The Sunday next before Advent
Homily of Augustine on Psalm CXLVIII
Home, Sunday before Advent
STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Source of Collect: Sacramentary of Gregory of Rome [c. 600]. The title of this collect "The Sunday next before Advent" was that which was used in the Sarum Missal, and was restored to the American Prayerbook in 1892. [Barbee and Zahl]
Jeremiah xxiii. 5 Psalm 146, 147 | 148,149,150
& St. John vi. 1
Homil of Augustine on Psalm CXLVIII
 |
| From CENTURIONS FORUM |
In the beginning God created heaven and earth...and God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
for the epistle
Psalm 148
a lad ... hath... two small fishes
St. John vi. 1
When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.Augustine of Hippo
Psalm CXLVIII
1. The subject of our meditation in this present life should be the praises
of God; for the everlasting exaltation of our life hereafter will be the
praise of God, and none can become fit for the life hereafter, who hath not
practised himself for it now. So then now we praise God, but we pray to Him
too. Our praise is marked by joy, our prayer by groans.…On account of these
two seasons, one, that which now is in the temptations and tribulations of
this life, the other, that which is to be hereafter in everlasting rest and
exultation; we have established also the celebration of two seasons, that
before Easter and that after Easter. That which is before Easter signifieth
tribulation, in which we now are; that which we are now keeping after
Easter, signifieth the bliss in which we shall hereafter be. The celebration
then which we keep before Easter is what we do now: by that which we keep
after Easter we signify what as yet we have not. Therefore we employ that
time in fastings and prayer, this present time we spend in praises, and
relax our fast. This is the Halleluia which we sing, which, as you know,
meaneth (in Latin), Praise ye the Lord. Therefore that period is before the
Lord’s Resurrection, this, after His Resurrection: by which time is
signified the future hope which as yet we have not: for what we represent
after the Lord’s Resurrection, we shall have after our own. For in our Head
both are figured, both are set forth. The Baptism of the Lord setteth forth
to us this present life of trial, for in it we must toil, be harassed, and,
at last, die; but the Resurrection and Glorification of the Lord setteth
forth to us the life which we are to have hereafter, when He shall come to
recompense due rewards, evil to the evil, good to the good. And now indeed
all the evil men sing with us, Halleluia; but, if they persevere in their
wickedness, they may utter with their lips the song of our life hereafter;
but the life itself, which will then be in the reality which now is
typified, they cannot obtain, because they would not practise it before it
came, and lay hold on what was to come.
2. “Halleluia.” “Praise the Lord,” thou sayest to thy neighbour, he to thee:
when all are exhorting each other, all are doing what they exhort others to
do. But praise with your whole selves: that is, let not your tongue and
voice alone praise God, but your conscience also, your life, your deeds. For
now, when we are gathered together in the Church, we praise: when we go
forth each to his own business, we seem to cease to praise God. Let a man
not cease to live well, and then he ever praiseth God.…It is impossible for
a man’s acts to be evil, whose thoughts are good. For acts issue from
thought: nor can a man do anything or move his limbs to do aught, unless the
bidding of his thought precede: just as in all things which ye see done
throughout the provinces, whatsoever the Emperor biddeth goeth forth from
the inner part of his palace throughout the whole Roman Empire. [5964] How
great commotion is caused at one bidding by the Emperor as he sits in his
palace! He but moveth his lips, when he speaketh: the whole province is
moved, when what he speaketh is being executed. So in each single man too,
the Emperor is within, his seat is in the heart. If he be good and biddeth
good things, good things are done: if he be bad and biddeth evil things,
evil things are done. When Christ sitteth there, what can He bid, but what
is good? When the devil is the occupant, what can he bid, but evil? But God
hath willed that it should be in thy choice for whom thou wilt prepare room,
for God, or for the devil: when thou hast prepared it, he who is occupant
will also rule. Therefore, brethren, attend not only to the sound; when ye
praise God, praise with your whole selves: let your voice, your life, your
deeds, all sing.
3. “Praise ye the Lord from heaven” (ver. 1). As though he had found things
in heaven holding their peace in the praise of the Lord, he exhorteth them
to arise and praise. Never have things in heaven held their peace in the
praises of their Creator, never have things on earth ceased to praise God.
But it is manifest that there are certain things which have breath to praise
God in that disposition wherein God pleaseth them. For no one praiseth
aught, save what pleaseth him. And there are other things which have not
breath of life and understanding to praise God, but yet, because they also
are good, and duly arranged in their proper order, and form part of the
beauty of the universe, which God created, though they themselves with voice
and heart praise not God, yet when they are considered by those who have
understanding, God is praised in them; and, as God is praised in them, they
themselves too in a manner praise God. [5965] …
4. “Praise ye the Lord from heaven: praise Him in the high places.” [5966]
First he saith, “from heaven,” then from earth; for it is God that is
praised, who made heaven and earth. All in heaven is calm and peaceful;
there is ever joy, no death, no sickness, no vexation; there the blessed
ever praise God; but we are still below: yet, when we think how God is
praised there, let us have our heart there, and let us not hear to no
purpose, “Lift up your hearts.” Let us lift up our heart above, that it
become not corrupted on earth: for we take pleasure in what the Angels do
there. We do it now in hope: hereafter we shall in reality, when we have
come thither. “Praise Him” then “in the high places.”
5. “Praise Him, all ye angels of His, praise Him, all His powers” (ver. 2).
“Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all ye stars and light” (ver. 3).
“Praise Him, ye heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens”
(ver. 4). “Let them praise the Name of the Lord” (ver. 5). When can he
unfold all in his enumeration? Yet he hath in a manner touched upon them all
summarily, and included all things in heaven praising their Creator. And as
though it were said to him, “Why do they praise Him? what hath He conferred
on them, that they should praise Him?” he goeth on, “for He spake, and they
were made; He commanded, and they were created.” No wonder if the works
praise the Worker, no wonder if the things that are made praise the Maker,
no wonder if creation praise its Creator. In this Christ also is mentioned,
though we seem not to have heard His Name.…By what were they made? By the
Word? [5967] How doth he show in this Psalm, that all things were made by
the Word? “He spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were
created.” No one speaketh, no one commandeth, save by word.
6. “He hath established them for the age, and for age upon age” (ver. 6).
All things in heaven, all things above, all powers and angels, a certain
city on high, good, holy, blessed; from whence because we are wanderers, we
are wretched; whither because we are to return, we are blessed in hope;
whither when we shall have returned, we shall be blessed indeed; “He hath
given them a law which shall not pass away.” What sort of command, think ye,
have things in heaven and the holy angels received? What sort of command
hath God given them? What, but that they praise Him? Blessed are they whose
business is to praise God! They plough not, they sow not, they grind not,
they cook not; for these are works of necessity, and there is no necessity
there. They steal not, they plunder not, they commit no adultery; for these
are works of iniquity, and there is no iniquity there. They break not bread
for the hungry, they clothe not the naked, they take not in the stranger,
they visit not the sick, they set not at one the contentious, they bury not
the dead; for these are works of mercy, and there there is no misery, for
mercy to be shown to. O blessed they! Think we that we too shall be like
this? Ah! let us sigh, let us groan in sighing. And what are we, that we
should be there? mortal, outcast, abject, earth and ashes! But He, who hath
promised, is almighty.…
7. Let him then turn himself to things on earth too, since he hath already
spoken the praises of things in heaven. “Praise ye the Lord from the
earth” (ver. 7). For wherewith began he before? “Praise ye the Lord from
heaven:” and he went through things in heaven: now hear of things on earth.
“Dragons and all abysses.” “Abysses” are depths of water: all the seas, and
this atmosphere of clouds, pertain to the “abyss.” Where there are clouds,
where there are storms, where there is rain, lightning, thunder, hail, snow,
and all that God willeth should be done above the earth, by this moist and
misty atmosphere, all this he hath mentioned under the name of earth,
because it is very changeable and mortal; unless ye think that it raineth
from above the stars. [5968] All these things happen here, close to the
earth. Sometimes even men are on the tops of mountains, and see the clouds
beneath them, and often it raineth: and all commotions which arise from the
disturbance of the atmosphere, those who watch carefully see that they
happen here, in this lower part of the universe.…Thou seest then what kind
all these things are, changeable, troublous, fearful, corruptible: yet they
have their place, they have their rank, they too in their degree fill up the
beauty of the universe, and so they praise the Lord. He turns then to them,
as though He would exhort them too, or us, that by considering them we may
praise the Lord. “Dragons” live about the water, come out from caverns, fly
through the air; the air is set in motion by them: “dragons” are a huge kind
of living creatures, greater there are not upon the earth. Therefore with
them he beginneth, “Dragons and all abysses.” There are caves of hidden
waters, whence springs and streams come forth: some come forth to flow over
the earth, some flow secretly beneath; and all this kind, all this damp
nature of waters, together with the sea and this lower air, are called
abyss, or “abysses,” where dragons live and praise God. What? Think we that
the dragons form choirs, and praise God? Far from it. But do ye, when ye
consider the dragons, regard the Maker of the dragon, the Creator of the
dragon: then, when ye admire the dragons, and say, “Great is the Lord who
made these,” then the dragons praise God by your voices.
8. “Fire, hail, snow, ice, wind of storms, which do His word” (ver. 8).
Wherefore added he here, “which do His word”? Many foolish men, unable to
contemplate and discern creation, in its several places and rank, performing
its movements at the nod and commandment of God think that God doth indeed
rule all things above, but things below He despiseth, casteth aside,
abandoneth, so that He neither careth for them, nor guideth, nor ruleth
them; but that they are ruled by chance, how they can, as they can: and they
are influenced by what they say sometimes to one another: e.g. “If it were
God that gave rain, would He rain into the sea? What sort of providence,”
they say, “is this? Getulia is thirsty, and it rains into the sea.” They
think that they handle the matter cleverly. One should say to them, “Getulia
does at all events thirst, thou dost not even thirst.” For good were it for
thee to say to God, “My soul hath thirsted for Thee.” [5969] For he that
thus argueth is already satisfied; he thinketh himself learned, he is not
willing to learn, therefore he thirsteth not. For if he thirsted, he would
be willing to learn, and he would find that everything happeneth upon earth
by God’s Providence, and he would wonder at the arrangement of even the
limbs of a flea. Attend, beloved. Who hath arranged the limbs of a flea and
a gnat, that they should have their proper order, life, motion? Consider one
little creature, even the very smallest, whatever thou wilt. If thou
considerest the order of its limbs, and the animation of life whereby it
moveth; how doth it shun death, love life, seek pleasures, avoid pain, exert
divers senses, vigorously use movements suitable to itself! Who gave its
sting to the gnat, for it to suck blood with? How narrow is the pipe whereby
it sucketh! Who arranged all this? who made all this? Thou art amazed at the
smallest things; praise Him that is great. Hold then this, my brethren, let
none shake you from your faith or from sound doctrine. He who made the Angel
in heaven, the Same also made the worm upon earth: the Angel in heaven to
dwell in heaven, the worm upon earth to abide on earth. He made not the
Angel to creep in the mud, nor the worm to move in heaven. He hath assigned
dwellers to their different abodes; incorruption He assigned to
incorruptible abodes, corruptible things to corruptible abodes. Observe the
whole, praise the whole. He then who ordered the limbs of the worm, doth He
not govern the clouds? And wherefore raineth He into the sea? As though
there are not in the sea things which are nourished by rain; as though He
made not fishes therein, as though He made not living creatures therein.
Observe how the fishes run to sweet water. And wherefore, saith he, doth He
give rain to the fishes, and sometimes giveth not rain to me? That thou
mayest consider that thou art in a desert region, and in a pilgrimage of
life; that so this present life may grow bitter to thee, that thou mayest
long for the life to come: or else that thou mayest be scourged, punished,
amended. And how well doth He assign their properties to regions. Behold,
since we have spoken of Getulia, He raineth here nearly every year, and
giveth corn every year; here the corn cannot be kept, it soon rotteth,
because it is given every year; there, because it is given seldom, both much
is given, and it can be kept for long. But dost thou perchance think that
God there deserteth man, or that they do not there after their own manner of
rejoicing both praise and glorify God? Take a Getulian from his country, and
set him amid our pleasant trees; he will wish to flee away, and return to
his bare Getulia. To all places then, regions, seasons, God hath assigned
and arranged what fits them. Who could unfold it? Yet they who have eyes see
many things therein: when seen, they please; pleasing, they are praised; not
they really, but He who made them; thus shall all things praise God.
9. It was in thought of this that the spirit of the Prophet added the words,
“which do His word.” Think not then that these things are moved by chance,
which in every motion of theirs obey God. Whither God willeth, thither the
fire spreads, thither the cloud hurries, whether it carry in it rain, or
snow, or hail. And wherefore doth the lightning sometimes strike the
mountain, yet strikes not the robber?…Perhaps He yet seeketh the robber’s
conversion, and therefore is the mountain which feareth not smitten, that
the man who feareth may be changed. Thou also sometimes, when maintaining
discipline, smitest the ground to terrify a child. Sometimes too He smiteth
a man, whom He will. But thou sayest to me, Behold, He smiteth the more
innocent, and passeth over the more guilty. Wonder not; death, whencesoever
it come, is good to the good man. And whence dost thou know what punishment
is reserved in secret for that more guilty man, if he be unwilling to be
converted? Would not they rather be scorched by lightning, to whom it shall
be said in the end, “Depart into everlasting fire”? [5970] The needful thing
is, that thou be guileless. Why so? Is it an evil thing to die by shipwreck,
and a good thing to die by fever? Whether he die in this way or in that, ask
what sort of man he is who dieth; ask whither he will go after death, not
how he is to depart from life.…Whatever then happeneth here contrary to our
wish, thou wilt know that it happeneth not, save by the will of God, by His
providence, by His ordering, by His nod, by His laws: and if we understand
not why anything is done, let us grant to His providence that it is not done
without reason: so shall we not be blasphemers. For when we begin to argue
concerning the works of God, “why is this?” “why is that?” and, “He ought
not to have done this,” “He did this ill;” where is the praise of God? Thou
hast lost thy Halleluia. Regard all things in such wise as to please God and
praise the Creator. For if thou wert to happen to enter the workshop of a
smith, thou wouldest not dare to find fault with his bellows, his anvils,
his hammers. But take an ignorant man, who knows not for what purpose each
thing is, and he findeth fault with all. But if he have not the skill of the
workman, and have but the reasoning power of a man, what saith he to
himself? Not without reason are the bellows placed here: the workman knoweth
wherefore, though I know not. In the shop he dareth not to find fault with
the smith, yet in the universe he dareth to find fault with God. Therefore
just as “fire, hail, snow, ice, wind of storms, which do His word,” so all
things in nature, which seem to foolish persons to be made at random, simply
“do His word,” because they are not made save by His command.
10. Then he mentioneth, that they may praise the Lord, “mountains and hills,
fruitful trees and all cedars” (ver. 9): “beasts and all cattle, creeping
things, and winged fowls” (ver. 10). Then he goeth to men; “kings of the
earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth” (ver. 11): “young
men and maidens, old men and young, let them praise the Name of the Lord”
(ver. 12). Ended is the praise from heaven, ended is the praise from earth.
“For His Name only is exalted” (ver. 13). Let no man seek to exalt his own
name. Wilt thou be exalted? Subject thyself to Him who cannot be humbled.
“His confession is in earth and heaven” (ver. 14). What is “His
confession”? Is it the confession wherewith He confesseth? No, but that
whereby all things confess Him, all things cry aloud: the beauty of all
things is in a manner their voice, whereby they praise God. The heaven
crieth out to God, “Thou madest me, not I myself.” Earth crieth out, “Thou
createdst me, not I myself.” How do they cry out? When thou regardest them,
and findest this out, they cry out by thy voice, they cry out by thy regard.
Regard the heavens, it is beautiful: observe the earth, it is beautiful:
both together are very beautiful. He made them, He ruleth them, by His nod
they are swayed, He ordereth their seasons, He reneweth their movements, by
Himself He reneweth them. All these things then praise Him, whether in
stillness or in motion, whether from earth below or from heaven above,
whether in their old state or in their renewal. When thou seest all these
things, and rejoicest, and art lifted up to the Maker, and gazest on “His
invisible things understood by the things which are made,” [5971] “His
confession is in earth and heaven:” that is, thou confesseth to Him from
things on earth, thou confesseth to Him from things in heaven. And since He
made all things, and nought is better than He, whatsoever He made is less
than He, and whatsoever in these things pleaseth thee, is less than He. Let
not then what He hath made so please thee, as to withdraw thee from Him who
made: if thou lovest what He made, love much more Him who made. If the
things which He hath made are beautiful, how much more beautiful is He who
made them. “And He shall exalt the horn of His people.” Behold what Haggai
and Zachariah prophesied. Now the “horn of His people” is humble in
afflictions, in tribulations, in temptations, in beating of the breast; when
will He “exalt the horn of His people”? When the Lord hath come, and our Sun
is risen, not the sun which is seen with the eye, and “riseth upon the good
and the evil,” [5972] but That whereof is said, To you that hear God, “the
Sun of Righteousness shall rise, and healing in His wings;” [5973] and of
whom the proud and wicked shall hereafter say, “The light of righteousness
hath not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us.”
[5974] This shall be our summer. Now during the winter weather the fruits
appear not on the stock; thou observest, so to say, dead trees during the
winter. He who cannot see truly, thinketh the vine dead; perhaps there is
one near it which is really dead; both are alike during winter; the one is
alive, the other is dead, but both the life and death are hidden: summer
advanceth; then the life of the one shineth brightly, the death of the other
is manifested: the splendour of leaves, the abundance of fruit, cometh
forth, the vine is clothed in outward appearance from what it hath in its
stock. Therefore, brethren, now we are the same as other men: just as they
are born, eat, drink, are clothed, pass their life, so also do the saints.
Sometimes the very truth deceiveth men, and they say, “Lo, he hath begun to
be a Christian: hath he lost his headache?” or, “because he is a Christian,
what gaineth he from me?” O dead vine, thou observest near thee a vine that
is bare indeed in winter, yet not dead. Summer will come, the Lord will
come, our Splendour, that was hidden in the stock, and then “He shall exalt
the horn of His people,” after the captivity wherein we live in this mortal
life.…
11. “An hymn to all His Saints.” Know ye what an hymn is? It is a song with
praise of God. If thou praisest God and singest not, thou utterest no hymn:
if thou singest and praisest not God, thou utterest no hymn: if thou
praisest aught else, which pertaineth not to the praise of God, although
thou singest and praisest, thou utterest no hymn. An hymn then containeth
these three things, song, and praise, and that of God. Praise then of God in
song is called an hymn. What then meaneth, “An hymn to all His Saints”? Let
His Saints receive an hymn: let His Saints utter an hymn: for this is what
they are to receive in the end, an everlasting hymn.…
Let us pray in the words of Augustine.
Turn we to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, and with pure hearts offer to him, so far as our
meanness can, great and true thanks, with all our hearts praying his exceeding kindness, that of
his good pleasure he would deign to hear our prayers, that by his Power he would drive out the
enemy from our deeds and thoughts, that he would increase our faith, guide our understandings,
give us spiritual thoughts, and lead us to his bliss, through Jesus Christ his Son our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[A prayer which he was wont to use after his Sermons and Lectures.]
NPNF (V1-08) St. Augustine
Notes:
Sermon to the people.
[5964] [A striking illustration of (the Christmas morning Lesson, Anglican)
Luke ii. 1.—C.]
[5965] [Homo Naturæ minister et interpres.—Bacon. The “Hymn of the Three
Children” was in his mind: it became very early one of the hymns of the
Church.—C.]
[5966] [In excelsis.—C.]
[5967] John i. 1, 2.
[5968] [See A.N.F. vol. vii. p. 57.—C.]
[5969] Ps. cxliii. 6; Ps. lxiii. 1; Matt. v. 6.
[5970] Matt. xxv. 41.
[5971] Rom. i. 20.
[5972] Matt. v. 45.
[5973] Mal. iv. 2.
[5974] Wisd. v. 6.
Finis
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