Tractates on the Gospel of John
166 ST. AUGUSTINE only at this, that our heart may be healthy [and unaffected] by sin. And when, perchance, we are scourged in our body, let us pray to him for relief. The Apostle Paul asked him to take away the sting in his flesh, and he did not want to take it away. Was Paul disturbed? Did he gloomily say that he had been abandoned? Rather, he said that he had not been abandoned because that which he wanted to be taken away was not taken away in order that weakness might be healed. For he found this in the words of the physician: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."^' (4) Therefore, how do you know that God does not want to heal you? To be scourged is still profitable to you. How do you know how rotten is that which the physician, in guiding the knife through rottenness, cuts away? Does he not know the method, what he should do, how much he should do? Do the wailings of the one who is being cut draw back the hands of the physician who is skillfully cutting? The one cries out; the other cuts. Is he cruel who doesn't pay attention to the one shouting, or rather merciful, because he keeps after the wound that he may heal the sick man?
(5) Therefore, my brothers, I have said these things that no one may seek anything except the aid of God when perhaps we are involved in some reproof of the Lord. See that you are not lost; see that you not withdraw from the Lamb and be devoured by the lion. 13. We have said, then, why it was the tenth hour; let us see the following [verses]: "Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard John and had followed him. He finds his brother Simon and says to him, 'We have found the Messiah (which interpreted is "Christ").'" In Hebrew the word is Messiah; in Greek, the word is Christ; in Latin, the Anointed. For he is called Christ from anointing.
Chrisma is "anointing" in Greek; therefore Christus [is] "the Anointed." He is uniquely "the Anointed," "the especially
Anointed."
(2) Hear how he speaks in the Psalm: "Therefore God, your
41. 2 Cor. 12.9.