Augustine, Sermones 330-335 (Classis III, de Sanctis)

not solid, what does he say? We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit Who is from God. Whence do you prove it? That we may know the things that have been given to us by God (1 Cor. 2:12). [Let us therefore hear the Lord saying, Without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). And this: No one has anything unless it has been given to him from above (John 3:27). And: No one comes to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him (John 6:44). And this: I am the vine, you are the branches. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me (John 15:5, 4). And what the apostle James solemnly declares, saying: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (Jas. 1:17). And what the apostle Paul, to check the presumption of those who glory in free will, cries out and says: What do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it (1 Cor. 4:7)? And this: By grace we have been saved through faith, and this not of ourselves; for it is the gift of God, so that no one may be lifted up (Eph. 2:8–9). And this: It has been given to you for Christ's sake, not only that you should believe in Him, but also that you should suffer for Him. And this: God, Who began a good work in you, will perfect it (Phil. 1:29, 6). Pondering these things, then, and others like them, diligently and faithfully, let us not give way to those who, exalting free will into pride, strive to cast it down headlong rather than to raise it up. But let us humbly consider what the Apostle says: It is God Who works in you both to will and to accomplish (Phil. 2:13).

7. Thanks must be given to God. Let us give thanks to our Lord and Saviour, Who, with no preceding merits of ours, healed us when wounded, reconciled us when enemies, redeemed us from captivity, led us back from darkness to light, and called us back from death to life; and, humbly confessing our frailty, let us entreat His mercy that, since, according to the Psalmist, His mercy has gone before us (Ps. 58:11), He may deign not only to guard in us but also to increase His gifts or benefits, which He Himself has deigned to give; Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, unto ages of ages. Amen.]

Sermon 334. On the Feast of the Martyrs.

1. The security of the martyrs under the protection of God. This is the voice of all good faithful Christians indeed, but above all of the glorious martyrs: If God is for us, who is against us? The world raged against them, the peoples devised vain things, the princes gathered together (Ps. 2:1–2): new tortures were thought up, and ingenious cruelty invented unbelievable punishments. They were overwhelmed with insults, accused of false crimes, shut up in unbearable prisons, furrowed with hooks, slain with the sword, exposed to beasts, burned with fire, and they were saying,

the martyrs of Christ: If God is for us, who is against us? The whole world is against you, and you say: Who is against us? They answer you: And what is the whole world, when we die for Him through Whom the world was made? Let them say it, let them say it, let us listen, let us say it together: If God is for us, who is against us? They can rage, they can curse, they can slander, they can harass with false reproaches; finally, they can not only destroy the body but even tear it to pieces; and what will they accomplish? For behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the upholder of my soul (Ps. 53:6). Tell me, blessed martyr: your body is being torn to pieces, and do you say, It does not concern me? Yes, I said so. Why? Tell us why. Because the Lord is the upholder of my soul. My body is restored through my soul. My hair does not perish, and does my head perish? A hair of mine does not perish. But your body is being mangled by dogs. And what is that to me? Even if my body is mangled by dogs, yet it is raised up by the Lord. The world is the slayer of my body, but the Lord is the upholder of my soul. And what harm is it to me, since the Lord is the upholder of my soul, that the world is the slayer of my body? What have I lost? What have I let go? When the Lord is the upholder of my soul, He will also be the restorer of my body. What will be lacking to me if the enemy tears my limbs apart, when God numbers my hairs? Christ, exhorting His martyrs not to fear anything from their hostile persecutors, says: Your hairs are all numbered (Luke 12:7). Shall I then fear the loss of my limbs, when I have received assurance about the number of my hairs? Therefore let us say it, let us say it out of faith, let us say it in hope, let us say it with most ardent charity: If God is for us, who is against us?

2. Whence we are secure and certain of God's protection. The death of Christ, the pledge of His life given to us. Behold, the king is against you, and you say, Who is against us? Behold, all the people are against you, and you say, Who is against us? From where do you prove it, O glorious martyr; from where do you prove to me what you say, If God is for us, who is against us? For it is plain that if God is for you, who is against you? But prove that God is for you. Do I not prove it then? Behold, I show it: He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. What follows this you heard when the Apostle was being read. For when he had said, If God is for us, who is against us? as if it were said to him, Prove that God is for you: he at once brought forward a great proof, at once introduced the Martyr of martyrs, the Witness of witnesses; namely Him Whose own Son the Father did not spare, but delivered Him up for us all: hence the Apostle proved that he had truly said, If God is for us, who is against us? He Who did not spare even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not also with Him given us all things (Rom. 8:31–32)? When with Him He has given us all things, He has also given Him to us. Does the roaring of the world terrify me, to whom the maker of the world has been given? Let us rejoice that Christ has been given to us, and let us fear no enemies of Christ in this world. For see Who it is that has been given to us: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and God was the Word. He is Christ, He is the only-begotten Son of God, He is co-eternal with the One who begets [Him]. All things were made through Him. How have the things that were made through Him not been given to us, when He Himself, through Whom all things were made, has been given to us? And so that you may know that it is He: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us (John 1:1, 3, 14). Desire and long for the life of Christ that has been given to you; and until you arrive [at it], hold the death of Christ as a pledge. For, in promising us that He would live with us, He could not give us a greater pledge than to die for us. Your evils, He says, I have borne; shall I not give back My good things? He promised, He gave a written bond, He gave a pledge; and do you hesitate to believe? He promised when He walked here among men; He gave a written bond when He wrote the Gospel. To His pledge you say Amen every day. You have received the pledge; it is dispensed to you every day. Do not despair, you who live from the pledge.

5. Christ Himself will be our possession. Or perhaps an injury is done to the only-begotten Son when it is said that He has been given to us, as though He Himself were to be our possession? Plainly He will be. For what if someone today were to give you a pleasant and fertile estate, where it would delight you always to live because of its pleasantness, from which you could easily support yourself because of its fertility; would you not embrace the gift, and give thanks to the giver? In Christ we shall abide. How will He not be our possession, in Whom we shall abide, and from Whom we shall live? Let Scripture say this too, lest we seem by our own conjectures to have presumed something against the teaching of the word of God. Hear what a certain man says to Him, who knew that if God is for us, who is against us? The Lord, he says, is the portion of my inheritance (Ps. 15:5). He did not say, O Lord, why dost Thou give me some inheritance? Whatever Thou givest me is worthless. Be Thou my inheritance; I love Thee, wholly I love Thee, with my whole heart, with my whole soul, with my whole mind I love Thee. What will be to me whatever Thou givest me besides Thee? This is to love God freely, to hope for God from God, to hasten to be filled from God, to be satisfied from Him. For He suffices for you; besides Him nothing suffices for you. Philip knew this when he said: Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices for us (John 14:8). When, then, will be what the Apostle says at the end, That God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), that He Himself may be to us whatever we desire here without Him, and through desire of which we often sin against Him? He Himself will be to us in place of all things, when God will be all in all. You sin against God that you may eat, you sin against God that you may be clothed, you sin against God that you may live, you sin against God that you may be honoured. And when shall I count all things through? Do not sin against God on account of these things. Do you sin against God for the sake of food? God will be your eternal food. Do you sin against God for the sake of clothing? God will clothe you with immortality. Do you sin against God for the sake of honour? God will be your honour. Do you sin against God for love of temporal life? God will be eternal life to you. Do not sin against Him on account of anything. For you ought to love Him freely, Who Himself will be able to satisfy you in place of all things.

Sermon 335. On the Feast of the Martyrs.

Chapter I. — 1. The voices of the holy martyrs. The martyrs conquered delights and pains. Since it is the day of the holy martyrs, of what should it rather delight us to speak, if not of their glory? May the Lord of the martyrs help us, for He is their crown. A little while ago we heard the blessed apostle Paul preaching with the voice of the martyrs: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? This is the voice of the martyrs: Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? or famine? or nakedness? or peril? or the sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we overcome through Him Who loved us (Rom. 8:35–37). This is the voice of the martyrs: to endure all things, and to presume nothing of oneself, to love Him Who is glorified in His own: that he who glories, may glory in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31). They knew also that which we sang a little while ago, Rejoice in the Lord, and exult, you just (Ps. 31:11). If the just rejoice in the Lord, the unjust do not know how to rejoice except in the world. But this is the first battle-line to be vanquished: first delights must be conquered, and afterwards pains. How can he overcome the world when it rages, who cannot overcome it when it flatters? This world flatters, promising honours, riches, pleasures: this world threatens, holding out pains, wants, humiliations. He who does not despise what it promises, how can he overcome what it threatens? Riches have their delight: who does not know it? But justice has more of delight. Take delight in riches together with justice: but when such a critical point of temptation has befallen that these two come into the trial, riches and justice, and you cannot have both, but if you put your hand to riches, you must lose justice; if you put your hand to justice, riches perish: now choose, now fight; now let us see whether it was not without cause that you sang, Rejoice in the Lord, and exult, you just: now let us see whether it was not without cause that you heard, Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? And indeed he passed over all the things with which the world flatters; and he wished to remind you, whom the world flatters. Why? Because he was foretelling the contests of the martyrs, those contests indeed in which they conquered persecution, hunger, thirst, want, ignominy, and at the last the fear of death and the most savage enemy.

Chapter II. — 2. Not the punishment but charity distinguishes martyrs. The avaricious man as it were a martyr of gold. But see, brethren, that the art of Christ does the whole. The Apostle admonishes us to prefer the charity of Christ to the world. How great are the distresses which those suffer who wish to seize the goods of others? Or persecution, he says? That too does not break them. Avarice is frightened; the avaricious man seizes and fears punishment, he burns for plunder. Many also suffer hunger while they acquire and make gains, men whom we instruct to fast, and they excuse themselves on account of their stomach. All the day long they have leisure to count solidi,

and they sleep fasting. Or nakedness, he says? What shall I say of nakedness? Every day merchants escape naked from shipwreck, and sail again into danger. Why are men in peril every day, except for the sake of acquiring riches? Nor does the sword deter them. Forgery is a capital crime, and yet an inheritance is broken up. If then temporal greed merits this, why should the inheritance of Christ not merit it? The avaricious man says in his heart, though perhaps he does not dare to say it with his tongue: Who shall separate us from the desire for gold? Tribulation? or distress? or persecution? The avaricious too can say to gold: For your sake we are put to death all the day. Excellently, then, do the holy martyrs say in the Psalm: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from a nation not holy (Ps. 42:1). Distinguish, it says, my tribulation: the avaricious too suffer tribulation. Distinguish my distresses: the avaricious too suffer distresses. Distinguish my persecutions: the avaricious too suffer them. Distinguish my hunger: the avaricious too go hungry for the acquiring of gold. Distinguish my nakedness: the avaricious too are stripped for gold. Distinguish my death: the avaricious too die for gold. What is, Distinguish my cause? For Thy sake we are done to death all the day. They for gold, we for Thee. A like punishment, but a distinguished cause. Where the cause is distinguished, there the victory is certain. If then we look to the cause, we love the solemnities of the martyrs. Let us love in them not the sufferings, but the causes of the sufferings. For if we love the sufferings only, we shall find many who suffer worse things in bad causes. But let us attend to the cause; attend to the cross of Christ: there was Christ, there were also the robbers. A like punishment, but an unlike cause. One robber believed, the other blasphemed. The Lord, as from a tribunal, judged between them both: the one who blasphemed He condemned to Tartarus; the other He led with Himself into paradise (Luke 23:39–43). Why this? Because although the punishment was equal, yet the cause was unequal. Choose then the causes of the martyrs, if you wish to attain to the palms of the martyrs.