Sermon 364

SERMO 364

The Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop, on Samson

Exhortation.

In this reading, which has been recited to us, dearest brothers, many very obscure divine mysteries are contained; which, because they cannot be explained briefly, for this reason alone we wanted to conclude the morning psalms earlier, lest a longer sermon should weary you. And because now you are about to leave the church at the customary hour, hear what needs to be said, according to your custom, with attentive mind in silence and quiet.

The strength of Samson was from grace, not from nature.

But Samson, dearest brothers, the strength he had was from the grace of God, not from nature: for if he were strong by nature, when his hair was cut, his strength would not have diminished. And where was that most powerful strength, except in what the Scripture says: The Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him? Therefore, that strength belonged to the Spirit of the Lord. In Samson, it was a vessel; in the Spirit, there was the fullness. The vessel can be filled and emptied. Every vessel has its completeness from elsewhere; thus in Paul, that grace was commended when he was called the chosen vessel. Let us therefore see what kind of riddle Samson proposed to the Philistines. He said, "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet." This riddle was disclosed, reported to friends, and solved: Samson was defeated. If this man is righteous, it is very hidden, and the justice of this man is profound: for it is also read that he was overcome by feminine wiles, and that he went in to a harlot, it seems that his merit wavers to those who understand the secrets of truth less. For even a prophet is ordered by the command of the Lord to take a harlot as a wife. Perhaps we could say that these things were not criminal or damnable in the Old Testament, since what he either said or did was a prophecy. Let us therefore inquire what it signifies that he was defeated, what it signifies that he was victorious, what it signifies that he yielded to feminine wiles, what it signifies that he revealed the secret of the riddle, what it signifies that he went in to a harlot, what it signifies that he caught foxes, and with the tails of the foxes, to which he tied fire, burned the enemies' crops. Indeed, he could have burned those crops in a simple manner if he did not contemplate a mystery in the foxes. Could dry straw not burn, unless the fire was drawn through it by the foxes? Let us therefore understand that great mysteries lie hidden here.

Samson completely prefigured Christ.

What was Samson? If I say that he represented Christ, I believe I speak the truth; but immediately it will arise in the minds of those thinking: And was Christ conquered by the blandishments of women? And how is it understood that Christ could have entered into a harlot? Then also, when is Christ shorn of his head, stripped of strength, bound, blinded, mocked? Awake, faith, attend to what Christ is: not only what Christ did, but also what Christ suffered. What did he do? He acted as strong, he suffered as weak. In one, I understand both: I see the fortitude of the Son of God, I see the weakness of the Son of Man. Another point is added, because Christ as a whole, as Scripture commends him, is both head and body: as the head of the Church is Christ, so the body of Christ is the Church; and it alone is not, but with its head, the whole Christ is. Thus, the Church has in itself the strong, it has the weak; it has those who feed on solid food, it has those who are still to be fed with milk. I add another point which must be confessed: in the society of sacraments, in the communion of Baptism, in the participation of the altar, it has the just and it has the unjust. Now, for the body of Christ, as you know, is the threshing floor, later it will be the barn; yet, while it is the threshing floor, it does not refuse to endure chaff: when the time comes for storage, it will separate the wheat from the chaff. Therefore, some things Samson did from the role of the head, some from the role of the body, yet all from the role of Christ. In that Samson performed virtues and miracles, he represented Christ, the head of the Church: in what he did prudently, he bore the image of those who live justly in the Church: where he was caught by surprise and acted unwisely, he represented those who are sinners in the Church. The harlot whom Samson takes in marriage is the Church, which before the knowledge of one God had fornicated with idols, whom Christ later joined to himself; after she received the faith illuminated by him, she also merited that through him she should understand the sacraments of salvation, and by the same be revealed the mysteries of heavenly secrets. For the question itself, which contains: “Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness,” what else does it signify, if not Christ rising from the dead? Indeed, from the eater, that is from death, which devours and consumes all things, came forth that food, which said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” Whom human iniquity exasperated, and to whom the bitterness of vinegar and gall was offered, from him the people of the Gentiles, being converted, received the sweetness of life; and thus from the mouth of the dead lion, that is, from the death of Christ, who lay down to sleep as a lion, came forth the swarm of bees, that is, Christians. But when it says: “You would not have solved my riddle, unless you had plowed with my heifer,” this heifer is the Church, which, having been revealed by her husband the secrets of faith, the mysteries of the Trinity, of the resurrection, of judgment and of the kingdom, has spread them by the doctrine and preaching of the Apostles and saints to the ends of the earth, and has promised to those who understand and recognize the rewards of eternal life.

Samson, the companion of the heretics, bore the figure.

It follows: Samson was angry because his companion took his wife. This companion carried the figure of all heretics. A great secret, my brothers. For the heretics, who divided the Church, wanted to lead and take away the wife of their Lord; for from the Church and the gospels came those who, through the adultery of impiety, attempt to invade the Church, that is, the body of Christ, into their part. Hence that faithful servant and friend of the Lord's bride speaks: For I have betrothed you to one man to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And the depraved companion touches the person with the zeal and rebuke of faith: And I fear, he says, lest as the serpent deceived Eve, so your minds may be corrupted from the truth which is in Christ Jesus. But who are these companions, that is, the deserter heretics, who wanted to invade the Lord's bride, if not Donatus, Arius, Manichaeus, and the other vessels of error and perdition? The apostle speaks of such people: I hear, he says, that there are divisions among you. For one says: I am of Paul; another: I am of Apollos; another: I am of Cephas. Let us see, therefore, what this mystical Samson did, offended in his wife by a stranger. For he caught foxes, that is, adulterating companions, of whom it is said in the Song of Songs: Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards. What does it mean, catch? that is, apprehend, convict, refute, lest the ecclesiastical vineyards be destroyed. What else is it to catch foxes, but to overcome heretics with the authority of divine law, and to bind and restrain them with the testimonies of the holy Scriptures as if with certain chains? He catches the foxes, he binds them, and sets fire to their tails. What do the tied tails of the foxes mean? What are the tails of the foxes, if not the rear parts of the heretics (who have pleasant and deceitful beginnings) bound, that is, condemned and dragging fire at the end; so that they consume the fruits and works of those who acquiesce to their seductions? He says to a man now: Do not listen to heretics, do not yield to heretics, do not be seduced by heretics. He replies: Why? did not this and that man listen to the heretics? did not any Christian else commit so many evils, perpetrate so many adulteries, exercise so many robberies? and what evil befell him? The first parts of the foxes are what the seduced notice; and the fire is behind. Nothing, he says, has happened to him now. What, because nothing precedes, does nothing follow? He will come to the later fire. Do you think, therefore, that the heretics drag fire, from which the fruits of the enemies burn, and they themselves will not burn? Without a doubt the foxes, where they set fire to the crops, they themselves indeed burned. Judgment will come upon the heretics later: what they do not see now, they have behind them; they soothe with flatteries, show their first parts free: in the judgment of God they are bound by their tails, that is, they drag fire in their rear parts, because wickedness precedes their punishments.

The deeds of Samson and Christ are to be compared.

But that he entered to the harlot, if he did so without a cause, whoever did so is unclean; but if a prophet did so, it is a sacrament. If he did not enter to lie with her, perhaps he entered for the sake of a mystery. But we do not read that he lay with her. It follows: But his enemies awaited him at the gates of the city to capture him when he had gone out from the harlot to whom he had entered; but he was sleeping. See, it is not written that he mingled with the harlot, but it is written that he was sleeping. Where he rose, it says, in the middle of the night he went out and took away the gates of the city with the bars, and carried the same gates to the top of the mountain, and could not be held by the Philistines. He took away the gates of the city by which he had entered to the harlot, and lifted them to the mountain. What is this? Both hell and the love of a woman, Scripture joins them together: the harlot's house held the image of hell. Correctly it is set for hell: because it repels no one, draws everyone entering to it. We recognize in this place the works of our Redeemer: after the synagogue, to which he had come, was separated from him by the devil, after it trampled him, that is, crucified him in the place of Calvary, he descended to the infernal regions; and the enemies guarded the place of the sleeping one, that is, the tomb, and wanted to capture him, whom they could not see. But he was sleeping: here it is said for this reason, because it was not true death. What is said: He rose at midnight, this signified that he rose in secret: for he suffered openly, but to his disciples alone and to some certain individuals, after he had resurrected, he was manifested. Therefore, what he entered, everyone saw; what he rose from, few recognized, held, and touched. However, he takes away the gates of the city, that is, removes the gates of hell. What is it to take away the gates of hell, but to remove the dominion of death? For it received and did not release. But what did the Lord Jesus Christ do after taking away the gates of death? He ascended to the top of the mountain: for we know that he both resurrected and ascended into heaven.

The mystery of Samson revealed and fulfilled by Christ.

But what is it that he had power in his hair? And this, brethren, pay careful attention to: he had no strength in his hand, not in his foot, not in his chest, not in his very head, but in his hair, in his locks. What are hairs? What are locks? And we see, and the Apostle, when asked, answers us: Hair is a covering; and in the covering, Christ had power when the shadow of the old law covered him. Therefore the hair of Samson was in a covering: because in Christ one thing was seen, and another was understood. But what does it mean that the secret was betrayed, and Samson was shaved? The law was despised, and Christ suffered: for they would not have killed Christ if they had not despised the law; for they knew themselves that it was not lawful for them to kill Christ. They said to the judge: "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death." Samson was shaved, the thickets were revealed, the covering was removed; and Christ, who was hidden, appeared. But the revived hair covered his head again, because the Jews did not want to recognize the risen Christ. He was indeed at the mill, he was blinded, he was in the house of the prison: the house of the prison, or the mill, is the toil of this age. But the blinding of Samson indicates those, who, blinded by unbelief, recognized neither Christ working miracles nor ascending to the heavens; therefore, the blindness they inflicted signified the blindness of the Jews. Christ was both captured and killed by the Jews; but by killing him, they rather killed themselves. Therefore, the enemies brought him to mock him. Now here observe the image of the cross: for he stretched out his hands to the two columns as if to the two beams of the cross; but being killed, he crushed his adversaries, and his suffering became the slaughter of his persecutors. And thus Scripture concludes: He killed more in his death than he had killed in his life. Which mystery was clearly fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ: for our redemption, which he had hardly accomplished while alive, he consummated in his death. Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.