Works › Sermons for the Seasons of the Year
Volume 13 · pp. 110–113
Sermon XXIII. On Quinquagesima Sunday
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Sermo XXIII.
In Dominica Quinquagesimae.
Stans autem Jesus jussit illum caecum adduci ad se. Luc. xviii, 40.
In verbis praemissis tria sunt notanda:
I. Quomodo Jesus stare dicatur? II. Per quos caecus ad Jesum ducatur? III. Quis sit caecus, qui a Domino illuminatur?
I.
De primo nota, quod stat in Cruce, et e cruce vocat nos ad se, dicitur in Cant. vi, 12: Revertere, revertere Sulamitis, etc. Revertere per passionis meae recordationem, revertere per amaram contritionem, revertere per lacrymosam confessionem, revertere per voluntariam satisfactionem. Prov. i, 24 et seq.: Vocavi, et renuistis: extendi manum meam, et non fuit qui adspiceret. Despexistis omne consilium meum: et increpationes meas neglexistis. Ego quoque in interitu vestro ridebo, et subsannabo, cum vobis id, quod timebatis, advenerit.
II.
De secundo nota, quod per duos caecus ad Jesum ducitur. Primus est timor servilis: secundus est amor finalis. Timor timet, ne in gehennam mittatur: amor sitit, ut ad dextram statuatur. Hi sunt illi duo discipuli, quos Dominus misit, Matth. xxi, 2: Ut adducerent ei asinam et pullum ejus. Per asinam antiqui peccatores: per pullum juvenes peccatores intelliguntur, quorum conversionem Dominus desiderat, et in eis requiescere cupit.
III.
De tertio nota, quod per caecum qui a Domino illuminatur, peccator exprimitur, qui indiget ut per veram fidem illuminetur, et per bonum opus Deum imitetur. Unde et Jesus dixit isti caeco: Respice, fides tua te salvum fecit. Et confestim vidit, et sequebatur illum magnificans Dominum 1.
Et nota, quod spiritualis caecitas ex sex causis contingit. Prima contingit per rerum cupiditatem. Secunda per gloriae sive jactantiae fatuitatem. Tertia per luxuriae voluptatem. Quarta per iracundiae gravitatem. Quinta per vanam mundi laetitiam. Sexta per stultam sibiipsius placentiam.
1. Prima caecitas, quae contingit per rerum cupiditatem, notatur in Tobia, qui stercore hirundinum excaecatus fuit. Per hirundinem, quae volatu levis est, et aerem colit, intelliguntur viri contemplativi, quorum conversatio in caelis est. Et certe isti temporalia reputant ut stercora. Unde Apostolus ad Philip. iii, 8 et 9: Existimo omnia detrimentum esse propter eminentem scientiam Jesu Christi Domini mei: propter quem omnia detrimentum feci, et arbitror ut stercora, ut Christum inveniam, et inveniar in illo, subaudi, per bonam conversationem: quia Beati mortui, qui in Domino moriuntur 2. Igitur per amorem et cupiditatem temporalium bonorum multi excaecantur, ne videant, et concupiscant aeternum bonum. Et certe isti necesse habent, ut felle piscis curentur: sicut etiam Tobias ad consilium Raphael felle piscis illius, qui juniorem Tobiam devorare voluit, illuminatus fuit. Per piscem istum intelligitur diabolus humani generis inimicus, cujus fel est illa inaestimabilis infernalis amaritudo, quam impiis et avaris in supplicio propinabit. Job, xx, 14: Panis ejus in utero illius vertetur in fel aspidum intrinsecus. Omnia enim, quae modo pauperibus per violentiam auferuntur, in fel amarissimum draconis conversa, et cordibus impiorum et avarorum principum infusa eos perpetuo cruciabunt. Hoc itaque felle linire debent per recordationem avari oculos suos: ut videant, et illuminati avaritiae renuntient, et ablata restituant.
Sermon XXIII.
On Quinquagesima Sunday.
But Jesus, standing, commanded that he, the blind man, be brought to him. Luke 18:40.
In the foregoing words three things are to be noted:
I. How is Jesus said to stand? II. By whom is the blind man led to Jesus? III. Who is the blind man who is illumined by the Lord?
I.
Concerning the first, note that he stands on the Cross, and from the cross calls us to himself; it is said in Song of Songs 6:12: Return, return, O Shulamite, etc. Return through remembrance of my passion, return through bitter contrition, return through tearful confession, return through voluntary satisfaction. Proverbs 1:24 and following: I called and you refused; I stretched out my hand and there was no one who looked. You despised all my counsel and neglected my rebukes. I also will laugh at your destruction and will mock when that which you feared has come upon you.
II.
Concerning the second, note that through two the blind man is said to be led to Jesus. The first is servile fear; the second is final love. Fear fears lest it be sent into Gehenna; love thirsts to be placed at the right hand. These are those two disciples whom the Lord sent, Matthew 21:2, to bring to him the she-ass and its colt. By the she-ass ancient sinners are understood; by the colt, young sinners, whose conversion the Lord desires and in whom he longs to rest.
III.
Concerning the third, note that by the blind man who is illumined by the Lord, the sinner is expressed, who needs to be illumined through true faith and to imitate God through good work. Hence Jesus said to that blind man: Look again, your faith has made you saved. And immediately he saw and followed him, magnifying God 1.
And note that spiritual blindness happens from six causes. The first happens through desire for things. The second through foolishness of glory or boasting. The third through the pleasure of luxury. The fourth through the heaviness of anger. The fifth through vain joy of the world. The sixth through foolish self-pleasing.
1. The first blindness, which happens through desire for things, is marked in Tobias, who was blinded by the dung of swallows. By the swallow, which is light in flight and dwells in the air, contemplative men are understood, whose conversation is in heaven. And certainly they reckon temporal things as dung. Hence the Apostle says to the Philippians 3:8 and 9: I reckon all things loss because of the eminent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord; on account of him I have made all things loss and reckon them as dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, understand, through good conversation, because blessed are the dead who die in the Lord 2. Therefore through love and desire for temporal goods many are blinded, so that they do not see and desire the eternal good. And certainly these must be cured with the gall of a fish, just as Tobias, at Raphael's counsel, was illumined by the gall of that fish that wished to devour the younger Tobias. By this fish is understood the devil, enemy of the human race, whose gall is that inestimable infernal bitterness that he will pour out in punishment for the impious and avaricious. Job 20:14: His bread in his belly will be turned inwardly into the gall of asps. For all things that are now taken violently from the poor, converted into the most bitter gall of the dragon and poured into the hearts of impious and avaricious princes, will torture them perpetually. Therefore avaricious persons ought by remembrance to smear their eyes with this gall, so that they may see and, illumined, renounce avarice and restore what has been taken.
2. Secunda caecitas, quae contingit per gloriae sive jactantiae fatuitatem, notatur in illo caeco a nativitate 3. Quis enim caecus a nativitate, nisi ille quem vana gloria excaecat? Et maxime ille, qui de nativitate sua, hoc est, de nobilitate gloriatur. Et certe stultum ac fatuum est de hujusmodi gloriari. Unde Boetius in libro de Consolatione: Quid genus et proavos perstrepitis? Si primordia vestra, Auctoremque Deum spectetis, Nullus degener exstat. Et certe tali caecitate pressi necesse habent, ut luto ex sputo confecto liniantur, et in natatoriis Siloe laventur, et sic videbunt. Quid est terram per sputum Dominicum madefactam oculis supponere, nisi considerare plasmatum ex terra, cui Deus per peccatum hominis maledixit? Et quid est se in natatoriis Siloe lavare, nisi attendere se emundatum, et nobilitatum fonte baptismatis Christi sanguine rubricati? Hoc enim considerans et attendens illuminatur, ne vel in se, vel in suis parentibus glorietur. Non baptizentur divites in vino, et pauperes in aqua.
3. Tertia caecitas, quae provenit ex luxuriae voluptate, notatur Apoc. iii, 14 et seq.: Angelo Laodiceae Ecclesiae scribe: Haec dicit: Amen, testis fidelis, et verus, qui est principium creaturae Dei: Utinam frigidus esses, per castitatem: aut calidus, per charitatem: sed quia tepidus es, per luxuriae voluptatem, incipiam te evomere de ore meo: et ideo suadeo tibi, ut vestimentis albis induaris, et non appareat confusio nuditatis tuae, et collyrio inunge oculos tuos, ut videas. Hoc collyrium confici debet ex pice et sulphure, ex igne et grandine, ex serpentibus et bufonibus. Haec enim praeparata sunt luxuriosis, ut per ea puniantur. Hoc itaque praeponere debent oculis cordis sui, ut luxuriam fugiant, et sic videant claritatem Dei. Haec etiam caecitas, quae provenit ex voluptate luxuriae, manifeste notatur in Samsone, qui sicut legitur Judic. xvi, 19, dormivit super genua Dalilae: quae etiam abrasit eum. Abrasum vero rapuerunt Philisthini, id est, daemones, et excaecaverunt eum.
2. The second blindness, which happens through foolishness of glory or boasting, is marked in that man blind from birth 3. For who is blind from birth except he whom vainglory blinds, and especially one who boasts about his birth, that is, about nobility? And certainly it is foolish and silly to boast about this sort of thing. Hence Boethius in the book On Consolation says: Why do you make noise about lineage and ancestors? If you look at your beginnings and God your Author, no one exists degenerate. And certainly those pressed by such blindness must be smeared with mud made from spittle and washed in the pool of Siloam, and thus they will see. What is it to put earth moistened by the Lord's spittle on the eyes, except to consider oneself formed from earth, which God cursed because of human sin? And what is it to wash oneself in the pool of Siloam, except to attend to oneself as cleansed and ennobled by the font of Christ's baptism, reddened by blood? One considering and attending to this is illumined, so that he may glory neither in himself nor in his parents. Let not the rich be baptized in wine and the poor in water.
3. The third blindness, which comes from the pleasure of luxury, is marked in Apocalypse 3:14 and following: To the angel of the church of Laodicea write: These things says Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creature of God: Would that you were cold, through chastity, or hot, through charity; but because you are lukewarm, through the pleasure of luxury, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth. And therefore I counsel you to be clothed in white garments, and that the confusion of your nakedness not appear, and to anoint your eyes with eye-salve so that you may see. This eye-salve ought to be made from pitch and sulphur, from fire and hail, from serpents and toads. For these things are prepared for the luxurious, that they may be punished through them. Therefore they ought to set this before the eyes of their heart, so that they may flee luxury and thus see the brightness of God. This blindness, which comes from the pleasure of luxury, is also manifestly marked in Samson, who, as is read in Judges 16:19, slept upon Dalila's knees; and she shaved him. But the Philistines, that is, demons, seized him when shaven and blinded him.
4. Quarta caecitas, quae provenit ex iracundiae gravitate, notatur Act. Apostolorum, ix, 1 et seq., ubi legitur, quod Saulus spirans ignem minarum et caedis in Discipulos Domini, ibat invectus et dirum toto corpore virus efflabat. Ubi sequitur, quod invasit eum caecitas, et surrexit de terra, apertisque oculis nihil videbat. Ubi etiam subjungitur, quod per impositionem manuum Ananiae visum recepit. Saulus in hoc loco signat iracundos, qui, ut visum recipiant, necesse habent, ut sint Ananias, quod nomen interpretatur donum gratiae Domini, et signat mansuetudinem patientiae. Hinc enim gratiam Domini meretur, ut manus ejus imponat.
5. Quinta caecitas contingit per mundi vanam laetitiam, quae multos excaecat usque ad senectam et senium; et hoc notatur in caeco praesentis Evangelii, quem Dominus respicere jussit, et sic vidit. Et sic necesse est his, qui per praesentes Jerichontinae regionis, hoc est, instabiles mundi vanitates excaecati sunt, ut respiciant, id est, retro adspiciant aeternos cruciatus et luctus qui sequantur. Qui modo saltat et ludit, respicere debet quod cito in feretro portabitur ad sepulcrum.
6. Sexta caecitas contingit ex stulta suiipsius placentia. Quidam enim homines, quia ex sua justitia nimis praesumunt, sibimetipsis placere incipiunt, et alios quoslibet despiciunt, et propter hoc vere coram Domino caeci fiunt. Istos praefigurat caecus ille, de quo legitur Marc. viii, 22 et seq., ubi sic dicitur: Veniunt Bethsaidam, et adducunt ei caecum, et rogabant eum, ut illum tangeret. Et apprehensa Jesus manu caeci, eduxit eum extra vicum: et exspuens in oculos ejus, impositis manibus suis, interrogavit eum, si quid videret. Et adspiciens, ait: Video homines, velut arbores ambulantes. Deinde iterum imposuit manus super oculos ejus: et coepit videre, et restitutus est, ita ut clare videret omnia. Bethsaida, secundum quod dicit Glossa interlinearis, domus vallis interpretatur. Ille ergo habitat in Bethsaida, qui hoc putat, quod ad ipsum solum, tamquam ad vallem sanctitatis, omnes gratiae confluxerint. Hoc autem putans decipitur, et vere caecus esse ostenditur. Unde dicit Glossa de isto caeco: "Non videt quod est, quod fuit, quod erit." Tales sibimetipsis placentes non vident quod sunt. Credunt enim se esse bonos et justos: et non sunt. Et ponatur quod sint boni et justi, tamen non vident quod olim fuerunt. Fuerunt enim et ipsi peccatores. David continuo vidit, quod fuit: ait enim, Psal. l, 5: Peccatum meum contra me est semper. Non vident etiam quod erunt: quia licet non arbitrentur se esse immunes a peccatis, possunt etiam et ipsi fieri peccatores.
4. The fourth blindness, which comes from the heaviness of anger, is marked in Acts of the Apostles 9:1 and following, where it is read that Saul, breathing the fire of threats and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord, went carried away and breathed out dreadful poison with his whole body. There it follows that blindness invaded him, and he rose from the earth, and with eyes opened he saw nothing. There also it is joined that through the imposition of Ananias' hands he received sight. Saul in this place signifies angry persons who, in order to receive sight, must be Ananias, whose name is interpreted gift of the Lord's grace and signifies the meekness of patience. For from this one merits the grace of the Lord, that he may lay his hands upon him.
5. The fifth blindness happens through vain joy of the world, which blinds many even to old age and senescence; and this is marked in the blind man of the present Gospel, whom the Lord commanded to look again, and so he saw. And thus those who have been blinded by the present things of the region of Jericho, that is, by unstable vanities of the world, must look back, that is, look behind at the eternal torments and sorrows that follow. He who now dances and plays ought to look back because soon he will be carried on a bier to the tomb.
6. The sixth blindness happens from foolish self-pleasing. For certain human beings, because they presume too much from their own justice, begin to please themselves and despise all others, and because of this they truly become blind before the Lord. That blind man prefigures them, concerning whom it is read in Mark 8:22 and following, where it is said thus: They come to Bethsaida and bring to him a blind man and asked him to touch him. And Jesus, taking the blind man by the hand, led him outside the village; and spitting in his eyes, when he had laid his hands on him, he asked him whether he saw anything. And looking, he said: I see human beings as trees walking. Then again he laid hands on his eyes, and he began to see and was restored, so that he saw all things clearly. Bethsaida, according as the Interlinear Gloss says, is interpreted house of the valley. Therefore he dwells in Bethsaida who thinks that all graces have flowed together to him alone, as to a valley of holiness. But thinking this he is deceived and is shown to be truly blind. Hence the Gloss says about that blind man: "He does not see what is, what was, what will be." Such self-pleasers do not see what they are. For they believe themselves to be good and just, and they are not. And suppose that they are good and just, nevertheless they do not see what they once were. For they themselves too were sinners. David continuously saw what he was; for he says, Psalm 50:5: My sin is always against me. They also do not see what they will be, because although they do not think themselves immune from sins, they too can become sinners.
Talibus autem, ut illuminentur et videant, tria sunt necessaria: ut videlicet extra vicum suae mansionis educantur, ut oculis eorum manus Domini supponantur, et ut etiam a Domino conspuantur. Tunc extra vicum Bethsaida educuntur, cum se virtutibus et bonis operibus pauperes reputant et mendicos, dicentes cum Psalmista, lxxxv, 1: Inclina aurem tuam, et exaudi me: Domine quoniam inops et pauper sum ego. Tunc in oculis eorum manus Domini semel et iterum supponuntur, cum opera Christi et sanctorum Patrum attendunt. Tunc quoque conspuuntur, cum omnia opera sua sordida et vilia reputant quasi pannum menstruatae. Propter hoc legitur, quod iste caecus illuminatus vidit alios homines, velut arbores ambulantes. Glossa: "Ideo omnes existimat se superiores, se indignum judicans, ut David judicans se indignum vocari hominem, sed canem mortuum, et pulicem vivum" 4.
Rogate ergo Dominum, ut sic in praesenti illuminari mereamur, ut in futuro ad adspectum ejus admittamur. Amen.
For such persons, so that they may be illumined and see, three things are necessary: namely that they be led outside the village of their dwelling, that the hands of the Lord be placed on their eyes, and that they also be spat upon by the Lord. Then they are led outside the village of Bethsaida when they reckon themselves poor and beggars in virtues and good works, saying with the Psalmist, 85:1: Incline your ear and hear me, O Lord, because I am needy and poor. Then the Lord's hands are placed on their eyes once and a second time when they attend to the works of Christ and of the holy Fathers. Then also they are spat upon when they reckon all their own works filthy and vile, like the cloth of a menstruating woman. Because of this it is read that that illumined blind man saw other human beings as trees walking. The Gloss says: "Therefore he considers all superior to himself, judging himself unworthy, as David judged himself unworthy to be called a human being, but a dead dog and a living flea" 4.
Therefore pray to the Lord that we may so merit to be illumined in the present that in the future we may be admitted to the sight of him. Amen.
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