Sermons to the People 323.1–328.6

By the mercy of God, brothers, as we must believe, all these brothers whom one wrath of God struck with a mother's blow will at some time come to the health of this man over whom we rejoice. Nevertheless, let children learn to obey, let parents fear to be angry. It is written: “A father's blessing establishes the house of the children; a mother's curse uproots the foundations.” Now these people are not in the foundations of their homeland throughout the world: everywhere they present a spectacle, they display their punishment; they show their misery to the eyes, they terrify the pride of others. Learn, children, what Scripture says: to give the honour due to parents. But you too, parents, when you are offended, remember that you are parents. The mother prayed against her sons, and she was heard; because God is truly just, because she had truly suffered injury. One of them had both used insulting words and laid hands on her; and the rest bore their mother's injury patiently, and did not answer even one word against their brother on her behalf. God is just, who heard her praying, heard her grieving. But what of that wretched woman? Was she not punished the more for the very reason that she was heard the more quickly? Learn to ask of God that in which you need not fear to be heard.

But let us, brothers, take pains to give thanks to the Lord our God for the man who has been healed; and let us pour out prayers for the woman who is still held fast. Let us bless God, because he has held us worthy to see this. For what are we, that I appeared to these people without knowing it? For they saw me, and I did not know; and they were warned to come to this city. Who am I? I am one man of many, not of the great. And truly, so that your Charity may hear, I wonder much and rejoice that this was granted to us: for this man could not be cured even at Ancona; or rather, he could, but it was not done for our sake, because it could have been done very easily. For many know how many miracles are done through the most blessed martyr Stephen in that city. And hear something to wonder at: his shrine was there of old, and it is there still. But perhaps you say: “His body had not yet appeared; from where was there a shrine there?” The reason is indeed hidden; but what report has brought to us I will not keep from your Charity. When holy Stephen was being stoned, some innocent people too were standing around, especially of those who had already believed in Christ: it is said that a stone struck his elbow, and glancing off from there came before a certain devout man. He took it up and kept it. The man was one of those who sailed; the chance of his voyage brought him to the shore of Ancona, and it was revealed to him that the stone ought to be laid up there. He obeyed the revelation and did what was commanded: from that time the shrine of holy Stephen began to be there, and there was a rumour that the arm of holy Stephen was there, since people did not know what had happened. But it is understood that it was revealed that he should place there the stone that had glanced off the martyr's elbow because in Greek “elbow” is called ankōn. But let those who know what miracles are done there teach us. These miracles did not begin to be done there until after the body of holy Stephen appeared. See, this young man was not cured there, so that he might be kept for our eyes.

At Uzalis, where my brother Evodius is bishop, ask how many miracles are done there, and you will find. But passing over the others, I will tell you one that was done there, so that you may see how great the presence of majesty is there. A certain woman lost her son, a catechumen, suddenly taken ill, in her lap, since she could not hurry to help him; and crying out she said, “My son has died a catechumen.”

And while Augustine was saying this, the people began to shout from the shrine of holy Stephen: “Thanks be to God! Praise to Christ!” In this continuous shouting the girl who had been cured was brought to the apse. When she was seen, the people, with joy and weeping, with no words in between but only the noise, kept up the shout for some time; and when silence was made, Bishop Augustine said: “It is written in the Psalm: ‘I said, I will declare my sin against myself to the Lord my God, and you forgave the impiety of my heart.’ ‘I said, I will declare’: I have not yet declared; ‘I said, I will declare,’ and you forgave. I commended this wretched woman, or rather, this woman who was wretched, I commended her to your prayers. We arranged to pray, and we have been heard. Let our joy be thanksgiving. Mother Church has been heard more quickly than that mother who cursed to destruction.” Turning to the Lord, etc.

Yesterday's sermon, which was interrupted by a greater joy, ought to be completed by us. For I had decided and had begun to tell your Charity why these brothers seem to me to have been directed to this city by divine authority, so that here the health they had long desired and awaited might be fulfilled in them. And wishing to say this, I had first begun to commend to your Charity the holy places in which they were not healed and from which they were directed to us. And I spoke of Ancona, a city of Italy; I had begun to speak of Uzalis, a city in Africa (it has as bishop my brother Evodius, whom you know), because the fame of that same martyr and of his works had driven them to come to that city too. There was not given there what could have been given, so that it might be given here, where it ought to be given. And when I wished to recall briefly the divine works done through the holy martyr, passing over the rest, I had set out to tell one; and as I was telling it, when health was restored to that girl, a sudden tumult of joy arose and forced us to end the sermon otherwise. So we know that such a miracle was done there, among many others which certainly cannot all be recounted. A certain woman lost in her lap her sick son, a catechumen, an infant at the breast. When she saw him lost and irreparably perished, she began to weep for him more as a believer than as a mother. For she did not long for her son's life except in the world to come, and she lamented that this had been taken from her and had perished. Filled with the feeling of confidence, she took him up dead and ran to the shrine of the blessed martyr Stephen, and began to demand her son from him, saying: “Holy martyr, you see that no consolation is left me. For I cannot say that my son has gone before, when you know that he has perished: for you see why I lament. Give back my son, that I may have him before the face of the one who crowned you.” While she prayed these and such things, with tears not so much asking as, as I said, demanding, her son came back to life. And because she had said, “You know why I seek him,” God wished also to show her true mind. She immediately took him to the presbyters; he was baptized, sanctified, anointed, hands were laid on him; all the sacraments completed, he was taken up. And she led him out with such a face as though she were not leading him to the rest of the tomb but to the bosom of the martyr Stephen. The woman's faithful heart was proved. Where then God did such a miracle through his martyr, could he not have cured these people there? And yet they were directed here to us. Turning to the Lord, etc.

On the feast day of the holy martyrs the sermon owed must be given. As we are about to speak of the glory of the martyrs, and briefly of the just cause of the martyrs, may the prayers of the martyrs help us. For this is what your Holiness ought to call to mind through these feasts: first, that we should not think we confer anything on the martyrs because we celebrate their days most solemnly. They do not need our festivities, because they rejoice in heaven with the angels; but they rejoice with us, not if we honour them, but if we imitate them. Although even our honouring them profits us, not them. But to honour and not to imitate is nothing else than to flatter falsely. For this purpose, then, these festivals were established in the church of Christ: that through them the gathering of the members of Christ may be admonished to imitate the martyrs of Christ. This is altogether the usefulness of this festival; there is no other. For if God is set before us to imitate, human frailty answers that it is too much for it to imitate one to whom it cannot be compared. If next the example of our Lord Jesus Christ himself is set before us to imitate, who, though he was God, was clothed in mortal flesh for this reason, to impress a precept on men bearing mortal flesh and to show an example; of whom it is also written, “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his footsteps”: still human frailty answers here too, “What likeness is there between me and Christ? He, though flesh, is yet the Word made flesh.” For the Word was made flesh to dwell in us: he took flesh, he did not lose the Word; he received what he was not, he did not lose what he was. “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” What likeness, then, is there between me and Christ? So to take away all the excuses of unbelieving weakness, the martyrs have built us a paved road. For it had to be built with stone slabs, so that we might walk on it safely. They made it with their blood, with their confessions. In short, despising their own bodies, they spread their bodies like garments before Christ, who was coming to win the nations, seated as it were on that beast. Who is there who would be ashamed to say, “I am not equal to God”? Plainly not equal. “I am not equal to Christ”? Not equal even to Christ as mortal. Peter was what you are, Paul was what you are, the apostles and prophets were what you are. If you are reluctant to imitate the Lord, imitate a fellow servant. The column of servants has gone before; the excuse of the lazy has been taken away. Finally he still says: “I am not equal to Peter, I am not equal to Paul.” Are you not equal to …? Simplicity is crowned; vanity is not excused. Finally, are you not equal to boys? Are you not equal to girls? Are you not equal to holy Valeriana? If you are still reluctant to follow, do you not want to cling to Victoria? For so the list of the twenty holy martyrs was read to us. It began with Bishop Fidentius and closed with a faithful woman, holy Victoria. The beginning from faith, the end in victory.

See then, brothers: celebrate the sufferings of the martyrs in such a way that you think of imitating the martyrs. They, that their punishment might be fruitful, chose their cause. For they paid attention to the Lord saying not “Blessed are those who suffer persecution,” but “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake.” Choose the cause, and do not care about the punishment. But if you do not choose the cause, both here and in the future you will find punishment. Do not let the tortures and punishments of evildoers, of the sacrilegious, of the enemies of peace and the foes of truth move you. For they do not die for the truth: they die so that the truth may not be announced, that the truth may not be preached, that the truth may not be held, that unity may not be loved, that love may not be cherished, that eternity may not be held. O worst of causes, therefore fruitless punishment! You who boast of your punishment, do you not notice that there were three crosses when the Lord suffered? The Lord suffered between two robbers: the punishment did not distinguish, but the cause distinguished. That is why the voice of the martyrs is in that Psalm: “Judge me, O God.” He does not fear judgment: for he has nothing in him for the fire to consume; where everything is gold, why is the flame dreaded? “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” Did he say, “Distinguish my punishment”? It would be said to him, “A robber suffered punishment.” Did he say, “Distinguish my cross”? There an adulterer too was fastened. Did he say, “Distinguish my chain”? There thieves too were bound. Did he say, “Distinguish my wound”? Criminals too were killed by the sword. So when he saw that in sufferings all things are common to good and bad, he cried out and said, “Judge me, Lord, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” If you distinguish my cause, you crown my patience. Let this be enough for your Charity as exhortation in this holy place; because the days are short, and there still remain things for us to do with your Charity in the greater basilica.

The feast of the most blessed martyrs has made the day more joyful for us. We rejoice because the martyrs have passed from the land of toil to the region of rest; but they earned this not by dancing but by praying, not by drinking but by fasting, not by quarrelling but by enduring. Their parents were saddened, I believe, when they went away to their passion; but they rejoiced and said, “I rejoiced in the things that were said to me: we will go into the house of the Lord.” Do not, parents, do not lament our joys. If you do not want those you have nourished to go to Gehenna, you ought to imitate them, not hinder them. They knew where they were going, and their unbelieving parents lamented without cause. But then, loving their sons according to the flesh, they mourned; afterwards, believing in God, they said, “You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have torn my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.” Would, brothers, that the sackcloth of repentance might be torn in us, and the price of pardon poured out. All the martyrs laid down here, left here, the burdens of this world's gains, and ran unencumbered like good soldiers on the way that leads to life; as it is written, “As having nothing, and possessing all things.” And truly on earth they had nothing, but in heaven they possessed perpetual happiness. They hastened devoutly to heaven and ran the way of life securely; and while still far off they stretched their hands to the palm. Run, saints; run so that you may obtain. “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it.” It is not narrow: whoever wishes to be happy, let him hasten to the kingdom of heaven. It is closed to no one except to him who shuts himself out. Christ is ready to receive his confessors. He himself says from above: “I watch you; I will help you as you contend, I will crown you as you conquer.”

Holding to this promise, the martyrs counted the terrors and threats of the persecutor as nothing. For when the persecutor said, “Sacrifice to the idols,” they answered: “We do not, because we have an eternal God in heaven, to whom we always sacrifice; but we do not offer victims to demons.” And the judge: “Why then do you act against the sacred decree?” They answered: “Because the heavenly Teacher says to us in the gospel, ‘Whoever leaves father and mother, and wife, and children, and all that he possesses, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will possess eternal life.’” And the judge: “So you will not obey the decrees of the emperors?” And they answered: “No.” And he: “What authority, then, can you have, when you see yourselves subject to punishment?” And the martyrs said: “We bear the authority of the eternal King; therefore we do not care for the authority of a mortal man.” Then, sent into prisons, they were loaded with chains. How much was said by the ungodly: “Where is their God? Let their God, in whom they believed, come and free them from the prisons, snatch them from the sword, snatch them from the beasts.” They said all these things, but they did not throw down those set on the rock. Those raged, but these did not fear. They knew where they were leaving them and to where they were hastening. The martyrs are crowned as confessors, and the judges have remained deserters. So God wishes to prove every Christian, so that, once proved, he may wish to crown him with the martyrs.

We have sung to God with the voice of the martyrs: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” It is the voice of the martyrs. Who would dare to say “Judge me, O God,” except one who has the best of causes? The soul is tempted by promises and threats, soothed by enticements, tortured by pains: all were conquered for Christ by the unconquered martyrs. The world that promises was conquered; the world that rages was conquered. Pleasure did not hold them; torture did not terrify them. Gold purified in the furnace does not fear the fire of Gehenna. That is why the most blessed martyr, as one purified by the fire of tribulation, says securely, “Judge me, O God.” Whatever good you find in me, judge. You have given me what pleases you; find it in me, and judge me. The sweetness of the world did not hold me; the tribulation of the world does not twist me away from you. “Judge me, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” Many suffer tribulations; they have an equal punishment, but not an equal cause. Adulterers suffer many evils, sorcerers suffer many evils, robbers and murderers suffer many evils, all criminals suffer many evils; I too, he says, your martyr, suffer many evils: but distinguish my cause from an unholy nation, of robbers, murderers, all criminals. They can suffer such things as I do; they cannot have such a cause. I am purified in the furnace; they turn to ashes. Heretics too suffer, and more at their own hands; and they want to be called martyrs. But against them we have sung, “Distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” Not the punishment but the cause makes a martyr.

In the Lord's passion there were three crosses; one punishment, but a different cause. A robber on the right, another robber on the left: in the middle the Judge, hanging on the cross between both, as though giving sentence from the tribunal, heard one saying, “Free yourself, if you are righteous”; he heard the other rebuking his fellow and saying, “Do you not fear God? We suffer these things for our evil deeds; but this man is righteous.” He had a bad cause, and he distinguished the cause of the martyrs. For what else is “We suffer these things for our evil deeds; but this man is righteous”? Who would distinguish the cause of the martyrs from the cause of the ungodly suffering punishment? This man, he says, is recognized as righteous; we suffer for ourselves, we suffer for our evil deeds. Lord: see what he says to his companion in punishment. Christ was hanging alike; but he was not alike held cheap. The Lord was recognized by one who was hanging. The sharing of the cross was one; the reward was not one. What am I saying? Do you give a reward to Christ, who is the giver of rewards? “Lord,” he says, “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He saw him hanging, he saw him crucified; and he hoped he would reign. “Remember me,” he says, “not now, but when you come into your kingdom. I have done many evils,” he says; “I do not hope for quick rest: let my torments last until your coming. Let me be tortured now; when you come, then spare me.” He was putting himself off, but Christ offered paradise to one who did not ask for it. “Remember me”: but when? “When you come into your kingdom.” And the Lord: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. My disciples have abandoned me, my disciples have despaired of me; and you on the cross have recognized me, you did not despise one about to die, you hoped he would reign: today you will be with me in paradise. I do not leave you.” The cause was distinguished; was the punishment? So let the voice sound: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” All of us who live in this world, let us labour to have a good cause: so that if anything happens to us in this world, we may go out from here with a good cause.

In the Psalm we said to the Lord our God, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” The death of the holy martyrs is precious, because their price is the blood of their Lord. For he suffered by his own passion, because they were going to suffer after him. He went ahead, and many followed. For the road was very rough; but he made it smooth when he passed over it before all. That is why the others did not fear to pass over, because he passed over first. For he died, and terrified his disciples. He rose again, and took away their fear, and gave them love. For when Christ died, the disciples trembled and thought that he had perished. When they followed, there see the grace of God. The robber believed at the time when the disciples trembled. For there was a robber on a cross with him, and he so believed in him that he said, “Lord, keep me in mind when you come into your kingdom.” Who said this to him, except the one who was hanging beside him? He was fixed beside him at his side; but he dwelt in his heart.

In that psalm where we said, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” there is also written what you heard: “I said in my ecstasy, Every man is a liar.” What do we say, brothers? “Every man is a liar.” Were the martyrs then liars too? But if the martyrs were truthful, how is it true that “every man is a liar”? Scripture says, “Every man is a liar.” If we say, “The martyrs were truthful,” we make Scripture a liar. But if Scripture spoke the truth, that every man is a liar, then the martyrs were liars. How then are we to show both that Scripture is truthful and that the martyrs were truthful? Or perhaps the martyrs were not men? But if they were men, how is it true that “every man is a liar”? What then shall we do? Shall we labour to show you both that Scripture is true and every man a liar, and that the martyrs were truthful, because they died for the truth? For they are martyrs because they suffered for the truth. For “martyr” is a Greek word, and in Latin it is called “witness.” If then they were true witnesses, they spoke true things, and by speaking true things they received crowns. But if they were false witnesses, which God forbid, they went not to crowns but to punishments, because it is written, “A false witness will not go unpunished.” So let us show them truthful. They have already shown themselves so, when they were willing even to die for the truth. How then is Scripture truthful, which says, “Every man is a liar”? Let us ask our Lord Jesus Christ, and he himself will solve this question for us. From where will he solve it for us? From the gospel, of which we were speaking just now, when it was being read to you.

For you heard, when the gospel was being read, that the Lord Jesus said to the martyrs: “When they hand you over, do not think about how you will speak or what you will say; for it will be given you in that hour what to speak. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Because if you speak, you tell a lie: for every man is a liar. So the Lord himself saw that every man is a liar, and he gave the martyrs his Spirit, so that not they should speak but his Spirit; so that they would not be liars, but truthful. See why they were truthful: because not they spoke, but his Spirit. And now, what we speak to you, if we speak from our own, we tell a lie. But if what we say to you is of the Spirit of God, it is therefore true. And you too, make progress: do not wish to speak from your own if you wish to speak true things; so that you may not remain lying men, but be truthful sons of God.

All heretics too suffer for falsehood, not for truth, because they lie against Christ himself. All pagans, ungodly people, whatever they suffer, suffer for falsehood. So let no one exalt himself and boast of his suffering, but let him first show the truth of his tongue. You show the punishment; I ask for the cause. You say, “I have suffered”; I say, “Why did you suffer?” For if we pay attention to sufferings alone, robbers too are crowned. Does such a man dare to say, “I have suffered so much and so much”? Why? Because it is said to him: “On account of your evil deeds; you had a bad punishment because you first had a bad cause.” If one must boast of suffering, even the devil himself can boast. See how much he suffers: everywhere his temples are overthrown, everywhere his idols are broken, everywhere his priests and those possessed by him are cut down. Can he say, “I too am a martyr, because I suffer so much”? So let the man of God first choose his cause, and go securely to the punishment. For if he goes to the punishment in a good cause, after the punishment he will receive a crown as well.

So “the righteous will be in everlasting remembrance, and will not fear an evil hearing.” For the Judge of all the living and the dead is coming, as we read in the gospel. And it is true, since the things we now see did not exist when they were spoken of as future. What you now see, the name of Christ preached through all nations, people converted to the one God, idols abandoned, demons abandoned, temples overthrown, images broken: all these did not yet exist, yet they were spoken of, and now they are seen. In the very writings, then, in which these things that we now see were written (and they were written when they were not seen, but were promised as future), in those very writings we read what has not yet come. For the day of judgment has not yet come, the resurrection of the dead has not yet come, he has not yet come to judge who first came to be judged. Judged unjustly, he will judge justly; deferring his power while he wishes to show his patience. He will come, then, and as he promised that he would come with his angels, so he will come and appear in brightness to all, including those who rise again. For each one will rise again with his cause. As each is received into prison now when he dies, so he goes forth to the judge. Now he would need to set his case in order; shut in, he cannot. Those, then, who have good causes are received into rest; those who have bad causes are received into punishments. But they will suffer greater punishments when they have risen again: in comparison with those, the punishments that wicked men who have died suffer now are like the dreams of people who are tormented in their sleep. For their souls suffer; the flesh does not suffer. But the torment is greater if one is tormented awake. So when all have risen and appeared before the just Judge, as he himself foretold, he will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats: he will put the goats on the left, but the sheep on the right. And he will say to those on the right, “Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the origin of the world.” At that voice those on the right rejoice, the righteous rejoice. But to those on the left he will say, “Go into the eternal fire with the devil and his angels.” From this evil hearing the righteous will not fear.

So, though they have not yet received their fruits, the holy martyrs are happy now, since their souls are with Christ. But what is prepared for them in the resurrection, who can explain in words? “What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it gone up into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” If no one explains in words the great goods that good believers will receive, not without reason are such rewards prepared for those who fought for the truth even to blood. The world did not entice them, terror did not break them, torments did not conquer them, flatteries did not deceive them. Their very bodies, in which they suffered great torments, will have great adornments.