Sermon Xi Of The Daily Martyrdom And Warfare In The Religious State
SERMON XI
OF THE DAILY MARTYRDOM AND WARFARE IN THE RELIGIOUS STATE
ECAUSE for Thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Beloved brother, note well these words just read in your hearing: which long before your birth were most wholesomely uttered for your instruction by the prophet in the psalm. Blessed be God Who has called you from the present wicked world in which many are endangered soul and body: pursuing the desires of the flesh and fleeting honours. See your vocation then to this Congregation prepared by God: wherein you can merit in a short time with little labour life eternal. Behold you have entered religion, you have freely renounced your own; and in a certain manner you are dead to the world: or you should deem yourselves as dead and buried. For this your habit shows without, and the report has gone abroad of you: that you are not of the world, but all sons of God on high. For men in the world often say of religious persons: “He who serves God mocks the whole world: and he does very wisely. He assures himself of Heaven: and he has no fear of hell.” Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: lest the envy of the devil again entice you; and drag you with him to eternal punishment through the softness of the flesh. It is certainly a great toil to struggle daily against passions and vices: but rewards exceeding great are promised to them that overcome. Think over the words which are so heartily sung in our church of the holy martyrs for their praise and as a memorial to obtain their suffrages: the sweetness of which ought to touch the depths of our heart: and arouse our lukewarmness to bear for Christ at least a few contradictions. For thus do we often recite at Vespers: “The saints of God had a mighty conflict: they passed through fire and water, and they have been saved.” O beloved brethren, who stand in religion under obedience: if you faithfully fulfill what you have vowed, you are martyrs: and still you can become so by daily suffering. For so often shall you receive new crowns and precious jewels for your combat: as often as you present the different members of your body to daily labours for Christ. And if you abandon your own will, and strongly resist your sensuality: you shall receive great consolation from God within. Every religious living in obedience ready to crush his own will, and humbly endeavouring to obey his superior: he truly becomes a martyr in spirit: although he be not struck on the neck with the material sword. And whoever gives himself to perfect mortification the whole day, that is, the whole time of his life, obeying from a simple heart, he imitates Abraham: who refused not to offer as a holocaust, to bind and to slay his only beloved son Isaac. We read also of the holy martyrs that by divers kinds of torments they attained the kingdom of Heaven: who did not choose according to their own liking what species of torture or death they should suffer; but they committed themselves utterly to the divine ordering: they presented with constancy body and soul to their Creator to endure all things. When therefore any of you hears a command distasteful to him imposed by the superior, and nevertheless is ready to obey: if then also he strives to do himself violence, and restrains and stifles the rising complaint; then he offers a most agreeable sacrifice to God on the altar of his heart: and with the martyrs being made victorious over himself gloriously triumphs over the enemy. For many martyrs were violently dragged to prison, and there were bound with most cruel iron chains: yea, also were abandoned to lie without food and drink, without light and any solace from man, in filth and the fear of death. And nevertheless they remained constant in the faith of Christ, and strove to give thanks to God in their pains: for that they merited to suffer reproaches and torments for His name. Looking upon these examples do not give way in adversities, and complain of too great poverty: nor because of the severity of discipline flee from the battle before the end of the victory. They worthily merit to be crowned: who lawfully struggle and persevere. Most light is all the fatigue of our penance in comparison of the sufferings and abstinence of the holy martyrs: and in consideration of the pains of hell.
You have often heard in the torments of the martyrs, that they were tortured in divers members: and after most grievous pains were deprived of the same members, then given to most ferocious beasts to be devoured: or even thrown into burning flames. You have not yet, brethren, experienced these things: you have not yet been thus tried or proved: not yet thus tortured and beaten: not yet thus derided, or filled with reproaches: not yet driven from your houses in nakedness and shame, and publicly dragged through the streets. You have not yet resisted temptations unto the shedding of blood: nor suffered a hand or a foot to be cut off for faith and chastity. But if you often faint in the very small sufferings for Christ which befall in religion: how could you bear greater in persecution? For there are many things wherein you can try your fortitude although you shed not blood: nor resist even to the mutilation of your limbs. The holy martyrs presented their members to most grievous torments: you must chastise your body in many fastings and watches, in silence and toil, lest it grow insolent. For he who receives and endures every bitter for sweet, every coarseness for beauty, every sorrow for joy: this one truly drinks the chalice of the Lord with the martyrs; and in the sufferings to come he shall not fear to be burned: but he shall supremely rejoice to be associated in the choirs of the saints. You must choose one of these: either to burn for ever with the demons for small pleasures: or for a slight abstinence, enjoy everlasting glory with the holy angels. And because the martyrs had in mind the never-ending torments: therefore they bore easily transitory evils: and preferred to enter by the narrow way to the broad realms of Heaven. Every one in the Order living religiously and devoutly in his state, can gain the palm of martyrdom: if he struggles bravely against his vices, if he prays for his adversaries and detractors: if he earnestly keeps his chastity unspotted: if he observes obedience even unto death after the example of Christ: if he always desires to have rather less than more of all earthly things and of the necessaries of this life: if in all he seeks the good pleasure of God and forsakes his own will. holy voluntary poverty is reckoned as a martyrdom: and therefore as to martyrs so also to the poor the kingdom of Heaven is promised and given by the Lord. When therefore silence is enjoined on one talkative and dissolute, that he speak not to outsiders or to a brother; then the tongue prone to gossip is bound as by a cord: and curbed in silence that it harm not another. And indeed it is better for many that are wordy modestly to keep silence for peace of conscience: rather than from here and there piece together stories of life in the world. And when to a restless man word is given to remain in the cloister, or to dwell quietly in his cell: then his feet by a pious violence are set as it were in the stocks; and thus the fickle heart is compelled to return to the way of salvation: according to that word of the Lord: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city: and compel them to come in.” Alas, how many by wandering abroad have perished: how many obeying their curiosity have added nothing to their holiness. O how many have been brought back by the rod of the superior to the keeping of their conscience and a good life: and have made a virtue of necessity. When the curious man closes his eyes, that he may not behold the vanities of the world: then he receives a reward with the saints: whose eyes were blinded by tyrants. When an idler is forced to toil: then he is dragged by hands and feet to the place of martyrdom; and if he obeys in all that is enjoined him: he shall be recompensed with the martyrs whose hands were fettered with chains, and whose feet were hung in the rack. The good obedient brother then ought to reflect that he has not command over his own body, but the superior: to whom he has freely resigned himself for God’s sake: to go and do what he shall order for the salvation of his soul. For thus shall he gain the palm of patience with the martyrs: and the crown of life eternal. By the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.