Peace And Feasts

Melius quidem fuerat, fratres charissimi, si pater et magister noster communis imperitiam nostram latere permitteret, nec publicaret penuriam, quae in nobis hactenus velamento propriae verecundiae tegitur. Melius fuerat, ut qui tam copiose abundat in spiritualibus doctrinae divitiis, de navicula pauperis nequaquam tenuis verbi vectigal exigeret. Quid enim aut egenus divitibus, aut peregrinus civibus, aut agrestis et ignarus studiosis conferat? Tamen quoniam jussis parere cogimur, eadem nos humilitatis ratio, quae excusare videtur, ad dicendum cogit, cogit ad obediendum. Quid igitur est, o religiosa plebs Domini, quod vobis quamvis pauperes, quamvis ineruditissimi, attamen decenter offerimus? Pacem sine dubio, quam Dominus noster Jesus Christus ingredientes nos offerre omni domui jubet: unde et nos in principio salutationus nostrae pacem vobis a Domino exoravimus, quae et habenda semper est, et semper oranda; non illa infida et instabilis hujus mundi pax, quae vel pro commodis quaeritur, vel pro timore servatur: sed pax Christi, quae secundum sententiam apostoli Paui, superat omnem mentem, et credentium corda custodit; pax quae charitatis fecundis nuritur uberibus; pax alumna fidei, columna justitiae; pax futurae spei pignus idoneum; pax quae praesentes sociat, absentes invitat; pax quae terrena coelestibus et divinis humana conciliat; sic enim dicit Apostolus: Quod Dominus noster Jesus Christus pacificavit per sanguinem suum, non solum quae in terris sunt, sed quae in caelis. Haec ergo vobis, charissimi, pro viribus pauperis viatici, peregrinus viator exposuit, exspectans magis una vobsicum apud mensam potentis magistri affluentiibus, et copiosis dapibus saginari. Deus autem pacis, qui coelestibus terrena conjunxit, concedat nobis eadem sapere in alterutrum, et plena unanimitate audere, per Christum Dominum nostrum, per quem est Deo Patri omnipotenti gloria in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo CXXXVIII Source: Migne PL 52.572

Better it would have been, dear brothers, if our common father and teacher had allowed us to hide our inexperience and not proclaimed our penury, which in us is covered by the veil of our own modesty. Better it would have been that he who so abounds in the wealth of spiritual teaching had not demanded a tax of little words from the vessel of a poor man. For what has a needy man to gives to the rich, or a wanderer to settled citizens, or a rustic and ignorant fellow to the learned? However because we are obliged to obey commands, the sense of our own humility, which seems to excuse us, rather forces us to speech and demands of us obedience. What then is it, O pious people of the Lord, that although poor and unlearned we may decently offer to you? Peace it is, without doubt, the peace which our Lord Jesus Christ exhorted us to offer on entering every house, 1 whence even we in the the beginning of our greeting prayed for the peace of the Lord to be with you, which we should always have and which we should always entreat. But let it be the peace of Christ, which according to the understanding of the Apostle Paul, surpasses all understanding and guards the hearts of the faithful. 2 The peace which is fed by breasts of flourishing charity, the peace which is raised by faith and is the column of righteousness, the peace which is fit to be the pledge of future hope, the peace which binds us to those present and summons those absent, the peace which calls together earth and heaven. For the Apostle says that our Lord Jesus Christ has brought peace through His blood, not only on the earth, but in heaven. 3 Thus these things to you, beloved, as the pittance of a poor man, a walker on the way has set out, hoping that one more with you, at the overflowing table of a great teacher, may feast on copious dishes. For the God of peace, who joins earth to heaven, has given it to us to know the same bond with one another, and to dare to be joined in full unanimity, through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom is glory to God the Father omnipotent forever. Amen. Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 138 1 Lk 10 2 Philipp 4.7 3 Colos 1.20