Augustine, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John

TRACTATE IX.

On what follows, Herein is love perfected in us; as far as, And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also. Chapter IV, verses 17-21.

1. Your Charity remembers that of the Epistle of John the apostle the last part remains for us to treat and to expound to you, as far as the Lord grants. Of this debt, then, we are mindful: but you ought to be mindful of exacting it. For the same charity which in this Epistle is commended above all and almost alone makes us most faithful debtors and you most sweet exactors. I said most sweet exactors for this reason, that where charity is not, the exactor is bitter: but where charity is, both he who exacts is sweet; and he from whom it is exacted, even if he undertakes some labour, charity itself makes that same labour almost nothing and light. Do we not see, even in dumb and irrational animals, where there is not spiritual charity but carnal and natural, that milk is nevertheless exacted by the little ones from the mother's udders with great eagerness? And though the suckling makes an assault on the udders, yet it is better for the mother than if it did not suck, nor exact what is owed by charity. We often see the udders of cows struck with the head even by calves grown somewhat big, and the mothers' bodies almost lifted by the very thrust, and yet the calves are not driven off with a kick; but even, if the young one that sucks is absent, it is called to the udder by lowing. If, then, there is in us that spiritual charity of which the Apostle says, I became a little one in your midst, like a nurse cherishing her children (1 Thess. 2:7); then we love you when you exact. We do not love the sluggish; because for the languid we are afraid. But there intervened, so that we broke off the text of this Epistle, certain solemn lessons for the feast days, which could not but be read, and themselves expounded. Now, then, let us return to the order we left off; and let your Holiness receive attentively what remains. I do not know whether charity could be commended to us more magnificently than by its being said, God is charity. A short praise, and a great praise: short in speech, and great in understanding. How quickly it is said, God is love! And this is short: if you count, it is one; if you weigh, how great it is! God is love. And he who abides, it says, in love, abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16). Let God be your house, and be the house of God; abide in God, and let God abide in you. God abides in you, to hold you: you abide in God, lest you fall; for thus the Apostle says of charity itself, Charity never falls (1 Cor. 13:8). How does he fall whom God holds?

2. Herein is love perfected in us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgement: because as He is, so are we also in this world. He tells how each one may test himself, how far charity has advanced in him: or rather how far he himself has advanced in charity. For if charity is God, God neither advances nor falls short: charity is said to advance in you in this sense, that you advance in it. Ask, then, how far you have advanced in charity, and what your heart answers you, that you may know the measure of your advance. For he promised to show us in what we may know

Him, and he says, Herein is love perfected in us. Ask, in what? That we may have confidence in the day of judgement. Whoever has confidence in the day of judgement, charity is perfect in him. What is it to have confidence in the day of judgement? Not to fear that the day of judgement may come. There are men who do not believe in the day of judgement; these cannot have confidence in a day which they do not believe is to come. Let us pass these by: may God rouse them, that they may live; why do we speak of the dead? They do not believe the day of judgement is to come, and they neither fear nor desire what they do not believe. Someone has begun to believe in the day of judgement: if he has begun to believe, he has begun also to fear. But because he still fears, he does not yet have confidence in the day of judgement, charity is not yet perfect in him. Yet is he to be despaired of? Where you see a beginning, why do you despair of the end? What beginning do I see, you say? Fear itself. Hear the Scripture: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Sir. 1:16). He has begun, then, to fear the day of judgement: by fearing let him correct himself; let him keep watch against his enemies, that is, against his sins; let him begin to come alive again inwardly, and to mortify his members which are upon the earth, as the Apostle says, Mortify your members which are upon the earth. By members upon the earth he means the spiritual forces of wickedness: for he goes on and explains, Avarice, uncleanness (Col. 3:5), and the rest which he sets out there. And the more this man, who has begun to fear the day of judgement, mortifies his members upon the earth, the more the heavenly members rise up and are strengthened. And the heavenly members are all good works. As the heavenly members rise, he begins to desire what he feared. For he feared that Christ might come and find him ungodly, to condemn him; he desires that He come, because He will find him godly, to crown him. Now when the chaste soul, which desires the embraces of the Bridegroom, has begun to desire Christ's coming, she renounces the adulterer; she becomes a virgin inwardly, by faith itself, hope and charity. Now she has confidence in the day of judgement: she does not fight against herself when she prays and says, Thy kingdom come (Matt. 6:10). For he who fears lest the kingdom of God come fears lest he be heard. How does he pray who fears lest he be heard? But he who prays with the confidence of charity wishes now that it may come. Of this very desire someone said in the Psalm, And Thou, O Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul (Ps. 6:4–5). He groaned that he was being put off. For there are men who die with patience: but there are some perfect men who live with patience. What have I said? He who still desires this life, when the day of death comes to him, bears death patiently: he struggles against himself, that he may follow the will of God; and he does with his mind rather what God chooses, not what the human will chooses: and out of desire for the present life there arises a struggle with death; and he brings patience and fortitude to bear, that he may die with an even mind: this man dies patiently. But he who desires, as the Apostle says, to be dissolved and to be with Christ, does not die patiently; but he lives patiently, he dies with delight. See the Apostle living patiently, that is, not loving life here but bearing it with patience. To be dissolved, he says, and to be with Christ is far better: but to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake (Phil. 1:

23, 24). Therefore, brethren, take pains, act within yourselves, that you may desire the day of judgement. Perfect charity is not otherwise proved, except when that day has begun to be desired. Now he desires it who has confidence in it; and he has confidence in it whose conscience does not tremble, in charity perfect and sincere.

3. "In this is His love made perfect in us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgement." Why shall we have confidence? "Because as He is, so are we also in this world." You have heard the cause of your confidence: "Because as He is," he says, "so are we also in this world." Does he not seem to have said something impossible? For can a man be as God is? I have already explained to you that "as" is not always said of equality, but is said of a certain likeness. For how do you say, "As I have ears, so too has an image"? Is it altogether so? And yet you say "as". If then we have been made to the image of God, why are we not as God is? Not to equality, but after our own measure. Whence then is confidence given us in the day of judgement? Because as He is, so are we also in this world. We ought to refer this to charity itself, and understand what has been said. The Lord says in the Gospel, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the publicans do this?" What then does He want of us? "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." If then He commands us to love our enemies, whence does He give us an example? From God Himself; for He says, "That you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." How does God do that? He loves His enemies, He "Who makes His sun rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust" (Matt. 5:44–46). If then God invites us to this perfection, that we love our enemies as He too has loved His, that is our confidence in the day of judgement, because as He is, so are we also in this world: because as He loves His enemies, making His sun rise upon the good and the bad and raining upon the just and the unjust, so we, since we cannot furnish sun and rain to our enemies, furnish tears, when we pray for them.

4. Now then see what he says of this confidence itself. Whence is perfect charity understood? "There is no fear in charity." What then do we say of him who has begun to fear the day of judgement? If charity were perfect in him, he would not fear. For perfect charity would make perfect righteousness, and he would have no reason to fear; nay, he would have reason to desire that iniquity pass away and the kingdom of God come. Therefore "there is no fear in charity." But in what charity? Not in charity begun. In which then? "But perfect charity," he says, "casts out fear." Let fear begin, then, because "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Fear, as it were, prepares a place for charity. But when charity has begun to dwell there, the fear which prepared the place for it is driven out. For as much as she grows, so much does it decrease; and as much as she becomes more inward, so much is fear driven out of doors. Greater charity, less fear; less charity, greater fear. But if there is no fear, there is no way by which charity may enter. As we see the thread brought in by the bristle, when

something is sewn: the bristle goes in first, but unless it comes out, the thread does not follow; so fear first takes hold of the mind, but fear does not remain there, because it went in for this purpose, to bring in charity. Once security has been established in the soul, what joy is ours, whether in this world or in the world to come? And in this world who will harm us, if we are full of charity? See how the Apostle exults over this very charity. "Who," he says, "shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? or famine? or nakedness? or peril? or the sword?" (Rom. 8:35). And Peter says: "And who is able to harm you, if you are zealous for good?" (1 Pet. 3:13). "There is no fear in love: but perfect love casts out fear; because fear has torment." The conscience of sins torments the heart; justification has not yet been made. There is something there to prick, to sting. Therefore what does he say in the Psalm of this very perfection of righteousness? "Thou hast turned my mourning into joy for me: Thou hast cut away my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; that my glory may sing to Thee, and I may not be pricked" (Ps. 29:12–13). What is "I may not be pricked"? Let there be nothing to goad my conscience. Fear goads: but do not fear; charity comes in, which heals what fear wounds. The fear of God wounds as the physician's knife does; it takes away the corruption, and seems as it were to enlarge the wound. See, when the corruption was in the body, the wound was smaller, but dangerous: the physician's knife comes to it; that wound pained less than it pains now when it is cut. It pains more when it is being cured than if it were not cured; but it pains more as the medicine comes, for this reason, that it may never pain when health follows. Let fear then take hold of your heart, that it may bring in charity; let the scar follow the physician's knife. Such is this physician that not even scars appear: only submit yourself to His right hand. For if you are without fear, you will not be able to be justified. It is a sentence spoken from the Scriptures: "For he who is without fear will not be able to be justified" (Sir. 1:28). There is need then that fear enter first, through which charity may come. Fear is the medicine, charity the health. "But he who fears is not perfect in love." Why? "Because fear has torment," as the physician's cutting has torment.

5. But there is another sentence which seems to be contrary to this one, if it has no one to understand it: for it is said in a certain place in a Psalm, "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever and ever" (Ps. 18:10). It shows us a certain eternal fear, but a chaste one. But if that one shows us an eternal fear, does this Epistle perhaps contradict it, which says, "There is no fear in charity, but perfect charity casts out fear"? Let us question both utterances of God. The Spirit is one, though the books be two, though the mouths be two, though the tongues be two. For this was spoken through John, that was spoken through David; but do not think that it is another spirit. If one breath fills two pipes, can one Spirit not fill two hearts, move two tongues?

But if two pipes filled by one spirit, that is, by one breath, sound in concord, can two tongues filled by the Spirit of God sound in discord? There is therefore a certain consonance there, a certain concord, but it wants a hearer. See, the Spirit of God has breathed into and filled two hearts, two mouths, has moved two tongues: and we have heard from one tongue, "There is no fear in charity, but perfect charity casts out fear"; we have heard from the other, "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever and ever." What is this? Do they, as it were, sound in discord? No: shake out your ears, attend to the melody. Not without cause did he add "chaste" here, and not add it there, except that there is one fear which is called chaste, and another which is not called chaste. Let us distinguish these two fears, and understand the consonance of the pipes. How do we understand, or how do we distinguish? Let your Charity attend. There are men who fear God for this reason, lest they be sent into Gehenna, lest perhaps they burn with the devil in eternal fire. That is the fear which brings in charity: but it comes in such a way as to go out. For if you still fear God because of punishments, you do not yet love Him Whom you fear thus. You do not desire good things, but you beware of evil things. But from the fact that you beware of evil things, you correct yourself, and begin to desire good things. When you have begun to desire good things, there will be chaste fear in you. What is chaste fear? Lest you lose those good things themselves. Attend. It is one thing to fear God lest He send you into Gehenna with the devil; it is another to fear God lest He depart from you. That fear by which you fear lest you be sent into Gehenna with the devil is not yet chaste; for it does not come from the love of God, but from the fear of punishment: but when you fear God lest His presence desert you, you embrace Him, you desire to enjoy Him Himself.

6. The difference between these two fears, the one which charity casts out, the other chaste, which endures for ever and ever, cannot be better explained than if you set before you two married women, one of whom you suppose to be willing to commit adultery, to delight in wickedness, but to fear lest she be condemned by her husband. She fears her husband, but she fears her husband because she still loves wickedness: to her the husband's presence is not welcome but burdensome; and if perhaps she lives wickedly, she fears her husband, lest he come. Such are they who fear lest the day of judgement come. Suppose the other loves her husband, owes him chaste embraces, stains herself with no uncleanness of adultery; she longs for her husband's presence. And how are these two fears distinguished? The one fears, and the other fears. Ask; they answer you as it were one thing: ask the one, "Do you fear your husband?" she answers, "I fear." Ask the other too whether she fears her husband; she answers, "I fear." The word is one, but the mind is different. Now then let them be asked, "Why?" The one says, "I fear my husband lest he come"; the other says, "I fear my husband lest he go away." The one says, "I fear lest I be condemned"; the other says, "I fear lest I be deserted." Set this in the mind of Christians, and you find the fear which charity casts out, and another, chaste fear, enduring for ever and ever.

7. Let us speak first, then, to those who fear God in the way that woman does whom wickedness delights; for she fears her husband lest he condemn her: to such let us speak first.

O soul who fear God in this way, lest God condemn you, as the woman fears whom wickedness delights (she fears her husband, lest she be condemned by her husband): as that woman displeases you, so be displeasing to yourself too. If perhaps you have a wife, do you want your wife to fear you in this way, lest she be condemned by you; so that wickedness delights her, but she is held back by the weight of her fear of you, not by condemnation of iniquity? You want her chaste, so that she loves you, not so that she fears you. Show yourself to God such as you wish to have your wife. And if you do not yet have one, and wish to have one, such you wish to have. And what do we say, brethren? That woman who fears her husband for this reason, lest she be condemned by her husband, perhaps does not commit adultery lest it somehow reach her husband, and he take from her this temporal light. But that husband can also be deceived; for he is a man, just as she too is, who can deceive. She fears him, outside whose eyes she can be: do you not fear the face of your Husband, always above you? "But the countenance of the Lord is upon those who do evil" (Ps. 33:17). She watches for her husband's absence, and is perhaps roused by the delight of adultery; and yet she says to herself, "I will not do it: he is absent indeed, but it is hard for it not to reach him in some way." She restrains herself lest it reach a man who can also not know, who can also be deceived, who can also suspect a bad woman to be good, who can also suspect her to be chaste who is an adulteress: do you not fear the eyes of Him Whom no one can deceive? do you not fear the presence of Him Who cannot be turned away from you? Ask God to look upon you, and to turn away His face from your sins: "Turn away Thy face from my sins." But how do you deserve that He should turn away His face from your sins? If you do not turn your face away from your sins. For that very voice says in the Psalm: "For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me" (Ps. 50:11, 5). Do you acknowledge, and He forgives.

8. We have addressed her who still has the fear that does not endure for ever and ever, but which charity shuts out and casts out of doors; let us address her too who already has chaste fear, enduring for ever and ever. Do we think we find her, so as to address her? Do you think she is in this people? Do you think she is in this exedra? Do you think she is on this earth? She cannot but be, but she is hidden. It is winter; within, the greenness is in the root. Perhaps we find her ears. But wherever that soul is, would that I might find her, and that she lent not her ears to me, but I mine to her! She would teach me something rather than learn from me. A certain soul, holy, on fire, and desiring the kingdom of God: it is not I who address her, but God Himself, and He comforts her, living patiently on this earth, thus: "Now you wish Me to come, and I know that you wish Me to come now: I know what you are, that you await My coming free from care; I know that it is irksome to you: but wait the more, endure; I come, and I come quickly." But to one who loves it is slow. Hear her singing like a lily from the midst of thorns: hear her sighing and saying, "I will sing and understand in the spotless way; when wilt Thou come to me?" (Ps. 100:1–2). But in the spotless way she rightly does not fear; because "perfect charity casts out fear." And when she has come to His embrace,

she fears, but without anxiety. What does she fear? She will be wary, and will keep herself from her iniquity, lest she sin again: not lest she be sent into the fire, but lest she be deserted by Him. And what will there be in her? "Chaste fear, enduring for ever and ever." We have heard the two pipes sounding in concord. The one speaks of fear, and the other of fear: but the one of the fear by which the soul fears lest it be condemned, the other of the fear by which the soul fears lest it be deserted. The former is the fear which charity shuts out: the latter is the fear enduring for ever and ever.

9. "Let us love, because He first loved us." For whence should we love, had He not first loved us? By loving we have been made friends; but He loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He loved us first, and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him; by loving we are made beautiful. What does a man do who is ugly and has a misshapen face, if he loves a beautiful woman? Or what does a woman do who is ugly and misshapen and black, if she loves a beautiful man? Will she be able to be beautiful by loving? Will he too be able to be handsome by loving? He loves a beautiful woman; and when he sees himself in the mirror, he is ashamed to lift his face to that beautiful one of his whom he loves. What will he do to be beautiful? Does he wait for beauty to come? Nay, by waiting old age is added, and makes him uglier. There is nothing to do, then, there is no way you can give him counsel, except that he restrain himself and not dare to love, unequal, one unequal to him: or if perhaps he loves and wishes to marry her, let him love chastity in her, not the face of the flesh. But our soul, my brethren, is foul through iniquity: by loving God it is made beautiful. What kind of love is it that renders the lover beautiful? But God is always beautiful, never ugly, never changeable. He Who is always beautiful loved us first; and whom did He love, if not the foul and the ugly? Yet not in order to let them go as foul; but to change them, and make them beautiful out of ugly. How shall we be beautiful? By loving Him Who is always beautiful. As much as love grows in you, so much does beauty grow; for charity itself is the beauty of the soul. "Let us love, because He first loved us." Hear the apostle Paul: "But God shows His love in us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8–9), the just for the unjust, the beautiful for the foul. How do we find Jesus beautiful? "Fair in form beyond the sons of men, grace is poured out on Thy lips" (Ps. 44:3). Whence? See again whence He is beautiful, "Fair in form beyond the sons of men": because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). But because He took flesh, He took as it were your foulness, that is, your mortality, to fit Himself to you and be suited to you, and to rouse you to love the beauty within. Whence then do we find that Jesus is foul and ugly, as we find that He is beautiful and fair in form beyond the sons of men? Whence do we find that He is also ugly? Ask Isaiah: "And we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness" (Isa. 53:2). These are the two pipes sounding as it were differently; but one Spirit fills them both. By this one it is said, "Fair in form beyond the sons of men":

by that it is said in Isaiah, "We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness." Both pipes are filled by one Spirit; they do not sound in discord. Do not turn away your ears; apply your understanding. Let us question the apostle Paul, and let him set out for us the consonance of the two pipes. Let it sound for us, "Fair in form beyond the sons of men": "Who, though He was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God." See, "fair in form beyond the sons of men." Let it sound for us also, "We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness": "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man" (Phil. 2:6–7). "He had no form nor comeliness," that He might give you form and comeliness. What form? what comeliness? The love of charity; that loving you may run, and running you may love. You are beautiful now: but do not look to yourself, lest you lose what you have received; look to Him by Whom you were made beautiful. Be beautiful for this, that He may love you. But direct your whole intention towards Him, run to Him, seek His embraces, fear to depart from Him; that there may be in you chaste fear, enduring for ever and ever. "Let us love, because He first loved us."

10. "If anyone says, I love God." What God? Why do we love? "Because He first loved us," and gave us to love. He loved the ungodly, to make them godly; He loved the unjust, to make them just; He loved the sick, to make them whole. Therefore let us too "love, because He first loved us." Ask each one; let him tell you whether he loves God. He cries out, he confesses, "I love"; he himself knows. There is another thing about which he may be questioned. "If anyone says," he says, "I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar." How do you prove that he is a liar? Hear: "For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he does not see?" What then? does he who loves his brother love God as well? He must needs love God, he must needs love love itself. Can he love his brother, and not love love? He must needs love love. What then, does he who loves love therefore love God? Certainly therefore. By loving love he loves God. Or have you forgotten what you said a little before, "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16)? If God is love, whoever loves love loves God. Love your brother, then, and be free from care. You cannot say, "I love my brother, but I do not love God." As you lie if you say, "I love God," when you do not love your brother, so you are deceived when you say, "I love my brother," if you think that you do not love God. You who love your brother must needs love love itself; but "love is God": it is necessary therefore that whoever loves his brother loves God. But if you do not love your brother whom you see, how can you love God Whom you do not see? Why does he not see God? Because he does not have love itself. He does not see God for this reason, because he does not have love; he does not have love for this reason, because he does not love his brother: therefore he does not see God for this reason, because he does not have love. For if he has love, he sees God; because "God is love": and that eye is cleansed more and more by love, that it may see that unchangeable