Sermon XXIX. On Domestic Discord and Fraternal Correction

"The sons of my mother have fought against me."

"The sons of my mother have fought against me." Annas, and Caiaphas, and Judas Iscariot were sons of the Synagogue; and these fought most fiercely against the daughter of the Synagogue, that is to say, against the Church, in her very infancy, hanging Jesus, her Founder, on the tree of the cross. For God then fulfilled by their means what He had long before predicted through His Prophet, saying, "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed." And perhaps that is the voice of the infant Church which we hear in the canticle of Ezechias, "My life is cut off as by a weaver; whilst I was yet but beginning He cut me off." It is, therefore, of those mentioned just now, and of others of the same nation, who are known to have been enemies of the Christian name, that the Spouse here complains, saying, "The sons of my mother have fought against me." ' And rightly does she call them the sons of her mother, not the sons of her Father, since they had not God for their father, as the Saviour testifies, but were from their father the devil. For they were murderers, just as he was a murderer from the beginning. Hence, she does not say "my brothers" or "the sons of my Father," but "The sons of my mother have fought against me." Otherwise, without this distinction, the Apostle St. Paul might seem to be i. 337 v included amongst those of whom she makes this complaint, since he also once persecuted the Church. Yet he obtained mercy, because he "did it in ignorance," whilst living in infidelity. And he proved afterwards that he had God for his Father, and thus that he was a brother to the Church, as having the same Father in heaven and the same mother on earth.

But observe, my brethren, how she accuses by name the sons of her mother, and them alone, as if only they are in fault. Yet how much has she not also suffered irom aliens! As she says herself by the Prophet David, "Often have they fought against me from my youth"; also, "The wicked have wrought upon my back." Wherefore, then, dost thou complain of none but the sons of thy mother, knowing, as thou dost, that men of different nations have often persecuted thee? It is written, "When thou art invited to the table of a rich man, consider diligently the things that are laid before thee." We, my brethren, are seated at the table of Solomon. Who is more wealthy than Solomon? I speak not of earthly riches, although Solomon has an abundance even of these. But I wish you to consider the mystical table now before us, how richly furnished it is with celestial delicacies. Spiritual and divine is the food placed upon it for our use. Hence we read, "consider diligently the things that are laid before thee, knowing that it behoveth thee also to prepare the like." And so, with all the diligence of which I am capable, I consider what is laid before me and what is meant for my own instruction and admiration in those words of the Spouse. And that which especially arrests my attention is the fact that she mentions expressly and solely the persecutions suffered from those of the household, passing over in silence the others, so numerous and cruel, which, as we know, she has endured from men of every nation under heaven, from infidels, heretics, and schismatics. I am too well acquainted with the prudence of the Spouse to imagine that such an omission is due to chance or forgetfulness. But, evidently, she laments more particularly what affects her more sensibly, and what she desires to put us more on our guard against. What is that, my brethren? It is the plague of internal and domestic dissension. You have this clearly expressed in the Gospel, by the mouth of the Saviour Himself, where He says, "And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household." You may read the same in the Psalmist, "The man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who eat my bread, hath greatly supplanted me." Also, ' For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it; and if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him. But thou, a man of one mind, my guide and my familiar, who didst take sweet meats together with me." That is to say, "The wrong done me by thee, my friend and companion, causes me more pain and distress than all that I suffer from others."¹ You know who it is that makes this complaint, and of whom.

Acknowledge, then, that the Spouse is complaining of the sons of her mother, with the same sorrow, because in the same Spirit, as David of Achitophel, when she says, "The sons of my mother have fought against me." Hence, she elsewhere makes a similar complaint: "My friends and my neighbours have drawn near and stood against me." Remove far from you, my brethren, this abominable and detestable evil of domestic discord, you who have experienced and do daily experience "how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity," if yet the union of bodies is accompanied by concord of will, and not by the scandal of dissension. Otherwise, the dwelling together shall neither be "pleasant" nor "good," but most bitter and evil. But woe to the man by whom the pleasant bond of unity is broken! Assuredly he shall bear the judgment, be he who he may. Rather let me die than hear any of you truthfully exclaiming, "The sons of my mother have fought against me"! Are you not all sons of this congregation, as if of the same mother, and brothers of each other? What, therefore, can disturb you from outside or sadden you, if all be well within, and you enjoy fraternal concord? For "who is it that can hurt you if you be zealous of good?" Wherefore, "be zealous for the better gifts," that you may prove yourselves zealous of the good.

But charity is of all gifts the most excellent. Surely that gift must be quite incomparable which the Heavenly Bridegroom was so often at pains to recommend to Hisnewly-wed Bride, at one time saying, "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another"; at another "This is My commandment, that you love one another," and, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." He also prayed that they might be one, as He and the Father are one. And see if St. Paul, who invites you to "be zealous for the better gifts," does not give charity the first place amongst all, both when he declares it superior to faith and hope and surpassing knowledge, and when, after enumerating the manifold and wonderful gifts of supernal grace, he directs us to a still more excellent way, which he affirms to be none other than charity. But what can be conceived comparable to that which is to be preferred to martyrdom itself, and to a faith strong enough to move mountains? Therefore, I say to you: have peace amongst yourselves, and then whatever may seem to threaten from outside, it shall have no power to frighten you, because it shall have no power to hurt you. On the other hand, no matter how the world may appear to smile upon us, we shall certainly find in that no consolation, if, at the same time, the seed of discord (from which may God preserve us!) is sprouting in our midst. Therefore, my dearly beloved, be at peace with each other. Let no one injure his brother by word or deed, or by any sign. Let no one, exasperated perhaps and surprised by "pusillanimity of spirit and the storm," be compelled to appeal to God against those who have offended and saddened him, and to give utterance to that serious accusation, "The sons of my mother have fought against me."

For by thus sinning against your brother, you sin against Christ, Who has declared that, "As long as you did it to one of these, My least brethren, you did it to Me." And we do not fulfil our duty in this matter by being on our guard against the more serious violations of fraternal charity such as open contumely or bitter reproaches, such also as secret and slanderous whispering. It is not, I say, sufficient to preserve ourselves from the graver faults, viz., those I have just mentioned, and others of a similar nature. We must avoid light transgressions as well. If, indeed, anything can be called light which you presume to do with the will of hurting your brother, since you shall be held guilty of the divine judgment merely for being angry with him. And justly so. For that which we consider light, and therefore lightly commit, will generally appear different to the offended party, because "man looketh on the face and judgeth according to the face," ready to regard a straw as a beam, and to magnify a spark to a furnace. Not all possess that charity which "believeth all things." ' The imagination and thought of man's heart are prone "to suspect evil rather than to believe good. This is especially the case, where the rule of silence neither allows him who is the cause to offer an explanation, nor the other to lay bare the some of suspicion from which he suffers, in order that it may be healed. So that the latter is inflamed and his soul succumbs to a secret and deadly wound amidst deep groans of internal anguish. For, completely given up to the disquiet and agitation of anger, he can do nothing else but revolve silently in his mind the injury he fancies has been done him. Prayer is no longer possible to one in this condition. He can neither apply his mind to reading, nor meditate on anything holy and spiritual. And whilst the vital respiration is thus suspended, so to speak, and the soul, deprived of her proper nourishment, is rapidly approaching death, that soul for which Christ died, what, I ask thee, who art the offender, what is the state, what are the feelings of thine own soul? What relish canst thou find in prayer or in labour, or in any other exercise, whilst Christ is sadly complaining of thee from the breast of the brother whom thou hast aggrieved, saying, "The son of My mother hath fought against Me," and "he ' who took sweet meats together with Me ' hath rilled Me with bitterness "?

But if thou shouldst say that he ought not to be so perturbed on account of so slight an offence, I answer that the slighter it was the more easily might it have been avoided by thee. And yet, as I have already remarked, I know not how thou canst call slight anything that goes beyond the mere feeling of anger, since even this is matter for judgment, as the Judge Himself declares. What! Surely thou wilt not regard as trivial that which offends Christ and for which thou shalt be brought before the divine tribunal. "It is a fearful thing," says St. Paul, "to fall into the hands of the living God." Therefore, whenever anyone happens to hurt thy feelings, and it is almost impossible that this should not occasionally occur in such communities as ours whose members are thrown so much together, do not immediately hasten, after the manner of worldlings, to retaliate upon the offending brother by an abusive answer. Neither oughtest thou to be, under any pretence of administering correction, so viciously daring, as to transfix with a sharp and blistering word the soul for which Christ refused not to be fixed on the cross. Nor shouldst thou vent thy anger by inarticulate expressions of resentment, by suppressed mutterings and murmurings, by turning up the nose in disdain, by the laughter of contempt and mockery, or by the frown of reproach or menace. No, but rather let the agitation expire in thine own heart, where it was brought to birth. Let not that passion which carries death be permitted to go abroad lest it should work havoc to some brother's soul. So shalt thou be able to say with the Prophet, "I was troubled and I spoke not."

I am aware, my brethren, that some find a more profound signification in these words, as if they were spoken of "the devil and his angels." For these also were sons of "that Jerusalem which is above, which is our mother." But they fell, and since their fall have not ceased to fight against their sister, the Church. Nor shall I contradict him who may prefer a more benign interpretation, according to which the meaning would be that the spiritual sons of the Church fight against their carnal brothers with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, inflicting on them wounds, not unto death but unto their salvation, and by such onslaughts compelling them to attend to their spiritual interests. Would that the "just man" might "correct me in mercy and reprove me,"" "striking and healing, killing and making alive," so that, with St. Paul, I, too, might dare to say, "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me "! "Be at agreement with thy adversary betimes," said the Lord, "whilst thou art on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer." A good adversary he, with whom, if I am in agreement, neither the judge nor the officer shall have a word to say against me. Certainly, my brethren, if I have ever saddened any of you for the sake of your amendment, I do not regret it, because that sadness is unto salvation. And I cannot recall that I have ever done so without feeling great sadness myself, as it is written, "A woman, when she is in labour, hath sorrow." But God forbid that I should any longer think of my anguish, now that I possess the fruit of my pains and see Christ formed in my children! I know not how it is, but it is true nevertheless, that I feel a more tender affection for those whom I have at length restored to spiritual health after and by means of many reprehensions, than for others who have always been strong and able to dispense with such bitter medicine.

Therefore, my brethren, the Church, or the soul that loves God, can say in this sense that the Sun has discoloured her, namely, by sending some of the sons of her mother to fight against her in this salutary way, and to lead her captive to His faith and love, pierced, no doubt, with many of those arrows whereof we read, ' Sharp are the arrows of the Mighty,"and," Thy arrows are fastened in me."Hence she goes on to say," There is no health in my flesh"; so that, being made healthier in spirit, and consequently stronger, through the infirmity of the flesh, she is able to affirm, ' The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak," or with the Apostle, "When I am weak, then am I powerful." Do you observe how the weakness of the flesh increases the strength of the spirit and supplies it with new energies? Then be assured of the converse also, that the strength of the flesh produces weakness of the spirit. And what wonder if you increase in power in proportion as your enemy increases in weakness? That is, unless you are mad enough to regard as your friend that flesh which ceases not to lust against the spirit. See, therefore, if the holy Psalmist did not act prudently in praying to be savingly pierced with these arrows and to be "fought against," where he says, "Pierce my flesh with Thy fear." An excellent arrow is fear, which transfixes and slays the desires of the flesh, "that the spirit may be saved." And does it not seem to you that he who chastises his own body, and brings it into subjection, is himself assisting the hand that fights against him?

Another spiritual arrow is the word of God, "living and efficacious, and more piercing than any two-edged sword." Of this the Saviour said, "I came not to send peace but the sword." A most penetrating arrow also is the love of Christ, which not only pierced, but even transpierced Mary's soul, in such a way as to leave no single fibre of that virginal breast unclaimed by charity, causing her to love with her whole heart, with her whole soul, and with all her strength, so that she might be full of grace. Or it may be said to have transpierced her in the sense that it passed through her and so came to us, in order that of her fulness we might all receive, and that she might become the mother of charity (of which the Father is God, Who is substantial Charity) bringing forth and setting its Tabernacle in the sun. Thus was fulfilled the words of Isaias, "I have given Thee to be the Light of the Gentiles, that Thou mayst be My Salvation, even to the farthest part of the earth." And it was fulfilled through Mary, who brought forth in visible flesh Him Whom she received invisibly, neither from flesh nor with flesh. She, in truth, suffered in her whole being a great and most delicious wound of love. Happy should I esteem myself, did I but occasionally feel my soul pricked at least with the point of that sword, so that, having received a little wound of charity, I might exclaim, "I am wounded with love." Who will grant me not only to be wounded in this manner, but even to be "fought against," until I have utterly lost both the colour and the concupiscence of that flesh which "lusteth against the spirit"!

If the daughters of this world revile such a soul, taunting it with its pallor and poverty of colour, does it not seem to you, my brethren, that they may be suitably answered in the words, "Do not consider that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour"? And if that soul remembers that she has been brought to this happy condition by means of the exhortations and reprehensions of certain servants of Christ, who were "jealous of her with the jealousy of God," will she not be able to add with all sincerity that "-The sons of my mother have fought against me"? The sense, therefore, will be, according to what has been said, that the Church, or indeed any soul studious of virtue, utters these words, not in lamentation or complaint, but with joy and thanksgiving, nay, glorying in that, for the name and the love of Christ, she has been accounted worthy to be and to be called discoloured. And this she ascribes, not to any merit of her own, but to the grace and mercy of Him Who prevented her with His inspirations and sent His preachers to instruct and encourage her. For how could she believe "without a preacher"? And "how could they preach unless they were sent?" Without indignation, but not without gratitude, she declares that the sons of her mother have fought against her. Hence she adds, "They have made me keeper in the vineyards." If these words be "spiritually examined," I believe it will appear that they express no discontent or ill-feeling, but savour of something more excellent. But before presuming to address ourselves to this investigation, since "the place is holy," we must, with the customary prayers, conciliate and so consult that Holy Spirit Who "searcheth the deep things of God"; or certainly the "Only- Begotten, Who is in the bosom of the Father," the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Footnotes

1. When he spoke these words, the Saint and his hearers m.ust have had in mind the foul treachery of which he was himself the victim. He had been most basely betrayed by his own trusted secretary, Brother Nicholas. This wolf in sheep's clothing, possessing a counterfeit of the holy Abbot's seal, was in the habit of sending out letters in St. Bernard's name' calculated to injure his reputation. Thus he used to write even to the Popes, calumniating prelates and religious communities, or recommending unworthy persons for ecclesiastical offices. Being at last discovered, he 'fled from Clairvaux. But is soon as the Saint was dead, the miserable apostate returned to the attack, and by his slanderous stories, endeavoured t< asperse a memory evewhere held in highest honour.— (Translator.) ↩