Sermones. De Symbolo Ad Catechumenos

Sermon of Saint Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, on the Creed, to the Catechumens. Sermons On the Creed. On Christian Discipline. On the New Song. On the Fourth Day of the Week. On the Deluge. On the Time of the Barbarians. On the Usefulness of Fasting. On the Destruction of the City. Chapter One. — i. The Creed is the rule of faith. The Creed is collected from the Scriptures. God is omnipotent. Infants are exsufflated and exorcised. Receive, children, the rule of faith, which is called the Creed. And when you have received it, write it in your heart, and daily recite it to yourselves: before you sleep, before you go forth, fortify yourselves with your Creed. No one writes the Creed so that it may be read; but for reciting, lest forgetfulness perhaps erase what diligence has handed down, let your memory be your codex. What you are about to hear, this you are to believe; and what you have believed, this you are also to render with your tongue. For the Apostle says: Belief in the heart is for righteousness, but confession by the mouth is for salvation (Rom. 10:10). For this is the Creed, which you are to recite and render. These words which you have heard are scattered throughout the divine Scriptures; but they are collected from there and reduced to one, lest the memory of slow men should labor; so that every man can say, can hold what he believes. For do you now only hear that God is omnipotent? But you begin to have him as a father when you are born through Mother Church.

Therefore, you have already received it, meditated upon it, and held it in meditation, so that you may say: I believe in God the Father Almighty. God is almighty; and although He is almighty, He cannot die, cannot be deceived, cannot lie; and, as the Apostle says, He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). How many things He cannot do, and yet He is almighty; and He is almighty precisely because He cannot do these things. For if He could die, He would not be almighty; if He could lie, be deceived, deceive, or act unjustly, He would not be almighty: because if such things were in Him, He would not be worthy to be almighty. Absolutely, our Almighty Father cannot sin. He does whatever He wills: that itself is omnipotence. He does whatever He wills well, whatever He wills justly; but whatever is done wrongly, He does not will. No one resists the Almighty so that He does not do what He wills. He Himself made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, both invisible and visible: invisible, such as Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, Powers, Archangels, Angels—who, if we live well, are our fellow citizens. He made visible things in heaven: the sun, the moon, the stars. He adorned the earth with its land animals, filled the air with birds, the land with walking creatures and serpents, the sea with swimming creatures: He filled everything with its own proper creatures. He also made man in His image and likeness in the mind: for there is the image of God; therefore, the mind itself cannot be comprehended even by itself, where the image of God is.

We were made to rule over the other creatures; but through sin we fell in the first man, and all came into the inheritance of death. We were made lowly, mortal, filled with fears and errors: this is the merit of sin, with which merit and guilt every human is born (Gen. I–III). Therefore, as you have seen today, as you know, even infants are blown upon and exorcised, so that the hostile power of the devil, who deceived man, may be driven from them, that he might possess men. It is not, then, God’s creature in infants that is exorcised or blown upon; but that one under whom all who are born with sin lie; for he is the prince of sinners. And on this account, because of the one who fell and sent all into death, one without sin was sent, who leads all who believe in him to life, freeing them from sin. CHAPTER II. — 3. That the Son of God, our Lord, is truly God and omnipotent. The Father and the Son are not two gods, but one God. The Son is omnipotent and equal, begotten by the Father. Therefore we also believe in his Son, that is, of God the Father Almighty, the only one, our Lord. When you hear “the only Son of God,” recognize God. For the only Son of God could not be not God. What He is, He begot; even if what He begot is not. But if He is a true Son, He is what the Father is: if He is not what the Father is, He is not a true Son. Consider mortal and earthly creatures: each thing gives birth to what it is.

A man does not beget a cow, nor a sheep a dog, nor a dog a sheep. Whatever begets, begets what it is. Hold this therefore strongly, firmly, faithfully: that God the Father begot what He Himself is—omnipotent. These mortal creatures beget through corruption. Does God beget in that way? A mortal begets what it is; an immortal begets what it is; a corruptible begets a corruptible; an incorruptible begets an incorruptible; a corruptible begets corruptibly, an incorruptible begets incorruptibly—so much so that what He is, being one, He begets one, and therefore the only one. You know that when I recited the Creed to you, I said, and you must believe thus: that we believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His only Son. Now when He is the only Son, believe Him to be Almighty. For God the Father does not do what He wills, and God the Son not do what He wills. There is one will of the Father and the Son, because there is one nature. For the will of the Son cannot be separated in any degree from the will of the Father. God and God, both are one God; Almighty and Almighty, both are one Almighty.

We do not introduce two gods, as some do, who say: God the Father and God the Son, but God the Father is greater, God the Son is lesser. Both are what? Two gods? You blush to say it, blush to believe it. You say Lord God the Father and Lord God the Son; and the Son Himself says, "No one can serve two masters" (Matt. 6:24). Shall we be in His household in such a way that, as in a large house where there is a father of the family and he has a son, we also say: Greater Lord, Lesser Lord? Shrink from such a thought. If you make altars in your heart, you set up idols in your soul. Reject it utterly. First believe, then understand. But if God grants that, having believed, you understand quickly, that is a gift of God, not human frailty. Yet if you do not yet understand, believe: God is one Father, God Christ is the Son of God. Both are what? One God. And how are both called one God? How? Are you amazed? In the Acts of the Apostles, it says, "And the multitude of believers was one soul and one heart" (Acts 4:32). There were many souls; faith had made them one. So many thousands of souls were there; they loved one another, and many are one: they loved God in the fire of charity, and from multitude they came to the unity of beauty. If charity made so many souls one soul, what is the charity in God, where there is no diversity, but complete equality?

If on earth and among human beings there could be such great love that from many souls it made one soul, where the Father was always inseparable from the Son, the Son from the Father, could they both be anything but one God? But those souls could be called both many souls and one soul; God, however, where there is an ineffable and supreme union, can be called one God, not two gods. The Father does what He wills, the Son does what He wills. Do not think that the Father is omnipotent and the Son is not omnipotent: it is an error, delete this from yourselves, let it not cling to your memory, let it not be drunk in your faith, and if by chance any of you has drunk it, let him vomit it up. The Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent. If the omnipotent one did not beget an omnipotent one, He did not beget a true son. For what do we say, brothers, if the Father begot a son who is lesser? For what have I said, begot? For a human being begets a son who is lesser, that is true: but because that one grows old, this one grows, and by growing he reaches the form of his father. The Son of God does not grow, because God cannot grow old, He was born perfect. Indeed, born perfect, if He does not grow, and He did not remain lesser, He is equal. For that you may know that the omnipotent was born from the omnipotent, hear the one who is Truth Himself: what Truth says, that is true. What does Truth say? What does the Son, who is Truth, say? Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise (John 5:19). The Son is omnipotent, doing everything He wills.

If the Father does something that the Son does not do, then the Son spoke falsely when he said: “Whatever the Father does, this the Son also does likewise.” But because the Son spoke truly, believe: “Whatever the Father does, this the Son also does likewise”; and you have believed in the Son as omnipotent. Even if you did not say that word in the Creed, nevertheless this is what you expressed when you believed in the one and only God. Does the Father have something that the Son does not have? The Arian heretics blasphemously say this, not I. But what do I say? If the Father has something that the Son does not have, then the Son lies when he says: “All that the Father has, are mine” (John 16:15). Many and innumerable are the testimonies by which it is proved that the Son is the true Son of God the Father, and that the Father, true God, begot the Son, true God, and that the Father and the Son are one God. Chapter III. — 6. The human birth of the Son of God from the Virgin. The Passion under the governor Pilate. The eternal birth of Christ from the Father. Why the punishment of the cross was chosen by Christ. The reward of patience is not to be hoped for in the present temporal world, but in the future eternal world. But let us see what this only Son of the omnipotent God the Father did for us, what he suffered for us. Born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. That God, so great, equal to the Father, born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, humble, in order to heal the proud. Man exalted himself and fell; God humbled himself and raised up. What is the humility of Christ? The hand of God to men!

does, this the Son also does likewise." He lay prostrate; we had fallen; he descended; we lay; he bent down. Let us take hold and rise, so that we do not fall into punishment. Therefore, his bending down is this: He was born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. And that human birth is both humble and exalted. Why humble? Because a man was born from human beings. Why exalted? Because from a virgin. A virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, and after childbirth the virgin remained. What next? He suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was presiding as governor, and Pontius Pilate himself was the judge when Christ suffered. The times when he suffered are marked by the name of the judge: under Pontius Pilate; when he suffered, he was crucified, died, and was buried. Who? What? For whom? Who? The only Son of God, our Lord. What? Crucified, died, and buried. For whom? For the impious and sinners. Great condescension! Great grace! What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me (Psalm 115:12)?

He was born before all times, born before all ages. Born before. Before what, where there is no "before"? Do not think of any time before the birth of Christ, by which He was born of the Father: I speak of that birth itself, by which He is the only Son of God the Almighty, our only Lord; I speak of that first. Do not think in this birth of a beginning of time; do not think of any span of eternity when the Father existed and the Son did not exist. From the time the Father exists, from that time the Son exists. And what is "from that time," where there is no beginning? Therefore, the Father is always without beginning, the Son is always without beginning. "And how," you will say, "was He born, if He has no beginning?" From the eternal, coeternal. There was never a time when the Father existed and the Son did not exist, and yet the Son was begotten by the Father. Whence is any likeness given? We are in earthly things, we are in visible creation. Give me a likeness from the earth: it does not give. Give me some likeness from the element of water: it has no source. Give me some likeness from an animal: not even this can. An animal indeed begets, and what begets and what is begotten: but the father is prior, and afterwards the son is born. Let us find a coeval, and let us believe a coeternal. If we can find a father coeval with his son, and a son coeval with his father; let us believe God the Father coeval with His Son, and God the Son coeternal with His Father. On earth we can find someone coeval, we cannot find someone coeternal. Let us attend to the coeval, and believe the coeternal.

Perhaps someone will make you attentive and say: When can a father be found coeval with his son, or a son coeval with his father? For a father to beget, he precedes in age; for a son to be born, he follows in age; but here, a father coeval with his son, or a son coeval with his father, how can it be? Let fire as father, and brightness as son occur to you; behold, we have found coevals. From the moment fire begins to exist, it immediately generates brightness: neither fire before brightness, nor brightness after fire. And if we ask which generates which, fire brightness, or brightness fire, immediately, by natural sense, by the prudence implanted in your minds, you all cry out: Fire generates brightness, not brightness fire. Behold a father beginning, behold a son at the same time, neither preceding nor following. Behold, therefore, a father beginning, behold a son beginning at the same time. If I have shown you a father beginning and a son beginning at the same time, believe in a Father not beginning, and with Him a Son not beginning either; Him eternal, Him coeternal. If you make progress, you understand: strive to make progress. You have to be born, but you also must grow; because no one begins from perfection. It was permitted for the Son of God to be born perfect, because He was born without time, coeternal with the Father, preceding all things, not in age but in eternity. Therefore, born coeternal with the Father, concerning which generation the prophet said, "Who will recount His generation?" (Isaiah 53:8). Born of the Father without time, He was born of the Virgin in the fullness of time.

This birth had been preceded by times. At the opportune moment, when he wished, when he knew, then he was born: for he was not born unwillingly. None of us is born because he wills it, and none of us dies when he wills it; he was born when he wished, he died when he wished; as he wished, he was born of a virgin, as he wished, he died on the cross. Whatever he wished, he did: because he was so much a man that God lay hidden; the God who took up, the man who was taken up, one Christ, God and man. Concerning his cross, what shall I say? what shall I speak? He chose the last kind of death, lest any kind of his death should terrify the martyrs. He showed doctrine in the man, he demonstrated an example of patience on the cross. There the work, because he was crucified: the example of the work, the cross; the reward of the work, the resurrection. He showed us on the cross what to endure, he showed in the resurrection what we ought to hope for. Just as a supreme contest-director, he said: Do, and receive; do the work, and receive the prize; contend in that contest, and you will be crowned. What is the work? Obedience. What is the prize? Resurrection without death. Why did I add, without death? Because Lazarus rose, and died: Christ rose, he dies no more, death will no longer dominate him (Rom. 6:9).

Scripture says: "You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the faith of the Lord" (James 5:11). How much Job endured, when it is read, one shudders, is terrified, trembles. And what did he receive? Double what he had lost. Therefore, let no man wish to have patience for the sake of temporal rewards, and say to himself: "Let me bear the loss; God will give me double the sons"; Job received everything double, and begot as many sons as he had buried. Are they not, then, double? They are indeed double, because those sons were also alive. Let no one say, "I will endure evils, and God will give me back as He gave back to Job," so that it is no longer patience, but greed. For if that holy man did not have patience, nor bear bravely what befell him, whence would he have the testimony that the Lord gave him? "Have you taken note," says the Lord, "of my servant Job?" For there is no one like him on earth, a man without complaint, a true worshiper of God. What a testimony, brothers, this holy man merited from the Lord! And yet his wicked wife, by her persuasion, wished to deceive him, she also having the figure of that serpent which, just as in paradise it deceived the first man made by God (Gen. 3:1-6), so also now, by suggesting blasphemy, thought it could deceive the man pleasing to God. How much he suffered, brothers! Who can suffer so much in his property, in his home, in his sons, in his own flesh, in his very wife, who remained as a temptress?

But even that which remained, he would have taken away long ago, had he not kept her as his helper: because he had conquered the first man through Eve, and he had preserved Eve. How much, then, did he suffer! He lost everything he had; his very house fell—would that it were only that!—it crushed his children as well. And because patience held a great place in him, hear what he replied: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done; let the name of the Lord be blessed. He has taken away what he gave; has the one who gave perished? He has taken away what he gave." As if he were saying: "Let him take away everything, let him strip me bare, and let him keep himself for me. For what shall I lack if I have God? Or what good are other things to me if I do not have God?" The attack came upon his flesh; he was struck with wounds from head to foot; he oozed with pus, he teemed with worms: and yet he showed himself immovable and fixed in his God. His wife, the devil's helper, not her husband's comforter, wanted to persuade him to blasphemy: "How long," she said, "do you suffer this and that? Say some word against the Lord, and die." Therefore, because he had been humbled, he was to be exalted. And the Lord did this to show men: for he himself kept greater things for his servant in heaven. Therefore, he exalted the humbled Job, and humbled the exalted devil: because he humbles this one and exalts that one (Psalm 74:8).

Let no one, however, dearest brothers, when he suffers tribulations of this kind, expect a reward here: for example, if he suffers some losses, let him not say with that intention, "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has happened; blessed be the name of the Lord," in order to receive double. Let patience praise God, not avarice. If you seek to receive double what you have lost, and for that reason praise God, you praise from covetousness, not from charity. Do not let the example of that holy man occur to you: you deceive yourself. When Job endured everything, he did not hope for double. And in his first confession, when he bore losses and buried his children, and in the second, when he already suffered the torments of wounds in his flesh, what I say can be observed. These are the words of his first confession: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has happened; blessed be the name of the Lord." He could have said: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; he who took away can give again, he can restore more than he took." He did not say this, but, "as it pleased the Lord," he says, "so it has happened": because it pleases him, let it please me; what has pleased the good Lord, let it not displease the subject servant; what has pleased the physician, let it not displease the sick man. Hear another confession of his: he said this to his wife, as one of the foolish women: "If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not endure evil things?" (Job 1 and 2).

He did not add—and if he had said it, he would have spoken truly—"The Lord is able to recall my flesh to its former state and to multiply what he has taken from us," lest he seem to have endured those things because of that hope. He did not say these things, he did not hope for them. But so that we might be taught, the Lord granted to one who did not hope what would teach us that God was with him; because if he had not restored those things to him, we could not at all see his hidden crown. And therefore what does the divine Scripture say, exhorting to patience and hope for future things, not for a reward of present things? You have heard the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord. Why "the patience of Job," and not "you have seen the end of Job himself"? You would open your mouth for double; you would say, "Thanks be to God, I will endure, I will receive double like Job." The patience of Job, the end of the Lord. We know the patience of Job, and we know the end of the Lord. What end of the Lord? "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1). These are the words of the Lord hanging on the cross. He seemed to have abandoned him with regard to present happiness, but he did not abandon him with regard to eternal immortality. There is the end of the Lord. The Jews hold him, the Jews insult him, the Jews bind him, they crown him with thorns, they dishonor him with spittle, they scourge him, they overwhelm him with insults, they hang him on the cross, they pierce him with a lance, finally they bury him: he seems to have been abandoned. But to whom? To those who were exulting. Therefore, have patience so that you may rise again and not die, that is, never die, just as Christ. For thus we read: "Christ rising from the dead, dies no more" (Romans 6:9).

CHAPTER IV. — 11. What does it mean that He sits at the right hand of the Father? The right hand of the Father is blessedness. He ascended into heaven: believe it. He sits at the right hand of the Father: believe it. Understand "to sit" as "to dwell," just as we say of any man, "He sat in that country for three years." Scripture also says that someone sat in a city for a certain time (3 Kings 2:38, according to the LXX). Did he sit and never rise? For this reason, human dwellings are called "seats." Where there are seats, is one always sitting? Does one not rise, not walk, not lie down? Yet they are called seats. So believe that Christ dwells at the right hand of God the Father: He is there. And do not let your heart say to you, "What is He doing?" Do not seek what it is not permitted to find: He is there; that is enough for you. He is blessed, and from blessedness, which is called the right hand of the Father, the name of that blessedness itself is the right hand of the Father. For if we take it carnally, because He sits at the right hand of the Father, the Father would be on the left. Is it fitting to arrange them thus, the Son on the right, the Father on the left? There, everything is right, because there is no misery there.

From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. The living, those who survive; the dead, those who have gone before. It can also be understood thus: the living, the just; the dead, the unjust. For He judges both, giving each his due. To the just He will say at the judgment: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Prepare yourselves for this, hope for this, live for this, and live in such a way, believe for this, be baptized for this, so that it may be said to you: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And to those on the left? Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:34, 41). Thus the living and the dead will be judged by Christ. The first birth of Christ without time has been spoken, the other birth of Christ from the Virgin in the fullness of time has been spoken, the passion of Christ has been spoken, the judgment of Christ has been spoken. All that was to be said about Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord, has been said; but the Trinity is not yet complete.

Chapter V.—15. That the Holy Spirit is God. In the Creed follows: "And in the Holy Spirit." This Trinity is one God, one nature, one substance, one power, supreme equality, no division, no diversity, perpetual love. Do you wish to know that the Holy Spirit is God? You are baptized, and you will be His temple. The Apostle says, "Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have from God" (1 Cor. 6:19)? God has a temple: for Solomon, both king and prophet, was commanded to build a temple for God. If he were building a temple for the sun, or the moon, or some star, or some angel, would not God condemn him? Therefore, because he built a temple for God, he shows that he worships God. And from what did he build it? From wood and stones: because God deigned to make for Himself, through His servant, a house on earth, where He might be prayed to, where He might be remembered. Whence the blessed Stephen says: "Solomon built Him a house, but the Most High does not dwell in temples made by hand" (Acts 7:48). If, therefore, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, what kind of God is He who built a temple for the Holy Spirit? He is God. For if the temple of the Holy Spirit is our bodies, then He who built a temple for the Holy Spirit is the same who built our bodies. Attend to the Apostle saying, "God tempered the body, giving greater honor to the part that was lacking" (1 Cor. 12:24), when he spoke about the different members, so that there would be no divisions in the body. God created our body.

God created grass. Who created our body? How do we prove that God created grass? He who clothes, creates. Read the Gospel: "If then the grass of the field," it says, "which is today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, God so clothes it" (Matthew 6:30). Therefore, He who clothes, creates. And the Apostle: "Fool, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but the bare grain, as of wheat or some other; but God gives it a body as He wills, and to each seed its own body" (1 Corinthians 15:36-38). Therefore, if God builds our bodies, if God builds our limbs, and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, do not doubt that the Holy Spirit is God. And do not add a third God, as it were; because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. Believe thus. Chapter VI.—14. On the Holy Church. After the commendation of the Trinity follows the Holy Church. God and His temple have been shown. For the temple of God is holy, says the Apostle, which you are (1 Corinthians 3:17). This is the Holy Church, the one Church, the true Church, the Catholic Church, fighting against all heresies: it can fight, yet it cannot be conquered. All heresies have gone out from it, like useless shoots cut from the vine; but it remains in its root, in its vine, in its love. The gates of hell will not overcome it (Matthew 16:18).

CHAPTER VII. — 15. Even monstrous sins are forgiven in Baptism; and venial sins, in the Lord’s Prayer. Public penance is performed for monstrous sins, not for light ones. The remission of sins. You have the Creed perfectly in yourselves when you are baptized. Let no one say: I did that, perhaps it is not forgiven me. What did you do? How much did you do? Name some monstrous thing you have committed, grave, horrible, which even to think of makes you shudder: whatever you may have done, have you killed Christ? There is nothing worse than that deed, because there is nothing better than Christ. How great a crime is it to kill Christ? Yet the Jews killed him, and many afterward believed in him and drank his blood: that sin which they committed was forgiven them. When you have been baptized, keep a good life in the commandments of God, so that you may preserve your Baptism to the end. I do not tell you that you will live without sin. But there are venial sins, without which this life cannot be. For all sins Baptism was instituted; for light sins, without which we cannot exist, prayer was instituted. What does prayer have? Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12). We are washed once by Baptism, we are washed daily by prayer. But do not commit those sins for which it is necessary that you be separated from the body of Christ—which may that never happen to you.

Those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adulteries or some monstrous deeds; for that reason they are doing penance. For if their sins were light, the daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. CHAPTER VIII. — 16. Sins are remitted in three ways. Therefore sins are remitted in the Church in three ways: in Baptism, in prayer, in the greater humility of penance. Yet God does not remit sins except to the baptized. The sins which He first remits, He remits only to the baptized. When? When they are baptized. The sins which are afterwards remitted to those who pray and to those who do penance—to whom does He remit them? To the baptized. For how can those who are not yet born say the Lord's Prayer? As long as they are catechumens, all their sins are upon them. If catechumens, how much more pagans? how much more heretics? But we do not change the Baptism of heretics. Why? Because they have Baptism just as a deserter has the brand-mark: so too these have Baptism; they have it, but as something by which they are condemned, not by which they are crowned. And yet if that deserter himself, when corrected, begins to serve as a soldier, does anyone dare to change his brand-mark?

CHAPTER IX. — 17. On the resurrection of the flesh into eternal life. We also believe in the resurrection of the flesh, which preceded in Christ: so that this body may hope for what preceded in the head. The head of the Church is Christ, the Church is the body of Christ (Ephes. 5:23). Our head has risen, has ascended into heaven: where the head is, there also are the members. How is the resurrection of the flesh? Lest anyone perhaps think it is like that of Lazarus, so that you may know it is not so, it has been added, Into eternal life. May God regenerate you, may God preserve and protect you; may God lead you into himself, who is eternal life itself. Amen. There follow three other sermons on the Creed, which, although previously attributed to Augustine in earlier editions, do not represent him at all, but rather an orator much inferior in style, learning, and talent.