Homily 39

Pronounced before the people

in the Basilica of Blessed John, so-called Constantine

At an unknown date

Jesus cries over Jerusalem

Saint Gregory begins by briefly commenting on the gospel in its literal sense, then extends it to the application of it to our soul, giving the allegorical meaning.

I- (1-2) The destruction of Jerusalem announced by Christ has taken place. His cause was the refusal by this city to recognize the time of the divine visit, as well as the sin of its priests, as indicated by the action of Jesus chasing the sellers of the Temple.

II- (3-9) Our gospel, however, retains a meaning to enlighten the man of today. Jerusalem is indeed the soul that abandons the holy life and puts all its joy in the pleasures of this world. The future weight of the divine anger will be all the more heavy for her because she dreads it less. At his death, the demons, his enemies, will surround him and remind him of his sins so that he can throw her into despair and drag her to hell. God had visited her by her commandments, by trials, by miracles, but she did not want to blush with her sins. As for the Temple, it can represent the life of religious and priests, all addicted to the commerce of holy things, or the soul of the faithful, full of evil thoughts. To escape the evil that is in it, the soul must listen to Christ who teaches daily in the Temple, and meditate on the sorrows of hell. What terror, at our death, when all the goods of life will pass in an instant, leaving us face to the demons, come to seek in the soul what belongs to them! One remedy: to find refuge in Jesus, in whom the devil has nothing of his own. This is only possible if we unite with our Savior by faith and works.

III- (10) An example entails better than long speeches, so Gregory tells in conclusion the story of the monk Martyrius. He took a day on his back a poor leper, who turned out to be the Christ: "Whenever you have done it to one of the smallest of my brothers, it is to me that you did it."

Lc 19, 41-47

At that time, as Jesus approached Jerusalem, seeing the city, he wept for her, and said, "Ah! if you had recognized, too, at least in your day, what could bring you peace; but this has been hidden from your eyes. On you will come the days when your enemies will encircle you with trenches, and they will shut you up and hug you everywhere; they will overthrow you on the ground, you and your children who are in your walls. And they will not leave you in stone on stone, because you did not recognize the time you were visited. "

Then, entering the Temple, he began to drive out the sellers and the buyers, saying to them, "It is written, My house is a house of prayer, and you made it a cave of brigands."

And every day he taught in the Temple.

This short reading of the Holy Gospel, I want to make, if possible, a short comment, to allow more time for the reflection of those who know how to think a lot from little.

That the destruction of Jerusalem announced by the Lord in tears was the destruction of the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus, all who have read the history of this destruction know it. It is indeed the Roman chiefs whom our Redeemer designates by saying: "On you will come days when your enemies will encircle you with trenches, and they will shut you up and hug you from all sides; they will overthrow you on the ground, you and your children who are in your walls. "What the text also adds:" And they will not leave in you stone on stone "is attested by the displacement of the city: the first Jerusalem has it has been completely destroyed, as our gospel says, since the news is now rebuilt in the place where the Lord was crucified, outside the gates [of the ancient city].

The rest of the text tells us the sin for which Jerusalem is condemned to this destruction: "Because you did not recognize the time when you were visited." For the Creator of all things has deigned to visit this city by the mystery of her Incarnation, without her worrying about fearing or loving him. It is on seeing this that the prophet even calls the birds of heaven to testify against the harshness of the human heart: "The kite in the sky," he says, "knows his season; the turtledove, the swallow and the stork observe the time of their migration; My people do not know the right of the Lord. "(Jer 8: 7)

But we must first find out what these words mean: "Seeing the city, he wept for her, and said, 'Ah! if you had recognized, you too. "The Redeemer indeed cried in advance the ruin of this treacherous city, which she herself was unaware of having to come. So it is fitting that the Lord in tears said to him, "Ah! if you had recognized, you too ... ", implied:" ... you would cry, since you now rejoice only by ignorance of what threatens you. "And he adds:" At least in your day, what could 'To bring peace.' For while Jerusalem indulged in the pleasures of the flesh without foreseeing future evils, she had in her day all that could bring her peace. The reason why the goods she had then contributed to her peace is then indicated to her: "But this has been hidden from your eyes." Indeed, if the misfortunes that threatened her had not been hidden from the eyes of her heart, she would not have rejoiced in the prosperity she knew then. The text continues with the description of the punishments that, as I said, the Roman emperors were going to melt on the city.

2. The gospel adds what the Lord did after describing these punishments: "Entered into the Temple, he began to drive out the sellers and the buyers, saying to them, 'It is written, My house is a house of pray, and you have made it a cave of robbers. »» That our Redeemer has exposed the misfortunes to come and entered immediately into the Temple to drive out the sellers and buyers, makes us understand that the ruin of the people is due mainly to the fault of the priests. By striking sellers and buyers in the Temple right after describing the destruction of Jerusalem, the Lord has shown, by his very action, where the cause of this catastrophe lies.

Another evangelist tells us that doves were sold in the Temple (see Mk 11:15). And what do the doves mean, if not the gift of the Spirit? Our Redeemer brings out the sellers and buyers of the Temple, because he condemns both those who lay hands against a present and those who try to buy the gift of the Spirit. Then he adds these few words about the Temple: "My house is a house of prayer, and you made it a cave of brigands." For it is very clear that those who dwell in the Temple to earn money s strove to hurt those who did not give them. The house of prayer had thus become a cave of robbers, since they had made the habit of going to the Temple for the sole purpose of physically persecuting those who did not give them money or to kill spiritually those who gave them .

But because our Redeemer does not deny even the unworthy and ungrateful the word of his preaching, immediately after having re-established the rigor of his discipline by driving out the wicked, he makes the gift of his grace appear, as the following text: "And every day he taught in the Temple."

We have thus briefly traveled through this gospel by explaining its literal meaning.

3. But since we know that Jerusalem is now destroyed and changed by its destruction into a better city, since we have learned that the robbers have been driven out of the Temple and that the Temple itself has been shot down, we must shoot some comparison of these external events, and to inspire us with the overthrow of those edifices made of walls to fear the ruin of our manners.

"Seeing the city, he wept for her, and said, 'Ah! if you had recognized, you too. "He shed his tears once, when he announced that the city was going to be destroyed; but our Redeemer also continues to spread every day through his chosen, when he sees some people abandon their holy life to adopt morals of reprobate. So he weeps over people who do not know why they should be crying because, according to Solomon's own words, "they rejoice to do evil and indulge in the worst deeds" (Pr 2, 14 ). If they knew the damnation that threatens them, they would mingle their tears with those of the elect to cry over themselves.

The following sentence is well suited to a soul that is lost: "At least in your day, what could bring you peace; but this has been hidden from your eyes. "The perverted soul has its day here on earth when it finds joy in this passing time. What she has at her disposal may bring her a certain peace: she puts all her joy into temporal things, she takes pride in her honors, she softens herself in the pleasures of the flesh, and she does not fear the punishments to come; although having in all this a certain peace in her day, it is the overwhelming horror of her damnation which she will have to undergo in the day of adversity. For she will be afflicted on this day when the just will rejoice. And all that now contributes to her peace will be changed for her into a subject of bitter reproach, because she will begin to reproach herself for not having dreaded the damnation which afflicts her, and for having closed the eyes of his soul to these future misfortunes, not to see them. Hence the word which the Lord addresses to him: "But this has been hidden from your eyes." The sinful soul, all addicted to present things and softened by earthly voluptuousness, conceals the misfortunes to come, since it refuses to think in advance of a future that ruins his present joy. But is it not throwing into the fire with closed eyes that to surrender oneself to the charms of the present life? Hence the just word of Scripture: "In the day of happiness, do not forget misfortune" (Si 11, 25). In the same sense, Paul declares, "Let those who rejoice be as if they do not rejoice" (1 Cor 7: 30). For we must live the joys we can meet in the present life without ever forgetting the bitterness of the judgment to come, so that pierced by the fear of final punishment, the soul soothes all the better the anger that will follow let her temper her present joy. Is it not written, "Blessed is the man who is continually in fear! But he who has a hardened spirit will fall into misery "(Pr 28:14). Indeed, the weight of [God's] anger will be all the more heavy to bear in the coming judgment that we fear less now in the midst of his sins.

4. The text goes on: "There shall come on you days when your enemies shall trench you." Are there any greater enemies of the human soul than the evil spirits who come to besiege it as it goes out? of her body, after having excited her by deceptive delights when she lived in the love of the flesh? They surround her with trenches, putting the faults she has committed under the eyes of her soul, and endeavoring to drag her into their common damnation, so that she is surprised at her last moments, while seeing by what enemies she is surrounded on all sides, yet she can not find a way to escape, because she can no longer do the good she refused to do when she could.

It is still about these spirits that we can understand the rest of the text: "They will shut you up and hug you everywhere." The evil spirits tighten the soul on all sides when they come to remind him of the faults that she has committed not only in deeds, but also in word and even in thought: the soul who here has taken at ease in sin in many ways is thus, in his last moments, squeezed by all the sides during the punishment.

The text continues: "They will overthrow you on the ground, you and your children who are in your walls." The soul is defeated on the ground by the thought of its faults when its flesh, which it believed to be all its life, is threatened to return soon to dust. His children fall into death when the evil designs to which the soul now gives birth vanish in the chastisement upon which his life comes to an end, as it is written, "In that day all their purposes will perish." (Ps 146, 4). These hardened designs can also be signified by stones. Indeed, the text goes on to say, "And they will not leave stone in stone for you." When a perverse soul adds another to a perverse thought, which is even more so, what does it do, if not to put a stone on a stone ? But once the city is destroyed, it does not leave stone on stone, because when the soul is led to its punishment, all the construction of his thoughts is dispersed.

5. The cause of this punishment is given later: "Because you did not recognize the time you were visited." Almighty God is accustomed to visit every sinful soul in many ways. He visits her relentlessly by her commandments, sometimes by a trial, sometimes even by a miracle, so that she hears the truths she did not know, and - if still she remains full of pride and contempt - that she returns to God in the pain of compunction, or else, overcome by the benefits, that she blushes for the evil she has committed.

But because this soul has not recognized the time when it was visited, it is delivered at the end of its life to enemies whom it will be obliged, by a judgment of eternal damnation, to share forever society. Scripture says it elsewhere: "When you present yourself with your adversary before the magistrate, try, on the way, to free yourself from him, lest he drag you before the judge, and the judge delivers you to the exactor2, and let the ruler put you in prison "(Lk 12:58). Our adversary on the way is the word of God, which opposes our carnal desires in the present life. To free oneself from it is to submit humbly to one's commandments. In case of refusal, the adversary will deliver to the judge, and the judge to the exactor, that is to say that the sinner will be convinced of his fault in the court of the Judge by his contempt for the word of the Lord. The Judge gives it to the Executioner, because it allows the evil spirit to lead that soul to chastisement, so that this spirit forces it to follow to the torment the one who has voluntarily agreed with him to sin. The Executioner throws the sinner into prison, since the evil spirit sends him violently to hell, waiting for the day of judgment, from which they will be tortured together in the flames of hell.

6. After describing the ruin of the city, where we recognized the loss of the soul, the text immediately adds: "Then, entering the Temple, he began to drive out the sellers and the buyers." the Temple of God was in the city, the life of the religious is in the faithful people. Now it is not uncommon for them to take the religious habit and to receive the charge of holy orders, and then to turn their ecclesiastical functions into an all-terrestrial business. The sellers in the Temple are the ones who get paid for what is right in some people. Because it is selling justice to return it for a fee. And the buyers in the Temple are those who, refusing to give back to the next what they owe him and disdaining to do what their command justice, redeem their sin by giving money to the protectors. The Lord is right to say to them: "My house is a house of prayer, and you made it a cave of brigands": as it is often evil men who occupy the ecclesiastical offices, the sword of their malice gives death to their loved ones, while the intercession of their prayer should have enlivened them.

7. The Temple and the house of God also represent the soul and conscience of the faithful. The evil thoughts that the soul sometimes conceives against the neighbor, when they pierce the innocents of their sword, are a little like robbers in their cave, who kill those who pass without suspicion. For the soul of the faithful is no longer a house of prayer, but a cave of brigands, when, having turned away from innocence and holy simplicity, it endeavors to find a means of injuring the neighbor.

But since, through the Holy Scripture, we are constantly instructed against all these wickedness by the words of our Redeemer, it is because, according to our gospel, until now, what has happened is still happening: "And every day he taught in the Temple." For when the Truth learns in detail from the soul of the faithful how to turn from evil, it teaches daily in the Temple.

Let us be aware, however, that the words of the Truth can only really teach us if we constantly consider with fear the ultimate misfortunes that threaten us, as a wise man declares: "In all your works, remember your end, and you will never sin. "(Si 7,36) Yes, we must think every day of what we have heard through the very voice of our Redeemer: "At least in your day, what could bring you peace; but that has been hidden from your eyes. "For while the harsh Judge is patient without letting his hand fall again to strike, during the short time that we still remain a semblance of security before the final settlement, we must think of misfortunes that are about to follow, to groan while thinking about it, to avoid them by moaning; and we must constantly consider the sins we have committed, weep, consider them, and erase them weeping. Let us not be softened by any of these joys due to a temporary prosperity, nor to block the eyes of the soul by the things that pass, nor lead by them blind to the fire [of hell]. For if one thinks of it seriously, one can discover by the mouth of the Truth what weight has the reproach addressed to the carefree negligent of the future: "At least in your day, what could bring you peace; but that has been hidden from your eyes. "

8. It is necessary to consider what terror will accompany the hour of our death, what a trembling of mind, what a memory of all our bad actions! It will be well forgotten, then, happiness passed! But what fear, what apprehension before the Judge! What pleasure can we put in the present goods, when all must pass in one and the same instant, without the punishment that threatens us, when what we love is destined to disappear completely, to make room for suffering? who will never go away? The evil spirits seek in the dying soul what they have accomplished there; they remind him of the faults they have inspired him in order to draw him into their torment.

But why are we speaking here only of sinful souls, while the evil spirits also go to meet the dying elect to find, if they can, something that would belong to them? Now there has never been more than one man who can say boldly before his Passion: "I will not talk much with you, for here comes the prince of this world, and he has nothing in me." (Jn 14:30). Indeed, the prince of this world, seeing that Christ was a mortal man, imagined that he could find in him something that belonged to him. But it was without sin that he came out of this world of corruption, the one who had come without sin in the world.

Peter himself did not dare to boast that the prince of this world had nothing in him, and yet he deserved to hear: "All that you will bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and all whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven "(Mt 16:19). Paul did not dare to boast of it, but he did reach the mysteries of the third heaven before he died (2 Cor 12: 2). John, too, did not have the audacity, although he rested on the breast of the Redeemer, at the Last Supper, as the most beloved disciple (see Jn 21:20). Since the prophet says, "Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother bore me into sin" (Ps 51: 7), which could be without fault in the world after being born with fault? The same prophet says on this subject: "No man is righteous in your sight" (Ps 143: 2). And Solomon declares: "There is not on earth a righteous man who does good and does not sin." (Qo 7, 20). In the same sense, John says, "If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 Jn 1: 8). And James says, "We sin in many things." (Jc 3, 2)

It is true that in all those who were conceived in the pleasure of the flesh, the prince of this world found something that belonged to him, either in their actions, in their words, or in their thoughts. But if he could not then lead them, or take them before, it is because Christ, who, without his having it, paid for us the debt of death, delivered them from their debts; thus, our debts no longer hold us back from the power of our enemy, since the Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ made man (cf 1 Tim 2: 5), has acquitted himself for us in all gratuitousness. debt he had not contracted. For whoever delivered his body for death to us without his death delivered our soul from the death due to him. He says, "He is coming, the prince of this world, and he has nothing in me."

So we must take care to meditate every day in tears with what fury and under what terrifying aspect the prince of this world will come, the day of our death, to claim what in us belongs to him, since he dared to address even to our God when he died in his flesh, to seek in him something [which belonged to him], without being able to find anything.

9. What can we say or do - unhappy men we are! - we who have committed innumerable mistakes? What shall we declare to the enemy when he seeks and finds in us many things belonging to him, if not the only truth which is for us an assured refuge and a solid hope, namely, that we become one with in whom the prince of this world sought something which belonged to him without being able to find anything, since he alone is "free among the dead" (Ps 88, 6)? And we are henceforth delivered from the servitude of sin by a true freedom, since we are united with him who is truly free. It is certain - we can not deny it, and we even admit it in all loyalty - that the prince of this world has in us many things which belong to him; he can not, however, take possession of us at our death, since we have become the members of him in whom he has nothing.

But what good is it to be united to our Redeemer by faith, if we are disunited by our morals? Is it not Himself who affirms, "Not all who say to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 7:21). Let us therefore join the righteousness of works to the righteousness of faith. Let's erase every day with our groans our past bad deeds. Let us triumph in us the righteousness of the works inspired by the love of God and of our neighbor on our disturbances of yesterday. Let us not deny our brothers any of the services we can render them. For there is no other way for us to become members of our Redeemer than to adhere to God and to sympathize with the sufferings of our neighbor.

10. But since the examples often lead the hearts of the hearers to the love of God and neighbor more than the words, I will bring to the attention of your charity a miracle that our dear son, the deacon Epiphanius, here present, come from the province of Isaurie, is used to tell us. It happened in an area close to his own, Lycaonia3. It happened, says Epiphanius, that a certain Martyrius, a very venerable monk of life, came out of his monastery to visit another monastery, which was headed by a spiritual father. As he was walking, he met on the road a leper with limbs disfigured by a multitude of elephantiasis wounds. This poor man wanted to return to his lodging, but, exhausted, he no longer had the strength. He said he had his lodging right on the road where the monk Martyrius was advancing at a good pace. The man of God, full of pity for the leper's fatigue, immediately threw down the cloak he was wearing, spread it out, then laid the leper there before loading it on his shoulder, keeping it tight in his cloak. ; and resuming his way, he carried it with him. As he was already approaching the doors of the monastery, the one who was its spiritual father began to shout with a loud voice: "Run, open quickly the doors of the monastery: Brother Martyrius arrives carrying the Lord!" As soon as Martyrius was When he reached the entrance of the monastery, he thought he was a leper and came down from his back and appeared to him as it is customary to imagine the Redeemer of the human race, Christ Jesus, God and man. Then, while rising to the sky under the eyes of Martyrius, he said to her: "Martyrius, you have not blushed me on earth, I will not blush you in Heaven." As soon as the holy man was Entered the monastery, the father of the monastery asked him: "Brother Martyrius, where is the one you were carrying?" The brother replied: "Ah! if I had known who he was, I would have stopped him by the feet. "And he said that when he wore it, he did not feel his weight at all. Which is not surprising: how could he have felt his weight, since he wore the one who wore it?

All this must teach us what power gives us our fraternal compassion, and what strength have the bowels of mercy4 to unite us to God Almighty. For it is by lowering ourselves below us by compassion for the neighbor that we come closer to the one who is above all. If no one can, as far as bodily things are concerned, reach the heights without tending towards them, it is quite obvious, as to the spiritual things, that we are approaching the heights with all the more truth that we allow compassion to attract us [to the low].

See the Redeemer of the human race. In his desire to bring us to good, it was not enough for him to say that he would tell us in the last judgment: "Whenever you did it to one of the least of my brothers you have done it to me "(Mt 25:40), but he still showed this truth in himself before the judgment: he showed us that the good services we now render to the poor, it is to him that we offer them, since we fulfill them out of love for him. And one will receive a reward all the greater because one has refrained from disdaining a poor man who seemed to have to be more despised. What flesh is higher in dignity among men than that of Christ, who was raised above the angels? And what flesh is more abject among men than the flesh of lepers, broken by purulent wounds and giving off a foul odor? But behold, Christ appeared as a leper, and he who is to be revered above all does not fear to be scorned below all. Why that? Is it not to make us aware, we who are so slow to understand, that he who hastens to take his place near the Lord in Heaven must not refuse to be humiliated on earth, nor to to show sympathy for his brothers, even if they were abject and despicable?

I decided to talk briefly about your charity; but since the way of man is not in him (cf Jn 10, 23), he can not restrain his word from following the course which he traces to the very one of whom we speak, who, being God, live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.