and the daily grind of this present age; while in his resurrection he presented us
SERMON 211A
DURING LENT: A FRAGMENT
Date: uncertain1
Until the passion, penance; after the resurrection, praise
1. So our Lord Jesus Christ presented us in his passion with all the difficulties and the daily grind of this present age; while in his resurrection he presented us with the eternal and blessed life of the age to come. Let us endure the present, hope for the future. That's why during these days, we spend the days that signify the difficulties of the present age by grinding our souls, as it were, with fasting and discipline.; while during the days to come, after Easter, we signify the days of the age to come. We aren't yet there; I said "we signify them,''not "we possess them." Until the passion, you see, penance; after the resurrection, praise.
Here we do one thing and another; there one thing
2. That, you see, will be our business in that life, in the kingdom of God: to see him, to love him, to praise him. What, after all, are we going to do there? In this age there are works of necessity, others of iniquity. What are the works of necessity? Sowing, plowing, planting, sailing, milling, cooking, weaving, and any other similar works of necessity; and those good works of ours are also works of necessity: breaking your bread to the hungry2 is not a necessity of yours, but it is one of the person you are breaking your bread to. Welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, redeeming the captive, visiting the sick, giving advice to the uncertain, freeing the oppressed, all these belong to almsgiving; they are works of necessity.
What are the works of iniquity? Stealing, robbing, getting drunk, gambling, exacting usury; and who can count all the acts of iniquity? Well, in that kingdom there won't be any works of necessity, because there won't be any neediness there; and there won't be any works of iniquity, because there won't be any troublemaking there. Where there's no neediness, there are no works of neces¬ sity; where there's no malice, there are no works of iniquity. What, after all, are you going to do in order to eat, when nobody's hungry? How are you going to