Tractates on the Gospel of John
6 ST. AUGUSTINE
Together they searched and prayed that the Word, the inner light, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, might lead Augustine to a clear, effective, and moving exegesis, and the people of God to an understanding of the meaning of Scripture that would so affect their souls as to help them grow spiritually, indeed, so as to bring them to eternal salvation/^ (5) Aristocrats and slaves, the rich and the poor, important state officials and ordinary people, educated and uneducated, some unable even to read,'^ the spiritually mature and the natural men,'^ husbands and wives, virgins and widows, the baptized and the catechumens, pagans, heretics, and Jews,'' in a mixture of sexes, ages, temperaments, and beliefs, these,
God's people, Augustine never failed to love and to serve. These he never failed to nourish with his sermons flowing from the eternally fresh spring of God's word; and he never failed to address them, however weary he was, however weak his voice might be.'^ His preaching was a debt incurred by his consecration to the episcopacy,'^ but it was a burden which grasped, mention of audience reactions, leaving questions unresolved at the end of the sermon, and so on. See, DDC 4.10.25; Berrouard, Homelies I— XVI,
1 1 — 1 3 ; G. Finaert, L 'evolution litteraire de saint Augustin, Collection d'etudes latines 17 (Paris, 1939), 154-158; and Hamman, 235. 13. E.g., Tractates 4.16, 5.20, 17.1, and 20.3. See also DDC 4.15.32 and
29.62. On the charismatic character of Augustine's preaching see, C. Mohrmann, "Saint Augustin predicateur," La Maison-Dieu 39 (1954) 83-96, reprinted in Etudes sur le latin des chretiens, 1 (Rome, 1961), 391-402. 14. See DDC 4.30.63. Augustine sees man as capable of spiritual growth and such growth becomes one of man's primary goals and responsibilities; yet, this growth in spiritual life is rooted in man's earthly, corporeal existence and cannot occur unless that reality is attended to. See, e.g., Tractates 1.1,4,
18, 2.2, 7.23, 18.7, 19.1 1, 38.10, 102.4; Hardy, 85-87. 15. "By speaking let us bring it about that [the understanding of the name Israel] not slip away even for those who have not learned or were unwilling to read. Let us be their book." En in Ps 121.8 (CCL 40. 1808). See also, Hamman, 203. 16. See Tractate 1.1 and 4. 17. Canon 84 of the Fourth Council of Carthage, held on November 8,
398, states "that the bishop prevent no one from entering the church and hearing the word of God, whether pagan, or heretic, or Jew, up through the mass of the catechumens." Concilia Africae A. ^2^ (CCL 149.351). See also Hamman, 197-200.
18. See Pontet, 46; and Van der Meer, 413. 19. See Pontet, 36—37.