Augustine, Sermones 76-82 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

Sermon 76. Again on Matthew chapter 14:24-33, on the Lord walking upon the waters of the sea, and on Peter tottering.

Chapter I. — 1. The sea, the world. Peter a type of the Church. The Gospel which has just now been read, concerning the Lord Christ, Who walked upon the waters of the sea, and concerning the apostle Peter, who, walking, tottered through fearing, and, sunk through distrusting, emerged again through confessing, admonishes us to understand that the sea is the present world, and that the apostle Peter is a type of the one Church. For Peter himself, first in the order of the Apostles, most ready in the love of Christ, often answers alone on behalf of all. Indeed, when the Lord Jesus Christ asked whom men said He was, and the disciples answered with the various opinions of men, and the Lord asked again, saying, But whom do you say that I am? Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. One gave the answer for many, unity in many. Then the Lord said to him: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. Then He added: And I say to you. As if He were saying: Because you have said to Me, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, I too say to you, You are Peter. For he was previously called Simon. But this name, that he should be called Peter, was imposed on him by the Lord, and this in such a figure that it should signify the Church. For since Christ is the rock, Peter is the Christian people. For rock is the principal name. Therefore Peter is from rock, not rock from Peter, just as Christ is not named from Christian, but Christian from Christ. You are therefore, He says, Peter; and upon this rock which you have confessed, upon this rock which you have recognized, saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build My Church (Matt. 16:13–18); that is, Upon Myself, the Son of the living God, I will build My Church. Upon Me I will build you, not Me upon you.

Chapter II. — 2. The Church built not upon men, but upon Christ. For men who wished to be built upon men used to say: I indeed am

of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, that one is Peter. And others, who did not wish to be built upon Peter but upon the rock, [said,] But I am of Christ. But the Apostle Paul, when he learned that he was being chosen and Christ despised, says: Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul (1 Cor. 1:12–13)? Just as not in the [name] of Paul, so neither in that of Peter, but in the name of Christ: so that Peter might be built upon the rock, not the rock upon Peter.

3. Peter first called blessed, and soon after Satan. So the same Peter, surnamed from the rock, blessed, bearing the figure of the Church, holding the primacy of the apostolate, immediately, a very little while after, having just heard that he was blessed, having just heard that he was Peter, having just heard that he was to be built upon the rock, when he heard of the Lord's future passion, because He had foretold to His disciples that it would soon come, it displeased him. He feared lest he should lose by death Him Whom he had confessed as the fountain of life. He was troubled, saying: Far be it from Thee, he says, Lord; this shall not be. Be merciful to Thyself, O God; I do not want Thee to die. Peter was saying to Christ, I do not want Thee to die; but Christ was saying better, I will to die for you. Then at once He rebukes him whom a little before He had praised; and him whom He had called blessed, He calls Satan. Get behind Me, He says, Satan; you are a stumbling-block to Me: for you do not savour the things that are of God, but those that are of men (Matt. 16:22–23). What does He want us to do from this which we are, He Who thus blames the fact that we are men? Do you want to know what He would have us do? Hear the Psalm: I have said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But by savouring human things: But you shall die like men (Ps. 81:6–7). The very same Peter, a little before blessed, afterwards Satan, in one moment, within a few words. You wonder at the difference of names; attend to the differences of causes. Why do you wonder that a little before [he was] blessed, afterwards Satan? Attend to the cause why [he was] blessed. Because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. Therefore blessed, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you. For if flesh and blood had revealed this to you, [it would be] of your own; but since flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven, [it is] of Mine, not of your own. Why of Mine? Because all things that the Father has are Mine (John 16:15). See, you have heard the cause why [he was] blessed, and why Peter. But why that which we shudder at and do not wish to repeat? Why, except because [it was] of your own? For you do not savour the things that are of God, but those that are of men.

Chapter III. — 4. In Peter the strong and the weak were figured. Looking at this, let us, a member of the Church, discern what is of God's and what of our own. For then we shall not totter, then we shall be founded on the rock, we shall be fixed and steadfast against the winds, the rains, the floods, that is to say, the temptations of the present age. Yet see that Peter, who was then our figure: now he trusts, now he totters; now he confesses the Immortal, now he fears lest He die. Accordingly, because the Church of Christ has the strong, it has also the weak; and it cannot be without the strong, nor without the weak: whence the apostle Paul says, But we who are strong ought to bear the burdens of the weak (Rom. 15:1); in

that Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, he signifies the firm; but in that he trembles and wavers, and does not want Christ to suffer, by fearing death, by not recognizing life, he signifies the weak of the Church. In that one apostle, then, that is, Peter, first and foremost in the order of the Apostles, in whom the Church was figured, both kinds had to be signified, that is, the firm and the weak: because without both there is no Church.

5. Man weak in himself, powerful in the Lord. Hence, then, comes also what was just now read, Lord, if it is Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waters. If it is Thou, bid me: for I cannot do this in myself, but in Thee. He recognized what he had from himself, what from Him by Whose will he believed that he could do what no human weakness could do. Therefore, If it is Thou, bid: because when Thou bid, it will be done. What I am not able to do by presuming, Thou can do by bidding. And the Lord said, Come. And without any doubting Peter, at the word of the One bidding, at the presence of the One sustaining, at the presence of the One ruling, without any delay leapt down into the waters, and began to walk. He was able to do what the Lord did, not in himself, but in the Lord. For you were once darkness, but now light; but in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). What no one can do in Paul, no one in Peter, no one in any other of the Apostles, this he can do in the Lord. Therefore Paul well and profitably, despising himself, commending Him, says: Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Not, then, in me, but with me; not under me, but under Him.

Chapter IV. — 6. Knowledge of one's own weakness is necessary for obtaining grace. So Peter walked upon the waters at the bidding of the Lord, knowing that he could not have this from himself. By faith he was able to do what human weakness could not. These are the firm of the Church. Attend, listen, understand, act. For we must not deal with the firm elsewhere so that they may be weak: but we must deal with the weak so that they may be firm. But presumption of firmness keeps many from firmness. No one will be made firm by God except one who feels himself weak of himself. God setting apart a voluntary rain for His inheritance. Why do you run ahead, you who know what I am going to say? Let quickness be tempered, so that slowness may follow. This I have said, and this I say: listen, grasp, do. No one is made firm by God except one who feels himself weak of himself. A voluntary rain, then, as the Psalm says, voluntary; not of our merits, but voluntary. God, then, setting apart a voluntary rain for His inheritance: for it was weakened; but Thou perfected it (Ps. 67:10). Because Thou set apart a voluntary rain, not regarding the merits of men, but Thy grace and mercy. The inheritance itself, then, was weakened, and it recognized itself as weak in itself, so that it might be firm in Thee. It would not be made firm if it were not made weak, so that by Thee it might be perfected in Thee.

Chapter V. — 7. Paul, recognizing his weakness, is perfected. See Paul, a small portion of this inheritance, see him weakened, who said: I am not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. Why then are you an Apostle? By the grace of God I am what

I am. I am not fit, but by the grace of God I am what I am. Paul was made weak, but Thou perfected him. Now since it is by the grace of God that he is what he is, see what follows: And His grace in me was not void, but I laboured more than all of them. See that you do not lose through presumption what you merited through weakness. Well said, well said: I am not fit to be called an Apostle; by His grace I am what I am; and His grace in me was not void: all of it excellent. But, I laboured more than all of them: as though you had begun to attribute to yourself what a little before you had given to God. Acknowledge it, and go on: Yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor. 15:9–10). Well done, weak one: most firmly will you be exalted, because you are not ungrateful. You are the very same Paul, small in yourself, great in the Lord. You are he who three times asked the Lord that the sting of the flesh, the angel of Satan by whom you were buffeted, might be taken away from you. What was said to you? What did you hear when you asked this? My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:7–9). For he was made weak, but Thou perfected him.

8. Peter powerful not in himself, but in the Lord. So too Peter: Bid me, he says, come to Thee upon the waters. I, a man, dare, but it is not a man I ask. Let the God-man command, so that a man may be able to do what a man cannot. Come, He says. And he went down, and began to walk upon the waters: and Peter was able, because the Rock had commanded. See what Peter is in the Lord; what is he in himself? Seeing the strong wind, he was afraid; and when he began to sink, he cried out: Lord, I perish, deliver me. He presumed upon the Lord, he was able through the Lord: he stumbled as a man, he returned to the Lord. If I said, My foot is moved. A psalm speaks, it is the voice of a holy song; and if we recognize it, it is ours too: indeed, if we will, it is ours too. If I said, my foot is moved. Why moved, except because it is mine? And what follows? Thy mercy, O Lord, helped me (Ps. 93:18). Not my strength, but Thy mercy. For did the Lord forsake the one stumbling, whom He heard calling upon Him? Where is that saying, Who has called upon God, and been forsaken by Him (Sir. 2:12)? Where also that one, And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:32)? At once, stretching out the help of His right hand, He lifted up the one sinking, He rebuked the one distrusting: O you of little faith, why did you doubt? You presumed upon Me, you doubted of Me.

Chapter VI. — 9. In the adversity or the prosperity of the world, desire is the storm. Come now, brethren, the sermon must be concluded. Consider the world as a sea, a strong wind, and a great storm. To each one his own desire is a storm. You love God; you walk upon the sea, the swelling of the world is beneath your feet. You love the world; it will swallow you up. It knows how to devour its lovers, not how to carry them. But when your heart tosses with desire, so that you may conquer your desire, call upon the divinity of Christ. Do you think the wind is contrary only when there is adversity in this world? For when there are wars, when tumult, when famine, when pestilence, when even to some one individual among men a private calamity befalls, then the wind is thought adverse, then it is thought that God must be called upon. But when the world smiles with temporal prosperity, it is as though there were no contrary wind. Do not on this question interrogate the calm of the times: interrogate, rather, your own desire.