Augustine, Sermo 293 (In Nativitate Ioannis Baptistae)

SERMON 293.

On the Birthday of John the Baptist, the seventh.

1. We have heard, marvelling, the nativity of Saint John when the Gospel was being read; today we celebrate his solemnity. How great is the glory of the judge, if so great is that of the herald? What sort is He Who is to come, the Way, if such is he who prepares the way? The Church observes the nativity of John as in a manner consecrated: nor is anyone found among the Fathers whose nativity we celebrate solemnly: we celebrate John's, we celebrate Christ's too: this cannot be without purpose, and even if perhaps it is explained by us too little, in proportion to the worth of so great a matter, yet it is pondered the more fruitfully and the more deeply. John is born of a barren old woman, Christ is born of a young virgin. Barrenness bears John, wholeness bears Christ. At John's nativity the age was not fit for parenthood; at Christ's nativity there was no marital embrace. The one is announced by an angel preaching it, the other is conceived while an angel announces it. It is not believed that John is to be born, and his father becomes mute; it is believed that Christ [is to be born], and He is conceived through faith. The coming of faith into the heart happens first with the virgin, and fruitfulness in the mother's womb follows. And yet the words of Zacharias, when the angel announced John to him, are almost the same: By what shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is already advanced in her days — and of holy Mary, when the angel announced to her that her offspring was to come: How shall this be, since I do not know a man? — almost the same words. To him it is said: Behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak, until these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time. But to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; for this reason the Holy One Who shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. He is rebuked, she is instructed. To him it is said: Because you did not believe; to her it is said: Receive what you sought. Almost the same

the words are: By what shall I know this? and: How shall this be? But it did not lie hidden from him who was hearing the words and seeing the heart. In the words of both the thought lay hidden; but it lay hidden from men, it did not lie hidden from the angel: nay rather, it did not lie hidden from Him Who was speaking through the angel. Lastly, John is born while the light is already lessening and the night begins to grow: Christ is born while the night takes loss and the day increase. And as though looking upon this very sign of the nativity of them both, John himself says: He must grow, but I must be lessened (John 3:30). We have set forth the things to be inquired into, and have announced beforehand the things to be discussed; but this I have said by way of preface: even if we are not sufficient, either in faculty or in time, for searching out all the recesses of so great a mystery, He will teach you better Who speaks within you, even when we are absent — He Whom you devoutly think upon, Whom you have received in the heart, Whose temples you have been made.

2. John, then, is seen as a kind of boundary set between the two Testaments, the old and the new. For that he is, as I have said, in a certain manner a boundary, the Lord Himself bears witness, saying: The Law and the Prophets as far as John the Baptist (Luke 16:16). He sustains, therefore, the person of the old, and the heralding of the new. Because of the person of the old, he is born of aged parents; because of the person of the new, in the inward parts of his mother he is declared a prophet. For not yet born, at the coming of holy Mary, he leaped in his mother's womb. Already there he had been designated, designated before he was born: Whose forerunner he was is shown, before he was seen by Him. Divine are these things, and they exceed the measure of human frailty. Lastly he is born, he receives a name, his father's tongue is loosed (Luke 1). Refer what was done to the image that signifies the realities — only, do not think that what was done was not done, because you will perhaps say what it signified. This that was done, refer to the signification of the realities, and see a great mystery. Zacharias is silent, and loses his voice, until John should be born, the forerunner of the Lord, and should open his voice. What is the silence of Zacharias, but prophecy lying hidden, and before the preaching of Christ in a certain manner concealed and shut up? It is opened at His coming; it becomes clear now that He Who was being prophesied is at hand. The opening of the voice of Zacharias at the nativity of John is what the rending of the veil is at the cross of Christ. If John were announcing himself, he would not open the mouth of Zacharias. The tongue is loosed, because the voice is born: for to John, already announcing the Lord beforehand, it was said: Who are you? And he answered: I am the voice of one who cries in the desert (John 1:22, 23).

3. John is the voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word (ibid. 1:1). John a voice for a time, Christ the Word in the beginning eternal. Take away the word — what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, it is an empty noise. A voice without a word strikes the ear, it does not build up the heart. Yet in the building up of this very heart of ours let us mark the order of things. If I think what I am to say, the word is already in my heart; but wishing to speak to you, I seek how that which is already in mine may be also in your heart. Seeking this — how it may come through to you, and

may settle in your heart the word which is already in my heart, I take up a voice, and with the voice taken up I speak to you: the sound of the voice leads the understanding of the word across to you; and when the sound of the voice has led the understanding of the word across to you, the sound indeed passes away, but the word which the sound conveyed to you is now in your heart, and yet has not withdrawn from mine. The sound therefore, the word having passed over to you — does not the sound itself seem to you to say: He must grow, but I must be lessened? The sound of the voice made its noise for a ministry, and went away, as if saying: This joy of mine is complete (John 3:30, 29). Let us hold the word fast; let us not lose the word conceived in the marrow. Do you wish to see the voice passing away, and the divinity of the Word remaining? Where now is the baptism of John? It ministered, and went away. Now the baptism of Christ is frequented. We all believe in Christ, we all hope for salvation in Christ: this is what the voice sounded. For because it is hard to tell the word apart from the voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word; but the voice knew itself, lest it give offence to the word. I am not, he says, the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet. The answer came: Who then are you? I am, he says, the voice of one who cries in the desert: Make ready the way for the Lord (ibid. 1:20–23). The voice of one who cries in the desert, the voice of one breaking the silence. Make ready the way for the Lord — as though he said: I sound for this, that I may bring Him into the heart; but He does not deign to come where I would bring Him, unless you prepare the way. What is Make ready the way, but: Make fitting supplication? What is Make ready the way, but: Think humbly? From him receive the example of humility. He is thought to be the Christ; he says that he is not what he is thought to be, and does not take up another's error for his own pride. If he were to say, I am the Christ, how very easily would he be believed, who before he said it was believed already? He did not say it: he knew himself, he distinguished himself, he humbled himself. He saw where he had his salvation: he understood himself to be a lamp, and feared to be put out by the wind of pride.

4. For this arrangement pleased God, that a man of such great grace should bear witness to Christ — a man who could be thought to be the Christ. In fine, among those born of women, as Christ Himself said, none has arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11). If no man was greater than this man, then He Who is greater than he is more than man. Great is the testimony of Christ concerning Himself; but to bleary and weak eyes the day testifies too little of itself. Weak eyes take fright at the day, they endure a lamp. Therefore the day that was to come sent a lamp before it. But it sent the lamp before it into the hearts of the faithful, for the confounding of the hearts of the unfaithful. I have prepared, He says, a lamp for my Christ: God the Father speaking in prophecy, I have prepared a lamp for my Christ — John, a herald for the Saviour, a forerunner for the judge Who was to come, a friend for the bridegroom Who was to be. I have prepared, He says, a lamp for my Christ. Why hast Thou prepared it? I will clothe His enemies in confusion, but over Him my sanctification shall flower (Ps. 131:17, 18). How were His enemies clothed with confusion by means of this lamp? Let us search the Gospel through. Slandering

Jews said to the Lord: By what power dost Thou do these things? If Thou art the Christ, tell us plainly. They were seeking a charge, not faith; something to lay snares by, not something to be set free by. Finally, mark what He Who saw their hearts answered, when He was about to confound them out of the lamp. I too, He says, ask you one word: Tell me, the baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or from men? They, struck back at once, and, though the day shone but thinly, driven to grope, since they could not gaze upon that brightness, took refuge in the darkness of their own heart, and there began to be troubled within themselves, stumbling and falling headlong. If we shall say — they say (this among their own selves, where they were thinking, but where He was seeing) — If we shall say, they say, It is from heaven; He will say to us: Why, then, did you put no faith in him? For he had borne witness to Christ the Lord. But if we shall say, From men; the people stone us: because John was held to be a great prophet. And they said: We do not know. You do not know: you are in the dark, you are letting the light go. For how much better it is, if darkness chances to be at work in a human heart, to let the light in, not to let it go. When they had said, We do not know, the Lord says: Nor do I tell you in what power I do these things (Matt. 21:23–27). For I know with what heart you said, We do not know: not willing to be taught, but afraid to confess.

5. This divine dispensation — so far as a man can search it out, the better man the better, the lesser man the less — this divine dispensation conveys to us a great sacrament. For Christ was to come in the flesh: not just anyone, not an angel, not an envoy; but He Himself, coming, shall save them (Isa. 35:4). It was not just anyone who was to come; and yet in what manner was He to come? To be born in mortal flesh, to be a little infant, to be laid in a manger, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, to be nourished with milk, to be increased through the ages of life, and at the last even to be destroyed by death. All these, then, are the tokens of humility, and it is the form of an exceeding humility. Whose is this humility? The Most High's. How high? Do not look for Him on earth; pass beyond the stars as well. When you have come to the heavenly armies of the Angels, you will hear from them: Pass beyond us too. When you have come to the Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, Powers, you will hear: Pass beyond us too; we also were made. All things were made through Him. Pass beyond the whole creation; whatever has been founded, whatever established, whatever is mutable, whether bodily or bodiless, pass beyond it all. By seeing you cannot yet; by believing, pass beyond: come through to the Creator, and meanwhile, with faith going before you, which leads you through, come through to the Creator. There see: In the beginning was the Word. For it was not made at some time: but in the beginning it was. Not as the creature is, of which it is said, In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1). Of this which was in the beginning, there is no 'when' in which it was not. This, then, which was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word itself was God: and all things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing: and that which was made, in Him is life (John 1:1–4) — came to us. To whom? to the worthy? God forbid: but to the unworthy. For indeed

Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6), and for the unworthy — but He was worthy. For we were unworthy to be pitied; but He was worthy Who should pity, He to Whom it should be said: For Thy mercy's sake, Lord, deliver us. Not for our preceding merits, but for Thy mercy's sake, Lord, deliver us; and be merciful to our sins for Thy name's sake (Ps. 78:9), not for our merit's sake. For it is not for the merit of sins, but for Thy name's sake. For the merit of sins is assuredly not a reward but a punishment. Therefore for Thy name's sake. See to whom He came; see how great He came. How did He come to us? The Word plainly was made flesh, that He might dwell in us (John 1:14). For if He came only in His divinity, who would bear Him? who would contain Him? who would receive Him? But He took up what we were, lest we should remain what we were: yet what we were by nature, not by fault. For because He came to men, a man; yet not, because He came to sinners, a sinner. Of these two, human nature and human fault, He took up the one, He healed the other. For if He Himself were to take up our iniquity, He too would be looking for a saviour. He took it up, however, to be borne and to be healed, not to be had: and He appeared a man among men, God lying hidden.

6. Who then shall bear testimony to this day hidden in a certain cloud of flesh? Give a lamp, let it testify to the day: but increase this lamp, so that whoever shall be more than it is the day itself: Among those born of women there has arisen none greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11). O unutterable dispensation! When I consider these things, brethren, I greatly marvel at what John says of Christ, the Gospel being witness: I am not worthy, he says, to loose the strap of His sandal (John 1:27). What humbler thing can be said? What is loftier than Christ? what humbler than the crucified? Whoever has the bride is the bridegroom; but the bridegroom's friend stands and listens to Him, and rejoices with gladness at the bridegroom's voice (John 3:29), not because of his own. We, he says, have all received of His fullness (ibid. 1:16). How great the things he says of Christ, how splendid! how lofty! how worthy! — if indeed anything is said worthily of Him by anyone. And yet he does not walk among the disciples of the Lord, he did not follow Him, as Peter did, as Andrew, as John, as the rest. But he gathered disciples to himself as well, and although the Lord was here established with His own disciples, John too had disciples. They were called the disciples of John. It was said to the Lord Himself: Why do John's disciples keep fasts, while Thy disciples do not fast (Mark 2:18)? This without doubt was necessary for a faithful forerunner, that Christ should be preached by one who could be believed a rival. John had disciples, Christ had them too: he taught as though outside, but as a witness he clung close. Therefore among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist. There were Prophets, they had disciples, but not while Christ was present. There were afterwards great Apostles, but [they had them] because they were Christ's disciples, not because

they could have disciples along with Christ. He has disciples, he gathers them, he baptizes: what are we to think? outside, or inside? Rather, in the very fact, inside, so that as a man he might be set free by God; in appearance as though outside, so that as a witness he might be believed. Consider this very thing: they bore testimony to the Lord — Peter, for instance, Andrew, John and the rest — when it might be said to them: You praise Him Whom you follow, you preach Him to Whom you cling. Let the lamp come, confounding the enemies, let it gather disciples. Christ has them, John has them too. Christ baptizes, John baptizes too; and men come to John, and it is said to him: He to Whom you bore witness, behold He baptizes, and all are coming to Him — that as a rival he might say something evil of Christ out of envy. But the lamp there burns more safely, there shines more brightly, there is quickened; the more distinctly, so much the more securely. Already, he says, I told you that I am not the Christ. Whoever has the bride is the bridegroom: whoever comes from heaven is over all (John 3:26–31). Then those who believed marvelled at Christ, and then indeed the enemies were confounded, when in a certain manner he was compelled to preach who could have been believed to envy. For the servant is compelled to acknowledge the Lord, the creature is compelled to bear testimony to the Creator: nor is he compelled, but does it willingly. For he is a friend, not envious: nor is he jealous for himself, but for the bridegroom.

7. The friends of the bridegroom do this; and there is a certain solemnity in human weddings, that besides the other friends a groomsman also is brought in, an inner friend, privy to the secret of the bridal chamber. But here there is a difference, and plainly a great difference. What in human weddings a man is to a man as groomsman, that John is to Christ; and the same Christ is God, the bridegroom, the mediator of God and men — but inasmuch as He is man. For inasmuch as He is God, He is not mediator, but equal to the Father, this same thing which the Father is, one God with the Father. When would that sublimity be a mediatrix, from which we lay parted very far off? That He may be in the middle, let Him take up something which He was not: but that we may come through, let Him remain what He was. For see, God is above us, see, we are below Him, and many spaces lie between; above all, the interval of sin marks us off and casts us far away. In so great a distance, when there was need of coming to God, by what were we to come? God Himself remains God: man draws near to God, and one person comes to be, so that He is not a half-god, as it were God in the part that is God's and man in the part that is man's; but wholly God and wholly man: God the deliverer, man the mediator; that it is through Him that we come to Him, not through anyone else, nor indeed without coming to Him; but by what we are in Him, [we come] to Him through Whom we were made. Therefore the Apostle, although he knew Christ to be God — for he himself said of Him, when he was speaking of the preceding merits of the Jews: To whom the fathers belong, and from whom Christ [came] according to the flesh, Who is God above all things, blessed unto the ages (Rom. 9:5) — since therefore he knew Him to be God, and God over all, and by this assuredly over all, because through Him all things were made; when it came to commending the mediator, he did not say God; for He is not mediator by this, that He is God, but is mediator by this, that

He was made man. This is our deliverance. For there is one God. Since assuredly you hear as Catholics, you hear as instructed men, you hear watchfully: One God — is it the Father alone? is it the Son alone? is it the Holy Spirit alone? But assuredly the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. Therefore, One God, one also the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). If he had said, One God, one also the mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus, He would have been understood as a lesser God. For He would as it were be separated from that deity of the Trinity, if it were one God, one also the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ — as though He were not that God Who was called one. But because in the unity of God there are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: let the divinity hold the unity, let the humanity take up the mediation.

8. By this mediation the whole lump of the human race, estranged from Him through Adam, is reconciled to God. For through Adam sin entered into the world, and through sin death; and so it passed through into all men, in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5:12). Who was to be rescued from this? who was to be marked off from this lump of wrath unto mercy? For who singles you out? And what do you have that you did not receive (1 Cor. 4:7)? It is not merits, then, that distinguish us, but grace. For if merits, it is a debt: if a debt, it is not free: if not free, it is not grace. This the Apostle himself said: But if by grace, then not now of works; otherwise grace is now not grace (Rom. 11:6). Through one we are saved, greater and lesser, old men, young men, little children, infants: through one we are saved. For there is one God, one also the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Through one man death, and through one the resurrection of the dead. Just as in Adam all are dying, so too in Christ all will be brought to life (1 Cor. 15:21, 22).

9. Here someone meets me, and says to me: How all? Those then who are to be sent into hell, who will be damned with the devil, who will be tormented with eternal fires — how all, and all? Because no one comes to death but through Adam, no one to life but through Christ. If there were another through whom we might come to death, not all would die in Adam. If there were another through whom we might come to life, not all would be made alive in Christ.

10. What then, says someone: does an infant too need a deliverer? Plainly he needs one: the witness is the mother running faithfully with her little one to the church to have him baptized. The witness is mother Church herself, taking up the little one to be washed, and either, once set free, to be sent away, or to be nursed in piety. Who would dare to speak testimony against so great a mother? Lastly, in the little one himself, his weeping is the witness of his misery. So far as it can, weak nature testifies, with little understanding: he does not begin from laughter, he begins from weeping. Recognize the wretched one, hold out help. Let all with the bowels of mercy

be clothed. The less they can do for themselves, the more mercifully let us speak for the little ones. The Church is accustomed to hold out help to orphans for the protection of their property: let us all speak for the little ones, let help be held out to them by all, lest they lose the heavenly patrimony. And for their sake the Lord of them was made a little one. How did they not belong to His deliverance, who first deserved to be killed for Him?

11. Lastly, of the Lord and Saviour Himself, when His nativity was foretold as at hand, it was said: They shall call His name Jesus: for He Himself shall save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). We hold Jesus; we have the interpretation of this name. Why Jesus, which in Latin is called Saviour — why Jesus? For He Himself shall save His people. But Moses saved his people too, with a mighty hand and with the help of the Most High, from the persecution and dominion of the Egyptians; Joshua the son of Nun also saved his people from the persecutors and the wars of the nations; the Judges saved the people, setting them free from the Philistines; the Kings did so too, setting them free from the dominion of the nations barking all around. Not so does Jesus save: but from their sins. They shall call His name Jesus. Why? For He Himself shall save His people. From what? From their sins. Now I ask about the little one: he is brought to church to be made a Christian, to be baptized — for this reason, I suppose, that he may be among the people of Jesus. Of which Jesus? Of Him Who saves His people from their sins. If he has nothing in him to be saved, let him be carried away from here. Why do we not say to the mothers: Carry away these little ones from here? For Jesus is a saviour: if these have nothing in them to be saved, carry them away from here. There is no need of a physician for the healthy, but for those who are unwell (ibid. 9:12). Will anyone dare to say to me, in this peril of a little one: Jesus is mine, Jesus is not his? Is Jesus then yours, and Jesus not his? Does he not come to Jesus? is answer not made for him that he may believe in Jesus? Do we institute a second baptism for little ones, in which no remission of sins takes place? Plainly, if that little one could speak for himself, he would refute the voice of the objector and cry out: Give me the life of Christ; in Adam I have died; give me the life of Christ, in Whose sight no one is clean, not even an infant whose life upon earth is of one day (Job 14:4, acc. to the LXX). To these one would not deny grace — not even one who gave of his own. Let mercy be done with the wretched. Why is their innocence praised beyond measure? Let them find a saviour, let them not yet meet a flatterer. We plainly, in so great a peril of infants, ought not even to dispute, lest we seem by disputing to delay their salvation. Let him be brought, let him be washed, let him be set free, let him be made alive. Just as in Adam all are dying, so too in Christ all will be brought to life. He found no way to come into the life of this world but through Adam: he will find no way to escape the punishment of the world to come but through Christ. Why do you shut the one door? For there is one

God, one also the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Hear, He cries out to you: For there is no need of a physician for the healthy, but for those who are unwell. Why do you call this one well, unless because you contradict the physician?

12. Plainly, he says: and was John too, of whom you were speaking, born with sin? You have plainly found one born apart from sin, when you find one born apart from Adam. You do not tear this sentence out of the hands of the faithful: Through one man death, and through one the resurrection of the dead. Just as in Adam all are dying, so too in Christ all will be brought to life. Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed through into all men. If these were my words, could this sentence be said by me more expressly? could it be said more evidently? could it be said more fully? So it passed through into all men, in whom all have sinned. Now do you make John an exception: if you shall have separated him from men, if you shall have separated him from that track of human propagation, if you shall have separated him from the embrace of male and female, you will separate him from this sentence too. For He Who willed to be separated from it deigned to come through a virgin. Why do you force me to sift John's merits? In the womb he saluted the Lord: but I suppose that he saluted Him from Whom he desired salvation. He does not ask for your most pernicious defence. When the Lord came to his baptism, conscious of the common infirmity he said: I must be baptized by Thee (Matt. 3:14). For the Lord was coming to commend humility in baptism also, and to the consecration of that sacrament itself. Because He took up baptism as a young man in the same way that He took up circumcision as an infant. He took up remedies that were to be commended, not wounds. But why should that man say, I must be baptized by Thee — he, clean from every hurt through and through — if there were not in him something to be healed, if there were not in him something to be cleansed? He calls himself a debtor, and you clear him, so that the debts should not be released. I must, he says, be baptized by Thee: I have need of it, it is necessary for me. And this was granted him there. For when the Lord [went] into the water, he was not [kept] out of the water. Why say more? Let the disputer on the other side cease from now on, if it can be done; because the Saviour Himself set free His own herald as well.