Volume 13 · pp. 407–410
Sermon I. On Saint Andrew the Apostle
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D. ALBERTI MAGNI, EPISCOPI RATISBONENSIS, DOCTRINA TOTO ORBE CELEBERRIMI, ORDINIS PRÆDICATORUM, SERMONES DE SANCTIS.
SERMO I.
DE SANCTO ANDREA APOSTOLO.
Venite post me, faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum. Matth. IV, 19.
Hæc verba Dominus dixit non solum ad Petrum et Andream, imo dicit ea ad quoslibet Christianos. Unde quatuor sunt notanda:
I. A quibus vocemur a Domino. II. Per quæ vocemur a Domino. III. Ad quæ vocemur a Domino. IV. Propter quæ vocemur a Domino.
Et nota, quod vocat nos a tribus, per tria, ad tria, et propter tria.
I.
De primo nota, A quibus vocemur a Domino. Et est sciendum, quod vocat nos ab illis tribus quæ sunt in mundo, videlicet, a carnis lascivia, et rerum concupiscentia, et vitæ superbia. De his tribus dicit I Joan. II, 15 et 16: Nolite diligere mundum, neque ea quæ in mundo sunt. Omne quod est in mundo, concupiscentia carnis est, et concupiscentia oculorum, et superbia vitæ.
Hæc tria bene possunt figurari per illa tria quæ Petrus et Andreas reliquerunt.
1. Ipsi enim primo reliquerunt uxores, quas forsitan habebant, vel habere poterant. Per uxorem vero intelligitur ipsa caro, quæ mirabili glutino copulata est spiritui. Spiritus enim quasi maritus est carnis. Heu! uxor ista caro semper dominari quærit in virum. Caro enim semper adversus spiritum concupiscit, ut dicit Apostolus 1. Hanc igitur uxorem, id est, carnis luxuriam debemus relinquere. Ad hoc monet nos Spiritus Sanctus, Eccli. XVIII, 30 et 31: Post concupiscentias tuas non eas, et a voluntate tua, Glossa, carnali, avertere. Si præstes animæ tuæ, id est, "animalitati tuæ," ut dicit Glossa, concupiscentias ejus, faciet te in gaudium inimicis tuis, id est, "dæmonibus," ut dicit Glossa. Sic contingit Samsoni, quem Dalila, cum qua fuerat luxuriatus, tradidit Philistæis, in quorum carcerali mola luit illas concupiscentias quas habuerat cum Dalila.
2. Secundo rete suum reliquerunt. Per rete vero notatur avaritia, sive rerum concupiscentia. Avaritia quippe est rete diaboli, quod expandit super faciem universæ terræ. Per hoc rete juvenes capit, et senes, sive viros, sive mulieres. Unde dicitur Jeremiæ, VI, 11 et 13: Vir cum muliere capietur, senex cum pleno dierum: a minore quippe usque ad majorem omnes avaritiæ student. Et nota, quod Dominus iniquitatem avaritiæ graviter punire consuevit. Unde legitur in III Reg. XXI-XXII, quod quia Achab Rex Israel vineam Naboth Israelitæ concupivit, ipsamque Naboth occiso possedit: propterea in bello quodam, quod erat inter ipsum et Regem Assyriorum, sagitta inter pulmonem et stomachum transfixus occiditur, et mortuus est, et canes linxerunt sanguinem ejus. Jezabel vero IV Reg. IX, uxor ejus, ad cujus consilium Naboth occisus fuerat, per mandatum Jehu deorsum præcipitata, et ab ungulis equorum est conculcata: canes quoque comederunt carnes ejus. Propterea Spiritus sanctus monet unumquemque in Eccli. V, 1: Noli attendere ad possessiones iniquas, et ne dixeris: Est mihi sufficiens vita: nihil enim proderit in tempore vindictæ et obductionis, id est, quando humo tibi claudentur oculi.
D. ALBERT THE GREAT, BISHOP OF RATISBON, MOST CELEBRATED IN DOCTRINE THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, SERMONS ON THE SAINTS.
SERMON I.
ON SAINT ANDREW THE APOSTLE.
Come after me; I will make you become fishers of men. Matthew 4:19.
The Lord spoke these words not only to Peter and Andrew; indeed he speaks them to any Christians whatever. Hence four things are to be noted:
I. From what things we are called by the Lord. II. Through what things we are called by the Lord. III. To what things we are called by the Lord. IV. On account of what things we are called by the Lord.
And note that he calls us from three things, through three things, to three things, and on account of three things.
I.
On the first, note from what things we are called by the Lord. And it must be known that he calls us away from those three things which are in the world, namely from the wantonness of the flesh, and the coveting of things, and the pride of life. Concerning these three things 1 John 2:15 and 16 says: Do not love the world, nor those things which are in the world. Everything that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.
These three things can well be figured by those three things which Peter and Andrew left behind.
1. For first they left their wives, whom perhaps they had, or were able to have. But by the wife is understood the flesh itself, which is joined to the spirit by a marvelous glue. For the spirit is as it were the husband of the flesh. Alas! this wife, the flesh, always seeks to lord it over the man. For the flesh always lusts against the spirit, as the Apostle says 1. Therefore we ought to leave this wife, that is, the luxury of the flesh. To this the Holy Spirit admonishes us, Sirach 18:30 and 31: Do not go after your concupiscences, and turn away from your will, the Gloss says, carnal will. If you grant to your soul, that is, "to your animality," as the Gloss says, its concupiscences, it will make you a joy to your enemies, that is, "to demons," as the Gloss says. Thus it happened to Samson, whom Delilah, with whom he had been wanton, handed over to the Philistines, in whose prison mill he paid for those concupiscences which he had had with Delilah.
2. Secondly they left their net. But by the net avarice is marked, or the coveting of things. For avarice is the devil's net, which he spreads over the face of the whole earth. Through this net he catches young men and old men, whether men or women. Hence it is said in Jeremiah 6:11 and 13: Man with woman will be caught, the old man with one full of days; for from the lesser even to the greater, all devote themselves to avarice. And note that the Lord is accustomed to punish gravely the iniquity of avarice. Hence it is read in 3 Kings 21-22 that because Ahab, king of Israel, coveted the vineyard of Naboth the Israelite, and possessed it after Naboth had been slain, therefore in a certain war which was between him and the king of the Assyrians, he was pierced through by an arrow between the lung and the stomach, and was killed and died, and the dogs licked his blood. But Jezebel, in 4 Kings 9, his wife, by whose counsel Naboth had been killed, was thrown down by the command of Jehu and trampled by the hoofs of horses; dogs also ate her flesh. Therefore the Holy Spirit admonishes each one in Sirach 5:1: Do not attend to unjust possessions, and do not say: My life is sufficient for me; for it will profit nothing in the time of vengeance and of covering over, that is, when your eyes will be closed with earth.
3. Tertio navim dimiserunt. Per navem superbia figuratur. Sicut enim navis dorsum aquarum transit, ita et superbia aliis semper dominari appetit. Præterea sicut navis amplior est in medio quam sit in duabus extremitatibus suis, sic etiam est de superbis. Ipsi enim propter hoc tument et superbiunt, quando non considerant principium suum et finem. Non enim vident quod nati sunt cæci et nudi, et flentes, et ejulantes: nec respiciunt quod cito vile cadaver erunt, et a vermibus corrodentur, et in pulverem revertentur.
NOTA etiam, quod Dominus superbos humiliare consuevit. Legitur enim II Mach. IX, 4 et seq., quod Antiochus Rex, qui tantæ elationis erat, ut videretur sibi fluctibus maris imperare, et montium altitudines in statera appendere, et qui arbitrabatur se cæli sidera attingere; cum dixisset, Se venturum Jerosolymam, et congeriem sepulcri Judæorum eam facturum... Ut finivit hunc ipsum sermonem, apprehendit eum dirus dolor viscerum, et amara intestinorum tormenta...: et contingit illum impetu euntem de curru cadere, et gravi corporis collisione membra vexari; ita ut de corpore impii vermes scaturirent, ac viventis in doloribus carnes ejus effluerent, odore etiam illius et fætore exercitus gravaretur... Et cum nec ipse jam fætorem suum ferre non posset..., miserabili obitu vita functus est. Hinc est, quod monet nos Spiritus sanctus in Eccli. X, 15, dicens ut superbiam fugiamus. Ait enim: Initium omnis peccati est superbia: Qui tenuerit illam, adimplebitur maledictis, vel maledictione, Glossa, "in corpore et anima:" et subvertet eum in finem, id est, superbus capite inferius demisso, et pedibus sursum versis præcipitabitur in profundum abyssi.
3. Thirdly they gave up the boat. By the boat pride is figured. For as a boat passes over the back of the waters, so too pride always desires to dominate others. Moreover, as a boat is broader in the middle than it is at its two ends, so too it is with the proud. For they swell up and are proud on account of this, when they do not consider their beginning and their end. For they do not see that they were born blind and naked, and weeping and wailing; nor do they look back to the fact that soon they will be a vile corpse, and will be gnawed by worms, and will be turned back into dust.
NOTE also that the Lord is accustomed to humble the proud. For it is read in 2 Maccabees 9:4 and following that King Antiochus, who was of such great elevation that he seemed to himself to command the waves of the sea, and to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance, and who thought that he touched the stars of heaven; when he had said that he would come to Jerusalem and would make it a heap for the burial of the Jews... As he finished this very speech, a dreadful pain of the entrails and bitter torments of the intestines seized him... and it happened that, as he was going with force, he fell from the chariot and his limbs were afflicted by a grave collision of the body, so that worms swarmed from the body of the impious man, and the flesh of him while living flowed out in pains, and the army was weighed down also by his odor and stench... And when he himself could no longer bear his own stench..., he was deprived of life by a miserable death. Hence it is that the Holy Spirit admonishes us in Sirach 10:15, saying that we should flee pride. For he says: The beginning of every sin is pride: whoever holds it will be filled with curses, or with curse, the Gloss says, "in body and soul," and it will overthrow him in the end, that is, the proud man, with head cast lower and feet turned upward, will be hurled down into the depth of the abyss.
II.
De secundo nota, quod Dominus a prædictis tribus, revocat nos per tria, quæ passus est in cruce, videlicet per paupertatem, et humilitatem, et doloris asperitatem.
1. Per paupertatem quippe revocat nos ab oculorum concupiscentia. Tantæ namque paupertatis erat, ut nullam vestem omnino sibi reliquerit, sed tantum quemdam pannum, quo erat præcinctus ad femora, sicut legitur in Evangelio Nicodemi. Nullam enim habebat hyppodiaconem, vel cervical, ad quod caput lassum et afflictum reclinaret. Præterea cum vehementer tunc sitiret, non habuit tantum ut os suum et linguam humectaret.
2. Per humilitatem etiam suam revocat nos a vitæ superbia. Nonne magna humilitas hæc erat, quod a conspuentibus in ipsum faciem non avertit? et quod dorsum suum ad propriam crucem portandam humiliavit? Quod etiam in medio latronum pendere nudus, in publica strata, ad spectaculum omnium transeuntium, suspendi non recusavit?
3. Per magnam etiam doloris asperitatem revocat nos a misera carnis luxuria. Nonne magnus dolor hic erat, quod exceptis doloribus quos sub flagellis et spinis passus fuerat, venerabile corpus ejus, usque ad singularem omnium membrorum dinumerationem, violenter extenderunt? Quod etiam manus ejus ac pedes grossis clavis perfoderunt, et quod linguam suam felle et aceto amaricaverunt? De istis tribus considerandis ac memorandis monet nos ipse Dominus in Thren. III, 19: Recordare, inquit, paupertatis, et transgressionis meæ, et maxime humilitatis. Omnes enim alias mortes quas malefactores sustinere solebant, pertransivit, atque illam elegit quæ tunc præ omnibus aliis contemptibilior habebatur, videlicet mortem crucis, et hoc fecit propter eximiam humilitatem suam.
II.
On the second, note that the Lord calls us back from the aforesaid three things through three things which he suffered on the cross, namely through poverty, and humility, and the roughness of pain.
1. For through poverty he calls us back from the concupiscence of the eyes. For he was of such great poverty that he left absolutely no garment to himself, but only a certain cloth with which he was girded at the thighs, as is read in the Gospel of Nicodemus. For he had no hyppodiaconem, or pillow, on which he might recline his weary and afflicted head. Moreover, since at that time he was vehemently thirsty, he did not have enough to moisten his mouth and tongue.
2. Also through his humility he calls us back from the pride of life. Was this not great humility, that he did not turn away his face from those spitting upon him? and that he humbled his back to carry his own cross? That also, naked, in the midst of thieves, on a public road, for the spectacle of all passing by, he did not refuse to be suspended?
3. Also through the great roughness of pain he calls us back from the wretched luxury of the flesh. Was this not great pain, that, beyond the pains which he had suffered under lashes and thorns, they violently stretched out his venerable body even to the singular enumeration of all his members? That also they pierced his hands and feet with thick nails, and that they made his tongue bitter with gall and vinegar? Concerning these three things to be considered and remembered, the Lord himself admonishes us in Lamentations 3:19: Remember, he says, my poverty, and my transgression, and especially my humility. For he passed through all the other deaths which evildoers were accustomed to suffer, and chose that one which was then regarded as more contemptible than all others, namely the death of the cross, and he did this on account of his extraordinary humility.
III.
De tertio nota, quod vocat nos ad tria facienda.
1. Primum est, ut Creatori nostro ex omni vita nostra, et posse, et scire nostro ipsi fideliter serviamus. Cum enim ipse nobis dederit vitam, et membrorum potentiam, ac rationis scientiam: dignum est ut ex his tribus serviamus ei. Unde dicitur in primo Reg. VII, 39: Præparate corda vestra Domino, et servite ei soli, et eruet vos de manu Philisthiim, id est, dæmonum infernalium.
2. Secundum est, ut cuilibet proximo nostro corde, ore, et opere in suis necessitatibus assistamus.
3. Tertium est, ut animam nostram et corpus in omni vitæ munditia custodiamus. De istis duobus dicitur, Jac. I, 27: Religio munda et immaculata apud Deum et Patrem, hæc est: Visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum, et immaculatum se custodire ab hoc sæculo. Dicit igitur Jacobus, quod duplex est religio ad quam Christus nos invitat. Prima est, ut pupillis et viduis, id est, cuilibet pauperi in suis necessitatibus subveniamus. Secunda est, ut nos ipsos ab omni inquinamento vitiorum mundos et immaculatos custodiamus.
IV.
De quarto nota, quod debemus sequi Dominum nos vocantem de primis tribus ad tria jam memorata: propter tria quæ propter hoc assequemur, videlicet, propter regiam dignitatem, et rerum omnium ubertatem, et corporis ac animæ claritatem.
1. Qui enim superbiam fugerit, et se ad serviendum Deo humiliaverit, assequetur in cælis regiam dignitatem.
2. Qui etiam contempserit, et res suas pauperibus erogaverit, assequetur in regno Dei rerum omnium ubertatem.
3. Qui etiam luxuriam abominatus fuerit, et semetipsum castum et mundum custodierit, accipiet pro præmio animæ et corporis inæstimabilem claritatem.
Quæ tria nobis largiri dignetur ipse Dei Filius, qui cum eodem Deo Patre et Spiritu sancto vivit, etc.
III.
On the third, note that he calls us to three things to be done.
1. The first is that we should serve our Creator faithfully from all our life, and our ability, and our knowledge. For since he has given us life, and the power of our members, and the knowledge of reason, it is fitting that from these three things we serve him. Hence it is said in 1 Kings 7:39: Prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines, that is, of the infernal demons.
2. The second is that we should assist any neighbor of ours, in his necessities, with heart, mouth, and work.
3. The third is that we should guard our soul and body in every cleanness of life. Concerning these two things it is said, James 1:27: Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from this age. Therefore James says that the religion to which Christ invites us is twofold. The first is that we should relieve orphans and widows, that is, any poor person, in their necessities. The second is that we should guard ourselves clean and unstained from every defilement of vices.
IV.
On the fourth, note that we ought to follow the Lord calling us from the first three things to the three things already remembered, on account of three things which we will obtain on account of this, namely on account of royal dignity, and the abundance of all things, and the brightness of body and soul.
1. For he who will have fled pride and humbled himself to serve God will obtain royal dignity in the heavens.
2. He also who will have despised and bestowed his goods upon the poor will obtain the abundance of all things in the kingdom of God.
3. He also who will have abominated luxury and kept himself chaste and clean will receive, as the reward of soul and body, inestimable brightness.
May the Son of God himself deign to bestow these three things upon us, who with the same God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives, etc.
Notes
- To Galatians 5:17. (Ad Gal. V, 17.) ↩
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