Homily 13

Pronounced before the people

in the Basilica of Blessed Felix, confessor,

the day of his birthday

January 14, 592

The return of the master

Like the previous one, this Homily deals with vigilance. It relates to the word of Jesus: "Let your loins be girded, and let your lights be lighted in your hands ... for it is at this time when you do not think about it that the Son of Man is there. will come. "Let us act only for Heaven, and prepare to open to the Judge as soon as he strikes, welcoming death with joy when it comes.

The gospel commented here tells us three watches, or three hours of the night to which the Lord can come; Gregory explains what these three watches are. God is patient, but let us take advantage of the time he leaves us to return to him.

The insistence of our preacher to warn his hearers to prepare for death might seem exaggerated, if Christ himself had so often reiterated this advice. "Death is certain and it is uncertain, why? God has decided that way. But what conclusion should we draw from it? The uncertainty of death, in the teaching of Jesus, is intended to keep us constantly awake [...] to make us keep our eyes lifted to Heaven. It can be said that this lesson is one of the most important of all the Gospel. One would dare to say that she is even the first of all. "(The most beautiful texts on the afterlife, presented by J. Goubert and L. Cristiani, Paris, 1950, pp. 39-41)

Lc 12, 35-40

At that time Jesus said to his disciples, "Let your loins be girded, and let your lights be lighted in your hands." And you, be like men who wait for their master on his return from the wedding, so that when he arrives and knocks on the door, they open him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom their master, on his return, will find vigilant! Verily, I say to you, He will gird himself, and put them to table, and pass through them to serve them. And if he comes to the second watch, and if he comes to the third watch and finds them so, happy are these servants! Know that if the father knew what time the thief should come, he would watch and not let him break through his house. You too, be ready, for it is when you do not think about it that the Son of Man will come. "

The text of the Holy Gospel just read to you, dear brothers, is very clear to you. But lest even such simplicity may seem obscure to a few, we will briefly cover it in order to discover its meaning to those who do not know it, without tiring those who understand it.

That the lust of man is in his loins, and that of the woman in his belly, the Lord testifies when he speaks of the devil to the blessed Job: "His strength," he says, "is in his loins, and his strength in the belly of his belly "(Jb 40:16). Thus, when the Lord says, "Let your loins be girded," it is the lust of the strong sex that is designated by the kidneys. And we bind our loins when we restrain the lust of the flesh by continence.

But because it is a small thing not to do evil if one does not also apply, by diligent effort, to good deeds, the Lord immediately adds: "And that there are in your hands lighted lamps. "These are well-lit lamps that we hold in our hands when we set an example to our neighbor and enlighten him with our good works, these good works of which the Lord says:" Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. "(Mt 5:16)

Here two things are ordered at once: girding one's loins and holding lamps; which means that chastity must make our bodies pure, and the truth our actions luminous. For neither purity nor light can please one without the other to our Redeemer, whether we do good without renouncing the faults of lust, or excel in chastity without exercising yet again. good works. Without good works, chastity is therefore very little, and without chastity, good works are nothing.

2. He who fulfills these two precepts must still aspire to the heavenly homeland by hope, and not beware of vice for the sole purpose of gaining the esteem of this world. If he happens to begin certain good deeds to win the esteem of others, he must not persevere in such desires, nor seek by his good works the glory of the present world, but place all his hope in the advent of his Redeemer. It is thus immediately added: "And you, be like men who wait for their master on his return from the wedding." The Lord left for a wedding, since risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven, he joined up to the multitude of angels, as a New Man. And he comes back when he reveals himself to us by judgment.

3. It is fitting that our gospel adds about waiting servants: "That when he shall come and knock at the door, they shall open to him immediately." The Lord comes when he approaches to judge; he knocks on the door when he warns us of the proximity of death by the attacks of an illness. We open it immediately if we welcome it with love. We do not want to open the Judge who knocks, if we are afraid of dying and we dread to see the Judge that we remember to have despised. But he who draws his assurance in his hope and his works opens to him as soon as he knocks on the door, because he is waiting for his Judge in joy, and seeing the approach of the moment of death, the thought of the glory that will reward him the height of joy. This is why he is immediately added: "Blessed are these servants whom their master, on his return, will find vigilant!" He watches, he who keeps the eyes of his soul open to contemplate the true light; he watches, he who strives to act as he believes; he watches, he who repels the darkness of numbness and lukewarmness. It is in this sense that Paul says, "Watch, O righteous, and sin not" (1 Cor 15:34). He also states, "The time has come for us to get out of sleep." (Rom 13:11)

4. Let us now listen to how the Master behaves towards the servants whom he finds vigilant on his return: "Truly, I say to you, he will gird himself, he will have them put to table and will pass among them. to serve them. "He will gird himself, that is to say, he will prepare to give them a reward. He will set them to table, that is to say, they will restore their strength in eternal rest; because to sit at table is to rest in the Kingdom. The Lord declares it elsewhere: "They will come and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." (Mt 8:11)

The Lord passes among us to serve us, because he satisfies us with the splendor of his light. It is said that it passes when it returns from the judgment to the Kingdom, or that the Lord passes for us, after the judgment, raising from the sight of his human nature to the contemplation of his divinity. To pass, for him, is to lead us to the vision of his glory and to allow us to contemplate in his divinity after the judgment the one we see in his humanity during the judgment. For when he comes to judgment, it is in his nature as a servant that he shows himself to all, since it is written, "They shall see him whom they have pierced." (Zec 12: 10; , 37). But while the reprobate are thrown into torment, the righteous are swept away in the radiance of his glory, as it is written, "Let the ungodly be carried away, that he may not see the glory of God." (Is 26, 10)

5. But what must the servants do if they have been negligent on the first watch? This first watch is the vigilance of the first age. Those who have been careless must not despair, nor give up the exercise of good works. For the Lord, declaring his extreme patience, adds: "And if he come on the second watch, and come to the third watch, and find them thus, happy are these servants!" The first watch, it is the time of the first years, that is, childhood. The second is adolescence or youth, which form only one age, if we trust the authority of the Holy Scriptures, since Solomon says: "Young man, rejoice in your adolescence. "(Qo 11, 9) As for the third watch, it means old age. Thus, he who did not want to remain awake during the first watch, he observes anyway the second: if he neglected during his childhood to correct his vices, he wakes up at least to time of his youth and that he embarks on the paths of life. And he who did not want to stay awake during the second watch, he does not let escape the remedies of the third: if he did not take care to embark on the paths of life during his youth, that he can recover at least in his old age.

Consider, dear brothers, how the goodness of God leaves no escape from our hardness of soul. Impossible for men to find excuses! God is despised, and he waits; he is scorned, and he calls again; he endures an insulting disdain for him, and yet he goes so far as to promise to reward those who will one day return to him.

Let none, however, be indifferent to the long-suffering of the Lord, for on the day of judgment his justice will be exercised with a severity that is all the more severe because he has been more patient before. This is the meaning of Paul's words: "Do you not know that the goodness of God impels you to penance? But you, by your hardness and the impenitence of your heart, you get a treasure of wrath for the day of wrath and the manifestation of the righteous judgment of God "(Rom 2: 4-5). And the psalmist says: "God is a just judge, he is strong and patient" (Ps 7, 12). On the point of saying that God is patient, He declares it right. Know well that this God who patiently and patiently endures the sins of sinners will also exercise a rigorous judgment one day. Hence the word of a wise man: "The Most High sanctions with patience." (Si 5, 4). It is said that he sanctions with patience, because he endures the sins of men and then sanctions them. For those whom he has long endured in the expectation of their conversion, he condemns them more harshly if they have not converted.

But to awaken our numb mind, the Lord still brings the example of external damage, to incite our soul to the care of oneself. He says indeed: "Know well that if the father of family knew what time the thief must come, he would watch and not let him break through his house." To this comparison is added the following exhortation: "You too, hold you are ready, for it is at a time when you do not think of it that the Son of man will come. "It is because of the ignorance of the father of a family that the thief pierces the house: indeed, when our soul sleeps instead of watching over itself, death, rising unexpectedly, breaks our house of flesh, and having found its master asleep, it kills it; and when our souls do not foresee the chastisements to come, death brings them to torment because of their ignorance. If she watched, she could resist the thief, for, taking precautions with a view to the coming of the Judge who secretly removes souls, she would go to meet him by doing penance, so as not to perish unrepentantly.

6. If Our Lord has wished that our last hour be unknown to us, it is so that we may consider it as always imminent, and that, in the impossibility of foreseeing it, we cease to be prepared for it. So, my brethren, keep the eyes of your mind on your mortal condition; prepare yourself every day for the coming of the Judge by tears and lamentations. And while death awaits us all with certainty, do not trouble yourself to foresee the uncertain future of this ephemeral life. Do not be bothered by the concern for the things of the earth. Whatever the mass of gold and silver that surrounds it, whatever the precious garments that are on our flesh, is it not always flesh? So do not pay attention to what you have, but what you are. Do you want to hear what you are? The prophet tells you when he says, "Truly, the people are grass." (Is 40, 7). If the people are not grass, where are those who last year celebrated with us the feast of Blessed Felix, whom we honor today? how many beautiful projects were they not forming for the present life! But when the moment of death came, they suddenly found themselves in front of what they did not want to foresee, and suddenly lost all the transitory things they had collected and seemed to hold securely . If, then, the multitude of men of the past have blossomed in the flesh by their birth, then dried up, and were reduced to dust by their death, they were really nothing but grass.

So, dear brothers, since the hours run away moment by moment, try to hold them back by making them pay the reward due to good works. Listen to what the wise Solomon says: "Whatever your hand can do, do it your best, because there is no work, no science, no reason, no wisdom in hell where you rush "(Qo 9, 10). As we do not know the moment of our death, and after death we will not be able to work, we only have to take full advantage of the time we are given before death. For the way to conquer death itself, when it comes, is to fear it constantly before it comes.

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1 On the word "compunction", cf. the introduction to this homily.