I presume to speak of those celestial spirits ? I believe and hold with most undoubting faith that they, gladdened by the presence and by the vision of God, rejoice evermore in “ the good things of the Lord”’ (Ps. xxvi. 13) which “‘eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man ” to conceive (r Cor. ii. 9). How then shall a man speak to men of what he is as incapable of conceiving as they of understanding ? If it be true that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ” (Matt. xii. 34), he doubtless ought to hold his tongue whose mind is empty of thought. However, if it is impossible for me to discourse on the happiness and glory which the angels enjoy im themselves or rather in the Lord their God, and which utterly transcends my powers of conception, let me at least say something about their kindness and charity towards us. For these exalted creatures show themselves not less amiable by their condescension than they are admirable by their state. It is fitting therefore, brethren, that as their glory is incomprehensible to us, we should all the more eagerly embrace the loving-kindness which, as we know, abounds in these “domestics of God ”? (Ephes. ii. 19), these citizens of heaven, these princes of paradise. We have it on the testimony of the Apostle who was rapt up to the third heaven (2 Cor. xii. 2) that “ they are all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation” (Heb. i. 14).

This ought not to appear incredible to anyone who considers that the Creator and King of the angels has Himself come likewise “not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a redemption for many ” (Matt. xx. 28). For why should an angel disdain as unworthy of him that ministry in which he has the example of the great Lord Whom it is his delight and His happiness to minister to in heaven ? But lest this also might appear doubtful to anyone, “ he that saw it hath given testimony ” (John xix. 35), saying, “ Thousands of thousands ministered to Him and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him ” (Dan. vii. 10); and another Prophet says, speaking to the Father of the Son, “ Thou hast made Him a little less than the angels ” (Ps. viii. 6). Thus, my brethren, thus indeed it was becoming that He who surpassed the angels in majesty should surpass them no less in humility, that He should make Himself “lower than the angels” (Heb. ii. 9) in proportion as He assumed to Himself an inferior ministry: He Who is “so much better than the angels as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they” (Heb. i. 4). But perhaps you would now like to ask me in what does He seem to have been made less than the angels by coming to minister to us, since, as I have already mentioned, they too have been sent to minister? The difference lies in the fact that He not alone ministered but was ministered Himself unto us, so that the Minister and what He ministered were one and the same. Rightly therefore does the spouse sing in the Canticle of Canticles, ‘‘ Behold.He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills ” (Cant. ii. 8). That is to say, He leaped with the angels by ministering like them, but skipped over them in that He alone was ministered. The angels minister indeed, yet not of their own. They offer to the Lord for us, not their own, but our good works, and bring us back in return His graces. This is the reason why the Scripture, when telling us how “ the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel,” is careful to premise, “And there was given to him much incense ”’ (Apoc. viii. 3, 4). For the sweat and the tears that they offer to God belong not to them but to us, and for us also and not for them are the graces and €ifts they come back with.

Not so that Minister Who, surpassing all in the loftiness of His majesty, surpassed them not less in the lowliness of His humility. For He immolated Himself as “ a sacrifice of praise ” (Ps. xlix. 14), offering His life to the Father and ministering to us His Flesh, even to this day. No wonder then if the holy angels condescend, yea and delight, to serve us for the sake of so noble a Minister. For they love us because we have been loved so much by Christ. It is a common saying, “ He that loves me loves also my dog.” We, O happy spirits, we are the poor little dogs of that mighty Lord Whom you love with such ardent affection. Yes, we are the whelps that desire to “ eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters ”’ (Matt. xv. 27), that is, from your table, O blessed ones. I have said this, most dearly beloved, so that for the future you may have greater confidence in the holy angels, and may consequently invoke their assistance with more assurance in all your necessities ; also that you may strive to live more worthily in their presence, to conciliate their favour always more and more, to merit their good-will, to impetrate their compassionate kindness. And I think it necessary for the same object to suggest to your charity two additional motives which, as it seems to me, make the angels solicitous for our infirmity: without any uneasiness, of course, on their side, but not without much profit to us; with not the least prejudice to their felicity, but with the greatest advantage to our salvation. It is evident, then, and indubitable, that human souls, endowed as they are with intelligence and with a capacity for the enjoyment of bliss, have a natural affnity—if I may presume to say it—to the holy angels. Therefore, O ye happy spirits, you ought not to act against the prescription of the law by despising your own race, which you are bound to visit * (Job v. 24), even though, as you yourselves can perceive, it has fallen into utter dishonour. Neither can I suppose it possible for you, citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, to take delight in the ruin of your city and in the dilapidated condition of its walls, which you behold full of breaches. But if you desire its restoration, as you ought, repeat often, I beg of you, before the throne of glory, the words of this prayer : “ Deal favourably, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up ” (Ps. 1. 20). If you love the beauty of the house of the Lord (Ps. xxv. 8), or rather because you do love it so sincerely, exercise your zeal in behalf of the living and rational stones (t Peter ii. 5), which alone are capable of being built into your walls for the repairing of the ruins thereof.

Here, then, most dearly beloved, you have the threefold chord, difficult to break (Eccles. iv. 12), which “from the high habitation of heaven ” (Deut. xxvi. 15) draws down the inconceivable charity of the angels to console us, to visit us, and to help us in our need ; and that for God’s sake, for our sake, for their own sake too. For God’s sake, because they desire to imitate the infinite mercifulness of His dealings with us ; for our sake, because they recognise and compassionate in us a resemblance to themselves ; for their own sake,

© can signify either “ race’’ or “ beauty,” and neither the Greek nor the Hebrew helps to determine its signification here. The term used in the Hebrew means “habitation,” whilst in the Septuagint Greek we find quite a different reading altogether : “4 d€ diarra rhs oxnvns cov bv uù dudpry.’’ (The style of living in thy tent shall not offend.) St. Bernard appears to be following St. Gregory the Great, who writes: “ Speciem suam visitat quisquis ad eum, quem similem sibi per naturam conspicit, passibus amoris tendit ” (Mor., 1. vi. c. xvi.).—(Translator.)

because they long with most ardent desire to see the gaps in their ranks again filled up. For it is “ out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings ’’—that is, of those who have still to be fed with spiritual milk, unable as yet to eat solid food,—that the praise of the Divine Majesty must be “ perfected ” (Matt. xxi. 16). It has been begun by the angelic spirits who are already crowned with the fulness of joy and happiness, but they await our advent with the utmost eagerness because of the vehemence of their desire and longing to see its consummation and ultimate perfection.

Such being the case, consider, dearest brethren, how solicitous we ought to be to show ourselves worthy of such noble company and so to live in the sight of the holy angels that they shall see nothing in our conduct to displease them. For woe to us if ever it should happen that, provoked by our sins and indifference, they deem us undeserving of their visits and society! Then, in truth, we shall be obliged to lament and to say with the Prophet, “ My friends and my neighbours have drawn near and stood against me, and they that were near me stood afar off; and they that sought my soul used violence” (Ps. xxxvii. 12, 13), because, namely, those had withdrawn who could have protected me by their presence and beaten off my enemies. If, then, we find the companionship of the condescending angels so necessary for us, we ought carefully to avoid everything that could displease them and to cultivate those virtues particularly in which we know they take particular delight. Now there are many things which afford them pleasure and which they are glad to discover in us such as sobriety, chastity, voluntary poverty, frequent sighs . to God, prayers offered up with contrite tears and a pure intention of the heart. But above and beyond all these, unity and peace “the angels of peace” (Is. xxxiii. 7) demand from us. What wonder is it that they should show a special love for those virtues which represent, as it were, in us the form of their own supernal city and exhibit for their admiration a new Jerusalem on earth*? I say, then: that just as all things are in common in the city of the blessed (Ps. cxxi. 3), so ought we to think and speak alike and have no divisions amongst us (x Cor. i. 10), but rather to show that we are all, collectively, one body in Christ and members individually one of another (r Cor. xii. 27).

But if concord is especially pleasing to the angels, there is nothing, on the other hand, which would cause them so much displeasure and so excite their indignation as dissensions and scandals, if haply they discovered any here. For let us attend to what St. Paul says, writing to the Corinthians: “ Whereas there is among you envying and contention ; are you not carnal and walk according to man?” (x Cor. iii. 3). And in the Epistle of the Apostle St. Jude we read thus: ““ These are they who separate themselves, sensual men, having not the Spirit” (Jude 19). You perceive how the human soul communicates life to all the members of the body so long as they remain united to each other. But separate one from the rest and see whether it shall continue to enjoy the influence of the animating principle. Such is the state of every man that “saith anathema to Jesus” (1 Cor. xii. 3): the which “no one saith, speaking by the Spirit of God” (ibid.), because anathema means separation.* Such, I say, is the condition of everyone that separates himself from the unity of the brotherhood; there can be no doubt that the Spirit of life has withdrawn from him. With good reason, therefore, do the Apostles describe the contentious and such as separate themselves from the community as “carnal” and “sensual men, having not the Spirit.” Accordingly, the holy and blissful angels say, whenever they find dissensions and scandals, “ What have we to do with this generation which is devoid of the Spirit? For if it had the Spirit, charity would be poured forth by Him (Rom. v. 5) in the hearts of all and concord would have remained inviolate.” And they add, ‘‘ We will not remain any longer with these men because they are flesh (Gen. vi. 3). For ‘what fellowship hath light with darkness?’ (2 Cor. vi. 14). We belong to the realms of unity and peace, and it was our hope that these men could be brought to the same peace and unity. But now, being at variance with each other, how is it possible for them to be united with mets?

And see, my brethren, how appropriate is the Gospel appointed for the present solemnity, in which the Lord restrains us so powerfully from scandalising the little ones, by reminding us of their angels, whom such scandals so greatly displease. “ He that shall

My name, there am I in the midst of them ” (Matt. xviii. 20). —(Translator.)

scandalise one of these little ones that believe in Me ”’ —terrible in truth are the words which follow—(Matt. xvii. 6). But the time for beginning Mass is already gone by. Excuse me, therefore, for making here an interruption ; which indeed may not be without profit if the postponement enables me to pursue my present subject more diligently in a future discourse.