Sermons to the People 294.17–295.8

Another of theirs, as if very sharp: but what sharp thing is not blunted by the shield of truth? They say something else; see what kind. “If Adam,” they say, “harms those who have not sinned, then Christ too ought to profit those who have not believed.” You surely see how sharp this is against the truth: hear how much it helps the truth. For whoever says this says nothing other than that Christ profits nothing to those who do not believe. This is true. Who would not accept it? Who would not agree that Christ does not profit unbelievers and does profit believers? But tell me, I beg you: does Christ profit baptized little ones something, or nothing? He must say that he profits: he is pressed by the weight of mother Church. Perhaps indeed they would like to say this; for their reasonings seem to drive them to it: but they are held back by the authority of the Church, lest, I will not say they be overwhelmed by men’s spitting, but be swept away as by a river by the tears of the infants themselves. For if they say that Christ profits baptized infants nothing, they say nothing other than that infants are baptized superfluously. But so that they are not baptized superfluously—since they do not dare to say this—they confess that Christ profits baptized infants. If he profits the baptized, I ask whom he profits, believers or unbelievers? Let them choose what they want. If they say, “Unbelievers,” where then is what you were slandering us with, that Christ cannot profit unbelievers? See, you confess that he profits infants, and yet not as believers. For whatever purpose he profits: you do not think for eternal life, you do not think for eternal salvation; for receiving the kingdom of heaven itself, surely Christ profits baptized little ones. So he profits unbelievers? But far be it from me to say that infants are unbelievers. I argued above: he believes in another who sinned in another; it is said, “He believes,” and it avails, and he is counted among the baptized faithful. This the authority of mother Church holds; this the founded rule of truth maintains: whoever batters against this strength, against this impregnable wall, is himself shattered. So Christ profits baptized infants something; and, as I say, and as the whole Church says with me, he profits believers, he profits the faithful: you choose what you want. I would indeed like you to choose what is truer, so that you say with us that he profits believers. But if you say, “He profits unbelievers,” you have spoken against yourself. If you say, “He profits believers,” you have spoken with me. Choose whether to say against yourself what is false or to say with me what is true. For a little earlier you were saying that Christ profits unbelievers nothing, wanting to make out that just as Adam harmed those who did not sin nothing, so Christ profits unbelievers nothing. See, you now confess that Christ profits baptized infants who do not believe something. But if you say “believers,” you say well, you say it with me: infants too believe. How do they believe? In what way do they believe? By the faith of their parents. If they are cleansed by the faith of their parents, they were polluted by the sin of their parents. The body of death in the first parents begot them sinners; the spirit of life in the later parents regenerated them faithful. You grant faith to one who does not answer; and I grant sin to one who does nothing.

“The holy,” he says, “should have been born of the holy, because the apostle said, Otherwise your children would be unclean; but now they are holy.” And how do you take this? How do you understand that one born of believers is so holy that he ought not to be baptized? Take this holiness however you like. For there are many kinds of holiness, and many kinds of sanctification. For not everything that is sanctified is sent into the kingdom of heaven. Of our food the apostle said, “It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” Because our food is sanctified, do we not know where it goes? Learn, then, that there is some kind, and as it were a certain shadow, of sanctification which is not enough for receiving salvation. There is a difference, and what the difference is, God knows. Yet when people run to baptism with the child of believers, let the parents not err so as to think that he was born already one of the faithful. For they can say he was born, not reborn. For so that you may know how to understand that the children of believers are sanctified—so that they do not now ask, because it is long, about the kind of this sanctification—where you have an unbelieving husband, there you also have a believing wife. “The unbelieving husband,” he says, “is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother.” Because there is perhaps some kind of sanctification there, so that the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the believing wife, ought he therefore already to feel secure that he will enter the kingdom of heaven, and not be baptized, not regenerated, not redeemed by the blood of Christ? As, then, the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife and yet perishes unless he is baptized, so the children of believers, though sanctified in a certain way, still perish if they have not been baptized.

I ask you to be quiet a little. I am only reading. It is Saint Cyprian whom I have taken in hand, an ancient bishop of this see: hear a little what he thought about the baptism of little ones, or rather what he showed the Church had always thought. It is not enough for them that they argue and debate I know not what impious novelties; they also try to accuse us of saying something new. I read Saint Cyprian, then, so that you may see how canonical understanding and Catholic sense stand in those words which I treated a little earlier. He was asked whether an infant ought to be baptized before the eighth day, because under the old law an infant could not be circumcised except on the eighth day. The question had arisen from that, about the day of baptizing: for about the origin of sin there was no question; and so from the matter about which there was no question, the question that had arisen was solved. Saint Cyprian said, among other things which I mentioned above: “For this reason we think that no one is to be hindered from obtaining grace by the law which has now been established, and that spiritual circumcision ought not to be hindered by carnal circumcision, but that absolutely everyone is to be admitted to the grace of Christ, since Peter too speaks in the Acts of the Apostles and says, God has told me that no man is to be called common and unclean. But if anything could hinder men from obtaining grace, it is rather the more serious sins that could hinder adults and those advanced and older in years. Moreover, if even to the most grievous offenders, and to those who had sinned much against God beforehand, when they afterward believe, remission of sins is granted, and no one is barred from baptism and grace, how much more ought an infant not to be barred, who, newly born, has not sinned at all, except that, born carnally according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death by his first birth; who comes the more easily to receive the remission of sins by this very fact, that what are forgiven him are not his own sins but another’s?” See how, not doubting this matter at all, he solved that about which there was doubt. He took this from the foundation of the Church, to strengthen a wavering stone.

Let us obtain, then, if we can, from our brothers that they do not also call us heretics—as we could perhaps call them, if we wished, for arguing such things, and yet we do not call them so. Let the mother bear with them, to be healed with devoted affection; let her carry them, to be taught, so that she may not mourn them as dead. They go too far; it is a great deal, scarcely to be borne; it takes great patience to bear them still. Let them not abuse this patience of the Church; let them be corrected; that is good. We exhort as friends; we do not quarrel as enemies. They disparage us; we bear it: let them not disparage the rule of faith, let them not disparage the truth; let them not contradict the holy Church, which labors daily for the remission of the original sin of little ones. This matter is founded. A disputer who errs is to be borne in other questions that have not been carefully worked out, not yet confirmed by the full authority of the Church; there error is to be borne: it must not go so far as to try to shake the very foundation of the Church. It is not expedient; perhaps our patience is not yet to be blamed; but we ought to fear that negligence too may be blamed. Let this suffice Your Love. You who know them, deal with them, deal with them in a friendly, brotherly, peaceable, loving, sorrowing way: let piety do whatever it can; for afterward impiety will not be to be loved. Turning to the Lord, etc.

The passion of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul has consecrated this day for us. We are not speaking of some obscure martyrs. “Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” These martyrs saw what they preached; they followed justice by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth. Blessed Peter, the first of the apostles, the ardent lover of Christ, who was found worthy to hear, “And I say to you, that you are Peter.” For he himself had said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ to him: “And I say to you, that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” On this rock I will build the faith which you confess. On what you said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” I will build my Church. For you are Peter. Peter from petra (rock), not the rock from Peter. Peter is from the rock just as Christian is from Christ. Do you want to know from what rock Peter is named? Hear Paul: “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers”—the apostle of Christ says—“I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.” See where Peter comes from.

The Lord Jesus, before his passion, as you know, chose his disciples, whom he called apostles. Among these, almost everywhere Peter alone was found worthy to bear the role of the whole Church. Because of that very role of the whole Church, which he alone bore, he was found worthy to hear, “To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” For not one man but the unity of the Church received these keys. Here, then, Peter’s excellence is proclaimed, because he bore the figure of the very universality and unity of the Church when it was said to him, “To you I hand over,” what was handed over to all. For so that you may know that the Church received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, hear in another place what the Lord says to all his apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And at once: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they will be forgiven him; if you retain anyone’s, they will be retained.” This belongs to the keys, of which it was said, “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound also in heaven.” But this he said to Peter. So that you may know that Peter then bore the role of the whole Church, hear what is said to him and what to all the holy faithful: “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him between you and him alone. If he does not listen to you, take with you one or two: for it is written, On the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand. If he does not listen even to them, refer it to the Church; if he does not listen even to it, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector. Amen I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven.” The dove binds, the dove looses; the building on the rock binds and looses. Let the bound fear; let the loosed fear. Let those who are loosed fear lest they be bound; let those who are bound pray to be loosed. Each one is bound tight with the cords of his own sins; and outside this Church nothing is loosed. To the man four days dead it is said, “Lazarus, come forth.” And he came out of the tomb bound hand and foot with bands. The Lord rouses him, so that the dead man comes forth from the tomb; if he touches the heart, so that the confession of sin comes out. But he is still bound. So the Lord, after Lazarus came out of the tomb, said to his disciples, to whom he had said, “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven”: “Loose him,” he says, “and let him go.” He raised him by himself; he loosed him through the disciples.

Accordingly, the strength of the Church was especially commended in Peter, because he followed the Lord going to his passion; and a certain weakness was noted, because, questioned by a maid, he denied the Lord. See, that lover suddenly a denier. He found himself out, he who had presumed on himself. For he had said, as you know: “Lord, I will be with you even to death; and if I must die, I will lay down my life for you.” And the Lord to the presumer: “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen I say to you, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” What the physician had foretold happened; what the sick man presumed could not happen. But what then? At once the Lord looked at him. So it is written, so the Gospel says: “The Lord looked at him, and he went outside and wept bitterly.” He went outside: that is, to confess. He wept bitterly, he who knew how to love. Sweetness followed in love, whose bitterness had gone before in sorrow.

Rightly, too, after the resurrection the Lord entrusted his sheep to Peter himself to be fed. For he was not the only one among the disciples found worthy to feed the Lord’s sheep; but when Christ speaks to one, unity is commended; and to Peter first, because among the apostles Peter is the first. “Simon son of John,” says the Lord, “do you love me?” He answered, “I love you.” And asked again, he answered again. And asked a third time, as though he were not believed, he is saddened. But how did he not believe him, he who saw his heart? Finally, after that sadness he answered thus: “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” For you who know all things are not ignorant of this alone. Do not be sad, apostle; answer once, answer again, answer a third time. Let confession in love conquer three times, because presumption was conquered three times in fear. What you had bound three times must be loosed three times. Loose by love what you had bound by fear. And yet the Lord once, and again, and a third time, entrusted his sheep to Peter.

Attend, my brothers: “Feed,” he says, “my little sheep, feed my lambs.” “Feed my sheep”: did he say “yours”? Feed, good servant, the Lord’s sheep, bearing the Lord’s mark. “For was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Peter and Paul?” So feed his sheep, washed by his baptism, sealed with his name, redeemed by his blood. “Feed,” he says, “my sheep.” For the heretics, bad and runaway servants, dividing among themselves what they did not buy, and making private property out of thefts as though it were their own, seem to themselves to feed their own sheep. For what else, I ask you, is “Unless I baptize you, you will be unclean; unless you have my baptism, you will not be washed”? Have you not heard, “Cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man”? Accordingly, dearly beloved, those whom Peter baptized are Christ’s sheep; and those whom Judas baptized are Christ’s sheep. For see what the bridegroom says to his beloved in the Song of Songs, when the bride said to him: “Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed, where you lie down at noon, lest I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions.” “Tell me,” she says, “where you feed, where you lie down at noon”: in the splendor of truth, in the fervor of love. Why do you fear, O beloved? What do you fear? “Lest I become,” she says, “as one veiled,” that is, as one obscure, as one not the Church; for the Church is not veiled: “For a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.” And by straying I should run, not into your flock, but into the flocks of your companions. For heretics are called companions. “They went out from us”: before they went out, they came to one table with us. So what is answered her? “Unless you know yourself”: the bridegroom says it, he answers her question: “Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women.” O true one among heresies, unless you know yourself: because such great things were foretold of you: “In your seed all nations shall be blessed”; “The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting”; “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession”; “Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”: of you these testimonies were foretold. Unless, then, you know yourself, go out. For I do not cast you out, so that those who remain may say of you, “They went out from us.” “Go out in the footsteps of the flocks”: not of the flock of which it was said, “There will be one flock and one shepherd.” “Go out in the footsteps of the flocks, and feed your kids”: not, as Peter, “my sheep.” For these sheep entrusted to him Peter was found worthy to be crowned with martyrdom, which by today’s solemnity has been found worthy to be celebrated throughout the world.

Let Paul too come, from Saul; the lamb from the wolf; first an enemy, afterward an apostle; first a persecutor, afterward a preacher. Let him come, let him receive letters from the chief priests, so that wherever he finds Christians he may bring them in chains to punishment. Let him receive them, let him receive them, set out, go on, pant for slaughter, thirst for blood: “he who dwells in the heavens will laugh at him.” For he was going, as it is written, breathing slaughter, and was drawing near to Damascus. Then the Lord from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I am here, I am there: here the head, there the body. Let us not wonder, then, brothers: we belong to the body of Christ. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.” You hurt yourself: for my Church grows by persecutions. And he, fearful and trembling: “Lord, who are you?” And he: “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.” At once changed, he awaits a command: he lays down his envy, he prepares obedience. He is told what to do. And before Paul is baptized, the Lord speaks to Ananias: Go to that street, to that man named Saul, baptize him; “for he is a chosen vessel to me.” A vessel must carry something; a vessel must not be empty. The vessel must be filled: with what, if not grace? But Ananias answered our Lord Jesus Christ: “Lord, I have heard that this man has done many evils to your saints. And now he carries letters from the chief priests, so that wherever he finds men of this way he may bring them bound.” And the Lord to him: “I will show him what he must suffer for my name.” Ananias trembled when he heard the name of Saul: the weak sheep trembled at the report of the wolf, even under the shepherd’s hand.

See, the Lord showed him what he had to suffer for his name. Afterward he trained him in labor. He was in chains, in beatings, in prisons, in shipwrecks. He himself arranged his passion for him; he himself brought him to this day. One day of passion for two apostles. But those two too were one: even if they had suffered on different days, they were one. Peter went first; Paul followed. First Saul, afterward Paul: because first proud, afterward humble. Saul from Saul, the persecutor of holy David. The persecutor was cast down; the preacher was raised up. He changed the name of the proud man to humility. For Paulus means small. Consider the words, Your Love: do we not say every day, “I will see you in a little while (paululum), a little after (paulo post) I will do this or that”? What, then, is Paul? Ask him. “I am,” he says, “the least of the apostles.”

We are celebrating a feast day consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. Let us love their faith, life, labors, sufferings, confessions, preachings. For we advance by loving, not by celebrating these things for carnal merriment. For what do the martyrs seek from us? They lack something if they still seek praise for their names. If they still seek the praise of men, they have not yet conquered. But if they have conquered, they seek nothing from us for their own sake, but they seek it for our own sake. So let our way be directed in the sight of the Lord. It was narrow, it was thorny, it was hard: with such and so many passing over it, it has become smooth. The Lord himself passed over it first; the apostles passed over undaunted, afterward the martyrs, boys, women, girls. But who was in them? He who said, “Without me you can do nothing.”