Sermon 90A
SERMON 90/A
Sermon of Saint Augustine, bishop
On the love of God and neighbor
"Believing, let us seek so that seeking we may find."
In the evangelical reading that was just recited, let us, as if we too are seeing the Lord, not with the eyes of the flesh, but - which is more beneficial - with the eyes of faith, take on the attitude of the one asking which commandment is the greatest in the law. For he who was asking, because he saw not with the eyes of faith but of the flesh, was tempting rather than seeking. But we as believers should seek so that we might find; let us also say: Lord, what is the greatest commandment in the law? However, let us ask not with the cunning of a tempter, but with the eagerness of a learner. For he now responds to us as he did to him who, if he did not believe, sought for us and not for himself; if he did believe, the hearer is now more instructed, if the tempter could be corrected then.
Christ summed up the entire law in a brief commandment.
Indeed, let us first consider how he inquired about one command, desiring to know which command in the law was not only singular but also great; the Lord, however, responded not with one, but with two commands. For perhaps he, having heard which was great, might seek many following ones; but the Lord, lest after the great command more would be sought, added one more, in order that it might be fulfilled what had been prophesied so long before: "For the Lord will make a short and complete word upon the earth." Now it happens, this reading is completed. For there are many precepts of the law, and as an incomprehensible forest, the commandments sprout through all the pages. And who could fulfill those which no one can retain in mind? But the Lord Christ, full of mercy, just as He showed Himself great in a brief body, so He concluded the broad law in a brief command. In that brevity of body, we have the whole Son of God; in the brevity of those commands, we hold the whole law of God. Mercy has ended sloth. Do not think about how long you will learn, but rather how you will do quickly what you have learned.
On explaining the Word of God.
You shall love, he said, the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second, he said, is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Why do you stretch yourself with the spreading of branches? Hold to these roots, and the whole tree is in your hand. The Lord briefly intimated this, as we see; we are compelled to say more about these two commandments. Or perhaps we are not compelled, and what we heard from the Lord is sufficient? Certainly, it is sufficient, but not for everyone. For the greater a person is, the more what is briefly said is sufficient. The great seek brevity; the small, because they understand less, desire more. We fear to offend the fastidiousness of the former, and we do not wish to burden the weakness of the latter. Nevertheless, if we remain silent, those who understand less will complain; let those who already understand bear with us so that those who do not yet understand may take hold of us.
The commandment of love is presented differently in the Gospel and in Paul.
What could be better said to you, what could be said more briefly, O man, than to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind? Do this, and be assured of eternal life and a blessed life. For if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, you leave nothing for yourself wherein you might love yourself. With all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, love, love your God. And what will remain whereby you might love yourself? But if nothing remains wherein you might love yourself, how will you love your neighbor as yourself in the second commandment? Behold one question, hear it. The Lord said, as we noticed when the passage was read: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Moreover, the Apostle Paul, if you observed also when his epistle was read, says that the one who loves his neighbor fulfills the law, not adding the first and great commandment, that each person should love God with all his heart, soul, and mind. For he says thus: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Here he says: He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. And if he were to say three commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet, we might think that only these three commandments are kept by love of neighbor. But when he added and said: If there is any other commandment, he summed up everything in the love of neighbor. What remains here for the love of God? When you hear: Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, it seems nothing is left for love of neighbor. Likewise, when you hear: This and this and this, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, it seems nothing is left for the love of God. How then did the Lord say not "in one," but on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets?
"Let us begin with our neighbor, so that we may reach God."
Therefore, that I may briefly explain what I have proposed, as much as we can with the Lord's help, let us rather begin with the love of our neighbor. We are humans, mortal, ignorant, not yet made equal to the angels, very different from the society of incorruptibility, and by this very dissimilarity God is far from us, though in mercy He is near. Who then are we, and with what strength of our thought dare we conceive the Lord? We have our neighbor; already aim in your neighbor, that you may love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. O man, if you do not love your brother whom you see, how can you love God whom you do not see? You recognize the words drawn from the discourse of the Apostle John. Therefore, it is prescribed for us: let us begin with our neighbor, that we may reach God.
Christian love is far different from carnal affection.
But someone might say to me: "I love God and my neighbor, not with words, but with deeds." Prove it. "I love my neighbor," he says. What great thing do you do? Don't you see in irrational animals how mutual affection prevails, how birds of the same kind desire to be together and dislike solitude? Don't you see when animals share a manger, how they desire to follow each other during a journey, and one is separated from the other with great difficulty? What then do you do that is great, if as a human you wish to be with another human? This still belongs to the beasts. I do not know whether such a divine love is required of us. You perhaps say: "I love my neighbor; for I love my son, and as myself." This too is easy. Tigers love their offspring. None of these things would be propagated if one were not loved by another. Transcend those things which are given to you in your power: none of these are made in the image of God. God made man in His image, that he might have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all things that crawl upon the earth. See what you have under you, and how you are otherwise far instructed by the Creator's love in His image. From where, finally, do you prove because you love your son? Tell me, from where do you prove that you love that son? Because you keep an inheritance for him which he cannot possess with you? For he does not hold it with you, but he will succeed you when you pass away. Do you not remember that in that inheritance your father already passed away before you? And if it remains the same from ancient times, your grandfather likewise passed through it: all are passing, no one remains. So you leave mortal things to a mortal, or, more truly, you do not know for whom you gather them, and you boast yourself as a lover of your son.
He who loves iniquity hates his own soul.
They will announce, he says, to their children, that they should place their hope in God. If you love in this way, you love. If you love otherwise, you neither love nor do you love yourself. Indeed, what have you heard? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I lay down this rule, or rather, I do not lay it down but recognize it. For it is laid down for all of us and I observe it and recall it. This is the rule: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, I do not say: You shall love your son, spouse, close friend, known neighbor as yourself. Perhaps you respond: "I love." First, I ask whether you love yourself. This is the entire force of the commandment, this is the whole question at issue: for you will not be able to love your neighbor as yourself if you do not yet love yourself. "Who is there," you say, "who does not love himself?" I would like to find someone who loves himself. For I do not consider how the creature errs, but what the creator teaches. He who made us knows us better. Let us listen to Him, then. Since you were saying: "I love myself," even if I asked you to prove it, you would answer me: "When I am hungry, I feed my body, because I love myself; I do not want to be exhausted by toil, because I love myself; I do not want to be distressed by need, because I love myself; I do not want to be feverish, because I love myself; I do not want to suffer, because I love myself." Do you want to hear what He who made you says? See how very well you love yourself: whether you do not love iniquity. For he who loves iniquity hates his own soul. I do not ask you, you ask yourself. If you want to prosper by another's misfortune, if you want another to be in trouble so that you may be well, surely if you want this, if you desire this, you love iniquity, you hate your soul. If therefore you hate your soul, I do not entrust your neighbor to you, that you may love him as yourself. Shall I entrust another person to you so that I may seek two? If you have lost yourself, will you keep me? Therefore, first love yourself, so that you may know how to love your neighbor as yourself.
Let us love the highest good.
How do you love yourself, do you expect to hear from me? Let us rather hear Him who made both you and me. Behold how you love yourself: attend to the great commandment, that you love yourself. Indeed, to that which you love, it is necessary that you wish to bring him whom you love. And you love iniquity: there you will lead him whom you love as yourself. Many human pursuits, whether bad or good, are set before everyone's eyes. You love a charioteer: you urge all whom you love to watch with you, to love with you, to shout with you, to be mad with you. If they have not loved, you insult, call them idiots, just like yourself. And if you do not want to give him half, you want him to have as much as you love him as yourself. For you do not want him to prosper at your expense, you do not want his good to be with the detriment of your good. Why? Because you think gold is good, therefore you consider yourself great because you have gold. You want him to grow, not for you to decrease. Why do you love that which you reduce by loss? In all these things you love iniquity, you hate your soul. When you wish to confidently draw your neighbor whom you love as yourself, to that good which no multitude of companions can narrow; which good, however many may possess it, is whole for all and for each. Unless you love such a good, how will you love your neighbor as yourself?
"Loving God, you will not perish."
What is that? In the first and greatest commandment you have: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. For when you begin to love God, then you love yourself. Do not fear: no matter how much you love God, you will not be excessive. The measure of loving God is without measure. Therefore, love with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, because you have no more. For what do you have more, with which to love your God, than your whole being? Therefore, do not fear that, by leaving nothing for yourself with which to love yourself, you will perish. You will not perish, because by loving God with your whole being, you will be where you do not perish. Rather, if you let your love relax back to yourself, you will not be in Him, but in yourself. Then you perish, because you will be in the perishable. Therefore, if you want not to perish, be in Him who cannot perish. This is the strength of love, this is the intensity of love’s ardor. Let us see these aspects even in the most impure and base pursuits. Lovers of charioteers at the spectacle are entirely absorbed, they are only in him whom they see; that lover does not regard himself at all, he does not know where he is. Similarly, one who stands next to him and sees him so fervent in that pursuit says: "He is not with himself." And you, if possible, when you are in God, do not be with yourself. If you are with yourself, you entrust yourself to yourself, you will lose yourself, you are not capable of preserving yourself.
Let us return, transgressors, to the Father.
Remember how he went and perished, who said to his father, his savior: "Give me my property that belongs to me." Behold, he went away, behold, he consumed everything, behold, he fed pigs, behold, he was crushed by poverty: far from the father, he wanted to be alone. For indeed, wishing to be alone, he neither remained alone. If you stray from your God, you quickly stray also from yourself, and you go out from yourself, and you leave yourself behind. Therefore, it is said to such: Return, transgressors, to your heart, return to yourselves, so that you might also be able to return to Him who made you. Hence, when he was in need, having deserted the father, deserted from himself, what is said about him? And he returned to himself, he said. Returned to himself: you see that he had left himself, too. Well done, son, you corrected yourself, you returned to yourself. Do not remain in yourself, lest you perish again. Even this he remembered, being partly corrected. For as soon as he returned to himself, he did not want to remain in himself, because having returned to himself he said: "I will rise and go to my father." Well returned, he understood that he ought to be there where he had fallen from being <... > he did not even deserve to be.
"Love God entirely."
If you love this, if you cherish it, I entrust your neighbor to you. For I see where you are aiming and what you want yourself to be. Lead him there, and you cannot lead him elsewhere whom you love as yourself: for now you also love yourself. Lead your neighbor, draw him, seize him, urge him at the opportune moment. If the day of your duty were dawning, you lover of the hunter, you would neither be lulled to sleep by necessary sleep, nor would the hour pass for you to go to the amphitheater. And when the hour to go had arrived, and your neighbor, perhaps lulled to sleep and preferring to sleep rather than go, you would awaken very annoying; you would press the lazy; you would wish, if it could be done, to snatch him from the bed and place him in the amphitheater, nor would you be bothersome to him except until the sleep was shaken off. For when sleep was shaken off he would proceed and give thanks for your annoyance. And perhaps now, snatched together with you to the amphitheater, where both of you had rushed, having been defeated by whom you loved, you would return confused. Love God totally, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: thus alone, thus you will love yourself. In this way alone you love your neighbor as yourself. For you draw him to the one of whom you cannot be ashamed.
No one loves himself unless he loves God.
Therefore, it was necessary that these two commandments be commended, because one does not love one's neighbor unless one first loves God. For when one loves God, one does not love iniquity, lest by loving iniquity one hates one's own soul. If, therefore, one does not love iniquity, let one love righteousness, and there one loves God. Do not seek Him as if with your eyes: seek Him with your mind, love Him more with your heart and affection. Do not set before yourself what is not God, lest you love and not love God, and love an empty thought. For in this thought, lest we perhaps err and form and imagine God according to our carnal affection as we wish, Scripture taking us away from such thoughts says: God is love. If, therefore, you love, love from where you love, and you love God. Have you not heard? For he who loves iniquity hates his own soul. If you love, also love that from which you love, and you love God. Because from where you love, is love. You love with love, love love itself, and you have loved God, because God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God. Therefore, both commandments had to be commended. For one would suffice: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, but lest man err in loving his neighbor, because he erred in loving himself, the Lord wished to inform your love in the love of God, by which you might love yourself; and then He committed your neighbor to you, whom you might love as yourself.
The first commandment of love draws the second with it.
So now, if it pleases you, let even one commandment of the apostle suffice for you. You already understand two; one will suffice. For before you understand two, one does not suffice. For you begin to love yourself wrongly, and you love him whom you love as yourself wrongly. Nor is it to be said: You love wrongly, but: You do not love. Therefore, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet, where the whole is, there it calls you back to yourself. For you cannot avoid adultery out of fear of punishment, not out of love for justice. You shall not kill: you may want to kill, but fear the punishment. Murder will not be in your hands, but you will be held guilty in your heart. For you want to kill a man, but you fear; you want to kill: you do not yet love not to kill. Let what you do be within, let it be there, where He who crowns sees; fight there, win there: for there you have Him who watches over you. Therefore, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is recapitulated in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You also love God. You cannot have this without that, the second follows the first. Let the first be and it draws the second. The second cannot exist without the first. Therefore, fulfill one, who thought of two. You cannot fulfill one, except in two. For the second is so-called from following the first. Therefore, it follows. Love your neighbor as yourself: this is sufficient for me. Can you not also think of God? How then do you begin to love yourself? Love of neighbor does no evil. But where is charity? In the love of God and in the love of neighbor. Choose whichever love you will. If you choose the love of neighbor: it will not be true unless God is loved. If you choose the love of God: it will not be true unless the neighbor is heeded.
"What the law commands, faith obtains."
But you do not yet have love: lament, believe, ask, obtain. What is commanded, what the law orders, faith obtains. For if you already have what you obtain, what indeed do you have that you did not receive? For if you do not yet have it, ask so that you may receive. Love is what we ask for; if we do not yet have it, let us ask so that we may not remain empty. For whence will we have it from ourselves, who have earned nothing good, but evil? We will have it from Him to whom our soul says: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities. This happens in baptism. But if this alone were to happen, what would we remain? But it follows: Who heals all your diseases. For with the diseases healed, we will not disdain our bread. Therefore see what follows, with the diseases healed: Who redeems your life from corruption. This happens already in the resurrection of the dead. And what follows the redemption from the corruption of our lives? Who crowns you. Perhaps for your merits? Consider what follows: Who crowns you with mercy and compassion. For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Therefore, with sins forgiven, diseases healed, life redeemed from corruption, and our crown restored to us in His mercy, what will we do, what will we have? Who satisfies with good, not evil. You were greedy: you were not satisfied with gold, because a greedy man is not satisfied with gold. Be righteous and you will be satisfied with God. Nothing at all will satisfy you, except God; nothing will suffice for you, except God. Show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Therefore let us love works of mercy while our diseases are being healed, so that once healed, our desires may flourish; and once flourishing, they may be satisfied, so that we may have judgment, but with mercy. For it is grievous to have judgment without mercy. It is difficult that He may not find something in you to punish. You have already pleased yourself: for He knows something which escapes you, He finds in you what you were hiding, or perhaps even what you did not know. Therefore let works of mercy overflow, and in this need of temporal things let us love our neighbors, so that we may deserve to feel judgment with mercy.