Sermon 299A augm
SERMON 299/A augmented.
Sermon of Saint Augustine delivered to the people
on the birthday of the holy apostles Peter and Paul
Let us celebrate the solemnity of the Apostles, let us imitate their sanctity.
The feast day of the holy day that gathers us today, very well known to your ears, minds, and actions, we joyfully commemorate as participants with you in the same celebration. The birth of the apostles Peter and Paul has dawned, a birth not which entangled them in the world, but which liberated them from the world. For through human frailty, a man is born to trouble, but through Christian charity, martyrs are born to a crown. And this day, on account of their merit, is offered to us as a festal day to celebrate with solemnity and to imitate their sanctity, so that, remembering the glory of the martyrs, we may love in them what those who killed them hated, and loving virtue, we may honor their passion. In virtue, merit is gained, in suffering, the reward is restored [in coronation]. One day for two martyrs and two apostles: as we have received by Church tradition, not on one day both suffered, and on one day both suffered. Today, Peter suffered first, today Paul suffered afterwards: merit equaled the suffering, love rushed to the day. This was accomplished in them by Him who was in them, who suffered in them, who suffered with them, who helped those contending, who crowned those who conquered. But because we have mentioned that the day was set before us for a solemnity, not vainly nor for celebrating carnal joy, but for imitating spiritual crowns – and all wish to be crowned, few wish to contend – according to the order of sufferings, not according to the order of readings, let us hear from the Gospel the merit of Peter, let us hear from the apostolic letter the merit of Paul.
"The merit of Peter who fed the sheep of God."
Just now the Gospel was read, just now we heard: The Lord said to Peter: "Simon Peter, do you love me?" He replied: "I love", and the Lord: "Feed my sheep." And again the Lord: "Simon Peter, do you love me?" And he: "I love, Lord", and again the Lord: "Feed my sheep." He asks a third time no different than what he asked twice. It was appropriate for Him to ask a third time, it was already weary for Peter to respond a third time. For Peter was grieved, says the Gospel, because the Lord asked him a third time, and said: "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you." And the Lord: "Feed my sheep." He who asks what he knows, wishes to teach something. What therefore did the Lord, asking a third time what he knew, wish to teach Peter? What do we think, brothers, if not so that love would remove weakness, and that Peter would know it is necessary to confess love three times, who had denied three times out of fear? The merit of Peter, because he fed the sheep of God, would never have been crowned with true martyrdom, if he had fed his own sheep. Not without reason did the Lord add 'my sheep' three times, unless there would be those who would want to glory in martyrdom when they were feeding their own sheep. The apostolic soul, the Catholic soul, simple, humble, submissive to God, not seeking its own glory, but that of Him, so that he who glories, may glory in the Lord, feeds as a shepherd and in the shepherd is a shepherd. Heretics feed their own sheep, but to their own sheep, not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of defending the character, they impose the Lord's mark. For there are many - which we know, for examples abound everywhere -, who fearing to lose their possessions attach to some powerful ones, so that through this act another may possess, another may threaten. Because therefore they do not see their own name glorified through the world, they imposed the name of Christ on their own sheep, and would that they had acquired them and not plundered them! One buys, others have stolen. He buys, who redeems from the devil, who gave his blood as the price: a worthy price indeed, by which the world would be bought. Perhaps more was given than we were worth, but the buyer was a lover. Therefore they possess the sheep, no longer do I say their own, but those whom they want to be their own, lost slaves; to their theft they imposed the Lord's mark. But the true Lord does not rest; in other servants he emits true voices to the sheep, so that they may know the voice of the shepherd and return. Let them return to the flock, let them securely return: we receive the sheep, but do not corrupt the mark.
A faithful shepherd does not fear the fury of wolves.
Perhaps some of the brothers were wondering why, although we have a great zeal for winning and rescuing our brothers from the destruction of error, we have said nothing about the heretics in the previous sermons we gave; and it has been reported to us that those miserable and pitiable men said that the terror of the Circumcellions imposed silence upon us. Indeed, it is true that they do not cease trying to terrify us with the preaching of the word of peace, but if wolves might terrify us, what will we say to Him who says: "Feed my sheep"? They bare their teeth for tearing apart, we expose our tongue for healing. We certainly do speak, and we do not remain silent, and we say the same things, often the same things: let them hear what they do not want to hear, let them do what they ought to do. We are troublesome to those unwilling, but if we are therefore loved among the willing so that we may be endangered among the unwilling, we will have confidence in the name of Christ, persevering to preach the word of God, with your prayers helping us. Indeed, we believe that when you hear about our dangers, how we are living among the madness of brigands, you pray for us: mutual love tells us this. For we have not entered into your hearts, but the one who is in you, because he is also in us, indicates this to us. I certainly remind you that when you pray for us, you should pray that God especially guards our salvation, which according to Him is eternal salvation. As for this temporal salvation, may He do what He knows is best for us and for His Church. For we have heard from the same Master, Shepherd, and Prince, and Head of Shepherds: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; we also heard a very salutary prayer from the voice of the psalm: Do not hand me over, O Lord, according to my own desire to sinners. For anyone handed over to a sinner according to his own desire is badly handed over; the martyrs were not handed over to sinners, nor were the apostles whose natal day we celebrate today, but the Lord of martyrs and apostles was handed over to sinners first: all these were handed over to sinners, but not according to their own desire. Who then are those who are handed over to sinners by their own desire, except those who agree with their persecutors for the sake of some worldly desire? For instance, to not go astray from the example in which we dwell, if, when they threaten and rage with clubs, swords, and fires, we remain silent out of desire for this life, we will be handed over to sinners by our own desire, and we live as dead, having the safety of the flesh, losing the soul of charity. But so that we may live well, let us love both you, so that you are not deceived, and them, so that we may gain them. They threaten: let us reprove; they rage: let us pray; they drive away: let us teach.
"Let us take as examples the merits of the Apostles."
For we have also heard of the merit of Paul, so that now I may speak about his merits in the order I promised; he was telling his disciple, announcing to him his future passion and removing from him fear by his own example: "I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his manifestation and kingdom." He bound him by testimony and added: "Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season." Hearing this, we also, according to our measure, are timely to you, untimely to them. The word of God, the proclamation of peace, we do not cease to bring forth and frequent in the name of Christ, in season and out of season. Timely is he who hands bread to the hungry; untimely is he who urges food upon the sick: to one food is offered, to the other it is forced; to one it is a welcome, to the other a bitter refreshment, but love does not desert either. Let us take, therefore, the merits of the apostles as examples; let us not only not fear passions but also, if necessary, undertake them. Hear what the same apostle says: "For I am already being poured out, or sacrificed" - some manuscripts have "poured out," some have "sacrificed: being poured out and sacrificed pertain to offering" -: he knew his passion to be a sacrifice to God. Not those who killed him, but he offered such a sacrifice to the Father, the priest who had said: "Do not fear those who kill the body." "The time," he says, "of my departure is at hand." What then, O Paul, do you hope for in that departure? O laborer, for what rest? "The time," he says, "of my departure is at hand." What have you done? What do you hope for? "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." How did he keep the faith, if not because he was not terrified by persecutors from preaching the word of God in season and out of season? How then is it so wicked for us, that, when we fear, we do not keep the faith, especially to him who teaches us both to love better things and to fear greater things?
Christ our physician.
Whatever sweetness this life can have, it is not paradise, it is not heaven, it is not the kingdom of God, it is not the company of angels, it is not the fellowship of those citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. Let the heart be lifted upwards, let the flesh be trampled on the earth. The Lord taught us to despise transient things, to love eternal things; He taught us, healed us, and heals us, because He condescends: for He did not find us healthy, but the physician came to the sick. The cup of suffering is bitter, but it completely cures all diseases; the cup of suffering is bitter, but the physician drank it first, so that the sick would not hesitate to drink. Let it be drunk, if He wills: for His will towards us is better than our own; He is more prudent than we, knowing more what is beneficial for us than we ourselves, and knowing more what happens within us than we do. Just as a patient and a physician: the patient suffers and does not know what he has, the physician examines another's suffering and pronounces the truth. A man asks another what is happening within him and desires testimony of his inner self from the outside. And if human medical art can do this, how much more the power of the Lord! For on this very day I am reminded to propose an example of this matter. Before the Lord's suffering and with the passion of the Lord imminent, Peter himself, whose day we celebrate today, was sick and did not know what was happening within himself: he did not know at all the inner parts of his own weakness. He presumed he would die with the Lord: he dared more than he could. The sick man presumed upon future suffering, the physician pronounced future denial. Therefore, what wonder if in that weakness the physician's judgment was found to be truer than the patient's? It came as if to the accession of a greater fever, and he could not follow the suffering. Therefore, let this cup be drunk, if He gives it, who knows what He gives, to whom He gives it. But if He does not want it to be drunk, let Him heal in another way, provided He heals. Nevertheless, let us securely submit ourselves to the hands of the physician, altogether certain that He will apply nothing to us that is not expedient.
God, giving Paul the crown of righteousness, was crowning His own gifts.
The debt, which Paul demanded, he claimed as if from his merit. And what merit? "I have finished the race, I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith." You did these: what do you hope for? "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." The righteous judge will give it. But to whom was it given, made by the merciful Father? For what was Saul, who later became Paul, what was he like when Christ found him? Was he not languishing and at risk, frenzied in a certain madness against the Jews? Was he not the Saul who was present when Stephen was stoned, who guarded the garments for those stoning him, that he might stone with all hands? Was he not the one who, having received letters from the chief priests, went wherever he could to bind Christians and bring them to punishments? Was he not, as we read, going and breathing threats and murder, called, thrown to the ground by a heavenly voice, converted by the word to the Word? So that the Lord thus called him, what merits had preceded? I do not say what had preceded to be crowned, but what not to be condemned. He made the persecutor of the Church a preacher of peace; he forgave all his sins; he placed him in such a position that through him others’ sins would be forgiven. These were gifts of mercy, not due to merits. Listen to Paul himself, certainly not ungrateful for God's grace, listen to him recalling and proclaiming: "Who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy." Does he say there: "it was rendered to me"? If indeed he said: "Who formerly was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, but it was rendered to me," what was to be rendered for these deeds, except condemnation? But he says: "I obtained mercy. Punishment was not rendered to me, so that afterward a crown might be rendered." Behold, brothers, to whom punishment was due, a crown is due. "I was formerly," he says, "a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious." You see the merit: punishment was due. Therefore, punishment is not rendered, he obtains mercy instead of punishment. Mercy having been received, not ungrateful, he fights the good fight, finishes the race, keeps the faith. The forgiver of sins made himself a debtor. "To me remains," he says, "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me at that day." He does not say: "will give," but "will render"; if he will render, he owed. I dare to say entirely: if he will render, he owed. And had he borrowed, that he should owe? He owes the crown, he renders the crown, not made a debtor by our loan, but by his promise. For when he crowns his merits, he does not crown but his own gifts.
"God is a debtor because He is a promisor."
Therefore, most beloved brothers, because of this God is a debtor, because He is a promisor. So then if someone promises us something, when we meet him, to give it, we use this word: "Return what you promised me." We demand the debtor when we say: "Return," but we acknowledge kindness when we say: "Return what you promised," not "what you received." Thus He promised both to us all and to the whole world, He promised certain things, and these certain things are great. To not say much, He promised Christ, the passion of Christ, the blood of Christ for us, He promised through His prophets, He promised through His books, He promised the Church spread throughout the whole world, He promised victories to the martyrs, He promised the breaking of idols to the Church, He promised the final judgment and eternal life. To not recall many things—for it is difficult to enumerate all His promises—let us consider these in the meantime which I have said. He promised Christ: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us, and other things which you know and it is long to recount. He promised about His passion, His resurrection, His glorification: these things have been done. He promised martyrs would be strong in sufferings for His name, victorious in persistence. The world rages, it was promised to rage, not so that the seed would be trampled, but so that the crop would be sown; the blood of the martyrs has been shed everywhere; the harvest of the Church has filled the world: these things have happened. The Church itself was promised to reign in the Scriptures, not yet exhibited in reality. The apostles preached it, they sowed everywhere; what was said had not yet come: And all the kings of the earth shall worship him, all the kings shall serve him, it had not yet come, but it was held in promise. Thus God wanted human weakness to be secure from His promise, so that He would not only say but also write. He spoke to believers, guarded against doubters; and all things were held in a certain handwriting, in the holy Scripture, not yet in the experience of fulfillment. Even kings believed; for it was in the handwriting of God: All the kings of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him. Now that all nations also may serve, the Church has been expanded. You have that in the handwriting: And there will be regard in the idols of the nations; you have in the handwriting: O Lord God, my refuge, unto You shall the Gentiles come from the ends of the earth and say: Truly our fathers worshipped lies, idols which profited them nothing. Indeed, not the idols, but because of the idols the demons and men raged, killed the martyrs, made them triumph over themselves: it is returned to Babylon what it did.
Of Babylon and Jerusalem.
For a certain impious city is described throughout all lands as the consensus of human impiety, and this Babylon is mystically named in the Scriptures. Again, a certain pilgrim city in this land is described throughout all nations in the consensus of piety, and this is named Jerusalem. Now both cities are intermixed, in the end they will be separated. And divine Scripture addresses both in many places, and in one place it says to Jerusalem: “Render to her as she has done, render to her double,” that Jerusalem might render double to Babylon. What is this double? How do we understand double to be rendered to the city of Babylon? It killed Christians for its idols, but it could not kill Christ, our God. It ravaged the flesh of Christians, but it did not harm the spirit, it did not touch our God. Double is rendered to her, in men and in her gods. For they killed men, but they could not kill our God. Now indeed, in Jerusalem men, having slain treachery, are received; idols are broken. They seek their people and do not find them: for Christians are made from pagans. He who is no longer what he was has been slain. For example, Paul, who was first Saul, though he lives as a preacher, the persecutor has been slain. Once Christians sought where they might hide from raging pagans, now pagans seek where to hide their gods. And when these are broken, their defenders still do not wish to be silent, but yet they murmur in part, as if indeed, should they dare at some time, they can do anything other than what He who holds us has promised, or indeed, when they have done something, did they do it by their own power? Behold, Christians were seized, they confessed Christ, and they were killed. Let someone confess Mercury, swear by Mercury; when he will have seen a single or double watch-post, "I did not do it, I was not involved, I did not sacrifice; where did you see me?" But those holy servants of God: “Were you in the congregation of Christians?” “I was.” We read the confessions of martyrs, we exult in the joy of the examples. These things have been done, rendered by the Lord because they were promised. Previously they were held in Scripture, now they are also exhibited. And those things which I said about idols have been exhibited and are being exhibited. And the Church, spread throughout the whole world, has now almost held all nations, and those it does not hold, it will hold; it grows daily, the Christian people everywhere increase in the name of Christ.
On the final judgment of God.
Few among Christians live well, many among Christians live badly. But these few, in comparison to their chaff, are few; in comparison, I say, to their chaff they are few. This threshing floor will be winnowed, there will be an immense heap of chaff, but also the shining mass of the saints will appear. The chaff will go into the fire, the wheat into the barn, yet for now both are everywhere. Whence this? Those who sowed, brothers, whose memory we celebrate today, through them God exhibited to him what He promised them, and through them what He promised us. What did He promise them? Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. What did He promise us? In your seed all nations will be blessed. How was this accomplished through them? Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. What will the heretics recite against these things? I think that they too today celebrate the birth of the apostles; indeed, they strive to celebrate this day, but they do not dare to sing this psalm.