The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 34
Thirty-fourth Day
What God does for the generality of plants and animals: We are to count ourselves as His favourite flock. — Luke xii. 22, 24, 29, seq.
'THEREFORE I say to you, Be not solicitous for your life... consider the ravens, for they do not sow.'
In St Matthew ‘the birds of the air,’ [1] in general, are spoken of. In St Luke, we are told of the raven: — one of the most voracious of animals, and yet without storehouse or provision; finding enough to feed upon though it neither sows nor digs. God supplies all that is needful: — ' Who giveth to the beasts their food: and to the young ravens that call upon him,’ says the Psalmist. [2] He hears their cry, though a hoarse and unpleasant one; and feeds them just as amply as He does the nightingale, or any bird with a softer and sweeter voice. In this wonderful sermon, Our Lord teaches us to consider the whole range of nature: — the flowers, the birds, the animals, our own body, our soul, our imperceptible growth: — so that we may use it all to raise our thoughts to God. He would have us use natural things in a higher way than we are inclined to do, and with a more penetrating eye, as the Image of God. The heavens are His throne; the earth is His footstool; the capital of a kingdom is the seat of His Empire; the sun rises and the rain falls to assure us of His goodness. Everything speaks of Him: He has not left Himself without witness.
We have already noticed how Our Lord uses the saying in St Luke, 'Be not lifted up on high/ to express anxiety, as representing the state of one who knows not on what or whom he may lean, and who constantly dreads a fall; and we have seen how we must avoid such a terrible state of fearfulness by firm faith in God’s support.
But of all the sayings peculiar to St Luke, in this sermon preached by the Son of God, the one that most inspires us with courage in our weakness and misery is this: — 'Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your father to give you a kingdom.’ In all that comes before, we are taught not to fear that we shall be left to starve, since God will see to this; and that His ordinary course is never to let those who trust in Him want for anything. But here He leads us higher. For, after all, if you should come to need bread, what then? You would still have ‘ a kingdom.’ And what Kingdom? God’s own. ‘ Fear not, little flock, for God will give you His Kingdom.’ That is, not one intended for the great of this world, but a kingdom meant for the poor and humble: — for that little flock that the world counts as nothing, but on which the Father looks down: — which, in fact, seems to be actually nothing in comparison with the enormous multitude, and the brilliant appearance, of the wicked. Yet it is for the sake of this ‘little flock’ that God preserves the rest of the world.
What do you fear, then? That you will die of hunger? How many martyrs have died of it in prison! Yet, not only was such a death no hindrance to their gaining the crown of martyrdom, but it actually won them their crown. Fear nothing, then, little flock! but ‘sell what you possess, and give alms. Make to yourselves ... a treasure in heaven which faileth not; where the thief approacheth not, nor the moth corrupteth ’: — the treasure, that is, of good deeds.