4. "We" and "you" in this passage mean "we clergy"—possibly "we bishops," though it is
322 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS the head cried out for his members, were being trampled on by that Saul who was previously a persecutor, afterward a preacher, breathing out slaughter, putting off faith. The whole force of his attack crumbled at a single utterance. What utterance? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me ? (Acts 9:4) Could Saul so much as throw a stone at heaven, where Jesus is seated? Granted, for the sake of argument, that Saul was in the crowd when Jesus was hanging on the cross; granted that Saul too said with the crowd, Crucify him, crucify him (Lk 23:21); and that he was among those who were shaking their heads in mockery, and saying, If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (Mt 27:40). But what could he do to him when he was seated in heaven? What harm could words do him, what harm yelling, what harm the cross, what harm the spear? Nothing could be done to him now, and yet he cried out "You are persecuting me.
When he cried out "You are persecuting me," he was indicating that we are his members. And so may the love of Christ, whom we love in you, the love of Christ, whom you love in us, lead us all, among our trials, our temptations, our toils, our sweat, our anxieties, our misfortunes, to where there's no toil, no misfortune, no groans, no sighs, no vexations; where nobody's bom, nobody dies, nobody has to fear the wrath of the mighty man, all being protected by the countenance of the Almighty God.
NOTES
1.1 think this is what it must mean: Interrogavit confitentis amorem—a very condensed phrase, literally, "he questioned the love of him confessing"; though amorem could also be the object of confitentis: "he questioned -?- of him confessing love."
2. The "you" of this second quotation is in the plural, and comes from two chapters later, where Jesus is addressing all the disciples. Augustine's interpretation of the Petrine text in the light of this more general one, and his idea of Peter here standing for all Christians and all pastors (an idea he inherited from Cyprian), is an interesting variation on the conventional Catholic interpretation of Peter as, to put it crudely but simply, the first pope, and the use of these texts in support, exclusively, of papal authority.
3. Obiit et abiit.
4. "We" and "you" in this passage mean "we clergy"—possibly "we bishops," though it is unlikely any other bishops were present—and "you laity." But the value of the whole passage lies in showing how Augustine, while making no bones about the hierarchical organization of the Church and his own authority as a bishop, still acknowledges a real authority in all the faithful. He is certainly no patron of clericalism, of the monopoly of authority in the Church by the clergy. We have seen this in other sermons; see, in particular, Sermon 23, notes 5 and 7.