Augustinian, but somehow not the language; at least it is not the language of Augustine the preacher.
332 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS
I express a certain skepticism about the fragment's authenticity; at the very least about whether it comes from a sermon at all.
The number 229Q has been given to a sermon that has been lost; lost, I imagine, "within living memory," since otherwise how would it have been known about, in order to be given a number in this series, as an Easter octave sermon? The Revue Benedictine, 1969, may have an explanation of this little mystery.
2. See Gn 1:3-7.
3. Which means, of the Father and of the Son. 4. The authenticity of this fragment strikes me as rather dubious. The ideas are indeed Augustinian, but somehow not the language; at least it is not the language of Augustine the preacher.
SERMON 229S
FRAGMENT FROM A SERMON PREACHED DURING THE EASTER OCTAVE
Date: 400-410l
The allegorical meaning of the sea and the dry land
We can see the land, we can see the sea; they are works of God. These lie open to the sight of our eyes, while those other things2 lie open to the gaze of our intellects; these are known to our flesh, those are known to our minds. What, in the Church, is the dry land? Every soul thirsting for God is called dry land. The waters were segregated, you see, and the dry land appeared.3 The sea is this world, and the wicked are the salt waters; they have been segregated, and congregated in one congregation, that is, predestined to one end, to which God directs all those whom he separates from the saints.4 But it's God who does the separating, because man cannot separate these things. And as a result of the separation, the dry land appears.
Put two men together; one wants to go to the show, the other to church. They are joined in body, separated by their desires. The first belongs to the salt water, the second appears as dry land. How can we prove that this land is dry, which signifies people desiring good things? The psalm says to God, My soul is like land without water to you (Ps 143:6). My soul has thirsted for you; it's thirsty, it's dry, it's been segregated from the waters of the sea. It mustn't bother about not yet being segregated in the body; its desire has already made the separation. Some desire God, others desire the world.
So what does the dry land thirst for? Showers from heaven, showers from the clouds, showers from the scriptures, showers from the firmament. But when it desires showers, it is desiring fresh water, separated from salt water. Only God, though, knows what5 the dry land desires; it's hidden, you see, it's secret. The desires of the sea, that is secular desires, are plain to see. If anyone desires money, he's drawn toward money, he wants to acquire it; because money is something visible, the desire for it is apparent. But the one who desires God, well his desire is hidden, because God, whom he desires, is hidden; it s inside, it's something secret. He's thirsty indeed, he's dry land; but this is apparent only to God's eyes.
And he6 did not leave out the fruit; he immediately went on to say, Let the