Classes Of Judgement

Teste vero Apostolo, cum quod sine fide agitur peccatum sit, ipsa vero sine operibus fides cum otiosa vel mortua sit deceptores illos praeterire nullatenus animarum debemus, qui contra confirmationem catholicae fidei in qua contineur, quod venturus sit Domnus judicare vivos et mortuos, et saeculum per ignem, et: Qui bona egerunt, ituri in vitam aeternam, qui vero mala, in ignem aeternum, impunitatem omnibus baptizatis promittunt miserrimi scelerum. Ita, inquiunt, pius est Deus et misericors, ut neminem Christianum permittat intrare in infernum. Quanquam verum dicerent, si Christianum fore illum solummodo, qui Christi voluntatem facit, credere possent. Cum vero Peturm audiant dicentem Apostolum: Melius fuerat eis non cognoscere viam veritatis, quam post cognitionem retrosum converti; de quibus, quaeso, dictum conjiciunt? Et cum ordines quatuor sacra teneat auctoritas in judicio extremo futuros: unum scilicet, qui judicet cum Domino; alterum, qui per judicium remuneretur; tertium, qui per judicium damnetur; quartum; qui neque per judicium illum remuneretur, neque damnetur, cum scriptum in Evangelio sit: Qui autem non credit, jam judicatus est; et Psalmistae verbum dicatur: Ideo non resurgent impii in judicio, quasi apertius dicat: Et si quidem resurgunt, non ideo resurgunt ut judicentur, quia jam sint judicati, sed ideo resurgent, ut, receptis corporibus, illuc eant ubi ante saecula sunt destinati, impios autem istos intelligere solummodo debemus incredulos, et minime bapstizatos; quis ergo damnatus tertius ordo tibi videtur, nisi credentium, id est baptizatorum existere, qui pro eo quod fidem habuerunt, sed operibus fidei, quae illic requiruntur, caruerunt, juste damnati in ignem aeternum, qui absque dubio infernus est, ituri. Ratherius Veronensis, Sermo II Source:Migne PL 136.700c-701b

When the Apostle bears witness that without faith there is sin, 1 and yet without works faith is worthless or dead, 2 we should certainly not pass over those deceivers of souls who against the assertion of the Catholic faith, in which it is found that the Lord will come to judge the living and the dead and the world through fire, and 'He who has done good shall enter into eternal life, and he who does evil into eternal fire,' 3 promise that by mercy impunity for crimes is given to all those baptised. 'Thus,' they say, 'since God is pious and compassionate, no Christian shall be allowed to enter hell.' Which truth they would speak if they thought that only of him who was a Christian who made the will of Christ. Let them however hear Peter the Apostle saying: 'Better for them not to know the way of truth, than to have known it and turned back,' 4 concerning which, I ask, what can one think? Sacred authority holds that there are four classes in the last judgement to come. One shall judge with the Lord, 5 another by judgement shall receive its reward, the third by judgement shall be damned, the fourth will neither be rewarded nor be damned by that judgement, since it is written in the Gospel: 'He who does not believe is already judged.' 6 And the Psalmist says: 'Therefore the impious shall not rise in judgement.' 7 As if he openly said: And if they rise, so they will not rise to be judged because they have already been judged, but they rise so that receiving bodies, they go to where they have be destined before the ages. For we should understand the impious to be those who do not believe, even if at least baptised. Who, then, does it seem to you is this third class who are damned, unless believers, who though baptised, though they had faith, yet lacking the works of faith, which are required of them, are justly damned to eternal fire and who without doubt will go to hell. Ratherius Of Verona, from Sermon 2 1 Rom 14.24 2 Jam 2.20 3 Jn 5.29 4 2 Pet 2.21 5 cf 1 Cor 6.3 6 Jn 3.10 7 Ps 1.5

Hope, Good Works And Love

Quae est autem voluntas Patris, nisi quod aut Martha, aut faciebat soror ipsius Maria? Nil quippe nobis aliud praecipitur, nisi ut aut ministremus Christo in membris ipsius, aut assideamus Christo in contemplanda voluntate ipsius. Inde aliquid si negleximus, suspiremus, plangamus, pectora nostra tundamus, poenitentiam agamus, frequens ministerium Domini aut repetamus, aut vacantes orationibus et desideriis coelestibus, a pedibus benigni Jesus nullatenus divellamur, donec ad illud unum, quod solum est necessarium, perveniamus, hoc est eundum, qui nobis solus sufficit, Dominum. Dicis econtra, sic enim est consuetudo dicta humana: Licet non tanta quanta debeo faciam bona, facio aliqua; et perfecte in Deum credens, spero quae Dominus suis fidelibus praecepit speranda. O utinam haec duo fiderem re, fratres, habere! Certus profecto de tua essem salute, videlicet ut in Deum perfecte crederes, et illa tantummodo, quae praecepit speranda, sperares. Dicit vero Psalmista: Spera in Domino. Respondes, spero. Fac bonitam sed dicit ille. Si ergo speras in Domino, suggero: Fac bonitatem, et non inaniter speras, promitto. Dicente enim Jacobo: Quid prodest, fratres, si fidem quis habeat, opera vero non habeat? Nunquid poterit sola fides salvare eum? Una sola audiri ita potest sententia. Si perfecte credis in Deum, et aliud non speras, quam quod ille te sperare praecepit, videlicet si opera habes bona; consequenter de remuneratione, si ita tamen perseveraveris, non est tibi opus dubitare perpetua. Quae sunt autem bona opera, nisi illa quae ex charitate prodecunt: quam solam si non habes, nec in fide, dico tibi, confidas; nec quod suis promisit Dominus fidelibus, speres. Fides, enim, si non habeat opera, mortua est in semetipsa. Et: Spes non confundit, quia charitas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis. Si ergo charitatem in corde non habes, spem inutiliter habes. Ratherius Veronensis Sermo XI, De Maria et Martha Source:Migne PL 136.754b-755a

For what is the will of the Father unless that which either Martha or her sister Mary did? 1 Certainly nothing is commanded us, unless that we either serve Christ in His members, or seek Him in the contemplation of His will. Whence if we neglect something, let us sigh, let us weep, let us strike our hearts, let us make penitence, ever seeking to turn back to the service of the Lord, or turning to prayer and heavenly desires, that we never be torn from the feet of the kindly Jesus, while we approach that one and only thing necessary, the same Lord who alone suffices for us. You may say against this, for such is the custom of human speech: It not being possible that I do very much in the making of good works, I do something, even perfectly believing in God and hoping for those things which the Lord commanded His faithful ones to hope for. O, that I could believe you to have these two things, brothers. Certainly I would have you advance to salvation, that you believe perfectly in God, and that you hope only for that which He commands should be hoped for. Truly the Psalmist says: 'Hope in the Lord.' You reply: 'I hope.' But then he says: 'Do good.' 2 If, therefore, you would hope in the Lord, I counsel you: do good, and you will not hope in vain, I promise. For James says: 'What does it benefit, brothers, if a man have faith and yet he have not works? Shall his faith alone save him?' 3 One can hear only one intention here. If you believe perfectly in God, and you do not hope for anything but what He commanded should be hoped for, and if you have good works, from which the reward comes, if indeed you perservere, you should not doubt the eternal reward. For what are good works, unless they come forth from love, which if alone you do not have, neither in faith, I say, should you be confident, nor should you hope in the things the Lord promised His faithful ones. 'For faith, if it have not works, is dead.' 4 And: 'Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is diffused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.' 5 If, then, you have no love in your heart, your hope is vain. Ratherius Of Verona, from Sermon 11, On Mary And Martha 1 Lk 10.38-42 2 Ps 36.3 3 Jam 2.14 4 Jam 2.17 5 Rom 5.5

Grief And Joy

Haec dies, fratres charissimi, quam fecit Dominus, ait Propheta sanctissimus: exsultemus et laetemur in ea. Nunquid, fratres, non et hesternam diem similiter Dominus fecit? Plane, sed illam jejunio, istam laetitiae consecravit; illa discipulis luctum, haec maximum intulit gaudium. Quid ergo, fratres, agendum? Nimirum, ut ratio docet, si heri luximus cum apostolis, gaudeamus hodie cum illis, et omnibus sanctis. Neque vereamur, ne nobis dicatur: Vae vobis qui ridetis nunc, quia lugebitis ac flebitis, cum propter praeteritam abstinentiam atque tristitam, ejusdem refoveamur consolatione dicentis, ut apostolis vero ante passionem, ita nobis ante resurrectionis Dominicae diem: Et vos igitur nunc quidem tristitiam habetis: iterum autem videbo vos, et gaudebit cor vestrum, et gaudium vestrum nemo tollet a vobis. Hoc dictum est apostolis, hoc dicitur et nobis: lucerunt apostoli pro morte, quanquam illis nimium necessaria, Christi, de cujus resurrectione gaudio inaestimabili, et immensa sunt gratulatione laetati; imitati sumus hesterno luctum illorum, imitemur hodie gaudium. Sed si eos volumus imitari, ab eisdem normam sumamus, moneo, gaudii. Dic igitur, sancte Apostole, post omnes quidem vocate, sed usque ad tertium coelum modo quem ipse melius nostri divinitus rapte; dic, inquam satisfac interrogantibus, unde debeamus gaudere. Pascha, inquit, pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Non ob aliud? Immolationem nam nos ipsam intellexeramus eamdem, quam Apostoli luxerant mortem, quorum et hesterno sumus imitati moerorem. Rogamus igitur, prosequere quid debeamus hodie vel qualiter agere. Subjungit atque ait: Itaque epulemur, id est, carnem Domini manducemus, et sanguinem ipsius bibamus: Non in fermento tamen veteri, neque in fermento malitiae et nequitiae; sed in azymis sinceritatis et vertitatis. Et veritatis, inquam. Quare hoc? Quia et alibi idem dicit Apostolus: Consepulti sumus Christo per baptismum in mortem: ut quomodo surrexit Christus a mortuis per gloriam Patris, ita et nos in novitate vitae ambulemus. Si enim complantati sumus similitudini mortis ejus, simul et resurrectionis erimus. Hoc igitur sensus, fratres charissimi, servamus operando quod credimus, in Christo renati, in Christo passi, in Christo mortui, in Christo sumus a mortuis suscitati, ac per hoc maxima nobis est ratio gaudi. Hanc ergo diem non sibi solum, sed et nobis quia fecit Dominus, fratres, exsultemus et laetemur in ea. Ratherius Veronensis Sermo IV, De Pascha Source:Migne PL 136.719c-720c

'This day,' dear brothers, 'which the Lord made,' says the most holy Prophet, 'let us exult and let us rejoice in it.' 1 But did not, brothers, the Lord make yesterday as well? Certainly, but that was consecrated for fasting, this day is for joy; that day was for sorrow with the disciples, this day brings in great joy. What, then, brothers, should we do? Without doubt reason teaches that if yesterday we sorrowed with the Apostles, today we rejoice with them, and with all the saints. Let us not fear, let it not be said to us: 'Woe to you who smile now, because you shall lament and weep,' 2 when on account of prior abstinence and grief, His words of consolation shall blaze forth, just as they did to the Apostles before the passion, so to us before the day of the resurrection of the Lord: 'Even you now have a certain sorrow, but again I will see you, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.' 3 This which was said to the Apostles is also said to us. The Apostles grieved for the death of Christ, certainly necessary for them, and in His resurrection they rejoiced with immeasurable joy and immense thanks. Yesterday we imitated their grief, today let us imitate their joy. But if we wish to imitate them, I bid that we take from them our measure of our joy. So speak, holy Apostle, you who were called after the others, but who was swept up to the third heaven by our Divinity for our betterment; speak, I say, and satisfy those who ask: why should we rejoice? 'Christ our Paschal lamb has been sacrificed.' 4 For nothing else? That same sacrifice we have understood, which death grieved the Apostles, the sorrow of whom we imitated yesterday. Let us ask, therefore, what we should do today, or how we should do it. He says a little after: 'Thus let us feast, that is, let us eat the flesh of the Lord, and let us drink His blood. Not, however, with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of wickedness and malice, but with the leaven of sincerety and truth.' 5 Of truth, I say. Why? Because elsewhere the Apostle says: 'We have been buried with Christ in baptism to death, so that as Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, thus even we shall walk in the new life. If indeed we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall be resurrected like Him.' 6 Let us guard this understanding, dearest brothers, in the doing of what we believe, in Christ reborn, in Christ suffering, in Christ dying, in Christ being raised from the dead, and in this the great reason for our joy. Thus this day which the Lord made, not only for Himself, but even for us, brothers, let us exult and rejoice in it. Ratherius Of Verona, from Sermon 4, On The Pasch 1 Ps 117.24 2 Lk 6.25 3 Jn 16.22 4 1 Cor 5.7 5 1 Cor 5.8 6 Rom 6.4-5

Prayer And Seeking

Cum vero ita sit, ut et de orationibus, quae nostrum movent animum, minime sileamus; nobiscum reprehendere non cessamus pariter eosdem, quibus Jacobus ait Apostolus: Petitis, et non accipitis, eo quod male petatis. Male namque petit, qui non petit quod Dominus praecipit, sed quod potius interdicit. Ille namque desiderare et petere nos jubet coelestia, nos contra et desideramus et optamus terrena; ille orare pro persequentibus et caluminiantibus, nos e diverso contra persequentes et calumniantes exsecrabiles fundimus preces. Quale autem est illud, quod quidam noctibus psalmodiis et orationibus instant, diebus vero detractionibus, praviloquiis, otiositati et desidiae vacant, cum nox potius quieti, dies sit concessa labori; quod, remur, optime noverat ille, qui postquam dixerat: Media nocta surgebam ad confitendum tibi; et: In matutinis meditabor in te; duas videlicet tantum nocti consecrans horas, septies, ait, in die laudem dixi tibi. Nos vero, fratres, quidquid perperam agitur, cum Dei adjutorio devitantes, atque apostolici illius non immemores: Sive vigilemus, sive dormiamus, simul cum Christo vivamus, in noctibus extollamus manus, id est, opera nostra, in sancta, et benedicamus Domino: post quietem vero surgentes, ut juxta eumdem Apostolum, et jam silentes sine intermissione nos orare debere credamus, illius dicentis omnimodis recordemur: Qui avertit aurem suam ne audiat legem, oratio ejus erit exsecrabilis. At contra veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu et veritate, Dominica nobis dicitur voce. Petamus quoque a Deo non quod nos prohibet cupere, sed quod imperat desiderare, ut nobis respondere dignetur quid Salomoni sapientiam postulanti respondit. Cui nimirum responsio illud Evangelium concinit: Quaerite primum regnum Dei et justitiam ejus, et haec omnia, id est corpori necessaria, adjicientur vobis. Ratherius Veronensis Sermo II Source:Migne PL 136.697a-d

As that may be, concerning prayers, which move our soul, we shall not be silent, we shall not cease to admonish ourselves with those to whom James the Apostle said: 'You seek and do not receive because you seek wickedly.' 1 For he seeks wickedly who does not seek what the Lord commanded, but rather what He prohibited. He commanded us to desire and seek heavenly things, we on the other hand desire and seek things of the earth. He prays for persecutors and caluminators, we on the other hand against persecutors and caluminators pour out prayers of cursing. It is like one who takes zealously to nightly prayers and Psalms, but in the day has nothing but detraction and vile speech and cant and chatter, when the night should be for quiet, and the day for labour. That one, I think, knew better who said: 'In the middle of the night I rose up to confess your name,' 2 and: 'At dawn I shall meditate on you.' 3 Certainly only two hours of the night are consecrated and 'seven times in the day I gave praise to you.' We, however, brothers, whatever we do wrong, whenever we stray from the help of God, let us not be forgetful of the Apostolic saying: 'Whether we watch or sleep let us live in Christ.' 4 In the night let us raise up our hands, that is, our works, in holiness, and let us bless the Lord, 5 and then after rising from rest, in accordance with that same Apostle, in unbroken silence let us entrust ourselves to prayer, remembering that saying that in whatever way we do it: 'He who turns away his ear so that he does not hear the law, his prayer shall be accursed.' 6 But opposing this, true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth, as the voice of the Lord has spoken to us. 7 Let us, then, not seek from God what He has prohibited but what He has commanded us to desire, that we be worthy to receive the response of wisdom with which He answered Solomon. 8 To which the reply of the Gospel harmonises: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things,' that is corporeal necessities, 'shall be given to you.' 9 Ratherius Of Verona, from Sermon 2 1 James 4.3 2 Ps 118.62 3 Ps 63.7 4 1 Thes 5.10 5 Ps 133.2 6 Prov 28.9 7 Jn 4.23 8 3 Kings 3.11 9 Lk 12.31