Sermon 360

SERMO 360

To the Vigils of Maximian, about a Certain Donatist who Returned to the Church

The prayer of one who has been converted. He is compared with Paul.

Thanks be to God, brothers, congratulate your brother who was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found. Thanks to the patience and mercy of our Lord God: patience, because He bore with the one who delayed; mercy, because He deigned to accept the one returning. This is the vineyard where I did not work, and I expended my strength on another's fields. O vineyard beloved by my Lord, not only did my labor bring you no profit, but I even served your enemy against you. I worked with great sweat when I did not gather for you. Thanks to your planter, with whom no recompense is lost, even for the workers called at the last hour. I arrive late, but I do not despair of the denarius. I who was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious against you: but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly. For I held the words of my parents, not the Patriarchs, not the Prophets, not the Apostles; but the parents of my flesh. I did not acquiesce to flesh and blood; but I acquiesced, having been overcome by the truth, and rested, having been returned to unity. Did I not read the same Scriptures that I now read? But even that Teacher of the Gentiles, a chosen vessel, from Saul to Paul, from haughty to the least, from robber to shepherd, from wolf to lamb, was a Hebrew from Hebrews, a Pharisee according to the law, learned in the law at the feet of Gamaliel: and yet Christ, whom he read about in the Prophets, he neither knew sitting in heaven, nor allowed to be worshipped on earth. Ignorant of the faith of His passion and resurrection, he sang with his mouth, and, raving in error, ravaged. According to the Prophets, in which he was born and grew up, Christ, already risen from the dead, was sitting in heaven; and he was still blinded by the lies of his parents, because his disciples had stolen him from the tomb. So I too was surrounded by the voices of the Sacred Scriptures concerning the Catholic Church spread throughout the world; and I was made deaf by the false accusations of traitors instigated by my parents. I do not compare myself to Paul in merits, but in sins. Even if I did not deserve to be so good, yet I was not so bad without the remedy of correction. Neither did he recognize the bridegroom in the Books he read, nor did I recognize the bride. He who revealed to him what is written about the glorification of Christ: "Be exalted above the heavens, O God;" He revealed to me what follows about the outpouring of the Church: "Let your glory be over all the earth." Both testimonies are open to those who see, but closed to the blind. The baptism of Christ opened his eyes; the peace of Christ opened mine. The washing of holy water made him new; but charity covered the multitude of my sins.