he is of one substance with the Father.2 They confess that he's God, deny that
SERMON 229G
ON THE TUESDAY AFTER EASTER
Date: 416-4171
1. You have heard what the Lord said to his disciples after his resurrection, now that he was not going to die any more, to remove the fear of death from those who were going to die.
The one who said "Show us the Father, and that is enough for us " was unable to recognize the Father in the Son
2. That Christ is God is not denied even by those who refuse to confess that he is of one substance with the Father.2 They confess that he's God, deny that he's equal; so they make two Gods. We, however, say that the Son is equal to the Father in such a way, that if we are asked about each in turn, whether the Father is God, we acknowledge that he is; whether the Son is God, we acknowl¬ edge that he is; whether these two, Father and Son, are Gods or God, we acknowledge they are God. This is something that weak and human minds cannot grasp; something so great and divine, whenever there is talk about God, that human weakness cannot think about it adequately; but it can believe, so that later on it may form suitable thoughts.
The Lord was asked, you see, Show us the Father, and that is enough for us (Jn 14:8). The person who said this wasn't able to recognize the Father in the Son. What he could see, after all, was what the Jews could crucify; he couldn't see the one who was the hidden stumbling block for the Jews. And he assumed that that was all Christ was, what he could look at with his eyes; and that's why he wasn't enough for him, because he couldn't see all of him. And because he thought there was nothing more in Christ, that's why he was asking for the Father as what would be enough for them. As though to say, "We know you, of course, we can indeed see you; but we are still longing for something more. Show us the Father, and that is enough for us; after all, there will be nothing further for us to look for, when we have learned all about the Father." And Jesus, wishing to show that he is equal to the Father, said, Have I been with you all this time, and you do not know me ?
290 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS
Whoever sees me also sees the Father
3. (4) Philip, whoever has seen me has also seen the Father (Jn 14:9). What can it mean, Whoever has seen me has also seen the Father, but "You, though, don't see me, because you think the Father is greater than I am"? ''''Whoever has seen me has also seen the Father. You have good reason to suppose that the Father is enough for you; but it's only because you don't yet see me. Show us the Father, and he is enough for us. Really see me, and Vm enough for you. " And yet he said this to someone who could see him; who could see, and couldn't see; could see the form of a servant, couldn't see the form of God. I mean, if he'd been able to see the form of God, he would there have seen the Son as equal to the Father; because while he was in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6).
It wasn't robbery, because it was his nature. And the one for whom it was robbery, fell;3 and as well as falling, he also pulled down. The devil, you see, wanted to share that robbery with the man whom he pulled down; he wanted to have him as his fellow in sin, in order to have him as a companion in punishment. What else can be the meaning of what he said to the human couple, Taste, and your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods (Gn 3:5)? There's robbery for you. Such pride is robbery, it's the act of a usurper, not of a lawful claimant.4 The fact is, if we don't push ourselves forward like usurpers, we shall be by grace what we shall never be by pride; grace, you see, is what is involved in this text: I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High (Ps 82:6). But, Isaid\ it's he who does what "I said."
But what sort of gods can men be? What sort of gods? Equal to the angels of God.5 We've been promised that, don't let's look for anything more; because we won't be equal to God, ever. But raised up to be equal to the angels, we shall see the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as we believe in them here on earth. So because it was hard for Philip to see what the Lord meant—after all, he was still being weighed down by the perishable body;6 what the apostle says hadn't yet come about: We see now through a mirror in a riddle, but then it will be face to face (1 Cor 13:12)—so because it was hard for him to fix his thoughts on what he heard from the Lord: Whoever has seen me has also seen the Father-7 Notice, by the way, that it's not for nothing it says has also seen the Father. He didn't say, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," or he would be giving an opening to the Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians,8 who say the Father is the same as the Son; but when he wishes he is the Father, and when he wishes he is the Son. In order not to give this alternative error9 an opening, he didn't say, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," but has also seen the Father, thus both the Father and the Son. Father, therefore, and Son are two. Two what? If you ask me that—Father and Son are two.10
SERMON 229G 291
Steering between the Scylla and Charybdis of the Sabellians andArians
4. (3) Whatever you go on saying, I will go on answering the same. "Father and Son, what are they? Gods?" "No." "What are they then?" "The one God."
"I don't understand," he says. "The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father; they are two. The Father is God, the Son is God; and they are not two Gods? I don't understand."
So what am I to say to you when you don't understand? Listen to the prophet: Unless you believe, you shall not understand (Is 7:9). You don't understand in order to believe; on the contrary, you believe in order to understand. Faith is the work, understanding the reward. Unless you believe, you shall not understand.
But listen to the Lord himself, to learn what you should believe. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, since the Father is greater than I (Jn 14:28). Now he's positively ecstatic, this fellow who would under¬ stand. "There, that's it," he says; "now I understand; the Father is greater than /."
"It's the form of a servant speaking; look for the form of God. So this is what he meant by r If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than /: What you see me as now, you are seeing me in what I am less. So since you see me in what I am less, if you love me, let me go to where I am equal."
Are you surprised that the Son is less than the Father in the form of a servant? I'm telling you that he's even less than himself, because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:7). But if you can see that it's about him that it said He has been lessened to a little less than the angels (Ps 8:5; Heb 2:7); so now, if you have attached yourself to the form of a servant, don't stop there; go a step higher, confess that Christ is equal to the Father. Why are you pleased to hear, The Father is greater than /? You should be more pleased to hear, The Father and I are one (Jn 10:30).
There you have the Catholic faith, navigating as it were between Scylla and Charybdis, as one has to navigate in those straits between Sicily and Italy; on one side ship-wrecking rocks, on the other a ship-swallowing whirlpool. If it runs on the rocks, it's wrecked; if it's drawn into the whirlpool, it's swallowed up. So too with Sabellius: "He's one," he says; "they aren't two, the Father and the Son." Watch the ship being wrecked. Then the Arian: "They are two, one greater, the other less, not of equal substance." Watch the whirlpool at work. Navigate between the two of them, and keep a straight course. It's not without reason, you see, that Catholics are called orthodox; orthodoxon in Greek is
"straight" in English. So if you steer a straight course, you don't run onto Scylla or into Charybdis. So you, then, see you hold onto I and the Father are one.
292 SAINT A UG USTINE - SERMONS
Explaining I and the Father are one
5. (6) I and the Father, let Sabellius hear are, and the Arian hear one. By hearing are, you will save yourself from Scylla; by hearing one, you will hold yourself back from Charybdis. Say are one, and you will be navigating a straight course. There you are, we have heard we are one\ one, because of the same substance; one, because not of different and unequal natures; one, because there is complete equality, no discrepancy of any kind, no diversity of any kind. So that's why one. Why we are?" Because Father and Son is what the one God is. So why "is" what the one God is, and not "are"?12 Because the one God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, is one God; they are three, and it's one God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. And all this is one God. Why one God? Because there is such infinite love there, such peace, such concord, no disharmony of any sort.
Let me now tell you something, which will help you to believe what you cannot possibly understand unless you believe. Tell me, how many souls were there, in the Acts of the Apostles, who believed when they observed the miracles of the apostles? I mean those Jews who had crucified the Lord, who brought along blood-stained hands, who had sacrilegious ears,13 whose tongues were compared to a sword: Their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword (Ps 57:5). And yet, because it was not in vain that Christ had poured out a prayer for them, nor in vain that he had said, Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34), out of their number a very great many believed and, as we can read, There believed on that day, as it says, three thousand souls (Acts 2:41). There you have thousands of souls, and there you have so many thousand souls;14 and yet the Holy Spirit came upon them, through whom charity is poured out in our hearts.15 And what does it say about all that great number of souls? They had one soul and one heart (Acts 4:32). So many souls, one soul, one not by nature but by grace.
If so many souls became one soul through that grace coming down from above, does it surprise you that Father and Son and Holy Spirit are16 one God? And so, my brothers and sisters, hold on to the faith in all its strength and integrity and catholicity. Whenever you hear or read in the scriptures a place where the Father is shown to be greater, remember "the form of a servant"; while when you read that Father and Son are one, believe the divinity of Christ!
How did Christ die?
6. (5) And if you are not capable of real thought about these things, at least hold on to faith; it can lead you through to the end, it makes your good works t0 F°r everyt^in8 l^at d°es not come from faith is sin (Rom
Someone says to you, "Did Christ die?" Admit that he died, but in the flesh.
"And who was it that died?"