really interests him.
174 SAINT A UGUST1NE - SERMONS mortal hunger.41 You will feed on his flesh, you will be given his blood to drink; by the shedding of it sins are forgiven, debts waived, stains wiped away. Eat like poor people, and then you will be satisfied, and you will be among those of whom it is said, The poor shall eat and shall have their fill (Ps 22:26); and having had your fill, give a healthy belch in honor of his bread and his glory.
Hasten to him and be converted; he, you see, is the one who converts those who have turned away, goes in pursuit of those who have run away, finds those who have got lost, humbles the proud, feeds the starving, releases those in fetters, gives light to the blind, purges the unclean, gives refreshment to the weary, raises the dead, and snatches the possessed from the grip of the spirits of wickedness (Eph 6:12). From these we have just now found you to be free; we congratulate you, and exhort you to preserve in your hearts the health that is apparent in your bodies.42
NOTES
1. The competentes were those catechumens who at the beginning of Lent gave in their names, and were accepted for baptism at Easter. They were "the askers." At first I thought of translating them as "co-seekers," or as "fellow petitioners"; but I finally decided to keep the Latin, because it is a technical term which no longer has any equivalent in modem Church practice, and therefore no real equivalent in English.
From a number of references to the ceremonies involved, including what was called a scrutiny, and exorcisms, I conclude that the sermon was preached when the competentes were enrolled, that is at the beginning of Lent. If I am right, it means that the sermon, which almost all scholars agree was preached in 391, very soon after Augustine's ordination as a presbyter, was preached shortly before, and not after Sermon 214. So we may well have here the first sermon he ever preached. Two scholars date it in 397, and would make it Augustine's first sermon as bishop.
2. Reading oratione, as suggested by the Maurists, instead of the ore, "by the mouth," of the text. This really doesn't make sense. It could indeed be a scribal abbreviation for oratione.
3. Reading semen instead of the text's sermonem. Sermonem verbi is a meaningless tautology, "the speech of the word."
4. It is this additional connotation of the word—which he rather seems to impose on it—that really interests him.
5. See Mt 5:8. He is punning on mundus, "world" and mundus, "pure." 6. See Jn 16:33.
7. Here I leave out several words, which strike me as reduplicated by copyist error; they are dum apparuerit quod eritis. Scitote autem. If they were left in the text, we would have the following, from the beginning of the sentence: "Know however that when he appears you will be like him, when it appears what you shall be. Know however that you will see him ..."
8. See Col 3:9-10.1 have to keep "man" here, where normally I would translate "self," because he goes on to link this text with one that talks of the old man, Adam, and the new man Christ in
1 Cor 15:46-49.
9. 1 Cor 15:46-49.
10. A clear reference to the eucharist. Incidentally the expression "the precious blood of Christ" is so familiar to Catholic devotion, such a pious cliche, that we forget its earthy commercial conno¬ tations. The Latin pretiosus obviously—to Latin ears—means "pricy," expensive.