Migne Reading Room
PL 38 · cols. 939–944
Augustine, Sermones 172-178 (Classis I, de Scripturis)
Sermon CLXXIV
secuta non fuisset. Secuta est ergo mors etiam corporis, quam praecessit mors animae. Mors animae praecessit deserendo Deum, et mors corporis secuta est desere⟨n⟩te anima. Hac deseruit volens, hac coacta est deserere nolens. Tanquam illi diceretur: Recessisti ab eo quem diligere debuisti, recede ab eo quod dilexisti. Quis enim vult mori? Prorsus nemo: et ita nemo, ut beato Petro diceretur, Alter te cinget, et feret quo tu non vis (Jaan. XXI, 18). Si ergo nulla esset mortis amaritudo, non esset magna martyrum fortitudo.
had not followed. So the death of the body also followed, which the death of the soul preceded. The death of the soul came first, by deserting God, and the death of the body followed, as the soul deserted it. The one it deserted willingly; the other it was compelled to desert unwillingly. It is as though it were said to it: You withdrew from Him Whom you ought to have loved; withdraw from that which you have loved. For who wishes to die? Absolutely no one: and so much no one that it was said to blessed Peter, Another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish (John 21:18). If, then, there were no bitterness in death, the fortitude of the martyrs would not be great.
CAPUT III. — 3. Consolatio in mortuorum luctu. Ideo et Apostolus, De dormientibus, inquit, nolo vos ignorare, fratres, ut non contristemini, sicut et Gentes, quae spem non habent. Non tantum ait, ut non contristemini; sed, ut non sic contristemini, quemadmodum Gentes, quae spem non habent. Necesse est enim ut contristemini: sed ubi contristaris, consoletur te spes. Quomodo enim non contristaris, ubi corpus quod vivit ex anima, fit exanime, discedente anima? Q⟨u⟩i ambulabat jacet, qui loqu⟨e⟩batur tacet, clausi oculi lucem non capiunt, aures nulli voci patescunt: omnia membrorum officia conquieverunt; non est qui moveat gressus ad ambulandum, manus ad operandum, sensus ad percipi⟨e⟩ndum. Nonne ista est domus, quam nescio quis invisibilis habitator ornabat? Discessit qui non videbatur, remansit quod cum dolore videatur. Ista est causa tristitiae. Si haec est causa tristitiae, sit hujus tristitiae consolatio. Quae consolatio? « Quia ipse Dominus in jussu et in voce archangeli, et in novissima tuba descendet de coelo, et mortui in Christo resurgent primi: deinde nos viventes, qui reliqui sumus, simul cum illis rapiemur in nubibus obviam Christo in aera. » Numquid et hoc ad tempus? Non: sed quid est? Et ita semper cum Domino erimus. Pereat contristatio, ubi tanta est consolatio: detergatur luctus ex animo, fides expellat dolorem. In tanta spe non decet esse triste templum Dei. Ibi habitat bonus consolator, ibi qui non fallit, promissor. Quid mortuum diu plangamus? Quoniam mors amara est? Per illam transivit et Dominus. Sufficiant haec pauca Charitati vestrae: consoletur vos abundantius qui non migrat de corde vestro; sed ita dignetur habitare, ut nos dignetur etiam in fine mutare. Conversi ad Dominum, etc.
Chapter III. — 3. Consolation in mourning for the dead. Therefore the Apostle too says, Concerning those who are asleep, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, so that you may not be saddened, as also the Gentiles, who have no hope. He does not only say, so that you may not be saddened; but, so that you may not be saddened in the way the Gentiles are, who have no hope. For it is necessary that you be saddened: but when you are saddened, let hope console you. For how are you not to be saddened when the body, which lives from the soul, becomes lifeless as the soul departs? He who used to walk lies still, he who used to speak is silent, the closed eyes do not take in the light, the ears lie open to no voice: all the functions of the limbs have come to rest; there is nothing to move the steps to walk, the hands to work, the senses to perceive. Is this not the house which some invisible inhabitant or other used to adorn? He who was not seen has departed; there remains what is seen with sorrow. This is the cause of sadness. If this is the cause of sadness, let there be a consolation for this sadness. What consolation? "That the Lord Himself, at the command and at the voice of the archangel, and at the last trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first: then we the living, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air." Is this too only for a time? No: but what is it? And so we shall always be with the Lord. Let sorrowing perish where there is such great consolation: let mourning be wiped from the mind, let faith drive out grief. In so great a hope it is not fitting for the temple of God to be sad. There dwells the good Consoler, there the Promiser Who does not deceive. Why should we long lament one who is dead? Because death is bitter? The Lord too passed through it. Let these few words suffice for your Charity: may He console you more abundantly Who does not depart from your heart; but may He so deign to dwell there that He may deign also to change us at the end. Turning to the Lord, etc.
SERMO CLXXIV. De verbis Apostoli, I Tim. Cap. I, 15, Humanus sermo et omni acceptione dignus, quia Christus Jesus venit in mundum peccatores salvos facere, etc. deque lectione Evangelii Lucae, cap. XIX, 1-10, ubi de Zacchaeo. Contra Pelagianos. Habitus in basilica Celerinae, die dominica.
Sermon 174. On the words of the Apostle, 1 Tim. 1:15, A human saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, etc., and on the reading of the Gospel of Luke, 19:1-10, where it concerns Zacchaeus. Against the Pelagians. Delivered in the basilica of Celerina, on a Sunday.
CAPUT PRIMUM. — 1. Adventus Christi in mundum
Chapter I. — 1. The coming of Christ into the world
Editors' notes and page, col. 939
Footnotes
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Editi, deserente Deo. Sed Mss. et Florus, deserendo Deum.
The printed editions have God forsaking. But the manuscripts and Florus have by forsaking God.
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(2) ‹anchor: in fine mutare› · call in col 939
Apud Rabanum legere est, ut nos dignetur etiam in fine invitare.
In Rabanus one reads, that he may deign to invite us also at the end. (The last word is blurred in the scan; "invitare" is the probable reading.)
(*) ‹anchor: SERMO CLXXIV› · call in col 939 Castigatus ad a. bn. cl. cb. f. fs. g. lr. m. pr. rm. vd. et Am. Er. Par. Lov.
Corrected against the manuscripts a. bn. cl. cb. f. fs. g. lr. m. pr. rm. vd. and the Amerbach, Erasmus, Paris and Louvain editions.
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(a) ‹anchor: SERMO CLXXIV› · call in col 939
Alias, de Verbis Apostoli 8.
Formerly numbered On the Words of the Apostle 8.
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(b) ‹anchor: die dominica› · call in col 939
Locus et dies hic notatur ex veteri codice PP. Cisterciensium in Jerusalem de Urbe. Citat eumdem sermonem Florus ad I Tim. I.
The place and day are noted here from an old manuscript of the Cistercian Fathers of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. Florus cites the same sermon on 1 Tim. 1.
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ratione carnis intelligendus. Incarnationis necessitas. Audivimus beatum apostolum Paulum dicentem, Humanus sermo et omni acceptione dignus, quia Christus Jesus venit in mundum peccatores salvos facere, quorum primus ego sum. Humanus ergo sermo et omni acceptione dignus. Quare humanus, et non divinus? Procul dubio nisi iste humanus sermo etiam divinus esset, dignus omni acceptione non esset. Sed sic est sermo iste humanus et divinus, quomodo est ipse Christus et homo et Deus. Si ergo recte intelligimus sermonem istum, non solum humanum esse, verum etiam divinum; quare Apostolus humanum maluit dicere, quam divinum? Procul dubio enim qui non mentiretur, si diceret divinum, non sine causa maluit dicere humanum. Hoc ergo elegit, per quod Christus in mundum venit. Venit enim per quod homo erat. Nam per quod Deus erat, semper hic erat. Ubi enim non est Deus, qui dixit, Coelum et terram ego impleo (Jerem. XXIII, 24)? Christus est certe virtus et sapientia Dei; de qua dicitur, Attingit a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et disponit omnia suaviter (Sap. VIII, 1). Ergo in hoc mundo erat, et mundus per eum factus est, et mundus eum non cognovit (Joan. I, 10). Et hic erat, et venit: hic erat per divinam majestatem, venit per humanam infirmitatem. Quia ergo venit per infirmitatem humanam, ideo praedicans adventum ejus dixit, Humanus sermo. Non liberaretur humanum genus, nisi sermo Dei dignaretur esse humanus. Nam et homo ille dicitur humanus, qui se exhibet hominem, et maxime qui hospitio suscipit hominem. Si ergo humanus dicitur qui in domo sua suscipit hominem, quam humanus est qui in se ipso suscepit hominem?
to be understood by reason of the flesh. The necessity of the incarnation. We have heard the blessed apostle Paul saying, A human word, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. A human word, then, and worthy of all acceptance. Why human, and not divine? Without doubt, unless this human word were also divine, it would not be worthy of all acceptance. But this word is human and divine in the same way as Christ Himself is both man and God. If then we rightly understand this word to be not only human but also divine, why did the Apostle prefer to say human rather than divine? For without doubt he who would not have been lying if he had said divine did not without reason prefer to say human. He chose, therefore, that by which Christ came into the world. For He came by that by which He was man. For by that by which He was God, He was always here. For where is God not, He Who said, I fill heaven and earth (Jer. 23:24)? Christ is surely the power and wisdom of God, of which it is said, It reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly (Wis. 8:1). Therefore He was in this world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him (John 1:10). He was both here and He came: He was here by divine majesty, He came by human weakness. Because, then, He came by human weakness, the one proclaiming His coming therefore said, A human word. The human race would not be set free unless the Word of God deigned to be human. For a man too is called human [that is, humane] who shows himself a man, and above all who receives a man in hospitality. If, then, he is called humane who receives a man into his house, how humane is He Who received man into Himself?
CAPUT II. — 2. Incarnationis causa peccatum. Liberi arbitrii infirmitas cernitur in Adamo. Gratiae donum in Christo perspicitur. Ergo, Humanus sermo et omni acceptione dignus, quia Christus Jesus venit in mundum peccatores salvos facere. Attende Evangelium. Venit enim Filius hominis quaerere et salvare quod perierat. Si homo non perisset, Filius hominis non venisset. Ergo perierat homo, venit Deus homo, et inventus est homo. Perierat homo per liberam voluntatem: venit Deus homo per gratiam liberatricem. Quaeris quid valeat ad malum liberum arbitrium? Recole hominem peccantem. Quaeris quid valeat ad auxilium Deus et homo? Attende in eo gratiam liberantem. Nusquam potuit sic ostendi, quantum valeat voluntas hominis usurpata per superbiam, ad vitandum sine adjutorio Dei malum; non potuit plus et manifestius exprimi, quam in homine primo. Et ecce periit primus homo, et ubi esset, nisi venisset secundus homo? Quia et ille homo, ideo et iste homo, et ideo humanus sermo. Prorsus nusquam sic apparet benignitas gratiae et liberalitas omnipotentiae Dei, quam in homine mediatore Dei et hominum, homine Christo Jesu (I Tim. II, 5). Quid enim dicimus,
Chapter II. — 2. The cause of the incarnation is sin. The weakness of free choice is seen in Adam. The gift of grace is perceived in Christ. Therefore, A human word, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Attend to the Gospel. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what had perished. If man had not perished, the Son of Man would not have come. Therefore man had perished, God-man came, and man was found. Man had perished through free will: God-man came through liberating grace. Do you ask what free choice avails for evil? Recall man sinning. Do you ask what God-and-man avails for help? Look at the liberating grace in Him. Nowhere could it have been shown so clearly how much the will of man, usurped through pride, avails for avoiding evil without the help of God; it could not have been expressed more fully and more plainly than in the first man. And behold, the first man perished, and where would he be, had not the second man come? Because that one was a man, therefore this one too is a man, and therefore a human word. Nowhere at all does the kindness of grace and the liberality of the omnipotence of God appear so clearly as in the man who is mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). For what do we say,
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Editi, ad utendum. Emendantur ope Benigniani Ms. et Flori.
The printed editions have for using. They are corrected with the help of the Bénigne manuscript and Florus.
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(2) ‹anchor: Dei et hominum› · call in col 940
Forte, quomodo in homine mediatore Dei et hominum.
Perhaps as in the man who is mediator of God and men.
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fratres mei? In fide catholica nutritis loquor, vel in pacem catholicam lucratis. Novimus et tenemus mediatorem Dei et hominum, hominem Christum Jesum, in quantum homo erat, ejus esse naturae cujus et nos sumus. Non enim alterius naturae caro nostra et caro illius, nec alterius naturae anima nostra et anima illius. Hanc suscepit naturam, quam salvandam esse judicavit. Nihil minus habebat in natura, sed nihi⟨l⟩ habebat in culpa. Natura pura, sed non sola humana. Ibi erat Deus, ibi erat Verbum Dei. Et sicut tu unus homo, anima es et caro; sic et ille unus Christus, Deus et homo. Audebit ergo aliquis dicere quia natura nostra in illo Mediatore primum per liberum arbitrium promeruit Deum, et sic suscipi meruit, ut esset homo et Deus unus Christus Jesus? Ecce nos possumus dicere virtutibus nostris, moribus nostris, conversatione vitae nostrae meruisse ut efficiamur filii Dei: possumus dicere, Accepimus praeceptum, si servaverimus et bene vixerimus, recipiemur in numerum filiorum Dei. Numquid et ille prius vixit filius hominis, et bene vivendo factus est filius Dei? Inde coepit, et inde incoepit, et susceptione factus est. Verbum enim caro factum est, ut habitaret in nobis. Verbum Dei, unicus Dei Filius assumpsit animam et carnem hominis, non antea se promerentis, nec ad illam percipiendam sublimitatem virtute propria laborantis, sed omnino gratis. Nihil enim praecessit illam susceptionem: susceptione factus est. Virgo concepit: ante conceptum virginis homo mediator? Non utique prius justus fuit. Quomodo enim justus fuit, qui nec fuit? Virgo concepit, et susceptione hominis inde coepit. Merito dictum est: Vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam tanquam unigeniti a Patre, plenum gratia et veritate (Joan. I, 14). Amas liberam voluntatem tuam, dicturus es patri tuo: Da mihi substantiam meam quae me contingit (Luc. XV, 12). Quid te tibi committis? Melius te potest servare, qui te potuit, antequam esses, creare. Agnosce ergo Christum, gratia plenus est. Hoc tibi vult fundere, quo plenus est: hoc tibi dicit, Quaere dona mea, obliviscere merita tua; quia si ego quaererem merita tua, non venires ad dona mea. Noli te extollere, pusillus esto, Zacchaeus esto.
my brothers? I am speaking to those nourished in the catholic faith, or won over into catholic peace. We know and hold that the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, in so far as He was man, was of that nature of which we too are. For our flesh and His flesh are not of a different nature, nor are our soul and His soul of a different nature. He took up that nature which He judged was to be saved. He had nothing less in nature, but He had nothing in fault. A pure nature, but not human alone. There was God, there was the Word of God. And just as you, one man, are soul and flesh, so also He, one Christ, is God and man. Will anyone then dare to say that our nature, in that Mediator, first merited God through free choice, and so merited to be taken up, so that the one Christ Jesus should be man and God? See, we can say that by our virtues, by our morals, by the conduct of our life, we have merited to be made sons of God: we can say, We have received a precept; if we keep it and live well, we shall be received into the number of the sons of God. Did He too first live as son of man, and by living well become Son of God? From that point He began, and from that point He commenced, and He was made by being taken up. For the Word was made flesh, that He might dwell in us. The Word of God, the only Son of God, assumed the soul and flesh of a man that had not previously merited it, nor laboured by its own power to attain that sublimity, but altogether freely. For nothing preceded that taking up: He was made by the taking up. The Virgin conceived: before the Virgin's conception, was the man a mediator? Certainly He was not righteous beforehand. For how was He righteous, who did not even exist? The Virgin conceived, and from the taking up of the man He began from that point. Rightly was it said: We saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). You love your free will, you are going to say to your father: Give me my substance which falls to me (Luke 15:12). Why do you entrust yourself to yourself? He can keep you better who was able to create you before you existed. Acknowledge then Christ: He is full of grace. He wishes to pour into you that with which He is full: He says this to you, Seek My gifts, forget your merits; for if I were to seek your merits, you would not come to My gifts. Do not exalt yourself, be little, be Zacchaeus.
CAPUT III. — 3. Zacchaei factum allegorice. Sycomorus, crux Christi. Crux in fronte. Sed dicturus es: Si Zacchaeus fuero, prae turba non potero videre Jesum. Noli esse tristis, ascende lignum, ubi pro te pependit Jesus, et videbis Jesum. Et quale genus ligni ascendit Zacchaeus? Sycomorum. In regionibus nostris aut omnino nusquam, aut raro forte alicubi nascitur: in illis autem partibus multum est hujus generis ligni et pomi. Sycomora dicuntur poma quaedam ficis similia: sed tamen distant aliquid; quod possunt nosse qui viderunt vel gustaverunt. Quantum tamen indicant interpretatione nominis, sycomora Fici fatuae latine interpretantur. Jam vide Zacchaeum
Chapter III. — 3. The deed of Zacchaeus allegorically. The sycamore, the cross of Christ. The cross on the forehead. But you are going to say: If I am Zacchaeus, I shall not be able to see Jesus because of the crowd. Do not be sad, climb the tree where Jesus hung for you, and you will see Jesus. And what kind of tree did Zacchaeus climb? A sycamore. In our regions it grows either nowhere at all, or perhaps rarely somewhere; but in those parts there is much of this kind of tree and fruit. Sycamores is the name given to certain fruits like figs, but they nevertheless differ somewhat, as those who have seen or tasted them can know. Yet so far as they indicate by the interpretation of the name, sycamores are interpreted in Latin as "foolish figs". Now see Zacchaeus
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Hic editi addunt, Susceptus est Dei Filius: Abest a Benign. Ms.
Here the printed editions add, The Son of God was taken up: it is absent from the Bénigne manuscript.
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meum, vide illum, obsecro te, volentem in turba videre Jesum, et non valentem. Humilis enim erat, turba superba erat: et ipsa turba ad videndum bene Dominum, sicut solet turba, se ipsam impediebat: ascendit a turba, et vidit Jesum non impediente turba. Turba enim dicit humilibus, humilitatis viam gradientibus, injurias suas Deo dimittentibus, vindictam de inimicis non requirentibus, turba in⟨s⟩ultat, et dicit: Indefen⟨s⟩e, qui te non potes vindicare. Turba impedit ne videatur Jesus: turba glorians et exultans quando se potuerit vindicare, impedit ne videatur ille qui pendens ait, Pater, ignosce illis, quia nesciunt quid faciunt (Luc. XXIII, 34). Hunc ergo volens videre Zacchaeus, in quo figurabatur persona humilium, non attendit turbam impedientem; sed asc⟨e⟩ndit sycomorum, quasi fatui pomi lignum. Nos enim, inquit Apostolus, praedicamus Christum crucifixum, Judaeis quidem scandalum: attende sycomorum: Gentibus autem stultitiam (I Cor. I, 23). Denique de cruce Christi nobis insultant sapientes hujus mundi, et dicunt: Quale cor habetis, qui Deum colitis crucifixum? Quale cor habemus? Non utique vestrum. Sapientia hujus mundi stultitia est apud Deum (Id. III, 19). Non enim vestrum cor habemus. Sed dicitis cor nostrum stultum. Dicite quod vultis: nos ascendamus sycomorum, et videamus Jesum. Ideo enim vos Jesum videre non potestis, quia sycomorum ascendere erubescitis. Apprehendat Zacchaeus sycomorum, ascendat humilis crucem. Parum est, ascendat; ne de cruce Christi erubescat, in fronte illam figat, ubi sedes pudoris est: ibi omnino, ibi in quo membro erubescitur, ibi figatur unde non erubescatur. Puto quia tu irrides sycomorum: et ipsa me fecit videre Jesum. Sed tu irrides sycomorum, quia homo es: stultum autem Dei sapientius est quam hominum (Id. I, 25).
of mine, look at him, I beg you, wanting to see Jesus in the crowd, and not able to. For he was humble, the crowd was proud: and the crowd itself, as a crowd usually does, hindered itself from seeing the Lord well: he climbed up away from the crowd, and saw Jesus with the crowd not hindering him. For the crowd says to the humble, to those walking the way of humility, to those who leave their wrongs to God, to those who do not seek vengeance on their enemies, the crowd mocks, and says: You defenceless one, who cannot avenge yourself. The crowd hinders Jesus from being seen: the crowd, boasting and exulting when it has been able to avenge itself, hinders Him from being seen Who, as He hung, said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). So Zacchaeus, wanting to see Him, Zacchaeus in whom the person of the humble was figured, paid no attention to the crowd hindering him; but he climbed a sycamore, a tree of foolish fruit, as it were. For we, says the Apostle, preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block: note the sycamore: but to the Gentiles foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). In short, the wise of this world mock us about the cross of Christ, and say: What sort of heart do you have, you who worship a crucified God? What sort of heart do we have? Certainly not yours. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God (1 Cor. 3:19). For we do not have your heart. But you say our heart is foolish. Say what you like: let us climb the sycamore, and see Jesus. For the reason you cannot see Jesus is that you are ashamed to climb the sycamore. Let Zacchaeus take hold of the sycamore, let the humble man climb the cross. It is too little that he should climb; that he may not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, let him fix it on his forehead, where the seat of shame is: there above all, there on that part of the body where one blushes, there let that be fixed of which one should not be ashamed. I suppose that you mock the sycamore: and yet it made me see Jesus. But you mock the sycamore because you are a man: but the foolishness of God is wiser than [that] of men (1 Cor. 1:25).
CAPUT IV. — 4. Gratiae praevenientis necessitas. Et vidit Dominus ipsum Zacchaeum. Visus est, et vidit: sed nisi visus esset, non videret. Quos enim praedestinavit, illos et vocavit (Rom. VIII, 30). Ipse est qui Nathanaeli dixit, jam quasi testimonio suo adjuvanti Evangelium, et dicenti, A Nazareth potest aliquid boni esse? Dominus ad illum, Priusquam te Philippus vocaret, cum esses sub arbore fici, vidi te (Joan. I, 46, 48). Nostis unde sibi succinctoria fecerunt primi peccatores Adam et Eva. Quando peccaverunt, de foliis fici succinctoria sibi fecerunt et pudenda texerunt (Gen. III, 7): quia quod eos puderet peccando fecerunt. Ergo si succinctoria sibi primi peccatores fecerunt, unde originem ducimus, in quibus perieramus, ut veniret ille qu⟨ae⟩rere et salvare quod perierat, de foliis fici ad pudenda tegenda fecerunt; quid aliud dictum est, Cum esses sub arbore fici, vidi te; nisi, non venires ad purgatorem peccati, nisi prior te vidisset in umbra peccati? Ut videremus, visi sumus; ut diligeremus, dilecti sumus. Deus meus, misericordia ejus praeveniet me (Psal. LVIII, 11).
Chapter IV. — 4. The necessity of prevenient grace. And the Lord saw Zacchaeus himself. He was seen, and he saw: but unless he had been seen, he would not have seen. For those whom He predestined, them He also called (Rom. 8:30). It is He Who said to Nathanael, who was already, as it were, aiding the Gospel by his own testimony and saying, From Nazareth something good can be?, the Lord [said] to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you (John 1:46, 48). You know from what the first sinners, Adam and Eve, made girdles for themselves. When they sinned, they made girdles for themselves from fig leaves and covered their shameful parts (Gen. 3:7): because by sinning they had done what would shame them. So if the first sinners, from whom we draw our origin, in whom we had perished, so that He came to seek and to save what had perished, made girdles for themselves from fig leaves to cover their shameful parts; what else was meant by, When you were under the fig tree, I saw you; except, you would not come to the Cleanser of sin unless He had first seen you in the shadow of sin? That we might see, we were seen; that we might love, we were loved. My God, His mercy shall go before me (Ps. 58:11).
5. Suscipere Jesum in cor. Jam ergo Dominus, qui Zacchaeum in corde susceperat in domum ejus dignatus
5. To receive Jesus into the heart. So then the Lord, Who had received Zacchaeus in His heart, into his house deigned
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est suscipi: et dixit, Zacchaee, festinans descende, quoniam in domo tua oportet me manere. Magnum beneficium ille arbitrabatur, Christum videre. Qui magnum et ineffabile beneficium putabat, transeuntem videre, subito meruit in domo habere. Infunditur gratia, operatur fides per dilectionem; suscipitur Christus in domum, qui jam habitabat in corde. Dicit Christo Zacchaeus: Domine, dimidium rerum mearum do pauperibus; et si quid aliquem fraudavi, quadruplum reddo. Quasi diceret: Ideo mihi dimidium teneo, non quod habeam, sed unde reddam. Vere ecce quod est suscipere Jesum, in cor suscipere. Ibi enim erat Christus, in Zacchaeo erat, et de illo sibi dicebat, quod ex ore ejus audiebat. Sic enim Apostolus dicit: Habitare Christum per fidem in cordibus vestris (Ephes. III, 17).
to be received: and He said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, since I must stay in your house. He reckoned it a great benefit to see Christ. He who thought it a great and ineffable benefit to see Him passing by suddenly merited to have Him in his house. Grace is poured in, faith works through love; Christ is received into the house, Who was already dwelling in the heart. Zacchaeus says to Christ: Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold. As if he were saying: I keep half for myself for this reason, not that I may have it, but that I may have something from which to make restitution. Truly, see, this is what it is to receive Jesus: to receive Him into the heart. For Christ was there, He was in Zacchaeus, and from Him he was saying to himself what he was hearing from His mouth. For thus the Apostle says: That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts (Eph. 3:17).
CAPUT V. — 6. Qui sani sibi videntur, insaniunt in medicum. Sanguis medici medicamentum suo interfectori. Jam ergo quia Zacchaeus erat, quia princeps publicanorum erat, quia valde peccator erat; quasi sana illa turba, quae impediebat videre Jesum, admirata est, et reprehendit quod in domum peccatoris intrasset Jesus. Hoc erat reprehendere quod in domum aegroti intravit medicus. Quia ergo velut peccator Zacchaeus irrisus est, irrisus est autem ab insanis sanatus, Dominus respondit irridentibus: Hodie salus huic domui facta est. Ecce quare intravi, salus hodie facta est. Utique si Salvator non intrasset, salus in illa domo facta non esset. Quid ergo miraris, aegrote? Voca et tu Jesum, noli tibi sanus videri. Cum spe aegrotat, qui mendicum suscipit: desperate aegrotat, qui per insaniam medicum caedit. Qualis ergo ejus insania, qui medicum occidit? Quanta vero bonitas et potentia medici, qui de sanguine suo, insano interfectori suo medicamentum fecit? Neque enim ille qui venerat quaerere et salvare quod perierat, pendens sine causa dicebat, Pater, ignosce illis, quia nesciunt quid faciunt. Insani sunt, medicus sum: saeviant, patienter fero; cum occiderint, tunc sanabo. Simus ergo inter illos quos sanat. Humanus sermo et omni acceptione dignus, quia Christus Jesus venit in mundum peccatores salvos facere: magnos, pusillos, peccatores salvos facere. Venit Filius hominis quaerere et salvare quod perierat.
Chapter V. — 6. Those who seem to themselves healthy rage against the physician. The blood of the physician is a medicine for his killer. Now therefore, because he was Zacchaeus, because he was chief of the publicans, because he was a great sinner, that crowd, as if healthy, which was hindering him from seeing Jesus, marvelled, and found fault that Jesus had gone into the house of a sinner. This was to find fault that the physician had gone into the house of a sick man. Since therefore Zacchaeus was mocked as a sinner, and mocked moreover, though healed, by the insane, the Lord replied to the mockers: Today salvation has come to this house. See why I have entered: salvation has come today. Surely, if the Saviour had not entered, salvation would not have come to that house. Why then do you marvel, sick man? You too call upon Jesus; do not seem to yourself to be healthy. He is sick with hope who receives the physician; he is sick past hope who in madness strikes the physician. What then is the madness of him who kills the physician? But how great are the goodness and power of the physician, Who from His own blood made a medicine for His mad killer? For it was not without cause that He Who had come to seek and to save what had perished said as He hung, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They are mad, I am the physician: let them rage, I bear it patiently; when they have killed, then I shall heal. Let us therefore be among those whom He heals. A human saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: great, small, to save sinners. The Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished.
CAPUT VI. — 7. Originale peccatum probatur. Christus etiam infantibus est Jesus⟨.⟩ Parvulorum baptismus et communio. Qui dicit infantilem aetatem non habere quod salvet Jesus, omnibus fidelibus infantibus Christum negat esse Jesum. Qui dicit, inquam, infantilem aetatem non habere quod salvet Jesus in ea, nihil aliud dicit quam Christum Dominum fidelibus infantibus, id est, in Christo baptizatis infantibus non esse Jesum. Jesus enim quid est? Interpretatur Jesus, Salvator. Salvator est Jesus. Quos non salvat, non habendo quod in eis salvet, non est illis Jesus. Jam si corda vestra tolerant, aliquibus baptizatis
Chapter VI. — 7. Original sin is proved. Christ is Jesus to infants also. The baptism and communion of little ones. Whoever says that the age of infancy has nothing for Jesus to save denies that Christ is Jesus to all faithful infants. Whoever says, I repeat, that the age of infancy has nothing in it for Jesus to save, says nothing other than that Christ the Lord is not Jesus to faithful infants, that is, to infants baptized in Christ. For what is Jesus? Jesus is interpreted Saviour. Jesus is Saviour. Those whom He does not save, having nothing in them to save, to them He is not Jesus. Now if your hearts bear [the claim] that to some baptized
Editors' notes and page, col. 943
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: call not visible in the page-foot image› · call in col 943
Verbum, festinans, abest ab Am. Er. et manuscriptis.
The word hastening is absent from the Amerbach and Erasmus editions and from the manuscripts.
(printed under page 478)
(2) ‹anchor: call not visible in the page-foot image› · call in col 943
Fossatensis Ms., quasi insana.
The Saint-Maur-des-Fossés manuscript has as if insane.
(printed under page 478)
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Christum non esse Jesum, nescio utrum fides vestra in regula sana possit agnosci. Infantes sunt, sed membra ejus fiunt. Infantes sunt, sed Sacramenta ejus accipiunt. Infantes sunt, sed mensae ejus participes fiunt, ut habeant in se vitam. Quid mihi dicis, Sanus est, non habet vitium? Quare cum illo curris ad medicum, si non habet vitium? Non times ne dicat tibi, Aufer hinc eum quem putas sanum? Filius hominis non venit, nisi quaerere et salvare quod perierat. Quare illum ad me affers, si non perierat?
Christ is not Jesus, I do not know whether your faith can be recognized as within the sound rule. They are infants, but they become His members. They are infants, but they receive His Sacraments. They are infants, but they become partakers of His table, so that they may have life in themselves. Why do you tell me, He is healthy, he has no fault? Why do you run with him to the physician, if he has no fault? Are you not afraid that He may say to you, Take away from here this one whom you think healthy? The Son of man came only to seek and to save what had perished. Why do you bring him to Me, if he had not perished?
CAPUT VII. — 8. Causa quare Christus venit. Ratio nominis Jesu. Parvuli Salvatore egent. Fides recta sit respondentium pro ipsis in Baptismo. — Humanus sermo et omni acceptione dignus, quia Christus Jesus venit in mundum. Quare venit in mundum? Peccatores salvos facere. Alia causa non fuit quare veniret in mundum. Non cum de coelo ad terram merita nostra bona, sed peccata duxerunt. Haec est causa cur veniret, peccatores salvos facere. Et vocabis, inquit, nomen ejus Jesum. Quare vocabis nomen ejus Jesum? Ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum a peccatis eorum (Matth. I, 21). Vocabis nomen ejus Jesum. Quare Jesum? quae ratio est hujus nominis? Audi quare: Ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum. Unde? A peccatis eorum. Populum suum a peccatis eorum. Numquid ad istum populum non pertinent parvuli, quem salvum faciet Jesus a peccatis eorum? Pertinent plane, pertinent, fratres mei. Sic habete in corde, sic credite, cum ista fide parvulos ad gratiam Christi portate; ne si hanc fidem in corde non habueritis, pro quibus respondetis, lingua vestra occidatis. Prorsus, fratres, qui non cum ista fide cum parvulo cucurrerit, fingit. Sanus est, nihil mali habet, nihil vitii habet; sed tollam illum ad medicum. Quare? Quia sic solet fieri. Non times ne tibi dicat medicus. Tolle hinc tecum ipsum; non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus (Id. IX, 12).
Chapter VII. — 8. The reason why Christ came. The meaning of the name Jesus. Little ones need the Saviour. Let the faith of those who answer for them in Baptism be right. — A human saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world. Why did He come into the world? To make sinners safe. There was no other reason why He should come into the world. It was not our good merits that brought [Him] from heaven to earth, but our sins. This is the reason why He came: to make sinners safe. And you shall call, it says, His name Jesus. Why shall you call His name Jesus? For He shall save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). You shall call His name Jesus. Why Jesus? What is the meaning of this name? Hear why: For He shall save His people. From what? From their sins. His people from their sins. Do the little ones not belong to this people which Jesus shall save from their sins? They plainly belong, they belong, my brothers. Hold this in your heart, believe thus, carry the little ones to the grace of Christ with this faith; lest, if you do not have this faith in your heart, you kill with your tongue those for whom you answer. Truly, brothers, whoever has not run with the little one in this faith is pretending. He is healthy, he has nothing wrong, he has no fault; but I shall take him to the physician. Why? Because that is what is usually done. Are you not afraid that the physician may say to you, Take him away from here with you; the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are unwell (ibid. 9:12).
CAPUT VIII. — 9. Omnes parvuli tanquam pupilli considerandi. Parvulis regeneratio necessaria. Objectio contra peccatum originale. Regula antiqua fidei, baptizare parvulos. Commendaverim Charitati vestrae causam eorum qui pro se loqui non possunt. Omnes parvuli tanquam pupilli considerentur, etiam qui nondum parentes proprios extulerunt. Omnis praedestinatorum numerus parvulorum populum Dei quaerit tutorem, qui exspectat Dominum salvatorem. Universam massam generis humani in homine primo venenator ille percussit; nemo ad secundum transit a primo, nisi per Baptismatis sacramentum. In parvulis natis et nondum baptizatis agnoscatur Adam: in parvulis natis et baptizatis et ob hoc renatis agnoscatur Christus. Qui Adam non agnoscit in parvulis natis, nec Christum agnoscere poterit in renatis. Sed quare, inquiunt, jam baptizatus homo fidelis, jam dimisso peccato, generat eum qui est cum primi hominis peccato? Quia carne illum generat, non spiritu. Quod natum est de carne, caro est
Chapter VIII. — 9. All little ones are to be regarded as wards. Regeneration is necessary for little ones. An objection against original sin. The ancient rule of faith: to baptize little ones. I would commend to your Charity the cause of those who cannot speak for themselves. Let all little ones be regarded as wards, even those who have not yet buried their own parents. The whole number of the predestined little ones seeks the people of God as guardian, a people that awaits the Lord as Saviour. That poisoner struck the entire mass of the human race in the first man; no one passes from the first to the second except through the sacrament of Baptism. In little ones born and not yet baptized let Adam be recognized; in little ones born and baptized, and for that reason reborn, let Christ be recognized. He who does not recognize Adam in little ones born will not be able to recognize Christ in the reborn either. But why, they say, does a man already baptized, a believer, his sin already forgiven, beget one who is with the sin of the first man? Because he begets him by the flesh, not by the spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh
Editors' notes and page, col. 944
Footnotes
(1) ‹anchor: populum Dei› · call in col 944
Editi, populus Dei. Correximus ex manuscriptis et ex Floro.
The printed editions have the people of God (nominative). We have corrected it from the manuscripts and from Florus.
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