Homily 8
1 John 4:12-16
"If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love will be
perfected in us. In this know we that we abide in Him, and He in us,
because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and are
witnesses that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him,
and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has
to us. God is love; and he who abides in love abides in God, and God
abides in him."
1. Love is a sweet word, but sweeter the deed. To be always speaking
of it, is not in our power: for we have many things to do, and divers
businesses draw us different ways, so that our tongue has not leisure
to be always speaking of love: as indeed our tongue could have
nothing better to do. But though we may not always be speaking of it,
we may always keep it. Just as it is with the Alleluia which we sing at
this present time, are we always doing this? Not one hour, I do not say
for the whole space of it, do we sing Alleluia, but barely during a few
moments of one hour, and then give ourselves to something else. Now
Alleluia, as you already know, means, Praise you the Lord. He who
praises God with his tongue, cannot be always doing this: he who by
his life and conduct praises God, can be doing it always. Works of
mercy, affections of charity, sanctity of piety, incorruptness of chastity,
modesty of sobriety, these things are always to be practised: whether
we are in public, or at home; whether before men, or in our chamber;
whether speaking, or holding our peace; whether occupied upon
something, or free from occupation: these are always to be kept,
because all these virtues which I have named are within. But who is
sufficient to name them all? There is as it were the army of an
emperor seated within in your mind. For as an emperor by his army
does what he will, so the Lord Jesus Christ, once beginning to dwell in
our inner man, (i.e. in the mind through faith), uses these virtues as
His ministers. And by these virtues which cannot be seen with eyes,
and yet when they are named are praised - and they would not be
praised except they were loved, not loved except they were seen; and
if not loved except seen, they are seen with another eye, that is, with
the inward beholding of the heart - by these invisible virtues, the
members are visibly put in motion: the feet to walk, but whither?
whither they are moved by the good will which as a soldier serves the
good emperor: the hands to work; but what? that which is bidden by
charity which is inspired within by the Holy Ghost. The members then
are seen when they are put in motion; He who orders them within is
not seen: and who He is that orders them within is known almost
alone to Him that orders, and to him who within is ordered.
2. For, brethren, you heard just now when the Gospel was read, at least
if you had for it the ear not only of the body but also of the heart. What
said it? "Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to
be seen of them." Did He mean to say this, that whatever good things
we do, we should hide them from the eyes of men, and fear to be seen?
If you fear spectators you will not have imitators: you ought therefore
to be seen. But you must not do it to the end you may be seen. Not
there should be the end of your joy, not there the goal of your
rejoicing, that you should account yourself to have got the whole fruit
of your good work, when you are seen and praised. This is nothing.
Despise yourself when you are praised, let Him be praised in you who
works by you. Therefore do not for your own praise work the good
you do: but to the praise of Him from whom you have the power to do
good. From your self you have the ill doing, from God you have the
well doing. On the other hand, see perverse men, how preposterous
they are. What they do well, they will needs ascribe to themselves; if
they do ill, they will needs accuse God. Reverse this distorted and
preposterous proceeding, which puts the thing, as one may say, head
downwards, which makes that undermost which is uppermost, and
that upwards which is downwards. Do you want to make God
undermost and yourself uppermost? You go headlong, not elevate
yourself; for He is always above. What then? you well, and God ill? nay
rather, say this, if you would speak more truly, I ill, He well; and what I
do well from Him is the well-doing: for from myself whatever I do is
ill. This confession strengthens the heart, and makes a firm foundation
of love. For if we ought to hide our good works lest they be seen of
men, what becomes of that sentence of the Lord in the sermon which
He delivered on the mount? Where He said this, there He also said a
little before, "Let your good works shine before men." And He did not stop there, did not there make an end, but added, "And glorify your
Father which is in Heaven." And what says the apostle? "And I was
unknown by face to the Churches of Judea which were in Christ: but
they heard only, That he who persecuted us in times past, now
preaches the faith which once he destroyed. And in me they glorified
God." See how he also, in regard that he became so widely known did
not set the good in his own praise, but in the praise of God. And as for
him, in his own person, that he was one who laid waste the Church, a
persecutor, envious, malignant, it is himself that confesses this, not we
that reproach him therewith. Paul loves to have his sins spoken of by
us, that He may be glorified who healed such a disease. For it was the
hand of the Physician that cut and healed the greatness of the sore.
That voice from heaven prostrated the persecutor, and raised up the
preacher; killed Saul, and quickened Paul. For Saul was the persecutor
of a holy man; thence had this man his name, when he persecuted the
Christians: afterward of Saul he became Paul. What does the name
Paulus mean? Little. Therefore when he was Saul, he was proud, lifted
up; when he was Paul, he was lowly, little. Thus we say, I will see you
"paulo post," i.e. after a little while. Hear that he was made little: "For I
am the least of the apostles; and, To me the least of all saints," he says
in another place. So was he among the apostles as the hem of the
garment: but the Church of the Gentiles touched it, as did the woman
which had the flux, and was made whole.
3. Then, brethren, this I would say, this I do say, this if I might I would
not leave unsaid: Let there be in you now these works, now those,
according to the time, according to the hours, according to the days.
Are you always to be speaking? always to keep silence? always to be
refreshing the body? always to be fasting? always to be giving bread to
the needy? always to be clothing the naked? always to be visiting the
sick? always to be bringing into agreement those who disagree?
always to be burying the dead? No: but now this, now that. These
things are taken in hand, and they stop: but that which as emperor
commands all the forces within neither has beginning nor ought to
stop. Let charity within have no intermission: let the offices of charity
be exhibited according to the time. Let "brotherly love" then, as it is
written, let "brotherly love continue."
4. But perchance it will have struck some of you all along, while we
have been expounding to you this epistle of blessed John, why it is
only "brotherly" love that he so emphatically commends. "He who
loves his brother," says he: and, "a commandment is given us that we
love one another." Again and again it is of brotherly love that he
speaks: but the love of God, i.e. the love with which we ought to love
God, he has not so constantly named; howbeit, he has not altogether
left it unspoken. But concerning love of an enemy, almost throughout
the epistle, he has said nothing. Although he vehemently preaches up
and commends charity to us, he does not tell us to love our enemies,
but tells us to love our brethren. But just now, when the Gospel was
read, we heard, "For if you love those who love you, what reward shall
you have? Do not even the publicans this?" How is it then that John the
apostle, as the thing of great concern to us in order to a certain
perfection, commends brotherly love; whereas the Lord says it is not
enough that we love our brethren, but that we ought to extend that
love so that we may reach even to enemies? He who reaches even to
enemies does not overleap the brethren. It must needs, like fire, first
seize upon what is nearest, and so extend to what is further off. A
brother is nearer to you than any chance person. Again, that person
has more hold upon you whom you know not, who yet is not against
you, than an enemy who is also against you. Extend your love to those
who are nearest, yet do not call this an extending: for it is almost
loving yourself, to love those who are close to you. Extend it to the
unknown, who have done you no ill. Pass even them: reach on to love
your enemies. This at least the Lord commands. Why has the apostle
here said nothing about loving an enemy.
5. All love, whether that which is called carnal, which is wont to be
called not "dilectio" but "amor:" (for the word "dilectio" is wont to be used of better objects, and to be understood of better objects:) yet all
love, dear brethren, has in it a wishing well to those who are loved. For
we ought not so to love, nor are we able so to love, (whether "diligere"
or "amare:" for this latter word the Lord used when He said, "Petra,
amas me?" "Peter, do you love me?") we ought not so to love men, as
we hear gluttons say, I love thrushes. You ask why he loves them?
That he may kill, that he may consume. He says he loves, and to this
end loves he them, that they may cease to be; to this end loves he
them, that he may make away with them. And whatever we love in the
way of food, to this end love we it, that it may be consumed and we
recruited. Are men to be so loved as to be consumed? But there is a
certain friendliness of well wishing, by which we desire at some time
or other to do good to those whom we love. How if there be no good
that we can do? The benevolence, the wishing well, of itself suffices
him that loves. For we ought not to wish men to be wretched, that we
may be enabled to practise works of mercy. You give bread to the
hungry: but better it were that none hungered, and you had none to
give to. You clothe the naked: oh that all were clothed, and this need
existed not! You bury the dead: oh that it were come at last, that life
where none shall die! You reconcile the quarrelling: oh that it were
here at last, that eternal peace of Jerusalem, where none shall
disagree! For all these are offices done to necessities. Take away the
wretched; there will be an end to works of mercy. The works of mercy
will be at an end: shall the ardour of charity be quenched? With a
truer touch of love you love the happy man, to whom there is no good
office you can do; purer will that love be, and far more unalloyed. For
if you have done a kindness to the wretched, perchance you desire to
lift up yourself over against him, and wish him to be subject to you,
who have done the kindness to him. He was in need, you bestowed;
you seem to yourself greater because you bestowed, than he upon
whom it was bestowed. Wish him your equal, that you both may be
under the One Lord, on whom nothing can be bestowed.
6. For in this the proud soul has passed bounds, and, in a manner,
become avaricious. For, "The root of all evils is avarice;" and again it is
said, "The beginning of all sin is pride." And we ask, it may be, how
these two sentences agree: "The root of all evils is avarice;" and, "The
beginning of all sin is pride." If pride is the beginning of all sin, then is
pride the root of all evils. Now certainly, "the root of all evils is
avarice." We find that in pride there is also avarice, (or grasping;) for
man has passed bounds: and what is it to be avaricious to go beyond
that which sufficeth. Adam fell by pride: "the beginning of all sin is
pride," says it: did he fall by grasping? What more grasping, than he
whom God could not suffice? In fact, my brethren, we read how man
was made after the image and likeness of God: and what said God of
him? "And let him have power over the fishes of the sea, and over the
fowl of the heaven, and over all cattle which move upon the earth."
Said He, Have power over men? "Have power," says He: He has given
him natural power: "have power" over what? "over the fishes of the
sea, the fowl of the heaven, and all moving things which move upon
the earth." Why is this power over these things a natural power?
Because man has the power from this; that he was made after the
image of God. And in what was he made after God's image? In the
intellect, in the mind, in the inner man; in that he understands truth,
distinguishes between right and wrong, knows by whom he was
made, is able to understand his Creator, to praise his Creator: he has
this intelligence, who has prudence. Therefore when many by evil
lusts wore out in themselves the image of God, and by perversity of
their manners extinguished the very flame, so to say, of intelligence,
the Scripture cried aloud to them, "Become not as the horse and mule
which have no understanding." That is to say, I have set you above the
horse and mule; you, I made after my image, I have given you power
over these. Why? Because they have not the rational mind: but you by
the rational mind are capable of truth, understand what is above you:
be subject to Him that is above you, and beneath you shall those
things be over which you was set. But because by sin man deserted
Him whom he ought to be under, he is made subject to the things
which he ought to be above.
7. Mark what I say: God, man, beasts: to wit, above you, God; beneath
you, the beasts. Acknowledge Him that is above you, that those that
are beneath you may acknowledge you. Thus, because Daniel
acknowledged God above him, the lions acknowledged him above
them. But if you acknowledge not Him that is above you, you despise
your superior, you become subject to your inferior. Accordingly, how
was the pride of the Egyptians quelled? By the means of frogs and
flies. God might have sent lions: but a great man may be scared by a
lion. The prouder they were, the more by the means of things
contemptible and feeble was their wicked neck broken. But Daniel,
lions acknowledge, because he was subject to God. What the martyrs
who were cast to the wild beasts to fight with them, and were torn by
the teeth of savage creatures, were they not under God? or were those
three men servants of God, and the Maccabees not servants of God?
The fire acknowledged as God's servants the three men, whom it
burned not, neither hurt their garments; and did it not acknowledge
the Maccabees? It acknowledged the Maccabees; it did, my brethren,
acknowledge them also. But there was need of a scourge, by the Lord's
permission: He has said in Scripture, "He scourges every son whom
He receives." For think you, my brethren, the iron would have pierced
into the vitals of the Lord unless He had permitted it, or that He would
have hung fastened to the tree, unless it had been His will? Did not His
own creature acknowledge Him? Or did He set an ensample of
patience to His faithful ones? You see then, God delivered some visibly,
some He delivered not visibly: yet all He spiritually delivered,
spiritually deserted none. Visibly He seemed to have deserted some,
some He seemed to have rescued. Therefore rescued He some, that
you may not think that He had not power to rescue. He has given proof
that He has the power, to the end that where he does it not, you may
understand a more secret will, not surmise difficulty of doing. But
what, brethren? When we shall have come out of all these snares of
mortality, when the times of temptation shall have passed away, when
the river of this world shall have fleeted by, and we shall have received
again that "first robe," that immortality which by sinning we have lost,
"when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption," that is, this
flesh shall have put on incorruption, "and this mortal shall have put on
immortality;" the now perfected sons of God, in whom is no more
need to be tempted, neither to be scourged, shall all creatures
acknowledge: subjected to us shall all things be, if we here be
subjected to God.
8. So then ought the Christian to be, that he glory not over other
"men." For God has given it you to be over the beasts, i.e. to be better
than the beasts. This have you by nature; you shall always be better
than a beast. If you wish to be better than another man, you will
begrudge him when you shall see him to be your equal. You ought to
wish all men to be your equals; and if by wisdom you surpass any, you
ought to wish that he also may be wise. As long as he is slow, he learns
from you; as long as he is untaught, he has need of you; and you are
seen to be the teacher, he the learner; therefore you seem to be the
superior, because you are the teacher; he the inferior, because the
learner. Except you wish him your equal, you wish to have him always
a learner. But if you wish to have him always a learner, you will be an
envious teacher. If an envious teacher, how will you be a teacher? I
pray you, do not teach him your envy. Hear the apostle speaking of the
bowels of charity: "I would that all were even as I." In what sense did
he wish all to be his equals? In this was he superior to all, that by
charity he wished all to be his equals. I say then, man has past bounds;
he would needs be greedy of more than his due, would be above men,
he who was made above the beasts: and this is pride.
9. And see what great works pride does. Lay it up in your hearts, how
much alike, how much as it were upon a par, are the works it does, and
the works of charity. Charity feeds the hungry, and so does pride:
charity, that God may be praised; pride, that itself may be praised.
Charity clothes the naked, so does pride: charity fasts, so does pride:
charity buries the dead, so does pride. All good works which charity
wishes to do, and does; pride, on the other hand, drives at the same,
and, so to say, keeps her horses up to the mark. But charity is between
her and it, and leaves not place for ill-driven pride; not ill-driving, but
ill-driven. Woe to the man whose charioteer is pride, for he must
needs go headlong! But that, in the good that is done, it may not be
pride that sets us on, who knows? who sees it? where is it? the works
we see: mercy feeds, pride also feeds; mercy takes in the stranger,
pride also takes in the stranger; mercy intercedes for the poor, pride
also intercedes. How is this? In the works we see no difference. I dare
to say somewhat, but not I; Paul has said it: charity dies, that is, a man
having charity confesses the name of Christ, suffers martyrdom: pride
also confesses, suffers also martyrdom. The one has charity, the other
has not charity. But let him that has not charity hear from the apostle:
"If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I give my body to be
burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing." So then the divine
Scripture calls us off from the display of the face outwardly to that
which is within; from this surface which is vaunted before men, it calls
us off to that which is within. Return to your own conscience, question
it. Do not consider what blossoms outwardly, but what root there is in
the ground. Is lust rooted there? A show there may be of good deeds,
truly good works there cannot be. Is charity rooted there? Have no
fear: nothing evil can come of that. The proud caresses, love is severe.
The one clothes, the other smites. For the one clothes in order to
please men, the other smites in order to correct by discipline. More
accepted is the blow of charity than the alms of pride. Come then
within, brethren; and in all things, whatever you do, look to God your
witness. See, if He sees, with what mind you do it. If your heart accuse
you not that you do it for the sake of display, it is well: fear you not.
But when you do good, fear not lest another see you. Fear you lest you
do it to the end that you may be praised: let the other see it, that God
may be praised. For if you hide it from the eyes of man, you hide it
from the imitation of man, you withdraw from God His praise. Two are
there to whom you do the alms: two hunger; one for bread, the other
for righteousness. Between these two famishing souls: - as it is
written, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled:" - between these two famishing persons you
the doer of the good work are set; if charity does the work by occasion
of the one, therein it has pity on both, it would succour both. For the
one craves what he may eat, the other craves what he may imitate.
You feed the one, give yourself as a pattern to the other; so have you
given alms to both: the one you have caused to thank you for killing
his hunger, the other you have made to imitate you by setting him an
example.
10. Shew mercy then, as men of merciful hearts; because in loving
enemies also, you love brethren. Think not that John has given no
precept concerning love of our enemy, because he has not ceased to
speak of brotherly love. You love brethren. "How," say you, "do we love
brethren?" I ask why you love an enemy. Why do you love him? That
he may be whole in this life? what if it is not expedient for him? That
he may be rich? what if by his very riches he shall be blinded? That he
may marry a wife? what if he shall have a bitter life of it? That he may
have children? what if they shall be bad? Uncertain therefore are these
things which you seem to wish for your enemy, in that you love him;
they are uncertain. Wish for him that he may have with you eternal
life; wish for him that he may be your brother: when you love him, you
love a brother. For you love in him not what he is, but what you wish
that he may be. I once said to you, my beloved, if I mistake not: There
is a log of timber lying in sight; a good workman has seen the log, not
yet planed, just as it was hewn from the forest, he has taken a liking to
it, he would make something out of it. For indeed he did not love it to
this end that it should always remain thus. In his art he has seen what
it shall be, not in his liking what it is; and his liking is for the thing he will make of it, not for the thing it is. So God loved us sinners. We say
that God loved sinners: for He says, "Those who are whole need not
the Physician, but those who are sick." Did He love us sinners to the
end we should still remain sinners? As timber from the wood our
Carpenter saw us, and had in His thoughts the building He would
make thereof, not the unwrought timber that it was. So too you see
your enemy striving against you, raging, biting with words,
exasperating with abuse, harassing with hatred: you have regard to
this in him, that he is a man. You see all these things that are against
you, that they were done by man; and you see in him that he was
made by God. Now that he was made man, was God's doing: but that
he hates you, is his doing; that he has ill-will at you, is his doing. And
what say you in your mind? Lord, be merciful to him, forgive him his
sins, strike terror into him, change him. You love not in him what he
is, but what you wish him to be. Consequently, when you love an
enemy, you love a brother. So, perfect love is the loving an enemy:
which perfect love is in brotherly love. And let no man say that John
the apostle has admonished us somewhat less, and the Lord Christ
somewhat more. John has admonished us to love the brethren; Christ
has admonished us to love even enemies. Mark to what end Christ has
bidden you to love your enemies. That they may remain always
enemies? If He bade it for this end, that they should remain enemies,
you hate, not love. Mark how He Himself loved, i.e. because He would
not that they should be still the persecutors they were, He said,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Whom He
willed to be forgiven, them He willed to be changed: whom He willed
to be changed, of enemies He deigned to make brethren, and did in
truth make them so. He was killed, was buried, rose again, ascended
into heaven: sent the Holy Ghost to His disciples: they began with
boldness to preach His name, they did miracles in the name of Him
that was crucified and slain: those slayers of the Lord saw them; and
they who in rage had shed His blood, by believing drank it.
11. These things have I said, brethren, and somewhat at length: yet
because charity was to be more earnestly commended to you, beloved,
in this way was it to be commended. For if there be no charity in you,
we have said nothing. But if it is in you, we have as it were cast oil
upon the flames. And in whom it was not, perchance by words it has
been kindled. In one; that which was there has grown; in another, that
has begun to be, which was not. To this end therefore have we said
these things, that you are not slow to love your enemies. Does any
man rage against you? he rages, you pray; he hates, you pity. It is the
fever of his soul that hates you: he will be whole, and will thank you.
How do physicians love those who are sick? Is it the sick that they
love? If they love them as sick, they wish them to be always sick. To
this end love they the sick; not that they should still be sick, but that
from being sick they should be made whole. And how much have they
very often to suffer from the frenzied! What abusive language! Very
often they are even struck by them. He attacks the fever, forgives the
man. And what shall I say, brethren? does he love his enemy? Nay, he
hates his enemy, the disease; for it is this that he hates, and loves the
man by whom he is struck: he hates the fever. For by whom or by what
is he struck? by the disease, by the sickness, by the fever. He takes
away that which strives against him, that there may remain that from
which he shall have thanks. So do the same. If your enemy hate you,
and unjustly hate you; know that the lust of the world reigns in him,
therefore he hates you. If you also hate him, you on the other hand
render evil for evil. What does it, to render evil for evil? I wept for one
sick man who hated you; now I bewail you, if you also hate. But he
attacks your property; he takes from you I know not what things
which you have on earth: therefore you hate him, because he puts you
to straits on earth. Be not straitened, remove to heaven above; there
shall you have your heart where there is wide room, so that you may
not be straitened in the hope of life eternal. Consider what the things
are that he takes from you: not even them would he take from you, but
by permission of Him who "scourges every son whom He receives."
He, this same enemy of thine, is in a manner the instrument in the
hands of God, by which you may be healed. If God knows it to be good
for you that he should despoil you, He permits him; if He knows it to
be good for you that you should receive blows, He permits him to
smite you: by the means of Him He cares for you: wish you that he
may be made whole.
12. "No man has seen God at any time." See, beloved: "If we love one
another, God will dwell in us, and His love will be perfected in us."
Begin to love; you shall be perfected. Have you begun to love? God has
begun to dwell in you: love Him that has begun to dwell in you, that by
more perfect indwelling He may make you perfect. "In this we know
that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His
Spirit." It is well: thanks be to God! We come to know that He dwells in
us. And whence come we to know this very thing, to wit, that we do
know that He dwells in us? Because John himself has said this:
"Because He has given us of His Spirit." Whence know we that He has
given us of His Spirit? This very thing, that He has given you of His
Spirit, whence come you to know it? Ask your own bowels: if they are
full of charity, you have the Spirit of God. Whence know we that by this
you know that the Spirit of God dwells in you? "Because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to
us."
13. "And we have seen, and are witnesses, that God has sent His Son to
be the Saviour of the world." Set your minds at rest, you that are sick:
such a Physician is come, and do you despair? Great were the diseases,
incurable were the wounds, desperate was the sickness. Dost you note
the greatness of your ill, and not note the omnipotence of the
Physician? You are desperate, but He is omnipotent; Whose witnesses
are these that first were healed, and that announce the Physician: yet
even they are made whole in hope rather than in the reality. For so
says the apostle: "For by hope we are saved." We have begun therefore
to be made whole in faith: but our wholeness shall be perfected "when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall
have put on immortality." This is hope, not the reality. But he who
rejoices in hope shall hold the reality also: whereas he who has not
the hope, shall not be able to attain to the reality.
14. "Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in
him and he in God." Now we may say it in not many words; "Whoever
shall confess;" not in word but in deed, not with tongue but with the
life. For many confess in words, but in deeds deny: "And we have
known and believed the love which God has in us." And again, by what
have you come to know this? "Love is God." He has already said it
above, behold he says it again. Love could not be more exceedingly
commended to you than that it should be called God. Haply you were
ready to despise a gift of God. And do you despise God? "Love is God:
and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in him." Each
mutually inhabits the other; He who holds, and he who is holden. You
dwell in God, but that you may be holden: God inhabits you, but that
He may hold you, lest you fall. Lest haply you imagine that you become
a house of God in such sort as your house supports your flesh: if the
house in which you are withdraw itself from under you, you fall; but if
you withdraw yourself, God falls not. When you forsake Him, He is
none the less; when you have returned to Him, He is none the greater.
You are healed, on Him you will bestow nothing; you are made clean,
you are new-made, you are set right: He is a medicine to the
unhealthy, is a rule for the crooked, is light for the darkened, is a
habitation for the deserted. All therefore is conferred on you: see you
imagine not that ought is conferred upon God by your coming to Him:
no, not so much as a slave. Shall God, forsooth, not have servants if you
like not, if all like not? God needs not the servants, but the servants
need God: therefore says the Psalm, "I have said to the Lord, you are
my God." He is the true Lord. And what says it? "For of my goods You
have no need." You need the good you have by your servant. Your
servant needs the good he has by you, that you may feed him; you also
need the good you have by your servant, that he may help you. You
can not draw water for yourself, can not cook for yourself, can not run
before your horse, can not tend your beast. You see that you need the
good you have by your servant, you need his attendance. Therefore
you are not a true lord, while you have need of an inferior. He is the
true Lord, who seeks nothing from us; and woe to us if we seek not
Him! He seeks nothing from us: yet He sought us, when we sought not
Him. One sheep had strayed; He found it, He brought it back on His
shoulders rejoicing. And was the sheep necessary for the Shepherd,
and not rather the Shepherd necessary for the sheep? - The more I
love to speak of charity, the less willing am I that this epistle should be
finished. None is more ardent in the commending of charity. Nothing
more sweet is preached to you, nothing more wholesome drunk by
you: but only thus if by godly living you confirm in you the gift of God.
Be not ungrateful for His so great grace, who, though He had one Only
Son, would not that He should be alone a Son; but, that He might have
brethren, adopted to Him those who should with Him possess life
eternal.
1 John 4:15. [Life; "the Life eternal." - The Epistle begins and ends with Life, announced and promised (the word occurs thirteen times in the
one hundred and ten verses). The intermediate presentation of Love,
as the grand efflux from the inner, spiritual life, gives the main theme
of St. John, and it is of this that Augustin delights to speak in these
discourses. The life of an intelligent being is in conscious dependence
on God. In the fullest sense, "in Him we live." Death and life are among
the striking contrasts named in the epistle: "the death," "the life," -
"the death that is truly death, the life that is truly life." This life is in
Christ. He not only brings it and imparts it, but He is "our Life." The
living and life-giving Christ is manifested in this epistle, and also the
death that exists where there is no union, by love, to Him. The Life,
eternal (to distinguish it from the life that now is, the life bounded by
sense and time), is not mere prolongation of existence. We must use
sensuous images in order to apprehend the idea, but we are to
remember that they are not realities in the spiritual order. The life
which Christ gives, enabling men to have life in Him, cannot exist
apart from Himself; His seal remains in them, and He abides in them.
The "life eternal," while future as to its full realization, is present, is
begun here and now. "He who believes on the Son has eternal life," and
its possession is matter of actual knowledge to those who have this
life; "we know that we abide in Him and He in us" (1 John 5:13). It is a
life which unites heaven and earth, bringing into this stage of being
"the powers of the world to come." A life that satisfies, while it
enkindles desire and aspiration: it gives strength to bear present ills in
the joyous and assured hope of "a life beyond life."] - J.H.M.