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

help, not by going ahead, as Peter did when presuming, but by following and praying, as Peter did when making progress. For when Peter denied three times, pay attention to what the evangelist says: And the Lord looked at him, and Peter remembered (Luke 22:61). What does it mean, He looked at him? For the Lord did not look at him with His bodily face, as if to remind him. It is not so: read the Gospel. The Lord was being judged in the inner parts of the house; Peter was being tested in the courtyard. Therefore the Lord looked at him not with the body but with majesty; not with the gaze of the eyes of the flesh but with the most high mercy. That man, because he had turned away his face, He looked at him, and he was made free. Therefore the presumptuous one would have perished had the Redeemer not looked at him. And behold, washed by his own tears, corrected and rescued, Peter preaches. He preaches who had denied; they believe who had gone astray. That medicine, the blood of the Lord, avails for the frenzied. Believing, they drink what they poured out in their raging. But, someone says, it is too much for me to imitate the Lord. By the grace of the Lord imitate your fellow servant, imitate Stephen, imitate Marianus and James. They were men, they were fellow servants; born as you were, but crowned by Him Who was not born so.

Sermon 285. On the Birthday of the martyrs Castus and Aemilius.

1. The solemnities of the martyrs are to be celebrated in such a way that it may delight one to imitate them. The virtue of the holy martyrs, not only great but also devout (for this is the useful virtue; indeed this alone is to be called true virtue, which serves not pride but God), prompts us to speak to your Charity and to admonish it so to celebrate the solemnities of the martyrs that, by following in the footsteps of the martyrs, it may delight you to imitate them. For they themselves did not have from their own resources the fact that they stood out as strong. That fountain did not flow [only] as far as them. He Who gave to them is able to give to us also, since one price was paid for all of us.

2. It is not the punishment but the cause that makes a martyr. The faith of the thief on the cross changed the cause of his suffering. Three crosses. The cross of Christ, the tribunal of a judge. This, then, you must be reminded of above all, which you ought constantly to be reminded of and always to think on: that it is not the punishment but the cause that makes a martyr of God. For God delights in our righteousness, not in our torments; nor is it asked in the judgement of the Almighty and Truthful One what each person suffers, but why he suffers. For that we sign ourselves with the Lord's cross, it was not the Lord's punishment that brought this about, but the cause. For if the punishment had brought this about, the like punishment of the thieves would have availed for this too. There was one place for the three crucified, the Lord in the middle, Who was reckoned among the wicked (Isa. 53:12). They placed two thieves on this side and on that; but they did not have a like cause. They were set beside the flanks of the One hanging, but they were far separated from Him. Their own crimes crucified them; ours crucified Him. Yet even in one of them it appeared clearly enough how much there availed not the torment of the one hanging, but the devotion of the one confessing. There was acquired

by the thief in pain what Peter had lost in fear: he committed a crime, he mounted the cross; he changed his cause, he purchased paradise. He fully deserved to change his cause, who did not despise in Christ the likeness of his own punishment. The Jews despised Him when He was working miracles; he believed in Him when He was hanging. He recognized as Lord the partner of his cross, and by believing he did violence to the kingdom of heaven. The thief believed in Christ at the very time when the apostolic faith trembled. Rightly did he deserve to hear: Today you will be with Me in paradise. This indeed he had not promised himself: he was commending himself to great mercy, but he was also considering his own deserts. Lord, he says, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Until the Lord should come into His kingdom, he expected that he would be in punishments, and he begged that at least at His coming mercy might be shown to him. So the thief, considering his own deserts, was putting himself off; but the Lord was offering to the thief what he had despaired of, as if He were saying: You ask that I remember you when I come into My kingdom: Amen, Amen I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise (Luke 23:42–43). Recognize to Whom you are commending yourself: He Whom you believe is going to come, before I come, I am everywhere. Therefore, although I am about to descend into the lower regions, I have you today in paradise; not entrusted to another, but with Me. For My humility descended to mortal men and to the dead themselves, but My divinity never departs from paradise. Thus there came to be three crosses, three causes. One of the thieves was insulting Christ; the other, having confessed his own evils, was commending himself to Christ's mercy. The cross of Christ in the middle was not a punishment but a tribunal: for from the cross He condemned the one who insulted and set free the one who believed. Fear, you who insult; rejoice, you who believe: what He did in humility, He will do in glory.

3. The gifts of grace are given from the deep judgement of God. Presumptuous Peter is forsaken for a little while, so that he may be shown to himself. God hates the presumptuous. Divine gifts come from the deep judgement of God: we can marvel at them, we cannot search them out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? and, How unsearchable are His judgements, and how untraceable His ways (Rom. 11:34, 33)! Peter, following Christ in all His footsteps, is thrown into confusion and denies: he is looked upon, and weeps; weeping wipes away what fear had stained. That was not a forsaking of Peter, but an instruction. For when questioned about loving the Lord, he had presumed in his heart that he would even die for Him. He had attributed this to his own strength: unless he were forsaken for a little while by the One guiding him, he would not be shown to himself. He dared to say: I will lay down my life for You. Presumptuously he boasted that he would lay down his life for Christ, for whom the Liberator had not yet laid down His. Then, when he is troubled by fear, just as the Lord had foretold, he denies three times Him for Whom he had promised to die. As it is written: The Lord looked upon him. And he wept bitterly (Luke 22:33, 61–62). Bitter was the remembrance of the denial, so that the grace of redemption might be sweet. Had he not been forsaken, he would not have denied; had he not been looked upon, he would not have wept. God hates those who presume on their own strength, and that swelling

in those whom He loves, as a physician cuts. By cutting He does indeed inflict pain, but afterwards He establishes health. And so the Lord, rising again, commends His sheep to Peter, to that denier; but a denier because a presumer; afterwards a shepherd because a lover. For why does He thrice question the one who loves, except to prick with compunction the one who thrice denied? Accordingly Peter afterwards accomplished by the grace of God what at first he could not by confidence in himself. For after He had commended to him the sheep, not Peter's but His own, so that he should feed them not for himself but for the Lord, He announced to him the future passion which he had at first lost, because he was hastening over-hastily. When you have grown old, He says, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish. Now this He said, signifying by what death he was to glorify the Lord (John 21:18–19). So it came to pass: Peter, who had washed away his denial with tears, attained to the passion. What the Saviour had promised him, the tempter could not take away.

4. Castus and Aemilius in their torments: whence they were first vanquished, whence afterwards victors. I think that something of the kind happened also in these holy martyrs Castus and Aemilius, whose day we celebrate today. Perhaps they too had previously presumed on their own strength, and therefore they failed. He showed them who they were, and who He was. He checked them as they presumed, and called them as they believed; He helped them as they fought, crowned them as they conquered. Indeed the enemy was already rejoicing over them in the first encounter, when they yielded to the pains; he was counting them on his own side; already he was exulting, already he had them as his own: but how much was granted to them, by the Lord's mercy! Other martyrs conquered the devil as he tempted, these even as he triumphed. Therefore, my brothers, let us remember those whose festival we celebrate today: and let us not wish to imitate that in which they were conquered, but rather that in which they conquered. For this reason the falls of great men have not been hidden, that those who have presumed on themselves may fear. Everywhere the humility of the good Master is most diligently commended to us. Since indeed our salvation too, in Christ, is the humility of Christ. For there would be no salvation for us, had not Christ deigned to become humble for us. Let us remember that we must not place our confidence in ourselves. Let us commend to God what we have; let us implore from Him what we have less of.

5. The martyrs are our advocates, and yet our one Advocate is Christ. The righteousness of the martyrs is perfect, since in their very passion they were made perfect. Therefore in the Church there is no praying for them. For the other faithful departed there is praying; for the martyrs there is no praying: for they went forth so perfect that they are not our wards but our advocates. Nor is this in themselves, but in Him, the Head to Whom the perfect members have cleaved. For He is truly the one Advocate (1 John 2:1), Who intercedes for us, sitting at the right hand of the Father (Rom. 8:34): but the one Advocate, just as also the one Shepherd. For I must, He says, bring also those sheep which are not of this fold (John 10:16). Is Christ then a shepherd, and Peter not a shepherd? Nay, Peter too is a

shepherd, and the others like him are shepherds without any doubt. For if he is not a shepherd, how is it said to him, Feed My sheep (John 21:17)? But yet the true Shepherd is He Who feeds His own sheep. For it was said to Peter, not, Feed your sheep, but, Mine. Peter, therefore, is a shepherd not in himself, but in the body of the Shepherd. For if he were feeding his own sheep, those he fed would at once become goats.

6. Outside the Church it is not Christ's sheep but goats that are fed by schismatics. The voice of the Donatists. For against this which is said to Peter, Feed My sheep, there is said in the Song of Songs, Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women. To whom it is said we certainly recognize, and in her we too hear it. For the Church hears this from Christ, the bride hears it from the Bridegroom: Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women, go out (Song 1:7). What an evil word, Go out. They went out from us, he says, but they were not of us (1 John 2:19). To this sad word, that is, Go out, there is opposed on the good side that joyful word, Enter into the joy of your Lord (Matt. 25:21). Therefore, Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women, O Catholic one, fair among heresies: unless you know yourself, O fair one among women, go out; for I do not cast you out, but you go out. For they went out from us who separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit (Jude 19). For it is not said, They were cast out, but, They went out. This too divine justice observed in the case of the first sinners. For as men already sinking under their own weight He let them go from paradise; He did not shut them out (Gen. 3:23). Unless, therefore, you know yourself, O fair one among women, go out: I do not cast you out; you go out. I wish you to be healed in My body; you seek to have your rottenness cut off. This was said to those who were foreseen as going to go out, so that those who were going to remain might know themselves and be on their guard. For why did those too go out, except because they did not know themselves? For if they had known themselves, they would have seen there that what they gave was not their own but God's. "I give: what I give is mine; and therefore it is holy, because I give it." You did not know yourself; you rightly went out. For you would not listen to Him Who says: Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women. For you were fair once, when you clung to the members of your Bridegroom. You would not, then, listen to and weigh what is meant by, Unless you know yourself: namely that He found you foul, that out of a foul one He made a fair one, that out of a black one He made you white. For what have you that you did not receive (1 Cor. 4:7)? You do not, then, notice how it was said, Unless you know yourself, go out. And you thought you ought to feed your own sheep, not in the way it was said to Peter, Feed My sheep. But see what He added for you, what that passage foretold for you: Go out in the tracks of the flocks; not of the flock, but of the flocks. For Christ's sheep are fed there where there is one flock and one Shepherd. Go out, then, in the tracks of the flocks, divisible, divided, rent apart; go out in the tracks of the flocks: and feed your goats; not as Peter, My sheep, but your goats: in the tents of the shepherds, not in the tent of the Shepherd. Peter enters by charity, you go out by animosity: because Peter knew himself, he therefore wept over himself for presuming on himself, and deserved to find a Helper: therefore, go out. He, My sheep; you, your goats. He in the tent of the Shepherd; you in the tents of the shepherds. What then