First Sermon for Septuagesima: On How We Should Listen to the Word of God and on the Spiritual Septuagesima

“ He that is of God, heareth the words of God.” —John viii. 47.

This saying of the Lord, my brethren, affords me great consolation. For it assures me that the reason why you listen so gladly to the words of God is because you are of God. I am not unaware that the Scripture tells us in another passage that “ of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things ?” (Rom. xi. 36). But in a far different manner from His other creatures are they of God who, according to the Gospel of St. John, “are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God ” (John i. 13). Hence you will also find the same Apostle bearing testimony in his first epistle that ‘“ whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but the generation of God preserveth him” (r John v. 18). < He sinneth not,” that is to say, he does not remain in sin, because “ the heavenly generation (which cannot be deceived) preserveth him,” so that it is impossible for him to perish. Or perhaps the words, ‘‘ He sinneth not,” are to be understood as signifying that such a one shall be as if he had no sin, because, namely, his sins shall not be imputed to him, forasmuch as, in this respect also, “ the generation of

God preserveth him.” * But “who shall declare (this) generation ? ” (Is. lii. 8). Which of us can say, “I belong to the elect, I am one of those predestinated to life, I am of the number of God’s children” ? Where, I ask, is the man who can say this, in the face of the inspired utterance, ‘‘ Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred ” (Eccles. ix. 1) ? No, absolute certitude we cannot have. But still we may find comfort in the confidence of hope, lest otherwise the anxiety occasioned by this doubt should become an insufferable torment. Accordingly, we are given certain signs and manifest indications of salvation, such that, in whomsoever they continue, they make it practically indubitable that he is of the number of the elect. For this reason, I say, “ whom God foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son ” (Rom. viii. 29), in order to give at least the consolation of hope to them from whom—lest they

LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD 57 should grow less solicitous—He withholds the assurance of certainty. Hence it is that we are kept always in a state of anxiety, and in fear and trembling have to humble ourselves “ under the mighty hand of God ” (rt Peter v. 6). For whereas we can know, at least in part, what kind we are now, what we shall become hereafter it is entirely beyond our power to discern. “Wherefore, he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall ” (1 Cor. x. 12) ; and let him continue steadfast, yea and make progress in that manner of life which is a sign of salvation and an evidence of predestination.

Now amongst all the indications which minister to our confidence and furnish a solid basis for hope, the most important is that of which I have already begun to speak, viz., ‘‘ He that is of God, heareth the words of God.” You will occasionally meet with persons who listen to the words of God as to something which does not concern them particularly. They neither enter into their hearts, nor examine their consciences, nor consider lest perchance that which they hear is being said for their own amendment. On the contrary, if the “ living and effectual word of God ” (Heb. iv. 12) which goes whithersoever it pleases, guided by its own instinct, not at all by the will of the preacher: if, I say, that divine word is manifestly directed against those vices wherewith they know themselves to be infected, they will try to dissemble, they will turn away the eyes of their heart, they will varnish their faults with some idle pretence, and have recourse to some pitiful self-delusion. In such as these, therefore, I do not see the signs of predestination; but I am rather afraid lest the reason why they do not hear the words of God should be this, because they are not of God. But in you, my brethren,—and God be thanked for it—I do indeed find ‘‘ ears to hear ” (Matt. xi. 15), since the fruit of the word becomes immediately apparent in the amendment of your lives ; yea, and sometimes even during the sermon it seems to me that I can actually feel the burning fervour of your hearts. For the more plentifully you suck out the milk of the word, the more abundantly does the Holy Spirit replenish my breasts ; and the more speedily you swallow down what is offered, the more copious the supplies given to me for your nourishment. This is the reason why I preach to you more frequently than is the custom in our Order. For I know by Whom it has been said, ‘‘ Whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I at My return will repay thee” (Luke x. 35).

To-day, my brethren, we celebrate the beginning of the season of Septuagesima, the name of which at least is familiar to all Catholics. But I confess to you, dearest children, that the very sound of this name excites in my soul a deep feeling of self-commiseration. For my spirit is troubled within me, and is filled with yearning desires for that homeland which knows neither number, weight, nor measure. Oh, how long must I receive all the goods, both of soul and body, in measure and number and weight? “ How many hired servants in my Father’s house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger !”’ (Luke xv. 17). For as concerns the food of the body, it was said to Adam,—and the sentence has been extended to me,— “In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread ” (Gen. iii. 19). But even when I labour, bread is only

LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD 59 given me in weight, water in measure, and the fruits of the earth in number. Such is my condition with regard to corporeal food. But what provision has been made for my spiritual sustenance? Alas! I must sigh before eating ; and would to God that after my sighs and my tears I may be found worthy to receive even so much as a small crust from the heavenly banquet-board, and that, like a whelp, I may be allowed to “eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of my masters”’ (Matt. xv. 27)! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, “city of the great King (Ps. xlvii 3), “Who filleth thee with the fat of corn ” (Ps. cxlvii. 3), and maketh thee “joyful with the stream of the river’’ (Ps. xlv. 5)! In thee there is neither measure nor weight, but perfect satiety and overflowing abundance. Neither is number to be found in thee that art “‘ built asa city which is compacted together ” (Ps. cxxi. 3). Oh, when shall I attain to that unity I so long for, I who am nothing but number and change ? When, O Lord, when shall I be satisfied and Thy glory appear ? (Ps. xvi. 15). When shall I be “inebriated with the plenty of Thy house,” and be made to “ drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure ” (Ps. xxxv. 9)? “For at present the drops that fall thence upon the earth (Ps. lxxi. 6) are so extremely small that I have not even the power “to swallow down my spittle” (Job vii. 19).

So it is, my brethren, so in truth it is. Here below nothing is given us but in number, weight, and measure. The time will come, however, when all this shall be changed, that is, when we shall be admitted into the kingdom of God. For with regard to number, we read that “of His wisdom there is no number ”

(Ps. cxlvi. 5). And in another psalm the same Prophet says, speaking to the Lord, “ At Thy right hand are delights even to the end ” (Ps. xv. 11), that is, without number. Listen now to the Apostle telling us of a weight without weight: “That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation,” says he, “ worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory’”’ (2 Cor. iv. 17). Notice how he describes the weight as eternal; and mark also how he has previously represented it as “above measure.” So too I hear Christ promising us a measure without measure: ‘“‘good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over” (Luke vi. 38). But when shall these things be? Doubtless at the end of our present Septuagesima, which is the time of our captivity. For so we read that the children of Israel, made captive by the Babylonians, had seventy years appointed them as the period of their exile; at the expiration of which, returning home, they restored the temple and rebuilt the holy city (Je xxv., xxix.; Books x and 2 Esdras). But when shall our captivity come to an end, which has continued now so many years, even from the beginning of the world? When shall we be delivered from this servitude ? When shall the spiritual Jerusalem, the true holy city, be renewed ? Not until the completion of this Septuagesima, which is composed of the number ten multiplied by seven, representing the ten commandments we have received from God and the seven obstacles which impede our observance of those commandments.

The necessities of the body—a heavy care—constitute the first of these obstacles. For it admits of no doubt that the wretched body, by its manifold wants, demand

LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD 6 ing at one time sleep, at another food, clothing now, and then something else, hinders us often from applying ourselves to spiritual things. The second obstacle comes from the vices of the heart, such as levity, suspiciousness, the feelings of impatience and envy, the desire for praise, and similar inordinate motions which we daily experience in ourselves. In temporal prosperity and adversity we have the third and fourth obstacles. “For the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things ” (Wisdom ix. 15). On both sides, consequently, we require to be on our guard against the snares of temptation, and have need of the “armour of justice on the right hand and on the left’ (2 Cor. vi. 7). The fifth obstacle arises from our ignorance, and this is the most serious and the most perilous of all. For in many things we are quite uncertain as to what we ought to do, yea, “‘ we know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. viii. 26). Then there is our “‘ adversary the devil, who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour ’’ (1 Peter v. 8), and he is the sixth impediment. But would to God we had no other tribulation to endure besides these six, that there were no seventh evil to assail us, no danger to be apprehended from false brethren! Would to God the suggestions of the malignant spirits were the only assaults we had to encounter, and’ that we were exposed to no peril from the pernicious example of men, from their importunate solicitations, from their flattery and detracting speeches, and from their various other means of doing us harm ! You see, therefore, my brethren, what need we have to be supported by the assistance of the Sevenfold

Spirit against the seven perils which beset us in the path of salvation. And it is on account of these seven obstacles in the way of obedience to the ten commandments of the divine law that the present Septuagesima is passed in penitential mourning. Hence, the solemn alleluia is suppressed during this time and the wretched history of human transgression is recounted from the beginning.*