God Is Within Us – news

By Augustine of Hippo

(Sermon 23, on Psalm 73, preached January 20, 413; PL 38, 155-162, in Ichtus_11: The Paths to God (1967)

The Master’s Disarray

1. The psalm we have just sung to the Lord seems a good topic for discussion; we will meditate on it. You took me by the right hand, in your wisdom you guided me, and you brought me into your glory. May the God to whom our song was addressed shed a brighter light in our hearts, may he help us in his compassion and grace, me to speak, you to judge. So that my voice may carry further, you see me perched on my throne. Yet it is you who rule over me, for you are the judges, and I stand before your tribunal!

We are called teachers, but we seek our teacher in the crowd. We do not want this dangerous title against which the Lord warns us: “Do not be called teachers, for the Lord is your only teacher” (Mt 23:10). There is danger in becoming a teacher, and conversely, security in remaining a disciple. “In my ears,” says a psalm, “you will raise songs of joy and gladness” (Ps 1:10). He who listens to the word is less exposed than he who proclaims it. Calm, he stands near him, listens, and is filled with joy at the voice of the bridegroom (Jn 3:29).

2. Listen to the Apostle’s lament before a burden he could not refuse: “I was among you in fear and trembling” (1 Cor 2:3). It is therefore more prudent that we, who speak, and you, who listen, feel ourselves to be disciples of a single master. It is more prudent, I say, and for me more reassuring, that you listen to me not as a master but as one of your own. Imagine my anxiety when I read: “Brothers, not many of you should be leaders, for we all fall short” (James 3:1-2). Who would not shudder when the Apostle says “all”?

And what does he say next? “He who does not sin in what he says is a perfect man.” Who would flatter himself that he is perfect? ​​He who waits and listens does not sin in what he says; he who speaks, on the contrary, even if he does not sin (which is a fine feat!), still suffers and fears sinning. Therefore, do not merely listen to our words; also have pity on our fears. Are we stating truths? Since all truths emanate from one truth, do not praise us, but praise God. Do we falter (it’s only human)? Pray to God for us.

The Apostle is not immune to anxiety.

3. The Scriptures are holy, true, and irrefutable. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and rebuking (2 Tim 3:16). We must not blame Scripture if, by failing to follow it properly, we go astray. Do we understand it? We are on the right path. Do we not understand it? We are off the right path. We are lost, but we cannot lead it astray. It remains the right path to which we will return, rejecting our errors.

But often, in order to train us, Scripture uses a carnal language, without ceasing to be spiritual: the Law, says the Apostle, is spiritual, but I am carnal (Romans 7:14). It is spiritual, and if it often walks with carnal beings, if it speaks to them in a carnal language, it does not desire that they remain carnal.

A mother loves to nourish her infant, but it would displease her if he remained so small. She holds him close to her heart, cradles him, caresses him tenderly, and nourishes him with her milk. She gives her child all her care. But she desires that he grow and would not always want to treat him in this way. Consider the Apostle. For we see him more clearly, he who did not disdain to call himself mother, saying: “We have made ourselves small among you, like a nurse caring for her children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7). In the surge of his deep and profound tenderness, the Apostle became both a nurse, saying that he cares for his own, and a mother, adding “his children.” Nurses care for children, but they are not their own. Mothers entrust their children to nurses, without caring for them themselves. And yet this apostle, who raises and nourishes his own, utters the words I mentioned earlier: “I was among you in fear and trembling.”

(Audience indulgence)

4. “Who then were these people,” you ask, “who inspired in him so much fear and dread?” “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly” (1 Corinthians 3:2-3). He calls them worldly, but also children in Christ. He rebukes them, but without rejecting them. Carnal and children in Christ. He does not desire that his children in Christ, as he says, remain carnal. He desires that they become spiritual, judge all things, and are not subject to anyone’s judgment. The carnal man does not welcome what comes from the Spirit of God. That’s crazy for him, and he cannot know it, for it is by the Spirit that one judges. The spiritual person, on the contrary, judges all things and is not subject to anyone’s judgment (1 Cor 2:14-15).

He also says: we speak of wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor 2:6). But why speak of it, if they are perfect? ​​What do you have to say to perfect people? Seek out what perfection consists of. I may not yet perceive a person whose knowledge is perfect, but I discover at least one whose attention is perfect. For one can be perfect in listening, when the mind is strengthened and one can absorb solid food without disgust or nausea. Who is this person, and we will praise him?

But I do not doubt that there are spiritual people who know how to both listen and judge. It is not among them that I am afraid, for if they find me carnal, they will be full of indulgence towards me, and if they understand my word, they will approve of me.

Does God Have a Body?

5. I now turn to the psalm we were singing. You took me by the right hand. Bring me a carnal listener. What will he think? That God appeared in human form, that he took his right hand (and not his left), guided him in his wisdom, and raised him up wherever he pleased. To understand, or rather to imagine, this is to understand nothing. For to understand is to understand the truth. And to believe in false ideas is to misunderstand. If, therefore, the carnal man believes that the divine nature and substance have distinct members, a definite form, a given volume, that they are circumscribed in space, what will I do with him? Will I say: no, God is not like that? He will not understand. Will I say: yes, God is as you say? He may understand, but I will have deceived him. I cannot say that God is like this; I would be lying. And about whom? About my God, my Savior, and my Redeemer, about my hope, about the One to whom I stretch out my hands, my desire. It is no small fault to utter such lies. To be mistaken about God is already regrettable and unfortunate, but to lie is a disaster. And not every lie is an error. To be mistaken is to believe true an idea that is not. To state an idea that one believes to be true is not a lie but an error. May God grant that who hates falsehood will not be mistaken!

The believer is the temple of God.

6. Thus, our poor little child believes that God is as he says, that he possesses members assembled in a certain order, that he has a particular form, a delimited body, that he dwells and moves in space, according to the word: Where shall I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there (Psalm 139:7). He is in heaven, he is on earth, he is in Sheol. What then does our little one do? If he hears me, let him seek with the Samaritan woman mountains and temples, how to come to God, to Jerusalem, to the mountain of Samaria (cf. John 4:20). Let him not hurry toward a visible temple, let him not seek a temple by which to reach God. Let him himself be the temple, and God will come to him. God knows neither how to despise, nor to flee, nor to disdain. On the contrary, he deigns. He does not disdain; listen to his promise. Listen to it. He deigns to promise. He disdains threats.

The Father and I will come to him (John 14:23). To Him: to the one He spoke of earlier, who loves Him, who obeys His commandments, keeps His laws, loves God and loves his neighbor. We will come to Him and make our home in Him.

God in us, enlarged

7. He does not feel cramped in the hearts of believers, He who found Solomon’s temple too small. For Solomon Himself said, while building it: “If the heaven of heaven is not enough for you” (2 Chronicles 6:18). Yes, the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple. “We are the temple of the living God” (1 Corinthians 3:17), He says in another passage. And as if asked for proof, He says: “For it is written: ‘I will dwell in you’” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

If a great lord says to you, “I will come to your house,” what will you do? Your house is so small. You are worried, anxious. You wish that he would not come. You don’t want to receive a great one in a tiny dwelling. Your poor little house won’t be able to accommodate him.

But don’t fear the coming of your God, don’t fear his friendship. He won’t make you cramped when he comes; rather, he will enlarge you. So that you would know he would enlarge you, he didn’t just promise to come, saying, “I will dwell among them,” he also promised to enlarge you, adding, “and I will walk among them.” You see, if you love, the space he gives you. Fear is suffering; it oppresses us. But see the immensity of love: “The love of God has been poured into our hearts” (Romans 5:5).

We have received a pledge.

8. You were looking for a place for him. May He enlarge you by remaining in you, for His love has been poured into our hearts, not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Love has been poured into our hearts, and God is love (1 John 4:8): this is already some kind of pledge that God walks in us. For we have received a pledge. What is this pledge? What does it assure us? Some texts speak of a deposit instead of pledges. The translators wanted to express the same idea. Yet usage has established a difference between a deposit and a pledge. A pledge is returned after having received what it guaranteed. I believe that most of you understand me. I don’t see it, but your conversations, your discussions show me that those who have understood offer explanations to the others.

So I will express myself a little more clearly, so that you all understand. A friend, for example, lends you a book. You give him a pledge in return. When you return his book, which you had guaranteed, he will give you back the pledge by taking back his property. He will not keep both items at the same time.

It will never be taken back.

9. What, my brothers? God has given his love as a pledge, through the Holy Spirit; when he returns the good that this pledge guaranteed, will he take the pledge away from us? Oh! no. He will only complete what he has given. That is why a deposit is better than a pledge. For example, you are about to pay for something you acquire under a fair contract; you pay a deposit. This is a deposit, not a pledge. You will complete the sum, far from taking it back.

I find a man who loves God: he has a deposit and he desires to complete it. Let him consider it. The sum that this deposit guarantees will be completed. Let him consider it, let him meditate on it, let him contemplate it, let him question it about its complement, which he does not see. Let him seek in this complement nothing other than what is in the deposit he has received. God, perhaps, will give gold, complete the payment in gold, and he has given a deposit for gold. But I fear you prefer lead to gold. Look at this deposit, if I can persuade you to look at it. God is love.

10. We have already received a few drops of dew. Ah! What is the spring that sheds such dew? Moistened by this dew, yet burning for this spring, say to your God: in you is the fountain of life (Psalm 36:10). This dew has made you thirsty, the spring will quench your thirst. That is what suffices for us.

The children of men will hope in the shadow of your wings (Psalm 36:8). Why do we so earnestly desire these blessings that God also gives to animals? They are indeed blessings. Does not the lightest of them all come from Him of whom it is said: “All things come from the Lord” (Psalm 3:9)?

The Compassion of God

11. The psalm continues: “You will save both people and animals, O Lord; your compassion is everywhere, O God. Your compassion is so widespread that it touches not only people, but extends even to the animals. So great is your compassion that you make your sun rise on the good and on the wicked, and send rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). What? Are your saints not the object of any special grace? Do the good receive nothing that you do not also give to the wicked? Yes, they do. Listen to what follows. “You will save both people and animals, O Lord,” the psalm said. “Your compassion is everywhere, O my God.” Then it adds: “the children of men.” What has it just said? Were not men the sons of men? You will save men and cattle, Lord, but the sons of men… what? The sons of men will hope in the shadow of your wings. This is what they will not share with the beasts. But why speak of men and sons of men? Are not men also sons of men? Yes, men are sons of men. Why make this distinction? Because there is a man who was not the son of man. The man who is not the son of man is Adam. The man who is the son of man is Christ. As all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22). Some seek life with beasts that die, and they die without hope of living. They do not seek life with the sons of men so that they may never die! There is one point clarified. These men are bound only to other men; the others are bound to the Son of Man.

Drinking Life

12. What else does he say? The children of men will hope in the shadow of your wings. Yes, I hope, and this is my hope. But what is seen is not hope (cf. Rom 8:24). Therefore, future blessings are promised to them, and they will be intoxicated. They will be intoxicated with the abundance of your house. I am troubled: just now he was seeking members in God; does he not now think that he will be intoxicated not by the profusion of ineffable blessings, but by orgies and carnal feasts? Let us say it, though, and let him think what he can; if he cannot think better, let him not leave the womb, and yet grow up.

Let us aspire to these blessings, we who can, and with all our might let us feast on this spiritual bounty. They will be intoxicated by the abundance of your house, and you will quench their thirst at the torrent of your delights. What wine, what liquor, what water, what honey, what nectar? Do you wish to know? For in you is the source of life. Drink life, if you can. Prepare your conscience, not your throat, your mind, not your stomach. If you have heard, if you have understood, if you have loved, with all your heart, then you have already drunk from this source.

Presence of Love

13. Know what you have drunk. You have drunk love; you feel it, it is God himself. You have drunk love, but tell me where you drank it. You feel it, you have seen it, you love it, but from where do you love it? All that is dear to you, is dear through love. How, through love? What do you love, you who cherish love? You love, but how do you love?

Love comes to you; you feel it, you see it. But you don’t see it in a place, you don’t seek it with eyes of flesh, to love it more strongly. It has no voice for you to hear. And when it comes to you, you don’t see it walking. Have you ever felt love enter your heart step by step? What is it then? What is this object, which is already within you but which you cannot touch? Learn thus to love God.

God Present and Absent

14. But he walked in paradise, but he appeared at the Oak of Mamre (Genesis 18:1), but he spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai face to face. What? We see him in a place, but we don’t hear him coming. Do you want to hear Moses himself? So you won’t tire me like a nervous child when I want to feed you. Do you want to hear Moses himself? He spoke to God face to face. But to whom was he saying, if not to this God with whom he was conversing: “If I have found favor in your sight, show yourself to me” (Exodus 33:11)? He speaks to him face to face, as one speaks to a friend, and he says to him: “If I have found favor in your sight, show yourself to me.” What did he see and what did he sense? If God had not been there, would he have said to him: “Show yourself to me”? We cannot say that God was not there. If God were absent, he would have said: “Show me God.” And by saying: “Show yourself to me,” he shows that this God whom he longed to see was indeed before him. And he spoke to him, face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

Do you want to understand? Listen: God was hidden when he appeared to Moses. If he had not appeared, Moses could not have spoken to him face to face and said, “Show yourself before me.” And if he had not been hidden, he would not have sought to see him face to face. So, if you understand, if you have understanding, God can both appear and remain hidden. He can reveal his face and keep his mystery silent.

God remains immutable.

15. You have understood, to the best of your ability, but do not imagine that God, in order to appear, changes his nature into whatever form he pleases. God is immutable, and not only the Father, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

The Word itself is the immutable God, as God, in whom it is God. Do not imagine that any of these persons could weaken or change. God is the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or shadow of turning (James 1:17).

If he is immutable, you say, what is this face under which he appeared when he willed, and before which he was pleased, walking, speaking, even showing himself to the eyes of flesh? You ask me how God manifested his presence. If only I could already explain how he made the world, how he made heaven, how he made the earth, how he made you!

“I see him,” you reply, “he drew me from the mud.” True, you come from the mud, but the mud? You answer: from the earth. But an earth, I believe, that is not the work of another; it is the earth made by the Creator of heaven and earth. Where then does the earth come from? He spoke, and it was so (Psalm 149:5). You answer well, very well indeed, for you know: He spoke, and it was so. I ask for nothing more. But if I am content with this answer: He spoke, and it was so, ask for nothing more, neither do you, when I say: He willed it, and it appeared.

God is the father of those who seek him.

16. He appeared when he deemed it opportune. He remained hidden, according to his nature. A true feeling is not seen, love is not seen, nor tenderness. May this pledge inflame you as it also inflamed Moses, who said to the one he saw: Show yourself to me. If we seek him in this way, we are his children. For we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet appeared. We know that when it appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Not as he appeared before the oak of Mamre, nor as he appeared to Moses; We don’t have to say to him, “Show yourself to me.” But we will see him as he is. Why? Because we are the ones who are Children of God. We will not have deserved it, we will owe it only to his grace and his mercy.

You showered, O God, a rain of goodness upon your weary inheritance (Psalm 68:10): it did not boast of seeing what is hidden from its sight, but believed in what it longed to see; and you established it. Its inheritance has been established, and we, its children, will see it as it is.

Without peace, no one will see God.

17 But what does the Lord say about his children? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5:9). On obscure and difficult matters, which we do not fully understand, let us seek peace. Let us not be proud against one another (1 Corinthians 4:6). If there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you do not possess the wisdom that comes from above. Yours is earthly, unspiritual, demonic (James 3:14).

We are the children of God, and we acknowledge that we are his children, but we will not receive this title unless we are peacemakers. We can no longer see God if we blind ourselves.

18. Listen to these words, and you will know why I speak with fear and trembling. Pursue peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one can see God (Hebrews 12:14). How he frightens those who love him! But he frightens only them. Did he not say: Pursue peace with everyone and holiness, without which you will be thrown into the fire, tormented by eternal flames, delivered over to tireless executioners? It is true, but he says nothing about it. He desires that you love good, and not that you fear evil. And He inspires fear in you only [PAGE 334] in the very object of your desires. You will see God: and yet you hate, you quarrel, you sow discord? Seek peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one can see God.

Two men who wished to watch a sunrise would be foolish indeed to argue about where the sun would rise, and about how to watch it, and then to let their dispute degenerate into a quarrel, to come to blows, and in the heat of battle, to gouge out each other’s eyes! There would be no question then of contemplating the dawn!

We who wish to contemplate God, let us purify our hearts with faith, heal them with love, strengthen them with peace, for the impulse that makes us love one another is already a gift from Him toward whom our gaze is raised.

Source: Augustine, God Is Within Us (Sermon 23, on Psalm 73). – In: Ichtus 11 (The paths to God), Paris: Association Migne, 1967, p. 222-232.