Augustine, Sermones 244-252 (Classis II, de Tempore)

the womb of my mother, my Father; from the womb of my mother, my God. Why then is there a distinction there too, that is, My Father and your Father? There is a distinction, because the Father of the only-begotten Son is Father in one way, our Father in another: His Father by nature, ours by grace. He ought then to have said, to My Father and your Father, and, our God. For God is God of the creature, if He is God, and therefore of Christ, because Christ too is a creature according to the man: Father of Christ distinctly, because Christ is creator; but God of Christ, why distinctly, since according to the man Christ is a creature, and we too are creatures? According to the man Christ is certainly a servant, taking the form of a servant, according to the Apostle (Phil. 2:7). Why then My God and your God distinctly there? Plainly distinctly. For our God formed all of us through the propagation of sin: He, even as man, was made otherwise. He was born of a virgin: a woman conceived Him not by lusting, but by believing. He did not draw the propagation of sin from Adam. We have all been born through sin: He was born without sin, Who cleansed sins. Therefore there is a distinction there too, My God and your God. For you were created from seed, from male and female; you came from the concupiscence of the flesh with the propagation of sin, you to whom the Scripture says: Who is clean in Thy sight? Not even an infant, whose life upon the earth is of one day (Job 14:4, according to the Septuagint). Finally, people run with infants [to baptism], so that there may be loosed for them, not what they added by living, but what they drew by being born. Not so Christ. My God and your God: My God, on account of the likeness of the flesh of sin; your God, on account of the flesh of sin.

6. Conclusion. Let it suffice to have preached thus far on the Gospel reading which concerns the resurrection of the Lord, which John the evangelist wrote: for this reason, that other readings of the same Gospel of John concerning the very resurrection of the Lord are to be read. For no one has narrated His resurrection more copiously than Saint John, so that it cannot be read in one day: but it is read on another also, and read on a third also, until whatever Saint John too wrote concerning the resurrection of the Lord is finished.

Sermon 247. On the Paschal days, 18. On another reading of the Gospel of John, chap. 20:19-31.

1. The resurrection recited from the four Gospels. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the truth of the four Evangelists seems to have been completed yesterday. For on the first day the resurrection according to Matthew was read, on another day according to Luke, on the third day according to Mark, on the fourth, that is yesterday, according to John. But since John and Luke wrote very many things concerning the resurrection itself and the things that happened after the resurrection,

which cannot be recited in a single reading; and yesterday we heard something according to John, and today, and still other readings remain. What, then, did we hear today? That on the very day on which He rose, that is, on the Lord's day, when it was evening, and the disciples were in one place, and the doors were shut for fear of the Jews, the Lord appeared in their midst. On that same day, then, as the evangelist John bears witness, He appeared twice to His disciples, in the morning and in the evening. Of His appearing in the morning, that reading too has been recited; but that on the same day in the evening He appeared again, we heard just now when it was being recited. There was no need for these things to be recalled by me, but only for them to be noticed by you; but because of the lesser understanding or the greater negligence of some, it was fitting to recall them, so that you may know not only what you have heard, but also from which Scripture what you have heard is read to you.

2. The miracle of Christ entering to the disciples through closed doors is made credible from other miracles. Let us see, then, what is set before us to speak about by today's reading. For the reading itself admonishes us, and in a certain way says to us, that we should say something about how the Lord, who rose in such solidity of body that He was not only seen by the disciples but also touched, was able to appear to them with the doors closed. For some are so troubled about this matter that they are almost in peril, bringing against the divine miracles the prejudgements of their own reasonings. For they argue thus: If it was a body, if it was flesh and bones, if what hung on the tree rose from the tomb, how was it able to enter through closed doors? If it was not able, they say, it did not happen. If it was able, how was it able? If you comprehend the manner, it is not a miracle; and if it does not seem to you a miracle, you are close to denying that He also rose from the tomb. Look at the miracles of your Lord from the beginning, and give me an account of each one. No man approached, and a virgin conceived. Give an account of how a virgin conceived without a male. Where reason has failed, there is the building up of faith. See, you have one miracle in the Lord's conception; hear also one in His birth. A virgin gave birth, and remained a virgin. Even then, before He rose again, the Lord was born through closed doors. You ask me and say: If He entered through closed doors, where is the measure of the body? And I answer: If He walked on the sea, where is the weight of the body? But the Lord did that as Lord. Did He then, when He rose, cease to be Lord? What of the fact that He also made Peter walk on the sea (Matt. 14:25–29)? What divinity was able to do in the one, faith accomplished in the other. But Christ, because He was able; Peter, because Christ helped him. If, then, you begin to examine the reason of miracles by human sense, I fear lest you lose faith. Do you not know that nothing is impossible to God? Whoever, then, says to you, If He entered through closed doors, it was not a body, answer him on the contrary: No, if He was touched, it was a body; if He ate, it was a body; and He did that by miracle, not by nature. Is not the daily course of nature itself to be wondered at? All things are full of miracles, but through constant repetition they have become cheap. Give me an account: I ask something

about things customary and usual: give a reason why the seed of so great a tree as the fig is so small that it can scarcely be seen, and the lowly gourd produces so large a seed. Yet in that tiny grain of seed, scarcely visible, if you consider it with the mind and not with the eyes, in that smallness, in those narrow confines, both the root lies hidden and the strength is set within, and the future leaves are bound up, and the fruit that will appear on the tree is already sent ahead in the seed. There is no need to run through many things: about everyday matters nobody gives a reason, and you demand from me a reason about miracles. Read the Gospel, then, and believe the deeds that are wonderful. Greater is what God has done, and you do not wonder at that which surpasses all works: there was nothing, and the world is.

3. It is confirmed from the Lord's saying about the camel, which, God bringing it about, can enter through the eye of a needle. But, you say, the bulk of a body could not pass through doors that were shut. How great was that bulk, I ask you? As great, certainly, as it is in everyone: was it as great as it is in a camel? Certainly not so great. Read the Gospel, hear Him Himself: when He wished to show the difficulty of a rich man entering into the kingdom of heaven, He said, A camel enters more easily through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven. Having heard this, the disciples, considering that it could in no way come about that a camel should enter through the eye of a needle, were saddened within themselves, saying: If it is so, who then will be able to save himself? If a camel enters more easily through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven, a camel can in no way enter through the eye of a needle; therefore none of the rich can be saved. The Lord answered: The things that are impossible to men are easy to God (Luke 18:25–27). God can both put a camel through the eye of a needle and bring a rich man into the kingdom of heaven. Why do you cavil at me about shut doors? Shut doors have at least a chink: compare the chink of the doors with the eye of a needle, compare the bulk of human flesh with the size of camels; and do not cavil at the divinity of the miracles.

Sermon 248. In the Paschal days, 19. On the reading of the Gospel of John, chapter 21:1-14, and on the two catches of fish, one before the Passion, the other after the Resurrection.

Chapter I. — 1. The fishing at the sea of Tiberias is not without a mystery. In the two catches of fish is a figure of the Church present and to come. Today too a reading was recited about the things that were done after the Resurrection of the Lord according to the evangelist John. Your Charity heard with us that the Lord Jesus Christ showed Himself to His disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and He Who had already made them fishers of men found them still fishers of fish. Through the whole night they caught nothing: but when the Lord had been seen, and casting their nets at His bidding,

they caught, you have heard what number. Never would the Lord have commanded this unless He wished to signify something which it would profit us to know. For what great matter could it be to Jesus Christ whether fish were caught or were not caught? But that fishing was a signifying of us. Let us therefore recall together with you those two fishings of the disciples, made at the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, one before the passion, the other after the resurrection. In these two fishings, then, the whole Church is figured, both what she is now and what she will be in the resurrection of the dead. For now she holds many without number, both good and bad: but after the resurrection she will hold in a fixed number the good alone.

Chapter II. — 2. The first fishing. Recall then the first fishing, where we may see what the Church is like in this time. The Lord Jesus found His disciples fishing when He first called them to follow Him. At that time they had caught nothing the whole night. But when they saw Him, they heard from Him, Let down the nets. Lord, they say, we have caught nothing through the whole night; but see, at Thy word we let down the net. They let it down at the command of the Almighty. What else could happen but what He had willed? But nevertheless by that very deed He deigned to signify something to us which, as I said, it profits us to know. The nets were let down. The Lord had not yet suffered, had not yet risen again. The nets were let down: they caught so great a quantity of fish that two boats were filled, and the nets themselves were torn by that same multitude of fish (Luke 5:1–11). Then He said to them: Come and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). They received from Him the nets of the word of God, they let them down into the world as into a deep sea: they caught that great multitude of Christians which we see and marvel at. Now those two boats signified two peoples, of the Jews and of the Gentiles, of the Synagogue and of the Church, of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision. For of those two boats, as of two walls coming from different directions, Christ is the corner-stone (Eph. 2:11–22). But what did we hear? There the boats were weighed down by the multitude. So it happens now: many Christians who live badly weigh down the Church. It is a small thing that they weigh it down: they also break the nets. For if the nets had not been torn, schisms would not have been committed.

Chapter III. — 3. The second fishing. Let us pass on, then, from this fishing which we endure, and come to that one which we ardently desire and faithfully long for. See, the Lord died, but He rose again: He appeared to His disciples by the sea, He commands them to let down the nets, and not in just any way. Pay attention. For in the first fishing He did not say to them, Let down the nets on the right, or on the left. For if He had said, On the left, the bad alone would have been signified: if He had said, On the right, the good alone would have been figured. Therefore He said neither, On the right, nor, On the left, because the good were to be caught mingled with the bad. Now hear what the Church will be like after the resurrection; discern, rejoice, hope, understand. Let down, He says, the nets on the right side. Now those on the right are caught: let no bad ones be feared. For you know that He said He would separate the sheep from the goats; that He would place the sheep on the right, the goats on the left:

that He would say to those on the left, Go into the everlasting fire, and say to those on the right, Receive the kingdom (Matt. 25:41, 34). Behold the reason for, Cast the nets on the right side. They cast, they caught: the number is fixed; no one there is beyond the number (Ps. 39:6). But now how many beyond the number approach the altar, are seen among the people of God, and are not written in the book of life. There, then, the number is fixed. Strive, you too, to be among those fish; not by listening only and praising, but by understanding and living well. So the nets are cast, large fish are caught. For who is small there then, when they will be equal to the angels of God (Matt. 22:30)? So large fish are caught, a hundred and fifty-three. Someone will say to me, And will the saints be so many? Far be it from us to suspect that the saints, those who are to be in that kingdom, are so few, even from this Church alone. The number will be fixed: but there will be thousands of thousands from the Israelite people. Saint John in the Apocalypse says that from the people of Israel alone there will be twelve times twelve thousand, who did not defile themselves with women; for they remained virgins. But of the other nations he says that there come with white robes so many thousands of men, that no one can number them (Rev. 7 and 14).

Chapter IV. — 4. What mystery the number of the fish holds. No one fulfils the commandments unless helped by grace. So this number signifies something, and on the yearly solemnity of this sermon I must recall to you what you are accustomed to hear every year. A hundred and fifty-three fish is a number signifying thousands of thousands of saints and faithful. But why did the Lord deign to signify by this number so many thousands, who are to be in the kingdom of heaven? Hear why. You know that the Law was given through Moses to the people of God, and that in that Law the Decalogue is recorded as pre-eminent, that is, the ten commandments of the Law. Of these, one commandment is about worshipping the one God; the second commandment, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; the third commandment is about the observance of the sabbath, which Christians observe spiritually, and Jews violate carnally. These three commandments pertain to God, the remaining seven to men: on account of those two principal ones, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and you shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hangs the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:37–40). Since, then, these commandments are two, in that Decalogue three pertain to the love of God, and seven to the love of neighbour. What are the seven pertaining to man? Honour your father and mother, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, You shall not covet your neighbour's property (Exod. 20:1–17).

Chapter V. — These ten commandments no one fulfils by his own strength, unless he is helped by the grace of God. If, then, no one fulfils the law by his own strength, unless God helps him by His Spirit, now call to mind how the Holy Spirit is commended by the number seven, just as the holy prophet says that a man is to be filled with the Spirit of God, of wisdom