Augustine, Sermones 98-101 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

Someone set in a bad habit is rebuked by the word of truth. How many are rebuked and do not hear! Who then is it that acts within, together with the one who hears? Who breathes life into him inwardly? Who is it that drives out a hidden death and gives a hidden life? After reproofs, after rebukes, are not men left to their own thoughts, and do they not begin to turn over within themselves what a bad life they lead, by what a most wicked habit they are weighed down? Then, displeased with themselves, they resolve to change their life. These have risen again; those who are displeased with what they were have come back to life: but though coming back to life, they cannot walk. These are the bonds of guilt itself. It is needful, therefore, that he who has come back to life be loosed and be allowed to go. This office He gave to the disciples, to whom He says: Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven also (Matt. 18:18).

Chapter VII. — 7. One must rise quickly from sin. Let us therefore, dearly beloved, so hear these things that those who live may live, and those who are dead may come back to life. If sin has so far been conceived in the heart and has not gone forth into deed, let there be repentance, let the thought be corrected, let the dead man rise within the house of conscience. If he has already committed what he thought, not even so is there to be despair. The dead man did not rise within; let him rise when carried out. Let him repent of the deed, let him come back to life while still close at hand: let him not go into the depth of burial, let him not receive from above the mass of habit. But perhaps I am now speaking to one who is already pressed down by the hard stone of his own way of life, who is already weighed upon by the burden of habit, who already stinks, four days dead. Let not even him despair: the dead man lies deep, but Christ is high. He knows how to burst earthly burdens by calling out; He knows how to quicken inwardly through Himself, and to hand [him] over to the disciples to be loosed. Let such as these also do penance. For in Lazarus, raised after four days, no stench remained once he was living. Therefore let those who live, live: and whoever are dead, in whichever of these three deaths they find themselves, let them act so as to rise again now, quickly.

Sermon 99. On the words of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7:36-50, And behold, a woman who was a sinner in the city, etc. On the remission of sins, against the Donatists.

Chapter I. — 1. The sinful woman at the feet of the Lord as He reclined. Since we are admonished by the Lord's words in the divine readings, believing from this that God wishes us to speak on it, we set before your Charity, with His help, a sermon on the remission of sins. For when the Gospel was being read, you listened most attentively, and the deed that was done was narrated and turned over before the eyes of your heart. For you saw, not with the flesh but with the mind, the Lord Jesus Christ reclining in the house of the Pharisee, and not disdaining to be invited by him. You saw also a woman notorious in the city, of bad repute indeed, who was a sinner, burst uninvited into the banquet where her physician was reclining, and seek health with a holy shamelessness. Bursting in as though unseasonably for the banquet, seasonably for the

benefit (for she knew with how great a disease she was labouring, and she knew that He to Whom she had come was fit to heal it): she approached, therefore, not the Lord's head but His feet, and she who had long walked badly was seeking right footsteps. First she poured out tears, the blood of the heart, and washed the Lord's feet with the service of confession. With her hair she wiped them, she kissed them, she anointed them: silent, she spoke; she did not bring forth speech, but showed devotion.

Chapter II.—2. The thought of the proud Pharisee. Because, therefore, she touched the Lord, wetting, kissing, wiping, anointing His feet, the Pharisee who had invited the Lord Jesus Christ, since he was of that kind of proud men of whom the prophet Isaiah says, Who say, Withdraw far from me, do not touch me, for I am clean (Isa. 65:5), thought that the Lord had not known the woman. This he was thinking within himself, and saying in his heart: This man, if he were a prophet, would know what woman has come to His feet. He believed that He did not know for this reason: because He did not repel her, because He did not forbid her as she approached, because He allowed Himself to be touched by a sinful woman. For that He had not known, how did he know? For what if He did know, O Pharisee, inviter and mocker of the Lord? You feed the Lord, and you do not understand by Whom you are to be fed. How do you know that the Lord had not known what that woman had been, except because she was permitted to approach, except because, with Him allowing it, she kissed His feet, except because she wiped them, except because she anointed them? For ought an unclean woman not to have been permitted to do these things on clean feet? So if such a woman had approached the feet of that Pharisee, he would have said what Isaiah says of such men: Withdraw from me, do not touch me, for I am clean. But she approached the Lord unclean, that she might return clean; she approached sick, that she might return healthy; she approached having confessed, that she might return having professed.

Chapter III.—3. The Lord rebukes the thought of the Pharisee. For the Lord heard the Pharisee thinking. From this let the Pharisee now understand whether He could not see her sinning Who was able to hear him thinking. He therefore set before the man a similitude about two men who owed money to one moneylender. For He desired to heal him too, so that He might not eat bread at his house for nothing: He hungered for the very man who was feeding Him; He wished to amend him, to slay him, to eat him, to take him over into His own body: just as He also said to that Samaritan woman, I thirst (John 4:7). What is I thirst? I desire your faith. So the Lord's words are spoken in this similitude, and both things are achieved: that the inviter may be healed together with his fellow guests, who alike saw the Lord Jesus Christ and alike did not know Him; and that the woman may have confidence in her confession, and no longer be pricked by the stings of her conscience. One, He says, owed fifty denarii, the other five hundred; he forgave them both: which of them loved him more? The man to whom the similitude had been set forth answered what reason certainly compelled him to answer: I believe, Lord, the one to whom he forgave more. And turning towards the woman, He said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave no water for My feet: she has washed My feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss: she, from the time she came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet.

You did not anoint My head with oil: but she has anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I say: Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much. But he to whom little is forgiven loves little.

Chapter IV. — 4. A difficult question arising from the Lord's words. There arises indeed a question that must be solved, which requires the attention of your Charity, lest perhaps we may not be able to suffice in words for removing and clarifying its whole obscurity, given the narrowness of the time; especially since this flesh, wearied by the heat, now desires to be refreshed, and, demanding its due and hindering the eagerness of the soul, shows what is said: The spirit indeed is ready, but the flesh weak (Matt. 26:41). It is to be feared, and greatly to be feared, lest, these words of the Lord being not well understood by those who favour their carnal desires and are sluggish to be led out from them into liberty, there creep in that opinion which arose on the tongues of slanderers even while the Apostles were preaching, whence the apostle Paul says: And as some say that we say, Let us do evil, that good may come (Rom. 3:8). For someone says: If he to whom little is forgiven loves little, but he to whom more is forgiven loves more, it is better to love more than to love less; we ought to sin much and owe much, which we may desire to be forgiven us, so that we may love the more the forgiver of great debts. For that sinful woman, the more she owed, the more she loved the forgiver of her debts, the Lord Himself saying, Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much. But why did she love much, unless because she owed much? Finally He added and joined to it, But he to whom little is forgiven loves little. Is it not better, he says, that much be forgiven me rather than less, so that I may love my Lord the more? You surely see the depth of the question: I know, you see it. You see the narrowness of the time, and this you both see and feel.

Chapter V. — 5. The matter is made clear by examples. Receive, then, a few things. If I do not do justice to the magnitude of the question, meanwhile store away the present sermon, and hold me as a debtor for the future. Take now two men, so that you may consider what I have proposed under clearer examples. One of them is full of sins, and has lived most wickedly for a long time; the other of them has sinned a little: both come to grace, both are baptized; they go in debtors, they come out free: more has been given to the one, less to the other. I ask how much each loves. If I find that he loves more to whom more sins have been forgiven, it was more useful that he sinned much, much iniquity was more useful, lest charity be lukewarm. I ask the other how much he loves, and I find less: for if I find that he too loves as much as he loves to whom many things were given, how shall I answer the words of the Lord? how will that be true which the Truth said, He to whom little is forgiven loves little? Behold, someone says: little has been forgiven me, I have not sinned much; and I love as much as this man to whom many things have been forgiven. Do you speak the truth, or Christ? To this end your lie has been forgiven you,

that you should lay a charge of lying on the One Who forgives? If little has been forgiven you, you love little. For if little has been forgiven you, and you love very much, you contradict Him Who said, To whom little is forgiven, he loves little. I therefore believe Him the more, Who knows you the more. You think little has been forgiven you; you love altogether little. "What then," he says, "ought I to have done? Committed many evils, so that there might be many things which He could forgive me, so that I might be able to love more?" He hems us in; but may the Lord, Who set forth these true things, free me from these straits.

Chapter VI. — 6. The question is resolved. He wishes the sins we have avoided to be counted among the debts forgiven. This was said on account of that Pharisee, who thought he had either no sins or few. For he would not have invited the Lord unless he loved Him somewhat. But how little was it? He gave no kiss, not even water for the feet, let alone tears: he did not attend Him with that devotion with which that woman did who knew what was being healed in her, and by Whom she was being healed. O Pharisee, you love little for this reason, that you suppose little is forgiven you: not because little is forgiven, but because you think what is forgiven is little. "What then," says he? "Am I, who have committed no murder, to be reckoned a murderer? Am I, who have not committed adultery, to be punished for adultery? Or are those things to be forgiven me which I did not commit?" See, set up two men once more, and let us speak to them. One comes, a suppliant sinner, covered with spines like a hedgehog, and exceedingly timid like a hare. But the rock is a refuge for hedgehogs (Ps. 103:18) and for hares. He comes therefore to the rock, finds refuge, receives help. The other has not committed many sins: what shall we do for him, that he may love much? Of what shall we persuade him? Shall we come against the words of the Lord, To whom little is forgiven, he loves little? Plainly so, to whom little is forgiven. But O you who say that you have not committed many sins; why is that? Under Whose guidance? Thanks be to God, that by your movement and your voice you have shown that you have understood. Now, as I see, the question is resolved. This man committed many sins, and became a debtor for many: that one, with God governing him, committed few. To Him to whom the former ascribes what He forgave, the latter too ascribes what he did not commit. You were not an adulterer in that past life of yours, full of ignorance, not yet enlightened, not yet discerning good and evil, not yet believing in Him Who was guiding you without your knowing it. This is what your God says to you: I was guiding you for Myself, I was keeping you for Myself. That you should not commit adultery, there was no one to tempt you: that there should be no one to tempt you, I brought about. Place and time were lacking; and that these should be lacking, I brought about. A tempter was present, place was not lacking, time was not lacking: that you should not consent, I put fear into you. Acknowledge therefore the grace of Him to Whom you owe even what you did not commit. This man owes Me what was done, and you have seen it forgiven: you too owe Me what you did not do. For there is no sin which one man has done that another man could not also do, if the Ruler by Whom man was made were absent.

Chapter VII. — 7. Next, on the remission of sins, that they cannot be forgiven by man. Now then, since, as best we could, we have resolved a deep question in so very short a space of time; or if we have not yet resolved it,

let us, as I said, be held as debtors: let us rather look briefly at the remission of sins. Christ was thought to be a man, both by him who had invited Him and by those who were reclining at table with Him. That sinful woman had seen something more in the Lord, I know not what. For why did she do all those things, if not so that her sins might be forgiven her? She knew, then, that He could forgive sins; but they knew that a man cannot forgive. And it is to be believed that all of them, that is, both those reclining at table and that woman coming to the Lord's feet, all of these knew that a man cannot forgive sins. Since, then, all knew this, she who believed that He could forgive sins understood that He was more than a man. Accordingly, when He had said to the woman, Your sins are forgiven you, at once they said, Who is this who even forgives sins? Who is this, whom the sinful woman has already recognized? You, reclining as though healthy, do not recognize the physician: because perhaps through a greater fever you have even lost your mind. For the delirious man too, laughing, is wept over by the healthy. Yet this you know well, this you hold well: hold it, that a man cannot forgive sins. She who believed that sins were forgiven her by Christ believed Christ to be not a man only, but God as well. Who is this, they say, who even forgives sins? And the Lord, to those saying, Who is this, did not say, The Son of God, the Word of God: He did not say this, but, allowing them to remain for a while in what they supposed, He resolved the question that was stirring them. For He who saw them reclining heard them thinking; turning to the woman, He said, Your faith has saved you. Let those who say, Who is this who even forgives sins?, who think Me a man, think Me a man. Your faith has saved you.

Chapter VIII. — 8. The error and arrogance of the Donatists. The good Physician not only healed the sick who were present, but also foresaw those who were to come. There were going to be men who would say: I forgive sins, I justify, I sanctify, I heal whomever I baptize. Of that very number are these too, who say, Do not touch me. They are of that very number to such a degree that recently at our conference, as you can also read in the Proceedings themselves, when a seat was offered them by the Judge so that they might sit with us, they thought they should answer, It is written for us not to sit with such men, namely lest through contact of the benches our contagion, as it were, should reach them. See whether this is not, Do not touch me, because I am clean. But on another day, when it was more opportune, we reminded them of this most wretched vanity, when the matter of the Church was being treated, that the wicked in it do not defile the good; we answered them, since they had refused to sit with us for this reason, and had said that they had been warned by the Scripture of God, namely because it is written, I have not sat in the council of vanity: we said, If you refused to sit with us because it is written, I have not sat in the council of vanity, why did you come in with us, since it is written next, And with those who do wicked things I will not go in (Ps. 25:4)? So in saying, Do not touch me, because I am clean, they are like that Pharisee

who had invited the Lord, and for that reason he thought that He did not know the woman, because He had not forbidden her to touch His feet. But in another respect the Pharisee was better, because, though he thought Christ a man, he did not believe that sins could be forgiven by a man. The Jews, then, showed a better understanding than the heretics. What did the Jews say? Who is this, who even forgives sins? Does a man dare to claim this for himself? What does the heretic say against this? I forgive, I cleanse, I sanctify. Let not me but Christ answer him: O man, when I was thought by the Jews to be a man, I gave the forgiveness of sins to faith. Not I, Christ answers you. O heretic, though you are a man, you say: Come, woman; I make you whole! I, when I was thought a man, said: Go, woman; your faith has made you whole.

Chapter IX. — 9. The argument of the Donatists. The Holy Spirit forgives sins through the Church. They answer, understanding, as the Apostle says, neither what they say nor what they affirm (1 Tim. 1:7): they answer and say, If men do not forgive sins, then what Christ says is false, Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 18:18). You do not know why this was said, how it was said. The Lord was about to give the Holy Spirit to men, and He wished it to be understood that sins are forgiven to His faithful by the Holy Spirit Himself, not by the merits of men. For what are you, man, but a sick man to be healed? Do you want to be a physician to me? Seek the physician with me. For, so that the Lord might show more clearly that sins are forgiven by the Holy Spirit Whom He gave to His faithful, not by the merits of men, in a certain place, rising from the dead, He speaks thus, Receive the Holy Spirit; and when He had said, Receive the Holy Spirit, He at once added, If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven him (John 20:22–23): that is, the Spirit forgives, not you. But the Spirit is God. God therefore forgives, not you. But what are you in relation to the Spirit? Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor. 3:16)? And again: Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, Whom you have from God (ibid. 6:19)? God therefore dwells in His holy temple, that is, in His holy faithful, in His Church: through them He forgives sins, because they are living temples.

Chapter X. — 10. Sins are forgiven by God both through man and apart from man. The Holy Spirit given through the ministry of men. But He who forgives through man can also forgive apart from man. For He who is able to give through another is no less able to give by Himself. Through John He gave to some; [through whom did He give] to John himself, through whom He gave? Rightly, God wishing to show this and to bear witness to this truth, when certain people in Samaria had been evangelized and had been baptized, and baptized by Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons first chosen, they did not receive the Holy Spirit, and yet they had been baptized. It was announced to the disciples who were at Jerusalem, and they

went to Samaria, so that those who had been baptized might receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of their hands. And so it was done: they came and laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. For at that time the Holy Spirit was given in such a way that it was also apparent that He had been given. For those who received Him spoke in the tongues of all nations, so as to signify that the Church among the nations would speak in the tongues of all. So they received the Holy Spirit, and He appeared plainly in them. When Simon saw this, thinking that this was something belonging to men, he wanted it to be his as well. What he thought belonged to men, he wanted to buy from men. 'How much money', he said, 'do you want to take from me, so that through the laying on of my hands the Holy Spirit may be given?' Then Peter, abhorring him, said: 'You have no part nor lot in this faith. Did you think the gift of God was to be acquired with money? May your money be with you unto perdition': and the rest that he fittingly said there (Acts 8:5–23).

Chapter XI. — 11. The Spirit given without the ministry of men. An example in the eunuch of Queen Candace. But why I wished to recall this, let your Charity attend. It was fitting that God should first show that He works through men, but afterwards by Himself, lest men should think, as Simon thought, that this belonged to men, not to God. And yet the disciples themselves already knew this. For a hundred and twenty men had been gathered together when the Holy Spirit came upon them through the laying on of no one's hand (Acts 1:15 and 2:1–4). For who had then laid hands on them? And yet He came, and filled them first. After that scandal of Simon, what did God do? See the Teacher, teaching not by words but by deeds. That same Philip, who had baptized men, and the Holy Spirit had not come upon them until the Apostles had come together and laid hands on them, baptized a eunuch, that is, a certain gelding of Queen Candace, who had worshipped in Jerusalem, and returning from there was reading the prophet Isaiah in his chariot, and did not understand. Philip, being prompted, went up to the chariot, expounded the reading, instructed him in the faith, preached Christ. The eunuch believed in Christ, and when they had come to some water, he said: 'Behold water, who forbids me to be baptized?' Philip said to him: 'If you believe in Jesus Christ?' He answered: 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' At once he went down with him into the water. When the mystery and sacrament of Baptism had been fulfilled, lest the gift of the Holy Spirit be thought to belong to men, there was no waiting, as at that time, for the Apostles to come, but at once the Holy Spirit came (Acts 8:26–39). Simon's thought was undone, so that in such a thought he should have no imitators.

Chapter XII. — 12. Another example in Cornelius the centurion. Then another, more wonderful example. Peter came to the centurion Cornelius, to an uncircumcised man, a Gentile: he began to preach Christ Jesus both to him and to those who were with him. While Peter was still speaking, I do not say not yet laying on his hand, but not yet even baptizing, and while those were in doubt who were with