St. George, Martyr: Homily by S. Augustine, Bishop: On the Catechizing of the Unlearned
THAT vine which was spreading abroad her fruitful
branches throughout the whole world, as had been prophesied of her, and as the
Lord himself had foretold, made larger shoots, the more richly she was watered
with the blood of the martyrs. And as throughout all lands countless numbers
died for the truth of the faith, the very persecuting kingdoms gave way, and
bowed the neck of pride, and turned themselves to know and worship Christ. But
it was fitting that this same vine, as had been often foretold by the Lord,
should be pruned, and the unfruitful branches cut off from it, by which
heresies and schisms in different places were caused under the name of Christ,
by men who sought not his glory, but their own, by whose differences the Church
might be more and more exercised and its doctrine and patience be made proved
and made clear.
ALL these
things, therefore, as we read of them foretold so long before, so also do we
see them accomplished; and as the first Christians, in that they as yet saw not
the coming to pass of these things, were by miracles moved to believe; so we,
in that all these things have been so fulfilled, as we read them in the Books
which were written long before these things were fulfilled, wherein all things
were spoken of as future and are now seen as present, are built up into faith,
to believe, enduring and abiding in the Lord, that those things also which
remain will without any doubt come to pass.
WE still read of future tribulations in the same
Scriptures, and of that last day, the Day of Judgment, wherein all the citizens
of both these cities will receive again their bodies and arise, and give an
account of their life before the Judgment-seat of Christ the Judge. For he will
come in the brightness of his Power, who before deigned to come in the
humiliation of his Humanity, and will separate all the godly from the ungodly,
not only from them who altogether would not believe in him, but from them also
who believed in him in vain and without fruit; about to give to the one an
eternal kingdom with himself, to the others eternal punishment with the devil.
THE devil tempts not only through lusts, but also
through terrors of insults, and of pains, and of death itself. But whatever man
shall have suffered for the Name of Christ, and for the hope of eternal life,
and shall have endured continuing firm, the greater reward shall be given him;
but if he shall yield to the devil, he shall be condemned with him. But works
of mercy, together with godly humility, obtain from the Lord, that he suffered not his servants to be tempted more than they are able to bear.
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