Augustine, Sermones 376-387 (Classis V, Sermones dubii)

Sermon 376. On the Sunday in the Octave of Easter.

Chapter One. — 1. A great miracle, to enter with the doors shut. Your Charity heard, when the holy Gospel was read, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ after His resurrection came in to His disciples with the doors shut. A great miracle: but you cease to wonder, if you think of God. For it would be a wonder, if a mere man had done this. Refer it to omnipotence, not to phantasm. He entered with the doors shut. I answer you: that you might know that it had been true flesh, He showed the scars to be touched (John 20:19–27). But just as it is not, you say, in the nature of a body to enter through a shut door, so it is not in the nature of a body to walk upon the waves of the sea. He entered through shut doors: answer me, give me the solidity of flesh. He walked upon the waters of the sea: you too give me the weight of flesh. Do you wish to know that this was of omnipotence? He gave it to Peter too (Matt. 14:25–29). What He willed, He gave; what was His own, He kept for Himself. For He, living, entered through shut doors, Who in being born did not violate His mother's integrity. Therefore, brethren, having wondered, let us believe; believing, let us obey; obeying, let us hope for the promises, if we do the commands: for that we may do the commands, He helps, from Whom we hope for the promises.

Chapter II. — 2. The Octave of the Infants. The old and the new man. Today is called the octave of the infants; their heads are to be uncovered, which is a sign of freedom. It has

liberty, for this spiritual birth does; but the birth of the flesh properly has servitude. There are indeed two births of man: to be born and to be reborn. We are born to toil, we are reborn to rest; we are born to miseries, we are reborn to eternal happiness. For those children, the infants, the little ones, the sucklings clinging to their mothers' breasts and not knowing how much grace is conferred upon them, as you yourselves see, since they are called infants, they too keep their octave today; and these old men, young men and youths are all infants as well. For the one infancy of theirs belongs to oldness, the other to newness. For those whom you see fresh from the womb are born old. Our old man is said to be Adam, from whom we are born; the new man is Christ, through Whom we are reborn. These, then, are both new and reborn to another life, and in those others, if it can be said, when they are born, there is a new oldness.

3. He exhorts the baptized not to imitate bad Christians. In the Church the bad are mixed with the good. Behold, today our infants are mingled with the faithful, and they fly as it were from the nest. It is necessary, therefore, that we who are in labour with them should address them. For as you remember, my brothers, when the young of swallows or of house sparrows have begun to fly from the nest, their mothers fly around them with a clamour, and with loving cries bear witness to the dangers facing their offspring.

Chapter III. We know, then, that many who are called faithful live badly, and that their conduct does not accord with the grace they have received; that they praise God with the tongue and blaspheme Him with their life. But we also know that there are others among these many, like grains amid much and abundant chaff, groaning in the threshing but consoling themselves with the hope of the granary. We know that these two kinds of men are in the Church. We know the Church to be the Lord's threshing floor; we hope for the winnowing on the day of judgement, we long for the heap of wheat in the resurrection, we desire to take up the granary in eternal life. There, there will be no chaff, just as in Gehenna there will be no grain. Now therefore, my brothers, since we know that these two kinds of men are in the Church, the pious and the impious, the good and the bad, those who fear and those who despise, we do not know to which of them these will be joined. But what we wish, they themselves also know; whether our prayers will be fulfilled concerning them, human ignorance is wearied with anxiety, and is sometimes also troubled by false suspicions. From these things it is learned in this land, where one does not live without temptation. I admonish you, therefore, holy shoots; I admonish you, new plants in the Lord's field, that it may not be said of you what was said of the vineyard of the house of Israel: I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns (Isa. 5:2). Let Him find in you the cluster Who as a cluster was trodden for us. Bear grapes, live well. For the fruit of the spirit, as the Apostle says, is charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faith, continence, chastity (Gal. 5:22). When our husbandman comes to us, Whose labourers we are, He Who gives the increase within; for we know how to plant and to water outwardly, but the Apostle says, Neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters, but God Who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:7); Who now sees how you listen, Who now looks into how

you fear, or now begin to fear: when that husbandman comes to you, let Him find in you what the Apostle had said, My joy and my crown, all you who stand in the Lord (Phil. 4:1).

Chapter IV. — 4. Bad people who induce one to sin are to be guarded against. Remedies by incantations are unlawful. Almsgiving. Brothers, sweetest sons, dearest sons, imitate the good, beware of the bad. For I know that bad men will come to you, and will try to persuade you to drunkenness, and will say to you, Why? Are we not also most faithful? I know it; therefore I grieve, therefore I fear. Now if you say firmly: Brother, I would not want you to do what you are doing; but if I cannot lead you to my good, at least do not drag me to your evil. These men, as usually happens, will have a headache. Your neighbour, man or woman, will say to you: There is an enchanter here, there is a healer here, and somewhere or other an astrologer. You say: I am a Christian, it is not lawful for me. And if he says to you, Why? am I not a Christian? you will say, But I am one of the faithful. And he to you: I too am baptized. Members of Christ become angels of the devil. Because the enemy possesses him, he seeks to drag another too. Let him who prepared these things for you find you prepared. Therefore I speak, therefore I bear witness, therefore I am not silent, therefore I shake out my garments, therefore at the tribunal of my God I hold myself excused. I will say to my God: Lord, I have not been silent; Lord, the talent which Thou gavest me I did not hide, but paid it out. This He could say to me: Wicked servant, you should have given, I would have exacted (Matt. 25:26–27). Behold, Lord, I have given; do Thou exact. And if perhaps old habit tickles you, you have One to call upon. The helper is greater than the assailant. Therefore you groan, therefore you pray, therefore you say, Lead us not into temptation. Observe this too, my brothers, that you say above, Forgive us our debts; so that you may do what follows, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:13, 12). You give alms, you receive alms. You pardon, you will be pardoned. You pay out, it will be paid out to you. Hear God saying, Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (Luke 6:37–38). Keep the poor in mind. I say to all: give alms, my brothers; give, and you will not lose. Believe God. I do not only say to you, you do not lose what you do for the poor: but I say to you plainly, this alone you do not lose; the rest you lose. Behold, let us see whether you gladden the poor today; you are their granaries, so that God may give you whence you may give, and may forgive what you perhaps sin. Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it will entreat the Lord for you (Sir. 29:15): to Whom be honour and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 377. On the Ascension of the Lord.

1. — The Word of God cannot be worthily praised by us. How He rejoiced to run the way. Why

said twice in the Psalm, Lift up the gates, etc.— Dearly beloved brothers, who could worthily utter a temporal word about the eternal Word? How can the lowest things suffice for the great? The heavens praise, the powers praise, the ethereal potentates praise, the lights of heaven praise, the stars praise; the earth too praises as it can: not that it may praise worthily, but that it may not condemn itself as ungrateful. Who explains, who speaks of, who even understands Him Who reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly (Wis. 8:1), how He exulted to run His course, so that His going forth was from the highest heaven, and His return even to the height of heaven (Ps. 18:6–7)? If He reaches everywhere, whence does He go out? If He reaches everywhere, whither does He go? He is not stretched out by places, nor varied by times, nor has He approaches and withdrawals: remaining in Himself, He goes round everywhere whole. What spaces are there that do not hold the Almighty, that do not contain the Immeasurable, that do not receive Him as He comes? If you think of the Word, we have said nothing. But so that He might teach the humble to say something about Him, He humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:8). In this form He descended; in this form, according to the Gospel, He advanced in the pursuit of wisdom (Luke 2:52); in this form He suffered; in this form He fought bravely; in this form He died; in this form He conquered death and rose again; in this form He returned to heaven, He Who never departed from heaven. Blessed therefore is He in the firmament of heaven, Who was made for us, according to the Apostle, a curse, that the blessing of Abraham might come about among the Gentiles (Gal. 3:13–14). He exulted as a giant (Ps. 18:6). What sort of giant? By dying He overcame death. What sort of giant? He broke the gates of hell: He went out, and ascended. Who is this King of glory, on account of Whom it was said to certain princes, Lift up your gates, O princes; and be lifted up, eternal gates? Be lifted up, He is great: you are narrow, you cannot hold Him, be lifted up. To what end is this? That the King of glory may enter. They are terrified: Who is this King of glory? He is not recognized. He is not only God, but also man: He is not only man, but also God. He suffers: is He then surely God? He rises again: is He then surely man? Or is He both God and man? For truly He suffers, and truly He rises again. Now this is said twice in one and the same psalm, Lift up your gates, O princes; and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter. And this very thing is repeated after the same words, as though it might be thought superfluous and not necessary. But in the repetition of the same words attend to the endings, and notice why it was said twice. For to Him as He rises once, and ascends once, twice are the gates of the underworld and of heaven opened. For it is a new thing, God present to the underworld; a new thing, man taken up into the heavens. At both times, in both places, the princes are terrified: Who is this King of glory? Whence do we tell this apart? Hear what is answered to each. To those asking it is said, The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. What battle? To undergo death for mortals, alone to suffer for all, not to resist