7. As weak, then, He nourishes the weak, as a hen her chickens; for He likened Him- Tractate XV.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
lOl self to a hen: " How often," He saitli to Jerusalem, "would I have gathered thy chil- dren under my wings, as a hen her chickens; but thou wouldest not I " ' And you see, brethren, how a hen becomes weak with her chickens. No other bird, when it is a mother, is recognized at once to be so. We see all kinds of sparrows building their nests before our eyes; we see swallows, storks, doves, every day building their nests; but we do not know them to be parents, except when we see them on their nests. But the hen is so en- feebled over her brood, that even if the chick- ens are not following her, if thou see not the young ones, yet thou knowest her at once to be a mother. With her wings drooping, her feathers ruffled, her note hoarse, in all her limbs she becomes so sunken and abject, that, as I have said, even though thou seest not ker young, yet thou perceivest her to be a mother. In such manner was Jesus weak, wearied with His journey. His journey is the flesh assumed for us. For how can He, who is present everywhere, have a journey. He who is nowhere absent? Whither does He go, or whence, but that He could not come to us, except He had assumed the form of visible flesh? Therefore, as He deigned to come to us in such manner, that He ap- peared in the form of a servant by the flesh assumed, that same assumption of flesh is His journey. Thus, " wearied with His jour- ney," what else is it but wearied in the flesh? Jesus was weak in the flesh: but do not thou become weak; but in His weakness be strong, because what is "the weakness of God is stronger than men.
image of things.
Adam, 8. Under this who was the figure of Him that was to be, afforded us a great indication of this mystery; rather, God afforded it in him. For he was deemed worthy to receive a wife while he slept, and that wife was made for him of his own rib: since from Christ, sleeping on the cross, was the Church to come, — from His side, namely, as He slept; for it was from His side, pierced with the spear, as He hung on the cross, that the sacraments of the Church flowed fortli. But why have I chosen to say this, brethren? Because it is the weakness of Christ that makes us strong. A remarkable figure of this went before in the case of Adam. God could have taken flesh from the man to make of it a woman, and it seems that this niiglit have been the more suitable. For it was the weaker sex that was being made, and weakness ought to have been made of flesh rather than of bone; for ' Matt, xxiii. 37.
' Matt, xxiii. 37.
the bones are the stronger parts ii the flesh. He took not flesh to make of it a woman; but took a bone, and of the bone was the woman shaped, and flesh was filled in into the place of the bone. He could have restored bone for bone; He could have taken, not a rib, but flesh, for the making of the woman. What, then, did this signify? Woman was made, as it were, strong, from the rib; Adam was made, as it were, weak, from the flesh. It is Christ and the Church; His weakness is our strength.
9. But why at the sixth hour? Because at the sixth age of the world. In the Gospel, count up as an hour each, the first age from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the removing to Babylon; the fifth, from the removing to Babylon to the baptism of John: thence is the sixth being enacted. Why dost thou marvel? Jesus came, and, by humbling Him- self, came to a well. He came wearied, be- cause He carried weak flesh. At the sixth hour, because in the sixth age of the world. To a well, because to the depth of this our habitation. For which reason it is said in the psalm: " From the depth have I cried unto Thee, O Lord."- He sat, as I said, because He was humbled.
10. "And there came a woman."' Figure of the Church not yet justified, but now about to be justified: for this is the subject of the discourse. She comes ignorant, she finds Him, and there is a dealing with her. Let us see what, and wherefore. " There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water." The Samaritans did not belong to the nation of the Jews: they were foreigners, though they in- habited neighboring lands. It would take a long time to relate the origin of the Samari- tans; that we may not be detained b}' long discourse of this, and leave necessary matters unsaid, suffice to say, then, that we regard the Samaritans as aliens. And, lest you should think that I have said this with more boldness than truth, hear the Lord Jesus Himself, what He said of that Samaritan, one of the ten lepers whom He had cleansed, who alone returned to give thanks: " Were there not ten cleansed? And where are the nine? There was not another to give glory to God, save this stranger." ^ It is pertinent to the image of the reality, that this woman, who bore the ty{)e of the Church, comes of strang- ers: for the Church was to come of the Gen- tiles, an alien from the race of the Jews. In that woman, then, let us hear ourselves, and in her acknowledge ourselves, and in her give = Ps.
I.iikp x\ii. 17.
I02 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XV.
thanks to God for ourselves. For she was the figure, not the reaUty; for she both first showed forth the figure and became the real- ity. For she believed on Him who, of her, set the figure before us. " She cometh, then, to draw water.'' Had simply come to draw water, as people are wont to do, be they men or women.
11. "Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the Samaritan woman unto Him, How is it that thou, being a JeWj askest drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans," You see that they were aliens: indeed, the Jews would not use their vessels. And as the woman brought with her a vessel with which to draw the water, it made her wonder that a Jew sought drink of her.— a thing which the Jews were not accustomed to do. But He who was asking drink was thirsting for the faith of the woman herself.
12. At length, hear who it is that asketh drink: " Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest, it may be, have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." He asks to drink, and promises to give drink. He longs as one about to receive; He abounds as one about to satisfy. " If thou knewest," saith He, "the gift of God." The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But as yet He speaks to the woman guardedly, and enters into her heart by degrees. It may be He is now teaching her. For what can l3e sweeter and kinder than that exhortation? '' If thou knewest the gift of God," etc.: thus far He keeps her in suspense. That is commonly called living water which issues from a spring: that which is collected from rain in pools and cisterns is not called living water. And it may have flowed from a spring; yet if it should stand collected in some place, not ad- mitting to it that from which it flowed, but, with the course interrupted, separated, as it were, from the channel of the fountain, it is not called " living water:" but that is called living water which is taken as it flows. Such water there was in that fountain. Why, then, did He promise to give that which He was asking?
13. The woman, however, being in sus- pense, saith to Him, " Lord, thou hast noth- ing to draw with, and the well is deep.'' See how she understood the living water, simply the water which was in that fountain. " Thou wouldst give me living water, and I carry that with which to draw, and thou dost not. The living water is here; how art thou to give it me?" Understanding another thing, and taking it carnally, sne does in a manner knock, that the Master may open up that which is closed. She was knocking In igno- rance, not with earnest purpose; she is still an object of pity, not yet of instruction.
14. The Lord speaks somewhat more clearly of that living water. Now the woman had said, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, his children, and his cattle? " Thou canst not give me of the living water of this well, because thou hast nothing to draw with: perhaps thou promisest another fountain? Canst thou be better than our father, who dug this well, and used it himself, and his? Let the Lord, then, declare what He called living water. " Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst forever; but the water which I shall give him will be- come in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life." The Lord has spoken more openly: "It shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlast- ing life. He that drinketh of this v/ater shall not thirst forever." What more evident than that it was not visible, but invisible water, that He was promising? What more evident than that He was speaking, not in a carnal, but in a spiritual sense?
15. Still, however, the woman has her mind on the flesh: she is delighted with the thought of thirsting no more, and fancies that this was promised to her by the Lord after a car- nal sense: which it will be indeed, but in the resurrection of the dead. She desired this now. God had mdeed granted once to His servant Elias, that during forty days he neither hungered nor thirsted. Could not He give this always, seeing He had power to give it during forty days?, She, however, sighed for it, desiring to h^ve no want, no toil. To be always coming to that fountain, to be burdened with a weight with which to supply her want, and, when that which she had drawn is spent, to be obliged to return again: this was a daily toil to her; because that want of hers was to be relieved, not ex- tinguished. Such a gift as Jesus promised delighted her; she asks Him to give her liv- ing water.
16. Nevertheless, let us not overlook the fact that it is something spiritual that the Lord was promising. What means, "Whoso shall drink of this water shall thirst again? " It is true as to this water; it is true as to what the water signified. Since the water in the Tractate XV.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
103 well is the pleasure of the world in its dark depth: from this men draw it with the vessel of lusts. Stooping forward, they let down the lust to reach the pleasure fetched from the depth of the well, and enjoy the pleasure and the preceding lust let down to fetch it. For he who has not despatched his lust in advance cannot get to the pleasure. Consider lust, then, as the vessel; and pleasure as the water from the depth of the well: when one has got at the pleasure of this world, it is meat to him, it is drink, it is a bath, a show, an amour; can it be that he will not thirst again? Therefore, " AVhoso shall drink of this water," saith He, " will thirst again;" but if he shall receive water of me, " he shall never thirst." "We shall be satisfied," it saith, "with the good things of Thy house." ' Of what water, then, is He to give, but of that of which it is said, " With Thee is the fountain of life"? For how shall they thirst, who " shall be drunk with the fatness of Thy house ''?- 17. What He was promising them was a certain feeding and abundant fullness of the Holy Spirit: but the woman did not yet un- derstand; and not understanding, how did she answer -• " The woman saith unto Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." Want forced her to labor, and her weakness was pleading against the toil. Would that she heard the invitation, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you! "^ This is, in fact, what Jesus was saying to her, that she might no longer labor: but she did not yet understand.
18. At length, wishing her to understand, " Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither." What means this, "Call thy husband "? Was it through her husband that He wished to give her that water? Or, because she did not understand, did He wish to teach her through her husband? Perhaps it was as the apostle says concerning women, "If they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home." But this the apos- tle says of that where there is no Jesus pre- sent to teach. It is said, in short, to women whom the apostle was forbidding to speak in the Church.* But when the Lord Himself was at hand, and in person speaking to her, what need was there that He should speak to her by her husband? Was it through her husband that he spoke to Mary, while sitting at His feet and receiving His word; while Martha, wholly occupied with much serving, murmured at the happiness of her sister?5 Wherefore, my brethren, let us hear and un- 1 Matt. xi.;8.
derstand what it is that the Lord says to. the woman, " Call thy husband." For it may be that He is saying also to our soul, " Call thy husband.'' Let us inquire also concerning the soul's husband. Why, is not Jesus Him- self already the soul's real husband? Let the understanding be present, since what we are about to say can hardly be apprehended but by attentive hearers: therefore let the understanding be present to apprehend, and perhaps that same understanding will be found to be the husband of the soul.
19. Now Jesus, seeing that the woman did not understand, and willing her to understand, says to her, " Call thy husband." " For the reason why thou knowest not what I say is, because thy understanding is not present: I am speaking after the Spirit, and thou art hearing after the flesh. The things which I speak relate neither to the pleasure of the ears, nor to the eyes, nor to the smell, nor to the taste, nor to the touch; by the mind alone are they received, by the understanding alone are they drawn up: that understanding is not with thee, how canst thou apprehend what I am saying? ' Call thy husband,' bring thy understanding forward. What is it for thee to have a soul? It is not much, for a beast has a soul. Wherein art thou better than the beast? In having understanding, which the beast has not." Then what is " Call thy hus- band "? "Thou dost not apprehend me, thou dost not understand me: I am speaking to thee of the gift of God, and thy thought is of the flesh; thou wishest not to thirst in a carnal sense, I am addressing myself to the spirit: thy understanding is absent. ' Call th}' husband.' Be not as the horse and mule, which have no imderstanding. ' " Therefore, my brethren, to have a soul, and not to have understnnding, that is, not to use it, not to live according to it, is a beast's life. For we have somewhat in common with the beasts, that by which we live in the flesh, but it must be ruled by the understanding. For the motions of the soul, which moves after the flesh, and longs to run unrestrainedly loose after carnal delights, are ruled over by the understanding. Which is to be called the husband? — that which rules, or that which is ruled? Without doubt, when the life is well ordered the understanding rules the soul, for itself belongs to the soul. For the uniler- standing is not something other than the soul, but a thing of the soul: as the eye is not something other than the flesh, but a thing of the flesh. But whilst the eye is a thing of the flesh, yet it alone enjoys the light; and the other fleshy members may be steeped in light, but they cannot feel the light: the eye I04 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractatk XV.
alone is both bathed in it, and enjoys it. Thus in our soul there is a something called the understanding. This something of the soul, which is called understanding and mind, is enlightened by the higher light. Now that higher light, by which the human mind is enlightened, is God; for "that was the true light which enlighteneth every man coming into this world." Such a light was Christ, such a light was speaking witli the woman: yet she was not present with the understand- ing, to have it enlightened with that light; not merely to have it shed upon it, but to enjoy it. Therefore the Lord said, " Call thy husband," as if He were to say, I wish to enlighten, and yet there is not here whom I may enlighten: bring hither the understand- ing through which thou mayest be taught, by which thou mayest be ruled. Thus, put the soul without the understanding for the woman; and having the understanding as having the husband. But this husband does not rule the wife well, except when he is ruled by a higher. " For the head of the woman is the man, but the head of the man is Christ.'" The head of the man was talk- ing with the woman, and the man was not present. And so the Lord, as if He said. Bring hither thy head, that he may receive his head, says, " Call thy husband, and come hither;" that is. Be here, be present: for thou art as absent, while thou understandest not the voice of the Truth here present; be thou present here, but not alone; be thou here with thy husband.
20. And, the husband being not yet called, still she does not understand, still she minds the flesh; for the man is absent: "I have not," saith she, "a husband." And the Lord proceeds and utters mysteries. Thou mayest understand that woman really to have had at that time no husband; she was living with some man, not a lawful husband, rather a paramour than a husband. And the Lord said to her, " Thou hast well said, I have not a husband." How then didst Thou say, "Call thy husband"? Now hear how the Lord knew well that she had not a husband, " He says to her," etc. In case the woman might suppose that the Lord had said, " Thou hast well said, I have not a husband," just because He had learned this fact of her, and not because he knew it by His own divinity, hear something which thou hast not said: "For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; this thou hast said truly."
21. Once more He urges us to investigate ' I Cor. xi. 3.
the matter somewhat more exactly concern- ing these five husbands. Many have in fact understood, not indeed absurdly, nor so far improbably, the five husbands of this woman to mean the five books of Moses. For the Samaritans made use of these books, and were under the same law: for it was from it they had circumcision. But since we are hemmed in by what follows, "And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband," it appears to me that we can more easily take the five senses of the body to be the five former hus- bands of the soul. For when one is born, before he can make use of the mind and rea- son, he is ruled only by the senses of the flesh. In a little child, the soul seeks for or shuns what is heard, and seen, and smells, and tastes, and is perceived by the touch. It seeks for whatever soothes, and shuns whatever offends, those five senses. At first, the soul lives according to these five senses,-- as five husbands; because it is ruled by them. But why are they called husbands? Because they are lawful and right: made indeed by God, and are the gifts of God to the soul. The soul is still weak while ruled by these five husbands, and living under these five husbands; but when she comes to years of exercising reason, if she is taken in hand by the noble discipline and teaching of wisdom, these five men are succeeded in their rule by no other than the true and lawful husband, and one better than they, who both rules bet- ter and rules for eternity, who cultivates and instructs her for eternity. For the five senses rule us, not for eternity, but for those tem- poral things that are to be sought or shunned. But when the understanding, imbued by wis- dom, begins to rule the soul, it knows now not only how to avoid a pit, and to walk on even ground — a thing which the eyes show to the soul even in its weakness; nor merely to be charmed with musical voices, and to repel harsh sounds; nor to delio;ht in agreeable scents, and to refuse offensive smells; nor to be captivated by sweetness, and displeased with bitterness; nor to be soothed with what is soft, and hurt with what is rough. For all these things are necessary to the soul in its weakness. Then what rule is made use of by that understanding? Not one to discern between black and white, but between just and unjust, between good and evil, between the profitable and the unprofitable, between chas- tity and impurity, that it may love the one and avoid the other; between charity and hatred, to be in the one, not to be in the other.
22. This husband had not yet succeeded to those five husbands in that woman. And Tractate XV.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
lo: lo: where he does not succeed, error sways. For when the soul has begun to be capable of reason, it is ruled either b}' the wise mind or by error: but yet error does not rule but destroys. Wherefore, after these five senses was that woman still wandering, and error was tossin^: her to and fro. And this error was not a lawful husband, but a paramour: for that reason the Lord saith to her, "Thou hast well said, I have not a husband. For thou hast had five husbands." The five senses of the flesh ruled thee at first; thou art come to the age of using reason, and yet thou art not come to wisdom, but art fallen mto error. Therefore, after those five hus- bands, " this whom thou now hast is not thy husband." And if not a husband, what was he but a paramour? And so, "Call," not the paramour, but " thy husband," that thou mayest receive me with the understanding, and not by error have some false notion of me. For the woman was still in error, as she was thinking of that water; whilst the Lord was now speaking of the Holy Ghost. Why was she erring, but because stie had a paramour, not a husband? Put away, there- fore, that paramour who corrupts thee, and " go, call thy husband." Call, and come that thou mayest understand me.
23. "The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I see that thou art a prophet." The husband begins to come, he is not yet fully come. She accounted the Lord a prophet, and a prophet indeed He was; for it was of Him- self He said, that " a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country." ' Again, of Him it was said to Moses, "A Prophet will I raise up to them of their brethren, like unto thee."- Like, namely, as to the form of the flesh, but not in the eminence of His majesty. Accordingly we find the Lord Jesus called a Prophet. Hence this woman is now not far wTong. " I see," she saith, " that thou art a prophet." She begins to call the husband, and to shut out the paramour; she begins to ask about a matter that is wont to disquiet her. For there was a contention lietween the Samaritans and the Jews, because the Jews worshipped (iod in the temple built by Solo- mon; but the Samaritans, being situated at a distance from it, did not worship there. For this reason the Jews, because they worshipped God in the temple, boasted themselves to be better than the Samaritans. *' For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans:" be- cause the latter said to them. How is it you boast and account yourselves to be better