Homily 7

Pronounced before the people

in the basilica of St. Peter, apostle

December 17, 590 (a Sunday of Advent)

The Testimony of John on Christ

The Gospel of the day brings out the humility of St. John the Baptist, the Pope will take advantage of his commentary on the sacred text to deal with this virtue. This bipartite plan (explanation of the Gospel, exposition of a virtue) is very common in our speaker: we will find it in the following Homilies.

In his commentary, St. Gregory explains what may be astonishing the testimony that John the Baptist gave to Jesus, and that he surrendered himself, confessing that he was not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor a prophet, but only "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

The preacher then notices that John had received prophetic lights without equivalent. But here he is who proclaims his ignorance! Such an example invites Christians to humility, and especially the just: pride puts them in danger of losing all the benefit of their virtues, and only humility can preserve them from this misfortune. Having posited the universal necessity of the virtue of humility, Gregory proposes three means of acquiring it: to look at oneself by its weak side; remember his past sins; to judge others well, even when we see them act badly. After these practical tips, the speaker strives to prove the excellence of humility. Far from being synonymous with pusillanimity, it is she who keeps us true grandeur. The pope here calls upon the authority of Isaiah, St. Paul, and God himself; then he illustrates his affirmation by the admirable example of King David, who has shown great deeds, but has kept humble feelings of himself. Would we, then, like him, have performed brilliant deeds, they would have no value without the "seasoning of humility," for without humility, all the virtues are only dust in the wind.

Striking formulas, expressivity of images, everything contributes to making this little exhibition a jewel of ascetic literature.

Jn 1, 19-28

At that time the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John to ask him, "Who are you?" He recognized, he did not deny, he recognized, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What? Are you Elijah? "He said," I am not. "" Are you the prophet? "He answered," No. "Then they said to him," Who are you, that we may give answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? "He said," I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Render the way of the Lord straight, as the prophet Isaiah said. "Those who were sent were Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, "Why are you baptizing if you are not Christ, Elijah, or prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize in the water; but in the midst of you is someone you do not know. It is he who is coming after me, who has passed before me, and I am not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandal. "This was happening in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The words of this reading, dear brothers, show us the humility of John. He, whose virtue was so great that it might have been taken for Christ, chose to remain wisely in his role, without being foolishly drawn by human opinion above himself. "He recognized, he did not deny, he recognized: 'I am not the Christ.'" In declaring, "I am not," he clearly denied what he was not, but he did not not to deny what he was, so that in speaking the truth he would become a member of him whose name he did not falsely claim. Because he did not want to take the name of Christ, he became a member of Christ. In applying humbly to recognize his own weakness, he deserved to truly participate in the greatness of Christ.

But this reading brings to our mind another affirmation of our Redeemer, who, close to the words of today's reading, raises a very embarrassing question. Indeed, in another place, the Lord, questioned by his disciples about the coming of Elijah, answered: "Elijah has already come, and they have not recognized him; but they did everything they wanted. And if you want to know it, John himself is Elijah "(Mt 17:12). Now, having been questioned, John declares, "I am not Elijah." What does that mean, dear brothers? Truth affirms one thing, and the prophet of Truth denies it? For there is complete opposition between these expressions: "He is" and "I am not". How, then, is John the prophet of Truth, if he contradicts the words of the one who is the Truth? But if we seek the truth precisely, we will find how what seems contradictory does not contradict itself. Did not the angel announce to Zechariah concerning John, "He will walk before him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Lk 1, 17). It is said that he will come into the spirit and power of Elijah, because just as Elijah will precede the second advent of the Lord, John is the first to advance. As Elijah is destined to come as precursor of the Judge, so John was established precursor of the Redeemer. John was therefore Elijah in spirit; he was not in person. Therefore, what the Lord affirms of the spirit, John denies of the person. It was fitting that the Lord, speaking to his disciples, should speak of John according to the spirit, and that John, answering the same question before carnal crowds, should speak to them, not of his spirit, but of his body. What John is telling us seems contrary to the truth, but he did not depart from the path of truth.

2. After declaring himself not to be a prophet - for he could not only predict the Redeemer, but also show it - John immediately explains who he is, adding, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

You know, dear brothers, that the only-begotten Son is called the Word of the Father, as John testifies, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Jn 1, 1). You know, for having spoken to yourself, that the voice must begin to sound so that the word can be heard. John therefore affirms to be the voice, because he precedes the Word. Anticipating the coming of the Lord, John is called the voice, because by his ministry, the Word of the Father is understood by men. He cries in the desert, since he announces to the abandoned and deserted Judea that the Redeemer is going to console her.

Whosoever puffeth up his spirit of glory, whoever is stifled by the ardor of avarice, whoever defiles himself with the degradation of lust, closes the door of his heart to the truth; he entrenches himself in his soul by the bolts of his vices in order to prevent the Lord from coming to him.

3. Those who were sent out still inquire, "Why do you baptize, if you are not Elijah, neither Christ, nor the prophet?" They do not say that out of a desire to know the truth, but out of mischief and hostility, as the evangelist tacitly implies, adding, "Those who were sent were Pharisees." It is as if he clearly said, "Those men who question John about his deeds are unable to seek a teaching, they only know how to jealous. "

However, a saint does not turn away from his ardor for good, even when questioned with perversity. This is why John still responds to the words of jealousy with life-giving teachings. He immediately adds, "I baptize in water; but in the midst of you there is someone whom you do not know. "It is not in the spirit, but in the water that John baptizes. Powerless to forgive sins, he washed through the body of the baptized, but did not wash the spirit with forgiveness. Why then does he baptise, if he does not forgive sins by his baptism? Why, if not to stay in the line of his precursor role? Just as when he was born, he had preceded the Lord who was about to be born, he also preceded, by baptizing, the Lord who was going to baptize; he who had been the precursor of Christ by his preaching, he also became it by administering a baptism which was the image of the sacrament.

John has spoken a mystery here, when he declared at the same time that Christ was standing in the midst of men and that he was not known, since the Lord, when he showed himself in the flesh, was at the visible in his body and invisible in his majesty. Speaking of Christ, John adds, "He who comes after me has passed before me." He says, "He passed before me," as if he were saying, "He was placed before me." He comes after me, since he was born after; but he has passed before me, because he is superior to me. Dealing with this question a little further, he explained the causes of Christ's superiority when he said, "For he was before me" (Jn 1:16), as if to say clearly, "If he wins on me, when he was born after me, it is because the time of his birth does not constrain him within limits: born of a mother in time, he is begotten by the Father out of time. "

Jean manifests what humble respect he owes him, by pursuing: "I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal." It was customary among the ancients that if someone refused to marry a girl who was promised him he undid the sandal of the man to whom he returned from being his spouse by right of kinship. But did not Christ manifest himself among men as the Bridegroom of the Holy Church? And is it not from him that John affirms, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom" (Jn 3:29). But because men thought that John was the Christ - which John himself denies - he claims with reason unworthy to untie the strap of his shoe. It is as if he were clearly saying, "I can not lay bare the feet of our Redeemer, since I do not wrongly arrogate to myself the name of husband."

But we can also understand that in another way. Who knows, in fact, that sandals are made of leather of dead animals? Now the Lord, coming in his Incarnation, has, so to speak, manifested the sandals on his feet, for he has assumed in his divinity what is in us mortal and corruptible. This is why he says, through the mouth of the prophet, "I will spread my sandal on Idumea" (Ps 60:10). Idumea means the Gentiles, and the sandal, our mortal condition assumed by the Lord. He asserts, therefore, that he stretches his sandal on Idumea, because, making himself known to the pagans in the flesh, his divinity has in a sense come to us with sandals on his feet. But from this Incarnation, the human eye is powerless to penetrate the mystery. He can not in any way understand how the Word takes on a body, how the highest spiritual being, who is the source of life, takes a soul into the womb of a mother, how can one who does not have beginning comes into existence and is conceived. The strap of the sandal is the link of this mystery. John can not untie the strap of the sandal of the Lord, because even he who knew the Incarnation by the spirit of prophecy, he remains powerless to probe the mystery. And why say: "I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal", if not to openly and humbly recognize his ignorance? It is as if he were saying clearly: "How can I be surprised that he is superior to me, since even though I can see that he was born after me, I can not understand the mystery of his birth?" That's how John Full though he is of the spirit of prophecy, and admirable by the brilliancy of his knowledge, yet he makes us know his ignorance.

4. In this regard, dear brothers, we must consider and ponder very carefully the conduct of the saints: even when they know certain things in an admirable way, they try to recover before the eyes of the mind what they do not know, in order to preserve in them the virtue of humility. Examining themselves from the side where they are weak, they prevent their soul from rising to the side where it is perfect. For if the science of God is a virtue, humility is the guardian of virtue. All that remains then is to humble our minds in all that he knows, to prevent him from being torn by the wind of pride, which his virtue of science had collected.

When you do good, my brethren, always remember what you have done wrong: your soul, having thus the prudence to pay attention to its faults, will never have the imprudence to indulge in its good deeds. Estimate your loved ones better than you, especially those you do not care for; for even if you see them committing some evil, you are ignorant of all that is well hidden in them.

Strive to be great, but, in a way, do not know that you are, so as not to lose that greatness by the sufficiency you would attribute to it. Is not this what the prophet says: "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes and advised according to your own senses" (Is 5, 21). And Paul says, "Do not think of wise people." (Rom 12:16). In the same sense, it is said to Saul, who boasted, "When you were little in your own eyes, you were made king over the tribes of Israel" (1 Sam 15:17). It is as if God is clearly saying to him: "As you looked at yourself as a child, I made you great in preference to others. But because you consider yourself great, I consider you little. "In contrast to this attitude, when David held the power of his kingship for nothing while dancing before the ark of the Lord's covenant, he said: I want to dance, to look even more vile than I have appeared, and to be humble in my eyes "(2 Sam 6: 21-22). What other man would boast of having broken the jaws of the lions and dislocated the paws of the bears (cf 1 Sam. 17:35), of having been elected in preference to his older brothers and of having been anointed to govern a a kingdom from which the king had been rejected (cf 1 Sam 16: 6-13) for having cut down from one stone this dreaded Goliath of all (cf 1 Sam. order of the king an agreed number of foreskins taken from dead enemies (cf 1 S 18, 27), to have received the promised kingdom, to have finally dominated without opposition all the people of Israel (cf 2 S 5 , 1-5)? And yet, in all these things, David despises himself and recognizes himself abject in his own eyes.

If therefore the saints, even when they perform brave deeds, have humble feelings of themselves, what will their excuse say for those who swell with pride without practicing virtue? But no matter what good works one achieves, they are worthless if they are not seasoned with humility: an admirable action accomplished with pride does not lift us up, but lengthens us more. He who cumulates the virtues without humility is like a man who carries dust in the open air, and who is all the more blinded that he seems to wear more. In all that you do, my brethren, keep humility as the root of your good works. Do not look at those you have already passed, but those who are still beyond you, so that by offering you the best examples, you can climb higher and higher thanks to humility.

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1 Saint Gregory probably refers to a passage from the book of Ruth (4: 7), which speaks of a similar custom.