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SERMON 55 On the Gospel in the Creed,1 Where It Says: If One Asks His Father for Bread, Will He Give Him a Stone? 2 fter the precepts of the law, filling up several volumes and collected in books, were not sufficient to make us appreciate God’s love, God’s affection takes root and works its way into people’s hard hearts through the use of comparisons and examples. If one among you, it says, asks his father for bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ? Therefore, if you, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more so will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him? (Lk 11.11–13) 2. If one among you asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Charity is unable to play tricks, devotion is without deceit, affection rejects falsehood. If he is a father, he is unable not to love; if he loves, he is unable to give anything except what is good. He denies his father if he is suspicious about his father’s generosity; he does not know that he is a son, if gifts from his father make him anxious. He is without any trace of devotion if he does not believe that whatever his father gives is beneficial. Or how will a father be able to give his children bad things instead of good ones,3 when he has always been ready to endure bad things on his children’s behalf, refusing to flee from death and never sidestepping dangers for the sake of his children? For this reason God made you a father, for this reason he wanted a human being to be begotten from you. Now in view of 213 1. Olivar suggests that the reference to the confession of God as Father at the beginning of section 3 of this sermon could justify the reference to the Creed in this sermon’s title (see CCL 24.308, n. 37). 2. Lk 11.11–13. 3. See Ps 34 (35).12. 214 ST. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS the fact that he made you from the earth,4 he certainly could have made as many human beings as he wanted in that fashion; but he ordained it that by begetting children you might know how great is the affection of the begetter, and in yourself you might show that the love of the Creator for you is as great as the love that you, the creator of your child, try to lavish on your child. To be sure, not only has God willed that you feel within yourself what the affection of the begetter is, but also God willed that you see this in the beasts, in animals and in birds. When by his command he produced them solely from the earth,5 afterwards he compelled them to experience the labor of begetting, to change their habitat, to procure places fit for lairs, to keep their young safe within inaccessible locales, to give birth with groans, to nourish them with the greatest of labors, and not to refuse surrendering themselves to death if they saw their offspring being captured. Therefore, if not by comparison with a human being, at least with beasts, by the similarity with animals, by the examples birds provide, learn how great and genuine is a father’s charity. 3. So if you believe and have acknowledged that God is Father , believe that whatever he gives, whatever he commands, whatever he causes is enough to bring you salvation, and enough to bring you life. It is not permitted to debate about a mother’s gifts; it is wrong to harbor doubts about a father’s admonitions . Although a father’s command may appear to be rather harsh, nevertheless, it is the very thing that brings salvation6 and life. Thus Abraham, when he trusted God as Father, did not dwell on the harsh and bitter aspects of his commands: he looks upon circumcision as something shameful, but because the heavenly Father orders it, he decides that it is a glorious thing;7 he considers the murdering of a relative to be something very wicked, but because God commands it, he undertakes it with all devotion. So, although Isaac saw his father’s 4. See Gn 2.7. 5. See...

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