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

and of understanding, of counsel and of fortitude, of knowledge and of piety, the Spirit of the fear of God (Isa. 11:2–3). These seven operations commend the Holy Spirit by the sevenfold number, Who, as it were descending to us, begins from wisdom and ends at fear. We, however, ascending, begin from fear and are perfected in wisdom. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ecclus. 1:16). If, then, there is need of the Spirit so that the law may be fulfilled, let seven be added to ten, and the number becomes ten and seven. If you count from one up to ten and seven, they make a hundred and fifty and three. There is no need to count it all out now; count it among yourselves: reckon it thus, one and two and three and four are ten. Just as ten is one and two and three and four, so add the remaining numbers up to ten and seven: and you find the sacred number of the faithful and of the saints who are to be with the Lord in the heavens.

Sermon 249. On the Paschal days, 20. On the same reading and on the two catches of fish.

1. The catch made at the Lord's command was twofold. We have heard the Gospel, how the Lord Jesus after the resurrection appeared to the disciples as they were fishing at the sea of Tiberias. When He first called them, He had said to them: Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). And at that time indeed, when they were called, letting down their nets at His word, they took a great multitude of fishes; but the number was not told. Then, in that first catch, He had not said to them, Cast the net on the right side: but He had said only, Cast; He said neither, On the right; nor, On the left. Yet so great a number of fishes was taken that it was beyond number, and their boats were laden. And how were they laden? Thus the Gospel speaks: So that they were almost sinking (Luke 5:1–11). Then He said to them what I have mentioned, Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. We belong to those very nets; we have indeed been caught in those nets; but we do not remain captives. Let no man fear to be caught: if he can be caught, he cannot be deceived. But what does this last catch mean, of which the Gospel has been read today? The Lord appeared to the fishermen, standing on the shore, and asked them whether they had anything to eat. They said that they had not; for they had caught nothing the whole night. And He said to them, Cast on the right side: which He had not said that other time. And they did so; and they could not draw the nets for the multitude of fishes. And the fishes were found to be a hundred and fifty-three. And since in that first catch it had been said that the nets were breaking for the multitude of fishes, it was the Evangelist's concern to say in this catch, And although they were so great, the net was not torn.

2. The two catches foreshadow the state of the Church present and to come. The schism of the Donatists. Let us distinguish the two catches: one before the resurrection, the other after the resurrection. In the former the nets are cast indiscriminately:

the right is not named, lest only the good be understood; the left is not named, lest only the bad be understood: therefore good and bad mixed together. And the nets were breaking for the multitude. The broken nets signify schisms. We see it; so it is, so it happens. Two boats are filled, on account of the two peoples, of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision: and they are so filled that they are pressed down and almost sink. What this signifies is something to be groaned over. The crowd has troubled the Church. How great a number those who live badly have made, pressing down and groaning! But on account of the good fish the boats were not sunk. Let us discuss that last fishing, after the resurrection. No bad one there, great security, but only if you are good. Among the bad be good, and you will be good without the bad. In this fishing there is something to move you: you are among the bad. O you who listen to me faithfully, O you for whom what I say does not perish, O you for whom the word does not pass through the ears but descends into the heart, O you who fear to live badly more than to die badly: for if you live well, you cannot die badly: you therefore who listen to me, so that you may not only believe but also live well; live well, and among the bad live well, do not tear the nets apart. Those who were greatly pleased with themselves, and as it were refused to bear with the bad, broke the nets and perished in the sea. Live well among the bad; let not bad Christians persuade you to live badly. Let your heart not say: I alone am good. If you have begun to be good, believe that others are too, if you have been able to be. Do not commit adultery, do not fornicate, do not commit fraud, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not swear falsely, do not get drunk, do not deny a loan, do not fail to return what belongs to someone and was found in the street. Do these and suchlike things, secure among the bad fish. You swim within the same nets; but you will come to the shore; after the resurrection you will be found on the right. There no one is bad. For what, because you know the law, because you know God's commandments, because you know what is good and bad, what does it profit you if you do not do it? Is not knowledge itself punished by conscience? Learn in such a way that you may do.

3. That God's commandments are fulfilled only through grace is understood in the number of the fish caught. God's commandments, on account of a great mystery of perfection, are contained in the Decalogue. The ten precepts of the Law are written on tables of stone by the finger of God, that is, by the Holy Spirit: on one table, the precepts which pertain to God; on the other, those which pertain to man. Why this? Because on the love of God and of neighbour the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets (Matt. 22:37–40). But what are these ten worth? The law was given, but if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would be wholly from the law (Gal. 3:21). You know the law, and you do not do the law; The letter kills: but so that you may do what you know, the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). Let seven be added to ten. For just as the law is signified by the Decalogue, so the Holy Spirit is shown to be sevenfold. He is invoked over the baptized, that God may give them, according to the prophet, the Spirit of wisdom

and understanding: behold two. The spirit of counsel and of fortitude: behold four. The spirit of knowledge and of piety: behold six. The spirit of the fear of the Lord: behold seven (Isa. 11:2–3). When these seven have been added, they make ten. What did I say? It seems absurd: When seven have been added to ten, they make ten: as though I had forgotten how to count. So I ought to have said: When seven have been added to ten, they make ten and seven. Everyone knows this: for when I said, When seven have been added to ten, they make ten, were not these boys laughing at me? And yet I say it, and I repeat it, and I am not ashamed. When you have understood, you will not find fault with the one counting, but you will love the one arguing. Those precepts of the law are ten: but I have also enumerated seven co-operations of the Holy Spirit. When these seven have been added, they make ten: when the Holy Spirit has been added, the law is fulfilled. But if these seven have not been added, those ten are not accomplished: they will be in the letter, but the letter kills; knowledge makes a transgressor. Let the Spirit come, and the law is fulfilled, by the help of God, not by your own strength. So see: let us not greatly love to belong to those ten. For if justice is from the law, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21). But to what should we belong? To those seven? That is as if we were able to act, but did not know what we were doing. So let us belong to the ten [and] seven. The law commands, the Spirit helps: the law deals with you so that you may know what you are to do; the Spirit, so that you may do it. So let us belong to the ten [and] seven, and let us count ten [and] seven, and we shall find ourselves in the hundred and fifty-three. You know it already; I have often said it, often shown it. From one up to four there are ten: but only if you add them all together. Let two follow one: add the two as well, now there are three: after two let three follow, now there are six: after three let four follow, now there are ten. Why do I wear myself out? I am saying what you know. Add the remaining numbers, and you will arrive. When you have arrived at ten and seven, by growing you will arrive at a hundred and fifty-three. What is "by growing"? By advancing as if by steps you will arrive at the right hand. Obey us, count for yourselves.

Sermon 250. On the days of Easter, 21. On the same reading and on the two catches of fish.

1. Why the lowly were chosen first by Christ. The Lord Jesus, choosing the weak things of the world in order to confound the strong, and gathering His Church from the whole world, began not with emperors, nor with senators, but with fishermen. For whatever dignities had been chosen first would have dared to attribute this to themselves, not to the grace of God. This secret counsel of God, this counsel of our Saviour, the Apostle sets out, where he says: "For see your calling, brethren," these are the Apostle's words, "that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but the weak things of the world

God chose, that He might confound the strong; and the ignoble things of the world and the contemptible God chose, and the things which are not as though they were things which are, that the things which are might be made void, that no flesh might glory before Him" (1 Cor. 1:26–29). This the prophet also said: "Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low, the level of the plain shall be established" (Isa. 40:4). In short, today the noble and the ignoble alike approach the grace of the Lord, the learned and the unlearned, the poor and the rich. In receiving this grace pride does not put itself before humility, before the one who knows nothing, before the one who has nothing. But what did He say to them? Come after Me, I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). If those fishermen had not gone before, who would have caught us? Now any orator is great if he has been able to expound well what a fisherman wrote.

2. The difference and mystery of the two fishings. By the first fishing the good and the bad who are to be gathered together are signified. The danger from the prosperity of the wicked. Schisms. Since, then, the Lord Jesus Christ had chosen fishers of fish, and had made them fishers of men, in their very fishings too He wished to admonish us of something concerning the calling of the peoples. Consider two fishings, set apart by a necessary distinction: one, when the Lord chose them from among the fishermen and made them His disciples; the other, which we have just heard when the holy Gospel was being read, after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: that one before the resurrection, this one after the resurrection. What difference there is between the two fishings we ought very much to consider: the ship of our instruction is the new preaching of the Gospel, in which He also found them fishing, and to whom He also said, Let down the nets. They said: We have caught nothing the whole night, we have laboured in vain; behold, in Thy name we will let down the nets. They let them down, and caught so much that they filled two little boats, which were so weighed down by the multitude of fish that they were almost sinking. Then by the very multitude of fish the nets were broken. Then He said to them, Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Then, leaving their nets and little boats, they followed Christ (Luke 5:1–11). Now after the resurrection the Lord Christ has shown us another fishing, different from that earlier one. For then He said, Let down the nets: neither, On the left; nor, On the right side; but only, Let down the nets, was said. For if He had said, On the left, He would have signified the bad alone; if, On the right, the good alone. Since, then, He said neither On the right nor On the left, the good and the bad are signified, of whom the Gospel speaks in another place: that the householder, when the supper was prepared, sent his servants, and they brought in whomever they were able to find, good and bad, and the wedding was filled with guests (Matt. 22:8, 10). Such is the Church now, full of good and bad. The Church is filled with a multitude: but this multitude sometimes weighs it down, and tries to bring it near to shipwreck. The multitude of those who live badly so disturbs those who live well that he who lives well thinks himself a fool when he sees others living badly: above all because, as regards the goods of this world, many guilty are found happy, and many innocent are found unhappy. And how much is it to be feared lest it be weighed down by shipwreck and sunk! How much is it to be feared, dearly beloved, lest there should say

he who lives well: What does it profit me that I live well! For behold, that man lives badly and is more honoured than I. What does it profit me that I live well? He is in danger: I fear lest he be sunk. Let me speak to him, that he may be raised up from the deep. You who live well, live well: do not grow weary, do not look back. True is the promise of your Lord, Who says, He who perseveres to the end, he will be saved (Matt. 24:13). I notice, you say, that another lives badly and is happy. You are deceived; he is unhappy: and he is the more unhappy in that he seems to himself the happier. It is madness that he does not recognize his own misery. If you saw a man in a fever laughing, you would lament him as raving. What has been promised to you has not yet come. He who seems to you happier feeds on things visible and temporal, and rejoices in them: he did not bring them, nor will he take them away. Naked he came in, naked he will go out. From false joys he will come to true sorrows. But what has been promised to you has not yet come. Hold out, that you may arrive; persevere, lest by failing you cheat yourself: for God cannot deceive you. See, I have spoken briefly, lest the boats be sunk. Something more detestable came upon that catch, that the nets were torn. The nets were torn, heresies arose. For what else are schisms but tears? Thus the first catch must be borne and endured, so that no one is worn out by weariness: although it is written, Weariness has held me because of sinners forsaking Thy law (Ps. 118:53). The boat cries out that it is pressed by the multitude, as though the ship itself had this voice: Weariness has held me because of sinners forsaking Thy law. Even if you are pressed, see always that you are not sunk. The wicked are now to be tolerated, not separated. Mercy and judgement I sing to the Lord (Ps. 100:1): first mercy is bestowed, and afterwards judgement is exercised. The separation will take place at the judgement. Now let the good man hear me, that he may be better: let the bad man also hear, that he may be good; while it is the time of repentance, not yet of sentence. Let us pass on from this catch, which has joys mixed with tears: joys, because the good are gathered; mixed with tears, because the bad are scarcely endured.

3. The other catch. The number of the fishes stated in this one alone. The mystery of the number of the fishes. The law without grace avails nothing. The division of the ten commandments. God's help necessary for fulfilling the law. Let us turn our mind to that last catch: there let us be refreshed, there let us be consoled. And for this reason it took place after the resurrection of the Lord, because it signified the Church as it will be after the resurrection. Behold, it is said to the disciples as they fish; the Lord says it, Who also spoke before: but before [He said] what they should cast; now, where they should cast, that is, on the right side of the boat. Therefore those are now caught who will stand at the right hand: those are caught to whom it has been said, Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom (Matt. 25:34). They cast, and they catch. There, in the first catch, the number was not stated; only the multitude was stated, the number was not defined. For there are now many over the number, that is, they come, they enter, they fill the churches. The same people fill the theatres who [fill] the church. They fill it over the number: to that number which is to be in eternal life they do not belong, unless they are changed while they live. And surely not all are changed?

In the same way, not all those good ones persevere either. That is why it was said to them: He who has persevered to the end, he shall be saved. And to those who are still bad it is said: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. 33:11). So there the number was not stated, because many have come to be beyond number. The Psalm said: I have declared and I have spoken; they are multiplied beyond number (Ps. 39:6). Now on the right side, not beyond number: they are a hundred and fifty-three, but great. For this was said: And though they were so great, the net was not torn. For then there will be the gathering of the saints; the divisions and rents of the heretics will not exist: there will be peace, and there will be perfect unity. No one will be less, no one more; the number will be whole. But they are very few, if they are only a hundred and fifty-three. Far be it from us that there should be only so many in this congregation: how much more in the whole Church of God? The Apocalypse of that same John the evangelist shows that so great a multitude of saints, happy in that eternity, was seen, as no one could number. So it is found written there (Rev. 7:9). And yet all belong to this number, to the hundred and fifty-three. I want to reduce this number to a greater fewness. They are a hundred and fifty-three; let us make them fewer. These hundred and fifty-three are ten and seven. Why ten? Why seven? Ten, on account of the law; seven, on account of the Spirit. For the sevenfold form [is used] on account of the perfection which is proclaimed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There shall rest upon Him, says the prophet Isaiah, the Holy Spirit. And when he had said the Holy Spirit, he enumerated seven virtues. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude: you have four. The Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2–3). He began from wisdom, he ended at fear: as one descending, he spoke from the highest to the lowest, from wisdom to fear. From the lowest to the highest, from fear to wisdom: For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps. 110:10). This is the gift of grace: by this sevenfold virtue the Holy Spirit works in the beloved of God, so that the law may have some force there. For if you take away the Spirit, what force does the law have? It makes a transgressor. That is why it was said, The letter kills. It commands, and does not do. It did not kill before you were commanded; and even if providence held [you as] a sinner, yet it did not hold [you as] a transgressor. You are commanded, and you do not do it; you are forbidden, and you do it: behold, the letter kills. Now the law has ten commandments. The first commandment of the law is that one God is to be worshipped, no other, that no idol is to be made. The second commandment is, You shall not take the name of your God in vain. The third commandment is, Keep the sabbath day; but spiritually, not carnally as the Jews do. These three commandments belong to the love of God. But since, On these two commandments, He says, hang the whole Law and the Prophets, that is, on the love of God and on the love of neighbour (Matt. 22:37–40): when you have heard what belongs to the love of God, unity, truth, rest, attend to what belongs to the love of neighbour. Honour your father and your mother: you have the fourth commandment. You shall not commit adultery: you have the fifth.