Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 94-106

Sermon 94. On the words of the Gospel of John, chapter 5:20-30, For as the Father raises the dead, etc.; and also chapter 6:37-40, All that the Father gives Me, etc.

1. One judgement is of discernment, another of damnation. You have heard, dearest brethren, in the Gospel reading the Lord saying, For as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wills. For neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgement to the Son. And He will show Him greater works than these: that is, not only to cure the sick, but also to raise the dead. As to His saying, Neither does the Father judge anyone, [this is said] at least according to the divinity, because no one can behold Him or hear Him, as in that saying, No one has ever seen God. But He has given all judgement to the Son: that is, so that by Him Who was judged according to the flesh all may be judged. Amen, amen I say to you, that he who hears My word, and believes Him Who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgement, but passes from death into life. In His saying, He does not come into judgement who hears My word and believes Him Who sent Me, it is seen that a discernment has been made by the Lord between the just and sinners: as if He were saying, he who has done these things will not come into the number of sinners; but passes from death to life: that is, he will move from pride to humility, from hatred to charity, from temporal things to eternal. Amen, amen I say to you, that the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. The dead, that is, are understood as the sinners who heard Christ and did not believe. And as to what

is added, They shall live who have heard: It is therefore recapitulated because a little above He had spoken of the resurrection of sinners; here, however, He speaks of the resurrection of the dead. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given also to the Son to have life in Himself: and He has given Him power to do judgement, because He is the Son of man. So then the Father gave the Son life by begetting [Him], as He Himself has [it]. As to His saying, He has given Him to do judgement, we recognize that the Father is said to have given judgement to the Son with respect to the flesh which He assumed: and here He signifies the future judgement, in which judgement the Lord Jesus Christ will stand, and will render to each according to his works; for in this place we understand judgement as the condemnation and punishment of sinners. For where the Psalmist says, Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause (Ps. 42:1), we recognize a judgement of discernment. Do not marvel at this, for the hour will come in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgement. I therefore can do nothing of Myself: as I hear, I judge, and My judgement is just; because I do not seek My own glory, but the will of Him Who sent Me. In this place He most plainly proclaims the future resurrection. And as to His saying, I cannot do anything of Myself: it is as if He said, Therefore I cannot do anything of Myself, because I did not come of Myself, but from the Father. As to His saying, As I hear, I judge, etc., this hearing is signified to have taken place in eternity.

2. The humble man given to Christ, and he cannot perish. A twofold resurrection.—All that the Father gives Me will come to Me; and him who comes to Me I will not cast out. A great inner sanctuary and a sweet secret place, without weariness, without the bitterness of evil thoughts, without the interruption of temptations and sorrows. Is that not the secret place into which he will enter to whom the Lord is going to say, Good servant, deservedly enter into the joy of your Lord (Matt. 25:21)? And him who comes to Me, He says, I will not cast out. And he who comes to Me becomes humble; he who cleaves to Me will be humble: because he will not do his own will, but God's; and therefore he will not be cast out. Now this is the will of the Father Who sent Me, that of all that the Father has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up on the last day. He is given to Him who keeps humility, and He receives this one: he who does not keep humility is far from the Master of humility. That of all that He has given Me I should lose nothing. It is not the will in the sight of My Father that one of these little ones should perish. Of the swollen some can perish; of the little ones none will perish: for unless you are of these little ones, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3). Of all that the Father gives Me I will lose nothing: but I will raise it up on the last day. See how here too He defines that twofold resurrection. He who comes to Me, made humble, will rise now in My members: but I will raise him up on the last day; that is, according to the flesh. For this is the will of My Father, Who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. Above He said, He who hears My word, and believes Him Who sent Me: but now, He who sees the Son and believes in Him. He did not say, Sees the Son and believes in the Father; for to believe in the Son is the same as [to believe] in the Father: for as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given also to the Son to have life in Himself: that everyone who sees, and believes in Him, should have eternal life; by believing and passing over into life as by that first resurrection. And because it is not the only one, and I will raise him up, He says, on the last day.

Sermon 95. On the words of the Gospel of John, chapter 11, 1-44, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps: but I go, that I may rouse him from sleep," etc.

1. The divinity of Christ is shown in the raising of Lazarus. The apostles did not raise the dead by their own power. By many signs indeed and mighty works our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ declared the power of His divinity, but above all in the death of Lazarus, as your Charity heard in the present reading, showing Himself to be the one of whom it had been written, The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our upholder (Ps. 45:8). These mighty works, however, our Lord and Saviour performed in a twofold manner: both bodily and spiritually, that is, visibly and invisibly, so that through a visible work He might show an invisible power. Earlier He enlightened the man blind from birth with the light of the eyes by a visible work (John 9:1–7), so that by that invisible power He might illumine the blindness of the Jews with the light of the knowledge of Himself: but in the present reading He gave life to the dead Lazarus, so that He might raise the unbelieving hearts of the Jews from the death of sin into life. Accordingly many of the Jews believed in Christ the Lord on account of Lazarus. For they recognized in the resurrection of Lazarus the manifest power of the Son of God: since to command death by one's own authority is not a mark of human condition but of divine nature. We read indeed that the apostles too raised the dead (Acts 9:40; 20:9, 12), but they, in order to raise them, prayed to the Lord; and they raised them not by their own power nor by their own authority, but by calling upon the name of Christ, Who is Lord over death and life: whereas the Son of God raised Lazarus by His own power. Accordingly, as soon as the Lord said, Lazarus, come forth, he at once came out of the tomb: nor could death hold him whom Life was calling. The moisture of burial was in his nostrils: Lazarus stood there alive. Death did not wait to hear the Saviour's voice a second time, because it could not bear the power of life: but at the single voice of the Lord death released both the body of Lazarus from the tomb and the soul from the underworld; and the whole Lazarus came forth alive from the tomb, who had not been wholly there. A man is roused from sleep more slowly than Lazarus was from death. The moisture of the body was still in the nostrils of the Jews; and Lazarus stood there alive. But now let us look at the head of the reading itself.

2. Why Christ rejoices and weeps over the death of Lazarus. The power of Christ's tears. The Lord therefore said to His disciples, as your Charity heard in the present reading: Our friend, He said, Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may rouse him from sleep. Well did the Lord say, Our friend Lazarus sleeps; for truly he was to rise from death as if from sleep. But the disciples, not knowing why the Lord had said this, say to Him: Lord, if he sleeps, he will be well. Then, answering, He said to them plainly: Lazarus is dead; but I rejoice for your sakes, that you may believe, because I was not there. But if the Lord here says that He rejoices over the death of Lazarus for the sake of the disciples, what does it mean that afterwards He is reported to have wept at the death of Lazarus? But let us consider the reason for the joy and for the tears. The Lord rejoiced on account of the disciples; He wept on account of the Jews. He rejoiced on account of the disciples, because through the resurrection of Lazarus their faith in Christ was to be confirmed: He wept on account of the unbelief of the Jews, because not even when Lazarus rose again were they going to believe in Christ the Lord. Or perhaps the Lord wept for this reason, that by His tears He might blot out the sins of the world. If Peter was able by the shedding of his tears to wipe away his own sins, why do we not believe that by the tears of the Lord the sins of the world were blotted out? Accordingly, after the tears of the Lord many of the people of the Jews believed. There overcame in part the unbelief

of the Jews the affection of the Lord's tenderness, and the first outpouring of tears softened their discordant minds. And therefore perhaps both things are related of the Lord in the present reading, that He both rejoiced and wept: because he who sows in tears, as it is written, shall reap in joy (Ps. 125:5). The tears of the Lord, therefore, are the joys of the world; because He shed tears for this reason, that we might merit joys. But let us return to the order [of the narrative].

3. Christ at once absent from and present at the death of Lazarus. He says, then, to His disciples: Our friend, He says, Lazarus is dead: but I rejoice for your sakes, that you may know that I was not there. Let us notice here too the mystery, how the Lord says that He was not there. For when He says plainly, Lazarus is dead, He shows clearly that He was present there. For the Lord could not have said this, with no one bringing Him the news, unless He had been present. For how was the Lord not present in the place where Lazarus died, He Who by divine power encompasses all the places of the whole world? But here too our Lord and Saviour showed in Himself the mystery of the flesh and of the divinity. He was not there according to the flesh: He was here according to the divinity; because God is everywhere.

4. Why God asks about things of which He is not ignorant. Adam is saved because of the confession of his fault; Cain is condemned because of his denial. When, then, the Lord had come to Mary and Martha the sister of Lazarus, seeing the crowd of the Jews, He says: Where have you laid him? Did the Lord not know where Lazarus had been laid, He Who while absent had declared Lazarus dead, and Who by the majesty of His divinity was everywhere? But the Lord did this according to an old custom. For to Adam likewise He says: Where are you, Adam? (Gen. 3:9). Not because He did not know where Adam was: but He asked for this reason, that Adam might confess his sin with his own mouth, so that he might be able to merit pardon for the sin. He asks Cain too, Where is your brother Abel? And he said, I do not know (Gen. 4:9). It was not because He did not know where Abel was that He asked Cain: but so that, when he denied it, He might convict him of the parricide which he had committed against his brother. Finally Adam, because he confessed to the Lord Who questioned him the sin which he had committed, was restored to pardon: Cain, because he denied the parricide which he had committed, was condemned to eternal punishment. So when the Lord says here, Where have you laid him? He does not ask for this reason, that He did not know where Lazarus had been laid: but so that the crowd of the Jews might follow to the tomb of Lazarus: so that, seeing the divine power of Christ in the resurrection of Lazarus, they themselves might stand as witnesses against themselves if they did not believe so great a power. For the Lord had said to them earlier: If you do not believe Me, at least believe the works, and know that the Father is in Me, and I in Him (John 10:38).

5. What belongs to human strength God leaves to men. Then, when He had come to the tomb, He says to the Jews standing around, Take the stone away from here. What do we say? Could the Lord not have removed the stone from the tomb by a command, He Who by His own power removed the bars of hell? But what could be done by men, He commanded men to do: but what belonged to divine power, He displayed by His own might. For to draw back a stone from a tomb belongs to human strength; but to call back a soul from hell belongs to divine power alone. Yet easily, had He wished, He could have removed the stone from the tomb by the mere command of a word, He Who created the world by a word.

6. The power of Christ's voice. A second miracle: Lazarus walking with his feet bound. When, then, they had removed the stone from the tomb, He says with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth! showing that He was the one of Whom it had been written, The voice of the Lord in power, the voice of the Lord in magnificence (Ps. 28:4); and again, Behold, He will give to His power the voice of power (Ps. 67:34). Clearly that is a voice of power and magnificence which at once called Lazarus back from death to life, and the soul was restored to the body before it had sent forth the sound of the voice. Although the body was in one place and the soul in another, yet that voice of the Lord at once both restored the soul to the body and presented the body again to the soul. For death was terrified when it heard a voice of such power. Nor