Augustine, Sermo 96 (De uerbis Euangelii Matthaei)

SERMON XCVI. On the words of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8:34, If anyone wishes to follow me, let him deny himself, etc., and on the words of 1 John 2:15, He who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

CHAPTER THE FIRST. — 1. By charity the commandments are made light. It seems hard and heavy, what the Lord commanded, that if anyone wishes to follow Him, he should deny himself. But what He commands is not hard nor heavy, who helps that what He commands may be done. For that too is true which is said to Him in the Psalm: Because of the words of Thy lips I have kept hard ways (Ps. 16:4). And that is true which He Himself said: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. 11:30). For whatever is hard in the commandments, charity makes it easy. We know

how much love itself accomplishes. Very often love itself is even reprobate and wanton: how many hard things have men suffered, how many unworthy and intolerable things have they endured, that they might attain to what they loved; whether it be a lover of money, who is called avaricious; or a lover of honour, who is called ambitious; or a lover of beautiful bodies, who is called wanton? And who could enumerate all the loves? Consider, nevertheless, how much all lovers toil, and they do not feel that they toil: and they toil the more when anyone is kept from his toil. Since, then, men for the most part are such as their loves are, and nothing else ought to be the care as to how one lives, except that what is to be loved be chosen, why do you wonder if he who loves Christ, and who wishes to follow Christ, by loving denies himself? For if a man perishes by loving himself, assuredly he is found by denying himself.

CHAPTER II. — 2. Love of self, the first ruin of man. The first ruin of man was the love of self. For if he had not loved himself, and had set God before himself, he would have wished always to be subject to God: but he would not have turned aside to neglect God's will, and to do his own will. For this is to love oneself: to wish to do one's own will. Set the will of God before these things: learn to love yourself, by not loving yourself. For that you may know that to love oneself is a fault, thus the Apostle says: For men shall be lovers of their own selves. And does he who loves himself trust in himself? For he begins, having abandoned God, to love himself, and is driven from himself towards the loving of things that are outside himself: to such a point that when the same Apostle had said, Men shall be lovers of their own selves, he immediately added, lovers of money (2 Tim. 3:2). Now you see that you are outside yourself. You began to love yourself: stand in yourself, if you can. Why do you go outside? Have you become rich in money, a lover of money? You began to love what is outside you, you have lost yourself. When, then, a man's love proceeds even from himself towards the things that are outside, it begins to vanish away with vain things, and to squander its strength, in a certain manner, as a prodigal. It is emptied out, it is poured out, it is made destitute, it feeds swine: and toiling in the feeding of swine, it sometimes remembers and says, How many hired servants of my father's eat bread, and I perish here with hunger? But when it says this, what is told of that son himself, who poured out everything upon harlots, who wished to have in his own power what was well kept for him with his father; he wished to have those things at his own disposal, he poured them out, he was made destitute — what is said of him? And he returned to himself. If he returned to himself, he had gone out from himself. Because he had fallen from himself, and had gone out from himself, he first returns to himself, that he may return to that place from which he had fallen away from himself. For just as by falling from himself he remained in himself, so by returning to himself, he ought not to remain in himself, lest he go out from himself again. Having returned to himself, so as not to remain in himself, what did he say? I will arise, and go to my father (Luke 15:12–18). See from where he had fallen from himself: he had fallen from his father; he had fallen from himself, and towards the things that are outside he went out from himself. He returns to himself, and goes on to his father, where he may keep himself most safely. If, then, he had gone out from himself, and from him from whom he had gone out; by returning to himself, that he may go to his father, let him deny himself.

What is meant by, let him deny himself? Let him not presume upon himself, let him perceive himself to be a man, and let him regard the prophetic saying: Cursed is every one who places his hope in man (Jer. 17:5). Let him withdraw himself from himself, but not downward. Let him withdraw himself from himself, that he may cleave to God. Whatever good he has, let him attribute it to Him by whom he was made: whatever evil he has, he has made for himself. What is evil in him, God did not make: let him lose what he made, who thereby fell short. Let him deny, He says, himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

CHAPTER III. — 3. Whither Christ is to be followed and by what way. Whither is the Lord to be followed? We know where He went: we celebrated the same solemnity but a very few days ago. For He rose, and ascended into heaven: it is thither He is to be followed. Plainly there is no need to despair, because He Himself has promised — not because man is able to do anything. Heaven was far from us before our head had gone into heaven. Why, then, should we now despair, if we are the members of that head? It is thither, then, that He is to be followed. And who would be unwilling to follow Him to such a seat? Especially since there is much toil in fears and sorrows on earth. Who would be unwilling to follow Christ thither, where there is the highest happiness, the highest peace, perpetual security? It is good to follow Him thither: but it must be seen by what way. For the Lord Jesus was not saying these words at the time when He had already risen from the dead. He had not yet suffered; He was about to come to the cross, to dishonour, to insults, to scourges, to thorns, to wounds, to mockery, to reproaches, to death. The way has, as it were, been made harsh: it makes you sluggish, you do not wish to follow. Follow. What man made for himself has been made harsh, but what Christ trod in His return has been worn smooth. For who would not wish to go to exaltation? Loftiness delights everyone: but humility is the step. Why do you stretch your foot beyond yourself? You wish to fall, not to climb. Begin from the step, and you have climbed. This step of humility those two disciples were unwilling to attend to, who said: Lord, command that one of us may sit at Thy right hand, and the other at Thy left, in Thy kingdom. They sought the height, they did not see the step. But the Lord showed the step. For what did He answer? Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink (Mark 10:37–38)? You who seek the summit of loftiness, are you able to drink the cup of lowliness? Therefore He did not say simply, Let him deny himself, and follow me; but He added, Let him take up his cross, and follow me.

CHAPTER IV. — 4. The cross is to be borne and the world despised. What is, Let him take up his cross? Let him bear whatever is troublesome: so let him follow me. For when he has begun to follow me in my ways and my precepts, he will have many to contradict him, he will have many to forbid him, he will have many to dissuade him, and this from those who are, as it were, the companions of Christ. They were walking with Christ who forbade the blind men to cry out. Whether, then, threats, or blandishments, or prohibitions of whatever kind, if you wish to follow, turn them into the cross; endure, carry, do not give way. By these words of the Lord martyrdoms seem to have been encouraged. If there is persecution, ought not all things to be despised for Christ? The world is loved: but let Him be preferred by whom the world was made. Great is the world: but greater is He by whom the world was made. Beautiful is the world: but more beautiful is He by whom the world was made. Alluring is

the world: but sweeter is He by whom the world was made. Evil is the world: and good is He by whom the world was made. How shall I be able to resolve and explain what I have said? May God help me. For what did I say? what did you applaud? See, there is a question, and yet you have already applauded. How is the world evil, if He is good by whom the world was made? Did not God make all things, and behold, they were very good? Does not Scripture testify at each one that God made good things, saying, And God saw that it was good? And at the end it concluded the whole thus, how God made all things, and behold, they were very good (Gen. 1).

CHAPTER V. — 5. How the world is evil, and made by a good God. — How, then, is the world evil, and good is He by whom the world was made? how? Because the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him (John 1:10). The world was made through Him — heaven and earth, and all things that are in them: the world did not know Him — the lovers of the world; the lovers of the world, and the despisers of God: this world did not know Him. So, then, the world is evil, because those who prefer the world to God are evil. And good is He who made the world, heaven and earth and sea, and those very men who love the world. For only that — that they love the world and do not love God — in them He Himself did not make. But them, so far as pertains to nature, He Himself made: what pertains to guilt, He Himself did not make. This is what I said a little before: Let man blot out what he has made, and he will please Him who made him.

CHAPTER VI. — 6. The world made good out of evil. — For the world is also good, in men themselves; but made good out of evil. For if you take the world as a whole to be men — apart from what we call the world, heaven and earth, and all that is in them — if you call men the world, he who first sinned made the whole world evil. The whole lump is corrupted in its root. God made man good: thus Scripture has it, God made man upright, and men themselves have devised many thoughts (Eccl. 7:30). Run from the many to the One, gather together the scattered into one: flow together, be fortified, abide with the One; do not go off into the many. There is blessedness. But we have flowed away, we have gone on into ruin: we were all born with sin, and to that with which we were born, by living evilly we have added still more of our own, and the whole world has been made evil. But Christ came, and chose what He had made, not what He found: for He found all men evil, and by His grace made them good. And another world came to be: and world persecutes world.

CHAPTER VII. — 7. World persecuting world. — Who is the world that persecutes? It is of this we are told: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. Whoever has loved the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and its lust. But he who does the will of God abides for ever, as God also abides for ever (1 John 2:15–17). Behold, I have spoken of both worlds, both the one that persecutes and the one it persecutes. Which is the world persecuting? All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,

and the ambition of the world, which is not of the Father, but is of the world: and the world passes away. Behold, this is the world persecuting. Which is the world that it persecutes? Whoever has done the will of God abides for ever, as God also abides for ever.

8. The world twofold in Scripture, the redeemed and the condemned. — But behold, he who persecutes is called the world: let us prove that he too who suffers persecution is called the world. Or are you indeed deaf to the voice of Christ speaking, or rather of holy Scripture attesting: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19)? If the world hates you, He says, know that it hated me first (John 15:18). Behold, the world hates. Whom, but the world? Which world? God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. The condemned world persecutes: the reconciled world suffers persecution. The condemned world is whatever is outside the Church: the reconciled world is the Church. For the Son of man came not, He says, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (ibid. 3:17).

9. It has been commanded to all that they deny themselves. But in this world, holy, good, reconciled, saved; rather, [yet] to be saved, but now saved in hope, For we have been saved in hope (Rom. 8:24): in this world, then, that is, the Church, which follows Christ as a whole, He said universally, Whoever wishes to follow me, let him deny himself. For it is not that virgins ought to hear this, and married women ought not; or widows ought, and wives ought not; or monks ought, and the married ought not; or clerics ought, and lay people ought not: but let the whole Church, the whole body, all the members, distinguished and distributed through their proper offices, follow Christ. Let her follow whole, the one and only, let the dove follow, let the bride follow, let her follow who is redeemed and dowered with the blood of the bridegroom. Virginal integrity has its place there; widowed continence has its place there; conjugal chastity has its place there: adultery has not its place there; unlawful and punishable wantonness has not its place there. But let these members, which have their place there, in their own kind, and in their own place, and in their own measure, follow Christ; let them deny themselves, that is, not presume upon themselves; let them take up their cross, that is, endure in the world for Christ whatever the world may inflict. Let them love Him who alone does not deceive, who alone is not deceived, who alone does not mislead: let them love Him, because what He promises is true. But because He does not give now, faith wavers. Hold out, persevere, endure, bear the delay, and you have borne the cross.

CHAPTER VIII. — 10. The various grades of those following Christ, and what looking back means among them. — Let not the virgin say: There I alone shall be. For Mary will not be alone there, but Anna the widow will be there too. Let not the married woman say: The widow will be there, not I. For Anna will not be there without Susanna also being there. But let those who are to be there prove themselves clearly by this: that those who have a lower place here should not envy, but love a better place in others. For, for example, my brethren, that you may take note: each one has chosen the married life, each one has chosen the continent life; if he who has chosen the married life should lust after adulteries, he has looked back; he has lusted after what is unlawful.

But he who, from continence, should afterwards wish to return to marriage, has looked back: he has chosen what is lawful, and yet has looked back. Are marriages, then, to be condemned? No. Marriages are not to be condemned: but see, as for him who chose them, to what he had come. He had already gone on ahead. When, as a youth, he was living wantonly, marriage lay before him; he was straining towards it: but when he chose continence, marriage lies behind him. Remember, says the Lord, Lot's wife (Luke 17:32). Lot's wife, by looking back, remained fixed (Gen. 19:26). Let each one, then, wherever he has been able to arrive, from that point fear to look back: and let him walk in the way, let him follow Christ; forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forward to the things that are before, let him follow according to the purpose within, towards the prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13–14). Let the married set the unmarried before themselves; let them confess that these are better; let them love in them what they themselves do not have; and in them let them love Christ.