Sermon 159A

SERMON 159/A

Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop
On honoring or despising parents

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

The feasts of the holy martyrs are exhortations to martyrdom, so that it may delight us to imitate what we delight in celebrating. For this purpose, the holy Scripture freshly exhorts us in our ears and in a way inflames us, with the apostle saying: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For your sake we are put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Then follow other matters that seem violent towards separation, in which, however, He gives victory, so that we are not separated from Him who does not separate from us. Because of these imminent distresses and pressures, the faithful promisor and kind giver has deigned to promise us that He would be with us until the end of the age. For I am sure, he says, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor power, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature—for he could not name everything—will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so that we might become very strong with hope and confidence against all the temptations of this age, lest we be separated from Christ—because our strength is by no means sufficient if we are forsaken by divine help—he said earlier: If God is for us, who can be against us? The Apostle, having briefly mentioned some of the things that seem to attack the Christian faith by raging, so that such things might not separate us from the love of Christ, armed us to endure all for Christ.

They try to separate us from Christ either by things that rage or by things that entice.

But because they not only try to separate those things which rage, but also those which entice, just as we are armed with the apostolic words against those things which attempt to separate us from Christ by raging, so we are armed by the Lord Christ Himself against those things which try to seduce us by enticing. For it is to be feared lest perhaps what a cruel sword cannot separate, carnal affection may be able to separate. Thus, against those things which attack our faith by enticing, lest what they attack they conquer, let us listen to the Lord saying: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. The Lord mentioned both what is enticingly sweet so that it may deceive, and what is threateningly severe. For against the allurements of deception from carnal affection, He said: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife, children, and so forth, but against those things which, by roaring and threatening, turn us away from faith, He arms us and fortifies us with the single name of the cross. Whoever does not, He says, bear his cross and follow me, that is, whoever does not bear – for that is to bear – all things that are bitter and hard in this world as a cross, and follow me, cannot be my disciple.

I want you to be without anxiety.

Therefore let us place the martyr of Christ in the midst of threats and flattery; both doors are knocked upon, through which one enters the heart: desire and fear. The door of desire is knocked upon by father, mother, wife, children, brothers: all are alluring, pleasant, sweet. But are they sweeter than God? Sweeter than Christ? If you do not believe, taste and see how sweet the Lord is. The door of fear is knocked upon by threats, fury, reproaches, and finally by the very pains of the body, which no one can experience without feeling. For if he despises money, he suffers loss, not pain. All this is in the mind of the despisers: he who takes away what you do not love does not torment you. But you love money: you fear him who threatens loss, and he does not torment you, but you torment yourself, because you have subjected yourself to pains. For the root of all evils is greed, which some pursuing have wandered from the faith and themselves subjected to many pains. He threatens loss: he who does not find you greedy, finds you free; you laughed at the emptiness, because you did not subject yourself. Thus also with other things, which through saving doctrine we learn to despise, we are admonished not to love them, so that we may be found free in temptations. To which freedom that apostolic reading exhorts us, where it is: And those who use this world as though they did not use it, that they may have the use of freedom, not the affection of desire. For the figure of this world passes away. I want you to be without care.

When the flesh is pricked, the heart feels pain.

But the weakness of the flesh remains, which each of us, as long as he lives in this world, cannot alienate from himself. What do you do? When the flesh is pricked, does the heart not feel pain? It is a wound of weakness, until it takes on the garment of immortality. There is a great struggle. With the will turned away from money, the martyr of God stands secure against those who threaten with losses. "Let him take," he says, "what I do not love, where do I feel it?" Exile is threatened, but it is threatened by someone who alone desires the heavenly fatherland. Here the Christian, wherever he goes, is a pilgrim. Disgrace is threatened. He has something to respond: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience. Dishonor is threatened. How great is the fleeting honor! Man threatens dishonor, but the Lord of men promises eternal honor. With all these things despised, freedom is safe. But what about the flesh? The soul remains with its garment, and that garment which it does not take off except by death. Now the man, that is the soul, is urged on by the proximity, by the weakness of his flesh. Therefore, the words of that Lord on the cross seem, indeed are understood, in that magnificent psalm, where almost the gospel is recited, where it is said: They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones. They themselves, indeed, considered me; they divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. These are now the words of the one suffering, now hanging on the cross, and yet it is said there: Do not depart from me, for trouble is near. If you understand "near" as "time approaching," they will not be the words of the one hanging on the cross: the trouble was already present if he was hanging. But why was it said: it is near? It is now in the flesh. Nothing is nearer to the soul than the flesh which it bears. Other things are outside, called external, because they are outside. When the flesh is tormented, the soul close by is struck.

With God's help, we endure all evils.

These are grievous things, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. And why do we conquer even in these? Because if God is for us, who can be against us? Therefore, the Lord has deigned to signify by the name of the cross all things that are terrible, hard, bitter, intolerable, and cruel. For among the very types of death, nothing is more intolerable than the cross. Indeed, there is a great emphasis added by the same apostle, when he commended to us the humility of the Lord; for he says: "He did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man." How great was the Lord’s humiliation, to become a man! But listen further. Behold, He was humiliated because He became a man. What more? He humbled Himself, it says, becoming obedient to death, not only to human birth, but even to death. Do you have anything to add to this? "I do," it says, "even death on a cross." Looking at this most bitter end of the Lord of all, he called the cross all the things that rightly, and if faith has endured for His name’s sake, the Christian flesh suffers. For faith suffers nothing, rather it makes sufferings tolerable. Therefore, instructed from both sides and having both doors of desire and fear fortified, desiring nothing more than what God promises, fearing nothing more than what God threatens, we repel those who flatter and those who threaten.

The Old and New Testament were given by one and the same God.

But someone arises and makes a question to us and says: "Indeed, whatever bitter, whatever hard, whatever fierce and difficult to endure should be borne for the faith of Christ, it should absolutely be borne, but it troubles me that he [who] placed in his commandments the first commandment to love one's neighbor: Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment in promise, that it may be well with you; and when the apostle greatly mentioned this, the Lord says to me: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother. Where should I listen? What of these should I accept? How will I obey the one who commands me to honor my father and mother, while also commanding me to hate my father and mother? Is it not the same one who commands both, or—as some vainly think—is it another who gave the law and another who propagated the Gospel, since in the law it is written: Honor your father and mother, in the Gospel: Whoever does not hate father and mother "? By no means! He is the same one and the lawgiver and the propagator of the Gospel, he is completely. Recognize the Lord: lest he command contrary things, and distribute times to the commandments. For if you think that the commandment that we are ordered to honor father and mother, because it is read first in the Old Testament, is contrary to the evangelical commandment, in the same Old Testament something similar is written to what we have just heard being read in the Gospel. He who says to father and mother: I do not know you, and he who does not recognize his children, he has thought my testament. How similar, how twin-like, how equal it is recognized. Therefore, one Lord commands both, but let us distinguish the times of the commandments."

Relatives ought to be loved in the right order.

To the crown of martyrdom he is armed, and comes the flattering father and mother to prevent what God promises, promising vain inheritance and taking away the eternity of light. Here indeed do not acknowledge those holding you back, rather hate such a father with piety, lest such a one remain. Thus a father, thus a mother, thus children, thus brothers, thus a wife, in whom greater is the question, when it comes to this point, hate even her if she tries to hinder. Beware of Eve: then she is not your member, but a minister of the serpent. You who unwisely listened to her first voice and did not profit from the experience, but she is the same wife to hinder the husband, a martyr, from the crown, and with feminine wiles she prescribes to the man as if from the law and from the Gospel itself. "Listen," she says, "to the precept." Which precept? "What God has joined, let not man separate." Certainly listen, lest you disdain. What God has joined, let not man separate." But see that the wife does not separate from God. "But what He has joined, man should not separate." Should human affection separate man from God Himself? And where will be what you just heard: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Here then fear not: man does not separate what God has joined, but God separates the one trying to separate. Therefore do not listen to the wife saying to you: "I am your member, see you are a member." Answer: "If my member were to rot and in rotting sought to decay the whole body, would it not be excised by a doctor? Do I not hear the Lord Himself and true doctor saying: Indeed it is better for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to go into hell? " Therefore respond, well understanding the law, against her wrongly using the law. For the serpent does nothing great, attempts nothing great to deceive you from the law through Eve, who deceived Adam first without the law. For he saw you now feeding from the law and sets a snare in your food. But say: My eyes are always toward the Lord, for He will pull my feet from the snare. Thus even in this peril where you are tempted about the law, let your eyes be toward the Lord, for He too was tempted by the same serpent about the law.

Christ the Lord offers an example of struggle and victory.

For when the Lord deigned to be tempted by the devil as an example for us of struggle and victory, just as he deigned to be crucified by the impious, in the first temptation - for we read there were three - He responded to the devil with the law, saying: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread, He replied from the law: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Again, in another temptation: Worship me, prostrate, and I will give you these things, and He from the law: It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. But when that cunning serpent saw himself repelled twice by the law, he created a third snare from the law: "Throw yourself down," he said, "from the pinnacle of the temple, if you are the Son of God." And immediately to the instrument of the law, to fight from where he was defeated: "For it is written," he said: "He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you, lest you strike your foot against a stone." Therefore, he said, if you are the Son of God, the angels will bear you up so you will not be harmed; throw yourself and prove to us what you are. Does the Lord, because the devil dared to lay hands on the law, withdraw His hand from the law? And here too He wounded the enemy with the same law, cast him down, and made him retreat confounded. For He said: It is written: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And here, therefore, when you see your wife trying to hinder you from martyrdom, recite the law to yourself and say: "What God has joined together, let no man separate," and you recite the law [Gospel]: Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children...

The order of Christian love: God, wife, parents.

Do not be angry, therefore, wife. Whom do you become angry with in this matter, because he hates you, he also hates his father in this matter, he also hates his mother. But it is little for the wife, for it is written: A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. If the parents, that is the father and mother, have said to the son: “If your wife does not want to stay with us, you stay with us and leave her,” let the wife take this precept and fight, let her prescribe to the husband and say from the law of God: “Nay, leave them and do not leave me. For I recite: A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife.” You have recited, you have understood, you have conquered; certainly no one doubts that the father and mother attempting to separate the son from his wife must be left, so that the wife is not deserted. But understand, woman, if you choose to be faithful and do not disdain to hear the word of faith, understand: from where you have conquered, allow yourself to be overcome from thence. Behold we restrain your father-in-law and mother-in-law, your husband’s father and mother who begot, who nourished, who led him to this age at which he became your husband, we entirely restrain and correct by divine authority and say: “Do not wish to separate the son from the wife because of yourselves, for he is better separated from you than from her. If it can be, be all together. But if this cannot be, it is better that he be with her than with you without her.”
We handled your case. You won in this judgment: endure to be conquered in another, because we also handle your case there. Then we faithfully handled the case of your flesh: should we abandon the case of your eternal salvation? Learn. Your husband's father and mother did not separate you from your husband: you will not separate your husband from your God.

You have destroyed everyone who is unfaithful to you.

There, fornication is more to be feared in that chastity which the soul owes to God; fornication is more to be feared there, as the apostle feared saying: I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ Jesus. You see that chastity is also required there. Why do you not want to separate from your husband? So that you do not have the necessity of fornication? But in the martyrdom of your husband, you should fear nothing. For when he is crowned and translated from human affairs to divine, you will be a widow; if you marry, you will not be a fornicator. But perhaps you are ashamed to marry again as the wife of a martyr. Behold, with your husband crowned, your faith is also in safety. Do not draw your husband away from the embrace of spiritual matrimony. Chastity is also required there, and more there because it is greater there, more there because it is eternal there. You have lost everyone who fornicates away from you. For what else do you do, so that your husband is overcome by your blandishments, than that there is no virtue in him? In whom there will be no virtue, what a bad husband he will be! He is overcome and cast down, effeminate by your blandishments: how will he be your husband, who will no longer be a man? For what else do you do, but that he yields to your blandishments, despises God's commandments, denies Christ, sacrifices to idols? Behold the flesh you seek, the soul fornicates, behold it hears: You have lost everyone who fornicates away from you. But you want him to cling to you and be separated from God: listen to what follows: You have lost everyone who fornicates away from you; but for me, it is good to adhere to God. Listen to your husband armed with faith, hurling against your iniquity the darts of righteousness: I am certain, he says, that neither death nor life, nor angel nor principality, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Perhaps here you say: "But among all these he did not name the wife." Among all these, you say, he did not name the wife. Deceptive one, the apostolic virtue also watched against you by adding: nor any other creature. Or do you dare to say that you are not a creature? If you are a creature, nay because you are a creature, neither will you separate him whom no creature will separate.

Of the eternal glory of holy women.

We have spoken thus as if men hasten to martyrdom and are hindered by their wives: let us also console the weaker sex. How many women have been crowned and were not overcome by their husbands' unmanly blandishments! From where did Perpetua become perpetual, unless because she... perpetually? From where was Felicitas capable of such happiness, unless because temporal unhappiness did not frighten her? Therefore, lest even women be seduced in this matter by the blandishments of men, let them observe Perpetua, let them observe Felicitas, and let them hold onto perpetual happiness.

We are commanded to hate our own soul.

Therefore, let not the father and mother be angry in such a cause, nor the wife, nor the children, nor the brothers; and if they become angry, it is added: you should hate your own life as well. Therefore, in this cause you love your wife badly, who are also ordered to hate your own life. What does it profit a man, he says, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul? And yet you are ordered to hate it too, lest it deceive you as it wishes to remain here, wishes to always cling to this flesh, unwilling to migrate to better things; hate such a life, so that you do not have such a one. For what else does the danger of persecution whisper inwardly in men whom it tempts, than "Deny, live: afterwards you will repent"? It is the soul: it wants to perish. Hate it wanting to perish. Do not allow it to perish, chastise, reprove, teach, call upon God for help. For it withers away from you and weakens in the dangers of this life, it does not rightly contemplate eternal life with the eyes of faith: lift it up with encouragement and say: Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you trouble me? Perhaps it will answer you: "Because I am weak." Therefore you have what follows: Hope in the Lord, He will be your strength, He will be your firmness. Hope in the Lord, for I will confess to Him, I will not deny Him, for I will confess Him. But you, soul, were murmuring: "Deny Him." I will confess to Him: the salvation of my countenance and my God. Therefore whoever loves his life will lose it here, so that he may find it in eternal life. Therefore do not listen to those whispering contrary things, neither father nor mother, nor wife, nor children, nor even your own soul.

Every stage of human life has received the crown of martyrdom.

As long as a wife should be heard with the fear of conjugal separation, so long as she does not advise anything by which God is offended. Thus all ranks will hold their own order: outstanding virginity, subsequent widowhood, thirdly marital union, none without reward. Virgins should think of Mary, widows of Anna, married women of Susanna. All have their rewards, and from all these ranks martyrs were by no means lacking. A husband fears in the moment of martyrdom lest his wife should be Eve to him, and a wife fears in the moment of martyrdom lest her husband should be the serpent to her. But let no one hear anyone advising anything against God. Hitherto, carnal affection should prevail; the weakness of the flesh should not transcend the spiritual wall: let it be below, because it is below. Let the soul, subject to God, lead the flesh; let the soul not be seduced from God by the principality of the flesh: it is perverse. You wish to have authority in your house, much more does God in His. Hold and meditate on these things, imitate these things in all the solemnities of the martyrs, and the God of peace will be with you. Turned to the Lord...