§12Male nobis de necessitatibus humanae exhibitionis supplaudimus, si post fidem obsignatam dicimus: non habeo quo uiuam.
We flatter ourselves poorly concerning the necessities of human sustenance, if, after having sealed our faith, we say: "I do not have that by which I may live." For already here I will answer more fully that abrupt proposition.
iam hic enim plenius illi abruptae propositioni respondebo. sero dicitur.
It is said too late.
ante enim fuit deliberandum ex similitudine prouidentissimi aedificis illius, qui prius sumptus operis cum uiribus suis supputat, ne, ubi coeperit, defectus postea erubescat.
For it ought to have been deliberated beforehand, after the likeness of that most provident builder, who first calculates the expenses of the work with his own resources, lest, when he has begun, he should afterwards blush at his failure.
sed et nunc habes dicta domini et exempla adimentia tibi omnem causationem.
But even now you have the sayings of the Lord and examples taking away from you all excuse.
quid enim dicis? egebo.
For what do you say?
sed felices egenos dominus appellat.
"I shall be in want." But the Lord calls the needy happy.
uictum non habebo: sed nolite, inquit, cogitare de uictu. et uestitus habemus exemplum lilia.
"I shall not have sustenance": but "Do not," He says, "think about sustenance." And of clothing we have the lilies as an example.
substantia mihi opus erat: atquin omnia uendenda sunt et egentibus diuidenda.
"I had need of property": yet indeed all things are to be sold and distributed to the needy.
sed filiis et posteritati prouidendum: nemo aratro manum imponens et retro spectans aptus est operi. sed condicionalis eram: nemo duobus dominis seruire potest. si uis domini discipulus esse, crucem tuam tollas et dominum sequaris necesse est id est angustias et cruciatus tuos uel corpus solum, quod in modum crucis est.
"But provision must be made for children and posterity": "No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the work." "But I was bound by contract": "No one can serve two masters." If you wish to be a disciple of the Lord, you must take up your cross and follow the Lord, that is, your straits and tortures, or even your body alone, which is in the shape of a cross.
parentes, coniuges, liberi propter deum relinquendi erunt.
Parents, wives, children will have to be left behind for the sake of God.
de artibus et negotiationibus et de professionibus etiam liberorum et parentum causa dubitas? iam tunc demonstratum est nobis et pignera et artificia et negotia propter dominum derelinquenda, cum Iacob et Iohannes uocati a domino et patrem nauemque derelinquunt, cum Matthaeus de teloneo suscitatur, cum etiam sepelire patrem tardum fuit fidei.
Do you hesitate about trades and businesses and professions, even for the sake of children and parents? Already then it was shown to us that both beloved ones and crafts and businesses are to be abandoned for the sake of the Lord, when James and John, called by the Lord, leave behind both their father and their boat, when Matthew is raised from the tax-office, when even to bury one's father was too slow for faith.
nemo eorum, quos dominus allegit, non habeo, dixit, quo uiuam. fides famem non timet.
None of those whom the Lord chose said: "I do not have that by which I may live." Faith does not fear hunger.
scit etiam famem non minus sibi contemnendam propter deum quam omne mortis genus.
It knows also that hunger is to be despised by it for the sake of God no less than every kind of death.
didicit non respicere uitam, quanto magis uictum? quotusquisque haec adimpleuit? sed quae penes homines difficilia, penes deum facilia.
It has learned not to regard life; how much more sustenance? How few have fulfilled these things! But what is difficult with men is easy with God.
sic tamen nobis de mansuetudine et clementia dei blandiamur, ut non usque ad idololatriae affinitates necessitatibus largiamur, sed omnem afflatum eius uice pestis etiam de longinquo deuitemus, non in his tantum quae praemisimus, sed in uniuersa serie humanae superstitionis, siue deis suis siue defunctis siue regibus mancipatae, ut ad eosdem spiritus immundos pertinentis, modo per sacrificia et sacerdotia, modo per spectacula et hoc genus, modo per festos dies. §13Sed de sacrificiis et sacerdotiis quid loquar? de spectaculis autem et uoluptatibus eiusmodi suum iam uolumen impleuimus.
Yet let us so flatter ourselves concerning the gentleness and mercy of God, that we do not yield to our necessities even to the point of affinities with idolatry, but rather avoid its every breath, like a plague, even from afar; not only in those things which we have mentioned before, but in the entire series of human superstition, whether devoted to its gods or to the dead or to kings, as pertaining to those same unclean spirits, now through sacrifices and priesthoods, now through spectacles and this kind of pleasure, now through festival days. But what shall I say of sacrifices and priesthoods? Moreover, concerning spectacles and pleasures of this kind, we have already filled our own volume.
hoc loco retractari oportet de festis diebus et aliis extraordinariis sollemnitatibus, quas interdum lasciuiae, interdum timiditati nostrae subscribimus aduersus fidem disciplinamque communicantes nationibus in idolicis rebus.
In this place we ought to treat of festival days and other extraordinary solemnities, which we sometimes attribute to our wantonness, sometimes to our fearfulness, sharing with the gentiles in idolatrous matters against faith and discipline.
de hoc quidem primo consistam, an cum ipsis quoque nationibus communicare in huiusmodi seruus dei debeat siue habitu siue uictu uel quo alio genere laetitiae earum.
Indeed, on this point I will first deal with whether a servant of God ought to share with the gentiles themselves in things of this kind, whether in dress, or in food, or in any other kind of their joy.
gaudere cum gaudentibus et lugere cum lugentibus de fratribus dictum est ab apostolo ad unanimitatem cohortante.
"Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep" was said by the apostle concerning the brethren, exhorting them to unanimity.
ceterum ad haec nihil communionis est lumini et tenebris, uitae et morti, aut scindimus quod est scriptum: saeculum gaudebit, uos uero lugebitis. si cum saeculo gaudemus, uerendum est, ne cum saeculo et lugeamus.
Otherwise, as to these things, what communion has light with darkness, life with death? Or else we tear up what is written: "The world shall rejoice, but you shall mourn." If we rejoice with the world, it is to be feared lest we also mourn with the world.
saeculo autem gaudente lugeamus et saeculo postea lugente gaudebimus.
But let us mourn while the world rejoices, and we shall rejoice when the world afterwards mourns.
sic et Eleazar apud inferos in sinu Abrahae refrigerium consecutus, contra diues in tormento ignis constitutus alternas malorum et bonorum uices aemula retributione compensant.
Thus also Lazarus in the underworld having obtained refreshment in Abraham's bosom, on the contrary the rich man placed in the torment of fire, balance the alternate turns of evils and goods by a rival retribution.
sunt quidam dies munerum, quae apud alios honoris titulum, apud alios mercedis debitum expungunt.
There are certain days of gifts, which clear off the claim of honor for some, the debt of wages for others.
nunc ergo, inquis, recipiam meum uel rependam alienum. si hunc morem sibi homines de superstitione consecrauerunt, tu extraneus ab omni eorum uanitate quid participas idolothyta sollemnia, quasi tibi quoque praescriptum sit de die, quominus id, quod homini debes uel tibi ab homine debetur, citra diei obseruationem luas uel recipias.
"Now therefore," you say, "I shall receive my own, or pay back another's." If men have consecrated this custom to themselves out of superstition, why do you, a stranger to all their vanity, participate in their idol-consecrated solemnities, as if a rule were prescribed to you also concerning the day, preventing you from paying or receiving what you owe to a man or what is owed to you by a man, apart from the observation of the day?
da formam, in qua uelis agi tecum.
Give the rule in which you wish to be dealt with.
cur enim et lateas, cum ignorantia alterius tuam conscientiam contamines? si non ignoraris quod sis Christianus, temptaris et contra conscientiam alterius agis tamquam non Christianus: sin uero et dissimulaueris, temptatus addictus es.
For why should you also hide yourself, when you contaminate your own conscience through another's ignorance? If it is not unknown that you are a Christian, you are tempted, and you act against the conscience of the other as if you were not a Christian; but if you even dissemble, having been tempted, you are surrendered.
certe siue hac siue iliac, reus es confusionis in deo.
Certainly, whether this way or that, you are guilty of being ashamed in respect to God.
qui autem confusus super me fuerit penes homines, et ego confundar super illo, inquit, penes patrem meum, qui est in caelis.
"But whoever shall be ashamed of Me before men, him will I also be ashamed of," He says, "before My Father who is in heaven."