HT Carl Roth for sending me this sermon.
In the year of our Lord 252, Cyprian wrote this sermon to encourage the Christians facing a plague. Some were afraid to suffer and die. Others were sorrowful because death from the plague meant they would lose the glory of martyrdom.
Cyprian, to my ear, has a somewhat stoic approach to suffering and death. He forbids mourning the death of Christians, and I wonder, to that end, what he would say regarding the tears of Jesus at Lazarus’ death.
There is still a lot to commend in this sermon, especially the straightforward way Cyprian speaks of fear, and the hope of eternal life.
I’ll give a few highlights here, but I would encourage you to read the entire sermon.
Click here to read Cyprian, On Mortality.
The first paragraph, the first chapter, is also the first sentence, where he gives his purpose:
Although in most of you, beloved brethren, there is a resolute mind and a firm faith and a devout spirit, which is not disturbed at the numbers in the present mortality [refering to the deaths by plague], but like a strong and unmoving rock breaks rather the turbulent attacks of the world and the violent waves of the age and is itself not broken, and is not vanquished but tried by temptations, yet because I observe that among the people, some either through weakness of spirit, or littleness of faith, or the charm of life in the world, or weakness of sex, or, what is worse, because of a wandering from the truth, are standing less firmly and are not revealing the divine and invincible strength of their hearts, the matter must not be ignored or passed over in silence, but, so far as our weak power suffices, with full strength, and with a discourse drawn from the Lord’s text, the cowardice of a luxury-loving mind must be checked and one who has already begun to be a man of God and Christ must be considered worthy of God and Christ.
Cyprian, Mortality, Chapter 1
The image of waves breaking on the unmoving rock of faith is wonderful. (And Cyprian’s imagery throughout the sermon is profound.)
This world with all of it’s troubles is passing away. Why should we be anxious or afraid. Better things are coming. The Lord has promised it.
The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, has begun to be at hand; the reward of life and the joy of eternal salvation and perpetual happiness and the possession of paradise once lost are now coming with the passing of the world;2 now the things of heaven are succeeding those of earth, and great things small, and eternal things, transitory. What place is there here for anxiety and worry? Who in the midst of these things is fearful and sad save he who lacks hope and faith?
Chapter 2
In this life we are constantly assaulted by the world, the flesh, and the devil (chapter 4). Why do we long to stay here?
So many persecutions the mind endures daily, by so many dangers is the heart beset. And does it delight to remain here long, amidst the devil’s weapons, when we should rather earnestly desire and wish to hasten to Christ aided by a death coming more speedily, since He Himself instructs us, saying: ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall come into joy?’1 Who would not long to be free from sorrow? Who would not hurry to come to joy?
Chapter 5
Cyprian answers his own question. Fear of death, or longing for this world, must mean a lack of faith, and this is an insult to God. He illustrates this with the example of believing a man of good reputation.
If an influential and reputable man were to promise you something, you would have confidence in his promise and you would not believe that you would be deceived or cheated by the man who you knew stood by his words and actions. God is speaking to you, and do you waver faithless in your unbelieving mind? God promises immortality and eternity to you leaving this world, and do you doubt? This is not to know God at all. This is to offend Christ, the Teacher of believing, by the sin of disbelief.
Chapter 6
Some of the Christians were troubled that Christians in the same way the pagans suffered and died. This sounds like a version of the prosperity Gospel, as if Christians could not get sick, or our faith protected us from death. No, Cyprian responds, our flesh and mortality is held in common with all people (chapter 8).
In chapter 10 Job and Tobias are brought forth as examples of the faithful who “kept the law of the Lord, not to murmur in adversity, but to accept bravely and patiently whatever happens in the world” (chapter 11). Abraham is our example in chapter 12, and Paul in chapter 13.
Thus also the Apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many grievous tortures of the flesh and body, says that he was not harassed but was corrected by adversity, in order that while he was the more heavily afflicted he might the more truly be tried. There was given to me, he says, a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me lest I be exalted. For which thing thrice I besought the Lord, that it might depart from me. And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity.’
Chapter 13
The Christian is able to receive both good and evil from the hand of the Lord. Cyprian gives us this teaching in his lovely phrase “the gift of the occasion.” He details the kinds of suffering the sick were enduring, and encourages the Christian to have a courageous faith in the midst of these afflictions. You will hear some of his stoicism coming through, but here again we see faith fighting despair.
That now the bowels loosened into a flux exhaust the strength of the body, that a fever contracted in the very marrow of the bones breaks out into ulcers of the throat, that the intestines are shaken by continual vomiting, that the blood-shot eyes burn, that the feet of some or certain parts of their members are cut away by the infection of diseased putrefaction, that, by a weakness developing through the losses and injuries of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing impaired, or the sight blinded, all this contributes to the proof [testing] of faith.’ What greatness of soul it is to fight with the powers of the mind unshaken against so many attacks of devastation and death, what sublimity to stand erect amidst the ruins of the human race and not to lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God, and to rejoice rather and embrace the gift of the occasion, which, while we are firmly expressing our faith, and having endured sufferings, are advancing to Christ by the narrow way of Christ, we should receive as the reward of His way and faith, He himself being our judge!
Chapter 14
The Christian death is a “salutary departure” (chapter 15), something to be desired and pursued, not avoided. Death is a call to “refreshment” (ibid). The Lord is giving gifts through the plague:
Through their panic at the mortality and the occasion the fearful are aroused, the negligent are contrained, the slothful are stimulated, the deserters are compelled to return, the pagans are forced to believe, the old members of the faithful are called to rest, for the battle a fresh and numerous army of greater strength is being gathered, which, entering service in the time of the mortality, will fight without fear of death when the battle comes [persecution and martyrdom].
Chapter 15
The plague is also an opportunity to exercise justice and good works. I thought chapter 16 was especially insightful:
What a significance, beloved brethren, all this has! How suitable, how necessary it is that this plague and pestilence, which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the justice of each and every one and examines the minds of the human race; whether the well care for the sick, whether relatives dutifully love their kinsmen as they should, whether masters show compassion to their ailing slaves, whether physicians do not desert the afflicted begging their help, whether the violent repress their violence, whether the greedy, even through the fear of death, quench the ever insatiable fire of their raging avarice, whether the proud bend their necks, whether the shameless soften their affrontry, whether the rich, even when their dear ones are perishing and they are about to die without heirs, bestow and give something! Although this mortality has contributed nothing else, it has especially accomplished this for Christians and servants of God, that we have begun gladly to seek martyrdom while we are learning not to fear death. These are trying exercises for us, not deaths; they give to the mind the glory of fortitude; by contempt of death they prepare for the crown.
Chapter 16
In chapter 17 Cyprian addresses those who are sad that the plague will rob them of the opportunity to be martyred. These are my kind of people! But they were wrong. Martyrdom is a gift given by God, not one chosen by men. “God does not ask for our blood, but our faith” (chapter 17). Neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob was martyred, and the Lord honored them.
Chapters 18, 19, and 20 continue the rebuke of those afraid to suffer and die. How can we pray “Thy kingdom come” if we want this earthly kingdom to remain (chapter 18)? How can the Lord bless us with eternal life and glory if we are afraid to suffer and die (chapter 19)? How will the pagans know that our hope and faith are true if we act like we have no hope and faith (chapter 20)?
Chapters 21-23 remind us that the Gospel promises us deliverance from this world. Our souls are to long for the courts of God.
In chapter 24 Cyrpian directly addresses our love for this world. “Since the world hates a Christian, why do you love that which hates you and not rather follow Christ who has redeemed and loves you?”
Rather, beloved brethren, with sound mind, with firm faith, with rugged virtue, let us be ready for every manifestation of God’s will; freed from the terror of death, let us think of the immortality which follows. Let us show that this is what we believe, so that we may not mourn the death even of our dear ones and, when the day of our own summons comes, without hesitation but with gladness we may come to the Lord at His call.
Chapter 24
The world is a collapsing building, who would not want to escape it? The world is a ship battered by a storm, who would not want to find a safe harbor? (Chapter 25). We are strangers here, and our native country and our family waits for us in paradise.
We should consider, beloved brethren, and we should reflect constantly that we have renounced the world and as strangers and foreigners we sojourn here for a time. Let us embrace the day which assigns each of us to his dwelling, which on our being rescued from here and released from the snares of the world, restores us to paradise and the kingdom.
What man, after having been abroad, would not hasten to return to his native land? Who, when hurrying to sail to his family, would not more eagerly long for a favorable wind that he might more quickly embrace his dear ones? We account paradise our country, we have already begun to look upon the patriarchs as our parents. Why do we not hasten and run, so that we can see our country, so that we can greet our parents? A great number of our dear ones there await us, parents, brothers, children; a dense and copious throng longs for us, already secure in their safety but still anxious for our salvation.
How great a joy it is both for them and for us in common to come into their sight and embrace! What pleasure there in the heavenly kingdom without fear of death, and with an eternity of life the highest possible and everlasting happiness; there the glorious choir of apostles, there the throng of exultant prophets, there the innumerable multitude of martyrs wearing crowns on account of the glory and victory of their struggle and passion, triumphant virgins who have subdued the concupiscence of the flesh and body by the strength of their continency, the merciful enjoying their reward who have performed works of justice by giving food and alms to the poor, who in observing the precepts of the Lord have transferred their earthly patrimony to the treasuries of heaven! To these, beloved brethren, let us hasten with eager longing! let us pray that it may befall us speedily to be with them, speedily to come to Christ.
Chapter 26
Click here to read Cyprian, On Mortality.
