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

Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, that is, they will be grafted into the olive tree. For the roots of this olive tree are Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; but the sons of the kingdom, that is, the unbelieving Jews, will go into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:12). The natural branches are cut off, so that the wild olive may be grafted in. But for what did the natural branches deserve to be cut off, if not for pride? For what did the wild olive [deserve] to be grafted in, if not for humility? Hence also that woman said, Yes, Lord: for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. And thereupon she hears, O woman, great is your faith! So too that centurion: I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Amen I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel. Let us learn humility, or hold it fast. If we do not yet have it, let us learn it; if we have it, let us not lose it. If we do not yet have it, let us have it, that we may be grafted in; if we already have it, let us hold it fast, that we may not be cut off.

Sermon 78. On the words of the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 17:1-8, After six days Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, etc.

1. The kingdom of Christ. We must examine and discuss, dearly beloved, this vision which the Lord showed on the mountain. For it is the one of which He had said: Amen I say to you, that there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man in His kingdom (Matt. 16:28). From that point began the reading which has been read out. When He had said this, after six days He took three disciples, Peter, John and James, and went up onto the mountain. These three were the "some" of whom He had said, There are some here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man in His kingdom. It is no small question. For that mountain was not the kingdom in its full compass. What is a mountain to Him Who possesses heaven? This we not only read, but also in some manner see with the eyes of the heart. He speaks of His kingdom, which in many places He calls the kingdom of heaven. But the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of the saints. For the heavens declare the glory of God. Of which heavens it is said immediately afterwards in the Psalm, There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard. Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps. 18:4–5). Whose, if not the heavens'? Therefore of the apostles, and of all faithful preachers of the word of God. The heavens will reign with Him Who made the heavens. That this might be shown, see what was done.

2. An allegory of the Lord's transfiguration. The garments of Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself shone like the sun; His garments became white as snow; and Moses and Elijah were speaking with Him. Jesus Himself indeed, He Himself shone like the sun, signifying that He is the light which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). What this sun is to the eyes of the flesh, that He is to the eyes of the heart; and what this sun is to bodies, that He is to hearts. But His garments are His Church.

For garments fall unless they are held together by the one who wears them. Of those garments Paul was, as it were, the very last fringe. For he himself says, For I am the least of the Apostles (1 Cor. 15:9); and in another place, I am the last of the Apostles. Now in a garment the fringe is the last and the least part. Accordingly, just as that woman who suffered a flow of blood was made whole when she had touched the Lord's fringe (Luke 8:44), so the Church which came from the Gentiles was saved through Paul's preaching. What wonder is it if the Church is signified by white garments, when you hear the prophet Isaiah saying, And if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow (Isa. 1:18)? Moses and Elijah, that is, the Law and the Prophets, what are they worth unless they converse with the Lord? Unless they bear witness to the Lord, who will read the Law? who the Prophets? See how briefly the Apostle says this: For through the Law comes knowledge of sin; but now without the Law the righteousness of God has been made manifest; behold the sun: witnessed by the Law and the Prophets (Rom. 3:20–21); behold the brightness.

3. Peter's wish. Peter sees this, and, thinking human thoughts as a man, he says, Lord, it is good for us to be here. He was suffering weariness from the crowd; he had found the solitude of the mountain; there he had Christ, the bread of the mind. Why should he depart from there to labours and sorrows, when he had holy loves towards God, and therefore good ways of life? He wished it to be well with him: hence he also added, If You will, let us make three tabernacles here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. To this the Lord made no reply; but nevertheless Peter was answered. For while he was saying this, a bright cloud came and overshadowed them. He was seeking three tabernacles; the heavenly answer showed that for us there is one, which human sense desired to divide. Christ is the Word of God, the Word of God in the Law, the Word in the Prophets. Why, Peter, do you seek to divide? Rather you ought to join together. You seek three: understand one as well.

4. The voice from the cloud. The prostration of the disciples. So, as the cloud overshadowed them all and in a certain manner made one tabernacle for them, there sounded also a voice from the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son. Moses was there, Elijah was there: it was not said, These are My beloved sons. For the Only One is one thing, the adopted are another. He was the one being commended, from whom the Law and the prophets drew their glory. This is, it says, My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. For you both heard Him in the Prophets and heard Him in the Law. And where have you not heard Him? When this was heard, they fell to the ground. Now the kingdom of God in the Church is shown to us. Here is the Lord, here the Law and the Prophets: but the Lord as Lord; the Law in Moses, Prophecy in Elijah; but they as servants, as ministers. They as vessels; He as the fountain. Moses and the Prophets spoke and wrote; but it was from Him that they were filled when they poured forth.

5. The raising of the disciples. When they have been raised, Jesus alone is seen. The reward promised to us is God Himself. And the Lord stretched out His hand and raised up those who were lying down. Then they saw no one except Jesus alone. What does this mean? You heard, when the Apostle was being read, that we see

now through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. And tongues will be done away with, when that comes which we now hope for and believe (1 Cor. 13:12, 8, 9). So their falling to the ground signified this, that we die: for it was said to the flesh, Earth you are, and into earth you shall go (Gen. 3:19). But when the Lord raised them up, He signified the resurrection. After the resurrection, what need have you of the Law? What need have you of Prophecy? That is why Elijah does not appear, Moses does not appear. There remains for you, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word (John 1:1). There remains for you, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). Moses will be there; but no longer the Law. We shall see Elijah there too; but no longer as a prophet. For the Law and the Prophets bore witness to Christ, that He had to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day, and enter into His glory (Luke 24:44–47). There is fulfilled that which He promised to those who love Him: He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him. And as if it were said, Since you will love him, what will you give him? And I will show Myself to him (John 14:21). A great gift, a great promise. God does not keep for you some reward of His: but Himself. O covetous man, why does what Christ promises not suffice you? You seem rich to yourself; and if you do not have God, what do you have? Another is poor; and if he has God, what does he not have?

6. The salvation of others is to be cared for out of charity. Come down, Peter: you longed to rest on the mountain; come down, preach the word, press on in season, out of season, reprove, exhort, rebuke, with all long-suffering and teaching (2 Tim. 4:2). Labour, toil hard, endure some torments: so that what is understood in the white garments of the Lord, you may possess through the whiteness and beauty of right action in charity. For in the praise of charity, when the Apostle was being read, we heard, It does not seek the things that are its own (1 Cor. 13:5). It does not seek the things that are its own; because it gives what it possesses. In another place something was said more dangerously, if you do not understand it. For, giving commands to the faithful members of Christ in accordance with that very charity, the Apostle says: Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's. For avarice, having heard this, prepares frauds, so that in business, as if seeking what is another's, it may cheat someone, and seek not its own, but another's. Let avarice restrain itself, let justice come forward: let us listen, and let us understand. It was said to charity, Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's. But you, covetous man, if you resist, and rather bend this precept so as to covet what is another's, then lose what is yours. But as I know you, you want to have both yours and another's. You commit fraud to have what is another's: suffer theft, so as to lose what is yours. You do not want to seek what is yours, but you take what is another's. If you do this, you do not do well. Hear, O covetous man, listen: the Apostle in another place explains to you more openly what he said, Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's. He says of himself: But I, not seeking what is profitable to me, but what is to many, that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:24, 33). Peter did not yet understand this when he longed to live with Christ on the mountain. He was keeping this for you, Peter, after death. But now He Himself says:

Descend to labour on earth, to serve on earth, to be despised, to be crucified on earth. The Life descended, that He might be slain; the Bread descended, that He might hunger; the Way descended, that He might grow weary on the journey; the Fountain descended, that He might thirst: and do you refuse to labour? Do not seek your own things. Have charity, preach the truth: then you will come to eternity, where you will find security.

Sermon 79. Again on the words of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus showed Himself on the mountain to three disciples. Chapter 17, verses 1-8.

We heard, when the holy Gospel was being read, of the great vision on the mountain, where the Lord Jesus showed Himself to three disciples, Peter, James and John. His face shone like the sun: this signifies the brightness of the Gospel. His garments became white as snow: this signifies the cleansing of the Church, to whom it was said through the prophet, And if your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow (Isa. 1:18). Elijah and Moses were talking with Him: because the grace of the Gospel has testimony from the Law and the Prophets. In Moses the Law, in Elijah the Prophets: to speak briefly. For there are benefits of God wrought through the holy Martyr, which will be read out. Let us listen. It pleased Peter that three tabernacles should be made, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Christ. The solitude of the mountain delighted him: he was suffering weariness from the tumult of human affairs. But why was he seeking three tabernacles, except that he did not yet know the unity of the Law, the Prophecy and the Gospel? At length he was corrected by the cloud. While he was saying these things, it says, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, the cloud made one tabernacle: why were you seeking three? And a voice from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear Him. Elijah speaks; but hear Him. Moses speaks: but hear Him. The Prophets speak, the Law speaks: but hear Him, the voice of the Law and the tongue of the Prophets. He Himself sounded in them, He Himself appeared in His own Person when He deigned to. Hear Him: let us hear Him. When the Gospel was speaking, think that it was the cloud: from there the voice sounded to us. Let us hear Him: let us do what He says, let us hope for what He has promised.

Sermon 80. On the words of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17:18-20, Why could we not cast him out? etc. Where it treats of prayer.

Chapter I. — 1. The unbelief of the Apostles. Our Lord Jesus Christ rebuked unbelief even in His disciples, as we heard just now when the Gospel was being read. For when they had said, Why could we not cast him out? He answered,

Because of your unbelief. If the Apostles were unbelieving, who is faithful? What are the lambs to do, if the rams stagger? Yet the mercy of the Lord did not despise them as unbelievers: but He rebuked, nourished, perfected, crowned [them]. For they themselves too, mindful of their weakness, in a certain place in the Gospel, as we read, said to Him: Lord, increase our faith (Luke 17:5). Lord, they say, increase our faith. The first benefit was knowledge, to know what they had too little of: a greater happiness, to know from where they were asking. Lord, they say, increase our faith. See whether they were not carrying their hearts as if to a fountain, and were knocking so that there might be opened to them that from which they might fill them. He willed to be knocked at, not in order to repel those who knock, but in order to exercise those who desire.

2. Although God knows our need, He is nevertheless to be prayed to. For do you suppose, brethren, that God does not know what is necessary for you? He knows, anticipating our desires, He Who knows our need. Indeed, when He was teaching prayer, and was warning His disciples not to be of many words in prayer: Do not, He said, be of many words; for your Father knows what is necessary for you, before you ask Him (Matt. 6:7–8). The Lord now says something else. What is it? Not wishing us to speak much in prayer, He said to us, Do not speak much when you pray; for your Father knows what is necessary for you, before you ask Him. If our Father knows what is necessary for us before we ask Him, why do we speak even a little? What is the reason for prayer itself, if our Father already knows what is necessary for us? He says to someone: Do not ask Me at length; for I know what is necessary for you. If Thou knowest, Lord, why should I ask at all? Thou dost not wish me to make a long petition, nay, Thou biddest me make almost none. And where is that in another place? He Who says, Do not speak much in prayer, says in another place, Ask, and it will be given to you? And lest you should think that it was said only in passing that you should ask, He added, Seek, and you will find. And lest you should consider this something transitory, see what He has added, see where He concluded, Knock, and it will be opened to you (ibid. 7:7): see what He has added. He willed that you should ask, in order to receive; seek, in order to find; knock, in order to enter. How then, since our Father already knows what is necessary for us, why do we ask? why do we seek? why do we knock? why do we weary ourselves in asking and seeking and knocking, so as to instruct One Who knows? In another place the words of the Lord are, One ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1). If one ought always to pray, how does He say, Do not be of many words? How do I pray always, I who finish quickly? Here Thou biddest me finish quickly, here Thou biddest me pray always, and not faint: what is this? And in order to understand this, ask, seek, knock. For it is closed for this reason, not that He may spurn you, but that He may exercise you. Therefore, brethren, we ought to exhort to prayer, both ourselves and you. For we have no other hope amid the many evils of the present age, except to knock in prayer itself, to believe and to hold firmly in the heart that your Father does not give you this which He knows is not expedient for you. For what you desire, you know; what profits you, He knows. Suppose that you are under a physician, and that you are sick, as indeed is true: for all

this life of ours is an infirmity, and a long life is nothing other than a long infirmity. Suppose, then, that you are sick under a doctor. It has pleased [you to have] a fresh [one], it has pleased [you] to ask the doctor [leave] to take a drink of wine. You are not forbidden to ask, lest perhaps it may not harm you and it may be good for you to receive it. Do not hesitate to ask: ask, do not delay; but if you do not receive, do not be saddened. If [this is so] under a human doctor of your flesh, how much more under God the Physician, the Creator, the Restorer both of your flesh and of your soul?

3. God is to be prayed to, that He may heal [us] of vices. Accordingly, since in this chapter the Lord has exhorted [us] to prayer, where He said, Because of your unbelief you could not cast out this demon: for, exhorting to prayer, He concluded thus, This kind is not cast out except by fastings and prayers. If a man prays that he may cast out another's demon, how much more that he may cast out his own avarice? how much more, that he may cast out his own drunkenness? how much more, that he may cast out his own lust? how much more, that he may cast out his own uncleanness? How many things there are in a man which, if they persist, do not admit [him] to the kingdom of heaven! See, brethren, how a doctor is entreated for temporal health; how, if anyone is desperately sick, is he ashamed or reluctant to hold a man's feet, to wash the footsteps of a most skilful chief physician with tears? And what if the doctor says to him: You cannot be healed otherwise unless I bind you, cauterize you, cut you? He answers: Do what you will, only heal me. With what ardour he desires a vaporous health of a few days, so that for it he is willing to be bound, and cut, and burned, and watched so that he does not eat what pleases him, does not drink what pleases him, nor when it pleases him! He endures everything so that he may die later; and he is unwilling to suffer a few things so that he may never die! If God, Who is the heavenly Physician over us, were to say to you: Do you want to be healed? what will you say but, To be healed? Perhaps you do not say it because you think yourself healthy; this is why you are the more gravely sick.

4. Two kinds of the sick. Christ the Physician found all men sick. For if you suppose two sick men, one who with weeping entreats the doctor, the other who in his sickness, having lost his mind, mocks the doctor, the doctor promises hope to the one who weeps and laments over the one who laughs. Why, except because he is sick the more dangerously, the more he thinks himself healthy? So too were the Jews. Christ came to the sick, He found all men sick. Let no one flatter himself about his health, lest the Physician renounce him. He found all men sick; it is the apostle's verdict: For all have sinned, and lack the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). When, then, He had found all men sick, there were two kinds of the sick. Some came to the Physician, clung to Christ, listened, honoured, followed, were converted. He received them all without any disdain, intending to heal them, He Who healed freely, because He cured by omnipotence. When, then, He took them up and joined them to Himself to be healed, they rejoiced. But the other kind of the sick, who had already lost their mind through the sickness of iniquity and did not know that they were sick, insulted Him because He took up the sick, and said to His disciples: See what kind of man your master is, who eats with sinners and publicans. And He Who knew what they were,

and who they were, He answered them: It is not the healthy who need a physician, but those who are unwell. And He showed them who were healthy and who were sick: I came not, He says, to call the just, but sinners (Matt. 9:11–13). If sinners, He says, do not come to Me, why did I come? For whose sake did I come? If all are healthy, why did so great a physician come down from heaven? Why did He make a medicine for us not from His cabinet, but from His own blood? So that kind of sick people who were more mildly sick, who perceived that they were sick, clung to the physician in order to be healed. But those who were more dangerously sick mocked the physician and slandered the sick. To what end at last did their frenzy proceed? To seizing the physician, binding Him, scourging Him, crowning Him with thorns, hanging Him on wood, killing Him on a cross. Why do you wonder? The sick man killed the physician: but the physician, once killed, healed the frenzied man.

5. By what remedy the sick were healed through Christ. A heavenly trade. Christ's prayer for His crucifiers. For first, not forgetting His own person on the cross, and showing us His patience, and offering an example of loving our enemies; seeing them raging around Him, He Who knew their disease, because He was the physician, Who knew the frenzy in which they had lost their mind, at once [said] to the Father: Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). Do you suppose, then, that those Jews were not malicious, cruel, bloodthirsty, turbulent, enemies to the Son of God? Do you suppose that that voice was idle and was empty: Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing? He saw them all, but He recognized there those who would be His own. In the end He died, because it was expedient thus, that by His death He might slay death. God died, so that an exchange might be made in a certain heavenly trade, so that man might not see death. For Christ is God, but He did not die in that respect in which He is God. For the same is God, the same is man: for Christ is one, God and man. Man was assumed so that we might be changed for the better; it did not bend God down to worse things. For He assumed what He was not, He did not lose what He was. Since, therefore, He was God and man, wishing us to live from what is His, He died from what is ours. For He Himself did not have that whereby He might die: but neither did we have that whereby we might live. For what was He, Who did not have that whereby He might die? In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Seek in God that whereby He might die: you will not find it. But we die, who are flesh, man bearing the flesh of sin. Seek in sin that whereby it might live: it has none. So neither could He have death from what is His, nor we life from what is ours: but we [have] life from what is His, He death from what is ours. What a trade! What did He give, and what did He receive? Men who trade come to commerce, to exchange things. For ancient commerce was an exchange of things. A man gave what he had, and received what he did not have. For example, he had wheat, but did not have barley; another had barley, and did not have wheat:

that man was giving the wheat which he had, and receiving the barley which he did not have. How much did it take for a greater quantity to make up for a cheaper kind? See then, one man gives barley in order to receive wheat; finally another gives lead in order to receive silver, but he gives much lead against little silver; another gives wool in order to receive a garment. And who could list everything? Yet no one gives life in order to receive death. So the voice of the Physician hanging on the wood was not empty. For in order that He might die for us, since the Word could not die, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He hung on the cross, but in the flesh. There was the lowliness which the Jews despised; there was the charity through which the Jews were set free. For it was on their behalf that it was said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). And that voice was not in vain. He died, He was buried, He rose again; after spending forty days with His disciples, He ascended into heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit upon those who were awaiting the promise. They, having received the Holy Spirit, were filled, and began to speak in the tongues of all nations. Then the Jews who were present, terrified that uneducated and unskilled men, whom they knew to have been brought up among themselves in a single language, were speaking in all tongues in the name of Christ, were struck with fear; and they learned, as Peter spoke, whence this gift came. He gave this Who hung on the wood. He gave this Who was mocked as He hung on the wood, so that, seated in heaven, He might give the Holy Spirit. They heard, and they believed, those of whom He had said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. They believed, they were baptized, and the conversion was brought about. What conversion? The blood of Christ, which in their rage they had shed, in believing they drank.

6. Prayer in the dangers of this life. Therefore, to conclude our sermon where we began, let us pray, and let us place our confidence in God: let us live as He commands, and where we stagger in this very life, let us call upon Him, as the disciples called upon Him, saying, Lord, increase our faith (Luke 17:5). Peter too was confident, and he staggered; yet he was not despised and left to sink, but was lifted up and set upright. For the confidence he had, where did it come from? It did not come from himself; it came from the Lord. How? Lord, if it is You, bid me come to You upon the water. For the Lord was walking upon the waters. If it is You, bid me come to You upon the water. For I know that if it is You, You bid and it is done. And He said, Come. He went down at His bidding, and he trembled in his own weakness. Yet when he trembled, he cried out to Him: Lord, he said, deliver me. Then the Lord took hold of his hand and said: O you of little faith, why did you doubt? He Himself invited him, He Himself set him free as he wavered and staggered (Matt. 14:25–31), so that what is said in the Psalm might be fulfilled, If I said, My foot is moved, Thy mercy, O Lord, helped me (Ps. 93:18).

7. How temporal and eternal benefits are to be sought. There are, then, two kinds of benefits, temporal and eternal. Temporal ones are health, property, honour, friends, a house, children, a wife, and the other things of this life in which we are sojourners. Let us therefore place ourselves in the inn of this life as travellers about to pass on, not as owners about to stay. Eternal benefits, on the other hand, are first eternal life itself, the incorruption and immortality of the flesh and

of the soul, the fellowship of the Angels, the heavenly city, unfailing dignity, the Father and the fatherland, He without death, it without an enemy. Let us desire these benefits with all ardour, let us ask for them with all perseverance, not with long speech, but with groaning as witness. Desire always prays, even if the tongue is silent. If you always desire, you always pray. When does prayer fall asleep? When desire has grown cold. Therefore let us demand those everlasting benefits with all eagerness, let us seek those goods with all intent, let us ask for those goods without anxiety. For to the one who has them those goods are profitable; they cannot do harm. But these temporal things are sometimes profitable, sometimes harmful. To many poverty has been profitable, and riches have done harm: to many a private life has been profitable, and high honour has done harm. And again, to some money has been profitable, dignity has been profitable; to those using them well they have been profitable: but to those using them badly, not being taken away, they have done the more harm. And for this reason, brethren, let us ask even for these temporal things in moderation, untroubled because, if we receive them, He gives them Who knows what is expedient for us. You have asked, and what you asked for has not been given to you? Trust the Father, Who, if it were expedient for you, would give it to you. See, make a conjecture for yourself from your own case. For as your son is with you, not knowing human affairs, so are you also with the Lord, not knowing divine affairs. See, your son is before you weeping all day, that you may give him a knife, that is, a sword: you refuse to give it, you do not give it, you disregard him weeping, so that you may not mourn him dying. Let him weep, let him strike himself, let him dash himself down, that you may lift him on to a horse: you do not do it, because he cannot control it; it will throw him and kill him. For him to whom you refuse a part you are keeping the whole. But so that he may grow and possess the whole securely, you do not give him a small dangerous thing.

8. Bad times: whence they come, and how they are to be borne. Therefore we say, brethren, pray as much as you can. Evils abound, and God has willed that evils should abound. Would that evil men did not abound, and evils would not abound. Bad times, troublesome times, this is what men say. Let us live well, and the times are good. We are the times: such as we are, such are the times. But what are we to do? Can we not convert the multitude of men to a good life? Let the few who listen live well: let the few living well bear with the many living badly. They are grains, they are on the threshing-floor: they can have the chaff with them on the threshing-floor; in the granary they will not have it. Let them bear what they do not wish, that they may come to what they wish. Why are we saddened and why do we find fault with God? Evils abound in the world, so that the world may not be loved. Great men, faithful saints, despised the world when it was fair: we cannot despise it even when it is foul. The world is evil, see, it is evil, and yet it is loved as though it were good. But what is the evil world? For the heaven is not evil, nor the earth, nor the waters, nor the things that are in them, fishes, birds, trees. All these are good: but evil men make the world evil. But since we cannot be without evil men as long as we live, as I have said, let us groan to the Lord our God; and let us bear evils, that we may come to good things. Let us not find fault with the Father of the household; for He is dear. He carries us, not we Him. He knows how to govern what He has made: do what He has commanded, and hope for what He has promised