PL 39 · cols. 1801–1803

Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 16-29

Sermon XXIX

leve (Matth. XI, 30). Si enim jugum Christi subdita et humili cervice suscipimus, magis nos portat, quam a nobis portetur. Sicut enim jugum saeculi semper premit; ita jugum Christi levare consuevit. Et quia omnis homo aut Christum portando erigitur, aut jugum saeculi sustinendo ad inferiora deprimitur; attendat unusquisque conscientiam suam; et si se sanctis cogitationibus et bonis operibus jugum Christi portare cognoverit, gaudeat et Deo gratias agat, et cum grandi sollicitudine vel timore perseverare contendat: qui vero luxuriosis cogitationibus et malis operibus durissimo mundi hujus jugo se nimium gravari cognoscit, orationibus, jejuniis vel eleemosynis projiciat jugum diaboli, ut mereatur excipere jugum Christi; et de omnibus malis actibus suis cum propheta fideliter dicat: Disrumpamus vincula eorum, et projiciamus a nobis jugum ipsorum (Psal. II, 3). Tunc enim de illa spirituali uva, de qua nobis vinum laetitiae prelum crucis expressit, cum secura conscientia bibere poterimus, si nos nec luxuria sordidaverit, nec iracundia combusserit, nec inflaverit superbia, nec avaritia obscuraverit, nec invidia vipereo veneno percusserit. Omnia enim ista de corde suo debet expellere, qui ad altare desiderat vel optat accedere. Et quia spiritualis vindemia, id est, Paschalis solemnitas imminet, in qua festivitate botrus ille, de quo superius diximus, per injuriam vel pondera crucis expressus est; de tanta ac tali uva accepturi calicem salutaris, et vinum laetitiae bibituri, exceptoria cordis vel pectoris nostri cum grandi nitore ac diligentia, jejuniis, vigiliis, orationibus, eleemosynis, et praecipue castitatis nitore mundemus: contra nullum hominem odium in corde servantes, et non solum amicos, sed etiam inimicos et adversarios diligentes, cum secura conscientia in oratione dominica dicamus, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris (Matth. VI, 12); praestante Domino nostro Jesu Christo, cui est honor et imperium cum Patre et Spiritu sancto in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

light (Matt. 11:30). For if we take up the yoke of Christ with a submissive and humble neck, it carries us more than it is carried by us. For just as the yoke of the world always presses down, so the yoke of Christ is accustomed to lift up. And since every man is either raised up by carrying Christ, or pressed down to lower things by bearing the yoke of the world, let each one attend to his own conscience; and if he finds that he carries the yoke of Christ by holy thoughts and good works, let him rejoice and give thanks to God, and strive with great solicitude or fear to persevere; but he who recognizes that through wanton thoughts and evil works he is weighed down exceedingly by the most harsh yoke of this world, let him by prayers, fasts or almsgiving cast off the yoke of the devil, so that he may deserve to receive the yoke of Christ; and concerning all his evil deeds let him say faithfully with the prophet: Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us (Ps. 2:3). For then shall we be able to drink with a secure conscience of that spiritual grape from which the winepress of the cross has pressed out for us the wine of gladness, if lust has not defiled us, nor anger burned us up, nor pride puffed us up, nor avarice darkened us, nor envy struck us with viper's venom. For he who desires or wishes to approach the altar ought to expel all these things from his heart. And since the spiritual vintage, that is, the Paschal solemnity, is at hand, in which festival that cluster of which we spoke above was pressed out through the injury or the weights of the cross, let us, who are about to receive the cup of salvation from so great and such a grape, and to drink the wine of gladness, cleanse the vessels of our heart or breast with great brightness and diligence, with fasts, vigils, prayers, almsgiving, and above all with the brightness of chastity: keeping hatred in our heart against no man, and loving not only friends but also enemies and adversaries, let us say with a secure conscience in the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12); by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

SERMO XXIX. De eo quod senior populus in deserto mortuus est, et junior in terram repromissionis ingressus est.

Sermon 29. On the fact that the older people died in the desert, and the younger entered into the land of promise.

1. Israelitarum populus senior Judaeos, junior Gentes figurat. Justitia et misericordia Dei erga Israelitas. Scire et intelligere debemus, fratres dilectissimi, quia senior populus Judaeorum, qui propter incredulitatem in deserto mortuus est, significavit priorem populum Judaeorum: parvuli vero eorum, id est, junior populus figuravit populum Gentium. Sicut enim seniore populo mortuo, junior terram repromissionis accepit; ita reprobato Judaeorum populo, ju⟨n⟩ior populus Christianorum gratiam divinae benedictionis obtinuit. Tamen, fratres charissimi, non transitorie vel negligenter, sed cum ingenti tremore considerandum est, quia de sexcentis millibus duo tantum terram repromissionis ingressi sunt. Hoc ergo audiant, qui ita Dominum misericordem esse volunt,

1. The older people of the Israelites prefigures the Jews, the younger the Gentiles. The justice and mercy of God towards the Israelites. We ought to know and understand, dearest brethren, that the older people of the Jews, which died in the desert on account of unbelief, signified the former people of the Jews; but their little ones, that is, the younger people, prefigured the people of the Gentiles. For just as, when the older people had died, the younger received the land of promise, so, when the people of the Jews had been rejected, the younger people of the Christians obtained the grace of the divine blessing. Yet, dearest brethren, it must be considered not cursorily or negligently, but with great trembling, that out of six hundred thousand only two entered the land of promise. Let them therefore hear this, who wish the Lord to be merciful in such a way,

Editors' notes and page, col. 1801

Footnotes

(1) ‹anchor: in deserto mortuus est› · call in col 1801

Sermo istud habet exordium in t. veteri codice: Quadraginta isti anni, fratres charissimi, de quibus modo cum divina lectio legeretur, audivimus, quod filii Israel per longissimos viæ circuitus in eremo commorati sunt, difficiles ac duros præsentis vitæ humanarum miseriarum exprimebant labores. Unde propter nimia peccata, quæ in hac vita abundant, de sexcentis millibus non plus quam duo viri repromissionis terram intraverunt: sicut ipse Dominus loquitur ad incredulum, Quia, inquit, murmurastis contra me, non introibitis in terram, pro qua juravi patribus vestris: parvulos autem vestros introducam in terram, quæ vobis displicuit. Senior ille populus, fratres charissimi, qui propter incredulitatem in deserto mortuus est, etc.

In the old manuscript t. the sermon has this opening: These forty years, dearest brethren, of which we heard just now when the divine reading was read, that the children of Israel stayed in the wilderness through the longest windings of the way, expressed the hard and heavy labours of the present life's human miseries. Hence, because of the excessive sins that abound in this life, of six hundred thousand no more than two men entered the land of promise; as the Lord himself says to the unbeliever: Because, he says, you have murmured against me, you shall not enter the land which I swore to your fathers; but your little ones I will bring into the land that displeased you. That older people, dearest brethren, which for its unbelief died in the wilderness, etc.

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(a) ‹anchor: SERMO XXIX› · call in col 1801

Alias, de Tempore 102.

Formerly Sermon 102 de Tempore.

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(b) ‹anchor: repromissionis ingressus est› · call in col 1801

In Appendice nunc primum collocatur. Dubius Lovaniensibus, Verlino et Vindingo supposititius fuit. Cæsarii esse nos minime dubitamus. De num. 2, versus finem, vid. Cæsarii Homil. 11 ex editis a Baluzio; de num. 4, Homil. 23 et 1.

Now placed in the Appendix for the first time. It was doubtful to the Louvain editors and spurious to Verlinus and Vindingus. We have no doubt at all that it is Caesarius's. On no. 2, towards the end, see Caesarius's Homily 11 among those published by Baluze; on no. 4, Homilies 23 and 1.

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ut justum esse non credant. Si enim diligenter attendimus, fratres, et erga illa sexcenta millia quae in e⟨r⟩emo mortua fuerant, Deus noster misericors fuit; et ci⟨r⟩ca illos duos qui terram repromissionis intraverunt, justus apparuit. Quomodo non fuit misericors, qui eos per quadraginta annos reservavit et exspectavit ad poenitentiam; et non solum converti noluerunt, sed etiam frequenti rebellione contra Dominum murmurantes, ad p⟨e⟩ccatorum suorum cumulum graviorem semper sarcinam addiderunt? Quomodo non est misericors, qui nos tanto tempore exspectat, ut corrigamur? Numquid tam prolixa misericordia potest Deo auferre justitiam? Quanto enim diutius exspectat, tanto gravius vindicat. Quando enim prolixis temporibus peccamus, et nihil mali a Domino sustinemus, patientia est, non negligentia: non ille potentiam perdidit, sed nos ad poenit⟨e⟩ntiam reservavit. Ergo et in illis qui in eremo mortui sunt, misericors fuit, quos tanta longanimitate sustinuit; et in illis duobus promissa complevit, quos fidei merito in terram repromissionis induxit.

that they do not believe He is just. For if we pay careful attention, brethren, our God was both merciful towards those six hundred thousand who had died in the desert, and showed Himself just with regard to those two who entered the land of promise. How was He not merciful, Who kept them for forty years and waited for them to repent? And not only did they refuse to be converted, but, murmuring against the Lord in frequent rebellion, they kept adding an ever heavier burden to the heap of their sins. How is He not merciful, Who waits for us so long a time, that we may be corrected? Can so drawn-out a mercy take justice away from God? For the longer He waits, the more severely He punishes. For when we sin over long periods of time and suffer nothing bad from the Lord, it is patience, not negligence: He has not lost His power, but has kept us for repentance. Therefore He was merciful also towards those who died in the desert, whom He bore with such great long-suffering; and towards those two He fulfilled His promises, whom by the merit of their faith He led into the land of promise.

2. Sententia Dei in peccantes non immutabilis. Conversio non procrastinanda. Sed dicit aliquis, quod etiamsi egissent poenitentiam, terram repromissionis intrare non potuissent; quia Deus definitam illis dederat sententiam, dicens: Non intrabitis terram pro qua juravi patribus vestris, sed in solitudine jacebunt cadavera vestra (Num. XIV, 23, 29). Non ita est, fratres charissimi: atque utinam tam cito peccator homo resurgat ad poenitentiam, quam cito Deus etiam definitam vult mutare sententiam. Audi ipsum Dominum per prophetam spem maximam humano generi promittentem: Repente, inquit, loquar ad gentem, ut pro peccatis suis faciam eis malum: et si pro iniquitatibus suis egerit poenitentiam, et ego poenitentiam agam super malo quod cogitavi ut facerem eis, et non faciam (Jerem. XXVI, 3). Videte, fratres, quanta sit circa nos pietas Dei nostri; et agnoscite utrum velit negare misericordiam, qui de conversione nostra suam dixerat mutare sententiam. Convertamur ergo, fratres charissimi, nec emendationem nostram ad extremum vitae nostrae tempus differre velimus: sed audiamus prophetam dicentem, Noli tardare converti ad Dominum, nec differas de die in diem (Eccli. V, 8); quia nescitis quae superventura pariat dies (Prov. XXVII, 1). O homo, quare differs de die in diem, forte hodie habiturus ultimum diem? Semper ergo, fratres charissimi, cum ingenti timore atque tremore ad memoriam revocemus, quod tanta sit apud Dominum nostrum justitia ut, sicut jam supra dictum est, de sexcentis millibus duo tantum terram repromissionis intraverint. Haec si humili et contrito corde assidue cogitare volumus, salubrem nobis metum incutientes, medicamenta nobis de alienis vulneribus facimus, et aliorum mors proficit ad nostram salutem.

2. God's sentence against sinners is not unchangeable. Conversion is not to be put off. But someone says that, even if they had repented, they could not have entered the land of promise, because God had passed a fixed sentence on them, saying: You shall not enter the land which I swore to your fathers, but your corpses shall lie in the wilderness (Num. 14:23, 29). It is not so, dearest brethren: and would that sinful man would rise again to repentance as quickly as God is willing to change even a fixed sentence. Hear the Lord Himself, through the prophet, promising the greatest hope to the human race: Suddenly, He says, I will speak to a nation, to do evil to it for its sins: and if it repents of its iniquities, I too will repent of the evil which I thought to do to it, and I will not do it (Jer. 26:3). See, brethren, how great is the loving-kindness of our God towards us; and recognize whether He would wish to deny mercy, Who had said that He would change His sentence upon our conversion. Let us therefore be converted, dearest brethren, and let us not be willing to put off our amendment to the last time of our life; but let us hear the prophet saying, Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day (Ecclus. 5:8); for you do not know what the coming day may bring forth (Prov. 27:1). O man, why do you put it off from day to day, when perhaps today you are to have your last day? Let us therefore always, dearest brethren, with great fear and trembling call to mind that so great is the justice of our Lord that, as has already been said above, out of six hundred thousand only two entered the land of promise. If we are willing to ponder these things constantly with a humble and contrite heart, striking a wholesome fear into ourselves, we make medicines for ourselves out of the wounds of others, and the death of others profits for our salvation.

3. Exemplum severitatis Dei in Israelitarum punitione movere nos debet ad poenitentiam. Poenarum aeternarum

3. The example of God's severity in the punishment of the Israelites ought to move us to repentance. Of eternal punishments

Editors' notes and page, col. 1802

Footnotes

(1) ‹anchor: resurgat ad poenitentiam› · call in col 1802

Codex t., peccator homo recurrat ad pœnitentiam.

Manuscript t.: peccator homo recurrat ad poenitentiam ("let the sinner run back to penance").

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(2) ‹anchor: dixerat mutare sententiam› · call in col 1802

Codex t., qui ad reversionem nostram, suam desiderat mutare sententiam.

Manuscript t.: qui ad reversionem nostram, suam desiderat mutare sententiam ("who longs to change His sentence at our return").

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(3) ‹anchor: de die in diem› · call in col 1802

Sic ex Ms. t. [Nolite tarde converti ad Dominum, nec differatis de die in diem.]

So from manuscript t. [Do not be slow to turn to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day.]

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(4) ‹anchor: ad nostram salutem› · call in col 1802

Post verba proficit ad nostram salutem, Ms. t. hic addit: Qui tamen sint isti duo, qui Judæorum populum ad terram repromissionis invitant, vel quid spiritualiter significent, diligenter attendite. Duo isti vetus et novum Testamentum significant. Istis enim duobus ducibus, id est novo et veteri Testamento ad terram veræ repromissionis, id est, æternam beatitudinem pervenitur. De istis duobus Testamentis legimus, « In medio duorum animalium cognosceris. » Vetus namque et novum Testamentum, etsi aliquibus locis in littera discrepant, tamen in veritate concordant, et diverso genere duo unum loquuntur. Sed et aliter duo isti intelligi possunt. Duobus ducibus enim ad terram repromissionis ascenditur: quia ad Christum historia et allegoria, fide et operibus, charitate Dei et charitate proximi pervenitur. Et mox prosequitur: Iterum atque iterum rogo vos, etc.

After the words proficit ad nostram salutem ("profits our salvation") manuscript t. adds here: But who these two are who invite the Jewish people to the land of promise, or what they signify spiritually, attend carefully. These two signify the old and the new Testament. For by these two leaders, that is, by the new and the old Testament, one comes to the land of the true promise, that is, eternal blessedness. Of these two Testaments we read, "In the midst of two living creatures you shall be known." For the old and the new Testament, though in some places they differ in the letter, yet agree in truth, and the two speak one thing in different ways. But these two can be understood otherwise too. For one goes up to the land of promise by two leaders: because one comes to Christ by history and allegory, by faith and works, by love of God and love of neighbour. And it goes straight on: Again and again I ask you, etc.

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argumentum. Iterum atque iterum rogo vos, fratres, et admoneo, ut istam severitatem et justum judicium Dei, quo senior ille populus pro peccato murmurationis in deserto consumptus est, cum grandi semper metu et sollicitudine cogitemus; et sic amemus Dei misericordiam, ut tamen justitiam timeamus. Parcit modo et tacet: sed non semper tacebit. Modo enim pro ineffabili pietate sua non solum nos admonet, sed etiam rogat, ut nos a peccatis mortiferis revocemus. Audiamus illum dum rogat; ne nos postea non audiat ille, dum judicat. Audiamus eum per prophetam dicentem, Fili, inquit, miserere animae tuae placens Deo (Eccli. XXX, 24). Quid ad haec respondebit humana fragilitas? Deus te rogat ut tui miserearis, et non vis: causam tuam apud te agit, et a te non potest impetrare. Et quomodo te audit ille in die judicii supplicantem, cum tu eum pro te ipso nolueris audire rogantem? Quis enim non expavescat et metuat, fratres charissimi, quod pro quadraginta dierum spatio, annis quadraginta populus Judaeorum poenam recipere meruit in eremo? Si enim pro unius diei culpa unius anni spatium recompensandum est poena; nos qui tanta quotidie peccata committimus, si eleemosynarum vel poenitentiae non subvenerint medicamenta, timeo ne nobis non inferantur temporalia, sed aeterna supplicia.

a proof. Again and again I ask you, brothers, and admonish you, that we should always consider with great fear and anxiety that severity and just judgement of God by which that older people was consumed in the desert for the sin of murmuring; and that we should so love the mercy of God that we nevertheless fear His justice. He spares now and is silent: but He will not always be silent. For now, out of His ineffable goodness, He not only admonishes us but even asks us to call ourselves back from deadly sins. Let us hear Him while He asks, lest afterwards He not hear us when He judges. Let us hear Him speaking through the prophet: Son, He says, have mercy on your soul, pleasing God (Sir. 30:24). What will human frailty answer to this? God asks you to have mercy on yourself, and you are unwilling: He pleads your cause before you, and cannot obtain it from you. And how does He hear you supplicating on the day of judgement, when you have refused to hear Him asking on your own behalf? For who would not be terrified and afraid, dearest brothers, that for the space of forty days the people of the Jews deserved to receive punishment for forty years in the wilderness? For if for the fault of one day the space of one year must be repaid with punishment, then for us, who commit so many sins every day, if the medicines of almsgiving or of penance do not come to our aid, I fear that it will not be temporal but eternal punishments that are inflicted on us.

4. Peccatorum vulnera dum recentia sunt, facilius curantur. Et quia calidis vulneribus solent medicamenta celerius subvenire, quotiescumque peccaverimus, non exspectemus mortifera securitate vulnera ipsa putrescere, nec iterum vulnera vulneribus augeamus; sed continuo ad spiritualem medicum recurrentes, salutem recipere festinemus. Et ideo quomodo quando in corpore vulnus accipimus, si statim medicamenta requirimus, cito sanitatem recipere poterimus: ita si moram feceris, necesse est ut tardius ad sanitatem plaga ipsa redeat, aut aliqua foeda cicatrix in corpore nostro remaneat. Si haec in corpore facimus, quanto magis in animae vulneribus adhibere debemus, ubi ad imaginem et similitudinem Dei facti sumus? Si tantam curam impendimus corpori, quod, velimus nolimus, in pulverem redigendum est; quantam sollicitudinem et curam erga salutem animae debemus apponere? ut, sicut dicit Apostolus, sine macula vel ruga (Ephes. V, 27) mereamur ante tribunal aeterni Judicis apparere: ne forte si multis peccatorum vulneribus lacerati et vitiorum pannis sordentibus involuti, ad illud nuptiale convivium venerimus, dicatur nobis illud quod ille sponsus coelestis in Evangelio dixit, Amice, quomodo huc intrasti, non habens vestem nuptialem? Avertat a nobis Deus illud quod sequitur. Cum enim haec peccator ille audiens obmutesceret, dixit paterfamilias: Ligate illi manus et pedes, et projicite in tenebras exteriores: ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium (Matth. XXII 12, 13). Ecce qualem sententiam accepturi sunt, qui majorem de corpore quam de anima sollicitudinem gerunt; et plus cogitant qualiter caro sua parvissimo tempore vivat in oculis hominum, quam quo modo anima sua ornata bonis operibus ad beatitudinem vel similitudinem perveniat Angelorum. Haec ergo, fratres charissimi, sicut superius supplicavi, si attentius voluerimus cogitare, remedia nobis in die necessitatis acquirimus: ut cum dies judicii venerit, non cum impiis et peccatoribus puniamur; sed cum justis et Deum timentibus ad aeterna praemia feliciter veniamus, auxiliante Domino Jesu Christo, cui est honor et imperium cum Patre et Spiritu sancto in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

4. The wounds of sins are more easily healed while they are fresh. And since medicines usually come to the aid of warm wounds more quickly, whenever we have sinned, let us not wait in deadly complacency for the wounds themselves to fester, nor again add wounds to wounds; but running back at once to the spiritual physician, let us hasten to recover health. And so, just as when we receive a wound in the body, if we seek medicines immediately, we will be able to recover health quickly: so if you delay, the wound itself must necessarily return to health more slowly, or some ugly scar must remain in our body. If we do this in the body, how much more ought we to apply it in the wounds of the soul, where we have been made in the image and likeness of God? If we spend so much care on the body, which, whether we like it or not, must be reduced to dust, how much solicitude and care ought we to devote to the salvation of the soul? so that, as the Apostle says, we may deserve to appear without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27) before the tribunal of the eternal Judge: lest perhaps, if we come to that wedding feast torn by many wounds of sins and wrapped in the filthy rags of vices, there be said to us what that heavenly Bridegroom said in the Gospel: Friend, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment? May God turn away from us what follows. For when that sinner, hearing this, fell silent, the master of the house said: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 22:12–13). See what sentence those are going to receive who have greater solicitude for the body than for the soul, and think more about how their flesh may live for the briefest time in the eyes of men than about how their soul, adorned with good works, may attain to the blessedness or likeness of the Angels. These things therefore, dearest brothers, as I implored above, if we are willing to consider them more attentively, we gain as remedies for ourselves in the day of necessity: so that when the day of judgement comes, we may not be punished with the ungodly and sinners, but may happily come with the just and those who fear God to the eternal rewards, with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.

Editors' notes and page, col. 1803

Footnotes

(none) — the foot notes (a) and (b) printed under this column are called in the title of SERMO XXX (another unit) and are not set here.