Sermon 22

SERMO 22

SERMON OF SAINT AUGUSTINE ON PSALM 67.

In the words of the prophet wishing, the foreknowledge of announcing is understood.

We have heard and trembled at what is prophesied in the voice of the psalm. For it says: As smoke vanishes, let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God. I do not doubt, dearest brethren, that the hearts of all of you have been shaken, nor that anyone's conscience has stood fearless under these words. For who will boast of having a pure heart? Or who will boast of being free from sins? Thus, when Scripture says: As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God, who would not tremble, who would not jump in dread? What then do we do, and what hope do we have? For these things are not sung in vain. Or truly when the Prophet says these things, does he wish them for men and not rather foresee what is to come? Indeed, the words appear as a figure of one wishing, but are understood as the foreknowledge of one announcing. For just as some things in the Scriptures of the Prophets are narrated as if done in the past when they are foretold as future, so some things are said as if by the wish of one desiring. But those who rightly understand what they hear recognize the vision of one foretelling. These psalms were said and written long before the birth of the Lord's incarnation. Not before God Christ but before Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. For certainly Father Abraham was long before King David, in whose time these psalms were sung. The Lord, however, said: Before Abraham was, I am. For He is the Word of God through which all things were made. And He, fulfilling the Prophets, predicted that He would come in the flesh. And His incarnation pertains to the passion. For He could not have suffered the things written in the Gospel, except in the mortal and passible flesh that He bore. And there, indeed, we read how, when the Lord was crucified, those who crucified Him divided His garments among themselves, and when they found a tunic in them woven from above, they did not want to tear it, but cast lots for it, so that it might come to the one to whom it fell whole, because it signified the love that cannot be divided. Therefore, while these things are now narrated as having been done in the Gospel, they were prophesied many years before in the psalm, as if they were already done. They pierced my hands and my feet, I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me: they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. All are spoken as if past, and foretold as future. Therefore, just as future deeds are signified in the words of the past tense, so the mind of the one foretelling must be understood in the figure of one wishing. Thus, of Judas, the Lord's betrayer, as if the Prophet wishes for him what he predicts will come. And of the Jews themselves: Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block. What was predicted of them without a doubt the Apostle explains, just as the Apostle Peter recalls what was foretold under the same figure of Judas.

"We should not be displeased with the known judgment of God."

Nor without cause are things that are to come spoken of as if they have already happened. For to God, they are so certain that they are already considered done. And it seems the Prophet speaks as if wishing for what he foresees as certain to come, showing nothing else as it seems to me, except that we should not displease ourselves with the known judgment of God, which He has established as fixed and immovable. And so in the Acts of the Apostles, when a certain prophet named Agabus predicted that the apostle Paul would endure many sufferings from the Jews in Jerusalem and would even be bound, when the brothers, upon hearing this, wanted to recall and retain him so that he would not go there: "What are you doing," he said, "weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And when the brothers saw the man's firm constancy to endure everything, they said: "Let the will of God be done." Do you think then that because they said "Let the will of God be done," they wished for the Apostle to suffer such things, and not rather devoutly subjected their minds to the sublime and divine decree? Similarly, the Prophet, when he says: "As wax melts before the fire, so may the wicked perish before God," sees this as most certain to befall sinners, and he is pleased with what God has decreed, so that he himself may not displease God.

Now repentance is fruitful.

What then do we do, Brothers, except to change our lives while there is still time, and correct our deeds if there are any that are evil? So that what is undoubtedly going to come will not find us among the sinners on whom it will come, not because we will not be, but so that it will not find us as those of whom it has been foretold it will come. For this reason, the judge threatens that he will come, so that he does not find any to punish when he comes. This is why the Prophets sing, so that we are corrected. If he wanted to condemn, he would be silent. No one who wants to strike says, “Watch out.” All, Brothers, that we have heard through the Scriptures, is the voice of God saying, “Watch out.” And all that we suffer, the tribulations in this life, are God's scourging intending to correct us so that he does not condemn us in the end. They seem hard, they are annoying, they are terrifying when recounted, what each person suffers severely in this life; but in comparison with the eternal fire, they are not just small, they are nothing. Therefore, whether we are scourged, or when others are scourged, we should be reminded. All these, Brothers, that are inflicted by the Lord in this life, are admonitions and goads for our correction. But the eternal fire will come, about which it will be said to those who will be placed on the left: Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Then indeed they will repent. For it is written in a certain book of Wisdom: They will say among themselves, repenting and groaning through distress of spirit: What has pride profited us, and what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow. There will be repentance there, but it will be unfruitful. There will be repentance there, but it will have pain without remedy. Now repentance is fruitful, when correction is free. Feel repentance at the voice of Scripture. For at the voice of the present judge, repentance will be in vain. Then he will pronounce the sentence. And there will be no one to blame, when he is to pronounce the sentence. For he has not been silent before the sentence. Nor has he delayed, except so that you may correct yourself, when he even allowed the thief on the cross to change himself. For then the thief hanging with the Lord believed in Christ, when the disciples wavered about him. The Jews despised him who raised the dead, the thief did not despise him hanging with him on the cross. Therefore, there is no reason to say to the Lord at the end: “You did not allow me to live well”; or: “You did not give me the time for correction”; or: “You did not show me what to seek, what to avoid.” See that he is not silent, see that he delays, see that he entreats, exhorts, threatens. He has placed his word on high. It is recited throughout the whole world to the entire human race. There is no longer anyone who can say: “I did not know, I did not hear.” What is said in the psalm is being fulfilled: Nor is there anyone who can hide from its heat. Now, therefore, his heat is in his word. Change now from his heat, and do not melt like wax from his fire.

The day of judgment will come.

For, my Brothers, that which the impious now laugh at, the mockers now scorn, what they think is sung falsely, will come one day. One day it will come. If so many things that were predicted have not yet come, let us despair of that also one day coming. But if we now see all the things predicted about the Church for the future fulfilled, and even the eyes of the blind are struck by them, why do we doubt that the others will also come? When it was said that the Church of Christ would be in the whole world, it was said by a few and laughed at by many. Now what was predicted so long ago is already fulfilled. The Church is spread throughout the whole world. Thousands of years ago it was promised to Abraham: In your seed all nations shall be blessed. Christ came from the seed of Abraham, all nations are now blessed in Christ. Schisms and heresies were predicted to be in the future. We see those. Persecutions were predicted. They were carried out by kings worshiping idols. The earth was filled with martyrs because of those idols against the name of Christ. The seed of blood was sown, the crop of the Church arose. Nor did the Church pray in vain for its enemies. Even those who persecuted believed. It was also foretold that those idols would be overthrown through the name of Christ, for we find this in the Scriptures. A few years ago, Christians read those things and did not see them. They were still expecting those things to come and so they passed away. They did not see them, but yet believing that they would come, they went to the Lord with faith. In our times, even those things are seen. We see all the things that were predicted about the Church earlier fulfilled. Is only the day of judgment not to come? Is it alone foretold, and it will not come? Are we so hard and of such a stony heart, that we read the Scriptures and see everything that is written happening exactly to the letter, and we despair of the things that remain? How much remains compared to what we see already shown to us? God has shown us so many things. Will He defraud us of the rest? The judgment will come, giving due to merits, good things to the good, bad things to the bad. Let us be good, and securely await the judge.

Merciful and just is God.

My brothers, particularly now, listen to me speaking. I do not wish to account for the past with you. From today, change yourself so that tomorrow may find you different. But in our perversity, we desire God to be so merciful that He is not just. Others, on the other hand, trusting in their own righteousness, so desire Him to be just that they do not want Him to be merciful. God presents Himself as both; He provides both. His mercy does not foreclose His justice, nor does His justice remove His mercy. He is merciful and He is just. How do we prove He is merciful? He spares sinners now and grants forgiveness to those who confess. How do we prove He is just? Because the day of judgment is to come, which He now delays, but does not remove. And when it comes, He will recompense according to merits. Do you wish that those who turn away be given what will be given to those who convert? Brothers, does it seem just to you that Judas should be placed where Peter is placed? He too would be placed there if he corrected himself. But despairing of pardon, he rather hanged himself than implored the clemency of the King.

God grants forgiveness to the repentant.

Therefore, brothers, as I started to say, there is no reason to reproach God. We will have nothing to say against Him when He comes to judge. Let each person consider their own sins, and amend them now while there is time. Let sorrow be fruitful, not sterile repentance. It is as if God says this: "Behold, I have indicated the sentence but have not yet delivered it. I have foretold, not fixed." Why are you afraid because I said: "If you change, it will change"? For it is written that God repents. Does God repent as humans do? For it is said: If you repent of your sins, I will repent of all the evils I was going to do to you. But does God repent as if he had made a mistake? Rather, repentance in God is called a change of sentence. However, this change of sentence is not unjust, but just. Why just? The accused has changed, so the judge has changed the sentence. Do not be afraid. The sentence has changed, not justice. Justice remains intact, because a just one must spare the changed. Just as he does not spare the obstinate, so he spares the changed. He himself is the king of pardons, who is the giver of the law. He sent the law, he came with indulgence. The law made you guilty, the giver of the law acquits you. Rather, he does not acquit, for to acquit is to judge as innocent. Instead, he grants forgiveness to the penitent. For all are guilty who are entangled in their sins. No one should wish to be acquitted. Let all plead for mercy. Mercy is given to the changed. And we will be secure when we hear: As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before God.

Let man do what he fears in the future.

Certainly, Brothers, let sinners perish from before the face of God. Let sinners perish now, and not let sinners perish. If they begin to live justly, sinners will indeed perish, but men will not perish. The man sinner has two names. Man is one name, and sinner is one name. In these two names, we understand that one of them God made, and the other man made. For God made man, but man made himself a sinner. Why then do you tremble, when God says to you: Let sinners perish from before my face? God says this to you: "Let what you made in you perish, and let what I made remain." And now the fire burns in the heat of the word, the matter is in the fervor of the Holy Spirit, as we have already said, for it is written in another psalm: And there is no one who can hide from its heat. But the heat of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle says: Fervent in spirit. Therefore, before the face of God, put for yourself the Scripture of God in the meantime. Melt away from it. Let it repent you, when you hear these things about your sins. But when it repents you, and when you torment yourself under the heat of the word, when even tears run, do you not find yourself similar to wax melting and as if running into tears? Therefore, do now what you fear in the future, and you will not have in the future what you fear.

The proud perish like smoke.

Only just like smoke shall I not fail. For both things you have set there, perhaps not without reason, because there is also a difference of sins. In that one word the psalm placed both: As smoke fails, let them fail; and: as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before God. Who are those who fail like smoke? Who are they, if not the proud, not confessing their sins, but defending them? Why are they compared to smoke? Because smoke lifts itself up, exalts itself as if into heaven. But the higher it rises, the more easily it vanishes and disperses. Again, consider what I said. Smoke is more solid when it is near the fire and near the earth. It has not yet vanished so much, it has not yet been so scattered into the winds. But when does it become thinner, vanish, and disperse? When it has lifted itself up much. Therefore, because the proud lift themselves up against God like smoke against the sky, it remains that they fail in such a way and perish, dissipated by the winds of their own vanity's elevation, just as smoke, having been lifted up, inflated with a swollen, not solid mass, perishes. Thus is smoke. You see a great bulk. You have as though something to see, and yet you do not have something to hold. Brothers, above all loathe such a punishment, lest you defend your sins. And if you still do them, do not defend them. Submit yourselves to God. And beat your breasts in such a way that even those that are left may not be done. Strive not to do them, and if it is possible, do none at all. But if it is not possible that you do none at all, let that pious confession remain. For there will be respect of His mercy that, while you strive to destroy all and, as much as He helps you in destroying, regarding the rest that remain with you, found on the way and taken up in effort, He may easily forgive. Just strive to advance, not to fail. If the last day does not find you victorious, let it find you at least still fighting, not captured and enslaved.

God gave the blood of His Only Begotten for us.

However, the mercy of God is most abundant, and His kindness is generous, for He redeemed us with the blood of His Son, when we were nothing because of our sins. For He did something great when He created man in His own image and likeness. But because we chose not to be nothing by sinning, and drew the inheritance of mortality from our parents, and became a mass of sin, a mass of wrath, it pleased Him, nevertheless, through His mercy to redeem us at such a cost. He gave for us the blood of His only-begotten, innocently born, innocently living, innocently dying. He who redeemed us at such a price does not wish those He bought to perish. He did not buy those to destroy, but bought those to give life. If our sins surpass us, God does not scorn His own price. He gave a great price. Nor, however, let us flatter ourselves about His mercy, if we have not tried against our sins. Nor if we have committed some particularly grave sins, should we hope that mercy will be combined with iniquity. For will He indeed place those who have done nothing of how the corrected should live, but remained in obstinacy and hardness of heart, and even accused God by defending their sins, in the same place where He placed the holy Apostles, Prophets, Patriarchs, and His faithful servants who deserved well, serving Him, walking in chastity, modesty, humility, performing alms, forgiving what they suffered from anyone? For such is the way of the just, such is the way of the saints who hold God as father, who hold the Church as mother. Offending neither that parent nor this one, but living in love of both parents and hastening towards eternal inheritance, the inheritance is given to each without harming the father or mother.

God the Father, Church the Mother.

Because two parents begot us unto death, two parents begot us unto life. The parents who begot us unto death are Adam and Eve. The parents who begot us unto life are Christ and the Church. And my father who begot me was Adam to me; and my mother was Eve to me. We were born according to this lineage of the flesh, indeed by the gift of God - because even that gift is not from another, but from God - and yet, Brothers, how were we born? Surely to die. Predecessors begot successors for themselves. Did they beget successors with whom they would always live here? But as ones who would pass away, they begot successors for themselves. However, God the Father and Mother Church do not generate for this purpose. They generate for eternal life because they themselves are eternal. And we have the promised inheritance from Christ, eternal life. According to that, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, grew and was nurtured. Suffered, died, and resurrected He received the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. In that human He received resurrection and eternal life. He received it in that human. But in the Word, He did not receive it, because He remains unchangeable from eternity to eternity. Therefore, because that flesh which was resurrected and vivified ascended into heaven received resurrection and eternal life, this was promised to us. We await that inheritance, eternal life. For not yet has the whole body received it, because the head is in heaven, the members are still on earth. Nor will the head alone receive the inheritance, and the body be left behind. The whole Christ will receive the inheritance, the whole according to the human, that is, the head and the body. Therefore we are the members of Christ, let us hope for the inheritance. Because when all these things have passed away, we will receive this good which will not pass away, and escape this evil which will not pass away. For both are eternal. For He has not promised something non-eternal to His, and He has not threatened the wicked with something temporal. Just as He promised to the saints eternal life, blessedness, the kingdom, an everlasting inheritance without end, so He threatened the wicked with eternal fire. If we do not yet love what He promised, at least let us fear what He threatened.