Migne Reading Room
PL 35 · cols. 1807–1810
Augustine, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus LXV
Tractate LXV
TRACTATUS LXV.
TRACTATE LXV.
In id quod Dominus ait, Mandatum novum do vobis, ut diligatis invicem, sicut dilexi vos, ut et vos invicem
On that which the Lord says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another:
diligatis: in hoc cognoscent omnes quia mei discipuli estis, si dilectionem habueritis in invicem. Cap. XIII, vv. 34, 35.
by this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Chap. XIII, vv. 34, 35.
1. Dominus Jesus mandatum novum se discipulis suis dare testatur, ut diligant invicem: Mandatum, inquit, novum do vobis, ut diligatis invicem. Nonne jam erat hoc mandatum in antiqua Dei lege, ubi scriptum est, Diliges proximum tuum tanquam teipsum (Levit. XIX, 18)? Cur ergo novum appellatur a Domino, quod tam vetus esse convincitur? An ideo est mandatum novum, quia exuto vetere induit nos hominem novum? Innovat quippe audientem, vel potius obedientem, non omnis, sed ista dilectio quam Dominus ut a carnali dilectione distingueret, addidit, sicut dilexi vos. Nam diligunt invicem mariti et uxores, parentes et filii, et quaecumque alia inter se homines necessitudo humana devinxerit: ut taceamus de dilectione culpabili atque damnabili, qua diligunt invicem adulteri et adulterae, scortatores et meretrices, et quoscumque alios non humana necessitudo, sed humanae vitae noxia turpitudo conjungit. Mandatum ergo novum dedit nobis Christus, ut diligamus invicem, sicut et ipse dilexit nos. Dilectio ista nos innovat, ut simus homines novi, haeredes Testamenti Novi, cantatores cantici novi. Haec dilectio, fratres charissimi, antiquos etiam tunc justos, tunc Patriarchas et Prophetas, sicut postea beatos Apostolos innovavit: ipsa et nunc innovat gentes, et ex universo genere humano quod diffunditur toto orbe terrarum, facit et colligit populum novum, corpus novae nuptae Filii Dei unigeniti sponsae, de qua dicitur in Cantico canticorum, Quae est ista quae ascendit dealbata (Cant. VIII, 5, sec. LXX)? utique dealbata, quia innovata; unde nisi mandato novo? Propter quod pro invicem sollicita sunt membra in ea; et si patitur unum membrum, compatiuntur omnia membra, et si glorificatur unum membrum, congaudent omnia membra (I Cor. XII, 25, 26). Audiunt enim, atque custodiunt, Mandatum novum do vobis, ut vos invicem diligatis: non sicut se diligunt qui corrumpunt, nec sicut se diligunt homines, quoniam homines sunt; sed sicut se diligunt, quoniam dii sunt et filii Altissimi omnes, ut sint Filio ejus unico fratres, ea dilectione invicem diligentes, qua ipse dilexit eos, perducturus eos ad illum finem qui sufficiat eis, ubi satietur in bonis desiderium eorum (Psal. CII, 5). Tunc enim aliquid desiderio non deerit, quando omnia in omnibus Deus erit (I Cor. XV, 28). Talis finis non habet finem. Nemo ibi moritur, quo nemo pervenit, nisi huic saeculo moriatur, non morte omnium, qua corpus ab anima deseritur; sed morte electorum, qua etiam cum in carne mortali adhuc manetur, cor sursum ponitur. De quali morte dicebat Apostolus, Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo (Coloss. III, 3). Hinc fortasse dictum est, Valida est sicut mors dilectio (Cant. VIII, 6). Hac enim dilectione fit ut in isto adhuc corruptibili corpore constituti moriamur huic saeculo, et vita nostra abscondatur cum Christo in Deo: imo ipsa dilectio est mors nostra saeculo, et
1. The Lord Jesus testifies that He gives a new commandment to His disciples, that they love one another: A new commandment, He says, I give to you, that you love one another. Was not this commandment already in the ancient law of God, where it is written, You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Lev. 19:18)? Why then is that called new by the Lord which is shown to be so old? Or is it a new commandment for this reason, that, the old [man] having been put off, it clothes us with the new man? For it renews the one hearing, or rather the one obeying, not every [love], but this love which the Lord, that He might distinguish it from carnal love, marked by adding, as I have loved you. For husbands and wives love one another, parents and children, and whatever other human kinship has bound men together among themselves: to say nothing of the culpable and damnable love with which adulterers and adulteresses, fornicators and harlots love one another, and whatever others not human kinship but the noxious foulness of human life joins together. Christ therefore gave us a new commandment, that we love one another, as He Himself also loved us. This love renews us, that we may be new men, heirs of the New Testament, singers of the new song. This love, dearest brethren, renewed the ancients also, the just of that time, the Patriarchs and Prophets of that time, as afterwards [it renewed] the blessed Apostles: it itself now also renews the nations, and out of the whole human race, which is spread through the whole circle of the lands, it makes and gathers a new people, the body of the new bride, the spouse of the only-begotten Son of God, of whom it is said in the Canticle of canticles, Who is this that goes up made white (Song 8:5, according to the LXX)? made white indeed, because renewed; whence, if not by the new commandment? On this account the members in her are anxious for one another; and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. 12:25, 26). For they hear, and they keep, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: not as those love one another who corrupt, nor as men love one another because they are men; but as they love one another because they are all gods and sons of the Most High, that they may be brothers to His only Son, loving one another with that love with which He Himself loved them, He Who is to lead them to that end which may suffice them, where their desire shall be satisfied with good things (Ps. 102:5). For then nothing will be lacking to desire, when God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). Such an end has no end. No one dies there, whither no one comes unless he die to this world, not by the death of all, by which the body is deserted by the soul; but by the death of the elect, by which, even while one still remains in mortal flesh, the heart is set on high. Of which sort of death the Apostle said, For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). Hence perhaps it has been said, Love is strong as death (Song 8:6). For by this love it comes about that, while still set in this corruptible body, we die to this world, and our life is hidden with Christ in God: nay, love itself is our death to the world, and
vita cum Deo. Si enim mors est quando de corpore anima exit, quomodo non est mors quando de mundo amor noster exit? Valida est ergo sicut mors dilectio. Quid ea validius, qua vincitur mundus?
life with God. For if it is death when the soul goes out from the body, how is it not death when our love goes out from the world? Love, then, is strong as death. What is stronger than it, by which the world is conquered?
2. Nolite itaque, fratres mei, putare in hoc quod ait Dominus, Mandatum novum do vobis, ut vos invicem diligatis, illud majus praetermissum esse mandatum, quo praecipitur ut diligamus Dominum Deum nostrum ex toto corde, ex tota anima, et ex tota mente: tanquam enim hoc praetermisso videtur dictum, ut diligatis invicem, velut hoc ad illud alterum non pertineat, quo dictum est, Diliges proximum tuum tanquam teipsum. In his enim duobus praeceptis, inquit, tota Lex pendet, et Prophetae (Matth. XXII, 37-40). Sed bene intelligentibus utrumque invenitur in singulis. Nam et qui diligit Deum, non eum potest contemnere praecipientem ut diligat proximum; et qui sancte ac spiritualiter diligit proximum, quid in eo diligit nisi Deum? Ipsa est dilectio ab omni mundana dilectione discreta, quam distinguendo addidit Dominus, sicut dilexi vos. Quid enim nisi Deum dilexit in nobis? Non quod habebamus, sed ut haberemus: ut perducat nos, sicut paulo ante dixi, ubi sit Deus omnia in omnibus. Sic etiam medicus recte dicitur aegros diligere: et quid in eis nisi salutem diligit, quam cupit utique revocare, non morbum, quem venit expellere? Sic ergo et nos invicem diligamus, ut quantum possumus, invicem ad habendum in nobis Deum cura dilectionis attrahamus. Hanc dilectionem nobis donat ipse qui ait, Sicut dilexi vos, ut et vos diligatis invicem. Ad hoc ergo nos dilexit, ut et nos diligamus invicem; hoc nobis conferens diligendo nos, ut mutua dilectione constringamur inter nos, et tam dulci vinculo connexis membris corpus tanti capitis simus.
2. Do not therefore think, my brethren, that in this which the Lord says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, that greater commandment has been passed over, by which it is enjoined that we love the Lord our God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with the whole mind: for it seems, as though this had been passed over, to have been said, that you love one another, as if this did not belong to that other, in which it is said, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. For on these two precepts, He says, the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets (Matt. 22:37–40). But to those who understand well, each is found in either. For he who loves God cannot despise Him when He enjoins that he love his neighbour; and he who loves his neighbour holily and spiritually, what does he love in him but God? This is the love set apart from all worldly love, which the Lord, distinguishing it, marked by adding, as I have loved you. For what did He love in us but God? Not that which we had, but that we might have Him: that He may lead us, as I said a little before, where God may be all in all. So too a physician is rightly said to love the sick: and what does he love in them but health, which he surely desires to recall, not the disease, which he has come to expel? So then let us also love one another, that, as far as we can, we may draw one another by the care of love towards having God in us. This love He Himself gives us Who says, As I have loved you, that you also love one another. For this, then, He loved us, that we also may love one another; conferring this on us by loving us, that we may be bound close among ourselves by mutual love, and, the members being joined by so sweet a bond, may be the body of so great a head.
3. In hoc cognoscent, inquit, omnes quia mei discipuli estis, si dilectionem habueritis in invicem: tanquam diceret, Alia munera mea habent vobiscum etiam non mei, non solum naturam, vitam, sensum, rationem, et eam salutem quae hominibus pecoribusque communis est; verum etiam linguas, Sacramenta, prophetiam, scientiam, fidem, distributionem rerum suarum pauperibus, et traditionem corporis sui ut ardeant: sed quoniam charitatem non habent, ut cymbala concrepant, nihil sunt, nihil illis prodest (I Cor. XIII, 1-3). Non ergo in illis quamvis bonis muneribus meis, quae habere possunt etiam non discipuli mei; sed in hoc cognoscent omnes quia mei discipuli estis, si dilectionem habueritis in invicem. O sponsa Christi pulchra inter mulieres! o dealbata ascendens, et incumbens super fratruelem tuum! quoniam cujus lumine illustraris ut candeas, ejus adjutorio fulciris ne cadas: o quam bene cantatur tibi in illo Cantico canticorum velut epithalamio tuo, Quia charitas in deliciis tuis (Cant. VII, 6, sec. LXX)! Ipsa non comperdit cum impiis animam tuam; ipsa discernit causam tuam, et sicut mors valida est, et in deliciis tuis est. Quam mirandi generis mors est, cui parum fuit non esse in poenis, nisi esset insuper in deliciis! Sed hic jam iste
3. By this shall all know, He says, that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another: as if He were saying, Others who are not mine have along with you my other gifts, not only nature, life, sense, reason, and that well-being which is common to men and beasts; but even tongues, Sacraments, prophecy, knowledge, faith, the distribution of their goods to the poor, and the handing over of their body that they may burn: but because they have not charity, they clang like cymbals, they are nothing, it profits them nothing (1 Cor. 13:1–3). Not, therefore, by those gifts of mine, good though they are, which even those who are not my disciples can have; but by this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. O spouse of Christ, fair among women! O you who go up made white, and lean upon your kinsman! since by Whose light you are illumined that you may shine white, by His help you are upheld that you fall not: O how well is it sung to you in that Canticle of canticles, as in your marriage-song, That charity is in your delights (Song 7:6, according to the LXX)! It does not destroy your soul together with the impious; it distinguishes your cause, and it is strong as death, and it is in your delights. Of how wondrous a kind is this death, for which it was too little not to be in pains, unless it were besides in delights! But here now let this
sermo claudatur: ab alio exordio tractanda sunt quae sequuntur.
discourse be closed: the things which follow are to be treated from another beginning.