Homily 36

Pronounced before the people

in the basilica of the blessed apostles Philip and James

December 9, 591 (Sunday at the end of harvest)

Guests who shy away

God invites us to his supper, but the guests are shirking. Saint Gregory first extends to the various invitations of God, then shows what are the renunciations necessary to answer them.

I- (1-9) The preacher introduces his intention by a finesseful reflection on the difference between sensible goods, which attract from the start, but disappoint in the end, and spiritual goods, which are at first unattractive but one desires ever more keenly as one tastes them. The whole problem is therefore to overcome the first disgust in which we are spiritual goods, and this is what the Lord strives to achieve through the parable of the day, which invites us to his eternal supper. Alas! many men apologize, preferring to put all their thought, which to the affairs of the earth, which to the curiosity of others, to the pleasures of the flesh. So the Lord sends to seek, to replace the first guests, the poor and the infirm, then the people of the countryside. The pope explains in detail all these figures.

II- (10-13) Having hired his hearers not to despise the call of God on pain of being left at the door of Heaven, the speaker shows them how a layman, married and endowed with goods, can use of the world as not using it: first through the commentary of a text of Saint Paul, then by the recent example of Count Theophanes, whose death was marked by unequivocal signs of holiness.

This Homily is very characteristic of the simple and incarnated eloquence of Gregory, who is always concerned to provide an education in continuity with the experience of the faithful whom he teaches, by resorting to allusions to everyday life, to concrete examples. and models that everyone can imitate. Everyone feels invited to apply the evangelical ideal. These processes make the Holy Pope one of the creators of popular rhetoric, sermo humilis, which will be so successful throughout the Middle Ages.

Lk 14, 16-24

At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees this parable: "A man gave a big supper and invited many people there. At supper time, he sent his servant to say to the guests: "Come, now everything is ready." And all, unanimously, began to apologize. The first said to him: "I have bought a property, and I must go and see it; I beg you, excuse me. "Another says:" I have bought five pairs of oxen, and I am going to try them; I beg you, excuse me. "Another says," I just took a wife, and that's why I can not come. "

"The servant, on his return, reported this to his master. Then, taken with anger, the master of the house said to his servant, "Go quickly into the squares and into the streets of the city, and bring here the poor, the infirm, the blind, and the lame." And the servant told him <Master, your orders are executed, and there is still room.> The master then said to his servant, "Go on the roads and along the hedges, and force people to enter, so that my house is filled. For I tell you, none of those who were first invited will taste my supper.

Between the delights of the body and those of the heart, very dear brothers, there is usually this difference: the bodily delights light a great desire in us before being tested, but when we feed ourselves, they soon change into disgust under the effect of satiety; on the contrary, spiritual delights are in disgust before being tested, but when you taste them, you come to desire them, and the one who feeds on them is all the more hungry because in his hunger he feeds more. To desire the former is pleasant, to make it unpleasant; to desire the seconds is unattractive, but to use it very pleasantly. To desire the first leads to be satisfied, and to be satisfied to be disgusted. Desire the seconds pushes to be satisfied, and to be satiated to desire them more beautiful. Spiritual delights indeed increase desire in the soul as they satisfy it. For the more we taste their flavor, the better we know them, and the more we love them with greed. And if they can not be loved before being tested, it is because their flavor is unknown. Who could love what he does not know? Hence the invitation of the psalmist: "Taste and see how good the Lord is" (Ps 34, 9). It is as if he were saying clearly: "You do not know his goodness if you do not taste it; but touch the food of life with the palate of your heart, to experience its sweetness and to be able to love it. "

Now man has lost these delights when he has sinned in earthly paradise. He banished himself when he closed his mouth to the food of eternal sweets. That is why we who were born in the sorrows of this exile, have come down here to such a disgust that we no longer know what we must desire. And this sickening disgust increases all the more as our soul moves further away from this sweet food. If she no longer desires these inner delights, it is because she has lost for too long the habit of savoring them. It is therefore our disgust that makes us wither away, and the slow exhaustion following the [spiritual] deprivation of food that is exhausting us. And because we do not want to taste the sweetness that is offered to us inside - alas! unfortunate that we are - we love the hunger that consumes us outside.

But even if we abandon it, the goodness from above does not leave us.

2. In fact, she puts before the eyes of our memory those delights that we have despised, and she proposes them to us again. It pulls us from the torpor by its promises and incites us to reject our disgust, saying: "A man gave a big supper and invited many people there." Who is this man, if not he whose prophet said: " And he is a man, and who recognized him? "(Jer 17: 9, from the Septuagint). He gave a big supper, since he has prepared us for inner sweetness to satiety. He has invited many people, but few come, because even those who are subject to him by faith often, by their bad life, are unable to participate in his eternal banquet.

The text goes on: "At supper time, he sent his servant to say to the guests, 'Come.'" What is the hour of supper, if not the end of the world? We have certainly achieved this, as Paul had already testified, declaring: "We have come to the end of time" (1 Cor 10: 11). If it is already time for supper when we receive the invitation, we must all the less seek to hide ourselves from this divine banquet as we see how close the end of time has come. Indeed, the more we measure the insignificance of what remains to live, the more we must fear to see expire the time of grace that is granted. This divine banquet is not called a luncheon, but a supper, for if after lunch there is still supper, after supper there is no more banquet. And it is fitting to call the eternal banquet of God a supper, not a lunch, since it will be prepared for us at the end.

What is the servant sent by the householder to carry his invitations, if not the order of the preachers? It is to this order that we belong in spite of our present indignity, and despite the overwhelming weight of our sins. We are indeed in the last days, and when I say a few words for your edification, I behave like the servant of our gospel: I am indeed the servant of the sovereign Master of the house. When I exhort you to despise the world, I come to invite you to the supper of God. Let no one despise me in this matter because of my poor person. If I do not seem worthy to invite you so, however, it is great joys that I promise you. What I say here, my brothers, is not it commonplace? It often happens that a powerful personage has a despicable servant; if this master sends an answer to relatives or strangers through this servant, we do not despise the person of the servant who speaks, because of the reverence that is kept in his heart for the master who 'send. And those who listen to it do not pay attention to the one who speaks, but to what he says and to whoever sends it. So it is so, my brethren, yes, it is thus that you must act, and even if you despise us rightly, yet keep in your soul the reverence due to the Lord who calls you. To become the guests of the sovereign Master, please obey. Examine your heart, and drive out the mortal disgust. Because everything is ready now to repel this disgust. But if you are still carnal, perhaps you are looking for carnal foods? But now God has changed carnal foods for you into spiritual nourishment, since it is to erase the disgust of your soul that the one Lamb among all has been killed for you at the supper of the Lord.

3. But what to do? Do not we still see how much they behave like those whose text says, "And all, unanimously, began to apologize." God offers what should have been asked of him, and without him he asks to give what one could scarcely hope to see him grant if he had been asked to do so. But that, too, is despised. He announces that the delights of an eternal banquet are ready, and here, however, all of them unanimously apologize.

Let us put humble facts before the eyes of our mind, to be able to consider properly higher ones. If a great person sent to invite a poor person, what do you think the poor brothers would do, I ask you, if not to rejoice that such an invitation should be addressed to him, to answer it humbly, to change his clothes and to go there hurry, lest another should appear before him at the banquet of this great personage? So a rich man invites, and the poor man hastens to run up; we are invited to the Lord's banquet, and we apologize. But here I am very doubtful of the objection you make to your hearts. Because perhaps you say to yourself in the secret of your thoughts: "We do not want to apologize. We can only congratulate ourselves on being called to this great feast of Heaven and taking part in it. "

4. When they speak thus, your souls are not deceived, if it is true that you do not prefer the goods of the earth to those of Heaven, and if you are not more occupied with the things of the body than with those spirit. For the gospel mentions in this place the reason advanced by those who apologize: "The first says: 'I have bought a property, and I must go and see it; I beg you, excuse me. "What does this property designate, save our earthly sustenance? He is going to see his property, the one whose whole thought is occupied with the realities of the outside for sustenance.

"Another says, 'I bought five pairs of oxen, and I'm going to try them; I beg you, excuse me. "What must we understand by these five pairs of oxen, if not the five bodily senses? We speak very aptly about pairs about them, since they exist in one and the other sex. Powerless to grasp the interior of things, but stopping at the knowledge of the exterior, the bodily senses leave behind the intimate of realities to reach only the outside: they thus designate curiosity; the latter seeks to reveal the life of others, and thus applies only to things from without, always remaining ignorant of what is in her private life. Curiosity is thus an embarrassing defect, since by leading the mind to focus its attention on the outside of the neighbor's life, it always hides from him the most intimate of himself! Thus, the mind, if it knows the others, does not know itself, and the soul of the curious is all the more ignorant of its own merits and demerits that it is more learned from those of the next. That is why the guest says of these five pairs of oxen: "I go to try them; I beg you, excuse me. "When this man said apologetically," I'm going to try them, "such words are in full agreement with his vice, because usually, wanting to try is curiosity.

But it should be noted that the guests who apologize for not coming to dinner, one because of his property and the other because of his pairs of oxen to try, both insert a word of humility among their apologies: "Please, excuse me." Indeed, to say, "I beg you," and not to worry about coming, is to make humility appear in his words. and pride in his actions. Notice that all evil men condemn such things when they hear them; but they do not stop doing what they condemn. If we say to someone who does evil, "Convert yourself, follow God, give up the world," do not we invite him to the Lord's supper? But when he answers, "Pray for me, for I am a sinner; what you ask me, I can not do it ", is not that the answer to both" I beg you "and" Excuse me "? In declaring: "I am a sinner", our interlocutor manifests some humility, but adding: "I can not convert", it is his pride that he expresses. Thus, he replies, "I beg you, excuse me," he who puts a veneer of humility in his words and a foundation of pride in his action.

5. "Another says, 'I have just taken a wife, and that is why I can not come.'" What do we mean by this woman, but the pleasure of the flesh? In fact, although marriage is a good thing, since it was instituted by Divine Providence for the propagation of the species, some, however, do not seek a large number of descendants, but rather the satisfaction of voluptuous desires; that is why we can designate, without much impropriety, just one thing which is not right.

The sovereign master of the house invites you therefore to the supper of the eternal banquet, but because some are taken by greed, others by curiosity, others by the voluptuousness of the flesh, all, without any doubtfully reprobated, begin to apologize unanimously. As the concern for earthly goods occupies some, that the thirst for knowing what the neighbor does in ravaging others, and that the pleasures of the flesh defile the soul of the last, all are disdainful of the feast of eternal life without putting any eagerness to go there.

6. The text continues: "The servant, on his return, reported this to his master. Then, angry, the householder said to his servant, "Go quickly to the streets and to the streets of the city, and bring here the poor, the infirm, the blind, and the lame." is more interested than it is for earthly goods refuses to come to the Lord's supper; the one that curiosity fires has no taste for the food of life that is prepared for it; he who is a slave to his carnal desires despises the foods of the spiritual banquet. Since the proud thus refuse to come, the poor are invited. Why that? Because, according to Paul's word, "God chose in the world that which is weak to confound the strong" (1 Cor 1:27).

It should be noted how those who are invited to supper are described as "poor and infirm". They are said to be poor and infirm, those who themselves recognize themselves as weak. Are not they poor, but, so to speak, strong, those who pride themselves in spite of their poverty? The blind are those who have no light of understanding, and the lame, those who do not have a right step in their actions. But since the infirmities of the organs here represent the vices of morals, it is quite clear that if the guests who did not want to come were sinners, so are the guests who come. However, where proud sinners are excluded, the humble sinners are elected.

7. If God chooses those whom the world despises, it is because such contempt often brings man back into himself. The one who had left his father and lavishly spent the share of fortune he had received, did indeed return to himself after having begun to suffer from hunger, and he said to himself: "How many mercenaries in the house of my father have bread in abundance? "(Lk 15:17). He had gone far away from himself by sinning. And he would not have returned to himself if he had not been hungry; for only after having missed earthly goods did he begin to think of the spiritual goods he had lost. The poor, the infirm, the blind and the lame are therefore called and they come, because it often happens that the infirm and those whom the world treats with contempt, listen the more willingly the voice of God that the world does not. for them nothing pleasant.

This is well illustrated by the episode of the young Egyptian slave of the Amalekites (1 S 30, 11-20). The latter, scouring and plundering the country, had abandoned him on the road, sick and dying of hunger and thirst. David found him, however, and gave him food and drink. This Egyptian immediately recovered, and became the guide of David. He found the Amalekites while they were feasting, and he, whom they had left crippled, he came to the end with great vigor. Amalekite means "licking people". And what can the "licking people" symbolize, if not worldly spirits? They lick, so to speak, all things of the earth by seeking them, since they put their enjoyment in the only transient goods. The "licking people" are in some way booty, when those who love the goods of the earth magnify their gains to the detriment of their neighbor. And the Egyptian child is left sick on the side of the road, because the sinner who has begun to be weakened by the winds of this world, immediately attracts the scorn of worldly spirits. Yet David finds him, and gives him food and drink, because the Lord, in his power, does not reject from his hand those whom the world excludes; he often returns to the grace of his love those who, having no longer the strength to follow the world, remain, so to speak, on the side of the road, and he gives them the food and the drink of his word; and it is as if he chooses guides among them, on the way, when he makes his preachers. For these, by introducing Christ into the hearts of sinners, guide David in a manner against his enemies. And they go through the sword of David the Amalekites who feasted, because they cast down to the ground, by the power of the Lord, the proud who had despised them in this world. Thus, the Egyptian child abandoned on the road kills the Amalekites, because it is often those who previously could not follow the worldly in their race in this world, who now dominate the souls of these worldly by their preaching.

8. Now let us hear what the servant adds after bringing the poor to the banquet: "Master, your orders are executed, and there is still room." Many of the Jews are those who were thus gathered for the dinner of the Lord, but the multitude of those of the people of Israel who believed is not enough to fill the hall of the heavenly banquet. The Jews have already entered in great numbers, but there is still room in the Kingdom to welcome the crowd of pagan nations. This is why the master said to the servant, "Go on the roads and along the hedges, and force people to enter, so that my house is filled." When the Lord invites to his supper those of the streets and squares, it designates the people who knew how to keep the law and lead the city's civilized life. But when he orders his guests to be found on the roads and along the hedges, it is the rude people of the country, that is to say, the pagans, whom he seeks to gather. It is in this sense that the psalmist says, "Then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy before the face of the Lord, because he is coming" (Ps 96: 12-13). If pagans are called trees of the forest, it is because they have always remained crooked and fruitless because of their unbelief. Those who, abandoning their rude and rustic habits, have converted, therefore came to the Lord's supper, so to speak, along the hedges.

9. It should be noted that in this third invitation, the teacher does not say: "Invite them", but: "Force them to come in." Some are called and despise to come; others are called and come; as for those of the third invitation, it is not said that they are called, but that they are forced to enter. They are called and despise to come, those to whom it is given to understand without them following good works what they understood. They are called and come, those who, having received the grace of understanding, translate it into works. And some are called who are even forced to enter.

There are some who understand the good they should do, but refrain from realizing it; they see what they should do, but they do not want it. Now, as we have said just now, the carnal desires of these men often come up against the annoyances of this world; they strive for transient glory, but do not succeed; and whenever they propose to sail on the high seas, that is to say, to seek the highest responsibilities of this century, they are inexorably brought back to the shores of failure by contrary winds. Seeing their hopes broken by the opposition of the world, they remember that they are the debtors of their Creator, so that they return to him full of shame, after abandoning him with pride for love of the world. For it often happens to those who pursue transitory glory, or to wither away in a long illness, or to succumb to injustice, or to be overwhelmed by heavy misfortunes. And they see, by the suffering that comes to them from the world, that they should never have had confidence in the enjoyments that this world offered them; blaming themselves for having desired them, they turn their hearts to God.

It is from these men that the Lord speaks through the voice of the prophet: "Behold, I will close his way with brambles. I will close it with a wall, and [my wife] will no longer find its paths. She will pursue her lovers and will not join them; she will look for them and not find them, and she will say,'I will go and return to my first husband, for I was happier then than now '(2: 8-9). The husband of every faithful soul is God, since it is intimately bound to him by faith. But this soul that had been bound to God pursues its lovers when the spirit that has begun to believe by faith submits itself to unclean spirits, seeks the honors of the world, feeds on the pleasures of the flesh, feeds itself refined delights. However, it often happens that Almighty God casts a glance of mercy upon this soul and poisons its pleasures by mingling bitterness with it. That is why he says, "Behold, I will close his way with brambles." Our paths are closed with brambles when we find the bites of the test in the very object of our unregulated desires. "I will close it with a wall, and it will no longer find its paths." Our paths are closed by a wall when the world puts strong opposition to our desires. And we can not find our paths, because we are prevented from reaching what we are looking for. "She will pursue her lovers and will not join them; she will seek them out and not find them. "Indeed, if the soul submitted to the evil spirits in her desires, she could not yet join them to make them realize these desires. But the text shows how useful this salutary opposition has been: "And she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, for I was happier than now.'" Having found his roads closed, brambles, and after not having been able to reach her lovers, she returns to the love of her first husband. Indeed, it is often after not having been able to obtain in this world what we wanted, and after being tired of not being able to realize our terrestrial desires, that we think back to God and that we begin to please the one who displeased us first. From then on, we feel sweetness in remembering him whose commandments seemed bitter to us. And our sinful soul, who strove to adulterate without being able to do so by a manifest act, decides to become a faithful wife again. Those men who, broken by the adversities of the world, return to the love of God and are cured of the desires of the present life, what are they, my brothers, if not guests who are forced to enter?

10. The word which the master adds immediately afterwards must penetrate us with great fear. Gather this word in your heart with an attentive ear, my brothers and my lords - my brothers as you are sinners, my lords as you are righteous. Collect this word with an attentive ear, so that you feel less fear in the day of judgment than you have listened with more fear in our preaching. The master declares: "For I tell you, none of those who were first invited will taste my supper."

Behold, God calls you by himself, that he calls you by his angels, that he calls you by his patriarchs, that he calls you by his prophets, that he calls you by his apostles, that he calls you call by his shepherds, and behold, he calls you by us; he often calls you by miracles, often also by punishments, sometimes by successes in this world, sometimes by misfortunes. Let no one disdain such calls, for he who apologizes when he is called may not be able to enter when he wants. Listen to what the Wisdom says by the mouth of Solomon: "Then they will call upon me, and I will not listen; we will get up in the morning, and we will not find myself "(Pr 1, 28). We can hear in the same sense the supplication of the foolish virgins who arrived late: "Lord, Lord, open to us." But the Lord answers those who seek to enter: "Truly, truly, I say to you, I do not know you "(Mt 25: 11-12). What must we do, dear brothers, if not to abandon all things, to put the worries of the world in the background, and to have desires only for eternity? But this virtue is given only to a small number.

11. I would advise you to abandon all things, but I do not dare. If, then, you are not yet able to leave all things in this world, at least you do not become so attached to them as to be bound by them in this world. Own the things of the earth without letting yourself be possessed by them. Keep them in the grip of your mind, lest the latter, chained by the love of the things of the earth, be enslaved by those he possesses. Use things that do not last, but attach your desire only to those that are eternal. Take for the road things that do not last, but desire those that are eternal for the end of the journey. We must look only as a side to all that we are doing here below, and bring the eyes of our mind forward, to fix, with all the attention they are capable of, the goal to be attained. Let us extirpate the roots of vices, not only of our actions, but also of the thoughts of our heart. That neither the voluptuousness of the flesh, nor the excessive curiosity, nor the fire of ambition prevents us from sharing one day the supper of the Lord. Even the honest activities we do in this world touch only the surface of the soul, so that the earthly goods that please us serve our body without harming our hearts.

Brothers, we do not dare to tell you to give up everything, but you can, if you will, abandon everything while keeping everything: it is enough that by treating things of the time, however, you stretch your whole soul to those of eternity.

12. Is not this what the Apostle Paul says: "Time is short; from now on, let those who have a wife be as if they did not have one; those who cry, as if they were not crying; those who rejoice, as if they do not rejoice; those who buy, as if they did not possess; finally, those who use this world as if they did not use it; for it passes, the figure of this world "(1 Cor 7: 29-31). He has a wife, but as if he did not have one, he who knows how to fulfill the duties of the flesh, without his wife forcing him to immerse himself entirely in the world. Our eminent preacher further states: "He who has a wife cares for the things of the world, means to please his wife." (1 Cor 7:33). He therefore has a woman as if he did not have one, who strives to please his wife without displeasing his Creator. He weeps, but as if he were not crying, he who, afflicted by temporal misfortunes, still keeps in his soul the comforting thought of eternal goods. He rejoices, but as if he were not rejoicing, he who finds joy in transitory goods without ever losing sight of the eternal torments, and who, when joy arouses his spirit, moderates by exercising himself. to fear continually [the punishment] that he knows in advance. He buys, but as if he did not possess, the one who does not dispose of the use of earthly goods except by foreseeing with prudence that he will soon have to abandon them. Finally, he uses this world, but as if he did not use it, he who, making all the things necessary to the maintenance of his bodily life, do not let them dominate his mind, and who submits them so well that they serve him outside without ever breaking the impetus of his soul towards the summits.

All who do so certainly use everything in this world, but without wanting anything. Because they use the necessary, but they do not want anything that can not be possessed without sin. They even earn merit every day by means of what they possess, and rejoice more in the good they do than in the good they possess.

13. For such a program not to be too difficult for some, I will tell you a story about a person that many of you have known; I learned it myself three years ago in Civitavecchia from people worthy of faith. There was recently in that city a count named Theophanes; he was a man devoted to charitable actions, zealous for good works, and who particularly practiced hospitality. Taken by the duties of his office as count, he had to take care of terrestrial and transitory things, but as his end made it clearer, it was more a matter of duty than inclination.

Shortly before his death, a very big storm was unleashed, which could prevent him from driving him to the cemetery. In tears, his wife asked him, "What am I going to do? How can you go to the tomb, since such a storm forbids me to cross the threshold of this house? "He replied:" Do not cry, poor woman, because as soon as I'm dead, the good weather will return. " he died, and the good weather was back soon after.

His hands and feet, touched by gout, were swollen with liquid and covered with purulent ulcers. But when one had laid his body bare, according to custom, to wash it, one found one's hands and feet as healthy as if they had never had ulcers. He was then carried off and buried. Four days later, his wife decided to change the marble slab that covered the tomb. When the marble slab that had covered the body was removed, the perfume of its body was as sweet as if the fermentation of its rotting flesh had produced, not worms, but spices.

I told you this story to show you by a recent example that some men wear the livery of the world without having the spirit of the world. Indeed, those who are restrained in the world by an obligation that forbids them to free themselves completely, must deal with the affairs of the world, without allowing themselves to be dominated by them under the effect of the abatement.

So, meditate on this example, and if you can not give up all that is in the world, do outside things to the best of your ability while hurling yourself inwardly toward eternal goods. May nothing stop the desire of your soul. That the enjoyment of anything does not enchain you in this world. Do you like something good? May your soul rejoice in better things, that is to say, those of Heaven. Do you fear some harm? May your mind represent the eternal evils. Considering that everything takes him into the hereafter, both what one loves and what one dreads, nothing will fix you more here below. For this we have the help of the Mediator between God and men; if we burn for him with true love, we will obtain everything without delay from him who, being God, lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

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1 The cell (monk's or nun's room) is here, it seems, a little house next to the church.