Augustine, Sermo 256 (De Alleluia)

SERMON CCLVI. On the days of Easter, XXVII. On the Alleluia.

1. God must be praised by life and tongue. The concord and perfect security of those who praise God is nowhere but in heaven. Since it has pleased the Lord our God that, being set here in bodily presence, we should sing Alleluia to Him together with your Charity, which in Latin is rendered, Praise the Lord; let us praise the Lord, brethren, by life and tongue, by heart and mouth, by voices and conduct. For God wills Alleluia to be said to Him in such a way that there be no discord in the one who praises. Let the tongue, then, first be in concord with the life, the mouth with the conscience, within ourselves. Let the voices, I say, be in concord with the conduct, lest perhaps good voices bear witness against bad conduct. O happy Alleluia in heaven, where the Angels are the temple of God! For there is the highest concord of those who praise, where there is the untroubled exultation of those who sing: where no law in the members fights against the law of the mind; where there is no strife of desire, in—

—which the victory of charity might be imperilled. Here, then, let us sing Alleluia while still anxious, that there we may one day be able to sing it secure. Why anxious here? Would you have me not be anxious, when I read, Is not the life of man upon earth a temptation (Job 7:1)? Would you have me not be anxious, when it is still said to me, Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation (Mark 14:38)? Would you have me not be anxious, where temptation so abounds that prayer itself prescribes it to us, when we say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors? Daily petitioners, daily debtors. Would you have me be secure, where daily I ask pardon for sins, help against dangers? For when I have said, on account of past sins, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors: at once, on account of dangers to come, I add and join, Lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:12, 13). But how is a people in [a state of] good, when it cries out with me, Deliver us from evil? And yet, brethren, still in this evil let us sing Alleluia to the good God, Who delivers us from evil. Why do you look about you [for] what He may deliver you from, when He delivers you from evil? Do not go far; do not stretch the mind's gaze in every direction. Come back to yourself, look at yourself. You are still evil. When, therefore, God delivers you yourself from yourself, then He delivers you from evil. Hear the Apostle; and there understand from what evil you are to be delivered. I delight, he says, in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and making me captive in the law of sin, which is. Where? Making me captive, he says, in the law of sin, which is in my members. I thought it had made you captive under some unknown barbarians or other: I thought it had made you captive under some foreign nations or other, or under some human masters or other. Which is, he says, in my members. Cry out, then, with him: Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me? Deliver from what? Say from what. One says from the optio, another from prison, another from captivity among barbarians, another from fever and sickness: you, Apostle, say, not whither we may be sent or whither we may be led, but what we carry with us, what we ourselves are; say: From the body of this death. From the body of this death? From the body, he says, of this death.

2. The error of certain men, that the flesh does not belong to the man. Another says: The body of this death does not belong to me: it is my prison for a time, it is my chain for a time: I am in the body of death; I am not the body of death. You argue, [and] therefore you are not delivered. For I, he says, am spirit; I am not flesh, but I am in flesh: when I have been delivered from the flesh, what will I have to do with flesh thereafter? Do you wish, brethren, that I should answer this argument, or the Apostle? If I answer, the greatness of the word will perhaps be despised because of the cheapness of the minister. I rather keep silent. Hear with me the Teacher of the Gentiles: hear with me the Vessel of election, that the controversy of dissension may be taken from you. Hear—

—but first say what you were saying. This, surely, is what you were saying: I am not flesh, but I am spirit. In my prison I groan: when this bond and this slave-prison has been dissolved, I go away free. Earth is returned to earth, the spirit is received into heaven: I go, I leave behind what I am not. Is this, then, what you were saying? This, he says. I do not answer you: answer, Apostle; answer, I beseech you. You preached, that you might be heard; you wrote, that you might be read; all was done, that you might be believed. Say: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. From what does it deliver you? From the body of this death. But are you not yourself the body of this death? He answers: Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:22–25). But I myself: how are you yourself through different things? With the mind, he says, because I love; with the flesh, because I desire: victor indeed, if I do not consent; yet still a wrestler, with the adversary pressing me. And how, O Apostle, when you have been delivered from this flesh, will you no longer be anything but spirit? The Apostle answers, with death now at hand, the debt which no one escapes: I do not lay down the flesh for ever, but I lay it aside for a time. Then you are going to return to the body of this death? And what [of it]? Let us rather hear his own words. How do you return to the body, from which with so devout a voice you cried out that you must be delivered? He answers: I do indeed return to the body, but no longer [the body] of this death. Hear, you unlearned man, deaf to the daily voices of the readings: hear how he returns to the body indeed, but not [the body] of this death. Not because it will be another body, but because this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. My brethren, when the Apostle said this corruptible, this mortal, in a certain manner he was touching the flesh with his own voice. Not another, then. I do not, he says, lay down an earthly body and receive an airy body, or receive an ethereal body. The same I receive, but no longer [the body] of this death. Because the corruptible, not another, but this, must put on incorruption; and the mortal, not another, but this, [must] put on immortality. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Let Alleluia be sung. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written: a saying no longer of those who fight, but of those who triumph: Death is swallowed up in victory. Let Alleluia be sung. Where, O death, is your sting? Let Alleluia be sung. But the sting of death is sin (1 Cor. 15:53–56). But you shall seek his place, and shall not find it (Ps. 36:10).

3. How the Alleluia is to be sung here amid the perils of temptations. But even here, amid perils, amid temptations, let Alleluia be sung both by others and by us. For God is faithful, Who will not permit, he says, you to be tempted beyond what you are able. Therefore here too let us sing Alleluia. Man is still guilty, but God is faithful. He does not say, He will not permit you to be tempted: but, He will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but with the temptation will also make a way out, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor. 10:13). You have entered into temptation: but God will also make a way out, that you may not perish in the temptation: so that, like a potter's vessel, you may be shaped by preaching, [and] fired by tribulation. But when you enter, think of the way out: because God is faithful, the Lord will keep your going in and your going out (Ps. 120:8).

But further, when this body shall have been made immortal and incorruptible, when all temptation shall have perished; for The body indeed is dead: why is it dead? because of sin. But the spirit is life, these are the Apostle's words: why? because of justice. Do we then give up the dead body? No, but hear: But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised up Christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies (Rom. 8:10, 11). For now it is an animal body, then [it will be] spiritual. For the first man was made into a living soul, the last man into a life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:44, 45). Therefore He will give life also to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit dwelling in you. O happy Alleluia there! O secure! O without adversary! where no one will be an enemy, no friend perishes. There praises to God, and here praises to God: but here from the anxious, there from the secure; here from those who will die, there from those who will live for ever; here in hope, there in reality; here on the way, there in the fatherland. Now therefore, my brethren, let us sing, not for the delight of rest, but for the solace of toil. As travellers are wont to sing; sing, but walk: console your toil by singing, do not love sloth: sing, and walk. What is, walk? Advance, advance in good. For there are, according to the Apostle, some who advance to the worse (2 Tim. 3:13). If you advance, you walk: but advance in good, advance in right faith, advance in good conduct: sing, and walk. Do not stray, do not go back, do not stand still. Turning to the Lord, etc.