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Homilies on the First Letter of John (Works of Saint Augustine A Translation for the 21st Century) [Paperback] |
Saint Augustine (Author), Boniface Ramsey (Translator)
FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER SATURDAY
At the Night Office, Novice Br. S... prepared the Second Reading and
found the challenge of Augustine’s vocabulary. He counted the number of
occurrences of the word ‘LOVE’, found the number of 62 uses in passage of only
593 words.
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Of the numerous published works by
St. Augustine, "Homilies on the First Epistle of John" must be
regarded as one of his easiest to read and understand. Unlike works such as
"City of God" and "On Genesis" which tend to be highly
rhetorical and somewhat verbose, "Homilies" is succinct, insightful,
and lead one to a better understanding of God's love for His children. Using
the actual text of First John, Augustine uses the Scripture to address
contemporary issues that began creeping into the dogma of Christ's visible
Church soon after Emperor Constantine gave the Church legal status within the
hierarchy of Rome's political structure in the early fourth century.
For example, in The First Homily Augustine quotes 1 Jn. 2:1-2, "And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiator for our sins." The doctrinal trend he addresses is the growing belief that "Bishops and leaders... petition exclusively on behalf of the people." In other words, that individual believer needs the Clergy to intercede on their behalf in order to know God and His salvation. He applies the scriptural Truth that "we have an advocate with the Father" by stating that "We (Bishops, Pastors, Deacons etc.) pray on behalf of you, brothers, but you yourselves pray as well on behalf of us." Clear references to New Testament passages such as 1 Peter 2:9 on the "priesthood of all believers" are interwoven into his sermons on 1 John. That Christ's Church is comprised of individual believers who have access to God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a spoken message, and unspoken theme throughout this great book.]
For example, in The First Homily Augustine quotes 1 Jn. 2:1-2, "And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiator for our sins." The doctrinal trend he addresses is the growing belief that "Bishops and leaders... petition exclusively on behalf of the people." In other words, that individual believer needs the Clergy to intercede on their behalf in order to know God and His salvation. He applies the scriptural Truth that "we have an advocate with the Father" by stating that "We (Bishops, Pastors, Deacons etc.) pray on behalf of you, brothers, but you yourselves pray as well on behalf of us." Clear references to New Testament passages such as 1 Peter 2:9 on the "priesthood of all believers" are interwoven into his sermons on 1 John. That Christ's Church is comprised of individual believers who have access to God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a spoken message, and unspoken theme throughout this great book.]
First Reading;
I John 4:11-21
FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER SATURDAY
Second Alternative Reading
From
a homily by Saint Augustine of Hippo
(In John. 9,10: SC 75, 400-402)
Everyone who
loves his brother
or sister also loves God
If anyone says, "I love God." (4:20) Who is this God?
Why do we love him? Because he first loved us, and gave us the grace
to love him. He loved us in our godlessness to make us godly; he loved us as sinners to make us just; he loved us even in our infirmities to make us
well.
Question
each of your brothers; let him tell you if he loves God. He cries out and confesses aloud: "I love, God knows it."
There is another question
to be asked: If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.(4:20) How do you prove that he is a
liar? Listen: How can one who has no love for the brother he has seen love the God he has not seen?(4:20) What then? Does
the man who loves his brother love God also? He must of necessity love God, must of necessity love him who is Love itself. Can one
love his brother without
loving love itself? Of necessity he must love love
itself. What then? Because he loves love, does it follow that he loves God? Certainly it follows!
In loving love, he loves God. Or have you forgotten what you said a little
while ago, "God is love"? If "love is God,"
whoever loves love
loves God. Hence, love your brother and rest assured. You cannot say: I love my brother, but I do not love God." Just as you lie if you say: "I love God," when you do not love your brother, so you are deceived when you say: "I love my brother," if you think that you do not love God. Of necessity must you who love your brother love love itself; but
"love is God" - therefore of
necessity must whoever loves his brother also love God.
But if you do not love your brother whom you see, how can you love God whom you do not see? Why does he not see
God? Because he has not love itself. That he does not see God is because he does not
have love; that he does not have love is because he does not love his brother. The reason then why he does not see God is that he has not love. For if he had love, he would see God, for "love is God"; and his inner eye is becoming more and more purged by love, to see that unchangeable substance, in whose presence he will
always rejoice and
which he will enjoy to everlasting, when he is joined with the angels.
Only let him run
now,
that
he may at last have gladness in his own country. Let him not love his pilgrimage, not love the way; let all be bitter for us
save him that
called us, until we hold him fast, and say what is said in the psalm: You
destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you (Ps. 73:27) - and who are
they
who
are unfaithful? Those who go and love
the world. But what shall you do? He goes on and says: But for me, to be near God is my good.
All your good
consists in clinging to God freely. For if you question him and say: Why do you cling to
him? and he should respond: That he may give me ... Give you what? It is he that made the
heavens and he that made the earth; what shall he give you? Already -you are clinging to him:
find something better and he shall give it to you.
Responsory 1 In 3:16; 4:19
By this we have come to know what love is: + Christ laid down his life for us, alleluia.
V. Let us love God, because he loved us first. + Christ laid down ...
A Word in Season, Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours - Easter,
Augustine Press 2001.
Augustine Press 2001.
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Homily 9 on the First Epistle of John
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