about inauthenticity grows apace. The ideas are the ideas of Augustine, but the clumsy handling of
336 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS from being sinners. So let those grasp it who can, what I quoted from the gospel. But they say to me, "We didn't understand what it means, In the beginning was the Word." So if it's still night, observe that he took flesh, and made you a kind of night light: The Word, you see, became flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). And in the bush God speaks to Moses through the angel. Listen to where there's a word of wisdom here. "What are you called?" said Moses. "How am I to announce you to the people? If I'm asked, 'Who sent you?' what am I to say?" Listen to the word of wisdom: You shall say to the children of Israel, "He who is" has sent me to you (Ex 3:13-14). Who can grasp "He who is"? Other things are not, really. Who really is? The one who doesn't pass away, who remains unchanged, unchangeable. But this is the solid food of adults, this is the sun for the day. And as though Moses had said to him, "I'm still night; illuminate the night, let me say something which little ones can make sense of": I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Ex 3:15).
So then: / am who I am belongs to authority over the day, I am the God of Abraham to authority over the night. Faith, dispensed in time, shines for the night, wisdom, abiding always, shines for the day. He nurses us along during the night, so that we may proceed to the day. So the stars are the other endow¬ ments; because after saying To one is given a word of wisdom, like the sun, for authority over the day; to another is given a word of knowledge, like the moon, for authority over the night; he also gives stars: to another the gift of healing, to another prophecy, etc. (1 Cor 12:8.10).
NOTES
1. Assigned to the Wednesday after Easter by Lambot, to the Tuesday by Poque. My conviction about inauthenticity grows apace. The ideas are the ideas of Augustine, but the clumsy handling of them is that of a less intellectually supple disciple.
SERMON 229U
FRAGMENT OF A SERMON PREACHED DURING THE EASTER OCTAVE
Date: 400-4101
Allegorical explanation of "reptiles of living souls"
So let us see what the scriptures say. Light through light means the just through the Word. The firmament of heaven, that's the solid reliability of the scriptures. The waters under the firmament, the earthly population; the waters above the firmament, the heavenly population. The dry land separated from the waters of the sea, that's souls thirsting for God separated from the multitudinous crimes of the world. The earth sprouts grass for fodder and fruit-bearing trees— the works of mercy. Lights in the firmament of heaven—preachers of the word, evangelists and apostles, spiritual gifts.
So as we observe the lights going round the whole world, just notice how the waters produce reptiles of living souls.2 The evangelists run round the world, people are evangelized. So the reptiles of living souls are to be understood as the sacraments. Why? Because what the sacraments are needed for is that the nations3 should be evangelized, and human beings separated from the nations, that is, that those salt waters should produce, and fresh fish should result. This, you see, is a great matter. Nobody can stomach sea water, everybody can4 eat fish, which are bom and reared in the saltiness. These are the fresh-tasting sacraments, which are dispatched throughout the whole world.5
But they are called reptiles of living souls, not yet living souls. Why? This little obscurity does take some understanding. You heard just now, when that reading was read, that Simon Magus was baptized, and did not lay aside his evil mind; he had the form of the sacrament, the power of the sacrament he did not have. Listen to what the apostle says about the godless: Having, he says, the form of godliness, while refusing its power (2 Tm 3:5). What is the form of godliness? The visible sacrament. What is the power of godliness? Invisible charity. Listen to the power of godliness: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have charity, I have become booming bronze, and so on; and if I have this and that, but do not have charity, lam nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). Yes, the sacraments are holy realities, great realities; but people are nothing if they do not have charity.