Salesian Literature

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10.  Hearing the Word of God  

Sermon for Passion Sunday, March 13, 1622, concerning the goodness which should be practised by those who preach God's word, how we should esteem God's word even if it is taught by a sinful person, how a person's refusal to believe Our Lord's word proves the evilness of that person—not of Our Lord, how all sin is a result of defection from truth, how God's word is Truth, how Lucifer's sin as well as that of our first par­ents resulted from a choice of vanity over truth, how we should remain attentive to the truths of faith, our culpable failure to live according to the truths of God's word, the dispositions with which we should hear God's word, and the unimportance of distractions and dryness in the lower part of our soul as long as the higher part of the soul is devoted and reverent toward God's word.

 

' 'He who is of God hears the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.'—John 8:47

 

A word is accepted or rejected for three reasons: because of the person who speaks it, because of the word that is spoken, because of those who hear it. For this word to be honoured and accepted, the one who is speaking it must be a good man, a virtuous man, one worthy of being believed. Otherwise, rather than being accepted, it will be rejected, despised.[1] Further, what is said must be good and true. Finally, those who hear it must be good, prepared to receive it; if not, it will be neither accepted, honoured, nor kept.

 

This is what Our Lord teaches us in the Gospel Holy Church offers us today, in which He reproaches the scribes and Pharisees for not receiving His words—for which they are to blame [Jn. 8:46-59]. He says: "Why do you not believe the truth I teach?" Their nonbelief thoroughly astonished Him. It is as though He meant to say: "You really have no excuse, for which one of you can convict me of sin? Why then do you not believe Me, since what I am telling you is truth itself? I cannot err. Therefore your disbelief must stem from your own wickedness and sinfulness. Certainly neither I nor the word I teach is to blame."

 

Thus, it is necessary that the one proclaiming God's word be irreproachable, and his life congruent with his teaching. If this is not the case, the word will be neither honored nor accepted. For this reason God forbids sinners to announce His word [Ps. 49 (50): 16-17]. He seems to say: "Miserable one, how dare you teach My doctrine with your lips and dishonor it with your life? How can you possibly expect it to be accepted from a mouth so full of infectious sin? I will not permit such a one to proclaim My will." Thus He has forbidden sinners to announce His sacred word, fearing it will be rejected by those who hear it.

 

Be careful here. It is not all sinners who are forbidden to preach, but only notorious ones. Otherwise, who could announce God's word, since we are all sinners? Whoever says the contrary is guilty of grievous untruth. [1 Jn. 1:8]. Even the Apostles were sinners. Those who allege never to have sinned are guilty of a very great delusion indeed. The contrary is actually clear at the very moment they allege it. St. Augustine teaches this explicitly when he writes that the daily petition in the Lord's Prayer, "forgive us our trespasses" [Matt. 6:12], is not only a word of humility but also one of truth because, due to our frail humanity, we commit offences at every turn.

 

All are sinners, but not all are to be silent and refrain from teaching God's word, but only those who live a life wholly contrary to this divine word. Yet even if this word is preached to us by evildoers, we ought not reject it, but accept it, doing as the bees do who gather honey from almost all the flowers of the fields. Even though some of these flowers are harmful and poisonous, they skillfully draw out honey, a celestial dew untainted by poison.

 

As confirmation of what I say, I will gladly relate a beautiful example found in the life of the great St. Ephrem. He was indeed a great man, not only because he was a deacon to two illustrious Doctors of the Church, but because he too was a great Doctor, having written very beautiful teachings which truly delight those who read them. This great saint was reared very carefully and nourished from his earliest years on the eremitical life. After many years in the desert, he was inspired by God one day to go to Edessa, his native city. He had always left his heart open and receptive to the Divine Majesty, eager to receive the precious dew of heavenly inspiration, and he had always faithfully accepted them in obedience. Thus he readily embraced this one too.

 

He went promptly to the city. As he drew near, he was convinced that God must have something important to teach him in calling him from his hermitage. Falling on his knees, he prayed most fervently for the grace to meet someone in the city who would serve as his director and lead him to God's will. Full of confidence that the Lord would hear him, he got up. When he reached Edessa he came upon a prostitute. Disturbed, he said to himself: "My God, I asked You to let me meet someone who would teach me what Your good pleasure wants of me. Instead, I meet this unfortunate woman." Eyeing her disdainfully, he noticed that she too was looking at him attentively. Enraged at her boldness, he demanded: "Why, miserable woman, do you look at me so?" She responded very cleverly and learnedly: "I have the right lo look at you, but you have no right to look at me. You know that woman was drawn from the side of man. [Gen.2:21-23J. Therefore, I am only looking at the place of my origin. But man was created from the earth [Gen. 2:7], so why are you not continually looking down at the earth, since that is the place from which you were drawn?"

 

This great saint truly valued the teaching of the wretched woman, received it humbly, and even warmly acknowledged his gratitude to her. From that moment on, he so valued that lesson that not only did he always keep his bodily eyes lowered to the ground, but even more so his interior and spiritual eyes, which he kept riveted on his nothingness, his vileness and his abjection. In this way he made continual progress in the virtue of most holy humility all the rest of his life.

 

This story teaches us how we should honor and esteem God's word and good teachings even if they are presented by persons of ill repute. After all, the Lord desired that a prophet should be instructed by an ass [Num. 22:28-30], and that wicked Pilate should announce the great truth that our divine Master is Jesus [Matt. 1:21]—that is, Saviour—a title which he even placed above the Cross, insisting: "Such is the case, it is I who have said so." [Jn. 19:22]. Caiphas, the most miserable among men, pronounced this word of truth: It is expedient to have one man die for the salvation of the people. [Jn. 11:49-50; 18:14].

 

This makes it clear that although we must never esteem nor approve the evil lives of wicked and sinful people, yet we ought never to despise God's word that they may offer us. Rather, we must profit from it as did St. Ephrem. A great Doctor has taught that we ought not care whether the person who shows us the way of virtue is good or bad. All that is important is that it be indeed the true way. If so, we ought to follow it and walk in it faithfully. What does it matter whether they give us balm in an earthenware vessel or in a precious vase? It is enough that it cures our wounds.

 

Let us not consider the goodness or its absence in one who is our preacher or teacher, but only what he says to us. God's word is not made good or bad because of him who explains or teaches it. It is goodness itself and never partakes of the evil of him who announces it. Holy Scripture in its wisdom also teaches this when it has even beasts, be they weak or brutal, teach us what we ought to do, instructing us that we can learn even from ants how to care for what we have. [Prov. 6:6-8; 30:25]. They gather while the weather is good so that they might have sufficient food on those days which are not favorable for gathering. Did not Our Lord Himself tell us to imitate the prudence and cunning of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove? [Matt. 10:16]. Scripture gives hundreds of such examples.

 

All this notwithstanding, generally speaking, one who teaches ought to be good if he wants his teaching to be ac­cepted and valued. His evil life might otherwise cause his teaching to be rejected and despised as being, like himself, bad and despicable. Surely we ought to benefit spiritually from God's word no matter who presents it. Nevertheless, hardened sinners who persevere in their wickedness offend greatly in teaching God's word and in proclaiming the praises of the Sovereign Majesty, since they lay this divine word wide open to contempt on account of their bad conduct. This is why in today's Gospel Our Lord asks the scribes and Pharisees: "Which one of you can convict Me of sin? You say that I am a Samaritan; that I eat and drink with the Publicans; that I am a drunkard; that I forbid the payment of taxes to Caesar; that I do not observe the Sabbath. These calumnies make Me out to be an imposter. But answer Me, which one of you can convict Me of sin? Why then do you not believe Me? Undoubtedly the evil is in you because there can be none at all in Me." [Jn. 8:48; Matt. 9:11; Matt. 11:19; Lk. 23:2; Jn. 5:16, 18; 19:16].

 

Our Divine Master spoke most reasonably here because it is simply not possible to join two things so contrary as God and sin. As soon as we say "God," sin is excluded forever; we cannot doubt this. Since Jesus is God He cannot sin; as man too He cannot sin because His human soul, in its high point, was glorious from the instant of His Conception in Our Lady's sacred womb. Consequently, He always enjoyed in this supreme part of His human soul the clear vision of the Divine Majesty. It is this vision which will constitute our eternal beatitude. In this vision there is no possibility of sinning, for it is impossible to see God and not love Him sovereignly, and sovereign love cannot tolerate or permit sin, which is infinitely displeasing to Him and dis­honors the Divine Goodness.

 

Thus Our Lord said quite rightly to the Jews: "Which one of you can convict Me of sin?" He was greatly astonished that they refused to believe His words or follow His doctrine, since His life was irreproachable. He added: "If I preach the truth, why do you not embrace it? Since I am sinless, you ought to believe that I teach you only the truth and in no way deceive you." O certainly, our Divine Master cannot deceive, because He is Truth Itself. [Jn. 14:6; 1 Jn. 5:6]. Those who refuse to believe will undoubtedly perish. [Mk. 16:16]. Our entire good consists not only in accepting the truth of God's word, but in persevering in it. Contrariwise, all human and angelic evil is a result of their defection from truth instead of perseverance in it. [Jn. 8:30-32].

 

We come to the second part of our sermon. If we want our word to be accepted, it must be the truth. But what is truth? Nothing else, my dear friends, than faith. It is written that Our Lord is full of grace and truth [Jn. 1:14], which means that He is full of faith and charity. It is not, of course, that He had faith for Himself, for He had the clear vision of the things taught by faith. He was said to be full of faith as its distributor to His Christian children. As I said the other day, the spouse in the Canticle of Canticles declares that her Well-Beloved, our dear Saviour, has two breasts filled with the most precious of perfumes, which permeate the surroundings with the most delightful fragrance. [Cant. 1:1-3]. Many have given their interpretation of this passage. I give this interpretation: these divine breasts represent grace and truth, that is, charity and faith.

 

Certainly He did not need this delicious milk for Himself, any more than women need the milk which is given to them by God and nature for their children's nourishment. Thus grace, still less faith, was not given to Our Lord for Himself, because He needed them. After all, He is Grace Itself, and it is His to distribute. So too for faith. It is for us that He is filled with these gifts. This was why He tried so zealously to help the scribes and Pharisees accept them and why, in anger, He asked: "Why do you not believe My words? They are not vanity, but Truth itself."

 

Defecting from truth, men and angels fell into vanity, as we have said. It is a truism that we do the same. When we depart from the truth, we simultaneously and increasingly choose vanity. Vanity is the absence of truth. With it we stumble into Hell. Lucifer, turning from God, who is the Eternal Truth, withdrew the eyes of his understanding from this infinitely lovable Object and lowered them at once to a consideration of his own beauty, which was solely dependent upon this Supreme Beauty. The Supreme Beauty should have been his continual focus. Considering his own beauty, this unhappy spirit admired himself and took pride in himself. This admiring pride caused his loss and his condemnation to eternal flames. In failing to persevere in truth, he perished in vanity. Faith taught him that all that he had came from God alone. Thus to God alone was due sovereign honor. He turned the eyes of his understanding away from this truth and immediately committed that act of insupportable vanity, saying: "I will ascend; I will be like the Most High"[2] [Is. 14:13-14]—a wicked proposition and unfortunate project that caused his eternal loss.

 

Our first parents also failed to remain in truth, that is, to persevere in their attentiveness to it, and thus merited to be condemned forever had not God pardoned them through the merits of His Son. Eve, walking through the Garden of Paradise and musing on idle thoughts instead of considering God's wonderful gifts and graces to them, was tempted by the evil spirit to give up her meditation of this truth: "If you eat of the forbidden fruit, you will die." What greater truth was there than this, since God Himself had spoken it? [Gen. 2:17]. That ancient serpent [Apoc. 12:9] began his entanglement of her by saying: "Do not take God's word so seriously. Surely you will not die. Do not think so much of death. It will depress you. It is a wearisome subject. . ." That poor thing listened to such trickeries and let herself be persuaded. She even led her husband into the sin of break­ing God's commandment not to eat fruit from the forbidden tree. [Gen. 3:1-6]. How much better it would have been for her to persevere in meditation, because she would not have fallen from truth into vanity. Indeed, as is commonly taught, it was vanity that led her to sin.

 

Ever since, all her children have been affected by this spirit of pride which makes them skillful in pursuing honors, riches, pleasures and the rest. All such things are folly, since they make us more prone to turn from the truth than to consider it. Experience teaches us this daily. Do we not see that those who are strongly attracted to such vain and frivolous things do not think—or at least so it seems by their bad conduct on the truth of a Paradise filled with every consolation and happiness for those who live according to God's commands and walk after Him according to His will? These commandments and God's will are wholly contrary to the life they lead. They never weary of giving themselves to low and passing pleasures, even though they know well enough that if they do not change they will be eternally denied the enjoyment of unending felicity. Do they not see, too, how full of vanity they are? If they do not remain attentive to truth there is a Hell for them where all imaginable—or rather, unimaginable—torments and misfortunes are to be found to punish those who do not fear God in this life or observe His commandments. Yet, attentiveness to this truth is extremely necessary to maintain us in our duty.

 

If we remain attentive to the truth of the mysteries which Our Lord teaches us in prayer, how happy we will be! When we see Him dying upon the Cross for us, what does He not teach us? "I have died for you," He says, this Sovereign Lover; "what does My death require but that, as I have died for you, you also should die for Me, or at least live only for Me?"[3] [2 Cor. 5:14-15]. Oh, how powerfully this truth moves our will to love dearly Him who is so lovable and so worthy of our love! Truth is the object of the understanding and love that of the will.[4] As soon as our understanding learns the truth that Our Lord died for love of us, ah, our will is immediately inflamed, conceiving great affection and desire to return this love as much as possible. These affections make us burn with the desire to please this Sacred Lover so much that nothing is too difficult to do or to suffer; nothing seems impossible; the martyrs did nothing for God in comparison with what we would now want to do. That is good. Persevere in that truth and all will be well. But we do not! From this truth, which we have learned in prayer, we turn to vanity in action. We are angels in prayer and often devils in conversation and action, offending this same God whom we have recognized as being so lovable and so worthy of being obeyed.

 

Similarly, we might consider how Our Lord emptied Himself [Phil. 2:7] and humbled Himself with such humility that it is impossible ever fully to comprehend it. Then God pronounces this truth in our hearts: if our sweet Saviour so humbled Himself to be an example for us, then certainly we ought to humble ourselves so profoundly that we would ever remain in deep acknowledgment of our nothingness. At that moment we feel we shall never experience repugnance toward humiliation. Yet when the occasion arises, we think no more of our resolution. So vain are we that the least shadow of abjection causes us to tremble, and to arm ourselves against it lest it reach us.

 

Our Lord taught us: "Blessed are the poor." Yet each of us rejects this truth, embracing vanity. We eagerly desire and seek to be so wealthy as to lack nothing. Our Sovereign Master said: "Blessed are the meek." Yet each wants to be feared and dreaded. "Blessed are those persecuted for justice' sake." Yet all want to be avenged and to suffer nothing, for fear of being despised. "Blessed are they who mourn." Yet everybody wants to rejoice in this mortal and passing life as if here were found our true happiness. And so on for the other beatitudes. [Matt. 5:3-11]. He could surely put to us the same question He put to the Jews: "Why, why do you not believe Me, since I tell you the truth?"

 

"We believe it indeed," we might answer, but we do not follow it. In this we are inexcusable, no different from the pagans who, though they recognized that there was a God, would not, however, honor Him. [Rom. 1:20-21]. We will certainly deserve great punishment if, having known that we are so dearly loved by our good Saviour, we nevertheless are so ungrateful as not to love Him with all our heart and power, nor follow with all our strength and all our care the examples He has given us in His life, Passion and Death. He will reproach us as He does in today's Gospel: "If I have taught you—I, who cannot be accused of sin; I, whose life is irreproachable; I, who preached to you the truth I learned from My heavenly Father—why then do you not believe Me? Now, if you believe that I am telling the truth, why do you not accept it and persevere in it? Why do you instead live wholly to the contrary of what is expected of you?" We will then be convicted by His Divine Majesty, and in our baffle­ment we will confess that the fault is our own, caused by our own malice. To avoid such a predicament, my dear souls, we must know how we are to hear and accept God's word. I turn to that consideration now.

 

In the first place, we must prepare ourselves to hear it with the attention it deserves, not as if it were just any other word. As a woman who did not love her husband more than her servant would not love him enough, nor as she should;[5] as a child who would love his father with a love equal only to that he bore his tutor would not love his father properly; so whoever hears a sermon with the same dispositions and attention he pays to any entertaining story or tale, does not hear it as he should. If his pleasure is the same for both, one could certainly conclude that he did not love God's word sufficiently. To dispose ourselves to understand it well we ought to open our hearts in the presence of the Divine Majesty, receptive to this heavenly dew, just as Gideon spread his fleece in the meadow so that it might be watered by the rain and dew from Heaven. [Jgs. 6:37-38].

 

With our hearts thus opened before God, and with the good disposition to profit from what He will say to us, let us remain attentive. Remember, it is His Majesty who speaks to us and makes known His will. Thus, with a spirit of devotion and attention, let us hear the truths which the preacher proposes to us. 

 

Let us imitate the Spanish here. When they receive a letter from some important person they immediately place it on their head to show the honor they bear him who wrote it, as well as to indicate that they submit to whatever commands have been given them in the letter. Let us do the same, my dear souls, when we hear the word of God in preaching, or when we read it in a book. Let us spiritually place it on our heads. In obedience let us submit ourselves to the things that are taught us concerning God's will for our perfection and spiritual advancement. Let us listen to them and read them with the determination to profit from them. Let us never consider the quality of him who pronounces the sacred word. Remember, it matters little whether he is good or bad, provided that what he says is useful and congruent with our faith. God will not ask us if those who taught us were saints or sinners, but if we profited by what they said to us and if we received it with the spirit of humility and reverence.

 

The example of the great St. Charles[6] was very remarkable on this subject. He never read the Holy Bible except when kneeling, bareheaded and with very great reverence. To him it was God who spoke to him as he read. We must do the same if we really desire to read and understand the divine word well and if we really want to profit by it. Otherwise we will merit the reproach addressed to the scribes, and Our Lord will put all the blame upon us.

 

But before concluding, I must remove a tiny little thorn which you might get into your feet as you begin to walk in earnest in the observance of these things. You may say to me: "Good heavens! You just said that to receive the holy word well so that it leads to our profit and not to our condemnation we must hear it with attention, in a spirit of devotion and reverence. But I have never heard it in this way! Truly, I must certainly try to do so from now on. But how shall I succeed? I am usually so distracted and weighed down by dryness and a certain interior stupor that I take no pleasure in anything. My mind is so distracted during a sermon that ordinarily I have great difficulty in remaining attentive to what the preacher is saying. I seem to have no taste for devotion and almost no desire to put into practice what I learn there."

 

When we are taught that we must hear God's word with attention, reverence and devotion, we ought to understand this in the same way we understand what is said of prayer and of every other spiritual practice. We are not taught that we must have these feelings of devotion and of reverence in the lower part of our soul, which is the part where these disgusts and difficulties ordinarily reside. It is enough that in the higher part we hold ourselves in reverence and keep to the intention of profiting from it. Having done that, we ought not to trouble ourselves by imagining that we are not well disposed to receive this holy word. Since the preparation to hear the word was made in the will and in the higher part of our spirit, the Divine Goodness is satisfied, for He is content with little and pays no attention at all to what passes in the lower part of our spirit.[7]

 

Finally, we must conclude by saying that we ought never to reject God's word or the teachings Our Lord has left us because of the faults of preachers who propose them. Since our Divine Master pronounced them first with His divine mouth, we are inexcusable if we do not receive them. Even though this precious balm may be presented to us in earthen vessels, the preachers, it is nonetheless infinitely powerful to cure our wounds. It loses nothing at all of its properties and its strength because of those earthen vessels. Nor is it excusable to doubt its truth, inasmuch as Jesus Christ, who is Truth Itself, has taught us Himself and made Himself our dear Teacher. Nor must we place ourselves in danger of being lost by not persevering in the truth, that is, in not living according to it and in not making ourselves capable of understanding it well when it is proposed or explained to us in God's Name. We ought, on the contrary, to prepare ourselves well to hear it profitably. This is an excellent means of understanding it well. Understanding it well will greatly help us to keep it well. They who keep it are declared blessed in the Holy Gospel by our Lord and Saviour. [Lk. 11:28]. Amen.

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[1] Cf. Treatise on the Love of God, Book VIII, chapter 1 and chapter 5.

[2] Cf. Sermons of St. Francis de Sales on Our Lady, "The Purification," February 2, 1620; "The Immaculate Conception," December 8, 1622.

[3] Cf. Treatise, Book VII, chapter 8.

[4] Cf. Sermon for Thursday of First Week.

[5] Cf. Treatise, Book X, chapter 6.

[6] Cf. Treatise, Book VIII, chapter 3.

[7] St. Francis de Sales distinguishes between the "higher" and "lower" parts of the soul in Book I, chapter 11 and chapter 12 of his Treatise on the Love of God. He uses that distinction to help us understand how we can obediently cling to God and His will for us even if we do not always (or often!) have the feelings which one usually associates with such docility and obedience. It is enough that we do God's will, not that we feel "good" or "holy" or "consoled" in doing it. St. Francis is giving another facet of that teaching here.

 

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