Homily 9
1 John 4:17-21
"Herein is love made perfect in us, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no
fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment.
He who fears is not made perfect in love. Let us love Him, because He
first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a
liar: for he who loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love
God whom he sees not? And this commandment have we from Him,
That he who loves God love his brother also."
1. You remember, beloved, that of the epistles of John the apostle the
last past remains to be handled by us and expounded to you, as the
Lord vouchsafes. Of this debt then we are mindful: and you ought to
be mindful of your claim. For indeed this same charity, which in this
epistle is chiefly and almost alone commended, at once makes us most
faithful in paying our debts, and you most sweet in exacting your
rights. I have said, most sweet in exacting, because where charity is
not, he who exacts is bitter: but where charity is, both he who exacts is
sweet, and he of whom it is exacted, although he undertakes some
labour, yet charity makes the very labour to be almost no labour, and
light. Do we not see how, even in dumb and irrational animals, where
the love is not spiritual but carnal and natural, with great affection the
mother yields herself to her young ones when they will have the milk
which is their right: and however impetuously the suckling rushes at
the teats, yet that is better for the mother than that it should not suck
nor exact that which of love is due? Often we see great calves driving
their heads at the cow's udders with a force that almost lifts up the
mother's body, yet does she not kick them off; nay, if the young one be
not there to suck, the lowing of the dam calls for it to come to the
teats. If then there be in us that spiritual charity of which the apostle
says, "I became small in the midst of you even as a nurse cherishing
her young ones;" we love you the more when you are exacting. We like
not the sluggish, because for the languid ones we are afraid. We have
been obliged, however, to intermit the continuous reading of this
epistle, because of certain stated lessons coming between, which must
needs be read on their holy days, and the same preached upon. Let us
now come back to the order which was interrupted; and what
remains, holy brethren, receive you with all attention. I know not
whether charity could be more magnificently commended to us, than
that it should be said, "Charity is God."Brief praise, yet mighty praise:
brief in utterance, mighty in meaning! How soon is it said, "Love is
God!" This also is short: if you count it, it is one: if you weigh it, how
great is it! "Love is God, and he who dwells," says he, "in love, dwells in
God, and God dwells in him." Let God be your house, and you be a
house of God; dwell in God, and let God dwell in you. God dwells in
you, that He may hold you: you dwell in God, that you may not fall; for
thus says the apostle of this same charity, "Charity never fails." How
should He fall whom God holds?
2. "Herein is our love made perfect in us that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world." He tells
how each may prove himself, what progress charity has made in him
or rather what progress he has made in charity. For if charity is God,
God is capable neither of proficiency nor of deficiency: that charity is
said to be making proficiency in you, means only that you make
proficiency in it. Ask therefore what proficiency you have made in
charity, and what your heart will answer you, that you may know the
measure of your profiting. For he has promised to show us in what we
may know Him, and has said, "In this is love made perfect in us." Ask,
in what? "That we have boldness in the day of judgment." Whoeveer
has boldness in the day of judgment, in that man is charity made
perfect. What is it to have boldness in the day of judgment? Not to fear
lest the day of judgment should come. There are men who do not
believe in a day of judgment; these cannot have boldness in a day
which they do not believe will come. Let us pass these: may God
awaken them, that they may live; why speak we of the dead? They do
not believe that there will be a day of judgment; they neither fear nor
desire what they do not believe. Some man has begun to believe in a
day of judgment: if he has begun to believe, he has also begun to fear.
But because he fears as yet, because he has not yet boldness in the day
of judgment, not yet is charity in that man made perfect. But for all
that, is one to despair? In whom you see the beginning, why despair of
the end? What beginning do I see? (say you.) That very fear. Hear the
Scripture: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Well
then, he has begun to fear the day of judgment: by fearing let him
correct himself, let him watch against his enemies, i.e. his sins; let him
begin to come to life again inwardly, and to mortify his members
which are upon the earth, as the apostle says, "Mortify your members
which are upon the earth." By the members upon earth he means
spiritual wickedness: for he goes on to expound it, "Covetousness,
uncleanness," and the rest which he there follows out. Now in
proportion as this man who has begun to fear the day of judgment,
mortifies his members which are upon the earth, in that proportion
the heavenly members rise up and are strengthened. But the heavenly
members are all good works. As the heavenly members rise up, he
begins to desire that which once he feared. Once he feared lest Christ
should come and find in him the impious whom He must condemn;
now he longs for Him to come, because He shall find the pious man
whom He may crown. Having now begun to desire Christ's coming, the
chaste soul which desires the embrace of the Bridegroom renounces
the adulterer, becomes a virgin within by faith, hope, and charity. Now
has the man boldness in the day of judgment: he fights not against
himself when he prays, "Your kingdom come." For he who fears lest
the kingdom of God should come, fears lest his prayer be heard. How
can he is said to pray, who fears lest his prayer be heard? But he who
prays with boldness of charity, wishes now that He may come. Of this
same desire said one in the Psalm, "And you, Lord, how long? Turn,
Lord, and deliver my soul." He groaned at being so put off. For there
are men who with patience submit to die; but there are some perfect
who with patience endure to live. What do I mean? When a person
still desires this life, that person, when the day of death comes,
patiently endures death: he struggles against himself that he may
follow the will of God, and in his mind desires that which God chooses,
not what man's will chooses: from desire of the present life there
comes a reluctance against death, but yet he takes to him patience and
fortitude, that he may with an even mind meet death; he dies
patiently. But when a man desires, as the apostle says, "to be dissolved
and to be with Christ," that person, not patiently dies, but patiently
lives, delightedly dies. See the apostle patiently living, i.e. how with
patience he here, not loves life, but endures it. "To be dissolved," says
he, "and to be with Christ, is far better: but to continue in the flesh is
necessary for your sakes." Therefore, brethren, do your endeavour,
settle it inwardly with yourselves to make this your concern, that you
may desire the day of judgment. No otherwise is charity proved to be
perfect, but only when one has begun to desire that day. But that man
desires it, who has boldness in it, whose conscience feels no alarm in
perfect and sincere charity.
3. "In this is His love perfected in us, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment." Why shall we have boldness? "Because as He is are
we also in this world." You have heard the ground of your boldness:
"Because as He is," says the apostle, "are we also in this world." Does
he not seem to have said something impossible? For is it possible for
man to be as God? I have already expounded to you that "as" is not
always said of equality, but is said of a certain resemblance. For how
say you, As I have ears, so has my image? Is it quite so? and yet you say
"so, as." If then we were made after God's image, why are we not so as
God? Not to equality, but relatively to our measure. Whence then are
we given boldness in the day of judgment? "Because as He is, are we
also in this world." We must refer this to the same charity, and
understand what is meant. The Lord in the Gospel says, "If you love
those who love you, what reward shall you have? do not the publicans
do this?" Then what would He have us do? "But I say to you, Love your
enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." If then He bids us
love our enemies, whence brings He an example to set before us?
From God Himself: for He says, "That you may be the children of your
Father who is in heaven." How does God this? He loves His enemies,
"Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains
upon the just and the unjust." If this then be the perfection to which
God invites us, that we love our enemies as He loved His; this is our
boldness in the day of judgment, that "as He is, so are we also in this
world:" because, as He loves His enemies in making His sun to rise
upon good and bad, and in sending rain upon the just and unjust, so
we, since we cannot bestow upon them sun and rain, bestow upon
them our tears when we pray for them.
4. Now therefore concerning this same boldness, let us see what he
says. Whence do we understand that charity is perfect? "There is no
fear in charity." Then what say we of him that has begun to fear the
day of judgment? If charity in him were perfect, he would not fear. For
perfect charity would make perfect righteousness, and he would have
nothing to fear: nay rather he would have something to desire; that
iniquity may pass away, and God's kingdom come. So then, "there is no
fear in charity." But in what charity? Not in charity begun: in what
then? "But perfect charity," says he, "casts out fear." Then let fear make the beginning, because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom." Fear, so to say, prepares a place for charity. But when once
charity has begun to inhabit, the fear which prepared the place for it is
cast out. For in proportion as this increases, that decreases: and the
more this comes to be within, is the fear cast out. Greater charity, less
fear; less charity, greater fear. But if no fear, there is no way for charity
to come in. As we see in sewing, the thread is introduced by means of
the bristle; the bristle first enters, but except it come out the thread
does not come into its place: so fear first occupies the mind, but the
fear does not remain there, because it enters only in order to
introduce charity. When once there is the sense of security in the
mind, what joy have we both in this world and in the world to come!
Even in this world, who shall hurt us, being full of charity? See how
the apostle exults concerning this very charity: "Who shall separate us
from the charity of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" And Peter
says: "And who will harm you, if you are followers of that which is
good? - There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear:
because fear has torment." The consciousness of sins torments the
heart: justification has not yet taken place. There is that in it which
itches, which pricks. Accordingly in the Psalm what says he
concerning this same perfection of righteousness? " You have turned
for me my mourning into joy: You have put off my sackcloth, and
girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing to you,
and that I be not pricked." What is this, "That I be not pricked?" That
there be not that which shall goad my conscience. Fear does goad: but
fear not: charity enters in, and she heals the wound that fear inflicts.
The fear of God so wounds as does the leech's knife; it takes away the
rottenness, and seems to make the wound greater. Behold, when the
rottenness was in the body, the wound was less, but perilous: then
comes the knife; the wound smarted less than it smarts now while the
leech is cutting it. It smarts more while he is operating upon it than it
would if it were not operated upon; it smarts more under the healing
operation, but only that it may never smart when the healing is
effected. Then let fear occupy your heart, that it may bring in charity;
let the cicatrice succeed to the leech's knife. He is such a Healer, that
the cicatrices do not even appear: only do you put yourself under His
hand. For if you are without fear, you can not be justified. It is a
sentence pronounced by the Scriptures; "For he who is without fear,
cannot be justified." Needs then must fear first enter in, that by it
charity may come. Fear is the healing operation: charity, the sound
condition. "But he who fears is not made perfect in love." Why?
"Because fear has torment;" just as the cutting of the surgeon's knife
has torment.
5. But there is another sentence, which seems contrary to this if it
have not one who understands. Namely, it is said in a certain place of
the Psalms, "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring forever." He
shows us an eternal fear, but a chaste. But if he there shows us an
eternal fear, does this epistle perchance contradict him, when it says,
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear?" Let us
interrogate both utterances of God. One is the Spirit, though the books
two, though the mouths two, though the tongues two. For this is said
by the mouth of John, that by the mouth of David: but think not that
the Spirit is more than one. If one breath fills two pipes [of the double-
flute], cannot one Spirit fill two hearts, move two tongues? But if two
pipes filled by one breathing sound in unison, can two tongues filled
with the Spirit or Breathing of God make a dissonance? There is then a
unison there, there is a harmony, only it requires one who can hear.
Behold, this Spirit of God has breathed into and filled two hearts, has
moved two tongues: and we have heard from the one tongue, "There is
no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear;" we have heard from
the other, "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever." How is
this? The notes seem to jar. Not so: rouse your ears: mark the melody.
It is not without cause that in the one place there is added that word,
chaste, in the other it is not added: but because there is one fear which
is called chaste, and there is another fear which is not called chaste.
Let us mark the difference between these two fears, and so
understand the harmony of the flutes. How are we to understand, or
how to distinguish? Mark, my beloved. There are men who fear God,
lest they be cast into hell, lest haply they burn with the devil in
everlasting fire. This is the fear which introduces charity: but it comes
that it may depart. For if you as yet fear God because of punishments,
not yet do you love Him whom you in such sort fear. You do not desire
the good things, but are afraid of the evil things. Yet because you are
afraid of the evil things, you correct yourself and begin to desire the
good things. When once you have begun to desire the good, there shall
be in you the chaste fear. What is the chaste fear? The fear lest you
lose the good things themselves. Mark! It is one thing to fear God lest
He cast you into hell with the devil, and another thing to fear God lest
He forsake you. The fear by which you fear lest you are cast into hell
with the devil, is not yet chaste; for it comes not from the love of God,
but from the fear of punishment: but when you fear God lest His
presence forsake you, you embrace Him, you long to enjoy God
Himself.
6. One cannot better explain the difference between these two fears,
the one which charity casts out, the other chaste, which endures for
ever, than by putting the case of two married women, one of whom,
you may suppose, is willing to commit adultery, delights in
wickedness, only fears lest she be condemned by her husband. She
fears her husband: but because she yet loves wickedness, that is the
reason why she fears her husband. To this woman, the presence of her
husband is not grateful but burdensome; and if it chance she live
wickedly, she fears her husband, lest he should come. Such are those
who fear the coming of the day of judgment. Put the case that the
other loves her husband, that she feels that she owes him chaste
embraces, that she stains herself with no uncleanness of adultery; she
wishes for the presence of her husband. And how are these two fears
distinguished? The one woman fears, the other also fears. Question
them: they seem to make one answer: question the one, Dost you fear
your husband? she answers, I do. Question the other, whether she
fears her husband; she answers, I do fear him. The voice is one, the
mind diverse. Now then let them be questioned, Why? The one says, I
fear my husband, lest he should come: the other says, I fear my
husband, lest he depart from me. The one says, I fear to be
condemned: the other, I fear to be forsaken. Let the like have place in
the mind of Christians, and you find a fear which love casts out, and
another fear, chaste, enduring for ever.
7. Let us speak then first to these who fear God, just in the manner of
that woman who delights in wickedness; namely, she fears her
husband lest he condemn her; to such let us first speak. O soul, who
fears God lest He condemn you, just as the woman fears, who delights
in wickedness: fears her husband, lest she be condemned by her
husband: as you are displeased at this woman, so be displeased at
yourself. If perchance you have a wife, would you have your wife fear
you thus, that she be not condemned by you? that delighting in
wickedness, she should be repressed only by the weight of the fear of
you, not by the condemnation of her iniquity? You would have her
chaste, that she may love you, not that she may fear you. Show
yourself such to God, as you would have your wife be to you. And if
you have not yet a wife, and wish to have one, you would have her
such. And yet what are we saying, brethren? That woman, whose fear
of her husband is to be condemned by her husband, perhaps does not
commit adultery, lest by some means or other it come to her
husband's knowledge, and he deprive her of this temporal light of life:
now the husband can be deceived and kept in ignorance; for he is but
human, as she is who can deceive him. She fears him, from whose eyes
she can be hid: and do you not fear the face ever upon you of your
Husband? "The countenance of the Lord is against those who do evil."
She catches at her husband's absence, and haply is incited by the
delight of adultery; and yet she says to herself, I will not do it: he
indeed is absent, but it is hard to keep it from coming in some way to
his knowledge. She restrains herself, lest it come to the knowledge of a
mortal man, one who, it is also possible, may never know it, who, it is
also possible, may be deceived, so that he shall esteem a bad woman
to be good, esteem her to be chaste who is an adulteress: and do you
not fear the eyes of Him whom no man can deceive? Do you not fear
the presence of Him who cannot be turned away from you? Pray God
to look upon you, and to turn His face away from your sins; "Turn
away Your face from my sins." But whereby do you merit that He
should turn away His face from your sins, if you turn not away your
own face from your sins? For the same voice says in the Psalm: "For I
acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me."
Acknowledge, and He forgives.
8. We have addressed that soul which has as yet the fear which
endures not for ever, but which love shuts out and casts forth: let us
address that also which has now the fear which is chaste, enduring for
ever. Shall we find that soul, think you, that we may address it? think
you, is it here in this congregation? is it, think you, here in this
chancel? think you, is it here on earth? It cannot but be, only it is
hidden. Now is the winter: within is the greenness in the root. Haply
we may get at the ears of that soul. But wherever that soul is, oh that I
could find it, and instead of its giving ear to me, might myself give ear
to it! It should teach me something, rather than learn of me! A holy
soul, a soul of fire, and longing for the kingdom of God: that soul, not I
address, but God Himself addresses, and thus consoles while patiently
it endures to live here on earth: " You would that I should even now
come, and I know that you wish I should even now come: I know what
you are, such that without fear you may wait for my advent; I know
that is a trouble to you: but even longer wait, endure; I come, and
come quickly." But to the loving soul the time moves slowly. Hear her
singing, like a lily as she is from amid the thorns; hear her sighing and
saying, "I will sing, and will understand in a faultless way: when will
you come to me?" But in a faultless way well may she not fear; because
"perfect love casts out fear." And when He is come to her embrace, still
she fears, but in the manner of one who feels secure. What does she
fear? She will beware and take heed to herself against her own
iniquity, that she sin not again: not lest she be cast into the fire, but
lest she be forsaken by Him. And there shall be in in her - what? the
"chaste fear, enduring for ever." We have heard the two flutes sounding
in unison. That speaks of fear, and this speaks of fear: but that, of the
fear with which the soul fears lest she be condemned; this, of the fear
with which the soul fears lest she be forsaken. That is the fear which
charity casts out: this, the fear that endures for ever.
9. "Let us love, because He first loved us." For how should we love,
except He had first loved us? By loving we became friends: but He
loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He first loved us,
and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him: by loving
we are made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-featured love a
beautiful woman, what shall he do? Or what shall a woman do, if,
being deformed and ill-featured and black-complexioned, she love a
beautiful man? By loving can she become beautiful? Can he by loving
become handsome? He loves a beautiful woman, and when he sees
himself in a mirror, he is ashamed to lift up his face to her his lovely
one of whom he is enamoured. What shall he do that he may be
beautiful? Does he wait for good looks to come? Nay rather, by waiting
old age is added to him, and makes him uglier. There is nothing then to
do, there is no way to advise him, but only that he should restrain
himself, and not presume to love unequally: or if perchance he does
love her, and wishes to take her to wife, in her let him love chastity, not
the face of flesh. But our soul, my brethren, is unlovely by reason of
iniquity: by loving God it becomes lovely. What a love must that be
that makes the lover beautiful! But God is always lovely, never
unlovely, never changeable. Who is always lovely first loved us; and
what were we when He loved us but foul and unlovely? But not to
leave us foul; no, but to change us, and of unlovely make us lovely.
How shall we become lovely? By loving Him who is always lovely. As
the love increases in you, so the loveliness increases: for love is itself
the beauty of the soul. "Let us love, because He first loved us." Hear the
apostle Paul: "But God showed His love in us, in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us:" the just for the unjust, the beautiful for
the foul. How find we Jesus beautiful? " You are beauteous in
loveliness surpassing the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips."
Why so? Again see why it is that He is fair; "Beauteous in loveliness
surpassing the sons of men:" because "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But in that He
took flesh, He took upon Him, as it were, your foulness, i.e. your
mortality, that He might adapt Himself to you, and become suited to
you, and stir you up to the love of the beauteousness within. Where
then in Scripture do we find Jesus uncomely and deformed, as we have
found Him comely and "beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of
men?" where find we Him also deformed? Ask Esaias: "And we saw
Him, and He had no form nor comeliness." There now are two flutes
which seem to make discordant sounds: howbeit one Spirit breathes
into both. By this it is said, "Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the
sons of men:" by that it is said in Esaias, "We saw Him, and He had no
form nor comeliness." By one Spirit are both flutes filled, they make no
dissonance. Turn not away your ears, apply the understanding. Let us
ask the apostle Paul, and let him expound to us the unison of the two
flutes. Let him sound to us the note, "Beauteous in loveliness
surpassing the sons of men. - Who, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God." Let him sound to us also the note,
"We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness. - He made Himself
of no reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant, made in the
likeness of men, and in fashion found as man. He had no form nor
comeliness," that He might give you form and comeliness. What form?
what comeliness? The love which is in charity: that loving, you may
run; running, may love. You are fair now: but stay not your regard
upon yourself, lest you lose what you have received; let your regards
terminate in Him by whom you were made fair. Be you fair only to the
end He may love you. But direct your whole aim to Him, run you to
Him, seek His embraces, fear to depart from Him; that there may be in
you the chaste fear, which endures for ever. "Let us love, because He
first loved us."
10. "If any man say, I love God." What God? Why do we love? "Because
He first loved us," and gave us to love. He loved us ungodly, to make us
godly; loved us unrighteous, to make us righteous; loved us sick, to
make us whole. Ask each several man; let him tell you if he love God.
He cries out, he confesses: I love, God knows. There is another
question to be asked. "If any man say, I love God, and hates his brother,
he is a liar." By what prove you that he is a liar? Hear. "For he who
loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he
sees not?" What then? does he who loves a brother, love God also? He
must of necessity love God, must of necessity love Him that is Love
itself. Can one love his brother, and not love Love? Of necessity he
must love Love. What then? because he loves Love, does it follow that
he loves God? Certainly it does follow. In loving Love, he loves God. Or
have you forgotten what you said a little while ago, "Love is God"? If
"Love is God," whoever loves Love, loves God. Love then your brother,
and feel yourself assured. You can not say, "I love my brother, but I do
not love God." As you lie, if you say "I love God," when you love not
your brother, so you are deceived when you say, I love my brother, if
you think that you love not God. Of necessity must you who love your
brother, love Love itself: but "Love is God:" therefore of necessity must
he love God, whoever loves his brother. But if you love not the brother
whom you see, how can you love God whom you see not? Why does he
not see God? Because he has not Love itself. That he does not see God,
is, because he has not love: that he has not love, is, because he loves
not his brother. The reason then why he does not see God, is, that he
has not Love. For if he has Love, he sees God, for "Love is God:" and
that eye is becoming more and more purged by love, to see that
Unchangeable Substance, in the presence of which he shall always
rejoice, which he shall enjoy to everlasting, when he is joined with the
angels. Only, let him run now, that he may at last have gladness in his
own country. Let him not love his pilgrimage, not love the way: let all
be bitter save Him that calls us, until we hold Him fast, and say what is
said in the Psalm: " You have destroyed all who go a-whoring from
You" - and who are those who go a-whoring? those who go away and
love the world: but what shall you do? he goes on and says: - "but for
me it is good to cleave to God." All my good is, to cling to God, freely.
For if you question him and say, For what do you cling to Him? and he
should say, That He may give me - Give you what? It is He who made
the heaven, He who made the earth: what shall He give you? Already
you are cleaving to Him: find something better, and He shall give it
you.
11. "For he who loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love
God whom he sees not? And this commandment have we from Him,
that he who loves God love his brother also." Marvellous fine talk it
was, that you said, "I love God," and hate your brother! O murderer,
how do you love God? Have you not heard above in this very epistle,
"He who hates his brother is a murderer"? Yea, but I do verily love
God, however I hate my brother. You do verily not love God, if you
hate your brother. And now I make it good by another proof. This
same apostle has said, "He gave us commandment that we should love
one another." How can you be said to love Him whose commandment
you hate? Who shall say, I love the emperor, but I hate his laws? In this
the emperor understands whether you love him, that his laws be
observed throughout the provinces. Our Emperor's law, what is it? "A
new commandment give I to you, that you love one another." You say
then, that you love Christ: keep His commandment, and love your
brother. But if you love not your brother, how can you be said to love
Him whose commandment you hate? Brethren, I am never satiated in
speaking of charity in the name of the Lord. In what proportion you
have an insatiable desire of this thing, in that proportion we hope the
thing itself is growing in you, and casting out fear, that so there may
remain that chaste fear which is for ever permanent. Let us endure the
world, endure tribulations, endure the stumbling-blocks of
temptations. Let us not depart from the way; let us hold the unity of
the Church, hold Christ, hold charity. Let us not be plucked away from
the members of His Spouse, not be plucked away from faith, that we
may glory in His coming: and we shall securely abide in Him, now by
faith, then by sight, of whom we have so great earnest, even the gift of
the Holy Spirit.