Homily 5

Pronounced before the people

in the Basilica of Blessed Andrew, Apostle,

the day of his birthday

November 30, 590

The vocation of the apostles

The vocation of Peter and Andrew is the subject of this Homily. They abandon their nets to follow Jesus from the first word, without seeing any miracle, nor hearing any promise of reward.

Such promptness in responding to God's call should make us ashamed of our lukewarmness, remarks the preacher. No doubt these fishermen possessed almost nothing, and so they could not give up much, but the affection with which one gives to God counts more than the very thing one gives him. This one leaves a lot that does not reserve anything. But Peter and Andrew have given up everything, even the desire to possess something.

The material aspect of our gifts is very secondary. God only needs our good will, that is to say a generosity ready to get rid of everything out of love for him. Such a disposition is of course incompatible with any thought of envy; it therefore demands to detach itself perfectly from all earthly goods. With consummate art, the pope interprets images that he borrows from the prophet Isaiah. And he ends his Homily by inviting his listeners to imitate the very virtues they honor in St. Andrew. But as one can not attain at once to such perfection, our prudent preacher advises his flock to first moderate their lust for the good of others by the fear of God, before giving their own goods.

Short, full of good humor and discretion, this Homily is very characteristic of the simple and familiar style of Gregory. It also shows his attachment to the holy apostle to whom he has dedicated his monastery of Cælius: Andrew, whom the Greeks call the "Protoclet" (first called).

Mt 4: 18-22

At that time, as he walked along the sea of ​​Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother; they were throwing their nets into the sea because they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." They, leaving their nets at once, followed him. Going further, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, repairing their nets; and he called them. They, leaving their nets and their father, followed him.

You have heard, dear brothers, that at the first call, Peter and Andrew abandoned their nets to follow the Redeemer. They had not yet seen him perform miracles; they had heard nothing of the eternal reward. And yet, at the first commandment of the Lord, they forgot all that they were seen to possess.

And how many miracles of the Lord do we have in front of us? How many plagues does it afflict us? How many bitter threats do they come to strike us with terror? And yet, we neglect to follow the one who calls us.

He sits already in heaven, he who exhorts us to conversion; he has already bowed the nations under the yoke of faith; he has already overthrown the glory of this world, and by the accumulation of his ruins he announces the approach of the day when he will judge us with rigor. And yet our proud spirit does not consent to give up voluntarily what it loses every day in spite of itself. What shall we say, my dear ones, what shall we say the day when the Lord will judge us, since neither the precepts can detach us from the love of the present century, nor punishments correct us?

2. Someone may say to himself, in the secret of his thoughts: what did they give up so precious to the voice of the Lord, these two fishermen who had almost nothing? But in such matters, dear brothers, it is affection that must be weighed, not wealth. They left a lot, since they have not reserved anything. They have left a lot, since they have renounced everything, however little that was. We, on the contrary, love attaches us to what we have, and desire makes us run after what we do not have. Pierre and André, they, have abandoned a lot, because both of them have even defeated the desire to possess. They gave up a lot, because at the same time as their goods, they also gave up their lusts. By following the Lord, they therefore gave up all that they could have desired by not following it.

Thus, would we see some abandoning many things, that we should not say to ourselves: "I want to imitate them in their contempt of the world, but what will I give up? I have nothing. "You give up a lot, my brothers, if you give up earthly desires. In fact, our external goods, however small, are sufficient for the Lord: it is the heart and not the market value he considers; he does not look at how much we sacrifice to him, but how much [love] does our sacrifice. Because to consider only the external market value, our holy merchants have paid with their nets and their boat the eternal life of angels. There is no fixed price here; but the kingdom of God is costing you neither more nor less than what you possess. It cost Zacchaeus half of his property, since he reserved the other half to repay to the fourfold what he had taken unjustly (see Lk 19, 8). It cost Peter and Andrew the abandonment of their nets and their boat. It cost two coins for the widow (see Lk 21: 2), and one glass of fresh water for another (see Mt 10:42). Yes, as we have said, the Kingdom of God costs you neither more nor less than what you possess.

3. Judge, brothers, what is cheaper to buy and more valuable to possess? Perhaps we do not even have a glass of fresh water to offer to the one who needs it, but even then, a divine word promises us that we will not be worried. For at the birth of our Redeemer, the inhabitants of the city of Heaven showed themselves and proclaimed: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to men of good will." (Lk 2:14) . In the eyes of God, indeed, the hand is never empty of presents, if the case of the heart is filled with good will. What makes the Psalmist say: "They are in me, O God, the vows that I have to offer you, and I will give you praise" (Ps 56, 13). It is as if he were saying clearly: "Even if I have no present to offer outside, yet I find in myself something to put on the altar of your praise. Since our sacrifices do not serve you to feed you, it is the offering of our heart that is most able to bend you. "Nothing, indeed, can be offered to God more precious than good will.

But what is good will? It is to dread the misfortune of the neighbor as much as ours, and to rejoice as much in his happiness as in our successes; it is to consider as ours the damage suffered by the others, and to estimate their profits; it is to love one's friends, not for the world, but for God, and even to bear his enemies for love; it is to do to no one what one does not wish to undergo, and to refuse to anyone what one is entitled to desire for oneself; it is not only to provide for the necessities of the neighbor according to the measure of his strength, but even to serve him beyond his strength. Is there then a sacrifice more precious than that in which the soul, presenting his offering to God on the altar of his heart, immolates himself?

4. But this sacrifice of good will is fully accomplished only on the condition of completely renouncing all earthly greed. For whatever we desire in this world, we envy it without doubt to our neighbor. What another acquires, indeed, seems to be missing. And as envy is always opposed to good will, as soon as envy has seized the soul, good will moves away from it. That is why the holy preachers, in order to be able to love their neighbor perfectly, have endeavored to love nothing in this century, to never desire anything there, and to possess nothing of it, even if it were not there. to attach.

It was by seeing such men that Isaiah said very aptly: "Who are these who fly like clouds, and who are like doves in their windows?" (Is 60: 8). He saw them despise the things of the earth, approach in spirit from those of Heaven, command a word to rain, shine by their miracles. Also, those whom an holy preaching and a sublime life had raised far from contagion from the earth, he has designated them both as flying men and as clouds. The windows are our eyes, because it is through them that the soul sees what it covets outside. As for the dove, it is a simple animal, devoid of the gall of malice. They are like doves in their windows, those who desire nothing in this world, who look at everything with simplicity, and who do not allow themselves to be carried away by the greedy desire of what they see. On the contrary, it is not with doves at their windows, but with a hawk, that the one who breathes only lusts for all that falls before him.

Since we are celebrating today the feast of Blessed Apostle Andrew, dear brothers, we must imitate what we honor [in him]. May the honor rendered to the saint by our transformed soul testify to the zeal of our devotion: to despise that which is of the earth, and by the abandonment of transient goods, to buy eternal goods. If we can not yet give up what is ours, at least do not covet what is to others. And if our soul is not yet engulfed by the fire of charity, let it keep in its ambition the brake of fear, so that strengthened by continual progress and repressing its desire for the goods of others, it will come one day to despise his own, with the help of Our Lord Jesus Christ ...