Augustine, Sermones 257-265 (Classis II, de Tempore)

and from the north and from the sea (Ps. 106:2–3). So, fasting for forty days before the death of His flesh, He was as it were crying out: Abstain from the desires of this world. But eating and drinking for forty days after the resurrection of His flesh, He was as it were crying out: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world (Matt. 28:20). For fasting belongs to the tribulation of the contest, since he who strives in the contest abstains from all things (1 Cor. 9:25); but food belongs to the hope of peace, which will not be perfect until our body, whose redemption we await, has put on immortality. In this we do not yet glory by attaining it, but by hoping we already feed on it. The Apostle shows that we do both at once, saying, Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom. 12:12), as though the former were in the food and the latter in the fasting. For at the same time as we travel the way of the Lord, let us both fast from the vanity of the present world and be refreshed by the promise of the world to come: here not setting our heart, there feeding our heart on high.

Sermon 264. On the Ascension of the Lord, 4.

1. Something must be said about the mystery of Christ's ascension. Many are the hidden mysteries of the divine Scriptures, both those which we ourselves still have to seek out and those which the Lord has already deigned to reveal to our lowliness; but there is not time enough to lay these open to Your Holiness. For I know that, especially on these days, the church fills up with people who would sooner leave than come, and who find us burdensome if we ever speak with them at some length; yet at their luncheons, to which they hurry off, if they are kept there until evening they neither tire nor object, nor do they ever leave out of any shame at all. Nevertheless, so as not to defraud those who come hungry, we shall not keep silent, though we speak briefly, about the mystery of this event: that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended with that body in which He rose again.

2. Christ after the resurrection lives among the disciples, so that they may be confirmed in faith. He ascends into heaven, so that they may not remain in the flesh. This was indeed on account of the weakness of His disciples: for even in that number there were some whom the devil tempted with unbelief, so that one of His disciples, though seeing Him in the very form in which he had known Him, nevertheless put his faith not so much in the living limbs as in the fresh scars (John 20:25). Therefore, for their confirmation, He deigned after the resurrection to live with them for forty whole days, from the very day of His passion until today, going in and going out, eating and drinking, as Scripture says (Acts 1:3–4), confirming that what had been taken away by the cross had been restored to their eyes after the resurrection. Yet He did not wish them to remain in the flesh, nor to hold them any longer by a fleshly love. For they wanted Him always to be with them in the flesh in the same spirit in which Peter too was afraid of His suffering. For they saw with them their master, comforter and

consoler and protector who was a man, such as they saw themselves to be. If they did not see something of that kind, they believed Him absent, though He is present everywhere by His majesty. But He was in truth protecting them, as He Himself deigned to say, as a hen [protects] her chicks (Matt. 23:37). For just as a hen, because of the weakness of her chicks, is herself also weakened. For if you recall, before our eyes there are so many birds that produce chicks; we see no bird weakened along with its chicks except the hen: and therefore the Lord drew the comparison from her, because for the sake of our weakness He Himself also deigned to be weakened by taking up flesh. But it was fitting that they should be raised up somewhat, and should now begin to think of Him spiritually, as the Word of the Father, God with God, through Whom all things were made: and the flesh which they saw did not allow them. It profited them, therefore, to be confirmed in faith through His keeping company with them for forty days: but it profited them more that He should withdraw Himself from their eyes; and that He Who had kept company on earth as a brother should come to their aid from heaven as Lord; and that they should learn to think of Him according to God. For this is what John the evangelist sounded forth, if anyone pays attention, if anyone understands. For the Lord says: Let not your heart be troubled. If you loved me, He says, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I (John 14:1, 28). And in another place He says: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). And so great an equality does He claim for Himself, not by robbery but by nature, that He said this to a certain disciple who said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us: and He [said], Philip, have I been with you so long a time, and you do not know the Father? He who has seen me has seen the Father too (John 14:8–9). What is, He who has seen me? If according to the eyes of the flesh, those who crucified Him also saw. What then is, He who has seen me, except he who has understood, who has seen with the eye of the heart? For just as there are inner ears, which the Lord was looking for when He said, He who has ears, let him hear (Matt. 11:15), though no deaf man stood before Him: so too there is an inner sight of the heart, by which, if anyone had seen the Lord, he had seen the Father, because He is equal to the Father.

3. The Son of God, equal to the Father by nature, weakened by mercy even unto death. Hear the Apostle wishing to commend to us His mercy, in that He was weakened for our sake, that He might gather His chicks under His wings, teaching other disciples too that they themselves should also have compassion on the weakness of the weak, they who had ascended to some strength out of the common weakness, since He had descended from heavenly strength to our weakness: he says to them, Let this be felt in you which [was] also in Christ Jesus. Deign, he says, to imitate the Son of God by compassion with the little ones. Who, though He was in the form of God. Already by saying, He was in the form of God, he showed Him equal to God. For the form is not less than He Whose form it is. For if it is less, it is not the form. Yet lest anyone should doubt, he added, and set down the very word with which he might shut the mouths of the sacrilegious: Who, though He was in the form of God, he says, did not think it robbery to be equal to God. What is it, dearest brethren, that the Apostle says, He did not think it robbery? Because by nature

equal. To whom, then, was equality with God robbery? To the first man, to whom it was said, Taste, and you shall be as gods (Gen. 3:5). He wished by robbery to stretch himself towards equality, and through the penalty he lost immortality. For He to Whom it was not robbery did not think it robbery to be equal to God. If, then, it was not robbery, it was nature: entire fellowship and the very highest equality. But what did He do? He emptied Himself, it says, taking the form of a servant; made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man: He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5–8). It was too little to say death, and he showed the kind of death too. Why the kind of death as well? Because many are ready for death: for many say, I am not afraid to die, but I should like to die in my own bed, surrounded by my sons and grandsons, amid the tears of my wife. These people indeed seem not to refuse death, but by choosing the kind of death they are punished by fear. He, however, chose a kind of death, but the one that is worse than all. Just as men choose for themselves a better kind of death, so He chose a worse one, the one that was accursed to all the Jews. For He did not fear to die through false witnesses, through the sentence of a judge, He Who will come to judge the living and the dead: He did not fear to die through the ignominy of the cross, so that He might free all believers from every ignominy. Therefore He was made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: yet by nature equal to God; strong in the power of majesty, weak in the compassion of humanity: strong, so that He might make all things; weak, so that He might remake all things.

4. Christ wishes to go away, so that, with the flesh absent, His divinity may be thought of. The Son of God is not lesser in Himself through the incarnation. Pay attention, then, to what John says: If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. How is He equal, as the Apostle says? As the Lord Himself says, I and the Father are one. And in another place, He who has seen Me has seen the Father too. How then here, For the Father is greater than I? That saying, brothers, as far as the Lord inspires us to perceive it, was in a certain way that of one reproaching and consoling. For they were fixed on the man, and could not think of God. For they would think of God only if the man were taken away from them and from their eyes, so that, the familiarity which had been formed with the flesh being cut off, they might learn, with the flesh absent, at least to think of the divinity. Therefore He says this to them: If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father. Why? So that when I go to the Father, you may be able to think of Me as equal to the Father. For this reason, then, He is greater than I: while you still see Me in the flesh, the Father is still greater than I. See whether you have taken it in: for they did not know how to think of anything but a man. I say this somewhat more plainly for the sake of our slower brothers: but those who have understood, let them bear with the slowness of the others and imitate the Lord Himself, Who, though He was in the form of God, humbled Himself, made obedient unto death. If you loved Me: what is this? If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father. If you loved Me: what else is it but, you do not love Me? What, then, do you love? The flesh which you see. For you do not want it to depart from your eyes. If

however, you loved me: what is "me"? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word (John 1:1): which John himself says. If therefore you loved me thus, as the one through whom all things were made, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father. Why? Because the Father is greater than I. While you still see me on earth, the Father is greater than I. Let me depart from your eyes; let the mortal flesh, which was taken up on account of your mortality, be removed from your sight; may you begin not to see this garment, which I took up in humility: yet let it be raised into heaven. that you may learn what you are to hope for. For He did not leave behind here that very tunic which He willed to put on here. For if He had left it here, all would despair of the resurrection of the flesh. As it is, He has raised it into heaven, and there are those who doubt the resurrection of the flesh. If God has shown it in Himself, is He going to deny it to man? For God received it out of compassion, but man by his condition. And yet He showed it, He strengthened them, and He raised it up. But when the fleshly appearance had been withdrawn from their eyes, they no longer saw the man. If there was anything in their hearts drawn from fleshly desire, it was, as it were, saddened in them. Yet they gathered together in one, and began to pray. Now He was going to send after this, with ten days intervening, the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit might fill them with spiritual love, taking fleshly desires away from them. He was now making them understand Christ thus, as He was the Word of God, God with God, through Whom all things were made. But they could not be filled with such understanding unless fleshly affection had departed from their eyes. And therefore He said, If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father; because the Father is greater than I. According to the man He is greater than I, equal according to God: equal according to nature, greater according to the Son's mercy. For [mercy] humbled Him, not only below Himself, but also below the angels, as Scripture says (Ps. 8:6). He is not less; and if you see that the Son has to some extent withdrawn, by the taking up of flesh, from equality with the Father, from which He never withdraws: yet in taking flesh (for He took up a man) He was not changed. Just as one who takes a garment is not turned into the garment, but the man himself remains whole within: and if a senator takes a slave's garment, if perchance he cannot go in to console someone shackled in prison while wearing his very senatorial garment, he takes the dress of the prison, and the dress appears squalid out of humaneness; but within, the senatorial dignity remains all the more whole, the greater the mercy with which he willed to put on what belonged to humility. So also the Lord, remaining God, remaining the Word, remaining Wisdom, remaining divine Power, remaining in the government of the heavens, remaining in the administration of the earth, filling the angels, whole everywhere, whole in the world, whole in the Patriarchs, whole in the Prophets, whole in all the saints, whole in the Virgin's womb, to put on flesh, to join it to Himself as a bride, that He might come forth from His bridal chamber as a bridegroom, that He might espouse the Church, a chaste virgin. To this end, therefore, [He is] less than the Father, because [He is] man: but equal to the Father, because

God. Take away, then, carnal desires from your midst. It is as if He were saying this to His Apostles: You do not want to let Me go (just as no one wants to let his friend go, as though saying: Stay with us a little while, our soul is refreshed when we see you); but it is better that you should not see this flesh, and should think upon the divinity. I take Myself away from you outwardly, and with My very self I fill you inwardly. For does Christ enter into the heart according to the flesh and with the flesh? According to the divinity He possesses the heart; according to the flesh He speaks to the heart through the eyes, and admonishes from outside; dwelling within, so that we may be turned inwards, and be quickened from Him, and be formed from Him; because He is the unfabricated form of all things.

5. Christ after the resurrection spends forty days with the disciples, to signify that faith in the Incarnation is always necessary here. So if He spent forty days with His disciples, it was not without cause that He spent forty days. Perhaps twenty would have sufficed, thirty would have sufficed: forty days is the dispensation of this whole age. We once treated of this on account of the number ten multiplied four times. I remind those of you who heard it. For the number ten signifies the whole of wisdom. This wisdom is dispensed through the four parts of the world, through the whole round of the earth: and the seasons are divided in a fourfold arrangement. For the year has four seasons: and the world has four cardinal points. Ten, then, multiplied four times gives the number forty. And that is why the Lord fasted for forty days (Matt. 4:2), showing us that the faithful ought to abstain from all corruption as long as they are in this world. For forty days Elijah fasted (1 Kgs. 19:8), bearing the person of Prophecy, showing that this is taught in Prophecy too. For forty days Moses fasted (Exod. 34:28), who bore the person of the Law, showing that this is taught in the Law too. For forty years the people of Israel were led in the desert (Num. 32:13). For forty days the ark floated in the flood, which ark is the Church: made of timbers that do not rot; the timbers that do not rot are the souls of the saints and the just: yet having animals clean and unclean; because as long as life is lived in this age and the Church is cleansed through Baptism as through a flood, it cannot but have good and bad: that is why that ark had both clean and unclean. But after Noah came out from it, he did not offer sacrifice to God except of clean animals (Gen. 6-8). From which we ought to understand that in this ark there are both clean and unclean animals, but after this flood God accepts only those who have cleansed themselves. So, brethren, take this whole time that is seen as standing for the forty days. This whole time, as long as we are here, the ark is in the flood: as long as Christians are baptized and cleansed through water, the ark is seen to float on the waves, the ark which was carried about on the water for forty days. And the Lord, in remaining with the disciples for forty days, deigned to signify that through this time faith in the Incarnation of Christ is necessary for all: which is necessary for the weak. If there were now

an eye that could see In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1), that could see, could hold, could embrace, could enjoy, there would have been no need for the Word to become flesh and dwell among us: but because the inner eye had been blinded by the dust of sins for holding and enjoying that, there was now no means by which the Word could be understood; that is why He deigned to become flesh, so that that [eye] might be cleansed by which He may afterwards be seen, as He cannot be now. Since, therefore, the dispensation of Christ's flesh is necessary to the faithful in this life, the dispensation through which they make their way towards the Lord; but when we have come to that vision of the Word, no fleshly dispensation will be necessary: for this reason His dwelling in the flesh for forty days after the resurrection was necessary, so that He might show that faith in the Incarnation of Christ is necessary for as long as the ark is shown to be tossing on the flood in this life. See what I am saying, brethren: believe in Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary, [believe] that He was crucified and rose again. There is no need for us to ask about it after this age, because we have already received it in faith: we hold it; it is necessary to our weakness. Think, then, of the love of that hen which shelters our weakness (Matt. 23:37): think of it as the beast of burden of that merciful man passing by, on to which he lifted the faint man who had been wounded (Luke 10:30–34). For he lifted him, where? On to his own beast. The Lord's beast of burden is the flesh. So when this age has passed, what will be said to you? Since you believed rightly in the flesh of Christ, now enjoy the majesty and divinity of Christ. The weak One was necessary to the weak; the strong One will be necessary to the strong.

6. The resurrection of the flesh to come. For you too are to lay aside this very weakness, according to what you heard in the Apostle: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. For flesh and blood, he says, shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:53, 50). Why shall they not possess it? Because the flesh will not rise again? Far from it! The flesh will rise again, but what happens? It is changed, and itself becomes a heavenly and angelic body. Do the angels have flesh? But this is the point: that this flesh will rise again, this very flesh which is buried, which dies; this which is seen, which is touched, which needs to eat and drink in order to be able to last; which falls sick, which suffers pains, this very flesh is to rise again, for the wicked unto everlasting punishments, but for the good so that they may be changed. When it has been changed, what will happen? It will then be called a heavenly body, not mortal flesh: because This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Yet people wonder whether God, Who made all things out of nothing, makes a heavenly body out of flesh. The Lord, while placed in the flesh, made wine out of water, and is it a wonder if He could make a heavenly body out of flesh? Do not, then, doubt God, that He is able to do it. Before the angels existed, they were nothing; but by His majesty they are what they are. Can He Who was able to make you when you did not exist not restore what you had been, and can He not give the honour of glory to your faith on account of His very incarnation? So when these things have passed, there will come to us what John says: Beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that when He appears, like