John is the voice: The Nativity of John the Baptist

The following is from St. Augustine's sermon #293:

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever. Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.

In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him”.

What does prepare the way mean, if not “pray well”? What does prepare the way mean, if not “be humble in your thoughts”? We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.

If he had said, “I am the Christ”, you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself.

He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

Early origins of liturgical practices

I am amazed to read how early we have written records of things such as daily celebration of the Eucharist and multiple Masses in a day.

From St. Augustine, on daily Mass:

I promised you, who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the Sacrament of the Lord's Table, which you now look upon and of which you last night were made participants. You ought to know what you have received, what you are going to receive, and what you ought to receive daily. (Sermon 227)

Thus [Christ] is both the Priest who offers and the Sacrifice offered. And He designed that there should be a daily sign of this in the sacrifice of the Church, which, being His body, learns to offer herself through Him. (City of God X, 20)

There are other things, however, which are different in different places and countries: e.g., some fast on Saturday, others do not; some partake daily of the body and blood of Christ, others receive it on stated days: in some places no day passes without the sacrifice being offered; in others it is only on Saturday and the Lord’s day, or it may be only on the Lord’s day. (Epistle LIV, 2)

Some one may say, “The Eucharist ought not to be taken every day.” You ask, “On what grounds?” He answers, “Because, in order that a man may approach worthily to so great a sacrament, he ought to choose those days upon which he lives in more special purity and self-restraint; for ‘whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself.’” ... If, however, his sins are not so great as to bring him justly under sentence of excommunication, he ought not to withdraw himself from the daily use of the Lord’s body for the healing of his soul.” (Epistle LIV, 4)

For the wolf will come — not man, but the devil, who has very often perverted to apostasy believers to whom the daily ministry of the Lord’s body was wanting... (Epistle CCXXVIII, 6)

The sacrament of this thing, namely, of the unity of the body and blood of Christ, is prepared on the Lord’s table in some places daily, in some places at certain intervals of days, and from the Lord’s table it is taken, by some to life, by some to destruction: but the thing itself, of which it is the sacrament, is for every man to life, for no man to destruction, whosoever shall have been a partaker thereof. (Tractates on the Gospels of John XXVI, 15)

From Pope St. Gregory the Great, on multiple Masses in a day:

Because [by the Lord's bounty] I am going to celebrate the eucharist three times today, I can comment only briefly on the Gospel lesson. But [our Redeemer's] birthday compels me to say something, however short. (Homily 7, in Forty Gospel Homilies)

(H/T to Fr. Daren Zehnle)

Augustine on catechesis (1-6)

As I read St. Augustine's De Catechizandis Rudibus (DCR), I'm going to share some highlights and my commentary with you, faithful reader!

First, a bit of context about this document. A deacon in Carthage named — get this — Deogratis had asked St. Augustine to "send [him] in writing something which might be of service to [him] in the matter of catechising the uninstructed." Deogratias had "the reputation of possessing a rich gift in catechising, due at once to an intimate acquaintance with the faith, and to an attractive method of discourse." But he expressed some reservations to Augustine "regarding the point at which our statement of [some Christian doctrine] ought to commence, and the limit to which it should be allowed to proceed" and whether catechists "ought to make use of any kind of exhortation, or simply specify those precepts in the observance of which the person to whom [they] are discoursing may know the Christian life and profession to be maintained." Deogratias was also doubtful how he can be profitable to his audience if, during a long address, he seems "profitless and distasteful" even to himself! (DCR 1)

So Augustine gladly takes up the task of responding to Deogratias. (DCR 2) First, he lets Deogratias know that it is possible for a speech to be profitable to an audience and yet seem distasteful to the one speaking it. (DCR 3-4) Then Augustine tells him about the manner of "narration" to use in catechesis:

5. The narration is full when each person is catechised in the first instance from what is written in the text, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, on to the present times of the Church. This does not imply, however, either that we ought to repeat by memory the entire Pentateuch, and the entire Books of Judges, and Kings, and Esdras, and the entire Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, if we have learned all these word for word; or that we should put all the matters which are contained in these volumes into our own words, and in that manner unfold and expound them as a whole. For neither does the time admit of that, nor does any necessity demand it.

But what we ought to do is to give a comprehensive statement of all things, summarily and generally, so that certain of the more wonderful facts may be selected which are listened to with superior gratification, and which have been ranked so remarkably among the exact turning-points (of the history); that, instead of exhibiting them to view only in their wrappings, if we may so speak, and then instantly snatching them from our sight, we ought to dwell on them for a certain space, and thus, as it were, unfold them and open them out to vision, and present them to the minds of the hearers as things to be examined and admired. But as for all other details, these should be passed over rapidly, and thus far introduced and woven into the narrative. The effect of pursuing this plan is, that the particular facts which we wish to see specially commended to attention obtain greater prominence in consequence of the others being made to yield to them; while, at the same time, neither does the learner, whose interest we are anxious to stimulate by our statement, come to these subjects with a mind already exhausted, nor is confusion induced upon the memory of the person whom we ought to be instructing by our teaching.

This sounds a bit like the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, which follows fourteen books of the Bible that provide a constant narrative, dwelling on major events (especially the establishing of covenants) in those books, while letting you know where the other books fit into the big picture.

Augustine then goes to talk about the attitude of the catechist, which should be one of charity, and how the charity of God — expressed in the preparation for the advent of His Son and its realization in the Incarnation — is the necessary lens through which all the Scriptures must be read:

6. In all things, indeed, not only ought our own eye to be kept fixed upon the end of the commandment, which is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, to which we should make all that we utter refer; but in like manner ought the gaze of the person whom we are instructing by our utterance to be moved toward the same, and guided in that direction.

And, in truth, for no other reason were all those things which we read in the Holy Scriptures written, previous to the Lord's advent, but for this—namely, that His advent might be pressed upon the attention, and that the Church which was to be, should be intimated beforehand, that is to say, the people of God throughout all nations; which Church is His body, wherewith also are united and numbered all the saints who lived in this world, even before His advent, and who believed then in His future coming, just as we believe in His past coming.

Now Augustine interprets the birth of Jacob as a type of salvation history! This is an amazing exercise in biblical typology:

For (to use an illustration) Jacob, at the time when he was being born, first put forth from the womb a hand, with which also he held the foot of the brother who was taking priority of him in the act of birth; and next indeed the head followed, and thereafter, at last, and as matter of course, the rest of the members: while, nevertheless the head in point of dignity and power has precedence, not only of those members which followed it then, but also of the very hand which anticipated it in the process of the birth, and is really the first, although not in the matter of the time of appearing, at least in the order of nature.

And in an analogous manner, the Lord Jesus Christ, previous to His appearing in the flesh, and coming forth in a certain manner out of the womb of His secrecy, before the eyes of men as Man, the Mediator between God and men, who is over all, God blessed for ever, sent before Him, in the person of the holy patriarchs and prophets, a certain portion of His body, wherewith, as by a hand, He gave token beforetime of His own approaching birth, and also supplanted the people who were prior to Him in their pride, using for that purpose the bonds of the law, as if they were His five fingers. For through five epochs of times there was no cessation in the foretelling and prophesying of His own destined coming; and in a manner consonant with this, he through whom the law was given wrote five books; and proud men, who were carnally minded, and sought to establish their own righteousness, were not filled with blessing by the open hand of Christ, but were debarred from such good by the hand compressed and closed; and therefore their feet were tied, and they fell, while we are risen, and stand upright.

But although, as I have said, the Lord Christ did thus send before Him a certain portion of His body, in the person of those holy men who came before Him as regards the time of birth, nevertheless He is Himself the Head of the body, the Church, and all these have been attached to that same body of which He is the head, in virtue of their believing in Him whom they announced prophetically. For they were not sundered (from that body) in consequence of fulfilling their course before Him, but rather were they made one with the same by reason of their obedience. For although the hand may be put forward away before the head, still it has its connection beneath the head.

Wherefore all things which were written aforetime were written in order that we might be taught thereby, and were our figures, and happened in a figure in the case of these men. Moreover they were written for our sakes, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

Brilliant!  Of course, it's not the only interpretation of Jacob's birth, but it's an interpretation which treats of all Scripture and salvation history as a whole, and which serves to illustrate Augustine's point that all that is written in the Bible about the time before Christ's advent is meant to point to it and prepare us for it.

Holy Communion: Quod es, es!

A delightful trick of the Latin language is that the verbs for “to be” and “to eat” are spelled same: esse. These verbs are irregular, and they are not always conjugated the same way; for instance, “I am” is sum, whereas “I eat” is edo (hence the word "edible"). However, “you are” and “you eat” are rendered the same way: es (for singular you) or estis (for plural you). That means the well-known expression “you are what you eat” can be said in Latin as “quod es, es” or “quod estis, estis.” This phrase takes on a whole new meaning when you consider what it is you are eating when you receive Holy Communion.

To that effect, I'd like to provide my translation of a delightful sermon of St. Augustine in A.D. 408 on the Feast of Pentecost to neophytes (newly-initiated Catholics). The Latin of this sermon was pretty easy to translate (or maybe I'm just getting better at it).

That which you see on the altar, is that which you saw last night: but what it is, what it meant, how great a thing the sacrament contained, you had not yet heard. Now, what you see is bread and a chalice [of wine]; that, indeed, is what your eyes declare to you: but that which your faith asks to be instructed about [is this], the bread is the body of Christ, the chalice [of wine] is the blood of Christ. That was stated quite briefly, which perhaps may suffice for faith: but faith desires instruction. For, as the prophet says, "Unless you have believed, you will not understand." (Isa. 7:9) That is, you could now say to me, "You have taught [us] that we may believe; [now] explain that we may understand!"

For instance, into the mind of any one of you might come such a thought as: "We learned whence our Lord Jesus Christ took flesh, of the Virgin Mary. The infant was weaned, nourished, grew up, came to to a youthful age, suffered persecution by the Jews, was hung on the tree [of the Cross], was killed on the tree, was taken down from the tree, was buried, on the third day he rose again, and on the day he willed he ascended into Heaven; his body, lifted up, is there, and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead; there he is now, sitting at the right hand of the Father. How, then, is the bread his body? And the chalice, or rather that which the chalice holds, how is it his blood?"

For just that reason, brethren, such things are called “sacraments” because in them one thing is seen, but another thing is understood. That which is seen has a tangible appearance; that which is understood provides spiritual fruit. Therefore, if you wish to understand the body of Christ, pay attention to the Apostle saying to the faithful, “You, moreover, are the body of Christ, and its members.” (1 Cor. 12:27) If, therefore, you are the body of Christ and its members, your mystery is placed on the Lord’s table: you receive your mystery. To that which you are (or: to that which you eat), you answer “Amen,” and, thus answering, you assent. That is, you hear “The body of Christ,” and you answer “Amen.” Therefore, be a member of the body of Christ, that the “Amen” may be true!

How, then, in the bread? Let us bring nothing here of our own [ideas], but let us continue to listen to that same Apostle who, while speaking of this Sacrament, said: "We, the many, are one bread, one body." (1 Cor. 10:17) Understand and rejoice: unity, truth, piety, love. “One bread” – what is that one bread? It is “the one body” which we the “many” are. Bring this to the forefront of your mind: bread is not made from a single grain, but from many. When you were being exorcised, it is as though you were being ground up. When you were baptized, it is as though you were mixed together [into dough]. When you received the fire of the Holy Spirit, it is as though you were being baked. Be that which you see, and receive that which you are! That is what the Apostle spoke concerning the bread.

Now what we should understand concerning the chalice, even though not said, he has shown well enough. As many grains are mixed into one that it might be the visible appearance of bread, just as if to bring about that which the Holy Scripture says concerning the faithful, “They were one soul and one heart in God” (cf. Acts 4:32), so too with the wine: brethren, recall from what wine is made: many grapes hang in a bunch, but the juice of the grapes is combined into one. Even thus Christ the Lord signified us, willed us to belong to him (cf. John 15:1-8), and consecrated the sacrament of our peace and unity upon his table. Who accepts the sacrament of unity, and keeps not the bond of peace, does not receive the sacrament for his good, but as a testimony against himself!

You can find the Latin of Sermon CCLXXII on page 133 of this PDF.

Lent: St. Augustine's Sermon on Psalm 51 [50]

If you have a half hour or so, please take the time to read this amazing sermon of St. Augustine on Psalm 51 (50 in the Septuagint and Vulgate). He delivered to it a congregation of Christians in Carthage. I'm linking to the translation I found at CCEL.org; the language is a bit difficult to parse at times, so if you can find a clearer translation, please let me know.