is going to rise again at the end of the world. For this perishable thing must put
SERMON 214 157
The holy Church, the forgiveness of sins
11. Also the holy Church:; honor, love, proclaim her as your mother, the Jerusalem which is above, the holy city of God.28 She it is who, in this faith which you have heard, bears fruit and grows in the whole world, the Church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Tm 3:15); who tolerates the wicked in the communion of the sacraments,29 knowing that they are due to be separated from her at the end, and withdrawing from them meanwhile in the dissimilarity of her morals. This Church has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 16:19) for the sake of her grains of com now groaning among the chaff, but destined to be piled manifestly in the granaries at the final winnow¬ ing.30 This is so that in her, through the blood of Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit, there may be had the forgiveness of sins. In this Church the soul which had been dead in its sins comes to life again, in order to be made alive with Christ, by whose grace we have been saved.31
The resurrection of the flesh
12. But we ought not to have any doubts either about this mortal flesh, which is going to rise again at the end of the world. For this perishable thing must put on imperishability, and this mortal thing put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53). It is sown perishable, it will rise imperishable; it is sown in disgrace, it will rise in glory; it is sown embodying a soul, it will rise embodying a spirit (1 Cor
15:42-44). This is the Christian, this the Catholic, this the apostolic faith. Believe Christ when he says, Not a hair of your head shall perish (Lk 21:18), and thrusting out all unbelief, reflect upon it to the best of your ability. I mean, can anything of ours be ignored by the redeemer as valueless, when he cannot ignore even one of our hairs? Or how can we doubt that he is going to give life to our soul and our flesh, when for our sakes he both assumed soul and flesh in which to die, and laid them down when he died, and received them back so that death need no more be feared?
As required by my ministry, I have explained to your graces everything that is given in the Symbol. The reason it is called a symbol is that in it is contained the prescribed faith and pledge of our association, and it is by confessing it, as by giving a password, that the faithful Christian can be recognized.32
NOTES
1. Nearly all the authorities date this sermon as early as this, even calling it the first among his sermons to have been preserved, preached shortly after his ordination as presbyter of Hippo Regius. Perler dates it more precisely to 15 March 391, the Saturday before the fourth Sunday in Lent. The reason for this early dating is clear: the reference to himself in the first sentence as a new recruit among the Church's ministers, and as being comparatively young (see next note).