Sermon 19

SERMO 19

SERMON OF SAINT AUGUSTINE
INHABITED IN THE RESTORED BASILICA
THE DAY OF GIFTS

May God turn His face away from our sins, but not from us.

Singing to the Lord, we have asked Him to turn away His face from our sins, and to blot out all our crimes. But you can notice, Brothers, that in the same psalm we have heard: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. However, it is said to God elsewhere: Do not turn away your face from me, to whom we have said: Turn your face away from my sins. While therefore man and sinner are one person, man says: Do not turn away your face from me, the sinner says: Turn your face away from my sins. This is thus said: Do not turn away your face from the one whom you have made, turn your face away from what I have done. Your eye, he says, distinguishes both, lest the nature perish because of the vice. You have made something, and I have made something. What you have made is called nature; what I have done is called vice. Let the vice be healed, so that nature may be preserved.

That God may forgive, you must acknowledge and punish your sin.

The crime, he says, I acknowledge it. If I acknowledge it, then you forgive. Let us live well, and living well let us not presume to be free from sin. Thus let life be praised so that pardon is sought. But desperate men, the less attentive they are to their own sins, the more curious they are about others'. For they seek not what they may correct, but what they may bite. And when they cannot excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others. This one did not show us an example of praying and making amends to God in this way, saying: Since I acknowledge my crime, and my sin is always before me. He was not attentive to the sins of others. He called himself to himself, nor did he flatter himself but penetrated, and descended deeper into himself. He did not spare himself, and therefore asked not impudently to be spared. For sin, Brothers, cannot remain unpunished. If sin remains unpunished it is unjust, therefore without doubt it must be punished. Your God says this to you: "Sin must be punished either by you or by me”. Therefore, sin is punished either by the penitent man or by God judging. It is punished either by you without you, or by God with you. For what is repentance but one's own anger against oneself? He who repents is angry with himself. For if it is not done deceitfully, whence is the striking of the breast? Why do you strike if you are not angry? Therefore when you strike your breast, you are angry with your heart, to satisfy your Lord. For it can also be understood that it is written: Be angry and do not sin. Be angry because you have sinned, and punishing yourself do not sin. Stir up your heart by repenting, and this will be a sacrifice to God.

God is appeased by the sacrifice of a contrite heart.

Do you wish to appease God? Know what you do with yourself, so that God may be appeased with you. Note in the same psalm; for it is read there: Because if you had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; with burnt offerings you will not be delighting. Therefore will you be without sacrifice? Will you offer nothing, appeasing God with no offering? What did you say? If you had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; you will not be delighting in burnt offerings. Follow, and listen, and say: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit, a contrite and humbled heart God does not spurn. Having cast away those things you used to offer, you have found what to offer. For you were offering to the fathers victims of cattle, and they were called sacrifices. If you had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it. Therefore you do not seek those, and yet you do seek a sacrifice. Your people say to you: What shall I offer who do not offer what I was offering? For the people themselves, as some die and others are born, is the same people. The sacraments are changed, not the faith. The signs by which something was signified are changed, not the thing signified. For Christ, a ram; for Christ, a lamb; for Christ, a calf; for Christ, a goat, all Christ. A ram, because he leads the flock: he was found in the thickets, when the father Abraham was ordered to spare his son, yet not to depart without offering a sacrifice. And Isaac was Christ, and the ram was Christ. Isaac was carrying wood for himself: Christ was carrying his own cross. For Isaac, a ram; not for Christ, Christ. But in Isaac and in the ram, Christ. The ram was held by the horns in the thicket; ask the Jews, whence they then crowned the Lord. He is a lamb: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world. He is a bull: consider the horns of the cross. He is a goat, because of the likeness of the sinful flesh. These things were veiled, until the day should breathe and the shadows be removed. Therefore, in the same Lord Christ, not only as the Word, but also as the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, both the ancient Fathers believed, and to us preached and prophesied the same faith. Whence the Apostle says: Having the same spirit of faith, as it is written: I believed, therefore I spoke. Having the same, he says, whom those who wrote also had: I believed, therefore I spoke. Therefore, having the same spirit of faith, because it is written by the ancients: I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak. Therefore, when holy David thus said: Because if you had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; with burnt offerings you will not be delighting, then those sacrifices were offered to God, which are not offered now. Therefore, when he was singing, he was prophesying, rejecting the present and foreseeing the future. With burnt offerings, he says, you will not be delighting. Therefore, when you will not be delighting in burnt offerings, will you remain without sacrifice? By no means. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not spurn. You have what to offer. Do not inspect the flock, do not prepare ships and journey to distant provinces from where to bring spices. Seek in your heart what is pleasing to God. The heart must be crushed. Do you fear lest it perish being crushed? There you have: Create in me a clean heart, O God. Therefore, that a clean heart may be created, the unclean must be crushed.

To be upright in heart, let what displeases God displease you. Exegesis of Psalm 72. Happiness is not to be sought in this world.

Let us be displeased with ourselves when we sin, because sins displease God. And because we are not without sin, in this at least let us be similar to God, that what displeases Him displeases us. In some part you are joined to God's will, because what displeases Him in you, He who made you also abhors. Your own Creator made you, but examine yourself and remove in yourself what is not from His workshop. For God, as it is written, created man upright. How good God is to Israel, to the upright in heart! Therefore, if you are upright in heart, God will not displease you, God will be good to you, you will praise God. Absolutely, both in what He grants and in what He chastises, you will praise God. For he who said: "How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart," had examined himself, who was once not upright in heart, and God displeased him. But later he repented and saw that God was not perverse but that he had not been upright. And remembering the times of his perversity and his present correction, he said: "How good is God to Israel! But to whom? To the upright in heart." What about you? He says: "But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped," that is, I almost fell. Why? Because I was envious of sinners, seeing the peace of sinners. From where then were his feet moved and his steps almost slipped? Because he did not keep silent and warned to be cautious. He expected from God, according to the Old Testament, not knowing that there were signs of future things there; he therefore expected from God the happiness of this present life, and sought on this earth what God was reserving for His people in heaven. He wanted to be happy here, when happiness is not found here. For happiness is indeed a great and good thing, but it has its own region. Christ came from the region of happiness, and He did not find it even here. He was mocked, reproached, seized, scourged, bound, struck with palms, afflicted with the insult of spittings, crowned with thorns, hung on wood. In the end, the death of the Lord. It is written in the Psalm [WHERE THEY CRIED OUT WHO KNEW]: "And the death of the Lord." Why then, servant, do you seek happiness here, where even the death of the Lord occurred? Therefore, when he whom I began to speak of sought happiness in a region not his own and adhered to God to obtain it in this life, serving Him and doing His commandments as he could, he saw that what he sought from God and for which he served Him was great, or so he thought, even though those who did not serve God but worshipped demons and blasphemed the true God, possessed it. He saw and was disturbed as if he had lost the fruit of his labor. This is why he was envious of sinners, seeing the peace of sinners. Indeed, you have there: "Behold, these are the sinners, and they prosper in the world; they have obtained riches. Surely in vain have I justified my heart, and in innocence washed my hands, and been scourged all day long?" I worship God, they blaspheme God. They have happiness, I have calamity. Where is the fairness? Hence the moved feet, hence the nearly slipped steps, hence the near destruction. For see to what danger he came. There he says: "And I said, 'How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?'" See to what danger he came by seeking earthly happiness as a great reward from God. Learn therefore, dearest ones, to despise it if you have it, and not say in your hearts: "I am well because I worship God." For you will see, however you think you are well, that those who do not worship God are well too, and your steps will be moved. For either you have it while worshipping God, and you will see that someone who does not worship God has such things, and thus you will think you worship God in vain because even he who does not worship God has happiness. Or you do not have it, and much more will you accuse God who gives it to His blasphemers and denies it to His worshippers. Learn therefore to despise earthly things if you wish to serve God with a faithful heart. Do you have it? Do not think you are good because of it, but make yourself good through it. Do you not have it? Do not think yourself bad because of it, but avoid the evil by which the good one did not come.

Happiness must be sought in the Lord.

For indeed, this one, coming to his senses and reproaching himself for having begun to think ill of God, a sinner longing and looking to the peace of sinners, thereby reproaching himself, says: "What is there for me in heaven, and what have I desired on earth from you?" Now coming to his senses, now with a corrected heart, he recognized how great is the value of the worship of God, which he had betrayed for a very base price when he sought earthly happiness for it. He recognized what is owed to the worshippers of God above, where we are commanded to have our heart, and we respond that we have our heart there. And would that we do not lie, at least at that hour, at least at that moment, at least at that instant of time when we respond. Therefore, looking back and correcting his heart, he reproached himself for having once sought earthly happiness as if it were the reward for the worship of God. But reproaching himself, he says: "What is there for me in heaven? What is there for me? Eternal life, incorruption, a kingdom with Christ, the company of angels, where there is no disturbance, no ignorance, no danger, no temptation; true, certain, secure stability. Behold, what is there for me in heaven. And what have I desired on earth from you? What have I desired on earth from you? What did I desire? Transient, perishable, fleeting riches. What did I desire? Gold, the paleness of the earth; silver, the bluish tint of the earth; honor, the vapor of time. Behold, what I desired from you on earth. And because I saw this among sinners, my feet were shaken, and my steps almost slipped. O how good He is to the upright in heart! Therefore, what are you seeking, faithful Prophet? Gold and silver and earthly riches? Does the faith of a faithful woman have as much value as what a prostitute has? So does the faith of a faithful man have as much value as what an actor, a charioteer, a hunter, a thief has? God forbid, my Brothers, God forbid that your faith is worth so much. May God turn this away from your hearts. It is not worth so much. Do you want to know? For it, Christ died. So why are you seeking earthly reward, addicted to gold and coins? You are doing a disservice to the faith for which Christ died. And what is, he says, its worth? Look to him who says: "What is there for me in heaven?" For he did not express what that would be. He said thus: "And what have I desired on earth from you?" By praising the one and dismissing the other, he nonetheless said both. What is the one? What eye has not seen. What is the other? What the faithful eye has not seen. What is the one? What the ulcerated Lazarus found. What is the other? What the puffed-up rich man had. What is the one? What cannot perish. What is the other? What cannot be held. What is the one? Where there will be no labor. What is the other? What fear does not abandon. For what is there for me in heaven? What? He who made heaven. Your God is the price of your faith. You will have Him, He Himself prepares Himself as the reward for His worshippers. Consider, Beloved, the whole creation—heaven, earth, sea, what is in heaven, what is on earth, what is in the sea, how beautiful, how wonderful, how worthily and orderly arranged. Do these things move you? They clearly do. Why? Because they are beautiful. What of Him who made them? I think you would blush if you saw the beauty of the angels. What then is the Creator of the angels? He Himself is the reward of your faith. Avaricious ones, what suffices for you if God Himself does not suffice for you?

The world is a winepress; now there are many civic pressures. Be oil.

Therefore let us live well, and that we may be able to do this, let us call upon Him who commanded this. Neither let us seek earthly reward from the Lord for our good life. Let us extend our intention to those things which are promised. Let us place our heart there, where it cannot decay with worldly cares. These things which occupy men pass away, they fly away, human life on earth is but a vapor. Moreover, so many and such daily dangers beset this fragile life. Great earthquakes are reported from the East. Several great cities have suddenly collapsed. The Jews, pagans, catechumens who were in Jerusalem were all terrified; all were baptized. It is said perhaps seven thousand men were baptized. The sign of Christ appeared in the clothes of the baptized Jews. These things are reported with the utmost consistency by the faithful brothers. The city of Sitifis was also struck by a very severe earthquake, such that for five days everyone stayed in the fields, and there it is said that nearly two thousand men were baptized. Everywhere God terrifies, because He does not wish to find something He must condemn. Something is being done in this press. The world is a press; its pressures are abundant. Be the oil, not the dregs. Let each one turn to God and change his life. The oil has a hidden path, it tends to its secrets. Another mocks, derides, blasphemes, shouts through the streets: the dregs flow out. Yet the master of the press, through His workers, through His holy angels, does not cease working. He knows His oil, knows what He receives, by what weight of pressure it is expressed. For the Lord knows those who are His. Flee the dregs, they are common and black. The Lord knows those who are His. Be the oil, flee the dregs. Let all who name the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Do not harbor hatred, or if you do, quickly end it. For those things are not to be feared. Do you fear the earthquake? Do you fear the roar of the sky? Do you fear wars? Also fear fever. Suddenly, when those great things are feared and do not come, and from an unexpected direction a slight fever carries off a man. And if that judge finds such a person as he did not know, to whom He will say: I do not know you, depart from me, what happens next? Where does one go? Through whom is one approached? From whence is renewed life redeemed? Who is allowed to live again and correct what he has done wrong? It is finished. Indeed, few of you have gathered, but if you have heard well, you abound. Do not be deceived by the one who deceives, because he who does not deceive does not deceive you.