Sermon I
16 Sermon I ings? Any nobility displayed by prophets, or patriarchs, or the just, or the apostles, or martyrs,
Paul has in a superabundant degree.
Mark this. Abel, you say, offered sacrifice and for this he was proclaimed.1 But if you ex amine the sacrifice of Paul it will be seen to sur pass Abel's as much as the heavens surpass the earth. You ask what I mean? Simply this, that Paul made a complete sacrifice of himself every day, and his oblation was two-fold: first, he died daily,2 and secondly, he was always bearing about in his body the death of Jesus.3 For he constantly faced dangers and was willing to accept martyr dom. By mortifying his body he virtually became a sacrificial offering, in fact more than a sacrifice.
For it was not cattle and sheep that he offered but his own flesh and blood in this two-fold daily sacri fice. Accordingly he made bold to say I am already being poured out in sacrifice (2 Tim. 4:5), calling his own blood an immolation. And he was not satisfied with these sacrifices. After he had a complete oblation of himself, he desired to make an oblation of the whole world, earth and sea,
Greek and barbarian, every land encompassed by the sky, this land which he traversed as if he were a creature on wings, and not just as a mere traveler. He plucked out the thorns of sin.on the way, sowed everywhere the word of religion,
Paul Possessed All Blessings 17 drove out error, restored truth, made angels of men, or rather changed men from devils into angels. And so, as he was about to leave behind all these hardships and the thick of the fight he said, by way of consolation to his disciples: But even if I am made the libation for the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you.
And in the same way do you also joy and rejoice with me. (Phil. 2:17-18). What sacrifice, then, could equal this sacrifice which Paul offered, immolating it with the sword of the spirit and offering it on the altar raised high above the heavens.
Abel, you say, was laid low and treacherously slain by his brother.4 This magnified his greatness.
But I will count up innumerable deaths, a death for every day the blessed Paul preached. If you must know sacrifice reaching to the very limits,
Abel was slain by his brother who had not been injured nor conferred any benefits; Paul was put to death by those whom he had tried to rescue from every kind of evil and for whom he had en dured every kind of suffering.
Noah, you say, was a just man, perfect in his generation,5 and unique among mankind. But Paul was truly unique. Noah merely saved him self and his children. But Paul, when a fierce flood lashed the earth, rescued not just two or 2. Praise of St. Paul
18 Sermon I three or five relations, but the whole world from imminent shipwreck, not by fitting together planks to make an ark, but by working on tablets instead of planks. His ark was not such as to be carried around in one place since it extended to the ends of the earth, and in it he carried all peo ples down to the present time. For he made it to hold the multitude to be saved, admitting those more foolish than the dumb animals, and making them imitate the powers above. This proved the superiority of his ark. For Noah's received a ra ven, (> took in a wolf but did not change its savage nature. Paul, on the other hand, changed wolves into sheep, and hawks and daws into doves. He replaced the irrational and savage nature of man with the gentleness of the Spirit, and his ark still remains afloat and has not perished. The storm of wickedness could not loosen its planks; instead, it surmounted the storm and restored calm. And why not? For its planks were greased not with asphalt and pitch,7 but with the Holy Spirit.
All men, you say, admire Abraham for quit ting home and fatherland, friends and relatives, when he heard the command, Abraham, depart from your country and your relatives (Gen. 12:1).
God ordered it and that meant everything to him.
We admire him, too. But does this make him Paul's equal? Paul left not just fatherland, home,
Paul Possessed Alt, Blessings 19 and relatives, but the world itself for the sake of Jesus, or rather I should say heaven itself. He despised the heaven of heavens and sought just one thing, the love of Jesus. Listen to his own clear words on this matter: nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, will be able to separate us from the love of God (Rom.
8:38-39). Abraham, you say, risked dangers and rescued his nephew8 from the barbarians. But Paul rescued, not just his nephew, not three or four cities, but the whole world and not just from barbarians, but from the hands of the devil him self, enduring countless dangers daily, and by his own several deaths achieving salvation for others.
To sacrifice his son, you say, was the crown of goodness and the garland of philosophy. But you will find Paul first in this also. For he sacrificed not his son, but himself countless times, as I have been saying.
Men marvel at Isaac for many things, chiefly his patience. For he dug wells 9 and when he was evicted from his possessions he did not quarrel, but allowed his wells to be stopped, and always moved to another place, not mustering his forces against his enemy but quitting and leaving his possessions until they satisfied their desire for in justice. Paul, when he saw not just his wells filled with earth but his body assailed by stones, did not
20 Sermon I quit like this man, but went after those that pelted him and strove to lead them to heaven. The more the well was choked up the more he gushed forth, bursting into more rivers of endurance.
Isaac's son, Jacob, you say, is admired in scripture for his strength. 10 But what soul, how ever adamant, could match the endurance of Paul.
He endured slavery not just for fourteen 11 years, but for a lifetime for the bride of Christ, enduring not just the heat of the day and the frost of night but countless storms of trials—the lash, stoning, fighting with wild beasts, wrestling with the sea, constant fasting day and night, exposure,12 every where avoiding pitfalls, and snatching the sheep from the jaws of the devil.
Joseph, you say, was a man of temperance. 13
I am afraid it would be ridiculous to praise Paul on that score—he who crucified himself to the world, 14 who regarded as dust and ashes not just bodily beauty but everything, and was as un moved by it as a corpse by a corpse. He so lulled the promptings of the flesh that he never suc cumbed to any human passion.
All men, you say, admire Job. And very prop erly so. For he fought a great fight and can stand comparison with Paul for his patience, his purity of life, his testimony to God, his courageous strug gle with the devil, the victory in which his strug-
Paul Possessed All Blessings 21 gle ended. But Paul's struggle lasted not just a matter of months, but many years; he was con stantly running into the mouth of the lion, wrest ling with countless temptations, and proved more resilient than any rock throughout. He was re viled not just by three or four friends but by all the infidel false brethren, calumniated, spat upon and reviled.
Job's hospitality was great, and also his care for the poor. That we do not deny, but we will find that it falls as far short of Paul's as the body falls short of the soul. Job cared for the sick in body;
Paul did the same for those suffering from spiri tual maladies, at one time directing those spiri tually lame and maimed, at another clothing the naked and exposed with the stole of philosophy.
Job's house had an open door for visitors, but Paul's soul kept an open door to the whole world and was absolutely ecumenical in its hospitality.
This prompted him to say: In us there is no lack of room for you but in your heart there is no room for us (2 Cor. 6:12). To those in need Job was liberal from his extensive sheepfolds and herds;
Paul had nothing more than his own body but he used it to minister to those in need as he ex claimed: These hands of mine have provided for my needs and those of my companions (Acts
20:34), feeding the hungry by the work of his body.
22 Sermon I Worms, you say, and wounds inflicted severe, unendurable pains on Job. I agree. But if you con sider the lashes St. Paul received through the years, the constant fasting, the nakedness, the chains, the imprisonment, the dangers, the schemings of his own household and outsiders, of tyrants and of the whole world, and add to this even more bitter experiences, I mean the pains endured for the fallen, the concern for all the churches, the fever which he endured for each of the scandal ized, you will see, perhaps, how stout his soul was in enduring such things, stouter than iron or adamant.
Paul endured spiritually what Job suffered physically, and sorrow worse than any worms gnawed at his soul for those fallen away. Foun tains of tears welled from him by day and by night, and for each soul he was in greater afflic tion than a, woman in labor. This led him to say: my dear children, with whom 1 am in labor again
(Gal. 4:19).
Whom do you name after Job as worthy of wonder? Moses, no doubt? But Paul outdid him by a. long stretch. Among Moses' many great accomplishments, his crowning glory was that he chose to be erased from the Book of Life for the salvation of the Jews,15 but he chose to perish with others while Paul chose to forfeit eternal
Paul Possessed All Blessings 23 glory for the salvation of others without involving anyone else in his own destruction. Moses fought with the Pharaoh; Paul fought with Satan every day; Moses fought for one race, Paul fought for the whole world in a struggle involving not sweat but blood flowing everywhere; he directed to sal vation the habitable and the uninhabitable, the Greek and the barbarian worlds.
I could also speak of Josue and of Samuel and the other prophets. But to keep my sermon within bounds, I will merely make comparison with their more illustrious representatives. If Paul is shown superior to those who are outstanding, there can be little doubt about the others. Who, then, are outstanding among them?
Who else after these, but David, and Elias and John? Of these Elias 16 was precursor of the Lord's first coming, John 17 of His second. This ex plains the coupling of their names. What was
David's outstanding characteristic? Undoubtedly his humility and his love of God. And who more than, in fact who as much as, Paul possessed these two qualities of soul?
What is wonderful about Elias? That he closed Heaven, and introduced drought, and rained down fire from heaven?18 I should think not. Rather, that he was zealous for the Lord,
24 Sermon I absolutely fired with zeal. But if you examine Paul's zeal you will see that it is as superior as he was to the other prophets. What could match the zeal of his words about the glory of God: 1 could wish to he anathema myself for the sake of my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom. 9:3). Therefore, when the heavens profferred crowns and garlands to him he delayed and dilated saying: to stay on in the flesh is ne cessary for your sake (Phil. 1:24). So he re garded neither the visible nor the intellectual world as sufficient for the satisfaction of his love and zeal, but sought another non-existent one to show what he wished and desired.
John, you say, ate locusts and wild honey. 19
Paul spent his time in the midst of the world not in the desert, and ate not locusts and wild honey, but was satisfied with a much more frugal table, neglecting even the bare necessities in his zeal for preaching. John displayed great courage, you say, before Herod. Paul rebuked not just one or two or three but a countless number of the same type, in fact tyrants far worse than Herod.
It remains for us to compare Paul with the angels. Quitting the earth, let us ascend to the gates of Heaven. Let no one say that our words are overdaring. If Scripture called John an angel,
Paul Possessed All Blessings 25 and the priests, why wonder if we claim Paul's superiority to them all in these virtues? What constitutes the greatness of the angels? Their ab solute obedience to God. That is what David ad mired in them: powerful in virtue, obeying his word (Ps. 102:20). But Paul's obedience cannot be matched even by countless incorporeal beings.
What makes them blessed is their obedience to God's commands and their refusal ever to disobey.
Paul did that with absolute fidelity. He fulfilled God's word, and also His commands. Not just His commands but more, as he reveals, saying: What then is my reward? That preaching the gospel,
I deliver the gospel of Christ without charge (1 Cor. 9:18).
What else does the prophet see worthy of admiration in the angels? Who makes the winds angels, his ministers flames of fire (Ps. 103:4).
This, too, we can find in Paul. Like fire and wind, he traversed the world and cleansed it as he went.
But he did not, you say, possess heaven. That makes it all the more remarkable, that while still on earth, in a mortal body, he showed such strength in combatting incorporeal powers.
How blameworthy we would be, if we should not strive to imitate in particular a man who com bined all good qualities in a single person. Let
26 Sermon I us revolve these considerations in our minds, and escape blame; let us strive to match his zeal so that we can share in the same blessings, by the grace and loving kindness of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power, now and forever,
Amen.