Selected Sermons, Volume 2

SERMON 25: A Fourth on the Same or on the Words: “Do not fear, little flock”

SERMON 25 A Fourth on the Same 1 oday you have heard how the Lord consoled with soothing words of encouragement the flock of disciples2 that began so small and insignificantly. Do not fear, little flock, he says, because it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom (Lk 12.32). Hope removes anxieties, the outcome takes away doubts, it banishes and excludes every fear, since at the very start he promises the kingdom to the newborns : Because it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Who sighs for food, clothing, ordinary wealth, and a common, plain, old hovel when he is certain about the kingdom and sure to wield power? He is his own worst enemy when after having been raised to the heights he casts himself down to the depths and sinks into poverty. But it is appropriate to understand who this Father is, what he is like, and what is the kingdom that he promises to his children . Who this Father is you recognize from your prayer each day as you proclaim: “Our Father, who art in heaven.”3 You have certainly examined what he is like from the sheer magnitude of his works: he made the sky out of nothing,4 he made the earth firm and distinct from the water, he weighed the mountains in scales,5 and he enclosed the seas within their proper boundaries solely by the authority of his command. But if you desire to know the kind of kingdom that he promises to his little ones, he himself makes it clear when he says: 106 1. Lk 12.32–33. This sermon may have been preached during Lent (see Sermon 23, n. 1). 2. Literally, “the evangelical flock” or “the flock in the Gospel.” 3. Mt 6.9. 4. See Sermon 46.6 for another reference to creatio ex nihilo. 5. See Is 40.12. “Let the little children come to me; for of such as these is the kingdom of heaven.”6 To be in heaven is a wondrous thing; to live in heaven is majestic. But how great it is to reign in heaven is beyond our mortal intelligence to judge. Nevertheless, O man, you have learnt that you are unable to make such a judgment from the following words of the Apostle: “What eye has not seen nor ear heard is what God has prepared for those who love him.”7 And what you are uncertain about deserving, having, and possessing, you are now compelled to confess. What then does one who possesses heaven have to do with earth? What does one who has gained divine goods have to do with human ones? Unless of course you prefer groaning, you are fond of labors, you love dangers, you are delighted by the worst kind of death, or unless you like having evils inflicted rather than goods conferred upon you. But let us see what counsel such a Father gives to those about to reign. 2. Sell what you possess, and give alms (v.33). If you who are now wealthy believe that you are going to live and reign in heaven, then let those things that are yours go before you now to the place where you will be, where you will go, and where you will reign; by means of mercy tally up your vile riches; change what is human into what is divine. And so that none of you may be without means to transport the goods that you are sending along, the poor person has been pressed into service; the poor carry your burdens, and they carry them willingly, because they are not weighed down by such a load, but they are lightened. Sell what you possess, he says, and give alms. Make for yourselves purses that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven , where neither a robber draws near nor a moth destroys (v.33). Make for yourselves purses that do not wear out. You see that this Father wants to enrich his children, not strip them bare. Make for yourselves purses that do not wear out. In a new manner, indeed in a heavenly manner, the one who heeds him purchases by selling, and stores up his goods by spending them; while he SERMON 25 107 6. Mt 19.14. 7. 1 Cor 2.9. casts off, he acquires. How much he desires that...