The Sermons of St. Francis De Sales

For Lent

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• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1985
• eBook ISBN: 9781505103106
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Thirteen beautiful sermons about Our Blessed Mother by this master of mystical theology and Doctor of the Church, published in English for the first time. Shows how Our Lady's life was rich in virtue especially humility, obedience and charity. St. Frances de Sales gives one beautiful insight after another. Impr. 219 pgs,

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SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST SENDS HIS DISCIPLES TO JESUS

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 6, 1620, concerning why St. John sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He were the Messias although he already knew He was, three reasons why God asks questions, John's desire to make Jesus known to the whole world, to guide his disciples directly to Jesus and to detach his disciples from himself, how St. John adapted himself to his disciples' weakness, how St. Paul adapted his instruction to his hearers, how Our Lord identified Himself by pointing to His works, the spiritual significance of these works: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, dead men are resuscitated and the poor have the Gospel preached to them, the "scandal" of the Cross and its necessity for salvation, Our Lord's praise of St. John the Baptist and the reasons He did not deliver it in the presence of John's disciples, St. John's unshakable spiritual stability and our fickleness, and St. Ambrose's great meekness yet unshakable firmness.

"Are you he who is to come or are we to look for another?"—Matt. 11:3

Today's Gospel [Matt. 11:2-10] is divided into three parts, each of which we shall speak about now. The first treats of how St. John, while imprisoned for the truth, sent two of his disciples [Lk. 7:19] to Our Lord to learn whether He was the promised Messias or whether they were to look for another. The second concerns the Saviour's response to them. And the third concerns what is said of St. John after the departure of his disciples.

It is truly amazing that our ancient Fathers, though so discerning and so insightful in explaining and developing even the most obscure difficulties presented by Holy Scripture, nevertheless find themselves wondering how to understand the first part of today's Gospel: that St. John, who knew Our Lord, nevertheless sent his disciples to learn if He were that great Prophet, that promised Messias, or if they should look for another. For, they ask, since St. John certainly knew that He was indeed the Messias, why does he send someone to ask Him that?

There is no doubt that he knew that the One to whom he sent his envoys was truly the Messias. For he knew Him while he was still in his mother's womb, and there is no saint with a more penetrating knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation than this glorious St. John. He was Our Lady's pupil. He was sanctified by the dear Saviour of our souls when Our Lady went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. He surely knew Him from that moment and, leaping with joy in his mother's womb [Lk. 1:41, 42], he adored Him and consecrated himself to His service. He was His Precursor, and announced His coming to the world. It was he who baptized Him, who saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove on Him and who heard the voice of the Father saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It is he who pointed Him out in these words: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" [Matt. 3:13-17; Jn. 1:29-36].

Thus he indeed knew Our Lord and never wavered in the least regarding who He was and in his belief and certitude of His coming. Then why, ask our ancient Fathers, does John, while in prison and hearing of the great prodigies and miracles wrought by our Divine Master, send his disciples to learn who He is and whether it is He who is to come or if they are to wait for another? Certainly, they all unravel the difficulty admirably. And if I wanted to relate to you their many and varied opinions on this topic it would take too much time and rob us of that which we wish to use for our instruction. I shall pause only long enough to give what two of our greatest Doctors, St. Hilary and St. Chrysostom, say about it. It seems to me that they have hit the nail right on the head and have gone straight to the point of the truth.

These holy Fathers say that we do not ask questions always to learn something, or because we are ignorant of what we ask. There are many other purposes and reasons for our questions. Otherwise the Divine Majesty would never have asked any question, since He knows everything and cannot be ignorant of anything whatsoever. He penetrates the inmost depths of the heart and there is nothing, however secret or hidden, that is not most clear and manifest to that Divine Wisdom. [Ecclus.(Sir.) 42:18-20; Heb. 4:13]. That is what the Royal Prophet David, that great and divine poet, says in his Psalm: O Lord, my path and my line You have searched out. [Ps. 138(139):1-9]. As if he said: "Though I am shrewd as a fox, nevertheless You penetrate all my shrewdness. Though I have been like a stag that has run and leaped through impenetrable thickets, surrounded by thorns and briars, You are the Divine Hunter who has nevertheless observed all my progress and my traces; You saw from afar where I was, for Your eyes see and penetrate everything. What shall I do to conceal myself from You? If I ascend into Heaven, You are there; and there I shall find You much more present than I am to myself. If, like the break of day and the beautiful dawn, I fly over the waters, You will be there sooner than I. I cannot escape from before Your face; what shall I do then, O Lord?"

From this it is clear that God knows all things, and yet He has asked many questions of people; His Divine Providence asked these questions for three different reasons. First, in order to make them confess their sins. He did this when Adam transgressed His commandment. He called him, saying to him: "Adam. Where are you?" and demanded of our first mother, Eve, what she had done. [Gen. 3:9, 13]. It was certainly not because He did not know where Adam was, or the act of disobedience that he had committed. The Lord questioned him in order to make him acknowledge his fault so that He might pardon him. And instead of confessing it, that miserable man threw the blame on his wife. [Gen. 3:12]. Because he did not confess his sin, he with all his posterity was chastised by God. Some of the Fathers hold that if, when God called him, he had confessed his sin, if he had struck his breast and said a fervent Peccavi, "I have sinned"¹ [2 Kgs.(2 Sam.) 12:13], the Lord would have pardoned him and would not have chastised him with the scourge with which He punished him with all his descendants. But inasmuch as he did not do so, we remain stained with the sin of our first parents and are consequently subject to the penalty that he drew upon himself.

The second reason why the Divine Majesty poses questions to men is to enlighten them or instruct them on what concerns the mysteries of Faith, as He did in the case of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. [Lk. 24:15, 17, 25-27]. Appearing to them in the guise of a pilgrim, He asked them what they were talking about, questioning them and enlightening them on the doubt they were experiencing concerning His Resurrection. He did not, then, ask them about their conversation because He was ignorant of what they were speaking, but rather so that by confessing their ignorance and their doubts they might be instructed and enlightened.

The third reason why questions can be asked is to provoke love. For example, Magdalen, after the Death and Passion of Our Lord, went to anoint and embalm His sacred body. [Mk. 16:1]. Finding the tomb opened, she wept bitterly. She saw two angels there. They asked her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" "Alas," she replied, "because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him." Then, going a little further, she came upon Our Lord in the guise of a gardener. He questioned her: "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" [Jn. 20:11-15].

Certainly it is no surprise that the angels were puzzled to see Magdalen weep, still less that they asked her why, for they do not know how to weep. (Although it is said mystically that angels weep, Holy Scripture uses the expression [Is. 33:7] only to symbolize their terror at some formidable thing. But they do not weep.) Knowing that human nature is subject to tears, our dear Saviour asks this woman why she is weeping. And why, Lord, do You ask her? Do You not know very well the cause of her sorrow and for what she is searching? Surely, He knew all this quite well. It was not to find out that He questioned her, since all things are most clear and manifest to Him. [Heb. 4:13]. But this dear Saviour of our souls posed such and similar questions to elicit ejaculatory prayers and acts of love and union.

Therefore, we do not always ask questions only because of ignorance, to know or to find out something, but for different reasons. So the glorious St. John did not send his disciples to Our Lord to find out whether or not He was the Messias, for he had no doubt about that. He had three reasons for sending those disciples to Jesus.

First, to make Him known to the whole world. He had already spent time preaching His coming, His miracles, and His greatness to his disciples. Now he wanted them to see Him whom he had announced to them. Surely, to make God known should be the principal aim of all doctors and preachers. Teachers and those who govern and have charge of souls ought neither to seek nor to obtain anything but this: that He whom they preach and in whose name they teach may be known to everyone. That was this glorious saint's wish.

The only sign by which God may be found and known is God Himself. At our Saviour's birth the angels sought out the shepherds and announced to them His coming, singing in a wonderfully pleasing melody these sacred and oft-repeated words: Gloria in excelsis Deo. But to confirm the miracle they had made known to them, they said: Go see Him, and then you will believe and hold for certain what we announce to you. [Lk. 2:10-14]. For there is no means nor certain sign for finding God but God Himself.² This is why our glorious saint, after having long preached to his disciples the coming of Our Lord, now sends them to Him not only that they may know Him, but still more that they may make Him known to others.

The second reason he sent them was this: he did not want to draw disciples to himself, but only to his Teacher, to whose school he now sends them so that they might be instructed personally by Him. For what else was he suggesting in this sending but this: "Although I teach and preach to you, it is not to attract you to myself, but rather to Jesus Christ, whose voice I am. [Jn. 1:23]. That is why I am sending you to Him. Learn from Him whether He is the promised Messias, or whether you are to look for another." By this John meant: "I am not content to assure you that it is He whom we await. I am sending you that you may be instructed by Him personally to that effect." Surely, doctors and preachers, teachers of novices, and those who have charge of souls have done something worthwhile only to the extent that they have sent their disciples and those in their care to Our Lord's school, to be plunged into His sea of knowledge. They were successful only to the degree that they urged and persuaded others to seek out our dear Saviour to be instructed by Him personally. This is what the great Apostle meant in writing to the Corinthians: My little children, whom I have conceived and won for Jesus Christ amidst so many pains, fatigues and labors, and for whom I have suffered so much anguish and torment, I assure you that I did not teach you so as to attract you to myself, but only so as to draw you to my Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Cor. 4:9-16; cf. Gal. 4:19].

If teachers and those who have spiritual care of others try, by beautiful words, to draw to themselves the disciples whom they teach and the souls for whom they care, they are like pagans, heretics, and others who talk and ramble on, and who take great pains in the pulpit to deliver beautiful, subtle and finely crafted discourses, whose sole purpose is not to lead souls to Jesus Christ, but only to themselves! They attract others to themselves by their words and impressive language. There is no real substance here, only babbling and cackling, yet they captivate many weak spirits in this way. True servants of God, on the contrary, preach and teach those whom they guide only so as to lead them to God, as much by their words as by their works. This is what St. John does today, and to this all superiors ought to pay careful attention. For they will never achieve success but by directing and sending their disciples to Our Lord to learn from Him what He is and to study under Him so as to know and to do what is necessary for His love and service.

The third reason St. John sent his disciples to Our Lord was to detach them from himself. He feared they would be led into the great error of esteeming him more than the Saviour. They were already complaining to St. John in this manner: Teacher, you and we, your disciples, along with the Pharisees, fast. We are poorly clothed and do great penance. But this man, this great prophet who performs so many miracles among us, does not do so. [Matt. 9:14; Mk. 2:18]. In hearing this, and in seeing that the love and esteem which his disciples felt for him was beginning to produce in them a feeling of contempt for Jesus Christ, St. John sent them to this Divine Majesty to be instructed and informed of the truth.

It was not, therefore, because St. John doubted in the least that Our Lord was the Messias that he sent his disciples to question Him. He sent them for their own benefit and advantage and to make Him known to the whole world; not to draw them to himself but to detach them from him; to let them see the miracles that Jesus Christ performed so that they might come to Him in a manner worthy of Him. He deals with them as befits their status as still children. He assuredly believed that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.³ [Jn. 1:29]. And certainly he could, by his own words, have brought them to understand this truth, but he chose to direct them to Our Lord for this instruction. He could have sent them to Him to adore and confess Him; but, accommodating himself to their weakness and infirmity, he sent them only to ask Him who He is and whether He is "He who is to come" or whether they should look for another. Surely those who direct souls must make themselves all things to all men, as the Apostle says to save all [1 Cor. 9:19-22]. Let them be gentle with some and severe with others, children with children, strong with the strong, weak with the weak; in short, they need great discretion so as to accommodate themselves to each one's need.

St. Paul himself practiced this marvelously, for he made himself as a child with children, and for this reason he often addressed Christians as "my little children." [Gal. 4:19]. Writing to the Thessalonians he said: My little children, I became as a little one in the midst of you, so that I might save all of you. I walked with little steps, and not with the steps of a great Apostle. For you would hardly have been able to follow such steps, being little children. I adapted myself to your weakness, and I walked slowly with you as a little child. Furthermore, I have been in your midst as a nursing mother [1 Thess. 2:7-8]; I gave you milk to drink and nourished you with food suited to your littleness. [1 Cor. 3:1-2].

St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, outstanding in all he wrote, but particularly on the subject of this Apostle, said in the beginning of a sermon on the Epistle to the Hebrews (I do not know if I can recall it exactly): "Here is an amazing thing; when this great Apostle was among his Corinthians, he was like a nursing mother among her children. He nourished them with simple food, which was sweet a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Copyright Page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• About St. Francis de Sales
• Preface
• Translator's Note
• 1. Saint John the Baptist Sends His Disciples to Jesus
• 2. The Great Humility of Saint John the Baptist
• 3. Penitence
• 4. The Coming of the Divine Infant
• 5. Mystical Aspects of the Mystery of Christmas
• 6. The Union of the Divine and Human Natures in Our Lord
• 7. The Incarnation
• 8. Spiritual Circumcision and the Sacred Name of Jesus
• 9. The Wedding Feast of Cana