In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SERMON 118 An Eleventh 1 ince the whole hope of the Christian faith has its foundation in the resurrection of the dead, and so that no one may dare to have doubts about it, today we have had a very lengthy reading proclaimed to you from blessed Paul as he affirms this with his authority, with facts, and with examples; our sermon is unable to find anything which it might be able to add to what he has said. But because you, my dear ones,2 always demand the ministry of our office, with the ardor of the resurrection itself we are eager to repeat these same matters and to tread in these very tracks more vigorously. 2. Brothers, it is always a pleasure to speak about the resurrection , it is a perpetual delight to hear about the resurrection, since it is always unpleasant to die, but always a delight to live. Therefore, may the resurrection always echo in our mouths, may the resurrection always make its way into our mind’s hearing , so that death, which always besieges our senses with its terror and lamentation, may be cast out from our senses. And so the farmer sings of a plentiful harvest and of bountiful feasting so as not to feel the toil and sweat of the plowshare which lie ahead of him; so too the sailor makes a melody about ports and profit so as not to be afraid of shipwreck or other haz150 1. (Angle brackets here indicate an addition to the title in Olivar’s CCL text.) See Sermon 110, n. 1, regarding Chrysologus’s preaching on St. Paul. A. Olivar, in Los sermones, 270–71, believes that Sermon 118 followed next after Sermon 117, because at the close of 117 (FOTC 17.202), Chrysologus promised that he would preach a complete sermon on the resurrection. But the fact that the biblical text occasioning Sermon 118 was from an earlier section of 1 Cor 15 than was Sermon 117 makes Olivar’s contention highly unlikely. The sermon promised in 117 is probably not extant. 2. Literally, “your charity” (vestra caritas). See A. Olivar, La predicación cristiana antigua (Barcelona: Herder, 1991), 882. ards of the sea; thus the soldier repeats a refrain about booty and triumphs so as not to fear wounds nor be afraid of blows from a sword.3 Therefore, may the Christian await, sing, and think about the resurrection with his mind, mouth, and eyes, so that he can despise and tread underfoot all fear of death. 3. Death, brothers, is the mistress of Despair, the mother of Unbelief, the sister of Corruption, the parent of hell, the wife of the devil, the queen of all evils, who is so insatiable and so deliberate in her attacks against the whole human race that she first sends ahead Despair to murmur and seduce on her behalf as follows. And so Despair4 says: “O man, why are you wasting your time? Look, Death, your mistress, is coming, and she is going to reduce your soul to nothing and consume your flesh with decay and your bones with aging, so as to make you, who did not exist before your birth, nonexistent after death. So, you who are about to die, do not delay paying for yourself what you owe to your various stages in life before you die: spend your childhood in games, spend your adolescence in delights, spend your youth in pleasures, spend your old age with me, so that you will not imagine that you have no reason to have despaired of hope.” 4. After her she sends her daughter Unbelief, who makes the following threats: “Are you thus disposing of your life as if you are not going to die, as if you will avoid death? O man, faith is deceiving you; you trust faith, which promises future blessings in order to take away present ones; and pledges that there are all sorts of unseen things after death, in order to remove the things that do exist before death. Who has come from there, or what wise person believes in things that have been promised for so long but never fulfilled? Oh, if only you would eat and drink! Eat and drink, for tomorrow you will die.”5 5. Third, she directs Corruption, her sister in wickedness, SERMON 118 151 3. Somewhat similarly, in Sermon 10.1 (FOTC 109.52) Chrysologus mentions that the difficulties faced by both...

Share