Augustine, Sermo 295 (In natali apostolorum Petri et Pauli)

SERMON CCXCV. On the Birthday of the apostles Peter and Paul, I.

CHAPTER ONE. — 1. The rock upon which the Church is built is Christ Himself. This day the passion of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul has consecrated for us. We are not speaking of some obscure martyrs. Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world (Ps. 18:5). These martyrs saw what they preached, following equity, by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth. Blessed Peter, first of the Apostles, a vehement lover of Christ, who was found worthy to hear, And I say to you, That you are

Peter. For he himself had said: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ [said] to him: And I say to you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matt. 16:16, 18). Upon this rock I will build the faith which you confess. Upon this which you have said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my Church. For you are Peter. Peter [is named] from the rock, not the rock from Peter. Peter [is named] from the rock in the same way as Christian from Christ. Do you wish to know from what rock Peter is so called? Hear Paul: « For I would not » « have you ignorant, brethren, » says the Apostle of Christ; « I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ » (1 Cor. 10:1–4). See, from this [comes] Peter.

CHAPTER II. — 2. The keys of the kingdom of heaven given to Peter as bearing the person of the Church. They were given to one, because [they were given] to the unity of the Church. Christ first raises up, then the Church looses. The Lord Jesus, before His passion, as you know, chose His disciples, whom He called Apostles. Among these, almost everywhere Peter alone was found worthy to bear the person of the whole Church. On account of that very person, which he alone bore, [the person] of the whole Church, he was found worthy to hear, To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19). For not one man, but the unity of the Church received these keys. Hence then is Peter's excellence proclaimed, because he bore the figure of the very universality and unity of the Church, when it was said to him, To you I hand over, what was handed over to all. For that you may know that the Church received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, hear what the Lord says in another place to all His Apostles. Receive the Holy Spirit. And straightway: If you forgive the sins of any, they shall be forgiven him; if you retain [the sins] of any, they shall be retained (John 20:22, 23). This pertains to the keys, of which it was said, Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven. But this He said to Peter. That you may know that Peter was then bearing the person of the universal Church, hear what is said to him, what to all the faithful saints: « If your brother sin against you, rebuke him between yourself and him alone. If he will not hear you, take with you one or two: for it is written, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand. If he will not hear them either, refer it to the Church: if he will not hear her either, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican. Amen I say to you, that whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven » (Matt. 18:15–18). The dove binds, the dove looses; the building upon the rock binds and looses.

CHAPTER III. — Let the bound fear, let the loosed fear. Let those who are loosed fear lest they be bound: let those who are bound pray that they be loosed. Each one is held fast by the little cords of his own sins (Prov. 5:22): and outside this Church nothing is loosed. To one four days dead it is said, Lazarus, come forth. And he came forth from the tomb bound hands and feet with bandages. The Lord rouses him,

that the dead man may come forth from the tomb; if He touches the heart, [He rouses it] that the confession of sin may go forth. But this is too little: he is still bound. The Lord therefore, after Lazarus had come out of the tomb, [said] to His disciples, to whom He had said, Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven: Loose him, He says, and let him go (John 11:43, 44). Through Himself He raised him, through the disciples He loosed him.

3. The strength and weakness of the Church figured in Peter. Accordingly the strength of the Church is most especially commended in Peter, because he followed the Lord as He went to His passion; and a certain weakness is also noted, because when questioned by a servant-girl, he denied the Lord. Behold, that lover [became] suddenly a denier. He who had presumed of himself found himself out. For he had said, as you know: Lord, I will be with Thee even unto death; and if it be needful that I die, I will lay down my life for Thee. And the Lord to the presumptuous man: Will you lay down your life for me? Amen I say to you, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times (Matt. 26:33–35, and John 13:37–38). What the physician had foretold came to pass: what the sick man had presumed could not come to pass. But what then? At once the Lord looked back upon him. So it is written, so the Gospel says: The Lord looked back upon him, and he went out, and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61–62). He went out: that is, to confess. He wept bitterly, who had known how to love. Sweetness followed in love, whose bitterness had gone before in pain.

CHAPTER IV. — 4. The sheep entrusted by Christ to Peter as signifying the unity of the Church. Why Peter was asked three times about his love. Rightly too, after the resurrection, the Lord entrusted His sheep to Peter himself to be fed. For he was not the only one among the disciples found worthy to feed the Lord's sheep: but when Christ speaks to one, unity is commended; and to Peter first, because among the Apostles Peter is the first. Simon [son] of John, says the Lord, do you love me? He answered, I love [Thee]. And asked again, he answered again. And asked a third time, as though he were not believed, he is saddened. But how did He not believe him, He Who saw his heart? At last, after that sadness, he answered thus: Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee. For Thou Who knowest all things art not ignorant of this alone. Do not be sad, Apostle; answer once, answer again, answer a third time. Let confession conquer three times in love, because presumption was conquered three times in fear. What you had bound three times must be loosed three times. Loose through love what you had bound through fear. And yet the Lord, once, and again, and a third time, entrusted His sheep to Peter.

CHAPTER V. — 5. Against the Donatists, as dividers of the Lord's flock. Attend, my brethren: Feed, He says, my little sheep, feed my lambs (John 21:15–17). Feed my sheep: did He say, Yours? Feed, good servant, the Lord's sheep, bearing the Lord's mark. For was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Peter and Paul (1 Cor. 1:13)? Feed, then, His sheep, washed by His Baptism, marked by His name, redeemed by His blood — Feed, He says, my sheep. For heretics, bad and runaway servants, dividing among themselves what they did not buy, and treating stolen goods as if their own, seem to themselves

to be feeding their own sheep. For what else is it, I ask you, but: Unless I have baptized you, you will be unclean; unless you have my Baptism, you will not be washed? Have you not heard: Cursed is every one who places his hope in man (Jer. 17:5)? Accordingly, most beloved, those whom Peter baptized are the sheep of Christ; and those whom Judas baptized are the sheep of Christ. For see what the bridegroom says to His beloved in the Song of Songs, when the bride said to Him: Tell me, Whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest down at noon; lest perhaps I become as one veiled, among the flocks of Thy companions. Tell me, she says, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest down at noon — in the splendour of truth, in the fervour of charity. Why do you fear, O beloved? What do you fear? Lest perhaps I become, she says, as one veiled — that is, as one obscure, as one that is not the Church; for the Church is not veiled: for a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14). And by erring I might fall in, not with Thy flock, but with the flocks of Thy companions. For heretics are called companions. They went out from us (1 John 2:19): they had come to one table with us, before they went out. What, then, is answered to her? Unless you know yourself: the bridegroom says, in answer to her question, Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women. O truthful one amid the heresies, unless you know yourself — for such great things have been foretold of you: « In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen. 22:18); The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting (Ps. 49:1); Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps. 2:8); Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world » (Ps. 18:5) — these testimonies were foretold of you. Unless, then, you know yourself, go out, you. For I do not cast you out, that those who remain may say of you, They went out from us. Go out, you, in the footsteps of the flocks — not of the flock, of which it is said, There shall be one flock and one Shepherd (John 10:16). Go out, you, in the footsteps of the flocks, and feed your kids (Song 1:6–7) — not, as Peter did, my sheep. For these sheep committed to him Peter deserved to be crowned with martyrdom, which has deserved to be celebrated throughout the world in today's solemnity.

CHAPTER VI. — 6. Paul, from a persecutor, a preacher of Christ. Let Paul too come, from Saul; a lamb from a wolf; first an enemy, afterwards an apostle; first a persecutor, afterwards a preacher. Let him come, let him receive letters from the chief priests, that wherever he should find Christians, he might bring them in bonds to punishment. Let him receive, let him receive, let him set out, let him go on, let him pant for slaughter, let him thirst for blood: He Who dwells in the heavens shall laugh him to scorn (Ps. 2:4). For he was going, as it is written, breathing slaughter, and drawing near to Damascus. Then the Lord from heaven: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am here, I am there: here the head, there the body. Let us not wonder, then, brethren; we belong to the body of Christ. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. You harm yourself: for my Church grows by persecutions. But he, trembling and afraid: Lord, who art Thou? And He: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute. At once, changed, he waits upon command: he puts away

envy, he makes ready obedience. He is told what he must do. And before Paul is baptized, the Lord speaks to Ananias: Go to that street, to that man named Saul, and baptize him; for he is a vessel of election to me. A vessel ought to carry something; a vessel ought not to be empty. The vessel must be filled: from where, but from grace? But Ananias answered our Lord Jesus Christ: Lord, I have heard that this man has done much evil to Thy saints. And now he carries letters from the chief priests, that wherever he shall find the men of this way, he may bring them bound. And the Lord to him: I will show him what he must suffer for my name's sake (Acts 9). Ananias trembled, having heard the name of Saul: the weak sheep trembled at the fame of the wolf, even under the shepherd's own hand.

CHAPTER VII. — 7. Paul and Peter suffered for Christ. See, the Lord showed him what he must suffer for His name. Afterwards He exercised him in toil. He Himself [exercised him] in chains, He Himself in stripes, He Himself in prisons, He Himself in shipwrecks. He Himself procured his passion for him: He Himself brought him through to this day. One day of passion for the two Apostles. But those two also were one: although they suffered on different days, they were one. Peter went before, Paul followed. First Saul, afterwards Paul: because first proud, afterwards humble. Saul, from Saul the persecutor of holy David. The persecutor was cast down, the preacher was raised up. He changed the proud man's name to [one of] humility. For Paulus is [to say] little. Consider the words of Your Charity: do we not say every day, Post paululum, In a little while I shall see you; paulo post, a little afterwards I shall do this or that? What then is Paul? Ask him himself. I am, he says, the least of the Apostles (1 Cor. 15:9).

CHAPTER VIII. — 8. The days of the martyrs are celebrated for this reason, that it may delight us to imitate them. We celebrate a festal day, consecrated for us by the blood of the Apostles. Let us love their faith, life, labours, sufferings, confessions, preachings. For we make progress by loving [these things]; not by celebrating them for the sake of carnal gladness. For what do the martyrs seek from us? They have less, if they still seek the praises of men. If they still seek the praises of men, they have not yet conquered. But if they have conquered, they seek nothing from us for their own sake; but they seek it for the sake of us ourselves. Let our way therefore be directed in the sight of the Lord. It was narrow, it was thorny, it was hard: with such [travellers], and so many, passing over it, it has been made smooth. The Lord Himself passed over first, the Apostles passed over undaunted, afterwards martyrs, boys, women, girls. But who was in them? He Who said, Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5).