Book I, Homily 8 Remixed: Losing Your Religion Is A Very Bad Thing (Author Unknown)

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Ben Sirach says that our basic motivation to turn away from God is pride, “For pride is the fountain of all sin. He who has it shall be full of curses, and it will destroy him in the end” (Ecclus. 10:12-13). And as sin and pride turn us from God, so will God and all goodness leave us. And the Prophet Hosea clearly tells that those who turn away from God to pursue an immoral life, yet seek to pacify Him by sacrifices, are wasting their time. They may sacrifice all they want, but He still will leave them, “They do not apply their minds to return to God. Although they lead whole flocks and herds in search of the Lord, they shall not find Him, for He has gone away from them” (Hos. 5:4,6).

            There are many ways of turning from God. Sometimes, it can be done quite directly by idolatry, as Israel and Judah did. Sometimes people leave God, because they do not have enough faith in God or even mistrust Him, as Isaiah says, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt to seek help, trusting in horses and putting their faith in the number of chariots and power of horsemen. They have no confidence in the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek the Lord” (Is. 31:1). And what were the consequences? Isaiah tells us, “The Lord shall let his hand fall upon them and both the helper and the one helped shall be destroyed together” (Is. 31:3).

             Sometimes, people turn away from God by neglecting His commandments concerning the treatment of their neighbors. We are commanded to express heart-filled love for everyone, as Zechariah said to the people on God’s behalf, “Give true judgment and show mercy and compassion to your brother. Do not defraud the widow or the orphan, the alien, and the poor. Let no one forge evil in his heart for his brother. But they did not heed these words. They turned their backs and followed their own way. They plugged their ears in order not to hear. They hardened their hearts as hard as stone so that they would not have to listen to the law and the words that the Lord had sent through His Holy Spirit by His ancient Prophets. And this is why the Lord has turned His fierce anger toward them and has said, ‘Because they would not listen to my words, I did not listen to their cries. I drove them out among the nations and turned their own country into a wasteland’” (Zech. 7:9-14).

            And therefore, all those who do not show concern for the word of God but follow the ideas and stubbornness of their own hearts, they turn their backs rather than their faces to God, as Jeremiah says (Jer. 7:24). Origen says that a person turned toward God, “applies and gives himself to God’s word with eagerness, deeds, thought, and care; reflects upon God’s laws day and night; gives himself entirely to God; and consistently practices God’s precepts and commandments.” And Origen also describes a person turned away from God as someone who, “is busy with fables and tales when hearing or reading God’s word; or is thinking about secular business, money, or new ways to make money.” He continues, “Whoever is entangled with concern for their possessions, is filled with the desire for riches, and is eager for the glory and honor of this world is turned from God.” Therefore, in Origen’s opinion, whoever is not focused on what is commanded or taught by God; whoever does not listen to it, embrace it, and imprint it on his heart, so that he can shape his life according to God’s commandments; that person is turned from God, though he does other things that seem good to his own mind and appeal to his own sense of devotion. Of course, these things seem to him better and more appropriate to God’s honor, when they deeply dishonor God.

            The Holy Scriptures teach us what it means to turn away from God through the example of King Saul, who was commanded by God through the Prophet Samuel, to kill the Amalekites and destroy all of them along with their property. Yet Saul, motivated partly by pity and partly (as he thought) by devotion to God, saved Agag their king, and their choicest cattle in order to sacrifice to God (1 Sam. 15:1-22). And for this reason, God said to the Prophet Samuel, “I repent of having made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not obeyed my instructions” (1 Sam. 15:11). And he commanded Samuel to tell Saul what He had said.

            And when Samuel asked why Saul had saved the cattle contrary to God’s commandment, Saul excused himself by saying that he was afraid that his troops would not be satisfied without spoil and that he figured that God would be content with the sacrifice of choice beasts to Him and would look favorably on Saul’s good intentions ad devotion rather than his disobedience. But Samuel criticized Saul’s intentions and devotion, however much they seemed to honor God. What mattered was for Saul’s actions to agree with God’s word, the only assurance of God’s pleasure. And so Samuel said, “Does the Lord desire whole-offerings and sacrifices, as he desires obedience? To obey is better than sacrifice and to listen better than the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft; arrogance as evil as idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king” (1 Sam. 15:22-23).

            All of these examples from the Holy Scriptures teach us that if we turn away from God, He will always turn away from us. And God has given us terrible warnings of the miserable consequences that necessarily follow. We cannot possibly measure the whole extent of this misery. It exceeds our capacity to do so while we are in this life. Yet if our hearts are softer than stone or not harder than diamond, we should fear, tremble, and quake to remember God’s warnings to us.

            First, the Scriptures commonly describe the displeasure of God toward us in two ways: (1) showing His terrifying countenance to us; or (2) turning His face or hiding it from us. Showing his terrifying countenance to us signifies His great anger; but turning His face or hiding His face signifies something many times worse, that is, He clearly abandons whatever he has turned away from.

The meanings of these phrases can be illustrated from human manners. We show good, cheerful, and loving expressions to those whom we favor, so that the face, expression or countenance of a person indicates his attitude toward the person to whom he or she shows it. So, when God shows His terrifying visage toward us, that is, He sends dreadful plagues of war, famine, or pestilence upon us, it appears that He is greatly angry with us. But, when He withdraws from us his word, the right doctrine of Christ, His gracious assistance and aid, which is ever joined to His word… Well, then He leaves us to make our way by our own wits, will, and strength. And thus He declares that that He is beginning to forsake us. For since God has shown His face of mercy in Jesus Christ to all who truly believe His Gospel, which so lightens their hearts that they, if they see it as they should, are transformed into His likeness, made participants in the heavenly light and His Holy Spirit, and have been created in Christ Jesus for good works appropriate for God’s children (2 Cor. 3:18, 4:4,6; Eph. 2:10). So if afterwards, they wander away from this road, they are ungrateful to God, and they do not arrange their lives according to His example, teaching, and the proclamation of His glory, He will take away from them His kingdom and His holy word, through which He reigns in them. And why? Because they do not bear the fruit He seeks (Matt. 21:19-21).

            Nevertheless, He is merciful and so very patient. He does not pour his anger upon us the very moment that we begin to shrink from His word, and do not believe it or express it in the way we live. First, he sends His messengers, the true preachers of His word, to reprimand and warn us of our duty. For let us not forget that He showed His great love to us by offering to us His only Son to suffer death, so that by His death we might be freed from death and restored to eternal life, to dwell with Him forever and share His inheritance of glory and dominion in heaven. And He only asks from us that we should walk in a godly life, as is appropriate to our status as his children. However, if we do not listen to those who warn us or are not properly overawed by His generosity toward us, we are in great trouble. If we continue to disobey His word and will, not knowing Him, not loving Him, not fearing Him, not putting our whole trust and confidence in Him; and moreover, if we continue to treat our neighbors uncharitably with contempt, jealousy, and malice, or by committing murder, robbery, adultery, gluttony, deceit, lying, swearing, or other detestable works and ungodly behavior; then He threatens us with terrible curses (e.g., Heb. 4:1-13; Gal. 5:21; Ps. 95:1), swearing in great anger that whoever does these things shall never enter His rest, which is the Kingdom of Heaven.

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In the first part of this Homily, I have described the many ways we may turn away from God: (1) idolatry; (2) insufficient faith; (3) ignoring or badly treating their neighbors and their welfare; (4) not listening to God’s word; and (5) overindulging in worldly pleasures. You have heard the terrible consequences of turning away from God, but that God’s infinite goodness persuades Him to turn us back toward Him by the gentle rebukes of preachers before He resorts to terrible threats.

            Now if these gentle warnings and terrible threats have no effect on us, He will show his terrifying countenance to us and pour unbearable plagues upon our heads. And after He does so, He will take away all of his aid and assistance to us, which is our only defense against disaster. Indeed, I can illustrate this with a metaphor used by both the Prophet Isaiah and the Lord Jesus in the parable of evil tenants.

God has planted a wonderful vineyard for his beloved children, “He planted hedges around it. He built a wall around that, planted it with chosen vines, and made a watchtower and wine press in the middle of it. But when He came to harvest it, he found wild grapes had grown rather than good” And what was the result?: “Now I shall show you,” said God, “what I will do with my vineyard. I will uproot the hedges so that they will wither away. I will destroy the walls that any one may come and trample the vines. I will let the land lie fallow. It shall not be tilled or weeded, but briers and thorns will flourish upon it. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it” (Is. 5:1-6; Matt. 21: 33-41).

            Here we are rebuked and warned that if we, the chosen vineyard of God, do not produce good grapes, that is, good works, which are good and pleasant in his sight… If we do not produce such good fruit when He looks for it or when He sends His messengers to ask us for them… Or indeed if He or they find wild grapes, which I interpret to mean sour works, bitter and unfruitful, then He will remove all which defends us and He will permit horrible plagues of famine, war, disease, and death to afflict us. And if we do not repent after these disasters, He will let us become a wasteland. He will abandon us. He will turn away from us. He will not bother to weed or turn the soil around us. He will leave us alone and let us bear what fruit we can produce by ourselves: brambles, briers, and thorns: all vice, all wickedness, and in such abundance that they will outgrow us, choke us, strangle us, and utterly destroy us.

            But those in this world who do not live in the fear of God but follow the freedom of the flesh, do not sense the great wrath of God, that God no longer clears or weeds around them, that He leaves them to their own devices. They indeed see it as a great gift of God that they have such freedom and live as if the freedom to indulge the flesh were the true freedom of the Gospel. But may God forbid, my dear friends, that we should ever want such freedom. For, although God does sometimes allow the wicked to have such pleasure in this world, recall that ungodly living inevitably results in destruction. The murmuring Israelites in the wilderness had their heart’s desire. They had more quail meat than they knew what to do with (Numb. 11:4-6, 31-33). But what was the result? Their sweet meat had sour sauce. Even when the meat was in their mouths, the plague of God came upon them and they died straightaway (Ps. 78:30-31). So if we live contrary to God’s will and God lets us follow our own wills, to indulge our own desires and seek our own pleasures, and if God does not correct us with some plague, there is no doubt that He is completely fed up with us.

            And although it might take more or less time, when He smites such a person, they are smitten forever. So when he does not strike, afflict, beat, or punish us; when he permits us to embrace all ungodliness and every worldly pleasure we desire without punishment and adversity, it is terrifying proof that He does not love us any more, that He does not care for us anymore, but He has left us to our own devices. Consider that as long as a vine grower prunes her vines, digs at their roots, and refreshes the soil, she cares about them, she sees some sign of fruitfulness that she may gain from them: but, when she stops working with them, it is a sure sign that she does not want anything to do with them because they will never be any good.

And a father, as long as he loves his child, he is angry with the child and disciplines the child for misbehaving. But when discipline has no effect and he then lets the kid do what he wants, it is a sign that he wants nothing to do with the child anymore. As soon as he can, he will disinherit the kid, kick him out of the house, or let him fall into the cold hands of the justice system.

            So surely nothing should wound our heart so much or terrify us as when we know in our conscience that we have grievously offended God and continue to do so, but God does not strike us and quietly allows us to pursue those sinful things we delight to do. Then it is definitely time to cry as David did, “Do not drive me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11); “Do not hide your face from me or turn away your servant in anger” (Ps. 27:9); “Do not hide your face from me or I shall be like those who go down into the abyss” (Ps. 143:7). David’s mournful prayers show us the horrible danger of being one from whom God has turned his face. And if we do come near that awful situation, David’s example should galvanize us to cry aloud to God with all our heart, that we may not enter or continue in that state, which is undoubtedly so sorrowful, miserable, and dreadful that no one can sufficiently express or any heart consider it. For it must be an absolutely fatal grief to be under God’s wrath; to be separated from the Holy Spirit, the source of all good things; to fall to such a condition that you are fit for nothing better than to be condemned to hell.

Our examples of this terror come from David and Isaiah. David tells us that when God turns His face from us, we are emptied of all goodness and placed far from any relief. Isaiah tells us that we are like a vineyard, and when we are unfruitful, we can expect to be left alone without pruning and tilling so that we become overgrown with briers and thorns. We are denied even the nurture of the rains because of our unfaithfulness, which I interpret to mean the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, since St. Paul uses planting and watering to mean the same thing (I Cor. 3:6-9). And once denied the Holy Scriptures and the teaching of the gospel, we no longer belong to His kingdom or are governed by His Holy Spirit. We are excluded from the grace and benefits that we had and might have enjoyed eternally through Christ; we are deprived of the heavenly light and life, which we had in Christ when we lived in Him. We shall be, as we were before we first believed, “in a world without God” (Eph. 2:12). Indeed, we will be in even worse condition, since we will be handed over to the power of the devil. This is the way God disposes all He alienates from Himself, as he did to Saul and Judas (1 Sam. 15:23-35; 16:14; Lk. 12:3; John 13:2, 27) and to all those who live according to their own desires, children of mistrust and unbelief.

Therefore, let us not to be unfruitful and reject God’s word, so that we remain those who obtain and retain true faith in God through his holy word and do not become the offspring of unbelief. And unbelief has two kinds of children, who are quite different. Indeed, they are exact opposites. The first kind falls into despair. They weigh their sinful and wicked lives against the purity of God’s righteousness; because they are deprived of the comfort and counsel of God’s Spirit, the very “Spirit of counsel” (Is. 11:2), their hearts never will be convinced that God can or will receive them once more into His favor and mercy. The other kind is stuck in a foolish optimism. They hear the broad and loving promises of God’s mercy, but they do not understand them through the lens of true faith and so make them wider than God ever did. They trust that they can continue in sinful and wicked living as long as they desire, indeed as long as they live. Yet they imagine that God at the hour of death will show His mercy upon them, and then they will return to Him. And both these kinds of people are in a state of damnation, yet God, “who does not desire the death of sinners” (Ezek. 18:25,32; 33:11), has opened a way for both kinds of abandoned sinners to escape, if they change their ways in time.

The first kind of abandoned sinner is consumed with fear of God’s rightful justice in punishing sinners, which correctly sends them into despair about what hope they have of saving themselves. Yet if they would consistently believe that God’s mercy is the treatment they need for their despair and distrust, not only for them, but for all who are genuinely sorry and penitent and cling to God’s mercy, they could be sure that they will obtain mercy and enter into a place of safety. Those who sail to the port of God’s mercy, no matter what they have done, they shall find a refuge from everlasting damnation. As God says through Ezekiel, “When a wicked man mends his ways, his former wickedness will not bring him down…When I pronounce sentence of death upon the wicked, then if he mends his ways and does what is just and right…he will live and not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him” (Ezek. 33:12, 14,16).

I would instruct the second kind of abandoned sinner to reflect upon this: if they readily believe God’s good promises, should they not also so readily believe God’s warnings? They should believe the Law as much as the Gospel. They should believe that there is a hell filled with everlasting fire just as much as they believe there is a heaven filled with everlasting joy. They should believe that damnation is threatened to the wicked and evildoers just as much as they believe that salvation is promised to those faithful in word and deed. In every case, they should believe God is just as earnest when promising the bad as He is when promising the good. Indeed, sinners that continue to live wickedly should believe that the promises of God’s mercy and the Gospel are not extended to them, because of their state of sin, but instead their portion is only the threats of God’s wrath and indignation in the Law and other of the Scriptures. And these reflections should make it clear to them that as they presume excessively upon God’s mercy and live viciously; God will withdraw His mercy from them all the more. And when He is incited to wrath for such a long time, it is very likely that those who presume on his mercy will be destroyed suddenly. St. Paul tells us what these sinners say, “ ‘All is peaceful, all secure’ [but] destruction is upon them as sudden as a woman going into labor” (1 Thess. 5:3).

Let us therefore beware of such wicked boldness to sin. For God has promised his mercy to those who truly repent (even at the hour of death), but He has not promised to the presumptuous sinner that he shall live long or be capable of true repentance at the hour of death. It is for that reason that God has made our time of death uncertain, so that we do not put our hope in deathbed conversions and live wickedly to God’s great displeasure in the meantime.

Therefore, let us all follow the counsel of Ben Sirach, let us “not be slow to turn to the Lord. Let us not procrastinate about it. For His wrath comes when you least expect it, and He will destroy the wicked in the time of His vengeance” (Ecclus. 5:7). Let us therefore turn to Him as often as we can, and when we turn, let us pray to God as Hosea teaches, saying, “Forgive all of our sins and receive us with grace” (Hos. 14:2). And, if we turn to Him with an humble and a very penitent heart, He will show us His favor and grace for the sake of His holy Name, His promises, and His truth and mercy, which are promised to all faithful believers in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. To whom, the only Savior of the world, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honor, glory, and power, forever and ever. Amen.     

Book I, Homily 7 Remixed: The Use and Abuse of the Lord's Name (Author Unknown)

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Almighty God desires that his most holy Name should be honored and taken seriously by everyone, so He has commanded that no one should use his Name for light, stupid, or fraudulent reasons. Indeed, the Lord threatens punishment to those who make poor use of his Name by using his Name lightly, violating oaths they swear in his Name, and insulting Him by Name. I want to improve the knowledge and obedience of this commandment by explaining when it right for Christians to swear and the perils of trivial oaths and perjury.

            First, it is all right to swear when you are asked to testify in court or fulfill your duties as a juror or an officer of a court of justice. Second, you may call the Name of God as your witness when sealing covenants, honest promises, statutes, laws, and good customs. For instance, treaties between Christian rulers used to be sealed in this way. Indeed today, some among us make vows before God in marriage or honest and true friendship. And depending where we live, we may be asked to swear to uphold the laws and good customs of our nations. We may take oaths of allegiance or oaths of office, for instance.

            And we also may call God as our witness when proclaiming His glory in the public preaching of the Gospel or when counseling a brother or sister in a matter affecting the health of their soul. All of these uses of God’s Name and God’s witness for honest and necessary causes are lawful.

            The problem comes when oaths enter into the ordinary business of everyday life and when swearing becomes a habit. When we start swearing when making an argument about a secular matter, when buying or selling, or in other daily communication, our common and frequent making of oaths is ungodly, unlawful, and forbidden. This swearing is what taking God’s holy Name in vain means.

            Let us first observe that what I have called lawful swearing is not only not prohibited by God but also is commanded by Him. We can find examples of Christ and godly persons in Holy Scripture, who swore oaths and required oaths of others. And God Himself commands, “You shall fear the Lord your God and shall swear by His Name” (Deut. 6:13). And Almighty God says through His Prophet, David, “All who swear by God’s name will rejoice” (Ps. 63:11).

            Our Savior Christ swore at different times, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you” (John 3:3,5,11). [Ed.: the phrase used is “Amen, Amen” in the Greek. Which indeed is used to seal oaths, notably in Deut. 27:15-26. This is the basis of the interpretation of the Homilist here.] And St. Paul swears, too, “I appeal to God as my witness” (1 Cor. 1:23). And Abraham, in his old age, asked his servant to swear that he would find a wife for his son, Isaac, from Abraham’s own family; and the servant did swear that he would do so (Gen. 24:1-9). Abraham, also, when he was asked, swore to Abimelech, King of Gerar that he would not break faith with him or his descendants and Abimelech swore the same oath to Abraham (Gen. 21: 22-31). And David swore to be a faithful friend to Jonathan and Jonathan did so in return (1 Sam. 18:3; 20:12-17, 42).

            As another example, God once commanded that if anything given to someone for safekeeping were stolen or lost, the one who was holding the property for safekeeping should take an oath before the judges that he did not carry it away nor allowed it to be carried away with his consent or knowledge (Ex. 22:10-11). And St. Paul says that in all matters of controversy in which the testimony of the parties is contradictory and the truth cannot be obtained in any other way, the dispute only can be settled by an oath before a judge (Heb. 6:16).

            And moreover God speaks through the Prophet Jeremiah in this way, “You shall swear, ‘The Lord lives in truth, in judgment, in righteousness’” (Jer. 4:2). So if you are asked to swear anything in a legal matter, you need to be sure in your conscience that three conditions are met. First, you must swear an oath truly, that is, you must have no bias for or against either party, focus on the truth, and only say what you know be true and nothing more than that. The second condition is that you must swear an oath with judgment: not carried away by the moment and unbound by reason but carefully and deeply, considering what an oath is. The third condition is that you must swear by righteousness, that is, your oath must express your zeal and love for defending the innocent, maintaining the truth, and upholding the integrity of the matter or cause related to the swearing of the oath. You must ignore what you might gain or lose in property as a result of your testimony or service. You must forget the love and affection you might have for either party as friends or relatives.  

An oath sworn under these three conditions is part of the glorification of God, which His commandment orders that we give Him, for He orders that we should swear only by His Name. Our oaths do not make him happy. That He teaches us to swear does not teach us that He takes pleasure in swearing. Oaths are much like animal sacrifices for Him. He commanded the Jews to sacrifice to Him, not because He enjoyed animal sacrifices but to keep the Jews from committing idolatry, . By commanding us to use Him as the object of our oaths, He thereby prohibits us from giving glory to anything he has created in heaven or on earth (Is. 42:6).

            At this point, I have shown you that lawful oaths are commanded by God and were used by Patriarchs, Prophets, Christ Himself, and the Apostle Paul. Therefore, Christian people must think lawful oaths are both godly and necessary. The confirmation of lawful promises and covenants by oaths keep countries and governments in tranquility and peace. We call on the name of God to witness our vows when we are profess His faith and are made living members of Christ in Holy Baptism. By a similar holy promise, the sacrament of matrimony knits husband and wife together in perpetual love, so that they will never desire to be separated by any displeasure they might have with one another or any adversity they may face. The lawful oaths of government officials ensure that the laws are upheld; justice is fairly administered; and innocent people, orphans, widows, and the poor are defended from the wrongs and harms that murderers, oppressors, and thieves may do to them. The lawful oaths of local officials ensure that peace, friendship, and good order are continuously maintained in all boroughs, cities, towns, and villages. And lawful oaths before police officers and in court allow the detection and punishment of criminals as well as restitution to those who have been harmed. Therefore, lawful swearing cannot be wrong, because it brings us so many godly, good, and necessary benefits.

            So when Christ so earnestly prohibited swearing, let us not understand that he prohibited every kind of oath. He merely prohibited all useless swearing and perjuring by God and by God’s creations, as swearing is commonly used today in buying, selling, and other aspects of our daily conversation. And His intention was that what a Christian said should have as much credit as if she had backed it up with an oath. For “every Christian man’s word,” says St. Jerome, “should be so true that it should be regarded as an oath.” And St. John Chrysostom agrees, “It is not convenient to swear, for why do we need to swear when we are forbidden to lie to one another?”

            Of course, some will say that they need to swear or else no one will believe them in the course of their business. St. John Chrysostom answers that whoever is truly in that situation probably treats others deceitfully and unfairly, or at least is reputed to do so. If you were trustworthy and did what you say you were going to do, you should have no need to swear at all. For whoever uses truth and clarity in their bargaining and communication will have no need to use swearing to make them credible to their neighbors, nor will their neighbors mistrust what they say. And if someone thinks they need an oath to be believable, that person is pretty much unbelievable anyway. For Theophylactus writes the truth when he says that, “no man is less trusted that he that frequently swears.” And Almighty God by Sirach says, “One given to oaths is wicked to his core; the rod will never be far from his house” (Ecclus. 23:11).

            And, of course, some will pooh-pooh their frequent oaths in their daily conversation by asking why they should not swear if they swear truly. I say to them that they may swear truly, yet in swearing often, lightly, and unnecessarily, they still take God’s most holy Name in vain. Much more ungodly and foolish are those who not only abuse God’s holy Name in the buying and selling of small things daily in all places but also while eating, drinking, playing, conversing, and reasoning; as if none of these things might be done without using, irreverently talking about, and swearing and breaking oaths by God’s holy Name. This behavior violates God’s commandment and deserves His indignation.

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I have taught in the first part of this Homily against swearing and perjury that it is very dangerous to use the Name of God in vain. Yet I also taught that there are lawful reasons to swear oaths. And I also put forward three requirements for a lawful oath: (1) that it uphold the truth; (2) that it be made with careful thought; and (3) that it be made out of zeal and love for justice. I have told you of the many good things that come from lawful oaths and of the dangers that come from rash and unlawful oaths. Now I shall show that it is just as bad to make lawful oaths to do good and honest things and not do them, as it is to promise evil and unlawful things and do them.

            The Holy Scriptures tells us of two notable cases of people being punished for intentionally breaking their lawful oaths. First, Joshua and the people of Israel made a treaty and faithful promise of alliance and friendship with the Gibeonites (Josh. 9). Yet in the days of wicked King Saul, many Gibeonites were murdered contrary to the treaty. And for this reason, God was so displeased that He sent a famine upon Israel for three years and would not end this punishment until the offense was expiated with the deaths of seven sons and close relatives of King Saul (2 Sam. 21:1-14). Second, King Zedekiah of Jerusalem promised fidelity to the King of Babylon. Yet contrary to his oath and allegiance, Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And so pagan King Nebuchadnezzar by God’s permission and allowance invaded Judah and besieged Jerusalem, forcing Zedekiah to flee. And as a consequence, Zedekiah was taken prisoner, his sons were executed before his eyes, Zedekiah himself was blinded, and he finally was brought into Babylon in bronze fetters. Thus did God clearly show how much He abhors those who break their promises supported by honest oaths in His Name.

            And we also have examples in the Scriptures of people performing wicked acts because of rash oaths they made. First, Herod swore to Salome that he would give her whatever she asked if she would dance for him. And at the suggestion of her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Herod therefore not only swore a wicked oath but even more wickedly did what he promised and cruelly murdered the most holy prophet (Matt. 14:6-11). Likewise, some Jews swore that they would not eat nor drink until they killed St. Paul (Acts 23:12). And let us not forget Jephthah, to whom God gave a great victory over the Ammonites. Yet out of foolish devotion to God, he promised to sacrifice the first creature that met him upon his return home. [Ed.: The Homilist translates “creature” as “human.” The key point is that Jephthah promises a sacrificial offering without any consideration to its lawfulness. He could have inadvertently sacrificed an unclean animal as well as a human being.]  And forced by this idiotic oath, he sacrificed his one and only daughter who had welcomed him with joy and mirth upon his return (Judges 11:30-39). Thus, the promise, which he made most foolishly to God against God’s eternal will and the law of nature, he performed most cruelly, and so doubly offended against God. Therefore, if you bind yourself to do anything by oath, please consider whether what you have promised is good, honest, permitted by God’s commandments, and that you are able to do what you have promised justly. Promises like these you are bound to keep. But, if you, either ignorance or malice, promise and swear to do anything which either against the law of Almighty God or which you are unable to perform, you should regard it as an unlawful and ungodly oath.

            Now let us talk of perjury. So that you will know how great and heavy offense against God it is, I will describe to you what it means when someone takes an oath before a judge upon a book. First, the oath taker lays their hands upon the Gospel book. They swear truly to inquire, to make a true presentation of whatever they have been charged to present, and to present the truth without favor, fear, love, or malice toward anyone, so help them God and the contents of the holy Gospels. Let us consider that the book upon which they swear contains God’s everlasting truth, His most holy and eternal word by which we know that we can have forgiveness of sins and the inheritance of heaven, to live forever with God’s angels and saints in joy and gladness. In the Gospel book is also contained God’s terrible threats to stubborn sinners, who will not amend their lives and believe in God’s truth and His holy word. We hear of everlasting pain prepared in hell for idolaters, hypocrites, false and vain oathmakers, perjurers, bearers of false witness, false accusers of innocents, and those who conceal the crimes of others to obtain their favor and help them escape punishment. So whoever willfully breaks oaths sworn on Christ’s holy Gospel utterly abandons God’s mercy, goodness, and truth; rejects the merits of our Savior Christ’s birth, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension; refuses the forgiveness of sins promised to penitent sinners, the joys of heaven, and the company of angels and saints forever. For the Gospel promises all of these benefits and comforts to true Christians. And those who break oaths sworn upon the Gospel have joined the service of the devil, the master of all lies, falsehood, deceit, and perjury and deserve the indignation and curse of God in this life and the terrible wrath and judgment of our Savior Christ at the last judgment, when he will justly judge the living and the dead according to their deeds. For whoever abandons the truth for love or hatred of anyone or out of greed abandons Christ and joins Judas as Christ’s betrayer. And although the lies of perjurers remain secret, they will be revealed at the last day, when the secret of all human hearts will be manifest to the entire world. And then the truth will appear and accuse them, while their own conscience will join the blessed company of heaven to bear witness against them; and Christ, the righteous judge, will then justly condemn them to everlasting shame and death.

            Almighty God threatens perjury with harsh punishment through the Prophet Malachi, saying to Judah, “I shall appear before you in court, quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers…” (Mal. 3:5). Indeed, God declares the same thing to Zechariah in a vision of a flying book of twenty cubits length and ten cubits broad, of which He says, “This is the curse that shall go forth upon the face of the earth for falsehood, false swearing, and perjury; and this curse shall enter into the house of the liar and the house of the perjurer and it will remain in the midst of their houses and consume every stone and board in them” (Zech. 5:1-4). Thus, you see how much God hates perjury and what punishment God has prepared for perjurers.         

            I have presented how and why it is lawful for Christians to swear oaths, what criteria distinguish lawful from unlawful oaths, and why lawful oaths are godly and necessary. I also have told you that it is not lawful to swear “vainly,” by which I mean in ways and for reasons other than those I declared. And finally I have told you how damnable it is to break our lawful oaths or keep an unlawful or ill-advised oath. Indeed, let us earnestly seek grace that we keep away from all vain swearing and perjury and use only lawful and godly oaths, and that we may truly, without any fraud, keep our lawful oaths according to the will and pleasure of God the Father, to whom with the Son and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory. Amen.  

Book I, Homily 6 Remixed: All You Need Is Love (Edmund Bonner)

The author of the Homily, as portrayed in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. We are not sure whether it is an accurate portrait of his behavior during the reign of Queen Mary, but it certainly fits with the argument put forward below.

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The best thing to teach to Christians is charity, for it is necessary for us to speak of it and make use of it daily. Many good works rely upon it. And if it is rare or absent, it is a disaster for the world; virtue is put to flight and every vice grows like a weed. Now every one of us comes up with our own definition of charity according to our own desires and in line with our manner of life, no matter how good or bad it may be. Indeed, we all persuade ourselves that we are overflowing with charity, at least as we define it. Therefore, you will hear now a true and clear description of charity, by which every person may look upon oneself, as if in a mirror, and see clearly without any mistake whether he or she has true charity or not.

Charity is to love God with all our heart, all our life, and all our powers and strength. By “with all our heart,” I mean that our heart’s mind and deepest eagerness should be to believe His word, trust in Him, and love Him above all other things that we love best in heaven or on earth. By “with all our life,” I mean that our chief joy and delight should be fixed on Him and His honor and our whole life be given to His service above all other things, to live and die with Him, and to forsake all other things that would keep us from Him; for, “he that loves father or mother, son or daughter, house or land more than me,” Christ says, ”is not worthy to have me” (Matt. 10:37; 19:29). By “all our powers,” I mean that our hands and feet, eyes and ears, mouths and tongues, and all other parts and powers of both body and soul should be given to the keeping and fulfilling of His commandments. This is the first and principal part of charity, but it is not the whole. Charity also includes loving every person, good and evil, friend and foe; Ans charity consists of acting with good will and heart toward every person, to treat them well in word, attitude, and deed, whatever excuse you may have to do otherwise. For so Christ Himself taught and did.

            Christ taught a doctor of the Law about the love of God in this way. The doctor asked Him what was the greatest commandment of the Law. He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). And of the love we should share among ourselves, he teaches, “You have heard it taught in times past that you shall love your friend and hate your enemy, but I tell you, Love your enemies, bless those that curse you and speak evil about you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father that is in heaven; for He makes the sun to rise both upon the evil and good, and sends rain on the just and unjust alike. For, if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not the tax collectors do likewise? And if speak well only of those who are your brothers and dear beloved friends, that is no big deal. Do not unbelievers do the same?” (Matt. 5:43-47). These are the very words of our Savior Christ on the love of our neighbor. To explain a bit of the context, the Pharisees had used their diseased traditions, false interpretations, and glosses to corrupt or even block this pure well of God’s living word. They taught that love and charity only were owed to your friends and it was sufficient to love those who loved you and hate your enemies. Therefore, Christ opened this well again, purged it, and scoured it by interpreting this godly law of charity truly and clearly, that we ought to love every one, both friend and enemy. And He explained the advantages of doing so and the disadvantages of doing the opposite. Indeed, what better thing can we wish for ourselves than that the heavenly Father count and receive us as His children? And we shall be sure that we are God’s children, Christ says, if we love everyone without exception. And if we do otherwise, He says, we are no better than the Pharisees, tax collectors, and unbelievers, and will have our reward with them, that is, to be excluded from the number of God’s chosen children and from our everlasting inheritance in heaven.

            And so Christ taught of true charity: that everyone is bound to love God above all things, and to love everyone, both friend and enemy. And He acted according to His own principles. He first worked to convince his enemies, then he criticized their faults, and when he could not convince them to change their ways, He still prayed for them. First, He loved God his Father above everything else, so much that he sought the glory and to follow the will of His Father rather than to seek His own glory or act in support of His own welfare, “I do not seek to do my own will but the will of Him that sent me” (John 5:30). Nor did He refuse to die in order to follow His Father’s will, saying, “If it be your will, take this cup from me, but let your will be done, not mine” (Matt. 26:39, 42). He did not only love his friends but also his enemies, whose hearts were filled with overflowing hatred for him, whose tongues spoke every kind of evil about him, and whose actions drove him to His death with all their power and might. Yet, despite all of their opposition, he did not withdraw his favor from them. He still loved them, critiqued their false teachings and their wicked living, and treated them kindly, patiently enduring whatever they spoke or did against them. When they insulted them, He did not insult them in return. When they struck him, he did not hit them back. And when they murdered Him, He did not kill them or threaten them, but prayed for them, submitting everything to the Father’s will. Just like a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb shorn of its fleece makes no sound or resistance, He went to his death without any reluctance or curses to his tormentors (Is. 53:7).

Thus, I have shown what charity is and how it is taught by the example of Christ Himself. From this example, it is possible for every one to know unmistakably their state and condition with respect to charity and therefore with respect to their status as children of their Heavenly Father. For although every one is persuaded that they are in charity, they ought to examine no one but themselves, closely investigating their own hearts, lives, and interactions with others. And if they follow this standard, they will not be deceived but discern whether they are in perfect charity or not. If you do not follow your own desires and will but give yourself earnestly to God in order to His will and commandments, you may be sure that you love God above all things. And if you do not, you do not love Him, whatever you may pretend. As Christ said, “If you love me, keep my commandments. He that knows my commandments and keeps them is one who loves me” (John 14:15, 21). And again he says, “He that loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love Him, and We will both come to him and dwell with him. [And] he that does not love me will not keep my words” (John 14:23-24). And similarly, if you maintain an even temper and treat both friends and enemies well in both word and deed, you may be sure that you have charity. And then you will be sure as well that Almighty God has received you as His dear beloved child, as St. John says, “This is what shows who are God’s children and who are the devil’s: anyone who does not love his brother is not a child of God” (1 John 3:10).

(2)

You have heard a plain and fruitful explanation of charity and how profitable and necessary charity is. You have heard how charity extends both to God and human beings, friends and enemies, and how charity is demonstrated by both the teaching and example of Christ. You finally have heard how you may evaluate whether you have perfect charity or not. Now we shall continue to speak on the same matter.

 Our nature is depraved, corrupt with sin, and empty of God’s word and grace, so it thinks it utterly irrational that one should love his or her enemy and has many excuses to the contrary. All of these excuses shrink to nothing before the teaching and living of Our Savior Christ, who loving us when we were His enemies, teaches us to love our enemies. He patiently endured many insults, suffered beating, and a tortuous death for our sake. Therefore, we are not members of His Body if we do not follow Him. “Christ,” says St. Peter, “suffered for us, leaving us an example to follow Him” (1 Pet. 2:21). Furthermore, we must consider that loving our friends is no more than what thieves, adulterers, murderers, and all wicked people do. Indeed, Jews, Muslims, and all others of any religion or none do so. And even domestic and wild animals love their friends, by which I mean those who give them food, shelter, or any other benefit. But to love one’s enemies is only the proper behavior of the children of God, the disciples and followers of Christ. Despite this, our corrupt and depraved nature weights heavily upon us. Over and over again, we reflect upon the offense and distress caused by our enemies. We think it impossible to bear the burden of loving those who hate us. But the burden should be easy enough if we consider the other side of the question: how much harm have we done to our enemies and how much pleasure we have received from our enemies. And if the scales still do not balance, then let us reflect on how much we have grieved Almighty God, how often we have grievously sinned against Him. For if we seek and have forgiveness from God, we also need to forgive the offenses done to us, which are very small compared to our offenses against God. And if we think that the one who has offended us is unworthy of forgiveness, let us think that we are even less deserving of God’s forgiveness. And although our enemy does not deserve to be forgiven for his or her own sake, yet we should forgive him on the example and from the store of the love of God. We should think about the great and many underserved benefits we have received from Him and that we owe Christ the forgiveness of those who sin against us.

But here arises an objection that requires a clear answer. If charity requires us to think, speak, and otherwise treat others well, whether they are good or evil, how can judges, police officers, and other enforcers of the law uphold the law against criminals with charity? How can they put wrongdoers in prison, fine them, and sometimes order their execution according to the law, if charity will not permit them to do so?

The clear and brief answer to this objection is that plagues and punishments are not evil, if they do not affect the innocent; and to wrongdoers they are both good and necessary, may be imposed according to charity, and should be imposed with charity.

And to further explain, you should know that charity has two roles, the one opposite to the other, and yet both are necessary to be used on people of opposite characteristics. The first role of charity is to make good and harmless people happy, not to oppress them with false accusations, but to encourage them with rewards to do good and to continue in doing so, even defending them from their enemies with force. And the office of bishops and pastors is to praise good people for doing good, that they may continue to do so, and to criticize and correct by the word of God the offences and crimes of those inclined to evil. The other role of charity is to criticize, correct, and punish vice without fear or favoritism. And this is only to be done to those who do harm. It is equally the role of charity to criticize, punish, and correct those that are evil as it is to cheer and reward those that are good and harmless. St. Paul writes to the Romans that “the civil authorities are instituted by God” not to trouble those who do good but criminals, against whom they use force “to bring retribution to the offender” (Rom. 13:1-4). And St. Paul advises Timothy strongly and earnestly to criticize sin with the word of God (1 Tim. 5:20). In this way, both roles are diligently performed and the kingdom of the devil is combated. The preacher strikes with the Word and the governor strikes with the sword. Otherwise, they neither love God nor those they govern, if because they do not enforce the laws, they voluntarily permit God to be offended and those whom they govern to perish. For just as every loving parent disciplines their natural children when they do wrong, or else they do not love them, so all governors of nations, states, cities, and houses should lovingly correct offenders under their government and seek the happiness of those who live innocently. They will do if they have any respect for God and the office they hold or love of those whom they govern. And let criticism and punishment be done quickly. If you dally, the offenders will get into worse trouble and not only be bad themselves but be an example of evil for others to fall into sin and outrage after them. One thief may rob many and thus make many into thieves. And a seditious person may allure many and subvert the allegiance of a whole town or country. And charity requires that such evil people, who offend so greatly against God and the commonwealth, should be cut off from the body of the commonwealth, so that they do not corrupt good and honest people. Just like a good surgeon cuts away infected tissue or even amputates a limb for the sake of his care for the entire body, so that it does not infect the other parts of the body connected to it.

I have declared to you what true charity or Christian love is, so clearly that no one can be deceived. Whoever maintains charity toward God, whom he is bound to love above everything, and also toward his neighbor, will surely avoid all offense to God and genuine offense to other people. Here’s the takeaway: true Christian charity is: (a) to love God above all things; (b) to love our neighbors whether they are friends, enemies, or indifferent; (c) to love our neighbors who are good and harmless by doing what good we can for them; (d) to love our neighbors who are bad and harmful by seeking their correction and just punishment, so that that they may be converted to goodness or at least so that God and the commonwealth may be hurt and offended less. And if we shape our life by Christian love and charity, then Christ promises and assures us that He loves us, that we are the children of our heavenly Father, reconciled to his favor, true members of the Body of Christ, and that after the brief time of our present and mortal life, we shall share with Him eternal life in his everlasting Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen.  

 

Caelius Spinator Maritus

This is my first time writing on this transtemporal web log that young Caelius maintains, so you will pardon me if I am a little stilted writing in English to the folk of pre-Imperial Earth: Terra Amissa, as we would say. Our archives contain a few documents created in Word 20XX, so I have some hints on style, but I have no intention of using the many acronyms you all seem to like, ROFL, OCICBW? So much gibberish, honestly.

I am Aulus Lactinus. I gave my name to the web log address. Which means that I am the Prior of the Monastery of the Gracious Light. Which some indeed do call the Monastery of the Remarkable English Martyrs. But that's not it's legal name. In fact, its legal name is partially in Greek, if you would believe that. And we generally broadcast from Germania in the Imperium of Tupile rather than the fictional places young Caelius likes to make up. He seems to want to make a world where it is credible that he could be writing from somewhere on Earth under the cover of a futuristic identity. It's all very complicated. I am not.

I am writing, because young Caelius insisted that I document his change of his personal status from a more neutral viewpoint. To put it plainly, C. Caelius Vixpop. Spinator was married recently. We did not solemnize it here on Germania. He went to his bride's natal place on one of the agricultural worlds of the Milky Way. A delegation went from the monastery and sang the Veni Creator at the procession of the groom and groomsmen. No one had ever seen anything like it.

Am I disappointed? Hadn't I hoped that young Caelius might take another set of vows one of these days? Of course. To quote one of our dear patrons, we monks so enjoy going over land and sea to convert one new brother and then make him twice fit for hell as ourselves. Don't worry. I have made a joke.

But a good monastery exists for the life of the Kingdom in the world not for the Kingdom separate from the world. The resurgence of Anglican monasticism, the tradition from which this monastery comes, would have been incompatible with the broader tradition of the Ecclesia Anglicana Reformanda Sempiterna if it had seen itself as more than a spiritual auxiliary to the work of the larger Church. The Lord Jesus says that the teachers of the Kingdom are like householders who bring things from their storehouse both old and new. A monastery is a source of those old things. We are conservative. We hold dearly onto what we believe what was once a living stream, "a true vine out of Egypt" in the words of the Bangor Antiphonary in the hope that it still one.

But we do not consider the calling of a monk higher or lower than any other Christian. Indeed, some among the holy fathers and mothers of Egypt claimed that monasticism was an admission of spiritual weakness. We seek prayer and austerity, because we cannot trust Christ in any other way. We would be lost in the world.

So we are quite joyful about this new wrinkle to young Caelius's calling. For we believe it is of God. The hope we have is that he would take what he has learned from us into the world and find new things for his storehouse as well. And we're not so removed from the world as to dismiss the thought of honorary grandchildren out of hand.

And so you can expect the web log to continue without name change or further interruption. For one thing, young Caelius has many Homilies left to remix.    

Book I, Homily 5 Remixed: How To Do Well At Doing Good (Thomas Cranmer)

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In the last Homily, I told you what true and lively Christian faith is. Specifically, I said that it does make anyone lazy but instead spurs one to do good deeds, as the opportunity arises. Now, by God’s grace, I will tell you about the second thing I noted about faith: without true and lively faith, no good deed can be done that is acceptable and pleasant to God. For Our Savior Christ says, “No branch can bear fruit by itself, but only if it remains united with the vine; no more can you bear fruit, unless you remain united with me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Anyone who dwells in Me, as I dwell in him, bears much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). And likewise St. Paul proves that Enoch had faith, because “he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:5-6). St. Paul also writes to the Romans, “anything that does not arise from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).

Faith gives life to the soul. Those who lack faith are just as dead in the eyes of God as bodies without souls appear to us. Without faith, all that we do is dead before God, although everyone else may see them as joyful and glorious. Just as engravings or paintings are dead representations of what they depict, since they are without life and motion, so are the works of all unfaithful people in the sight of God. They appear to be lively works, but they are, in truth, dead, because they do not lead to eternal life. They are but shadows and play acting of living and good things, but not really living and good things. For true faith gives life to our deeds, and out of such faith do good deeds come, those deeds that are truly very good works. But without faith, no work is good before God.

            St. Augustine says of this principle, “We must not place good works before faith, nor think that anyone does good deeds before faith. For such works may seem to us to be praiseworthy, yet indeed they are simply useless” and not allowed before God.  And he says as well, “They are just like a horse that goes veering off the race track in a great gallop, but to no purpose. Let no one therefore count upon his good works prior to his faith, for where there was no faith, there were no good works.” “The intent”, Augustine says, “makes good works, but faith must guide and order human intent.” As Christ says, “If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be in darkness” (Matt. 6:23). St. Augustine interprets this to mean that, “the eye signifies the intent whereby someone does something.” So one who does not do good deeds with a godly intent and a true faith expressing itself through love (Gal. 5:6) has a whole body (symbolizing the totality of their deeds) that is dark, for there is no light in it. For good deeds are not distinguished from vices on the basis of what they achieve, but by the ends and intents for which they were done. If an unbeliever clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, and does similar things; his deeds are dead, useless, and fruitless to him, because he does not do them in faith for the honor and love of God. Faith is what commends our deeds to God, for as St. Augustine says, “whether you will it or not, the work that does not come from faith is nothing.” Where the faith of Christ is not the foundation, there is no good work, no matter the building we make. There is one work that contains all works: faith expressing itself through love. If you have it, you possess the base of all good works, for the virtues of strength, wisdom, self-control, and justice are all derived from this same faith. Without this faith, we lack these virtues and only possess their names and shadows, as St. Augustine says, “The life of all who lack the true faith is sin; and nothing is good without Him who is the Author of goodness; where God is not, virtue is only make believe, although it is present in the best of deeds.” And St. Augustine finds this idea in the Psalms, “The swallow has her nest where she rears her brood” (Ps. 84:3). He argues that Jews, heretics, and unbelievers do good deeds; they clothe the naked, feed the poor, and do other works of mercy, but because they are not done in the true faith, the birds are lost. But if they remain in faith, then “faith is the nest” and safeguard “of their birds”, i.e., the safeguard of their good works, so that their reward is not utterly lost.

            And while St. Augustine widely discusses this matter in a variety of books, St. Ambrose handles it in a few words, “He who by nature would resist vice, either by natural will or reason, does uselessly embellish their life in this world and does not attain the truest virtues, for without the worship of the true God, what seems to be virtue is vice.”

            And St. John Chrysostom pretty much says the same thing, “You will find many who lack the true faith and are not part of the flock of Christ, and yet it appears that they flourish in good works of mercy; you shall find them full of pity, compassion, and given to justice; and yet for all that, they have no fruit of their works, because they lack the most important work. For when Jesus was asked by the crowd how to do the work of God, He answered, ‘This is the work that God requires: to believe in the one whom He has sent’ (John 5:29), so that He called faith ‘the work of God.’ And as soon a man has faith, he soon will flourish in good deeds, for faith itself is full of good deeds, and nothing is good without faith.” And he confirms his position elsewhere, saying, “they who glitter and shine in good deeds without faith in God are like dead men, who have attractive and expensive graves, which do them no good. […] Faith cannot be independent of deeds for then it is no true faith: and when deeds are done in faith, faith is above the deeds. For, as men, they are really men, have life and then are nourished; so must our faith in Christ come first and are nourished with good works afterwards. Life may exist without nourishment, but nourishment cannot exist without life. […] I can show you a man who lived and went to heaven by faith and without works: but without faith, no man ever had life. The thief that was crucified with Jesus merely believed, and the most merciful God justified him. I will not argue whether he would have done good works if he had the time, but I will surely affirm that faith alone saved him. If he had lived and disregarded faith and the works proceeding from it, he would have lost his salvation again. But this is what I say: faith itself saved him, but works by themselves never justified anyone.” Here, you have heard the mind of St. John Chrysostom; by which you may perceive that faith, given the opportunity, does not fail to result in good deeds, nor do good works lead to eternal life in the absence of faith.

(2)

Three aspects of true and lively faith were discussed in the previous Homily: (1) faith is never idle and without good deeds when there is the opportunity to do then; (2) good deeds acceptable to God cannot be done without faith. We now discuss the third point, which is what kind of works spring out of true faith and lead faithful people into eternal life.

No one knows better the answer to this question than our Savior Christ Himself, who was asked the same question by a certain man of great wealth, “What good must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered, “If you wish to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.” The rich young man was not satisfied and asked, “Which commandments?” (Matt. 19:16-19). He asked this, because the Scribes and Pharisees had created so many of their own laws and traditions that were in addition to God’s commandments so as to bring people to heaven .The man was confused. What was the way to heaven? Was it the commandments and traditions of the Pharisees? Or was it the laws of God? And so the rich young man asked what Christ meant.

Christ clearly answered him in this way by reciting the commandments of God, “Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false evidence. Honor your father and your mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.” In these words, Christ declared that the laws of God are the road to eternal life, not the traditions and laws of human beings. Let this be heard as a most true lesson from Christ’s own mouth: the works of the moral commandments of God are the very true works of faith that lead to the blessed life to come.

Yet human blindness and malice from the start has ever been ready to depart from God’s commandments. Adam, the first of us, had only one commandment: do not eat of the forbidden fruit. Despite God’s commandment, Adam believed Eve, herself deceived by the subtle persuasion of the serpent. And so Adam followed his own will and violated God’s commandment. And ever since that time, all of us descended from him have been blinded by original sin so as to be quite ready to violate God’s law and commandments and to invent new paths to salvation by deeds of our own choice; so much so that nearly the entire world abandoned giving honor to the only eternal living God and wandered about in the frauds of their imagination. Some worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars. Others worshipped deities like those of the Roman or Norse pantheon as well as other dead men and women. Some, not satisfied with worshipping dead humans, instead worshipped a menagerie of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles. Indeed, every country, town, and house had a place set apart for setting up images of whatever he or she liked and worshipping those idols. Such was the rudeness of the people after they indulged their own fantasies and left the eternal living God and his commandments, that they devised innumerable images and gods. And they remained in this error and blindness until Almighty God took pity on human blindness and sent his true prophet Moses into the world to reprove and rebuke this extreme madness and teach people the true knowledge, honor, and worship of the only living God.

Yet human instinct was so corrupt as to follow their own fancies, preferring as the Icelanders say, “the smell of their own farts”, that all of the admonitions, exhortations, benefits, and threats of God could not keep our ancestors from their inventions. The people of Israel were showered with gifts by God, yet when Moses went up to the mountain to speak to God, he had only been up there a few days when the people started making new gods (Exod. 32:1-6). It came into their heads to make a golden calf and to kneel down and worship it. And after that, they followed the Moabites and worshipped the Baal of Peor: the god of the Moabites (Num. 25:1-3). Read the Book of Judges, the Books of the Kings, and the Prophets. There you will find how faithless the people were, how full of making up their own religions, and more prepared to indulge their own fantasies than obey God’s most holy commandments. You can read there of a laundry list of what they worshipped: Baal, Moloch, Chamos, Melchom, the Baal of Peor, Ashtaroth, Bel, the Dragon, Priapus, the Brazen Serpent, the Twelve signs of the Zodiac, and many others. And the people would come on makebelieve pilgrimages to the images of these false gods and behave with great devotion, decorating them expensively, censing them, kneeling before them, and making offerings to them, thinking that this would earn them favor with God and be more meritorious than obeying God’s commandments and precepts.

At that time, God commanded that sacrifice only be made at Jerusalem. Yet the people of Israel and Judah did the very opposite thing. They made altars and sacrifices everywhere: in hills, woods, and houses, disregarding God’s commandments but holding their own religious ideas and devotions to be superior. And this error was so widespread that not only the uneducated people but also the priests and teachers of the people were corrupted by a mix of ignorance, greed, and desire for glory to follow these abominations; so much so that King Ahab had only Elijah as a true minister and teacher on the side of the Lord. Yet there were eight hundred fifty priests of Baal to convince Ahab to honor Baal and to sacrifice in woods and groves (1 Kings 18:19-22). And so that horrible error continued until Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, the three noble kings, God’s chosen ministers, destroyed idols and sacrificial altars and brought the people from the errors to the way of God’s commandments (2 Chron. 17:3-6, 30:14, 31:1, 34:2-7). For these deeds, their eternal reward and glory is with God and shall remain with God forever.

And along with the invention of false gods, our inclination to create our own holy devotions resulted in the creation of new sects and religions called Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes. These sects created many holy and godly traditions or at least ones that were so fancy that they appeared to be good and holy. In reality, the practices of these sects all tended to idolatry, superstition, and hypocrisy, for their hearts were full of malice, pride, greed, and all wickedness. Christ cried out vehemently against these sects and fake holiness than anyone else, saying over and over again, “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of a cup or a dish, and leave the inside full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of the cup first; then the outside will be clean also” (Matt. 23:25-26). For although they appeared to be the world to be the best and holiest among men because of their traditions and outward good deeds, Christ saw that the inside of their hearts were most unholy, most abominable, and furthest from God of everyone. Therefore He said to them, “You have God’s law null and void for the sake of your tradition. What hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you, ‘This people pays me lip-service, but their heart is far from me; they worship me in vain; for they teach as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:7-9; Isa. 24:13-14).

And though Christ said that those who teach the commandments of men as doctrines worship God in vain, he did not mean to overthrow all human law, for he himself was always obedient to the civil authorities and the laws they made for the good order and governance of the people: but he objected to the laws and traditions made by the Scribes and Pharisees, which were not made only for the good order of the people (as the civil laws were), but these laws were put on a higher pedestal. Their purpose was nothing less than erect a right and pure worship of God that was equal to or superior to God’s laws, for many of God’s laws could not be kept if the other laws were heeded. God detested their arrogance: that humans should give such high regard to their own laws as to consider them equal to God’s laws concerning the right worship of God. Indeed, the Jewish sects valued their laws so highly that they neglected God’s laws. God has made laws concerning what honors and pleases Him. His pleasure is that all human laws that are not contrary to His laws should be obeyed and kept, as long as they concern what is good and necessary for every government and does not touch those matters that principally concern His honor. And all civil and human law either should be or should be made to direct us to keep God’s laws better, so that we should better honor God. The Scribes and Pharisees were not satisfied that their laws should have no greater esteem than other positive and civil laws, nor were they were interested in having their laws called by the name of temporal laws; but they called them holy and godly traditions. They desired that their laws not only to be thought to honor God rightly and correctly (as God’s laws ensure) but also to be the highest way of honoring God, to which God’s own laws were apparently irrelevant. And it was for this reason that Christ speaks against them so vehemently, saying, “You are the people who impress others with your righteousness; but God sees through you; for what is considered admirable in human eyes is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

            One common consequence of these traditions is that people are more devoted to keeping and more conscientious about not breaking these traditions than of God’s commandments. Because the Scribes and Pharisees so superstitiously and scrupulously kept the Sabbath, they were incredibly offended that Christ healed the sick on the Sabbath, and they were angry with His famished Disciples for gathering corn to eat on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:1-14). The Scribes and Pharisees also quarreled with Christ and His Disciples for not washing their hands as often as tradition required, asking, “Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders?” (Matt. 15: 1-6). But Christ then charged them with keeping their own traditions by breaking the very commandments of God. The Pharisees taught a devotion in which people offered their goods to the treasure house of the temple in pretended honor to God, yet in such a way that they denied financial support to the ones they were most obligated to support: their own mothers and fathers; and so they broke the commandments of God to keep their own traditions (Mark 7:11-13). They valued an oath made by gold in the temple treasury or an offering at the temple than an oath made in the name of God Himself or of the temple. They were more careful to pay their tithes on mint and dill than to do any of the greater things commanded by God as works of mercy, or to do justice, or to deal sincerely, uprightly, and faithfully with God and man. “These,” Christ says, “ought to be done, and the others not left undone.” And, to keep it short, they were so blind in judgment that they stumbled over a straw and leaped over a block: they would, as the expression goes, carefully remove a fly from their cup but swallow a camel whole (Matt. 23). And therefore Christ called them “blind guides,” warning his disciples from time to time to reject their teaching. They may have seemed to the whole world to be most perfect men, both in living and teaching, but their lives were just hypocrisy, and their teaching was bad yeast mingled with superstition, idolatry, and overconfidence in their own judgment, for they set up the traditions and ordinances of human beings in the place of God’s commandments.

(3)

If you recall, the purpose of this Homily is to teach us all how to correctly evaluate good works. In the second part of the Homily, I discussed the kind of religious and moral life God would have us lead, that is, one following the commandments of the Holy Scriptures and not engaging in practices created by our own imaginations and blind zeal of devotion without the foundation of the word of God. Recall also that when we have mistakenly judged bad works to be good, we have displeased God and wandered from His will and commandments. And this has happened in our own time (to our greater regret) [Ed: the Reformation] no less than it did in the time of Isaiah or Jesus among the Jews; and the errors of our time have come through the corruption or at least the negligence of those who should have been the strongest proponents of God’s commandments and most stolid preservers of the pure and heavenly doctrine left by Christ.

            What person, with any education or judgment combined with true zeal for God, does not see and mourn the extent to which such false teaching, superstition, idolatry, hypocrisy, and other enormities and abuses have entered into Christ’s religion? Indeed, little by little, such sourdough as this has hindered the making of the sweet bread of God’s holy word. Never did Israel in their deepest blindness of idolatry make so many pilgrimages to images, nor did so much kneeling, kissing, and censing of them as they do today. Sects and pretend religions are at least forty times greater in number than among the Jews of Jesus’s day, and the sects of our day [Ed.: the religious orders] exceed those of the past in superstitious and ungodly abuses. These sects and religions have had so many hypocritical and pretended works in their form of religion (as they arrogantly named it) that they said that their lamps always ran over, able to make satisfaction for their own sins but also for their benefactors, brothers and sisters of their religion. In a most ungodly and clever way, they persuaded the multitude of ignorant people of their conceits and kept in many places markets of merits full of holy relics, images, shrines, and works of overflowing abundance ready for sale. And they called all of their possessions holy: holy cowls, holy girdles, holy pardoned beads, holy shoes, holy rules, and all full of holiness. And what thing can be called more foolish, superstitious, or ungodly than that men, women, and children should wear a friar’s coat to deliver them from pain or disease, or wear it in the hour of death or burial as means of salvation? Fortunately, this superstition has been rarely practiced in England, yet in other countries it has been practiced by both the uneducated and educated alike.

            But let us pass over the uncounted superstitions that have arisen in religious communities in manner of dress, silence, the conditions of the dormitory, the seclusion of the cloister, the order in chapter, and choice of food and drink. Let us consider what enormities and abuses that have surrounded the three foundations of religious life, that is, the vows of obedience, chastity, and voluntary poverty. First, they ignored their divinely mandated obligations of obedience to their parents and temporal rulers in favor of their self-ordained vows of obedience to their father in religion. And so profession of voluntary obedience allowed them to forsake those obediences that are mandatory. And it would be best to pass over in silence how well their profession of chastity was kept; let the world judge about what is well known. It would not do any of us good to speak of their unchaste life with unchaste words and so offend the sensibilities of chaste and godly ears. And voluntary poverty is pretty much a dead letter. With the phrase proprium in communi, “held in common,” they held possessions, jewels, plate, and riches equal to or above merchants, gentlemen, barons, earls, and dukes, but yet mocked us all with their property. They persuaded us that they somehow kept their vow and were in voluntary poverty. Yet despite all of their wealth, they might help neither father, mother, nor any other very needy or poor person without the permission of their father abbot, prior, or warden. They might solicit donations from anyone but not give to anyone, including those whose God’s laws commanded them to help. And so their traditions and rules excluded the authority of God. And of them, it can be truly said what Christ said to the Pharisees, “You break the commandments of God in the interest of your tradition. You pay God lip-service but your heart is far from Him” (Matt. 15:3,8). And think on the longer prayers they used by day and by night to appear holy so that they might convince widows and other gullible people to purchase thirty Masses and other liturgies for their husbands and friends and admit one’s dear departed relatives into monastic prayers. Do they not fall under this saying of Christ, “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You eat up property of widows, while for appearances’ sake you say long prayers. You will receive the severest sentence. Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to recruit new members of your sect; and when you have succeeded, you make him twice as fit for hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:14-15)?

    Glory to God, who enlightened the heart of his faithful and true minister of most famous memory, King Henry VIII, and gave him the knowledge of His word, and an earnest affection to seek His glory, and to put away every superstitious and Pharisee-like sect invented by Antichrist and set against the true word of God and glory of His most blessed Name, just as He gave the same spirit to the most noble and famous princes, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, and Hezekiah! God grant us all, true and faithful subjects of the Queen, to eat of the sweet and flavorful bread of God’s own word, and as Christ commanded, avoid all of the Pharisee-like yeast of pretended human religion. This religion, although it was abominable to God and contrary to His commandments and the pure religion of Christ, yet it was praised as the most godly life and highest state of perfection, as though a person might be more godly and perfect keeping rules, traditions, and professions of human design rather than by keeping the holy commandments of God.

            And let us rehearse some examples of ungodly and counterfeit religion from recent times, such as Beads, Lady Psalters, and Rosaries, the Fifteen Os, St. Bernard’s Verses, St. Agatha’s Letters, Purgatory, Masses Satisfactory, Stations, Jubilees, fake relics, holy Beads, holy Bells, holy Bread, holy Water, holy Palms, holy Candles, holy Fire, and other similar things. Let us not forget superstitious Fastings and Brotherhoods of Pardons, with similar products for sale. All of these things were held in such esteem and used stupidly to the great prejudice of God’s glory and commandments, so much so that they were exalted and sanctified to the height of being marketed as able to obtain eternal life or the remission of sins. Yes, as well, stupid inventions, fruitless ceremonies, ungodly laws, decrees, and Councils of Rome grew to such importance that nothing was thought comparable to them in authority, wisdom, scholarship, and godliness. They even said that the laws of Rome were to be obeyed by all just as they would obey the words of the Gospels. The laws of temporal rulers must give way to them, while the laws of God were ignored or held in less esteem so that the laws, decrees, and councils of Rome along with their traditions and ceremonies be obeyed and held in greater esteem. Thus, the people were so blinded by the fair appearance of these practices and ceremonies that they considered keeping them to be greater holiness, more perfect service, and more pleasing to God than keeping God’s commandments. Such has been the corrupt inclination of human beings to make new ways to honor God out of their own head and keep them with greater affection and devotion than their devotion to searching for God’s commandments and keeping them. They have confused human laws for God’s commandments and vice versa. And indeed they have come to think that the legislation of men was the highest, most perfect, and most holy of all God’s commandments. And the situation became so confusing that few among the best educated knew and dared affirm the truth that the commandments of God needed to be distinguished from those of human beings. And so, much error, superstition, idolatry, useless religion, overconfident judgment, and great arguments grew, and so did ungodly living.

            And therefore, if you have any passion for rightly and purely honoring God; if you have any regard for your own soul and the life of the world to come, which is both without pain and without end; direct your energies above all things to read and to hear God’s word, observe diligently there what He wants you to do; and then do it with all your might. First, you must have a sure faith in God and give yourselves completely to Him, love Him in good times and bad, and fear to offend Him all the days of your life. Then, for his sake, love everyone, friend and enemy, because they are His creation, and redeemed by Christ just as much as you are. Think carefully how you may do good to all according to your ability and do no harm to anyone. Obey those in political authority, serve your employers faithfully and diligently, not because you fear punishment but because you know that you are obligated to do so by God’s commandments. Do not disobey your parents, but honor, help, and please them to the best of your ability. Do not oppress, kill, assault, or slander anyone, but love, speak well of, and help and comfort everyone you can. Yes, your enemies, too, though they hate you, say nasty things about you, and harm you. Take no one’s property, nor desire anyone else’s property, but be content with you truly have earned and give generously of your own property, according to need and circumstance. Avoid all idolatry, witchcraft, and perjury. Do not commit adultery, fornication, or general fooling around in thought or deed with anyone not your wife. Or husband. And if you labor throughout your life in keeping God’s commandments (the pure, principal, and right honor of God as well as what God has ordained to be the right profession and pathway to heaven for those who turn to Him in faith), you shall not fail to grasp the promises of Christ and come to that blessed and everlasting life where you shall live in glory and joy with God for ever. To whom are praise, honor, and dominion forever and ever. Amen.