Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 63-76

Sermon 63. On the words of the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 6:1-6, Let your left hand not know what your right hand does, etc.

1. Alms in public, and yet in secret. The Gospel reading, dearest brethren, which has just now been recited to us, seems to me such that it cannot be understood according to the letter: and therefore, with God's help, let us inquire.

how we may be able to attain to its spiritual sense. For thus the Lord says, Take heed that you do not perform your righteousness before men, in order to be seen by them; and again, When you give alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret. How can we take this according to the letter, when the Lord Himself says again, So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16)? How does He say here, Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, when elsewhere He says, So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works? Attend carefully, brethren, and seek out the understanding of divine Scripture humbly and wisely. For the Lord cannot be contrary to Himself in the Gospel reading. For since He Himself said that alms are to be done in secret, and He Himself also admonished that they be done publicly, it calls for a sober understanding, so that His precepts may not seem to be contrary to one another. For whoever gives alms for this reason, that he desires to be praised by men, even if he has done it secretly, does it publicly, because he seeks praise from men. But whoever gives alms solely out of love of God, so that others may imitate him in the good work, and not he himself but the Lord may be praised, even if he gives alms publicly, does it secretly; because for that alms he desires not what is seen but what is not seen, and wishes to receive not praise from men but a reward from God.

2. Public fasting. What the right hand is, what the left. This too we ought to understand also of fasting. For since the Lord Himself says, Anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not be seen fasting by men (ibid. 6:17), do we then act against the precepts of Christ, we who proclaim a fast publicly and fast together with the whole people, in the sight of the whole people? In this sense too it must be understood: that no one should fast for human praise, but for the pardon of sins or for the divine mercy; and let each one question his own conscience; and if he gives alms for God alone, let him do it without anxiety even publicly, so that whoever sees it may imitate it. For that saying of the Lord also, Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, is recognized to pertain to what we said above. For by the right hand is understood the love of God; by the left, the vanity or cupidity of the world. If you give alms for human praise, the left hand does the whole of it, and the right does nothing at all; but if you give alms for the remission of sins and out of love of eternal life, the right hand does the whole of it. What then is meant by, Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, except: What the love of God does, let not the vanity or cupidity of the world corrupt or destroy? For if anyone believes that this can be fulfilled according to the letter, what is he to do if his right hand is in pain? Can he not give alms with the left? Or if he wants to redeem a captive, how will he be able either to untie a purse or to open a chest, if he does not join his left hand to his right? Or if he wishes to receive a stranger and, according to the Lord's precept, to wash the feet of the saints, I do not see how this could be fulfilled without the left hand knowing.

3. Public prayers. How they are made with the door shut. In what place temporal things are to be asked for. To this also pertains what He said, When you pray, do not pray at the corners of the streets; but go, He says, into your room, and with the door shut pray to your Father in secret. See, you yourselves well recognize that this cannot always be fulfilled according to the letter. For both we ourselves and the whole people pray not only in our rooms, but we also gather publicly at the church and bend the knee together with all the people. And are we, in doing this, contrary to the precepts of Christ, Who said that we ought to pray in our rooms with the door shut? It is not so. Hence this sense too agrees with the preceding statement. How then this ought to be understood, attend. If ever you pray to God and ask of Him what is seen, you pray publicly and with the door open, because you wish to receive from God what is seen. But if for the pardon of sins

and for eternal life you wish to make supplication, even if you have prayed in public, you pray with the door shut; because you ask not for what is seen, but for what is not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). If you seek temporal things, as I have already said, you pray in public and with the door open: if you seek eternal things, your prayer is secret; because you desire to receive not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. Whoever, then, has sought in truth those things which are not seen, will also receive those which are seen, God rewarding him; because He does not lie Who says, Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt. 6:33). Nor do we say this so that we should not pray to God for temporal things; that is, for the health of bodies, or for the peace of the times, or for the abundance of fruits. We ought to ask these things too of God; but in the second and third place: so that the love of the soul and the desire of eternal life may hold the first place in the whole intention of our prayer. Let us pray, then, for the body; but let us make supplication beyond all comparison more for the soul. And therefore, dearly beloved, as often as this Gospel reading is read to you, you ought to receive its meaning in the order we have suggested above: that whether in almsgiving, or in fasts, or in prayers, whether on the right hand or on the left, we may be zealous to observe this, that whatever we do, we do not for the vanity or covetousness of the world, but for love of eternal blessedness. May He Himself deign to grant this, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 64. On the words of the Gospel of Matthew, 6, When you fast, etc., and on the Lord's Prayer, chapter 6, verses 1-18.

1. Two things above all to be meditated on by man. The fall to be lamented. There are two things, dearly beloved, to which human circumspection ought chiefly to attend: both the dignity of its condition, and the excellence of its reformation: the dignity of its condition, that it may fear to sin; the excellence of the redemption, that it may not be ungrateful for the grace of the One Who redeems. For by the sole will of the Redeemer man was raised up from the baseness of the earth, and exalted to the likeness of God by the privilege of reason. This the wretched man lost when, seduced by diabolical persuasion, he departed through pride from the ordinance of his Maker. Considering this fall, the Psalmist said, as if grieving: Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he has been compared to senseless beasts, and has become like them (Ps. 48:13). Falling by his own choice from the highest elevation, he was deservedly condemned to the lowest abasement, he who could fall by himself, but could not rise again by himself. Human frailty has to lament this fall with daily lamentations; so that it may return by daily lamentations to the place from which it fell through vain delights; and that what fell by the foot of pride may strive to rise again by the foot of obedience. Attending to this, the Psalmist said, Let not the foot of pride come to me; and, There have fallen those who work iniquity; they were driven out, and could not stand (Ps. 35:12–13). They were driven out, from inmost rest; and could not stand, that is, persevere, as is said of the same men through the same Psalmist, For they are flesh, a spirit going and not returning (Ps. 77:39).

2. The healing grace of the Redeemer necessary. Christ taught by word and example. For this return, then, or rising again, the healing grace of the Redeemer was necessary, to heal by humility what had been corrupted by the elation of pride. The Word of God therefore assumed the form of a servant, in which He might instruct His fellow servants by word, and shape them in the discipline of conduct after the example of His life. For He was instilling humility and obedience by word and example, when He said to His disciples, exhorting them: Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, because I am meek and humble of heart: for My yoke is sweet, and My burden light (Matt. 11:

29-30). For the yoke of obedience to Him is rightly sweet, Whom to serve is to reign; and the burden of the commandments is light, which does not weigh down by pressing, but helps by fulfilling through grace. He also commended sobriety by word, where He said, Let your hearts not be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness (Luke 21:34); He taught it by example, Who refreshed the crowd accompanying Him not with costly delicacies, but with barley loaves (John 6:5–13). He also taught, directing our intention towards inward goods, how one ought to fast, when He said, When you fast, do not become, like the hypocrites, sad: marking out those who feign the rigour of abstinence by mournful squalor, so that they may appear to men to be fasting. How almsgiving too is to be done, He was not willing to pass over in silence, where He said: When you do alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand does. By this teaching He intimates that we are admonished to do almsgiving and every work of mercy that we do not by hunting the praises of men, but for the sake of the intention of eternal life, which is signified by the right hand. How one ought also to pray, He admonished, where He says, But you, when you pray, enter into your chamber; that is, have a quiet heart, and one free from all tumult of outward things: and having shut the door, that is, having shut out the throng of phantasms, pray to your Father.

3. A compendium of all things whatsoever to be asked for. Three things are asked for with a view to eternal life, four with a view to the temporal. See, it has been said how one ought to pray: He adds also what one ought to pray for, adding thus, Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father, Who art in heaven, etc. This prayer in concise words, that is, in seven petitions, comprehends all kinds of prayer by which we call upon God, either for goods to be sought, or for evils to be avoided, or for things committed to be blotted out. Of these seven petitions the three placed first pertain to eternity; the four following, to the necessity of the present life. For the hallowing of the name of God, and His coming in which He will come in glory, and His will fulfilled as in heaven so also on earth, whether we understand [these as] the just and sinners, or soul and body, or Christ and the Church, although they take their beginning from the humble coming of Christ, will nevertheless be completed only at the ending of the age. And all three will remain for ever. But the remaining four seem to pertain to this temporal life: because the daily and spiritual bread too, although it is everlasting, pertains to this time only in so far as it is ministered to the soul by certain signs and words spoken or written; and it is called bread for this reason, that it is learned by labouring and discoursing, and so is swallowed as if by chewing. Now too sins are forgiven us, and we forgive others, which is the second petition among the four. And now temptations beset our life; and deliverance itself from evil pertains to this life; because by the justice of God we have incurred death, whence we must be delivered by His mercy. Since these things are so, the words of these petitions must be handled more carefully, so that, being understood, they may both produce a greater affection of heart, and what is asked for may be brought to a speedier effect.

4. Whereby Christians are distinguished from the Jews, thereby they are undistinguished among themselves. The stirring up of charity. Confidence of obtaining. Why when praying we turn towards the east. Let us say then, Our Father, Whom we serve not with fear, but with love. It was not said to the former people that they should pray to the Father: but the Lord was made known to them, Whom they obeyed not with filial love; but were subject to Him with servile fear. And by this word the rich and noble, when they have become Christians, are admonished not to exalt themselves against the poor and lowly: since together they say, Our Father, which they cannot say truly and piously unless they acknowledge themselves to be brothers. By this name charity too is stirred up; because to sons nothing ought to be dearer than a father: and a suppliant affection, when men say, Our Father: and a certain presumption of obtaining what is asked; since even before the petition we have received so great a gift that we can say, Our Father. For what would the Father not now give to His sons when they ask, Who has already given this very thing, that they should be sons? Lastly, how great a care

touches the mind of him who ⟨ ⟩, so that he may not be unworthy of so great a Father? Let the people of the New Testament therefore use the word, a new people called to eternity: Our Father. It is a brotherly prayer: he does not say, My Father, as though praying for himself alone, but, Our Father, embracing, that is, in one prayer all who know themselves to be brothers in Christ. Who dwellest in the heavens, that is, in those whose way of life is in heaven. And this likeness is most fitting, so that one may believe that the righteous and the sinner are as far apart spiritually as heaven and earth are apart bodily. For to the sinner it was said, Earth you are, and into earth you shall go (Gen. 3:19). To signify this, when we stand to pray we turn towards the east, whence the sky rises: not because God is there, as though He had abandoned the other parts of the world, but so that the mind may be admonished to rise up to a more excellent nature, that is, to God.

5. The beatitudes are enumerated. The fear of God. Now let us attend to what is to be asked. Hallowed be Thy name. This is not asked as though the name of God were not holy, but so that it may be held holy by men, and so God may become known to them in such a way that they think nothing holier exists, whereby they may fear the more to offend Him; for it is just to hallow the name of God and to fear God, of Whom it is said, The Lord is His name (Amos 9:6). This fear is on the first step among the beatitudes, of which it is said, The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Sir. 1:16); and elsewhere, The fear of the Lord is holy, abiding for ever and ever (Ps. 18:10).

6. Piety. There follows, Thy kingdom come, that is, may it be made manifest to the world. Just as light, though present, is absent to the blind, so the kingdom of God, though it is everywhere, is nevertheless lacking to those who do not know it; or thus: that Thou in us and we in Thee may reign, by Thy gift. This petition belongs to piety, which is on the second step among the beatitudes. For if it is piety by which the meek are blessed, let us ask that the kingdom of God may come into us, that is, that we may grow meek and not resist.

7. Knowledge. There follows, Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth: that is, as in the Angels, so also in men; and as in the righteous, so also in sinners; or, may the flesh consent to Thy will as the spirit consents. This petition belongs to knowledge, which is on the third step among the beatitudes. For if it is knowledge by which those who mourn are blessed, let us pray that the will of God be done, as in heaven, so also on earth, that is, that the flesh may consent to the spirit; for human misery ought to grieve over nothing so much as over this, that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17), so that with the Apostle we are compelled to cry out, Unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death (Rom. 7:24)?

8. Fortitude. There follows the fourth petition, Give us this day our daily bread. It can be understood both simply of bodily food and spiritually of the bread of the divine word. If it concerns bodily food, this petitioner does not extend his petition far ahead; he follows the precept of the Gospel, where it is said, Do not think about tomorrow. For tomorrow will think for itself (Matt. 6:34). So too the blessed Apostle admonishes, Having food and covering, let us be content with these (1 Tim. 6:8). But if you take this bread spiritually, understand either Christ Himself, Who is the supersubstantial bread of the soul, because He surpasses every substance, Who says of Himself, I am the living bread Who came down from heaven (John 6:41); or the very understanding of the divine word, which is necessary to us for repairing the ruins of the soul, while it is still called today. This petition belongs to fortitude, which is placed fourth for those ascending to the highest beatitude. For if it is fortitude by which those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are made blessed, we must pray that this daily bread be given us, strengthened by which we may come to that perfect fullness.

9. Counsel. There follows, And forgive us our debts. Perhaps someone has sinned against you: forgive him when he asks pardon of you, lest, while you deny mercy to your brother, you shut against yourself the indulgence of the Father, as James the apostle says, For judgement without mercy to him who has not shown mercy (Jas. 2:13). This petition is referred to counsel, which is set in the fifth place among the steps of the beatitudes. For if it is counsel by which the merciful are blessed, let us therefore forgive our debtors their debts; and so let us pray that our debts may be forgiven us, that is, our sins, on account of which we are held back from obtaining pardon, unless indulgence towards our brothers hastens it.

10. Understanding. There follows, And lead us not into temptation; that is, do not allow us to be led into temptation. For it is one thing to be tempted, without which no just man is proved; another to be led into temptation, that is, to be led by the tempter. This, then, is what we pray for: that God may not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able, but may with the temptation make a way out, so that we may be able to endure (1 Cor. 10:13). This petition pertains to understanding, which is set in the sixth place in the number of the beatitudes. For if it is understanding by which the clean of heart are blessed, that is, those who have the eye of the mind purged of earthly dust, let us pray not to be led into temptation; that is, not to have a double heart, but to seek one simple good.

11. Wisdom. There follows, But deliver us from evil; not only from that into which we can be led, but also from that into which we have been led; and when this is accomplished nothing will remain to be mourned. To this petition wisdom corresponds, which holds the seventh place among the beatitudes. For if it is wisdom by which the peacemakers are blessed, that is, those who by the ordering of their conduct compel all things to serve the spirit, we must therefore pray that we may be delivered from evil. For that deliverance itself makes us free, that is, sons of God, so that by the spirit of adoption we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). And Amen in these petitions signifies that what is asked is beyond doubt granted by the Lord, if the pact of the last condition is firmly kept.

12. Three remedies for sins. The threefold manner of sinning. These three kinds of remedies the heavenly Physician has spiritually commended to us, namely almsgiving and fasting and prayer, by which, as by medicinal antidotes, we might cure inveterate ills, drive out present ones, and by preserving health guard against future ones. And fittingly there are three kinds of cure, just as three kinds of corruption precede. For every sin is either committed in the soul through consent to a wicked suggestion, to the violation of the temple of God; or it is committed by using the body wrongly to harm one's neighbour, which is criminal; or it is committed by using the body wrongly to corrupt oneself, which is shameful. For crimes, although they are done through the body, such as murders, robberies, thefts, nevertheless do not affect or corrupt the body of the one who does them. Of these the Apostle said, Every sin whatsoever that a man commits is outside the body. But shameful deeds are both done through the body and affect and infect the body. Of these the Apostle says, But he who commits fornication sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18). Rightly, then, are crimes, which are done outside the body, purged by almsgiving as by an outward medicine: because just as the crime harmed the neighbour, so almsgiving, which is outside us and yet is given through the body, ought to profit the neighbour. But shameful deeds are fittingly cleansed by the medicine of abstinence; because just as the flesh in its gladness drew one into fault, so when afflicted it ought to lead one back to pardon. But if there are any for whom these medicines are not suitable, so that they either cannot give alms on account of excessive poverty, or cannot fast on account of weakness of the stomach, they have a third kind of medicine, from which they will not be able to excuse themselves, unless they are such as have scorned to heal the diseases of their soul. Let us therefore frequent this medicine, which no sound mind can lack, zealously and devoutly, fulfilling that apostolic precept, Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). For this antidote so meets all diseases that, when applied constantly, the diseases