Saturday, March 28, 2020

Homily by S. Augustine, Bishop Hom. 49 on John




IN the former lesson, ye remember, the Lord escaped from the hands of them who wished to stone him: and went away beyond Jordan, where John was once baptizing. Well, the Lord being there, Lazarus was taken sick at Bethany which was a town very near Jerusalem. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore, the sisters sent unto him, saying—We already understand to what place they sent, the place where the Lord was: because he was absent, beyond Jordan, to wit. They sent to the Lord, to announce the illness of their brother: in order that, if he should vouchsafe, he should come and release him of his sickness. The Lord delayed to heal, that he might raise to life again.

WELL, what was the message the sisters sent? Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick. They said not, Come: to one that loved, it needed but to send tidings. They did not say, Command there, and it shall be done here. For why should not these women have said this, if the faith of that centurion is praised on this very account? For he said, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. Nothing of the sort did these women say, but only, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Enough that thou know it: for thou dost not love and forsake.

SOME man will say, How should it be that by Lazarus a sinner was denoted, and yet he was so loved by the Lord? Let him hear him saying, I am not come to call the just, but sinners. For if God loved not sinners, he had not descended from heaven to earth. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. That he should be thus glorified was no gain to him, but only for our good. That he saith then, Is not unto death, is this, that the death itself was not for death, but rather for a miracle, which being wrought, men should believe in Christ, and avoid the true death. See, withal, how, by a kind of side hint, the Lord hath intimated that he is God: because of certain who deny the Son to be God.

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