Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 30-44

exercised, after He had suffered, rose again and ascended into heaven: so also Elijah, after the wonders which God did through him, is lifted up to heaven in a fiery chariot. That Elijah left Judaea signified that Christ abandoned the Synagogue. The ravens which ministered to Elijah, as has already been said, showed a figure of the gentile people. That widow who received him in Zarephath bore the type of the Church. The two pieces of wood which she was gathering figured the mystery of the cross. If then, dearest brethren, you receive these things with sincere kindness, as we believe you do, and like clean animals ruminate on them with constant meditation in your hearts, there will be fulfilled in you that which is written, A desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise (Prov. 21:20): with our God Jesus Christ Himself reigning, to Whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 41. On Elisha, 1.

1. Whence the Manichaeans blaspheme the Old Testament. The prophets despised in Elisha's age. The striking of the little ones was of mercy rather than of cruelty. An example of this severity from the New Testament. When the divine reading was being read, we heard that as blessed Elisha was passing by, boys mocking him cried out, Go up, baldhead. For which cause, at Elisha's prayer, two bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two boys (2 Kgs. 2:23). The enemies of God and foes of their own souls, the most unclean Manichaeans, who not only refuse to receive the Scripture of the Old Testament but even presume to blaspheme it with rabid mouth, are accustomed to say: What was this great cruelty in Elisha, that on account of the joking words of infants he caused forty-two boys to be torn? And therefore we shall briefly suggest to your Charity how their madness is to be answered. At that time when blessed Elisha was in Judaea, both he and the rest of the prophets were not only not honoured by the greatest part of the people, but were even held in derision and reproach, and were believed to be like madmen and persons possessed: so much so that, at the time when blessed Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu as king, the captains who were sitting with Jehu said: Why did this madman come to you (2 Kgs. 9:11)? They saw the prophet of the Lord, and blasphemed him as being possessed. For at that time the holy prophets were held in such great contempt and reproach that even at blessed Elisha, who was working such great miracles, as we said above, undisciplined boys cried out, Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead. And they are to be believed to have done this at the instigation of their own parents too. Plainly those boys would not have cried out if this had displeased their parents. Grieving therefore over the ruin of the people, blessed Elisha, or rather the Holy Spirit through blessed Elisha, wishing to check the pride of the Jews, caused two bears to come, and they tore forty-two boys; so that, the little ones being struck, the elders might receive discipline, and the death of the sons might become the discipline of the parents; and that the prophet whom they would not love as he worked wonders, they might at least learn to fear. But the Jews so persevered in their evils that they made wounds for themselves out of remedies, and from that source acquired death whence they could have obtained salvation. For they turned light into darkness for themselves, and changed sweetness into bitterness. In the end there was fulfilled in them that which is written, I struck your sons, and you did not receive discipline (Jer. 2:30). Let no one therefore presume to disparage blessed Elisha with viperous mouth: for what was done concerning those boys is to be believed to have been done not so much by him through his own power as by the Holy Spirit through him. But this, as I said, was done out of great kindness and ineffable mercy; so that, because God, when the prophets were humbly preaching,

the Jews were unwilling to believe, they might at least fear Him inflicting punishment with severity, and, fearing the death of their bodies, might in this way at least seek the salvation of their souls. We read that this was fulfilled not only in the Old Testament but also in the New, through the blessed apostle Peter in Ananias and Sapphira: whom Peter's sentence condemned for this reason, that no one should presume to lie to the Holy Spirit in his offerings or gifts.

2. The madness of the Jews in the passion of the Lord. Their future punishment through Titus and Vespasian is prefigured. How many Jews were then slain, how many taken captive. And indeed, dearest brothers, according to the letter it is to be believed, as we suggested above, that the blessed Elisha, not stirred by the disease of anger but kindled with zeal for God, permitted those little ones to be torn in order to correct the people of the Jews; not in order to take vengeance, but rather in order to correct them: yet in this deed the passion of the Lord the Saviour is also clearly shown to have been prefigured. For just as those undisciplined boys cried out to the blessed Elisha, Go up, bald-head; go up, bald-head; so also the senseless peoples of the Jews, at the time of the passion, cried out with sacrilegious voice to Christ, the true Elisha, Crucify, crucify (Luke 23:21). What is Go up, bald-head; go up, bald-head? but, Go up on the cross in the place of Calvary. And mark this, brothers, that just as under Elisha forty-two boys were torn, so also forty-two years after the Lord's passion there came two bears, Vespasian and Titus. And consider this too, brothers, that the siege of the Jews took place at the Paschal solemnity; so that by the just judgement of God the Jews, gathered from all the provinces, should suffer the punishment due to them on the very days on which they had hung on the cross the true Elisha, our Lord and Saviour. For in that year, that is, in the forty-second year from the day of the passion of our Lord, the Jews, driven as if by the divine hand, had assembled at Jerusalem, as they were accustomed, to celebrate the Pasch. We read in the histories that at that time three million men of the Jews were gathered at Jerusalem: of whom one million one hundred thousand are read to have been consumed by sword and famine, and one hundred thousand young men were led to Rome in triumph. For that city was besieged for two years, and so great a multitude of the dead was thrown out of the city that the corpses themselves rose level with the walls. This devastation, then, was prefigured by those two bears which are said to have torn the forty-two boys because of their mockery of the blessed Elisha: and what the Psalm had said was fulfilled, The boar from the wood has laid it waste, and the solitary wild beast has fed upon it (Ps. 79:14). Because, as has been said, after forty-two years that sacrilegious nation received what it deserved from two bears, Vespasian and Titus.

3. Warned by the misfortune of the Jews, holding the right faith and preserving charity entire, let us strive to serve the Lord. And since the unhappy Jews deserved, because of their pride, to be rejected and despised and scattered through the whole world, let us, to whom the divine goodness has granted such great benefits, holding the right faith with all humility, and, so that pride may find no place in us, preserving charity entire with all men, strive to serve the Lord with a clean heart and a chaste body until the end of our life: so that after the labour of good works we may deserve to hear that desirable voice, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord (Matt. 25:21): because you have administered the temporal life well, receive the everlasting one; because you have guarded the price of My blood, take a share in My kingdom. To which kingdom may the divine goodness deign to lead you, which lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 42. On Elisha, 2.

1. In Elisha Christ is displayed. In the poor widow,

the Church. The one freed from debts through oil, the other from sins through charity. Just as we said of blessed Elijah, dearest brethren, that he bore a type of the Lord the Saviour, so too we confidently and securely assert that holy Elisha displayed an image of our Saviour. For, as you heard in the divine reading, a certain widow cried out to blessed Elisha, and with a tearful voice made supplication, saying: My husband is dead, and behold, the creditors are coming, and they wish to take my sons from me. And he asked her what she had in her house. The woman answered and said: As the Lord lives, I have nothing except a little oil with which to anoint myself. And Elisha said: Ask for vessels from your neighbours, and having shut the door, pour from that oil into all the vessels; and when they are full, sell, and pay your creditors. That widow, dearest brethren, displayed a type of the Church, just as did the one who was found worthy to receive blessed Elijah. This widow, then, that is, the Church, had contracted a heavy debt, not of shillings but of sins. She had a debt, and she endured a most cruel creditor, because she had made herself liable to the devil by many sins. For so too the prophet foretold: In your sins you were sold, and in your crimes I sent away your mother (Isa. 50:1). That widow, then, was held in a certain manner captive for so great a debt. She was captive because the redeemer had not yet come. But after the true redeemer, Christ the Lord, visited this widow, He made her free from all debts. Let us see, then, whence that widow was set free. Whence, if not from the increase of the oil? By oil mercy is understood. Therefore the debt had grown for that widow because by sinning she had lost the oil of mercy. Consider, brethren: the oil failed, and the debt grew; the oil grew, and the debt perished: greed had grown, and charity perished: charity returns, and iniquity perishes. But when Elisha, Christ the Lord, comes, the widow, that is, the Church, through the increase of the oil, that is, the gift of grace and mercy, or by the richness of charity, is freed from the debt of sins.

2. The empty vessels, the Gentiles. But let us see what blessed Elisha said to her. Ask for many vessels from your neighbours and those near you, and having shut the door, pour into the vessels of the neighbours. Who were these neighbours, if not the peoples of the Gentiles? And although that widow bore a type of the Church, yet she was a widow; and therefore those neighbours from whom the vessels were sought figured the people of the Gentiles. Yet these vessels were presented empty, so that they might be found worthy to receive the oil of mercy: for all the Gentiles, before they obtain the gift of grace, are shown to be empty of faith and charity and good works. Finally, all who are presented to the Church to obtain saving Baptism receive both the chrism and the oil of blessing, so that they may be found worthy to be no longer empty vessels, but full of God, and the temple of God.

3. Self-love poor and needy. Charity rich, and abounding in all things. By being spent it grows. Consider, then, dearest brethren: as long as that widow had the oil in her own vessel, she neither sufficed for herself, nor could she pay the debt. It is true, dearest ones, that he who loves himself alone neither suffices for himself nor pays the debt of his sins: but when he has begun to pour the oil of charity into the vessels of others, that is, into all his neighbours and kinsfolk, and into absolutely all men, then he will be able both to suffice for himself and to free himself from all debts. And truly, brethren, such is the nature of holy love and true charity, that it grows by being spent; and the more is expended on others, the more abundantly it is heaped up in itself. If you are willing to give bodily food to one in need, what you have given him you cannot have at present yourself: if you give the bread of charity to a hundred men, it remains whole; if you are willing to bestow it on the whole world, nothing is lacking to you: indeed not only is nothing lacking, but the profit from all those on whom you have bestowed it grows for you manifold. For example, one

loaf of charity you had; had you given it to no one, you would have had it alone: you have given to a thousand men, you have acquired a thousand loaves; for so great is the possession of charity that it is whole for each one and can be entire for all. Therefore you have both given to others and yourself lost nothing at all: indeed, not only have you not lost, but, as I have already said, whatever has been conferred by you on others, you have acquired a hundredfold. Therefore, dearest brethren, recognize that the widow was released from her creditors by nothing other than the oil; and understand that the catholic Church was freed from her crimes by no other means than through the oil of the mercy of God.

4. The vessels of charity, men, are filled when they are loved. But mark this, brethren: as long as that woman had vessels into which to pour the oil, so long did the oil increase. For she said to her son, Bring me a vessel. And he answered, I have none. And Scripture says that the oil stopped, after she found nowhere to put it. So, dearly beloved brethren, charity is increased for just as long as it is bestowed. And therefore we ought even to seek out vessels diligently into which we may pour oil: for we have proved that while we pour into others, we have more. Men are the vessels of charity. If we wish to abound in the oil of charity, we ought to love not only the good but also the wicked: the good, because they are good; the wicked, that they may become good. For the oil of charity has this power, that it both makes the good better and leads the wicked back from the darkness of sins to the light of truth.

5. Who acts with the door shut or open. Now, that Scripture says that the widow poured the oil into the little vessels with the door shut signified this: that each one should give alms with the door shut, that is, for the love of God alone; not so that he may be praised by men, but so that he may deserve to find favour with God. For he who gives alms for human praise gives with the door open; because what is open lies exposed to all. But he who has done good works for eternal life alone and for the remission of sins, even if he does them publicly, does them with the door shut: because from that almsgiving he does not seek what is seen, but what is not seen. For human praise is seen; the eternal reward is not seen. But hear what the Apostle says: For the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Let each one, then, give alms without anxiety, provided only that he does not seek human glory for it.

6. The woman of Shunem, passing from barrenness to fruitfulness, a type of the Church. After this we heard that, while blessed Elisha was passing through Shunem, a certain great woman received him and said to her husband: I perceive that this man is a man of God: let us make him an upper room, and let us put in it for him a bed, a table, a chair and a lampstand; so that when he comes, he may stay there. And that woman was barren, but at Elisha's prayer she bore a son. So too the Church, before Christ came, was barren. And just as she, at Elisha's prayer, bore a son, so also the Church, when Christ came to her, bore the Christian people. But the son of that woman died while Elisha was absent: so too the son of the Church, that is, the people of the Gentiles, was dead in sins before Christ came. When Elisha came down from the mountain, the widow's son was restored to this life; when Christ came down from heaven, the son of the Church, that is, the people of the Gentiles, is raised up: but let us see how this was done.

7. What the precept in Scripture against returning a greeting forbids. As Elisha's servant could not, so neither could Moses restore life. For when her son had died, that woman went away and threw herself at the feet of holy Elisha. And blessed Elisha gave his staff to his servant and said to him: Go, and put my staff upon the face of the boy. If a man greets you, do not greet him in return (2 Kgs. 4). At this place, brethren, take care that no impious thought creep into anyone, so that he say that blessed Elisha wished to observe an augury, and that he therefore ordered his servant not to return the greeting of anyone who greeted him on the way. We often read this in the Scriptures: but it was said for the sake of speed, not commanded for the sake of some superfluous and sacrilegious observance, as if