6. By a canonical, and indeed sacramental, absolution.
338 SAINT A UGUST1NE - SERMONS
So the power of the sacrament is charity. This charity is something the heretics do not have, though I find the form of the sacrament with them. And so, when heretics come to me, I bow to the form of the sacrament, and do not rebaptize them; but I restore the power of the sacrament, and insert the root of charity.1 2 3 4 5 6 So that will be the living souls which the land produces, so that the so may now be alive, having at last the power of the sacrament. So that's all about the text, Let the waters produce reptiles of living souls, and so on.
NOTES
1. Lambot ascribes this sermon to the Thursday after Easter, Poque to the Wednesday. 2. See Gn 1:20. This is a very literal translation of reptilia animarum vivarum, which in turn is a literal translation of the Greek of the Septuagint. I have to keep it literal, because he is going on to expound it as it stands.
3. Reading gentes instead of the text's gentibus. Though if gentibus is correct, it must mean that the sacraments are necessary so that they, the sacraments, may be evangelized to the nations—a kind of muddle typical of this Pseudo-Augustine, Augustinaster, or Augustinarius. I am beginning to wonder if he was not perhaps the priest Heraclius, Augustine's right hand man, and successor as bishop; a very worthy and devoted disciple, but with nothing of the master's genius.
4. Supplying "everybody can," which is not in the Latin; something has presumably slipped out. 5. So the fish are being identified very clumsily with the reptiles of living souls. The sacraments he has in mind are really just baptism, with confirmation and eucharist perhaps included, since they followed immediately on baptism.
6. By a canonical, and indeed sacramental, absolution.
SERMON 229V
FRAGMENT OF A SERMON PREACHED DURING THE EASTER OCTAVE
Date: 400-4101
All God's works contained in man, the microcosm
On the sixth day God said, Let the land produce living soul (Gn 1:24); not reptiles of living souls, but living soul. And the land produced all cattle and wild beasts and serpents and everything that crawls on the land. And God saw that it was good. And God said, on that same sixth day when land threw up living soul, Let us make man to our image and likeness (Gn 1:25-26), and the rest that follows.
We have said that God made the light, that is all the faithful; he made the firmament in the world, the sky or heaven between the waters and waters; he made the firmament in the Church, the authority of the scriptures between the angelic population for whom this is not needed, and the human population, for them to seek God there. God made a separation in the world of sea and land; God made a separation in the Church of the nations from his servants.2 The dry land thirsts for the showers; in the Church Christians thirst for heavenly showers. The dry land produced grass for fodder, and fruit-bearing trees; in the Church Christians too produce works of mercy. Lights are made in heaven; the greater light a word of wisdom, the lesser light a word of knowledge, the stars gifts of healing, of prophecy, faith, and so on; all these in the firmament of heaven.
So when they3 had begun to run their courses and to traverse the whole world, the waters teemed, that is, from the nations there sprang up reptiles of living souls, the holy sacraments and human beings having their form. The form of the sacrament, you see, is in the human person,4 and sometimes the power of the sacrament follows upon it immediately; but this now happens in the land which has been separated, and that's why the land produces living soul. And indeed, brothers and sisters, living soul is what there should and must be. Our brothers and sisters here5 have received baptism; let its power follow upon its form. Don't let your baptism be unto judgment, but unto salvation. It was unto judgment for Simon Magus, unto salvation for Peter.6
So let us see what is meant by living soul, which the land produced. Consider a human being; he has a body, has a soul. The soul itself has many activities like
340 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS those of animals; and it has a certain I don't know what in addition, which animals haven't got. What activities does it have like those of animals? Eating and drinking, sleeping and waking, and reproducing. Aren't these common to us and to animals? Anyone who carries these activities to the point of gross self-indulgence has a dead soul, not a living soul. How do we prove that? Listen to the apostle: While the one who is preoccupied with pleasures is dead even while she lives (1 Tm 5:6). What is being preoccupied with pleasures, but letting ourselves go in those activities we have in common with cattle, in uncontrolled pleasures and lusts, with gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, the sloth of the slug-a-bed? Those who live like that are preoccupied with pleasures; but they are dead, while living.
But if all these desires and feelings are restrained, and these activities are tied to chastity, to self-control, the land produces soul; and because this was dead in pleasures, it remains for it to be curbed in its pleasures, and to begin to live and have the power of godliness. And what is the power of godliness? Love of God and neighbor. But anyone who has such love or charity curbs all lusts through faith, all longings, all movements of the spirit which we have in common with cattle, and so will become living soul. And it follows that now man may be formed to the image and likeness of God. But he is so formed when all these things that have been mentioned are directed toward that man as their conclu¬ sion. Because God also made light—it's said of man in the Church; and he made the firmament, the authority of the scriptures for man's sake; and he separated the waters from the land, the nations from believers; and the land sprouted grass for fodder, the works of mercy; and the lights in heaven, the holy evangelists in man;7 and the land produced the reptile of living souls, the sacraments; this too among men. Afterward it produced living soul, the curbing of all lusts, this too in man. Join all these things to intelligence, and man has been made to the image and likeness of God.
Notice how we can prove that. That's why it said about each work in turn, God saw that it was good (Gn 1:4.8.10.12.18.21.25).8 But when he made the better thing, he didn t just see that it was better;9 but he included everything that had been made in man himself, and so it says, God saw everything he had made, and behold it was very good (Gn 1:31). He had already said about each one of them that they were good; once man was made, he named all of them together. We are to understand that each and every one of them is to be found in man. Are you looking for light in man? You find faith. Are you looking for the firmament? You find the authority of the scriptures. Are you looking for the segregation of the waters? You find the believer segregated from the nations. Are you looking for the burgeoning of the grass and fruit-bearing trees? You find good works, the works of mercy. Are you looking for the lights of heaven? You find the evangelists. Are you looking for the reptiles of living souls? You find the sacraments. Are you looking for living soul? You find self-control. Are you looking for man in man? You find the image and likeness of God.