Sermon 11

SERMO 11

TREATISE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE
Of Saint Elijah and on the patience of Job

This is a time of doing good works.

The Lord our God, not wanting any of us to perish, cultivating His Church as His field, seeking fruit from His trees before the time of the axe arrives, when it will be necessary to cut down the fruitless trees, ceases not to admonish us so that, while there is time and with God's help it is in our power, we may do good works. For when the time of doing well has passed, there remains only the receiving. No one will tell you after the resurrection of the dead in the kingdom of God: "Break bread for the hungry," because you will not find anyone hungry. No one will say: "Clothe the naked," where the tunic of all will be immortality. No one will say: "Welcome the stranger," where all will live in their own homeland, for now we are strangers from there. No one will say: "Visit the sick," where there is eternal health. No one will say: "Bury the dead," where death will die. All these acts of piety will not be necessary in eternal life, where there will be only peace and everlasting joy. However, in this present time, in order for us to know how much God commends the works of mercy to us, He has even allowed His holy ones to be in need, so that when friends are made here from the mammon of iniquity, they also may receive their friends into the eternal tabernacles. That is, when God's devout servants, while constantly serving God, occasionally find themselves in need, those who have the world's riches give alms. Just as they make them partake in earthly substance, so too will they deserve to share a part with them in eternal life.

God commands in wondrous ways.

I said this because of the reading of the Books of Kings, which we first heard. Did God fail to feed His servant Elijah? Were birds not ministering to him because men were lacking? Did not the raven bring him bread in the morning and meat in the evening? Thus, God shows that He can feed His servants from wherever and however He wants. Yet, so that a devout widow could feed him, He made him needful. The need of the holy soul was turned into the abundance of a devout soul. Could Elijah not have provided for himself what he gave to the widow from God's mercy? You clearly see, and it is evident that sometimes God's servants do not have so that those who have may be tested. And yet that widow had nothing. What remained for her was finished, and she was going to die with her children. She then proceeded to make bread for herself, gathering two sticks, and then Elijah saw her. Then the man of God saw her when she was seeking the two sticks. That woman bore the type of the Church. And because two sticks make a cross, she, destined to die, sought from where she would live forever. With the mystery thus foreshadowed, Elijah spoke to her what he had heard. She narrates her situation, saying she was going to die once she finished what remained. Where then is what the Lord had said to Elijah: Go to Zarephath of Sidon; for there I have commanded a widow to feed you? You see how God commands, not by ear but by heart. Do we read that any Prophet was sent to that woman and told her: "Behold," says the Lord, "my servant comes to you hungry, from what you have, minister to him; do not fear poverty; I will supply what you give"? We do not read that this was said to her. Nor do we read that an angel was sent to her in dreams and foretold that Elijah, hungry, would come, and the woman was admonished to feed him. But God commands in wonderful ways, speaking through thought. We say God commanded by speaking in the heart, suggesting what was needed, persuading what was useful for a rational soul, the widow. Thus we also read in the Prophets that the Lord commanded a worm to eat the root of the gourd. What does it mean: "He commanded," if not "He prepared the heart"? By the inspiration of the Lord, that widow had a heart prepared to obey. Such she came, such she spoke with Elijah. He who was in Elijah to command was the same who was in the widow to obey. "Go," he said, "make for me first out of your need, and your wealth will not fail." The patrimony of the widow was a little flour and a little oil. This little did not fail. Who has such a villa? Willingly the widow fed the hungry servant of God, for her patrimony hung on a nail. What is happier than this poverty? If in this way she receives such things, what will she hope for at the end?

Our flour will be God, who will not fail forever.

Therefore, I said this so that we do not expect the reward of our sowing in this time when we have sown. Here indeed we sow the harvest of good works with labor, but in the future, we will gather its fruits with joy, according to what is written: "Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming, they will come with exultation, bearing their sheaves." For that was done as a sign, not as a gift. For that widow who fed the man of God, she received here. It is not great what she sowed, because she did not reap a great harvest. What she received is temporal, not the flour that did not fail nor the oil that did not diminish until God gave rain upon the earth, as if she then began to lack more when God deigned to rain. For then she was to labor, expect the fruits of the field, and collect them. However, when it did not rain, her sustenance came easily. This sign which God granted her for a few days was a sign of future life, where our reward knows no end. Our flour will be God. Just as those provisions did not fail over those days, so He will not fail for eternity. Let us hope for such a reward when we do good, lest any of you be tempted by such a thought and say: "I will feed some hungry servant of God so that my jug may not fail, or I may always find wine in my cup." Do not seek this here. Sow confidently; your harvest will come later, it will come more slowly, but when it comes, it will have no end.