First Sermon for the Feast of the Dedication of a Church: On the Spiritual Dedication of the Spiritual Temple

‘ Blessed ave they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord : they shall praise Thee for ever and ever.’’—Ps. |xxxiii. 5.

My brethren, we ought to observe to-day’s festivity all the more devoutly for the reason that it is so peculiarly our own. All the other sacred solemnities which we keep are common to us with the faithful in general. But this is so proper to ourselves that if we do not keep it, it will not be kept at all. It is our own feast, because it is the feast of the dedication of our own church. It is still more our own because it is the feast of our own selves. Perhaps it surprises you and embarrasses your modesty to hear of festivals being celebrated in honour of yourselves? But, brethren, “be not like the horse and the mule which have no understanding ”’ (Ps. xxxi. 9). For what of sanctity can belong to these dead walls on account of which they should be honoured with a religious solemnity ? They are undoubtedly holy, but it is because of your bodies. Will anyone question that your bodies are holy, since they are “ the temples of the Holy Ghost (x Cor. vi. 19), “ that every one of you may know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour ” (x Thess. iv. 4)? Consequently, your souls are sanctified because of the Spirit of God “ Who is in you”’ (z Cor. vi. 19), your bodies are sanctified because of

385 26 your souls, and this house is sanctified also because of your bodies. The Psalmist’s soul was certainly imprisoned still in this corruptible flesh, this “ body of sin ” (Rom. vi. 6)—in which it had even committed the most heinous crime of adultery—when he said to God, “ Preserve my soul, for I am holy” (Ps. lxxxv. 2). Truly, ‘‘ God is wonderful in His saints ” (Ps. Ixvii. 36), not alone in His saints in heaven, but also in those on earth. For He has His saints in both places and shows Himself wonderful in them all, beatifying those above, consummating the sanctity of those below.

Perhaps you would like to have some evidence of this earthly sanctity whereof I speak, and wish me to show you some of the miracles of these earthly saints ? Well, then, listen. Many amongst you, doubtless, have manfully forsaken their vices and sins, in which, before they were as “ beasts that have rotted in their filth ” (Joel i. 17), and now they offer a stout resistance to the enemy’s daily onslaughts, as the Apostle testifies, speaking manifestly of the saints: “They have recovered strength from weakness,” he says, “‘ and have ` become valiant in battle ” (Heb. xi. 34). What, I ask, can be a greater miracle than the fact that one who before could hardly abstain for two days together from luxury, gluttony, rioting, drunkenness, and all the other similar and dissimilar vices (Rom. xiii. 13), is now able to pass many years, yea, all the rest of his life, without a fall ? What miracle can be more wonderful than that so many youths, so many young men, so many men of noble birth, in fact all of you whom I, behold here present, should be willing to remain confined, as it were, in this open prison, bound by no other chains than the fear of God, and should persevere in a life of such rigorous penance as is beyond human virtue, above the powers of nature, and contrary to monastic custom ? You can see for yourselves, I think, what a multitude of miracles would be brought to light if I were permitted to examine in detail the exodus from Egypt and the journey through the desert of each one of you, that is to say, his renunciation of the world, his entrance into the monastery, and the manner of his conversation here. Now what are all these wonders but so many evident proofs of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your souls ? For, just as the vital motions of the body demonstrate the presence of the soul, so do the operations of the spiritual life manifest the indwelling of the Spirit. The indwelling of the soul in your bodies is made known to me through the senses of sight and hearing; the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your souls is revealed in the exercise of charity, humility, and the other virtues.

Accordingly, it is your own festival, dearest brethren, your very own, that you are celebrating to-day. You have been dedicated to the Lord and the Lord has chosen and adopted you as His own peculiar people. “To Thee,” says the Psalmist, addressing God, “‘ to Thee is the poor man left: Thou wilt be a helper to the orphan ” (Ps. x. 14, juxta H.). Oh, how wisely you have acted, most dearly beloved, in renouncing all that you might have possessed in this world, since by doing so you have deserved to become the peculiar people of the world’s Creator, and to have Him as your peculiar possession : for He is, undoubtedly, “ the portion and inheritance ” (Num. xviii. 20) of His own! No, it is not true what the sons of iniquity have said : “ Blessed the people to whom belong these things ”

(Ps. cxliii. 15), namely, the temporal possessions mentioned in the preceding verse of the same psalm : “ Their storehouses are full, flowing out of this into that ; their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings out ; their oxen fat,” and so on. No, I repeat, it is not the people possessing such things that are blessed, “ but blessed is that people whose God is the Lord ” (ibid.). See, therefore, if it be not right to observe as a festival the day on which the Lord adopted us as His own and took formal possession of us through His ministers and representatives, thus accomplishing in fact what He had promised long before, saying, “ I in the midst of them shall be their God”’ (Zach. ii. 10, Apoc. xxi. 3), whilst we should be “ the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand ” (Ps. xciv. 7). For when this house was consecrated to the Lord by the ministry of the bishops, it was manifestly for our sakes it was done ; not only for the sake of such of us as were then actually present, but also for the sake of all those who until the end of time shall serve God in this place. Therefore, dearest brethren, it is necessary that what has already been accomplished in the walls in a visible manner should be invisibly fulfilled in ourselves. And if you wish to know what it is I refer to, 1 am speaking of five things: the aspersion, the inscription, the unction, the illumination, and the benediction. These things were done by the pontiffs in this visible house: the same are being daily accomplished invisibly in our souls by “Christ ministering as the High-Priest of the good things to come ” (Heb. ix. r). In the first place, He sprinkles us with hyssop, so that we may be cleansed and washed and made whiter than snow (Ps. 1. 9), and may be worthy to have it said of us, “ Who is this that cometh up from the desert” (Cant. viii. 5) all pure and white? He washes us, I say, in confession, He washes us with the water of our contrite tears, He washes us with the sweat of our penitential labour, but more particularly does He wash us with that most precious water which has issued forth from the very fountain of piety, that is to say, from His own Sacred Heart. (John xix. 34). He sprinkles us with hyssop, which is a lowly herb possessing purgative properties. He sprinkles us with the water of salutary wisdom, which is the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom (Ps. cx. 10) and the well-spring of life, seasoning the same with an admixture of salt, lest fear should prove insipid, without fervour and hope.* But not satisfied with cleansing us, He also writes upon our souls with the finger of God (Exod. xxxi. 18, Deut. ix. 10), wherewith He used to cast out devils (Luke xi. 20), and by which we are plainly to understand the Holy Spirit. He inscribes His law, I say, not now on tables of stone (Exod. xxxi. 18), but on the fleshy tables of the heart, thus fulfilling the promise made by His Prophet that He would take away the stony heart and would give us instead a heart of flesh (Ezech. xi. 19), a heart, that is to say, not hard, not stubborn, not Judaic, but affectionate, meek, docile, and devout. ‘‘ Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach him out of Thy law ” (Ps. xciii. 12). Yea, blessed are they that are so instructed by the Lord “and are mindful of His commandments—but mindful, observe—to do them ” (Ps. cii. 18). For “to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not, to him it is sin’’ (James iv. 17), “and that servant who knew the will of his Lord and did not according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes ” (Luke xii. 47).

Hence it is necessary that the unction of spiritual grace should “help our infirmity’? (Rom. viii. 26), lubricating with the oil of devotion the cross of our regular observances and of our various penitential practices. For without the cross we cannot follow Christ (Matt. xvi. 24), and without the sweetening unction, who could support the bitterness of the cross? Here, my brethren, you have the reason why so many abhor and flee from penance, because, namely, they see the cross plainly enough, but cannot seethe unction. But as for you who have had experience, behold you know (John xviii. 21) that our cross is truly anointed, that through the grace of the Spirit Who helpeth us (Rom. viii. 26) our penance is sweet and delightful, and that our bitterness, as I may say, is become most pleasant. But after anointing us with the unction of grace, Christ surely will not put His “‘candle under a bushel but upon a candlestick’ (Matt. v. 15), because the hour has come when “your light should shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven ” (ibid. 16).

With regard to the benediction, that is reserved for the end, when the Lord will “ open His hand and fill with blessing every living creature ” (Ps, cliv. 16). The four preceding operations constitute our merits: the benediction shall be our reward. In the benediction shall be consummated the grace of our sanctification, when we shall go into the “ house not made with hands, eternal in heaven ” (2 Cor. v. 1). That is the house which is built up with “living stones ” (1 Peter ii. 5), namely, with angels and men, the dedication whereof shall be completed at the same moment that witnesses the completion of its structure. Wood and stones do not constitute a house so long as they remain disunited, nor is it possible to dwell beneath them until they have been cemented together: it is only in the combination that they can form a dwelling-place.* Thus the perfect

• Compare the following from St. Augustine: “As often dearest brethren, as we celebrate a feast in honour of an altar or temple, if we are living justly and holily, and if we consider the matter diligently and with the eyes of faith, we shall find everything appertaining to the building of the material edifice spiritually fulfilled in ourselves. For no liar was he who said “The temple of God is holy: which you are,’ also, ‘ Know you not that you are the temple of God ? ’ (1 Cor. iii. 17, 16). Therefore, most dearly beloved, since it is by no antecedent merits of our own, but through divine grace we have been found worthy to be made the temple of God, let us strive our best with His assistance that our Lord shall discover nothing in His temple, that is to say, in our souls, which would offend the eyes of His majesty. Let the chamber of our heart be emptied of vices and replenished with virtues ; let it be closed against the devil, opened to Christ. And let us so labour that we shall be able to open for ourselves the gate of paradise with the key, as it were, of our good works” (Serm. 252 de Temp.). “The festivity that has brought us together to-day is the dedication of the house of prayer. This house, then, is the house of our prayer, whilst we ourselves are the house of God. Now, if we are the house of God, we are being built up in this life and shall be consecrated at the last day. The work of building implies much labour, but the dedication shall be a time of jubilee. So what took place when this material house was rising from its foundations, the same is now accomplished when the believers in Christ are gathered together. For by believing, they are hewn, as it were, like wood and stones from the forests and mountains. And they are chipped, shaped, and smoothed under the hands of the tradesmen whilst they are cathechised, baptised, and formed in the faith. Nevertheless, it is only when they are bound together by charity that they union of the heavenly spirits, a union impaired by no kind of division, affords God a perfect and worthy habitation which the indwelling glory of His majesty unspeakably beatifies. Who, I ask, could be so fully informed concerning all the counsels of kings, or who could possess so much knowledge of all their words and actions as the wood and stones of their palaces, if only they (the wood and stones) were endowed with sense and intelligence. Thus, my brethren, the living and rational stones of the celestial palace above, are admitted to the counsels of God, they know all the secrets of the Most Blessed Trinity and hear words ineffable ‘‘ which it is not granted to man to utter” (rr Cor. xii. 4). “ Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord: they shall praise Thee for ever and ever ” (Ps. lxxxiii. 5). For the more they see, and the more they understand, and the more they know: by so much the more do they love, by so much the more do they praise and admire.

I have already told you that all the parts of that spiritual house are perfectly united and fitted together. It remains for me to explain now in some degree what is the manner of this connection and union. ‘“‘ The constitute the house of God. Thus, had not these pieces of material wood and stone been united to each other in due order, had they not been firmly wedded to each other, did they not by their cohesion manifest their mutual love, so to speak, nobody would venture beneath them. But whenever you behold the wood and stones in a building firmly fastened together you enter that building with confidence and have no fear of its falling. Hence the Lord Jesus, desirous to enter our souls and to dwell there, said, as if raising the edifice, ‘A new commandment I give unto you: that you love one another’ (John xiii. 34). ‘Anew commandment,’ He said, ‘I give unto you. Fomerly you were in error, you built no house for Me, but lay prostrate in your ruins. Therefore if you desire to repair that ancient ruin, love ye one another ’” (id. Serm, 256).

solder is good,” as we read in Isaias (Is. xli. 7). There is in fact a twofold solder cementing together these living stones, the solder of full knowledge and the solder of perfect love.* For the more intimate is their union with essential charity which is God (x John iv. 16) the more powerful must be the bonds of love that unite them one with another. Neither can any vain suspicion cause discord in that society in which the all-penetrating light of truth makes manifest to all the thoughts and sentiments of each, suffering nothing whatever to lie hidden.t For since “ he who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit” (x Cor. vi. 17) with Him, there can be no doubt that the blessed who are perfectly united to Him, with Him and in Him penetrate all things. Brethren, if we desire to reach that happy home, our souls should “‘long and faint for the courts of the Lord” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 1), like the Psalmist who sings, “ One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life”’ (Ps. xxvi. 4). And we must also ł That is, in so far as the angels and glorified human spirits will that their thoughts should be made manifest to each other. Without this will, the thoughts of the heart can be read by none but God, as the Saint himself teaches in his fifteenth Sermon on Psalm xc. Cf, also St. Thomas, P. I. q. lviii. a. 4.—(Translator.)

imitate the same Prophet who “‘ swore to the Lord, and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob: If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house ”, (Ps. cxxxi. 2, 3). But I had better reserve this for another sermon in which I shall communicate to you whatever light the Lord meanwhile may be pleased to impart to me thereon.