Augustine, Sermones 305-315 (Classis III, de Sanctis)

letters came, and became known in many regions, partly through the fame of a most valiant passion, partly through the sweetness of a most delightful reading: let us eagerly celebrate this day, and let us all with one mind so pray that we may be found worthy to hear and see our common father in the greater church; so that we shall have both joy from his sermon and profit from the glory of his passion, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sermon 311. On the Birthday of Cyprian the Martyr, 3.

Chapter One. — 1. The solemnities of the martyrs are to be celebrated by imitating their virtues. The errors of the world when it flatters and its terrors when it rages are overcome by wisdom and patience. The passion of the most blessed martyr Cyprian has made this a festal day for us: the celebration of his victory has gathered us, full of devotion, into this place. But the celebration of the martyrs' solemnity ought to be an imitation of their virtues. It is easy for the honour of a martyr to be celebrated: it is a great thing to imitate the faith and patience of a martyr. Let us so do the one that we may long for the other; let us so celebrate the one that we may rather love the other. What do we praise in the martyr's faith? That he contended for the truth even unto death, and therefore conquered. He despised the world when it flattered, he did not yield to it when it raged: therefore as victor he came to God. Errors and terrors abound in this age: the most blessed Martyr overcame errors by wisdom, terrors by patience. Great is what he did: following the lamb, he conquered the lion. When the persecutor raged, the lion roared: but because the lamb was looked to on high, the lion was trodden down below: [the Lamb] Who by death destroyed death, hung upon the wood, shed His blood, redeemed the world.

Chapter II. — 2. The Apostles died confessing what they themselves had seen of the Lord. First the blessed Apostles, the rams of the holy flock, saw the Lord Jesus Himself hanging, grieved over Him dying, were terrified at Him rising, loved Him in His power, and they themselves shed their blood for what they had seen. Consider, brethren, what it was for men to be sent throughout the whole world, to preach that a dead man had risen again and had ascended into heaven; and for this preaching to endure everything that a raving world might inflict: losses, exiles, chains, tortures, flames, beasts, crosses, deaths. This for I know not whom? Was Peter, my brethren, dying for his own glory, or was he preaching himself? One was dying that Another might be honoured; one was being killed that Another might be worshipped. Would he have done this, were it not for the burning of charity, from the consciousness of truth? They had seen what they were saying: for when would they die for a thing which they had not seen? What they had seen, were they to deny? They did not deny: they preached as dead Him Whom they knew to be alive. They knew for what life they were despising life: they knew for what happiness they were bearing a passing unhappiness, for what rewards they were despising these losses. Their faith would not be outweighed by the whole world. They had heard: What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul (Matt. 16:26)? Not delayed were they

by the allurement of the world as they hastened, by [things] that will pass away as they departed: by a happiness, however much and in whatever way it may shine, that must be left behind here, that cannot be carried over to the other life, that must sometimes be left behind here even by the living.

Chapter III. — 3. The martyrs teach contempt of the world by their example. Despise the world, therefore, Christians; despise the world, despise it. The martyrs despised it, the Apostles despised it, blessed Cyprian despised it, whose memorial we celebrate today. You wish to be rich, you wish to be honoured, you wish to be healthy: he despised all of it, he at whose memorial you have assembled. What, I ask you, do you love so much, which he whom you honour so despised? He whom, had he not despised these things, you would certainly not honour so. Why do I find you a lover of those things whose despiser you venerate? Certainly, if he loved these things, you would not venerate him. You too, do not love them: for he has not gone in and shut the door against you. You too, despise them; and go in after him. It lies open where you may enter: Christ is the door. For you too the door was opened when His side was pierced with the lance. Call to mind what flowed from it; and choose by which you may enter. From the side of the Lord as He hung and died upon the wood, after it had been pierced with the lance, water and blood flowed forth (John 19:34). In the one is your cleansing, in the other your redemption.

Chapter IV. — 4. The love of earthly things is birdlime for the soul. Love, and do not love: love for one thing, and for another thing do not love. For there is what is loved to one's progress, and there is what is loved to one's hindrance. Do not love a hindrance, if you do not wish to find torment. What you love on earth is a hindrance: it is birdlime on the spiritual wings, that is, on the virtues, by which one flies to God. You do not wish to be caught, and you love birdlime? Are you then not caught because you are caught sweetly? The more it delights, the more tightly it strangles. I say these things: and you praise, and you shout, and you love. Not I but wisdom answers you: I want conduct, not cries. Praise wisdom by living; not by sounding, but by sounding in harmony.

Chapter V. — 5. Profane songs and dances driven out of the church where Cyprian is buried. The Lord says in the Gospel, We have sung to you, and you have not danced (Matt. 11:17). When would I say this, if I did not read it? Vanity mocks me, but authority supports me. Had I not first stated who said this, which of you could bear me saying, We have sung to you, and you have not danced? Surely in this place, even if a Psalm is to be sung, there is not to be dancing by anyone? Once, not very many years ago, the wantonness of dancers had invaded even this place. This place so holy, where lies the body of so holy a Martyr, as many who are of age remember; a place, I say, so holy, the plague and wantonness of dancers had invaded. All night long wicked songs were sung here, and there was dancing to the singers. When the Lord willed, through our holy brother your bishop, from the time when holy vigils began to be celebrated here, that plague, after resisting a little while, afterwards yielded to diligence and blushed before wisdom.

Chapter VI.—6. Our song, with which we ought to harmonize in our conduct, as in a dance. Since, then, by God's favour, these things are not now done here, because we do not celebrate games for demons, where such things are customarily done for the delight of those who are worshipped, and where their uncleanness is wont to deprave their worshippers, but here the holiness and solemnity of the martyrs is celebrated; there is no dancing here, and yet, where there is no dancing, it is read from the Gospel: We sang to you, and you did not dance. Those who did not dance are reproached, rebuked, accused. Far be it that that wantonness should return again: hear rather what wisdom wishes to be understood. He sings who commands: he dances who does. What is it to dance, except to harmonize with a song by the movement of the limbs? What is our song? I will not put it forward myself; let it not be mine. Better am I a minister than an actor. I tell you our song: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. Whoever has loved the world, the charity of the Father is not in him: because all things that are in the world are concupiscence of the flesh, and concupiscence of the eyes, and ambition of the world, which is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world passes away, and its concupiscence: but he who has done the will of God abides for ever, as God also abides for ever (1 John 2:15–17).

Chapter VII.—7. Dancers harmonizing with the spiritual song by a change of life. What sort of song is it, my brothers? You have heard the singer; let us hear the dancers: do you by the harmony of your conduct what dancers do by the movement of their limbs. Do this inwardly: let your conduct be in harmony. Let cupidity be rooted out, let charity be planted. Whatever comes from this tree is good. Cupidity can generate nothing good: charity nothing evil. And it is said, and it is praised; and no one is changed. Far from it! What I said is not true. Fishermen were changed; afterwards very many senators also were changed: Cyprian was changed, whose memory we celebrate today. He himself writes, he himself testifies, what sort of life he once led, how wicked, how impious, how deserving of reproof and detestation (Letter 2, to Donatus). He heard the singer: he showed himself dancing, not in body, but in mind. He fitted himself to the good song, he fitted himself to the new song: he fitted himself, he loved, he persevered, he strove, he overcame.

Chapter VIII.—8. Only bad men make bad times. And you say: The times are troublesome, the times are grievous, the times are wretched. Live well, and you change the times by living well: you change the times, and you have nothing to grumble about. For what are times, my brothers? The spans and revolutions of the ages. The sun has risen; when twelve hours are completed, it sets in another part of the world; on the next day in the morning it has risen and set again; count how many times: these are the times. Whom has the rising of the sun harmed? whom has the setting of the sun harmed? Therefore time has harmed no one. Those who are harmed are men; those by whom they are harmed are men. O great sorrow! men are harmed, men are despoiled, men are oppressed. By whom? Not by lions, not by snakes, not by scorpions; but by men. Those who are harmed grieve. If

they could, do they themselves not do what they reproach? Then we have found a man who used to grumble, when he has been able to do the very thing he used to grumble about. I praise him, I praise him, if he has not done what he used to accuse.

Chapter IX. — 9. From gold the good man furnishes many good things, the bad man many bad things. But those, dearly beloved, who are seen to be powerful in the world, how are they praised when they do less than they can? Scripture has praised such a one: Who could have transgressed, and has not transgressed; who has not gone after gold (Sir. 31:8). Gold ought to go after you, not you after gold. For gold is good. For God created nothing bad. Do not you be bad; and gold is good. See, I place gold between a good man and a bad one. Let the bad man take it: the needy are oppressed, judges are corrupted, laws are perverted, human affairs are thrown into confusion. Why this? Because a bad man has taken the gold. Let the good man take it: the poor are fed, the naked are clothed, the oppressed are set free, captives are ransomed. How many good things come from the gold that a good man has? how many bad things from the gold that a bad man has? Why then do you sometimes say, when vexed: O if only there were no gold at all! Do not love gold. If you are bad, you go after gold; if you are good, it goes after you. What is 'it goes after you'? You lead, you are not led: because you possess, you are not possessed.

Chapter X. — 10. The good are not lacking among the bad in the Church. The White Mass. Cyprian a choice grain. Let us return therefore to the words of sacred Scripture. Who has not gone after gold. Who could have transgressed, and has not transgressed. Who is this man, and we shall praise him (Sir. 31:10)? Who is this man, or who is this man? How many are listening: and who is this man? And yet far be it from me to despair that there is someone here, nay, not someone, but some people. Far be it from me to despair of the threshing floor of so great a householder. He who sees the threshing floor from afar thinks it is only chaff: he who knows how to look closely finds grains. Where the chaff offends you, there lies hidden a mass of grains. Where what is bruised by threshing offends you, there is that which is cleansed by the threshing: it is there, be sure of it; it is there. Finally He is sure Who sowed, Who reaped, Who gathered to the threshing floor: He knows that there is that from which the granary may be filled, when it has been winnowed. A winnowing of some small sort took place in the time of persecution: what grains came forth from it? From it flourished the White Mass of Utica: from it so great and choice a grain, this most blessed Cyprian. How many rich men then despised what they had? How many poor men then failed in the trial? See, in that trial, as in a winnowing, having gold did not harm the rich; what did not having gold profit the poor? The former conquered, the latter failed.

Chapter XI. — 11. Things of which there is a good and a bad use. Some goods are proper to the good, others common to the good and the bad. Nothing makes good morals but good loves. Let gold be removed from human affairs: nay rather, let gold be present, to test human affairs. Let the human tongue be cut out on account of the blasphemers of God: and whence will the praisers of God come? What has the tongue done to you? Let there be one who well

sings, and the instrument is good. Give a good mind to the tongue: good things are spoken, the discordant are brought into concord, the mourning are consoled, the dissolute are rebuked, the wrathful are restrained; God is praised, Christ is commended, the mind is inflamed to love; but [a love that is] divine, not human; spiritual, not carnal. These good things the tongue does. Why? Because the mind which uses the tongue is good. Give a bad man to the tongue: there will be blasphemers, quarrellers, slanderers, informers. All evils come from the tongue, because he who uses the tongue is bad.

Chapter XII. Let things not be taken away from human affairs: let there be things, and let there be the use of good things. For some goods are such as exist only in the good, and other goods are such as are common to the good and the bad. The goods which exist only in the good are piety, faith, justice, chastity, prudence, modesty, charity, and the rest of this kind. The goods which are common to the good and the bad are money, honour, the power of this world, office, the very health of the body. These too are goods, but they look for good men.

Chapter XIII. — 12. Why temporal goods are given by God to the bad as well. Now here comes that grumbler, who is always looking for something to find fault with; and that in God; would that he would return to himself, see himself, find fault with himself, correct himself: this fault-finder and arguer, then, is presently going to raise an objection to me concerning God: And why does God, Who governs all things, give these goods to the bad? He should not give them except to the good. Do you expect to hear from me the counsel of God? Who [am I], from whom [would I have it], and what [is it]? Yet according to my own [understanding], as far as I grasp it, as far as He deigns to grant it, I point out to you something which perhaps may not satisfy you, but there is someone here whom it will satisfy. So let me sing: for truly in so great a multitude as this I cannot lack someone to dance. Listen, then, wise man, but wise the wrong way round: listen. That God gives these goods to the bad as well is, if you are willing to understand it, your instruction, not God's perversity. I know you have not yet understood what I said: listen then to what I was saying, you to whom I was saying it, who find fault with God and accuse God because He gives these earthly and temporal goods even to bad men, which in your judgement you think He ought not to have given except to the good alone. For it is from this that a deadly impiety has crept into some, so that they believe God does not regard human affairs at all. For they say and argue: If God paid attention to human affairs, would that man have riches, would that man have honours, would that man have power? God does not care about human affairs: for if He cared, He would give these things to the good alone.

Chapter XIV. — 13. They are given to the bad as well for this reason: that they may be despised by the good, and better things sought. What sort of good riches are. Return to your heart, and from there to God. For you return to God from close at hand if you have returned to your heart. For when these things offend you, you have gone out even from yourself: you have become an exile from your own breast. You are moved by things which are outside you, and you lose yourself. You are within, these things lie outside; they are goods outside, but they are outside. Gold, silver, all money, clothing, clients, households, cattle, honours are outside If these lowest goods, earthly goods, temporal goods, transitory goods were not bestowed on the bad as well, they would be thought great by the good. Therefore God, Who gives these goods to the bad, teaches you to desire better things. See, I say,

by this governance of human affairs God your Father in a certain manner addresses you, and as it were teaches a foolish boy with these words, which, as best I can, I set before you, the more confidently the more He deigns to abide in me. Picture God saying to you, He Who has renewed and adopted you: "O son, what is it that every day you rise, and pray, and bend the knee, and strike the ground with your forehead, and sometimes even weep, and say to Me: 'My Father, my God, give me riches'? If I were to give them to you, you would think you had obtained something good, and something great.

Chapter XV. — Because you asked, you have received: see now, do good with it. Before you had them, you were humble; you began to have riches, and you despised the poor. What sort of good is it, by which you have been made worse? You have been made worse, because you were bad; and you did not know what could make you worse; that is why you asked these things of Me. I gave, and I tested: you found, and you were found out. You lay hidden when you did not have. Correct yourself: vomit out covetousness, drink in charity. What is this great thing that you ask of Me, your God says to you? Do you not see to whom I have given these things? Do you not see what sort of people I have given them to? If what you ask of Me were a great good, would the robber have it? would the faithless man have it? would he who blasphemes Me have it? would the disreputable actor have it? would the shameless harlot have it? Would all these have gold, if gold were a great good?

Chapter XVI. — But you say to Me: Is gold then not good? Indeed gold is good. But the bad do bad things with good gold; the good do good things with good gold. Since, then, you see to whom I have given these things, ask better things of Me, ask greater things of Me; ask spiritual things of Me, ask Me Myself of Me."

Chapter XVII. — 14. The world, though made bitter, does not cease to be loved; what if it were sweet? But, you say, bad things happen in the world, harsh, unclean, hateful things. It is foul; let it not be loved. Look, such it is, and yet it is loved. The house is falling to ruin, and one is loath to move out. Mothers or nurses, so that children may not suckle too long, when they see them growing up, and that it is no longer fitting for them to be nourished on milk, yet that they still gape troublesomely at the breasts, smear their nipples with something bitter, so that the little one, put off by it, may seek milk no further. Why then is it still sucked so delightfully, if the world has been made bitter for you? God has filled the world with bitternesses; and you gape at it, you lean upon it, you suck at it; you take pleasure only from this source and that. How long? What if it were sweet? how would it be loved? Do these things offend you? choose another life. Love God, despise these things. Look down on human affairs, you who are going hence at some time or other: for you are not going to be here for ever. And yet, even as it is, bad as the world is, bitter as the world is, full of calamities as the world is, if it were said to you by God that you would be here for ever, you would not contain yourself for joy, you would exult, you would give thanks. Why? Because you would never end your misery. That is the greater unhappiness, which compels itself to be loved. It would be less, if it were not loved: it is the worse, the more it is loved.

Chapter XVIII. — 15. Treasure is to be laid up in heaven. Lift up the heart. There is another life, my brothers: there is after this life another life, believe it. Prepare yourselves for it: despise all present things. If you have them, do good