Augustine, Sermones 284-287 (Classis III, de Sanctis)

Sermon 284. On the feast day of the martyrs Marianus and James.

1. The patience of the martyrs, a gift of God. On this present day, by God's favour, the time for paying our debt has dawned. Since, then, the debtors are willing, why are the collectors in an uproar? If we all keep our minds quiet, what we pay can reach everyone. A sermon is owed on the passion and glory of the holy martyrs. Since, then, they suffered most gloriously, they point out patience to us. They therefore endured raging crowds; let us have peoples that are calm, since we have seen them believing. The constancy of the martyrs is to be praised, but what eloquence suffices to praise it? When do I accomplish by speaking what has already been done in your hearts by believing? But whence so great a gift of patience? Whence, if not from where every best gift comes? Whence the best gift, if not from where the perfect gift comes? For thus it is written there too: "But patience has a perfect work. Every best gift," he says, "and every perfect gift is coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of a moment" (Jas. 1:4, 17). Upon changeable human minds patience comes down from the unchangeable fountain, that it may make them too unchangeable. Whence comes it to man to please God, if not from God? Whence comes a good life to man, if not from the fountain of life? Whence comes enlightenment to man, if not from the eternal light? For with Thee, he says, is the fountain of life. With Thee, he says: I could have said, From me; but if I say, From me, I depart from Thee. With Thee, therefore, is the fountain of life. In Thy light; not in ours: In Thy light we shall see light (Ps. 35:10). Therefore, Come to Him, and be enlightened (Ps. 33:6). He is the fountain of life; come, drink, and live: He is light; come, take hold, and see. If He does not flow into you, you will be dry.

2. Martyrs tempted by the blandishments of their parents according to the flesh. Mary, the mother of Marianus, exults in the passion of her son. From here, then, our martyrs, from here they drank: drunk from here, they did not acknowledge their own. For how many holy martyrs

do we think, as the passion drew near, were tempted by the blandishments of their own people, who tried to call them back to the temporal and empty and fleeting sweetness of this life? But they who in their thirst had drunk from the fountain which is with God, and had been made drunk, were belching forth Christ by confessing Him; their own carnal kin, drunk with the wine of error, loving them wrongly and by their persuasion calling them back from life, they did not heed, they did not acknowledge. Marianus's mother was not one of those, not one of those who persuade wrongly, who coax in a carnal way, who deceive by loving: the mother of holy Marianus was not one of those. She bore no empty name; not for nothing was she called Mary: a woman indeed, not a virgin, not untouched through the Holy Spirit, but yet chaste with respect to her husband, she had given birth to such a pledge that by her exhortations she rather led him on to a most glorious passion than called him back from it by wicked blandishments. O you too, holy Mary, unequal indeed in merit, but equal in desire! Happy you too! She bore the Prince of martyrs, you bore a martyr of the Prince: she bore the Judge of witnesses, you bore a witness of the Judge. Happy the birth, happier the devotion. When you gave birth you groaned, when you lost him you exulted. What is this: when you gave birth you groaned, you exulted when you lost him? Not for nothing, except that you did not lose him. Where there was no grief, there was faith. Spiritual faith had shut out carnal grief from your heart. You saw that you were not losing your son but sending him on ahead: all that you rejoiced in, you wished to follow.

3. The fortitude of the martyrs is not from themselves, but from God. We marvel at these things, we praise these things, we love these things. O blessed martyrs, whence do you have these things? I know that you have human hearts: whence do you have these divine things? I say, From God: who is there to say, From yourselves? Who is there who, by praising you wrongly, would begrudge you? Does someone or other say that these things are from you? Answer him, In the Lord shall my soul be praised. Does someone or other say that these things are from you? Answer him, if you are meek, answer, In the Lord shall my soul be praised. Answer this too among the people of God, Let the meek hear, and be glad (Ps. 33:3). Does someone or other say that these things are from you? Answer him, A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given him from above (John 3:27). For to us and to you the Lord Jesus says, Without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Without Me, He says, you can do nothing: to you too this was said; recognize the words of the shepherd, beware the flattery of the deceiver: this pride, impious, unjust, ungrateful, I know that it displeases you. Holy martyrs, you suffered for Christ; but what you suffered profited you, not Christ. What would you have lacked, had it not been given to you? Repel these venoms of the enemy serpent from your ears. That is the tongue which said, You shall be as gods (Gen. 3:5). Free will, ungrateful, cast man headlong; let will set free now say to the Lord, Patience of Israel, O Lord (Jer. 17:13). Why, unbeliever, are you proud? Do you praise the patience of the martyrs as though they could be patient of themselves? Hear rather the Apostle

teacher of the Gentiles, not deceiver of the faithless. Surely you praise in the martyrs their patience for Christ, and you ascribe it to them themselves? Hear rather the Apostle addressing the martyrs and calming human hearts. Hear him, I say, saying, For to you it has been given for Christ. Hear piety exhorting, not flattery deceiving: To you, he says, it has been given. It has been given, hear: To you it has been given for Christ, not only that you should believe in Him, but also that you should suffer for Him (Phil. 1:29). To you it has been given: what can be added to this statement? To you it has been given: acknowledge it as given, lest you lose it as usurped. To you, he says, it has been given for Christ: what for Christ, except to suffer? But do not be suspicious, hear what follows: not only that you should believe in Him; for this too has been given: but not this alone has been given; but also that you should suffer for Him, this too has been given. Let the martyr turn his back on the faithless and ungrateful flatterer: let him turn his face to the most kindly Giver, and credit his very suffering to God, not as though he had offered this to God from what is his own; but rather let him say, In the Lord shall my soul be praised; let the meek hear and be glad. And when you have said to him, What does it mean, In the Lord shall my soul be praised? Is it then praised in you? He in reply: Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from Him is my patience (Ps. 61:6). Why then mine? I opened my bosom, and I gladly received; from Him, mine. Both from Him and mine; and because from Him, therefore the more safely mine. It is mine, but it is not to me from me. That I may have my gift, I acknowledge God as the Giver. For if I do not acknowledge God as the Giver, God takes away His good, and there remains my evil, through my own choice.

4. From multiplicity the heart is turned to the One by the grace of God. The martyrs, through the love of God, the one delight, victors over the world's allurements and harshnesses. The faithful Scripture says: God made man upright, and they themselves have sought out many thoughts (Eccl. 7:30). God made, it says, man upright, and they themselves: whence they themselves, except through free choice? And they themselves have sought out many thoughts. It had said he was made upright, and yet it does not say, And they themselves have sought out depraved thoughts, because it had said upright; or wicked thoughts; but it said, many. From this multiplicity, the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that thinks many things (Wisd. 9:15). May God free us from this multiplicity of human thoughts, and may He free us by the One, that we may be one in Him out of a multitude. May He fuse us together with the fire of charity, that with one heart we may follow the One, lest we fall away from the One into many things, and be scattered among many things, having abandoned the One. For of this One the Apostle was speaking, when he said, Brothers, I do not reckon myself to have laid hold of it: what then? But one thing: what one thing? Forgetting the things that are behind, stretched out towards those that are before, I follow on (Phil. 3:13). One thing I follow; one thing, he says, I follow: but I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it; because the body, which is corrupted, presses down the mind that thinks many things. Behold whither the martyrs were going; when they were aglow, they did not heed the great din, because they loved the One. See the desire

of the martyrs: "One thing," he says, "have I asked of the Lord." "One thing have I asked": I bid farewell, he says, to the worldly multitude. "One thing have I asked": one blessedness, surely, one happiness, one true, not many false. "One thing," he says, "have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after." What is this one thing? "That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." To what end this? "That I may contemplate the delights of the Lord" (Ps. 26:4). The holy martyrs, when they thought upon that delight, then all things evil and bitter and harsh grew worthless to them. There was delight against delight: there was delight against pain. That delight fought against both, both against the raging world and against the flattering one. It answered the world: "Why do you flatter? Sweeter is what I love than that which you promise." I hear God saying to me, or rather holy Scripture: "How great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee" (Ps. 30:20)! Behold again a good multitude, because it is not at variance, but in one.

5. The Church commends herself to the prayers of the martyrs. The full victory of the martyrs. The threefold temptation of the Lord, pertaining to enticements. Another kind of temptation, in torments. It is no wonder, then, my brethren: you know at what place the martyrs are recited? The Church does not pray for them. For rightly does the Church pray for the other departed who are asleep: for the martyrs she does not pray, but rather commends herself to their prayers. For they strove against sin even unto blood. They fulfilled what is written, "Strive for the truth even unto death" (Ecclus. 4:33). They despised the promises of the world: but that is little; for it is little to despise death, little to endure harsh things: where the contest is even unto blood, there is the most glorious and full victory. For the first temptations set before our Lord, the prince of martyrs, were allurements: "Command these stones that they become bread." "To Thee will I give all these kingdoms." "Let us see whether the angels will bear Thee up; for it is written, Lest perhaps Thou dash Thy foot against a stone." These are the pleasant things of the world: in the bread, the concupiscence of the flesh; in the promise of kingdoms, the ambition of the world; in the curiosity of the temptation, the concupiscence of the eyes: all these are of the world; but they flatter, they do not rage. Consider the Leader of the martyrs setting forth contests as examples, and mercifully helping those who contend. Why did He allow Himself to be tempted, unless to teach us to resist the tempter? The world promises carnal pleasure: answer it, "God is more delightful." The world promises worldly honours and eminences: answer it, "Higher than all is the kingdom of God." The world promises superfluous or damnable curiosities: answer it, "The truth of God alone errs not." When the Lord had been tempted with this threefold temptation, since in all the enticements of this world there are three things, either pleasure, or curiosity, or pride, what does the Evangelist say? "When the devil had finished every temptation": every one, but every one pertaining to enticements. There remained another temptation, in harsh and hard things, in cruel things, in atrocious and pitiless things; there remained another temptation. Knowing this, what had been accomplished and what remained, the Evangelist says: "When the devil had completed every temptation,

he departed from Him for a time" (Matt. 4:1–11, and Luke 4:1–13). He departed from Him, that is, as a serpent lying in ambush: he is to come as a roaring lion; but He Who will trample on the lion and the dragon will conquer him (Ps. 90:13). He will return: he will enter into Judas, he will make him the betrayer of his master. He will bring the Jews, no longer fawning but raging: possessing his vessels, he will cry out with the tongues of all, Crucify, crucify (Luke 23:21). Why do we marvel at Christ the victor there? He was God almighty.

6. The example of patience set forth in the Lord and in the martyrs our fellow servants. For our sake Christ willed to suffer. The apostle Peter says: He suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). He taught you to suffer, and by suffering He taught you. A word was too little, unless an example were added. And how did He teach, brethren? He was hanging on the cross, the Jews were raging: He was hanging on rough nails, but He did not lose His gentleness. They were raging, they were barking round about, they were insulting Him as He hung; as though, with one supreme physician set in the midst, madmen were raging on every side. He was hanging, and He was healing. Father, He says, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). He was asking, and yet He was hanging: He did not come down, because from His own blood He was making a medicine for the madmen. Finally, because they were the words of the Lord Who asked and of the same [Lord] Who granted mercy, since He asked the Father and together with the Father granted it; because those words could not be poured out in vain, after His resurrection He healed those whom, while hanging, He bore with in their utter madness. He ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit; nor did He show Himself to them after the resurrection, but only to His faithful disciples, lest He should seem to have wished as it were to mock those who had killed Him. For it was a greater thing to teach friends humility than to reproach enemies with the truth. He rose again: He did more than they demanded, not believing but mocking and saying, If He is the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross (Matt. 27:40). And He Who would not come down from the wood rose from the tomb. He ascended into heaven, from there He sent the Holy Spirit: He filled the disciples, He corrected the fearful, He made them confident. Peter's trembling was suddenly turned into the fortitude of a preacher. Whence did this come to a man? Seek Peter presuming, you find Peter denying: seek God helping, you find Peter preaching. For an hour weakness trembled, so that presumption might be overcome, not so that piety might be destroyed. He fills him with His Spirit, and makes him a most valiant preacher, the man to whom, when he presumed, He had foretold, Three times you will deny Me. For he had presumed on his own strength, not on the gift of God, but on free choice. For he had said, I will be with You even unto death (Matt. 26:33–35). He had said in his abundance, I shall not be moved for ever. But He Who in His good will had furnished strength to his beauty turned away His face, and he became troubled (Ps. 29:7–8). The Lord, it says, turned away His face: He showed Peter to Peter; but afterwards He looked back on him, and established Peter on the rock. Let us therefore imitate, my brethren, as far as we can, the example of the passion in the Lord. We shall be able to fulfil it, if we ask of Him