Augustine, Sermones 59-70 (Classis I, de Scripturis: de Evangelio Matthaei)

What else, then, does it mean, what He said above, Every tree not bearing good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire: except that those on the left are going to hear, Go into the eternal fire; for I was hungry, and you did not give Me to eat? It is little, therefore, to withdraw from sins, if you neglect to attend to the past ones: as it is written, Son, you have sinned, do not add again. And lest he should think himself secure in this alone: And for the former ones, it says, pray, that they may be forgiven you (Ecclus. 21:1). But what will it profit to pray, if you do not make yourself worthy to be heard, by not bearing fruits worthy of penance; so that like a barren tree you are cut down, and cast into the fire? If therefore you wish to be heard, when you pray for your sins, Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you, give, and it shall be given you (Luke 6:37–38).

Sermon 61. On the words of the Gospel of Matthew 7:7-11, Ask, and it shall be given you, etc. An exhortation to the giving of alms.

Chapter I. — 1. God is our Father. In the reading of the holy Gospel the Lord has exhorted us to pray. Ask, He says, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, from whom his son asks bread, will he hold out a stone to him? Or if he asks for a fish, will he hold out a serpent to him? Or when he asks for an egg, will he hold out a scorpion to him? If then you, He says, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your Father, Who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask Him? Though you are evil, He says, you know how to give good gifts to your children. A wonderful thing, brethren: we are evil, and we have a good Father. What is plainer? We have heard our name: Though you are evil, He says, you know how to give good gifts to your children. And see what kind of Father He has shown to those whom He called evil: How much more your Father? Whose Father? Of the evil, certainly. And what kind of Father? No one is good, but God alone (Luke 18:19).

Chapter II. — 2. Man is not made good from evil except by God. He refutes the Pelagians. Therefore, brethren, we who are evil have a good Father for this reason, that we may not remain evil for ever. No evil man makes good. If no evil man makes good, how does an evil man make himself good? He makes good out of evil Who is always good. Heal me, O Lord, it says, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved (Jer. 17:14). Why do the vain say vain things to me: You save yourself, if you wish? Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. We were created good by the Good: for God made man upright (Eccl. 7:30); but by our own choice we were made evil. We were able to become evil from good, and we shall be able to become good from evil. But He Who is always good, He Himself makes good out of evil: because man himself could not heal himself by his own will. You do not seek a physician in order to wound yourself: but when you have wounded yourself, you seek one to heal you. Good things, then, according to time, temporal goods, bodily, carnal, we know how to give to our children, even though we are evil. For good are

these too, who would doubt? A fish, an egg, bread, a piece of fruit, grain, this light, this air which we breathe: these are good things. Riches themselves, in which men are lifted up and do not acknowledge other men as their equals; in which, I say, men are lifted up, loving shining clothing more than considering the skin they have in common: riches themselves, then, are good things. But all these good things which I have mentioned can be possessed by the good and by the wicked; and although they are good, yet they cannot make men good.

Chapter III. — 3. The good is twofold. There is, then, a good which makes good, and there is a good with which you may do good. The good which makes good is God. For no one makes a man good except Him Who is always good. Therefore, that you may be good, call upon God. But the other good is that with which you may do good: that is, whatever you have. Gold is, silver is; it is a good, not one that makes you good, but one with which you may do good. You have gold, you have silver; and you covet gold and you covet silver. You both have and covet; you are both full and thirsty. It is a disease, and not wealth. There are men in a disease: they are full of fluid, and they are always thirsty. They are full of fluid, and they thirst for fluid. How then do you delight in wealth, you who have the dropsy of covetousness? You have gold, then: it is a good. You have, not that whereby you may be good, but that with which you may do good. What good, you say, am I to do with gold? Have you not heard the Psalm? He has scattered, it says, he has given to the poor; his justice remains for ever and ever (Ps. 110:9). This is the good, this is the good whereby you are good: justice. If you have the good whereby you may be good, do good with the good whereby you are not good. You have money: pay it out. By paying out money you increase justice. For he has scattered, he has distributed, he has given to the poor; his justice remains for ever and ever. See what is diminished and what is increased. Money is diminished, justice is increased. That is diminished which you were going to let go; that is diminished which you were going to leave behind: that is increased which you are going to possess for eternity.

Chapter IV. — 4. Money is to be paid out, so that justice may be had. The beggar of God. God urges us to ask by means of comparisons. I give you advice about profits: learn to trade. For you praise a merchant who sells lead and acquires gold; and do you not praise the merchant who pays out money and acquires justice? But I, you say, do not pay out money, because I do not have justice. Let him pay out money who has justice: I do not have justice; let me at least have money. So, because you do not have justice, for that reason you are unwilling to pay out money? All the more pay out money, so that you may have justice. For from whom will you have justice, if not from God, the fount of justice? Therefore, if you wish to have justice, be a beggar of God, Who a little while ago, from the Gospel, was urging you to ask, to seek, to knock. He knew His beggar, and behold, the householder and great rich man, rich, that is, in spiritual and eternal riches, urges you and says to you: Ask, seek, knock. He who asks receives; he who seeks finds; to him who knocks it will be opened. He urges you to ask: will He refuse what you ask?

5. The widow to the judge. Consider a likeness or comparison drawn from the contrary, as concerning that unjust rich man, urging us to prayer, when the Lord says: There was a certain judge in a city, who neither feared God nor respected man. A certain widow kept petitioning him daily, and saying, Avenge me. For a time he was unwilling: she did not cease petitioning; and he did out of weariness what he would not do out of kindness (Luke 18:1–8). For thus He admonished us from the contrary to ask.

Chapter V. — 6. The friend to the friend. He came, He says, to his friend, to whom a guest had come; and he began to knock, and to say: A guest has come to me, lend me three loaves. The other answered: I am already resting, and my servants are resting with me. He does not cease, he stands there, he presses, he knocks; and as a friend he begs from a friend. And what does He say? I say to you, that he rises, and not because of his friendship, but because of his importunity he gives him as many as he wished (Luke 11:5–15). Not because of friendship, although he is a friend, but because of importunity. What is "because of importunity"? Because he did not stop knocking: because even when it had been refused, he did not turn away. He who was unwilling to give did what was asked, because the other did not give up in asking. How much more will He give who is good, Who urges us to ask; Whom it displeases if we do not ask? But when at times He gives rather slowly, He commends His gifts, He does not refuse them. Things long desired are obtained more sweetly: but things given quickly grow cheap. Ask, seek, persist. By asking and seeking you grow, so that you may receive. God keeps for you what He does not wish to give quickly, so that you too may learn to desire great things greatly. Hence one ought always to pray, and not to give up (Luke 18:1).

Chapter VI. — 7. Who we are, from whom, and what we ask. If therefore, my brothers, God has made us His beggars, by warning us, and urging and commanding us to ask, to seek, to knock, let us too pay heed to those who ask of us. We ask. From whom do we ask? who are we that ask? what do we ask? From whom, or who, or what do we ask? We ask from God Who is good: we who ask are evil men: but we ask for righteousness, whereby we may be good. This, therefore, is what we ask: that which we may have for ever: with which, once we have been filled, we may lack nothing further. But that we may be filled, let us hunger and thirst; hungering and thirsting let us ask, let us seek, let us knock. For blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why blessed? They hunger and thirst, and they are blessed? Is want, then, ever blessed? They are not blessed on this account, that they hunger and thirst; but because they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6). There blessedness will be in fullness, not in hunger. But let hunger go before fullness, lest distaste should not come through to the loaves.

Chapter VII. — 8. Who, from whom, and what our beggars here ask. We have said, then, from whom we ask, who we are that ask, what we ask. But it is asked of us too. For we are God's beggars: that He may acknowledge His beggars, let us too acknowledge ours. But there too let us also consider, when something is asked of us, who are asking, from whom they are asking, what they are asking. Who are asking? Men. From whom are they asking? From men. Who are asking? Mortals. From whom are they asking? From mortals. Who are asking? The frail. From whom are they asking? From the frail. Who are asking? The wretched. From whom are they asking? From the wretched. Apart from the substance of their

means: those who ask are such as those from whom they ask. With what face do you ask of your Lord, you who do not acknowledge your equal? I am not, he says, such a one: far be it from me that I should be such. Puffed up and clad in silk, he says these things about the man in rags. But I question them naked. I do not ask, in your clothes, what you are, but what you were when you were born. Both naked, both weak, beginning a wretched life, and therefore both weeping.

Chapter VIII. — 9. Rich and poor equal in birth and in death. Look, rich man, recall your beginnings: see whether you brought anything here. You have now come, and have found so much. Tell me, I ask you, what did you bring? Tell what you brought. Or if you are ashamed to say, hear the Apostle: We brought nothing into this world. We brought nothing, he says, into this world. But perhaps, because you brought nothing and have found much here, you are going to take something away from here with you? And perhaps, from love of riches, you are afraid to admit this too: hear this also. Let the Apostle say this too, he who does not flatter you. We brought nothing into this world, that is, when we were born; but neither can we take anything away, that is, when we go out of the world. You brought nothing, you will take nothing away from here: why do you puff yourself up against the poor man? When infants are born, let parents, servants, clients withdraw from the midst; let the attending crowds withdraw from the midst, and let the rich children be recognized as they cry. Let rich and poor give birth together, let a rich woman and a poor woman give birth together: let them not look at what they bear, let them go away a little, come back and recognize them. Look, rich man, you brought nothing into this world: but neither can you take anything away from here. What I have said of the newborn, I say of the dead. Certainly, when by some chance old tombs are broken open, let the bones of the rich man be recognized. Therefore, rich man, hear the Apostle: We brought nothing into this world. Acknowledge it, it is true. But neither can we take anything away. Acknowledge it, this too is true.

Chapter IX. — 10. It is one thing to be rich, another to wish to become rich. The worm of riches, pride. What then follows? Having food and covering, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and many harmful desires, which plunge a man into ruin and perdition. For the root of all evils is avarice: following which, some have strayed from the faith. Consider what they have let go. You grieve that they have let this go: see into what they have thrust themselves. Hear: They have strayed from the faith, and have thrust themselves into many sorrows. But who? Those who wish to become rich. It is one thing to be rich; another, to wish to become rich. He is rich who was born of rich parents: he is rich not because he wished it, but because many left him inheritances. I see the means, I do not question the pleasures. Here it is cupidity that is accused, not gold, not silver, not riches, but cupidity. For those who do not wish to become rich, or who do not care, or do not burn with cupidities, are not set alight by the torches of avarice, but are rich, let them hear the Apostle. Today it was read, Command the rich of this world. Command. What? Command above all not to be high-minded. For there is nothing that riches beget so much as pride. Every fruit, every grain, every corn, every tree has its worm. And one is the worm of the apple, another of the pear,

another of the bean, another of the wheat. The worm of riches is pride.

Chapter X. — 11. The use of riches for acquiring eternal life. Therefore command the rich of this world not to be proud-minded. He has shut out the vice; let him teach the use. Not to be proud-minded. But whence comes it that they are not proud-minded? From what follows: Nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches. Those who do not hope in the uncertainty of riches are not proud-minded. If they are not high-minded, let them fear. If they fear, they are not high-minded. How many were rich yesterday, poor today? How many go to sleep rich and, when robbers come and carry everything off, wake up poor? Therefore not to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, Who gives us all things abundantly to enjoy: things temporal and things eternal. But rather to enjoy, the eternal; to use, the temporal. The temporal as for travellers; the eternal as for dwellers. The temporal, with which we may do good things; the eternal, by which we may be made good. Therefore let the rich do this: let them not be proud-minded, nor hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, Who gives us all things abundantly to enjoy: let them do this. But out of what they have, what are they to do? Hear what: Let them be rich in good works, let them give readily. For they have the means. Why do they not do it? Poverty is a difficulty. Let them give readily; they have the means. Let them share, that is, let them acknowledge mortals as their equals. Let them share, let them lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future. For it is not, he says, because I say, Let them give readily, let them share, that I wish to despoil them, I wish to strip them bare, I wish to leave them empty. I teach gain when I point out, Let them lay up for themselves. For I do not wish them to remain poor. Let them lay up for themselves. I do not say that they should lose, but I show where they should move [their goods]. Let them lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of true life (1 Tim. 6:7–10, 17–19). This, then, is a false life: let them lay hold of true life. For vanity of the vain, and all is vanity. What great abundance has a man in all his labour with which he labours under the sun (Eccl. 1:2–3)? True life, therefore, must be laid hold of; our possessions must be moved to the place of true life, so that we may find there what we give here. He changes those things Who changes us too.

Chapter XI. — 12. Let the rich so use their superfluities that they give the poor necessities. Give, then, to the poor, my brothers. Having food and covering, let us be content with these. The rich man has nothing from his riches except what the poor man asks of him, food and covering. From this, what more do you have out of all that you have? You have received food, you have received necessary covering. Necessary, I say, not vain, not superfluous. What more do you take from your riches? Tell me. Surely all of yours will be superfluous. Let what are your superfluities be necessities for the poor. But I, you say, take costly banquets, I feed on costly foods. The poor man, on what? On cheap ones. The poor man feeds on cheap foods; I, he says, on costly ones. I ask you, when you have both been filled: the costly food enters into you; what becomes of it once it has entered? If we had windows in our belly, would we not, at all