rite of exorcism, in which evil spirits were "blown out" of the catechumens about to be baptized.
SERMON 218B 193 suppose that the sermon of which it gives us the bare bones may have been preached on the Wednes¬ day of Holy Week. But here he plainly says, 'Today we are celebrating ..."
The scholars refuse to commit themselves about where it was preached. But why there should be any doubt that it was preached in Hippo Regius I cannot imagine. Since the bishop was always there for Easter, he is hardly likely to have been anywhere else—at least outside his diocese—on Good Friday; though he may have been preaching in one of his parishes.
2. Sacramentum.
3. When we celebrate the eucharist, and when we make the sign of the cross on the lips and on the forehead.
4. Understand "under sin"; see Rom 7:14. 5. See 1 Cor 1:23-25. 6. The Jews.
7. The heretics he has in mind are the Donatists. By "blowing out" baptism he is alluding to the rite of exorcism, in which evil spirits were "blown out" of the catechumens about to be baptized. Now the Donatists rebaptized Catholics who crossed over to them; so in their exorcisms they were in fact, so Augustine is saying, "blowing out" Christ's baptism, which means they were blowing out or exorcising the Holy Spirit of Christ received in baptism.
8. See Jn 19:23-24; also Ps 22:18.
9. While it is vain, as we have often observed, to expect any signs of ecumenical spirit in Augustine—and historically unfair to him to do so—we can still rightly regret, I think, that he should consider it suitable to preach on Good Friday against the Jews and the Donatists in this way. It seems he did so fairly regularly. His Expositions on Psalm 22 is another case in point. That was particularly directed against the Donatists. Still, as I think we have also remarked, Augustine was temperamen¬ tally a fighter, and fighters fight enemies; and we must credit him with sincerely, if to our minds oddiy, loving these particular enemies, Jews and Donatists—not as Jews and Donatists, of course, but as potential Catholic Christians. To defeat them would be to convert them. It is doubtful, though, whether sermons like this one succeeded in instilling such noble but difficult sentiments into the hearts of his hearers.