Augustine, Sermones 296-301 (Classis III, de Sanctis)

Sermon 296. On the Birthday of the Apostles Peter and Paul, 2.

Chapter I. — 1. Peter, being weak, promises more than he can. The recent reading of the holy Gospel

befitting today's solemnity, which has just sounded in our ears, if from the ears it has also gone down into our heart and found in it a place of rest (for the word of God rests in us then, when we rest content in the word of God), has admonished all of us who minister to you the word and sacrament of the Lord to feed His sheep. Blessed Peter, first of the Apostles, a greater lover of our Lord Jesus Christ than denier, as the Gospel shows, followed the Lord when He was about to suffer; but at that time he could not follow Him as one about to suffer. He followed with his feet, not yet fit to follow with his conduct. He promised that he would die for Him, and he could not even die with Him. For he had dared more than his capacity could bear. He had promised more than he was able; for it was also unfitting that he should do what he had promised. "I will lay down my life," he says, "for Thee" (John 13:37). This the Lord was going to do for the servant, not the servant for the Lord. So he who dared more loved there in the wrong order; therefore he feared and denied. But afterwards, when He had risen, the Lord teaches Peter to love. Loving in a disordered way, he gave way under the weight of the passion; but to him loving in an ordered way He promised a passion.

2. The weakness of Peter, fearing that the Lord would die. We remember the weakness of Peter, grieving that the Lord was going to die: this I recall, see, I recall it. Let those who remember it say it with me in their heart; let those who had forgotten it call it to mind again at my reminding. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself foretold to His disciples His impending passion. Then Peter, loving Him, but still in a carnal way, fearing that the slayer of death would die, says: "Far be it from Thee, Lord; far be it from Thee, be merciful to Thyself." He would not have said "be merciful to Thyself" unless he recognized the true God. So, Peter, if God is recognized by you, why do you fear that God may die? You are a man, He is God. And for man's sake God became man, taking up what He was not, not losing what He was. So in that [nature] in which the Lord was going to die, in that He was also going to rise again. Peter, then, dreaded human death, and did not want it to befall the Lord. Unknowing, he wanted to close up the bag from which our price was going to flow out. He heard from the Lord at that time: "Get back behind, Satan; for you do not savour the things that are of God, but the things that are of men." To him, when he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," He had said a little before: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. 16:22, 23, 16, 17). A little before blessed, afterwards Satan. But whence blessed? Not from his own: "flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven." And whence Satan? From man, and in man: "For you do not savour the things that are of God, but the things that are of men." Such a Peter, loving the Lord, fearing that the Lord would die, and willing to die for the Lord, followed; and it turned out as the physician had foretold, not as the sick man had presumed. Questioned by a maidservant, he denies once, twice, and a third time. He is looked upon by the Lord, he weeps bitterly (Luke 22:56–62): with tears of the heart's devotion he wipes away his denials.

Chapter II.—3. To Peter, now loving, Christ entrusts the sheep. The Lord rises, He appears to the disciples. Peter now sees living Him for Whom, when dying, he had feared. He sees not

the Lord slain, but death slain in the Lord. Now therefore, strengthened by the example of the flesh of the Lord Himself, that death is not so very much to be feared, he is taught to love. Now it is needful that he love, now that the Lord has been seen alive after death: now let him love, now let him love secure; secure, because he is to follow. So the Lord: Peter, do you love Me? And he: I love, Lord. And the Lord: It is not because you love Me that I wish you to die for Me; for this I have already done for you. But what then? Do you love Me? What are you going to render to Me, because you love Me? Do you love Me? I love. Feed My sheep. And again this, and a third time this: that love might three times confess what fear had three times denied. See, grasp, learn. Nothing other than "Do you love?" is asked; nothing other than "I love" is answered. To the one who answers it is said, Feed My sheep. And having entrusted His sheep to Peter, and having entrusted Peter to Himself together with His sheep, He now foretells his passion, and says: When you were younger, you used to gird yourself, and go where you wished; but when you have become older, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish. Now this He said, says the Evangelist, signifying by what death he was to glorify God (John 21:15–19). You see that this pertains to the feeding of the Lord's sheep: that death for the Lord's sheep is not to be refused.

Chapter III. — 4. That shepherd is fit who is able to pay out his life for the sheep. Feed My sheep. Does He entrust the sheep to one who is fit, or to one less fit? First, what sheep does He entrust? Precious ones, bought not with gold, not with silver, but with blood. If a human master were to entrust his sheep to his servant, he would without doubt consider whether that servant's private property was a sufficient price for his sheep, and would say: If he loses them, if he squanders them, if he consumes them, he has the means to make good. He would therefore entrust his sheep to a solvent servant, and would look for the servant's resources in money, for sheep which he had purchased with money. But now the Lord Jesus Christ, because He entrusts to a servant sheep which He purchased with blood, looks for the servant's fitness in the suffering of blood. As if He were saying: Feed My sheep, I entrust My sheep to you. Which sheep? Those which I bought with My blood. I died for them. Do you love Me? Die for them. And indeed that servant, a man belonging to a man, would give back money for sheep consumed: Peter gave back blood for sheep preserved.

Chapter IV. — 5. The same charge was given to the other shepherds of the Church as to Peter. The disposition for martyrdom makes the martyr. Come, brothers, I wish to say something suited to the occasion. What was entrusted to Peter, what was commanded to Peter, not Peter alone but the other Apostles too heard, held fast, kept, and above all the apostle Paul himself, sharer of his blood and of his day. They heard these things, and passed them on to us to be heard. We feed you, we are fed together with you. May God give us strength so to love you that we may even be able to die for you, either in deed or in disposition. For it does not follow that, because suffering was lacking to the apostle John, a mind prepared for suffering could therefore have been lacking. He did not suffer, but he was able to suffer. God knew his preparedness. Just as the three young men were sent to be burned

into the furnace, not expecting to live. Shall we deny that they were martyrs, because the flame could not burn them? Ask the fires: they did not suffer. Ask their will: they were crowned. "For the Lord is able," they said, "to deliver us out of your hands: but even if not": there you have steadfast hearts and firm faith, there unshaken virtue, there sure victory: "but even if not, be it known to you, O king, that we do not worship the statue which you have set up." God was pleased to do otherwise: they did not burn, but they put out the fire of idolatry in the king's mind (Dan. 3).

Chapter V. — 6. Temporal tribulations are to be borne for the sake of future glory. The devastation of Rome in Christian times. You see, then, dearly beloved, what is set before the servants of God in this time, for the sake of the future glory which will be revealed in us: against which glory no tribulation of time, of whatever kind and however great, is to be weighed. "For the sufferings of this time," says the Apostle, "are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which will be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). If these things are so, now let no one think carnally; this is not the time for it. The world is shaken, the old man is shaken off: the flesh is pressed, let the spirit melt. "The body of Peter lies at Rome," people say; "the body of Paul lies at Rome, the body of Lawrence at Rome, the bodies of other holy martyrs lie at Rome; and Rome is wretched, and Rome is laid waste, is afflicted, is crushed, is burned. So many slaughters of death take place, through famine, through pestilence, through the sword; where are the Memorials of the Apostles?" What are you saying? "See, this is what I said: Rome suffers such great evils; where are the Memorials of the Apostles?" They are there, but they are not in you. Would that they were in you, whoever you are that say these things, whoever you are that are so foolish, whoever you are that, though called in the spirit, are minded carnally. Indeed I am still teaching patience, not yet wisdom. Be patient: the Lord wills it. Do you ask why He wills it? Put off the secret of knowing, make ready the vigour of obedience. He wills you to bear: bear what He wills, and He will give what you will. And yet, my brothers, see, I dare to say: you will hear gladly, if you already hold the first parts of obedience, if there is in you a gentle and mild patience in bearing the Lord's will. For gentle things we do not bear, but love: harsh things we endure; at gentle things we rejoice. Look at the Lord your God, look at your Head, look at the pattern of your life; consider your Redeemer, your Shepherd: "Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from Me." How does He show a human will, and at once turn the resistance towards obedience? "Nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou willest, Father" (Matt. 26:39). See, He said this to Peter: "When you have grown old, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not will." He showed in him a human will, concerning the trembling at death. Was it because he died unwillingly that he was crowned unwillingly? So you too perhaps were unwilling to lose your private property, which you were going to leave here: take care lest you remain behind with what must be left. You were unwilling that your son should die before you, you were unwilling that your wife should die before you. What then? Even if Rome were not being taken, was not one of you going to die first? You were unwilling that your wife should die before you; your wife was unwilling that her husband should die before her: was the Lord going to comply with both? Let the ordering rest with Him, Who knows how to order

what He created. Obey, then, so great a will of God.

Chapter VI. — 7. What is to be answered to a pagan who taunts that Rome was burned in Christian times. The Christian is called not to earthly things but to heavenly ones. Now I see what you are saying in your heart: Look, in Christian times Rome has been afflicted, and has been burned. Why in Christian times? Who says this? A Christian? Then answer yourself, if you are a Christian: When God willed it. But what am I saying to a pagan? He taunts me. What does he say to you? On what ground does he taunt you? Look, when we used to offer sacrifices to our gods, Rome stood, Rome flourished; now, because the sacrifice of your God has prevailed and abounded, and the sacrifices of our gods have been forbidden and prohibited, see what Rome is suffering. Answer briefly for the moment, so that we may be rid of him; but for yourself there is another meditation. For you were not called to embrace the earth, but to acquire heaven; you were not called to earthly happiness, but to heavenly; not to temporal successes and fleeting and transitory prosperity, but to eternal life with the angels. Yet to this lover of carnal happiness, and murmurer against the living and true God, who wishes to serve demons and sticks and stones, answer quickly. According to their history, this burning of the city of Rome is the third. According to their history, according to their own writings, the burning of the city of Rome which has just occurred is the third. The city which has now burned once, amid the sacrifices of Christians, had already burned twice amid the sacrifices of pagans. Once it was so burned by the Gauls that the Capitoline hill alone remained. Afterwards by Nero, whether I should call him raging or dissolute I do not know, Rome blazed with a second fire. Nero, emperor of Rome itself, servant of idols, slayer of the Apostles, gave the order, gave the order, and Rome was burned. Why, do you think? For what cause? A haughty man, proud and dissolute, took delight in the burning of Rome. I wish to see, he said, how Troy burned. So it burned thus once, twice, a third time. Why does it please you now to gnash your teeth against God, on behalf of a city that has been accustomed to burn?

Chapter VII. — 8. It belongs to Christians to suffer temporal evils and to hope for everlasting goods. Tribulations foretold by Christ. But in that city, they say, so many Christians suffered such great evils. Has it slipped your mind that it belongs to Christians to suffer temporal evils and to hope for everlasting goods? You, whoever you are that are a pagan, have something to lament, because you have lost temporal things and have not yet found eternal ones. The Christian has something to reflect upon: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations (Jas. 1:2). So you say, O pagan: The guardian gods have not preserved Rome now, because they do not exist; they preserved it then, when they existed. We show our God to be truthful. He foretold all these things; you have read it, you have heard it; but I do not know whether you remember it, you who are troubled by such words. Did you not hear the Prophets, did you not hear the Lord Jesus Christ Himself foretelling evils to come? The more age is added to the world, the nearer it draws to its end. You have heard, brothers, we have heard together: There will be wars, there will be tumults, there will be distresses, there will be famines (Luke 21:9–11). Why are we to ourselves

so contrary that when they are read we believe, and when they are fulfilled we grumble?

Chapter VIII. — 9. Whether tribulations are greater in Christian times, and why. We are commanded to lay up treasure in heaven, not on earth. "But more," they say, "the human race is now laid waste more." Meanwhile, when past history is considered, leaving the question open, I do not know whether it is more. But look, let it be more: I believe that it is more. The Lord Himself solves the question: the world is now laid waste more, it is laid waste more. Hear why it is now laid waste more, when the Gospel is preached everywhere. You notice with how much renown the Gospel is preached, and do you not notice with how much impiety it is despised? Now, brethren, let us leave the pagans outside for a little while, and turn our eye to ourselves. The Gospel is preached in the whole world: it is true. Before the Gospel was preached, the will of God lay hidden; in the preaching of the Gospel the will of God was made plain. We have been told in the preaching of the Gospel what we ought to love, what to despise, what to do, what to avoid, what to hope for. We have heard everything: the will of God is not hidden throughout the whole world. Suppose the world to be a servant, and attend to the Gospel. Hear the voice of the Lord. This servant is the world. The servant who does not know the will of his master, and does things deserving of stripes, will be beaten with few. The servant is the world. How is the world a servant? Because the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him (John 1:10). The servant who does not know the will of his master: see what the world was before. But now what? But the servant who knows the will of his master, and does things deserving of stripes, will be beaten with many (Luke 12:47). And would that it be beaten with many, and not be condemned once for all. Why do you refuse to be beaten with many, O servant who know the will of your master and do things deserving of stripes? It is said to you (see, one will of your Lord): Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, where thieves do not dig through nor steal (Matt. 6:20). You lay up treasure on earth: He commands in heaven, saying to you, Give to Me, have your treasure there, where I am the guardian. Send it on ahead of you: why do you keep it on earth? What Christ guards, the Goth does not carry off. You on the contrary, wiser, no doubt, and more prudent than your Lord, store it away on earth. But you have known the will of your Lord: He wished it to be stored up above. And you say: I store it on earth. Be ready, then, to be beaten with many. See, you know the will of your Lord, who wishes you to keep it in heaven, and you keep it on earth: you do things deserving of stripes. And when you are beaten, you blaspheme. You blaspheme, you grumble; you say that what your Lord does to you ought not to have been done. What you, a wicked servant, do, ought that to have been done?

Chapter IX. — 10. One must not grumble against God in adversity. The prosperity of the impious is a great wrath of God. At least hold to that place: do not grumble, do not blaspheme. Rather praise your Lord, because He corrects you; praise Him because He amends you, so that He may console you. For whom God loves, He corrects; and He scourges every son whom He receives (Heb. 12:6). You, a pampered son of the Lord, both wish to be received and do not wish to be scourged: so that you may wallow in luxury, He is to be a liar. Ought, then, the Memorial of the Apostles, through which heaven is being prepared for you, to have preserved for you on earth the theatres of madmen? It is plainly true: for this reason died

Peter, and was placed at Rome, so that stones would not fall from the theatre? God shakes the playthings of children out of the hands of the undisciplined. Brethren, let us lessen our sins and our murmurings. Let us be enemies to our iniquities, to our murmuring: let us be angry with ourselves, not with God. Be angry, by all means be angry: but to what use? And do not sin (Ps. 4:5). Be angry to this end, that you may not sin. For every man who repents is angry with himself: he exercises the anger of penitence upon himself. Do you want God, then, to spare you? Do not spare yourself. For if you spare yourself, He will not spare you: for if He too spares you, you perish. You do not know what you are wishing for, wretch; you perish. For just as it is written, He scourges every son whom He receives: so also fear that saying, The sinner has provoked the Lord. How do you know? as if it were said to him, How do you know that the sinner has provoked the Lord? He saw a sinner prospering, doing evil every day and suffering no evil, and in the Holy Spirit he shuddered, and grieved, and said, The sinner has provoked the Lord. This sinner, who does such great evils and suffers no evil, has provoked the Lord. He provokes the Lord: according to the greatness of His anger He will not inquire (Ps. 9:4). He will not inquire precisely because He is greatly angry. He who takes away correction prepares damnation. He will not inquire: for if He inquired, He would scourge; and perhaps He would amend. But as it is, He is greatly angry: He is greatly angry with the prosperous wicked, when they are not scourged. Do not envy them, do not wish to be like them, unhappily happy. It is better to be scourged for a time than to be damned for eternity.

Chapter X. — 11. Love towards God is shown then, if the gains of God are loved. Therefore the Lord has entrusted His sheep to us, because He entrusted them to Peter: if indeed in some part, even the furthest, we are worthy to tread the dust of Peter's footprints; the Lord has entrusted the sheep to us. You are His sheep, with you we are sheep, because we are Christians. We have already said: we feed and we are fed. Love God, that God may love you. And you cannot show how much you love God, except by how much you are seen to love the gains of God. What have you to bestow on God, man of sense? what do you bestow on God? What did Peter bestow? This entirely: Feed My sheep (John 21:17). What do you bestow on God, that He may be greater, that He may be better, that He may be richer, that He may be more honoured? Whatever you will be, He will be what He was. Therefore look to what is beside you, lest perhaps you ought to bestow on your neighbour something that reaches God. When you did it to one of the least of Mine, you did it to Me (Matt. 25:40). If then you are commanded to break bread for the hungry, ought you to shut the church against one who knocks?

Chapter XI. — 12. Those returning from heresy, even after a relapse, are to be received kindly. Why have I said this? What we have heard has saddened us, although we were not present: that when a certain man from the Donatists, coming to the Church and confessing the sin of rebaptism, was being exhorted by the bishop to penance, an outcry was raised by certain brethren, and he was repulsed. I tell your Charity, wrung, wrung by this was our inmost heart. We confess to you, such diligence does not please us. I know that they did it out of zeal for God and for the Church. Do you think that nothing has happened, since this has resounded to all? I beg