Augustine, Sermones 253-255 (Classis II, de Tempore)

let us praise also with our conduct: let the tongue praise, let the life praise; but let it have infinite charity. Turning to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 255. On the Days of Easter, 26. On the Alleluia.

Chapter One. — 1. Alleluia, the solace of the godly here, will be the sole activity of the blessed. Since the Lord has willed that we should see your Charity at the Alleluia, we owe you a word about the Alleluia. Let me not be a burden if I call to mind what you know: for we both say this very Alleluia daily and take delight in it daily. For you know that Alleluia is in Latin "Praise God"; and in this word, sounding together with the mouth and agreeing together in the heart, we exhort one another to praise God. A man praises securely only Him in whom he has nothing to displease him. And indeed in this time of our pilgrimage we say Alleluia as a solace for our provisions on the journey; for now Alleluia is to us the song of a traveller: but we are making our way along a toilsome road towards a restful homeland, where, when all our activities have been withdrawn, nothing will remain but Alleluia.

Chapter II. — 2. The differing duties of Mary and Martha. This most delightful part Mary had chosen for herself, who was at leisure, was learning, was praising; but Martha her sister had been busy about very many things. She was indeed doing a necessary thing, but not one that would endure: she was doing a thing of the road, not yet of the homeland; she was doing a thing of the pilgrimage, not yet of the possession. For she had received the Lord, and those who were with Him. And the Lord had flesh; and just as for our sake He deigned to take on flesh, so He deigned to hunger and thirst. And from the fact that He deigned to hunger and thirst, He deigned to be fed by those whom He Himself had enriched: He deigned to be received, not out of want, but out of grace. Martha, then, was doing what pertained to the need of the hungry and thirsty: with anxious busyness she was preparing what might be eaten and drunk by the saints and by the Holy One of holy ones Himself in her house (Luke 10:38–42). A great work, but a passing one. Will there always be hungering and thirsting? When we cleave to that most pure and most perfect goodness, there will be no reason to serve necessity. We shall be blessed, lacking nothing; having much, seeking nothing. And what is it that we shall have, so that we seek nothing? I have said: what you believe, you will afterwards see. What we said, then, "having much and seeking nothing", that is, "lacking nothing": what is the very thing that we shall have? What will God give to those who serve Him, who worship Him, who believe in Him, who hope in Him, who love Him?

Chapter III. — 3. The benefits of God towards all, both the good and the bad.

Health is from God. For we see how much He gives in this time to those who distrust Him, to those who despair of Him, to those turned away from Him, to those who blaspheme Him; we see how great the gifts are that He bestows. For from Him, first of all, comes health: which is so sweet that it never comes to be loathed. When the poor man has this, what does he lack? When the rich man does not have it, whatever he has, what does it profit him? From Him, then, it comes, that is, from the Lord our God whom we worship, from the true God in whom we believe, and in whom we hope, and whom we love; from Him comes so great a thing, health. Yet see, though health is a great thing, how He gives it both to the good and to the wicked, both to His blasphemers and to His praisers. And what shall I say? Both are men. Even a wicked man is better than any beast. He gives health even to cattle and to serpents; down even to flies and little worms He grants health; and He who created all things preserves all things. So, to pass over other things, since we find nothing better than health: God gives it not only to men, but also to beasts, as the Psalm says: Men and cattle Thou wilt save, O Lord; as Thy mercy has been multiplied, O God. For so Thou art, because Thou art God; so that Thy goodness does not remain among the highest things and forsake the lowest. It reaches from the angels down to the furthest and tiniest animals. For wisdom reaches from end to end, stretching out mightily, and orders all things sweetly (Wis. 8:1): and in that very ordering of its sweetness, health is sweet to all.

Chapter IV. — 4. That God keeps something for the good. Men and sons of men: in what they differ. Since, then, He gives so great a good both to the good and to the wicked, both to men and to cattle, what is it, my brothers, that He keeps for the good? For he had already said, Men and cattle Thou wilt save, O Lord; as Thy mercy has been multiplied, O God. And then he added: But the sons of men (Ps. 35:7–8). Who are these? As if men, of whom he had said a little before, Men and cattle Thou wilt save, O Lord, were one thing, and the sons of men another. For are men something other than sons of men, and sons of men something other than men? What then does this distinction mean? Unless perhaps because men belong to the man, sons of men to the Son of Man: men, to the man; sons of men, to the Son of Man. For there is a certain man who was not a son of man. For he who was made first was a man; he was not a son of man. What then came to us through the man, and what came to us through the Son of Man? I recall what came through the man, and I speak the Apostle's words: Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death: and so it passed through into all men, in whom all sinned (Rom. 5:12). See what the man gave us to drink, see what we drink from our parent and can scarcely digest. If this through the man, what through the Son of Man? 'His own,' he says, 'Son He did not spare.' If 'He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him give us all things?' (Rom. 8:32). Likewise, 'As through

disobedience of one man many were made sinners; so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous' (Rom. 5:19). Through him, therefore, sin; through Christ, righteousness. All sinners, therefore, belong to man; all the righteous to the Son of Man. Why then do you wonder that sinners, that the ungodly, that the wicked, that despisers of God, men turned away from God, lovers of the world, embracing iniquity, holding the truth in hatred, that is, men belonging to man, why do you wonder that they have this health, when you hear the Psalm: Men and beasts Thou wilt save, O Lord? Lest men should exalt themselves because they have temporal health, beasts were added to them. What then is it that you rejoice in, O man? Is it not something you have in common with your ass, and with your hen, with every living creature in your house, with these sparrows? Is not bodily health common to you with all these?

Chapter V. — 5. To the godly is promised the delight of the praise of God, which is not given to the ungodly. Seek, then, what has been promised to the sons of men, and hear what follows: But the sons of men shall hope under the covering of Thy wings. Meanwhile they shall hope, as long as they are on the way. But the sons of men shall hope under the covering of Thy wings. For in hope we have been saved (ibid. 8:24). This does not belong to men and beasts [alike], to hope under the covering of God's wings. And see, hope suckles us, nourishes us, strengthens us, and consoles us in this toilsome life; in that very hope we sing Alleluia. See how much joy hope has. What will the thing itself be? Do you ask what it will be? Hear what follows: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house (Ps. 35:7–9). Of this thing there is hope. We thirst, we hunger; we need to be filled: but on the way there is hunger, in the homeland fullness. When shall we be filled? I shall be filled when Thy glory shall have been made manifest (Ps. 16:15). But now the glory of our God, the glory of our Christ, is hidden: and with Him our own is hidden too. But when Christ, your life, shall have appeared, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). Then there will be Alleluia in reality: but now in hope. Hope sings it, love sings now, love will sing then too: but now hungering love sings, then enjoying love will sing. For what is Alleluia, my brethren? I have told you: it is the Praise of God. See, now you hear the word, and in hearing you are delighted, and in delight you praise. If you so love the dew, how will you love the fountain itself? For what belching is to a stomach that belches, that praise is to a heart that is fattened. For if we praise what we believe, how shall we praise when we have seen? See what Mary had chosen for herself: but she signified that life, she did not yet hold it.

Chapter VI. — 6. Two lives foreshadowed in Martha and Mary. One thing necessary. The enjoyment of God will be to the blessed in place of all good things. There are two lives: one pertaining to delight, the other pertaining to necessity. That which pertains to necessity is toilsome: that which pertains to delight is pleasurable. But enter within, do not seek delight outside: lest you swell with it, and be unable to enter through the narrow way. See how Mary saw the Lord in the flesh, and heard the Lord through

flesh, as you heard when the Epistle to the Hebrews was being read, as it were through a veil (Heb. 10:20). There will be no veil when we shall see face to face. Mary, then, was sitting, that is, she was at leisure, and was listening, and was praising; but Martha was occupied about much serving. And the Lord says to her, Martha, Martha, you are occupied about many things: but one thing is necessary (Luke 10:38, 42). The one is true: the many will not be necessary. Before we arrive at the one, we stand in need of many things. Let the one stretch us out, lest the many stretch us apart and break us off from the one. The apostle Paul spoke of that very one, because he had not yet grasped it. I do not, he says, reckon myself to have apprehended. But one thing: forgetting the things that are behind, stretched out towards the things that are before. Not stretched apart, but stretched out. For the one stretches out, it does not stretch apart. The many stretch apart, the one stretches out. And how long does it stretch out? As long as we are here. When we have come, it gathers together, it does not stretch out. But one thing: forgetting the things that are behind, stretched out towards the things that are before, according to intention. Behold the stretching out: never the stretching apart. According to intention I pursue, towards the palm of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13–14). The order of the words is: But one thing I pursue. Then, therefore, we shall come, and shall fully enjoy the one; but that very one will be all things to us. For what did we say, brethren, when I began to speak? What is that much which we shall have, when we shall be in need of nothing? what is the much which we shall have? This I had proposed to say: what will God give to us that He will not give to them? Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God (Isa. 26:10). Therefore God will give us His glory, that we may enjoy it: whence the ungodly will be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God. All our much that we shall have will be God Himself. Covetous man, what were you seeking to receive? What does he seek from God, for whom God is not enough?

Chapter VII. — 7. A carnal thought about future happiness. Carnal joy comes from sickness of mind. Our true health, immortality. Earthly riches are proofs not of abundance but of infirmity. But when it is said that we shall have God, and shall be content with Him alone, nay, shall so delight in Him alone that we require nothing else; since we shall both enjoy Him as the one, and enjoy Him in one another: (for what are we, if we do not have God? or what else ought we to love in ourselves but God, either because we have Him, or that we may have Him?) when, therefore, it is said that all other things are withdrawn, and God alone will be that in which we delight, the soul which has been accustomed to delight in many things is as it were straitened; and the carnal soul, given over to the flesh, entangled in carnal desires, having its wings wrapped in the birdlime of evil desires so that it may not fly to God, says to itself, it says to itself: What will there be for me, where I shall not eat, where I shall not drink, where I shall not sleep with my wife? what joy will there be for me? This joy of yours is from sickness, not from health. Certainly your flesh itself at this time is sometimes sick, sometimes healthy. Pay attention, so that I may say something from which you may grasp an example of the thing which I cannot express. There are certain desires of the sick: they burn with desire either for some spring or for some fruit; and they burn so that they think that if they become healthy,

they ought to enjoy their very desires. Health comes, and the craving perishes. What he desired, he now loathes, because it was the fever in him that sought it. And what kind of health is this, in which the sick man recovers?

Chapter VIII. — This health by which we are called healthy, what is it? But nevertheless take an example from it. Since the desires of the sick are many, and this health takes them away; just as this health takes those away, so immortality takes away all of them: because our health is immortality. Recall the Apostle, and see what shall be: "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53). "And we shall be equal to the angels of God" (Matt. 22:30). Are they wretched, then, because they do not feast? Are they not the more blessed precisely because they have no need of these things? Or will any rich man whatever be made equal to the angels? The angels are truly rich. What are riches called? Means. The angels have great means, since they have great ease of doing. You hear how a rich man is praised: How great he is, he is a lord, he is rich, he is powerful. What a great thing, that he goes where he wishes, beasts of burden are at hand, funds are at hand, servants are at hand, attendants are at hand. All these the rich man has: he goes where he wishes, he suffers no toil. An angel, wherever he wishes, there he will be: he does not say, Yoke up; he does not say, Spread the couch; which the rich say with pride, and wish to swell up on account of it, because they have people to whom they can say, Yoke up and Spread the couch. Unhappy man, these are words of weakness, not of means. We shall not, then, be in need: and therefore we shall be blessed. For we shall be full, but of our God: and all that we desire here as something great, He Himself will be to us. Here you seek food as something great: God will be your food. Here you seek the embrace of the flesh: "But for me it is good to cleave to God" (Ps. 72:28). Here you seek riches: how will anything be lacking to you, when you will have Him Who made all things? And to make you secure with the words of the Apostle, he said this of that life: "That God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).