than we, just because you have a temple which ' Luke iv. 24.
' Dent.
we have not? Did our fathers, who were pleasing to God, worship in that temple? Was it not in this mountain where we are they worshipped? We then do better, say they, who pray to God in this mountain, where our fathers prayed. Both peoples contended in ignorance, because they had not the husband: they were inflated against each other, on the one side in behalf of the temple, on the other in behalf of the mountain.
24. What, however, does the Lord teach the woman now, as one whose husband has begun to be present? "The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a pro- phet. Our fathers worshipped in this moun- tain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her. Woman, believe me." For the Church will come, as it is said in the Song of Songs, " will come, and will pass over from the be- ginning of faith. "3 She will come in order to pass through; and pass through she can- not, except from the beginning of faith. Rightly she now hears, the husband being present: " Woman, believe me." For there is that in thee now which can believe, since thy husband is present. Thou hast begun to be present with the understanding when thou calledst me a prophet. Woman, believe me; for if ye believe not, ye will not understand." Therefore, "Woman, believe me, for the hour will come when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we worship what we know; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour will come." Wlien? "And now is.'' Well, what hour? " When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth," not in this mountain, not in the temple, but in spirit and in truth. " For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.'' ^^'hy does the Father seek such to worship Him, not on a mountain, not in the temple, but in spirit and in truth? "God is Spirit." If God were body, it were right that He should be worshipped on a mountain, for a mountain is corporeal; it were right He should be worshipped in the temple, for a temple is corporeal. "God is Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship in spirit and in truth."
25. We have heard, and it is manifest; we had gone out of doors, and we are sent inward. \\'ould I could find, thou didst say, some high and lonely mountain! For I think that, be- cause God is on high, He hears me the rather from a high place. Because thou art on a mountain, dost thou imagine thyself near to 4 Isa. vii. 9, LXX.
io6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XV.
God. and that He will quickly hear thee, as if calling to Him from the nearest place? He dwells on high, but regards the lowly. " The Lord is near." To whom? To the high, perhaps? "To them who are contrite of heart."' 'Tis a wonderful thing: He dwell- eth on high, and yet is near to the lowly; " He hath regard to lowly things, but lofty things He knoweth from afar;"= He seeth the proud afar off, and He is the less near to them the higher they appear to themselves to be. Didst thou seek a mountain, then? Come down, that thou mayest come near Him, But wouldest thou ascend? Ascend, but do not seek a mountain. " The as- cents," it saith, " are in his heart, in the val- ley of weeping. "3 Xhe valley is humility. Therefore do. all within. Even if perhaps thou seekest some lofty place, some holy place, make thyself a temple for God within thee. " For the temple of God is holy, which temple are ye. "•• Wouldest thou pray in a temple? Pray in thyself. But be thou first a temple of God, for He in His temple hear- eth him that prays.
26. " The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. We worship that which we know: ye worship ye know not what; for salvation is of the Jews." A great thing has He attributed to the Jews; but do not under- stand Him to mean those spurious Jews. Understand that wall to which another is joined, that they maybe joined together, rest- ing on the corner-stone, which is Chrisc. For there is one wall from the Jews, another from the Gentiles; these walls are far apart, only until they are united in the Corner. Now the aliens were strangers and foreigners from the covenants of God.s According to this, it is said, " We worship what we know." It is said, indeed, in the person of the Jews, but not of all Jews, not of reprobate Jews, but of such as were the apostles, as were the prophets, as were all those saints who sold all their goods, and laid the price of their goods at the apostles' feet. " For God hath not re- jected His people which He foreknew." * 27. The woman heard this, and proceeded. She had already called Him a prophet; she observes that He with whom she was speaking uttered such things as still more pertained to the prophet; and what answer did she make? See: "The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias will come, who is called Christ: when He then is come, He will show us all things." What is this? Just now she saith, The Jews are contending for the temple, and 2 Ps. cxxxviii. 6. S Eph. ii. 11-22.
3 Ps. Ixxxiv. 6. 6 Rom. xi. 2.
we for this mountain: when He has come, He will despise the mountain, and overthrow the temple; He will teach us all things, that we may know how to worship in spirit and in truth. She knew who could teach her, but she did not yet know Him that was now teach- ing her. But now she was worthy to receive the manifestation of Him. Now Messias is Anointed: Anointed, in Greek, is Christ; in Hebrew, Messias; whence also, in Punic, Messe means Anoint. For the Hebrew, Punic and Svriac are cognate and neighboring- languages.
28. Then, " The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias will come, who is called Christ: when He then is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak with thee am He." She called her husband; he is made the head of the woman, and Christ is made the head of the man. Now is the woman constituted in faith, and ruled, as about to live rightly. After she heard this, "I that speak with thee am He," what fur- ther could she say, when the Lord Jesus willed to manifest Himself to the woman, to whom He had said, " Believe me?''
29. "And immediately came His disciples, and marvelled that He talked with the woman." That He was seeking her that was lost, He who came to seek that which was lost: they marvelled at this. They marvelled at a good thing, they were not suspecting an evil thing. " Yet no man said. What seekest Thou, or why talkest Thou with her?"
30. " The woman then left her water-pot. '* Having heard, " I that speak with thee am He," and having received (Christ the Lord into her heart, what could she do but now leave her water-pot, and run to preach the gospel? She cast out lust, and hastened to proclaim the truth. Let them who would preach the gospel learn; let them throw away their water-pot at the well. You remember what I said before of the water-pot: it was a vessel with which the water \v^s drawn, called hydria, from its Greek name, because water is hxdor in Greek; just as if it were called aquarium, from the Latin. She threw away her water-pot then, which was no longer of use, but a burden to her, such was her avidity to be satisfied with that water. Throwing her burden away, to make known Christ, " she ran to the city, and says to those men. Come, and see a man that told me all things that ever I did." Step by step, lest those men should get angry and indignant, and should persecute her. " Is this Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came to Him,'' 31. "And in the meanwhile His disciples besought Him, saying. Master, eat." For Tractate XV.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
107 they had gone to buy meat, and had returned. " But He said, I have meat to eat which ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought Him aught to eat?" What wonder if that woman did not understand about the water? See; the disciples do not yet understand the meat. But He heard their thoughts, and now as a master instructs them, not in a round-about way, as He did the woman while He still sought her husband, but openly at once: " My meat," saith He, " is to do the will of Him that sent me." Therefore, in the case of that woman, it was even His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him. That was the reason why He said, " I thirst, give me to drink;" namely, to work faith in her, and to drink of her faith, and to transplant her into His own body, for His body is the Church. Therefore He saith," My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me."
32. " Say ye not, that there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? " He was aglow for the work, and was arranging to send forth laborers. You count four months to the harvest; I show you another harvest, white and ready. Behold, I say unto you, " Lift up your e3'es, and see that the fields are already white for the harvest." There- fore He is going to send forth the reapers. *' For in this is the saying true, that one reap- eth, another soweth: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not labored: others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor." What then? He sent reapers; sent He not the sowers? Whither the reapers? Where others labored already. For where labor had already been bestowed, surely there had been sowing; and what had been sown had now become ripe, and required the sickle and the threshing. Whither, then, were the reapers to be sent? Where the prophets had already preached before; for they were the sowers. For had they not been the sowers, whence had this come to the woman. " I know that Messias will come "? That woman was now ripened fruit, and the harvest fields were white, and sought the sickle. "I sent you," then.
Whither? " To reap what ye have not sown: others sowed, and ye are entered into their labors." Who labored? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Read their labors; in all their labors there is a prophecy of Christ, and for that reason they were sowers. Moses, and all the other patriarchs, and all the prophets, how much they suffered in that cold season when they sowed! Therefore was the harvest now ready in Judea. Justly was the corn there said to be as it were ripe, when so many thousands of men brought the price of their goods, and, laying them at the apostles' feet, having eased their shoulders of this worldly bsgg^ge, began to follow the Lord Christ. Verily the harvest was ripe. What was made of it? Of that harvest a few grains were thrown out, and sowed the whole world; and another harvest is rising which is to be reaped in the end of the world. Of that harvest it is said, " They that sow in tears shall reap with joy."' But to that harvest not apostles, but angels, shall be sent forth. "The reapers," saith He, "are the angels."" That harvest, then, is growing among tares, and is awaiting to be purged in the end of the world. But that harvest to which the disciples were sent first, where the prophets labored, was already ripe. But yet, brethren, observe what was said: "may rejoice together, both he that soweth and he that reapeth." They had dis- similar labors in time, but the rejoicing tjiey shall enjoy alike equally; they shall receive for their wages together eternal life.
2S. "And many Samaritans of that city be- lieved on Him, because of the saying of the woman, who testified. He told me all that ever I did. And when the Samaritans came to Him, they besought Him that He "would tarry with them; and He tarried there two days. And many more believed because of His word; and said to the woman. Now we believe, not because of thy words; for we have heard Him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." This also must be slightly noticed, for the lesson is come to an end. The woman first announced Him, and the Samaritans l)elieved her testimony; and they besought Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days, and many more believed. And when they had believed, they said to the woman, " Now we believe, not because of thy word; but we are come to know Him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world: '' first by report, then by His presence. So it is to-day with them that are without, and are not yet Christians. Christ is made known to them by Christian friends; and just upon the report of that woman, that is, the Church, they come to Clirist, they believe through this report. He stays with them two days, that is, gives them two precepts of charity; and many more believe, and more firmly believe, on Him, because He is in truth the Saviour of the world.
■ Ps, cxxvi. 5.
3 Matt..\iii. 39.
io8 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XVI.
TRACTATE XVI.
Chapter IV. 43-54.
1. The Gospel Lesson of to-day follows that of yesterday, and this is the subject of our discourse. In this passage the meaning, indeed, is not difficult of investigation, but worthy of preaching, worthy of admiration and praise. Accordingly, in reciting this passage of the Gospel, we must commend it to your attention, rather than laboriously ex- pound it.
Now Jesus, after His stay of two days in Samaria, "departed into Galilee," where He was brought up. And the evangelist, as he goes on, says, " For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own coun- try." It was not because He had no honor in Samaria that Jesus departed thence after two days; for Samaria was not His ov/n coun- try, but Galilee. Whilst, therefore. He left Samaria so quickly, and came to Galilee, where He had been brought up, how does He testify that "a prophet hath no honor in his own country"? Rather does it seem that He might have testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country, had He dis- dained to go into Galilee, and had stayed in Samaria.
2. Now mark well, beloved, while the Lord suggests and bestows what I may speak, that here is intimated to us no slight mystery. You know the question before us; seek ye out the solution of it. But, to make the so- lution desirable, let us repeat the theme. The point that troubles us is, why the evangelist said, " For Jesus Himself testified that a pro- phet hath no honor in his own country." Urged by this, we go back to the preceding words, to discover the evangelist's intention in saying this; and we find him relating, in the preceding words of the narrative, that after two days Jesus departed from Samaria into Galilee. Was it for this, then, thou saidst, O evangelist, that Jesus testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country, just because He left Samaria after two days, and made haste to come to Galilee? On the contrary, I should have thought it more likely, that if Jesus had no honor in His own country, He should not have hastened to it, and left Sa- maria. But if I am not mistaken, or rather, because it is true, and I am not mistaken; for the evangelist saw what he was saying better than I can see it, saw the truth better than I do, he who drank it in from the Lord's bosom: for the evangelist is the same John who, among all the disciples, reclined on the Lord's breast, and whom the Lord, owing love to all, yet loved above the rest. Is it he, then, that should be mistaken, and I right in my opinion? Rather, if I am piously- minded, let me obediently hear what he said, that I may be worthy of thinking as he thought.
3. Hear then, dearly beloved, what I think in this matter, without prejudice to your own judgment, if you have formed a better. For we have all one Master, and we are fellow- disciples in one school. This, then, is my opinion, and see whether my opinion is not true, or near the truth. In Samaria He spent two days, and the Samaritans believed on Him; many were the days He spent in Galilee, and yet the Galileans did not believe on Him. Look back to the passage, or recall in memory the lesson and the discourse of yesterday. He came into Samaria, where at first He had been preached by that woman with whom He had spoken great mysteries at Jacob's well. After they had seen and heard Him, the Samaritans believed on Him because of the woman's word, and believed more firmly because of His own word, even many more believed: thus it is written. After passing two days there (in which number of days is mystically indicated the number of the two precepts on which hang the whole law and the prophets, as you remember we intimated to you yesterday), He goes into Galilee, and comes to the city Cana of Galilee, where He made the water wine. And there, when He turned the water into wine, as John himself writes, His disciples believed on Him; but, of course, the house was full with a crowd of guests. So great a miracle was wrought, and yet only His disciples believed on Him. He has now returned to this city of Galilee. "And, behold, a certain ruler, whose son was sick, came to Him, and began to beseech Him to go down " to that city or house, " and heal his son; for he was at the point of death." Did he who besought not be- lieve? What dost thou expect to hear from me? Ask the Lord what He thought of him. Having been besought, this is what He an- swered: "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not." He shows us a man luke- warm, or cold in faith, or of no faith at all; but eager to try by the healing of his son what manner of person Christ was, who He Tractate XVI.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
109 was, what He could do. The words of the sLippUant, indeed, we have heard: we have not seen the heart of the doubter; but He who both heard the words and saw the heart has told us this. In short, the evangelist himself, by the testimony of his narrative, shows us that the man who desired the Lord to come to his house to heal his son, had not yet believed. For after he had been in- formed that his son was whole, and found that he had been made whole at that hour in which the Lord had said, "Go thy way, thy son liveth;" then he saith, "And himself be- lieved, and all his house." Now, if the reason why he believed, and all his house, was that he was told that his son was whole, and found the hour they told him agreed with the hour of Christ's foretelling it, it follows that when he was making the request he did not yet believe. The Samaritans had waited for no sign, they believed simply His word; but His own fellow-citizens deserved to hear this said to them, " Except ye see signs and won- ders, ye believe not;" and even there, not- withstanding so great a miracle was wrought, there did not believe but " himself and his house." At His discourse alone many of the Samaritans believed; at that miracle, in the place where it was wrought, only that house believed. What is it, then, brethren, that the Lord doth show us here? Galilee of Judea was then the Lord's own country, because He was brought up in it. But now that the cir- cumstance portends something, — for it is not without cause that " prodigies " are so called, but because they portend or presage some- thing: for the word "prodigy" is so termed as if it were porrodicium, quod porro dicaf, what betokens something to come, and por- tends something future,- -now all those cir- cumstances portended something, predicted something; let us just now assume the country of our Lord Jesus Christ after the flesh (for He had no country on earth, except after the flesh which He took on earth); let us, I say, assume the Lord's own country to mean the people of the Jews. Lo, in His own country He hath no honor. Observe at this moment the multitudes of the Jews; observe that nation now scattered over the whole world, and I^Uicked up l)y the roots; observe the broken branches, cut off, scattered, withered, which being broken off, the wild olive has deserved to be grafted in; look at the multitude of the Jews: what do they say to us even now? " He whom you worship and adore was our brotiier." And we reply, "A projih.et hath no honor in his own country." In short, tiiose Jews saw the Lord as He walked on the earth and worked miracles; ihey saw Him giving sight to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, loosing the tongues of the dumb, bracing up the limbs of the paralytics, walking on the sea, commanding the winds and waves, raising the dead: they saw Him work- ing such great signs, and after all that scarcely a fevv^ believed. I am speaking to God's people; so many of us have believed, what signs have we seen? It is tlius, therefore, that what occurred at that time betokened what is now going on. The Jews were, or rather are, like the Galileans; we, like those Samaritans. We have heard the gospel, have given it our consent, have believed on Christ through the gospel; we have seen no signs, none do we demand.
4. For, though one of the chosen and holy twelve, yet he was an Israelite, of the Lord's nation, that Thomas who desired to put his fingers into the places of the wounds. The Lord censured him just as He did this ruler. To the ruler He said, " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not; " and to Thomas He said, " Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed." He had come to the Galileans after the Samaritans, who had believed His word, before whom He wrought no miracles, whom He without anxiety quickly left, strong in faith, because by the presence of His divi- nity He had not left them. Now, then, when the Lord said to Thomas, "Come, reach hither thy hand, and be not faithless, but be- lieving;" and he, having touched the places of the wounds, exclaimed, and said, "My Lord, and my God;" he is chided, and has it said to him, " Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed." Why, but " because a prophet has no honor in his own country? " But since this Prophet has honor among strangers, what follows? "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."' We are the persons here foretold; and that which the Lord by anticipation praised, He has deigned to fulfill even in us. They saw Him, who crucified Him, and touched Him with their hands, and thus a few believed; we have not seen nor handled Him, we have heard and believed. May it be our lot, that the blessed- .ness which He has promised may be made good in us: both here, because we have been preferred to His own country; and in the world to come, because we have been grafted in instead of the branches that were broken off!
5. For He showed that He would break off these branches, and ingraft this wild olive, when moved l)y the faith of the centurion, who said to Him, " I am not worthy that thou ' John XX. 29.
1 lO THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XVI.
shouldest come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my child shall be healed: for I also am a man put under authority, hav- ing soldiers under me; and I say to one. Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he Cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it, Jesus turned to those who followed Him, and said, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith in Israel." Why not found so great faith in Israel? "Because a prophet has no honor in his own country." Could not the Lord have said to that centu- rion, what He said to this ruler, "Go, thy child liveth?'' See the distinction: this ruler desired the Lord to come down to his house; that centurion declared himself to be un- worthy. To the one it was said, " I will come and heal him;" to the other, "Go, thy son liveth." To the one He promised His pres- ence; the other He healed by His word. The ruler sought His presence by force; the cen- turion declared himself unworthy of His pres- ence. Here is a ceding to loftiness; there, a conceding to humility. As if He said to the ruler, ''Go, thy son liveth; " do not weary me. " E.xeept ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not;'^ thou desirest my presence in thy house, I am able to command by a word;