[Sermon] 1. The world will rejoice however; and you
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SERMON 24: THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER
[Sermon] 1. The world will rejoice however; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
John 16:20. Since "opposites placed next to each other stand out more clearly,"**° the Lord thus discloses in the proposed words the state of apostolic religious life through the opposite of worldly impurity, when it says: The world will rejoice however, etc. In such a passage certainly the first thing noted is the illicit enjoyment of human impurity, second the temporary tribulation of apostolic religious life, third the future consolation of eternal happiness.
First the illicit enjoyment of worldly impurity is noted, when it says: The world will rejoice; second, the temporary tribulation of apostolic religious life, when it adds: yet you will be sorrowful; third, the future consolation of eternal happiness, when it includes: but your sorrow will be turned into joy. This is a marvelous dispensation of divine goodness, because the sweetness of wisdom is not given except with the previous bitterness of penance, since in accord with the example of Christ it is necessary to enter into the kingdom**! of eternal happiness through the sorrow of tribulation and distress!
430 See Book III, 17 of Aristotle, Rhetorica in WAE, vol. 11, 1418b:
"The facts about two opposites always stand out clearly when the two are put side by side."
431 See Acts 14:21: Paul and Barnabas were "reassuring the disciples ... and reminding them that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
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2. It says therefore: The world will rejoice however, where it notes the illicit enjoyment of worldly impurity.
Truly all delight and joy in worldly impurity can be understood by referring to three types of people, according to what 1 John 2:16 states: All that is in the world is either the lust of the flesh, producing the impure and lascivious, or the lust of the eyes, producing the avaricious and wealthy, or the pride of life, producing the grandiose and ambitious. According to these three types of people, from which every genus of sin springs forth, and in which all worldly joy consists, it can be said that first, the lascivious rejoice in the experience of carnal lust. Second, the avaricious rejoice in the abundance of insatiable wealth. Third, the ambitious or proud rejoice in the prominence of honor and vainglory. Because of the first, this joy depraves one's nature, the second demands eternal punishment, and the third provokes divine disfavor.
3. First, the lascivious rejoice in the experience of carnal lust that depraves their nature. And Isaiah 22:13 speaks of this: Behold joy and gladness, killing calves and slaying rams, eating flesh and drinking wine, because impure people do not have time for anything except for depravity, gluttony, and licentiousness. For instance, the vice of gluttony leads to licentiousness, thus it says: Behold the joy, killing calves and slaying rams, eating flesh, in reference to the happiness and depravity of gluttony; and drinking wine, in reference to the depravity of licentiousness, for wine is an extravagant thing.*?? That twice-depraved soul turns away from God, such that the honor of chastity and purity is lost, and it is rendered comparable to brutish animals, which are without un- "2 See Prov 20:1: "Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness riotous...."
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derstanding,*** because the natural order is perverted in them, when they force the spirit to serve and the flesh to dominate and like pigs, do not attend to anything except caring about the flesh.
4. Second, the avaricious rejoice in the abundance of insatiable wealth that requires eternal punishment.
Whence Ezekiel 24:25 states: I will take their strength away from them and the joy of their glory, and the desire of their eyes, upon which their souls rest. For the avaricious, in whom earthly desire and the concupiscence of the eyes are found, determine the goal of happiness and the hope of love to be in their riches, in the multitude of which they glory*** and rest as if in the final goal. The Lord, thus, threatens to take away their riches in the present and to punish them in the future with infernal punishment since they brought upon themselves the greatest harm when they preferred temporary and perishable creation for the eternal Creator and unchangeable good. Whence, avarice is referred to as idolatry by the Apostle.** Whence
Bernard on Luke 16:25 says: You however are tormented, etc: "What will you then say to that? If such is the end, if such then is the judgment, that mourning takes possession of joy's end,*** must good things be preferred to evil things?",**' as if to say: yes.
5. Third, the ambitious rejoice in the prominence of honor and vainglory that provokes divine disfavor.
433 See Ps 48:13: "Human beings are compared to senseless beasts...." See also Ps 31:9: "Do not become like the horse and the mule, who are without understanding."
434 See Ps 50:7: "... they glory in the multitude of their riches."
435 See Eph 5:5.
436 See Prov 14:13: "Laughter will be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the end of joy."
437 Bonaventure has adapted c. 23 n. 27 of Gaufridi Abbatis declamationes ... ex St. Bernardi sermonibus collectae. See PL 184:4538C.
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Whence Job 20:5-7 says: The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. If one's pride ascends to heaven, and one's head touch the clouds, in the end one will perish like a dung heap. The joy of the ambitious is vain then, because like hypocrisy it has no existence, but only appearance.
Therefore, it says: The joy of the hypocrite, but adds: is but for a moment, because such a joy is like a moment and the person's end is destruction. But because the ambitious and proud person is raised as if up to heaven through one's reputation, preferring the self to all others, the person is lowered, therefore, according to the rule of divine justice to the depths of the abyss according to the truth, because in the end at his death the person will perish like a vile dung heap.
6. Second, the temporary tribulation of apostolic religious life is noted, when it adds: yet you will be sorrowful.
The apostles then like religious men of God, possessed a threefold tribulation or sadness. First, they possessed the sadness of tearful contrition in the remembrance of their transgression; second, the sadness of sorrowful compassion in meditation on the Lord's passion; third, the sad affliction of desolation in the privation of Christ's bodily presence.
7. First, they had the sadness of tearful contrition in the remembrance of their transgression. Whence 2 Corinthians 7:10 says: For the sorrow that is according to God produces repentance that surely tends to salvation. In fact, following the example of the apostles, that person is saddened according to God, who knows to have offended God with one's sin, intimately grieves, and interiorly beats oneself so harshly as to break out in tears like Peter, the prince of the apostles, who having denied Christ, wept
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bitterly*® due to great sadness; and such sadness tends to eternal salvation, because it obtains pardon for those things which require eternal punishment. Whence Psalm
36:7 says: I walked in sorrow all day long; it admonishes the person to be saddened continuously, lest any sin might lay hidden in the conscience. Whence Bernard comments on The Song of Songs 2:12: The time of pruning has come:
"It is of little matter to have thought once, one must think often, indeed all the time if it is possible to do so, because you always find what needs to be thought, if you do not neglect it. As long as you remain in this body, you err if you think vice is dead rather than suppressed. Like it or not, the Jebusite dwells within the borders.""*° Gregory says about Job 12:5: Ready for the appointed time: "Guilt must be lamented humbly, therefore, in the time of mercy, lest the bitterness of punishment be deplored in the time of justice."4*° 8. Second, they had the sadness of sorrowful compassion in meditation on the Lord's passion. Whence Psalm
41:4-8 says: My tears have been my bread day and night, while daily it is said to me: Where is your God?... Why are you sad my soul, and why are you disturbed within me?...
Deep calls out to deep, at the sound of your cataracts. When the preacher says to whoever is a true Christian that your
God was cruelly wounded, dishonorably reproached, and vilely renounced, that person should double the expressions of sorrow and gush with even greater torrents of tears, so as to say with faithful David: My tears have been my bread day and night, while daily it is said to me: Where is your God? Given the tremendous admiration evoked by 438 See Matt 26:75.
439 See Sermon 58 c. 4 n. 10 in SBOp 2.133. The citation is virtually verbatim.
440 Bonaventure provides the gist of Book X, c. 31 n. 54 of Gregory's Moralia in Iob. See CCSL cxliii, 576-77.
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the display of such benignity, one must examine and ask oneself, saying: Why are you sad my soul, and why are you disturbed within me? And after reason is restored to the self, add: The deep of Christ's passion calls out to the deep of Christian compassion, because a Christian does not have to present another demeanor except that, which the truth of profession expresses, from Christ. At the sound of the cataracts, that is of the plagues, all your billows and waves, that is the disgrace, sorrow, and torment turn with indescribable compassion in one's own person, who feels what was in Christ Jesus,"*! pass over me. Paul continually possessed this sadness, when he said: J carry the stigmata of the Lord Jesus in my body;** like all the apostles.
For tremendous sadness and sorrowful compassion for the passion of the Lord had transformed them, by means of conformity, into the image of the Crucified.
9. Third, they had the sad affliction of desolation in the privation of Christ's bodily presence. Whence John
16:5-6 states: I am going to him who sent me, and no one of you asks me: Where are you going? But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is such a kind teacher due to the tremendous love, with which** he loved his disciples, especially at the end.*** Not only did he urge them to ask about the benefits of his passion, when saying: no one of you asks me: Where are you going?, indeed, without a request he proclaims to them his death, which he was about to willingly accept soon for the redemption of the human race, when it adds: I am going to him who sent me.
However, because the disciples were so greatly desolate 441 See Phil 2:5.
442 See Gal 6:17.
"8 See Eph 2:4: "But God, who is rich in mercy, by reason of his very great love wherewith he has loved us."
444 See John 13:1.
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because of his death, it follows: But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. If only the thought of being deprived of Christ's company caused a sorrow so great that their hearts were filled with sadness, the experience of the reality certainly added more.
Whence one sings of them: Sad were the apostles because of the death of their Lord.** 10. Third, the future consolation of eternal happiness is noted, when it introduces: but your sorrow will be turned into joy. The apostle had a threefold consolation or joy in accord with the previously stated threefold sadness. For first, the sadness of tearful contrition in the remembrance of their transgression is changed into the joy of internal delight due to the evasion of eternal death.
Second, the sadness of sorrowful compassion in meditation on the Lord's passion is changed into the joy of mutual congratulation due to the coinheritance of the celestial homeland. Third, the sad affliction of desolation in the privation of Christ's bodily presence is changed into the joy of happiness and consolation due the vision of risen wisdom.
11. First, the sadness of tearful contrition in the remembrance of their transgression is changed into the joy of internal delight due to the evasion of eternal death.
Whence Isaiah 51:11 says: They shall obtain joy and happiness, sorrow and mourning will flee. I myself will console you. They shall obtain the joy and happiness, of sweetening grace, who possess the sadness of contrition for the iniquities they have committed; furthermore, the sorrow and mourning of eternal death will flee because
I myself, the Lord, will console you by remitting all sins.
445 See the hymn at Vespers for the Common of Martyrs during Easter season.
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And Psalm 29:12 says something similar to this: You have turned my mourning into joy.
12. Second, the sadness of sorrowful compassion in meditation on the Lord's passion is changed into the joy of mutual congratulation due to a shared participation in celestial glory. For it is appropriate that those who suffer with Christ through compassion rejoice together with him by sharing in glory, such that they who are associated in tribulation are also together in consolation.**° Whence
1 Peter 4:13 says: Rejoice, in so far as you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ that you may also rejoice with exultation in the revelation of his glory.
13. Third, the sad affliction of desolation in the privation of Christ's bodily presence is changed into the joy of happiness and consolation due the vision of risen Wisdom. Whence Psalm 20:7 states: You will make him joyful in gladness with your countenance; that was fulfilled when the apostles saw with their bodily eyes that Christ had risen. Isaiah 66:14-19 likewise speaks about this joy:
You will see and your heart will rejoice;... They will see my glory, and I will set a sign among them and I will send those who will be saved to the Gentiles of the sea, into Africa and Lydia, who draw the bow, into Italy and Greece and the islands far off, and to those who have not heard of me and have not seen my glory; and they will announce my glory to the peoples. The apostles then, drawing the bow of preaching after seeing the glory of the risen Lord and being signed with the seal of the Trinity, were sent as true witnesses throughout the entire world,**" to announce the glory of God, which their own eyes beheld. Let us ask, etc.
446 See 2 Cor 1:7.
447 See Acts 1:8.