Tractates on the Gospel of John
196 ST. AUGUSTINE came to the wedding, that conjugal chastity might be given support and the mystery of marriages might be shown forth. For the bridegroom of that marriage also represented the person of the Lord, [the bridegroom] to whom it was said, "You have kept the good wine until now." For Christ had kept the good wine until now, that is, his gospel.
3. For let us now begin to uncover the very secrets of the mysteries, as far as he grants in whose name we have promised you. There was prophecy in ancient times, and no times have been devoid of the dispensation of prophecy; but that prophecy, when Christ was not understood in it, was water. For, in water, wine is somehow latent. The Apostle tells what we should understand in this water: "Until this day," he says, "when Moses is read, the self-same veil has been placed upon their heart; and it is not lifted because in Christ it is made void. And when you pass over to the Lord," he says, "the veil shall be taken away."^ The veil means the covering over of prophecy, so that it might not be understooci. The veil is taken away when you have passed over to the Lord; thus the lack of
8. Sacramentum here has its usual meaning for Augustine, "mystery," a sign indicating some hidden truth about Christ and his Church, rather than "sacrament," as some interpreters of this passage maintain. See, e.g., E. Portalie, 267-268, who cites this passage to support the institution of the sacrament by Jesus, although he does concede the vagueness of Augustine's use of sacramentum and a difference in his use of the word in connection with marriage than with baptism, Eucharist, or holy orders. He also acknowledges its symbolic meaning as one dimension of this passage. See Berrouard, Homilies
I— XVI, 900—901, and also his excellent analysis of Augustine's treatment of the Cana story in "L'enseignement de saint Augustin sur le mariage dans le Tract. 9,2 in loannis Evangelium," Augustinus (Strenas augustianas P. Victorino Capanaga oblatas curavit edendas. I. Oroz-Reta) (1967) 83-96. Augustine interprets Jesus' presence at Cana as confirming the statement about Adam and Eve in Gn 2.24; "They will be two in one flesh." This unity of man and wife in marriage is seen at Cana as a symbol of the unity of Jesus and his Church. As Berrouard says, this does not exclude the sacramentality of marriage; in fact it provides a base upon which later theologians can build the sacramental theology of marriage. See E. Schmitt, Le mnriage chretien dans Voeuvre de saint Augustin: Une theologie baptismale de la vie conjugale (Paris, 1983). On Tractates 8 and 9 see pp. 73-74-
9. Cf. 2 Cor 3.14-16.