Augustine, Sermones 113-120 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

of His own. And so that you may know that He cultivates us, hear Him Whom He sent to us: I am, He says, the vine, you are the branches, My Father is the husbandman (John 15:1, 5). Therefore He cultivates us. But if we yield fruit, He prepares the barn. If, however, under so great a cultivator we choose to be barren, and instead of wheat bring forth thorns: I do not wish to say what follows; let us end on joy. Turning to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 114. On the words of the Gospel of Luke, If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, etc. On the remission of sins (Luke 17:3, 4). Preached at the Table of Saint Cyprian, in the presence of Count Boniface.

1. A brother is to be forgiven as often as he sins against us and repents. The holy Gospel, which we heard just now when it was read, has admonished us about the remission of sins. On this you are to be admonished by our sermon. For we are ministers of the word, not our own, but assuredly of our God and Lord, Whom no one serves without glory, Whom no one despises without punishment. He Himself, then, our Lord God, Who, abiding with the Father, made us, and, having been made [man] for us, remade us; He Himself, our Lord God Jesus Christ, says to us what we heard just now in the Gospel: If your brother, He says, sins against you, rebuke him; and if he does penance, forgive him: and if he sins against you seven times in a day, and coming says, I repent, forgive him. By seven times in a day He wished nothing to be understood but as often as; lest perhaps he should sin eight times, and you refuse to forgive. What, then, is seven times? Always, as often as he has sinned and has repented. For this is the meaning of, Seven times in a day I will praise Thee (Ps. 118:164); which is what is said in another Psalm, His praise is always in my mouth (Ps. 33:2). And as to why seven times is put for always, there is a most certain reason: for the whole of time revolves in seven days coming and returning.

2. Pardon must be given to a brother, so that it may be received from God. Whoever you are, then, who think on Christ and desire to receive what He has promised, do not be slow to do what He has commanded. For what has He promised? Eternal life. And what has He commanded? That pardon be given to your brother. As if He were saying to you: You, a man, give pardon to a man, so that I, God, may come to you. But to pass over, or rather to set aside for a while, those loftier divine promises, in which our Creator is going to make us equal to His Angels, so that we may live with Him and in Him and from Him without end: to say nothing of this for the present, do you not wish to receive from your God this very thing which you are bidden to give to your brother? This very thing, I say, which you are bidden to give to your brother, do you not wish to receive from your Lord? Tell me if you do not wish it, and then do not give. What does this mean, except that you should forgive one who asks, if you ask to be forgiven yourself? Or if you have nothing to be forgiven, I dare to say, Do not forgive. And yet I ought not to have said even this. Even if you have nothing to be forgiven, forgive.

3. Debts are to be forgiven after the example of God. You are going to say to me now: But I am not God, I am a sinful man. Thanks be to God that you confess that you have sins. Therefore forgive, that you may be forgiven. Yet the Lord our God Himself exhorts us to imitate Him. First, Christ Himself, God, of Whom the apostle Peter said: Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow His footsteps; Who did no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth (1 Pet. 2:21–22). And certainly He Himself had no sin, and yet He died for our sins, and shed His blood for the remission of sins. He took upon Himself for us what He did not owe, that He might free us from debt. He did not owe death, nor did we owe life. Why? Because we were sinners. Neither was death owed to Him, nor life to us: what was not owed to Him He received, what was not owed to us He gave. But since it is a question of the remission of sins, lest you think it too much for you to imitate Christ, hear the Apostle saying, Forgiving one another, as God also in Christ has forgiven you (Col. 3:13). Be therefore imitators of God (Eph. 5:1). These are the Apostle's words, not mine: Be therefore imitators of God. Is it, then, surely proud to imitate God? Hear the Apostle: Be imitators of God, as most dear sons. You are called a son: if you reject imitation, why do you seek the inheritance?

4. Let a sinner forgive one who sins. I would say this if you had no sin which you desired to have remitted to you. But as it is, whoever you are, you are a man: though you be just, you are a man; though you be a layman, you are a man; though you be a monk, you are a man; though you be a cleric, you are a man; though you be a bishop, you are a man; though you be an apostle, you are a man. Hear the voice of the apostle: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. He, he, that John, the evangelist too, whom the Lord Christ loved above the others, who reclined upon His breast, he himself says, If we say: he did not say, If you say that you have no sin; but, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. He joined himself [to us] in the fault, that he might be joined also in the pardon. If we say: see who it is that says it: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, Who will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity (1 John 1:8–9). How does He cleanse? By forgiving, not as one finding something to punish, but as one finding something to forgive. Therefore, if we have sins, brethren, let us forgive those who ask. Let us not keep enmities in our heart against another. For enmities that are kept do more harm to our own heart itself.

5. Pardon is asked of God in prayer with the compact of giving pardon to others. I want you, then, to be forgiving, because I hold you to be one asking for pardon. You are asked: forgive; you are asked, and you will ask; you are asked: forgive; you will ask that it be forgiven

you. See, the time for praying will come: in the words which you are going to say, I hold you. You are going to say, Our Father, Who art in heaven. For you will not be in the number of the sons if you are not going to say, Our Father. So you are going to say, Our Father, Who art in heaven. Go on: Hallowed be Thy name. Say further: Thy kingdom come. Go on further: Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. See what you add: Give us this day our daily bread. Where are your riches? See, you are begging. Meanwhile, however, to come to the matter in hand, say next after that: Give us this day our daily bread. Say further what follows: Forgive us our debts. You have come to my words: Forgive, it says, us our debts. By what right? On what compact? On what agreement? On what bond read out? As we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:9–12). It is a small thing that you do not forgive: you lie to God as well. The condition has been laid down, the law is fixed: Forgive, as I forgive. So He does not forgive unless you forgive. Forgive, as I forgive. You want it to be forgiven you when you ask; forgive the one who asks. These prayers the Lawyer of heaven dictated: He does not deceive you; ask according to His heavenly voice: say, Forgive us, as we also forgive; and do what you say. He who lies in his Prayers is deprived of the benefit: he who lies in his Prayers both loses his case and finds punishment. And if someone lies to an emperor, when he comes, he is convicted of lying: but when you lie in praying, you are convicted in the prayer itself. For God does not look for witnesses against you in order to convict you. He Who dictated the Prayers to you is your advocate: if you lie, He is witness; if you do not correct yourself, He will be your judge. So both say it and do it. For if you do not say it, by asking against the law you do not obtain: but if you say it and do not do it, you will also be guilty of a lie. There is no way by which this verse may be passed, unless what we say is fulfilled. Shall we be able to delete this verse from our prayer? Do you want this to be there, Forgive us our debts, and that we delete what follows, As we also forgive our debtors? You will not delete it, lest you be deleted first. In prayer, then, you say, Give; you say, Forgive: that you may receive what you do not have, and that what you have done wrong may be remitted to you. So you want to receive: give; you want it to be forgiven you: forgive. It is a brief summing up. Hear Christ Himself in another place: Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you; give, and it shall be given you (Luke 6:37–38). Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you. What will you forgive? What others have sinned against you. And what will be forgiven you? What you have sinned. Forgive. Give, and there shall be given you what you desire, eternal life. Prop up the temporal life of the poor man, sustain the present life of the poor man, and for so small and earthly a seed you will receive as harvest eternal life. Amen.

Sermon 115. On the words of the Gospel of Luke, 'One must always pray, and not lose heart', etc.; and on the two who went up into the temple to pray; and on the little children brought to Christ, chapter 18, 1-17.

Chapter I. — 1. Faith the fountain of prayer. The reading of the holy Gospel builds us up for praying and for believing, and for presuming not on ourselves but on the Lord. What greater exhortation to prayer could there be than that the likeness of the unjust judge should be set before us? For the unjust judge, neither fearing God nor respecting man, nevertheless heard the widow who was importuning him, overcome by weariness, not moved by compassion. If, then, he heard who hated what was being asked of him, how does He hear Who exhorts us to ask? When, therefore, the Lord was urging these things upon us by a comparison from the contrary, That one must always pray, and not lose heart, He added and said, Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, do you think He will find faith on the earth? If faith fails, prayer perishes. For who prays for what he does not believe? Hence also the blessed Apostle, when he was exhorting to prayer, says: Everyone whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And to show that faith is the fountain of prayer, and that the stream cannot flow where the source of the water is dried up, he joined to it and said: But how shall they call upon Him in Whom they have not believed? (Rom. 10:13–14). Therefore, that we may pray, let us believe; and that the very faith by which we pray may not fail, let us pray. Faith pours forth prayer; prayer poured forth obtains firmness for faith. Faith, I say, pours forth prayer; prayer poured forth obtains firmness even for faith itself. For it was so that faith might not fail in temptations that the Lord says: Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. Watch, He says, and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. What is it to enter into temptation, but to go out from faith? For temptation advances just so far as faith fails; and temptation fails just so far as faith advances. For, that your Charity may know more plainly that it was concerning faith, lest it should fail and perish, that the Lord said, Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation: in that place of the Gospel He says, This night Satan has demanded to harass you like wheat; and I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:46, 31, 32). Does He Who protects pray, and does he who is in peril not pray? But as for what the Lord said, When the Son of man comes, do you think He will find faith on the earth? He spoke of faith that is perfect. For that is scarcely found on the earth. See, the Church of God is full: who would come here, if there were no faith? Who would not move mountains, if faith were full? Look at the Apostles themselves: having left all that was theirs, having trampled on the hope of the world, they would not have followed the Lord unless they had great faith; and yet, if they had had full faith, they would not have said to the Lord, Increase our faith (Luke 17:5). See also that man confessing both things about himself (see faith, and not full faith), who, when he had brought to the Lord his son to be healed of an evil demon,

and had been asked whether he believed, he answered and said: I believe, Lord; help my unbelief (Mark 9:23). I believe, he says, I believe, Lord: therefore there is faith. But help my unbelief: therefore the faith is not full.

Chapter II. — 2. Faith belongs not to the proud, but to the humble. But because faith belongs not to the proud, but to the humble, He spoke to certain people who thought themselves righteous and despised the rest, this parable: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee said: I give Thee thanks, O God, that I am not as the rest of men. He might at least have said, As many men. What is 'as the rest of men', except all besides himself? I, he says, am righteous; the rest are sinners. I am not as the rest of men, unjust, robbers, adulterers. And behold, from the publican nearby, you have an occasion for a greater swelling [of pride]. As, he says, this publican. I, he says, stand alone; this man is one of the rest. I am not, he says, such as this man, by my righteous deeds, through which I am not wicked. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. What he asked of God, look for it in his words: you will find nothing. He went up to pray: he did not wish to ask God, but to praise himself. It is a small thing not to ask God but to praise himself; on top of that he even insults the one who is asking. But the publican stood afar off: and yet he himself was drawing near to God. The conscience of his heart kept him away, piety brought him near. But the publican stood afar off: but the Lord was attending to him from close at hand. For the Lord is high, and has regard for the lowly. But the high, such as that Pharisee was, He knows from afar. The high indeed He knows from afar (Ps. 137:6), but He does not pardon them. Hear further the humility of the publican. It is a small thing that he stood afar off: he did not even raise his eyes to heaven? That he might be looked upon, he did not look. He did not dare to look upward: conscience pressed him down, hope lifted him up. Hear further: He beat his breast. He was exacting penalties from himself: therefore the Lord spared him as he confessed. He beat his breast, saying: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. Behold one who asks. Why do you wonder if God pardons, when he himself acknowledges himself? Concerning the Pharisee and the Publican you have received the dispute; hear the verdict: you have heard the proud accuser, you have heard the humble defendant; hear now the judge. Amen I say to you. Truth says, God says, the judge says: Amen I say to you, that publican went down justified from the temple, rather than that Pharisee. Tell, Lord, the reason. Behold, I see the Publican going down from the temple justified rather than the Pharisee. I ask why. Do you ask why? Hear why. Because everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled; and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. You have heard the verdict; beware of a bad cause: I say it another way, You have heard the verdict; beware of pride.

Chapter III. — 3. Against the Pelagians. Let them now see, let them hear these things, certain people who chatter impiously; and let those who presume on their own strength hear, who say: God made me a man, I make myself righteous. O worse and more detestable than the Pharisee! That Pharisee proudly indeed called himself righteous, but yet he gave thanks to God for it. He called himself righteous; but yet thanks to God