resurrection of the flesh will be the end without end; but after it there will be no
146 SAINT AUGUSTINE - SERMONS
Your sins will be like the Egyptians, hard on the heels of the Israelites; pursuing them, but only as far as the Red Sea. What does it mean, as far as the Red Sea? As far as the font, consecrated by the cross and blood of Christ.
What's red, after all, reddens. Can't you see how part of Christ25 reddens? Ask the eye of your faith; if you can see the cross, observe the blood; if you can see what's hanging on it, observe what he shed. The side of Christ was pierced with a lance, and our price poured out.26 That's why baptism is signed with the sign of Christ27—I mean the water in which you are dipped, and as it were pass over in the Red Sea. Your sins are your enemies; they follow, but as far as the sea. When you yourselves enter the sea, you escape them, they will be blotted out as the water overwhelmed the Egyptians, while the Israelites escaped dryshod. And what does scripture say? Not one of them remained (Ps 106:11). You have sinned much, you have sinned little; you've committed great sins, you've committed little sins; it makes no difference; not one of them remained.
But since we are going to go on living in this world, where nobody can live without sin, for that reason the forgiveness of sins is not confined only to the washing clean of sacred baptism, but is also to be had in the Lord's prayer which is also a daily prayer, and which you are going to receive in eight days' time. In it you will find, as it were, your daily baptism.28 So you must thank God for having granted his Church this gift, which we confess in the creed; so that when we say in the holy Church, we join onto it in the forgiveness of sins.
Resurrection of the flesh
10. After this, the resurrection of the flesh. That is now the end of it; but the resurrection of the flesh will be the end without end; but after it there will be no death of the flesh, no pain of the flesh, no distress of the flesh, no hunger and thirst of the flesh, no afflictions of the flesh, no old age and weariness of the flesh. So don't shudder at the prospect of the resurrection of the flesh; observe what's good about the flesh, forget its ills.29 Certainly, certainly, whatever fleshly complaints there may be now, there won't be any then. We shall be eternal, the equals of the angels of God (Mt 22:30), we will share one city with the holy angels.
We shall be possessed by the Lord; we shall be his inheritance, and he will be our inheritance; as we say to him now, Lord, the share of my inheritance (Ps
16:5); and about us it says to the Son, Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance (Ps 2:8). We shall possess and be possessed, own and be owned. What am I to say? We worship and are worshiped; but we worship him as our God, we are worshiped, that is, cultivated, by him as his field.30
To realize that we are cultivated, listen to the Lord: I am the true vine, you are the branches, my Father the field worker (Jn 15:1.5). If he is called the field worker, he works or cultivates the field. What field? He cultivates us. And the cultivator of this visible earth can plow, can dig, can plant, can irrigate, if he finds water—but can he rain? Cause growth, produce buds, cause trees to take root, push them up into the fresh air, put strength in their branches, load them