Selected Sermons, Volume 3

90 A Fifth [on Zechariah]

SERMON 90 A Fifth 1 hat we are lifted up when the saints fall down, and that we are made firm when the saints tremble, the hesitation of the priest Zechariah has shown us today . When he does not trust in the promises of God but debates about them,2 and does not accept the divine works on faith, but investigates them with human reasoning, he pays for the sin of disbelief by being condemned to a long period of silence. He had heard from the angel: Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son (Lk 1.13). He then said in response : How am I to know this? I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years (v.18). As much as he had lost hope of posterity because he was so far into old age, had he not learned just as much by his lengthy experience in life that God considers nothing impossible? He who had been a priest for so long had read and knew as a veteran high priest that while nature could be restrained by law,3 the Author of nature could not be restrained, and that while time could limit the human being, it could not limit its Creator. He knew that the bodies of Abraham and Sarah were decrepit4 from extreme old age, and prevented from bearing the 79 1. (Angle brackets here indicate an addition to the title in Olivar’s CCL text.) This sermon, which begins by commenting on Lk 1.18 (after a brief reference to Lk 1.13), was probably preached next after Sermon 88 (FOTC 17.137– 43), which concludes with a commentary on Lk 1.17. These sermons were delivered in December before Christmas. See F. Sottocornola, L’anno liturgico, 96. 2. The contrast between trusting and debating or arguing is also noted in Sermons 49.3 (FOTC 109.189–90) and 61.3 (FOTC 17.112). 3. That is, by the natural law. In Sermon 44.4 and 6 (FOTC 17.97 and 98) Chrysologus also makes reference to the natural law and the Author of nature. 4. Literally, “dead” (mortuis). name of father and mother because of their very well publicized sterility, and that Isaac had burst forth to produce descendants in abundance in the Israelite people.5 The deficiency of nature was not as detrimental to him as it was beneficial to be born by the kindness of the Author, and not of nature. Zechariah had learned that God had given to Rebecca and Anna, who had been childless for so long and had been out of favor with nature for so long, what barrenness had denied.6 2. So, having been instructed in such great matters, why is it that he says: How am I to know this? I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years? Brothers, human nature is quite anxious near God, quite feeble near the divine powers, and in the matter at hand it does not find itself to be in the condition it thought it was earlier. The human being lacks sufficient knowledge of himself before proving himself within the situation and putting himself to the test in such instances. He seeks heaven, he seeks the heights, he searches out the celestial realm, he moves heaven, he strikes at heaven; but when he has moved heaven, he is unable to bear heaven’s weight. He strives to climb to the pinnacle of faith, he yearns to penetrate heaven by his own power, but when he has begun to proceed with human steps along the celestial paths, when he glances down at his own nature, he does not have as much con- fidence about the distance already traveled as he has fear about falling headlong. Thus when blessed Peter imitates God in walking across the water, and as a trailblazer he treads heavyfooted on the fluid path, he prays out of fear of sinking before rejoicing about what has already been granted to him.7 So now let us turn to Zechariah. Over a long period of time he used to lament that the devil was able to reign through death on account of one man’s offense, and that human beings were born to suffer labors, groans, and dangers. He continually lamented his unfulfilled desire to have children, although it was a troublesome prospect in that they were destined to die. 80...