Sermon 368
SERMO 368
SERMON OF BISHOP AUGUSTINE ON WHAT IS WRITTEN:
"HE WHO LOVES HIS LIFE SHALL LOSE IT"
If there is no one who hates his own flesh, much more no one hates his own soul.
Just now, brothers, when the divine reading was read, we heard the Lord saying: "He who loves his soul will lose it." This statement seems to be contrary to what the Apostle says: "No one ever hates his own flesh." If therefore there is no one who hates his own flesh, much less is there anyone who hates his own soul. Indeed, the soul is greatly preferred to the flesh: because it is the inhabitant, the flesh is the dwelling; and the soul rules, while the flesh serves; the soul is superior, the flesh is subordinate. If therefore no one ever hated his own flesh, who is there that hates his own soul? By this, the present evangelical reading brought us not a small question, where we heard: "He who loves his soul will lose it." It is dangerous to love the soul, lest it perish. But if it is therefore dangerous to love your soul lest your soul perishes, you should not love it, because you do not want it to perish. But if you do not want it to perish, you love it. What is this? If I love, I lose: therefore I should not love, lest I lose. But because I fear to lose, for that reason I do not love; and certainly, what I fear to lose, I love. The Lord also says elsewhere: "What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his own soul?" Behold, because thus the soul is to be loved, so that it is preferred to the gain of the whole world; and yet, let him who loves his soul take heed, because if he loves he will lose it. Do you not want to lose it? Do not love it; but if you do not want to lose it, you cannot help but love it.
Of the perverse love of the soul which comes from hatred, and of the right hatred which comes from love.
There are those who perversely love their own soul: and this the word of God wants to correct, not that they may hate their soul, but that they may love it rightly. For by loving it wrongly they destroy it, and something great and almost absurd and contrary happens: but yet it happens that, if you love it perversely, you lose it; if you hate it rightly, you preserve it. Therefore, there is a certain perverse love of it, and a certain right hatred of it; but the perverse love comes from hatred, the right hatred from love. What is the perverse love of the soul? When you love your soul in iniquities. Hear because from hatred comes this perverse love: But he who loves iniquity, hates his own soul. And right hatred, see because it comes from love; there the Lord follows and says: But he who hates his soul in this world, shall keep it to life eternal. Surely what you want to find in life eternal, you greatly love. For what you love for a time, what does it profit? Either you will be taken away from it, or it will be taken away from you: when you are removed, the lover perishes; when it is removed, what you loved perishes. Therefore, where either the lover perishes or what is loved, it is not to be loved. But what is to be loved? That which can be with us forever. If you want to have your soul saved forever, hate it for a time. Therefore, right hatred comes from love: perverse love comes from hatred.
On the right love of the soul: how it belongs to few; how it should be acquired.
What, then, is the way to love the soul? Do you think the martyrs did not love their souls? You certainly see now, if one's life in this present age is endangered, how his friends run for it: how they rush to the church, ask the bishop to pause whatever actions he has, to hurry, to make haste. Why? For the soul. And everyone trembles, they decide that all other matters should be put aside and they should hurry: all haste is praised, all delay is blamed. Why? For the soul. What does this mean, for the soul? That man may not die. Did the martyrs not know how to love their souls? And yet this is for the soul, that man may not die. The death of a man is unjust. If you run a hundred miles for this life, how many miles should you run for eternal life? If you hasten to gain a few days, and those uncertain—since even a man freed from death today does not know if he will die tomorrow—nevertheless if such haste is made for the gain of a few days, because even up to old age a few days are few, how much more should one hasten for eternal life? And yet people are lazy for this: it is difficult to find someone who will even slowly move for eternal life. Therefore, a perverse love of the soul abounds; but true love is found in very few. For just as there is no one who does not love his own soul, so there is no one who does not love his own flesh: whence it can be true what the Apostle said: No one ever hated his own flesh, and the soul is not loved. Let us therefore learn, brothers, to love our souls. All the pleasures of this world will pass away. There is a useful love, there is a harmful love: let love be hindered by love; let harmful love depart, and useful love take its place. But because people do not want to depart from there, therefore nothing else can enter into them: if they do not receive, they are full; let them pour out, and they will receive. They are full of the love of carnal pleasures, they are full of the love of this present life, they are full of the love of gold and silver, and possessions of this world. Therefore those who are full are just like vessels. Do you want honey to enter, from which you have not yet poured out the vinegar? Pour out what you have, so that you may receive what you do not have. Therefore, the first renunciation is of this world, and then conversion to God. He who renounces pours out, he who converts is filled: but if it is done not only with the body, but also with the heart.
One must yield to the natural affection for oneself. How the things below us are to be loved.
It is asked, brothers, how this love grows: for it has its beginnings, it has its increases, it has its perfection. And we should know who has started, so that we might encourage him to growth: who has not started, so that we might advise him how to begin: and who has started and grown, so that we might spur him to perfection. First, let your Charity observe this: all loves and affections are first for the persons themselves, and thus for another thing which they love. If you love gold, first you love yourself, and thus gold: because if you were dead, there would be no one to possess the gold. Therefore, affection begins for each one with himself, and it cannot begin except with himself. And no one is advised to love himself: for this is not only innate in men, but also in animals. For you see, brothers, how not only do great beasts and large animals, such as oxen or camels or elephants, but also flies, and even the smallest worms, how they do not want to die, and they love themselves. All animals flee death. Therefore, they love themselves and want to preserve themselves: some by speed, some by hiding, others by resisting and fighting back; yet all animals fight for their lives, they do not want to die, they want to preserve themselves. Therefore, they love themselves. Another thing also begins to be loved. But what is that other thing? Whatever you love, it is either what you are, or it is inferior to you, or it is superior to you. If what you love is inferior to you, love it to console, to handle, to use, not to be bound by it. For example, if you love gold, do not bind yourself to gold: how much better are you than gold? For gold is shining earth: but you, that you might be illuminated by the Lord, were made in the image of God. Although gold is a creature of God, yet He did not make gold in His image, but you: therefore, He placed gold below you. Therefore, this love should be disdained: these things should be assumed for use, not adhered to with a bond of love as if with glue. Do not make for yourself limbs which, when they begin to be cut off, you grieve and are tormented. What then? Rise from this love, by which you love things inferior to yourself: begin to love what is equal to you, that is, what you are. But why prolong this? If you wish, you can do it briefly.
By what order of true love one may attain perfection.
By what order, therefore, we can have true love and true charity, the Lord Himself told us in the Gospel and clearly showed. For He thus said: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, first love God, then love yourself; after this love your neighbor as yourself. However, first learn to love yourself, thus love your neighbor as yourself: for if you do not know how to love yourself, how can you truly love your neighbor? Indeed, some men think they love themselves rightly when they seize other people's goods, when they get drunk, when they serve lust, when they acquire unjust gains through various slanders. Let such as these hear the Scripture saying: He who loves iniquity hates his own soul. If, therefore, by loving iniquity you not only do not love yourself, but also hate yourself, how can you love either God or your neighbor? Therefore, if you wish to keep true charity's order, practice justice, love mercy, flee lust; begin to love not only friends but even enemies according to the Lord's commandment. And when you strive with all your heart to keep these faithfully, you can ascend by these virtues as by certain steps, so that you deserve to love God with all your soul and all your strength. And when you come to this blessed perfection, you will consider all the desires of this world as dung, and with the prophet you will be able to say: But it is good for me to cling to God.